Solar photovoltaic cells are perhaps the most revolutionary technology in the history of energy. By allowing humanity to generate cheap, low-carbon electrons using only the sun’s rays as fuel, solar PV is likely to be the single-most important tool to help the world achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

In 2025, the United States generated 8.5% of its electricity from solar—roughly in line with the global average. But within this continent-sized nation, there are quite a few over-achievers. Here are the top six US states ranked by share of electricity generated in-state by solar in 20251:

6. Vermont | ~17%

Tiny Vermont is the only state in the union that generates 100% of its electricity from renewable sources. Its electricity consumption, however, is around 80% renewable as it imports significant amounts of fossil gas-generated electrons from neighboring states.

To close that gap, Vermont is relying more and more on homegrown small-scale solar. Rooftop provides two-thirds of all solar generation and has plenty of room to grow with only 10% penetration.

5. New Mexico | ~17%

New Mexico is one of the sunniest states in America, but has historically lagged in the development of solar energy. No longer. By the end of 2025, solar’s share of in-state electricity generation had jumped from 8% to 17% in just two years.

The leap was due to a number of factors. Several large utility-scale projects came online to help fill the gap from retiring coal plants. A massive utility rate hike also increased interest in rooftop solar.

4. Hawaii | ~23%

America’s island paradise in the Pacific is a natural place for solar energy. Hawaii has no fossil fuel resources of its own. And importing fuel oil and diesel to power its aging fleet of oil-fired electricity plants is eye-wateringly expensive.

Faced with some of the highest utility bills in the country, Hawaiians naturally turned to rooftop solar. 45% of all single-family homes in Hawaii have solar panels—the highest rate of any state and ten times the national average.

Due to its isolation, however, Hawaii has more difficulty than most places integrating large amounts of solar production into its energy mix. Each of its six populated islands has its own grid. Solar’s intermittency thus cannot be balanced with firm imports from elsewhere. Storage, of course, is the solution. Batteries are quickly being deployed and could enable Hawaii to be nearly 100% solar powered in around a decade.

3. Massachusetts | ~26%

Massachusetts’ solar boom is driven more by policy than abundant resource. The state offers very generous solar subsidies, often paid as straight-up cash rather than via electricity bill credits.

With little spare land, the densely-populated Northeastern state has focused on rooftop solar. It’s also a pioneer in utility-scale installations on brownfield sites.

2. Nevada | ~34%

The bright lights of Las Vegas were once powered by coal, which until recently made up over half of Nevada’s electricity generation. Now they are increasingly lit with clean electrons harvested by massive solar farms along the city’s desert periphery.

Outside of Sin City, Nevada is a dry, mostly federally-owned desert that ranks among the sunniest places in the world. There is thus plenty of space to power the state’s budding metropolis with solar farms, and enough left over to make Nevada America’s solar export superpower—sending nearly 40% of its production to the much more populous state of California.

1. California | ~37%

In 2025, Texas officially took the crown of the state with the most utility-scale solar generation in TWh terms. But as a total share of electricity produced in-state, California remains the undisputed king of solar in the United States.

With large coastal cities and huge interior deserts, California has almost the perfect geography for the development of utility-scale solar. However, the state is no slouch when it comes to rooftop solar either—which is installed on around 25% of single-family homes and mandated for all new housing construction.

California relies on imports from other states to balance the intermittency of its solar generation—wind from New Mexico, nuclear and gas from Arizona, and hydro from the Pacific Northwest. Yet, like Texas, it is increasingly relying on utility-scale storage to timeshift solar consumption to the evening.

It was once predicted by so-called “energy realists” that no electric grid on Earth could function at more than 10% to 15% solar penetration. But solar now accounts for 37% of all electricity generated within California’s borders, and 28% of all electricity consumed. California has proved the doubters wrong.

Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides)

It has long been known that the giant redwoods and sequoias of California were the last remnants of a much larger redwood family, whose other members vanished from the fossil record tens of millions of years ago. So it came as quite a shock when, in 1948, one of these species - presumed extinct and known only from museum fossil collections - was found very much alive in south-central China.

The Dawn Redwood is shorter than its American cousins, growing to ‘only’ 51 m (167 ft) tall. It also grows much more quickly, reaching its mature height in about 50 years - compared to around 400 years for Giant Sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum). Both characteristics - along with its unusual status as a deciduous conifer that changes color in autumn - have made the newly resurrected species a popular ornamental tree around the world.

Ironically, so has climate change. The Dawn Redwood evolved at a time when temperatures and carbon dioxide levels were much higher. It is thus an excellent climate-resilient arboreal choice for parks or city streets.

Abundant elsewhere, this ancient tree remains endangered within its wild range due to habitat fragmentation and low genetic diversity. If it hadn’t been discovered and commercialized, this living fossil might have gone extinct in this century without anyone noticing.

IUCN: Endangered (EN)

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Humans are the most heat-tolerant of all the great apes. We lack the thick coat of fur that envelops our chimpanzee and gorilla cousins. Our upright posture exposes us to less direct sun. And we have ten times the number of eccrine sweat glands, allowing for thermodynamically efficient liquid cooling. This thermal adaptability has served us well, allowing us to emerge from the forest, conquer the great African savannahs, and then the world.

Yet there is a limit. In conditions of high humidity, the human thermoregulatory system starts to break down at ambient temperatures of just 33°C (87°F). Beyond this level, our sweat glands fail to evacuate sufficient heat from the body and our core temperature rises. Our circulatory systems begin to give out at a body temperature of 40°C (104°F). And if it reaches 41°C (106°F), our tissues literally start to cook.

Such conditions were rare in the Pleistocene climate for which we evolved. But they are becoming more common as climate change accelerates. Just last week Europe was hit by a record heatwave in which at least 1,300 people are estimated to have lost their lives—an estimate that will certainly increase as more data rolls in.

“The rush really started on Wednesday, Thursday and ​the whole weekend, it was non-stop,” a French undertaker told Reuters on Tuesday. “At the weekend I received 150 calls, and had to say no to the 150 bodies … Families are ​calling us, nursing homes are calling us, police stations are calling us, municipalities are calling us.”

There are around 500,000 such heat-related deaths in the world every year. Most of these people do not die directly from heat stroke. Rather, extreme heat stress, more often, exacerbates an underlying health condition—like heart disease or kidney failure—to the point that it becomes fatal.

And fatalities are only the tip of the iceberg. Via this exact same mechanism, heatwaves do more than merely kill the elderly and the chronically ill. They make existing health conditions worse. Those who survive repeated heatwaves emerge weakened, sapped of their vitality, and impaired in their daily quality of life.

Even if we stopped emitting greenhouse gases tomorrow, the amount of irreversible warming we’ve already inflicted on the planet is a global health emergency. Focusing solely on emissions reductions won’t work. We also must adapt to the new, hotter reality.

There are some very good adaptation ideas we should pursue—like engineering passive cooling into new buildings and planting trees for shade in urban areas. But passive cooling solutions cannot do it alone. Mechanical air conditioning has been found to reduce heat-related deaths by up to 75%.1 It must be part of the solution.

Sinon o faitz, vostres n´er lo dampnage

At present, however, air conditioning is relatively scarce on a global scale. Although nearly ubiquitous in certain places (North America, Japan, Australia, and—increasingly—China), only around 30% of the global population has access to air conditioning in 2026.

The vast majority of those who lack air conditioning live in the developing world, where the energy-intensive process is cost-prohibitive. Curiously, there are also hundreds of millions of holdouts in Europe, a very wealthy region that has—in stark contrast to its advanced economy peers—resisted the technology.

Part of this difference is climatic. Northern Europe has one of the mildest climates on the planet, and the need for air conditioning has historically been limited to just a handful of days a year. The portion of the United States most climatically similar to Europe—the Pacific Northwest—has until recently also had very low rates of air conditioning penetration.

But there is a rather substantial political difference too. Much of the European environmental movement and several of the continent’s left-wing political parties oppose air conditioning on supposed ecological grounds. This view holds that air conditioning is morally impermissible given it uses energy and energy represents around 75% of global carbon emissions.

