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Climate Change

Page Updated:
Jan. 21, 2026

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• • Antarctic Penguins Have Radically Shifted Their Breeding Season

  Seemingly In Response to Climate Change
  
  

  Jan. 20, 2026 -Penguins in Antarctica have radically shifted their breeding season, apparently as a response to climate change, research has found.

  Dramatic shifts in behaviour were revealed by a decade-long study led by Penguin Watch at the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University, with some penguins’ breeding period moving forward by more than three weeks.

  The changes threaten to disrupt penguins’ access to food, increasing concerns for their survival. “We are very concerned because these penguins are advancing their season so much, and penguins are now breeding earlier than in any known records,” said the report’s lead author, Dr Ignacio Juarez Martínez.

• • How the US Reversed Climate Progress, at Home and Abroad

  One Year of Trump
  
  {EARTH.ORG}
  
  

  Jan. 20, 2026 -2025 was a pivotal year for US climate policy. Since assuming office for his second term, Donald Trump has taken sweeping actions to reverse America’s environmental agenda and withdraw from international commitments. These moves have fundamentally altered the nation’s role in the global fight against climate change, a crisis the President has dismissed as a “con job”.

  A long-time defender of planet-warming fossil fuels, Trump’s focus has been on strengthening ties with the industry in spite of the countless climate commitments the US has made at home and on an international level. From a former fracking executive taking the reins of the Energy Department to an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) packed with political appointees who formerly lobbied for the chemical and fossil fuel sectors, Trump has surrounded himself with the right people to execute his anti-climate agenda.

• • Study Measures the Toll of Climate
  Change In Rio De Janeiro Favelas

  Heat Inequalitye
  
  
  

  Jan. 19, 2026 - Michele Campos feels like crying every summer when temperatures in Rio de Janeiro climb above 40°C (100°F), heating up the cement that covers every corner of the favela of Chapeu Mangueira where she lives and making life unbearable in her windowless bedroom.

  “Sleeping is the worst part," said the 39-year-old. "In the favela we experience the heat in a very different way from people who can afford air conditioning."

• • Scientists Just Produced the Best Map
  of Antarctica’s Sub-glacial Landscape

  And It’s Good News for Climate Change
  
  
  

  Jan. 17, 2026 -For decades, scientists have repeated some variations of a striking statistic: we know more about the topography of Mars and Mercury than we do about the ground beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet. It’s pretty crazy that it’s easier to map the inner solar system than peer through the ice of the “White Continent”, but here we are.

  For decades, scientists have repeated some variations of a striking statistic: we know more about the topography of Mars and Mercury than we do about the ground beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet. It’s pretty crazy that it’s easier to map the inner solar system than peer through the ice of the “White Continent”, but here we are.

• • How Wall Street Turned Its Back on Climate Change

  Six Years After the Financial Industry Pledged to Use Trillions to Fight Climate Change and Reshape Finance, Its Efforts Have Largely Collapsed
  
  
  

  Jan. 17, 2026 -In January 2020, Larry Fink, the chief executive of BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world, stunned the business world by declaring that he intended to use the trillions of dollars managed by his firm to address global warming.

  “Every government, company, and shareholder must confront climate change,” Mr. Fink wrote, calling for “a fundamental reshaping of finance.”

• • Sailing Through a ‘Death Trap’ Once Covered by Antarctic Ice

  Part of Pine Island Glacier Collapsed Several Years Ago, Forming an Unstable Inlet Where No Ship Had Sailed. Until Now
  
  
  

  Jan. 16, 2026 -With the icebreaker Araon spending a few days away from Thwaites Glacier, the scientists aboard have had a chance to work at another of Antarctica’s fastest-deteriorating masses of ice, Pine Island Glacier.

  Like Thwaites, Pine Island is being eroded by warm ocean currents that wash up against its floating end. If both glaciers melted away completely, Thwaites would add more to global sea-level rise than Pine Island. But over the past half-century, Pine Island has shed more of its ice than Thwaites.

• • Climate Change Has Already Shrunk US Salaries By 12%

  Unaddressed Climate Change is Even More Expensive
  
  
  

  Jan. 16, 2026 -Discussions of climate change typically look ahead, a doomsday clock ticking for the future. That attitude is costing us dearly. A new analysis shows how costly climate change already is.

