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Climate Change

Page Updated:
Dec. 31, 2025

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• • An Ice Storm Hits Parts of New York and the Northeast

  The Same Storm System Unleashed Tornadoes and a Blizzard in the Midwest Over the Weekend
  
  
  

  Dec. 23, 2025 -The week began with an ice storm in parts of New York and central and northern New England — with significant freezing rain gradually accumulating, turning roadways into ice rinks and driving power outages in its wake.

  It’s the same storm system linked to a bomb cyclone that slammed the Midwest and Ohio Valley on Sunday, delivering damaging winds, whiteout condition and even a damaging tornado in Illinois.

• • No New Year Fireworks in Indonesia
  As Nation Mourns Sumatra Flood Victims

  A Sad But Important Action
  
  
  

  Dec. 29, 2025 -Indonesia's central government will support the plans of several regions to forgo fireworks while celebrating New Year this week in solidarity with the victims of recent floods on the island of Sumatra, an official in the president's office said on Monday.

  Several governments and police forces, including those in the capital Jakarta and on the popular tourist island of Bali, have said they will not allow firework displays out of respect for the victims on Sumatra, where floods and landslides have killed over 1,100 people, with around 400,000 still displaced.

• • Heat, Drought and Fire: How Extreme
  Weather Pushed Nature to Its Limits in 2025

  National Trust Says These Are ‘Alarm Signals We Cannot Ignore’ As Climate Breakdown Puts Pressure On Wildlife
  
  
  

  Dec. 29, 2025 -Extremes of weather have pushed nature to its limits in 2025, putting wildlife, plants and landscapes under severe pressure, an annual audit of flora and fauna has concluded.

  Bookended by storms Éowyn and Bram, the UK experienced a sun-soaked spring and summer, resulting in fierce heath and moorland fires, followed by autumn floods.

  The National Trust, which provides a snapshot of how the weather is hitting wildlife every Christmas, described it as a rollercoaster of conditions that tested nature’s resilience like never before in modern times.

• • Journalists Are Joining Scientists On a Research
  Ship Sailing to the Continent’s Fast-Melting Glaciers

  Setting Off for Antarctica
  
  
  

  Dec. 27, 2025 -It was Christmas Day, but these weren’t the kinds of boxes you might find under a tree.

  A group of nearly 40 scientists spent their holiday this week boarding an icebreaker in Christchurch, New Zealand, and unpacking some seriously heavy-duty containers: wooden crates, steel chests, rugged protective cases. Inside was an arsenal of equipment bound for one of the most hostile environments on the planet: Antarctica.

• • Nonprofit Center Works with Rural Maine
  Towns to Prepare for and Protect Against Extreme Weather

  Weather Disasters Are Shared Experiences In The Maine Foothills and Communities Are Preparing For a Wetter, Warmer Future
  
  
  

  Dec. 14, 2025 -The December 2023 flood. The 2022 Halloween storm. The Patriots Day storm of 2007. The Great Ice Storm of 1998.

  These dates are shared memories in the Appalachian foothills of western Maine. Not every resident believes in climate change but nearly all can recount days and weeks of weather extremes in their hometowns—and know the economic pain of recovery.

  At the nonprofit Center for an Ecology-Based Economy (CEBE), such stories and common burdens are a starting point. They serve as real-life prompts for CEBE to work with communities on climate resilience and green-energy approaches.

• • Climate Adviser Warns as 2025 to Break Heat Records

  Is This Our Future?
  
  {BBC}
  
  

  Dec. 23, 2025 -Rising temperatures in the UK will become "the new normal", a leading government climate adviser has warned, as she called for more to be done to prepare for the impacts of climate change.

  It comes as the Met Office revealed 2025 was on course to be the UK's hottest year since records began, with climate change continuing to drive higher temperatures.

  With just over a week still to go, the average UK air temperature across 2025 is on track to end up at about 10.05C, which would edge out the current record of 10.03C from 2022.

• • WA Floodwaters Swept Away Their Entire House

  ‘That’s My Life Savings’ Was the Cry
  
  
  

  Dec. 23, 2025 -Sometime early Thursday, a tree crashed down right next to the home of Sarah Hansen and Mike Khazak, behind the couple’s bedroom window.

  Hansen grabbed a packed bag and raced outside with their two dogs, Ollie and Rudy. Khazak was watching the river and could see floodwaters had pierced the rock walls protecting their home, which sat on the Nooksack River. Hansen was shocked.

• • Amphibian Ever to Halt a Hydroelectric Dam

  Now, It Faces a Climate Disaster
  
  
  

  Dec. 22, 2025, By Thamys Tindale -The admirable little red-bellied toad is the size of a thumb, but it has achieved giant feats: In 2014, it prevented the construction of a small hydroelectric dam that threatened to alter its only habitat forever. Endemic to a small stretch of the Forqueta River, in the municipality of Arvorezinha, Rio Grande do Sul, Melanophryniscus admirabilis is one of the rarest and most threatened species on the planet. Recently, after the floods that devastated the state in 2024, researchers returned to this refuge to assess whether the little toad that once halted the construction of a dam has survived the force of the waters.