“We can't install air conditioning everywhere. It's a false solution that makes the problem worse,” in the words of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, head of France’s largest left-wing coalition. The nation’s current environment minister, Monique Barbut, has said she is “horrified” by the idea of air conditioning becoming more widespread.2

This puritanical stance is grounded more in ideological fervor than sound, scientifically-guided reasoning. Firstly, there is nothing particularly moral about a policy that condemns vulnerable people to suffer and die unnecessarily. Indoor cooling is not a luxury good like international air travel, a second home, or (in much of the world) automobile ownership. It is a vital healthcare intervention and should be regarded as such.

And secondly, there is no inherent trade-off between expanding access to air conditioning and reducing carbon emissions. Air conditioners are powered by electricity, making it easy to run them on low-carbon sources of energy like wind and solar. This is very much unlike space heating, which is often powered by direct combustion of fossil gas or fuel oil via furnaces and boilers.

Additionally, ramping up air conditioning offers a remarkable opportunity to decarbonize space heating in temperate areas of the world—like Europe—that require both cooling in summer and heating in winter. Rather than install unidirectional air conditioners, European nations could (and should) install heat pumps.

Heat pumps are effectively air conditioners that can also work in reverse and provide heating as well as cooling. Europe has already launched a massive campaign to coax households into ditching fossil heating for clean, electric heat pumps—a necessary measure to reach climate targets. Combining these efforts with a push for universal air conditioning would effectively kill two birds with one stone—saving carbon emissions in winter and saving lives in summer.

Step into the sun

The drive for universal air conditioning can also breathe new life into the campaign for global universal electrification. Over 600 million people—mostly in Africa—lack access to electricity altogether. These people are also among the most vulnerable to extreme heat.

The most obvious way to deliver cooling services to these people is to accelerate the penetration of solar into rural Africa and pair that solar with air conditioning. These solar panels would have the added climate benefit of displacing dirty biomass or diesel, which—in most cases—would otherwise have filled the gap in time.

The costs of solar, battery storage, and air conditioning have all fallen dramatically in the past few decades. In the not too distant future, we can imagine NGOs installing combined solar/storage/AC units in at least one building in every village in Africa, ensuring cooling access to the most vulnerable on the hottest days.

Broadening air conditioning use helps to decarbonize space heating in the cooler, developed world, and accelerates electrification efforts in the warmer, developing world. Done properly, it can reduce global carbon emissions rather than increase them. It also has enormous public health benefits, improving both mortality and quality of life scores for millions.

Moreover, air conditioning—on a macroeconomic level—pays for itself. Extreme heat significantly impairs GDP through its effects on productivity. Air conditioning prevents these impairments, boosting overall economic growth.

We must stop regarding air conditioning as a luxury. Rather, we should view it as we do clean drinking water or sufficient food for survival. It may be premature or impractical to declare air conditioning a universal human right. But governments should certainly create policies that promote the widest possible access to the ambient air temperature our bodies require to survive and thrive.

Ligue 2 footballer Kenzo Kies also died after reportedly drowning in the Rhône River during the heatwave. In a statement, his club Guingamp said it was “saddened” to learn of the 21-year-old’s death.

As climate change accelerates, things are only going to get worse. The time for global, universal access to air conditioning is now. –DB

2. Early Heat Melting Swiss Glaciers

All of the snow accumulated by Swiss glaciers over the past winter could be gone by Monday, explains The Guardian. This loss is due to the combined effects of the current heat wave and an earlier one in May, both exacerbated by climate change.

We’re just seeing enormous ablation, ice melt rates and snow melt rates all over the Alps,” Glamos network chief Matthias Huss told AFP on Friday. “We are three months too early compared to a healthy state.”

3. Study Details Ocean Impact of 1.5°C

A new study has tracked 201 ocean impact events during the first year Earth surpassed the 1.5°C warming threshold, relays Oceanographic.

“This study provides a real-world snapshot of how marine ecosystems responded during an exceptional period of ocean warmth,” said Dr Shannon Klein, lead author and Research Scientist at KAUST. “One of the clearest findings was that impacts were not confined to traditional summer heat extremes. We found evidence of ecological disruption across seasons…”

Our Blue Marble

Rhine Falls | Switzerland

47°40′38″N 8°36′57″E

Good Climate News

1. EVs Overtake Petrol Cars in UK

Electric vehicles (EVs) have for the first time overtaken petrol cars in UK sales over a 12-month period, heralds Carbon Brief. The milestone was achieved in May.

The new analysis for the UK follows a similar milestone for the EU, with more BEVs having been sold in the month of December 2025 than petrol cars.

Outside the US, the EV revolution is happening more quickly than expected. –DB

2. Renewables Reach 30% of US Electricity

Renewables accounted for 30% of the United States’ electricity generation in the first quarter of 2026, notes Electrek. Wind and solar accounted for 21.8%, with hydroelectric power making up the remainder.

Renewables-generated electricity during the first four months of 2026 was 10.03% greater than in the same period in 2025…The electrical output of US coal plants fell by 11.6%, while nuclear power grew +0.5%. Electricity generated by natural gas plants grew by 2.8%.

3. Mega VPP Created to Power Data Centers

Three giant Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) have joined forces to power data centers, details Latitude Media. The new partnership from Sunrun, Renew Home, and Tesla will help the existing electric grid meet data center load growth, mitigating demand for new fossil-powered generation.

The three companies are planning to aggregate capacity from demand-side and energy-exporting devices, including home battery systems operated by Sunrun and Tesla, as well as smart thermostats operated and managed by Renew Home.

Book of the Week

The Problem with Plastic: How We Can Save Ourselves and Our Planet Before It’s Too Late | Jess French

Plastics cause environmental and health harms at every stage of their life cycle, from extraction and production to use and disposal. Even plastic recycling creates enormous damage and isn’t ‘green’ by any reasonable definition.

In this handy book, Judith Enck of Beyond Plastics explains how the plastics industry has flooded the Planet with its toxic product and outlines a plan to fight back with strict regulation and truly circular alternatives. A perfect primer on the topic! –DB

Buy Now: Bookshop.org 🇺🇸 | Bookshop.org 🇬🇧

In Brief

🇩🇿 Algeria: Germany has signed a deal to import green hydrogen from the North African nation.

🇧🇷 Brazil: The global craze for the psychedelic drug ayahuasca is driving concerns of overharvesting in its Amazon home.

🇨🇴 Colombia: One of the most pro-climate national leaders in the world has been replaced by a new president who wants to start “fracking to the max”.

🇺🇸 United States: Former NOAA employees have created a new website that replicates the functionality of the Biden-era climate.gov.

Planetary Pulse

Planetary Health — Latest figures

CO2: 430.78 PPM (+.34% YoY)1 | Temperature Anomaly: +1.42 C

Forest Cover: 31.8% | Protected Areas: 12.3% (17.3% terrestrial, 10.01% marine)

Emissions per Capita: 4.89 (World) | 9.1 (China) | 13.1 (USA) | 6.1 (EU) | 2.1 (India)

Low Carbon Electricity: 43.1% | Low Carbon Energy: 19.8% | EV New Sales : 24.1%2

The Other 74%

• A marine expedition off the coast of Brazil has found 31 new species in only two weeks.

• Unplugged offshore oil and gas wells are poisoning protected waters in the UK.

• The European Union has pledged €338 million to fight illegal fishing, piracy, and ocean pollution globally.

Meet the Endangered

Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides)

It has long been known that the giant redwoods and sequoias of California were the last remnants of a much larger redwood family, whose other members vanished from the fossil record tens of millions of years ago. So it came as quite a shock when, in 1948, one of these species - presumed extinct and known only from museum fossil collections - was found very much alive in south-central China.

The Dawn Redwood is shorter than its American cousins, growing to ‘only’ 51 m (167 ft) tall. It also grows much more quickly, reaching its mature height in about 50 years - compared to around 400 years for Giant Sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum). Both characteristics - along with its unusual status as a deciduous conifer that changes color in autumn - have made the newly resurrected species a popular ornamental tree around the world.

