So far this year, fires have burned more than 1.5 million acres across northern Portugal and northwest Spain, killing eight people and forcing tens of thousands to evacuate. The bulk of the wildfires coincided with a brutal heat wave in August, the most intense on record in Spain, which helped set the stage for the devastating burns, experts say. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Even as the U.S. guts support for renewable power, the world is still pushing ahead on the shift to solar energy, with installations up 64 percent in the first half of this year. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
The Indonesian government is fast-tracking a massive agricultural project that is turning 7 million acres of tropical forest into rice and sugarcane farms. Critics say it is the world’s largest deforestation project and would upend the lives of thousands of Indigenous people. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Bison have made a remarkable comeback in Yellowstone National Park, going from fewer than two dozen animals at the turn of the last century to roughly 5,000 today. Their return, a study finds, has had a remarkable impact on grasslands in the region. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Animals of all kinds mix and mingle in underground burrows, offering troubling opportunities for diseases to jump species. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Every year the Natural History Museum in London honors the best wildlife photographers from around the world, highlighting 100 extraordinary photos of nature. This year, the finalists were selected from more than 60,000 entries and feature dynamic portraits of wildlife alongside haunting images of humanity's impact on the natural world. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
At nearly every oil and gas site, leaks also produced benzene, a known carcinogen, as well as other chemicals that have been shown to harm bone marrow, weaken the immune system, impair the nervous system, as well as cause headaches, dizziness, vomiting, and fatigue. The research was published in Environmental Research Communications.| Yale E360
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In “Slaughter-land” — the First-Place Winner of the 2025 Yale Environment 360 Film Contest — two Latin American filmmakers document how hundreds of mega-farms that contain tens of thousands of pigs are trampling Indigenous rights and befouling the air and water in the Yucatan. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
A growing number of people globally are seeing wildfires encroach on their homes. That is not because wildfires are burning more land, however. Over the last two decades, the number of acres burned has dropped. The growing exposure to fires, a new study finds, is driven by the millions of people moving into fire-prone areas, mostly in Africa. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Over the past three decades, the number of whale strandings in Scotland has grown dramatically, a new study shows. Scientists say pollution and industrial noise may be driving the losses. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
For the first time, wind and solar are beginning to displace coal power in China, causing emissions to drop. Analyst Lauri Myllyvirta explores the challenges ahead for policymakers, who must now choose between propping up coal or doubling down on the shift to clean energy.| Yale E360
Meltwater flowing from the Greenland ice sheet is stirring up nutrients from the ocean depths, fueling algal blooms. A new study reveals the extent to which melting is driving the growth of algae. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
In “Chasing Birds” — Second-Place Winner of the 2025 Yale Environment 360 Film Contest — filmmaker Salma Sultana Barbhuiya explores how Rustom Basumatary, who came of age during a time of violent conflict in the Indian state of Assam, found identity and purpose in nature.| Yale E360
Used in everything from water pipes to vinyl records, PVC has long attracted criticism: a key ingredient is carcinogenic, and its additives include known endocrine disruptors. Now, the EPA is evaluating PVC’s safety, and an emerging global plastics treaty may limit its use.| Yale E360
Diplomats from around the world concluded nine days of talks in Geneva — plus a marathon overnight session that lasted into the early hours of Friday — with no agreement on a global plastics treaty.| Yale E360
In “Amazon Tipping Point” — Third-Place Winner of the 2025 Yale Environment 360 Film Contest — Brazilian filmmakers capture striking images of clear-cutting and explore how human activity is so damaging the world’s largest rainforest that it will not be able to recover.| Yale E360
As ocean waters heat up, the Atlantic is increasingly seeing not just one, but two or more hurricanes spin up at the same time. That is the finding of a new study, which warns that warming is raising the risk that coastal cities may be battered by back-to-back storms. | Yale E360
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Every spring, Forest Service fire leaders meet to plan for the upcoming fire season. This year, some employees were shocked by the blunt remarks made during a meeting with forest supervisors and fire staff officers from across the Intermountain West. “We were told, ‘Help is not on the way,’” said one employee, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of losing their job. “I’ve never been told that before.” | Yale E360
Insects and spiders are declining in tropical forests around the world. Mysteriously, losses are underway even in areas untouched by logging, mining, or farming. In these places, new research posits, more potent El Niños are driving the declines.| Yale E360
Israeli forces have attacked a seed bank in the West Bank city of Hebron, destroying equipment used to reproduce heirloom seeds, according to the group managing the facility. The attack comes as an Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip has fueled widespread hunger in the enclave. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Biologists once thought that humans did little to affect the course of evolution in the short term. But a recent study of cod in the Baltic Sea reveals how overfishing and selective harvest of the largest fish has caused genetic changes that favor slower growth and smaller size. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
The 8 billion tons of plastic waste that have amassed on Earth pose a grave and growing danger to human health, according to a new report published in the leading medical journal The Lancet. Ahead of a U.N. conference on plastic pollution, authors warn that countries urgently need to cut production. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
