Energy Environ. Sci. , 2026, Accepted Manuscript DOI : 10.1039/D6EE00197A, Paper Licheng Miao, Guoqiang Ma, Kaiyue Qiu, Zhiyuan Zhao, Minglu Li, Tongqiang Bi, Kai Yang, Yuanyuan Hu, Yuanyuan Wang, Jing Xu, Lei Ma, Zhaoxi Shen, Ning Zhang Extending the lifespan of aqueous zinc (Zn) batteries (AZBs) under deep-cycling conditions is critical for their practical applications, but it remains a great challenge because of the irreversible issues of... The content of this RSS Feed (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry
Energy Environ. Sci. , 2026, Accepted Manuscript DOI : 10.1039/D6EE00199H, Paper Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. Quanwei Ma, Cheng Ji, Zeyu Wang, Rui Wang, Longhai Zhang, Hongbao Li, Ying Xu, Qianyu Zhang, Dongliang Chao, Chaofeng Zhang Organic materials are promising candidates for high-performance aqueous Zn-ion batteries (AZIBs) cathodes owing to their high capacity, structural adjustability, and sustainability. However, their practical application is hindered by limited redox... The content of this RSS Feed (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry
Wildfires, storms, and floods can lead to missed appointments and hospital closures – with life-and-death consequences. The post Surgeon warns that climate change can disrupt cancer care appeared first on Yale Climate Connections.
Open access notables Unprecedented 2024 East Antarctic winter heatwave driven by polar vortex weakening and amplified by anthropogenic warming , Tang et al., npj Climate and Atmospheric Science During July–August 2024, East Antarctica experienced the most intense winter heatwave in the 46-year satellite era, with regional mean surface air temperatures across Dronning Maud Land exceeding the climatological mean by more than 9°C for 17 consecutive days. To explore the physical drivers and quantify the anthropogenic contribution to this unprecedented event, we propose a multi-model, multi-method attribution framework integrating regional climate model-based storyline attribution, circulation analogues, and large-ensemble probabilistic attribution. The results...
Learn how sediment records from Texas and Florida revealed volcanic eruptions that may have triggered the Younger Dryas Ice Age.
To mark the first anniversary of the European Space Agency’s Biomass satellite, we present a selection of striking images captured over the past 12 months, revealing Earth’s forests, and much more, in new detail. In just one year, this pioneering mission has begun transforming our understanding of forest dynamics and advancing how scientists monitor the critical role forests play in regulating the global carbon cycle.
Europe, the fastest-warming continent, saw unprecedented wildfires and heatwaves in 2025, including a three-week hot spell that hit 30°C inside the Arctic circle
Energy Environ. Sci. , 2026, Accepted Manuscript DOI : 10.1039/D5EE07558K, Paper Huan Gao, Yuhao Cai, Wei Xiao, Mingming Yin, Minjie Liu, Tianshou Zhao, Haoran Jiang Thermally regenerative flow batteries (TRFBs) offer a promising route for harvesting low-grade waste heat, however, their power output is constrained by the mismatch in redox reaction kinetics during the reverse... The content of this RSS Feed (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry
Energy Environ. Sci. , 2026, Advance Article DOI : 10.1039/D6EE01230B, Review Article Qingwang Yuan, Silagi Wanambwa, Mohamed Amine Ifticene, Qinjun Kang, Bailian Chen, Danny Reible Transitioning from passive exploration to active manufacturing: from mechanistic control to engineered iron-rich rock transformation into carbon-free geologic hydrogen. To cite this article before page numbers are assigned, use the DOI form of citation above. The content of this RSS Feed (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry
The ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz has seen energy prices soar, but thanks to solar panels and a home battery, Alice Klein pays just A$25 (£13) a month for her electricity, even when charging an electric car or running an air conditioner
Energy Environ. Sci. , 2026, Accepted Manuscript DOI : 10.1039/D5EE07709E, Paper Shengchao Chai, Yuxin Zhu, Junpeng Li, Wenxin Xie, Siqi He, Haikun Guo, Yifan Wang, Yizhan Wang, Haolong Li Aqueous zinc-iodine(Zn-I 2 ) batteries face a universal challenge: soluble polyiodides formed at the cathode migrate to the zinc anode, causing severe active-material loss and Zn corrosion. Here, we report a hydroxylated... The content of this RSS Feed (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry
Scientists were shocked to find that the Houtman Abrolhos Islands’ coral reefs survived a prolonged extreme heatwave in 2025 virtually unharmed, which may reveal how to protect corals elsewhere
Coincident with the rise of the dinosaurs, a large landmass filled most of the Arctic circle, potentially contributing to global cooling that advantaged the famous reptiles
A decade ago, southern sea ice suddenly and dramatically declined. Scientists say the culprit was a "very violent release" of deep, pent-up heat.
