By Ishan Thakore , Colorado Public Radio (CPR) News.  Excerpt: Renewable energy production has more than doubled in Colorado over the last decade, according to a new report from the advocacy groups Colorado Public Interest Research Group (CoPIRG) and Environment Colorado. In 2025, solar, wind and geothermal produced the equivalent of 44% of the power consumed in the state, up from just 19% in 2016. Solar saw a particularly large jump — the state generated eight times as much solar power last year compared to 2016.  The lion’s share of Colorado’s renewable electricity comes from wind energy. The state produced enough electricity from wind last year to power more than 1.5 million homes, according to the report.  Colorado also saw a massive increase in the number of registered electric vehicles and installed EV charging ports compared to 2016. ...The nationwide increase in renewable energy is being driven in part by its lower costs. Utility-scale solar and wind farms now pr...

By Ben Tracy of Climate Central .  Excerpt: ...Unlike traditional rooftop solar, which requires thousands of dollars in upfront costs, specialized mounting hardware and professional electricians, this system is designed for the everyday consumer. It’s a $400 kit from Bright Saver, a non-profit advocating for “plug-and-play” solar that works for renters and homeowners alike. The setup is deceptively simple: you hang the panel on a balcony or prop it up in a back yard and plug it directly into a standard wall outlet. ...While these panels won’t take a home entirely off the grid, Stryker says the units can trim monthly costs by 10% to 25% depending on how many panels a user installs. More savings can be had if the panels are paired with batteries that can store excess solar energy. “They cover a part of your energy bill and then you do need to draw the rest from the grid as you do now,” Stryker said. While the technology is just gaining a foothold in the US, it is already a cultural p...

By Brad Plumer and Eric Niiler , The New York Times.  Excerpt: ...an international team of researchers published a major revision of the emissions scenarios used to study global warming. When scientists try to model how hot Earth could get this century, they typically look at a range of possibilities for how much planet-warming pollution humans might pump into the atmosphere. ...In this latest update, the researchers abandoned a dire — and often criticized — high-emissions scenario known as RCP8.5 that has been prominently cited in thousands of climate studies over the past decade. The authors said the scenario was now “implausible” given recent energy trends. ...The majority of climate scientists still say global warming is a serious problem, and that even more plausible, medium-emissions scenarios can carry grave dangers. But the new paper has raised questions about whether some of the risks of climate change have been poorly communicated or overstated in years past and how bes...

By Marta Zaraska , Knowable Magazine.  Excerpt: On  a blazing hot day in South Africa, female southern pied babblers can’t think straight. The medium-sized black-and-white birds are trying to get at tasty mealworms behind a see-through barrier. On cooler days, the birds can quickly figure out that all they have to do is go around the small wall of plastic. But when the mercury goes up, the birds just keep stubbornly pecking at the barrier. That experiment is part of a growing body of research showing that animals get their minds muddled during heat waves. When it’s hot outside, birds struggle to learn, dogs bite more often, goat-like chamois pick fights. ....If the animals can’t stay alert enough to find food or avoid predators, their chances of survival go downhill, says Amanda Ridley , a behavioral ecologist at the University of Western Australia who coauthored the pied babbler study....  Full article at https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/living-world/2026/hea...

By Corey S. Lesk & Justin S. Mankin , Science.  Summary: ...When scientists analyzed global precipitation records from 1980 to 2022, they found that annual rainfall in much of the world has become more concentrated , leading to more intense storms interspersed with longer dry spells. ...soil can only soak up so much water at once. What’s left collects on the surface, where it more readily evaporates, leaving less water available for ecosystems even if overall precipitation increases. “ Rainfall concentration is essentially asking the land to drink from a firehose ,” senior study author Justin Mankin said.... Using an economic tool typically used to measure wealth inequality, the researchers determined that the United States west of the Mississippi and South America’s Amazon River basin experienced particularly high levels of rain consolidation over the past 4 decades. In contrast, precipitation has become more distributed in the Arctic, Northern Europe, and Canada—changes that...

By Grace van Deelen , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: As the midpoint of the year approaches, several climate records have already been broken. Arctic winter sea ice extent reached a record low . Several countries saw record-breaking winter heat waves. And more than 150 million hectares have already burned globally in wildfires. The increasingly likely emergence of an El Niño this summer will likely continue the year’s record-breaking weather trends and could lead to “an unprecedented year of global fire,” according to a statement from World Weather Attribution , a climate research collaboration. ...El Niño typically temporarily boosts global temperatures. ...At a press briefing on 11 May hosted by World Weather Attribution, climate scientists outlined the potential risks of this emerging El Niño against the backdrop of human-caused climate change, including intensifying wildfire seasons, extreme heat waves, and worsening droughts....  Full article at https://eos.org/research-and-develop...