  In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Derek Lemoine of the University of Arizona reports that climate change has already reduced U.S. income, making salaries lower by about 12% than they would have been without climate change.

• • Climate Change Exposes a Major Home Insurance Gap

  Home Insurance Is Essential For Recovering After Disaster Hits. But, As an Increasing Number of Homeowners Are Finding Out, Payouts May Not Be Enough to Rebuild
  
  {Bloomberg}
  
  

  Jan. 16, 2026 -A year after the Los Angeles wildfires, many survivors face the same problem: Their insurance policies aren’t paying out enough to cover the cost of rebuilding.

  It’s a tragic predicament. And it will happen again when the next disaster hits.

  Since the 1990s, American homes have been systematically underinsured in the event that they are completely destroyed. Study after study shows that, counter to the public’s understanding, many home insurance policies are not required to cover total replacement of homes.

• • U.S. Emissions Jumped in 2025 as Coal Power Rebounded

  Thousands of Cities Around the World Saw Their Hottest Year On Record in 2025 as the Planet Has Inched Closer to a Key Temperature Threshold
  
  
  

  Jan. 15, 2026 -Last year, thousands of places, from Shanghai to Moscow to Salt Lake City, saw their hottest average annual temperatures since at least 1950.

  As for cities with record-breaking cold, there was just one last year: Manvi, in the Indian state of Karnataka. It’s the first time any city in the world has seen its coldest year since 2014, according to new data from scientists at Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

• • The Cities That Broke Heat Records Last Year

  Thousands of Cities Around the World Saw Their Hottest Year On Record in 2025 as the Planet Has Inched Closer to a Key Temperature Threshold
  
  
  

  Jan. 15, 2026 -Last year, thousands of places, from Shanghai to Moscow to Salt Lake City, saw their hottest average annual temperatures since at least 1950.

  As for cities with record-breaking cold, there was just one last year: Manvi, in the Indian state of Karnataka. It’s the first time any city in the world has seen its coldest year since 2014, according to new data from scientists at Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

• • Damage to the Ocean Nearly Doubles
  Economic Cost of Climate Change

  It's the First Time the Ocean Has Been Factored Into the Cost of Carbon
  
  {abc NEWS}
  
  

  Jan. 15, 2026 -Scientists have factored damage to the ocean into the social cost of carbon for the first time -- finding it nearly doubles the economic impact from climate change.

  Ocean damage from climate change -- dubbed the "blue" social cost of carbon -- causes the global cost of carbon dioxide emissions to society to nearly double, according to new findings by researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego.

• • The Past 3 Years Have Been the Three Hottest on Record

  It Will Only Get Hotter
  
  
  

  Jan. 14, 2026 -Global average temperatures in 2025 were the third hottest on record, surpassed only by 2024 and 2023, according to an analysis published by Berkeley Earth, a nonprofit climate research organization.

  According to the analysis, last year’s global average temperature was about 1.35°C–1.53°C (2.43°F–2.75°F) greater than the 1850–1900 average. The previous year, 2024, was 1.46°C–1.62°C (2.63°F–2.92°F) above the preindustrial baseline, while 2023 was 1.48°C–1.60°C (2.66°F–2.88°F) above the baseline.

• • Climate Insiders Want to Stop Talking About ‘Climate Change’

  They Still Want to Decarbonize, But They’re Over the Jargon
  
  {HEATMAP}
  
  

  Jan. 14, 2026 -Where does the fight to decarbonize the global economy go from here? The past 12 months, after all, have been bleak. Donald Trump has pulled the United States out of the Paris Agreement (again) and is trying to leave a precursor United Nations climate treaty, as well.

  He ripped out half the Inflation Reduction Act, sidetracked the Environmental Protection Administration, and rechristened the Energy Department’s in-house bank in the name of “energy dominance.” Even nonpartisan weather research — like that conducted by the National Center for Atmospheric Research — is getting shut down by Trump’s ideologues. And in the days before we went to press, Trump invaded Venezuela with the explicit goal (he claims) of taking its oil.

