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Fifty-five animal species in the United Kingdom have been displaced from their natural ranges over the past decade due to rising temperatures. The species have shifted as far as hundreds of miles poleward in search of cooler climes, with some crossing seas to…

New research shows that condensation trails from aircraft exhaust are playing a significant role in global warming. Experts are concerned that efforts to change aviation engine design to reduce CO2 emissions could actually create more contrails and raise daily…

Wind turbines in Scotland produced enough electricity in the first half of 2019 to power every home in the country twice over, according to new data by the analytics group WeatherEnergy. The wind farms generated 9,831,320 megawatt-hours between January and…

A nitrogen-fixing maize grown in an indigenous region of Mexico has the ability to fertilize itself, recent research shows. Now, as a global company and U.S. scientists work to replicate this trait in other corn varieties, will the villages where the maize…

More than 2 million people in and around Zimbabwe’s capital city, Harare, are currently without access to municipal drinking water, the result of a years-long drought and high water pollution levels, Climate Home News reported. With their taps running dry,…

Nearly half of the new cars sold in Norway in 2019 have been electric vehicles, up from just 25 percent during the same period last year, Reuters reported. The sales, which exclude hybrids, keep Norway in the top spot globally for EV adoption and mark a major…

Hundreds of Colombia’s small coffee growers have stopped cultivating the bean in the face of low prices and reduced harvests linked to a shifting climate. As farmers struggle, the nation’s scientists are seeking to develop new varieties that will flourish…

Rising ocean temperatures are increasingly causing coral reefs to shift away from the equator into more temperate waters. Over the past 40 years, the number of young corals has declined by 85 percent on tropical reefs, while at the same time doubling in cooler…

Scientists have discovered a massive seaweed bloom stretching across nearly the entire Atlantic Ocean, from the west coast of Africa to the Gulf of Mexico. The bloom, dubbed the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt, first appeared in 2011 and has become an almost…

Many of the United States’ 91,000 dams are aging and sorely in need of repairs that could collectively cost tens of billions of dollars. Experts are increasingly worried that as extreme precipitation events increase, dams are at greater risk of failure,…

The record-breaking heatwave that struck France and other European nations in June was made at least five — and possibly 100 — times more likely by climate change, scientists have calculated.Read more on E360 →

Ecosystems in North America’s Great Plains have shifted hundreds of miles northward in the past 50 years, driven by climate change, wildfire suppression, energy development, land use changes, and urbanization, according to a recent study published in the…

China has been a major source of rare earth metals used in high-tech products, from smartphones to wind turbines. As cleanup of these mining sites begins, experts argue that global companies that have benefited from access to these metals should help foot the…

Japan has officially reopened its commercial whaling industry after more than three decades, killing two grey minke whales within the first 24 hours, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported. The country’s decision to resume whaling in domestic waters defies an…

Converting the entire U.S. power grid to 100 percent renewable energy in the next decade is technologically and logistically attainable, and would cost an estimated $4.5 trillion, according to a recent analysis by the energy research firm Wood Mackenzie.…

The United Kingdom’s goal to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 has now become law, making the UK the world’s first G7 country to establish this form of legally binding target, Reuters reported. The target was announced earlier this month by outgoing…

Greenland is melting at an unprecedented rate, causing vast quantities of ice to disappear and global sea levels to rise. The fate of the ice sheet is not sealed, but unless CO2 emissions are sharply cut, the long-term existence of Greenland’s ice is in…

Global energy use could increase by as much as 58 percent by 2050 as communities and industries use more air conditioning to cope with rising global temperatures, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Communications. This increased energy…

Recent research is showing that trees, especially in tropical wetlands, are a major source of the second most important greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, methane. The knowledge that certain woodlands are high methane emitters should help guide reforestation…

During the Height of the Cold War, a telescope-shaped American spy satellite code-named Hexagon circled the globe snapping high-resolution photographs of forests, mountains, and perhaps a few Russian military bases. From time to time, the satellite would eject…

Tennessee’s Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport has become the first airport in the United States to run entirely on solar power. The small facility, which operates more than 61,000 flights a year, announced it completed work on a 12-acre, 2.64 megawatt (MW)…

Native prairie and savanna once covered vast areas of the U.S. Southeast from Maryland to Texas, but agriculture and sprawl have left only small patches remaining. Now, a new initiative, driven by scientists and local communities, is pushing to restore these…

The Trump administration has announced a new rule for power plants that gives states more control over setting limits on greenhouse gas emissions and requires only modest efficiency upgrades at facilities. The rule, which is expected to come into effect in the…

Forests in the U.S. Southeast are being devastated by demand for wood pellets to power biomass energy plants in Europe and Japan, according to a new report by the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Dogwood Alliance, and the Southern Environmental Law…

Alfred Brownell had to flee Liberia after challenging the powerful palm oil and other extractive industries that were clearing its forests. But he remains committed to seeing that the West African nation’s biodiverse lands be developed sustainably and the…

More than 6,280 tons of DDT were sprayed on the forests of New Brunswick, Canada to fight insect outbreaks in the 1950s and 1960s. Now, 50 years after the chemical was banned, scientists have discovered it lingering in the sediments of remote lakes at levels…

Renewable energy now generates more electricity in the United States than coal. Solar, wind, hydropower, biomass, and geothermal totaled 21.56 percent of U.S. generating capacity as of April, according to a report from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission…

In its anti-regulatory zeal, the Trump administration is moving to weaken vehicle fuel efficiency standards so much that even U.S. carmakers are balking. The administration’s hard-line stance appears likely to stall efforts to make major cuts in greenhouse…

Since taking office in January, the nationalist Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, has gutted key agencies responsible for monitoring and stopping deforestation in the Amazon, leading to a steep drop in enforcement actions in the world’s largest tropical…

After decades of slow progress, desalination is increasingly being used to provide drinking water around the globe. Costs for processing salt water for drinking water have dropped, but it remains an expensive option and one that creates environmental problems…