  In October 2025, almost a year and a half after the biggest climate disaster in Rio Grande do Sul, I joined a team of researchers that would document what remained of the small habitat where just over a thousand little red-bellied toads used to live. The destination was Perau de Janeiro, a hidden fold of rocks and humid forest. Seen from above, the place, which is surrounded by tobacco plantations and pastures, looks like a common forest scene. But as we go down a steep trail, the atmosphere changes immediately. The smell of moss, the shining wet outcrop, the sound of the powerful flow of the river that ends in a waterfall: It was there that the little toad halted progress. And it was there where we wanted to find out if it still vocalized.

• • WA National Guard to Watch Green, White, Cedar River Levees 24/7

  The Green River Breached the Desimone Levee on Dec. 15, Causing Flash Flood Alerts and Evacuation Warnings For Parts of Kent, Renton and Tukwila
  
  
  

  Dec. 20, 2025 -Gov. Bob Ferguson will deploy 100 Washington National Guard members to help address flooding and levee failures, as another atmospheric river is expected “around Dec. 28,” he announced at a news conference Saturday.

  Days of heavy rain have pushed several rivers and levee systems in Western Washington to their breaking points, as the Green, White, Cedar and other rivers flowing into Puget Sound saw record or near-record flooding.

  About 50 of the Guard members will be tasked with patrolling at-risk levees 24/7, with “eyes on the levee at all times.”

• • A Damaged King County Levee Awaited Fixes For Years

  Then It Failed
  
  
  

  Dec. 20, 2025 -As rainfall inundated the Pacific Northwest this month, swelling the region’s rivers to record levels, the Desimone levee seemed destined to fail.

  Severe flooding in 2020 had damaged the 2.2-mile earthen barrier near Tukwila. Muddy waters from the Green River bubbled up on the opposite side and seeped into nearby properties. A King County report months later described the levee’s weakened state as the “most important issue” on the river’s lower reach.

  The years that followed were filled with red tape and bureaucratic infighting among the agencies most responsible for the region’s levee system: King County, its flood control district and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. All the while, cities in the flood plain clamored for help, and the Desimone awaited repair.

• • Climate Change Is Pushing Butterflies
  and Their Host Plants Out of Sync

  Insects and the Plants They Depend On Are Migrating in Response to Climate Change, But Not Always in the Same Way
  
  
  

  Dec. 19, 2025 -Butterflies are often considered bellwether species for climate change, and to retain the cooler climates they need for their life cycles, species around the world have been shifting their habitats and migratory patterns to higher latitudes and higher elevations.

  But are the plants that butterflies depend on shifting their habitats in step?

  New research has found that out of 24 Southeast Asian butterflies examined, 17 of them (71%) could experience a net loss in the habitat area they share with their host plants under a high-emissions climate change scenario. Some butterfly species may lose nearly 40% of shared habitat as they retreat to cooler climes.

• • Maine’s Once Abundant Kelp Forests
  Face an Array of Growing Threats

  These Breeding Grounds For Fish Are Under Siege From Red Turf Algae, Sea Urchins, Storm Surges, Warming Waters and Climate Change
  
  
  

  Dec. 19, 2025 -Shane Farrell has spent the better part of the last three years underwater, diving off the coast of Maine. The University of Maine Ph.D. student and his team at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences are surveying the rapid decline of kelp forests in the warming waters.

  While the marine heatwaves killing the kelp ecosystem were alarming on their own, the researchers have discovered a new threat—the rise in red turf algae, a filamentous invasive species—that is taking over the place of the kelp that has collapsed from the heat.

• • Can a Flood-Prone Coastal City Learn to Live With Water?

  Hampton, Virginia, is Relying On Rain Gardens, Plant-Lined Storage Basins, Restored Marshes and 3D-Printed Concrete Reefs Seeded With Oysters
  
  
  

  Dec. 16, 2025 -Shelton Tucker is part of a novel plan to deal with the waters that are increasingly encroaching on his neighborhood in Hampton, Virginia.

  Situated at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay and afflicted by one of the fastest paces of sea-level rise in the U.S., Hampton has long battled flooding.

  But while flood-prone coastal cities have historically defaulted to levees, pumps and miles of cement-covered storm drains, Hampton is leaning heavily on rain barrels, rain gardens, declogging creeks and fortifying shores with oyster reefs.

• • WA Weather: River Waters Recede

  Flood Warnings Remain
  
  
  

  Dec.18, 2025 -Most Western Washington rivers that swelled over the past two weeks have crested or will crest Thursday, though a flood watch remains in effect for Seattle and the south Puget Sound region through Friday afternoon.

  Meanwhile, the Seattle area will see another round of gusty winds and rain, with snow in the Cascade Mountains and freezing rain in the mountain passes.