Ironically, so has climate change. The Dawn Redwood evolved at a time when temperatures and carbon dioxide levels were much higher. It is thus an excellent climate-resilient arboreal choice for parks or city streets.

Abundant elsewhere, this ancient tree remains endangered within its wild range due to habitat fragmentation and low genetic diversity. If it hadn’t been discovered and commercialized, this living fossil might have gone extinct in this century without anyone noticing.

IUCN: Endangered (EN)

The Problem With Plastic: How We Can Save Ourselves and Our Planet Before It’s Too Late

By Judith Enck (with Adam Mahoney)

Plastics cause environmental and health harms at every stage of their life cycle, from extraction and production to use and disposal. Even plastic recycling creates enormous damage and isn’t ‘green’ by any reasonable definition.

In this handy tome, Judith Enck of Beyond Plastics explains how the plastics industry has flooded the Planet with its toxic product and outlines a plan to fight back with strict regulation and truly circular alternatives. –DB

Buy Now: Amazon

Bookshop.org 🇺🇸 | Bookshop.org 🇬🇧

(paid links)

Mariana Fruit Dove (Ptilinopus roseicapilla)

The Mariana Islands are home to one of the most colorful of all bird species, the Mariana Fruit Dove, whose vivid technicolor plumage - evolved for tropical camouflage - gives it the nickname ‘flying rainbow’.

The diet of the Mariana Fruit Dove is made up of 95% fruit. It especially prefers the local wild figs and papaya. Like modern humans, the species typically lives in nuclear family units, generates one offspring at a time, and relies on both parents for parental investment.

The greatest threat to the Mariana Fruit Dove is the Brown Tree Snake (Boiga irregularis) - an invasive species that feasts upon the polychromatic bird. P. roseicapilla has already gone extinct at the southern end of its range, and the Brown Tree Snake is working its way northward, threatening the dove’s remaining redoubts. Conservation efforts focus on snake control and breeding the dove in captivity for eventual repopulation.

IUCN: Near Threatened (NT)

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Rainforests are defined as dense, closed-canopy forests with exceptionally high rainfall and no dry season. They are among the most productive ecosystems on the planet and function as engines of global biodiversity.

The best-known rainforests are tropical, but some of the largest are located in cooler, temperate regions. Here are the seven largest rainforests in the world by estimated surface area:

7. Chocó-Darien

~187,000 sq km

The Chocó-Darien Moist Forest is a remarkably intact rainforest that runs along Colombia’s Pacific Coast and extends through the Darien Gap into Panama. It is one of the wettest places on Earth, receiving upwards of 9 meters (354 in) of rain annually.

The Chocó-Darien is home to around 10,000 plant species, 20% of which are found nowhere else in the world. Its marquee fauna is the Colombian Spider Monkey (Ateles fusciceps rufiventris). The extreme rain and challenging terrain have protected the region from economic development, sparing the forest but also locking the population into extreme poverty.

6. Valdivian Temperate

~248,100 sq km

The Valdivian is one of the world’s two great temperate rainforests. Located in Southern Chile, the forest is bounded by the Andes on three sides and the Pacific on the other.

This isolation gives the forest an insular biogeography that conserves an ancient Gondwanan character. As such, the flora and fauna are more closely related to that of Australia and New Zealand than to the rest of South America.

Lacking large predators, the Valdivian hosts a large radiation of miniature wildlife like the Pudu (Pudu puda), a 43 cm (17 in) tall deer species, and Monito del Monte (Dromiciops gliroides), a tiny mouse-size marsupial closely related to its Australasian cousins.

5. Pacific Temperate

~295,000 sq km

The world’s largest temperate rainforest extends from the coast of Northern California, into the Pacific Northwest of the United States, north into British Columbia in Canada, and then through to Alaska.

The forest is home to the famous Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens)—the planet’s tallest and most massive tree. The Pacific Temperate has historically been heavily logged. Only tiny intact portions remain in its southern reaches, with progressively higher levels of preservation as one moves northwards.

The human geography of the forest is unusual. Most rainforests are in the developing world and marked by marginalization and high rates of poverty. The Pacific Temperate is located in one of the wealthiest regions on Earth, home to global brands like Nike, Microsoft, and—perhaps ironically—Amazon.

4. Borneo Lowland

~428,000 sq km

The Borneo Lowland rainforest is one of the world’s oldest; the island’s moat has allowed the ecosystem to exist relatively unchanged for 130 million years. Today, sadly, it is also among the most endangered.

Shared between Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei, the island of Borneo is about three times the size of the UK and is a treasure-trove of natural resources. Mining, oil extraction, and especially palm oil plantations have deeply fragmented and degraded the natural rainforest.

Indonesia has decided to place its new capital—Nusantara—on the fragile island, ensuring more development.

3. New Guinea

~786,000 sq km

The island of New Guinea is the second largest island in the world, after Greenland, and is split between Indonesia and the nation of Papua New Guinea. It hosts the third-largest rainforest on the planet.

Unlike the Congo and Amazon rainforests—which are dominated by large alluvial plains—the New Guinea rainforest is extremely mountainous. This terrain creates tiny micro ecosystems within each valley and a huge radiation of species.

The dense, fragmented forest also gave rise to an astonishing human radiation: it is the most linguistically diverse place on Earth and home to as many as 40 uncontacted tribes populated by human beings entirely unaware of modernity’s existence.

2. Congo Basin

~1,780,000 sq km

The second-largest rainforest in the world is shared between six nations: the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon.

The Congo Basin Rainforest contains a peat bog—the Cuvette Centrale—storing a massive 30 billion tons of carbon. If drained, this bog would emit greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to three years of global fossil fuel emissions. More than any other rainforest, our climate depends on keeping the Congo forest intact.

The Congo Basin also conserves incredible African fauna, including all three species of Great Ape, the African Forest Elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis), and the giraffe-like Okapi (Okapia johnstoni).

1. Amazon

~5,500,000 sq km

The largest rainforest on Earth has become synonymous with the ecosystem itself. Shared between Brazil and spanning eight other countries—the Amazon covers 35% of the South American continent.

The Amazon sprawls upon the alluvial plain of its namesake Amazon River, which cuts through the forest like an anaconda. It is home to half the remaining tropical rainforest in the world and 10% of all global species.

The Amazon is threatened with deforestation from cattle ranchers and soybean farmers. Its fortune waxes and wanes to the rhythms of Brazilian politics—with left-wing governments more likely to enforce conservation rules.

The Trump administration has abruptly canceled its plans to dismantle a vital network of ocean monitoring sensors, reports The Associated Press. The network was targeted because it helps climate scientists track ocean warming, but it has many other purposes, including weather forecasting and military applications.

“Dismantling the OOI was supreme stupidity, and we’ll keep fighting to ensure scientists, fishermen, and coastal communities can continue to utilize the critical data the OOI provides,” Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon said in a statement.

The state of American environmental politics is unbelievably dumb. But even so, winning small battles can matter in the aggregate. –DB

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2. Oil & Gas ‘Seismic Lines’ Speed Up Climate Change

Thousands of lines carved into boreal peatlands for oil and gas surveying equipment disturb the ecosystem and generate methane emissions, explains CBC News. There are 345,000 kilometers (214,370 mi) of such lines in the Canadian province of Alberta alone.

The study found that methane emissions from these lines are almost three times higher in bogs and nearly two times higher in fens when compared with the undisturbed peatland.

3. Heat Wave Scorches Western Europe

Europe is being battered by yet another early summer extreme heat event, relays Euronews. Temperatures could reach around 40°C (104°F) in some regions of Spain, France, and Italy.

In France, authorities have banned the consumption of alcohol at the annual Fête de la Musique (Music Day) festival in Paris, where temperatures are expected to reach 35°C on Sunday. Parts of southern France and Spain are set to touch 40°C.

Our Blue Marble

Lake Fryxell | Antarctica

77°37′S 163°11′E

Good Climate News

1. California Gas Generation Down 60%

Fossil gas generation is down by 60% in California since 2024, heralds Utility Dive. Fossil gas capacity has actually increased, but these facilities are being used less often as wind, solar, and hydro imports have taken generation share.

