The climate is not only changing globally, it’s changing in Washington. With Democrats in control of the House of Representatives, climate change is on the agenda again. Some Democrats are proposing what they call the Green New Deal, an ambitious and controversial program to transform the nation’s energy supply. VOA’s …

NASA is trying one last time to contact its record-setting Mars rover Opportunity, before calling it quits. The rover has been silent for eight months, victim of one of the most intense dust storms in decades. Thick dust darkened the sky last summer and, for months, blocked sunlight from the …

The oldest known wild bird in the world has become a mother again at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, U.S. wildlife officials said. The Laysan albatross named Wisdom hatched a chick earlier this month at the remote atoll northwest of Hawaii, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Monday. Wisdom is at least …

Harrison Ford offered an emphatic plea on Tuesday for protecting the world’s oceans, calling out President Donald Trump and others who “deny or denigrate science.” The 76-year-old actor, best known for his roles in “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones,” stressed the importance of acknowledging the effects of climate change on …

Scientists have discovered in 2.1-billion-year-old black shale from a quarry in Gabon the earliest evidence of a revolutionary development in the history of life on Earth, the ability of organisms to move from one place to another on their own. The researchers on Monday described exquisitely preserved fossils of small …

Russia and China are racing to advance their space-based military capabilities and could soon prevent the United States and its allies from using outer space freely. The warning, in a new report Monday from the Defense Intelligence Agency, builds on a series of warnings issued by the defense and intelligence …

Cigarette smoking rates have stopped falling among U.S. kids, and health officials believe youth vaping is responsible. For decades, the percentage of high school and middle school students who smoked cigarettes had been declining. For the past three years, it has flattened, according to new numbers released Monday. There may …

The faraway space snowman visited by NASA last month has a flat — not round — behind. New photos from the New Horizons spacecraft offer a new perspective on the small cosmic body 4 billion miles (6.4 billion kilometers) away. Scientists say the two-lobed object, nicknamed Ultima Thule, is actually …

It does not yet have office space, staff or even Republican members, but Florida Rep. Kathy Castor is confident that a special House committee on climate change will play a leading role on one of the most daunting challenges facing the planet. Castor, who chairs the new panel, says those …

Many more Americans may be getting opioids for their pets, and veterinarians appear to be prescribing increasingly potent versions of these drugs to animals, a small study suggests.  The researchers examined data on opioid tablets and patches dispensed or prescribed by 134 veterinarians at an academic small-animal hospital in Philadelphia from 2007 to 2017. Over the …

Lawmakers in the U.S. Northwestern state of Washington, which is battling a measles outbreak, are considering a bill that would prohibit parents from claiming a personal or philosophical exemption to their children receiving vaccinations. Hundreds of people opposed to the bill lined up early Friday to attend a hearing in …

In 2001, the government of Nigeria, along with all African Union countries, pledged to spend 15 percent of its annual budget on health care. But the country has never come close to reaching that goal. The result is that up to 70 percent of medical spending in Nigeria is out …

Melania Trump, addressing an anti-drug conference, says “recovery is possible.” The first lady traveled to Maryland on Thursday to address the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America’s annual youth leadership forum. Her signature “Be Best” campaign focuses on a number of issues, including the opioid crisis. Mrs. Trump spoke about a …

The World Meteorological Organization says 2018 was the fourth hottest year on record confirming, what it calls a clear sign that long-term climate change is going on. Of the four past record-breaking years, 2016 was the hottest. The World Meteorological Organization says temperatures that year reached a global average of …

At sunset every day, an almost deafening sound from the sky can be heard in a community just east of Los Angeles. It is the sound of parrots that have become a familiar part of life here. “There’s poop everywhere,” said Havolynn Rose Owaleon. But she and many of the …

Kenyan health officials say unsafe abortions are common in the east African nation with nearly half a million in one recent year.  Abortion is prohibited unless, in the opinion of a trained health professional, there is need for emergency treatment, or the life or health of the mother is in …

A debate is heating up in Kenya about the number of women seeking and dying from illegal and dangerous abortions. Abortion is illegal in Kenya unless a mother’s life is in danger. The pro-choice group Marie Stopes estimates about 2,600 women die each year from unsafe abortions. But some faith-based …

Last year was the fourth warmest on record and the outlook is for more sizzling heat approaching levels that most governments view as dangerous for the Earth, a U.N. report showed on Wednesday. Weather extremes in 2018 included wildfires in California and Greece, drought in South Africa and floods in …

Wednesday marks the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation. Coinciding with the day, the United Nations is calling for action to eliminate the procedure by 2030. The U.N. estimates at least 200 million girls and women alive today have been subjected to female genital mutilation, a procedure …

It turns out our Milky Way galaxy is truly warped, at least around the far edges.   Scientists in China and Australia released an updated 3D map of the Milky Way on Tuesday. They used 1,339 pulsating stars — young, newly catalogued stars bigger and brighter than our sun — …

Failure to meet global climate goals could lead to warming of five degrees celsius in the Himalayan mountains and a loss of two-thirds of the region’s glaciers by the year 2100, with disastrous consequences for water supplies and food production for about two billion people in eight Asian countries, warns a …

February 4 is designated as World Cancer Day, and the disease remains one of the world’s leading causes of death. Last year, there were close to two million new cases of cancer worldwide and more than 600-thousand people died of the disease. But progress is being made. Cancer mortality rates …

Chronic pain is the most common reason people give when they enroll in state-approved medical marijuana programs.   That’s followed by stiffness from multiple sclerosis and chemotherapy-related nausea, according to an analysis of 15 states published Monday in the journal Health Affairs.   The study didn’t measure whether marijuana actually …

True north isn’t quite where it used to be. Earth’s north magnetic pole has been drifting so fast in the last few decades that scientists that past estimates are no longer accurate enough for precise navigation. On Monday, they released an update of where true north really was, nearly a …

Arctic islands north of Norway are warming faster than almost anywhere on Earth and more avalanches, rain and mud may cause “devastating” changes by 2100, a Norwegian report said on Monday. The thaw on the remote Svalbard islands, home to 2,300 people and where the main village of Longyearbyen is …