Category: Curated Climate News

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June 2025

Dear Friends,

It looks like America is heading for a King Midas moment. You know the one: the king in the Greek myth who was granted by the gods his wish that everything he touched be turned to gold. For a glorious moment he was thrilled, touching everything around him and amassing greater and greater wealth. And then, a horrible moment of reckoning as he tried to eat food and hug his daughter – and both turned to gold. His gift was really a curse, threatening his very existence and his daughter’s future.

Doubling down on fossil fuels parallels that choice – creating fleeting gains but ultimately imperiling our well-being and our children’s future.

We’ve said it before, and we will say it again here – we need fossil fuels for the short- and midterm, and finding safer ways to use them makes sense. We can’t power our economy without them for quite a while. But we can, and should, wean ourselves off of them as quickly as feasible. That means building a more modern energy system that is safer, more reliable, and more affordable. And while the U.S. appears to be retreating, other countries are stepping forward, building this new system based on electrification and a suite of clean-energy sources.

Amazingly, in what is perhaps a true gift from the gods, several of these sources – industry-scale solar and wind – have gotten so inexpensive that, even coupling them with storage, they are becoming cost competitive with building a new fossil fuel plant. And given that the cots solar and wind in the U.S. had been on track to drop another 60% by 2060, you can see just how lopsided this competition is becoming. The real riches come in the savings from scaling and improving these and other new technologies – and from avoiding the escalating damages we are accruing from using fossil fuels at such high levels.

King Midas was released from his curse, but real life isn’t a myth. As we double down on fossil fuels and retreat from the benefits and savings of the new, modern energy system, reversing the damage will be much harder to do.

Sincerely,
Kathleen Biggins
Founder and President

Notable Quote

“Extreme heat used to be considered the ‘invisible peril’ because the impacts are not as obvious as of other natural perils. With a clear trend to longer, hotter heat waves, it is important we shine a light on the true cost to human life, our economy, infrastructure, agriculture, and healthcare system.”

– Jérôme Haegeli, chief economist, Swiss Re Group

News of Concern

It appears that the world is on track to blow past our stretch goal of keeping the global surface temperature increase to 1.5°C, the number agreed upon by most countries 10 years ago in the Paris Agreement. And indeed, we’re feeling it right now. Summer has just begun in the Northern Hemisphere – already, Alaska issued its first-ever heat advisory and 40 states sweltered under a record-breaking heat dome of excessive heat and humidity.

We’re in uncharted territory now. Earth’s atmosphere hasn’t held this current level of carbon dioxide in millions of years, and it’s still climbing – at an alarming rate. It’s so hot, even the oceans are experiencing heat waves. The water off the usually chilly coasts of Ireland is so warm – up 7.2°F from normal – that algae is blooming and octopi (a warm water species) are raiding crab pots and gobbling mollusks, posing a risk to shellfish fisheries. And the warmer water is making sonar less reliable, putting our submarines and sailors at risk as they navigate deep in the sea.

But instead of embracing efforts to slow emissions increases, new federal policy is accelerating their rise, with Secretary of Energy Chris Wright saying the Trump administration sees climate change as “a side effect of building the modern world.” The Energy Department is canceling $3.7 billion for clean-energy projects that aimed to reduce emissions, pivot from fossil fuels, and capture carbon from the atmosphere. The EPA plans to roll back rules on air pollution from fossil fuel power plants. And in a move that surprised utilities and regulators, the administration is forcing aging fossil fuel plants that were scheduled to close to keep running – a decision that is expected to cost taxpayers billions of dollars.

That’s far from the only hit to our wallets. Our grid is woefully inadequate for our burgeoning electricity demands and costs are rising rapidly, up 6.2% versus last year. It will only get higher as we scramble to find enough energy sources to power AI, data centers, electrification, and our greater use of air conditioning as temperatures ratchet up.

Meanwhile, natural gas turbines are facing severe supply chain constraints, pushing new plants out five years and tripling their costs, and international conflict is causing oil and gas pricing to be very volatile. On top of energy costs going up, HVAC equipment is as well, in part due to tariffs. 

Even more financial stress for taxpayers and homeowners is ahead as our costs of repairing and rebuilding from disasters caused by climate change have skyrocketed and our insurance premiums leap to mirror the increased risk. In the past year, the U.S. spent almost $1 trillion on disaster recovery – an amount equivalent to 3% of our GDP. And experts say our GDP will lose another $1 trillion in climate costs to public health, households, and the economy by 2035.

And if we want to step outside of our homes to enjoy the outdoors … well, that’s getting more fraught, too. Higher temperatures have led to a tick explosion, allowing them to expand into new territory like the Canadian north, and to have a longer biting season. Ticks carry a wide range of debilitating diseases so we all need to enhance our precautions.

News of Hope

But even as American energy policy shifts to promote fossil fuels, the energy transition is still accelerating, with clean-power sources providing the majority of our electricity in the U.S. for the last three months running. And Texas – a deregulated energy state where market forces, not regulatory favoritism, have made the state the top producer of renewable energy – has figured out how to use battery storage to keep the lights on and air conditioning humming on even those hottest Lone Star days, with blackout risks diminishing to under 1%.

