Yale Environment 360

The chemical industry has known for decades that ingested microplastics can infiltrate vital organs, an investigation has found.

Two in three new cars sold in China last month were electric, according to industry data. Analysts say that energy shocks rippling from the Iran war are driving interest in EVs.

More than a year after a devastating wildfire destroyed the Hawaiian town of Lahaina, residents were found to have high levels of arsenic and other toxic metals in their bodies. via @grist.org

After decades of losses, mangrove trees are gaining ground on coastlines around the world, often in places they have never grown before. Paradoxically, warming temperatures and the destruction of inland forests are helping to power the revival.

The world is on track for 2.8 degrees C of warming this century, a gross breach of international climate targets, according to a new U.N. report.

Sixteen years after the catastrophic Deepwater Horizon oil spill, life in the deep sea is showing few signs of recovery, new research finds.

A powerful El Niño is delivering unusually warm waters to the California coast, and with them, an array of tropical sea creatures rarely seen there.

As national security and the hunt for rare minerals come to dominate Arctic agendas, governments are slashing support for wildlife research. Scientists say the loss of monitoring is unprecedented and comes as climate change dramatically reshapes life in the Far North.

When bird numbers decline, fledglings may struggle to learn the songs they need to attract mates. But new research suggests it is possible to teach birds their lost songs. via @theguardian.com

Indonesia appears to be reversing course on a plan to turn millions of acres of tropical rainforest into rice and sugarcane plantations.

The Congo Basin is one of the few regions where the IPCC has failed to track long-term changes in extreme heat. The problem is a lack of data. To fill this gap, scientists digitized thousands of handwritten records, which reveal the impact of warming.

Researchers have recorded a new species of giant waterlily after first spotting the plant in an Instagram photo.

Federal agencies are required to seek public comment when writing regulations or approving large projects. The Trump administration is systematically undercutting that process, stifling public input on environmental decisions, writes Jody Freeman.

At 192 years old, Jonathan the giant tortoise is the oldest known living land animal. A new study offers clues as to his incredible longevity.

Indonesia is hindering access to government data on the state of its forests. The new restrictions come as the country witnesses a surge in deforestation.

Across the Caribbean, people have installed roughly twice as many solar panels as official statistics would suggest. That is the finding of a new report, which calls on countries to make it easier for new solar installations to connect to the grid.

A legacy of deforestation has left Ethiopia struggling with more intense flooding and drought. The country is trying to restore its native forests through one of the world’s most ambitious and well-funded tree-planting campaigns, but experts question whether the trees will survive.

August and September passed without a single Atlantic hurricane, thanks in part to a powerful El Niño. Forecasters are raising the prospect that the Atlantic season may end hurricane-free for the first time in a century.

As president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro not only gutted agencies charged with protecting the Amazon, he also railed against conservation. An analysis of his tweets and those of his ministers finds a link between their rhetoric and the acres of forest lost.

Japan has little land available for large solar farms, so developers have been erecting arrays on many of the now disused golf courses that proliferated during the country's 1980s economic boom.

As Arctic tundra thaws, minerals long trapped in frozen soil are leaching into rivers, turning them orange and acidic. A study from northern Alaska found “rusting” waters to be more metallic and acidic than drainage from metal mines.

Soaring energy costs are driving a solar rush in developing countries. If left unmanaged, the growth of solar could destabilize power systems and deepen economic inequality, Jan Rosenow writes.

Some parts of the globe are not just heating up, but heating up faster than they were just a few decades ago. A new analysis reveals where warming has gained pace.

In the first half of this year, Tasmanian salmon farmers detonated nearly 1,800 underwater explosives to scare away seals intent on nabbing fish, government figures show.

For decades, India has relied on coal power to run its growing economy. But over the last two years, the country has seen a remarkable shift: The rapid buildout of renewables has halted the growth of coal.

Microplastics act like a “Trojan horse” for pollutants, pesticides, and bacteria in soil, researchers have found. via @theguardian.com

As work begins on the next U.N. climate assessment, fears are growing that the Trump administration could meddle with critical U.S. climate data. In response, scientists are preparing to transfer vast troves of that data to repositories in Germany.

