Read the full story at Grist. New AI features in Google Earth let users ask chatbot-style questions to find changes in the climate. The system could eventually predict disasters and identify the communities likely to be affected.

Read the full story at Inside Climate News. There are opportunities for local progress on climate, even when the federal government abdicates its role.

Read the full story from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Airplane travel is more popular than ever, and our desire for fast transportation means jet fuel has become a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Now, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have discovered a novel way to address that problem—by converting food waste into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) that meets industry standards without relying on fossil fuel blends. Their process, described in a new Nature Communications study, could help the aviation industry meet its ambitious goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Read the full story from The Hechinger Report. In Illinois, the Chicago Teachers Union won a contract with the city’s schools to add solar panels on some buildings and clean energy career pathways for students, among other actions. In Minnesota, the Minneapolis Federation of Educators demanded that the district create a task force on environmental issues and provide free metro passes for students.

Read the full story at Inside Climate News. Rising ocean temperatures, heatwaves and dwindling prey are forcing marine mammals into new and more dangerous waters, scientists warn.

Read the full story at Trellis. Startup Electra is building a Colorado demonstration facility that will produce 500 tons of low-carbon iron annually, backed by a $50 million grant from Breakthrough Energy and corporate contracts with Meta, Nucor, Toyota Tsusho and Interfer Edelstahl Group.

Read the full story at Chemical & Engineering News. Arsenic is a potent carcinogen and one of the world’s most dangerous drinking-water contaminants, particularly in South Asia, where millions are exposed through groundwater. Removing the toxin from groundwater helps protect public health but leaves behind sludge laced with arsenic, which is expensive and hazardous to dispose of properly. Researchers in Denmark have now found a way to turn that toxic waste into something valuable: high-purity elemental arsenic, a material in growing demand for green electronics and batteries (Sci. Adv. 2025, DOI:10.1126/sciadv.adz5816).

Read the full story from King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST). Beneath the ocean’s surface, bacteria have evolved specialized enzymes that can digest PET plastic, the material used in bottles and clothes. Researchers at KAUST discovered that a unique molecular signature distinguishes enzymes capable of efficiently breaking down plastic. Found in nearly 80% of ocean samples, these PETase variants show nature’s growing adaptation to human pollution.

Read the full story at Inside Climate News. The co-author of a new paper says the presence of PFAS on the Everglades reservation of the Miccosukee Tribe suggests more restoration may be necessary in the river of grass.

Read the full story at ProPublica. For decades, noxious, cancer-causing gases poured from some of the nation’s largest industrial polluters, seeping invisibly from cracks in antiquated pipes or billowing out of smokestacks in plumes that choked the communities nearby. And for decades, the Environmental Protection Agency tracked those emissions not by monitoring the air but by relying on a kind of honor system.

Read the full story at Floodlight. Data analysis found higher than average migration growth to the US from areas in Guatemala, Bangladesh and Senegal hit by repeated climate disasters.

Read the full story at Inside Climate News. Members of a research crew on Seal Island rejoiced in the puffins’ comeback, but worried about the impacts of climate change on terns, and seethed with anger over budget cuts by the Trump administration weakening the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

Read the full story in The Guardian. The threatened Jillaga Ash (Eucalyptus stenostoma) was spotted 90m down a cliff in Wadbilliga national park, in southern New South Wales

Read the full story in the Illinois Times. Critics of the project have called for as much as a six-month delay in consideration of the project so all of the pros and cons can be studied and debated. Sangamon County government officials have created an online question-and-answer page on the project. Critics question the touted economic benefits of the project.

Read the full story at Inside Climate News. In President Donald Trump’s first term, the federal courts helped put the brakes on his administration’s retreat on environmental protection. Nine months into the second Trump term, the courts appear divided on whether to allow the administration’s far more aggressive dismantling of policy on climate change, clean energy and environmental justice. In the 14 environmental policy cases so far in which there have been rulings on legal issues, the outcomes appear to be roughly even, with six clear wins for the Trump administration, five for the challengers and three mixed decisions, according to an Inside Climate News analysis.

Read the full story at Grist. Hurricane Ida revealed a fragile insurance industry ill-prepared for the consequences of climate change. More than four years later, what's changed?

Read the full story in The Guardian. Scientists are only beginning to grasp the scale of the issue and understand what impact the tree frogs may have on the islands’ rare wildlife.

Read the full story at Waste360. About 5.7 vapes were discarded every second in 2023. That’s 35 million more units a year than in 2022, reports the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) Education Fund. There are no signs of the deluge letting up, which has spurred a flurry of legislative activity aiming to curb the flow.  Several states have proposed or enacted policies targeting these now ubiquitous electronic devices, from extended producer responsibility (EPR) bills and deposit schemes to full-out bans.

Read the full story at Grist. As Typhoon Halong swept through western Alaska, it laid bare how centuries-old policies made Native villages particularly vulnerable to climate change.

Read the full story in The Guardian. Children splash gleefully in the river as adults cast fishing lines or head into the Alaska tundra to hunt. It’s a scene that has characterized summer days for centuries among the Yup’ik people who have long lived in south-western Alaska, where the village of Nunapitchuk stands. But, with temperatures in Alaska warming nearly four times faster than most parts of the globe, that way of life is about to change. Homes in Nunapitchuk have been sinking into the permafrost, and residents have decided their only choice is to move the entire village to higher ground.

Read the full story from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Zoos and private collections teach, inspire, and connect people to animals they may never encounter in the wild. And, in some cases, those animals represent valuable ‘assurance populations’ — essentially, backups that could be used to revive critically endangered populations in their native ranges. But new research from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Morfeld Research & Conservation shows American giraffe collections have been hybridized across species, sharply reducing their conservation value. 

Read the full story at Canary Media. It’s a known problem that onshore wind turbines kill bats. But it’s unclear whether the same issue applies to offshore wind installations — and the Trump administration just canceled groundbreaking research into the question. Earlier this month, the nonprofit Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) received a letter from the Department of Energy abruptly canceling its…

Read the full story at Floodlight. In the United States, climate change is polarizing, but one environmental challenge draws rare bipartisan agreement: food waste. Even as the Trump administration rolls back key climate and environmental protections, in July, senators from both parties reintroduced legislation to simplify food expiration labels — one longtime driver of unnecessary waste. In September, the U.S.

Read the full story in The Guardian. Rising global heat is now killing one person a minute around the world, a major report on the health impact of the climate crisis has revealed.

Read the full story at Food Business News. When it comes to sustainability, bank on it. It doesn’t matter if it’s reducing energy, landfill waste, water usage or greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Just like in a 401(k) retirement or any other account, the savings start small, but they begin to add up just like compound interest over the long haul.