Utility-scale solar generation overtook natural gas generation in the California Independent System Operator’s footprint over the first five months of 2026, according to a Tuesday report.

California is quickly disproving the “can’t run a grid without gas” crowd. –DB

2. Iran Bets on Small-Scale Solar

Iran is moving quickly to adopt small-scale solar, notes PV Magazine. Faced with attacks on its fossil energy infrastructure, residential and community solar + storage projects could make the grid more resilient.

Tarztalab recently unveiled 17 specialized solar energy training centres designed to help accelerate the development of solar power plants in Iran. SATBA has set a target of training 200,000 renewable energy specialists in the next five years.

3. $11 Billion Wind & Transmission Project Online

A combined wind energy and transmission project has begun delivering clean energy in the American Southwest, details Electrek. The SunZia project takes clean electricity generated by wind farms in New Mexico and delivers it to customers in Arizona and New Mexico.

The 550-mile high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line can move up to 3,000 megawatts (MW) of power from the SunZia Wind project in New Mexico to Arizona and customers across the western grid. That’s enough electricity for around 1 million US homes.

Book of the Week

What a Waste: Trash, Recycling, and Protecting our Planet | Jess French

An excellent resource for teaching children (ages 4-10) the basics of recycling. Perfect for passing green values onto the next generaation! –DB

Amazon

Bookshop.org US | Bookshop.org UK

In Brief

🇦🇺 Australia: Electric vehicles are booming Down Under, as cheap Chinese imports and high petrol prices drive huge EV sales.

🇩🇪 Germany: The Bonn Climate Change Conference took place last week in preparation for COP31 in Turkey this November.

🇫🇷 France: The heat wave will once again limit France’s nuclear output, as high river temperatures impair reactor cooling operations.

🇨🇭 Switzerland: The Swiss mountain town of Braunwald is permanently closing its ski resort as climate change makes the ski season too short to make a profit.

Planetary Pulse

Planetary Health — Latest figures

CO2: 430.78 PPM (+.34% YoY)1 | Temperature Anomaly: +1.42 C

Forest Cover: 31.8% | Protected Areas: 12.3% (17.3% terrestrial, 10.01% marine)

Emissions per Capita: 4.89 (World) | 9.1 (China) | 13.1 (USA) | 6.1 (EU) | 2.1 (India)

Low Carbon Electricity: 43.1% | Low Carbon Energy: 19.8% | EV New Sales : 24.1%2

The Other 74%

• The global High Seas Treaty has been in force for nearly six months.

• Fifteen countries have united to share data on illegal fishing.

• Ocean acidification is threatening the world’s food supply by degrading marine ecosystems.

Meet the Endangered

Mariana Fruit Dove (Ptilinopus roseicapilla)

The Mariana Islands are home to one of the most colorful of all bird species, the Mariana Fruit Dove, whose vivid technicolor plumage - evolved for tropical camouflage - gives it the nickname ‘flying rainbow’.

The diet of the Mariana Fruit Dove is made up of 95% fruit. It especially prefers the local wild figs and papaya. Like modern humans, the species typically lives in nuclear family units, generates one offspring at a time, and relies on both parents for parental investment.

The greatest threat to the Mariana Fruit Dove is the Brown Tree Snake (Boiga irregularis) - an invasive species that feasts upon the polychromatic bird. P. roseicapilla has already gone extinct at the southern end of its range, and the Brown Tree Snake is working its way northward, threatening the dove’s remaining redoubts. Conservation efforts focus on snake control and breeding the dove in captivity for eventual repopulation.

IUCN: Near Threatened (NT)

Scimitar Oryx (Oryx dammah)

There is perhaps no greater success in conservation history than the Scimitar Oryx. In 2000, this princely bovid was declared extinct in the wild, following centuries of decline in its North African homeland. But successful breeding programs allowed the animal to be reintroduced in 2016. The wild population is now estimated at 800.

The Scimitar Oryx was a treasured species in antiquity. Egyptians used the oryx in their funeral rites and named a province for it. Wealthy Roman households kept it for its meat and leather. Some believe the oryx is also the origin of the unicorn myth, as from certain angles it can appear to have one horn instead of two.

In a strange twist of fate, this ancient Old World species is now found predominantly in Texas. It was there that private trophy hunting ranches created breeding programs, which - in addition to amassing hunting stock - also provide vital genetic diversity for reintroduction efforts. An estimated 10,000 remain in the Lone Star State, vastly exceeding the numbers in the wild.

IUCN: Endangered (EN)

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Stepping into a patch of the Northern Tallgrass Prairie National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in northwestern Iowa is like going back in time. This 5,000-acre (20 sq km) archipelago of ecosystems past is ruled by tall, native grasses, some several meters high, and endemic plant and animal species. Each is a tiny, delicate vitrine of a long-gone world, floating in a sea of industrial starch machines.

Prior to European settlement, this sort of tallgrass prairie was the dominant biome in Iowa, making up 85% of its land area. It now accounts for only 0.1%. Today, two-thirds of the Midwestern American state is taken up by corn (Zea mays), native to Mexico, and soybeans (Glycine max), native to Asia’s Amur Basin.

Paving over the native landscape to feed humanity would be one thing. But nearly half of the US corn crop isn’t used to produce food. It’s used to fuel automobiles powered by highly polluting, inefficient internal combustion engines.

Last year, 16.49 billion gallons of corn ethanol (an alcohol chemically identical to the intoxicating agent in beer, wine, and spirits) were produced in the United States. This ethanol is then blended at a 10% ratio into gasoline (petrol). The practice is de facto mandated by the federal government, which requires oil producers to blend into their products a fixed amount of biofuels each year. The US also spends $3 billion annually in direct subsidies to support the ethanol industry.

The problem with corn ethanol is not the financial cost. $3 billion a year is a minuscule portion of US government spending and less than 1/10th of the amount spent subsidizing fossil fuels. The issue, rather, is ethanol’s pitiful ratio of environmental benefits to environmental harms.

To provide only 10% of the US’s annual gasoline needs, the ethanol industry uses 145,000 square km (56,000 square mi) of land—about the size of New York State or the entire nation of Greece. The ecological damage is massive, as these vast tracts are either converted from wildlands or, more commonly, prevented from returning to a wild state. They are also drenched with pesticides, which run off into rivers and streams. In certain places, corn ethanol also draws water from unsustainable underground aquifers. Not to mention that diverting around half the corn crop to feed vehicles means less supply for food production—raising food prices for everybody.

If the costs are enormous, the advantages are too small to see without squinting. The ethanol industry and its supporters in government claim ethanol produces 45% fewer emissions than gasoline. But several academic studies dispute that figure, arguing the land-use change effects alone overwhelm any reductions. One influential study suggests the carbon intensity of US corn ethanol is actually 24% higher than that of gasoline.

Even using the most generous industry-favorable assumptions, reducing a 10% share of gasoline’s carbon footprint by 45% doesn’t add up to a meaningful reduction in the road transport sector’s overall emissions. Displacing gasoline with corn ethanol degrades natural ecosystems without providing much climate effect whatsoever.

The Electrofuel Shock

The environmental problems of corn ethanol have been understood for decades. The environmentalist rationale for continuing its subsidy has thus been heavily dependent on the development of a second generation of biofuels purported to be much greener.

Second-generation biofuels use non-food feedstocks (agricultural residues, biomass waste, or dedicated fuel crops that grow on degraded land) and as such have a much more favorable land-use efficiency than first-generation fuels like corn ethanol. Plug these second-generation fuels into the supply chain built for the first generation and—voilà—the world is bestowed with a sustainable source of eco-friendly liquid fuels, so the argument went.

Several developments in the past few years, however, have called this rosy road map into serious doubt.

First, electric vehicles have dramatically shrunk the expected future size of the liquid fuels market. It was once thought that biofuels would be used to decarbonize road transport, international shipping, and aviation. With road transport quickly going electric and shipping converging on a hybrid electric/methanol solution—only the aviation sector remains a potential biofuel customer.

