SETH BORENSTEIN

Science writer

Borenstein is an Associated Press science writer, covering climate change, disasters, physics and other science topics. He is based in Washington, D.C.

Jean Chatelier walks through a flooded street from Hurricane Irma after retrieving his uniform from his house to return to work today at a supermarket in Fort Myers, Fla., Sept. 12, 2017. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

La Nina exits after three weak months, leaving Earth in neutral climate state

La Nina, the natural cooling flip side of the better-known and warmer El Nino climate phenomenon, has dwindled away after just three weak months.

Damaged equipment sits on a farm struck by Wednesday night's tornado on Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Lake City, Ark. (AP Photo/Adrian Sainz)

Nearly half of National Weather Service offices have 20% vacancy rates, and experts say it’s a risk

Data obtained by The Associated Press shows that close to half of the local National Weather Service forecast offices have 20% vacancy rates as severe weather chugs across the nation’s heartland.

A house lies toppled off its stilts after the passage of Hurricane Milton, in Bradenton Beach on Anna Maria Island, Fla., Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

Bye-bye, Helene, Milton and Beryl. Names from those nasty hurricanes are now retired

Hurricanes Helene, Milton and Beryl were so nasty last year that their names are being retired. The World Meteorological Organization on Wednesday officially replaced the names of the 2024 storms that killed more than 300 people and caused more than $119 billion in damage.

A boat travels though a frozen sea inlet outside in Nuuk, Greenland, March 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Arctic sea ice hits record low for its usual peak growth period

Arctic sea ice had its weakest winter buildup since record-keeping began 47 years ago. Scientists say it’s a symptom of climate change that will have repercussions in weather globally.

Wind turbines dot the coast line along a giant solar farm near Weifang in eastern China's Shandong province on March 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

Renewable energy jumps to new high, powered by China solar boom

An international agency reports that the installation of renewable energy worldwide hit a record high last year, with 92.5% of all new electricity brought online coming from the sun, wind or other clean sources.

A National Weather Service weather balloon sits ready for launch in the Upper Air Inflation Building at the National Weather Service, April 27, 2006, in Sterling, Va. (AP Photo/Chris Greenberg, File)

Experts say US weather forecasts will worsen as DOGE cuts mean fewer balloon launches

With massive job cuts, the National Weather Service is reducing vital weather balloon launches in eight northern locations.

Mud and debris is strewn on Fryman Road during an atmospheric river Feb. 5, 2024, in Studio City Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

Study shows rain-soaking atmospheric rivers are getting bigger, wetter and more frequent

A new study finds that atmospheric rivers — the heavy rain and wind events most known for dousing California and other parts of the West — have been getting bigger, wetter and more frequent in the past 45 years as the world warms.

Susie House, front, and David Hill hold up signs as they join hundreds of others during a large rally and protest outside the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration campus Monday, March 3, 2025, in Boulder, Colo. (Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via AP)

The US agency that monitors weather will cut another 1,000 jobs, AP sources say

Multiple sources tell The Associated Press that the Trump Administration is starting another round of job cuts — this one more than 1,000 — at the nation’s weather, ocean and fisheries agency.

In this satellite image provided by CSU/CIRA & NOAA taken 1:10 GMT on Feb. 25, 2025, shows three cyclones, from left, Alfred, Seru and Rae east of Australia in the South Pacific. (CSU/CIRA & NOAA via AP, File)

Climate change, already causing problems on Earth, could soon create a mess for orbiting satellites

A new study finds that climate change is already causing all sorts of problems on Earth, but soon it will be making a mess in orbit around the planet too.

Demonstrators gather for the Stand Up For Science rally near the Lincoln Memorial, Friday, March 7, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Out of the lab and into the streets, researchers and doctors rally for science against Trump cuts

Researchers, doctors, their patients and supporters are venturing out of labs, hospitals and offices across the country to stand up to what they call an attack on life-saving science by the Trump administration.

A red admiral butterfly stops on a New England Aster flower at the Royal Horticultural Society Garden Wisley, in the village of Wisley, near Woking, England, Oct. 4, 2017. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)

America’s butterflies are disappearing at ‘catastrophic’ rate

A new study finds the number of butterflies has dropped 22% since 2000, a new study finds. Scientists blame insecticides, climate change and habitat loss.

Katy Frank, left, a former computer scientist at the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab, who lost her job Thursday, protests outside the John D. Dingell Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Detroit, Friday, Feb. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Firings at US weather and oceans agency risk lives and economy, former agency heads warn

The people who once ran the federal weather and oceans agency say it touches people’s daily lives in unnoticed ways and that massive firings there could cause needless deaths and a big hit to America’s economy.

The National Weather Service monitoring station is seen in Brownville, Texas, May 23, 2014. (Valley Morning Star/Valley Morning Star via AP, File)

Hundreds of weather forecasters fired in latest wave of DOGE cuts

Hundreds of weather forecasters and other federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration employees on probationary status have been fired, lawmakers and weather experts say.

The Jeffrey Energy Center coal-fired power plant operates near Emmett, Kan., Jan. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

Scientists scorn EPA push to say climate change isn’t a danger, say just look around at the world

As President Donald Trump’s administration looks to reverse a cornerstone finding that climate change endangers human health and welfare, scientists say they need to look around because it’s obvious how bad global warming is and how its getting worse.

