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Keeping It Green

Atmospheric CO2 Levels

(Monthly Averages)

Jan 1, 2026: 428.4 ppm
10 years ago: 396 ppm
Pre-industrial base: 280
Safe level: 350 ppm

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

Page Updated:
Jan. 21, 2026

• 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

• • Looming Water Supply 'Bankruptcy' Puts Billions At Risk

  UN Report Warning
  
  
  

  Jan. 20, 2026 -The world is facing irreversible water "bankruptcy", with billions of people struggling to cope with the consequences of decades of overuse as well as shrinking supplies from lakes, rivers, glaciers and wetlands, U.N. researchers said on Tuesday.

  Nearly three-quarters of the global population live in countries classified as "water insecure" or "critically water insecure", and 4 billion people face severe water scarcity at least one month per year, the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health warned in a report, opens new tab.

• • A Big Reason to Ditch Those Plastic Coffee Cups

  Those "Paper" Cups Actually Have Much Plastic That Doesn't Play Well With Heat
  
  
  

  Jan. 20, 2026 -To most of us, that cup feels harmless – just a convenient tool for caffeine delivery. However, if that cup is made of plastic, or has a thin plastic lining, there is a high chance it’s shedding thousands of tiny plastic fragments directly into your drink.

  In Australia alone, we use a staggering 1.45 billion single-use hot beverage cups every year, along with roughly 890 million plastic lids. Globally, that number swells to an estimated 500 billion cups annually.

• • Water Rule Rollback Stokes Affordability Concerns

  Trump Says the Regulation Will Ease Permitting Expenses. Utilities Say Costs Could Shift to Them and Their Customers
  
  {E&E NEWS}
  
  

  Jan. 20, 2026 -As President Donald Trump pledges to help lower costs for Americans, his administration’s plan to reduce protections under the Clean Water Act is fueling new concerns about water affordability.

  The administration is racing to finalize a rule that will chip away at federal oversight for millions of acres of streams and wetlands. Those resources play an important role in filtering pollutants out of drinking supplies and absorbing rainwater during floods — at no direct cost to consumers.

  Trump administration officials say their proposal will provide clarity for farmers and landowners and ease costs for businesses. Yet local officials who oversee sewer systems and water treatment plants say the changes could shift costs to them, putting pressure on water bills at a time when millions of Americans struggle to pay them.

• • In Bangladesh, Thousands of Volunteers
  Battle Climate-Fueled Disease At Its Source

  As Mosquitoes Spread Dengue and Chikungunya, Bangladeshi Cleanup Crews Are Taking Public Health into Their Own Hands
  
  
  

  Jan. 20, 2026 - It is a cloudy, humid September morning near the end of monsoon season in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh and one of the world’s most densely populated cities. Streets normally bustling are quiet as residents of the Uttara neighborhood prepare for the weekly prayer.

  Suddenly, dozens of young volunteers emerge from the silence, gathering before heading to the shores of a small nearby lake. There, the stench of rotting waste hangs heavily in the air, burning the inside of their nostrils and stifling breaths. The volunteers begin to organize into different teams. Some pick litter off the ground. Others take a canoe and nets into the stagnant water. They collect plastic containers, banana peels, and anything else that has pooled in or near the lake over months and years. Some volunteers even dive into the murky water searching for waste.

• • The Science Behind the Winter Threat Hidden in Plain Sight

  It's Labeled as 'Black Ice'
  
  
  

  Jan. 19, 2026 - When the weather is calling for winter storms, drivers know to prepare for roads with slippery sleet and snow. But there is an invisible hazard that can appear even when skies are clear—black ice.

  "It can be present when there is no precipitation so it can sneak up on you,” says Michael Muccilli, a meteorologist with NOAA’s National Weather Service.

  Black ice creates a dangerously slippery surface where tires can no longer grip the pavement.

• • Chile Fires Kill At Least 18 As Firefighters Battle Extreme Heat, Winds

  And It’s Good News for Climate Change
  
  
  

  Jan. 19, 2026 - Chilean President Gabriel Boric declared a state of catastrophe in two regions in the south of the country on Sunday as raging wildfires forced at least 20,000 people to evacuate and left at least 18 people dead.

  According to Chile's CONAF forestry agency, firefighters were battling 24 active fires across the country as of Sunday morning, with the largest being in the regions of Ñuble and Bío Bío, where the government declared the emergency. The regions are about 500 km south of the capital, Santiago.

• • A Small Oil Company Polluted Midland’s Water Reserve

  The Cleanup Has Dragged on for Years
  
  
  

  Jan. 18, 2026 -The first sign of trouble appeared in 2003 when the water samples came back salty.

