Inside Climate News

This year’s Convention to Combat Desertification focuses on rangelands and attempts to address an overlooked solution to climate change.By Georgina GustinIn Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, policy makers, scientists and global negotiators are gathering to convey an urgent message: The world’s rangelands, which make up about half of Earth’s land surface, are in trouble. But these same lands offer an opportunity. If, collectively, farmers and land users restore rangelands and soils, they can combat drought

Monona County officials and residents fear a repeat of the communication gaps and loopholes that left them caught off guard by a plan to import treated slaughterhouse manure.By Anika Jane BeamerIn a matter of days, a dirt pit the size of five football fields appeared next to the weathered headstones of Center Cemetery in Castana, Iowa.

The Railroad Commission of Texas adopted a new participation policy before sharing it with the public.By Martha PskowskiThe three elected officials who regulate the oil and gas industry in Texas hold an open meeting each month in Austin to vote on matters from pipeline violations to permit renewals.

The Trump administration move is “politically motivated,” said the plaintiff, one of the nation’s leading environmental groups.By Nicholas KusnetzOne of the nation’s largest environmental groups is challenging the Trump administration’s closure of a leading climate institute, filing a lawsuit Thursday in federal court saying the closure is unlawful.

The highly destructive practice has been documented in at least 34 countries, from Lebanon and Libya to Ecuador and Brazil.By Johnny SturgeonNicknamed the “Amazon of the Seas,” the Coral Triangle is the world’s most biologically diverse marine ecosystem. Sink below the surface and you’ll encounter the sound of a vibrant symphony of snapping shrimp, crunching crustaceans and feeding fish. 

The reporting mapped water service lines and found that the scourge of lead pipes disproportionately affected Black and Latino neighborhoods.By ICN EditorsA collaborative project about Chicago’s handling of its massive number of lead water pipes—a public health hazard—has won a reporting award from the National Association of Black Journalists.

At the limits of adaptation, governments face a choice: point fingers, or seize the moment for transformational change.By Bob BerwynLINZ, Austria—A summer-long series of heatwaves that has been blistering much of Europe since June has turned political.

The investigation details emaciated, dehydrated animals and concerns about Sloth World’s operations, but concluded there was no evidence of criminal neglect or abuse.By Katie Surma, Kiley PriceNew investigative findings from a Florida sheriff’s office detail the stark conditions of emaciated and dehydrated sloths at a planned tourism attraction where more than 50 of the animals died, including one frothing at the mouth and another that had been lying on the ground for two days, covered in feces.

Adding nature-friendly rules to the country’s photovoltaic policies could create safer spaces for the animals, a new study finds.By Phil McKennaPolicies promoting solar power construction projects in China have contributed to a decline in bird diversity across the country.

Solrite is the latest energy services company to venture into Illinois, a sign of how quickly a new state law has jumpstarted the market.By Dan GearinoIllinois is the latest example of how a state can embrace virtual power plants and see results almost immediately.

Pairing engineered stormwater infrastructure with green spaces can reduce flooding in cities. But wetter storms are pushing these systems to the brink, experts say.By Kiley PriceIn 2011, a short but catastrophic cloudburst hammered Copenhagen, flooding parts of the Danish city with more than 5 inches of rain in a single day. 

The drought-induced draw to save downstream Lake Powell is wreaking havoc on Wyoming-Utah’s beloved recreation area.Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile and Hannah Romero, Green River StarAs campers with boats flocked to Buckboard Marina at the start of Memorial Day weekend, Tony Valdez was busy issuing refunds and repairing broken boat ramps. One older Green River man, who walked with two canes, left with his money refunded for the season after discovering he could not safely make it down to the boat sli

A new global analysis maps reefs with the greatest potential to withstand warmer temperatures, strengthening calls for their protection.By Teresa TomassoniFor years, the outlook for coral reefs has been increasingly bleak. Mass coral bleaching events caused by severe marine heatwaves have fueled repeated warnings that reefs are rapidly on an irreversible path of decline. But new research is challenging that narrative.

Authorities that manage the Potomac River tributary did not sample the stretch where residents fish and recreate. One Indigenous leader sees the lack of response as part of a pattern of ongoing neglect.By Aman AzharIn the five months after jet fuel started leaking from Joint Base Andrews into Piscataway Creek, no agency tested the water or sediment some 20 miles downstream, where the creek empties into the Potomac River and the shoreline community and anglers gather to fish and boat along the ri

The clean energy sector is showing resilience despite challenges thrown at it by a hostile White House, a recent report found. A string of legal victories has further dampened the Trump administration’s efforts to halt wind and solar power.By Aman AzharThe Trump administration has abandoned its effort to halt wind energy projects across the United States and dropped its challenge to the court ruling that tossed President Donald Trump’s order freezing federal permitting and leasing for wind proje

Amid a data center boom in the state, the tech giant backpedals on a key climate promise.By Charles PaullinOne of the world’s most profitable technology companies could be abandoning an ambitious clean-energy goal in Virginia as it races to build electricity-hungry data centers. Several of the company’s facilities are already operating in Virginia, the data center capital of the world, and more are planned, creating a tension with the state’s own climate commitments. 

If protected, researchers say these coral strongholds may help repopulate more degraded reefs across the Central Pacific.By Teresa TomassoniMAJURO, Marshall Islands—Perched on the bow of an aluminum landing craft, Anne Cohen gazed a few yards ahead of the vessel toward a yellow robot gliding across the emerald Majuro lagoon. 

Go behind the scenes with managing editor Jamie Smith Hopkins and ICN reporters Katie Surma and Kiley Price as they explain what sloth deaths in Florida reveal about the global wildlife trade and risks to public health.By Katie Surma, Kiley PriceBillions of live animals move through the legal and illegal wildlife trade, a massive industry a former CDC epidemiologist described as “pandemic roulette.”

The surge in satellites brings pollution and risks of repeating destructive colonial practices, experts warn.By Bob BerwynThe starry night sky has always anchored humanity’s sense of place in a vast universe. It’s a map guiding travelers, a calendar for migrations and harvests, a wellspring of stories. But a surge of commercial satellite launches into the upper fringes of Earth’s atmosphere threatens the relationship between people and the celestial commons by crowding the night sky and pollutin

Bowser, a 172-pound loggerhead sea turtle, was rescued from the Navarre Beach Fishing Pier Sunday. The operation was one of a growing number of rescues in areas where sea turtles and humans overlap.By Dennis Pillion“Pull! Pull!” shouts Scott Dexter, chanting the cadence for eight men gripping a rope. “Pull!”