Environment

Voters sought action on energy costs, corruption and data centers in an election environmentalists believe sets the stage for renewed climate policy.By Marianne Lavelle, Dan GearinoDemocrats on Tuesday won control of both houses of Congress and a decisive mandate to put a check on Donald Trump’s tumultuous presidency, a victory propelled by voter anger over high prices, corruption and the unchecked spread of data centers.

The Democratic Party appeared set to win a commanding victory in Tuesday’s midterm elections. As of 11 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday night, the party was on track to gain control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, as well as several state governments. The party’s strong performance, driven in part by voters’ anger over inflation and the war in Iran, reached into traditional Republican strongholds like Ohio and South Carolina. A sweep would have profound consequences for climate

We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authorsThis week, from 2023: A year ago, Germany’s vice-chancellor was one of the country’s best-liked public figures. Then came the tabloid-driven backlash. Now he has to win the argument all over againBy Philip Oltermann. Read by Sam Peter JacksonRead the text version hereSupport the Guardian today: theguardian.com/longreadpod Continue reading...

Farmers in Gurez store their harvests underground to last the Himalayan winter. As the practice fades, local varieties and handed-down skills are disappearing tooHajra Begum rolls a potato in her hands, checking its skin for cuts, soft spots and signs of rot. After a day harvesting in her family’s field in Chorwan, a remote mountain village in Gurez, Indian-administered Kashmir, she is sorting the crop for winter storage. Some of the potatoes will feed her family through the cold months; others

Climate observers have long tied the strength of a major ocean current to water temperatures in the so-called "cold blob" in the North Atlantic Ocean. The 965,000-square-mile (2.5 million square kilometers) area south and southeast of Greenland cooled by as much as 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit over the past century as other ocean waters warmed.

The Southern Ocean may seem far removed from the North Pacific or the Gulf of Maine, but its waters are linked to all the world's major ocean basins through a vast circulation system.

Waste dumped into the Tijuana River can travel seven times farther than expected before becoming airborne and affecting San Diego's air, at least 20 miles (32 kilometers) from its source, according to new UC Riverside research.

There have been decades of regulations to make vehicles greener and improve air quality in London and Beijing, as well as a popular shift toward less polluting road transport. Now, total emissions of harmful air pollutants from vehicle exhausts are lower than those from cooking in the centers of these two megacities, a study has found.

The newly launched U.S. Forest Monitor tracks satellite imagery to document forest loss over time.By Dennis PillionA new satellite tracking system finds that the United States has lost 350,000 acres of forest land per year—a rate of approximately one football field every two minutes—which is the equivalent of 2.3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions through the release of stored CO2 in the forests and lost potential carbon storage. 

Researchers recently spotted the brightly colored Ghana cuckooshrike in Côte d’Ivoire’s Taï National Park. The “lost” bird hadn’t been seen in 13 years, reports Mongabay’s John Cannon. Stephanie Bartlett, a field research fellow with the International Bird Conservation Partnership (IBCP), took a photo of the cuckooshrike while Paulo Ditzel, also an IBCP research fellow, called out its movements to her. Bartlett told Mongabay she got the identifying photo of the bird first before she even saw it.

A series of storms has added to reservoirs in the Colorado River basin, but the long-term water outlook remains bleak.

Renewable energy developer PowerBank has completed the 3.26-MW Camillus community solar project in Camillus, New York, and has received permission to operate. Solar Advocate Development, LLC, the project’s owner and EPC, built the array on a capped landfill, which it acquired from PowerBank in spring 2025 in a $7.3 million transaction. “A closed landfill is… The post PowerBank completes 3-MW New York community solar project appeared first on Solar Power World.

Removing harmful chemicals from contaminated water is only one step toward their elimination. Once collected in filtration materials, these chemicals must still be destroyed and detoxified to prevent contamination from moving into another waste stream.

A global accounting puts the value of ecosystem services that could be lost to sea level rise at well over 100 billion in 2020 international dollars (Int$2020) per year by 2100, according to a study—and the nations that are likely to lose the most are not the highest emitters.

Sunrun announced that participation in its Puerto Rico distributed power plant has doubled to more than 60,000 customers, representing nearly 70,000 home batteries. The distributed power plant frequently and reliably delivers 45 MW of dispatchable power for four hours at a time, providing critical support to Puerto Rico’s electric grid. Since April, Sunrun has dispatched… The post Participation in Sunrun’s Puerto Rico VPP program doubled in 2026 appeared first on Solar Power World.

The Hawaiian volcano Kīlauea is among the most active on Earth. Not only did it erupt almost continuously from 1983 to 2018, but it also began a new series of eruptions in late 2024 that continue as of late 2026. The activity and accessibility of the volcano have enabled scientists to collect a wealth of data.

In the 2022 midterms, Democrats made global warming an issue. Things have changed.

Brazil’s COP30 presidency has unveiled a much-anticipated plan to halt forest loss around the world, saying a global target to end deforestation by 2030 remains within reach using existing national and international tools, but requires more finance behind it and everyone to go “faster and further”. COP30 President André Corrêa do Lago told a press conference to launch the new roadmap in Brasilia that, while some countries pushed back against a global blueprint, it was develo

Rising sea levels might seem like someone else's problem if you live inland. But even miles from the coast, changing sea levels can affect the food we eat, the goods we buy, the energy we use and the taxes we pay.

Aghorn pleaded guilty and paid a $1 million fine after a worker and his wife were killed by toxic hydrogen sulfide in 2019. Regulators are still finding violations at its facilities.By Will Evans, The ExaminationThis article was first reported by The Examination, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates global health threats.