Matt Smith

Read the latest articles by Matt Smith at Seeker

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Climate

Earth & Conservation

As climate change’s influence on extreme weather events and deadly wildfire outbreaks becomes increasingly apparent, it’s also forcing farmers to change how they grow the food that destined for your dinner table.

How Climate Change Is Forcing Changes on the Farm

As the effects of climate change become increasingly apparent, improvements in data collection and technology are enabling scientists to be more forward-leaning about the impact it has had on extreme weather.

Extreme Weather’s Link to Climate Change Is Becoming Clearer

Seeker Media

The Swim may be over, but the cause for which Ben Lecomte tried to swim across the Pacific Ocean remains as important as ever.

‘The Swim’ Ends in Hawaii After Spotlighting Ocean Plastic Crisis

Conservation

Scientists who are monitoring the spread of tiny pieces of plastic throughout the environment are getting help from a small army of citizen volunteers — and they’re finding bits of polymer in some of the most remote parts of North America.

Citizen Scientists Are Tracking Plastic Pollution Worldwide

REUTERS/Rodrigo Gutierrez

Health

Take a closer look at the medical news and discoveries impacting our health and wellbeing.

Health News, Headlines and Videos

The flooding that followed Hurricane Florence put a national spotlight on the farms that house millions of hogs in North Carolina and the open-air lagoons of hog waste they produce.

Duke Study Highlights Hog Waste and Health Risks in North Carolina

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If you thought the headlines this week about how we only have until 2030 to avert catastrophic climate change were stark, wait until you read the fine print.

Carbon Capture Is Needed to Avoid Catastrophe, Says Dire Climate Report

The Swim

Seeker/The Swim

Far out in the Pacific Ocean, Ben Lecomte swam past a milestone this week.

Ben Lecomte's Trans-Pacific Swim Breaks the 1,000-Mile Mark

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The West is not only getting hotter, it’s getting less rain — and that’s likely to mean worsening fire seasons for a region that’s already seen a surge in massive blazes in recent years.

Drier Summers Are Stoking Western Wildfires

New Orleans is famous for its music — and infamous for its weather.

Weather Report in F Major: New Orleans Musician Turns Weather Data Into Sound

What if your life wasn’t really your life?

Bad Science: The Fiction and the Reality of The Matrix

Dumped by his girlfriend, behind on his rent, struggling to finish his novel, writer Eddie Morra gets a break in the form of a pill that lets him put more of his brain to work.