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Climate Change

Page Updated:
Mar. 20, 2026

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• • The Weather Is Getting Wilder

  Some See a Dire Signal in the Data

  
  

  Mar. 19, 2026 -Scientists who study global warming are currently wrestling with a question that, while seemingly technical, is profoundly consequential: Is climate change accelerating?

  The debate spilled into the open this month, after new research found that the rate of global warming has nearly doubled over the last decade. The findings set scientific circles buzzing, and not all researchers agree with the conclusion.

• • How WA Ski Areas Fared This Strange Season

  From Bluewood to Crystal Mountain

  
  

  Mar. 19, 2026 -The offseason might be a good time to rechoreograph that snow dance, Washingtonians.

  It’s been a disappointing season for snow sport enthusiasts across the state, starting with delayed openings and roads that washed out as a result of December’s atmospheric river. Then, as things got up and running at the top of this year, it became a waiting game for snow.

  In some areas, the wait for proper snow grew so long that smaller community ski areas began to face the reality that they might not have an opportunity to open at all this season.

• • Is Your State Becoming Uninsurable? Here's the Latest Data

  Home Insurance is Buckling Under Climate Risk and Construction Trends

  
  

  Mar. 18, 2026 - n recent years, as the United States has suffered a series of damaging climate disasters, experts have warned that the nation is headed toward a homeowner’s insurance crisis. Insurance companies dropped hundreds of thousands of customers who live in areas vulnerable to hurricanes and wildfires, and numerous small insurers have gone belly-up after big disasters. This has led some to forecast that a broader market failure in disaster-prone states is looming, or even a housing market collapse.

  That has not happened yet. But in the meantime, insurance has gotten a lot more expensive — and the price hikes are not going anywhere. A new nationwide report from the insurance price comparison firm Insurify found that the average American homeowner’s insurance bill rose 12 percent last year, reaching $2,948 per year, and will rise another 4 percent this year.

• • It’s So Hot in the West That Temperatures
  May Even Break April Records Soon

  100-Degree Temperatures Are Hitting the West in Late Winter

  
  

  Mar. 18, 2026 -It’s been the warmest March on record so far across the United States, in terms of daytime high temperatures. And now, unprecedented heat for this time of year is expanding and intensifying across the West.

  Not only will temperatures break March monthly records, but this heat wave will even break April records. Over the next week, around 800 high temperature records are forecast to be neared, tied or broken at 165 locations in Western and Central states — some by more than 10 degrees — with unusual warmth set to linger into late March.

• • A Rare Tornado Threat Covers Mid-Atlantic, Including D.C. Area

  A Level 4 Out of 5 Risk Covers the Region From Maryland to South Carolina, With Ferocious Winds and Tornadoes Possible

  
  

  Mar. 16, 2026 -A significant severe weather outbreak is underway Monday across the Mid-Atlantic and parts of the Carolinas, including the risk for widespread, damaging, straight-line wind gusts; hail; and a few strong tornadoes.

  As of midday, tornado watches stretch from the Florida Panhandle northeastward through portions of the Carolinas, much of Virginia and Maryland, including D.C. Additional watches are likely through the afternoon and into the evening.

• • Skier at Summit at Snoqualmie Rescued From Deep Snow Immersion

  Snoqualmie Saw Almost Six Feet of snow in the Last Week, According to the Resort’s Mountain Report

  
  

  Mar. 16, 2026 -A skier was rescued after falling and becoming stuck under an estimated 40 inches of snow Friday at the Summit at Snoqualmie ski resort.

  Ian Deans, a professional skier, was skiing and shooting a video for Summit when on his third run of the day — and the first run that the lifts were open to the public — he noticed some legs in the air.

• • Highway 410 Reopens After 3 Days

  Crystal Mountain in ‘Full Swing’

  
  

  Mar. 15, 2026 -Highway 410 reopened Sunday, following a three-day closure caused by a blast of wintry weather that cut off access to the slopes.

  An unusual mid-March snow and windstorm last week resulted in Highway 410 being closed in both directions Friday afternoon from Farman Street in Enumclaw to Greenwater because of ice, snow and downed trees, the Department of Transportation said in an alert.

