Yale e360

Humans are driving large shifts in fire activity around the world, from increasing the size and severity of wildfires to burning ecosystems where blazes were historically rare or absent. Now, scientists have found that these changes in fire activity are…

Scientists have created the first global distribution map for bees, analyzing nearly 6 million public records of where individual species have appeared around the world. The project, published in the journal Cell Biology, found that bee diversity is higher in…

A slate of new mega-projects in development around the world — including roads, waterways, railways, and dams — will open up vast tracts of land to natural resource extraction and deforestation, derailing government and private sector pledges to curb…

Rising seas and stronger storms are increasing the risks of living along the world’s coasts. As governments look to move millions of people out of harm’s way, geographer Jola Ajibade says they must ensure that managed retreat is done in a just and…

Rising ocean temperatures are driving hurricanes to carry more moisture, allowing them to stay stronger for longer once they’ve made landfall and reach communities farther inland, according to new research published in the journal Nature. Today’s…

As numbers of North Atlantic right whales keep declining because of entanglements with fishing gear and fatal ship strikes, conservationists are using acoustic technology and waging an escalating legal battle to push for more aggressive action to protect the…

Global renewable electricity installation will hit a record level in 2020, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), in sharp contrast with the declines caused by the coronavirus pandemic in the fossil fuel sectors. Read more on E360 →

A team of Dutch students has created an electric vehicle made entirely out of waste, from plastics recycled from the ocean to household trash. The two-seater car has a top speed of 56 miles per hour and can travel as far 137 miles on a single charge, Reuters…

A broad coalition brought Joe Biden to victory. If activists want real progress on climate in a Biden administration, environmentalist Bill McKibben writes, they need to learn how to press their case aggressively without alienating those they must work with to…

West Africa’s top court has ruled that Guinea is responsible for the deaths of six people and the unlawful arrest, injury, or torture of 15 others in the village of Zogota during a 2012 conflict over abusive mining practices. The Economic Community of West…

American voters approved ballot measures worth nearly $3.7 billion this election in support of parks, climate resilience, and land conservation, according to an analysis by the nonprofit Trust for Public Land. Many of the successful measures focused on…

Green hydrogen, which uses renewable energy to produce hydrogen from water, is taking off around the globe. Its boosters say the fuel could play an important role in decarbonizing hard-to-electrify sectors of the economy, such as long-haul trucking, aviation,…

New research indicates that snow cover across the U.S. Northeast is declining as a result of climate change, and that by 2100 as much as 59 percent of the region will not accumulate any snow. The study also found that the transition period from winter to…

The United States generates more plastic waste than any other country in the world — producing 42 million metric tons, or 286 pounds per person, in 2016 alone, according to a new study published in the journal Science Advances. The research also found that…

From African shantytowns to the backstreets of China’s cities, small-scale businesses that recycle the lead from auto batteries are proliferating. Experts say the pollution from these unregulated operations is a lethal threat – with children being the most…

Scientists have completed a “dramatic” decades-long restoration of an ancient oak woodland in Illinois — a rare success story that researchers say holds key lessons for ecological restoration at a time when forests are increasingly seen as a critical…

Global carbon emissions from energy use dropped 8 percent in 2020 due to coronavirus-related economic shutdowns — a decline equal to two-and-a-half years of energy sector emissions, according to a new report from the energy research group BloombergNEF…

The accession of Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court cements a conservative majority that is likely to give polluting industries freer rein, limit the ability of citizens to sue, and call into question the very basis of the EPA to issue and enforce…

For the first time since records began, the main nursery of Arctic sea ice in Siberia has yet to start freezing in late October. The delayed annual freeze in the Laptev Sea has been caused by freakishly protracted warmth in northern Russia and the intrusion of…

A plan to build a major liquefied natural gas export facility in southern New Jersey, across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, is being met with increasing scrutiny and opposition from environmentalists and nearby communities. The $450 million project…

Small-time loggers providing timber to local villages have long been seen as a threat to African forests. But that view is changing, as evidence mounts that these communities can be better forest protectors than the governments that are sanctioning major…

European ecosystems and wildlife are in “serious, continuing decline” due to unsustainable farming and forestry, urban sprawl, and pollution, according to a new report from the European Environment Agency. The analysis found that 80 percent of the…

Poland’s vast coal mines powered its economic recovery following the devastation of World War II. But now the shaky economics of coal and a concerted climate push by the European Union are forcing the nation’s government to rethink its embrace of the…

The Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps put thousands of young men to work in U.S. parks and forests, transforming the nation’s parks system. A new Climate Corps could provide badly-needed work for young people while providing them with training for…

Emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O) have surpassed projections by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), jeopardizing the goals of the Paris Agreement. In a recent study published in the journal Nature, an international team of scientists…

There has been a “staggering rise” in the number of extreme weather events over the past 20 years, driven largely by rising global temperatures and other climatic changes, according to a new report from the United Nations. From 2000 to 2019, there were…

With oceans absorbing more than 90 percent of global warming, marine heatwaves are becoming hotter and larger and are lasting longer. Scientists say the trend has major ecological consequences, from altering fish and plant populations to forcing whales into…

Mining activities — both large-scale legal concessions and smaller illegal operations — now cover more than 20 percent of Indigenous lands in the Amazon, accounting for 450,00 square kilometers, according to a new report by the World Resources Institute…

By suppressing all wildfires and incessantly burning fossil fuels, humans have upset the role that fire has historically played in providing ecological balance. We need to rethink our view of fire and accept its presence by changing how we manage lands and…

The expected resurrection of a controversial dam project along the Yangtze River in western China is the latest sign that the nation’s once-robust environmental movement is being muzzled by the government's crackdown on NGOs and its near-total control over…