  This remote corner of West Texas, known as the T-Bar Ranch, had long served as the City of Midland’s insurance policy for water security. Midland purchased 20,000 acres spanning Winkler and Loving Counties in 1965, waiting for the day it would need to pump water from the property.

  Extra salts in the aquifer was not part of the plan.

  The city’s investigation soon landed on Heritage Standard Corporation as the prime suspect. The small Dallas-based company operated oil and gas wells and a disposal well near Midland’s water source.

• • World’s First Treaty to Protect the High Seas Becomes Law

  The High Seas Treaty is Designed to Protect Biodiversity in International Waters By Enabling Conservation Zones
  
  
  

  Jan. 17, 2026 -An international agreement to safeguard marine life is now in effect. Known as the High Seas Treaty, it represents the first time that international waters, which lie outside of any country’s jurisdiction and cover nearly half the globe, can be protected.

  The United Nations discussed the treaty for more than two decades, and formal negotiations began in 2017. The final text makes it possible for countries to create environmentally protected zones in international waters and includes requirements for new ocean industries.

• • The Four Washington Measles Cases

  Leaving Health Officials Racing to Quell Outbreak
  
  
  

  Jan. 17, 2026 -Local public health teams are racing to verify vaccination records with families and students in two Washington counties, hoping to get ahead of the spread of measles amid the state’s first outbreak since 2023.

  Three Snohomish County children recently infected are recovering at home, after being exposed to a contagious family visiting from South Carolina, where an ongoing outbreak ballooned past 500 cases Friday. A student at Central Washington University, who also became infected after visiting South Carolina, is doing OK and recovering at home.

• • How Seaweed Farms Could Change
  the Arithmetic of Ocean Carbon Capture

  A Strong Yet Degradable Bioplastic Made From Avocado Peels and Stale Bread Tackles Two Global Challenges: Food Waste and Plastic Pollution
  
  
  

  Jan. 16, 2026 -Seaweed farms cover 3.5 million hectares of ocean and are busy locking away vast amounts more carbon than we realise, say researchers. In a new study they argue that in estimates of their blue carbon potential, we’ve been overlooking the unique way that seaweeds interact with seawater, which makes it absorb more CO2.

  “Most discussions about seaweed and climate focus on how seaweed captures carbon as it grows. The concern has been that much of that carbon might be released again when the seaweed decomposes,” says Mojtaba Fakhraee, assistant professor in the department of earth sciences at the University of Connecticut, and lead author on the study. This concern has undermined the idea that seaweed farms can double as carbon capture projects. But Fakhraee and colleague Noah Planavsky say this misses a crucial feature of seaweed farms which connects with the wider ocean chemistry.

• • The Strange Link Between Winter
  Earthquakes and Massive Summer Algae Blooms

  Seafloor Tremors Appear to Shape Summer Plankton Blooms and Carbon Uptake
  
  
  

  Jan. 15, 2026 -During the Antarctic winter, sea ice spreads and sunlight fades, leaving little visible change at the ocean surface. Deep below, however, earthquakes shake underwater ridges and stir mineral-rich fluids from the seafloor. New research suggests this wintertime activity helps shape how much marine life flourishes months later, when summer returns.

  A study published in Nature Geoscience links wintertime earthquakes in the Southern Ocean to the growth of massive phytoplankton blooms in summer. The finding connects geology, biology, and climate in a way scientists had not documented before—and suggests the ocean’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide may depend partly on the planet’s shifting crust.

• • Pipeline Safety Enforcement Cut In Half In Trump’s First Year

  The Enforcement Plunge is Part of a Deregulatory Push Across the Government As the Administration Seeks to Boost Fossil Fuels
  
  {E&E NEWS}
  
  

  Jan. 14, 2026 -The Trump administration slashed pipeline safety enforcement in 2025, bringing about half the average number of cases as in previous years.

  The change reduces pressure on an industry that includes some of President Donald Trump’s biggest financial supporters and sits at the center of his “energy dominance” agenda. It’s also part of a broader retreat across the federal government from policing companies’ environmental, safety and financial activities.

  “In an administration with a president who has emphasized, as this one has, that he thinks there is too much regulation, reducing enforcement activity is an easy and unreviewable way to lessen immediate regulatory burdens,” said Cary Coglianese, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania who heads the Penn Program on Regulation.

• • U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Are
  Rising for the First Time in Two Years

  They Could Climb Far Higher
  
  
  

  Jan. 13, 2026 -After more than two years of progress on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the U.S. is on track to record an estimated 2.4 percent increase in 2025 compared with 2024, according to a new Rhodium Group report. The findings indicate the energy costs of the rapidly expanding artificial intelligence data center industry and cryptocurrencies, with emissions tied to the power sector rising by an estimated 3.8 percent in 2025.