• • These 11 Cities Could See Heavy Snow
  Or Severe Thunderstorms This Weekend

  Snow Totals of 10 to 30 Inches Will Be Widespread With Some Spots Nearing 40 Inches.

  
  

  Mar. 14, 2026 -A severe late-season winter storm unfolds this weekend and into Monday across the northern tier of the central United States. The worst of the snow and wind and the likelihood of blizzard conditions is expected to target a stretch from the northern Plains to the Great Lakes.

  Around 14 million people, mainly in the Upper Midwest, can expect moderate to locally extreme winter weather impacts from the storm.

• • Summer in March? Unusual Heat Wave Descends
  on Already Parched Western U.S.

  The Heat Wave Could Further Lower Water Availability in the Region, Which Has Seen Staggeringly Low Levels of Snowpack This Year

  
  

  Mar. 13, 2026 -An early-season heat wave is descending across the Western United States, likely to bring record-shattering temperatures to much of the region.

  Temperatures already climbed into the 90s on Thursday in states such as Arizona and California and are expected to peak on Friday before the dome expands to the Mountain West and parts of Oregon next week. The abnormal weather is largely caused by a high-pressure system trapping heat from unusually warm Pacific Ocean waters.

• • Subway Heat Complaints Spike by 27% for
  Every Single Degree the Temperature Rises Outside

  A New Study Maps Subway Misery Beneath Three Major Cities

  
  

  Mar. 13, 2026 -Commuters have long complained that subway platforms can feel unbearable in hot weather. A new study from Northwestern University suggests those complaints reflect a clear and measurable pattern.

  Writing in Nature Cities, Giorgia Chinazzo and Alessandro Rotta Loria analyzed more than 85,000 posts from X and Google Reviews published between 2008 and 2024, and identified more than 22,000 complaints about heat across the subway systems of New York, Boston and London. They found that as temperatures rose above ground, complaints about heat underground rose too.

• • A Late-Winter Snowstorm is About to Hit
  the Plains, Midwest and Great Lakes

  Bonsai Artists Are Preserving Native Species in Miniature.

  
  

  Mar. 13, 2026 -A sprawling and powerful late-winter storm is about to blast the northern Plains, Midwest and Great Lakes into southeastern Canada. It will bring heavy snow measured in feet, plus high wind that will lower visibility while buffeting a large region with a risk for damage and power outages.

  On its cold side to the north and west of the track, the storm is expected to drop a zone of 12 to 36 inches of snowfall from the eastern Dakotas through the north-central Great Lakes and into Ontario province.

• • How a Species Evolved Fast Enough to Save Itself From Extinction

  The Scarlet Monkeyflower’s Rapid Adaptation to Drought Has Given Some Scientists Hope for Species’ Survival Amid Climate Change

  
  

  Mar. 12, 2026 -All through the long and punishing drought, the little red flowers kept dying. The water-loving plants couldn’t survive amid such scorching summers and winters with no rain. By 2015 — the peak of California’s worst drought in at least 10,000 years — the scarlet monkeyflower had all but vanished from its creekside habitat in Sequoia National Park.

  But as the drought eased, the monkeyflowers reemerged with a vengeance. Their showy blooms danced beneath a canopy of redwood trees. Hummingbirds flocked to sip the rich nectar at their hearts. Against all odds, this isolated population of fragile, fleeting flowers was thriving once again.

• • A Record Heat Dome is About to Hit the West — in March

  For Millions of People, It Will Feel Like Summer During The Final Days of Winter. That Will Worsen the Region’s Drought

  
  

  Mar. 12, 2026 -A record-breaking heat dome will develop near the West Coast late this week, smashing records and sending temperatures into the triple digits through next week — when it will feel like summer during the final days of winter.

  This follows the warmest start to March on record for the United States.

  There are many potential firsts for March on the horizon: It could reach 100 degrees in Los Angeles next week, after record-breaking 95-degree heat on Thursday and Friday. In Phoenix next week, temperatures could exceed 100 degrees several times. It could also reach the century mark in Las Vegas.

• • Reaching Net Zero By 2050 ‘Cheaper
  For Uk Than One Fossil Fuel Crisis’

  Climate Change Committee Finds Move to Renewable Energy Would Also Bring Health, Economic and Security Benefits

  
  

  Mar. 11, 2026 -Achieving the UK’s net zero target by 2050 will cost less than a single oil shock and bring health and economic benefits while insulating the country against future costs, the government’s climate advisers have forecast.

