Annual climate change report finds “planet on the brink”
Earth’s vital signs are “flashing red,” fossil fuel use is at peak levels and warming is increasingly impacting forests, oceans and disaster frequency, according to a new report.
global warming
US oil production on federal lands reaches record high. Will it last?
By Brian Bienkowski
Crude oil production on federal lands in the US is at a record high, increasing sixfold over the past 15 years, according to a new report from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Postcard from California: Climate change is fueling faster-spreading, more extreme wildfires
By Bill Walker
This summer, the Park Fire burned more than 425,000 acres near Chico, Calif. – the fourth-largest wildfire in the state’s history. It started when an arsonist pushed a flaming car into a grassy, brush-strewn gully, sparking California’s largest-ever deliberately set wildfire.
Nearly 100,000 birds dead in botulism outbreak linked to climate change, water diversions
By Douglas Main
An ongoing outbreak of botulism, a bacterial illness that causes muscle paralysis, has killed more than 94,000 birds at Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Northern California, the worst such outbreak at the lake ever recorded, according to federal scientists.
Legal battle over fossil fuels and climate heats up
By Dana Drugmand
As climate change fuels increasingly damaging extreme weather events across the United States, litigation is growing against fossil fuel companies accused of being to blame for the devastation. But a series of recent legal moves by the industry and mixed judicial decisions underscore the challenges that local and state government plaintiffs face in the multi-billion-dollar battle.
Farmers face steep crop losses in US Northeast amid summer storms
By Grace van Deelen
While much of the country suffers from extreme heat this summer, the US Northeast has seen excessive rains and extreme flooding, conditions that have decimated crops, drowned livestock, and left farmers struggling.
Effects of “unprecedented” marine heat waves may be irreversible
By Grace van Deelen
Tens of thousands of dead fish are washing up on the Texas Gulf Coast, unprecedented numbers of seabird carcasses are showing up on beaches, and toxic algal blooms are growing in size and frequency – all signs of the calamitous impacts of warming trends for ocean waters that some scientists say may be irreversible.
Human-caused warming to surpass Paris Agreement limit by 2037, analysis finds
Human-caused global warming is set to surpass 2.7° Fahrenheit (1.5° Celsius) by the year 2037, overshooting an international goal beyond which severe climate disruptions may become the norm, according to a new analysis from 50 climate scientists.
Vast majority of global methane emissions go unregulated, says new study
By Grace van Deelen
Governments around the world are failing to effectively regulate and mitigate harmful emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas with a climate warming potential more than 25 times stronger than carbon dioxide, according to research published Friday.