Yale e360

In an e360 interview, Mary Nichols, the long-time chair of the California Air Resources Board, talks about California’s continued efforts to stop the Trump administration’s rollback of stricter fuel efficiency standards, and why the auto industry is…

Natural disasters forced a record 7 million people to be displaced in the first half of this year, accounting for nearly two-thirds of all the internal displacements worldwide, according to a new report from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC).…

Using citizen science volunteers, researchers are more accurately measuring temperature differences between city hot spots and their cooler surroundings. With heat waves intensifying, the results are now being used to develop a range of innovative urban…

More than nine years after the Deepwater Horizon spill, oil can still be found buried deep in the sand along hundreds of miles of the Gulf Coast. Now, scientists have discovered that these clumps of oil and sand could take at least 30 years to decompose,…

From Colombia to Argentina, major cities in Latin America are starting to adopt electric bus fleets. In a region with the highest use of buses per person globally, officials believe the transition will help meet climate targets, cut fuel costs, and improve air…

More than 30 percent of U.S. homeowners in Hurricane Dorian’s path dropped their flood insurance policies in recent years, according to an analysis by E&E News. Analysts say this decline could leave tens of thousands of people along the southeastern coast in…

Dauphin Island has been battered by more than a dozen hurricanes and tropical storms in recent decades. But that hasn’t stopped homeowners on the beach resort from repeatedly getting federal aid and insurance payouts to keep rebuilding in the same vulnerable…

China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a multi-trillion-dollar investment strategy aimed at boosting infrastructure development around the globe, will significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions and drive global warming past 2 degrees Celsius unless efforts…

In an e360 interview, Carlos Nobre, Brazil’s leading expert on the Amazon and climate change, discusses the key perils facing the world’s largest rainforest, where a record number of fires are now raging, and lays out what can be done to stave off a…

More than 500 million bees were found dead by beekeepers in Brazil over a three-month period earlier this year. Now, scientists are linking these mass bee die-offs to an increase in the use of pesticides, fueled by the weakening of chemical regulations by the…

Climate change is raising temperatures in Europe even faster than climate models projected, according to new research published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The number of summer days with extreme heat in Europe has tripled since the 1950s,…

A new video from NASA provides a glimpse of global wildfire trends over the past two decades, showing where fires have intensified due to agricultural practices, including in Africa and Southeast Asia, and climate change.Read more on E360 →

After decades of travel in the Far North, E360’s Arctic correspondent joins a voyage through the Northwest Passage and witnesses a world being transformed, with ice disappearing, balmy temperatures becoming common, and alien invaders – from plastic waste…

As global temperatures continue to rise, 100-year floods could become annual occurrences in parts of the United States, according to new research published in the journal Nature Communications. The increase in severe coastal flooding events by the end of this…

Wildfires are burning in the Brazil’s Amazon rainforest at their highest rate in years, according to new research. Started by loggers and farmers clearing the land, 39,194 fires have been detected in the rainforest so far this year, a 77 percent increase…

Due to soaring temperatures, tropical coral reefs are facing a bleak future. But recent research shows that some of these corals are migrating to cooler subtropical seas, offering a measure of hope that these ecosystems can survive the existential threat of…

Tesla announced it is launching a new option for homeowners to rent a rooftop solar system for as low as $50 a month. With no upfront installation costs or long-term contract, analysts say the move could help boost solar panel adoption in the United States,…

An exodus for jobs abroad has played an important role in the reforestation of Nepal, as rural people leave and workers send money back to their families, reducing reliance on the land. Migration has had unexpected benefits for forest recovery in other nations…

The boom in U.S. shale gas and oil production may have ignited a significant global spike in methane emissions blamed for accelerating the pace of the climate crisis, according to research. Scientists at Cornell University have found that the “chemical…

Putting solar panels on less than 1 percent of the world’s agricultural land could produce enough energy to fulfill global electricity demand, according to a recent study published in the journal Scientific Reports. The research also concludes that solar…

Ken Sleight remembers the stunning beauty of Glen Canyon before it was flooded by a massive dam in the 1960s. Taylor Graham’s film “Seldom Seen Sleight” – winner of the Yale Environment 360 Video Contest – shows the magnificent landscape lost and…

More than 450 non-native insects and diseases have found their way into U.S. forests, and the millions of trees killed by these pests each year contain more than 5.53 teragrams of carbon (TgC) — equal to the emissions of 4.4 million cars, or the carbon…

A cereal and beers are now being made with a new variety of perennial grain known as Kernza. Proponents say this marks a significant advance for a new agriculture that borrows from the wild prairie and could help ensure sustainable food production in a warming…

The Trump administration announced it is rolling back key parts of the Endangered Species Act. The landmark regulation, which became law in 1973, has been credited with protecting hundreds of species in the United States from extinction, including the bald…

A major underwater mountain chain in and around the Hawaiian Islands is slowly making a comeback from the damaging effects of trawling, thanks to decades of federal protection, according to a new study.Read more on E360 →

Nearly 40 years ago, Omar Tello bought a deforested plot of land outside his small Ecuadorian city. “7 Hectares Back” – the second-place winner of the Yale Environment 360 Video Contest – tells the story of how he persevered and transformed it into a…

New wind farms in the United States are increasingly installing larger, more efficient wind turbines that can generate twice as much power as older generations of turbines, according to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).Read more on E360 →

Over the next decade, 24 European cities with a total population of 62 million people will ban diesel vehicles, and 13 of those cities will ban all internal combustion cars by 2030, according to Bloomberg News. Read more on E360 →

U.S. coastal cities face billions of dollars in costs for the extensive infrastructure projects needed to protect against rising seas and worsening storms. From Boston to Miami, government officials are only beginning to grasp the enormous expense of what will…

The speed of climate disruption is outstripping many animals’ capacity to adapt, according to a study that warns of a growing threat to even common species such as sparrows, magpies, and deer. Scientists behind the research described the results as…