The Titanic lies about 12,500 feet under the ocean. The pressure down there is so immense that even submersibles supposedly built for those conditions can, as we know, tragically fail. Now imagine taking a sub nearly three times deeper. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
A reappraisal of satellite data from 2017 revealed that a thunderstorm over the Great Plains produced a 515-mile lightning flash, the longest ever recorded. As science advances, researchers expect to uncover even longer flashes. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
With clean energy more cost-competitive than it once was, the White House’s oil-first strategy is faltering in a changing energy landscape. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
A wide-ranging analysis, drawing from data on nearly 30 million people, finds a link between air pollution and dementia. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Climate change is bringing ever more precipitation and rising seas to low-lying Denmark. In response to troubling predictions, Copenhagen is enacting an ambitious plan to build hundreds of nature-based and engineered projects to soak up, store, and redistribute future floods. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Close to 900 million people across the Global South live in densely packed urban slums, which often sit in floodplains. A new study finds that one in three slum dwellers is at risk of "disastrous" flooding, a risk that is set to grow as warming spurs more intense rainfall around the world. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
For centuries, the Native people of North America used controlled burns to manage the continent's forests. In an e360 interview, ecologist Lori Daniels talks about the long history of Indigenous burning and why the practice must be restored to protect against catastrophic fires. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
A new study finds that lightning kills some 320 million trees around the world each year, more than was previously thought. And that figure could rise in the decades ahead as increasingly hot and humid weather fuels more lightning, particularly in forested parts of the Far North. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
China has begun construction on a massive dam project in the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon in Tibet, the longest and deepest canyon in the world. Experts fear the impact on wildlife in the river gorge, which is home to snow leopards and Bengal tigers, as well as some of the tallest and oldest trees in Asia. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Plagued by illegal logging and corruption, Liberia has been losing its forests at an alarming rate. But its new strategy to make direct payments to communities that agree to prohibit cutting and protect their trees is seen as a potential model for other developing nations. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
When Europeans arrived to the Pacific Northwest, they spread smallpox that devastated the Indigenous people, plundered stocks of salmon and herring, hunted down deer and other game, and built sprawling cities and ports. New research tallies the profound impact on wildlife. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
It has long been understood that clearcutting forests leads to more runoff, worsening flooding. But a new study finds that logging can reshape watersheds in surprising ways, leading to dramatically more flooding in some forests, while having little effect on others. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Glacial ice offers a detailed record of the atmosphere, preserved in discrete layers, providing researchers with a valuable tool for studying planetary history. A sample taken from a glacier in the European Alps dates back at least 12,000 years, making it the oldest ice yet recovered from the region. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
A new study finds a drop in air pollution likely drove a recent surge in warming. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Alaska’s Tongass is the world’s largest temperate rainforest and a sanctuary for wildlife. The Trump administration’s plan to rescind a rule banning roads in wild areas of national forests would open untouched parts of the Tongass and other forests to logging and development. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Fed up with pricey electricity from an unreliable grid, Pakistanis have snapped up cheap solar panels. In an interview, Muhammad Mustafa Amjad, of Islamabad-based Renewables First, says his country can stand as a model for other nations as they transition away from fossil fuels. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Koalas, which spend most of their lives high up in eucalyptus trees, usually die while on the ground, often mauled by dogs or hit by cars. More striking, a new study reveals that the amount of time they spend on the ground is only around 10 minutes a day. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
As growing populations denude its slopes and heavy rain intensifies, Mount Elgon has become increasingly vulnerable to landslides. In response, Ugandan farmers are planting native trees and changing the crops they plant in efforts to build resilience against future disasters. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
The Republican spending bill, signed into law Friday, will reset the course for the U.S. energy sector, analyses show. The law rapidly phases out tax credits for wind, solar, and electric cars, while making it cheaper to drill and mine for fossil fuels on federal lands. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Last year, as part of an experiment in using A.I. to help with carbon removal, Meta identified 135 materials that could potentially be used to draw down carbon dioxide, work it described as "groundbreaking." But when scientists tried to reproduce the results, they found that none of the materials could perform as promised and that some did not even exist. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
A decade after Flint, Michigan, was beset by widespread lead contamination, officials confirmed the city has replaced its lead pipes, as ordered by a federal court. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Under a new agreement, London will source enough solar power to run its light railway and tram networks entirely on renewable energy. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
