Talking Climate has been narrated by voice actor Anne Cloud from Voice Over for the Planet since spring 2025. Today, I am proud to introduce producer John Crowley from Loudmouth Studio to the team. Don’t forget to rate and subscribe!

Who wouldn’t want three hours of free electricity a day? Now, many residents of the Australian states of Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia have the opportunity to receive this under a government-backed program called Solar Sharer. (And, starting in October, residents of Victoria will be able to access a similar program called Midday Power Saver).

You don’t even need solar panels on your own roof to benefit! The free window runs from 11am to 2pm (noon to 3pm in South Australia) and will be capped at 24 kWh a day. (Sustainability nonprofit Renew estimates most households consume between 10 and 20 kWh a day.) You’ll need a smart meter to sign up, which most energy retailers will install for free if you don’t already have one.

The catch is that this plan will not automatically be the cheapest one overall, since retailers may charge more outside the free window to balance it out. Consumer advocates say the real savings come from actively shifting usage into that midday window—running the dishwasher, doing laundry, or charging an EV or batteries—rather than just signing up and hoping for the best.

“People who are able to move electricity use into the zero-cost power period will benefit directly, and the more people take up the offer and move their use, the greater the system benefits that lower costs for all electricity users will be,” said Australia’s Energy Minister Chris Bowen.

There are nearly 900 wildfires burning across Canada right now, and our air in southern Ontario was choked with smoke the last week...which then migrated southwards. Last Wednesday, Toronto’s air quality was ranked the worst among major cities in the world, and shortly afterwards, smoke from these fires swept across the Great Lakes region, Upper Midwest, and eastern United States. If you haven’t seen Copernicus ECMWF‘s stunning animation of wildfire smoke yet, you can find it here.

These fires are devastating, and they’re getting even worse as extreme heat dries out the trees and vegetation. One fire near Armstrong, Ontario surrounded a locomotive cab, but the crew escaped safely. About two dozen members of the nearby Namaygoosisagagun First Nation community escaped in boats just before their entire town burned to the ground. Three other First Nation communities in northern Ontario were also ordered to evacuate. Spain has just experienced its worst wildfire of the year, following June’s record-breaking heatwave.

Scientific studies—including some of my own research—have long warned that continued fossil fuel emissions will make future wildfire seasons increasingly severe: and these emissions are the number one factor driving global warming. Nearly 40% of the area burned across western U.S. and Canada has been attributed to emissions from just 88 fossil fuel companies. Yet a number of U.S. politicians including the president blamed Canada for the smoke: this, despite the fact that two of the top three companies are U.S.-based, and nationally U.S. cumulative carbon emissions are 12 times greater than Canadian emissions.

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Canada isn’t blameless either, though. Last month, Canada’s federal government moved forward on a planned pipeline that will carry one million barrels of oil a day from Alberta’s tar sands to the Pacific coast for export to Asia. A modelling analysis by an Alberta-based bank and energy research firm claims this pipeline could boost GDP by up to $31 billion per year over the next decade. Yet a new study by the Canadian Climate Institute / Institut climatique du Canada finds that wildfire smoke has already been costing Canadians an average of $23 billion per year in health costs alone over the last decade -- and that’s before counting insured losses or economic and trade impacts. That number is only going to rise. The math just doesn’t add up.

“Continuing to expand fossil fuel production when Canadians are already living with climate chaos is simply dangerous,” said Caroline Brouillette of Climate Action Network Canada. She urged the Canadian government to instead spend money on developing clean-energy projects that support workers and position the country for a world moving fast toward renewable energy rather than on another divisive, expensive pipeline.

This is why our voices and our votes matter. These choices are made by people we elect, who respond to pressure from every direction, including from us.

Wildfire smoke is one of the most dangerous types of air pollution there is. Thanks to the large particles it contains, it’s been shown to increase the risks of heart attacks, strokes, asthma attacks, and much more.

What can we do to keep ourselves and our families safe from wildfire smoke? That’s the question I’ve been asking myself this week. Here’s the advice I am following:

• Stay inside as much as possible.

• Keep the doors and windows closed (yes, even if you don’t have AC) and seal any gaps that air can come in through.

• Don’t do any intensive work or exercise outdoors if you can help it.

• If you do need to go outside, wear a mask that filters particulates, ideally an N95.

• Indoors, filter your air.

Air purifiers don’t have to be costly - as scientists at the University of Minnesota have shown, this handy DIY version performs as well as expensive units. You can also make sure you have a high-quality HEPA filter on your HVAC system or an air purifier, especially one that uses activated carbon to remove larger particles from wildfire smoke.

To ensure you’re prepared, monitor local air quality and keep track of fires that are close to you. You can check local air quality here for Canada, the US, the EU and Australia, and this map shows wildfire smoke forecasts across North America.

And finally, understand how much risk smoke poses to you personally and to those you care about. High-risk groups include children, older adults, pregnant women, and people with chronic health conditions such as respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, or diabetes. If this list includes anyone you know, check in with them this week and make sure they’re prepared too.

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People often assume that talking about climate change is controversial. But research keeps finding the opposite: most people support climate action—they just don’t realize most other people do too.

A landmark study in 2024 found that across 125 countries, people consistently under-estimated how much their fellow citizens cared. Why? Because hardly anyone is talking about it. And if you don’t talk about it, how would anyone know that you cared? Your friends, family, neighbours and colleagues are not mind readers!

That’s why it’s such great news that Japan’s news media is helping close that gap.

Inspired by Covering Climate Now’s 89 Percent Project, which in turn was inspired by the 2024 study above, news organizations across Japan are working together to remind people that 89% of Japanese people support stronger climate action. Through TV announcements and daily social media posts, the campaign is running through the end of the year, encouraging more people to start talking about climate change.

Japan is the world’s fourth-largest economy and fifth-largest emitter, and it’s already feeling the heat—2025 marked the hottest summer in the country’s recorded history, and climate change has measurably impacted everything from matcha to rice harvests, as I’ve talked about before. Yet like many world leaders, Japan’s government has been slow to act boldly on climate.

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This invisible-majority problem doesn’t just keep individuals quiet— a recent study found that it misleads leaders, too. When people stay silent, politicians assume that silence means indifference, and act accordingly. Japan’s news media is helping millions of people realize they’re not having that conversation alone. As you can guess from the title of my TedTalk, this is a huge step forward!

I’ve talked a lot the last few weeks about how climate change is making heat waves more frequent and more intense, and how that’s affecting people’s health. But it’s also revealing that infrastructure built for yesterday’s climate can’t handle today’s heat.

A heatwave that scorched much of the eastern United States over the Fourth of July weekend caused a stretch of the I-97 highway in Maryland to buckle. Blistering temperatures in Germany in late June led the concrete on part of the Autobahn near Berlin to actually burst. In Leipzig, the asphalt around tram tracks melted, forcing the tram to be closed.

As heat records keep falling, roads, railways, power plants, and electric grids are being pushed past the limits they were intended for. “In many ways, we’ve designed our infrastructures over decades, if not centuries, for temperatures that have been relatively milder,” engineering professor Mikhail Chester said last year. Roads and bridges were built to withstand a certain level of heat, and many are now experiencing temperatures beyond what engineers planned for.

The question isn’t whether we’ll pay for climate change—it’s whether we’ll pay before infrastructure fails or after. We must rebuild for the extremes we’re already living through. That’s why I spent ten years myself contributing as a researcher to the Infrastructure Climate Network and working with the U.S. Department of Transportation.

But there is good news! London is already beginning that work. Its new Heat Ready London plan offers a citywide blueprint, from retrofitting vulnerable buildings to expanding shade and preparing essential services for hotter conditions. That’s how we build cities ready for the climate ahead.

Want to learn more? This report from the UN Economic Commission for Europe explains more about the major risks transportation systems face in a warming world.

I’ve previously shared tips for staying safe outdoors during extreme heat—but recent heatwaves are a reminder that staying safe increasingly means thinking about whether our homes are ready for the climate of the future, not the climate of the past.

ClimateCheck has a comprehensive guide to making your home more resilient at all levels. Upgrades like adding insulation in your attic, under your floors, and behind your drywall can make a big difference. You can even encapsulate your crawl space (if you have one) or paint the exterior of your home with elastomeric paint, as increased heat and humidity can lead to more mold and mildew.

Improving your attic’s ventilation is another effective option, allowing excess heat to escape rather than build up inside your home. In some cases, installing a whole-house attic fan can further improve airflow and reduce the need for air conditioning. Some homeowners’ warranties will cover an HVAC system assessment and repair (holes can develop with regular wear and tear and are usually easy to patch).