Once global warming peaks, it could take centuries to cool things back down. But we can bend the curve by cutting fossil fuel emissions now.
Learn more about the bizarre geological features found throughout our Solar System.
Energy Environ. Sci. , 2026, Accepted Manuscript DOI : 10.1039/D6EE01732K, Paper Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. Wenwen Wang, Chengyi Zhang, Xinquan Ma, Weixiao Wang, Qin Su, Juncai Long, Dongyao Zhu, Jinghao Li, Ao Xu, Rui Fang, Yuhang Dai, Guanbin Gao, Qinyou An Rechargeable magnesium metal batteries (RMBs) promise high volumetric energy density and resource sustainability, yet interphase instability remains a central barrier to practical full cells. Here, we show that single-electrode interphase... The content of this RSS Feed (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry
This is a guest blog post by John Lang about his new " Climate Trunk " graphics project and website. He will add one graphic per week for about 2 years rounding out the big picture of human-caused climate change graphic by graphic. If you had to explain climate change in 10 seconds, what would you say? Climate scientists Katharine Hayhoe and Kimberly Nicholas have long boiled it down to five phrases: It’s real. It’s us. It’s bad. We’re sure. And we can fix it. This framing has helped millions cut through a topic swamped by jargon, acronyms and complexity. The first four Climate Trunk graphics owe a debt to that tradition. You’ll notice below I leave one off: we’re sure. Not because scientific certainty doesn’t matter...
The Antarctic Ice Sheet has been growing since 2020 – and scientists have now identified why. Research funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) looked at factors affecting Antarctica’s delicate environmental dynamics. Despite accelerating loss of ice through glacier melt, exceptionally heavy snowfall in recent years is adding to the mass of the icy continent.
Learn how a dramatic climate shift in the Pacific may have wiped out an entire underwater ecosystem deep below the Galápagos — and it could happen again.
Learn how ancient plants survived extreme heat after the Permian–Triassic mass extinction and what their strategy could mean for a warming world.
To prepare for climate change, the Philadelphia Orchard Project is experimenting with raising tropical fruits and vegetables in an unheated greenhouse. The post A kumquat grows in Philadelphia appeared first on Yale Climate Connections.
Energy Environ. Sci. , 2026, Accepted Manuscript DOI : 10.1039/D6EE00855K, Paper Nishithan C Kani, Mohd Riyaz, Carolina Isabella Elizarraras, Emilia Wessel, Kasper Enemark-Rasmussen, Qamar Nisa, John R. Varcoe, Alexander Bagger, Brian Joseph Seger Defossilizing aviation and shipping industries require scalable, carbon-neutral routes to energy-dense liquid fuels. CO 2 electrolysis has emerged as a promising route to carbon-neutral fuels, but Cu-based catalysts are largely... The content of this RSS Feed (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry
Energy Environ. Sci. , 2026, Advance Article DOI : 10.1039/D6EE00998K, Review Article Junnan Hao, Qianru Chen, Chun-Chuan Kao, Dongliang Chao, Shi-Zhang Qiao A systematic application-oriented mapping redefines aqueous batteries from a unified concept into differentiated technologies, guiding their rational deployment across diverse real-world energy storage scenarios. To cite this article before page numbers are assigned, use the DOI form of citation above. The content of this RSS Feed (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Volume 131, Issue 8, 28 April 2026.