• • The Polar Vortex Returns

  Here’s How Cold It’ll Get Where You Are
  
  
  

  Jan. 14, 2026 -A January thaw that brought widespread record warmth to the United States is coming to an end.

  It will be replaced by the familiar polar vortex pattern that caused below-average temperatures in the Midwest and East last month — with lobes of Arctic air frequently blowing in during the second half of January.

• • A Tree’s Bark Can Take a Staggeringly
  Large Bite Out of Climate Change

  The Trillions of Microbes Inhabiting Tree Bark Can Suck Up Planet-Warming Gases
  
  
  

  Jan. 14, 2026 -Trees have a well-earned reputation as climate heroes for their ability to suck up carbon dioxide and respire oxygen.

  But until now, people have been overlooking tinier but far more numerous parts of the equation: the trillions of bacteria inhabiting tree bark.

  Scientists in Australia spent five years peering into the microscopic world of bark, emerging with a description of a place teeming with life, much of it consuming and “exhaling” gases important for the climate. They dubbed it the “barkosphere.”

• • 2025 Among World's Three Hottest Years On Record

  This, According to the WMO
  
  
  

  Jan. 14, 2026 -Last year was among the planet's three warmest on record, the World Meteorological Organization said on Wednesday, as EU scientists also confirmed average temperatures have now exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming for the longest since records began.

  The WMO, which consolidates eight climate datasets from around the world, said six of them - including the European Union's European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and the British national weather service - had ranked 2025 as the third warmest, while two placed it as the second warmest in the 176-year record.

• • The View From Above Antarctica’s Fastest Melting Glacier

  Times Journalists Were Able to Get Tantalizingly Close to the Thwaites Glacier, Which Scientists Are Hoping to Spend Weeks Studying Up Close
  
  
  

  Jan. 13, 2026, By Raymond Zhong -After sailing to one of the world’s most remote glaciers, members of our Antarctic expedition have finally set foot on its hostile, deeply fractured surface.

  One of the trickiest operations on this voyage has begun, sort of. A 10-person team aboard the icebreaker Araon is hoping to drill deep into the immense Thwaites Glacier to better understand why it is melting at such an alarming rate.

• • 2025: A Year of Fire and Floods

  Last Year Was Earth’s Third Hottest Globally, But Temperature is Just One Measure of Climate Change’s Influence
  
  
  

  Jan. 13, 2026 -Last year — the third-warmest in modern history — opened with history-making fires in Los Angeles and closed with catastrophic floods in the United States and Southeast Asia. The intervening months were punctuated with disasters and extreme weather across the globe.

  All the while, emissions of greenhouse gases climbed to new heights as the world burned coal, oil and gas for energy. Excess heat building up in the atmosphere and the oceans creates conditions that can exacerbate extreme weather. Here are some of the notable events that marked 2025.

• • Tantalizingly Close to an Antarctic
  Glacier, but Weather Blocks the Way

  Low Clouds Have Prevented Helicopters From Moving Scientists and Gear Onto the Continent’s Fastest-Melting Glacier
  
  
  

  Jan. 13, 2026 -After sailing to one of the world’s most remote glaciers, members of our Antarctic expedition have finally set foot on its hostile, deeply fractured surface.

  Then they almost got stuck there overnight.

  One of the trickiest operations on this voyage has begun, sort of. A 10-person team aboard the icebreaker Araon is hoping to drill deep into the immense Thwaites Glacier to better understand why it is melting at such an alarming rate.

• • Flying Foxes Die In Their Thousands In Worst
  Mass-Mortality Event Since Australia’s Black Summer

  Volunteers Found Thousands of Dead Bats at Melbourne’s Brimbank Park
  
  
  

  Jan. 12, 2026 -Thousands of flying foxes have perished in the heatwave that scorched south-east Australia last week, the largest mass mortality event for flying foxes since black summer.

  Extreme temperatures resulted in deaths in camps across South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales. Grey-headed flying foxes, listed as vulnerable under federal environment laws, were the most affected.

