Analysis
by isabel hiltonWith Donald Trump threatening to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, China is ready to assume leadership of the world’s climate efforts. For China, it is a matter of self-interest – reducing the choking pollution in its cities and seizing the economic opportunities of a low-carbon future.
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Report
by ed struzikRussia, China, and other nations are stepping up preparations for the day when large numbers of cargo ships will be traversing a once-icebound Arctic Ocean. But with vessels already plying these waters, experts say the time is now to prepare for the inevitable environmental fallout.
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Analysis
by david victorDonald Trump’s ascension to the presidency signals an end to American leadership on international climate policy. With the withdrawal of U.S. support, efforts to implement the Paris agreement and avoid the most devastating consequences of global warming have suffered a huge blow.
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Forum
Few groups were as shocked and chagrined by Donald Trump’s victory as the environmental community. Yale Environment 360 asked environmentalists, academics, and pro-business representatives just how far Trump might roll back President Obama’s environmental initiatives.
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Report
by heather millarFrom rapid genetic analysis to spectrography, high-tech tools are being used to track down and prosecute perpetrators of the illegal wildlife trade. The new advances in forensics offer promise in stopping the trafficking in endangered species.
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Report
by winifred birdIn Senegal and other developing countries, multinational companies are investing in programs to restore mangrove forests and other wetlands that sequester carbon. But critics say these initiatives should not focus on global climate goals at the expense of the local people’s livelihoods.
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Report
by roger real drouinA steady increase in sea levels is pushing saltwater into U.S. wetlands, killing trees from Florida as far north as New Jersey. But with sea level projected to rise by as much as six feet this century, the destruction of coastal forests is expected to become a worsening problem worldwide.
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Report
by ben goldfarbU.S. colleges and universities are increasingly deploying solar arrays and other forms of renewable energy. Yet most institutions have a long way to go if they are to meet their goal of being carbon neutral in the coming decades.
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Analysis
by fred pearceThe cause of the rapid increase in methane emissions since 2007 has puzzled scientists. But new research finds some surprising culprits in the methane surge and shows that fossil-fuel sources have played a much larger role over time than previously estimated.
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Report
by christian schwägerlAs Europe’s wind energy production rises dramatically, offshore turbines are proliferating from the Irish Sea to the Baltic Sea. It’s all part of the European Union’s strong push away from fossil fuels and toward renewables.
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Report
by jim robbinsScientists are still trying to unravel the damaging effects of ground-level ozone on life on earth. But as the world warms, their concerns about the impact of this highly toxic, pollution-caused gas are growing.
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Opinion
by christian schwägerlAssaults on the science behind climate change research and conservation policies are spreading from the U.S. to Europe and beyond. If this wave of “post-fact” thinking triumphs, the world will face a future dominated by pure ideology.
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Interview: Are Trees Sentient?
Certainly, Says German Forester
In his bestselling book,
The Hidden Life of Trees, German forester Peter Wohlleben argues
Peter Wohlleben
that to save the world’s forests from climate change and other threats we must first recognize that trees are “wonderful beings” with innate adaptability, intelligence, and the capacity to communicate with — and heal — other trees. In an interview with
Yale Environment 360, Wohlleben discusses how trees live in families, have an inborn memory of events like previous droughts, and possess the capacity to make decisions and fight off predators. Wohlleben has been criticized for anthropomorphizing trees, but he maintains that to succeed in preserving our forests in a rapidly warming world, we must start to look at trees in an entirely different light.
Read the interview.Canada’s Environment Minister, Catherine McKenna, has announced that the country will
eliminate virtually all coal-fired power plants by 2030, which would mean that 90 percent of Canada's electricity would come from carbon-free sources of energy by that time. Speaking to reporters in Ottawa, McKenna said that four provinces still burn coal for electricity — Alberta, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. They will either phase out coal use or will be allowed to temporarily keep some coal-fired power plants open if equivalent CO2 emissions reductions are achieved in other sectors, McKenna said. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose Liberal Party took power a year ago, ran on a platform of reducing carbon emissions and embracing renewable energy. Roughly 60 percent of Canada’s electricity is generated using hydropower, and analysts predicted that the Liberal government’s announcement Monday will stimulate the development of wind, solar, and other renewable forms of energy.