Energy Environ. Sci. , 2026, Accepted Manuscript DOI : 10.1039/D6EE00488A, Paper Reinhold H. Dauskardt, Austin Cristobal Flick Perovskite solar modules (PSMs) offer a promising pathway to low-cost photovoltaics, yet their commercialization is challenged by manufacturing scalability, device uniformity, additive costs, interlayer complexity, and module stability. This study... The content of this RSS Feed (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry
Energy Environ. Sci. , 2026, Accepted Manuscript DOI : 10.1039/D6EE00030D, Review Article Xu Lin, Meisheng Han, Haolin Ju, Hengyuan Hu, Wanqi Hu, Jiajie Luo, Lei Wei, Lin Zeng, Wenjia Li, Tianshou Zhao Redox flow batteries (RFBs) are increasingly recognized as ideal candidates for largescale energy storage due to their safety, long-duration storage capabilities, extended cycle life, and flexibility in site selection. However,... The content of this RSS Feed (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Pearl Marvell The Trump administration’s fuel blockade against Cuba has resulted in widespread power outages, gas shortages, garbage in the streets, and a humanitarian crisis – but also a surge in solar installations. In 2025, the Caribbean nation produced 10% of its electricity from renewable sources, a jump from 3.6% in 2024, according to Rosell Guerra Campaña, director of the Ministry of Renewable Energy at Cuba’s Ministry of Energy and Mines. Cuba’s increased reliance on renewables is driven by dire necessity. Since President Donald Trump’s January 2026 executive order imposing tariffs on countries that supply oil to Cuba, gas and diesel supplies have grown sparse, forcing...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 12, 2026 thru Sat, April 18, 2026. Stories we promoted this week, by category: Climate Change Impacts (7 articles) Climate change is outpacing evolution. Scientists are using DNA to catch up Phys.org, Annika Hammerschlag, Apr 10, 2026. Marine heatwaves `nearly double` the economic damage caused by tropical cyclones Tropical cyclones that rapidly intensify when passing over marine heatwaves can become “supercharged”, increasing the likelihood of high economic losses, a new study finds. Carbon Brief, Giuliana Viglione, Apr 10, 2026. ‘Heat Batteries’ Leave Some City Blocks Scorched "Even measures designed to help...
Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, Volume 131, Issue 4, April 2026.
Learn how Comet 3I/ATLAS began to emit methane as it approached the sun, releasing compounds contained within its inner layers.
Electric vehicles could store renewable energy when there is excess supply and give it back to the grid when demand peaks, but car companies disagree on the best way to do that
An observation made by NASA’s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) shows the chemical signatures of water ice (shown in bright blue) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (orange) in Cygnus X, one of the most active and turbulent regions of star birth in our Milky Way galaxy. The […]
Ten percent of the Caribbean nation’s electricity was generated by renewable energy in 2025, up from 3.6% in 2024. The post As Cuba’s grid fails, solar power becomes a lifeline appeared first on Yale Climate Connections.
A large hole opened up in the sun's atmosphere this week, spewing high-speed solar winds that will paint northern lights displays across several U.S. states this weekend.
China’s low-elevation coastal cities, which hold a large share of the country’s population and economic output, face growing compound risks from sea level rise, storm surge, and extreme rainfall (1, 2). China’s annual losses from natural hazards such as typhoons average about US$76 billion (3), and hydrometeorological hazards generate large and recurrent economic losses (4, 5). However, cost estimates often focus on structural damage and overlook the economic shock caused by supply chain disruption, power outages, health effects, and slow productivity recovery (6–8). To reduce the systemic vulnerability that turns typhoons into national economic setbacks, China should improve the accuracy of loss accounting and strengthen preparedness.
Energy Environ. Sci. , 2026, Advance Article DOI : 10.1039/D5EE07330H, Paper Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. François Clayer, Cathrine Brecke Gundersen, Magnus Norling, Luca Pozzoli, Ashenafi Seifu Gragne, Tore Flatlandsmo Berglen Modelling the fate of nitramine and nitrosamine from amine-based CO 2 capture reveals significant risks to surface and groundwater, emphasizing the need for coordinated regional management during CCS deployment. To cite this article before page numbers are assigned, use the DOI form of citation above. The content of this RSS Feed (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In a recent post on his Substack, Jim Hansen wrote about “runaway climates” on Earth, and I thought it would be useful to explain the physics of what this actually means and whether it’s something we need to worry about. A runaway greenhouse occurs when humans add enough carbon dioxide to the atmosphere to push it past a threshold beyond which warming becomes self-sustaining and unstoppable 1 . Venus is the canonical example of what that looks like. At some point in the past, it probably looked a lot like Earth. But then the planet heated up and boiled the oceans. Over time, ultraviolet radiation from the Sun split the water molecules into constituent hydrogen and...
Description An observation made by NASA’s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) shows the chemical signatures of water ice (shown in bright blue) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (orange) in Cygnus X, one of the most active and turbulent regions of star birth in our Milky Way galaxy. One […]
Learn more about a Megalibgwilia owenii fossil, found around 120 years ago, that today fleshes out the extinct echidna’s extent.
Learn how ground vibrations revealed a hidden magma reservoir beneath Tuscany, comparable in size to systems beneath Yellowstone and Lake Toba, and what it could mean for geothermal energy and critical minerals.
