Yale e360

Insurers have warned that climate change could make coverage for ordinary people unaffordable after the world’s largest reinsurance firm blamed global warming for $24 billion of losses in California’s recent wildfires. Read more on E360 →

Southern California’s mountain lions are at risk of going extinct locally in as little as 50 years, according to a new study published in the journal Ecologist Applications. The region’s two mountain lion populations are isolated from each other by urban…

Once known as the Steel City, Pittsburgh is shedding its polluted past and embracing a rebirth built on health care, education, and technology. But the region’s surging fracking industry is attracting a $6 billion ethane plant and other petrochemical…

Seven Western U.S. states that rely on the Colorado River for water supplies have reached a consensus on a landmark plan to voluntarily reduce water usage, the Associated Press reported. The new strategy is part of an effort to safeguard the river, which…

The Trump administration has announced plans to overhaul the federally subsidized National Flood Insurance Program, increasing policy premiums to more accurately reflect flood risk and home values starting in October 2020. The decision comes in the midst of…

A growing number of homeowners in Germany are installing batteries to store solar power. As prices for energy storage systems drop, they are adopting a green vision: a solar panel on every roof, an EV in every garage, and a battery in every basement.Read more…

In 2040, Haven Coleman will be 33 years old. Having grown up in Colorado, she may have left the state to attend college or start her career, but wherever she goes will be a stunningly different world from the one she inhabits today. Read more on E360 →

Large-scale solar power is projected to grow by double digits globally over the next two years, according to a new report from the investment bank Goldman Sachs. The expansion will be driven by utilities in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and…

As sea levels rise, high-tide flooding is becoming a growing problem in many parts of the globe, including cities on the U.S. East Coast. Now, new research shows that as these waters recede, they carry toxic pollutants and excess nutrients into rivers, bays,…

Renewable energy sources supplied nearly 65 percent of Germany’s electricity last week, with wind turbines alone responsible for 48.4 percent of power production nationwide, Clean Energy Wire reported. As a result, fossil fuel plants ran at a minimum output…

Between 2014 and 2016, parts of the eastern Pacific Ocean warmed as much as 7 degrees Fahrenheit above average during what has been characterized as the worst marine heatwave on record. During the event, scientists began discovering a record number of tropical…

Scientists have not kept pace with the work of discovering new species. Now, a growing number of committed hobbyists – ranging from a Belgian bus driver to a California cybersecurity expert – are out in the field, igniting a boom in documenting the world's…

Balloons and balloon fragments are the deadliest kinds of marine pollution for seabirds, killing almost one in five birds that ingest the soft plastic, according to a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports. Read more on E360 →

Human activity is not only causing chimpanzee populations and habitats to decline, it is also quickly killing what scientists call their “behavioral and cultural diversity” — such as their use of tools, communication techniques, hunting, and bathing,…

China’s decision to no longer be the dumping ground for the world’s recycled waste has left municipalities and waste companies from Australia to the U.S. scrambling for alternatives. But experts say it offers an opportunity to develop better solutions for…

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) introduced a new clean-energy proposal Monday that would require the state’s electricity providers to go 100 percent renewable by 2050. Read more on E360 →

Scientists and public health officials have documented an increasing number of outbreaks of mosquito-borne illnesses across the globe in recent years, including yellow fever, dengue, chikungunya, and Zika. Now, an international team of researchers has found…

Senator Ed Markey has heard the criticism of the Green New Deal as overly broad and unrealistic. But in an e360 interview, Markey, who co-introduced the proposal in Congress, explains why he believes it will spark a much-needed debate about how to confront the…

Dangerously high levels of air pollution in New Delhi during the fall and winter months are largely the result of post-harvest burning of crop residue, according to a new study in the journal Nature Sustainability. Pollution levels from crop burning are so…

Scientists say they have found a way to pull carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and turn it into coal, after which it can be stored cheaply and safely underground. The findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, offer what the scientists say is a…

Construction is underway on a stretch of President Trump’s border wall cutting through the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge in Texas. Biologists warn the steel wall will disrupt carefully preserved habitat critical for the survival of ocelot,…

In Ethiopia and other developing nations, scientists are working with small-scale farmers on trials to see which seed varieties perform best in changing conditions. These initiatives are enabling farmers to make smarter crop choices in the face of rising…

Concentrations of pharmaceuticals in rivers and lakes have significantly increased across the globe over the past 20 years, according to a new study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters. The risk of ecological damage from the residue of two…

Global loss of biodiversity is threatening the security of the world’s food supplies and the livelihoods of millions of people, according to a new report by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Land-use changes, pollution,…

Ivory Coast has lost more than 80 percent of its forests in the last 50 years, mainly to cocoa production. The government has a plan to turn over management of former forest to international chocolate manufacturers: Is it a conservation strategy or a land…

There is enough room in the world’s existing parks, forests, and abandoned land to plant 1.2 trillion additional trees, which would have the CO2 storage capacity to cancel out a decade of carbon dioxide emissions, according to a new analysis by ecologist…

In increasingly arid regions such as the western U.S., water managers are learning that careful management and restoration of watershed ecosystems, including thinning trees and conducting prescribed burns, are important tools in coping with a hotter, drier…

Two new videos visualize how drastically global temperatures have changed since 1900 — and how much worse they will get by the end of this century. The data visualizations, created by Antti Lipponen, a research scientist at the Finnish Meteorological…

Tens of thousands of students in the United Kingdom skipped school Friday to protest climate inaction. The mass demonstration took place in an estimated 60 cities and towns across the country, and is the latest in a youth-led climate movement that has swept…

The Colorado River has been dammed, diverted, and slowed by reservoirs, strangling the life out of a once-thriving ecosystem. But in the U.S. and Mexico, efforts are underway to revive sections of the river and restore vital riparian habitat for native plants,…