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Keeping It Green

Atmospheric CO2 Levels

(Monthly Averages)

Nov 1, 2025: 425.7 ppm
10 years ago: 396 ppm
Pre-industrial base: 280
Safe level: 350 ppm

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

Page Updated:
Nov. 29, 2025

• The 2024 Clean 15 (Safe Foods)
• Get the Lead Out Toolkit
• Oil Spill History
• World Air Quality Report
• Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act

• US Emissions by Sector Chart

  
  

  Where is all that CO2 coming from? This graph breaks it down by economic sector.

• Greenest U.S. Cities
• Safe Water in Pictures
• U.S. WEA Grassroots Accelerator
• Safer Habitats

• • Invasive European Green Crabs Discovered in WA’s Skagit Bay

  Crab Molting Occurs When a Crab Sheds Its Shell
  
  
  

  Nov. 26, 2025 -Researchers found the first evidence of European green crabs in the northern Whidbey Basin, a sign that one of the world’s most harmful marine species has made inroads in the Salish Sea, the Washington Sea Grant Crab Team announced Tuesday.

  European green crabs are small, invasive shore crabs that damage bed sediments, leading to the loss of eelgrass, an essential habitat for Dungeness crab and Pacific salmon, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

• • Magnitude 4.0 Earthquake Rattles Bay Area

  Aftershocks Likely to Follow
  
  
  

  Nov. 26, 2025 -An earthquake of magnitude 4.0 rattled the Bay Area shortly after 6 A.M. local time on November 26—the quake is the largest so far in a string of recent activity near Gilroy, Calif.

  The U.S. Geological Survey had originally estimated the earthquake to be magnitude 4.3 but quickly revised the strength down to 4.0. That kind of revision is typical in the immediate aftermath of a quake as scientists analyze the data available to them.

• • Seattle’s Rad Power Bikes Linked to 31 Fires

  It's Not Always Easy Being Green
  
  
  

  Nov. 24, 2025 -A struggling Seattle-based electric bike company is facing yet another bump in the road as a federal product safety agency warned customers Monday to stop using some of the models due to safety concerns around their batteries.

  The lithium-ion batteries used in some Rad Power Bikes products can unexpectedly ignite and explode, and can pose a risk of serious injury and death, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission wrote in a notice.

• • Fire Threatens Iran’s Ancient Forest, a World Heritage Site

  Iran has Been Battling Its Worst Drought In More Than Six Decades
  
  
  

  Nov. 24, 2025 - A wildfire burning for more than a week in drought-stricken Iran has razed portions of the ancient Hyrcanian Forests, a UNESCO World Heritage site home to many endangered species.

  On Sunday, Turkey sent aircraft at Iran’s request to help battle the blaze in one of the world’s oldest forests, according to Iranian state media. The local authorities said they had managed to contain most of the fire, which they have been battling in the country’s north.

• • Volcano Erupts After Lying Dormant for 12,000 Years

  The Hayli Gubbi Volcano, Long Thought to Be Dormant, Sent Ash Nine Miles into the Sky In an Eruption On Sunday
  
  
  

  Nov. 24, 2025 -A long-quiet volcano in Ethiopia spewed ash nine miles into the sky on Sunday, marking the first known major eruption from this volcano for more than 12,000 years.

  Under-studied and situated in Ethiopia’s arid, rural northeast, volcano Hayli Gubbi’s towering ash column may be a clue to other, undetected eruptions in that period, says Juliet Biggs, an earth scientist at the University of Bristol in England.

• • Toxic Mines Put Southeast Asia's
  Rivers, and People At Risk

  Mines May Be Releasing Deadly Chemicals into River Water
  
  
  

  Nov. 24, 2025 -For most of her life, 59-year-old farmer Tip Kamlue has irrigated her fields in northern Thailand with the waters of the Kok River, which flows down from neighbouring Myanmar before joining with the Mekong River that cuts through Southeast Asia.

  But since April, after authorities warned residents to stop using the Kok's water because of concerns over contamination, Tip has been using groundwater to grow pumpkins, garlic, sweet corn and okra.

• • Oil Producers, but Maybe Not the Planet,
  Get a Win as Climate Talks End

  The Final Agreement, With No Direct Mention of the Fossil Fuels Dangerously Heating Earth, Was a Victory For Countries Like Saudi Arabia and Russia
  
  
  

  Nov. 23, 2025 - Global climate negotiations ended on Saturday in Brazil with a watered-down resolution that made no direct mention of fossil fuels, the main driver of global warming.

