Four leatherback sea turtle nests have been identified within the Cape Hatteras National Seashore (CHNS) during the 2026 nesting season, mar
While four leatherback sea turtle nests might not sound like a lot, it's the same number in a single year as were found in total during the ten year span between 2015-2025. The Cape Hatteras National Seashore is also on the north edge of the species' range, so leatherback sea turtle nests are already not very common in the area.
Scientists also found two green sea turtle nests and 130 loggerhead sea turtle nests during this nesting season.
Hollywood stars once came for the big-game fishing, but the return of a host of species to the depleted waters around Britain’s coast is a c
From the article:
“The North Sea is one of the most pressured areas of ocean on planet Earth. There are relatively few other places that have a combination of industrialised countries around a largely enclosed sea, intensive agriculture, and pressures from fishing going back centuries. But the wonderful thing about nature is that it can recover pretty quickly if you give it the chance,” says Juniper.
Bottlenose dolphins, along with humpback and minke whales, have been spotted in greater numbers in recent years along England’s North Sea coast, monitoring groups say. Their reasons for returning are not entirely clear. Grey seals – once in danger of disappearing around the UK – are flourishing. Visits to colonies on Norfolk beaches – where thousands of pups are born every year – have become a Christmas ritual for local people. Around the beach at Horsey, nearly 4,000 seal pups were born last year during a record-breaking season.
“We know the grey seals are doing well, which is fantastic news, and we know that’s also true of other species in the North Sea,” says Bex Lynam, marine advocacy manager for North Sea Wildlife Trusts. “Bottlenose dolphins – which we weren’t seeing off the Yorkshire coast until the last five years – have been recorded in a huge number of sightings. It’s clear they have enough food. They are also calving down here, which is fantastic,” she says.
The majority of people in every country support action on climate, but the public consistently underestimates this share.
"People across the world, and the political spectrum, underestimate levels of support for climate action.
This “perception gap” matters. Governments will change policy if they think they have strong public backing. Companies need to know that consumers want to see low-carbon products and changes in business practices. We’re all more likely to make changes if we think others will do the same.
If governments, companies, innovators, and our neighbors know that most people are worried about the climate and want to see change, they’ll be more willing to drive it.
On the flip side, if we systematically underestimate widespread support, we’ll keep quiet for fear of “rocking the boat”.
This matters not only within each country but also in how we cooperate internationally. No country can solve climate change on its own. If we think that people in other countries don’t care and won’t act, we’re more likely to sit back as we consider our efforts hopeless.
Support for climate action is high across the world
The majority of people in every country in the world worry about climate change and support policies to tackle it. We can see this in the survey data shown on the map.
Surveys can produce unreliable — even conflicting — results depending on the population sample, what questions are asked, and the framing, so I’ve looked at several reputable sources to see how they compare. While the figures vary a bit depending on the specific question asked, the results are pretty consistent.
In a recent paper published in Science Advances, Madalina Vlasceanu and colleagues surveyed 59,000 people across 63 countries.1 “Belief” in climate change was 86%. Here, “belief” was measured based on answers to questions about whether action was necessary to avoid a global catastrophe, whether humans were causing climate change, whether it was a serious threat to humanity, and whether it was a global emergency.
People think climate change is a serious threat, and humans are the cause. Concern was high across countries: even in the country with the lowest agreement, 73% agreed...
The majority also supported climate policies, with an average global score of 72%. “Policy support” was measured as the average across nine interventions, including carbon taxes on fossil fuels, expanding public transport, more renewable energy, more electric car chargers, taxes on airlines, and protecting forests. In the country with the lowest support, there was still a majority (59%) who supported these policies.
These scores are high considering the wide range of policies suggested.
Another recent paper published in Nature Climate Change found similarly high support for political change. Peter Andre et al. (2024) surveyed almost 130,000 individuals across 125 countries.2
89% wanted to see more political action. 86% think people in their country “should try to fight global warming” (explore the data). And 69% said they would be willing to contribute at least 1% of their income to tackle climate change...
Support for political action was strong across the world, as shown on the map below.
