GaiaGram - Environmental Headlines from around a planet in crisis

-The Heartland Institute celebrates climate denialism at recent DC event

-Earthday.org notes the explosive growth of plastic.. 2 million tons produced in 1950 versus 360 million in 2024

- Colorado River's declining water caused, by a chain reaction driven by a changing climate

-Dr. Mariangela Hungria won the 2025 World Food Prize for pioneering soil microbiology

-2026 Hurricane outlook.. suggests a below-average Atlantic hurricane season

-After 35 years of business Trimble’s  Nursery of Cutchogue Long Island is closing

-The EPA recognized 48 outstanding water infrastructure projects nationwide, six in New England

- EPA proposes“alternative groundwater protection standards” for contaminants such as mercury and arsenic.

-Above-normal wildfire danger is forecast across western U.S. states this summer

- Bill A.1556G, which would ban three chemicals—potassium bromate, propyl paraben, and Red Dye No. 3—from food sold in NY state

-Over 700 geese were found dead this winter along East Hampton’s Georgica Pond, likely victims of a severe H5N1 (bird flu) outbr...

-A record-breaking warm winter and a March heat wave leaves western U.S. snowpack at historically low levels

-Trump administration is now reportedly offering companies payments to abandon offshore wind projects

-Saharan dust plumes are increasingly blanketing Europe with orange skies and “blood rain

-Iowa’s cancer rates are rising faster than most states, due to exposure to pesticides, nitrate, PFAS, and radon

-A new U.S. trend; homeowners are abandoning manicured lawns in favor of “rewilding”

-Coral reef fisheries could raise sustainable yields by nearly 50% if fish populations were pro...

-First two weeks of the U.S., Israel and Iran war generated massive climate impacts

-Phoenix is experiencing an, unprecedented, record-breaking early heat wave in March 

-Earth’s temperature is rising at a record pace as carbon emissions hit new highs

-Reknowned climate scientist resigns from NASA,due toTrump administration’s hostility toward climate research

-Germany has unveiled a 9 billion climate protection program with 67 measures

-Antarctica emperor penguin molting sites endangered by rapidly melting sea i...

-President Trump’s second term has been marked by negatively aggressive foreign and environmental policies

-President Trump order forces the production of chemicals used for glyphosate for military purposes

- Austria’s Alps are rapidly disintegrating due to climate change.

-Wild pigs in California, were found with “neon blue” flesh in 2025 due ingesting rodenticide

- pharmaceutical companies to replace horseshoe crab blood with synthetic alternatives for drug safety testing

-Two East coast wind projects  now delivering...

 -A study finds that most individuals underestimate their personal vulnerability to climate threats

- Global media coverage of climate change has   dropped 38% since 2021.

-Airstrikes on fuel depots near Tehran trigger severe environmental and health disaster.

-Mycorrhizal fungi are highly sensitive to imbalances of nitrogen & Potassium.

-Corpus Christi faces an imminent water emergency from drought and industrial stresses

-industry is unleashing a “tidal wave of hostile  PR messaging,” to demonise renewables

-Mexi...

-DOGE cuts to NOAA and USDA delay farm recovery efforts and hindered climate and disaster response

-USDA restores deleted climate change webpages after losing lawsuit

-U.S. renewable energy hits record highs in 2025, supplying over 25% of U.S. electricity

- UK’s new geothermal power plant harnesses underground heat to generate electricity for 10,000 homes. 

- Arizona’s limited water supply faces pressure from both drought and industrial growth

- The colossal Antarctic iceberg A23a, once the w...

Connecticut may create a “climate superfund” program requiring major fossil fuel companies to help

 pay for the  climate change costs.

Deep-well injection from fracking  poses serious environmental and health risks

Environmental degradation is shrinking regional species pools,

The Caspian sea faces threats from climate change,

Climate change is increasing the number of days of coffee-harming temperatures

Earth’s energy imbalance is widening, accelerating ocean warming, glacier melt, and carbon sink decline

Nearly...

-Analysis reveals the world’s 1% richest people  used up their yearly carbon allowance just ten days into 2026

-Researchers rank the top 10 U.S. fossil  fossil fuel suppliers by greenhouse gas emissions.

-Climate “superfund” bills, based on the principle that oil companies should pay costs associated with climate change

-Agricultural leaders issue a bipartisan warning to the Trump administration urging reversal of tariffs and restrictive policies that have raised costs & disrupted markets

-Washington Post cuts much of its climate team reporter...

-Trump receives  award from the Washington Coal Club, naming him the “Undisputed Champion of Beautiful Clean Coal”

-Trump announces the removal of the federal scientific finding that climate change endangers human health and the environment

-Trump reopens commercial fishing off Cape Cod  

-Federal judge struck down the Interior Department’s order halting construction of the Sunrise Wind project off New York’

-Trump administration has reapproved the herbicide dicamba

-If the planet is getting warmer, why is it...