  The final statement, roundly criticized by diplomats as insufficient, was a victory for oil producers like Saudi Arabia and Russia. It included plenty of warnings about the cost of inaction but few provisions for how the world might address dangerously rising global temperatures head-on.

• • Earthquake Jolts Bangladesh,
  Killing Five and Injuring Around 100

  Tremors Felt In Neighbouring India
  
  
  

  Nov. 21, 2025' -At least five people, including a child, were killed and around 100 injured when a magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck Bangladesh on Friday, the government said, with buildings damaged in many areas including the densely populated capital Dhaka.

  Tremors were felt in eastern states in neighboring India that border Bangladesh, but there were no immediate reports of major damage there, authorities said.

• • She Studied How to Protect Children From Pollution and Heat

  “There Was No Warning, No Conversation,” Said Jane Clougherty, an Environmental Health Scientist, Who Had a Federal Grant Canceled Earlier This Year
  
  
  

  Nov. 20, 2025 -I’m a professor of environmental health at Drexel University. I study how the impacts of pollution can differ because of a person’s surroundings and individual circumstances. This will be an important influence on children’s health as the climate changes, an area that I have focused on in recent years.

  I had a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to identify the relationships between heat, pollution and children’s health in New York State. It’s an important case study because New York State includes the most and least populated areas in the country, like Manhattan and the Adirondacks.

• • The Lethal Dose of Plastic for Seabirds and Marine Animals

  Its Far Smaller Than Anyone Expected
  
  
  

  Nov. 20 -New research has found that even small amounts of plastic can be deadly to seabirds, sea turtles and marine mammals. While previous research has established that plastic can lead to mortality in many species, this new study identifies the types and amounts of plastic that pose the greatest danger, and estimates how likely an animal is to die after ingesting it. The study authors found the lethal dose to be much smaller than expected.

  The team of international researchers, including several from U.S.-based environmental advocacy group Ocean Conservancy, conducted a literature review of more than 50 studies, drawing together the necropsy results for more than 10,000 animals that included data on the cause of death and on plastic ingestion. The mortality data included 1,537 seabirds from 57 species; 1,306 sea turtles from all seven marine turtle species; and 7,569 marine mammals representing 31 species, including whales, dolphins and seals.

• • Trump Officials Unveil Plan to Drill Off California, Sparking a Fight

  Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom Declared the Plan “Dead On Arrival”
  
  
  

  Nov. 20 -The Trump administration unveiled plans Thursday to open the coast of California to offshore drilling, a major provocation against a state that has for decades fought to protect its coastal waters.

  The administration’s draft maps call for six California offshore lease sales between 2027 and 2030, saying it would help cement American energy “dominance.”

• • Ocean Acidification to Hit Puget Sound Harder

  This Sounds Pretty Bad
  
  
  

  Nov. 20, 2025 -The waters of Puget Sound are more susceptible to ocean acidification and sliding faster into dangerous territory for its marine wildlife than other places around the world, a new study shows.

  Should the trend continue, our marine wildlife and fisheries will likely suffer greatly years or decades earlier than previously anticipated, said Alex Gagnon, a chemical oceanographer with the University of Washington.

• • A Scottish Field and a Forgotten Lava Flow
  Could Be Key Places for Long-Term Carbon Storage

  Areas in the UK Have Been Identified as Having High Potential For Effective Carbon Capture and Storage
  
  
  

  Nov. 19, 2025 -If you wanted to hide billions of tons of carbon dioxide for thousands of years, where would you go? According to a new study, a good place to start would be in a wet, windswept field near a Scottish loch.

  A new study suggests that the UK’s onshore volcanic rocks could, in theory, lock away decades’ worth of industrial CO? by turning it into stone, deep underground.

• • As COP30 Unfolds in the Amazon, Brazil Is
  Drilling for Oil Near the Great Amazon Reef System

  Environmental Advocates Warn Oil Leaks Or Spills Could Cause Irreparable Damage to the Unique and Understudied Ecosystem
  
  
  

  Nov. 19, 2025 -As world leaders conclude the United Nations’ annual climate talks in Belém, Brazil— a summit meant to accelerate global action on phasing out fossil fuels—the Brazilian government is facing mounting criticism over its recent decision to authorize offshore drilling for oil near the Great Amazon Reef System.