  Eliminating the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels by adopting renewable energy and green technologies, such as electric vehicles and heat pumps, would be the best and most cost-effective option for the future economy, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) found.

• • Why the Clean Air Act Was Never a ‘Good Fit’ For Climate

  The lawyers Who Successfully Won the Law’s Climate Authority Once Thought of It As a Placeholder For Stronger Legislation
  
  {E&E NEWS}
  
  

  Mar. 6, 2026 -Three presidents have used the Clean Air Act to curb planet-warming pollution. If President Donald Trump gets his way, they will be the last.

  But the 1963 law has always been an imperfect and insufficient vehicle to address climate change. Just ask the lawyers who worked on the landmark 2007 Supreme Court case that affirmed the law allows EPA to regulate greenhouse gases.

  “No one thought the Clean Air Act provided the best template for addressing climate change,” said Richard Lazarus, a Harvard Law School professor and author of “The Rule of Five” book on the Massachusetts vs. EPA case. “It was clear there was authority, but the hope was that it would help prompt new legislation.”

• • The Strange and Persistent Psychological
  Distance Between Us and Climate Disaster

  An Analysis of Dozens of Previously Published Studies Reveals People Systematically Underestimate Their Own Vulnerability to Climate Threats

  
  

  Mar. 10, 2026 -Most people think climate change will primarily affect other people, a new analysis of previously published research reveals.

  The findings illustrate a well-known cognitive bias known as “overoptimism,” specifically a variety called “overplacement,” which describes how people tend to rate their own risks as less likely and less severe than those of others.

• • Extreme Heat Now Affects One in Three People Globally, Study Finds

  Rising Temperatures Making It Hard Even For Young, Healthy People to Safely Do Normal Physical Tasks in Many Regions

  
  

  Mar. 10, 2026 -Climate breakdown is shrinking the amount of time that people can safely go about their lives, according to a study that shows a third of the world’s population now resides in areas where heat severely limits activity.

  Rising temperatures, driven by the continued burning of fossil fuels, are making it difficult even for many young, healthy adults to do basic physical activities, such as housework or walking up stairs during daylight hours at the height of the summer, the report warns.

• • A Warmer Climate Means Bigger Hail

  New Attribution Research Shows How Extra Atmospheric Heat Can Turn Thunderstorms Into Factories For Dangerous, Softball-Size Hail

  
  

  Mar. 9, 2026 -Regions that are often pummeled by severe storms—like the Midwestern United States under last weekend’s powerful thunderstorms and deadly tornadoes—could also face the threat of more extreme hail.

  New research published Monday in Atmospheric Science Letters for the first time linked human-caused warming with the size of hailstones in a single thunderstorm. The study examined a May 3 storm that pelted Paris and other parts of France with hail ranging in size from marbles to golfballs, destroying or damaging more than $350 million worth of property.. The researchers compared real-time data from May 3 with dozens of similar weather patterns from past decades to isolate how a warmer atmosphere changed the storm’s ingredients.

• • Trump Cuts Threaten US Role in Global Climate Modeling

  Agency Cuts, Layoffs and Policy Shifts Are Throwing America’s Role Into Question
  
  {E&E NEWS}
  
  

  Mar. 9, 2026 -The world’s largest climate modeling initiative is quietly ramping up its next project, but U.S. participation is a wild card.

  The Trump administration’s dramatic funding reductions in climate science are throwing American involvement into question, after U.S. modeling groups led the international collaboration for years. Some agencies plan to participate, but face new hurdles from staff cuts, financial uncertainties and reorganizations. Others could withdraw entirely.

  Known as the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, or CMIP, the program involves contributions from dozens of research groups around the world whose models form the backbone of climate research. Studies based on these simulations help scientists understand how greenhouse gas emissions are affecting the planet’s oceans, clouds, ice sheets and more. And they help policymakers prepare for the consequences.

• • Humanity Heating Planet Faster Than Ever Before, Study Finds

  Researchers Identify Sharp Rise to About 0.35C Every Decade, After Excluding Natural Fluctuations Such as El Niño

  
  

  Mar. 6, 2026 -Climate breakdown is occurring more rapidly with the heating rate almost doubling, according to research that excludes the effect of natural factors behind the latest scorching temperatures.

