By Dan Gearino , Inside Climate News.  Excerpt: Utility-scale solar leads by a mile, followed by batteries. Fossil fuels, not so much. ...368 utility-scale plants that began operation from January to June, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration . The group is dominated by utility-scale solar. This is a top-heavy list, led by SunZia Wind South and SunZia Wind North in New Mexico , which went online this spring and are the largest wind farms in the country, with a combined generating capacity of 3,650 megawatts. ...the story of power plant completions in the first half of 2026 was mainly about utility-scale solar and batteries. Utility-scale solar led in the number of projects coming online, with 207, followed by batteries, with 95. ...If we look at projects in terms of generating capacity, utility-scale solar led with 11,458 megawatts, followed by batteries, 8,207 megawatts, and then onshore wind, mostly because of the SunZia projects, with 5,473 megawatts...

By Raymond Zhong and Chico Harlan , The New York Times.  Excerpt: El Niño is the planet’s naturally recurring chaos agent, scrambling weather patterns, spiking global temperatures and typically reaching full strength by December. But this year’s El Niño, which is expected to be record-breaking, is already strong and having big effects, nudging up global temperatures and causing dry spells and crop failures on multiple continents. Parts of Panama, normally one of the wettest countries on Earth, haven’t had a major storm since early May. Ethiopia’s fertile highlands are enduring one of their driest summer stretches in four decades. And India had its fifth-driest June since the country’s modern rain records began in 1901. “This is a good sign that the El Niño response has really kicked in,” said Chris Funk, director of the Climate Hazards Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Dr. Funk termed it an “early onset El Niño.” ...Scientists are debating whether human-caused...

By Ryley Ober , The New York Times.  Excerpt: The first half of summer in Europe has featured a grueling series of heat waves and widespread wildfires, which have burned more than 1.3 million acres across the European Union. The Danube and Rhine rivers hit record lows caused by drought from the prolonged heat waves, upending river cruises and forcing operators to cancel or change itineraries with alternative bus transfers and hotel stays. ...Dozens of travelers told The New York Times that the sweltering season in Europe led them to reschedule travel dates, cancel tours of outdoor sites like the Roman Colosseum, leave trips early or plan future summer vacations to more temperate locations like Scandinavia or mountainous regions....  Full article at https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/12/travel/europe-travel-tourism-wildfires-heat-waves.html . 

By Chris Clements , KNAU News - Arizona Public Radio.  Excerpt: Western rivers like the San Juan and the Colorado are mostly fed by burbling mountain streams, which are themselves fed by groundwater and snowmelt. But a study published on June 5 says those tiny streams are in trouble. The study in the journal Earth's Future says the base amount of water in streams and rivers that doesn’t come from rain, also known as “base flow,” has been steadily declining since 1950, though that trend varies depending on the specific time period. ...The study...predicts that if climate warming continues, by the end of the century, headwater streams could have anywhere from 45% to 65% less base flow to sustain them. ...water levels in Lake Mead reach their lowest point ever . The Colorado River Basin has faced aridification for the last 26 years. Tiny, ephemeral streams like Flagstaff’s Rio de Flag give mighty rivers the juice to flow freely. But they depend on base flow to do that. ...[The Rio de...

By Erik Stokstad , Science.  Excerpt: In 2024, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) opened outlets at the base of the Colorado River’s mighty Glen Canyon Dam, unleashing gushers of water in an experiment meant to cool waters downstream. The strategy, called a “cool mix” release, aimed to thwart breeding of invasive smallmouth bass and protect native species. “It was very effective,” says Kevin Bestgen, a fish biologist at Colorado State University. So much so that the release was repeated in 2025. But with the Colorado’s reservoirs at historically low levels, there may be little political will to release water to protect ecosystems. On 6 August, USBR, which operates dams on the river, canceled this year’s cool mix release. In April, the agency had also nixed one of the periodic “controlled floods,” a much larger cascade intended to redistribute sediment and build sandbars that provide habitat for fish. ...The developments are the latest sign of trouble on the river system, which s...

By Ailie McWhinnie , Science.  Excerpt: Last month, France experienced one of the worst wildfires in its history. Just outside of Bordeaux, towering flames bulldozed through forest and shrubland, the intense heat and smoke forming a fire-fueled thundercloud called a pyrocumulonimbus that had never previously been recorded in the country. France is not alone. ...wildfires across Southern Europe has so far this year burned more than half a million hectares...far exceeding the area burned by August 2025, the worst year on record. ...wildfire experts say a greater emphasis on preventative measures is needed to stop this year’s disaster from becoming a regular occurrence. ...climate change has greatly increased the risk. Since the 1980s, the number of “fire weather” days —scorching, dry, breezy days—has more than doubled across much of the region, according to a paper published last month in Scientific Reports . ...it is vital to modify the land to cut back on the accumulation of fuel....