Inside Climate News

Democrats controlled the Senate and the presidency when Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse first sought to roust his colleagues from the chamber’s floor, warning them that they were sleep-walking into climate disaster. Fourteen years and more than 300 “Time to Wake Up” speeches later, the Rhode Island Democrat is again prodding members of his own party—but now […]

Jaques and Paulina Sebastiao were the first residents on their street to rebuild their two-bedroom house two years after Hurricane Michael’s 155 mile-per-hour winds leveled almost every building in Mexico Beach in 2018. Few of their old neighbors in the Panhandle fishing village followed their lead. Some didn’t have insurance, and others battled their insurance […]

The countries most vulnerable to climate change are spending nearly 25 times more on repaying debt than on climate action, according to a new ActionAid report released Wednesday.  The report, “Debt Fuels the Climate Crisis: How the Finance Flows,” is “really unpacking the narrative about how the climate and debt crises are supercharging each other,” […]

From our collaborating partner “Living on Earth,” public radio’s environmental news magazine, an interview by host Steve Curwood with climate scientist Michael Mann. As the United Nations prepares to hold a climate summit in late September, it’s warning that current climate policies will lead to at least 1.8 degrees Celsius of global warming, well beyond […]

On a recent canoe trip to the remote upper reaches of the Narraguagus River, Ellie Mason saw prime Atlantic salmon habitat everywhere. Though small, the river and its tributaries are some of the wildest in Maine, largely undeveloped and surrounded by forest. There are shady refuges for fish on hot summer days, and the rocky […]

Environmental and public health groups are suing the Trump administration over its most recent move to eliminate protections against climate-warming pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency announced a plan on Monday, finalized in the Federal Register on Thursday, to revoke most of a Biden-era rule to limit greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel power plants. The […]

America’s centuries-old conflict with wolves took another turn earlier this month when President Donald Trump ordered the animals be stripped of federal protections across several U.S. states, claiming the action will provide economic relief for ranchers.  Alongside a suite of regulatory reviews to “promote financial viability” for ranchers, Trump ordered the Interior secretary to begin […]

The California valley with the most dairy farms in the state will follow stricter water pollution requirements following years of advocacy and a marathon six-hour meeting this week. The State Water Resources Control Board unanimously agreed to adopt the regulations under what several environmental groups call a long overdue dairy order.  Nitrogen from the manure […]

Democrats are poised to achieve trifectas—control of the governor’s office and both legislative chambers—in at least three states in this year’s midterm elections, and maybe even more. This matters because states play an outsize role in climate and energy policy. And when Democrats control state government, they often take substantial action. This isn’t a partisan […]

For the second year in a row, Antarctica’s industrial krill fishing fleet halted operations ahead of schedule after reaching its seasonal catch limit.  The vessels had been harvesting the tiny shrimp-like crustaceans from waters around the Antarctic Peninsula and the South Orkney Islands, located about 400 miles north of the peninsula. Under current rules, the […]

NY-17: First in a series on the environmental stakes of one of the nation’s most fiercely contested congressional races. The Hudson River bisects New York’s 17th Congressional District, with basalt bluffs lining its western bank 40 miles north of New York City.  The district, which includes Putnam and Rockland counties, as well as parts of […]

Under a recent legal settlement, Florida will have to adopt new plans for addressing pollution in nine of the hundreds of freshwater springs in the state that constitute one of the largest concentrations of springs in the world. The agreement between environmental groups and the state Department of Environmental Protection, announced earlier this month, applies […]

Climate attribution researchers say “there is absolutely no doubt” that decades of global warming set the stage for the deadly rock and glacier collapse on Langtang Lirung Mountain in Nepal. At least 1,300 people died in August when a cascade of semi-frozen sludge, boulders, trees and other debris roared through the region at speeds up […]

The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources heard testimony Wednesday on the Energy Efficiency Reform Act. The new bill would make it much more difficult for the Department of Energy to update energy efficiency standards for home appliances like dishwashers, washing machines and boilers. It would also set a path for the department to […]

The unfinished expansion of Gross Reservoir near Denver can proceed after three judges ruled Tuesday in favor of the federal government and a water utility’s challenge to a lower court opinion halting construction. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Denver Water defended the dam expansion before the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals against a […]

AUSTIN, Texas—A chair with Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian’s name on it sat empty Tuesday in the hearing room of the Texas House Committee on Energy Resources. Committee Chairman Drew Darby had called Christian to testify before the panel, which oversees the Railroad Commission, regulator of the state’s powerful oil and gas industry. Christian failed to […]

In the East Tampa neighborhood where Dee Morales bought her house, residents have been asking for a supermarket for 10 years. They still don’t have one. So Morales did the math out loud: In the decade the neighborhood has spent waiting, a community garden could have grown thousands of pounds of food. Morales runs 813 […]

Republicans in Congress are continuing their efforts to shield the fossil fuel industry from legal liability for its role in unleashing the heat-trapping gases linked to a cascade of deadly, record-setting disasters across the globe.  On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to debate and vote on a bill introduced in April by Rep. […]

Every three days someone is killed for defending nature.  In 2025, watchdog group Global Witness documented 124 such deaths worldwide, a toll researchers say is likely only a fraction of the total number because repression and armed conflict make many deaths impossible to verify.  The victims included Indigenous people, small-scale farmers and community organizers peacefully […]

A Trump administration rule eviscerating widespread habitat protections for endangered species just went into effect.  First proposed in April, the rule rescinds the long-held definition for a single word—harm—under the Endangered Species Act, a landmark law enacted in 1973 to conserve the country’s imperiled animals and plants. This seemingly tiny tweak has profound consequences, clearing […]