We see hope in the coalitions that are forming to push forward with climate action. States are bonding together to support the domestic growth of electric vehicles. Pension funds and insurance companies are uniting to prevent investors’ portfolios from contributing to deforestation. And neighborhoods are coming together to decarbonize en masse, moving from natural gas to electrical appliances and HVAC, driving down their electricity costs and making the air cleaner for their families.

Electrification is key to this developing new energy system. Electric appliances, heat pumps, and even cars are much more efficient than their fossil fuel counterparts. That means electrical versions take a lot less energy to provide the same utility. (Think about it: your car gets hot when you drive it – that’s a whole lot of wasted energy – while an electric car stays cool.) Globally, heat pumps and EV sales are skyrocketing. Electric vehicles now comprise 20% of car sales, with EV penetration tripling since 2021. Even in the U.S., EV sales are still growing, and our charging network is finally improving as well. We added 10,000 new chargers in the past year, and they’re not just for Teslas. And as new models hit the market for about $29,000, EVs are becoming way more affordable here.

Intriguingly, new technology developed in China could make our EV cars last a lot longer by enabling us to reenergize spent lithium batteries. Remember, EVs are basically batteries and computers on wheels – there are few other maintenance costs. So if we can revive their spent lithium-ion batteries, not only will we reduce our waste but it will extend the life and value of our cars.

Another ray of hope? Thanks to attribution science, we now can now identify and measure climate change’s influence in individual extreme weather events. This data can help us be better prepared – and it may alter the legal landscape around climate change as well. The first wrongful death suit targeting fossil fuel companies was just filed in the United States and a landmark ruling in Germany said that corporations can be held liable for their contributions to global warming. Such actions are opening up the fossil fuel industry to punitive action for climate damages. The fossil fuel industry is concerned. In a counterpunch, the Trump administration announced it is suing four states that are litigating against or charging “superfund” fees to fossil fuel companies for their role in climate harm.

We leave you today with what might be a worldwide gamechanger. Rice – the primary food for 50% of the world’s population – is a major contributor to global warming, due to its water-intensive nature and its high methane emissions (10-12% of global levels). Scientists in Chile may have figured out how to make rice less thirsty, a discovery that has vast potential for reducing water use as well as methane emissions. We do love a win-win story and we’re crossing our fingers while we watch this one play out.

Notable Graph

Notable Video

Expert meteorologist Jeff Berardelli (whom you may remember from this C-Change webinar) marked “Show Your Stripes Day” on June 21. This eye-catching chart shows how warm it’s become – and how quickly – around the world. You can find more “warming stripes” charts and information at Climate Central.

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March 2025

Dear Friends,

Is climate change something we need to stoically accept, simply a price we have to pay for living in a modern world?

The U.S. Secretary of Energy directly said so this month when speaking with financial and energy executives at CERAWeek, the annual international conference of energy leaders.

We appreciate that the administration has moved away from its historic position that climate change is a hoax to admitting that it is a real “phenomenon” impacting our world right now.

But to us, his statement insinuates that burning fossil fuels – which is causing climate change – is the only way to have a modern life. Tell that to Texas, which ran on 76% renewable and battery power earlier this month, or to South Dakota or Iowa, which safely, reliably, and economically got about three-quarters of their power from renewables last year.

Tell that to China, which is adding clean power at a blistering rate – electrifying its manufacturing, transportation, and homes so fast that researchers are calling it the world’s first “electrostate” – gaining energy dominance through electricity rather than fossil fuels.

Tell that to investors who plowed $2T into clean tech last year – twice the amount that was invested in fossil fuels.

And tell the American people how big those “trade-offs” really are, so they know the sacrifices we are being asked to make.

The Secretary of Energy is asking a lot of us. While our economies are currently dependent on fossil fuels, they are turbocharging climate change and will make our world more dangerous and expensive, and much less beautiful as we lose our iconic spaces and species. Is that the modern world we want? Or do we want to double down on the innovation, new processes, and systems that other countries are embracing to create a different kind of future?

I know my vote. What do you think?

Sincerely,
Kathleen Biggins
Founder and President

Notable Quote
“The Trump administration will treat climate change for what it is, a global physical phenomenon that is a side effect of building the modern world. Everything in life involves trade-offs. Everything.”
– Chris Wright, U.S. Secretary of Energy
News of Concern

So we’ll jump right into it – the World Meteorological Organization’s newly released 2024 report paints a sobering picture: it was the hottest year ever recorded and the first year we broke the 1.5°C increase threshold, the limit above which natural system changes are expected to become much more significant and disruptive. The report also tells us that glaciers are melting and sea levels are rising at record levels, and disasters like tropical cyclones, floods, droughts, and other hazards caused a record number of refugees and led to “massive economic and social upheaval.”
 