  This unique and understudied marine habitat makes up one of the largest reefs in Brazil. Some scientists estimate it may span at least 20,000 square miles, though less than 5 percent of the ecosystem has been mapped. Until recently, some people doubted its existence.

• • At least 15 English Sewage Plants Use
  Plastic Beads Spilled at Camber Sands

  Experts Urge Water Companies to Update Plants to Avoid Another Catastrophe
  
  
  

  Nov. 18, 2025 -At least 15 sewage plants on England’s south coast use the same contaminated plastic beads that were spilled in an environmental disaster in Camber Sands, Guardian analysis can reveal.

  Environmental experts have urged water companies to update these old treatment plants to avoid another catastrophic spill, which can lead to plastic beads being permanently embedded in the environment and killing marine wildlife.

• • Recycling Lead for U.S. Car Batteries Is Poisoning People

  What the Auto Industry Wants People to See: Sparkling Factories Turning Reclaimed Lead Into Batteries for Ford, Toyota, GM and the Rest
  
  
  

  Nov. 18, 2025 -POISONOUS DUST falls from the sky over the town of Ogijo, near Lagos, Nigeria. It coats kitchen floors, vegetable gardens, churchyards and schoolyards.

  The toxic soot billows from crude factories that recycle lead for American companies.

  With every breath, people inhale invisible lead particles and absorb them into their bloodstream. The metal seeps into their brains, wreaking havoc on their nervous systems. It damages livers and kidneys. Toddlers ingest the dust by crawling across floors, playgrounds and backyards, then putting their hands in their mouths.

• • How the Fossil-Fuel Industry’s Pivot to Plastic Is Polluting Our Planet

  To Keep Profits Rolling in, Oil and Gas Companies Want to Turn Fossil Fuels Into a Mounting Pile of Packaging and Other Plastic Products
  
  
  

  Nov. 18, 2025 -In 2018, at a Dubai resort next to the blue-green waters of the Persian Gulf, Amin Nasser, CEO of Saudi Aramco, stood before an audience of hundreds of petrochemical executives to set out his vision for the future of the world’s largest oil company. The goals he described weren’t primarily about energy. Instead he announced plans to pour $100 billion into expanding production of plastic and other petrochemicals.

  Nasser predicted that with a growing global population wielding more purchasing power every year, petrochemicals—compounds derived from petroleum and other fossil fuels and of which plastics and their ingredients constitute as much as 80 percent—would drive nearly half of oil-demand growth by mid-century. About 98 percent of virgin plastics are made from fossil fuels. In sectors that include packaging, cars and construction, he said, “the tremendous growth in chemicals demand provides us with a fantastic window of opportunity.”

• • Pitted Against Waste

  East Texans Are Uniting to Fight Oil Waste Pits In Bucolic Areas Near the Louisiana Line
  
  
  

  Nov. 17, 2025 -For 15 years, Debrah Linn and her children have raised chickens, miniature donkeys, pet geese, and, more recently, longhorn cattle on what she’d considered an idyllic and peaceful farmette near the village of Elysian Fields.

  Her kids ride horses on their shady lane, a 4.3-mile-long country road that undulates through woods filled with standing water that feeds Sacogee Creek and, in summer, waving blossoms of Black-eyed Susans.

• • How Much Plastic Can Kill a Sea Turtle?

  A New Study Has Answers
  
  
  

  Nov. 17, 2025 -Two baseballs for a sea turtle. Three sugar cubes for a puffin. A soccer ball for a harbor porpoise.

  That’s roughly how much ingested plastic would be deadly for each animal, according to a study published on Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

• • Taps Run Dry as Water Crisis Forces
  Iran to Consider Evacuating Its Capital

  A Prolonged Drought Along With Years of Overconsumption, an Inefficient Agricultural Sector and Mismanagement Have Led to the Problem
  
  {NBC NEWS}
  
  

  Nov. 16, 2025 A drastic new message adorns the walls of the Iranian capital, usually reserved for war heroes and weapons.

  “There is a water shortage!” reads the government poster's slogan, inside a water container that is nearly empty. “It’s fall and there is still no rain.”