This is a re-post from Staying Curious by Dean Rovang This post presents two figures that are the culmination of an extended effort to build the strongest possible empirical case for what the paleoclimate record shows about CO? and temperature. They draw on five independent regression fits across four independent archives and 66 million years of geological evidence. The argument stands on its own merits. Earth’s natural climate relationship Figure 1. Earth’s natural CO?–temperature relationship across three independent Pleistocene reconstructions and the Judd et al. (2024) deep-time geological record. Five fits — four York/ODR regressions and the canonical EPICA OLS fit — all land between 8.24 and 9.91 K/doubling. Solid black diamonds:...
A special selection of books to help you learn everything you need to know about cars and climate change The post The problem with cars in six books appeared first on Yale Climate Connections.
Energy Environ. Sci. , 2026, Accepted Manuscript DOI : 10.1039/D5EE07777J, Paper Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. Max Palmer, Vipin K. Singh, Leonardo Merola, Karthikeyen Natarajan Pugazhendhi, Pallab Barai, Insang You, Yubo Wang, Eric Carlson, Cathy Wang, Hao Zheng, Venkat Srinivasan, Juergen Janek, Jeff Sakamoto, Linda Nazar Operation of solid-state batteries with a lithium metal anode and a high voltage cathode requires solid electrolytes (SE) to be chemically stable with lithium, have a wide electrochemical window, and... The content of this RSS Feed (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry
Energy Environ. Sci. , 2026, Advance Article DOI : 10.1039/D5EE07740K, Paper Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. Mengyun Hu, Enlai Wan, Yu Qiao, Shupeng Xu, Shiwen Li, Rui Zhu, Jiamin Guo, Xihao Chen, Heping Zeng By creating plasma channels through nonlinear interference of multiple femtosecond laser filaments, this configuration directly ruptures molecular bonds, disintegrating materials into fragments while preserving molecular signature characteristics. To cite this article before page numbers are assigned, use the DOI form of citation above. The content of this RSS Feed (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry
If the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation shut down, the knock-on effects could release hundreds of billions of tonnes of CO2, raising global temperatures even further
The Arctic is a central point of focus in terms of climate change: it is warming almost four times faster than the rest of the planet. The rich traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples, passed down through generations over thousands of years, can help us to recognise and understand these changes. At the same time, scientific methods can help to fill important data gaps regarding the increasing consequences of climate change. The 27th Arctic Dialoge on 14 April in Potsdam brings both perspectives together, because only by working together as equals can we find solutions to meet the challenges that climate change poses to us all. The event is organised by the German Arctic Office at the Alfred Wegener Institute.
The only typhoon this strong that occurred earlier in any year was Super Typhoon Hester on Jan. 1, 1953. The post Cat 5 Super Typhoon Sinlaku the 2nd-strongest typhoon so early in the year appeared first on Yale Climate Connections.
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 5, 2026 thru Sat, April 11, 2026. Stories we promoted this week, by category: Climate Change Impacts (9 articles) The US is now paying more than any other country for climate change damage, study suggests "Despite being the biggest carbon emitter, the US is already paying a disproportionate price for the climate crisis" BBC Science Focus, Hatty Willmoth, Mar 31, 2026. The Western US is already running out of water — and summer is still months away The Western US is already running out of water — and summer is still months away Vox, Kiley Price, Apr 3, 2026 . Scientists warn the Gulf Stream is shifting north, which means an...
From shiitake mushrooms to hickory nut oil, new markets for forest-grown foods can help landowners earn income while protecting trees. The post In Pennsylvania, some forests are also farms appeared first on Yale Climate Connections.
Learn how the world’s largest known chimpanzee group split in Kibale National Park, Uganda, and why the divide led to deadly violence between former allies in a rare chimpanzee “civil war.”
Energy Environ. Sci. , 2026, Accepted Manuscript DOI : 10.1039/D5EE07428B, Paper Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. Hidde Kolmeijer, Juan D. Medrano-García, Abhinandan Nabera, Gonzalo Guillén-Gosálbez Current global dependence on crude oil poses a threat to the environment, making in turn some economies vulnerable to supply disruptions and price peaks. Meanwhile, the high cost and large... The content of this RSS Feed (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Volume 131, Issue 7, 16 April 2026.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature has updated the Red List status for three of Antarctica’s most famous species after a dire assessment of their prospects under climate change
Amid drought and heat waves, April's national wildfire forecast shows that nearly the entire Western U.S. will face an above-normal risk of wildfires at some point in the next four months.