  Last year’s colder-than-average winter months also drove up demand for heat in buildings, pushing up emissions by 6.8 percent compared with 2024.

• • America’s Air Is About to Get Dirtier

  And More Dangerous
  
  
  

  Jan. 14, 2026 - For more than five decades, the Clean Air Act has prevented millions of premature deaths, hospitalizations, and lost work and school days. By one official reckoning in 2011, the act’s limits on harmful pollution has benefited the U.S. economy to the tune of $2 trillion by 2020, in contrast with $65 billion in costs to implement regulations.

  But now the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is abruptly changing how it enforces at least parts of the Clean Air Act by not calculating the economic benefits of some regulations. The seemingly inevitable result is that Americans will soon breathe noticeably dirtier air and see worse health outcomes, experts say.

• • BP Flags $5 Billion Write-Down of Low-Carbon Business

  BP Officially Admits Its Green Pivot Was a Bust
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Jan. 14, 2026 -The energy giant said it’ll write down the value of its gas and low-carbon energy division by up to $5B—the fallout of a poorly timed move into renewables that left it least profitable of all the majors.

  What comes next: The company is abandoning its transition goals to double down on traditional drilling in Brazil and the Gulf.

• • Here Are Three Climate Wins Airlines Could Unlock Tomorrow

  No New Technology Required
  
  
  

  Jan. 13, 2026 -Three strategies to improve airline fuel efficiency could reduce global aviation emissions by at least half, according to a new analysis.

  The aviation industry is responsible for about 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Discussions of how to reduce that often focus on emerging and uncertain technologies like electric aircraft, hydrogen, and sustainable aviation fuels. Others advocate that people should simply fly less.

  The new study shows how to substantially reduce emissions without waiting for new technologies or constraining people’s ability to fly.

• • Is Grass-Fed Beef Really Better for the Climate?

  We Asked Experts How Their Emissions Stack Up Compared to Factory Farms
  
  
  

  Jan. 12, 2026 -Whether making a spaghetti Bolognese or getting ready to grill some steaks, Americans buying beef might find themselves wondering if they should spend a few dollars more per pound for the grass-fed option.

  The image of cows grazing in a pasture is certainly picturesque. And, at first glance, it may seem like a more humane and planet-friendly alternative to factory-farmed beef.

• • E.P.A. to Stop Considering Lives Saved
  When Setting Rules on Air Pollution

  It Plans to Calculate Only the Cost to Industry When Setting Pollution Limits, and Not the Monetary Value of Saving Human Lives
  
  
  

  Jan. 12, 2026 -For decades, the Environmental Protection Agency has calculated the health benefits of reducing air pollution, using the cost estimates of avoided asthma attacks and premature deaths to justify clean-air rules.

  Not anymore.

  Under President Trump, the E.P.A. plans to stop tallying gains from the health benefits caused by curbing two of the most widespread deadly air pollutants, fine particulate matter and ozone, when regulating industry, according to internal agency emails and documents reviewed by The New York Times.

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

  It’s Also a Herculean Lift
  
  
  

  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.

• • A New Kind of Green Revolution
  Could Start With Self-Fertilizing Crops

  Early Experiments Suggest That Reprogramming Plant Immune Receptors Could One Day Slash the World’s Dependence On Nitrogen Fertilizer
  
  
  

  Jan. 9, 2026 -With small changes to cellular machinery, researchers may have begun to transform the relationship between plants and the soil. Their new work could help to develop crops that can collaborate with beneficial nitrogen-fixing soil microbes instead of fighting them off.

  “This discovery could help scientists engineer crops that naturally fix nitrogen, reducing the need for chemical fertilizers,” says Simona Radutoiu, a professor of plant molecular biology at Aarhus University in Denmark.

• • Burning Plastic Waste for Household Fuel Endangers Millions

  The Toxic Plastic Waste Inundating Their Communities to Cook and Heat Their Homes
  
  
  

  Jan. 9, 2026 -Several global trends are colliding with disastrous consequences for health and the environment, new research warns.

  Plastic production has skyrocketed since the 1950s, from a few million tons a year to nearly half a billion tons today, and is on track to triple by 2060. And since just a small fraction of plastics is recycled, millions of tons of plastic—derived from fossil fuels and loaded with toxic chemical additives—enter the environment as waste every year. That staggering figure is also likely to triple by midcentury.

• • A Growing Movement Looks to Decarbonize Death

  Alternative End-Of-Life Practices Like Water Cremation and Human Composting Produce Fewer Emissions and Return Nutrients to the Earth
  
  
  

  Jan. 9, 2026 -When Stephanie Burris drives by graveyards near her home in Boulder County, Colorado, she sees thousands of tiny landfills: Concrete boxes filled with non-biodegradable caskets, which are lined with polyester padding, filled with synthetic clothing and worst of all, containing PFAS—also known as “forever chemicals.”