Second, efforts to produce the “second generation” of biofuels have not been successful. The enzymes and specialized refineries needed to produce biofuels from second-generation feedstocks are very expensive. This process may never be as cost-effective at producing biofuels as food crops—which, after all, benefit from thousands of years of human-directed evolution designed to make them more productive and easier to digest.

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Deforestation destroys biodiversity and accounts for around 12% of global carbon emissions. In the 21st century, forests in temperate areas are relatively well-managed and capable of regrowth after disruption. Tropical deforestation, however, is more widespread and often permanent. It remains a major ecological crisis.

Here are the seven countries that experienced the worst deforestation in 2025, measured in hectares of primary forest lost:

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6. Madagascar 🇲🇬

~100,000 ha

An island micro-continent off the coast of Southeast Africa, Madagascar has some of the most unique endemic forests in the world. It is home to the majestic Baobab Tree (genus Adansonia) — famous the world over for its towering, skyscraper form.

Baobabs are generally too large to be cut down. Rather, they often survive like zombies, looming over the razed forests around them. Madagascar is one of the poorest countries on Earth. Tragically, its deforestation is mostly the result of slash-and-burn subsistence agriculture.

5. Peru 🇵🇪

~170,000 ha

While large, corporate ranches drive deforestation in neighboring Brazil, the story in Peru is quite different. Severe poverty in the Andes Mountains is driving migration into the country’s Amazon rainforest, where newcomers establish small slash-and-burn subsistence farms.

Illegal gold mines and coca farms are also major factors.

4. Indonesia 🇮🇩

296,000 ha

Indonesia is home to the third-largest rainforest in the world, but it has lost 21% of its total forest cover since 2000 — mostly to palm oil plantations and small-scale slash-and-burn agriculture. The crisis peaked in 2016, when the nation lost over 1,000,000 ha of forest in a single year.

Global outrage led to new supply-chain rules that forced better regulation. There has been a dramatic decrease in the deforestation rate. But recent signs point to an uptick in the past few years — this time driven by nickel mines and food plantations in Papua.

3. Congo (DRC) 🇨🇩

~500,000 ha

The Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the poorest countries in the world, and the state has little capacity to enforce environmental protections. Unlike in most tropical forests — where there is a clear deforestation frontier — the story in the DRC is “death by 1,000 cuts” as small villages deep in the forest expand outward.

Despite having massive hydroelectric dams, the DRC lacks the electric grid needed to distribute its electricity generation across its enormous territory. As a result, most Congolese also rely on felling forests for charcoal.

2. Bolivia 🇧🇴

620,630 ha

Bolivia has lost 16% of its forest canopy since 2001, and — unlike most nations on this list — the situation is only getting worse. The culprit is industrial-scale agriculture in the Santa Cruz region, where soy plantations and cattle ranches are rapidly encroaching on the Amazon.

Strangely, this circumstance is encouraged by the government, which prioritizes the development of the country’s agricultural export industry over ecological concerns.

1. Brazil 🇧🇷

1,630,000 ha

Brazil is home to 60% of the Amazon rainforest, and as such is the custodian of the largest patch of intact tropical forest on Earth. It has lost 11% of its forest canopy since 2001 — driven almost entirely by industrial-scale cattle ranching and soy production.

Brazil has the state capacity to fight deforestation. But whether it has the political will depends entirely on which government is in office. Deforestation surged during the right-wing Bolsonaro government (2019-2023), but has plummeted under his left-wing successor Lula da Silva (2023-).

The current government has a target to reach zero illegal deforestation by 2030, but this depends entirely on the left staying in power after this year’s elections.

France has created three new Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), reports Radio France Internationale. The MPAs — located in the Indian Ocean, Caribbean, and Mediterranean — will carry strict restrictions against human activity like fishing and tourism.

In Guadeloupe, the zone will protect coral reefs, home to sea turtles, while in the Bay of Audierne, off the coast of Finistère, the measures will protect a bird species known as the Kentish plover.

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2. Trees Store Less Carbon Than Thought

Trees may store less carbon in future than previously presumed, notes The Guardian. A new study has found that increased photosynthesis does not always lead to increased wood growth.

…wood growth was restricted to periods of low aridity and temperature, which are becoming rarer as the global rise in temperature makes heatwaves and droughts more common.

Yet another reason why ‘just plant more trees’ won’t work. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. – DB

3. Historic El Nino Threatens Droughts, Floods, and Fires

El Nino has begun and scientists are worried it could be the hottest ever, explains The Associated Press. The natural warming cycle is set to compound warming from climate change to create dangerous heat over the next 9 to 12 months.

Parts of western South America — where the first El Ninos were noticed decades ago — often get heavy rain and floods, along with an extra[-]warm summer. India faces more intense heat waves, while drought, wildfires and heat threaten Australia.

Our Blue Marble

Midui Glacier | Bomê County, Tibet, China

29° 28′ 18.56″ N, 96° 29′ 53.87″ E

Good Climate News

1. Solar Generates More Electricity Than Coal in US

The United States generated more electricity from solar than coal in May, notes Canary Media. It’s the first time that threshold has been crossed on a monthly basis.

In the late 2000s, facing hotter competition from increasingly abundant natural gas and a burgeoning renewable energy sector, coal-fired electricity output peaked in the U.S. It’s been all downhill from there.

2. Giant Solar Cell Factory Opens in Georgia

Q-cells has started producing solar cells at its massive manufacturing facility in the US state of Georgia, relays Latitude Media. Panels have historically been assembled in the United States, but only in recent years have other elements of the supply chain been re-shored.

The factory will be the only one in the U.S. to make every major solar panel component — ingot[s], cells, and wafers — under one roof. Production is still ramping up, but by the end of this year it is slated to have 3.3 gigawatts of capacity.

3. EVs Reach Two-Thirds of Vehicle Sales in China

Two-thirds of new vehicle sales in mainland China are now EVs, heralds The South China Morning Post. Fully battery electric (BEV) and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) sales combined for 66.7% of the market in the first week of June.

“The Middle East conflict has given Chinese EV makers an unexpected shot in the arm,” said Eric Han, a senior manager at Shanghai consultancy Suolei. “Petrol cars may have run out of steam.”

China is fast becoming the next Norway, where 99% of new vehicles are EVs. This will have profound consequences for the oil market and climate change. – DB

In Brief

🇦🇱 Albania: Protests have erupted to protect pristine wildland from a Trump-backed hotel development.

🇲🇿 Mozambique: The first white rhino breeding population in decades has been established in the country, with the arrival of nine females from South Africa.

🇳🇿 New Zealand: Populations of the endangered Kōkako have exploded amidst a baby boom in the Hūnua Ranges.

🇹🇭 Thailand: Citizens in Northern Thailand are protesting against dangerous levels of heavy metal pollution in local rivers.

Planetary Pulse

Planetary Health — Latest figures

CO2: 431.71 PPM (+0.30% YoY)1 | Temperature Anomaly: +1.42°C2

Forest Cover: 31.8% | Protected Areas: 12.3% (17.3% terrestrial, 10.01% marine)

Emissions per Capita: 4.89 (World) | 9.1 (China) | 13.1 (USA) | 6.1 (EU) | 2.1 (India)

Low Carbon Electricity: 43.1% | Low Carbon Energy: 19.8% | EV New Sales : 24.1%3

The Other 74%

• The elusive Goblin Shark (Mitsukurina owstoni) has been caught on video in its native habitat for the first time.

• The NGO Ocean Cleanup is using special boats to intercept trash in rivers before it reaches the ocean.

• A 5.3-million-year-old whale graveyard has been found off the coast of

  Australia.

  ---

Meet the Endangered

Scimitar Oryx (Oryx dammah)

There is perhaps no greater success in conservation history than the Scimitar Oryx. In 2000, this princely bovid was declared extinct in the wild, following centuries of decline in its North African homeland. But successful breeding programs allowed the animal to be reintroduced in 2016. The wild population is now estimated at 800.

The Scimitar Oryx was a treasured species in antiquity. Egyptians used the oryx in their funeral rites and named a province for it. Wealthy Roman households kept it for its meat and leather. Some believe the oryx is also the origin of the unicorn myth, as from certain angles it can appear to have one horn instead of two.