• • Europe Begins to Tiptoe Away From Key Climate Policies

  In Recent Months It Has Backtracked On Rules Governing Automobile Emissions and Deforestation
  
  
  

  Dec. 18, 2025 -At the start of the year, as President Trump began the process of withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Agreement and started dismantling climate policies, the European Union president, Ursula von der Leyen, tacked in the opposite direction.

  “Climate change is still on top of the global agenda,” she said during a speech in January.

  Eleven months later, things look very different. Patricia Cohen and Eshe Nelson reported Tuesday that the E.U. is poised to water down its plans to ban the production of gas- and diesel-powered cars by 2035.

• • She Tracked the Health of Fish That Coastal Communities Depend On

  Ana Vaz Monitored Crucial Fish Stocks in the Southeast and the Gulf of Mexico Until She Lost Her Job At NOAA
  
  
  

  Dec. 18, 2025 -Ana Vaz: I worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center, headquartered in Miami. We studied fish populations in the Gulf of Mexico, the southern Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, where local communities have fished for fun and for profit for centuries.

  I studied how environmental changes, like warming oceans, impact fish, which eventually impact the people that rely on those fish.

  This work matters because, as climate change gets worse, these fish will be increasingly under threat. But in April, I was fired from NOAA because I was a probationary employee.

• • Concrete Washington Faces Weather Whammy

  Floods, Slides, Wind, Blizzard Warning
  
  
  

  Dec.18, 2025 -Longtime residents of Concrete and neighboring towns along the Skagit River are no strangers to heavy rain, flooding, wind and landslides.

  However, all four within the last week — along with multiple minor earthquakes, evacuation orders and a blizzard warning — is a different story, Concrete librarian Cody Johansen said.

• • 2026 Will Bring Heat More Than 1.4C Above Preindustrial Level

  Forecast Is Slightly Cooler Than the Record 1.55C Reached In 2024, But 2026 Set to Be Among Four Hottest Years Since 1850
  
  
  

  Dec. 17, 2025 -Next year will bring heat more than 1.4C above preindustrial levels, meteorologists project, as fossil fuel pollution continues to bake the Earth and fuel extreme weather.

  The UK Met Office’s central forecast is slightly cooler than the 1.55C reached in 2024, the warmest year on record, but 2026 is set to be among the four hottest years dating back to 1850.

• • The Arctic Is in Dire Straits, 20 Years of Reporting Show

  The Arctic Has Changed Dramatically in the Past 20 Years, As Temperatures Skyrocket and Ice Rapidly Melts
  
  
  

  Dec. 17, 2025 -The Arctic is a dramatically different place than it was 20 years ago, when scientists first began giving it an annual checkup—and its current state is dire.

  The first Arctic Report Card was released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 2006. Since then the region has warmed twice as fast as the global average. About 95 percent of the oldest, thickest sea ice is gone—the sliver that remains is collected in an area north of Greenland. Even the central Arctic Ocean is becoming warmer and saltier, causing more ice melt and changing how much heat is released into the atmosphere in a way that affects weather patterns around the world.

• • Rising Temperatures Could Trigger a Reptile Sexpocalypse

  The Sex of Many Turtles, Crocodilians, and Other Reptiles is Determined By the Temperature At Which Their Eggs Incubate. Global Warming Could Doom Them
  
  
  

  Dec. 16, 2025 -Under no light but the stars, a green sea turtle hauls herself out of the surf and onto the familiar sand of Alagadi Beach on the northern coast of Cyprus. She doesn’t notice any predators as she makes her way up the beach; tonight will be the night.

  When the turtle reaches a satisfactory spot, she nestles into the warm sand and begins excavating a deep pit. Nothing can distract her; she’s gone into a kind of trance. She pushes out 100 wet, leathery eggs into the pit. The turtle won’t move until she has completed her task, even if humans creep close to measure her shell and tuck a temperature logger in among her eggs. She finishes laying in about 20 minutes, but her work isn’t done. Still focused, she spends another few hours laboriously scooping the sand over her eggs. Then she turns around and crawls back into the ocean.

• • Blizzard On the Way For WA After Floods

  Highway 2 Could Be Closed Months
  
  
  

  Dec. 16, 2025 -Another active weather system will move through Western Washington Tuesday, with rain and high gusts in the Seattle area and multiple feet of snow in the Cascade Mountains, according to the National Weather Service. Here's what to expect.

  National Guard members will help secure the levee breach with sandbags in Pacific along the White River.

• • Iraq’s Tigris River In Danger of Disappearing

  ‘No Water, No Life’
  
  
  

  Dec. 16, 2025 -As a leader of one of the oldest gnostic religions in the world, Sheikh Nidham Kreidi al-Sabahi must use only water taken from a flowing river, even for drinking.

  The 68-year-old has a long grey beard hanging over his simple tan robe and a white cap covering his equally long hair, which sheikhs are forbidden from cutting. He says he has never got ill from drinking water from the Tigris River and believes that as long as the water is flowing, it is clean. But the truth is that soon it may not be flowing at all.

