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Category: Climate Change

As climate change melts permafrost, microbes that we have never been exposed to will emerge

As climate change melts permafrost, microbes that we have never been exposed to will emerge

Valerie Brown writes: The popular image of the Arctic is as a “frozen North,” which it was for all of human history until a couple of centuries ago. In that view, intrepid explorers and scientists clatter over tundra and ice roads in dogsleds and decrepit trucks, risking everything to bring back important samples and wild tales of howling winds. But this vision is growing passé. The Arctic is warming four times as fast as the global average. While there are…

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Huge election year worldwide sees weakening commitment to act on climate crisis

Huge election year worldwide sees weakening commitment to act on climate crisis

The Guardian reports: An unprecedented year of elections around the world has underscored a sobering trend – in many countries the commitment to act on the climate crisis has either stalled or is eroding, even as disasters and record temperatures continue to mount. So far 2024, called the “biggest election year in human history” by the United Nations with around half the world’s population heading to the polls, there have been major wins for Donald Trump, the US president-elect who…

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Trump 2.0: This time the stakes for climate are even higher

Trump 2.0: This time the stakes for climate are even higher

Michael Gerrard writes: The November 5 election was the worst-case outcome for climate regulation. The return of Donald Trump to the Oval Office and Republican control of the Senate and the House of Representatives will halt federal progress and lead to a reversal of most of the climate initiatives undertaken by the Biden administration. Such a rollback occurred after Trump first won election in 2016, but this time the stakes are even higher. Trump has promised to halt spending under…

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Human-caused ocean warming intensified recent hurricanes

Human-caused ocean warming intensified recent hurricanes

Yale Climate Connections reports: Human-caused climate change boosted the wind speeds of recent Atlantic hurricanes, making them more damaging and costly, according to a pair of scientific reports released today. Research published in the journal Environmental Research: Climate, “Human-caused ocean warming has intensified recent hurricanes,” found that between 2019 and 2023, the maximum sustained winds of Atlantic hurricanes were 19 mph (31 km/h) higher because of human-caused ocean warming. And a parallel report by Climate Central, a nonprofit scientific research…

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Trump picks ally Lee Zeldin as environment chief and vows to roll back rules

Trump picks ally Lee Zeldin as environment chief and vows to roll back rules

The Guardian reports: Donald Trump has picked Lee Zeldin, a former New York congressman, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), vowing the appointment will “ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions” by the regulator. Trump, who oversaw the rollback of more than 100 environmental rules when he last was US president, said that Zeldin was a “true fighter for America First policies” and that “he will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to…

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Musk believes in climate change. Trump doesn’t. Will that change?

Musk believes in climate change. Trump doesn’t. Will that change?

The New York Times reports: Elon Musk has described himself as “pro-environment” and “super pro climate.” But he also threw himself wholeheartedly into electing as president someone who has dismissed global warming as a hoax. Now, as President-elect Donald J. Trump prepares to enter the White House, one big question is how much sway — if any — Mr. Musk’s views on climate change and clean energy might have in the new administration. During the campaign, Mr. Trump noticeably softened…

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Despite climate concerns, young voter turnout slumped and its support split between the parties

Despite climate concerns, young voter turnout slumped and its support split between the parties

Inside Climate News reports: For 19-year-old Carson Carpenter, voting for Donald Trump was a “no-brainer.” Carpenter, who grew up in Prescott, Arizona, and was president of Arizona State University’s College Republicans until this week, said he was mainly influenced by concerns about the economy, particularly affordability. He also strongly believes in environmental protection, and he feels that progress on the environment will continue under Trump. “I think that people that say Trump is bad for the environment, they would be…

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The U.S. is about to make a sharp turn on climate policy

The U.S. is about to make a sharp turn on climate policy

Casey Crownhart writes: Voters have elected Donald Trump to a second term in the White House. In the days leading up to the election, I kept thinking about what four years means for climate change right now. We’re at a critical moment that requires decisive action to rapidly slash greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants, transportation, industry, and the rest of the economy if we’re going to achieve our climate goals. The past four years have seen the US take climate…

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Half of U.S. solar capacity came during Biden administration