And yes — do consider installing air conditioning if indoor temperatures get too high, or if wildfire smoke (like what’s affecting much of Ontario today) makes it unsafe to keep windows open. I understand air conditioning uses a lot of energy, but where I live in Texas, our electricity plan is 100% wind power, so it doesn’t have to come at a climate cost. And honestly, we couldn’t make it through the summer without it.

For generations, most people built homes to keep their families warm. Increasingly, we’ll need homes that can also keep us cool. If you have family and friends at risk, have this conversation with them today!

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In this episode of Cold Facts, Hot Takes, I’m responding to comments on my recent conversation with Dr. Andrea Hinwood, Chief Scientist for the United Nations Environment Programme. The replies range from familiar claims that climate change is a ho…

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For decades, the world’s coastal mangrove forests were disappearing, cleared to make way for fish farms, rice fields, and development.

Why do we care? Mangroves sequester carbon, buffer coastlines from storm surge (which is getting worse thanks to climate change), provide critical nursery habitat for fish, and filter pollutants from coastal waters.

Now, a new study found that since 2010, mangrove regrowth around the world has been outpacing losses. Forty years of satellite data from NASA’s Landsat program shows that the gains are driven by mangroves both expanding into new habitats and regenerating in places where they once grew. After decades of decline, the recovery has accelerated so sharply that earlier losses have nearly been erased.

Scientists call it a genuine global rebound, propelled by a combination of careful conservation work ( The Nature Conservancy Science does a lot of this!) and natural regrowth.

“What we’re seeing now is a real shift. Mangroves are now showing a net increase globally, and the rate of degradation is slowing,” said Dan Friess, a professor at Tulane University and director of The Mangrove Lab. “While some mangroves are still being lost, this could make them a rare conservation success story and an important source of optimism for climate action.”

This study is more proof that when we protect nature, it can recover.

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I often mention the costs of climate change to the global economy. But a new study makes the case that biodiversity loss, too, carries its own enormous price tag — one that financial markets have yet to reckon with.

The research conducted by a team of UK economists found that the partial collapse of the “ecosystem services” of tropical timber, wild pollination, and marine fisheries could dramatically increase the cost of borrowing for 23 nations representing 5.5 billion people. In this scenario, India’s annual debt servicing costs could rise by $49 billion and China’s by $70 billion. Across all countries studied, additional interest payments could reach $162 billion every year. Angola, Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Madagascar could see GDP losses exceeding 15% by 2030.

And yet today’s credit rating models don’t account for any of this. The risk is already there but markets just haven’t priced it in yet. That means $83 trillion in financial assets may be mis-priced.

The study’s lead author, Professor Matthew Agarwala of the University of Sussex, didn’t mince words about what’s at stake:

“It’s not just financiers who will lose out. As nature loss reduces economic performance, it will become harder for countries to service their debt, straining government budgets and forcing them to raise taxes, cut spending, or push inflation even higher,” he said. “The consequences could be grim. Governments face a stark choice—pay now, by investing in nature recovery, or pay later through higher borrowing costs.”

When nature stops functioning, economies stop functioning. The two are inextricably intertwined.

If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, we’re already well into a hot summer. Last week I talked about the heatwave in the EU and southern UK. This week, it was eastern North America’s turn. How unusual are the temperatures we’re experiencing during these heatwaves?

Reuters just launched Climate Monitor, an interactive globe showing how much hotter (or colder) today’s temperature is compared to what was typical on that date between 1961 and 1990. I spent a few minutes on the site this weekend. Where I live in Dallas: 4.7 degrees Fahrenheit (that’s 2.6C) above normal this past week. Toronto, Ontario, my hometown: 19.6F or 11C degrees above normal. 11C above normal is incredible to me, and in case you didn’t know, Toronto’s one of the World Cup cities with an outdoor stadium! That stopped me in my tracks.

Last week, Philadelphia cancelled their 250 year celebration parade as the heat index soared to 118F on July 3, and in DC, temperatures 22F above normal led to the daytime closing of the Great American Fair on the Mall and the cancellation of the July 4th parade.

This week, take just a minute and look up your city. Look up where your parents live, where your kids go to camp, or somewhere currently experiencing a heat emergency. And don’t stop there. Talk about it! Share what you find out — not as a lecture, but as a conversation starter: “Did you know it’s 6 degrees warmer than normal here right now? I just found this tool that shows you in real time.”

Abstract statistics about global average temperatures are easy to dismiss. But when someone sees that their hometown is running 8 degrees hotter than usual, or that the town where their grandchildren live is having its warmest July on record, it hits differently. Climate change stops being a headline and feels personal.

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This week, it’s North America’s turn. A record-breaking heat dome is already sweeping across the eastern half of the continent - just in time for the July 1st and July 4th holiday weekends in Canada and the U.S., and with many World Cup host cities right in its path. Heat index values as high as 115F (over 46C) are forecast for locations as far north as New York State.

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Next month, Talking Climate’s guest editors will bring this even closer to home: Imani Dorsey Kunzweiler and Jasmyne Spencer , ex-pro U.S. soccer players and EcoAthletes Champions, will share what climate change looks like from the pitch.

As always, though, let’s start with the good news.

People inside the football world are speaking up about climate change: and they’re not just asking for recycling bins at stadiums.

Fossil Free Football is pushing the sport to reckon with the climate consequences of fossil fuel sponsorships and the growing risks climate change poses to the game itself. I was so honoured when founder Frank Huisingh told me he started the organization after reading my book, Saving Us, that emphasizes the importance of using our voices to catalyze change.

And Frank isn’t alone. Football For Future connects the sport with climate action, working with players and public figures to raise awareness and use their platforms for change. And Football for Climate Justice equips clubs across Europe to turn climate action into something tangible for fans and communities. Their tool-kits come in six languages and cover everything from cutting stadium emissions to supporting local energy projects and green jobs. They say: “We believe football can do more than raise spirits — it can raise standards of living too.”

Sport cuts across political and cultural lines. When voices inside football speak honestly about climate risk, studies show that fans are receptive.

Across the UK, Europe, and eastern North America, we are currently witnessing what climate change looks like in real time, and the human cost is already devastating. Early estimates by climate scientist Christopher Callahan suggest that over 20,000 people have died in the EU heatwave, including more than 55 who drowned in France last week, taking to rivers and lakes to escape the heat. And one of those was a professional football player himself: a reminder that extreme heat isn’t just a backdrop to the World Cup. It’s already claiming lives.

At this year’s World Cup, FIFA introduced hydration breaks: but players, coaches, and researchers say the protections don’t go far enough. And in a move that drew sharp criticism, FIFA banned fans from bringing reusable water bottles into stadiums, even as organizers promised (but have not consistently delivered) misting stations and hydration points. As physician Lisa Patel, MD, MESc shares in her viral video, the stadium her family was in quickly ran out of water for fans - and that was before the heat wave hit this week.

Climate scientists at World Weather Attribution found that daytime temperatures in 2026 are already 2°C (3.6°F) hotter than during the deadly 2003 European heatwave, with nighttime temperatures 1.3°C (2.3°F) higher. Climate scientists Ed Hawkins —who created the warming stripes I wrote about last week—and Hayley Fowler FRS showed that temperatures like this week’s would have been virtually impossible during the UK’s previous record-setting heatwave of 1976.

We know the 2003 heatwave killed more than 70,000 people across Europe. This one is already hotter, and there is no question that burning fossil fuels made this worse.

First, take the risk seriously. Extreme heat kills nearly half a million people globally every year. Even if you’ve lived in the same place your whole life, the heat you’re experiencing now may not be the heat your body—or your city—was built for.

If you can, avoid spending time outside during peak heat. Drink water before you feel thirsty, take breaks in shade or indoors, and know the warning signs of heat illness: dizziness, nausea, confusion, a pounding headache. If you or someone near you feels them, stop and cool down immediately.

Young children, older adults, pregnant people, and those with chronic medical conditions are at greatest risk. Check on anyone you know who might be vulnerable, and make sure they have a cool place to be. For more, read this past edition of Talking Climate on how to stay safe in extreme heat.

And then: talk about it.

A new study just found that when people learn an extreme weather event was made worse by climate change, they’re significantly more likely to support climate action.

So when someone asks why this summer has been so brutal, you don’t have to be a climate scientist to answer. You can tell them: this is what burning fossil fuels does to our weather. It makes heat more extreme. And it’s going to keep doing so until we act.

That conversation is one of the most important things you can do.

TALK ABOUT IT!

Coal built the Industrial Revolution - now wind and solar are beating it.

