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

Image on the left shows nighttime light emissions data from Houston on Feb. 7, image on right shows blackout on Feb. 16

Disastrous Houston blackouts captured from space

By Nicoletta Lanese

More than one million people lost power in the Houston area.

An abandoned boat sits in the water amid dead cypress trees in coastal waters and marsh August 26, 2019 in Venice, Louisiana, in a region already impacted by sea level rise.

Seas will likely rise even faster than worst-case scenarios predicted by climate models

By Rafi Letzter

Sea levels will probably rise faster than the most mainstream climate models predict, according to a new study.

The Greenland ice sheet is a vast body of ice covering 660,000 square miles (1,710,000 square kilometres), roughly 80% of the surface of Greenland.

Greenland is careening toward a critical tipping point for ice loss

By Mindy Weisberger

The Greenland Ice Sheet is one of the largest ice sheets in the world. But it might not be for much longer, if Earth continues to warm.

This color-coded map displays a progression of changing global surface temperature anomalies. Higher than normal temperatures are shown in red and lower than normal temperatures are shown in blue. Scale is in degrees Celsius.

Broiling 2020 was the hottest year ever, NASA climate scientists say

By Mindy Weisberger

Researchers with NASA and NOAA released their annual assessments of global temperatures and climate trends, finding 2020 to be one of the hottest years in 140 years of record-keeping.

Charred trees are seen along Pallet Creek Road during the Bobcat Fire in Valyermo, California, September 18, 2020.

The planet is dying faster than we thought

By Brandon Specktor

A triple-threat of climate change, biodiversity loss and overpopulation is bearing down on Earth, a new paper from 17 scientists warns.

Factory emitting gas

We've already blown past the warming targets set by the Paris climate agreement, study finds

By Rafi Letzter

A new study shows that due to pollution already released, Earth will eventually blow past Paris goals. But that doesn't mean all is lost.

A field of solar panels next to a wind turbine at sunset.

What is renewable energy?

By Sarah Wild

Sustainable sources of energy are renewable and are generally less harmful to the environment than fossil fuels.

Striking images show multiple wildfires burning along the US WestCoast

10 steamy signs in 2020 that climate change is speeding up

By Tia Ghose

From record wildfires to a bumper crop of hurricanes to melting poles, here are some of the biggest signs in 2020 that climate change is speeding up.

The coastline of the Bykovsky Peninsula in the central Laptev Sea, Siberia

'Zombie' greenhouse gas lurks in permafrost beneath the Arctic Ocean

By Nicoletta Lanese

Experts say we need to improve our patchy knowledge of subsea permafrost.

a view of the Otzal Alps glaciers.

Ötzi the Iceman may have scaled ice-free Alps

By Stephanie Pappas

Many Alpine summits may have been ice-free before about 5,900 years ago.

In this digital reconstruction, methane can be seen rising as flares from the sea floor.

Huge methane cache beneath Arctic could be unlocked by the moon

By Patrick Pester

The moon's tides affect how much methane is released from seafloor sediments and the implications are huge.

snow falling in midtown, New York City, in 2014

Nor'easter could drop a foot of snow on New England

By Nicoletta Lanese

The storm follows last year's mild winter with below-average snowfall.

A fire burns in a pit near a natural gas well as methane (CH4) escapes into the atmosphere.

US could reach 'net-zero' carbon by 2050. Here's how.

By Rafi Letzter

The U.S. can cut its carbon output to zero by the middle of the 21th century, according to a major new Princeton University study. It might even save money.

The Royal Air Force (RAF) filmed the world's largest iceberg, which is on a collision course with South Georgia island.

World's largest iceberg still barreling toward penguin habitat, new footage confirms

By Brandon Specktor

Iceberg A-68a is just a few hundred miles from crashing into South Georgia island, new photos from the Royal Air Force reveal.

The Arctic landscape is dramatic and beautiful. It's also being transformed by climate change.

Dramatic transformation of the Arctic landscape may be permanent

By Mindy Weisberger

From vanishing sea ice to blistering air temperatures to zombie fires, climate change is reshaping the Arctic. And that transformation may be permanent, researchers said.

This animation of the progression of the Saharan dust cloud across the Atlantic Ocean from June 15 to 25, 2020 combines OMPS aerosol index and VIIRS visible imagery from NASA/NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite. The dust plume moved from Africa's west coast over the Atlantic into the Caribbean Sea and up through the Gulf of Mexico. The largest and thickest part of the plume is visible over the eastern and central Atlantic Ocean.

Sahara's 'Godzilla' dust storm may have been triggered by warming in the Arctic

By Mindy Weisberger

Warmer-than-average conditions and declining sea ice in the Arctic may be linked to the Sahara Desert's biggest dust storm in recorded history.

A heat map of the Earth showing surface air temperature anomaly for November 2020 relative to the November average for the period 1981-2010

Toasty November means 2020 might nudge out 2016 as hottest year on record

By Nicoletta Lanese

Last month was even hotter than previous record-breaking Novembers.

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.