Two surfers walk with their boards on the beach of the Atlantic Ocean in Sines, Portugal, April 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File)

Computer simulations show nightmare Atlantic current shutdown less likely this century

A new study reassures people that the nightmare disaster movie scenario of Atlantic Ocean currents collapsing, with weather running amok putting Europe in a deep freeze, looks unlikely this century thanks to a rescue from around Antarctica.

Water drips from a melting chunk of ice that originated from the Jamtalferner Glacier near Galtuer, Austria, Sept. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File)

Climate change is shrinking glaciers faster than ever, with 7 trillion tons lost since 2000

A new and massive study finds that climate change is melting the world’s mountain glaciers faster than ever.

Walt Traywick uses an axe to break up frozen water in a stock tank while working on his farm Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025, in Luther, Okla. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

Polar vortex makes much of US colder than Greenland, but warmth is coming. Then more cold

The polar vortex’s icy grip on much of America has Arctic Greenland seeming like a toasty vacation spot by comparison.

A person walks along the shore of ice covered Lake Michigan, Feb. 13, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)

Very cold weather is coming. US about to get 10th and chilliest polar vortex this winter

Meteorologists warn that the coldest burst of Arctic air this season is coming to put an icy and prolonged exclamation point on America’s winter of repeated polar vortex invasions starting this weekend.

The Schkopau coal-fired power plant operates near wind turbines in Teutschenthal, near Halle, eastern Germany, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File)

Most nations miss deadline for plans to fight climate change. UN says take your time to do it right

Nearly 200 nations faced a Monday deadline to file what the United Nations’ climate chief calls “among the most important policy documents governments will produce this century.”

Wind turbines at the Buckeye Wind Energy are diffused by heat vapors as the are silhouetted against the rising sun, Sept. 30, 2024, near Hays, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

Forget saving the planet. Clean energy interests sharpen a different message: Money and jobs

Saving the planet is so 2024. Clean energy leaders across the globe are now emphasizing the greener side of green: wealth-building.

A vendor sleeps on a hot afternoon at her shop at Market 4 in Asuncion, Paraguay, Jan. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz, File)

The US is freezing and La Nina usually eases warming. Earth just set another heat record anyway

The European climate service Copernicus says the world warmed to yet another monthly heat record in January, despite an abnormally chilly United States, a cooling La Nina and predictions of a slightly less hot year.

Neil Jacobs, assistant Secretary of Commerce for Environmental Observation and Prediction, stands next to a chart during a briefing with President Donald Trump on the 2020 hurricane season in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on May 28, 2020. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Trump picks former chief entangled in ‘Sharpiegate’ to lead NOAA

President Donald Trump has nominated Neil Jacobs to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

A property owner who preferred not to give his name peers into the remains of the second floor unit where he lived with his wife while renting out the other units, on Manasota Key, in Englewood, Fla., following the passage of Hurricane Milton, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

Who gets more disaster aid? Republican states. Experts explain that and more about FEMA

Federal disaster aid is nearly everywhere. About 94% of Americans live in a county that has gotten Federal Emergency Management Agency climate disaster financial help since 2011.

A rat leaves its burrow at a park in New York City on Sept. 17, 2015. ( AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

Rats! More rodents are infesting cities as scientists say warmer temperatures mean more rat babies

A new study finds that rat infestation in many of the world’s cities appears to be soaring, especially in Washington.

Fire crews monitor the Palisades Fire in Mandeville Canyon, Jan. 11, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

Study says climate change made conditions that fed California wildfires more likely, more intense

A quick scientific study finds that human-caused climate change increased the likelihood and intensity of the hot, dry and windy conditions that fanned the flames of the recent devastating Southern California wildfires.

People watch the sunset sitting on a beach next to the Trafalgar Lighthouse in Los Caños de Meca, Spain, on, July 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File)

Study projects millions of European heat deaths as world warms

A new study finds that extreme temperatures — mostly heat — are projected to kill as many as 2.3 million people in Europe by the end of the century unless countries get better at reducing carbon pollution and adapting to hotter conditions.

This image provided by the Ministry of Defence shows the iceberg, known as A23a, on Nov. 25, 2024, off the coast of Antarctica. (Cpl Tom Cann RAF/Crown Copyright 2024 via AP)

Wall of ice the size of Rhode Island heading toward penguin-packed island off Antarctica

The world’s biggest iceberg — a wall of ice the size of Rhode Island — is lumbering toward a remote island off Antarctica that’s home to millions of penguins and seals.

A toilet is displayed for sale that uses less water, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

President Trump wants to make showerheads and toilets flow greatly again, but so may utility bills

On his first day in office, President Donald Trump announced plans to pull America from the Paris Agreement and expand the production of oil, both campaign promises.

A pumpjack operates in the foreground while a wind turbine at the Buckeye Wind Energy wind farm rises in the distance, Sept. 30, 2024, near Hays, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

Here’s what the Paris climate agreement does and doesn’t do

The Paris agreement is complex and works in a slow bureaucratic manner. It’s a mostly voluntary climate pact originally written in ways that would both try to reduce a worsening climate change problem and withstand the changing political winds in the United States.

President Donald Trump signs an executive order at an indoor Presidential Inauguration parade event in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Trump signs executive order directing US withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement — again

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order directing the United States to again withdraw the United States from the landmark Paris climate agreement.

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