The UK, the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, turned off its last coal-fired power plant in 2024 and now gets nearly half its power from sun and wind. China, long seen as the poster child for coal, now installs more wind and solar power annually than the rest of the world combined, and is hitting its renewable energy targets well ahead of schedule.

Now, the U.S. is getting in on the solar race. There’s already more solar than coal on the Texas grid, and for the first time on record last month, solar generated more electricity than coal across the whole U.S.—12.8% versus 12.2%. This is a huge flip from just five years ago, when coal-generated power outweighed solar by a factor of three.

The forces driving this transition aren’t political. In fact, the U.S. government has been actively trying to hold back renewables: that’s what makes this trend so remarkable. It’s happening despite active federal policy opposition, including the government paying multiple U.S. and French companies to give up their offshore wind leases - to the tune of over 2.5 billion dollars as of this month.

Solar is now the cheapest source of electricity in history, and the market knows it. In 2025, a new solar project was installed every 59 seconds in the U.S. alone. At this point, trying to hold back the clean energy revolution seems as futile as doubling down on horses and buggies when cars are not only available, but cheaper.

(NOTE: When you share this information widely, you’re guaranteed to get someone who says, “but what happens at night when the sun doesn’t shine?” Send them last week’s edition on battery storage and this one about Finland’s giant sand battery!)

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A “super” El Niño is brewing this year. What is it, and why does it matter?

El Niño is named for the Christ child, as it’s characterized by unusually warm ocean temperatures off the coast of Peru that often first emerge around Christmas time. By spring, a long tongue of warm sea surface temperature stretches all the way across the Pacific to Australia - as you can see here.

The threshold for an El Niño is when ocean temperatures in this region hit 0.5C warmer than average … but this year, they’re already at 1C and climbing fast. On June 11, NOAA confirmed that El Niño conditions have developed, putting the overall chance of it reaching ”very strong” or super intensity at 63 percent. The peak is expected at the end of this calendar year.

El Niño matters because impacts temperature and rainfall patterns around the world. This in turn exacerbates climate extremes: heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, floods, and more. Past El Niño events have been associated with massive wildfires in Australia, floods in East Africa, record-breaking coral bleaching events across the Pacific, and hefty price spikes in food around the world, as so many agricultural regions are hit with abnormal climate conditions at the same time.

The impacts don’t stop there, though. Economic losses -- which can impact everything from marine fisheries to global supply chains -- have in turn have been shown to increase risk of civil conflict, with one study estimating that even a regular El Niño doubles the probability of new civil conflicts arising throughout the tropics.

A “super” El Niño has only happened three times since 1980: in 1982-83, 1997-98, and 2015-16. The 1982 El Niño was dubbed “perhaps the worst in recorded history,” causing up to 2,000 deaths and triggering droughts and wildfires in Africa, Australia and Indonesia while dumping record rainfall on Peru. A 2023 study put the global economic toll from that El Niño event at $4.1 trillion.

Will this one be worse? Almost certainly. That’s because it’s is occurring over a background of a rapidly changing climate–which makes everything that much worse. It’s like getting food poisoning when you were already running a fever from COVID. “The current forecasts imply this could be the costliest El Niño on record,” says Justin Mankin, a Dartmouth geography professor. UN Secretary-General António Guterres minced no words, warning that “El Niño conditions will pour fuel on the fire of a warming world. Impacts will hit even harder, travel even farther, and cross borders with devastating speed.”

For a deeper dive, I recommend climate scientist Daniel Swain’s blog post and recent livestream Q&A.

This past Saturday June 20 was #ShowYourStripes day. What stripes, you ask? Your warming stripes, of course!

Created by climate scientist Ed Hawkins from the University of Reading, the warming stripes show how a place’s temperature has changed over time. Each stripe represents a year. A cooler-than-average year is blue; an average year is white; a warmer-than-average year is pink; and you can guess what red means.

Last year, the Warming Stripes were on display at MOMA as part of the exhibition “Pirouette: Turning Points in Design” alongside the first Mac computer, and Shigetaka Kurita’s original Emoji designs. (Ed even appeared on a MOMA podcast talking about creating the visualization.) This year, the UK’s National Trust projected them onto St Michael’s Tower on Glastonbury Tor, with the message “Start a conversation about our warming world”!

Want to find the warming stripes for the place where you live? Visit Ed’s website Show Your Stripes to see how any place in the world has warmed. Then, once you’ve found your stripes, share them on social media… or you can even wear them! I have a dress and a woolly scarf and a cotton scarf in the warming stripes, and you can get them in everything from flip flops to bathing suits and there is even an Australian organization named Common Grace that has a “knit for climate change” program.

However you choose to show your stripes, use them to start a conversation today: about how the world has changed since we were born, and how our future is in our hands.

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Nathan from Oregon, another self-identified balcony solar enthusiast, wrote in with a caution. An electrician and electrical code expert, he emphasized there are still important safety concerns. While new safety standards are in development, plug-in solar cannot be safely connected to electrical systems built to current U.S. standards until certified bi-directional protective devices become available.

Meanwhile, there is encouraging news from the UK, where regulators have just this week concluded that plug-in solar systems can be used safely there. Balcony solar panels are expected to go on sale in the UK within months, with systems ranging from a few hundred to a couple of thousand pounds.

It’s encouraging to see serious thought and progress on how to not only decarbonise our energy systems but make them more affordable and equitable, as well.

The world hit a major milestone in 2025: 112 gigawatts of new grid battery storage installed across the planet. This represents almost 50 percent growth from 2024, and a tenfold increase from 2021. Half of that capacity was installed in China, and 16 percent in the United States. This year, the world is projected to install even more, 158 gigawatts.

How does grid battery storage work? When the sun is blazing or the wind is blowing, and solar panels or wind turbines are producing more power than we can use, storage banks that electricity instead of wasting it. Then, when we need it most—on a hot evening when everyone gets home and cranks up the AC—it’s right there, ready to go.

Batteries make the grid more reliable and help push energy costs lower. They also replace gas-powered “peaking” plants that would otherwise be flipped on to generate electricity when it’s needed most.

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On a per capita basis, though, there’s one country far out in the lead – and it’s not China nor the U.S. It’s Australia! There, “more big battery power has been injected into the grid on a per-capita basis over the past two years than in any other country on the planet,” the Financial Review reports. And individuals are buying in, too. Already, one in every 25 homes in Australia has their own residential storage battery.

Not only that -- starting July 1, New South Wales and Queensland homes with smart meters will get three hours of free power each afternoon. As this Conversation article explains, it’s a bid to shift electricity demand to when it’s most available, and households that are more electrified (with heat pumps, induction stoves, plug-in cars, and other electrical rather than gas-powered appliances) will benefit most.

Times of India journalist and Talking Climate reader Achintyarup Ray wrote in to share his story about the disappearance of several islands in the Hooghly estuary in West Bengal. This is a long, narrow eastern Indian state that borders Bangladesh.

Ray’s story details how the government’s river training project increased erosion of two inhabited islands in Hooghly estuary. Yet a wall that would have protected these three islands from rising seas was proposed in 1981 but never built. Two of the three islands—Lohachara and Bedford—have already become uninhabitable due to a combination of erosion and rising sea levels, and a third island, Ghoramara, has lost 50 percent of its land mass to date and continues to lose 36 metres of shoreline a year.

“The people of Lohachara were among the world’s first climate refugees,“ Ray wrote to me. “The documents establish that this was not purely a natural process — it was shaped by institutional decisions made over decades, followed by institutional denial... Here is a case where something could have been done — the engineers knew, the scientists warned, a wall was designed — and the decision was made not to act.”

Rising sea levels are not the only climate risk India faces. The country is exceptionally vulnerable to dangerous heat exposure. “We estimate that a single day of extreme heat causes approximately 3,400 excess deaths nationally; a five-day heatwave causes nearly 30,000,” the authors of a new study found. They also estimated district-level excess heat deaths, concluding that “Uttar Pradesh alone accounts for approximately 8,100 excess deaths during a five-day heatwave, and districts such as Ahmedabad, Jaipur, and Surat each exceed 250 excess deaths in a single event.”

These findings highlight critical gaps in how societies protect people from climate impacts, and how – once again – they tend to fall disproportionately on those who have done the least to cause the problem in the first place.

Last week, guest editor Jon Foley from Project Drawdown talked about the importance of making smarter investments to build a more sustainable future. While most of us aren’t deciding where billions of dollars get invested, we do make decisions every day about where our own money goes.

If you’re curious where to start, take a look at what you already own. Many people have no idea whether their retirement accounts, mutual funds, or ETFs are invested in fossil fuel companies, clean energy technologies, or something in between.