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections The U.S. and Israel’s attacks on Iran have sent oil and gas prices soaring. That could be a boon to cheap, clean technologies like electric vehicles, solar power, and wind – at least in the long run. But in the short run, the outlook is more complicated. Why is the conflict causing oil and gas prices to spike? Iran began restricting ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, 2026. The strait is the narrow passage, about 20 to 40 miles wide, through which ships must navigate from the Persian Gulf to reach the Arabian Sea and global shipping routes. Data source: U.S. Energy Information Administration Behind the strait lie five...
A 93-strong international expedition team has been exploring the northwestern Weddell Sea in the Antarctic on board the Alfred Wegener Institute's icebreaker Polarstern since 8 February 2026. In this key region for global ocean currents, the focus has been on the outflow of ice and water from the Larsen Ice Shelf and the astonishing sea ice retreat of recent years. When the research work had to be interrupted due to rough weather conditions in order to seek shelter in the lee of Joinville Island, the scientists and ship's crew were surprised by the sudden appearance of an island that had previously only been marked as a danger zone on the available nautical charts.
Energy Environ. Sci. , 2026, Accepted Manuscript DOI : 10.1039/D5EE07518A, Paper Hongjiang Song, Shengkui Zhong, Jie Liu, Shanqing Zhang Achieving high areal capacity is essential for high-energy-density Li–S batteries and requires using high-loading sulfur cathodes accompanied with increased coating thickness. However, poor Li+ transfer kinetics in thick electrodes and... The content of this RSS Feed (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry
With progress at COP climate meetings stalling, 57 countries took part in the first of a new series of conferences aiming to develop roadmaps away from fossil fuels, but big emitters like China and the US were absent
Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, Volume 131, Issue 5, May 2026.
Rumen ciliates are major contributors to enteric methane emissions from ruminant animals, yet the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. We present a catalog of 450 rumen ciliate genomes, with 87% newly generated. Using this resource, we ...
Energy Environ. Sci. , 2026, Accepted Manuscript DOI : 10.1039/D6EE00982D, Paper Xiangyun Tan, Juan Zhang, Chenyang Xu, Zexing Wang, Kaijian Huang, Zhiwei Ye, Yanhui Guo To address the stability challenges faced by anion exchange membrane water electrolysis (AEM-WE) using intermittent renewable energy, a fluctuation-tolerant bifunctional nickel-cobalt-boron (a-NiCoB) monolithic electrode was successfully developed in this study.... The content of this RSS Feed (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry
WASHINGTON (AP) — Burning time for North American wildfires is going into overtime. Flames are lasting later into the night and starting earlier in the morning because human-caused climate change is extending the hotter and drier conditions that feed fires, a new study found. Fires used to die down or even die out at night as temperatures dropped and humidity increased, but that’s happening less often. The number of hours in North America when the weather is favorable for wildfires is 36% higher than 50 years ago, according to a study published earlier this month in Science Advances. Places such as California have 550 more potential burning hours than in the mid-1970s. Parts of southwestern New Mexico and central Arizona are seeing as many as 2,000 more hours a...
A viral strain originating in wild buffalo in Kruger National Park is spreading rapidly in cattle
A Category 4 hurricane making direct landfall on New York City could cause as much as $500 billion in insured damage. The post Major hurricanes in the Northeast are rare. Could climate change make them common? appeared first on Yale Climate Connections.
Learn how Arctic sea ice created natural refuges for bowhead whales during centuries of industrial whaling, shaping which populations are recovering today.
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler I am finalizing a textbook on climate risk and am posting chapters as I finish them. I’d previously posted chapters about embedded energy and physical climate risk ; this post is a chapter on transition risk, the economic and social risks of the transition to a clean-energy economy. Introduction In the context of climate risk, transition risk encompasses the economic and social risks associated with a shift towards a low-carbon economy. Such an effort would fundamentally reshape our world and create critical financial uncertainty for assets and industries tied to the old, carbon-intensive system. Net zero Reaching “net zero” is the ultimate goal of most climate policy...
At the worst-performing refineries, report finds operators are not tackling recurring and harmful leaks, leading to public health risk. The post Texas’ Gulf Coast has a health problem: benzene emissions are among the highest in the nation appeared first on Yale Climate Connections.