  It found global heating accelerated from a steady rate of less than 0.2C per decade between 1970 and 2015 to about 0.35C per decade over the past 10 years. The rate is higher than scientists have seen since they started systematically taking the Earth’s temperature in 1880.

• • The Case for Breaking the Cycle of Climate Apathy

  We Can Start Cutting Emissions, Or We Can Choose to Delay
  
  {EARTH.ORG}
  
  

  Mar. 6, 2026, By Basel Kirmani -I sometimes play the “butterfly effect” game, in which I think how different life would be today if a small change had been made a few years ago.

  Perhaps in an alternate history I would not have been placed in Mr. Jones’s chemistry classes. Mr. Jones was a wonderful teacher, who nurtured my love of chemistry; his classes are why I ended up studying chemistry at university. I eventually moved to Hong Kong to become a chemistry teacher, where I fell in love, married, and settled down. Had I had a less inspiring teacher, perhaps I would instead have gravitated to Ms. Delphine’s French classes, made different career choices, ended up living in Quebec instead of Hong Kong, missing my soulmate along the way. Mr. Jones certainly changed the trajectory of my life. Maybe there’s a Mr. Jones in your life.

• • Climate Change is Speeding Up —
  the Pace Nearly Doubled in Ten Years

  Earth is Now Warming at a Rate of Around 0.35 ºC Per Decade
  
  {nature}
  
  

  Mar. 6, 2026 -The rate of global warming has surged since 2015 and is now nearly double what it was in the 1970s, according to a study1 that tackles one of the hottest debates among climate scientists.

  Because the past three years have shattered temperature records (see ‘Temperature boost’), researchers have been exploring whether global warming is accelerating, and if so, why. Many scientists agree that the rate at which it is increasing has picked up. This is mainly because of a reduction in air pollution following the introduction of fuel regulations for international shipping (which has resulted in fewer pollutant particles that reflect sunlight into space and seed insulating clouds). In the data, “you can practically see by eye that it has accelerated”, says Stefan Rahmstorf, a climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany.

• • Global Warming Has Accelerated Significantly

  Plain Language Summary
  
  {Geophysical Research Letters}
  
  

  Mar. 6, 2026 -The rise in global temperature has been widely considered to be quite steady for several decades since the 1970s. Recently, however, scientists have started to debate whether global warming has accelerated since then. It is difficult to be sure of that because of natural fluctuations in the warming rate, and so far no statistical significance (meaning 95% certainty) of an acceleration (increase in warming rate) has been demonstrated.

  In this study we subtract the estimated influence of El Niño events, volcanic eruptions and solar variations from the data, which makes the global temperature curve less variable, and it then shows a statistically significant acceleration of global warming since about the year 2015. Warming proceeding faster is not unexpected by climate models, but it is a cause of concern and shows how insufficient the efforts to slow and eventually stop global warming under the Paris Climate Accord have so far been.

• • Is Climate Change Creating Category 6 Hurricanes?

  Category 6 Storms Would Include Cyclones With Sustained Winds Above 160 Knots (or 184 MPH).
  
  {WAMC}
  
  

  Mar. 6, 2026 -The oceanic conditions that create the planet's most powerful hurricanes and typhoons are heating up in the North Atlantic and Western Pacific, fueled by warm water that now extends far below the ocean surface. These expanding hot spots can supercharge the strongest storms.

  According to a new study led by researchers from National Taiwan University, human-caused climate change may be responsible for as much as 70% of the growth of these storm-brewing hot spots. As these hot spots expand, they make it more likely that exceptionally intense tropical cyclones - sometimes described as Category 6 storms - could form and make landfall near heavily populated coastlines.

• • Will There Be a Super El Niño Later This Year?

  Here’s What That Would Mean

  ScienceNewsLogo.png
  

  Mar. 9, 2026 -The planet may experience a strong or even a super El Niño later this year, one that could rival the strongest ones in history, according to new climate data recently released by the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).

  A typical El Niño affects regional-to-global weather patterns, as a warming patch of water in the equatorial Pacific Ocean influences what regions could experience droughts, floods and extreme heat. During these relatively rare super El Niño events, happening once every 10 to 15 years on average, the effects may be stronger, more persistent and more widespread.