• • Under Trump, U.S. Adds Fuel to a Heating Planet

  His Embrace of Fossil Fuels and Withdrawal From the Global Fight Against Climate Change Will Make It Hard to Keep Warming At Safe Levels
  
  
  

  Jan. 12, 2026 -By pulling the United States out of the main international climate treaty, seizing Venezuelan crude oil and using government power to resuscitate the domestic coal industry while choking off clean energy, the Trump administration is not just ignoring climate change, it is likely making the problem worse.

  President Trump has never been shy about rejecting the scientific reality of global warming: It’s a “hoax,” he has said, a “scam,” and a “con job.”

• • ‘Fear of the Next Deluge’: Flood-Scarred
  Britons Join Forces to Demand Help

  Climate Breakdown Puts Millions More People at Flood Risk
  
  
  

  Jan. 12, 2026 -Darren Ridley is always on high alert, constantly checking his phone for rain warnings – even in the middle of the night.

  “Our whole family is permanently on edge,” he says. “If we hear rain, day or night, we’re up and checking the house. I can’t sleep without replaying our flood plan in my head for weaknesses.”

  Ridley’s house in Folkestone floods at least twice a year. His garden far more often. Most of the floods happen at night or in the early hours of the morning. “The floods come so quickly that it’s unbelievable. We often wake up to find our garden a metre deep,” he says.

• • Road Washout Severs WA Tribe’s Link to Cemeteries

  SUIATTLE RIVER ROAD, Skagit County
  
  
  

  Jan. 11, 2026 -Fueled by torrential December rains, a nameless creek draining from Suiattle Mountain saw a landslide hurtle hip-high boulders, uproot trees and blow through a road.

  It carved a roughly 70-foot-deep ravine, creating a 130-foot-wide gap in this Forest Service road, severing the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe’s connection to its cemeteries and ancestral homelands, and closing another door to a major recreation corridor in the North Cascades.

• • Sea of Grass and the Disappearing Prairie

  Many Different Creatures Call the American Prairie Home
  
  {living on earth}
  
  

  Jan. 9, 2026 -The American prairie is one of the most biodiverse ecosystems in the world, with numbers of species rivaling even a tropical rainforest. But today, just one percent of eastern tallgrass prairie remains, and western shortgrass prairie is disappearing at a rate of more than a million acres a year. Author Josephine Marcotty joins Host Paloma Beltran to discuss her book Sea of Grass: The Conquest, Ruin, and Redemption of Nature on the American Prairie.

  Click now to read all about it.

• • Ocean Warming Breaks Record for Ninth Straight Year

  It's Fueling Extreme Weather Patterns and Destabilizing Marine Ecosystems
  
  
  

  Jan. 9, 2026 -Every second of last year, the Earth’s oceans absorbed the equivalent in energy to 12 Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs.

  Global ocean heat content (OHC) increased for the ninth consecutive year in 2025, according to a report released Friday in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences. The study—a collaboration involving more than 50 scientists from 31 international institutions—measured temperature fluctuations in the upper 2,000 meters of the planet’s waters, finding the greatest increases in the Southern Atlantic, the Northern Pacific and the Southern Ocean. Warming waters are linked to increasingly extreme weather patterns, coral reef die-offs and sea level rise.

• • Climate Change Has Turned Greenland Into a Target for Trump

  A Warming Planet Has Opened Up New Shipping Routes and Turned Greenland Into a Geostrategic Asset For the Trump Administration
  
  
  

  Jan. 8, 2026 -Greenland is warming much faster than the global average, and its expansive ice sheet has been shrinking for decades.

  These shifts, driven by climate change, have made the vast island a more appealing acquisition target for the Trump administration.

  Controlling Greenland, an idea that was regarded as a punchline among Trump’s own advisers during his first term, is now viewed within the White House as a real strategic objective. Stephen Miller, a Trump aide, asserted on Monday that the U.S. had the right to “take” the territory, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers that President Trump planned to buy it from Denmark.

