Choose your location
Yale Environment 360
As Carbon Dioxide Grows More Abundant, Trees Are Growing Bigger, Study Finds
Trees are feasting on decades of carbon dioxide emissions and growing bigger as a result, according to a new study of U.S. forests. Scientists tracked wood volume in 10 different tree groups from 1997 to 2017, finding that all except aspen-birch grew larger. Over that same period, carbon dioxide levels went from 363 parts per million to 405 parts per million, owing largely to the burning of fossil fuels. More abundant CO2 accelerates photosynthesis, causing plants to grow faster, a phenomenon known as “carbon fertilization.” The findings were published in the journal Nature Communications.
Number of Americans Exposed to Harmful Wildfire Smoke Has Increased 27-Fold
Millions of Americans are now routinely exposed to unhealthy plumes of wildfire smoke that can waft thousands of miles across the country, scientists have warned. Wildfires cause soot and ash to be thrown off into the air, which then carries the minuscule particles that can be inhaled by people many miles away, aggravating a variety of health conditions. The number of people in the U.S. exposed to unhealthy levels of these particulates from wildfires at least one day a year has increased 27-fold over the last decade, a new study found, with 25 million people in 2020 alone breathing in potentially toxic air from fires.
Beyond Biden’s Climate Plan, a New Industrial Revolution Is Needed
For all the great news in the Biden administration’s massive new climate spending plan, the hardest work of transforming the economy to stop global warming lies ahead. That’s because nearly all the money in the $369 billion plan will be spent on technologies that American companies already know how to deploy, such as solar farms, making buildings more efficient, and developing networks of electric vehicle charging systems.
Loss of Arctic Sea Ice to Give Rise to More Strong El Niños, Study Finds
The loss of Arctic sea ice could yield more strong El Niños, in which unusually warm ocean waters fuel drought in the western Pacific and heavy rainfall in the eastern Pacific, new research finds. “Our study, for the first time, finds that large Arctic sea-ice loss directly influences global...
For a Scientist and Mother, Climate Change Is Generational ‘Robbery’
Diana Ürge-Vorsatz is a Hungarian academic; director of the Center for Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Policy at Central European University; mother of seven; accomplished athlete; and prolific researcher of energy demand and renewable energy supplies. She currently serves as a vice-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) working group III, which focuses on progress in emissions reduction and how to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
As UN Climate Summit Looms, Denmark Becomes First Country to Pay for ‘Loss and Damage’
Denmark is directing more than $13 million to aid countries hard hit by climate change, becoming the first wealthy nation to pay for “loss and damage” from increasingly extreme weather. “I saw for myself in Bangladesh this spring that the consequences of climate change need increased focus,” Danish...
Burning Fossil Fuel Reserves Would Use Up Carbon Budget Seven Times Over
If burned, global fossil fuel reserves would release 3.5 trillion metric tons of carbon emissions, more than has been unleashed since the start of the Industrial Revolution, according to the Global Registry of Fossil Fuels, a new database launched by Carbon Tracker and Global Energy Monitor. To keep warming to...
Why the Rush to Mine Lithium Could Dry Up the High Andes
What environmental price should the world be willing to pay for the metals needed to switch to electric vehicles? The question is being asked urgently in South America where there are growing fears that what is good for the global climate may be a disaster for some of the world’s rarest and most precious ecosystems — salt flats, wetlands, grazing pastures, and flamingo lakes high in the Andean mountains.
European Parliament Condemns East Africa Pipeline, Putting Pressure on Banks to Abandon Project
The European Parliament adopted a resolution condemning the planned East African Crude Oil Pipeline this week, dealing another blow to the controversial project, which numerous banks and insurers have declined to back. The pipeline, spearheaded by French oil giant Total, would carry oil harvested from beneath Lake Albert and Murchison...
Warming Waters Challenge Atlantic Salmon, Both Wild and Farmed
Whether roaming wild or enclosed in floating feedlots on the ocean, Atlantic salmon are cold-water fishes. But as the climate crisis warms the world’s oceans and waterways, cold water is becoming harder to find, which means these long-endangered fish are facing perhaps their biggest challenge yet. Atlantic salmon are...
