Optimist Daily: Clean energy surge leads to historic coal decline in China and India
For the first time in over five decades, coal-fired electricity generation has dropped in both China and India, the world’s two largest consumers of coal. This historic shift, outlined in new research from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) and published by Carbon Brief, may signal the beginning of a long-anticipated global turning point in carbon emissions.
Emergence Magazine: The Scaffolding of Life, Suzanne Simard
This week, forest ecologist Suzanne Simard joins us to speak about her decades-long Mother Tree Project, which seeks to reimagine how we can protect the integrity of harvested forests and our climate futures. The challenge of our moment is not the discovery of new knowledge….
Inside Climate News: Rights of Nature Defender Wins Goldman Prize for Protecting Colombia’s Magdalena River From Fracking
As a child growing up along the banks of Colombia’s Magdalena River, Yuvelis Morales Blanco learned to read the water. “Dark spots (oil spills) on the river meant that we were not going to eat,” she recalled. Now Morales Blanco, 24 y/o, has been awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize — often called the “Green Nobel” ..
Quanta Magazine: What Physical ‘Life Force’ Turns Biology’s Wheels?
Evolution created the flagellar motor, a combination propeller/brain that enables single-celled bacteria to move toward food sources. It’s an electric motor that rotates at several hundred revolutions per second — faster than the flywheel in a race car engine — to twirl a tail-like flagellum that pushes the cell along…
Digital Democracy: Legislation to Designate Santa Cruz Mountains as a "Resource of Statewide Significance"
SB 949 is a bill co-authored by Senator Josh Becker and Senator John Laird that "would designate the Santa Cruz Mountains... as a resource of statewide significance that requires special protection.
NYT: ‘More than a failure of due diligence’
In 2016, a surprise decision from the Supreme Court “sent both climate policy and the court itself spinning in new directions,” Jodi Kantor and Adam Liptak wrote in (a NYT) investigation published last week. The one-paragraph ruling halted the Clean Power Plan, President Barack Obama’s signature environmental policy, which was aimed at reducing emissions from power plants.
Inside Climate News: California Bill Aims to Keep Toxic PFAS off Its Crops
California, the nation’s top agricultural producer, could ban pesticides with PFAS after researchers found the “forever chemicals” on 40 percent of the conventional produce grown in the state. Schultz, D-Burbank, introduced A.B. 1603 earlier this year to ban the use, sale and manufacture of PFAS pesticides in California starting in 2035.
Climate Action Now: Beavers Excel At Creating carbon-sequestering wetlands
In 2023, California began relocating beavers (Castor canadensis) from the Sacramento and San Joaquin watersheds to return them to the lands of the Tule River and Mountain Maidu indigenous tribes. Now, researchers have found that the beavers’ return to the Tásmam Koyóm meadow north of the Sierra Nevada (especially their subsequent dam-building!) has reinvigorated the wetland ecosystem….
Heatmap News: Federal Judge Breaks Trump’s Permitting Blockade
April 21 - A federal court seems to have struck down a swath of Trump administration moves to paralyze solar and wind permits. U.S. District Judge Denise Casper on Tuesday enjoined a raft of actions by the Trump administration that delayed federal renewable energy permits, granting a request submitted by regional trade groups.
Sentinel: Proposed Expansion of Santa Cruz Marine Protected Areas
April 24 - The California Fish and Game Commission will review a proposal for expanded marine protected areas in Santa Cruz County Tuesday morning April 28…..The proposal includes an expansion of the small Natural Bridges state marine reserve and the creation of a new state marine conservation area at Pleasure Point.
Lookout: Group of local contractors to use straw bales to build low-income housing
Local contractors are working together to bring low-income housing for community members experiencing homelessness. The project will use renewable materials such as straw bales to lessen climate change impacts.
Environment Colorado: Plastic Pellet-Free Waters Act Signed into Law
Great news -- our sister organization Environment Colorado just won a campaign to protect Colorado's wildlife and waterways from plastic pellet pollution! Plastic pellets are small, lentil-sized pieces of plastic that are used in manufacturing….
Heatmap: New Documents Undermine Trump Administration’s Claims About Offshore Wind Deal
When the Trump administration announced it was paying TotalEnergies nearly $1 billion to cancel the company’s offshore wind leases, it painted the deal as a mutually beneficial trade: The government would reimburse the company for every penny it spent to acquire the leases, and in return, Total would “redirect” the money to U.S. oil and gas development. Now, the terms of the deal have been made public, and Americans’ side of the bargain appears to be worthless.
Inside Climate News: Trump’s Budget Proposes Massive Cuts for Climate and Environmental Programs
President Trump’s annual budget request to Congress continues his administration’s defunding of climate change programs, environmental protection and renewable energy, slashing the budgets of the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency…
Canary Media: The US offshore wind industry finally gets a break
April 10 - Five U.S. wind projects continue construction, with some now producing power, as the Trump admin misses a deadline to appeal court decisions letting them proceed. President Donald Trump and Interior Department chief Doug Burgum have spent months in an all-out assault against offshore wind projects in federal waters.
Save The Waves: Awarded "Environmentalist of the Year" By Surf Industry Association
We are honored to have been named "Environmentalist of the Year"by Surf Industry Manufacturers Association for their 2026 Waterman's Ball. "This global nonprofit is dedicated to protecting surf ecosystems around the world, working to preserve waves, coastlines, and the communities that depend on them through science, policy, and advocacy." - SIMA
Mercury News: Bill calls for protection of ‘surfing reserves’ off California’s coast
A bill authored by Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, D-Thousand Oaks, would designate state surfing reserves using the California Coastal Act of 1976, which aims at giving protections for coastal areas from development and ensuring public access…
Climate Action Now: Record Clean Energy Installations 2025
According to new data from global energy think tank Ember, the world installed a record 814 GW of new solar and wind capacity in 2025, 17% more than in 2024 (696 GW). The latest additions bring the combined global installed capacity of wind and solar to 4,174 GW (over 4 TW), highlighting the rapid expansion of the two fastest-growing sources of electricity in history.
Earthjustice: Victory to Protect Florida’s Wetlands and Wildlife
We (recently) won a major lawsuit to protect Florida’s wetlands, home to the critically endangered Florida panther and other wildlife. A federal appeals court upheld a 2024 ruling that stopped a wetlands permitting handover from the first Trump Administration to Florida. Federal wetlands permitting has more public participation and requires consultation with tribes.
E&E NEWS: Judge Nixes Trump Changes to Endangered Species Act Regs
A coalition of environmental groups scored a win Monday (3/30/26)in a long legal battle when a federal court in California tossed out a set of regulatory rollbacks that undercut Endangered Species Act protections. The ruling comes after nearly a decade of legal combat that began under the first Trump administration…