• • What China’s 15th ‘Five-Year Plan’ Means For Climate Change?

  China’s Leadership Has Published a Draft of Its 15Th Five-Year Plan Setting the Strategic Direction For the Nation Out to 2030
  
  {CarbonBrief}
  
  

  Mar. 6, 2026 -The plan sets a target to cut China’s “carbon intensity” by 17% over the five years from 2026-30, but also changes the basis for calculating this key climate metric.

  The plan continues to signal support for China’s clean-energy buildout and, in general, contains no major departures from the country’s current approach to the energy transition.

  The government reaffirms support for several clean-energy industries, ranging from solar and electric vehicles (EVs) through to hydrogen and “new-energy” storage.

• • Scientists Are Trying to Solve the Mystery
  of Whether Global Warming is Speeding Up

  A New Study Says It Has the Answer

  
  {CNN Climate}

  Mar. 6, 2026 -Is the world getting hotter, faster? It’s a big question which has been puzzling and dividing scientists for years. A new paper says it has the answer, and it’s not good news.

  Global warming has accelerated “significantly” over the past 10 years, meaning the world may barrel through crucial global warming limits faster than expected, according to the study published Friday in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

• • The Sea is Higher Than We Thought, and Millions More Are At Risk

  Using a More Accurate Coastal Height Baseline Means a 3-Foot Rise In Seas Could Inundate Up to 37% More Land and Threaten 77 Million to 132 Million More People
  
  {NBC NEWS}
  
  

  Mar. 9, 2026 -Climate change’s rising seas may threaten tens of millions more people than scientists and government planners originally thought because of mistaken research assumptions on how high coastal waters already are, a new study said.

  Researchers studied hundreds of scientific studies and hazard assessments, calculating that about 90% of them underestimated baseline coastal water heights by an average of 1 foot, according to Wednesday’s study in the journal Nature. It’s a far more frequent problem in the Global South, the Pacific and Southeast Asia, and less so in Europe and along Atlantic coasts.

• • Warming Triggers a Chain Reaction of Disturbance in European Forests

  Escalating Wildfires, Wind Damage and Insect Outbreaks Could Threaten Tourism, Water Supplies and Biodiversity

  
  

  Mar. 5, 2026 - Forest disturbance across Europe could more than double by the end of the century with continued global warming, fundamentally reshaping landscapes from the cork oak woodlands of Portugal to ice-etched birch thickets in northern Finland, according to a sweeping new study published Wednesday in the journal Science.

  The researchers developed a continent-wide forest model powered by artificial intelligence that simulated linked forest processes in a spatially realistic way.

• • Sea Levels Are Already Higher Than Many Scientists Think

  A Majority of Studies On Coastal Sea Levels Underestimated How High Water Levels Are, and Hundreds of Millions of People Are Closer to Peril Than Previously Thought

  
  

  Mar. 4, 2026 -New research has found that scientists studying sea-level rise have been using methods that underestimate how high the water already is. One result is that hundreds of millions more people worldwide are already living dangerously close to the rising ocean than Western scientists had previously estimated.

  The new study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, has found that the vast majority of scientific studies have made this mistake. Coastal sea levels are, on average, eight inches to a foot higher than many maps and models of the world’s coastlines indicate, the research found.

• • A Crisis in the Alps: Airbnb, Climate Change and Americans

  The Mountains’ Resort Towns Have Reached an Inflection Point

  
  

  Mar. 2, 2026 -The French call them “lits froids,” or cold beds — apartments kept vacant most of the year, occupied only when they are rented out during ski season and a few scattered weeks that align with traditional vacation times.

  In the ski resort towns of the French Alps, lits froids now make up half of all available beds, said Éric Adamkiewicz, a lecturer in regional development at the University of Toulouse, a public research school. Between Christmas and New Year’s, he said, occupancy briefly surges to 90 percent, and then the lodgings stand empty again.

• • Snow, Sleet and Freezing Rain Are Coming

  Here’s Where

  
  

  Mar. 2, 2026 - Before a big warmup commences across the Midwest and East later this week, sending temperatures soaring into the 60s, 70s and 80s, these regions will deal with another wintry system on Monday and Tuesday — including with light snow, freezing rain and icy conditions that could lead to treacherous travel.