Energy Environ. Sci. , 2026, Accepted Manuscript DOI : 10.1039/D6EE01770C, Paper Xi Liu, Xinying Wang, Yang Liu, Ao Jia, Yi Peng, Wanjie Gao, Bingyan Song, Kunming Yang, Jiarui He, Yuping Wu Alloys with metallic glasses (MG) is a promising strategy to overcome the challenges, including severe volume expansion, sluggish kinetics, and limiting capacity, as anodes for potassium-ion batteries (PIBs). However, excessive... The content of this RSS Feed (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters October 28, 2025, was a very bad day to be in Jamaica. That morning, Category 5 Hurricane Melissa intensified into the strongest hurricane ever observed in the Atlantic: 190 mph (305 km/h) winds, a tie with Hurricane Allen of 1980. That afternoon Melissa powered ashore in Jamaica, causing a catastrophic $8.8 billion in damage, equivalent to 41% of Jamaica’s GDP. Melissa came close to its maximum potential intensity The maximum potential intensity of a tropical cyclone is the maximum strength a storm can achieve based on the existing atmospheric and oceanic conditions. Potential intensity theory was pioneered in 1987 by MIT hurricane scientist Kerry Emanuel , who showed that human-caused global...
A listing of 28 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 19, 2026 thru Sat, April 25, 2026. Stories we promoted this week, by category: Climate Change Impacts (10 articles) A more troubling picture of sea level rise is coming into view Scientists have uncovered a “blind spot” in the research on rising seas, revealing that tens of millions of people thought safe from coastal flooding are at risk of inundation. Grist, Fred Pearce, Apr 18, 2026. Wildfires used to 'go to sleep' at night. Climate change is turning them into prime burning hours Phys.org, Seth Borenstein, Apr 18, 2026. The Guardian view on Japan`s cherry blossom: when spring slips out of time | Editorial A 1,200-year...
On April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear reactor melted down, but the rest of the world wouldn't learn how close it came to nuclear Armageddon until weeks later.
The climate event is poised to supercharge weather extremes and push global temperatures to new highs.
As sea ice continues to succumb to the climate crisis, measuring its decline with precision has never been more urgent. To meet this challenge, the European Space Agency is developing three new Copernicus satellites, each employing distinct but complementary techniques to monitor this fragile component of the Earth system.To ensure the data from these new satellites are razor-sharp, an international team of hardy scientists is now out on the Arctic sea ice braving the cold and flying above to collect critical in situ measurements.
Energy Environ. Sci. , 2026, Accepted Manuscript DOI : 10.1039/D6EE00483K, Paper Haifeng Zhou, Li Han, Chengkai Mao, Jiali Jiang, Hongjuan Ma, Long Zhao Sustainable valorization of hypersaline brines through solar evaporation constitutes a critical frontier in the global water-energy-resource nexus, yet it is constrained by the tight coupling among evaporation, salt crystallization, and... The content of this RSS Feed (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry
Translating the conductivity of individual carbon nanotubes into practical, macroscopic conductors remains a challenge. We report highly aligned fibers of double-walled carbon nanotubes intercalated with chains of tetrachloroaluminate anions (AlCl4−) in ...
Air strikes on oil facilities and oil tankers in the Persian Gulf have unleashed what is set to become an ecological catastrophe, satellite images show.
Learn about the important role of play amongst wolves and why one wolf decided to steal a park sign.
Happy Earth Day, 22 April – a global call to act and protect our planet. At the European Space Agency, that action begins in orbit, where satellites deliver a continuous, global view of Earth and track environmental change. Working with partners, ESA turns this stream of data into actionable information through its FutureEO programme, helping governments and communities respond faster and more effectively to climate-driven risks.Here are two examples of how space technology is being used to anticipate threats to safeguard food security and public health.
Energy Environ. Sci. , 2026, Accepted Manuscript DOI : 10.1039/D6EE00708B, Paper Feng Wang, Lian Chen, Fan Li, Yongben Zheng, Jiaqi Wei, Caozheng Diao, Ihor Radchenko, Jie Shi, Linwei Li, Jingshu Wang, Zhengshuai Bai, Yanyan Zhang, Oleksandr I. Malyi, Xiaodong Chen, Yuxin Tang Hard carbon, a promising sodium-ion battery anode due to its abundance, specific capacity, and low operating voltage, still faces challenges in achieving fast-charging plateau-type performance with long cycles—critical for high-energy-density... The content of this RSS Feed (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry
After nearly 50 years in space, the two Voyager spacecraft are very low on nuclear power. Voyager 1 just shut off another instrument to save the mission.
