Weekly Climate News

April 22, 2021 

• Alaska’s boreal forests have experienced extreme damage from wildfires, but the regrowth of deciduous trees is helping to sequester more carbon than before. 

• Climate change has been altering the monsoon season in India, which poses threatening concerns for both Asian countries and the world. 

• Dust plumes from Africa, like the recent “Godzilla” pushed by winds in June 2020 from the Sahara across the Atlantic to North America, will shrink significantly due to climate change. 

• U.S. President Joe Biden will announce on Earth Day that the United States will cut carbon emissions in half by the end of the decade. 

• The “Climate Clock” in New York City’s Union Square now shows an estimate of how much of the world’s energy comes from renewable resources. 

• A recent study found that air pollution in India is costing Indian businesses $95 billion every year. 

• Russian President Vladimir Putin accepted an invitation from Biden for a virtual climate summit. 

• Springtime snow and unseasonably harsh frosts in Western Europe are connected to losses of Arctic sea ice.

• U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haalandrevoked a slew of orders issued under the Trump administration, shifting away from policies in favor of the oil and gas industries.

Weekly Climate News

Feb. 18, 2021

• Air pollution has been confirmed to result in 1 in 5 deaths annually around the world. 

• A NASA research team is going back to researching cloud formations after being impeded by the COVID-19 pandemic. They are working to understand how variations in aerosol particles from human and natural sources affect clouds. 

• A winter storm hit Texas, leaving many in frigid temperatures without power and electricity.  

• Elon Musk announced a four-year-long carbon capture contest that will award $100 million funding for the development of carbon removal technology. 

• U.S. government scientists said that America has the potential for a carbon-free future by 2050 if projected changes to wind and solar power are made. 

• Disha Ravi, a climate activist in India, was placed in jail for sharing information about the farmers’ protest with Greta Thunberg. 

• The U.K. government put a stop to construction plans for a deep coal mine after accusations of hypocrisy in regard to its current climate action arose. 

• Protests began in northern Minnesota to halt the progress of Line 3, an oil pipeline from the U.S. to Canada. 

Weekly Climate News

Feb. 11, 2021 

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• A flash flood in Uttarakhand, India, has left 31 people dead and 175 missing. The natural disaster has been linked to global warming in the Himalayas.

• Developing countries usually see increases in air pollution as population and economies grow. A new study has found that Nigeria is expanding and becoming less polluted. 

• A research study has found that climate change has produced longer pollen seasons in the United States along with more pollen found in the air.

• Peat in Ireland has been found to help to absorb greenhouse gases and aid in mitigating climate change. 

• Read about the environmental and climate change links to the farmers’ protests in India centered around agricultural reform. 

• Research continues on the link between climate change and COVID-19. Read this article on the most recent findings. 

• British scientists have discovered a way to recapture atmospheric carbon and turn it into jet fuel. 

• Due to climate change, a heatwave including temperatures reaching 100 F in Siberia has led to wildfires and an increase in the melting of sea ice.

Weekly Climate News

October 1, 2020

• Land grabbers in the Amazon’s Indigenous territories advanced after encouragement from Bolsonaro. 

• Eight new projects have been funded by NASA that explore the connections between the environment and COVID-19. 

• Over one-third of food in the U.S. is either lost or wasted, which equates to about $161 billion annually, and this problem has been exacerbated by the global pandemic. Read this article about how to reduce food waste. 

• The Trump administration released a plan to open the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, the largest U.S. national forest, to logging. 

• Gavin Newsom (CA-D), California’s governor, issued a ban on all gasoline powered cars after 2035. Legal challenges are expected. 

• As summers in the Arctic are warming due to climate change, northernmost landscapes are changing, becoming greener with increased plant growth.

• Recent research papers claim that a new compact nuclear fusion reactor is “very likely to work.” This suggests that producing energy in the same way the sun does might be achievable.

• A digital clock in Manhattan now shows the time left for critical action to be taken before the effects of global warming become irreversible.

• Under the COVID-19 lockdown, India experienced its longest recorded period of clean air. This came to an end in September resulting primarily from New Delhi, as the burning of crop waste by farmers caused a deterioration in air quality.