• • The Scientists Making Antacids for the
  Sea to Help Counter Global Warming

  The World’s Oceans Are Becoming Dangerously Acidic. A Controversial Proposal Would Raise the pH
  
  
  

  Jan. 8, 2026 -A few months ago, the oceanographer Adam Subhas and his colleagues turned the sea red. At first it looked as if the scientists had dumped a few barrels of beet juice into the Gulf of Maine. A narrow band of crimson water lingered in the wake of one of their chartered vessels, briefly tinging violet here or magenta there when tumbled by wind and waves. As the ship began to make a circle, the maroon trail elongated and expanded, soon filling a much larger part of the sea. Onlookers on a passing vessel might have mistaken the scene for the aftermath of a shark attack.

  It was, in fact, something even more unusual — and, to some people, no less alarming. The scientists were deliberately pumping about 16,200 gallons of sodium hydroxide, more commonly known as lye, into the ocean, along with a red dye that made the solution easier to track. It was the final phase of a study on a promising yet controversial climate intervention, one that could simultaneously mitigate both global warming and another, equally terrifying consequence of carbon emissions: the rapid acidification of the world’s oceans.

• • Face to Face With the Thwaites Glacier

  The Fastest-Melting Glacier in Antarctica
  
  
  

  Jan. 8, 2026, By Raymond Zhong Reporting from the icebreaker Araon in the Amundsen Sea -Yesterday, we arrived at the Thwaites Glacier. This morning, we are surrounded by it.

  The end of the glacier that sits on the ocean is formed of two long tongues of ice, with a narrow channel of water between them.

  We sailed down this channel overnight and, by breakfast, made it to the end. Now we are enveloped on three sides in Thwaites’s icy embrace.

• • Even Without Hurricanes, U.S. Disaster
  Costs Surpassed $100 Billion Last Year

  A Record-Setting 21 Thunderstorm Events Each Caused At Least $1 Billion in Damages
  
  
  

  Jan. 8, 2026 -In 2025, frequent and severe thunderstorms and the Los Angeles wildfires drove U.S. disaster damage costs above $100 billion, reaching that level for the fifth time in the past six years, according to data released Thursday. And that was without a single hurricane striking U.S. shores for the first time in a decade.

  A record-setting 21 thunderstorm systems that spawned tornadoes, large hail and damaging wind each caused at least $1 billion in damages, according to researchers at Climate Central, a nonprofit group.

• • Trump Pulls Out of Global Climate Treaty

  The Action Could Make It More Difficult For a Future Administration to Rejoin the Paris Climate Accord
  
  
  

  Jan. 7, 2026 -President Trump announced on Wednesday that he was withdrawing the United States from the bedrock international agreement that forms the basis for countries to rein in climate change.

  The treaty, which has been in place for 34 years, counts all of the other nations of the world as members.

  In a social media post, the White House announced that Mr. Trump signed a presidential memorandum that pulled the United States from the climate pact and 65 other international organizations and treaties that “no longer serve American interests.” About half of those are United Nations organizations.

• • Alaska Received 7 Feet of Snow
  Sinking Boats and Collapsing Roofs

  As Juneau, Alaska, Struggles to Dig Out From a Record-Breaking 82 Inches of Snow in Recent Weeks, More Winter Weather is On the Way
  
  
  

  Jan. 7, 2026 -The only evidence of one sailboat was the top of a mast peeking out of the icy water. A fishing boat had tipped over sideways. Another vessel went down stern-first, its prow pointing straight up into the falling snow.

  All over Juneau, boats have struggled to stay afloat amid a record-breaking onslaught of heavy snow. At the four harbors overseen by Matthew Creswell, the Alaskan city’s harbormaster, eight boats have sunk in recent days. He and others helped save some three dozen more from the same fate.

• • A Year After the LA Fires, Recovery
  Is Lagging, But Bright Spots Emerge

  As Scientists Unravel Lingering Environmental Risks From the Blazes, Construction Delays and Permitting Roadblocks Hinder Rebuilding Efforts
  
  
  

  Jan. 6, 2026 -While people look to start fresh in the new year, many residents in California’s Los Angeles County are still living in the burn scars of the past. A year ago this week, a series of deadly wildfires tore through the region, their spread pushed by winds topping 80 miles per hour and parched vegetation that burned rapidly the moment a spark ignited it.

