Britain is phasing out its coal-burning power plants, with the last one slated to be shuttered by 2025, if not sooner. It is a startling development for the nation that founded an industrial revolution powered by coal.
-
Biodiversity
Small Pests, Big Problems: The Global Spread of Bark Beetles
Warming temperatures are fueling the expansion of pine and spruce beetle outbreaks across North America, Europe, and Siberia, ravaging tens of thousands of square miles of woodlands. Scientists warn that some forest ecosystems may never recover.
-
Forests
In Africa’s Oldest Park, Seeking Solutions to a Destructive Charcoal Trade
Virunga National Park, home to the world’s largest population of mountain gorillas, is plagued by deforestation linked to the production of charcoal for cooking fuel. But local and international groups are working on several fronts to find sustainable alternatives.
-
Opinion
Taking the Long View: The ‘Forever Legacy’ of Climate Change
Climate change projections often focus on 2100. But the geological record shows that unless we rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we will be locking in drastic increases in temperatures and sea levels that will alter the earth not just for centuries, but for millennia.
Biodiversity
Unnatural Surveillance: How Online Data Is Putting Species at Risk
The rapid growth of digital data has been a boon to researchers and conservationists. But experts are warning of a dark side: Poachers can use computers and smartphones to pinpoint the locations of rare and endangered species and then go nab them.
E360 Digest
-
New Study Pushes Back Deadline to Act to Limit Warming to 1.5 Degrees
A new study suggests that nations have a bit more time than previously thought if they want to cut greenhouse gas emissions and limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). The research, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, finds that the world’s economies can emit an additional 700 billion tons of carbon dioxide before exceeding 1.5 degrees — more than twice previous estimates. More about New Study Pushes Back Deadline to Act to Limit Warming to 1.5 Degrees →
-
Rebuilding from 2011 Earthquake, Japanese Towns Choose to Go Off the Grid
Many of the cities in northern Japan damaged by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami are building back their electric grids with renewable energy and micro-grids — bucking the nation’s old, centralized utility system by making communities in the region self-sufficient in generating electricity, Reuters reported. More about Rebuilding from 2011 Earthquake, Japanese Towns Choose to Go Off the Grid →
-
Satellites that Measure Ice Loss to Go Dark
The twin satellites that have been critical in measuring the world’s melting ice sheets for 15 years will soon shut down — months before their replacement is launched into orbit, NASA announced, creating a gap in the ice data record that has been instrumental in studying the impacts of global warming. More about Satellites that Measure Ice Loss to Go Dark →
Support environmental journalism: E360's in-depth reporting, analysis, and commentary depend on readers like you. Donate Now
Tropical Storm Harvey is the third major flood in southeast Texas in three years. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, flood expert Philip Bedient says the region will remain vulnerable to disasters if communities don’t rebuild with climate change in mind.
Energy
Utilities Grapple with Rooftop Solar and the New Energy Landscape
The emerging U.S. rooftop solar industry is often portrayed as the victim in a struggle with fossil-fuel-friendly utilities. But the reality is more complex, as utilities in some states are beginning to adapt to a new renewable energy paradigm.
-
Analysis
Trump’s Judges: A Second Front in the Environmental Rollback
As the Trump administration keeps moving aggressively to roll back environmental protections, it has a potent legal weapon -- the scores of federal judges that President Trump will be appointing, most of whom are expected to hold anti-regulatory, pro-business views.
-
Interview
How Listening to Trees Can Help Reveal Nature’s Connections
In his latest book, David George Haskell focused on 12 individual trees across the globe, from the Amazon to the streets of Manhattan. It gave him, he says in a Yale e360 interview, a profound sense of the complex networks that sustain life.
-
Energy
The World Eyes Yet Another Unconventional Source of Fossil Fuels
Vast quantities of methane hydrates — frozen deposits of natural gas on the sea floor — exist worldwide. But as experimental drilling moves forward, many experts question the wisdom of exploiting a costly, environmentally risky trove of fossil fuels that will accelerate global warming.
Rising Seas
As global temperatures climb, ice sheets melt, and waters expand, the world’s oceans are increasingly impacting coastal communities and ecosystems.