• • “Water is Worth More Than Lithium,”
  Indigenous Argentine Community Tells COP30

  Rich In Lithium But Poor In Water, Traditional Andean Communities Want the World to Recognize the Pitfalls of Surging Demand For Minerals Vital to the Global Energy Transition
  
  {CLIMATE HOME NEWS}
  
  

  Nov. 13, 2025 - Here, life revolves around a single, sacred element: water, the source that feeds the lagoon, sustains crops and animals, and has anchored centuries of Indigenous life.

  The Salinas Grandes, shared between the provinces of Jujuy and Salta, is one of the largest salt flats in South America. Beneath it lies another resource: lithium, the mineral driving the global race for batteries that power the energy transition.

• • Zimbabwe Has a Big Lightning Problem and It Involves Black Magic

  Zimbabwe is One of the Most Lightning-Struck Places On Earth, and a Mix of Extreme Weather and Deep-Rooted Superstition Puts Thousands of People in Danger Every Rainy Season
  
  
  

  Nov. 13, 2025 -This January, lightning struck and killed a 103-year-old grandmother while she was simply handling utensils in her kitchen hut in eastern Zimbabwe. Her tragic death is a grim, personal reminder of a shocking national statistic.

  She is one of the many people killed by lightning every rainy season, which kicks off around October each year. Experts estimate that lightning kills an average of 120 people in Zimbabwe annually, though according to the country’s Meteorological Services Department, that number is underreported by 20-30%.

• • ConocoPhillips Wants to Explore for Oil in an Arctic Wilderness

  They're Proposing Exploratory Drilling and Seismic Testing in Areas Home to Caribou and Other Wildlife That Provide Sustenance For Alaska Natives
  
  
  

  Nov. 12, 2025 -When she was younger, Rosemary Ahtuangaruak used to camp for weeks at a time with family at their allotment near Teshekpuk Lake, on Alaska’s North Slope. Her uncle would pick her up from work, she said, with the snowmobile fired up and ready to bring her to the array of lakes and wetlands that many describe as one of the nation’s great wilderness areas.

  “Get your winter gear,” she recalled him announcing. “We’re going camping.”

  Within a couple of months that area could host drilling rigs probing the depths for oil with exploratory wells. ConocoPhillips has applied to extend ice roads and well pads farther west into the Arctic wilderness beyond its Willow oil project, which was approved by the Biden administration in 2023 and is now under construction.

• • Carbon Dioxide Emissions Head for Another Record in 2025

  But There Are Signs That Greenhouse Gas Pollution in China Might Be Slowing
  
  
  

  Nov. 12, 2025 -Global fossil fuel emissions are on track to soar to record highs in 2025 and show no signs of declining overall, although there are indications of a recent slowdown in China’s emissions, researchers said on Wednesday.

  This year, nations are projected to emit roughly 38.1 billion tons of planet-warming carbon dioxide by burning oil, gas and coal for energy and by manufacturing cement, according to data from the Global Carbon Project. Those sources are the largest contributors to human-caused climate change. The total is roughly 1.1 percent more than the world emitted in 2024.

• • Ocean Microbes May Be Developing Taste For Plastic Pollution

  New Research Finds Bacteria in More Than 75% of Global Ocean Samples Equipped With Enzymes That Can Break Down PET—the Plastic Used in Bottles
  
  
  

  Nov. 12, 2025 -We’ve poured more than 150 million metric tons of plastic garbage into the ocean since 1950. Plastic bits have turned up in places as remote as the bottom of the Mariana Trench, where scientists recently found an intact plastic bag some 6 kilometers below the ocean surface.

  So it should come as no surprise that life in the deep has figured out how to extract carbon – a building block of life – from even this seemingly indestructible material.

• • Trump Is Said to Propose Opening California Coast to Oil Drilling

  Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Chief Critic of the President and an Opponent of Oil Exploration In the Pacific, Called the Proposal “Dead On Arrival.”
  
  
  

  Nov. 12, 2025 -The Trump administration plans to allow new oil and gas drilling off the California coast for the first time in roughly four decades, according to three people briefed on the matter.

  The move would set up a confrontation with Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who has fought offshore drilling and who has emerged as one of President Trump’s chief political antagonists. The governor is in Brazil for the United Nations climate summit, where he is drawing a contrast between himself and Mr. Trump, who denigrates efforts to fight global warming.

• • Can Arizona Maintain Its Drought
  Response as Water and Money Dry Up?

  The State Has Spent Hundreds of Millions Of Dollars and Implemented New Regulations to Protect Water Supplies. But...
  