  They contributed to at least 440 deaths from Jan. 5 to Feb. 1 in LA County, an August study suggests. The two largest, the Palisades Fire in Pacific Palisades and the Eaton Fire in Altadena, burned more than 50,000 acres and destroyed nearly 16,000 homes and other buildings before they were fully contained. Climate change set up these fire-ripe conditions, making the wildfires about 35 percent more likely to occur, researchers estimate.

• • How Microplastics Are Chipping Away At
  Earth’s ‘Natural Shield’ Against Climate Change

  Microplastics Are Interfering With the Ocean’s Role in Regulating Earth’s Temperature
  
  {euro news}
  
  

  Jan. 6, 2026 -According to the United Nations, the ocean generates 50 per cent of the oxygen we need, sequesters 30 per cent of all carbon dioxide emissions and captures 90 per cent of the excess heat generated by these emissions. This makes it the planet’s largest carbon sink, acting as a vital buffer against global warming.

  However, a new study, published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials: Plastic, warns that the link between microplastics and the ocean’s role in regulating Earth’s temperature has long been overlooked.

• • These Areas Are Getting April-Like Temperatures

  Records May Be Toppled Across Several Central and Eastern States Over the Next Week As Temperatures Surge Into the 60s, 70s and 80s
  
  
  

  Jan. 6, 2026 -It may only be early January, but it will feel like mid-spring in some Central and Eastern states later this week.

  April-like conditions are forecast to last into the weekend, as temperatures rise into the 60s and 70s in areas that had a cold and snowy start to winter due to an unusually early polar vortex disruption. In the South, temperatures will reach the 80s, with some 90s in South Texas — hot enough that some people may turn air conditioners on. In the Mid-Atlantic, high temperatures Friday and Saturday could rise toward 70 — including around the nation’s capital.

• • Scientists Just Got Some Ancient
  Clues About Future Sea-Level Rise

  And It’s Bad News
  
  
  

  Jan. 5, 2026 -When the researchers first arrived at their field camp at Prudhoe Dome, atop the Greenland ice sheet, they felt they had been swallowed by a monster.

  The mountain of ice in northwest Greenland was more than 50 miles wide and 1,600 feet tall. The temperature at its summit was well below 0 degrees Fahrenheit. The scientists’ experiment there — an unprecedented effort to extract bedrock from deep beneath the ice sheet — was routinely disrupted by howling winds and blizzards so dense they blocked the sun. It was hard to imagine that this formidable, frozen expanse could ever disappear.

• • Satellites Show Dozens of U.S. Dams Are Sinking

  More Could Be At Risk
  
  
  

  Jan. 5, 2026 -The satellite signal was subtle but persistent. A decade of observations suggested that part of the Livingston Dam — a 2.5-mile-long earth and concrete structure about 70 miles north of Houston — was sinking by roughly 8 millimeters per year.

  This deformation could indicate the structure is unstable, said geophysicist Mohammad Khorrami, who presented the findings in December at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union. Though the observation is preliminary, he said it was cause for concern; regulators consider the dam to have “high hazard potential,” meaning it could lead to deaths and significant property damage if it ever failed.

• • In Lahore’s Smog Season, This Gen Z
  Doctor is Centering Climate Change

  Dr. Farah Waseem Has Advocated For Climate Awareness Since Childhood. Now, It’s a Matter of Life and Death For Her Patients in Pakistan
  
  
  

  Jan. 3, 2026 -Dr. Farah Waseem can feel the smog the moment she steps outside each morning.

  The air smells dusty and burnt, irritating her throat and eyes right away. She has a dry cough that won’t go away, as do both of her parents. In the mornings and evenings in particular, the air is thick and murky, blurring her view of the Lahore skyline.

  Each year, winter brings smog season to Pakistan’s second-largest city. From about October to February, extremely high levels of particulate matter—a mix of soot and other harmful pollutants—cause low visibility and exacerbate the year-round health risks of air pollution. A healthy reading on the air quality index is 50 or less; in 2024, with record-breaking smog, Lahore’s AQI exceeded 1,000 and Waseem couldn’t see the vehicle in front of her as she drove to work.

• • Why New York City Is Spending Millions on ‘Bluebelts’

  The Man-Made Wetlands and Ponds Can Help Prevent Flooding in Homes and Buildings, and Return Cleaner Water to the Ocean
  
  
  

  Jan. 2, 2026 -New York City is expected to experience increasing rainfall over the next few decades, especially during cloudbursts—short, intense rainfall events.