Thankfully, there are free tools that can help. Fossil Free Funds US and Fossil Free Funds in Canada both give funds a “fossil fuel grade” of A through F. In the UK, Ethical Consumer has ranked over 100 funds based on their sustainability, and Australia’s Market Forces offers a similar analysis. Then, once you have an idea of what grade your portfolio gets, you can take action. Invest Your Values has put together a handy guide as to what form that action can take, depending on who is in control of how your retirement portfolio is invested.

We invest for retirement because we hope for a secure future for ourselves and our families. There’s something powerful about knowing those same investments may also help build a healthier future for us all, don’t you think?

In this episode of Cold Facts, Hot Takes, I'm responding to some of the internet's favorite claims about so-called "green scams," from accusations that climate scientists are…

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Jon is a climate scientist, sustainability expert, science communicator, and executive director of Project Drawdown, the world’s leading resource for climate solutions. The work Jon and his team do at Project Drawdown is so valuable that I recommend it to someone at least once every single week.

They have an exhaustive library of the many ways we can fix climate change while also rebuilding and restoring nature and investing in people’s health. In fact, if you’re looking for detailed information about climate solutions, Project Drawdown should be your first stop!

Take it away, Jon.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the role the world’s food system plays in climate change, and how we can fix it. Most people are surprised to learn that food, agriculture, and land use contribute a whopping 22 to 33 percent of our greenhouse gas emissions – and that share is still growing! [👋 KH here—that includes agriculture-related fossil fuel emissions]

Nothing else humans do comes close to the sheer geographic size of the global food system. Together, croplands and grazing lands cover 38 percent of the Earth’s land surface. To put this in perspective, all the world’s cities and suburbs cover less than 1 percent of Earth’s land.

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So, we can’t fully address climate change unless we deal with this crucial sector. But solutions to the problem are abundant! We can curb food waste, shift our diets, protect rainforests from being cleared, farm better, and clean up the rest of the food system. We can also remove carbon by “rewilding” lands currently used for agriculture today, and practicing “regenerative agriculture” on our working lands.

For more, watch my latest TED talk, which focuses on food and climate solutions.

Clearly, this is a challenging time in the climate community. Political leadership on climate, particularly in the United States, is falling backward. Corporate leadership is stalling in many areas. And even media coverage focused on climate is rolling backward, as Katharine described in this newsletter just last week.

But there are some areas where we are making progress – particularly thanks to better climate solutions hitting the market. Solar PVs, wind power, heat pumps, EVs, batteries, LED lighting systems are getting cheaper, faster, and better all the time. That means they can beat fossil fuels in the open market. And, for the first time, they are!

Thanks to these forces, we are (finally!) starting to invest in climate solutions, which is great news. In fact, they are helping to drive down emissions in many advanced economies, starting with the electricity sector.

But sadly, we aren’t always putting our money in the best possible places or using the most effective solutions. Too often, we follow fads, profits, or political payback – not carbon – when investing in climate solutions.

We need to do much better with our limited time and money and ensure we make the best possible use of our resources. We can find solutions that are effective, large, inexpensive, and fast. We can also find solutions that offer other benefits to humanity – including clean air, improved health, and greater equity and well-being.

In this TED Talk, I describe a way forward. This framework asks how we can do a better job at climate investing and how science can guide the deployment of resources to the best solutions and strategies.

When it comes to taking personal actions on climate change, I’m a huge fan. I’ve been working to reduce my personal emissions – on and off – since the late 1990s. [KH again– Jon was the first scientific colleague I ever heard of, over three decades ago, who set a goal to cut his personal emissions by 50%– a huge inspiration for our community!]

I think shrinking your own carbon footprint is a great way to make a (small) difference, and talking about these changes is a wonderful way to engage and inspire many others to act themselves!

Each individual action we take can create unseen ripples that influence the larger systems of which we are a part – and we will need systemic change to ultimately solve this problem. When you switch to an electric vehicle or install solar panels, you reduce your own carbon footprint while also encouraging those around you to make similar choices. This also signals to politicians and the market that what’s good for the planet is also good for their politics or their bottom line.

We each have the power to do more — as consumers, citizens, employees, and members of our communities. In terms of what others can do, find your own paths and not just look at a “top 10” list. The “best” choice for you depends on who you are, how you live, and what you are willing and able to do. This article helps you look at how you eat, how you power and heat and cool your home, and how you travel, and recommends some tweaks you can make in your own life.

To help guide people to their own climate actions, I want to showcase the new SHIFT platform, co-produced by Professor Kim Nicholas and Project Drawdown, which helps people find their own climate “superpowers” – as consumers, voters, investors, and more.

SHIFT meets you where you are — your country, your lifestyle, your circumstances — and offers concrete, science-based actions that actually fit your life. [KH– including how to use your voice to drive change! To learn more about this fantastic tool, check out this past edition of Talking Climate.]

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Thank you, Jon, for reminding us that while climate change is a complex challenge, we already have so many of the solutions we need. Often, what’s missing is just the will to change, which in turn is fueled by knowing that what we do can make a difference.

If you’re looking for more inspiration, Drawdown has fantastic resources for everyone working on climate. Whether you’re a teacher looking for free, engaging videos through Drawdown Learn, a policy wonk who wants to sift through the latest data on countless climate solutions on Drawdown Explorer, or someone who just needs a reminder that hopeful, real-world climate action is already happening, that’s what Drawdown Stories is for.

You can find Jon on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Bluesky. Learn more about Project Drawdown by visiting drawdown.org. You can also sign up for their newsletter and follow them on social media @ProjectDrawdown. Whether you’re looking for the latest research, practical climate solutions, inspiring stories, or tools like SHIFT to help you find your own climate superpowers, it’s one of the best resources I know.

Last but not least, don’t miss the upcoming webinar Jon and I are doing together next week: “Where Does Climate Action Go From Here?” on Tuesday, June 16 at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Tues June 16 at 2pm ET - Where Does Climate Action Go From Here? With Project Drawdown - webinar

Wed June 17 at 5:30pm BST - The Financial Times Climate & Impact Summit - virtual presentation to an in-person event in London; prices vary

Her answers reminded me that some of the most encouraging climate progress we’ve ever seen is happening at the same time as some of the biggest risks we…

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Papua New Guinea just announced the largest marine protected area in its history: a nearly UK-sized stretch of ocean in the Bismarck Sea that will be fully protected from fishing and other destructive activities.

The new sanctuary, known as the Western Manus Marine Protected Area, will safeguard one of the most biodiverse marine regions on Earth while helping the country move toward its goal of protecting 30% of its waters by 2030. It also supports ocean resilience, as climate changes and ocean waters become more acidic.

The region sits within the Coral Triangle, often called the global epicenter of marine biodiversity. It’s described as a “marine highway,” where underwater mountains, ridges, and canyons connect coral reefs, deep-sea ecosystems, and open ocean habitats. The sanctuary will protect endangered reef sharks, dolphins, whales, manta rays, seabirds, and many other species.

Recent expeditions have documented deep-sea creatures never before recorded in Papua New Guinea’s waters, like the yokozuna slickhead. And if you haven’t heard of the amazing ways scientists can now sample ocean water to detect the DNA of both known and unknown species – known as eDNA - check out this article from the Smithsonian. It almost seems like science fiction!

What makes this news especially encouraging is that the protection effort was designed around both nature and community needs. Research from other large marine reserves suggests that healthy protected ecosystems can actually increase nearby fish populations through “spillover,” replenishing fisheries outside reserve boundaries. Leaders in Papua New Guinea framed the sanctuary not just as environmental policy, but as an effort to protect food security, local livelihoods, and what one official called their “blue heritage” for future generations.

That’s at least four wins, by my count.

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Last week, I covered NPR’s Climate Solutions Week—one of my favorite weeks of the year. This week, I have a sad update. NPR chief climate editor Neela Banerjee announced that she had been laid off, and that the network’s climate desk would no longer exist as a separate team. The cuts are part of a larger round of 10 NPR journalists laid off and at least 18 more taking buyouts after Congress clawed back $1.1 billion in public media funding.

If this feels familiar, it’s because we’ve seen it before. Over the past year, CBS News gutted its own climate unit, laying off most of the team, including its head, Tracy Wholf in January and its last climate reporter, David Schechter (who did this amazing episode of Verify with me, six years ago) in April. In the last few months, climate reporters left the LA Times and left NBC.

One by one, the newsrooms built to connect climate change to everyday life are being dismantled. Like NPR’s desk, that CBS team didn’t just report the news; it trained local stations across the country to cover climate in their own communities. This is bad news not just for journalism, but for all of us.