The Trump administration is outwardly hostile to clean energy sourced from solar and wind. But thanks to close ties to the fossil fuel industry and new technological breakthroughs, U.S. geothermal power may survive the GOP assaults on support for renewables and even thrive. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
From New York to Paris to Beijing, urban trees are enjoying an extra-long growing season, a new study finds. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
A planned EV battery factory in Indonesia poses a grave threat to an uncontacted tribe, a watchdog group warns. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
A slowing economy and the rapid growth of wind and solar have blunted demand for coal in China. Increasingly, producers are selling coal overseas. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Endangered eels, a top target for wildlife traffickers in Europe, are generating billions in profits for smugglers globally, according to two new reports. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
In conflict areas from Ukraine to Palestine, storage facilities holding seeds vital for future plant breeding are being lost. Scientists are rushing to send some remaining seeds to a “doomsday” vault in Norway so they can be available to provide food crops in a warming world. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
In the aftermath of a massive blackout that hit Spain and Portugal in April, some pundits were quick to blame wind and solar for the loss of power. But official inquiries have found that a shortfall in conventional power led to the outages. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
A warmer world is expected to bring more thunderstorms, especially at higher latitudes. Scientists are now reporting a dramatic surge in lightning in the Far North and are scrambling to parse how this could affect wildfires, the chemistry of the atmosphere, and Arctic ecosystems. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Heaps of discarded clothing from the U.K. have been dumped in protected wetlands in Ghana, an investigation found. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
In the long-contentious Klamath River watershed, an experiment that turned a barley field into a wetland not only improved water quality. It also offered a path forward for restoring populations of two endangered fish species that are of cultural importance to Native tribes. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
When the magnetic field around the Earth grows stronger, oxygen levels rise. That is the surprising finding of a new study looking at more than half a billion years of planetary history. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Of the forest lost so far this century, roughly a third was destroyed to make room for farms, a new analysis finds. Those woodlands, which spanned an area larger than Mongolia, will likely never be restored, authors say. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
A growing number of cities have launched initiatives to reuse the wood waste from construction and demolition that now ends up in landfills. The challenge, proponents say, is to deploy new techniques for disassembling old buildings and markets for repurposing the salvaged wood. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
The flooding of Ukraine’s Irpin valley thwarted Russia’s assault on Kyiv in 2022. Now, scientists are proposing Europe create a band of restored and protected wetlands along its eastern borders to deter future Russian aggression, and military strategists are taking notice. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Chinese locales are looking to lure top scientific talent from overseas by offering lavish sums for resettling, as well as housing, health care, and other perks. The moves come as the Trump administration cuts funding for science and works to expel Chinese students. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Drug traffickers are violently seizing Indigenous lands in the Peruvian Amazon to clear rainforest and grow coca. To combat the drug trade, a new report calls for titling Indigenous territories along major trafficking routes. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
The ongoing war in the Gaza Strip has obliterated farms and orchards, according to a new assessment of the impact. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Window collisions and cats kill more birds than wind farms do, but ornithologists say turbine impacts must be taken seriously. Scientists are testing a range of technologies to reduce bird strikes — from painting stripes to using artificial intelligence — to keep birds safe. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
This spring was the warmest and sunniest on record in the U.K., a symptom of a rapidly warming climate, weather officials say. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
The lush forests that have long sustained Cambodia’s Indigenous people have steadily fallen to illicit logging. Now, community members face intimidation and risk arrest as they patrol their forests to document the losses and try to push the government to stop the cutting. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
The profusion of hummingbird feeders in California homes has not only allowed some hummingbirds to expand their range, but has also altered the shape of their beaks. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
During a severe heat wave in 2023, scientists scuba diving off the coast of Papua New Guinea captured clownfish to measure their bodies. Between February and August, they calculated the length of 134 of these iconic, orange and white fish once a month, taking a total of six measurements for each fish. Those measurements revealed something peculiar: Most of the fish shrank. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
New research finds a link between increasingly extreme heat in the Middle East and rising rates of cancer in women. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Artificial intelligence is powering weather forecasts that are generally more accurate than conventional forecasts and are faster and cheaper to produce. But new research shows A.I. may fail to predict unprecedented weather events, a troubling finding as warming fuels new extremes. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Penguin droppings may play a role in the formation of clouds over Antarctica, new research finds. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Since bird flu was first discovered in U.S. cattle last year, the virus has spread to more than 1,000 herds across the country. A new vaccine for cattle has performed well in early tests, raising hopes that it could protect livestock and help prevent an outbreak in humans. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Having shut down its last remaining nuclear plant Saturday, Taiwan is working to secure new imports of natural gas. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