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters In brief: Multiple studies have found that tropical cyclones are becoming stronger worldwide. New so-called attribution studies have linked increased wind speeds to human-caused ocean warming. In the future, scientists expect an increase in the proportion of Category 4 and Category 5 tropical cyclones. The dangers posed by one of humanity's greatest scourges – the tropical cyclone – are being significantly increased by human-caused global warming. In fact, one of the more confident predictions about how climate change will affect these great storms — which we will refer to by their Atlantic name when they reach winds of 74 mph (119 km/hr) or greater, the hurricane...
Local governments are using the proceeds to pay for roads, EMS, and more. The post Revenue from wind and solar farms can reshape community budgets appeared first on Yale Climate Connections.
Some over-the-counter and prescription drugs may make it harder for your body to stay cool and hydrated – with potentially serious consequences. The post These common medications may increase your risk during heat waves appeared first on Yale Climate Connections.
California now has about 550 more fire-friendly hours a year than it did in the 1970s. The post Wildfires used to ‘go to sleep’ at night. Climate change has them burning overtime appeared first on Yale Climate Connections.
Energy Environ. Sci. , 2026, Accepted Manuscript DOI : 10.1039/D6EE00376A, Paper Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. Arvind Pujari, Gratsiela Kostova, Hwee Jien Tan, Atsunori Ikezawa, Hajime Arai, Michael De Volder Studying batteries in real time is essential for understanding their operation and degradation mechanisms. Operando methods such as X-ray diffraction, NMR, and electron microscopy provide detailed insights but are costly,... The content of this RSS Feed (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry
Learn more about the Hothouse Earth scenario and how we are getting dangerously close to stopping the major impacts of climate change.
Learn how archaeologists exploring Wogan Cavern uncovered a once-in-a-lifetime find beneath a Welsh castle, revealing Ice Age animals, ancient humans, and climate change in Britain.
Bears in Svalbard, Norway, are fatter than expected, and others in Greenland are showing signs of genetically adapting to climate change — but the signs elsewhere are not good.
First Arctic trials show pumped seawater can bulk up ice, but results aren’t lasting—and may not scale
Learn what atmospheric rivers are, and why they could be predictable, helping us prepare for devastating storms and floods.
Open access notables Synergistic impact of marine heat waves and rapid intensification exacerbates tropical cyclone destructive power worldwide , Radfar et al., Science Advances Tropical cyclones (TCs) are among the most devastating natural phenomena, causing substantial economic damage and severe impacts on human life and infrastructure. Prolonged extreme ocean temperature events, known as marine heat waves (MHWs), affect 52% of landfalling TCs globally and provide favorable conditions for TC rapid intensification (RI). Here, we use four decades of global data to demonstrate that TCs experiencing RI during MHWs resulted in 60% more billion-dollar disasters compared to those without heat wave influence. Our analysis reveals these costlier storms produced consistently...
Energy Environ. Sci. , 2026, Advance Article DOI : 10.1039/D6EE00301J, Paper Shaopeng Liao, Guang Li, Mengqi Ren, Ying Peng, Weitao Zhao, Zichao Xu, Hongsen Cui, Chen Tao, Haibing Wang, Chen Wang, Fang Yao, Xiaojuan Cao, Jiwei Liang, Mingming Hu, Yansong Ge, Xuzhi Hu, Jian Wen, Weijun Ke, Guojia Fang GBAM is used as buried interface modifier at room temperature. Co-annealing GBAM with perovskite layer optimizes bottom interface of wide-bandgap perovskite, achieving 29.07% for 2-terminal perovskite–perovskite tandem cells. To cite this article before page numbers are assigned, use the DOI form of citation above. The content of this RSS Feed (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry
Shrinking ice is arguably one of the most visible indicators of climate change – particularly in the Arctic. However, a European Space Agency-funded study used information from satellites to show that Antarctica is now experiencing similar dramatic changes, with profound consequences for key plankton species that underpin the region’s marine food web.
NASA’s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) mission has mapped interstellar ice at an unprecedented scale. Covering regions in our Milky Way galaxy more than 600 light-years across, the ice was found inside giant molecular clouds — vast regions of gas and dust where dense clumps of […]
A planet-warming El Niño climate phase is now developing, and some models predict it could turn out to be the strongest on record
Sinlaku is the 10th Category 4 or 5 tropical cyclone to hit a U.S. state or territory in the past 10 years — as many Cat 4 and Cat 5 landfalls as the U.S. suffered in the prior 57 years. The post Category 4 Typhoon Sinlaku powers through the U.S. Northern Mariana Islands appeared first on Yale Climate Connections.
As climate change reshapes the planet, new rituals help people process ecological grief. Learn more about glacier funerals.