  Although it doesn’t look particularly heavy, the storm system will bring a wintry mix to the Interstate 70 corridor from Indianapolis to Baltimore on Monday, with light snow first developing across the Mid-Atlantic, including D.C., during the afternoon.

• • Helping Trees—and a City—Outrace Climate Change

  Arborists and Land Managers Are Trying “Assisted Migration” as Global Warming Threatens Livability in Communities and More

  
  

  Mar. 1, 2026 - Nearly a foot of snow has melted. The deep freeze that sent temperatures across the region plummeting to below zero has warmed to a balmy 55 degrees on a sunny February day.

  As Matt Thomas augers a three-foot-wide hole into the ground at a city park in the shadow of downtown, Mike Hayman lets out a small groan when the cork-screw turns up reddish-colored clay where one of a dozen oak trees from Arkansas is about to be planted.

• • India Braces For Hotter-Than-Normal Summer

  More Heatwave Days Expected

  
  

  Feb. 28, 2026 - India is set to experience a hotter-than-normal summer this year, with heatwave days during March and May expected to exceed the seasonal average, the weather office said on Saturday.

  In March, the first month of the summer season, minimum temperatures are likely to remain above average across most areas, said Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, director-general of the India Meteorological Department (IMD)

• • The Seabirds of Destruction Island off
  WA Reveal Impacts of Climate Change

  Seabirds Are Among the Indicator Species That Provide Rich Insight into the Health of Their Ecosystems

  
  

  Feb. 28, 2026 -DESTRUCTION ISLAND, when you first see it, is not much to look at: a squat slab of land rising out of the horizon in the North Pacific, about three miles off the coast of the Olympic Peninsula. The island is short, perhaps a few dozen feet in elevation at most, and its top is so flat as to seem planed, with steep bluffs and fingers of sandstone that reach out into the waves. The most notable feature, at least in silhouette, is the lighthouse that sticks up from the island’s western edge like a toothpick.

  Completed in 1891, the lighthouse is 94 feet tall — about as tall as the island itself. For more than one hundred years it helped guide sailors along this perilous stretch of the coast. The U.S. Coast Guard decommissioned the lighthouse in 2008, but though the light is now dark, the island’s significance, its purpose, has not changed: People look to this place to show them the way.

• • Southern Right Whales Are Having Fewer Calves

  Scientists Say a Warming Ocean Is to Blame

  
  

  Feb. 27, 2026 - Southern right whales—once driven to near-extinction by industrial hunting in the 19th and 20th centuries—have long been regarded as a conservation success. After the International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling in the 1980s, populations began a slow but steady rebound. New research, however, suggests climate change may be undermining that recovery.

  “In my lifetime the right whale was thought to be extinct and their protection and return to Southern Hemisphere coastlines gave hope for their recovery,” said Robert Brownell Jr., a biologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center marine mammal and turtle division. “Their future is now in doubt.”

• • Wildfire Seasons Are Starting to Overlap

  That Spells Trouble for Firefighting

  
  

  Feb. 24, 2026 -Converging wildfire seasons around the world are increasing the risk that firefighting agencies will be less able to share resources like ground crews and water bombers, according to a new study.

  The study, published this month in the journal Science Advances, found that the extreme weather conditions that stoke wildfires around the world are happening on more days each year, causing fire seasons in different regions to overlap more.

• • Alaska's Melting Glaciers Are Revealing Long-Lost Frozen Bodies

  The Discovery of Their Bodies May Have Been Aided By a Warming Planet.

  
  

  Feb. 27, 2026 -The lower end of Colony Glacier is convulsed into folds and ridges taller than houses. Strewn across this expanse of blue and white ice are rusted springs, nuts, bolts, tires, and the battered husk of a 28-cylinder propeller engine—the fragments of a plane that hasn’t flown for seven decades.

  Workers have visited this crash site every summer since it was discovered 13 years ago, in the Chugach Mountains of southern Alaska. They are have been searching for the remains of 52 servicemen who disappeared when their C-124 Globemaster II military transport plane went down in 1952. And on a cold, clear afternoon last July, they finally found the remains of James Kimball—a crew member they feared they might never identify.