  Iraq’s famed Tigris is heavily polluted and at risk of drying up. Unless urgent action is taken to save the river, life will be fundamentally altered for the ancient communities who live on its banks.

• • Commercializing the Arctic

  Trump Has Shifted the U.S. Approach to the Arctic, Promoting Oil and Gas
  
  
  

  Dec. 16, 2025 -A blast of Arctic air has plunged much of the United States into a bitter cold snap. About 202 million people — around 60 percent of the population of the contiguous United States — live in the areas expected to see freezing temperatures over the next week.

  Follow that frigid air north to the Arctic, and you find a region undergoing sweeping changes that could have global consequences. (I also wrote about the worrying state of the Arctic last year.)

  Temperatures in the Arctic are warming far faster than the rest of the planet. Sea ice is rapidly declining, opening up new shipping routes

• • King County Dams Are Holding

  ‘They Are Not In Danger of Failure’
  
  
  

  Dec. 16, 2025 -Two major dams in King County have done their jobs to protect Western Washington and remained stable Wednesday, despite an intense series of atmospheric river events that breached levees, swallowed roads and forced evacuations.

  Seattle-based U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesperson Shelia Fourman said both the Howard A. Hanson Dam, 35 miles east of Tacoma, and the Mud Mountain Dam, southeast of Enumclaw, are “currently operating as designed.”

• • Arctic Warming Is Turning Alaska’s
  Rivers Red With Toxic Runoff

  A Warmer, Rainier Arctic and 200 Alaskan Rivers “Rusting” As Melting Tundra Leaches Minerals From the Soil Into Waterways
  
  
  

  Dec. 16, 2025 -Record-setting temperatures and rainfall in the Arctic over the past year sped up the melting of permafrost and washed toxic minerals into more than 200 rivers across northern Alaska, threatening vital salmon runs, according to a report card issued by federal scientists.

  The report, compiled by dozens of academic and government scientists and coordinated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, documented rapid environmental changes from Norway’s Svalbard Island to the Greenland ice sheet and the tundra of northern Canada and Alaska.

• • Why New York Has Backed Off On Addressing Climate Change

  With Affordability and Energy Costs Looming Large As Political Issues, Gov. Kathy Hochul Is Less Focused On Going Green
  
  
  

  Dec. 15, 2025 -New York was once considered a groundbreaker on addressing climate change, with a law that promised to all but eliminate greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Gas-guzzling cars and oil-burning heaters and furnaces would be relics of a fossil-fuel past, and all the electricity in the state would come from carbon-free sources. But Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat who is facing an affordability crisis and rising energy demand, has slowed progress on climate issues.

• • Why Floods Threaten One of the Driest Places In the World

  One of the Planet’s Most Arid Regions, Extreme Rain and Floods Have Become Frequent and Deadly
  
  
  

  Dec. 14, 2025 -On their final morning together in April of last year, two elderly sheikhs in a white Mercedes drove through a palm-tree-lined ravine to pay their respects at a funeral.

  The two local leaders were cousins and best friends, traveled the world together and prayed at the same mosque. They lived on the same block in Samad al-Shan, a village amid the rocky hills south of Muscat that was built along one of hundreds of wadis — normally dry riverbeds — in one of the most water-scarce countries in the world.

  Floods in this part of Oman, while rare, are not unheard of. Elders remembered that villagers used to fire guns to alert those downstream that water was coming

• • ‘Life Threatening’ Flood Possible Near Tukwila

  As Green River Levee Fails
  
  
  

  Dec.13, National Weather Service’s Seattle office has issued a flash flood warning shortly before noon Monday for areas near Tukwila along the Green River levee.

  King County Dispatch is reporting a levee failure, which could create “life threatening flash flooding” on the east side of the levee, NWS Seattle said in its warning. The flood warning covers the area of more than 46,000 residents.

• • Death Toll From Bolivia Floods Rises to 20

  At Least Two Dozen Missing
  
  
  

  Dec. 15, 2025 -The death toll in Bolivia from floods triggered by an overflowing river in the eastern Santa Cruz region has climbed to 20 and is expected to rise as rescue teams reach previously inaccessible areas, Deputy Civil Defense Minister Alfredo Troche said on Monday.

  Authorities said at least two dozen people remain missing and hundreds of families have been left without shelter following days of intense rainfall.

• • After WA Floods, Residents Scramble For Help

  And Insurance to Cover Costs
  
  
  

  Dec. 14, 2025 -The Rosas family clung to one another Thursday as the Monroe mobile home they moved into just a few months ago submerged in floodwater.

  José Rosas, 39, said the home was supposed to save his family money while they struggled to pay for his wife’s breast cancer treatment. Now, with no flood insurance, it’s their next financial blow.

• • Washington State Floods

  Auburn Evacuation Order Issued For Some Homes
  
  
  

  Dec. 14, 2025 -Auburn city officials issued Level 3 evacuation orders late Saturday night for some homes and businesses as the Green River swelled, continuing this week’s catastrophic floods in Washington.

