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Latest climate stories

An economic opportunity, or an energy crisis in waiting? Data centers are coming to Massachusetts.

As the state prepares for the anticipated boom, questions are piling up.

Photos show northern lights visible in night sky across much of US

A severe geomagnetic storm over the weekend made for an especially stunning viewing of the northern lights.

Swiss glacier collapse renews focus on risks of climate change as glaciers retreat around the world

The landslide that buried a Swiss village and riverbed this week is refocusing attention on the role of global warming in glacier collapses around the world

Earth could cross a key climate threshold in two years. Here’s why it matters.

The accelerated timeline is due to higher-than-expected temperatures over the past few years, diminishing air pollution that cooled the Earth, and rising greenhouse gas emissions.

Supreme Court scales back a key environmental law in a ruling that could speed development projects

The case centers on the Uinta Basin Railway, a proposed 88-mile expansion that would connect oil and gas producers to the broader rail network, allowing them to access larger markets.

Featured projects

As Earth’s temperature rises, Massachusetts residents’ sense of urgency on climate change declines

Despite increasingly urgent international warnings, fewer Massachusetts residents see the climate crisis as a very serious concern than they did in 2019, a new poll from MassINC and the Boston Globe shows.
The Lobster Trap: Part 1

The lobster trap

The plentiful catch that brought wealth to fishing families is at risk, as climate change warms the Gulf of Maine. A way of life is on the line, but lobstermen can't, or won't, imagine another.
Climate change on Cape Cod

At the edge of a warming world

The flexed arm of Cape Cod has challenged the power of the sea for centuries, but the contest has escalated. Climate change is altering our vacation paradise in myriad ways, perhaps forever. The message in the sand is clear — if only we will look.

Accountability

Environmental groups fear Trump’s order to speed deep-sea mining will harm ecosystems

President Trump’s order directed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to fast track permits for companies to mine the ocean floor in both US and international waters.

Every year, the water in this Western Mass. town turns brown. When will residents finally get a solution?

Manganese contamination, which leads to discolored drinking water, is a problem across the state.

‘You’re looking over your shoulder.’ Inside New England’s EPA office amid Trump’s layoffs

Some grant-funded work, investments in solar energy and lead removal from homes in Massachusetts, has come to a standstill.

Hundreds of Mass. schools are located in floodplains. They weren’t built for a changing climate.

Many schools are built in floodplains, leaving the buildings vulnerable to inundation particularly as climate change enhances flood risks across New England.

Climate Science

After weeks in the ICU, they finally got a diagnosis: It was a tick bite
Climate change has led to a rise in tick-borne illness in New England. For one family, the impact was deadly.

What Trump’s budget cuts could mean for the environment

Environmental groups fear Trump’s order to speed deep-sea mining will harm ecosystems

Politics and Policy

Trump signs executive orders to boost nuclear power, speed up approvals

The order comes as demand for electricity surges amid a boom in energy-hungry data centers and artificial intelligence.

States sue Trump administration for blocking the development of wind energy

Attorneys general from 17 states and Washington, D.C., are challenging an executive order President Trump signed that paused approvals, permits, and loans for all wind energy projects both onshore and offshore.

What Trump’s budget cuts could mean for the environment

The proposal looks to curtail or cut billions of dollars for everything from drinking water, clean energy and weather satellites to national parks, emergency management, and environmental justice.

Environmental groups fear Trump’s order to speed deep-sea mining will harm ecosystems

President Trump’s order directed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to fast track permits for companies to mine the ocean floor in both US and international waters.

An interactive look into climate change

How Massachusetts feels about climate change in 12 graphics

The percentage of Massachusetts residents who believe climate change is as a very serious concern has decreased since 2019. That’s just one finding from a new poll conducted by MassINC Polling Group for the Boston Globe.

Maps: These parts of Boston, Revere, and Quincy are vulnerable to rising sea levels

One measure of a warming planet and human-caused climate change is rising sea levels, which Massachusetts’ coastal towns are increasingly grappling with.

Boston’s ‘heat islands’ turn lower-income neighborhoods from hot to insufferable

In a recent city report, officials noted that temperatures in leafier neighborhoods are often significantly lower than in more densely populated areas.

Here’s how the Globe is covering climate change
A note from our climate science editor on how the team is reporting on the region. Plus, share with us your climate change questions and what coverage you’d like to see.

How-Tos

How one family climate-proofed their house after Leominster’s destructive flash floods

PODCAST | SAY MORE WITH SHIRLEY LEUNG

As Earth Week ends, here are five takeaways on the climate crisis from Elizabeth Kolbert

How to convert your home into a small power plant, and make your money back doing it

More Climate stories

From trash to tech: Needham launched a new lunch program that cut the school’s cafeteria waste by two-thirds

Re:Dish is combining an old concept — reusable dishes — with new technology to promote sustainability.

Trump signs executive orders to boost nuclear power, speed up approvals

The order comes as demand for electricity surges amid a boom in energy-hungry data centers and artificial intelligence.

Under pressure from Trump and manufacturers, Mass. punts on electric vehicle mandate

The state announced it will delay enforcement of a rule to speed up adoption of electric vehicles, following action in Congress and opposition from dealers and the car industry.

Federal officials advance plan to brace Boston from sea level rise

The Army Corps of Engineers' flood protection projects for Boston likely won't be completed until 2040.

Rising seas whip up talk of property buyouts

The draft plan outlines a 50-year coastal resilience strategy to safeguard vulnerable coastal communities in Massachusetts.

At least 7 people dead and widespread damage left in the wake of severe Midwest storms

The storms Friday afternoon tore roofs off buildings, ripped bricks off of siding, and downed trees and power lines as residents were urged to take cover.

Massachusetts moves to nearly double black bear hunting to curb population surge

To cull the population growth, regulators voted in favor of new regulations to expand the bear hunting season.

In rare move, Mass. puts climate protesters on trial for civil disobedience

An activist who participated in a protest against a private airfield expansion faced a felony charge.

Opinion

PODCAST | SAY MORE WITH SHIRLEY LEUNG

As Earth Week ends, here are five takeaways on the climate crisis from Elizabeth Kolbert

In her new book, the New Yorker environmental writer traces the history, present and future of climate change to get people to understand ‘it is coming for everyone.’
IDEAS | JENNIFER NASH

A flock of birds gripped my hand — and pulled me back into the fight against climate change

Leila Philip

Let beavers get busy fighting fires — and climate change

Carroll Muffett

The world can’t recycle its way out of the plastics crisis

Michael E. Mann and Wanjira Mathai

UN IPCC report can lead governments to the climate action door, but they must walk through