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The mid-winter sunrise on the Arctic Coast is a sweet sign of hope in the town of Utqiaġvik.

(Image credit: Ravenna Koenig/Alaska's Energy Desk)

Recent polls have found the number of people who believe climate change is real has jumped. What convinced them?

For some people, the awakening comes in science class.

In the Reddit thread titled “Former climate change deniers, what changed your mind?” the most popular comment comes from chucklesthe2nd (probably not his real name). Chuck, as we’ll call him, essentially inherited his dad’s views on climate change.

After a week of record-cold temperatures, NPR's Michel Martin speaks with climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe about how climate change is leading to more weather extremes.

A drought left a flamingo breeding ground dry near Kimberley, South Africa. When the adult birds left, animal lovers flew thousands of baby birds to safety.

(Image credit: Themba Hadebe/AP)

NCPR reporters Brian Mann and Emily Russell trekked through the snow to the peak of Mount Adams. Their journey to the top is one for the books.

(Image credit: Brian Mann/NCPR)

An understaffed stretch of California coastline has new residents: nearly 100 elephant seals and their pups

During the US government shutdown, understaffed national parks were overrun by careless visitors. But at one spot in California, the absence of rangers meant a takeover by a horde of a different sort: a massive group of boisterous elephant seals.

Related: 'That income is gone': shutdown pain lingers for unpaid contract workers

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service keeps trying, and failing, to get grizzly bears taken off the endangered species list. Some worry that frustration over this could hurt efforts to protect the bears.

(Image credit: Claire Harbage/NPR)

Footage shows torrent of mining waste, while ceremony pays tribute to 110 victims

A week after the deadly collapse of a mining dam in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, dozens paid tribute to the 110 victims killed and 238 who are still missing, while newly released video footage showed the moment that a powerful wave of waste began sweeping over everything in its path.

A ceremony was held at the site of the disaster around 1pm local time on Friday, the hour at which the dam breached on 25 January, unleashing a destructive torrent of reddish-brown mining waste.

Exclusive: leaked emails show officials planning crisis centres to manage halt in waste exports to EU

Government officials are preparing to deal with “putrefying stockpiles” of rubbish in the event of a no-deal Brexit, according to documents leaked to the Guardian.

If the UK leaves the EU without a deal on 29 March, export licences for millions of tonnes of waste will become invalid overnight. Environment Agency (EA) officials said leaking stockpiles could cause pollution.

Macaques adapt to city life, Andean condors are released back into the wild, and a lion catches a seal in this week’s gallery

Introduction of minimum prices in supermarkets aims to increase farmers’ incomes

France’s agriculture minister has sought to reassure households that food shopping bills would not jump dramatically after a rise in minimum food prices aimed at increasing farmers’ incomes came into effect.

The measure introduced on Friday had been postponed by the government in December as France reeled from nationwide unrest and sometimes violent gilets jaunes (yellow vests) protests over high living costs and squeezed household budgets.

Campaigners argue that the business case for the project was a ‘no-brainer’

A scrapped “emerald necklace” cycleway up the spine of the country alongside HS2 would have delivered a return on investment of up to five times greater than the rail project itself, an FoI request has revealed – but neither the government nor HS2 Ltd will fund it.

A 50-page report outlining the business case for the national cycleway, obtained by the Guardian, reveals health, congestion and economic benefits of between £3 and £8 per £1 spent. The return on investment of HS2 itself, meanwhile, is just £1.5-£1.7 per £1, according to the National Audit Office. Campaigners say completing the cycleway should have been a “no-brainer”.

Up to 100 more homes face flooding after mayor orders high-risk plan to open floodgates on the Ross River dam

One hundred homes could be flooded in Townsville after the city’s mayor sanctioned the high-risk release of dam water to save the area from more widespread inundation following more than 1.1 metres of rain.

Announcing the emergency measure for the Ross River dam on Friday, the mayor Jenny Hill said there were no guarantees the plan would work. Between 90 and 100 homes downstream from the dam were being evacuated, she added.

Controversial climatologist John Christy, who once said scientists believed Earth was flat, to join advisory board at environment agency

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1.49am GMT

That’s it for Thursday! Here’s what happened in politics this evening:

Related: Facebook and Twitter removed hundreds of accounts linked to Iran, Russia and Venezuela

1.19am GMT

A new report outlining the first National Drug Control Strategy was released today, just as new director Jim Carroll was sworn in to his role heading the White House’s National Drug Control Policy.

The department’s priorities center heavily on combatting the opioid epidemic, and reducing drug-related deaths. Along with the report, the agency launched a new multimillion dollar media campaign targeting young adults and teens.

The first four ads of the campaign are all based on true stories illustrating the extreme lengths young adults have gone to get a hold of Oxycodone and Vicodin — from smashing their hand or arm, to wrecking their car or breaking their back”.

Bureau of Meteorologist says global warming contributed to soaring temperatures

January was Australia’s hottest month on record, with the country’s mean temperature exceeding 30C for the first time since records began in 1910.

The Bureau of Meteorology released its climate summary for January on Friday and said the widespread heatwave conditions and daily extremes were “unprecedented”.

By Saturday, the National Weather Service says, the central Plains area will see temperatures in the low 60s — nearly 20-25 degrees above normal.

(Image credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Humane Society will argue shark control measures conflict with authority’s responsibility to protect reef

Environmentalists will on Wednesday launch a legal challenge aiming to stop the legal killing of sharks, including several protected species, in the world-heritage listed Great Barrier Reef marine park.

The Queensland government runs a shark control program that uses drum lines – baited hooks to lure and kill sharks – near popular swimming spots along the state’s coast.