Weekly Climate News

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

April 15, 2021 

  • Non-fungible tokens, a new blockchain technology, have been found to have a large environmental impact. 

  • Many cyclists are unhappy about a new rule change that ends the tradition of tossing water bottles to fans during races. 

  • The Muldrow Glacier in Alaska is moving up to 90 feet a day, 100 times faster than its normal pace. 

  • A cyclone hit Indonesia, leaving over 160 people dead from flash floods and landslides. Many are claiming the Indonesian government’s recent rollback of environmental protections worsened the crisis. 

  • Japan’s recent approval of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean has been met with fierce opposition. 

  • Despite a slow economy resulting from COVID-19, greenhouse gases are currently on the rise. 

  • The proposal for the construction of a controversial biomass power plant in Springfield, Massachusetts, was revoked by the state’s Department of Environmental Protection. 

  • CACTO claims to be the first “carbon negative fashion company in the Americas” because it removes more atmospheric carbon than it produces through the manufacturing of its cactus leather products.

Weekly Climate News

April 8, 2021

  • Flooding in Australia has forced over 20,000 people to evacuate and over 150 schools to close down. 

  • The journal Geophysical Research Letters published a new study that shows summer in the Northern Hemisphere is lengthening. As a result of climate change, by the end of the century, summer could extend by nearly six months. 

  • Pope Francis made an appeal for humanity to face climate change by quoting Shakespeare, writing, “To see or not to see, that is the question.”

  • Human activity is currently responsible for degrading two-thirds of Earth’s tropical rain forests. Read more about it here.

  • A NASA study has confirmed that human activities are shifting Earth’s energy budget, as more energy from the sun is being trapped than can escape back into space.

  • A recent experiment found that coffee pulp, left over from the coffee making process, can aid in the regrowth of forests. 

  • The Biden administration announced an expansive offshore wind plan that would install enough wind turbines on the East Coast to power 10 million American homes. 

  • How is climate change affecting major league baseball? Read this article to find out.

Weekly Climate News

March 25, 2021 

  • Many companies are advocating for the profitability of conservation, sustainable fishing and carbon sequestration. 

  • Research has found that farmed fish are consuming more vegetables than wild fish stocks. 

  • Flooding in Australia has forced about 20,000 Australians to evacuate and has caused the closure of over 150 schools. 

  • In the face of political turmoil, COVID-19 and economic crisis, Lebanon is becoming more ambitious in its climate policy with the goal of cutting carbon emissions 20 percent by 2030. 

  • A new NASA satellite has been designed to track natural disasters, melting ice and other climate change-related effects. 

  • A new study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters indicates that summer in the Northern Hemisphere is lengthening. In response to global heating, the end of the century could see the extension of summer by nearly six months. 

  • NASA has recently joined the White House National Climate Task Force. 

  • Tropical rainforest used to cover 13 percent of Earth’s surface. Today, 34 percent of that area is gone while an additional 30 percent is degrading.

Weekly Climate News

March 4, 2021

  • The U.N. has suspended climate projects in Myanmar after the military seized control of the Myanmar government in a coup executed on Feb. 1.  

  • Claude Nyamugabo, environmental minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo, has been brought to court on accusations of illegal allocation of logging claims in the Congo rainforest to a Congolese cleaning company and two Chinese firms. 

  • The U.S. said it will terminate funding for “carbon-intensive” fossil fuel projects overseas. 

  • Environmental racism has impacted the health of marginalized communities for decades. Read this article on environmental justice advocates fighting pollution in Black communities by calling for civil rights protections to be included in the National Environmental Policy Act. 

  • Arkansas, Kansas, Minnesota and Montana, among other U.S. states, have proposed stricter penalties for protests against fossil fuel and pipeline projects. 

  • The gulf stream is weakening as a result of climate change. Check out this interactive article.

  • Mexico City initiated a plastic ban, which has raised concerns for women’s access to period products. 

  • New initiatives in the travel industry suggest a future of sustainable travel for the post COVID-19 world. 

  • More than 100 Chicagoans, motivated by environmental justice concerns, are involved in a hunger strike in protest of the city’s proposed location for a scrapyard in Southeast Chicago.

  • Seville, Spain, is using oranges to generate electricity. 

Weekly Climate News

Feb. 25, 2021

  • The European Union has poured 440 million euros into failed or incomplete gas pipeline projects in the past decade.  

  • The United States has officially rejoined the Paris Agreement. 

  • Avalanche warnings have been issued for areas in Washington and Oregon due to recent rain and snowfall.  

  • A Russian gas tanker has foraged a round trip along the Northern Sea Route, marking the first time a ship has made the voyage across the Arctic at this time of year. The trip was made possible due to melting sea ice. 

  • The Perseverance Mars rover has captured pictures and videos from its recent descent onto Mars. 

  • John Kerry, U.S. special presidential envoy for climate, said there are nine years left to avert the worst consequences of the climate crisis.

  • Despite a damaged economy resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. had a record-breaking number of renewable energy installations in 2020. Wind and solar energy increased by 61 percent, adding 33.6 gigawatts of energy to the grid and producing enough energy to power about 11 million American homes for one year. 

  • While the Earth faces a looming crisis of animal species extinction, many animals that were projected to be completely eradicated have been recovering.  

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 

  • 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.

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