  The order reflects the highest level of evacuation guidance, instructing people to “go now.”

• • Meet the First Climate Migrants Leaving
  Sinking Tuvalu to Start a New Life In Australia

  As Rising Sea Levels Continue to Threaten the Sinking Nation of Tuvalu, Australia Has Welcomed the First Group of Climate Migrants
  
  {euro news}
  
  

  Dec. 12, 2025 -Situated in the South Pacific, Tuvalu is one of the countries at greatest risk from climate change due to the worsening threat of rising sea levels. Scientists predict that 95 per cent of the nation – which comprises nine palm-fringed reef islands and coral atolls – will be underwater at high tide by the year 2100.

  Two of its coral atolls have already almost disappeared beneath the waves, as human-caused climate change melts frozen parts of the world and heats the ocean, causing it to expand and rise.

• • Burlington Residents Told to Evacuate As Homes Start Flooding

  Skagit County officials Were Urging Burlington Residents to Evacuate Their Homes Early Friday As a Slough From the Skagit River Started Flooding Homes
  
  
  

  Dec. 12, 2025 - Evacuations for Skagit County began Wednesday. All of the 100-year flood plain, the main population center for the county that includes much of Burlington, was already set to a Level 3 evacuation order, meaning “GO NOW.”

  As of Friday morning, that evacuation order was still in effect. Skagit County said in an alert that National Guard members were going door-to-door Friday in Burlington to help people evacuate.

• • A Retreating Kashmir Glacier Is Creating
  An Entire New World In Its Wake

  ‘Even the Animals Seem Confused’:
  
  
  

  Dec. 11, 2025 -From the slopes above Pahalgam, the Kolahoi glacier is visible as a thinning, rumpled ribbon of ice stretching across the western Himalayas. Once a vast white artery feeding rivers, fields and forests, it is now retreating steadily, leaving bare rock, crevassed ice and newly exposed alpine meadows.

  The glacier’s meltwater has sustained paddy fields, apple orchards, saffron fields and grazing pastures for centuries. Now, as its ice diminishes, the entire web of life it supported is shifting.

• • How Western Washington’s ‘100-Year’ Floods Are Changing

  For Communities In Skagit and Whatcom Counties, Flooding Is a Part of Life
  
  
  

  Dec. 11, 2025 This week’s flooding is likely to match or be worse than the flooding in 2021 that caused significant damage, especially along the U.S.-Canada border.

  Nearly 5 trillion gallons of rain have soaked Washington in the past seven days, triggering evacuations and rescues.

  Flooding is a natural part of how rivers function, but climate change is going to make things worse, threatening communities along rivers and in floodplains.

• • Arctic Tundra Has Long Helped Cool Earth, But...

  Now, It’s Fueling Warming
  
  
  

  Dec. 10, 2025 -For thousands of years, the shrubs, sedges, mosses and lichens of the Arctic have performed a vital task for the planet: gulping down carbon dioxide from the air and storing the carbon in their tissues. When the plants die, this carbon is entombed in the frigid soil, where it no longer helps warm Earth’s surface.

  But as fossil fuel emissions heat the planet, balmier air temperatures are thawing Arctic tundra, activating carbon-hungry microbes, and more vegetation is being burned up by wildfires.

• • Climate Crisis Supercharged Deadly Monsoon Floods in Asia

  Cyclones Like Those in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Malaysia That Killed 1,750 Are ‘Alarming New Reality’
  
  
  

  Dec. 10, 2025 -The climate crisis supercharged the deadly storms that killed more than 1,750 people in Asia by making downpours more intense and flooding worse, scientists have reported. Monsoon rains often bring some flooding but the scientists were clear: this was “not normal”.

  In Sri Lanka, some floods reached the second floor of buildings, while in Sumatra, in Indonesia, the floods were worsened by the destruction of forests, which in the past slowed rainwater running off hillsides.

• • Mount Vernon Floodwall Holding As Record Crest Passes

  WA Flooding Prompts Road Closures, Burlington Evacuation
  
  
  

  Dec. 3, 2025 - Mount Vernon’s emergency floodwall held fast Thursday night and into Friday morning as the rushing and debris-filled Skagit River swelled to record levels, forcing the evacuation of thousands throughout the city’s low-lying areas.

  Around 1 a.m., the Skagit rose to a record 37.7 feet in Mount Vernon, just over the previous high-water mark of 37.4 feet, set in 1990, a U.S. Geological Survey river gauge shows.

• • Europe Agrees to Cut Emissions 90% By 2040

  European Member States Have Agreed On a Legally Binding Climate Target to Cut Emissions 90% By 2040
  
  {CNBC}
  
  

  Dec. 10, 2025 -The European Union has agreed to a legally binding climate target to cut emissions 90% by 2040, even as it pushes back a planned critical emissions trading scheme.

  The European Parliament and EU Member States came to a provisional agreement on the target and an amendment of the EU Climate Law on Tuesday night.