  “Frankly, I think that’s just barbaric,” says Burris, of the impacts the chemicals have on the living. Exposure to formaldehyde, the primary chemical used in embalming fluids, has been linked to an increased risk of developing brain diseases such as brain cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. “You’re killing people through a slow and painful death by using embalming chemicals … just for the sake of preserving a body for a week so you can have a funeral where the person’s body looks relatively normal.”

• • Trump Administration Tells Consumers to Eat More Red Meat

  Reversing Years of Dietary Advice
  
  
  

  Jan. 9, 2026 -The Trump administration’s new dietary guidelines, released Wednesday, take a dramatic turn toward encouraging the consumption of animal protein, including red meat, something a growing number of governments and international reports in recent years have urged consumers to reduce for both health and climatic reasons.

  The new advice says to “prioritize protein at every meal,” while the accompanying graphic—a revised and resurrected “food pyramid” designed as a handy visual reference—includes an outsized steak at the top. And, for the first time, despite medical warnings, the government suggests consumers use beef tallow for cooking, a personal preference of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

• • A Radical Carbon Removal Proposal in the Arctic

  Scientists Explore the Potential of Sinking Timber to the Cold, Oxygen-Free Arctic Ocean Floor to Lock Away CO2 For Thousands of Years
  
  
  

  Jan. 8, 2026 -In efforts to lower the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, a seemingly odd idea has been getting traction recently. It’s the idea of burying trees and other woody biomass deep underground to lock away the carbon in the biomass.

  Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the Czech Academy of Sciences are now taking this idea to the Arctic Ocean floor. They propose the concept of sinking timber from the boreal forest to the oxygen-deprived deep Arctic Ocea floor to pack away carbon dioxide for a long time.

• • Microplastics Are Increasingly Contaminating Our Bodies

  And Bottled Water Is a Major Route
  
  
  

  Jan. 8, 2026, By Tudor Tarta -“I was standing there looking out at this gorgeous view of the Andaman Sea, and then I looked down and beneath my feet were all these pieces of plastic, most of them water bottles,” she recalls.

  The moment stayed with her. After decades in business as a co-founder of an environmental software company, Sajedi returned to academia to study plastic waste. Her focus shifted from shorelines to something far more personal: the water people drink every day.

  In a recent review in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, Sajedi and her colleagues analyzed more than 140 scientific studies on nano- and microplastics released from single-use plastic water bottles.

• • The Scrappy Attempt to Save US Climate Data

  It’s Also a Herculean Lift
  
  
  

  Jan. 7, 2026 -A cadre of researchers and academics is trying to preserve national climate data as the Trump administration disappears thousands of federal datasets and reports.

  Rescuing and building on that data — from national climate assessments to Climate.gov — could prove key to combating the administration’s dissemination of climate misinformation, writes Chelsea Harvey.

• • Building Fake Beaver Dams to Help Burned Forests Heal

  Loss of Beaver Dams Made Wildfire Damage Worse
  
  
  

  Jan. 7, 2026 -In the high country of Colorado, scientists are doing something unusual to manage rivers. Instead of pouring concrete or digging engineered channels, they’re deploying hand-built wooden dams. But these aren’t your average structures. It’s a blue print we took directly from beavers.

  The goal is to restart the natural processes that once kept mountain water clean, slow, and stable, something desperately needed after devastating wildfires. This beaver-inspired approach is currently being tested in watersheds scorched by the 2020 Cameron Peak and East Troublesome fires, which combined to burn over 620 square miles of northern Colorado.

• • The LA Wildfire Victims Still Living in Toxic Homes

  A Year After the Eaton Fire, Residents Returning to Altadena Confront Lingering Contamination and Little Official Clarity
  
  
  

  Jan. 7, 2026 -One year on from the Eaton fire, long after the vicious winds that sent embers cascading from the San Gabriel mountains and the flames that swallowed entire streets, a shadow still hangs over Altadena.

  Construction on new properties is under way, and families whose homes survived the fire have begun to return. But many are grappling with an urgent question: is it safe to be here?

• • Health Care Providers Are Dropping a Common
  Anesthesia Drug That’s Also a Climate Super Pollutant

  Limiting Use of Desflurane Helps Hospitals Reduce Their Greenhouse Gas Emissions
  
  
  

  Jan. 5, 2026 -Desflurane is a common anesthetic used in hospital operating rooms worldwide. It’s also a climate super pollutant. Now, several decades after the drug was first introduced, a growing number of U.S. hospitals have stopped using the anesthetic because of its outsized environmental impact. On January 1, the European Union went a step further, prohibiting its use in all but medically necessary cases.