To ensure these results weren’t outliers, I looked at several other studies in the United States and the United Kingdom.
70% to 83% of Americans answered “yes” to a range of surveys focused on whether humans were causing climate change, whether it was a concern, and a threat to humanity. In the UK, the share who agreed was between 73% and 90%. I’ve left details of these surveys in the footnote.3
The fact is that the majority of people “believe” in climate change and think it’s a problem is consistent across studies."
Hey, I know it's a new year and things are pretty scary at the outset.
But I'm here to tell you, of all the things in this world that are gatekept, hope is one of them too.
Just because you're not hearing hopeful news doesn't mean it's not happening.
I have subscriptions to several specialized science magazines via institutional access, and I wake up every day to articles in my email like "We've just figured out how to catalyze the destruction of PFAS [forever chemicals] into harmless byproducts. Now we're just trying to take it to commercial scale." (Real story I read last month and sent to a friend who has deep anxiety about PFAS!!!).
For every big scary problem the mainstream news is capitalizing on through fearmongering, there are people behind the scenes, many of them scientists, working to ~~~ and succeeding at ~~~ solving them.
The news of the solutions are just often behind a paywall, whereas you're free to consume as many stories of tragedy, crisis, and impending doom as you want.
The Quebec government announced the adoption of a bill Monday that will prohibit the sale of certain gas-powered vehicles by 2035.
"The Quebec government announced the adoption of a bill Monday [December 16, 2024] that will prohibit the sale of certain gas-powered vehicles by 2035.
The ban, which is part of the province's plan to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, will take place in two phases.
First, as of Jan. 31, 2034, it will be prohibited to advertise the sale of a light combustion vehicle of the 2035 model year or later, whether it's a new or used vehicle, including hybrid and plug-in hybrid models.
Then, beginning Dec. 31, 2035, selling and leasing new light combustion vehicles of 2034 model year and earlier will be banned.
"The sale of combustion engines will also be prohibited, except to replace a defective engine in a vehicle already on the road in Quebec," the Ministry of the Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks said in a news release on Monday.
There are exceptions for certain vehicles, including those used by emergency services and rental companies. Also, light combustion vehicles already registered in Quebec can continue to be driven and resold.
The new law does not apply to motorcycles, mopeds, off-road vehicles, such as snowmobile and ATVs, and heavy vehicles.
Québec Solidaire (QS) had requested the bill go even further in cutting GHGs by banning the sale of light gas-powered vehicles earlier, by 2030. But Environment Minister Benoit Charette said in 2021 that it would pose too significant of a risk because by 2030 there wouldn't be enough new electric cars to supply the Quebec market.
The ministry says that adjustments could be recommended after studies of market trends are carried out in 2026 and 2030. The provincial government has set a goal of having two million EVs on Quebec roads by 2030. As of the third quarter of 2024, nearly 33 per cent of newly registered light vehicles in Quebec were electric.
In 2023, Quebec hit a record high for gas-powered vehicle sales, and as Quebec leans into the electric vehicle (EV) market, experts in the automotive industry say the real test for the province will come in 2027 when the rebates for EV purchases will disappear. They will start to be gradually phased out beginning in 2025."
I know many of us have been following the Klamath Dam removal with great excitement, and this YouTube video is the one that made me cry about it. It's a documentary on the first six months of revegetation in the reservoirs and banks of the Klamath. The land is being stewarded by the Yurok tribe, who collaborated with a company called Resource Environmental Solutions to restore the landscape following the drawdown and removal of the dam.
The video gives me a profound feeling of hope. We are NOT doomed. We CAN repair the world.
just found this blog, so idk if youve posted about it, but a personal hope spot for me is the release of several hawaiian crows / 'alalā onto Maui. even when invasive species and colonization has done so much shit to wreck native ecosystems, it can improve. people have worked so hard to bring them back. it just means a lot to me that not only are people trying so hard to preserve species, but that it can and does work.
