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Climate scientists sharpen tools for linking global warming to extreme weather

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By Julia Vaz , Science.  Excerpt: June’s European heat wave, in which temperatures above 40°C led to the deaths of more than 10,000 people, made headlines not just for its severity, but for what it said about climate change. Last week, a group called World Weather Attribution (WWA) linked it firmly to global warming, saying such a heat wave would have been “virtually impossible” 50 years ago. It was a high-profile claim from a field called extreme event attribution, which seeks to gauge how global warming impacted a particular heat wave, flood, or storm. The field is still evolving, according to a report released today by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). ...In the past decade, attribution science has advanced rapidly , with the annual number of studies more than doubling since 2012, according to the report. Better climate models, longer observational records, and more sophisticated statistical techniques have all improved researchers’ abiliti...
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As the Arctic warms, gray whale boom turns into a bust

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By Warren Cornwall , Science.  Excerpt: Whale CRC-2293 was once part of a celebrated revival, a member of a burgeoning population of gray whales ( Eschrichtius robustus ) in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The population, once depleted by commercial hunting to just a few thousand animals, had flourished following the 1980 moratorium on most whale hunts, to the point that it was deemed to no longer need protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. ...Since 2019, gray whales have been washing ashore in unusually high numbers as they migrate from Mexico, where they overwinter and give birth, some 8000 kilometers to their Arctic feeding grounds. The death toll slowed for several years. But in the past 2 years it has surged again toward record levels up and down the North American coast while overall populations have fallen to less than half their peak. Scientists are now predicting a sustained decline. The likely cause: ...“a fundamental regime shift in their feeding grounds in the Arc...
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In Gambia, Salt Water Intrusion Is the Leading Edge of Climate Change

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By Phred Dvorak , Inside Climate News.  Excerpt: The little nation of Gambia is on the front lines of a global struggle with salt, as a combination of climate change and human activities push ocean waters further inland, threatening ecosystems, aquifers and agriculture.  Most of the salt intrusion is taking place along coastlines and deltas, where rising sea levels send saline water flooding ashore, seeping underground and changing the chemistry of nearby land. Droughts increase salinity too, since there is less rainfall to dilute the salt or flush it out. Both phenomena are expected to worsen with global warming. ...In farming areas, the overuse of fertilizer can increase salt levels in soil as well....  Full article at https://insideclimatenews.org/news/12072026/gambia-sea-level-rise-agricultural-crisis/ . 
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Trump taps climate science denier to run US government’s flagship climate report

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By Dharna Noor , The Guardian.  Excerpt: The Trump administration has tapped a former geochemist who has railed against “climate alarmism” and calls himself an “Earth science professor-in-exile” to oversee the federal government’s flagship report about climate impacts on the US. Matthew Wielicki, who lacks formal training in climate science, will now lead the nation’s Global Change Research Program, which federal officials have gutted during Trump’s second term. In his new position, Wielicki will lead the National Climate Assessment, a congressionally mandated report detailing how Americans are affected by the climate crisis. ...The assessments are required to be produced every four years under legislation passed by Congress in 1990 , but last year, the Trump administration shut down the online portal to access the five editions published since 2000. Wielicki is a climate science denier who frequently criticizes established climate science online , including in videos by right...
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The Ocean Has a 'Fever.' These Are the Symptoms

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By Arden Dier , Newser.AI .  Excerpt: The massive marine heat wave, formed as a North Pacific hot spot merged with warming tied to a developing super El Niño along the equator, covers about 13.5% of Earth's surface, stretching from the Philippines to Peru and toward Hawaii and California...the Washington Post reports. Forecasters say the heat is already helping fuel Super Typhoon Bavi in the western Pacific and could help set up a strong heat dome over the western US in mid-July, heightening fire risks from Arizona to Colorado. As the ocean absorbs heat, the water expands, with implications for global sea levels. ...sea levels this winter could run 6 inches to 2 feet above normal—with storms pushing that surge to 2 to 3 feet higher, raising the odds of disruptive coastal flooding, the Post reports. ...Globally, marine heat waves now cover more than 37% of the ocean, triple the share seen in the late 1980s....  Full article at https://www.newser.com/story/392288/pacific-ocean...
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See How Europe’s Heat Waves Melted the Alps’ Glaciers

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By Raymond Zhong and Mira Rojanasakul , The New York Times.  Excerpt: The snowfall from last winter disappeared a month sooner than usual, after two early hot spells. Huge volumes of exposed ice are now starting to vanish....  Full article at https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/02/climate/europe-heat-waves-melting-glaciers.html . 
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EIA: Renewables just hit 30% of US electricity generation

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By Michelle Lewis , Elektrek.  Excerpt: Renewables accounted for 30.0% of total US electrical generation during the first third of 2026, up 2.2% year over year, according to new data recently released by the US Energy Information Administration ( EIA ), and reviewed by the SUN DAY Campaign....  Full article at https://electrek.co/2026/06/26/eia-renewables-30-percent-us-electricity-generation/ . 
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