Climate

In the early hours on Wednesday, as the sun was setting on one presidency and rising on another—but long before it would actually peek over the horizon—two men did two very different things. Departing President Donald J. Trump, who four years ago promised to drain the swamp, rescinded an ethics order, clearing the way for […]

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January 20, 2021 | 6:00 PM It Starts Now The most important year for the planet begins today. By Ken Berlin Millions of Americans will remember January 20, 2021 as the day the nation got a new president and our first female and Black vice president. For us in the climate movement, the day is […]

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On President Donald Trump’s last full day in office a federal appeals court landed a major blow to his administration’s deregulatory campaign by rejecting its boldest attempt to stymie climate regulation. The decision Tuesday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit slammed the door on the Trump administration’s effort to […]

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January 19, 2021 | 8:00 AM Individual Action vs. Collective Action and the Importance of the Swiss Cheese Model The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us a lot – including how to think about the path forward on climate action. As the world has grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic over the past year, we’ve all learned […]

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What began as a narrow jurisdictional question to be argued Tuesday before the U.S. Supreme Court in a climate change lawsuit filed by the city of Baltimore could take on far greater implications if the high court agrees with major oil companies to expand its purview and consider whether federal, rather than state courts, are […]

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This story was previously published by Southerly/Scalawag. Read the original here. When Hurricane Zeta made landfall on the Gulf Coast in October, 2.6 million people in the Southeast U.S. were left in the dark. From the Mississippi coast to Atlanta to smaller cities like Anniston, Alabama, people waited—some for days, others for upward of two weeks—in living rooms […]

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Along with promising to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to slow global warming, under the Paris climate agreement world leaders also agreed to prepare for its unavoidable and mounting impacts: the displacement of people and the destruction of communities and croplands by sea level rise, intensifying storms, drought, wildfire and famines. But adaptation efforts are lagging […]

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Someone Wrote ‘Trump’ on a Manatee’s Back Federal officials are seeking information related to a Florida manatee discovered with the word “Trump” carved into the algae on its back earlier this week in the Homosassa River, about 75 miles north of Tampa. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is investigating the incident. As of late […]

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In Oregon, new legislation would require state officials to consider the “cumulative” impact on neighborhoods already overburdened by pollution before granting permits to projects that potentially pose a threat to human health or the environment.  In Illinois, a bill would dedicate $2 billion to fund clean energy and climate mitigation initiatives in low-income communities of […]

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January 14, 2021 | 10:23 AM Let’s Make the First 100 Days Count This is the moment we’ve been waiting for. We’re going to make it count. Between the abhorrent sights of White supremacists storming the Capitol and impeachment proceedings beginning, it’s easy to lose sight of one critical fact. This is the moment we’ve […]

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Cities setting clean energy goals now have a new leader to emulate: Des Moines, Iowa. The Des Moines city council voted 7-0 on Monday in favor of a resolution that sets a goal of reaching 24/7 carbon-free electricity by 2035, making it probably the first city in the United States, and maybe the first in […]

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We had no idea what 2020 had in store for the world when we kicked off the year with a clear intent: amplifying our impact through the new decade. Given all the challenges of the year, we are pleased with what we were able to achieve and the impact it generated. Gaining traction with Earth […]

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The last decades have been filled with dire warning signs from forests. Global warming has contributed to thinning canopies in European forests and to sudden die-offs of aspen trees in Colorado, as well as insect outbreaks that are killing trees around the world. In many places, forests are not growing back. New research shows that […]

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Anyone with even a passing interest in the global environment knows all is not well. But just how bad is the situation? Our new paper shows the outlook for life on Earth is more dire than is generally understood. The research published today reviews more than 150 studies to produce a stark summary of the […]

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“Estamos sentados num barco, e há uma tempestade a aproximar-se. Essa tempestade chama-se ‘mudanças climáticas’. Nesta altura, todos dizem: ‘Vamos reunir, vamos decidir quem remenda o barco primeiro’ e ‘não vou remendar o meu barco antes de remendares o teu’. Isto, em vez de se dizer ‘oh meu Deus, há uma tempestade a caminho! Será […]

