Climate Change

It's real. It's happening. It's accelerating. And it's our fault. Human activity — particularly the production of greenhouse gasses from fossil fuel emissions — is reshaping our planet, effecting rapid environmental change at a rate never seen before. Global temperature averages are creeping upward, seas are warming, rising and becoming more acidic, and extreme weather events such as droughts, wildfires, floods and powerful storms are more commonplace. Here's where you'll find the latest on the effects of climate change, and the measures that scientists, world leaders and innovators are taking to reduce our harmful impact on the planet and mitigate the damage already done.

Related Topics: Extinction, Global Warming, Deforestation, Heat Wave, Hurricanes

Latest Updates

Iceberg A68a (shaped like a pointing finger) is bearing down on the island of South Georgia, putting thousands of animals at risk.

The world's largest iceberg is on a collision course with an Antarctic penguin refuge

By Brandon Specktor

Iceberg A68a, the world's largest iceberg, is floating directly toward a wildlife hotspot in the South Atlantic ocean.

Climate March demonstrators protest in Washington, D.C. in April 2017.

US officially becomes only nation to leave the Paris Climate Agreement

By Nicoletta Lanese

Now that a yearlong waiting period has ended, the U.S. will formally exit the Agreement.

The Bobcat wildfire burns the hills about Los Angeles on September 15.

Earth just had its hottest September on record

By Yasemin Saplakoglu

Every year, a warming planet is shattering heat records.

Antarctica could melt 'irreversibly' due to climate change, study warns

By Brandon Specktor

Antarctica could be completely ice-free one day if we allow climate change to continue unabated.

Climate scientists uncover new record-low temperature in Greenland

By Brandon Specktor

Climate archivists have found the coldest day ever in the Northern Hemisphere, set by Greenland in 1991

Instruments aboard the British Antarctic Survey ship RV Nathaniel B Palmer helped scientists map the channels under the glacier.

Hidden rivers of warm water threaten vast Antarctic glacier

By Rafi Letzter

Thwaites Glacier holds enough ice to drive up sea levels more than 2 feet. These hidden ducts lubricate its collapse into the ocean.

A climate map showing the last 66 million years of Earth's history

Earth barreling toward 'Hothouse' state not seen in 50 million years, epic new climate record shows

By Brandon Specktor

Scientists used marine fossils and orbital data to recreate 66 million years of climate history. Its shows that climate change is anything but 'normal.'

Zombie wildfires are blazing through the Arctic, causing record burning

By Stephanie Pappas

Arctic wildfires are releasing large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere.

Half of Antarctic ice shelves could collapse in a flash, thanks to warming

By Nicoletta Lanese

Exactly when that will happen is the big unknown.

Icebergs near Greenland form from ice that has broken off--or calved--from glaciers on the island.

Nothing will stop Greenland's ice sheet from shrinking now

By Stephanie Pappas

If humans stopped heating up the climate instantly, Greenland's ice sheet would keep shrinking.

Climate scientist Konrad Steffen stands on the ice in Greenland in 2008.

World-renowned climate scientist dies in ice accident in Greenland

By Yasemin Saplakoglu

Konrad Steffen was one of the world's leading experts on climate change. In the end, it was climate change that killed him.

Satellite animation shows the collapse of the last fully intact ice shelf in Canada, from July 30 to August 4.

Canada's last intact ice shelf just collapsed

By Mindy Weisberger

In less than 48 hours, the last intact ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic collapsed, losing more than 40% of its mass.

Two Canadian ice caps have completely vanished from the Arctic, NASA imagery shows

By Brandon Specktor

New NASA imagery shows that the St. Patrick bay ice caps have vanished from Arctic Canada, two years sooner than scientists predicted

The site of the methane leak was stained with a white mat of hungry microbes.

First underwater methane leak discovered near Antarctica

By Brandon Specktor

Researchers detected the first underwater methane leak in Antarctica, and the microbes responsible for eating it aren't doing their job.

Algae have turned the Presena glacier in Italy a pretty pink.

Pink 'watermelon snow' threatens major Italian glacier

By Rafi Letzter

The high Presena glacier has turned pink in a major bloom of dangerous, ice-melting algae.

Siberian town records 100 degree F day — the hottest in Arctic history

By Brandon Specktor

The Siberian town of Verkhoyansk just recorded a 100-degree Fahrenheit day — the hottest in Arctic history.

Night lights in Wuhan, China, show the difference in human activity between late January and early February 2020, when the COVID-19 coronavirus spread through the city.

Global carbon emissions dropped an unprecedented 17% during the coronavirus lockdown — and it changes nothing

By Brandon Specktor

Scientists estimate that global daily carbon dioxide emissions dropped by as much 17% during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic.

NASA astronaut Christina Koch shared this view of Hurricane Dorian from the International Space Station on Sept. 2, 2019.

Hurricanes really are getting stronger, just like climate models predicted

By Rafi Letzter

The authors of a new paper studied 4,000 tropical cyclones spanning 39 years, and showed that major hurricanes are coming more frequently as Earth cooks.