Article archive
Published news and blog articles, organized by category. Browse older coverage by month or search for a topic. Undated blog guides appear after dated news.
258 articles · Newest first
When the State Steps Back: Can Decentralized Science Substitute for Government Climate Assessment?
Community researchers are moving to fill the space vacated by changes to U.S. climate-reporting programs. The question is not whether volunteer effort is valuable, but whether it can replicate the specific functions — mandated synthesis,…
Two Constitutions in the Boat: Offshore Wind and the Constitutional Politics of the Energy Transition
New York and California are reported to have sued over federal actions canceling offshore wind projects, opening a defining test of whether state clean-energy mandates can survive collision with federal control of the outer continental…
The Paradigm Shift in Plain Sight: Climate Policy Becomes Build-Capacity Policy
Climate policy is quietly changing from an emissions-reduction paradigm — price the bad, regulate the bad, phase down the bad — into a build-capacity paradigm centered on permitting, procurement, and the construction of generation,…
The Melt-Season Plateau: Reading a Break in the Arctic Signal
NASA-reported data show the decades-long lengthening of the Arctic melt season leveled off around 2010 even as sea-ice extent kept falling. N43 dissects what a plateau in one metric does, and does not, say about Arctic amplification.
Snow Drought Arithmetic: Why Lake Powell's Record Low Took the Basin by Surprise
Lake Powell has fallen to record-low storage, and NASA attributes the immediate cause to 2026's snow drought and warm Colorado Basin temperatures. The mechanics between snowpack and reservoir - snow-water equivalent, storage lag, and…
The Equinox Heat Dome: Records Falling in the Wrong Season
A late-summer heat dome broke temperature records across the central and southern United States immediately before the autumn equinox, NASA reported. N43 analyzes the blocking-high mechanics, grid stress, and the health metric that…
Climate Week Meets the AI Boom — Can the World Triple Renewable Capacity While Electricity Demand Explodes?
The COP28 pledge to triple renewable capacity to 11 terawatts by 2030 is already behind pace, and AI has added a demand shock the pledges never priced in. The open question is whether the 2030 target dies quietly or gets reframed as a…
What Happens to Las Vegas, Phoenix and Southern California If Colorado River Allocations Keep Falling?
Las Vegas draws about 90 percent of its water from Lake Mead; Phoenix depends on the CAP canal and Southern California on the Colorado River Aqueduct. The three metros face the same shrinking river with radically different priority rights,…
Climate Adaptation vs. Climate Mitigation: Where Should the Next Trillion Dollars Go?
Developing countries need an estimated $215-387 billion a year for adaptation while over $1.3 trillion now flows to clean energy annually. The allocation fight is really an argument about who bears risk, who reaps returns, and whether…
Could Western Water Shortages Eventually Restrict New Housing Development?
Arizona has already paused certificates of assured water supply, and Tucson cancelled a $3.6 billion development after model projections failed. Water is becoming a binding permitting constraint on Western housing — not because homes use…
NASA Finds an Unexpected Change in Arctic Melt Trends — Why Has the Lengthening Melt Season Recently Leveled Off?
For 35 years the Arctic melt season grew longer by roughly five days per decade, and then, without explanation, the lengthening stalled. The pause is a reminder that the climate system still surprises the people who measure it most…
Lake Powell Has Fallen to Record-Low Levels — What Happens If the Colorado River's Giant Reservoirs Keep Shrinking?
Lake Powell fell below its previous record low in 2026 after a weak snowpack year and a warm spring across the Colorado Basin. The number that matters most is not the record itself but the power-pool elevation at Glen Canyon Dam — below…
Could AI Data Centers Shift Toward Regions With Abundant Hydropower and Water?
AI training is the rare industrial load that does not care much about distance from customers — it cares about cheap, clean, abundant power. Hydro-rich Quebec, the Pacific Northwest, and the Nordics all want that demand; transmission…
Should Water Availability Become Part of Data-Center Permitting?
Data centers can drink millions of gallons of water a day for cooling, and a growing number of counties are asking whether aquifers can keep pace. The fight over siting rules is quietly becoming the next front in the AI-boom permitting…
President Ocasio-Cortez: The Green New Deal Meets the First 100 Days
The Green New Deal resolution has been introduced in three Congresses and never come to a binding vote. A scenario analysis of what an Ocasio-Cortez administration could actually enact in its first 100 days — and what her own verifiable…
Brain Plasticity: How Your Brain Rewires Itself
Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life. The hippocampus is a major component of the brain that plays important roles in the consolidation of information from…
Antarctica's polar ice melt in 2026: what the satellite data shows
What satellite gravimetry, altimetry and ice-shelf observations can—and cannot—tell us about Antarctic ice loss, Thwaites Glacier and sea-level rise.
Arctic sea ice hits record low in March 2026: what it means for the planet
An evidence-based guide to the reported March 2026 Arctic sea-ice maximum, long-term trends, albedo feedback, ecosystems, weather and shipping.
Drought resilience in agriculture 2026: the crisis the response and what it means
Agricultural drought is a water, food, economic, and community challenge. This explainer follows the 2026 response from tribal declarations and farm adaptation to technology, insurance, and long-term resilience.
Ocean acidification and marine life 2026: the science the impact and what it means
Ocean acidification is the long-term fall in seawater pH as oceans absorb carbon dioxide. The chemistry reaches from coral reefs and shellfish to food webs, fisheries, tourism, adaptation, and climate policy.
Renewable energy dominance 2026: 96% of new power and what it means
Renewables are taking almost all new power capacity in the 2026 framing. Here is how solar and wind growth meets storage, grid, economics, and the remaining fossil-fuel problem.
Carbon capture and storage 2026: the trends the outlook and what it means
Carbon capture and storage is moving from pilot projects toward commercial scale, but cost, geological suitability, and policy clarity will determine how much of the technology's potential is realized.
Thwaites Glacier collapse 2026: the tipping point and what it means for sea level rise
Thwaites is one of Antarctica’s most consequential glaciers. Its retreat is a warning about ice-sheet instability—but “collapse” is a process measured in decades to centuries, not a single event.
Coral reef restoration 2026: the techniques and what they mean for oceans
Coral restoration is moving from one-off experiments toward a toolkit of nurseries, engineered habitat, larval seeding, and long-term stewardship—but warming oceans still set the ceiling.
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