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Climate Desk

@climatedesk.org
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A collaboration of more than a dozen news organizations dedicated to exploring the human, environmental, economic, and political impacts of our changing climate, and sharing our work with a wide audience. Find us at: ClimateDesk.org

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Reposted by Climate Desk
Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
What's that expression—what goes around comes around? Amid soaring gas prices, hypermiliers are a thing again. Read this fabulous story from the @motherjones.com archives.
motherjones.com
This Guy Can Get 59 MPG in a Plain Old Accord. Beat That, Punk.
Drafting 18-wheelers with the engine off, taking death turns at 52 miles an hour, and other lessons learned while riding shotgun with the king of the hypermilers.
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Reposted by Climate Desk
Fiona Harvey @fionaharvey.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Germany sets out roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Germany pledges to phase out fossil fuels for first time with target of 2045
Campaigners say plan marks notable shift away from oil and gas as previously pledges were only for carbon neutrality
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Reposted by Climate Desk
Yale Environment 360 @yalee360.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Soaring energy costs are driving a solar rush in developing countries. If left unmanaged, the growth of solar could destabilize power systems and deepen economic inequality, Jan Rosenow writes.
e360.yale.edu
The Solar Boom in Developing Nations: Fast, Chaotic, and Unequal
Soaring energy costs are driving a solar rush in developing countries, but as households unplug from the grid, those who remain face higher electricity bills. If governments fail to manage the buildout, the growth of solar could destabilize power systems and deepen economic inequality.
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 24/09/2026
You can still watch the whole thing here!
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Reposted by Climate Desk
Inside Climate News @insideclimatenews.org · 24/09/2026
More than 450,000 people are projected to die in the next six months from the additional heat brought by a super El Niño, according to estimates from climate scientists released Wednesday. The estimated heat death toll is on top of impacts from droughts, wildfires and floods.
insideclimatenews.org
Super El Niño to Cause 451,000 Heat Deaths - Inside Climate News
Climate scientists are calling the hotter temperatures resulting from El Niño a “postcard from the future.”
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Reposted by Climate Desk
Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 24/09/2026
Could New York City Mayor @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social be the Jalen Brunson of climate change? Mamdani talked the Knicks, making the climate crisis a priority, and more at a Climate Week fireside chat with our @garrisonhayes.bsky.social this morning. Watch:
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 24/09/2026
Could there be more apt metaphor (for...something) than a sinkhole opening up in Nicolas Cage's driveway?
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 24/09/2026
We need a Hail Mary. (Sorry, sorry.)
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 24/09/2026
Go Garrison!
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 24/09/2026
Are you friggin' kidding? Alas, no. Climate Desk partner @grist.org with some disruptive news.
grist.org
Trump wants to open nearly all national forest trails to dirt bikes and ATVs
The Forest Service is proposing to allow motorized vehicles on all trails, two-tracks, and roads unless it explicitly designates otherwise.
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 23/09/2026
Gotta say, that is one very weird-looking, but also adorable, bat.
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 23/09/2026
“U.S. diesel prices are determined not by a U.S. supply and demand balance, but a global one. Keeping distillates and diesel home does not change the world price,” one expert told @grist.org That is, Trump's call for a diesel export ban is all for show.
grist.org
Trump is backing a diesel export ban. How much would that do?
The U.S. ships millions of barrels of diesel fuel overseas each day, even as Americans face unprecedented prices at home.
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 23/09/2026
In his UN speech, Trump mocked “the very same people who said we’ll all be dead in 12 years because of global warming, a name since reborn to climate change because the planet was cooling, not warming, and nobody was dead.”  Sorry, what? via @insideclimatenews.org
insideclimatenews.org
Competing Climate Visions Clash at UN General Assembly - Inside Climate News
While President Donald Trump pushed against cutting emissions and regulating technology, environmentalists called for world leaders to reject conflict and build a stable future with clean energy.
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 15/09/2026
Lovely coal. Protecting the dirtiest fuel in human history will Donald Trump's legacy. His great-grandchildren will be so proud.
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Reposted by Climate Desk
Canary Media Inc. @canarymedia.com · 15/09/2026
Gavin Newsom is leaving behind a remarkable clean energy legacy. But it’s a bit of a letdown, depending on who you ask. www.canarymedia.com/articles/clean-…
canarymedia.com
Gavin Newsom’s complicated legacy on climate and clean energy
Newsom’s 8-year term as California’s governor is drawing to an end. Here’s how he helped — and hindered — the state’s energy transition.
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Reposted by Climate Desk
Vox @vox.com · 15/09/2026
Why even the best aquariums can’t give animals what they need. www.vox.com/future-perfe...
vox.com
Three beluga whales just died at one of America’s top-rated aquariums
Why even the best aquariums can’t give animals what they need.
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 15/09/2026
This is a fascinatingly weird story from Canada's @nationalobserver.com. Rory White uncovered a host of websites built to get chatbots to promote secession of the conservative, oil-rich Alberta province—home to the Tar Sands. And from where did this scheme originate? Florida. As we said, weird.
nationalobserver.com
A US-linked network of fake websites is promoting Alberta separatism to AI chatbots
The websites present crude, AI-generated slop disguised as the voice of real Albertans. But they're made in Florida — and they're not even targeting Albertans directly.
