GoKawiil
Tech News
Research published in Science analyzed ancient vegetation and rock samples around Canada's Barnes Ice Cap, a remnant of the Laurentide Ice Sheet on Baffin Island, finding it had been expanding for thousands of years before abruptly reversing in the 1960s. Scientists tied that reversal to the sharp rise in carbon emissions during that period.
A new report from the Environmental Defense Fund and Atlas Public Policy finds that planned fossil fuel power capacity jumped from 5% of new US electricity projects in 2024 to 30% by mid-2026, even as electricity demand rises due to data centers, factories and EVs. The report notes solar and wind still generate more power than coal and that solar was the fastest-growing source added in 2024, but warns gas development could reach 68 gigawatts by 2030 if current trends hold.
A new area of climate research, attribution science, is being used in a landmark Supreme Court case to potentially hold oil and gas corporations accountable for their role in climate change. This scientific approach links specific weather events and climate effects directly to fossil fuel emissions, highlighting the companies' long-standing awareness of their environmental impact.
The US Supreme Court heard arguments from ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy on whether federal law preempts state and local climate liability claims. The case, initiated by Boulder in 2018, questions if municipalities can pursue damages for alleged deception related to climate change, without regulating global emissions directly. The court's decision could impact over two dozen similar lawsuits across the US.
New analysis argues that the 2008 financial crisis marked a turning point in the US's relationship between economic growth and fossil fuel consumption, echoing a pattern earlier seen in Sweden. Since 1996 Sweden's carbon emissions have fallen by a third from their peak even as its GDP more than doubled, demonstrating that growth and emissions can be 'decoupled' over decades. The analysis cites this long-running Swedish trend as evidence that similar decoupling has since taken hold in the US economy.
Skeptical Science contributors published a peer-reviewed study combining data on ocean, land, air and ice warming, calculating that Earth is accumulating heat at roughly 250 trillion joules per second. To make that figure understandable, the group built a widget—available for blogs, Facebook, iPad and iPhone—that expresses this rate as equivalent to about four Hiroshima-sized atomic bomb detonations every second.
Exploration companies in nearly 30 countries are drilling to locate natural hydrogen gas trapped in underground rock formations, betting it could serve as a carbon-free energy source. Venture capitalists have poured almost $500 million into this search since 2023, with firms like UK-based H2Au already drilling test wells in Kansas.
The Environmental Protection Agency unveiled a plan to eliminate remaining federal limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, finalizing the repeal of Biden-era rules and proposing removal of related emissions standards. The agency argues climate pollution's health impacts are too diffuse to regulate, even as electricity demand rises from AI, EVs, and manufacturing growth.
A new study finds that as global temperatures rise, thawing permafrost, drying forests, wildfires, and warming wetlands are releasing additional methane and carbon dioxide that current climate models largely fail to account for. Researchers estimate these natural feedback loops could amplify overall global warming by 20% to 30% by the end of the century, adding between 0.2C and 0.4C depending on how aggressively nations cut fossil fuel emissions.
MIT Technology Review's latest coverage highlights two issues: digital child-safety tools that have prevented harms like suicide and predation but also caused false alarms and anxiety, with researchers proposing better alternatives. Separately, the outlet examines how agriculture's reliance on natural gas for fertilizer production has driven price volatility, worsened by the Iran conflict's impact on trade through the Strait of Hormuz.
Rising natural gas prices tied to the Iran conflict have driven up urea prices, which briefly exceeded $850 per metric ton in April—80% above pre-conflict levels and the highest since the Russia-Ukraine war disrupted markets in 2022. The Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a third of global seaborne fertilizer trade passes, has been effectively shut to commercial shipping, threatening supply to some of the world's poorest nations.