Every year, United Nations member states gather together at the Conference of the Parties, better known as COP, to negotiate international climate agreements and assess global progress toward emissions reduction. The 30th annual COP will begin November 7 in Belém, Brazil, a city of about 2.5 million on the edge...
Where the Appalachian brook trout vanish, something human goes missing, too
On a startlingly beautiful day high in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Thomas Champeau waded into Yellowstone Prong hoping to catch the elusive Southern Appalachian brook trout. A pull-off along Blue Ridge Parkway had led him to a short path lined with mountain laurel. He and a smattering of afternoon anglers...
The entire world was ready to reduce shipping emissions. Then Trump stepped in.
With relatively little fanfare, the first-ever global carbon tax was poised to be formally adopted as an international agreement this year. The International Maritime Organization, or IMO, the United Nations agency overseeing global shipping, had drafted a net-zero framework to move the sector toward cleaner fuels — a crucial step...
Why one of the world’s greenest countries is betting its future on oil
As Paramaribo, Suriname, flooded with shin-high water during a rainstorm in June, hundreds of taxis jostled for space on a recently paved street on the outskirts of the capital city. Passengers in suits disembarked alongside an overgrown canal. The visitors, some of whom had come from as far away as...
Why Democrats aren’t talking about climate change much anymore
Nearly a year after the 2024 election, Democrats are still trying to figure out what went wrong. In the midst of this soul-searching, a new piece of advice has appeared: “Don’t say climate change.” That’s the takeaway from a recent poll by the Searchlight Institute, a new Democratic think tank....
Want to go to the UN’s biggest gathering of Indigenous peoples? Here’s how.
The United Nations has opened up a new round of funding to support Indigenous peoples to attend two major convenings in New York City and Geneva next year. The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, or UNPFII, happens every year in New York and is scheduled for April 20...
The humble plant that could save the world — or destroy it
The largest herds of caribou in the world make their homes here. Polar bears give birth to cubs in dens dug into this soil, some of them more than 200 years old. And birds like the Arctic tern fly north every summer, some from as far south as Antarctica, to breed...
Why Democrats aren’t talking about climate change much anymore
Nearly a year after the 2024 election, Democrats are still trying to figure out what went wrong. In the midst of this soul-searching, a new piece of advice has appeared: “Don’t say climate change.” That’s the takeaway from a recent poll by the Searchlight Institute, a new Democratic think tank....
Racing against time, Illinois clears a major hurdle in containing an invasive fish
The silver carp is big, unwieldy, and requires Joe Greendyk to use both his hands to measure it before tossing the fish overboard into the Illinois River. The nearly 2-foot-long invasive fish, which now overruns the river, has become the centerpiece of a state-run monitoring program to rein in its...
FEMA has denied or not advanced most Kerr County aid applications after deadly July 4 flood
Only about one-fifth of applicants for federal disaster assistance from Texas’ Kerr County have been deemed eligible to get financial help so far, leaving hundreds without governmental aid more than three months after deadly floods ravaged the county on July 4. As of October 11, Federal Emergency Management Agency officials...