Another recent report explains why these changes are happening so fast: our overall emissions reached new heights last year, despite the record growth in clean energy. Remarkably, 22 countries decreased emissions while growing their economies – and  emissions in China, the world’s largest emitter, were relatively flat, just a .2% increase. But these gains were offset by increased emissions from developing countries like India. We can still get to “peak emissions” in time to meet our temperature goals, but the world needs to do more and move faster.
 
At the exact time that climate impacts are revving up (last year, the U.S. experienced weather-related disasters at a rate of almost one every four days), the agencies we look to to help us prepare and repair are being significantly cut and deregulated by the DOGE. Consider NOAA, for example, which just lost almost 900 jobs, including hurricane hunters, the pilots who fly into these dangerous storms to gather data for the National Hurricane Center. Climate change is significantly disrupting hurricane patterns: they are intensifying more quickly, reaching higher wind speeds, and forming and staying strong farther from the equator. We are more vulnerable than ever, so cutting our “eyes in the sky” seems like a recipe for disaster.
 
The administration’s across-the-board “canceling” of climate change will make us less prepared for the disruption ahead. Agencies that use federal funds to rebuild are no longer required to factor in updated levels of flooding when they build roads, bridges, and buildings, putting taxpayer dollars at risk. And the U.S. Coast Guard is no longer using the words climate change or educating cadets on climate change at its academy, despite the real fact that they are a frontline defense of our coasts and seas.
 
Another recent setback was Congress’ repeal of the methane tax, designed to force oil and gas companies to cut back on methane leaks from pipelines, drill sites, and oil and gas equipment. Cutting methane, which traps more heat than CO2 but lasts for shorter periods in the atmosphere, is one of the easiest ways we can slow rising temperatures. The tax would have cut emissions equal to removing 8 million gas-powered cars from our roads. 
 
On a more human-sized scale, a recent study on heat and aging caught our attention. It appears that high temperatures are aging some of us more quickly than others. Residents of areas that get hotter and stay warm longer (say, Arizona) could have a cellular age that’s 14 months older than those in cooler regions (like Washington State). The scientists suggested long-term exposure to high heat could have the same negative effects on our bodies as habitual smoking.

And lastly, we are concerned that the natural systems that have normally been our ally are now part of the threat. Vast Colorado forests, decimated by pests and drought, are now emitting more carbon than they are absorbing. We know our forests as places that help clean our air and soothe our souls – they seem invincible but their future, too, is at risk from climate change.

News of Hope

And yet! Though it may slow down here in the U.S., the clean-energy transition will most definitely progress. Last year, for the first time, wind and solar produced more electricity than coal. States are rapidly increasing their solar deployment – Georgia and Illinois, for example, both doubled theirs in 2024, and Texas broke its own records in one week in early March.
 
This explosive growth in power generated by solar and wind is supported by increasing battery storage, which is quickly becoming a favored way to boost grid security. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) says the U.S. could plug in more than 18 gigawatts of new utility-scale energy storage capacity – enough to provide power to almost 16 million households – to the grid in 2025, up from 11 GW last year. Texas and California lead the charge here, but there’s real progress in other states, notably Arizona, which is set to double its battery capacity this year.
 
The economic and job growth from this transition is benefiting Republican districts across the country – and their governors and legislators know it. There is growing Republican support for the policies that are driving the new-energy transition. Clean energy is the cheapest and quickest way to add power to our grid to meet growing demand, and is increasingly seen as adding to our energy security. Many conservatives rightly understand that the global clean-tech “revolution” will impact every sector of the economy – and it will be won by the leaders, not the foot draggers.
 
On the other side of the globe, China continues to step on the gas pedal … er, that is to say, the electric pedal. BYD, a Chinese electric vehicle maker, has built an SUV with a battery that charges in about the same time it would take to fill a tank of gas – about five minutes. This lightning-speed charging will be a game changer and U.S. automakers are sure to follow this path in the coming years.
 
We mentioned above our concerns over how rising temperatures are affecting our health, but here’s some hopeful news on that front. A new study shows that more Americans understand that climate change will affect our health – and that we are more trustful of the scientists and doctors who are delivering the message. Knowledge is power – the more we understand, the better our chances to navigate the risks to stay well.
 
Finally, we love this vignette about a man who kept his lights on after Hurricane Helene by drawing power from his EV. New technology enables energy to flow back and forth –  to and from our homes and cars, but also from our homes back to the grid. This means that when utilities need a burst of additional power, they could harvest it from us (and pay us for it!) versus firing up a new plant. Innovation is coming in all sorts of ways.

Notable Graphic

Source: The New York Times


The tremendous growth of solar and wind power in the United States is truly remarkable. This 
New York Times animation gives us a great picture of what it looks like from space.

Notable Video

 Source: CNBC

We’ve spoken quite a bit about our concern that insurance is becoming more difficult – or impossible – to get in many parts of the country due to extreme weather events. In this sobering report, one industry expert says climate change could cause at least 20% of U.S. homes to be devalued, a devastating blow for our economy and our own wallets.

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