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Covering Climate Now

Words Are One Of The Most Effective Weapons In The Fight Against Climate Change And This Is How

9 Mins Read By Tara Lohan Speak up, identify the stakes, and use language that inspires action and combats right-wing messaging, says climate communications expert Genevieve Guenther. Do we generate energy from windmills or wind turbines? Your answer could say a lot about your views on climate change, explains Genevieve Guenther. Guenther used to be an English professor and literary critic, specializing […]

The 6 Environmental News Stories You Need To Follow Throughout 2022

8 Mins Read By John R. Platt and Tara Lohan. Last year’s COP26 was hailed as a disappointment by many environmentalists. Now, in 2022, fighting for the planet is more important than ever. Staying aware of new developments and key figures will prove more critical than ever before. A new year brings with it new opportunities — and […]

Climate Change Is A Feminist Issue Not Just an Environmental One

6 Mins Read By: Sara London In 2015, Botswana experienced its worst drought in history. Since then, families have had to move, taking their children out of schools; farmers have lost crops, leaving communities hungry and desperate. Natural disasters like this have a particularly devastating effect on young women in Botswana, according to a study from the University […]

The 30 Day Action Plan That Will Help You Tackle the Climate Crisis

7 Mins Read By: John R. Platt Doing something every day will help to change your attitude and create momentum for change. A recent poll found that people today, especially younger people, feel helpless when it comes to fighting climate change. Here’s the thing: That’s exactly how polluting corporations want you to feel. The more people believe their […]

The Climate Crisis Is Forcing Women and Girls to Sell Their Bodies

7 Mins Read By Anya Zoledziowski A family fell on such hard times after a cyclone that when a man offered their daughter, 17, a job, they agreed. They later learned she was forced into the sex trade. In May 2020, when the catastrophic Cyclone Amphan tore through her village in West Bengal, a state in eastern India, Seema […]

COP26 Ends With Promises, But Not Nearly Enough Progress

9 Mins Read By Tina Gerhardt The UN climate conference’s agreement acknowledges several key issues for the first time—but doesn’t do enough to address them. As COP26 drew to a close with the Glasgow Climate Pact, a 10-page document, the results were… mixed. In many ways, its results signal a tale of two globes. While delegates from the Global South […]

How Climate Change Threatens Pregnant Women and Their Fetuses

3 Mins Read By Cara Korte World leaders will turn their focus to gender Tuesday at the U.N. global climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland. Globally, women are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change than men, as they make up a majority of the world’s poor and depend most on natural resources, according to the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. […]

‘Nice’ Isn’t Going to Save the Planet

5 Mins Read By Mary Annaïse Heglar and Amy Westervelt In a rapidly heating world, we don’t have time for etiquette. “No matter what he says today,” climate activist Lauren MacDonald said through tears in her opening lines at the TED Countdown panel in Edinburgh. “Remember, Shell has spent millions covering up the warnings from climate scientists, bribing politicians, and even paying […]

How Young People Are Using Climate Litigation to Fight for Their Future

8 Mins Read By Alex Robinson Millennials and Gen Zs are suing governments and pension funds over their failures to address the climate crisis. It all started with an email. Mark McVeigh was procrastinating one day, as university students do, when he decided to contact Retail Employees Superannuation Trust (REST) – one of Australia’s largest pension funds – […]

Whose Voices Are (and Aren’t) Being Heard at COP26?

8 Mins Read By Rachel Sarah “COP26 is looking like one of the most inequitable, White, and segregated COPs to ever occur,” says Ayisha Siddiqa, a climate activist who traveled from New York City to Glasgow for the long-awaited 26th Conference of the Parties, which began on Oct. 31. Over the course of 13 days, parties to the 1992 United […]

What Is Deforestation? And Is Stopping It Really Possible?

9 Mins Read By: Patrick Greenfield As world leaders prepare to commit to halting the destruction of forests, here’s everything you need to know about some of the planet’s most biodiverse places. Forests and nature are centre stage at Cop26. On the second day of the Glasgow summit, world leaders are announcing a commitment to halting and reversing […]

Is the Global Methane Pledge Just “Words on Paper”?

8 Mins Read By Amy Westervelt More than 70 countries, including the United States, have promised to reduce methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030. Is it enough? This week at COP26, more than 70 countries, led by the European Union and the United States, formally announced their commitment to the Global Methane Pledge: a promise to reduce methane emissions […]

There’s Still Time to Fix the Climate—About 11 Years

8 Mins Read By Mark Fischetti On October 31 world leaders will descend on Glasgow, Scotland, for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP26, in a last-ditch effort to defuse the climate emergency by limiting global warming to less than 1.5 degrees Celsius. Reaching that level would still bring violent storms, deep flooding, gripping droughts and problematic sea-level rise, but […]

Reasons To Be Hopeful: The Climate Solutions Available Now

8 Mins Read By: Damian Carrington and Guardian reporters The climate emergency is the biggest threat to civilisation we have ever faced. But there is good news: we already have every tool we need to beat it. The challenge is not identifying the solutions, but rolling them out with great speed. Some key sectors are already racing ahead, […]

Exxon Is Desperate to Keep People From Realizing It Lied About Climate

6 Mins Read By Geoff Dembicki Oil executives delayed and deflected at a historic congressional hearing into climate denial Thursday. Experts say once people learn the truth it could be game over for Big Oil. Exxon had been dreading this day for decades.  On Thursday, the top executive at the oil and gas giant was grilled by Democratic lawmakers […]