View of Moais -- stone statues of the Rapa Nui culture -- on the Ahu Tongariki site on Easter Island, 3700 km off the Chilean coast in the Pacific Ocean, on August 12, 2013. (Getty Images/AFP ) Easter Island -- with its iconic stone-head statues and mysterious past -- has long been the subject of fierce debate among academics. More than 2,000 miles west of the Chilean coast, Polynesians traveling in canoes settled on 63 square miles of lush land...

Now it’s down to five. A 44-year-old northern white rhinocerous that had been one of only six of its species left in the world died this weekend at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Zoo officials told the Associated Press that the male rhino, named Angalifu, apparently died of old age. “Angalifu’s death is a tremendous loss to all of us,” safari park curator Randy Rieches said in a . “Not only because he was well beloved here at the...

We don't recommend trying this at home, but soon, it might be the way your home gets drinking water. Microsoft founder and human-rights activist Bill Gates where he took a sip of water, which in itself isn't a major news story. But it's where the water came from that's both shocking and a little nauseating. Gates drank water that came from human waste. (MORE: ) The incredible transformation from human waste to potable water , a huge machine that's funded...

Cypress Logging Scars The narrow spikes outward from the somewhat wider canals are scars from cypress logging that occurred during the 1800s and early 1900s in what is now known as the Manchac Wildlife Management Area of Louisiana. (Google Earth) From ancient civilization to present time, the surface of the earth has been greatly modified by humans. Some of the largest and most prominent of these alterations can be viewed from space using either cameras aboard the International Space Station...

New video from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) shows a in the Indian Ocean, highlighting one of commercial fishing’s biggest problems: bycatch. Bycatch is the unintentional catch of large creatures such as dolphins, sea turtles and birds. WWF tells weather.com when many of these are creatures are accidentally netted, they're brought to the surface dead or dying. (MORE: ) Several marine organizations, including NOAA, are raising awareness and seeking out technology that will make it easier for fishermen to return...

Best Countries: #9 (tie) Germany An index developed at the University of Notre Dame is giving us a glimpse of what countries are the best and worst to live in based on their ability to cope with the impacts of climate change. The map above shows how all of the countries around the world ranked on the ND-GAIN index. (ND-GAIN) The rankings come from the so-called , which is based on the vulnerability and readiness of each country to adapt...

The new year has only just begun, but we’ve already recorded our first days with average carbon dioxide levels above , potentially leading to many months in a row above this threshold, experts say. The Scripps Institution of Oceanography records ofshow that Jan. 1 was the first day of the new year above that concentration, followed by Jan. 3 and Jan. 7. Daily averages have continued at this level or higher through Jan. 9, though they could continue to dance...

Sea levels are rising far faster than previously recorded, a new study found. Sea level was about 30 percent less than earlier research figured for a majority of the 20th century up until 1990, the study says. This may sound great, but it is not good news. Twenty-five years ago, sea level began to rise faster, and the acceleration of the rise turned out to be far more dramatic than previously calculated, according to scientists. A study published in the...

The Big Apple is going green. Food establishments will be banned from using plastic foam in New York City starting this summer, according to an announcement made recently by Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration. The move will make New York the biggest city in America to enact a ban on plastic foam containers, joining San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Oregon. The ban by de Blasio will complete an initiative started by his predecessor, Michael Bloomberg, to ban the harmful material....

(Alex Cornell/www.alexcornell.com) When designer and filmmaker Alex Cornell went on a trip to Antarctica, it was an overwhelming experience. The rare sight of a flipped iceberg caught by Cornell's lens didn't strike the photographer until later. "I think the funny thing was seeing this specific iceberg at the time wasn’t any more astounding than looking at the place itself," Cornell told weather.com. (MORE: It wasn't until the glacial scientist onboard the same ship reacted to the sight that Alex and...

January's shivering start has led to a rapid expansion of ice cover on the Great Lakes during the first half of January. Combined, 34.1 percent of the five Great Lakes are covered in ice as of Jan. 15, 2015, This is up from just 5.65 percent on New Year's Day. Temperatures compared to average in 2014 from mid-January to mid-March. Much of the Great Lakes region was four degrees below average, leading to the second highest Great Lakes ice coverage...

Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city, is still reeling from its worst drought in more than 80 years halfway through the wet season, with below average rainfall totals doing little to ease the dire state of the city's reservoirs. Government officials and residents alike invested much hope in a boisterous wet season to help pull the area out of drought. So bad is the drought, that back in October, Vincente Andreu, president of Brazil's National Water Agency, “If it doesn’t rain,...

NASA Change: Arapaho Glacier, Colorado (1898) The Aprapaho Glacier in Colorado in 1898. (NASA) NASA has been tracking Earth's changes from space for decades, but thanks to its"Images of Change" series, we now have access to some of the space agency's best visuals cataloging decades of transformation on the planet's surface. And of all that change, maybe no other thing is as mercurial as Earth's ice. to glaciers, Earth's frozen water moves and changes rapidly, particularly due to climate change....