EcoWatch

After studying tree rings from the past 2,000 years, researchers have found that the Northern Hemisphere experienced its hottest summer in 2023 in the past two millennia. By Paige Bennett The researchers used both observed and modeled surface air temperatures…

Swiss company Climeworks has opened the biggest operational direct air capture (DAC) plant in the world to pull carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. By Cristen Hemingway Jaynes The Mammoth plant, located in Iceland, is nearly ten times bigger than Orca, its second-largest plant. “Starting operations…

“When it works, it really works,” said Penny Langhammer, co-author of the study and executive vice president of Re:wild By Paige Bennett A first-of-its-kind study that analyzed hundreds of conservation actions around the world has confirmed that efforts toward preserving…

In a historic ruling, the European Court of Human Rights has found that Switzerland’s inadequate efforts to tackle climate change violated the human rights of its country’s citizens, represented by more than 2,000 older Swiss women. By Cristen Hemingway Jaynes The landmark decision…

The rate of carbon emissions cuts in the United States has doubled since the passage of President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), according to a new report by Clean Investment Monitor. By Cristen Hemingway Jaynes Since the IRA was passed in 2022, more than…

According to a new analysis by the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the United States has produced the most crude oil globally for six years in a row — more than any nation in history during that time. In 2023, the daily average crude…

The landscape scorched, houses gone. Texas’ Smokehouse Creek fire has spread to more than one million acres, the largest in the state’s history. It is bigger than the 2006 East Amarillo Complex fire and the second-largest in United States history.…

A new report from the nonprofit First Street Foundation finds that many Americans are exposed to unhealthy levels of pollution regularly and predicts the number of people exposed to unhealthy air could rise further by the middle of the century.…

Some grocery chains are moving to help protect pollinators by requiring their suppliers to stop using nitroguanidine neonicotinoids, or neonics. Chains including Whole Foods and Kroger have recently outlined policies that will ban the use of neonics in crop production.…

News of plastic-eating enzymes and insects has been making headlines in recent years. Take, for example, fungi that digests plastic in coastal salt marshes, or the greater wax moth caterpillar that can live on polyethylene in its larval stage. However, to utilize these plastic-eating…