In a strange twist of fate, this ancient Old World species is now found predominantly in Texas. It was there that private trophy hunting ranches created breeding programs, which - in addition to amassing hunting stock - also provide vital genetic diversity for reintroduction efforts. An estimated 10,000 remain in the Lone Star State, vastly exceeding the numbers in the wild.

IUCN: Endangered (EN)

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The Iran War is a geopolitical blunder and humanitarian catastrophe with very few true winners. But it has generated one rather unexpected loser—the philosophy of energy historian and energy transition pundit Vaclav Smil.

Since the start of the Iran War, Heatmap News—a rigidly dogmatic Smilite publication that routinely underestimates wind, solar, and storage—has run an extended series of articles rapturously celebrating its prediction that the conflict would ignite a new era of coal-burning as Liquefied Fossil Gas (LFG)-dependent nations switch to the dirtier but more accessible fossil fuel.

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One headline heralded the solution to the energy crisis as “more coal.” Another called the Iran War “gravy” for the coal industry.1 A full reading reveals an almost libidinous fervor at the prospect of a coal revival. One cannot help but envision the reporter racing to their nearest coal-fired power station, shovel in hand, ready to load the thick, black gravy directly into the boiler and light the pyre themselves.

Yet thus far, Heatmap—and the conservative conventional wisdom it represents—has been dead wrong. Analysis of the relevant data reveals that power-sector coal consumption will indeed likely increase in 2026—but the effect will be minimal.2

In late April, energy think tank Ember released a report debunking the idea that coal use will explode in the wake of the Iran War. Their analysis—based on reams of real-time and historical data and sophisticated modeling—showed that the increase in power-sector coal consumption globally would be no more than 1.8% in 2026.3

This figure is explicitly an upper bound to their estimate, and the median scenario is likely to be lower. The reason for such a modest effect is basic Economics 101.

“Coal fleets are smaller, older and increasingly uneconomic,” Christine Shearer, manager of Global Energy Monitor tells Carbon Brief, “while wind, solar and storage are becoming more competitive and widespread.”4

Since Ember’s report, the headlines have gotten worse for the “coal shall overcome” thesis. In Asia, higher coal prices and stricter export rules have limited cross-border trade.5 The year-on-year growth in Asia’s power-sector coal use was less than 3% in May.6 A Chinese coal mine also exploded that month, killing 82 miners—a politically unpalatable toll underscoring that coal, too, comes with its own set of political risks.

In Europe (a massive LNG importer predicted to rush back to coal), power-sector coal use was essentially flat in May, falling 0.26% YoY.7 Renewables filled the gap instead. Coal’s decline was 11% in the United States over the same period—despite a herculean political effort to prop up the industry. Last month, for the first time in history, solar generated more electricity than coal in the United States on a monthly basis.8

Carbo non urendus est

The Iran War isn’t over. Indeed, it’s entirely possible that its worst effects on energy markets are yet to come. Nevertheless, it is highly probable the same people who said “wind and solar are cute but will never scale” got this one wrong too.

And it’s worth exploring why. A central pillar of Vaclav Smil Thought is that “dense” energy sources like fossil fuels and nuclear are always and everywhere cheaper and more useful than “diffuse” sources like wind and solar. The only possible reason to adopt such technologies, therefore, must be to engage in a hippie-inspired, Birkenstock-adorned, granola-fueled climate crusade.

This theology was challenged in the later half of the 2010s, when the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) of wind and solar energy fell below that of nuclear, coal, and fossil gas in most regions of the world.

The argument thereafter shifted. Yes, wind and solar may be cheaper on one narrow measure, the adjustment went, but this cost advantage is outweighed by their intermittency—which is not accounted for in standard LCOE calculations. On a 24/7 basis, nothing beats good ol’ fossil gas and coal or a grid mixed with generous proportions of clean firm resources like hydro and nuclear. Yet, increasingly, this weaker formulation of the Smilite Creed is proving equally false as the cost of battery storage plummets.

Grids powered mostly by intermittent sources like wind and solar are now producing electricity prices competitive with those dominated by firm sources.9 A mass, global replacement of imported LNG with coal thus fails on economic grounds alone.

Additionally, the Smilite reaction to the Iran War and the subsequent energy crisis entirely ignores the externality delta of switching from gas to coal rather than to renewables like solar and wind. Places like China, India, and Southeast Asia already have more air pollution than their fragile political systems and social contracts can handle. There exists, therefore, an enormous policy incentive to pursue the cleanest possible solutions to the energy crisis. And policymakers the world over respond to incentives.

China has been executing a pivot away from coal for over a decade—coal generation as a percentage of electricity peaked in 2007. It has not been doing this to appease Greenpeace and Greta Thunberg. Rather, burning coal created an air pollution crisis that threatened social stability. Genuine motivations to solve climate change, acquire soft power abroad, and turn the energy transition into an export opportunity were also important—but very much secondary—considerations.

The idea that the world would fully ignore coal’s economic uncompetitiveness and environmental externalities and pivot back to the barbarous relic was never serious. It was indeed the sort of analysis only a blind ideologue could have birthed.

The evidence is clear: the future belongs to wind and solar. The future belongs to the undense.

Rusty Patched Bumblebee (Bombus affinis)

If you live in the eastern half of North America, chances are you’ve seen a Rusty Patched Bumblebee. Up until very recently, it was one of the most common types of bees across 28 US states and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec.

You may never see one again. Since the late 1990s populations have crashed by 87%, and it is now extinct across the vast majority of its former range. The leading explanation is that pathogens first incubated in honey bee colonies spread to the Rusty Patched populations, which had no natural immunity. Other factors like insecticide use, climate change, and habitat loss to monoculture crops may have played smaller roles.

In 2017, the Rusty Patched Bumblebee became the first bee in the continental US to be listed as an endangered species. This allowed for increased protection of its few remaining redoubts. Conservationists also help by planting its favorite plant species in home bee gardens.

IUCN: Critically Endangered (CR)

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Solar is the fastest-growing source of electricity generation in the world. But it’s a larger source of electricity in some places than in others.

Here are the top 7 countries with the most solar electricity, ranked by the percentage of electricity each country generated from solar in 2025:

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7. Chile

25.06%

Chile’s dry, high-elevation Atacama Desert sits near the equator and is one of the best places in the world to put solar photovoltaic farms. A solar panel in Chile will, on average, produce three times as much electricity over the course of a year as a solar panel in Scotland.

The market is dominated by massive utility-scale projects in the north of the country, with transmission lines transporting the output to population centers.

6. Hungary

27.29%

Hungary is not a particularly sunny country. Nor has it historically been a particularly environmentalist one — having been ruled by the far-right for decades. Nonetheless, it is one of Europe’s solar energy leaders.

As a landlocked country with no fossil resources of its own, Hungary made a strategic decision to adopt solar as a means of energy independence. Generous subsidies ensure a balance of utility-scale and rooftop capacity.

5. Lebanon

29.96%

Lebanon highlights a much larger trend of massive solar booms occurring in places where the centralized electricity grid has broken down. Fed up with high prices and frequent power cuts, the Lebanese population began installing cheap Chinese-made solar panels on their roofs in the early 2020s.

In just a few years, solar generation rocketed from almost nothing to nearly a third of the entire country’s electricity supply. The focus now is on installing batteries to enable 24/7 self-use and even higher penetration rates.

4. Luxembourg

30.52%

Luxembourg is one of the richest countries in the world and, with an eco-conscious European electorate, it spends a lot of that money on solar subsidies. The Grand Duchy lacks the land necessary for large, utility-scale projects, so residential and commercial rooftop dominate the landscape.

Luxembourg’s solar generation share figures are boosted by the fact that the tiny nation imports most of its electricity. But it also ranks highly on measures of solar generation per capita. The boom is real.

3. Namibia

35.37%

Like Chile, Namibia is one of the best places on Earth for solar generation. But unusually for sub-Saharan Africa, the country also has the state capacity to attract the foreign investment necessary for massive utility-scale solar farms.