• • A Radical Climate Proposal Aims to Channel
  Seawater Into a Giant Egyptian Desert

  Flooding Egypt’s Vast Qattara Depression With Seawater Could Slightly Lower Global Sea Levels and Reshape Climate Adaptation
  
  
  

  Dec. 9, 2025 -Sea levels are rising, threatening coastal areas, including cities, around the world. Due to climate change, the global ocean has already risen by 21-24 centimeters (about 8-9.5 inches) since 1880, and the rate is accelerating, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). A new climate idea aims to slow this rise by moving seawater to reflood inland depressions.

  The main causes of sea level rise are ice packs melting and the volume of water in the ocean expanding as Earth’s temperature increases due to human-caused climate change. Depending on the ferocity with which we cut greenhouse gas emissions, predictions of future sea level rise vary widely. According to NOAA, if we cap the global temperature rise at just 1.5° Celsius (2.7° Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels — nearly impossible at this point — the sea level would rise an additional 30 cm (12 in) by 2100. If emissions remain at the very high end of estimates, sea levels could rise by 200 cm (6.6 feet) by the end of the century, flooding many of the world’s coastlines and affecting tens of millions of people. There are even worse scenarios: if we lose much of Greenland’s ice sheet or the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica — dubbed the Doomsday Glacier — the resultant rise in water level could affect billions.

• • ‘Food and Fossil Fuel Production Causing
  $5bn of Environmental Damage An Hour’

  UN GEO Report Says Ending This Harm Key to Global Transformation Required ‘Before Collapse Becomes Inevitable’
  
  
  

  Dec. 9, 2025 - The unsustainable production of food and fossil fuels causes $5bn (£3.8bn) of environmental damage per hour, according to a major UN report.

  Ending this harm was a key part of the global transformation of governance, economics and finance required “before collapse becomes inevitable”, the experts said.

  The Global Environment Outlook (GEO) report, which is produced by 200 researchers for the UN Environment Programme, said the climate crisis, destruction of nature and pollution could no longer be seen as simply environmental crises.

• • This Arkansas City Shows How to Slash
  Emissions and Save Money, Too

  In the Ozarks, the Growing College Town of Fayetteville, Ark., Is Using Clean Energy to Power City Facilities and Embracing Nature-Based Solutions to Climate Threats
  
  
  

  Dec. 9, 2025 - Fayetteville, Ark., has proudly worn colorful descriptors over the years.

  Crunchy. Funky. “Kind of a granola, hippie environment,” said Jeff Pummill, who chairs the city’s environmental action committee.

  Set in the Ozark Mountains in the northwest corner of the state, a region of lush, rolling hills crisscrossed by rivers and creeks, Fayetteville drew back-to-the-land enthusiasts in the 1960s. It’s a city where, 25 years ago, a 53-year-old grandmother tried unsuccessfully to stop mature oaks from being razed for a retail development by taking up residence in a tree for a few weeks.

• • Caribbean Reefs Have Lost 48% of Hard Coral Since 1980

  ‘Destructive’ Marine Heatwaves Driving Loss of Microalgae That Feed Coral
  
  
  

  Dec. 9, 2025 -Caribbean reefs have half as much hard coral now as they did in 1980, a study has found.

  The 48% decrease in coral cover has been driven by climate breakdown, specifically marine heatwaves. They affect the microalgae that feed coral, making them toxic and forcing the coral to expel them.

• • Storm Hits Washington State Hard

  Cities Brace For ‘Double Crest’ of Record Floods
  
  
  

  Dec. 8, 2025 - The opening salvo of a major atmospheric river hit the Pacific Northwest on Monday, drenching much of Western Washington with heavy rain that is forecast to continue at least until Thursday.

  The National Weather Service warned of a high risk of widespread and significant river flooding.

• • 2025 ‘Virtually Certain’ to Be Second- Or
  Third-Hottest Year On Record, EU Data Shows

  Copernicus Deputy Director Says Three-Year Average For 2023 to 2025 On Track to Exceed 1.5C of Heating For First Time
  
  
  

  Dec. 8, 2025 - This year is “virtually certain” to end as the second- or third-hottest year on record, EU scientists have found, as climate breakdown continues to push the planet away from the stable conditions in which humanity evolved.

  Global temperatures from January to November were on average 1.48C higher than preindustrial levels, according to the Copernicus, the EU’s earth observation programme. It found the anomalies were so far identical to those recorded in 2023, which is the second-hottest year on record after 2024.

• • Major Flood Forecast Worsens For Western WA Rivers

  Flooding and Landslide Risks Are Possible
  
  
  

  Dec, 7, 2025 - An atmospheric river is barreling towards Western Washington, bringing a risk of major river flooding and landslides in an especially soggy week, according to the National Weather Service.

  The rainfall will come in hot on Monday, gradually tapering off Tuesday before picking up again Wednesday, said Logan Howard, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service. Forecasters anticipate 2 to 3 inches of rain from Monday to Wednesday in Seattle.

