By Sahas Mehra , Science.  Excerpt: In 2023, China embarked on the  largest coastal restoration project ever attempted . Threatened by an invasive, fast-growing weed known as smooth cordgrass ( Spartina alterniflora ), which was overrunning clam farms, bird habitats, and shipping channels, the country planned to remove the plant and replace it with environmentally friendly species, such as native reeds and mangrove trees. But  such efforts would have a huge downside, increasing methane emissions 10-fold , researchers report this month in  Geophysical Research Letters . The mangroves would eventually counter these effects, but it could take 5 decades for these native plants to absorb the increasing greenhouse emissions....  Full article at https://www.science.org/content/article/china-s-massive-coastal-restoration-project-could-backfire . 

By Sachi Kitajima Mulkey Claire Brown  and  Mira Rojanasakul , The New York Times.  Excerpt: Summer started barely a week ago, and already the United States has been smothered in a record-breaking “ heat dome .” Alaska saw its  first-ever heat advisory  this month. And all of this comes on the heels of 2024, the  hottest calendar year  in recorded history. The world is getting hotter, faster. A report published last week found that human-caused global warming is now  increasing by 0.27 degrees  Celsius per decade. That rate was recorded at 0.2 degrees in the 1970s, and has been growing since. ...For years, measurements have followed predictions that the rate of  warming in the atmosphere would speed up . But now, patterns that have been evident in charts and graphs are starting to become a bigger part of people’s daily lives. “Each additional fractional degree of warming brings about a relatively larger increase in atmospheric extremes, ...

 By Paul Voosen , Science.  Excerpt: Climate change is worsening many natural hazards, including droughts, heat waves, and storm surges. Now, a new one has joined the list: earthquakes. Researchers have found that as global warming accelerates melting of mountaintop glaciers, the meltwater, percolating underground, increases the risk of damaging earthquakes. The evidence comes from beneath Grandes Jorasses, a glacier-clad peak in the Alps that is part of the Mont Blanc massif, home to Western Europe’s tallest mountains. Precise seismic records show a heat wave in 2015 kicked off a surge of small earthquakes under the mountain. Although the tremors themselves were not damaging, the chances of large earthquakes are known to rise with the frequency of small ones. “It increases the hazard dramatically,” says Toni Kraft, a seismologist at ETH Zürich and co-author of the  new study , published this month in  Earth and Planetary Science Letters ....  Full article at ht...

By   Rebecca Owen , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: In 2003, several states and environmental groups sued the U.S. EPA for violating the  Clean Air Act  by not regulating emissions from new vehicles. When the  case  eventually reached the Supreme Court, a group of climate scientists  contributed an amicus brief —a legal document in which a third party not directly involved in the case can offer testimony—sharing data demonstrating that rising global temperatures were directly caused by human activity. This led to  the Supreme Court deciding  that greenhouse gases did constitute pollutants under the Clean Air Act and, ultimately, to the EPA’s 2009  endangerment finding  that greenhouse gas emissions endanger human health. The endangerment finding became the basis for governmental regulation of greenhouse gases. Sixteen years later, the Trump administration is  poised to repeal it , along with  other environmental protections . In a new ...

By Max Bearak , The New York Times.  Excerpt: Some of Vegas’ iconic casinos, convention centers and hotels — and thousands of households across the city, too — are using the sun to save money and better the planet’s odds at tackling climate change. ...Today in Nevada, around a third of all energy demand is met by solar panels. The state has the highest solar electricity generation per capita in the country, as well as the most solar-industry jobs per capita. ...Take the Strip. It uses more electricity than 300,000 households, which is more than the rest of Las Vegas combined. The state’s biggest employer, MGM Resorts International, which has 11 properties on the Strip, is betting on solar. ...MGM installed 26,000 panels on the roof of Mandalay Bay, an enormous casino and convention center at the Strip’s southern end. ...northeast of the city near a place called Dry Lake, ...MGM teamed up with a clean energy company to build an array of 322,000 panels. The panels now provide 90 perc...

By José María León Cabrera , The New York Times.  Excerpt: ...20 Indigenous men in the Ecuadorean Amazon boarded a canoe in their community near the border with Peru. Their destination was a neighboring village 45 minutes away by river. ...The journey between the isolated villages was made possible thanks to their boat, a traditional river canoe aside from one distinctive feature on top: 24 solar panels that harness sunlight to power an engine. The canoe is part of a growing fleet of electric-powered vessels providing a cheaper and greener alternative to diesel-powered boats that typically travel the Indigenous region’s waterways....  Full article at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/23/world/americas/electric-boats-ecuadorian-amazon.html .