  Desflurane is more than 7,000 times more effective at warming the planet over a 20-year period than carbon dioxide on a pound-for-pound basis. However, curbing its use alone won’t solve climate change. The anesthetic contributes only a small fraction of total global warming, which is driven by far larger volumes of carbon dioxide and methane emissions.

• • Which City Burns Next?

  According to Cal Fire Records, On Jan. 7 and Jan. 8, At Least Six Others Sparked Under Those Same Wind and Climate Conditions
  
  
  

  Jan. 7, 2026 -One year ago this week, the Santa Ana winds roared over the Santa Monica Mountains at over 60 miles per hour, gusting up to 100 in some spots in what some people called, loosely, once-in-a-century fire conditions. What followed was a new kind of fire disaster, for which even the fire-wise communities of the American West seem deeply unprepared.

  Over 16,000 structures were destroyed by the Palisades and Eaton fires, more than had ever been burned through in any year in the long history of the tinderbox Los Angeles basin. Thirty-one people were killed, more than are known to have perished in any other fire event in Los Angeles County since modern record-keeping began. Entire swaths of neighborhoods were incinerated.

• • Venezuela’s ‘Dirtiest’ Oil and the Environment

  Three Things to Know
  
  
  

  Jan. 5, 2026 -Venezuela’s oil reserves, thought to be the largest in the world at an estimated 300 billion barrels, are notable not just for scale. Most of the oil found there is among the dirtiest type, with high sulfur and low hydrogen content.

  Before Venezuela plunged into an economic crisis under President Nicolás Maduro, the country was producing about 3.5 million barrels a day. Now it produces less than 1 million barrels daily.

• • Can Developing Countries Leapfrog Fossil Fuels?

  Rich Nations Built Their Wealth On Coal, Oil and Gas. Now the World is Asking Poorer Countries Like Mozambique to Chart a Different Course
  
  {DW}
  
  

  Jan. 5, 2026 -Mozambique is at a crossroads. On its northern coast, billions of dollars' worth of offshore gas projects could bring significant new revenue. At the same time, the country is a hydro powerhouse with huge untapped solar and wind potential.

  "These are some of the most interesting cases because there are no sunk costs yet. You could still go in different directions," said Philipp Trotter, professor in sustainability management at the University of Wuppertal in Germany.

  As global pressure mounts to move away from new fossil fuel development, the dilemma sharpens a long-running debate: Must poorer countries burn fossil fuels to prosper, or can they leapfrog straight to clean energy?

• • Nepal Has a New Plan to Clean
  Everest of the Ever-Growing Piles of Trash

  The World’s Tallest Peak Has a Serious Trash Problem
  
  
  

  Jan. 5, 2026 -The world’s tallest mountain is drowning. Not in water, though the ice is certainly melting. Mount Everest is drowning in a slow, multi-colored drip of human debris. At over 8,000 meters (26,200 feet), where the air is thin and temperatures plunge below -20°C (-4°F), the garbage is piling up.

  Climbing Everest takes about two months. In that time, climbers haul up a massive amount of gear: food, oxygen, and survival equipment. For the past 11 years, Nepal tried to manage the resulting waste with a simple financial carrot. Climbers paid a $4,000 deposit before ascending. If they returned with 8 kilograms (18 pounds) of trash, they got their money back.

• • Manhattan: 27 Million Fewer Car Trips

  Life After a Year of Congestion Pricing
  
  
  

  Jan. 5, 2026 -One year after the start of congestion pricing, traffic jams are less severe, streets are safer, and commute times are improving for travelers from well beyond Manhattan. Though these changes aren’t noticeable to many, and others feel the tolls are a financial burden, the fees have generated hundreds of millions of dollars for public transportation projects. And it has probably contributed to rising transit ridership.

  The program, which on Jan. 5, 2025, began charging most drivers $9 during peak travel times to enter Manhattan below 60th Street, has quickly left its mark.

• • Venezuela’s ‘Dirtiest’ Oil and the Environment

  Three Things to Know
  
  
  

  Jan. 5, 2026 -Venezuela’s oil reserves, thought to be the largest in the world at an estimated 300 billion barrels, are notable not just for scale. Most of the oil found there is among the dirtiest type, with high sulfur and low hydrogen content.

  Before Venezuela plunged into an economic crisis under President Nicolás Maduro, the country was producing about 3.5 million barrels a day. Now it produces less than 1 million barrels daily.