  
  

  Nov. 11, 2025 -In front of Buddy Rocha Jr. stood a group of Arizona’s local and state-level politicians, agency staffers and water experts. Behind the Yavapai-Apache chairman flowed the Verde River.

  For centuries, he said, his people have depended on the land along the 193-mile waterway—from its headwaters to the lower stretch that is designated now as a National Wild and Scenic River.

• • States That Rely on the Colorado River Miss Deadline to Agree on Cuts

  A Plan to Sustainably Manage the Shrinking Waterway Could Soon Be Up to the Trump Administration — Or Eventually the Supreme Court
  
  
  

  Nov. 11, 2025 -The seven states that rely on the Colorado River for drinking water missed a Tuesday deadline to agree on reduced shares as the river’s flow continues to decline dramatically.

  But the states and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which manages the river and its reservoirs, said that negotiations would continue, citing “extraordinary pressure on this critical water resource that supports 40 million people, tribal nations, agriculture and industry.”

• • A Disease-Carrying Mosquito Has Landed in the
  Rocky Mountains Where It Historically Couldn’t Survive

  The Aedes Aegypti Mosquito That Can Carry Dengue Was Thought to Be Too Reliant On a Hot and Wet Climate to Survive in the Mountain West
  
  
  

  Nov. 10, 2025 -It can carry life-threatening diseases. It’s difficult to find and hard to kill. And it’s obsessed with human blood.

  The Aedes aegypti is a species of mosquito that people like Tim Moore, district manager of a mosquito control district on the Western Slope of Colorado, really don’t want to see.

• • To Keep Diablo Canyon Operating,
  Coastal Commission Wants More Land Conserved

  California Regulators Want PG&E to Conserve Thousands of Acres of Coastal Land to Keep the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant Running Through 2030g
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Nov. 10, 2025 -The utility’s current plan offers phased easements and new trails but falls short of the scale the California Coastal Commission demands.

  Lawmakers and local leaders called PG&E’s mitigation plan “wholly inadequate,” urging permanent conservation of all 12K acres around the facility. They argue that full land protection is the only meaningful offset to decades of marine damage caused by the plant’s massive seawater cooling system.

• • A Giant Weak Spot in Earth’s Magnetic Field Is Spreading

  Scientists Are Worried
  
  
  

  Nov. 10, 2025 -The observations by the European Space Agency’s Swarm trio of satellites found that Earth’s already weak magnetic field over the South Atlantic Ocean—a region known as the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA)—is getting worse and that it has grown by an area half the size of continental Europe since 2014. At the same time, a region over Canada where the field is particularly strong has shrunk, while another strong field region in Siberia has grown, the measurements show.

  “The region of weak magnetic field in the South Atlantic has continued to increase in size over the past 11 years since the launch of the Swarm satellite constellation,” explained Chris Finlay, a geomagnetism researcher at the Danmarks Tekniske Universitet.

• • ‘Environmental Catastrophe’ Fears as
  Millions of Plastic Beads Wash Up On Camber Sands

  MP Asks For Explanation From Southern Water Amid Concerns the Spill Could Have Dire Impact On Rare Sea Life
  
  
  

  Nov. 8, 2025 -Southern Water is investigating after millions of contaminated plastic beads washed up on Camber Sands beach, risking an “environmental catastrophe”.

  The biobeads could have a dire impact on marine life, the local MP has said, with fears rare sea life, including seabirds, porpoises and seals, could ingest them and die.

• • Tornado in Southern Brazil Kills Six, Injures Hundreds

  Roads Were Blocked and Power Lines Damaged
  
  
  

  Nov. 8, 2025 -A tornado accompanied by strong winds and heavy rain struck the southern Brazilian state of Parana, killing six people, the state government said on Saturday.

  The town of Rio Bonito do Iguacu was hit hardest late Friday, with the state's civil defense agency reporting that over half of the urban area suffered roof collapses, along with multiple structural failures.

• • Gas Stoves Are Slowly Poisoning Homes

  That "Clean" Gas Stove? It's Costing You a Fortune In Health
  
  
  

  Nov. 7, 2025 -The gas stove in your kitchen might be slowly poisoning you. A striking new study warns these common appliances are a major source of indoor air pollution, carrying a severe and previously unquantified health cost.