• • Dodging Icebergs and Storms on the Hunt for an Ocean Tipping Point

  Scientists Fear Warming Is Driving a Collapse In the Ocean Currents That Shape Climate Far and Wide
  
  
  

  Dec. 6, 2025 - From the deck of a ship off eastern Greenland, the most majestic presence isn’t the whales, the icebergs or even the towering, glacier-wrapped mountains.

  It’s the parade of frigid, midnight-blue water, 75 miles wide, that streams down the coast from the Arctic Ocean. Farther south, these currents mingle with tropical water swinging up through the Gulf Stream, and together they set ocean temperatures throughout the North Atlantic, like hot and cold taps on a giant bath.

• • An Alaskan Village Confronts Its Changing Climate

  Rebuild or Relocate?
  
  
  

  Dec. 5, 2025 - From the beige confines of Room 207 at the Aspen Suites Hotel on the outskirts of Anchorage, Maggie Paul and her daughter, Jamie, struggle to envision the future.

  A little more than a month ago, the women were evacuated along with about 1,000 others from Kipnuk, their remote coastal village in western Alaska that was destroyed by the remnants of a typhoon. They were airlifted to safety; there are no roads to their community. Many landed in hotels about 500 miles away in Anchorage, which might as well be a different planet for all the ways the city differs from their tight-knit rural community.

• • New Report Warns of Critical Climate Risks in Arab Region

  Foundations of Daily Life, Including Farms, Reservoirs and Aquifers That Feed and Sustain Millions, Are Being Pushed to the Brink By Human-Caused Warming
  
  
  

  Dec. 4, 2025 - As global warming accelerates, about 480 million people in North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula face intensifying and in some places unsurvivable heat, as well as drought, famine and the risk of mass displacement, the World Meteorological Organization warned Thursday.

  The 22 Arab region countries covered in the WMO’s new State of the Climate report produce about a quarter of the world’s oil, yet directly account for only 5 to 7 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions from their own territories. The climate paradox positions the region as both a linchpin of the global fossil-fuel economy and one of the most vulnerable geographic areas.

• • African Forests Have Officially Flipped

  Instead of Absorbing Carbon, They’re Now Releasing It
  
  
  

  Dec, 3, 2025 -For decades, we’ve relied on the world’s tropical forests to do the heavy lifting in the fight against climate change. We assumed that the vast greenery of Africa was soaking up our excess carbon dioxide. But a new study in Scientific Reports suggests that safety net has snapped.

  A new study in Scientific Reports finds that in recent years, the continent’s forests changed from a carbon sink to a carbon source, releasing more CO2 than it absorbs.

• • Devastating Floods Swamp Parts of Asia

  Here Are Images of the Chaos
  
  
  

  Dec, 2, 2025 -A cascade of unusually destructive storms has torn through South and Southeast Asia, killing at least 1,200 people — a toll that is likely to rise — and displacing millions more.

  The region is no stranger to such giant storms, referred to as cyclones, hurricanes or typhoons, which tend to accompany monsoon rains in November and December. But this year’s sequence has been especially devastating.

• • Reckoning With a New Era of Deadly Floods

  The Floods and Landslides That Have Killed More Than 1,350 People In Recent Weeks Are a Grim Reminder of the Risks of a Warming Planet
  
  
  

  Dec. 2, 2025 - Our warming world has many ways of inflicting damage. Heat is a killer. Storms are getting more intense. And right now, floods are wreaking havoc across parts of Asia.

  Floods have killed more than 1,350 people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam in recent weeks. Hundreds more are missing and millions have been displaced.

• • When Earth Got 6°C Hotter 56 Millions Years
  Ago Plants Stopped Absorbing Carbon Properly

  Scientists Say It Could Happen Again
  
  
  

  Dec, 2, 2025 -Around 56 million years ago, Earth suddenly got much hotter. Over about 5,000 years, the amount of carbon in the atmosphere drastically increased and global temperatures shot up by some 6°C.

  As we show in new research published in Nature Communications, one consequence was that many of the world’s plants could no longer thrive. As a result, they soaked up less carbon from the atmosphere, which may have contributed to another interesting thing about this prehistoric planetary heatwave: it lasted more than 100,000 years.

• • The Philippines Spent Big on Flood Control

  But the Water Keeps Rising
  
  
  

  Dec, 2, 2025 -Cynthia Colindres remembers her low-lying village flooding every two or three years when she was growing up, a fact of life in the typhoon-plagued Philippines.

  Nowadays, she said, it happens two or three times a year.

  So she was stunned when the Philippine government said recently it had spent tens of millions of dollars on flood-control projects in her native province, Bulacan, in recent years.

• • Private Companies Have Raised Millions to Block the Sun

  What Could Go Wrong?
  
  
  

  Dec, 2, 2025 -For as little as $1, you can dim the sun — just a tiny bit — to save the world from climate change.