The result is an electricity mix with the highest solar generation share of any full-fledged UN member-state. The sparsely populated nation has far more solar energy potential than it needs. Plans are afoot to export its resources via the production of electrofuels.

2. Palestine

39.39%

Palestine’s status as a perpetual conflict zone has rendered the electric grid unreliable and made solar a vital method for the Palestinian people to access energy resources, and reclaim energy sovereignty. Previously, over 90% of Palestine’s electricity was imported from Israel — the occupying power which had effectively barred it from constructing its own power plants.

But solar energy’s modular and distributed nature makes it very difficult to prohibit. Cheap solar panels from China have flooded Palestine, dominating domestic generation, and chipping away at imports from Israel.

1. Cook Islands

50.00%

The Cook Islands are a small South Pacific island country associated with New Zealand. Like most island polities, they have historically been almost wholly reliant on imported diesel fuel for electricity generation.

In the past few years, the Cook Islands government has built solar micro-grids with batteries in the outer islands — bringing them to 24/7 renewable energy. However, the most populated island — Rarotonga — lacks the necessary land for this setup. Floating solar arrays are being strongly considered.

The Trump administration is dismantling a crucial ocean monitoring network, reports KUOW. The Ocean Observatories Initiative provides data on ocean chemistry and temperature used by scientists, mariners, and the military.

“They've taken hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars of equipment, put it in warehouses where it's going to rot….Ocean equipment doesn't do very well when it's taken out of the water and put up in warehouses. It's just a travesty in that regard alone.”

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2. China Emissions Climb 2% in 2026

China’s CO2 emissions rose slightly in the first quarter of 2026, notes Carbon Brief. The increase is due to curtailment — the practice of not allowing wind and solar to generate when there is an excess of electricity on the grid.

The fact that capacity factors have fallen significantly more than would be expected based on reported curtailment and weather conditions indicates that a lot of curtailment goes unreported…

China is building massive amounts of battery storage. Over time this problem should be solved. – DB

3. Humans Interfere With Nature’s ‘Smellscape’

Human activities are changing the way the planet smells — with potentially disruptive consequences, explains Yale Environment 360. Many plants and animals rely on olfactory signals that can be jammed by competing scents.

Pollution can change the scent of a Mediterranean fig enough that it is no longer attractive to its only pollinator, the fig wasp.

Our Blue Marble

Maasai Mara National Reserve | Kenya

1°29′24″S 35°8′24″E

Good Climate News

1. Western US States Unite to Push Geothermal

The American states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah are joining forces to accelerate the development of geothermal energy in their states, notes Canary Media.

By teaming up, the four states aim to ease some of the financial, permitting, and logistical challenges that stand in the way of widespread geothermal deployment.

The build-out of geothermal in the American West could be the biggest energy and climate story of the next decade. – DB

2. Hawaii Moves to Ditch Oil

Hawaii is looking for ways to get off imported oil, relays DW News. Like many island polities, oil powers both its transport and electricity generation sectors but is eye-wateringly expensive to import. Wind, solar, and geothermal are set to fill the gap.

While it was long assumed that the energy source was not viable on the most populous island of Oahu, more recent discussions indicate “that geothermal actually could be available where it’s needed most.”

3. Australian Emissions Falling Rapidly

Wind and solar are powering massive falls in Australia’s carbon emissions, heralds ABC News. The transport sector has seen a drop too, thanks to uptake of hybrid and electric vehicles.

Electricity remains the largest source of emissions, accounting for 31.8 per cent. But emissions from the sector peaked in 2009 and have continued to fall since, down 3.8 per cent to December 2025 and 25.8 per cent since 2005.

In Brief

🇨🇦 Canada: Chinese-made electric vehicles have started to arrive in Canada.

🇳🇿 New Zealand: A pair of very sexually active parakeets are single-handedly keeping an endangered species afloat.

🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia: Climate change is making the annual Hajj pilgrimage extremely dangerous.

🇱🇦 Laos: A golf-course pond maker has reformed and now lends his skillset to rewilding projects.

Planetary Pulse

Planetary Health — Latest figures

CO2: 432.08 PPM (+0.39% YoY)1 | Temperature Anomaly: +1.43°C

Forest Cover: 31.8% | Protected Areas: 12.3% (17.3% terrestrial, 10.01% marine)

Emissions per Capita: 4.89 (World) | 9.1 (China) | 13.1 (USA) | 6.1 (EU) | 2.1 (India)

Low Carbon Electricity: 43.1% | Low Carbon Energy: 19.8% | EV New Sales : 24.1%2

The Other 74%

• As the United States retreats, the European Union is expanding its ocean monitoring network.

• A Los Angeles restaurant owner who promised patrons sustainable fish has been fined for illegally harvesting his catch in Marine Protected Areas near Santa Barbara Island.

• An expedition has been conducted to map Indonesia's remote tropical seamounts.

  ---

Meet the Endangered

Rusty Patched Bumblebee (Bombus affinis)

If you live in the eastern half of North America, chances are you’ve seen a Rusty Patched Bumblebee. Up until very recently, it was one of the most common types of bees across 28 US states and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec.

You may never see one again. Since the late 1990s populations have crashed by 87%, and it is now extinct across the vast majority of its former range. The leading explanation is that pathogens first incubated in honey bee colonies spread to the Rusty Patched populations, which had no natural immunity. Other factors like insecticide use, climate change, and habitat loss to monoculture crops may have played smaller roles.

In 2017, the Rusty Patched Bumblebee became the first bee in the continental US to be listed as an endangered species. This allowed for increased protection of its few remaining redoubts. Conservationists also help by planting its favorite plant species in home bee gardens.

IUCN: Critically Endangered (CR)

Aside from contributing to climate change and air pollution, liquid petroleum hydrocarbons also pose the danger of spilling into the broader environment.

Oil spills create havoc in ecosystems by physically smothering small animals and releasing toxins into the food chain. Here are the seven largest oil spills in history:

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7. Fergana Valley

285,000 tonnes | 1992

The worst oil spill on the Asian continent occurred in 1992 in the newly post-Soviet state of Uzbekistan. On March 2, a well in the fertile Fergana Valley suffered a blowout — spilling oil onto the surrounding plains.

About a month later the oil slick caught fire, poisoning the skies too. With technical assistance from the US government, the blowout was finally capped in early May.

6. Atlantic Empress

287,000 tonnes | 1979

On July 19th, 1979, two massive oil tankers — the Atlantic Empress and the Aegean Captain — collided in a storm off the coast of Tobago. 27 sailors were killed.

Although the Aegean Captain managed to limp to port and salvage her cargo, the Atlantic Empress was not so lucky. She remained afire and adrift for several more days, exploding several times before finally sinking on July 29th.

The environmental damage was mitigated by the depth of the sea at the impact point and the fact that so much of the oil had burnt off.

5. Ixtoc

480,000 tonnes | 1979-1980

On June 3, 1979 an offshore oil rig operated by Pemex — Mexico’s state oil company — suffered a catastrophic blowout and began spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico. It would not stop for another 10 months.

In many ways a precursor to the larger Deepwater Horizon spill, Ixtoc was less environmentally damaging due to its occurrence at much shallower depths — which allowed more oil to naturally biodegrade in sunlight.

4. Taylor Energy

490,000 tonnes | 2004-Present

In 2004 Hurricane Ivan destroyed an offshore oil rig operated by Taylor Energy off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico. The hurricane caused an underwater landslide — severing 28 wells from the platform and leaving them leaking 145 meters below the seabed.

The bizarre nature of the accident made the leak impossible to seal. It has continued leaking oil ever since. Remarkably, no one outside the company and a few regulators noticed the spill until the 2010 Deepwater Horizon accident brought closer scrutiny to the region. Remediation efforts continue.

3. BP Deepwater Horizon

627,000 tonnes | 2010

The Deepwater Horizon saga is the most dramatic oil spill in living memory, spawning wall-to-wall television coverage in 2010 and many books, documentaries, and Hollywood films in the years since.