I have posted about it - it's thrilling!!! Honestly I've posted so many stories of species recovery last year, locally and globally, it's so heartening to see people trying and see it working
re: sending an ask about something that makes you hopeful to start off the new year on a good note. this is a personal project that has given me hope! (sorry for the length, i'm a rambler)
next to my house is a shallow creek. when we first moved in the banks were choked with trash, scrap metal from the road, and invasive brush. when it stormed, rainwater would run off the road, turn the creek black, and make it smell like roadkill mixed with chemicals. once we were settled in our house, we decided to try and clean it up a little bit at a time. we got to work replacing the invasive bushes with native groundcover just a few seedlings each season, and every spring since then we've made a tradition of sending out an invite to a bunch of neighbors/extended family/friends to come help clean trash out!
its been a source of hope and pride for me to see how the younger people in our community have gotten excited about taking care of the creek after that first little push. our little ecosystem has slowly improved thanks in part to our efforts: the biodiversity has steadily improved with each passing year, the baby trees we put in are going strong, the wildflowers on the banks are beautiful in the summer and help catch the gravel/muck that slides off the road! Its all very rewarding, and i love the feeling that we have made an impact, even if its a small one :)
anyway, that's something that brings me hope! i wish that 2025 will be an even better year than the ones before, for our little creek and for the world in all. p.s thank you for this blog, it has been a real light for me in the past year <3
!!!!!!! This is amazing!! This is what it's all about - picking a spot where you can make a difference, and then doing it. Small, local impacts make such a huge difference, especially in terms of ecology and ecosystem restoration
What an amazing story, and thank you so much for doing this!! That little creek and the plants and animals that live there are so lucky rn
To achieve its climate goals, the city is helping finance the largest solar farm east of Mississippi River.
On her fingers, Chicago’s Chief Sustainability Officer Angela Tovar counted the city buildings that will soon source all of their power from renewable energy: O’Hare International Airport, Midway International Airport, City Hall.
[Note: This is an even huger deal than it sounds like. Chicago O'Hare International Airport is, as of 2023, the 9th busiest airport in the world.]
Chicago’s real estate portfolio is massive. It includes 98 fire stations, 81 library locations, 25 police stations and two of the largest water treatment plants on the planet — in all, more than 400 municipal buildings.
It takes approximately 700,000 megawatt hours per year to keep the wheels turning in the third largest city in the country. Beginning Jan. 1, every single one of them will come solely from clean, renewable energy, mostly sourced from Illinois’ newest and largest solar farm. The move is projected to cut the Windy City’s carbon footprint by approximately 290,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide each year, the equivalent of taking 62,000 cars off the road, the city said.
Chicago is one of several cities across the country that are not only shaking up their energy mix but also taking advantage of their bulk-buying power to spur new clean energy development.
The city — and much of Illinois — already has one of the cleanest energy mixes in the country, with over 50% of the state’s electricity coming from nuclear power. But while nuclear energy is considered “clean,” carbon-free energy, it is not considered renewable.
Chicago’s move toward renewable energy has been years in the making. The goal of sourcing the city’s energy purely from renewable sources was first established by Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2017. In 2022, Mayor Lori Lightfoot struck a deal with electricity supplier Constellation to purchase renewable energy from developer Swift Current Energy for the city, beginning in 2025.
Swift Current began construction on the 3,800-acre, 593-megawatt solar farm in central Illinois as part of the same five-year, $422 million agreement. Straddling two counties in central Illinois, the Double Black Diamond Solar project is now the largest solar installation east of the Mississippi River. It can produce enough electricity to power more than 100,000 homes, according to Swift Current’s vice president of origination, Caroline Mann.
Chicago alone has agreed to purchase approximately half the installation’s total output, which will cover about 70 percent of its municipal electricity needs. City officials plan to cover the remaining 30 percent through the purchase of renewable energy credits.
“That’s really a feature and not a bug of our plan,” said deputy chief sustainability officer Jared Policicchio. He added that he hopes the built-in market will help encourage additional clean energy development locally, albeit on a much smaller scale: “Our goal over the next several years is that we reach a point where we’re not buying renewable energy credits.”
Los Angeles, Houston, Seattle, Orlando, Florida, and more than 700 other U.S. cities and towns have signed similar purchasing agreements since 2015, according to a 2022 study from World Resources Institute, but none of their plans mandate nearly as much new renewable energy production as Chicago’s.