• • France Bans “Forever Chemicals” From Cosmetics and Clothes

  Au Revoir, Forever Chemicals
  
  
  

  Jan. 5, 2026 -In a landmark move, France has officially enforced Law 2025-188: as of January 1, 2026, it is illegal to manufacture or sell clothing, cosmetics, or wax made with Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS), widely known as “forever chemicals.” These substances are known to cause a number of health problems.

  The danger of these substances comes down to basic chemistry. The carbon-fluorine bond is the strongest in organic chemistry. It is excellent at making your rain jacket waterproof, your mascara smudge-proof, and your ski wax slippery. Unfortunately, it is also the reason scientists call PFAS “forever chemicals”: once created, they linger in our blood and soil for centuries.

• • What We Learned About Microplastics in 2025

  The Year Has Been Full of Scary Details About the Tiny Particles
  
  
  

  Jan. 4, 2026 -For many scientists, 2025 was the year of microplastics. Researchers have known for decades that tiny plastic particles were floating around in rivers and lakes and accumulating in the ocean. But it’s only in the past year or so that they have begun to understand that the tiny plastics — including some that are impossible to see with the naked eye — are in our bodies and food as well.

  And scientists are beginning to crack open what that means for human health.

• • How Big a Threat is AI to the Climate?

  ‘Just an Unbelievable Amount of Pollution’
  
  
  

  Jan. 3, 2026 -During a golden sunset in Memphis in May, Sharon Wilson pointed a thermal imaging camera at Elon Musk’s flagship datacentre to reveal a planetary threat her eyes could not. Free from pollution controls, the gas-fired turbines that power the world’s biggest AI supercomputer were pumping invisible fumes into the Tennessee sky.

  “It was jaw-dropping,” said Wilson, a former oil and gas worker from Texas who has documented methane releases for more than a decade and estimates xAI’s Colossus datacentre was spewing more of the planet-heating gas than a large power plant. “Just an unbelievable amount of pollution.”

• • Wildfire Smoke is a National Crisis

  And It’s Worse Than We Think
  
  
  

  Jan. 3, 2026 -Wildfire smoke is an emerging nationwide crisis for the United States. Supercharged by climate change, blazes are swelling into monsters that consume vast landscapes and entire towns. A growing body of evidence reveals that these conflagrations are killing far more people than previously known, as smoke travels hundreds or even thousands of miles, aggravating conditions like asthma and heart disease. One study, for instance, estimated that last January’s infernos in Los Angeles didn’t kill 30 people, as the official tally reckons, but 440 or more once you factor in the smoke. Another recent study estimated that wildfire haze already kills 40,000 Americans a year, which could increase to 71,000 by 2050.

• • A Study Is Retracted, Renewing
  Concerns About the Weedkiller Roundup

  Problems With a 25-Year-Old Landmark Paper On the Safety Of Roundup’s Active Ingredient, Glyphosate, Have Led to Calls For the E.P.A. to Reassess the Widely Used Chemical
  
  
  

  Jan. 2, 2026 -In 2000, a landmark study claimed to set the record straight on glyphosate, a contentious weedkiller used on hundreds of millions of acres of farmland. The paper found that the chemical, the active ingredient in Roundup, wasn’t a human health risk despite evidence of a cancer link.

  Last month, the study was retracted by the scientific journal that published it a quarter century ago, setting off a crisis of confidence in the science behind a weedkiller that has become the backbone of American food production. It is used on soybeans, corn and wheat, on specialty crops like almonds, and on cotton and in home gardens.

• • Avalanches Kill Two People, Injure Several Others in Italy’s Alps

  A Series of Avalanches in the Italian Alps Killed Two People and Injured Several Others On Friday, With Strong Winds Hampering Rescue Operations
  
  
  

  Jan. 2, 2026 -A first avalanche hit the southwest Alpine Maira Valley, near the French border in the Italian region of Piedmont, killing one person and injuring two others, Alpine Rescue (Soccorso Alpino) said. One of them is in critical condition.

  Rescue teams set out on foot from lower altitudes after the strong winds prevented helicopter crews from reaching the site, the organisation said in a statement.

• • Dozens of U.S. Dams Are Sinking

  More Could Be At Risk
  
  
  

  Jan. 2, 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

• • These Farmers Are Cutting Pollution
  and Fighting Hunger — With Bacteria

  Mariangela Hungria Won the 2025 World Food Prize For Her Work On Microbes That Feed Plants Nitrogen, Allowing Farmers to Slash Fertilizer Costs and Pollution
  
  
  

  Jan. 1, 2026 -Mariangela Hungria knew she was on the verge of a scientific breakthrough that could transform Brazilian agriculture, fight hunger, slash pollution and keep struggling farmers out of bankruptcy. But, to get anyone to listen to her, she would first have to throw a great party.

