Yale e360

Scientists are tracking an increase in a little-known phenomenon in which intense wildfires can spawn their own thunderstorms, known as pyroCbs. Lightning from these storms can spark additional blazes far away and send plumes of smoke and aerosols into the…

Britain will get more of its electricity from renewable energy sources than fossil fuels as early as next year, according to a new report from the energy analysts group EnAppSys. The transformation is being driven by a surge in offshore wind farms currently…

With the Southwest locked in a 19-year drought and climate change making the region increasingly drier, water managers and users along the Colorado River are facing a troubling question: Are we in a new, more arid era when there will never be enough water?…

A teenager in Northern California has collected more than 50,000 golf balls — weighing some 2.5 tons — from the bottom of the ocean over the past two years. Now, working with scientists at the Stanford University, Alex Weber has co-published a new paper in…

Public water systems serving more than 5.6 million Americans contain concentrations of nitrate at levels found to cause health problems, including cancer and birth defects, according to a new study published in the journal Environmental Health. Systems serving…

The Indonesian government is building a 2,700-mile road network on the island of New Guinea, opening up some of the world’s last great tropical rainforests to development and threatening unique indigenous cultures. Can international pressure force Indonesia…

If nations commit immediately not to replace fossil fuel infrastructure as it reaches the end of its expected lifetime, the world would have a 64 percent chance of keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, according to a new study published in the…

India will auction off 40 gigawatts (GW) of solar and wind capacity every year until 2028, part of the country’s goal to produce 40 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030, Anand Kumar, head of India’s New and Renewable Energy Ministry,…

As the Southwest faces rapid growth and unrelenting drought, the Colorado River is in crisis, with too many demands on its diminishing flow. Now those who depend on the river must confront the hard reality that their supply of Colorado water may be cut off.…

While thousands of federal workers in the United States have been furloughed due to the partial government shutdown, the Interior Department is still processing oil and gas drilling applications, according to reporting by The Washington Post.…

As oceans warm, coral reefs are suffering not only from bleaching but from deadly outbreaks of disease. Researchers are developing remedies, but the key question is whether these solutions can work on a large-enough scale to save vast reef systems from Florida…

California’s population of monarch butterflies declined 86 percent in 2018 compared to the previous year, according to the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, a nonprofit group that conducts an annual survey of the species in the western United…

Natural disasters caused $160 billion in economic damage worldwide in 2018, dominated by costly wildfires in California and tropical storms in the United States and Asia, according to a new report from the reinsurance giant Munich Re. California’s Camp and…

In India’s burgeoning urban areas, residents are rallying against the widespread destruction of trees to make way for development. The recent protests highlight a global issue: densely populated megacities in the developing world, which are most in need of…

Scientists have found a way to boost crop growth by as much as 40 percent by fixing a glitch in the photosynthesis process, according to a new study published in the journal Science. With current techniques to improve yields largely optimized — including…

Nearly a third of new cars sold in Norway last year were all-electric — a new global milestone and a major step for the country, which aims to end sales of fossil fuel vehicles by 2025, Reuters reported. Read more on E360 →

China’s Belt and Road Initiative is a colossal infrastructure plan that could transform the economies of nations around the world. But with its focus on coal-fired power plants, the effort could obliterate any chance of reducing emissions and tip the world…

Scientists have discovered that a wood-eating crustacean may hold the secret to unlocking a huge source of renewable energy from wood, according to a new study published in Nature Communications. Gribbles, small, translucent marine crustaceans who feed on the…

Cement is the second most-consumed resource in the world, with more than 4 billion tons of the material produced globally every year. As a result, the industry generates approximately 8 percent of global CO2 emissions, not far behind the agriculture industry,…

A team of arborists has successfully cloned and grown saplings from the stumps of some of the world’s oldest and largest coast redwoods, some of which were 3,000 years old and measured 35 feet in diameter when they were cut down in the 19th and 20th…

Low-lying sections of the United States’ busiest rail line, which runs from Boston to Washington, will face “continual inundation” by mid-century as a result of rising seas, storm surge, and flooding, according to a study commissioned by Amtrak, which…

Starting in 2020, the Anheuser-Busch company will brew all of the Budweiser it produces in the United Kingdom — 17 million cans and bottles each week — with 100 percent solar power, Reuters reported. The new deal is the largest unsubsidized solar agreement…

The picturesque Kerala backwaters in southern India, increasingly popular with tourists, form a network of engineered canals, lagoons, lakes, and rice paddies. But a fatal monsoon deluge has highlighted the global problem of how developed wetlands often lose…

With sea ice reduced, polar bears in the Arctic are spending more time on land, leading to increased attacks on people. Concerned Inuit communities want to increase hunting quotas, but researchers are testing new technologies they hope will reduce these often…

In the aftermath of major coastal storms, the mantra to “build back better” is often touted repeatedly in rebuilding strategies, with promises to construct resilient houses more capable of surviving the next storm. But a new study of five American coastal…

A survey of 1,000 people has found that consumers greatly underestimate the greenhouse gases it takes to produce certain foods, in some cases by multiples of ten, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change. The research also found,…

Any new public transit bus purchased in California by 2029 must be a 100 percent electric vehicle, according to a new unanimous vote by the California Air Resources Board, the state’s clean air agency. It is the first statewide policy in the United States to…

Although Germany has been a global leader in moving to decarbonize its massive economy, the country's ambitious clean-energy transformation is faltering. Now, a broad spectrum of energy experts are working to revitalize the effort to make Germany nearly…

A team of marine biologists have discovered nearly 200 species of Great Barrier Reef corals living in a deep-sea reef off the northeast coast of Australia — more than six times what researchers previously believed to be living there, according to a new study…

Across much of the Arctic, communities and infrastructure sit on top of a thick layer of permafrost that has stabilized the ground for millennia. But as global temperatures rise, this frozen soil is melting, causing homes and businesses to collapse and…