A Rapid Shift to Clean Energy Would Save the World $12 Trillion, Analysis Shows
The world would save at least $12 trillion by phasing out fossil fuels and shifting to renewable energy by 2050, according to a new analysis from the University of Oxford. “Renewable costs have been trending down for decades. They are already cheaper than fossil fuels in many situations and, our research shows, they will become cheaper than fossil fuels across almost all applications in the years to come,” Doyne Farmer, an economist at Oxford and co-author of the study, said in a statement. “And, if we accelerate the transition, they will become cheaper faster. Completely replacing fossil fuels with clean energy by 2050 will save us trillions.”
Global ‘Stilling’: Is Climate Change Slowing Down the Wind?
Last year, from summer into fall, much of Europe experienced what’s known as a “wind drought.” Wind speeds in many places slowed about 15 percent below the annual average, and in other places, the drop was even more pronounced. It was one of the least windy periods in the United Kingdom in the past 60 years, and the effects on power generation were dramatic. Wind farms produced 18 percent of the U.K.’s power in September of 2020, but in September of 2021, that percentage plummeted to only 2 percent. To make up the energy gap, the U.K. was forced to restart two mothballed coal plants.
When Told About Flood Risk, Homebuyers Shun Vulnerable Homes, Study Finds
When told about risks from flooding, prospective homebuyers were less likely to make offers on vulnerable properties, according to new research from the real estate brokerage company Redfin, which says that a growing awareness of climate risk could stunt home prices in flood-prone areas. “We now have definitive evidence that...
Experts Confident EU Will Meet Its Ambitious Climate Targets
The European Union is widely expected to meet its ambitious climate targets under the Paris Agreement, according to a survey of hundreds of scientists and diplomats. More than 800 climate experts were asked to rate a handful of major emitters according to their ambition — a measure of how much they plan to cut emissions given their capacity to do so — and their credibility, or how likely countries are to meet their goal.
Forests in the Amazon, Southern Boreal Regions, and U.S. West Most Threatened by Climate Change
As climate change increasingly threaten’s the world’s forests, scientists at the University of Utah have developed a new tool that identifies those woodlands that are most imperiled and whose loss would deal the greatest blow to the climate and biodiversity. To forecast the impact of rising temperatures, researchers...
Could the Drying Up of Europe’s Great Rivers Be the New Normal?
Along the fabled Danube River, which snakes its way for 1,800 miles from the Black Forest in Germany to the Black Sea in Romania, scores of towns — such as the small Romanian port of Zimnicea on the Bulgarian border — depend on the waterway for their livelihood. But this summer’s epic drought and historic high temperatures, now in a fifth grueling month, have depleted the once-mighty Danube, upending everything that Zimnicea’s residents — port workers, farmers, the shipping industry, anglers, restaurant owners, and families — had for generations counted on to sustain themselves. Never in living memory has the river run so low, with large areas of mud-cracked river bottom exposed along Zimnicea’s shorelines, the dead mollusks evidence of the devastating toll on riverine life.
After Two Murders, a Brazilian Indigenous Leader Steps Up the Fight
In June, an advocate for the Amazon’s Indigenous groups and a journalist accompanying him were murdered in Brazil’s Javari Valley, a dense stretch of forest — larger than Austria — that has the highest concentration of uncontacted Indigenous groups in the world. The advocate, Bruno Pereira, was working to stop the relentless incursions by miners, loggers, narco-traffickers, fishers, and hunters who are illegally encroaching on Indigenous land under the regime of Brazil’s nationalist president, Jair Bolsonaro, which has refused to enforce environmental and territorial laws.
Germany’s Cheap Summer Train Fares Prevented 1.8 Billion Tons of Carbon Pollution
A German initiative slashing summer train fares drove widespread use of public transit, helping avoid 1.8 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions, according to an estimate from the Association of German Transport Companies. The scheme, which began June 1 and ends today, allowed travelers to use all buses, trams, subways,...
Animals With Fewer Young Are More Resilient Against Extreme Weather, Study Finds
Longer-lived mammals with fewer young are better able to cope with extreme weather, according to a new study. For the research, scientists tracked how populations of 157 different mammal species responded to periods of heavy rainfall, drought, and other shifts in climate. Overall, they analyzed 486 population records spanning 10 years or more.
Yale Environment 360
1K+
Posts
615K+
Views
Yale Environment 360 is an online magazine offering opinion, analysis, reporting, and debate on global environmental issues.
Welcome to NewsBreak, an open platform where diverse perspectives converge. Most of our content comes from established publications and journalists, as well as from our extensive network of tens of thousands of creators who contribute to our platform. We empower individuals to share insightful viewpoints through short posts and comments. It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency: our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. We strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation. Join us in shaping the news narrative together.