• • The Colorado River is Nearing Collapse

  It’s Trump’s Problem Now

  
  

  Feb. 27, 2026 -The Colorado River currently supports 40 million people and $1.4 trillion in annual economic activity in seven U.S. states and Mexico — but it was never intended to be stretched so thin.

  A century-old legal framework promises those users more water than there is to go around. The river’s flow has shrunk by about 20 percent over the last century as climate change has made the West more arid. As water has vanished, states have clashed over how to divide up what remains. The core dispute is between the sparsely inhabited mountainous states of the “Upper Basin,” where hay farmers and a few major cities like Denver draw water from the river and its tributaries, and the far more populous “Lower Basin,” which diverts water to support most of the nation’s winter vegetable farmers as well as megacities like Los Angeles and Phoenix.

• • Wildfire Seasons Are Starting to Overlap, Spelling Trouble for Firefighting

  Simultaneous Emergencies in Different Parts of the World Could Stop Countries From Sharing Ground Crews and Equipment

  
  

  Feb. 27, 2026 -Converging wildfire seasons around the world are increasing the risk that firefighting agencies will be less able to share resources like ground crews and water bombers, according to a new study.

  The study, published this month in the journal Science Advances, found that the extreme weather conditions that stoke wildfires around the world are happening on more days each year, causing fire seasons in different regions to overlap more.

• • The Polar Bear’s Fight Against Climate Change

  Arctic Giants in Peril
  
  {EARTH.ORG}
  
  

  Feb. 27, 2026 -In the heart of the Arctic’s ethereal vastness, where the whispers of cold winds meld with the ethereal dance of the auroras, resides the polar bear, a creature as majestic as it is a poignant symbol of the environmental challenges of our time. Known scientifically as Ursus maritimus, these creatures are not merely the Arctic’s apex predators but also key components of their fragile ecosystem.

  Their seemingly white fur, composed of clear, hollow tubes alongside a substantial layer of blubber, equips them superbly for survival in their frigid realm. These natural adaptations enable not just warmth in the biting cold but also camouflage against the ice and snow, making polar bears unparalleled hunters of the Arctic.

• • Satellites Reveal New Climate Threat to Emperor Penguins

  Ice loss in the Antarctic Ocean May Be Killing the Sea Birds During Their Molting Season

  
  

  Feb. 26, 2026 -Each year for millennia, emperor penguins have molted on coastal sea ice that remained stable until late summer—a haven during a span of several weeks when it’s dangerous for the mostly aquatic birds to enter the ocean to feed because they are regrowing their waterproof feathers.

  But as overall Antarctic sea ice extent dwindled to record lows in recent years, some of the frozen penguin platforms melted earlier than ever, forcing the weakened birds into smaller areas and possibly to a premature death in the icy ocean, according to British Antarctic Survey geographer Peter Fretwell, who helped pioneer counting emperor penguins from space.

• • New Study Finds Air Conditioners Will<
  Exacerbate Climate Change As Planet Warms

  An Industry Group Told Federal Officials That Losing the National Center for Atmospheric Research Would Weaken Insurance “Stability and Affordability.”
  
  {TIME}
  
  

  Feb. 26, 2026 -As global temperatures rise, the very thing we turn to to keep ourselves cool could be a significant contributor to increased emissions and an even warmer planet.

  A new study published today in the journal Nature Communications estimates that, by 2050, air-conditioning use is expected to more than double as more people turn to air conditioning to stay cool amidst rising temperatures, contributing significantly to expected greenhouse gas emissions. What’s more, as incomes rise in developing countries and more low and medium-income regions achieve the same access to AC as high-income regions, we could see an additional 0.015°C to 0.05°C of warming by 2050.

• • Climate Change Costs Us Twice As Much As
  Previously Thought When You Factor in the Ocean

  A New Calculation Includes Ocean Ecosystems When Assessing the Monetary Impact of Climate Change

  
  

  Feb. 25, 2026 -How much money is climate change costing humanity? The social cost of carbon, a term for the monetary damages caused by excess carbon emissions, provides one answer.

  That calculation has traditionally disregarded the impacts that climate change has on the ocean—until now.

