Environment

Solar farms surround trees at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. The city voted Wednesday night to decarbonize the city's buildings and install more energy efficient appliances and more solar panels. The city says the move will cut 40% of their carbon emi

To fight climate change, Ithaca votes to decarbonize its buildings by 2030

7:53am November 06, 2021

by Deepa Shivaram

Decarbonizing involves installing things from solar panels to switching out gas stoves for electric stoves. The effort to decarbonize buildings will cut the city's carbon dioxide output by 40%.

Smoke rises from a brick kiln on the outskirts of Gauhati, India, in 2015. India's pledge this week to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2070 factors into a new, more optimistic, analysis by the International Energy Agency on climate change goals.

Latest climate pledges could limit global temperature rise, a new report says

11:39am November 05, 2021

The International Energy Agency says that if nations honor their latest pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, global temperatures could be held to 1.8 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.

Smokestacks belch in Weihai, in China's Shandong province, in 2019. China is set to surpass pre-pandemic levels of carbon dioxide emissions this year.

Earth has 11 years to cut emissions to avoid dire climate scenarios, a report says

2:06pm November 04, 2021

by Scott Neuman

Carbon dioxide emissions are rebounding after a dip in 2020, and researchers say that at the current rate, Earth's "carbon budget" will be exhausted in roughly 11 years.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during a news conference at the U.N. Climate Change Conference COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, on Tuesday.

The U.K. considers its 1st new coal mine in decades even as it calls to phase out coal

8:06am November 04, 2021

by Frank Langfitt

A town in northern England wants to open a coking coal mine to create jobs. But while hosting the U.N. climate summit, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is urging countries to slash greenhouse gases.

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Xinxiang, in China's Henan Province on July 26, was one of many places that suffered extreme flooding this year. A U.N reports finds climate impacts are getting worse faster than countries can adapt.

The U.N. says climate impacts are getting worse faster than the world is adapting

7:31am November 04, 2021

by Nathan Rott

A new report finds some climate impacts are already irreversible and will last for many decades to come. It calls for far more money to help countries prepare for the growing risks they face.

Scientists investigate a humpback whale by boat and by drone in the surface waters near the west Antarctic Peninsula.

The biggest whales can eat the equivalent of 80,000 Big Macs in one day

5:22pm November 03, 2021

by Nell Greenfieldboyce

Scientists have gotten the best estimates yet of exactly how much baleen whales, the largest animals on the planet, can consume in one day. Their caloric intake is mind-boggling.

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A bulldozer loads coal onto railway wagons at the Jharia coalfield in Dhanbad in India's Jharkhand state.

India pledges net-zero emissions by 2070 — but also wants to expand coal mining

1:41pm November 03, 2021

by Lauren Frayer

Prime Minister Narendra Modi told COP26 that India, the world's third-biggest carbon emitter, would go net-zero by 2070. But appetite for coal, which supplies 70% of India's power, remains high.

Vinisha Umashankar and her solar ironing cart. She came up with the idea when she was 12 — then worked with engineers to create a prototype. Now she's in Glasgow, Scotland, to speak at the COP26 climate change conference.

A 15-year-old girl invented a solar ironing cart that's winning global respect

10:57am November 03, 2021

by Sushmita Pathak

Vinisha Umashankar came up with the idea of solar power instead of charcoal to heat street irons. "Iron-Max" was a finalist for Prince William's Earthshot Prize, and this week, she spoke at COP26.

A Colorado effort helped to spur a new industry centered on hunting methane

8:46am November 03, 2021

by Sam Brasch

The Biden administration wants to crack down on climate-warming methane emissions. Success will depend on a growing new industry in high-tech ways to detect methane leaks.

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The Biden administration is announcing new and proposed regulations to limit climate-warming methane emissions from oil and gas operations and pipelines. This undated file photo shows the Trans-Alaska pipeline and pump station north of Fairbanks.

Biden joins global push to cut climate-warming methane emissions

2:36pm November 02, 2021

by Jeff Brady

In a major expansion, proposed U.S. rules would apply not only to new oil and gas operations but also older ones. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas considered key to slowing global warming quickly.