“Part of Chicago’s goal was what’s called additionality, bringing new resources into the market and onto the grid here,” said Popkin. “They were the largest municipal deal to do this.”
Chicago also secured a $400,000 annual commitment from Constellation and Swift Current for clean energy workforce training, including training via Chicago Women in Trades, a nonprofit aiming to increase the number of women in union construction and manufacturing jobs.
The economic benefits extend past the city’s limits: According to Swift Current, approximately $100 million in new tax revenue is projected to flow into Sangamon County and Morgan County, which are home to the Double Black Diamond Solar site, over the project’s operational life.
“Cities and other local governments just don’t appreciate their ability to not just support their residents but also shape markets,” said Popkin. “Chicago is demonstrating directly how cities can lead by example, implement ambitious goals amidst evolving state and federal policy changes, and leverage their purchasing power to support a more equitable renewable energy future.” ...
Chicago will meet its goal of transitioning all its municipal buildings to renewable energy by 2025, the first step in a broader goal to source energy for all buildings in the city from renewables by 2035 — making it the largest city in the country to do so, according to the Sierra Club.
With the incoming Trump administration promising to decrease federal support for decarbonizing the economy, Dane says it will be increasingly important for cities, towns and states to drive their own efforts to reduce emissions, build greener economies and meet local climate goals. He says moves like Chicago’s prove that they are capable.
“That is an imperative thing to know, that state, city, county action is a durable pathway, even under the next administration, and [it] needs to happen,” said Dane. “The juice is definitely still worth the squeeze.”
Sports have gotten more and more environmentally friendly, whether it's by reducing plastic waste at arenas, or producing medals with recycled materials. But what if the sport itself was devoted to directly helping the planet? Take a look at SpoGomi, a competitive sport in which teams collect garbage and litter within a time limit and specified area. People get to exercise and improve their communities while simultaneously reducing pollution. It's an overall win!
The name “SpoGomi” comes from “sports” and “gomi,” which means “trash” in Japanese. SpoGomi was created in Japan in 2008 as a way to promote trash collecting in an effort to aid the environment and push back on the climate crisis. “The marine litter problem is becoming increasingly serious worldwide,” reads a message from SpoGomi. “Approximately 80% of the garbage in the ocean is said to come from land (cities), and picking up garbage is the ‘last line of defense' to prevent this from happening. By connecting countries and people, we have expanded our circle even further around the world.”
Now, supported by The Nippon Foundation, the sport is so popular that there are competitions around the world, including the first SpoGomi World Cup, which was held in Japan in November 2023. People from 20 countries and all of Japan's prefectures participated, with the UK team coming out in first place.
SpoGomi is more than simply picking up trash, though, as there's a whole set of rules. These game rules are flexible depending on the area and litter to be picked up. Generally, teams are made up of three to five members who have to collect as much trash as possible within a designated area and time limit. The most common duration is an hour for picking up trash plus another 20 minutes to correctly sort it.
Some trash can be extra damaging to the environment or harder to spot, meaning each piece of litter gets a different amount of points. According to Nippon.com, the rules for World Cup regional preliminary rounds have burnable and nonburnable trash at 10 points per 100 grams, cans and bottles at 12 points, and PET plastic bottles at 25 points. The crown jewel of competitive trash picking are cigarette butts, which will get the team 100 points each.
Other rules stipulate that teams cannot pick up trash that is already in bins that belong to someone else. Since everything must fit into the trash bags that are provided, they cannot pick hazardous waste or bulky items either. And since this is meant to improve the local area, any method of transportation other than walking is frowned upon.
In the end, all participants can bask in the pride of making the environment just a little bit cleaner and healthier. Udagawa Takayasu, a spokesperson for The Nippon Foundation, even admits, “I participated in a preliminary tournament held in Japan just last weekend. Although our team could not win and I faced frustration, the city became markedly cleaner. I think it's one of the fascinating aspects of SpoGomi, even if you don't win, it leaves you with a positive sentiment.”
