After decades of intense public debate and misinformation campaigns, nearly three-quarters of Americans now accept that climate change is happening; not only that, more than half understand it is caused by human activity. This shift has forced fossil fuel companies — and the organizations they fund — to alter their tactics to avoid regulation. Where […]
More than 75 percent of the world’s insect species are insufficiently protected when it comes to conservation areas around the globe, according to a recent new study. From our favorites like bees and butterflies, to the lesser appreciated organisms such as wasps and mosquitoes, insects are facing threats such as climate change, and a myriad […]
Oil refineries are a well-documented source of air pollution, but less attention is paid to the ways they also pollute the water. Transforming crude oil into petroleum produces millions of gallons of wastewater each day filled with toxic chemicals and heavy metals that pours out of the plants and flows into rivers and streams affecting […]
Recognizing and demarcating Indigenous lands leads to reduced deforestation and increased reforestation. That’s according to a new study that looked at more than 100 Indigenous territories in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest and found that legal recognition of those lands can have real, and measurable, impacts on centuries of deforestation. “Our study contributes to an emerging body […]
Electric and gas utilities have used money collected from customers to lobby lawmakers, butter up regulators, and slow the shift to clean energy. Beyond being occasionally illegal, the practice has stuck consumers with higher bills and led to higher carbon dioxide emissions, industry watchdogs say. In one particularly egregious example, the FBI arrested Larry Householder, […]
This story is part of the Cities Solutions series, which chronicles surprising and inspiring climate initiatives in communities across the U.S. through stories of cities leading the way. For early access to the rest of the series, subscribe to the Looking Forward climate solutions newsletter. The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes live among some of the most […]
The effort to shift the U.S. economy off fossil fuels and avoid the most disastrous impacts of climate change hinges on the third element of the periodic table. Lithium, the soft, silvery-white metal used in electric car batteries, was endowed by nature with miraculous properties. At around half a gram per cubic centimeter, it’s the […]
This story is part of the Cities Solutions series, which chronicles surprising and inspiring climate initiatives in communities across the U.S. through stories of cities leading the way. For early access to the rest of the series, subscribe to the Looking Forward climate solutions newsletter. Regional Carrillo could walk to his last job in five minutes. In […]
What’s scarier: being stranded at sea, stuck in an ominous fog, or forced to confront the monstrous motives of the fossil fuel industry? Well thanks to The Rig, the highly bingeable new sci-fi series from Amazon Prime Video, you don’t have to choose. Rather than using sci-fi tropes such as of a giant sea monster […]
Cars, trucks, planes, trains, and ships make up the U.S.’s biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions — about one-third of the nation’s total. Now, the Biden administration is laying out a strategy to clean up the transportation sector while also making it more convenient and just. Four federal agencies unveiled a “national blueprint for transportation […]