Most people are worried about climate change, but less than half understand how it will affect them. Bridging that head-to-heart gap (what researchers call “psychological distance”) is absolutely key to turning concern into action.

For years, that’s exactly what NPR’s climate journalists did—helping local stations connect the science to the lived experience of the communities they serve, showing how a warming world is reshaping daily life in ways that feel immediate and personal, not distant or abstract.

The climate crisis doesn’t get smaller when we stop covering it. It just gets easier to ignore.

Want to switch to solar—but don’t own a home or can’t afford a major rooftop installation?

Consider joining the growing number of people experimenting with “balcony solar”: small plug-in solar panels designed for apartments, condos, balconies, and other small outdoor spaces. In parts of Europe, these systems have become so common that they’re treated less like major infrastructure projects and more like household appliances. Some consumers can even buy plug-in solar kits from IKEA.

Balcony systems will not power an entire home; but they can help lower electricity bills while giving renters and apartment residents a way to participate directly in the clean energy transition. Some systems can be installed in minutes and cost far less than traditional rooftop solar.

Whether balcony solar is allowed depends heavily on where you live. Germany and Belgium adjusted regulations to make plug-in systems easier to use, while many places in North America still have unclear rules or building restrictions that make adoption difficult. Researchers and advocates say outdated regulations are one of the biggest barriers slowing the technology’s growth.

So my “what you can do” this week is two-fold:

If balcony solar is available where you live, consider looking into it for yourself or sharing the idea with someone who rents or lives in an apartment and assumes solar is out of reach.

But if you live in an area where regulations are a barrier, use your voice to call for change. Regulations around home energy systems are shaped by local governments, local power companies, and local building rules—which means public pressure can help open the door to wider access.

As past guest editors Brigid Shea and both emphasized, change often starts close to home. Paying attention to local elections and speaking up at public meetings can help push clean technologies from niche experiments toward more widely accessible options.

Thanks to at for sharing this story!

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TODAY June 4 at 11am EDT - What We Don’t Know, and Why It Matters, a plenary presentation to the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (CMOS) 60th Congress -- which is being held 100% online this year!

Tues June 16 at 2pm ET - Where Does Climate Action Go From Here? With Project Drawdown - webinar

Wed June 17 at 5:30pm BST - The Financial Times Climate & Impact Summit - virtual presentation to an in-person event in London; prices vary

Last week was my favourite NPR time of year: their fourth annual Climate Solutions Week! Given the wholesale dismantling of climate action at the national scale in the U.S., this year they’re focusing on climate solutions at the regional, state, city, and even neighborhood level. And the stories are so good, I can’t pick just one.

So here’s a few highlights:

This dispatch from Montana describes how some tribes are creating their own climate plans that incorporate Traditional Ecological Knowledge. The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ plan focuses on reducing wildfire risk. Michael Durglo, the tribes’ climate change coordinator, has installed air quality sensors across the reservation. He’s also leading training sessions teaching people to build their own air filters to help during wildfire season.

This story from Utah details how a coalition of cities and towns in the conservative state are leading a push to transition to renewable energy. Today, three-quarters of Utah’s electricity comes from coal and natural gas. “The fact that our efforts here have been happening over the course of multiple federal administrations,” said Emily Quinton, sustainability director of Summit County, “shows that at the local level, you can continue to move on climate strategies regardless of the federal winds.”

Meanwhile, Denver CO has an ambitious plan to heat and cool its buildings downtown with geothermal energy, some of which will come from the warmth put out by treated wastewater. And Portland OR‘s had a billion-dollar climate fund since 2019, which residents created by passing a 1% sales tax on large corporations operating in the city limits. Since then, proceeds have built a community solar project, given out more than 20,000 free AC units to low-income families, and paid for energy retrofits of more than 3,000 homes.

You can find the full set of climate solution stories here, and I encourage you to listen to each and every one. We already have so many more solutions than most people realize: and when we see what others are doing, it gives us ideas for what to advocate for, where we live!

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A new generation of climate scenarios is out, and it narrows the range of projected warming by 2100 compared to previous scenarios. Why? Because we’re now in the year 2026, and our past actions have now closed a number of doors.

Although the update reflects a sobering reality, there is some good news. The higher end of the scenarios -- which the world had been tracking with as recently as 2015, when the Paris Agreement was signed -- is now a bit lower, thanks to all the climate action that’s happened over the last decades. So don’t fall for the disinformation and hype that claims the higher scenario was alarmist and false. Back in 2005, it was very possible: and it served its purpose, warning us about what would happen if we continued on our current pathway.

Thankfully, enough people, countries, and organizations listened and took action to avert it. Instead of the virtually catastrophic 4-5C (7-9F) warming by 2100 that we used to be on track for, the world is now headed towards a lower but still dangerous 2.6C (4.7F) warming, thanks to all the climate policies and clean energy expansion of the last decade. That is a success to celebrate.

The bad news, however, is that the lower end of the scenarios is now higher, too. Specifically, thanks to insufficient emissions reductions over the last decade, limiting warming below 1.5C without an overshoot is no longer plausible. It is now virtually certain the world will exceed that threshold and the only question that remains is whether that overshoot will be permanent, or temporary -- in other words, will we be able to pull enough carbon out of the atmosphere to cool the planet back down, even if we deploy all the best nature-based solutions we have? The answer to that question is up to us.

The new scenarios, developed as part of the next major international climate modeling project known as CMIP7, are intended to guide global climate research for years to come. Our most likely future today may not be as catastrophic as the one we were heading to before the Paris Agreement. However, it’s also well beyond the safer limits set by that agreement. 1.5C isn’t a magic threshold: but what science says is that every fraction of a degree of warming matters. Additional warming intensifies heat waves, flooding, drought, freshwater scarcity, sea level rise, and many other impacts.

That’s why the most important message these new scenarios have for us is this: our future is in our hands and every choice matters.

Summer is often a time when we travel; and flying remains one of the most carbon-intensive parts of modern life, especially on short trips where takeoff and landing consume the most fuel.

If you are flying this summer, small choices can help reduce your impact. (But you know what else I’m going to say - make sure you share what you know with others, to scale larger change!)

Two of my favourite solution scientists, Kimberly Nicholas and Jonathan Foley , were recently asked whether packing lighter helps cut emissions. Honestly, that doesn’t have a big impact, they found: but choosing nonstop flights and flying economy definitely helps. Travelling by car with others or taking the train if that’s an option can reduce emissions even further.

Sometimes, though, the most meaningful shift is simply slowing down. Staying longer in one place, exploring destinations closer to home, or choosing fewer trips with deeper experiences can reduce emissions while making travel feel less rushed and more memorable.

Whatever you choose: think about it, give it a try, and let others know what you did!

Thurs June 4 at 11am EDT - What We Don’t Know, and Why It Matters, a plenary presentation to the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (CMOS) 60th Congress -- which is being held 100% online this year!

Wed June 17 6 at 5:30pm BST - The Financial Times Climate & Impact Summit - virtual presentation to an in-person event in London; prices vary

What if we thought about what homes should look like hundreds of years from now, before we built them?

That’s the question behind Watercolour, a walkable community of net-zero and net-zero-ready homes in Westport, Ontario, recently featured by David Dodge in Green Energy Futures. Its founder, Steve Rolston of Land Ark Homes, describes the vision as “Watercolour life”: a village at the base of a mountain (at least, what we call a mountain in southeastern Ontario!), surrounded by lakes, where people can walk through the community and live close to the landscape around them.

Watercolour is not only designed to feel like a better place to live—it is designed to function like one. Net-zero homes are built to produce as much energy as they use over the course of a year from day one. Net-zero-ready homes are built to the same high-efficiency standard, so they can become net-zero once renewable energy is added.

These homes show what it looks like to make climate solutions part of the structure itself. Since Westport does not have natural gas, Rolston says the team could have buried propane tanks, but that felt like “going back to the dark ages.” Instead, they turned to all-electric homes powered by modern technology, including cold-climate heat pumps that can handle Canadian winters.

Inside, the homes are built to waste as little energy as possible. One of the coolest features is an energy recovery ventilator, which brings in fresh, double-filtered air while recovering up to 80 percent of the heat from the outgoing air. The show home also includes a whole-home battery backup, so when the power goes out, the lights do not even flicker.

What makes Watercolour so compelling is that it brings together climate action, health, and quality of life. The homes are comfortable and efficient, the streets are designed for walking, and the surrounding trails and green spaces are preserved for everyone to enjoy—I’ve lost count of how many wins that is! If I lived nearby, I’d be moving there myself.

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Climate disasters are making already dangerous prison and jail conditions even worse.