 -Trump receives award from the Washington Coal Club, naming him the “Undisputed Champion of Beautiful Clean Coal”

-Court rules that the U.S. Department of Energy violated federal law with secret “Climate Working Group”

-Trump reopens  commercial fishing off Cape Cod  

-Federal judge struck down the Interior Dept's order halting construction of the Sunrise Wind project off New York’

-Trump administration has reapproved the herbicide dicamba

-If the planet is getting warmer, why is it so cold th...

-Gas stoves account for up to half of some Americans’ exposure to nitrogen dioxide

-In 2024,  50% of carbon dioxide Emissions were From Just 32 Companies 

-Meteorologists have faced an unprecedented wave of threats and harassment recently

-U.S. automakers signaled a pullback from electric vehicles,

-Chain to build massive solar and integrated fish farm

-Solar panels manufactured in the 1980s are still working at up to 80% of their original capacity.

-Kenyan woman sets Record by hugging a tree for 72 hours to protest deforestation 

- Wind and solar provided 30% of all the electricity consumed in Europe in 2025

-For one Californian, making the switch to solar has brought a big difference in costs.

-Congestion pricing in New York City has been quite the success so far

-World's first shopping mall dedicated to second-hand and recycled goods succeeds

-The Trump administration issues Clean air act exemptions for industry polluters

-The U.S. Dept. of the Interior is revoking seven grazing permits for bison  restoring  the prairie ecosystem in Montana

_The Trump administration is...

A powerful winter storm has paralysed the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia with 10ft of snow

Argentina wildfires ripped through nearly 30,000 acres of forest

Phoenix has hottest December in Arizona since records began in 1896. 

California is currently classified as being in drought free

EPA tries to minimize the dumping of sewage into the Connecticut River

The EPA to impose more limitations on states’ authorities to block energy projects

world needs to feed a population expected to reach 9.8 billion by 2050 and...

-Beijing reported the cleanest year of air the city has ever recorded, attributed mainly to EV’s

-Half of American homeowners are considering moving this year due to extreme weather events.

-Global terrestrial biodiversity hotspots are threatened by human expansion

-Expansion of Port Everglades may unprecedented damage to corals 

-A stand of trees 400 years old discovered in North Carolina.

-Trump announces  withdrawing the United States from the bedrock international agreement on climate change.

-In 2025, the US suffered a billion-dollar disaster every 10 days

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-The Thwaites  “Doomsday Glacier” is dangerously close to collapse,

-Juneau Alaska has seen a record amount of snow this past  December

-Thousands of glaciers may vanish each year in the coming decades

-China saw CO2 emissions fall this year for the first time

-Renewable energy produced a record amount of electricity in Great Britain in 2025

-NY’s expanded waste reduction laws took effect on January 1, 2026

-Cheap Solar Is Transforming Lives and Economies Across Africa

-The CT. Audubon...

 -Trump administration said it would pause leases for five wind farms 

-Ohio Farmers Say Regenerative Agriculture Methods Helped Them Survive a Drought

-A new data set map captures every source of CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion 

-Four biggest oil and gas companies spent the last 25 years deceptively portraying themselves 

-This High Seas Treaty pledges to put 30% of these waters into Marine Protected Areas 

-Brazil moved to protect existing forest areas called the Tropical Forests Forever Facility

-The International Court of Justi...

-Trump administration said it would pause leases for five wind farms 

-Ohio Farmers Say Regenerative Agriculture Methods Helped Them Survive a Drought

-A new data set map captures every source of CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion 

-Four biggest oil and gas companies spent the last 25 years deceptively portraying themselves 

-This High Seas Treaty pledges to put 30% of these waters into Marine Protected Areas 

-Brazil moved to protect existing forest areas called the Tropical Forests Forever Facility

-The International Court of J...

Hello, this is Kevin Gallagher producer of Gaiagram.

As we celebrate the holiday season and the end of the year, I want to take a moment to reflect on the importance of staying aware of the environmental challenges our world continues to face. At the same time, it's vital that we nurture the collective will to make meaningful changes, changes that create a positive and lasting impact on our planet.  In that spirit, I’d like to share a few of 2025’s  encouraging environmental developments this past year.

-The European Union’s Nature Restoration Law is now i...

A 25-Year-Old Paper On the Controversial Glyphosate Weedkiller has been Retracted

U.S. EPA announces $3 billion in new funding for states to reduce exposure to lead in drinking water

Reaching net zero carbon emissions will not bring quick relief from extreme heat

The beautiful ponderosa pine—is disappearing.

