Canada’s first-ever climate adaptation strategy was little more than six weeks old when fast-moving wildfires swept through communities in British Columbia’s southern Interior, forcing thousands to flee and destroying hundreds of homes. It was part of Canada’s record-breaking summer of fire – more than 19,000 Yellowknife residents were ordered to escape a threatening blaze, fire … Read more
There’s no denying it: Farming had a rough year. Extreme weather spun up storms and floods, unseasonal freezes and baking heat waves, and prolonged parching droughts. In parts of the world in 2023, tomato plants didn’t flower, the peach crop never came in, and the price of olive oil soared. To be a farmer right … Read more
Praetorianphoto | E+ | Getty Images The $7,500 tax credit for new electric vehicles will be easier for many consumers to claim in 2024, but it may be more difficult for others. These opposing dynamics are due to federal policies taking effect at the same time. One policy kicking in Jan. 1 will allow car … Read more
For the first time in four centuries, it’s good to be a beaver. Long persecuted for their pelts and reviled as pests, the dam-building rodents are today hailed by scientists as ecological saviors. Their ponds and wetlands store water in the face of drought, filter out pollutants, furnish habitat for endangered species, and fight wildfires. … Read more
Scientists are running low on words to adequately describe the world’s climate chaos. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration could already say earlier this month that there was more than a 99 percent chance that 2023 was the hottest year on record. That followed September’s sky-high temperatures—an average of 0.5 degrees Celsius above the previous … Read more
The past year hasn’t generally been a cheerful one for those hoping the world will get a grip on climate change. We’re now around the middle of the 2020s, a decade when carbon dioxide emissions need to decline by about half if we’re to avoid damaging warming. Instead they’re still rising, if only just. The … Read more
The Biden administration sided with Senate climate hawks in one of the highest-stakes debates over the future of U.S. efforts to cut planet-heating emissions, announcing its long-awaited proposal on Friday for strict rules on production of the hydrogen fuel the federal government is betting on to replace natural gas and oil. When burned, the only … Read more
The destination for this yet-untargeted bounty? Livestock feed, says Payne. This exploitation of the mesopelagic required a huge harvesting effort in the southwest Indian Ocean and southern Atlantic, including employing boats with helicopters and fish-processing facilities to support a fleet of smaller fishing vessels. After the Soviet Union collapsed—along with its fisheries subsidies—momentum in the … Read more
After tense and protracted negotiations, delegates at the United Nations climate conference COP28 have agreed on a deal that calls on countries to transition away from fossil fuels. It is the first time that nations have agreed to such a transition, and marks a major step forward in climate ambitions. But delegates have warned that … Read more
In a cavernous theater lit up with the green shapes of camels and palms at COP28 in Dubai, ecologist Thomas Crowther, former chief scientific adviser for the United Nations’ Trillion Trees Campaign, was doing something he never would have expected a few years ago: begging environmental ministers to stop planting so many trees. Mass plantations … Read more