  “Once you see it, you cannot unsee it,” said Bernie Bastien-Olvera, a climate change scientist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

• • Chronic Ocean Heating Fuels ‘Staggering’ Marine Life Loss

  Fish Levels Fall By 7.2% With as Little as 0.1C of Warming Per Decade

  
  

  Feb. 25, 2026 -Chronic ocean heating is fuelling a “staggering and deeply concerning” loss of marine life, a study has found, with fish levels falling by 7.2% from as little as 0.1C of warming per decade.

  Researchers examined the year-to-year change of 33,000 populations in the northern hemisphere between 1993 and 2021, and isolated the effect of the decadal rate of seabed warming from short shifts such as marine heatwaves. They found the drop in biomass from chronic heating to be as high as 19.8% in a single year.

• • Grasslands Could Shrink by Half As Climate Change Intensifies

  Grasslands Supporting Over One Billion Grazing Animals Could Shrink by 36–50% By the End of the Century
  
  {EARTH.ORG}
  
  

  Feb. 23, 2026 -By the end of the century, grasslands that currently support 1.5 billion cows, sheep, and goats around the world will contract by anywhere between 36–50% due to the impacts of climate change, a new analysis has found.

  The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), which conducted the study, said the impacts of climate change on grasslands in Africa are particularly worrying. Because African climate conditions are already almost at the extremes of what grasslands can bear, if global emissions from fossil fuel combustion and other sources are reduced drastically, African grasslands may contract by only 16%. A “business as usual” scenario, where emissions continue to rise, may lead to losses of up to 65%.

• • Is Climate Change Making Inflation Worse?

  There’s Mounting Evidence That Extreme Weather is Making Some Everyday Stuff More Expensive. But...

  
  

  Feb. 23, 2026 -When we think of the costs of climate change, the first thing that usually comes to mind is catastrophic losses from disasters like floods and wildfires. But what about everyday expenses like milk, eggs and your electricity bill? Is climate change driving inflation?

  The short answer: Probably, but it’s complicated.

  There’s mounting evidence that more frequent extreme weather events do make some things more expensive. But how that plays out depends on where you live.

• • Yes, Indiana Maple Syrup is a Thing.
  But Climate Woes Could Change That

  Researchers Fear That Maple Syrup Production Could Become Impossible in Indiana By the end of the Century
  
  {IndyStar}
  
  

  Feb. 23, 2026 -On dark winter nights, Indiana sugar maker Emily Blackman sometimes finds her husband, Robert, pacing the floor of their home in Clark County, anxiously thumbing through the forecast on his cell phone, checking to see what the weather might have in store for the family's maple trees.

  Syrup production is a fickle business, subject to the whims of the climate — and Emily has known this for most of her life. She and her sister, Jen Reisenbichler, grew up tapping trees and chopping firewood on the family's Salem maple farm. When their parents sold the property in 2013, the sisters and their husbands snatched it up. The two families have been running LM Sugarbush ever since.

• • Nobel Laureate Invents Machine That Harvests Water From Dry Air

  Omar Yaghi’s Invention Uses Ambient Thermal Energy and Can Generate Up to 1,000 Litres of Clean Water Every Day

  
  

  Feb. 22, 2026 -A Nobel laureate’s environmentally friendly invention that provides clean water if central supplies are knocked out by a hurricane or drought could be a life saver for vulnerable islands, its founder says.

  The invention, by the chemist Prof Omar Yaghi, uses a type of science called reticular chemistry to create molecularly engineered materials, which can extract moisture from the air and harvest water even in arid and desert conditions.

• • Under Water, In Denial: is Europe Drowning Out the Climate Crisis?

  Even as Weather Extremes Worsen, the Voices Calling For the Rolling Back of Environmental Rules Have Grown Louder and More Influential

  
  

  Feb. 21, 2026 -In the timeless week between Christmas and the new year, two Spanish men in their early 50s – friends since childhood, popular around town – went to a restaurant and did not come home.

  Francisco Zea Bravo, a maths teacher active in a book club and rock band, and Antonio Morales Serrano, the owner of a popular cafe and ice-cream parlour, had gone to eat with friends in Málaga on Saturday 27 December. But as the pair drove back to Alhaurín el Grande that night, heavy rains turned the usually tranquil Fahala River into what the mayor would later call an “uncontrollable torrent”. Police found their van overturned the next day. Their bodies followed after an agonising search.

• 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