  At least, that’s the promise sold by a California start-up called Make Sunsets. Your dollar will pay for founder Luke Iseman to drive a Winnebago RV into the hills half an hour outside Saratoga, California, to release a balloon loaded with sulfur dioxide, an air pollutant normally spewed by volcanic eruptions. He and his 1,000 paying customers hope the balloon will burst in the stratosphere, releasing particles that will block sunlight and cool the planet.

• • An Intense Monsoon Season Is Battering Parts of Asia

  Here’s What We Know
  
  
  

  Dec, 2, 2025 -Three cyclones happened simultaneously across South and Southeast Asia this week, the latest of several huge storms that have battered the region, killing at least 1,350 people, with hundreds more still missing and millions displaced.

  Since the start of this year, there have been at least 16 cyclones and dozens of depressions in the Pacific and Indian oceans. Even moderate cyclones now produce extreme rainfall and can cause widespread flooding, said Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology.

• • What the Rio Grande’s More Frequent Dry-Outs
  Mean for the Region’s Animals and Ecosystems

  The Stretch of the River Through Albuquerque Has Run Dry Twice Since 2022
  
  
  

  Dec. 2, 2025 - On a late July morning, a snapping turtle, about 18 inches in length, sat solemnly in a dry riverbed where the Rio Grande normally flows here. The aquatic reptile was one of few signs of life on a river that’s usually buzzing with various species of fish, ducks, insects and other animals.

  Fast forward to one crisp day in mid-October, and muddy-hued water, typical for this stretch of the Rio Grande, once again flowed downstream past Albuquerque’s Old Town area. Ducks swam near a sandbar, and things seemed more or less back to normal after several weeks of replenishing rains in the region. But with the river repeatedly running dry in recent years after decades in which it rarely did, it’s clear that the megadrought plaguing the Southwest will present new challenges to the river and the life that depends on it.

• • Sri Lanka ‘a Disaster Zone,’ as Cyclone Deaths Surpass 350

  The Nationwide Flooding After the Storm Hit Last Week Was the Most Challenging Natural Disaster in the Island Nation’s History
  
  
  

  Dec, 1, 2025 -Sri Lanka’s recent history has been riddled with serious setbacks. But President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has declared that the cyclone that hit the country last week is the “largest and most challenging natural disaster in our history.”

  In 2004, as the island nation of 22 million was trying to wind down a decades-long civil war, the Indian Ocean tsunami killed tens of thousands and caused billions of dollars in damages. In recent years, Sri Lanka has faced terrorist attacks, the Covid pandemic, and a man-made economic collapse that saw food and fuel supplies dry up.

• • Climate Change Is Already Costing
  U.S. Households Up to $900 Per Year

  A New Working Paper From a Trio of Eminent Economists Tallies the Effects of Warming
  
  {HEATMAP}
  
  

  Dec. 1, 2025 -ttempts to quantify the costs of climate change often end up as philosophical exercises in forecasting and quantifying the future. Such projects involve (at least) two difficult tasks: establishing what is the current climate “pathway” we’re on, which means projecting hard-to-predict phenomena such as future policy actions and potential climate system feedbacks; and then deciding how to value the wellbeing of those people who will be born in the decades — or centuries — to come versus those who are alive today.

  But what about the climate impacts we’re paying for right now? That’s the question explored in a working paper by former Treasury Department officials Kimberley Clausing, an economist at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Catherine Wolfram, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, along with Wolfram’s MIT colleague Christopher Knittel.

• • Southeast Asia Storm Deaths Near 800 as Scale of Disaster Revealed

  Death Toll Rises to 604 in Indonesia, 176 in Thailand
  
  
  

  Dec. 1, 2025 -The death toll from cyclone-induced floods and landslides in Indonesia passed 600 on Monday as rescuers battled to clear roads and improved weather conditions revealed the scale of a disaster that has killed nearly 800 people in Southeast Asia.

  Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand have suffered devastation after a rare tropical storm formed in the Malacca Strait unleashed torrential rains and wind gusts for a week that hampered efforts to reach people stranded by mudslides and high floodwaters.

• • Water Shortages Could Derail UK’s
  Net Zero Plans, Study Finds

  British Research Finds There May Not Be Enough Water For Planned Carbon Capture and Hydrogen Projects
  
  
  

  Dec. 1, 2025 - Tensions are growing between the government, the water sector and its regulators over the management of England’s water supplies, as the Environment Agency warns of a potential widespread drought next year.

  Research commissioned by a water retailer has found water scarcity could hamper the UK’s ability to reach its net zero targets, and that industrial growth could push some areas of the country into water shortages.

• The National Climate Change Assessment
• 6 Things We Can Do About Climate Change
• Climate Change Positive Thoughts (free e-Book)
• Get the Climate Lab Book
• Interactive Climate Map 2050 (CC Consequences)
• The People's Dosier on Climate Change

• Global Warming Report from NOAA
• Another Good Global Warming Resource
• More Climate Change Resources
• NY Times Climate Forward: (Climate Change Q&A)
• Carbon Fee & Dividend Video
• Interactive Air Pollution Map 2100