NASA scientists believe it may be possible to predict when a volcano will erupt by using satellites to track changes in the color of surrounding trees. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Chimpanzees in Uganda were found treating the injuries of other, unrelated chimps, including those caught in hunting snares. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
A foreign fleet of industrial trawlers is exhausting fish stocks in Senegal, driving artisanal fishers to undertake a difficult, and sometimes deadly, migration to Spain. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Atoll islands with healthy ecosystems are less likely to disappear as oceans rise, research shows. Now, scientists are using nature-based solutions — like restoring coral reefs and native forests — to improve the odds that more vulnerable islands will withstand higher seas. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Federal enforcement of environmental laws has slowed significantly under President Trump. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
President Trump’s recent order to expedite permits to begin deep-sea mining bypasses international agreements that protect oceans. By moving unilaterally, says the Ocean Conservancy’s Jeff Watters, the U.S. could endanger fragile marine ecosystems and set a troubling precedent. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
The wealthiest 10 percent of people on Earth have fueled two-thirds of the warming since 1990, according to a new modeling study. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
After hiding underground for the last 17 years, billions of cicadas will take to the skies this summer, from Tennessee to Cape Cod. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Warming fueled the hot, dry, windy weather that gave rise to a spate of record-breaking fires in South Korea in March, an analysis finds. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Facing high tariffs in the U.S. and Europe, Chinese solar and battery companies have been selling a growing share of their products to poorer countries, a new analysis finds. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
A justice on the Brazilian Supreme Court has directed the government to seize private lands where forests have been illegally razed. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Two new studies suggest that devoting a small fraction of U.S. farmland to solar power would be a boon both for the energy system and for farmers themselves. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Researchers are starting to pay closer attention to the widespread damage wrought by agricultural herbicides. Drifting sprays may not kill trees, shrubs, and other nontarget plants outright, but experts believe they are making them vulnerable to insects, fungi, and disease. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Four months after the Eaton Fire tore through Altadena, California, wildlife is making a comeback. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
The Trump Administration’s dismantling of USAID has done more than cut off life-saving humanitarian assistance. It has also eliminated funding for environmental protection and conservation work in dozens of countries, with many programs now being forced to shut down. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
By several measures, air pollution is getting worse in the U.S., a trend due in large part to more severe heat and wildfires, according to a new report. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Batmunkh Luvsandash has fought to protect more than a million acres of steppe lands in his native Mongolia. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, he explains how, by drawing on the knowledge of local herders, he was able to take on the powerful mining industry and win. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
For the first time, wild chimpanzees have been caught on film sharing fermented fruit. The footage comes from Cantanhez National Park in the West African nation of Guinea-Bissau, where camera traps recorded chimps eating fermented breadfruit together on 10 separate occasions. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
The Shompen, residents of a small island in the Indian Ocean, are among the world's last isolated tribes. But that may soon change as the Indian government moves forward with plans for a massive port that could "wipe out" the tribe, a watchdog group says. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
The 12th annual Yale Environment 360 Film Contest is now accepting entries. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Weather forecasts powered by artificial intelligence are usually more accurate — and require less computational energy and fewer human hours — than conventional predictions. But questions remain about A.I. systems’ reliability and their ability to forecast extreme weather events. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
China will allow the construction of new coal power plants through at least 2027 but with restrictions aimed at limiting emissions and boosting renewables, according to a newly released action plan. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
The Trump administration has re-fired hundreds of probationary workers at NOAA after a court ruling cleared the way. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Indigenous communities that rely on the natural flow of the Xingu River have long fought the Belo Monte dam in Brazil. With the dam now up for relicensing, they are urging the government to allow more water to flow, which would help revive the river and their way of life. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
The atmosphere is getting thirstier. A new study finds that warming is leading to more frequent bouts of hot, dry weather that cause soils to lose large volumes of water to evaporation. Read more on E360 →| Yale E360
Biodiversity| Yale E360
A new study finds that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has severely underestimated methane emissions from U.S. oil and gas development, adding to a growing body of work showing that pollution from drilling is greater than EPA figures would suggest. | Yale E360