Half of U.S. solar capacity came during Biden administration

Semafor reports: Solar energy in the US is cheaper and more widespread than ever. At Semafor’s World Economy Summit in Washington, DC, Friday, the White House’s top climate advisor Ali Zaidi said, “Half of the solar installed in the United States [was] installed in the Biden-Harris Administration,” which aligns with a report by the clean energy nonprofit Solar Energy Industries Association. Solar energy is also becoming cheaper, according to Boston-based clean energy company EnergySage. During the first half of 2024,…

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Over a third of trees globally face threat of extinction

Over a third of trees globally face threat of extinction

BBC News reports: Scientists assessing dangers posed to the world’s trees have revealed that more than a third of species are facing extinction in the wild. The number of threatened trees now outweighs all threatened birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians put together, according to the latest update to the official extinction red list. The news was released in Cali, Colombia, where world leaders are meeting at the UN biodiversity summit, COP 16, to assess progress on a landmark rescue plan…

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Polar bears are getting horrific injuries because of climate change, researchers say

Polar bears are getting horrific injuries because of climate change, researchers say

Live Science reports: Polar bears are developing horrific wounds on their paws due to changing ice conditions in the Arctic, a new study reports. In the most severe cases, researchers describe two bears with crippling, dinner plate-size balls of ice stuck to their feet. Beneath the ice balls, the bears’ paw pads were covered in deep, bleeding cuts. “I’d never seen that before,” study lead author Kristin Laidre, a marine ecologist and associate professor at the University of Washington, said…

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These women are trying to humanize the climate crisis

These women are trying to humanize the climate crisis

By Jessica Kutz Originally published by The 19th It was Labor Day in 2022 when Amy Dishion received the phone call that would change her life: Her husband had died of heat stroke.   “My entire life just fell apart,” Dishion said. “I lost my best friend and the father of my child.” They had moved to Phoenix for her husband Evan’s medical residency in neurology. Just a few months before, Dishion had given birth to their daughter, Chloe.  Their life…

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Why you won’t hear the military arguing about climate change

Why you won’t hear the military arguing about climate change

Sherri Goodman and Leah Emanuel write: Today, the U.S. military is confronting a new enemy: climate change. Before Hurricane Helene devastated the Southeast last month, more than 5,900 National Guard members were called up to help prepare; after the storm, the Pentagon sent active-duty forces to assist with road clearing and logistical support. In June, when Hurricane Beryl spiraled through the Caribbean before making its U.S. landfall, Texas and Vermont National Guard units supported disaster response efforts, working with the…

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Half of all global food threatened by growing water crisis, report says

Half of all global food threatened by growing water crisis, report says

NBC News reports: The world has a worsening water crisis and half of all food production will be at risk of failure by the middle of this century. That’s the worrying message from a report released Wednesday by a major international study. Half of the world’s population already faces water scarcity and that proportion is growing too, according to the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, which is funded by the Dutch government and facilitated by the Organization for…

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The Atlantic Ocean’s currents are on the verge of collapse. This is what it means for the planet

The Atlantic Ocean’s currents are on the verge of collapse. This is what it means for the planet

David Thornalley writes: Icy winds howl across a frozen Thames, ice floes block shipping in the Mersey docks, and crops fail across the UK. Meanwhile, the US east coast has been inundated by rising seas and there’s ecological chaos in the Amazon as the wet and dry season have switched around… The world has been upended. What’s going on? While these scenes sound like something from a Hollywood disaster movie, a new scientific study investigating a key element of Earth’s…

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Trees and land absorbed almost no CO2 last year. Is nature’s carbon sink failing?

Trees and land absorbed almost no CO2 last year. Is nature’s carbon sink failing?

The Guardian reports: It begins each day at nightfall. As the light disappears, billions of zooplankton, crustaceans and other marine organisms rise to the ocean surface to feed on microscopic algae, returning to the depths at sunrise. The waste from this frenzy – Earth’s largest migration of creatures – sinks to the ocean floor, removing millions of tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere each year. This activity is one of thousands of natural processes that regulate the Earth’s climate. Together,…

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