Energy Environ. Sci. , 2026, Accepted Manuscript DOI : 10.1039/D5EE07523H, Paper Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. Andrea Rogolino, Erwin Reisner Sustainable chemical synthesis requires a cradle-to-cradle design strategy to upcycle waste streams with optimal atom and step economy. Here, we demonstrate the full valorization of vegetable oil using a scalable... The content of this RSS Feed (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry
A 2010 satellite photo shows the point where a small lake bisects the snowy rim of an ancient glacier on Canada's Baffin Island. The rippling, snow-rimmed structure is the last remaining fragment of a colossal ice sheet that once covered large parts of North America.
Removing CO2 from the atmosphere by capturing the carbon from burning biomass is supposed to save the planet, but it looks like the flagship project will never happen
New nighttime maps based on NASA satellite imagery are upending assumptions, revealing a world where artificial brightening and dimming have intensified over the past decade. The findings show intense flaring over major oil and gas fields in the United States, while factors such as rural electrification and energy conservation are changing how billions around the […]
Since July 2025, the European Space Agency’s pair of Proba-3 satellites has already created 57 artificial solar eclipses. So far, the mission has collected more than 250 hours of high-resolution videos of the Sun’s atmosphere, called the corona. That’s the same amount of observing time as about 5000 total solar eclipse campaigns carried out on Earth. But the science is even more exciting. For the first time we can carefully track how material from the Sun moves through the inner corona, where space weather is born. The first results, recently published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, show that solar wind structures in the inner corona can travel three to four times faster than scientists thought.
Nature Energy, Published online: 13 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02036-3Designing photocatalysts typically demands complex engineering of junctions. Vanadium dioxide (VO2), however, can spontaneously form homogeneous junctions upon undergoing an insulator–metal transition. This transition in VO2 thin films under light increases the photocatalytic conversion rate of methane into hydrogen and light alkanes.
Learn how the IUCN added emperor penguins to the Red List as climate change drives sea ice loss and could cut their population in half by 2080.
Arctic sea ice had its lowest seasonal maximum and lowest March extent on record. The post The world just had its second-warmest March on record appeared first on Yale Climate Connections.
Colorado State University’s hurricane forecasting team is expecting El Niño to bring a slightly below-average season with 13 named storms, six hurricanes, and two major hurricanes. The post Forecasters predict a slightly below-average 2026 Atlantic hurricane season appeared first on Yale Climate Connections.
Open access notables Why we need to explore conflict and competition around solar geoengineering , Möller & Young, PLOS Climate In an increasingly aggressive international political environment, solar geoengineering needs to be reconceptualized – not only as a response to climate change, but as an instrument of power. This conceptualization means going beyond focusing on cooperative scenarios in which the technoluogy is used to effectively reduce temperature rise while minimizing potential side effects. As scholars of international relations, we see a need for more interdisciplinary engagement with solar geoengineering scenarios that explicitly feature political conflict and competition. By anticipating and exploring these, we can better contribute...
Marine biodiversity underpins the functioning of ocean ecosystems and the services they provide to humanity. Paradoxically, despite our profound dependency on biodiversity, we are driving its rapid decline and we find ourselves asking the question of whether we, as a society, have the tools to address it. The fate of marine biodiversity thus lies largely at the intersection of science, policy, society, and industry. All these sectors rely on knowledge to support our economic, cultural, social, and environmental well-being. Knowledge comes from transforming data into usable and actionable information, and data are derived from sustained observations which are driven by requirements of policy, society, industry and science. This interconnectedness across sectors represents both an opportunity...
Energy Environ. Sci. , 2026, Accepted Manuscript DOI : 10.1039/D6EE00755D, Paper Wenyu Xu, Zelin Chang, Hongwei Wang, Binfen Wang, Hongbo Ding, Jijian Xu, Xinliang Li Aqueous zinc-iodine batteries hold immense promise for sustainable energy storage, yet suffer from polyiodide shuttling and high-valent iodine instability. Challenges undergo catastrophic amplification at low-temperatures due to incomplete conversion and... The content of this RSS Feed (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry
Eric Fowler of Fresh Energy in Minnesota says stronger standards can lower bills and improve safety during outages. The post How energy codes shape comfort and costs at home appeared first on Yale Climate Connections.
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 08 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41558-026-02609-wWetland methane emissions are a major source of uncertainty in global emissions estimates. Here the authors use high-resolution remote sensing data to identify small non-forested wetlands and find that they contribute 24% of wetland methane emissions and that these emissions are increasing.