  Hungria is an agronomist who has spent her career studying how to use certain kinds of helpful bacteria to fertilize soybeans and other crops. Her research showed that instead of using pricey and polluting nitrogen fertilizers, farmers could spray their fields with microbes that have evolved over millions of years to pull nitrogen out of the air and fuel plants’ growth.

• • These Farmers Are Cutting Pollution
  and Fighting Hunger — With Bacteria

  Mariangela Hungria Won the 2025 World Food Prize For Her Work On Microbes That Feed Plants Nitrogen, Allowing Farmers to Slash Fertilizer Costs and Pollution
  
  

  Jan. 1, 2026 -Mariangela Hungria knew she was on the verge of a scientific breakthrough that could transform Brazilian agriculture, fight hunger, slash pollution and keep struggling farmers out of bankruptcy. But, to get anyone to listen to her, she would first have to throw a great party.

  Hungria is an agronomist who has spent her career studying how to use certain kinds of helpful bacteria to fertilize soybeans and other crops. Her research showed that instead of using pricey and polluting nitrogen fertilizers, farmers could spray their fields with microbes that have evolved over millions of years to pull nitrogen out of the air and fuel plants’ growth.

• • As Trump Rolls Back Protections For Wetlands,
  New Jersey Maintains a Higher Standard

  How States Can Fight Back
  
  
  

  Dec. 31, 2025 -When the Trump administration moved to curtail wetland protections in November, environmental groups warned the rollback could endanger millions of acres of freshwater resources and critical wildlife habitat.

  But at least one state has put protections in place that may offer a roadmap for preserving wetlands: New Jersey.

• • Northumberland Nature Recovery Project Takes
  Shape With Biggest Land Sale in 30 Years

  Wildlife Trust is Raising Funds to Buy Largest Piece of Land in Single Ownership to Come Up For Sale in England For a Generation
  
  
  

  Dec. 31, 2025 -“We’ve lost so much,” says Mike Pratt, reflecting on Britain’s nature crisis. “We’re getting to the point where if we’re not careful, children in the future won’t know what a hedgehog is. They won’t have encountered one.”

  Pratt, the chief executive of Northumberland Wildlife Trust, is speaking on an unseasonably sunny, calm, blue-skied December day surrounded by ruggedly beautiful, spirit-lifting countryside.

• • Michigan’s Other Water Crisis: PFAS’s Prevalence in Private Wells

  Michigan Has Met Its Match With the State’s Over One Million Private Wells, Urging Residents to Get Their Water Tested
  
  
  

  Dec. 30, 2025 -Seeking peace and quiet amid hectic careers, Sandy Wynn-Stelt and her husband Joel moved to Kent County, Michigan, in 1992. They picked out a home surrounded by woods and across from a Christmas tree farm, which Wynn-Stelt said was “about as Michigan as you can get.”

  She was working in the mental health field. He was a social worker investigating child abuse. Their peace in the idylls of rural Michigan lasted 25 years, but ended unexpectedly. In 2016, Joel developed liver cancer and died within three weeks of his diagnosis. The next year, the state’s environmental agency found extremely high levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, PFAS, in the home’s well water.

• • How Did This Family End Up Back in a Toxic House?

  A Times Investigation Has Found That Insurers Are Driving Families Into Homes Contaminated By Smoke
  
  
  

  Dec. 30, 2025 -Jeff Van Ness is constantly cleaning.

  Every day, he vacuums, mops and wipes every surface in his house, which stands on one of the blocks in Altadena, Calif., that survived the flames of the Los Angeles wildfires, but not the smoke.

  He works in deliberate lines across the kitchen tile, then along the baseboards, then into the corners where the smoke pooled nearly a year ago — following a map only he can see.

  It’s the only way to quiet his thoughts: Is it safe for his children, 6-year-old Sylvia and 9-year-old Milo, to walk barefoot on the kitchen tiles? Should he wash the toys they drop on the floor with bleach, or with soap and water? The darkest thoughts are about his wife, Cathlene Pineda, 41, a jazz pianist who is on medication for cancer. If the toxins were in the house, he wonders, could they bring the cancer back?

• • How Alabama Power Has Left the ‘American Amazon’ at Risk

  As Its Polluting Coal Ash Ponds Remain in groundwater, Alabama Power Has Doubled Down On Fossil Fuel Energy Investments
  
  
  

  Dec. 29, 2025 -Here, in the nation’s second-largest delta, the waters of the Deep South wind through the pines and cypresses of the Yellowhammer State, snaking their way into Mobile Bay and on to the Gulf. Among the most biodiverse regions in the country, the Mobile-Tensaw Delta drains 44,000 square miles of Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi. It’s where the rivers—the Mobile, Tensaw, Blakely, Apalachee, Middle and Spanish Rivers—meet in land dubbed the “American Amazon” by E.O. Wilson, a renowned naturalist born in the state.