  The report, commissioned by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) in New Zealand, has important findings for anyone with a gas stove. The study focused on two pollutants (nitrogen dioxide and fine particulate matter), both of which are linked to premature mortality, cardiovascular and respiratory hospitalizations, and childhood asthma. The study found that gas stoves often leak both.

• • The Sierra Club Embraced Social Justice. Then It Tore Itself Apart

  The Environmental Group Gave Up Its Singular Focus On Climate Change For a Broader Agenda
  
  
  

  Nov. 7, 2024 -The Sierra Club calls itself the “largest and most influential grass roots environmental organization in the country.” But it is in the middle of an implosion — left weakened, distracted and divided just as environmental protections are under assault by the Trump administration.

  The group has lost 60 percent of the four million members and supporters it counted in 2019. It has held three rounds of employee layoffs since 2022, trying to climb out of a $40 million projected budget deficit.

• • Trump Officials Accused of Bullying Tactics to Kill a Climate Measure

  Nations Were Poised to Approve the First Fee On Pollution From Ships. But...
  
  
  

  Nov. 6, 2024 -More than 100 nations were poised last month to approve a historic deal to slash pollution from cargo ships. That’s when the United States launched a pressure campaign that officials around the world have called extraordinary, even by the standards of the Trump administration’s combativeness, according to nine diplomats on its receiving end.

  An ambassador from Asia was told that, if he voted in favor of the plan, his country’s sailors would no longer be allowed to disembark at American ports.

• • Brazil Proposes a New Type of Fund to Protect Tropical Forests

  The Multibillion-Dollar Fund Would Essentially Pay Countries to Keep Forests Standing
  
  
  

  Nov. 5, 2024 -To mow down a forest is usually lucrative. You can sell the wood, then clear areas for animals to graze, or mine for valuable ores, or grow corn or other crops year after year.

  This is how most of the world’s tropical rainforests have vanished in the past 25 years, including in Brazil.

  Brazil is trying to change that. On Thursday it is due to announce the establishment of an ambitious fund designed to pay countries to keep their tropical forests standing.

• • Valencia Floods Expose Need For Sustainable Transport

  Car-Driven Climate Risk
  
  {CLIMATE HOME NEWS}
  
  

  Nov. 5, 2025, Experts told Climate Home News that last year’s destruction in Spain highlights a little considered problem that can put people at greater risk from increasingly heavy rains: an over-reliance on road transportation.

  In late October 2024, a weather system known locally as the DANA killed 229 people and turned towns near Valencia into rivers of mud. In the days that followed, images of wrecked cars swept by floodwaters into piles as high as buildings circulated around the world.

• • Brazil Proposes a New Type of Fund to Protect Tropical Forests

  The Multibillion-Dollar Fund Would Essentially Pay Countries to Keep Forests Standing
  
  
  

  Nov. 5, 2025 -To mow down a forest is usually lucrative. You can sell the wood, then clear areas for animals to graze, or mine for valuable ores, or grow corn or other crops year after year.

  This is how most of the world’s tropical rainforests have vanished in the past 25 years, including in Brazil.

  Brazil is trying to change that.

• • Valencia Floods Expose Need For Sustainable Transport

  Heavy Reliance On Cars Put People In Harm’s Way In the 2024 Disaster
  
  {CLIMATE HOME NEWS}
  
  

  Nov. 5, 2024 -Experts told Climate Home News that last year’s destruction in Spain highlights a little considered problem that can put people at greater risk from increasingly heavy rains: an over-reliance on road transportation.

  In late October 2024, a weather system known locally as the DANA killed 229 people and turned towns near Valencia into rivers of mud. In the days that followed, images of wrecked cars swept by floodwaters into piles as high as buildings circulated around the world.

• • Philippines Begins Cleanup After
  Typhoon Kalmaegi Leaves at Least 85 Dead

  Typhoon Kalmaegi Leaves at Least 85 Dead, Dozens Missing
  
  
  

  Nov. 5, 2025 -Residents of the central Philippines on Wednesday began scraping mud from streets and homes that survived after Typhoon Kalmaegi killed at least 85 and left dozens missing as it tore through the region.

  Scenes of destruction emerged in the hardest-hit province of Cebu, a major tourist hub, as floodwaters receded, revealing the scale of the damage: homes reduced to rubble, overturned vehicles, streets choked with debris, and lives upended.