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The planet is facing a “ghastly future of mass extinction, declining health and climate-disruption upheavals” that threaten human survival because of ignorance and inaction, according to an international group of scientists, who warn people still haven’t grasped the urgency of the biodiversity and climate crises. The 17 experts, including Prof Paul Ehrlich from Stanford University, […]

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For decades, through political tumult and changing global allegiances, the Arctic Council went about its business, producing groundbreaking scientific reports and hammering out binding agreements to ensure cooperation among its members and address climate change.  Even when diplomacy failed in other venues, the council, an international organization consisting of the eight countries that ring the […]

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January 12, 2021 | 8:00 AM How the Climate Crisis is Affecting Iowa Here are three ways the climate crisis has left its fingerprints on the Hawkeye State. Like so many other Midwestern US states, Iowa is already feeling the effects of the climate crisis. Across the state, communities are seeing higher temperatures, more extreme […]

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This report was made possible in part by the Fund for Environmental Journalism of the Society of Environmental Journalists.  As a kid, Lauren Lydick would pack up a towel, a Harry Potter book, and head out alone into the bamboo groves. As a teenager, she took a blanket, War & Peace, and weed. Sometimes reading, […]

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This article was originally published by Yale Environment 360. Read the original story here. In the old medieval market town of Heilbronn, perched on the Neckar River in southwestern Germany, the zeal of the city’s award-winning renewable energy cooperative is on display just about everywhere. In this city of 126,000, solar panels adorn the roofs of homes, […]

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A Climate-Driven Cat Attack? A male jaguar waits near a watering hole. Eventually, an ocelot arrives to drink. The bigger cat quickly strikes, and walks off with the ocelot in his mouth. The attack by one predatory big cat species on another, captured in newly released video footage from Guatemala, was unusual, and scientists say […]

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Einladung zur Onlineveranstaltung vom Kulturpark (Zürich) und Plant for the Planet Dienstag 19. Januar 2021, von 19:00-20:15 (zentraleuropäische Zeit)mit Dr. Mathis Wackernagel, Global Footprint Network Um was geht’s? «Decisions shape the future». Mit jeder Entscheidung bauen wir unsere Zukunft. Jeder Franken, Euro, oder Dollar, den wir ausgeben, ist eine Investition – eine gute oder schlechte. […]

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January 06, 2021 | 9:30 AM How the Climate Crisis is Affecting Montana Big Sky Country may be in big trouble if we don’t act on climate. Montana’s iconic landscapes are the stuff of western movie classics and nature lovers dreams. The fourth largest state in the US is known to many as Big Sky […]

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This was originally published in the Generation Green New Deal Newsletter. A year ago, we all likely had some sense of new pathways we wanted to chart this year. But the pandemic toppled so much certainty we held with our lives, and many things were blown off course. From the more mundane aspirations to the […]

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Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe (and the third most abundant on Earth) – and it has the potential to fuel our vehicles, power our electricity plants, and provide an outlet for excess renewable energy without pumping out carbon dioxide and driving climate change. To stave off the worst effects of the […]

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Winter is here in the Northern Hemisphere. The hats and gloves are out, and the snow has begun to fall. And like clockwork, every time the temperature drops, climate deniers like to come out of the woodwork to ask their favorite question: “It’s cold out! The snow is piling up! Where’s all that global warming […]

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There’s no denying that 2020 has been a, um, complicated year. And we’re just going to leave it at that. But for those of us in the climate movement, it’s at least coming to an end on something of a high note – after four long years of climate denial and environmental rollbacks from the […]

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There’s no denying that 2020 has been a complicated year for the climate movement – and the world, in general. Early in the year, the COVID-19 pandemic brought in-person organizing to a standstill. Soon after, decades of systemic racism and social injustice boiled over into the streets. And of course, in the middle of it […]

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December 28, 2020 | 8:00 AM We have a real opportunity in 2021 Our team is working relentlessly to make climate action a top priority. To say that 2020 has been a difficult year is would be a grand understatement. But we know our planet can’t wait for things to get back to normal. Greenhouse […]

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December 22, 2020 | 8:30 AM Our Top Social Media Posts of 2020 Wrapping up a year that included everything from the COVID-19 pandemic to a historic election in the US, we’re taking a moment to look at some of our social media posts that caught the attention of, and even inspired, Climate Reality followers. […]

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