  The Delta’s history is America’s. At its heart are the island mounds of Bottle Creek, the “principal political and religious center” for the Indigenous Pensacola culture for 300 years before European contact.

• • Renewables Provided 26% of US Electricity in 2025

  2025 Was the Year Renewables Officially Left Coal and Nuclear in the Rearview Mirror
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Dec. 28, 2025 -A new review of federal data reveals that renewable energy provided 26% of all US electricity this year, with wind and solar combined (18.9%) now generating more power than the nation’s entire nuclear and coal fleets.

  Important context: Since Jan. 1, the US added 40+ GW of clean energy capacity, while the total capacity for fossil fuels and nuclear actually shrank by 218 MW.

  Looking ahead: The EIA forecasts that 100% of all net new power capacity added to the grid will come from renewables and batteries in 2026, with solar capacity alone set to finally overtake coal.

• • Ground Beef Recalled in WA

  After Testing Finds E. Coli
  
  
  

  Dec. 28, 2025 -Consumers in Washington and five other states should avoid some ground beef products from an Idaho company after testing confirmed contamination with E. coli, federal authorities said Saturday.

  Mountain West Food Group, of Heyburn, Idaho, is recalling around 2,855 pounds of raw ground beef sold under its Forward Farms label with a Jan. 13 sell-by date, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.

• • The Industrial Waste Site That Glitters Like a Glacier

  In Northwest India, a Field Full of Marble Debris Has an Otherworldly Allure
  
  
  

  Dec. 24, 2025 -As a travel content creator, Atul Chaurasiya is always on the lookout for unique and offbeat locations. When he came across videos of the Kishangarh Dumping Yard on YouTube, he decided to visit the site.

  Located about 62 miles south of Rajasthan’s capital city Jaipur, Kishangarh is Asia’s largest marble market. At the city’s outskirts lies this marble industry’s dumpsite, a “genuinely beautiful” place, according to Chaurasiya—white mountains that resemble snow-covered peaks and a contrast to Rajasthan's otherwise arid landscape. The influencer created a reel about the location in September 2023, and the Instagram post garnered over 250,000 likes.

• • Bellevue Company’s Potentially Radioactive Shrimp Recalled

  Direct Source Seafood in Bellevue is the Latest Seafood Retailer to Recall Possibly Radioactive Shrimp
  
  
  

  Dec. 23, 2025 -This most recent recall, issued Friday, calls for the disposal of 83,800 bags of frozen raw shrimp, some of which were sold at Safeway months ago.

  It joins prior recalls from other companies that also had possibly radioactive shrimp during the summer.

  Direct Source Seafood’s news release said the frozen raw shrimp was sold under two different brand names, Market 32 and Waterfront Bistro.

• • Burning Wood Emits More Than Fossil Fuels

  Here’s How to Build a Better Fire
  
  
  

  Dec. 23, 2025, By Michael J Cohen -In 50 years, my father-in-law has never run out of wood.

  Since building a wood-heated cabin in Maine in the early 1970s, he has started each summer collecting balsam, birch and maples that fell or died over the winter. That’s kept the wood pile stacked and the cold at bay.

  Many fireplace lovers — myself once included — assume burning wood to stay warm and cozy is a climate win: trees regrow, suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and keep fossil fuels in the ground if forests are managed responsibly. My father-in-law’s forest in Maine is as vigorous as always.

• • A Top Source of Lead Pollution Faced Tighter Rules

  Then Trump Intervened
  
  
  

  Dec. 26, 2025 -Lee Becquet doesn’t like to leave the house with his 2-year-old son, Eugene.

  That’s because their home in Miami, Ariz., is downhill from an industrial facility that is one of the country’s largest sources of pollution containing lead, a powerful neurotoxin that can harm children’s health.

  “I have a toddler, and I’m not putting him outside in that,” Mr. Becquet, 29, said in a recent interview. “So we stay inside for days sometimes.”

• • How Trump’s First Year Reshaped U.S. Energy and Climate Policy

  The Sweeping Changes Have Affected Everything From Coal Plant Retirements to International Diplomacy Over Shipping Emissions
  
  
  

  Dec. 22, 2025 -In his first year back in office, President Trump has rapidly reshaped America’s climate and energy landscape. His administration dismantled a wide range of climate and pollution regulations, began to overhaul how the federal government responds to disasters and gave a boost to fossil fuel production and nuclear power while attempting to curtail the growth of wind and solar energy.

  The changes have reverberated far beyond the United States, as the administration has pressured other countries to abandon their own efforts to tackle global warming. Here’s a look at some of the biggest changes in U.S. energy and climate policy in 2025: