Good news, Earthlings: the Paris climate agreement had passed a critical milestone toward adoption. At a UN General Assembly meeting in New York this morning, 31 nations officially signed onto the accord, making it very likely that the deal will enter legal force this year.
Last December, world leaders made an unprecedented pact to wean their countries off fossil fuels this century. The oil lobby says such a transition would be an economic death sentence. But a new study paints a sharply different picture: Working toward the Paris goal of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius…
If humans don’t stop burning fossil fuels soon, we’ll be paying for it for the next 10,000 years. That’s the conclusion of a perspective paper penned by nearly two dozen leading Earth scientists, which was published today in Nature Climate Change.
In a symbolic kick in the pants to the coal industry, the Obama administration will announce today that it’s freezing new coal mining leases on public lands, the New York Times reports. It’s the latest in a series of strategic moves by the president to wean America off fossil fuels, something that leaders of 195…
Millions of Chinese citizens have been blanketed in thick smog recently, but where some people see only a dense haze, entrepreneurial Canadian businessmen see profit.
Will we look back and remember this week as the week it all changed?
In the wake of the Paris Climate Agreement, it is pretty shocking to see these photographs taken in the Shanxi province in Northern China. Shanxi is the leading producer of coal in the most populated country in the world, with about 260 billion metric tons of coal deposits, a third of China’s total. The region…
As the Paris climate summit kicked off two weeks ago, venture capitalist Peter Thiel penned a scathing op-ed for the New York Times, decrying the plight of nuclear power in the U.S. He cited a stagnant regulatory environment unable to adapt to innovative new reactor designs, and continued public hysteria over safety…
After two weeks of marathon negotiations, 195 countries approved an accord that would wean the world off fossil fuels this century, limiting global warming to 2ºC, with an aspirational target of 1.5ºC. It’s the first successful end to a global climate summit after two decades of failed negotiations.
The final climate agreement draft won’t come until this weekend but a group of activists have found a way to mark the end of the COP21 summit on a somewhat hopeful note.
As global temperatures rise, many animal species are edging toward the poles and even climbing mountains to stay within their preferred temperature ranges. The result is a slow but noticeable shift in the world’s ecosystems, both on land and at sea.
The Paris climate summit may go down in history as the singular moment nations decided to tackle the threat of anthropogenic climate change. But few of us appreciate the fact that it’s taken over a century to arrive at a global consensus on the science.
Despite pulling another all-nighter, world leaders have been unable to reach a firm consensus over their climate negotiations in Paris. It’s now expected that an agreement won’t be signed before Saturday.
The historic Paris climate talks have reached their eleventh hour, and world leaders are scrambling to put the finishing—but very important—touches on the accord that could save our planet from apocalyptic climate change.
In December of 2015, 195 countries announced that even a global effort to reduce emissions probably won’t prevent the catastrophic warming of the planet. But there is a way we can reach our climate goals. It’s not a pledge. It’s not a tax. It’s easier than that. We ban cars.
The red-alert issued by Beijing was lifted today as shifting weather patterns improved air quality for the first time in weeks. Although the world’s focus was on China’s skies, a dense smog is currently rendering India’s cities unrecognizable—and it’s way more dangerous.
Let’s face it, if we’re going to save the planet from ourselves, we’re going to have to develop cleaner technologies. Here’s what the future has in store once we make the transition to a high-tech, low-carbon world.
Climate change is a notoriously unclickable topic, yet it undeniably captures our imagination, given how often it shows up as a central plot point in films. From Waterworld to the charming animated feature Ice Age, it just keeps coming back.
Look around your city. You’ll see pigeons, rats, maybe a few raccoons. But the typical array of urban wildlife is about to become incredibly biodiverse, thanks to efforts from humans to make their cities wilder and more sustainable places.
As the second week of global climate negotiations gets underway, the world waits for national leaders to make meaningful commitments to save the planet. But it’s become clear that cities, not countries, are leading the way in the fight against climate change.