  When rain falls, light showers can usually be handled by the complex network of sewer pipes that run beneath the city. But during heavy downpours, water can accumulate, posing a danger to the residents and their homes, especially if they live in basement apartments.

  Around 30 years ago, on Staten Island, the city tried something new to address flooding—bluebelts.

• • A Historic Effort to Save the Everglades
  Evolves as the Climate Warms

  Everglades Restoration Was Designed to Replenish the Drinking Water Supply in One of the Fast-Growing Parts of the Nation. The Same Effort May Help Save South Florida From Climate Change
  
  
  

  Jan. 1, 2026 -There is a place in the world, one that is among the most vulnerable as the global climate warms, where an extraordinary gesture of hope has endured for a quarter century.

  The scope of the effort is almost incomprehensible, both for its sheer size and persistence on a low-lying peninsula, where the delineation between land and sea has always been somewhat unclear and is becoming less so. Here, sea level rise is accelerating at some of the most extreme rates on Earth, while hurricanes increasingly are swirling ashore with an unprecedented ferociousness.

• • Jordan’s Ancient Olive Harvest
  Wilts Under Record-Breaking Heat

  These Trees May Not Survive
  
  
  

  Jan. 1, 2026 -Abu Khaled al-Zoubi, 67, walks slowly through his orchard in Irbid, northern Jordan, his footsteps kicking up dust from the parched earth beneath centuries-old olive trees. He stops at a gnarled trunk, its bark split and peeling from months of unrelenting heat.

  He points out that the branches should be sagging under the weight of ripening fruit, but instead they stretch upward, nearly bare, with only a few shrivelled olives clinging to the withered stems.

• • Washington Historic Floods Uncover
  Critical Gap in Renter Protection

  In Washington, Home Sellers Must Disclose to Buyers Whether a Property is On a Flood Plain — That is, An Area Vulnerable to Floods
  
  
  

  Jan. 1, 2026 -Historic floods that tore through Western Washington last month have exposed a gap in state law that left many of the region’s most vulnerable people unprepared for disaster and financially devastated.

  Unlike other states, Washington law does not require landlords to tell renters that a unit is prone to flooding. As a result, many renters in Washington’s river-adjacent communities, which are often rural and low-income, were unaware they were living in a zone FEMA had designated high risk for flooding when an atmospheric river hit last month.

• • Iceland Has Hottest Christmas Eve Ever

  With Temperature of 19.8C Recorded
  
  
  

  Dec. 31, 2025 -Record temperatures of almost 20C were reached in Iceland on Christmas Eve, the local meteorological office has confirmed.

  Seyðisfjörður, a small town in the east of Iceland, hit 19.8C on 24 December. Average December temperatures in Iceland are between -1C and 4C.

  It was a hot day in general: a temperature of 19.7C was measured at Bakkagerði in eastern Borgarfjörður, in the far east of the country. The previous record was set on 2 December 2019, when the temperature was measured at 19.7C in Kvískerjar in Öræfi, in the south-east of Iceland.

• • Studying the Melting Continent, If We Can Reach It

  Times Journalists Are Accompanying a Group of Scientists On an Arduous, Weekslong Trip to Study a Key Glacier in Antarctica
  
  
  

  Dec. 30, 2025 -We often talk about climate change as a long, gradual process, with rising temperatures barely perceptible from one year to the next. But scientists also keep an eye on a handful of global tipping points, thresholds that, if crossed, could lead to sudden and cascading changes across the natural world.

  Among the most mysterious of these potential tipping points is the breakup of ice sheets in West Antarctica.

• • Maine’s Shellfish Harvesters Are
  Caught Up in Climate-Related Closures

  Heavier Rains Are Triggering Regulatory Pauses On Harvesting Oysters and Clams—and Putting Fishermen Out of Work
  
  
  

  Dec. 30, 2025 -Chris Warner has been harvesting seafood in coastal Maine since he was a teenager. It’s never been easy, but he’s never let the obstacles stand in his way. Sometimes, he says, it feels like he’s spent 34 years in an endless state of adaptation.