Interview: At Standing Rock Protest,
A Battle Over Fossil Fuels and Land
For more than eight months, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota has been leading a protest to stop an oil pipeline from
Kyle Powys Whyte
potentially threatening its drinking water and sacred sites. In many ways, the battle over the Dakota Access Pipeline is a traditional fight over Native American land rights. But as indigenous rights expert Kyle Powys Whyte sees it, the demonstration also points to the important role tribes have played in opposing fossil fuel energy projects in recent years. “Almost everywhere you go, tribes have taken direct action to protect their health and their cultures and their economies from the threats, as well as the false promises of, extractive industries,” he says. In an interview with
Yale Environment 360, Powys Whyte talks about the long history of coal and oil and gas development on native lands and why Standing Rock has become a lightning rod for opposition to fossil fuels.
Read the interview.As the UN climate conference in Marrakech neared completion, nearly 200 nations, including the United States,
reiterated their commitment to the
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Marrakech.
Paris agreement, saying that the world has “an urgent duty” to respond to global warming. In the joint statement, known as the
Marrakech Action Proclamation, delegates pledged to stand with nations hit hardest by climate change, reduce emissions to meet a 1.5 degree C temperature goal, and mobilize $100 billion for resiliency work. “We welcome the Paris Agreement, its rapid entry into force, with its ambitious goals… in the light of different national circumstances,” the announcement said, “and we affirm our commitment to its full implementation.” Also this week, 47 countries on the front lines of climate change, including Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Costa Rica, pledged to go
100 percent renewable and carbon neutral in coming decades to “help trigger increased commitments from all countries” to reduce greenhouse gases.
Photo Essay: How Pollution Is
Devastating an Indonesian Lake
Binsar Bakkara
More than 1,500 tons of fish suddenly turned up dead in Indonesia’s largest lake earlier this year, a mass asphyxiation caused by high pollution levels. The event threatened the livelihoods of hundreds of fish farmers and the drinking water for thousands of people, and it shed light on the rapidly declining conditions in Lake Toba, the world’s largest volcanic lake. In a photo essay for
Yale Environment 360, Binsar Bakkara visits the lake he grew up on to chronicle the destruction.
View the photos.More than 360 U.S.-based businesses, including some of the world’s largest multinational corporations,
sent a letter to
Delegates at UN climate meetings in Morocco.
U.S. and world leaders this week asking them to continue to support the Paris climate agreement and speed up the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. "Failure to build a low-carbon economy puts American prosperity at risk,” the group said. “But the right action now will create jobs and boost U.S. competitiveness. We pledge to do our part, in our own operations and beyond.” The statement,
presented at United Nations climate meetings in Marrakesh, Morocco this week, was addressed to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, U.S. President Barack Obama, Congress, and world leaders. Signatories include major conglomerates such as General Mills, Hewlett-Packard, Hilton, Nike, Kellogg, Unilever, Starbucks, and DuPont, as well as more than 50 other companies and investors with annual revenues exceeding $100 million.
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A look at how acidifying oceans could threaten the Dungeness crab, one of the most valuable fisheries on the U.S. West Coast.
Watch the video.
The latest
from
Yale
Environment 360 is now available for mobile devices at
e360.yale.edu/mobile.
An aerial view of why Europe’s per capita carbon emissions are less than 50 percent of those in the U.S.
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An indigenous tribe’s deadly fight to save its ancestral land in the Amazon rainforest from logging.
Learn more.
An
e360 video series looks at the staggering amount of food wasted in the U.S. – a problem with major human and environmental costs.
Watch the video.
Residents of the Chocó Rainforest in Ecuador are choosing to plant cacao over logging in an effort to slow deforestation.
Watch the video.
Tribal people and ranchers join together to stop a project that would haul coal across their Montana land.
Watch the video.
