Environment

Environment

Sea levels are rising faster than at any point in human history, and for every foot that waters rise, 100 million people lose their homes. At current projections, that means about 300 million people will be forced to move in the decades to come, along with the social and political conflict as people migrate inland. Despite this looming crisis, the world still lacks specific, reliable forecasts

For years, the idea of "energy independence" belonged to a narrow group of early adopters. Previously, reliable off-grid power meant involving professionals for electrical installation, a custom battery bank, and a web of wiring forms, thus rendering the project beyond an affordable reach for most people. Today, as mobile living, remote work, and outdoor lifestyles are creating new paradigms, so is the market.

The worst offenders, though, are the goody bags. This year, my kids received them at Valentine's Day, Ramadan, Easter, Halloween, and many birthday parties. Every time they bring one home, they dump its contents on the living-room floor and pick through their treasures with glee. But soon enough, the tiny fire truck has lost its wheels and a fight has broken out over whose Care Bears keychain is cooler, though neither of my children has ever owned a key.

Clean energy technologies have become more affordable around the world. Yet for many countries in the Global South, the cost of transitioning to a low-carbon economy remains disproportionately high. But not because the equipment is more expensive: in fact, solar and wind components are often imported at comparable prices around the world, as global manufacturing scale and trade have helped standardize hardware costs. Instead, the disparities in financing costs reflect the way the global financial system fails to adequately capture, differentiate and price risk.

The past 11 years are now the warmest 11 years in the 176-year history of temperature records. What is especially concerning about 2025 is that it occurred during La Niña, a natural Pacific cooling pattern that usually brings lower temperatures. This time, it did not help. Climate scientist James Hansen reports that global warming is now speeding up by 0.31°C per decade, and he predicts we will pass the +1.7°C mark by 2027.

I grew up in San Andres Tzirondaro, a Purepecha community on the shores of Lake Patzcuaro in the Mexican state of Michoacan. My childhood was shaped by water, forests and music. The lake fed us. The forest protected us. In the afternoons, people gathered in the local square while bands passed through playing pirekua, our traditional music. That way of life is now under threat as our land is extracted for profit.

Temperatures have plunged to -8C in London overnight as the Met Office warned of a distinct chance disruptive snow, wind and rain could hit parts of southern England this week. And there is a possibility of snowfall sufficient to cause travel disruption on higher ground in the South on Thursday and Friday, as an Atlantic low-pressure front meets an Arctic airmass over the country.

Just simply, rent, water, return,

When the category-5 storm Hurricane Melissa struck Jamaica in October, its path crossed communities that had varying levels of preparedness. Many with maintained coastal protections, upgraded drainage and reliable early-warning systems had power and water restored in days. Others were immobilized for weeks.

The Klamath Indigenous Land Trust recently purchased 10,000 acres along the Klamath River, signifying one of the largest Indigenous-led private land purchases in U.S. history as salmon continue to make their historic return to the newly revived watershed. The expansive property, located mostly in California and extending into Oregon, includes the sites of reservoirs that existed up until the removal of four of the Klamath's dams in 2023 and 2024.

As the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) enters its 200th year as a charity, keepers at London Zoo have started counting every animal for its annual stocktake. The zoo is home to more than 8,000 animals — from a colony of leafcutter ants to critically endangered Asiatic lions. ZSL, which runs London Zoo, was founded in 1826 as science-led conservation charity working to protect species, restore ecosystems and help wildlife and people coexist.

Earth911 turns 35 in 2026. We invited Trey Granger, who worked at Earth911 from 2007 to 2014 as the site's first content editor, and whoe also oversaw expansion of the recycling directory, to share some of the highlights of the continuing journey to an easy to understand recycling system.Earth911 turns 35 years old in 2026 (but we don't look a day over 30). To celebrate, here are 35 fun facts about your favorite low-waste resource.

It shows up three times a day, on your plate. The U.S. spends over $30 billion annually on agricultural subsidies. Most support corn and soy, crops that become livestock feed, not food for people. U.S. meat is artificially cheap, which has locked us into a high-emissions food system. It's the highway funding of food: a policy choice that induces demand and reinforces path dependency.

Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

At 4:47 a.m. on Monday, the National Weather Service released a winter weather advisory in effect until 10 a.m. for the Greater Lake Tahoe Area. Additional snow accumulations of a trace to 2 inches. Wind gusts up to 35 mph with ridgetop winds gusting up to 70 mph. Wind gusts up to 35 mph and wave heights of 1 to 3 feet on Lake Tahoe, can be anticipated according to the NWS Reno NV.

A strip of a former rail line through Southwest Berkeley will be transformed this year into the city's newest park, boasting community gardens, children's play areas and a dog park across four long-neglected blocks. An extensive environmental clean-up for the quarter-mile stretch of the old Santa Fe rail corridor between Blake and Ward streets is set to get underway this spring, Parks Director Scott Ferris told Berkeleyside.

The Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority will present an update on the progress of its Agricultural Strategic Plan during a Jan. 20 webinar hosted by the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce. The authority is developing a strategy to define its role in supporting local agriculture. Anna Regalado, the authority's agricultural specialist, will share information about the goals of the plan and how input from the public and important stakeholdersincluding farmers, farmworkers and rancherswill influence the plan.

The number of diesel cars on Great Britain's roads in June had fallen to 9.9m in June last year, 21% below its peak of 12.4m vehicles, according to analysis by New AutoMotive, a thinktank focused on the transition to electric cars. Electric car sales are still growing rapidly, albeit more slowly than manufacturers had expected. However, the transition to cleaner vans is lagging behind cars, and the number of diesel vans has continued to rise, to a record 4.4m.

The new vehicles will bring the city's electric bus fleet to 240 units, with full deployment expected by March 2027. The expansion is supported by £8 million in Government funding, with local operators Arriva and Centrebus contributing a further £18 million, taking the total value of the latest phase to £26 million. With this funding round, overall investment in Leicester's electric bus programme over the past four years has reached £100 million.

That same week, the facility's core product was running riot on news feeds. Musk's maverick chatbot, Grok, repeated a conspiracy theory that white genocide was taking place in South Africa when asked about topics as unrelated as baseball and scaffolding. The posts were quickly deleted but Grok has gone on to praise Hitler, push far-right ideologies and make false claims.