• • Federal Courts Divided, So Far, on Trump’s Environmental Retreat

  Judges Curbed Rollbacks During Trump’s First Term. But the Courts and the Law Have Changed Thanks to Trump’s Own Appointments
  
  
  

  Nov. 4, 2024 -n President Donald Trump’s first term, the federal courts helped put the brakes on his administration’s retreat on environmental protection.

  Nine months into the second Trump term, the courts appear divided on whether to allow the administration’s far more aggressive dismantling of policy on climate change, clean energy and environmental justice.

• • Spinning Leftover Yeast From Beer
  Into Soft, Strong, Biodegradable Fabric

  This New Yeast-Based Fiber Could Replace Millions of Acres of Cotton Fields
  
  
  

  Nov. 4, 2025 -Penn State researchers say the stuff we throw away after making beer, wine, and even some medicines could help feed people and clean up fashion at the same time. In their new study, a team led by Penn State reports a fiber spun from leftover yeast biomass that beats natural fibers in strength while requiring far less land and water.

  The idea is simple on its face. Beer and drug makers end up with tons of spent yeast — a mix of proteins, lipids, and sugars — once fermentation is complete. That “waste” usually heads to low-value uses or the bin. However, in their study, the team isolated the protein, dissolved the resulting pulp in a common solvent, and extruded it through a spinneret. They were then able to produce continuous strands that can be washed, dried, twisted into yarn, and woven into cloth. The solvent is the same one used to make the popular semi-synthetic fibre Lyocell and, according to the researchers, 99.6% of it can be recovered and reused each cycle.

• • Senators, Advocates Demand Explanation
  On Asbestos Risks From East Wing

  The White House Said It Had Mitigated Risks Associated With the Building Material, Which Was Widely Used at the Time of the East Wing’s Construction and Can Be Hazardous
  
  
  

  Nov. 1, 2025 -Democratic senators and public health advocates are demanding that the White House and its contractors prove their rapid demolition of the East Wing last week did not expose workers and passersby to asbestos, a construction material that has been linked to cancer and lung disease.

  White House officials have said work to abate hazardous materials at the site was performed last month but have so far not provided documentation of what contractors did to mitigate risks associated with the material, which was widely used in building projects at the time of the East Wing’s 1902 construction and 1942 renovation.

• • The Surprising Persistence of Carbon in Retired Farmland Soils

  New Research Turns an Old Assumption On Its Head
  
  
  

  Oct. 31, 2025 -When farmland is returned to the wild, it shows a striking ability to hold onto the carbon that built up in farm soils over time, retaining this stock for 30 years or more, a unique, long-term study shows.

  The new finding challenges a long-held view that farmlands release large amounts of CO2 when they are rewilded. At issue are two opposing features of nitrogen fertilizer. On one hand, nitrogen fertilizer drives pollution and can increase emissions from the soil. On the other hand, by nourishing plant growth it also increases biomass, which in turn captures more carbon that is stored in the ground.

• LADWP Says It Will Shift Its Largest Gas Power Plant to Hydrogen

LA Just Greenlit an $800M Plan to Turn Part of Its Biggest Gas Plant into a Hydrogen Facility

{energy central}



Oct. 31, 2025 -The LA Department of Water and Power voted 3-0 to convert two aging gas units at the Scattergood Generating Station to burn a mix of natural gas and green hydrogen by 2029—a move officials call “critical” to hitting the city’s 100% renewable energy goal by 2035.

Supporters say the project keeps reliability intact while preparing for a hydrogen future. Critics, including the Sierra Club and Communities for a Better Environment, argue it’s a $800M bet that could lock in methane use for decades and worsen local pollution.

• • The Scariest Part of Halloween? A Billion Pounds of Pumpkin Waste

  Once a Vital Food Crop for Ancient Americans, the Humble Pumpkin Has Turned into Disposable Halloween Décor
  
  
  

  Oct. 30, 2025 -Throw up your spider webs and hang those skeletons, Halloween is here! As all terrors are let loose on the day, excessive food waste is also creeping up. Billions of pumpkins have been bought for the occasion — and most of them will end up in the landfill, not beneath a pie’s crust. Which is a shame, as pumpkins are delicious.

  In a world where 2 billion people are malnourished, even though we produce enough food to feed the total world population, and where families turn to food banks even in wealthy countries, wasting perfectly edible pumpkins is immoral. It’s also pollution. Here’s what you need to know.