New climate idea, to combat sea level rise, moving seawater to reflood inland depressions.

NYTS SAYS Many Fighting Climate Change Worry They Are Losing the Information War.

-Floods on Indonesia’s Sumatra island displaces over three million people with 3000 injured or missing

-New Delhi air has “severe and life-threatening levels of toxic pollutants.

-Dust from the dry bed of the Great Salt Lake is creating a serious public health threat

-Zillow, removes a feature that showed the risks to homes from extreme weather

-Greenpeace exposes the plastics industry as “merchants of myth”

-Seattle biodigester reduces garbage while helping residents grow their own gardens

-The Great Pacific Garbage Patch gets bigger and gives marine life a new place to live 

-Exxon petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to avoid disclosing

how much pollution they produce.

-Iran’s capital must be moved because Tehran is out of water and subsiding

America's most critical urban hubs is sinking into the sea, 

-The global ocean are simultaneously warming, becoming saltier or fresher, losing oxygen, and acidifying

-China’s effort to reduce its re...

-New Jersey is likely to see between 2.2 and 3.8 feet of sea-level rise by 2100

-Iran is suffering from a severe drought that has depleted water sources, pushing authorities to begin cloud-seeding

-Philippines communities affected by consecutive Typhoons that caused extensive damage and tragic loss of life. 

-The H5N1 virus, or bird flu virus has struck 66 poultry flocks Killing millions of birds

-New petrochemical plants in Texas will largely be built near communities of color

-Netherlands, small biogas domes that b...

-French judges ruled that an oil giants advertising, website statements, and public claims were deceptive greenwashing.

-Brazilian police conduct biggest crackdown on criminal networks operating illegal gold mining across the Amazon Basin.

-US plans to kill nearly half a million Barred owls in the Pacific Northwest to protect  the Northern spotted owls

-Indian state of Kerala has record landslides, due to Deforestation and unregulated urban expansion

-Panama looks to relocate indigenous families on islands to the mainland due to r...

- Hurricane Melissa tore through the Caribbean as one of the most powerful storms in recorded history 

- Iranian President issues a dire warning,  the Iranian capital could soon face catastrophic 
   water shortages

- Bill Gates pushes back against what he calls a “doomsday outlook” on climate change.

 - Elkhorn and staghorn corals off Florida’s southern coast declared functionally extinct. 

- The EPA is promising to erase a scientific finding that underpins climate regulations nationwide

- Warming waters and heat waves causing greater stress for Californi...

45 largest meat and dairy corporations in the world were responsible for more than 1 billion tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions 

Lake Michigan's water temperatures were the highest they'd ever been on that date since modern tracking started.

 Switzerland's glaciers lost 3% of their total volume this year.

The waters of the north Pacific have had their warmest summer on record

US state negotiators are battling over how to manage dwindling water resources in the Colorado River Basin

climate  report says that   humanity is hurtling toward climate chaos

Suriname is taking steps to preserve 90% of all their forests

India said it is planning to reach net zero by 2070

Torrential rains deadly floods and landslides across Mexico

A severe storm microburst confirmed to have hit Tempe Arizona 

Typhoon Halong tore through remote, coastal communities of Alaska

380 homes in northern Vallecito Colorado evacuated  after floodwaters breached the levees 

Lake Corpus Christi Texas in the midst of an Abnormally Dry drought. 

78% of Earth’s land has recorded its hottest month on record in the 21st century 

Renewable energy overtook coal as the world's leading source of electricity so far this year

Boston's Long Wharf saw higher than average tides known as King tides.

Spain's olive, citrus, and avocado crops sustain major hail damage

European wild bee species, risk becoming extinct

The Amazon Rainforest underwent its most devastating forest fire season in 2024

Humanity has pushed seven of nine critical planetary boundaries past their safe limits

France using moss-tile systems to combat air pollution.

...

-A dangerous hazmat situation happened  in central Arizona due to flash flooding 

-Tampa faces $117 billion in property risk from flooding

-18 houses, 6 last week, collapsed on the coast of North Carolina in just over five years, due to Beach erosion 

-West Antarctic Ice Sheet is at an increased risk of completely collapsing due to global warming

-Karachi, with a population of 18 million, suffers from acute water shortages.

-The extraction of water from aquifers in Iran is causing an area the size of Maryland to sink  

-Energy Department adds...

-U.S. rivers are running hot.

-Antarctica has climbed to more than 86  degrees fahrenheit in the past week. 

-Big Tech   follows of Big Oil, as they build data centers in the South

-China is all in on becoming an ​“electrostate”.

-First hybrid offspring between a green jay and a blue jay the grujay.

