Global Warming

A coalition of 24 states as well as a dozen cities and counties has sued the Trump administration over its decision to relinquish the government’s legal authority to fight climate change. The lawsuit is likely to be consolidated with a case that 18 environmental, healthcare, and scientific groups already filed in February.

The Trump administration is pushing to scale up oil and gas production in the US, despite heavy criticism and environmental concerns. It is urging the establishment of an 11th National Outer Continental Shelf Leasing Program to open up areas in Alaska, California, and the Eastern Gulf of Mexico. The Interior Department is advancing a new 5-year leasing program to increase oil and gas development, reversing prior restrictions.

Toxic algal blooms have been a growing problem in recent years associated with warming waters and nutrient-rich agricultural runoff in lakes, rivers, and oceans. These outbreaks can damage ecosystems, degrade water quality, and release toxins that threaten both wildlife and people. But a recent discovery suggests that nature may have found a way to fight back.

As the dangers of climate change continue to grow, so has interest in geoengineering – deliberate tinkering with the earth’s climate system. However, actually doing it on a scale that matters is fraught with peril from unintended consequences of disrupting the delicate interactions between the Earth’s atmosphere, ocean, land, and sea ice.

According to the year-end summary by the Alaska Climate Research Center, Alaska had one of its warmest years of the past 100 in 2025. The average temperature of 29.6 degrees Fahrenheit was the warmest year since 2019. Compared with the 1991-2020 averages, Alaska overall was 1.5 degrees warmer in 2025.

Almost all glaciers around the world are shrinking or retreating and many are disappearing entirely. As this goes on, glaciers are drawing more visitors than ever. The ten most visited glaciers now attract more than 14 million tourists each year. Glaciers have long been tourist attractions, but the impact of climate change has led to the growth of “last-chance tourism” where visitors are rushing to see glaciers before they vanish.

In early February, the Trump administration formally rejected the scientific finding that greenhouse gases threaten human life and wellbeing. Known as the endangerment finding, the 2009 ruling empowered the Environmental Protection Agency to impose regulations that limit carbon dioxide, methane, and other pollution from oil and gas wells, tailpipes, smokestacks and other sources that burn fossil fuels.

The oceanic conditions that create the planet’s most powerful hurricanes and typhoons are heating up in the North Atlantic and Western Pacific, fueled by warm water that now extends far below the ocean surface. These expanding hot spots can supercharge the strongest storms.

Greenland is one of the fastest-melting cryosphere regions on Earth. In fact, scientists say the large-scale melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet is irreversible, and it’s happening now at an accelerating rate. Understanding what is driving this melting is crucial for predicting how much sea levels will rise and what that means for coastal communities around the world.

There are around 200,000 glaciers in the world and virtually all of them are melting with the rate accelerating. More than half of the world’s population makes use of meltwater from glaciers and snow for drinking, agriculture, and energy. Nearly 2 billion depend on seasonal glacier melt that supplies rivers and aquifers. This is especially true in Asia and in the Andes.