It began on April 20, 2010 when the BP-operated Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig suffered a catastrophic wellhead blowout — killing 11 and injuring 17. For the next 87 days, the well spewed crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico at a rate never seen for a marine oil spill before or since. The economic and ecological damages have been immense.

2. Persian Gulf War Oil Spill

820,000 tonnes | 1991

In January 1991, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein deliberately released massive amounts of oil into the Persian Gulf in an attempt to prevent an amphibious landing by American forces during the Persian Gulf War.

About 2% of Kuwait’s entire oil reserves were dumped — with profound ecological effects lasting to the present day. Given its intentional nature, the Persian Gulf War Oil Spill is commonly considered an act of ecological terrorism.

1. Lakeview Gusher

1,230,000 tonnes | 1910-1911

The largest oil spill in history happened near Bakersfield, CA in the early 20th century. Early drilling technology lacked blowout preventers and on the 15th of March 1910, a Lakeview Oil Company well suffered a catastrophic blowout.

Rivers of crude oil were released into the surrounding area, about 40% of which was ultimately captured by constructing makeshift dikes and pipelines. The unforeseen supply shock crashed the global oil price.

Chinese Alligator (Alligator sinensis)

Smaller than its American counterpart, the Chinese alligator was nonetheless the likely inspiration for Chinese dragon myths, which have been integral to the nation’s culture for millennia. Despite this prestige, the rugged, panoplied species nearly went extinct in the late 1990s.

The numerous dams in the Yangtze basin have been the principal cause of the alligator’s decline. Its natural homeland is the marshy wetland forest that once flooded when the river ran wild. Now that water flow is controlled by large hydroelectric dams like the Three Gorges Dam, the largest in the world, the floods have gone, and the marshes have been drained for rice paddies.

Virtually the entire wild population now lives in the Anhui National Nature Reserve for Chinese Alligator (ANNRCA), a protected area of marshy wetland set aside specifically for the alligator's survival. There are nearly 2,000 individuals there now - a massive increase over the 150 counted in the early 2000s. Five times that number are thought to be held in captivity.

One day, perhaps decades or centuries from now, hydropower may no longer be necessary to generate electricity and Chinese alligators will roam a wild Yangtze once again. For now, the Chinese alligator has survived extinction and lives to return another day.

IUCN: Critically Endangered (CR)

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The United States is now investing more in building fossil fuel generation capacity than China, reports Carbon Brief. While China’s fossil investments are stable, the US is seeing a surge due to gas-fired captive data centers.

…strong demand for gas power plants for data centres in the US – and, to a lesser extent, the Middle East – is “limiting the availability of turbines for near-term deployment elsewhere in the world”.

Some of these data center “investments” will never be completed. And by hoarding turbines for themselves, the Americans are forcing other countries to get off gas. But there will be a bump in US power sector gas emissions, and that’s not good for climate. –DB

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2. Climate Change Creating Larger Hail

Climate change is creating larger and more damaging hail, explains The Associated Press. Hailstorms with hail larger than a marble are predicted to increase by between 38% and 48% by the end of the century, according to a new study.

Hail generally doesn’t kill people, but it is expensive. It already costs the U.S. about $10 billion a year and around $80 billion globally…Hail does more damage than tornadoes and generally costs “more than a couple hurricanes a year now”…

3. Inside Europe’s Quest for Green Steel

Europe is on an epic journey to replace dirty coal-made steel with hydrogen-made green steel, explains Canary Media. There are many signs of progress — but success is far from assured.

…around 70% of blast furnaces need relining or other major maintenance by 2030. In the EU, over half will by 2035. If they’re relined — extending coal-based production — Europe will miss its climate targets.

Our Blue Marble

Ha Long Bay | Vietnam

20°54′N 107°12′E

Good Climate News

1. Amazon Deforestation Rate Slows to Six-Year Low

Tougher enforcement has brought deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon to its lowest level since 2019, notes Radio France Internationale.

South America’s biggest country lost 985,000 hectares of native vegetation in 2025 – down 20.6 percent from the previous year…Illegal logging surged during the presidency of far-right former leader Jair Bolsonaro.

Preventing deforestation is both a biodiversity and climate victory, as forests store enormous amounts of carbon. – DB

2. Batteries Revolutionizing Australia’s Grid

Home batteries are transforming the way Australia produces and consumes electricity, relays The Guardian. Gas-fired generation is 24% lower thanks to a massive surge in battery capacity.

Nearly 60% of the household-scale battery capacity installed across almost 200 countries – every nation except China - this financial year will be in [Australia]…Since July, about 415,000 have been connected. It is roughly one unit for every 25 Australian homes.

3. Irish Retailers Introduce Lower-Carbon Beef

Two Irish retailers are introducing a range of lower-carbon beef, heralds RTE . The new beef has been independently verified to have a 23% lower carbon footprint than equivalent products.

Specialists from the group work with over 600 farmers to help them improve things like genetics, animal nutrition, carbon sequestration, as well as with initiatives such as reseeding for clover.

In Brief

🇨🇦 Canada: Former environment minister Steven Guilbeault is resigning from Parliament — citing his government’s weak climate policies.

🇬🇧 United Kingdom: Conservationists are restoring a rare patch of temperate rainforest in Northern Ireland.

🇮🇳 India: Monsoon season is expected to bring below average rains this year, raising concerns about crop yields.

🇱🇦 Laos: 27 moon bears have been rescued from an illegal bear bile farm.

Planetary Pulse

Planetary Health — Latest figures

CO2: 432.19 PPM (+.32 YoY)1 | Temperature Anomaly: +1.48 C

Forest Cover: 31.8% | Protected Areas: 12.3% (17.3% terrestrial, 10.01% marine)

Emissions per Capita: 4.89 (World) | 9.1 (China) | 13.1 (USA) | 6.1 (EU) | 2.1 (India)

Low Carbon Electricity: 43.1% | Low Carbon Energy: 19.8% | EV New Sales : 24.1%2

The Other 74%

• Climate change has irreversibly altered the chemistry of the Arctic Ocean.

• Scientists at the University of Southern California (USC) have created a microbial map of the ocean.

• Citizens of Thailand’s Koh Libong island are banding together to save the beloved local dugong population.

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Meet the Endangered

Chinese Alligator (Alligator sinensis)

Smaller than its American counterpart, the Chinese alligator was nonetheless the likely inspiration for Chinese dragon myths, which have been integral to the nation’s culture for millennia. Despite this prestige, the rugged, panoplied species nearly went extinct in the late 1990s.

The numerous dams in the Yangtze basin have been the principal cause of the alligator’s decline. Its natural homeland is the marshy wetland forest that once flooded when the river ran wild. Now that water flow is controlled by large hydroelectric dams like the Three Gorges Dam, the largest in the world, the floods have gone, and the marshes have been drained for rice paddies.

Virtually the entire wild population now lives in the Anhui National Nature Reserve for Chinese Alligator (ANNRCA), a protected area of marshy wetland set aside specifically for the alligator’s survival. There are nearly 2,000 individuals there now - a massive increase over the 150 counted in the early 2000s. Five times that number are thought to be held in captivity.

One day, perhaps decades or centuries from now, hydropower may no longer be necessary to generate electricity and Chinese alligators will roam a wild Yangtze once again. For now, the Chinese alligator has survived extinction and lives to return another day.

IUCN: Critically Endangered (CR)

Mahoenui Giant Wētā (Deinacrida mahoenui)

In 1987 the last known population of the Mahoenui Giant Wētā was found living on a farm on New Zealand’s North Island. The nation’s conservation agency subsequently purchased the land and created a successful reserve that has powered the flightless insect’s comeback.

Giant Wētā are endemic to New Zealand. There are eleven species in total, and all but one are listed as endangered. Despite their fearsome appearance, wētās are gentle giants. They are largely herbivorous, carry no venom, and pose no danger to humans. The Mahoenui species can grow up to 65 mm (2.6 in) in length.

Since the 1980s more than 2,000 Mahoenui Giant Wētās have been relocated to various conservation sanctuaries and reserves on different parts of the island. Researchers are ramping up their efforts and hope to unleash another 3,000 by 2027.

NZ TCS: Nationally Critical (NC)

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