-Nobel laureate warns the world is on track for catastrophic levels of warming

-Exposure to wildfire smoke will kill an estimated 70,000 Americans each year by 2050

-Sea ice in the Arctic shrank to its annual minimum on Sept. 10

-Court rules anti-climate group not exempt from Federal Advisory Committee Act

-Panama’s seasonal upwelling collapsed in 2025

-A new top tomato, the ‘Scarlet Sunrise” ripens in New Jersey.

-EPA stops requiring thousands of polluting facilities to report the amount of heat-trapping greenhouse gases emitted

-Spain recently has been battered by torrential rain

-September Drought continues to worsen in several parts of the U S.

-The rapid rise and explosive spread of pelagic sargassum causing environmental concerns

-Millions of brown tree snakes fundamentally altering the balance of Guam’s ecosystem 

-China suggests that oysters can be good at removing carbon dioxide from oceans

-85 climate experts denounce U S “Climate Working Group” report on climate change science,

-Fossil Fuel and Cement Producers account for About Half the Intensity of Recent Heat Waves 

-The world’s methane emissions continue to rise steadily 

-Alaskan rivers can be seen from space as the permafrost melts, turning them orange

-Pennsylvania towns are seeking government funding to replace wells contaminated by fracking

-Pakistan’s Punjab flooding displaced  1.8 million people last month

-The world’s 10 largest oil-consuming countries accounted for 61% of the global share

-Utility-scale solar and wind projects account for 90% of all new builds

-Trump Administration’s actions to cripple commercial use of wind energy 

-This summer, the U.S. and the world have been pummeled by floods, fires and heat waves.

-Heavy monsoon rains and flash floods continue to pound Pakistan

-Kuwait adapts extreme heat, with summer temperatures reaching 120°F 

-Temperatures made El Paso the dea...

-Trump  administration will not approve solar or wind power projects

-3.5 million New Yorkers have  water systems that have so-called forever chemicals

-Record-breaking quantities of the seaweed set to hit Mexico’s beaches

-Techniques known as “eco-driving” could cut carbon emissions 

-Shifting climate patterns  exposing banana crops around the world to diseases and other pressures.

- New biodegradable film keeps buildings cool without electricity

- US economists urge the world to push back against Donald Trump’s attack on environmental laws.

-Washington State is experiencing at least moderate drought conditions 

-Heavy rain and flash flooding lashed Chattanooga, Tennessee, last week. 

-U.S. rejected the "Net-Zero Framework" proposal by the International Maritime Organization

-Trump administration officials instructed NASA to terminate and destroy the U S Orbiting Carbon Observatories tools, 

-Europe’s glaciers are shrinking faster, than anywhere else on Earth.

-A woman wins $10,000 by removing 60 invasive pythons from South Florida in just 10 days.

-Mediterranean countries are fighting invasive species by turni...

Trump administration preparing to terminate $7 billion in federal grants that helps low
income families install solar panels on their homes 

First-of-a-kind US class-action lawsuit would force the EPA to reinstate its  $3b climate program

Three chemical producers reach a historic 2 Billion dollar settlement with the state of New Jersey

Parts of the Great Barrier Reef have suffered the largest annual decline in coral in nearly 40 years 

Phoenix Arizona has heat that is one for the history books.  The mercury went up to 118 degrees

Extreme heat episode will...

Tampa Bay area’s most intense heat wave on record hit 119F

Much of the U S sweated under a brutal heatwave last week

Bridgeport Ct.  reached 95 degrees last week, tying a 1949 record  .

Nordic countries are experiencing “truly unprecedented” heat

Greenland ice sheet temperatures approaching the melting point in mid-July. 

Tick infestation closes Bridgeport’s Pleasure beach for the season

Utah's has a state of emergency due to surging wildfires

West Virginia embraces wind driven green energy 

The International Court of Justice r...

The International Court of Justice said that states must protect people from the “urgent and existential threat” of climate changeThe First Planned Migration of an Entire Country Is Underway.Trump administration to repeal scientific finding that gives the US government its authority to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions.Two incurable diseases threaten Missouri’s Soybeans and corn crops.Invasive seaweed from Southeast Asia, describe as a serious threat to Spain's regional biodiversity.Rising salinity in the Southern Ocean is melting Antarctic sea ice fast.New scientific warns largest nor’easter in recorded history may strike the U.S. East Coast. 

-The Rio Grande River in Albuquerque, New Mexico is bone dry. 

-US threatens tariffs and sanctions against Mexico “stealing” water from Texas farmers

-The Mississippi River, North America's largest river system, is under threat

-Kabul Afghanistan the first modern capital city on the verge of running dry.

-Greece faces a growing water scarcity crisis

-The Environmental Protection Agency announces eliminating its scientific division

-The global switch to renewable energy has passed a “positive tipping point”,