Inside Climate News

Nearly all observers agree that Alabama’s new data center policies released this week are an improvement over the state’s old rules, which treat massive, power-hungry data centers like any other large industrial operation.  But several groups say the new rules for contracts between the data centers and Alabama Power, the state’s largest electric utility, don’t […]

By 2075, the vast majority of the world’s shallow coral reefs could cease to function as both critical habitat for marine life and a lifeline for hundreds of millions of people who rely on them.  According to a new assessment by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, 96 percent of the planet’s 127 major […]

In June 2013, torrential rain spurred one of the worst flooding events in Canada’s history. Sadie Vipond, who grew up in Calgary along the Bow River, was just a young child at the time when she and her family had to flee their home. “That was pretty scary with the evacuation,” she recalled.  Her family […]

When PFAS concentrations in drinking water fall below laboratory reporting limits, they are sometimes treated as “zero” in statistical analyses. But a new study published in Cell Reports Sustainability, which reanalyzed federal monitoring data, found that estimated PFAS concentrations in U.S. drinking water could be more than twice as high as calculations that treat results […]

If you listen to the candidates running for the U.S. Senate seat in Alaska, some of the biggest issues in the race revolve around the state’s fisheries, its oil and gas development and soaring prices for fuel and other staples. Left largely unsaid, however, is that climate change is playing a role in at least […]

A new report suggests dozens of “forever chemicals” linked with cancer and other human health problems are prevalent in Florida waterways, reflecting widespread contamination of the toxic chemicals in streams, rivers and lakes across the country. Roughly 96 percent of 23 Florida waterways tested between 2022 and 2024 contained 43 different kinds of PFAS, according […]

ALLENTOWN, Pa.—In all her 38 years living in South Whitehall Township in the Lehigh Valley, Laurie Gilley had never attended a municipal meeting, much less gotten involved in the politics of her community. But then she learned that a data center was being planned for 400 acres of land across from her home and the […]

Heat-related deaths in Europe’s urban areas exceeded 50,000 in the summer of 2026, as repeated waves of record-breaking temperatures swept across the continent from late May through August.  More than 32,000 of those deaths were attributable to human-caused global warming, driven primarily by the burning of fossil fuels, according to studies published in Nature Health. […]

A United Nations fund to help developing nations pay the costs imposed by climate change voted Thursday to allocate money for Nepal as the country recovers from devastating flooding in August. It was a historic step for the fund—the first time it has allocated money to a vulnerable country in an immediate response to climate […]

Some of the arguments against data centers sound familiar. Opponents say the projects will change the look and feel of a place, harm the air and water and reduce property values. This rationale is familiar because residents have raised the same concerns in campaigns against wind and solar. Whether these objections to very different types […]

Rising food prices. Supply chain disruptions. Wars. More extreme weather. The confluence of these factors in 2026 has prompted researchers, advocacy groups and farmers around the world to more forcefully question the architecture of an increasingly stressed global food system—and the money, both public and private, that supports it. Coinciding with harvest season in much […]

A new report from the United Nations Environment Programme suggests that limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels is no longer a realistic outcome, even under the most ambitious emissions-reduction scenarios. The report’s lowest-warming scenario, which would require steep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, would only limit peak global warming to 1.7 […]

Over the past year, boats have plied the waters around Hinkley Point C, a nuclear power plant under construction along England’s Somerset coast, laying and testing a network of ultrasonic speakers across the seabed. This technology, set to drive fish away from the plant’s deadly cooling pipes, is expected to save fewer than one salmon, […]

FOLKSTON, Ga.—This quiet town of about 4,800 people has a humble Southern charm. Its low-slung storefronts, historic buildings and broad, quiet streets give it the feel of a place where time moves a little slower. At a viewing platform beside railroad tracks that pass a few yards from Main Street, train enthusiasts gather to watch […]

The world’s development banks continue to finance expansions of large climate-polluting livestock operations, but environmental advocates are notching a victory after they say the World Bank’s private lending arm has withdrawn funding for a controversial feed mill in Brazil. A coalition of environmental groups said the International Finance Corp. will not go forward with a […]

Known for their distinctive black-ringed eyes, lipstick-like mouth markings and timid, elusive nature, the vaquita is the world’s rarest marine mammal. Last year’s survey—carried out by a team of international scientists and state environmental officials—estimated just seven to 10 remain in the waters of Mexico’s Upper Gulf of California. Yet Mexican authorities announced last week […]

Federal lawmakers want to ban imports of wild sloths to the United States, a move experts say could have global implications for the conservation of the tree-dwelling species.  Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-Fla.) is set on Tuesday to introduce a bill, co-sponsored by Laurel Lee (R-Fla.), known as the “SLOTHS Act”—Stopping Legalized Organized Trafficking and Harm […]

In the Permian Basin of West Texas, methane gas billows from oil wells. It blasts out of pressure valves on pipelines, wafts from sprawling gas processing plants and rises up in plumes when companies air out systems during routine maintenance in the nation’s largest oilfield. More than a decade of efforts to bring these practices […]

It’s been more than three decades since Democrats held a trifecta in Pennsylvania, but the prospect of a blue wave in next month’s elections has Gov. Josh Shapiro and party leadership optimistic that their time could come in Harrisburg.  After flipping the state House of Representatives in 2022, Democrats now have a chance to take […]

Regulators in Texas did not stop processing permits for data center projects when Gov. Greg Abbott ordered a pause last month, according to an analysis of public records released Monday by the oil and gas watchdog group FracTracker.  Amid an upswell of public opposition to the booming buildout of digital infrastructure in Texas, Abbott directed […]