  Warner was on a boat the last day before the regional shrimp moratorium went into effect in 2013. He saw the sea urchin industry rise and fall. He was out there the day limits were put on haddock. Still, he and his fellow harvesters found ways to pivot and keep themselves afloat, fighting to preserve one of the region’s few reliable industries and their place in shaping Maine’s identity.

• • Is Thwaites Still the ‘Doomsday Glacier’?

  Recent Research Has Led Scientists to New Conclusions About the Fastest Melting Glacier in Antarctica
  
  
  

  Dec. 30, 2025 -Scientists have never loved the scary nickname that journalists have given the glacier where the current Antarctic expedition is headed: the “Doomsday Glacier.”

  Yes, the Thwaites Glacier is the size of Florida, and if it melted away completely, it would add two feet to global sea-level rise. The researchers aboard the icebreaker Araon are planning to study the ice of Thwaites and the seas around it to gauge how soon the glacier might collapse.

• • Fiji is Already Forced to Relocate
  Villages Because of Climate Change

  A Billion Coastal Residents Should Pay Attention
  
  
  

  Jan. 1, 2026 -Climate migration is no longer a distant fear — it’s a reality. In Fiji, it’s a particularly pressing reality. Rising seas and extreme weather have forced entire communities to move. For this Pacific island nation, the question isn’t whether to relocate people but how to do so in a way that protects lives and livelihoods. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is watching closely as one billion people may find themselves in a similar situation in a matter of decades.

  Fiji, an archipelago of over 300 islands, is on the front lines of the climate crisis: nearly two-thirds of its population lives within five kilometers of the shoreline. The country is vulnerable to rising seas and powerful cyclones and is already feeling the devastating effects of climate change. In 2016, Cyclone Winston claimed 44 lives and caused $1.4 billion in damages.

• • The World Wants More Ube.
  Philippine Farmers Are Struggling to Keep Up

  Soaring Demand and Extreme Weather Worsened By Climate Change Have Wiped Out Harvests of the Popular Purple Yam
  
  
  

  Dec. 29, 2025 -In Sunnyside, Queens, people line up outside a bakery before it opens to buy a brioche doughnut whose glaze shines a startling purple. In Paris, people sip purple-colored lattes with a mellow, nutty scent. In Melbourne, Australia, a purple tinge gives hot cross buns a gentle sweetness.

  The common ingredient in these items is ube, or the Philippine purple yam, and the world’s new hunger for it is starting to strain the people who farm it. The country grows more than 14,000 tons of it a year and is considered to be the world’s top producer.

• • 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.

• • 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.

• • 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.

• • 2025 One of Costliest Years for Climate Disasters

  The Top-10 Costliest Climate Disasters Include Wildfires, Cyclones, Extreme Rainfall and Flooding, and Droughts Spanning Four Continents
  
  {EARTH.ORG}
  
  

  Dec. 27, 2025 -Record-breaking heatwaves, tropical cyclones, and rainfall made 2025 one of the costliest years for climate disasters, according to a new report.

  Carried out by Christian Aid and published Saturday, the report looked at this year’s costliest climate disasters worldwide, based primarily on loss estimates by insurance company Aon. The top-10 list includes wildfires, cyclones, extreme rainfall and flooding, and droughts spanning four continents. Together, they resulted in economic losses of $120 billion.

• • Federal Grants For Flood Mitigation Work
  Sat On Hold As Storms Inundated Washington State

  State Officials Say the Recent Deluge Highlighted the Need For Projects to Protect Communities From Floods. The Trump Administration Has Tried to Cut Funding For Some of Them
  
  {NBC NEWS}
  
  

  Dec. 22, 2025 -As Washington state residents take stock of widespread water damage, officials say the recent succession of storms highlights why proactive work to protect communities from flooding is so essential. But the Trump administration has delayed or attempted to cut federal funding for some of those projects, leaving a slate of the state’s major initiatives in limbo.

  Washington had secured tens of millions of dollars in federal grants for projects to elevate houses, move people away from flood-prone areas and protect homes with new levees, among other measures.

• • 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.

• 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