A new Duke University School of Medicine study examined how climate disasters affect people who are incarcerated. Researchers interviewed 18 people in Houston, Texas, a region repeatedly hit by extreme flooding, heat, and hurricanes, and found that most had lived through at least one disaster while behind bars.

Participants described being crowded into small cells and left without basic necessities during storms. Some went days without drinking water or working toilets. Others lost contact with their families when the power failed and phones stopped working. Extreme heat made already dangerous conditions even more severe, especially in facilities with poor temperature control.

The study found that these risks often continued after release. Many participants struggled to find stable housing and reliable income, leaving them with fewer resources to evacuate or recover when the next disaster struck.

As the authors write, hurricanes and other disasters impose additional trauma on people already living in stressful and unpredictable environments. The findings are a stark reminder that climate change does not affect everyone equally, and that emergency planning must include those whose safety depends almost entirely on institutions that may not be prepared to protect them.

The new Watercolour community is an example of how climate solutions can be woven into the places we call home. But sometimes it is hard to picture what that future might look like until you experience it for yourself.

That is the idea behind Urban Future Walks, a free public experience created by my fellow climate scientist Simon Donner and graduate student Yunfei Li at the University of British Columbia. Participants are guided through real neighborhoods and invited to see how sustainability shows up in the design of buildings, streets, and public spaces.

Even if you don’t live in Vancouver, the concept is one anyone can try. Take a walk through your own neighborhood and ask yourself: What makes this place feel livable? Where could more trees, sidewalks, energy-efficient buildings, or public spaces improve daily life? I often ask my students to do this as one of their class assignments and they always report on being surprised by everything they noticed when they looked around with these questions in mind, even in a place as familiar as their own neighbourhood.

Climate solutions become much more tangible when we can see them around us. And once we can imagine a better future, it becomes easier to build one. So this week, why not go on a ‘climate walk’ in your city and invite a few friends along.

Compare notes and, if you have some ideas, check out what your city is already doing about climate action and consider sending them a note! Using your voice is a powerful way to help catalyze local change.

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TONIGHT Tues May 19 at 7pm ET BST - Talking Climate in the Age of Disinformation! Action Party with Climate Action Now; online, free

Wed June 17 6 at 5:30pm BST - The Financial Times Climate & Impact Summit - in person, London; in-person and virtual; prices vary

In this edition of Tea with Katharine, I share the books that have most deeply influenced my work on climate change and communication. These are the titles that helped me understand why facts alone are rarely enough, why fear can shut us down, and why hope is one of the most…

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In late April, in the coastal city of Santa Marta, Colombia, something remarkable happened. Representatives from 57 countries from across the globe gathered for the first-ever conference dedicated to transitioning away from fossil fuels.

After three decades of UN climate negotiations and still-rising emissions, many countries have had enough. And I do not blame them. Many of us feel the same. So as COP30 in Belem wrapped up last November, Colombia and the Netherlands announced they were co-hosting this new conference to provide a kind of practical reckoning: what does leaving fossil fuels behind actually look like, and how do we collectively get there?

The conference was inspired by the Fossil Fuel Treaty, a concept developed by my fellow Canadian and lifetime climate advocate, Tzeporah Berman. She explains it here so perfectly, you’ll wonder why everyone doesn’t see it as a no-brainer!

“We decided not to resign ourselves to an economy built on the destruction of life. The transition away from fossil fuels could no longer remain a slogan but must become a concrete, political and collective endeavour,” said Irene Vélez Torres, Colombia’s environment minister who chaired the talks. “When people look back on us from the future, they will remember whether or not we rose to the challenge of our time.”

The countries who showed up represent over half of global GDP, roughly one-third of energy demand, and about 20% of fossil fuel supply. They describe themselves as the “coalition of the willing” and all pledged to develop voluntary roadmaps for drawing down their fossil fuel use.

Next year’s conference will take place in Tuvalu co-hosted by Ireland, and participating countries have been asked to have drafted their roadmaps by then. Stay tuned!

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By the end of the century, the sea could swallow up much of coastal Louisiana and surround the city of New Orleans, a stark new study finds.

The study, which describes coastal Louisiana as the “most physically vulnerable coastal zone in the world,” calculates that a shoreline migration of 100 kilometers inland in southeastern Louisiana is “probably locked in” due to sea level rise, coastal erosion, wetland loss, and land subsidence. New Orleans—protected by its levee system—would become “a highly exposed island in the Gulf of Mexico.”

The authors also emphasize that coastal restoration projects (like the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion Project, which was halted by Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry last year) will be key to buy time. What the researchers are calling for is not panic, but planning—an organized, equitable process that works with nature to restore coastlines while helping communities move to higher ground before the migration falls hardest on those with the fewest options.

“We have to get serious about planning for our future right now,” said Tulane geologist Torbjörn Törnqvist, a co-author of the study. “We have to face the reality, and that is this city has an end date.”

One organization helping Louisiana restore its coastline and stave off migration is Glass Half Full. The company was started by two Tulane students in 2020 who were annoyed they were unable to recycle glass in the city of New Orleans. They started collecting glass themselves, first sorting and storing it in a backyard before moving into a local warehouse. Fast forward six years and today they have a commercial facility on a 3-acre site in St. Bernard Parish.

To date, Glass Half Full has turned some 13 million pounds of glass into sand and gravel that is both used in coastal restoration work and available for purchase. Earlier this year, they participated in a free glass recycling pilot program for businesses in New Orleans’ French Quarter. And this week, Glass Half Full co-founder Franziska Trautmann addressed the not-so-good news study I talked about above, saying, “Honestly… we’re mad. Doom and gloom gets us nowhere.”

Organizations like these are creative, community-driven solutions that may seem small on their own, yet together form an essential part of the broader transition toward a more sustainable and resilient future. To learn more about Glass Half Full and its nonprofit partner Glassroots, you can follow Glassroots and Glass Half Full on Instagram. And if you’re local to Louisiana, Glassroots has a number of volunteer opportunities you can check out here!

Know of organizations doing good climate work in your community? Let me know about them!

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Tues May 19 at 7pm ET BST - Talking Climate in the Age of Disinformation! Action Party with Climate Action Now; online, free

Wed June 17 6 at 5:30pm BST - The Financial Times Climate & Impact Summit - in person, London; in-person and virtual; prices vary

Katharine is also co-editor of the bestselling anthology of women’s voices, All We Can Save (to which I also contributed). She co-founded and leads The All We Can Save Project, co-hosts the podcast A Matter of Degrees, and writes the newsletter here on Substack. She is, in short, one of the most vital voices in the climate movement today.

Her latest book, which Bill McKibben calls “invaluable,” is Climate Wayfinding: Healing Ourselves and the Planet We Call Home, and it was just released this week! Why “Climate Wayfinding”? Because we are living in a world where maps increasingly no longer work—quite literally, as shorelines slip beneath rising seas, glaciers melt away, and places we love go up in flames. But this is also true internally and societally. Many people feel lost or stuck in this liminal, unsteady time. Climate Wayfinding asks the questions I hear everywhere: How do we navigate lives of meaning, belonging, and contribution? How do we move through ache to action?

Katharine has said that this is a magnificent time to be alive, because we truly can make a difference with our actions. I agree, and I can’t think of a better guide for the journey.

Take it away, Katharine!

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Last July, the International Court of Justice issued a landmark climate ruling, declaring that nations have a binding legal duty to protect the climate. Many Talking Climate readers will know this piece of good news, but I’d like to bring it back up so I can share two key “morals of the story.”

When Jennifer Robinson and I were in graduate school together as Rhodes Scholars at Oxford, she was emphatic: “I’m a human rights lawyer, not an environmental lawyer.” We’d have long, heated discussions about it at our local pub.

But then fast forward to 2024, and Jen was a core part of the legal team for the pioneering climate case that went before the ICJ. Now a full-blown climate leader (among many other things), her story is a reminder: we all have gifts to bring to the work of mending our planet. As I write in Climate Wayfinding, “Each of us is a node of possibility for healing the climate crisis, whoever we are and whatever we’ve got to give.”

The ICJ story is also a reminder about the powerful role climate education has to play. The bold idea “to bring the world’s biggest problem to the world’s highest court” grew out of a classroom at the University of the South Pacific.

With social change, we tend to focus on the big, visible wins—like the moment in The Hague when the landmark opinion was read—but we must invest in the small, quiet spaces where change begins. A climate-centered classroom is one of those places.

Young people are feeling the emotional weight of the climate crisis—and they aren’t alone in that. As more and more of us encounter climate impacts firsthand, our distress continues to grow.