At least 124 environmental defenders worldwide were killed last year, according to a stark new report. Authors say that deep cuts to foreign aid by wealthy nations have weakened human rights groups that support defenders.

In an interview, human rights lawyer Julian Aguon says that warming threatens not only the survival of small island nations but also the traditions and beliefs of their Indigenous peoples. He is citing these harms in legal actions, including at the U.N.'s top court last year.

Iceland is one of just three countries, along with Norway and Japan, that still allow commercial whaling, but that may be about to change. Its government will put forward a bill in February that could ban whaling.

As the planet heats up, tundras are thawing, wetlands are fermenting, and forests are succumbing to larger and more frequent wildfires. A new study finds the breakdown of natural systems could amplify human-driven warming by 20 to 30 percent.

Stretching from West Africa to the Gulf of Mexico, a massive bloom of sargassum seaweed is swamping beaches and killing coastal wildlife. But scientists have discovered the floating algae also shelters a vast array of ocean creatures, and some are now calling for its protection.

Coal power is falling in Chinese industrial centers such as Hunan and Shandong, an analysis finds. The shift comes even as companies look to electricity, not fossil fuels, to power industrial processes.

Nearly half of farmers globally are poisoned by pesticides each year, a study has found. via @theguardian.com

An analysis of 30 years of satellite images of penguin droppings shows how warming is altering the birds' diets.

Fueled by warming and a strengthening El Niño, record-setting marine heat waves are gripping oceans worldwide and playing havoc with sea life. Mounting evidence from recent events suggests the damage could be severe and long-lasting, both onshore and off.

Across the U.S., tech companies have courted backlash for using polluting gas generators to power massive new data centers. But energy industry data shows that in addition to building out natural gas, firms are helping fuel a U.S. battery boom.

Suburban sprawl in Reno and Spokane left those cities more vulnerable to recent wildfires, experts say. via @grist.org

Five days after a calamitous flood washed through Rasuwa, Nepal, the death toll has surpassed 900. In the wake of the disaster, which experts say may be linked to the melting of glacial ice, officials are calling on countries to tackle global warming.

This year, the Yale Environment 360 Film Contest received nearly 600 submissions from more than 80 countries. Watch the winners now: bit.ly/e360filmcont...

In Africa, homes and businesses are driving a solar boom. But the rapid buildout of small solar arrays, which are pushing additions to record levels, is largely unaccounted for in official statistics, analysts say.

For decades, weak regulations on petrochemical plants offered little protection to communities nearby. A Biden-era rule promised change, but under Trump, the EPA has granted exemptions to scores of polluting facilities and is working to rewrite the rule.

A study from Scotland found that living near an accessible urban woodland significantly lowered the likelihood of being prescribed antidepressants.

Fishers operating off the coast of Sulawesi, Indonesia, are detonating more than 8,000 underwater explosives each year, researchers estimate. The practice is turning picturesque coral reefs to “rubble.” via @insideclimatenews.org

Lost to science for more than 40 years, the spinach pipefish has been rediscovered in Papua New Guinea. The fish was long sought after by conservationists, who feared it had gone extinct.

On the African savanna, grasses are growing faster, boosted by rising levels of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels. That is the finding of a new study that warns that faster growth could fuel larger wildfires and alter the distribution of wildlife.

In “Chocolates Melting Away” — the First-Place Winner of the 2026 Yale Environment 360 Film Contest — Breech Asher Harani shows how Filipino cacao growers are developing new techniques to protect their crops from a warming climate. Watch the film: bit.ly/4zIiNoK

A scheme to slash car pollution in London was a boon to children, whose lungs grew faster after the program was launched, researchers found.

The collapse of a key system of Atlantic currents would lead not only to dramatic cooling in northern Europe, but potentially a surge in warming across the rest of the globe, a study finds.

China is generating more clean electricity than its power grid can handle. In the first half of this year, it wasted 360 terawatt-hours of clean energy, enough to power Mexico for a year, a report finds.