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 15/09/2026
Under Donald Trump, the Environmental Protection Agency is no longer concerned with protecting the environment or health. It is, however, quite interested in tracking how many of y'all are getting abortions. Strange times we live in. via @motherjones.com
motherjones.com
The EPA would rather monitor abortion pills in water than pollution
The agency is easing climate rules for power plants while testing water for mifepristone.
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 10/09/2026
Dirty, dirty data.
thebulletin.org
The dirty parts of the computing world, revisited
Ten years ago in these pages, I argued that the environmental costs of computing were the dirty little secret of the digital economy. That secret is now out: Data centers have become the subject of co...
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 10/09/2026
Wendell Berry, prolific author, farmer, and old-school environmental activist, passed away at the end of August. He inspired many, though perhaps not enough. Godspeed, sir!
grist.org
Wendell Berry's life on Earth
Throughout his long career, the writer and farmer found joy in a world without end.
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 10/09/2026
If you consider clean energy "woke," then the entire world, including you and your family, are in serious trouble. via @theguardian.com
theguardian.com
World must reject climate culture wars or face economic ruin, says UN’s Stiell
Warning by United Nations climate chief comes as EU data shows August 2026 was joint hottest month ever
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 10/09/2026
We'll take the good climate news whenever we can get it.
canarymedia.com
Coal-to-solar project lands a rare clean-energy win in Ohio
The solar-plus-storage project faced no opposition despite growing pushback to clean energy in the state — likely because of its brownfield location.
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 10/09/2026
Utah voters would like their national monuments back, thank you. via @insideclimatenews.org
insideclimatenews.org
Utahns Support Protecting National Monuments That Trump Downsized - Inside Climate News
New polling shows that two-thirds of registered voters in Utah support restoring protections for the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments.
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 03/09/2026
Reporter @damiengayle.bsky.social of @theguardian.com talks about the historic super El Niño forecasters predict will wreak havoc around the globe, and fact, already is.
youtube.com
‘Apocalyptic' El Niño could cause hottest year on record | The Latest
YouTube video by Today in Focus
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 03/09/2026
We're in trouble, folks.
wired.com
We’ve Got a ‘Supersized’ El Niño on Our Hands
The World Meteorological Organization is warning that the climate phenomenon that has the Pacific running a fever will last until at least February, with dire consequences for weather worldwide.
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 03/09/2026
Nice, and relevant, photoessay from our partners at @theguardian.com.
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 03/09/2026
Ugh, so depressing.
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 03/09/2026
This should be a good one, though you have to be a subscriber. And you *should* be a subscriber to mags like @wired.com and @motherjones.com, because doing good journalism costs a ton of money.
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Reposted by Climate Desk
Brian Kahn @blkahn.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Becoming increasingly convinced we’re not ready for what El Niño has in store this fall and winter, especially layered on top of global warming www.wired.com/story/2026-s...
“This is probably one of the larger, if not the largest, climate events—aside from long-term warming, which really isn't a singular event—that anybody alive is potentially ever experiencing,” he says. “That's a very big deal. And I think there’s certainly going to be dramatic outcomes from this.”
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 03/09/2026
This report from our partner @insideclimatenews.org on the toxic contamination from food packaging, and scant safety data, is, in a word, gnarly. We don't know what the hell we're eating, and this isn't just a Trumpian thing. The US has always been bad about regulating the chemical industry.
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Reposted by Climate Desk
Sara Goudarzi @saragoud.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Local officials who’ve navigated the complexities of data center deals aren’t sharing notes, fearing backlash. The result? A self-defeating information gap that makes it harder for communities to learn from one another, writes Abi Olvera @thebulletin.org's disruptive technologies editorial fellow.
thebulletin.org
Data center backlash is preventing cities from learning how to handle them
Local governments negotiating data center deals lack guidance because experienced communities are unwilling to share lessons learned.
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Reposted by Climate Desk
Inside Climate News @insideclimatenews.org · 31/08/2026
A pact between North Carolina and Smithfield Foods “failed miserably” on managing waste from hog operations. Here’s why:
insideclimatenews.org
How North Carolina Wasted the Chance To Fix Hog Pollution - Inside Climate News
A pact between the state and Smithfield Foods “failed miserably.” Those who worked on the agreement explain why.
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Reposted by Climate Desk
Grist @grist.org · 01/09/2026
When plastic companies write the lesson plans
dlvr.it
When plastic companies write the lesson plans
The plastics industry is offering schools curricula that cast plastics as safe, recyclable, and a source of good jobs. Critics say it’s propaganda.
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Reposted by Climate Desk
Guardian Environment @environment.theguardian.com · 03/09/2026
The place that never freezes: the Arctic habitat where global heating threatens more ice, not less
theguardian.com
The place that never freezes: the Arctic habitat where global heating threatens more ice, not less
The race to study the North Water between Canada and Greenland before it changes has led to a bold plan for an Inuit-run protected area
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 02/09/2026
More on that report:
theguardian.com
Global heating will hit at least 1.8C, UN warns, and there are ‘no good outcomes’
But scientists say the world could get back to 1.5C through deep, rapid emissions cuts and removing carbon from the atmosphere
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 02/09/2026
The administration has sent “a message to oil companies that you can violate court orders, you can violate shutdown orders or cease-and-desist orders.”
motherjones.com
Trump intervened in a battle over a fraught Santa Barbara oil pipeline, but why?
It won't affect gas prices or foreign imports, experts say. Many suspect ulterior motives.
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Reposted by Climate Desk
Canada's National Observer @nationalobserver.com · 02/09/2026
One month before the federal government is expected to decide if Alberta’s proposed West Coast oil pipeline is a project of national interest, a new international report is challenging whether the pipeline is needed at all.
nationalobserver.com
New report says Alberta’s proposed West Coast oil pipeline may not pay its way
With one month to go before federal government decides whether Alberta’s proposed West Coast oil pipeline is in the national interest, a new report questions whether the project is needed or worth its...
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Reposted by Climate Desk
Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
A new UN report says we're headed for hit 1.8 C of warming even in the most optimistic scenario, with "no good outcomes." But what if warming is worse? A while back, I asked climatologist Matt Huber, who crunched the numbers, what 6 to 10 degrees would look like, and boy is it double-plus ungood.
motherjones.com
And you thought that heat wave was bad?
Climatologist Matthew Huber on our broiling, miserable, wish-it-were-sci-fi future.
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 02/09/2026
Flock this!
insideclimatenews.org
The Grid Has Eyes - Inside Climate News
How Alabama Power became Flock’s longest-standing middleman.
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 02/09/2026
Americans now have less than two weeks to comment on this backward-looking move. One almost senses the administration doesn't value public input.
insideclimatenews.org
Trump Administration Speeds Up Environmental Review for 800-Mile Alaska Oil Pipeline - Inside Climate News
The public has just 15 days to comment on the pipeline’s reauthorization, which could lock in oil production in the state for 30 more years.
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 01/09/2026
Because, of course.
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 01/09/2026
Not that we needed an analysis to reach this conclusion, but good to get it on the record for any future Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
insideclimatenews.org
The Trump EPA Is a Toothless Friend of Polluting Industries, Analysis Shows - Inside Climate News
The EPA’s retreat from its role guarding clean air and water will have lasting effects on public health, critics fear.
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Reposted by Climate Desk
Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Trump's a real people person, isn't he?...so long as the "people" are giant, polluting corporations. Eye-opener via @climatedesk.org / @yalee360.bsky.social
motherjones.com
Trump is unraveling a hard-won rule to reduce toxic pollution from chemical plants
The policy changes “will lead to people getting sicker and dying.”
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 28/08/2026
The DOE justified its intervention as an effort to boost domestic energy production in the name of national security. Foes of the pipeline restart say it’s an attempt by the administration to quash states’ rights and eviscerate environmental regulations, and maybe troll a blue state in the process.
motherjones.com
Trump intervened in a battle over a fraught Santa Barbara oil pipeline, but why?
It won't affect gas prices or foreign imports, experts say. Many suspect ulterior motives.
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 27/08/2026
Coupla big new pieces from the @thebulletin.org. First is on the US military and its greenhouse gas emissions, which exceed those of a lot of nations. Second is on the national security implications of climate change. See below. (1/2)
thebulletin.org
Mission impossible? Quantifying military emissions
Military and wartime emissions are difficult to track—but too important to ignore.
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 26/08/2026
A nice (but not nice) scoop from Climate Desk partner HCN. This aligns with recent Trump EOs declaring that public lands, national forests, and marine sanctuaries shall be opened for commercial activities. Issuing decrees is how kings govern. America is not a monarchy—yet.
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Reposted by Climate Desk
WIRED @wired.com · 18/03/2025
They're called public records for a reason. Starting today, WIRED will *stop paywalling* articles that are primarily based on public records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, becoming the first publication to partner with @freedom.press to offer this for our new coverage.
freedom.press
Wired is dropping paywalls for FOIA-based reporting. Others should follow
As the administration does its best to hide public records from the public, Wired magazine is stepping up to help stem the secrecy
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 26/08/2026
Attribution science is improving, which is why fossil fuel companies are spreading disinformation about it while seeking indemnity from the Trump administration and the courts. Climate cause and effect is real, and it's getting easier to prove.
motherjones.com
It just got way easier to sue fossil fuel companies over climate change
For years, industry has argued you can't prove which company caused which disaster. A new study says otherwise.
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 26/08/2026
Or you could think of it more like: One federal clean tech program Trump hasn't destroyed yet. Scaleable nuclear fusion is also progressing, we hear.
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Climate Desk @climatedesk.org · 26/08/2026
Don't miss this powerful PBS News Hour segment from Nate Halverson (@paperwords.bsky.social) of @motherjones.com / @revealnews.org, following up on his yearlong glyphosate investigation.
motherjones.com
The fight over spraying Roundup in California’s forests has only gotten bigger
“It seems like it’s poison that they’re putting into the woods,” one resort owner says in our collaboration with “PBS NewsHour.”
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