In 2025, my friend Dr. and her co-authors published the results of a survey of nearly 3,000 young people in the US. According to TIME, they “found that approximately 20% of them were afraid to have children—worrying about bringing a new generation into a steadily warming world. That figure jumped to over 30% among young people who had experienced a severe-weather event first hand.”

Young people have been given heaps of information. What’s often lacking is orientation. We owe it to the generations inheriting our planetary mess to help them move from isolation to connection, from doubt to possibility, from ache to action.

Too often, we hold this question alone: “What can I do?” Often, we hope someone will come along and answer it for us. But I believe the most powerful answers don’t come from a punch-list. They come from deeper exploration and navigation, especially in community.

We need to cultivate the kind of climate community where we can hold that question—“What can I do?”—and our other big wonderings about what it means to be human on Earth. We need spaces to work our way into meaningful answers that reflect our unique values, superpowers, contexts, and interests.

With Climate Wayfinding, there’s a group experience built right into the book. Learn more and sign up to lead a reading group—in your community, workplace, classroom—here.

Together, we can look inward with care, outward with curiosity, and forward with courage. That’s how we find our way.

Thank you, Katharine W! I especially appreciate your reminder that climate action isn’t about having all the answers right away—it’s about finding our way forward together, with courage, community, and hope.

If today’s edition resonated with you, I highly recommend checking out her new book, Climate Wayfinding, along with the accompanying reading groups designed to help people move from isolation to action in community.

You can also explore The All We Can Save Project, listen to her podcast A Matter of Degrees with my fellow Canadian Leah Stokes, find her on Instagram and LinkedIn, and subscribe to her newsletter Human on Earth for more reflections like these.

Her work is a great reminder that meaningful climate action begins by asking what your unique gifts are, and how you can use them to help build a better future.

Short film based on the book Climate Wayfinding by Katharine K. Wilkinson and design by Ampersand; generously created pro bono by BCG BrightHouse.

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IF YOU’RE IN THE UK, THERE’S ONE MORE CHANCE TO SEE ME IN PERSON THIS WEEK

• Fri May 8 at 2pm BST - Why Climate Science is Not Enough at UCL in London - in person; Archaeology G6 Lecture Theatre, University College London, 31-34 Gordon Square

Of course science is always learning more. That’s how science works. But when it comes to climate change, the basics have been understood for a very long time. We know the planet is warming. We know humans are responsible. We know th…

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Last year, global investment in the clean energy transition hit a record $2.3 trillion. That’s up a full 8% from 2024, according to BloombergNEF’s latest annual report. Electric vehicles and charging infrastructure led the way at $893 billion, up 21% from the year before. Renewable investment added $690 billion. Grid investment, $483 billion.

And for the second consecutive year, clean energy investment outpaced fossil fuel investment, with the gap between them widening. Even in the US, where federal policy has been working against the transition, investment still rose 3.5%. The market is moving forward—with or without policy.

Is it enough? Not yet. A few years ago, growth was faster—in 2021, these investments grew by 27% year on year, compared to 8% this past year. Growth needs to accelerate, not coast. But here’s what this report tells us:

The transition is real, it’s resilient, and it’s happening despite political tailwinds. BloombergNEF forecasts that average annual investment in the global energy transition will hit $2.9 trillion yearly by 2031. Simply put, the energy transition is at hand.

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Climate change may be making antibiotics less effective.

New research suggests that warming temperatures and drought could be quietly fueling antibiotic resistance in the soil beneath our feet. In one long-term experiment, soils warmed by just a few degrees showed about a 25% increase in antibiotic resistance genes over time.

How does soil connect to the medicines we rely on? As soils heat up, microbes adapt to survive, and resistance traits can spread alongside those advantages. Add drought, and the effect can intensify. As water disappears, antibiotics become more concentrated, killing off weaker bacteria and giving resistant strains room to thrive.

That matters because antibiotic resistance makes infections harder—or sometimes impossible—to treat. Illnesses we think of as routine can become dangerous, linger longer, or require stronger drugs with more side effects. Even modern medicine depends on antibiotics to keep procedures like C-sections, chemotherapy, and transplants safe.

This is one more way climate change is reshaping the systems we depend on in ways we’re only beginning to understand.

Earth Day may be over, but the chance to connect with the world around us isn’t. The Nature Conservancy has created a free Earth Day guide filled with simple, everyday ways to get outside and notice nature again.

Learn more about bird-watching close to home, planting for pollinators, or building a scavenger hunt with kids. My personal favourite is finding new ways to “wander and wonder.”

These aren’t big, complicated actions; they’re small moments that help us reconnect with the places we live. They also remind us why it’s worth protecting. And when something matters to us, we’re far more likely to act. So, pick one thing, and give it a try this week!

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IF YOU’RE IN THE UK/IRELAND, THERE ARE SEVERAL CHANCES TO SEE ME IN PERSON NEXT WEEK

• Tues May 5 at 11am BST - ICARUS seminar at Maynooth University - in person; ICARUS Seminar Room, Laraghbryan House

• Tues May 5 at 2:15 BST - Kitchen Talk - virtual and in person at Trocaire, Maynooth, Ireland

• Wed May 6 at 2:30pm BST - McCosh Lecture on Finding Hope in the Climate Crisis - in person at Queen’s University Belfast: Canada Room & Council Chamber, Lanyon Building

• Fri May 8 at 2pm BST - Why Climate Science is Not Enough at UCL in London - in person; Archaeology G6 Lecture Theatre, University College London, 31-34 Gordon Square

Wildlife wins: Around the world, rewilding efforts are bringing ecosystems back to life. Along coastlines and rivers, wetlands are buffering floods. In North America, large mammals like wolves and bison are returning to their former habitats. In Bangladesh and India, communities are restoring forests and rebuilding wildlife corridors after conflict and deforestation. Even forests in Brazil that were fragmented by agriculture and urban infrastructure are recovering through careful reforestation efforts using private lands.

Greening efforts: Cities and states are going greener. Today, green space makes up nearly a third of Berlin’s area. I’ve written before about MedellÍn’s green corridors that are keeping the city cool even as global temperatures rise. And when New York state’s ambitious push to plant 25 million trees stateside couldn’t find enough trees, The Nature Conservancy stepped up to create a tree nursery incubation program.

Around the world, “pocket forests” and urban rewilding efforts are turning small spaces into high-impact ecosystems. When I wrote about tiny forests two years ago, so many of you wrote in to tell me about efforts in your own community that I had to write a full update the next week! And these projects don’t just look nice—they cool neighborhoods, filter pollution, and even create wildlife corridors in cities.

Waste and pollution cleanup: Global efforts to tackle waste are gaining momentum. Last year, The Ocean Cleanup removed 25 million kilograms of trash from oceans and rivers—the result of coordinated volunteer events spanning coastlines around the world. At the same time, policy and advocacy efforts are targeting pollution at the source, like stopping plastic pellet spills before they reach waterways. Together, cleanup plus advocating for policies to reduce plastic use in the first place can make a big difference.

Youth-powered action: Across the globe, community-led restoration efforts are scaling up, in many places with young people blazing the trail. Youth-led groups are organizing tree-planting and restoration campaigns across Asia, Africa, and beyond, working directly with local communities to rebuild ecosystems. These five young “ecosystem champions” are leading grassroots projects across drylands, mountains, oceans, forests, and wetlands—working with local communities from Brazil to Indonesia to restore ecosystems and strengthen livelihoods.

The UN Environment Program’s Young Champions of the Earth supports young people turning local environmental ideas into scalable solutions (I’m one of their “old” champions!). Since 2017, the program has recognized innovators from around the world tackling everything from waste to water access.

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The Earth is our perfect home. From the air to breathe to the soil we need to grow our food, it gives us everything we need to survive and thrive. But each year, there comes a point when we’ve used more of the Earth than it can regenerate. That day is known as Earth Overshoot Day.

Last year, that date fell on July 24—meaning we used up a full year’s worth of resources in less than seven months. Not only that, but this date is trending in the wrong direction as we continue to add pressure to the planet year after year. Earth Overshoot Day used to be August 9 in 2020, and in 1990 it was all the way back on October 16.

This must be because Earth is home to too many people, you might think, right? Actually, no: that’s not the main reason. We have plenty of resources to go around—but only if we live sustainably. And we do not.

We waste almost one-third of the food produced for human consumption worldwide: that’s enough to give 2 billion people who currently lack food one square, nutritious meal a day. We destroy and fail to restore ecosystems that filter our air and water. We live in inefficient cities and deplete and waste nonrenewable resources despite having renewable options. For example, did you know that nearly a third of the polluting energy we get from coal, gas and oil is just used to extract, process and transport coal, gas, and oil?

Right now, we are using resources as if we live on a flat, infinite Earth. Yes, you read that right – our entire economic model is designed for a flat Earth. The reality, though, is that we live on a round planet. And as we learned last week, there truly is no Planet B. It is time to stop taking for granted the amazing gifts our home provides and treat it with the care it needs to continue to support our lives and those of all other living things that share our home.

If everyone on the planet lived like the average North American, we would need multiple Earths to sustain us. Want to know how many Earths we would need if everyone lived like you? Take the ecological footprint quiz here.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. The good news is that many of the solutions already exist, and I share at least one example a week in this newsletter! Plus, the Earth Overshoot Day website provides an easy-to-read breakdown of five key areas that would make it possible to #movethedate.

Did you notice anything different about today’s good news and not-so-good news? I didn’t mention climate change once—even though it’s woven through every story.

This week’s What You Can Do might sound a little unusual coming from me, but having read the above, I think you’ll understand: if people in your life are resistant to talking about “climate change”—maybe because it’s too depressing, or stressful; too political, or too contentious—then just call it something else!

Talk about solutions that make our air cleaner, our water safer, and our communities healthier. That’s good news – and who doesn’t care about that? We see people’s interest in solutions each year on April 22nd when almost 1 billion people worldwide participate in an Earth Day event, such as picking up litter in their neighborhoods, teaching their children about nature, or planting trees in the park.

Of course, understanding the science matters. But if we all agree on solutions that will fix this crisis, then accepting that climate change is real and human-caused and we need to do something about it becomes a secondary no-brainer. Just check out the story about John’s dad I share here!

So, if leaving out a phrase that puts people on the defensive opens the door to a better conversation, this Earth Day is a perfect time to start.

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IF YOU’RE IN NORTH CAROLINA, THERE’S 2 MORE CHANCES TO SEE ME IN PERSON TONIGHT AND TOMORROW

• Wed April 22 at 7pm ET - Earth Week Keynote with Elon University - in person at McKinnon Hall, Moseley Center; open to EU students, faculty, and staff

• Thurs April 23 at 5pm ET – Climate Solutions at Duke University – in person at Goodson Chapel, Duke Divinity School

ONCE IN TEXAS

• Tues April 28 at 2pm CT - Connecting Global Change to Local Impacts with Angelo State University; in-person in San Angelo, TX

AND SEVERAL IN THE UK/IRELAND

• Tues May 5 at 10am IST - ICARUS seminar at Maynooth University (location TBD)

• Wed May 6 at 2.30pm IST - McCosh Lecture on Finding Hope in the Climate Crisis - in person at Queen’s University Belfast

• Fri May 8 - seminar at UCL in London (time and location TBD)

These days it seems like each news headline is worse than the last. That’s why I think so many of us were glued to the spectacular images and feeds from the Artemis II mission and its four joyful, intrepid astronauts the last few weeks.

The Apollo program ended the year I was born. This was the first time humans have ventured to the moon since then, and the ten-day lunar flyby mission was rich with historic firsts: Christina Koch became the first woman to orbit the moon; Victor Glover, the first Black man; and Jeremy Hansen, the first Canadian. This mission also set a new distance record, eclipsing the distance logged by Apollo 13 astronauts by some 4,100 miles. That’s farther away from Earth than any humans have ever traveled.

Who didn’t have a tear in their eye watching the astronauts call Mission Control to request an unnamed, bright crater be named for Carroll Wiseman, Commander Reid Wiseman’s late wife, who died of cancer in 2020? And you had to laugh at the floating Nutella container (and Nutella’s response!), the temperamental space toilet, and the maple cream cookies the Canadian astronaut brought to snack on while on the far side of the moon.

Above all, though, I keep returning to what the astronauts said about looking back at Earth from the darkness of space. “I found myself noticing not only the beauty of the Earth, but how much blackness there was around it, and how it just made it even more special,” Christina Koch reflected. “It truly emphasized how alike we are, how the same thing keeps every single person on planet Earth alive.”

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And just before the spacecraft passed behind the moon and lost contact with Mission Control, Victor Glover said something that gave me goosebumps, it is so close to what I say about why we need climate action: “As we continue to unlock the mysteries of the cosmos, I would like to remind you of one of the most important mysteries there on Earth, and that’s love,” he said, his voice crackling as the signal weakened. “To all of you down there on Earth and around Earth, we love you from the moon. We will see you on the other side.”

That view from the moon has a way of putting things in perspective. As Dr. David Baker, co-director of Adams Observatory at Austin College, explained in Talking Climate last year, scientists have discovered more than 6,000 confirmed exoplanets -- but we have yet to find another one like Earth. The biggest reason we have to take care of our home and everyone who shares it with us is simple: there is no planet B.

The Earth’s climate system is “more out of balance than at any time in observed history,” according to the State of the Global Climate 2025 report. The report tracks 8 key indicators of climate change, including atmospheric carbon dioxide, global mean near-surface temperature, ocean heat content, global mean sea level, ocean pH, glacier mass balance, sea-ice extent, and one new indicator - Earth’s energy imbalance.

You might not be familiar with this last one. In my opinion, though, it’s the most comprehensive measure of how humans are changing climate: or, as we scientists would say, altering the radiative balance of the atmosphere. Here’s what it measures.

Every day the sun’s energy hits the Earth. The Earth absorbs that energy and, when climate isn’t changing much, it releases about the same amount of heat energy back to space. That’s how the climate system stays balanced.

But that changes whenever we burn coal, gas, or oil – or burn down trees. Why? Because these activities release massive amounts of heat-trapping gases that build in the atmosphere, effectively wrapping an extra blanket around the planet. And just like a real blanket would, this extra blanket of heat-trapping gases is trapping more heat inside the Earth’s climate system that would otherwise escape to space.

How much heat? That’s what the Earth’s energy imbalance measures. The extra heat averages about 5 Hiroshima bombs’ worth of energy every second -- and only 1 percent of that remains in the atmosphere. About 90 percent is going into the ocean (and the rest to melting ice and warming land).

In fact, as I write in Scientific American here, “Climate change’s impacts on the ocean are so massive that when I’m asked why we aren’t talking about it more, the only answer I can think of is, ‘Because we aren’t polar bears or corals.’ If we all lived on or in the ocean, the changes we’re seeing there would dominate our daily headlines.

As we begin to understand the vast impact our choices have on the ocean and, consequently, on us, the need for urgent action becomes even more apparent. It’s still possible to shape a future where people and the ocean can thrive together; but to do so, we must act now.”

A group of nuns in the southeastern Nigerian city of Aga have made care for creation central to their ministry. The Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Mother of Christ have planted trees across the campus of the local nursing college. Across from their convent, the sisters have turned a plot of land into a “modest farm” dotted with fruit trees including pear, orange, avocado, and coconut, as well as a host of other plants.

Nigeria has been experiencing increased heat and shifting rainfall patterns from climate change, exacerbating existing problems from deforestation to water scarcity. “This is the area where we are promoting protection of the environment, doing many things that will help sustain our mother Earth, the planet that God has given us,” said Sr. Maria Obiomachukwu Osuji, one of the nuns leading the organic farming efforts. And she talks about it too, encouraging others to plant trees and plants where they can near their homes, and sharing her work online.

“The sisters see their work as a moral duty rooted in their religious calling to care for creation,” explained Nigerian journalist John Chukwu. “These sisters are not waiting for someone else to act. They are planting trees that reduce flooding, provide shade during brutal heat, and shield their community from destructive winds. They are modeling, with their own hands, what it looks like to care for creation.”

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IF YOU’RE IN NORTH CAROLINA, THERE’S 3 CHANCES TO SEE ME IN PERSON NEXT WEEK

• Tues April 21 at 7pm ET- Mitigate, Adapt, or Suffer with Wake Forest University - in person in Winston-Salem, NC; registration required

• Weds April 22 at 7pm ET - Earth Week Keynote with Elon University - in person at McKinnon Hall, Moseley Center; open to EU students, faculty, and staff

• Thurs April 23 at 5pm ET – Climate Solutions at Duke University – in person at Goodson Chapel, Duke Divinity School

TWO CHANCES IN TEXAS - THIS WEEK AND NEXT

• Sat April 18 at 10am CT - DFW Youth Climate Conference - in person at the UT Dallas Jindal School of Management

• Tues April 28 at 2pm CT - Connecting Global Change to Local Impacts with Angelo State University; in-person in San Angelo, TX

AND ONE NORTHERN IRELAND + TWO MORE IN IRELAND COMING SOON

• Wed May 6 at 2.30pm IST - McCosh Lecture on Finding Hope in the Climate Crisis - in person at Queen’s University Belfast