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INTO THE RED

Climate and the fight of our lives

The climate crisis is now an emergency. We believe solutions must begin here, in our communities, state, and region. Globe journalism will shine light on obstacles to decisive action, illuminate paths toward solutions, and hold to account elected leaders responsible for guiding us to a better future.

Latest climate stories

Why a major local developer is going big on renewable power for 43-building portfolio

WS Development signs deal to provide renewable electric power at 35 buildings and shopping centers it operates in New England.

Difficulty measuring methane slows plan to slash emissions

Even energy companies that have begun developing systems to reduce their methane emissions are likely years away from being able to make comprehensive calculations

Protesters: ‘Cop City’ activist’s killing doesn’t make sense

At a police training center known to activists as Cop City near Atlanta, Georgia, a Jan. 18 police operation ended in gunfire, leaving 26-year-old Tortuguita dead and a state trooper hospitalized. Outrage over the events has galvanized leftists around the world.

Replacing US coal plants with solar and wind is cheaper than running them

Nearly all existing US coal plants require more cash to operate than the cost of replacing them with new wind or solar projects, according to a report published Monday.
INNOVATOR Q&A

A R.I. startup diverts 1 ton of waste each month from landfills. They’re trying to get businesses to do the same.

Tess Feigenbaum co-founded Epic Renewal, which looks to provide low-cost composting services for homes, businesses, and events.

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

INNOVATOR Q&A

A R.I. startup diverts 1 ton of waste each month from landfills. They’re trying to get businesses to do the same.

Tess Feigenbaum co-founded Epic Renewal, which looks to provide low-cost composting services for homes, businesses, and events.

Scientific journal investigating UMass hydrogen study after revelations of gas industry influence

The study, by scientists at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, endorsed the use of so-called green hydrogen for heating buildings in Massachusetts and recommended the state consider adopting hydrogen as a clean fuel.

Study touting hydrogen — a technology favored by gas firms — was funded by gas interests, e-mails show

A study by researchers at UMass Lowell on hydrogen’s potential seemed innocuous enough. But hundreds of pages of e-mail correspondence now raise questions about the influence the gas industry may have had on the report.

Wellesley teed up a bold move on climate action. Then came an offer it couldn’t refuse.

Climate advocates say an offer from National Grid and its terms underscore how the business interests of gas utilities put climate efforts at risk.

Climate Science

Cephalopods are ‘incredibly intelligent.’ Wildlife advocates are urging regulators to do more to protect them.
The qualities that make octopuses such valuable research subjects have also made them increasingly controversial.

Politics and Policy

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.

Into the Red: How the Globe will cover climate change

To report on the most pressing issue of our time, the Globe’s climate team is expanding and rethinking its coverage.

The Globe's climate team wants to hear from you

Share your thoughts and questions about the impact of climate change in your community.

How-Tos

Difficulty measuring methane slows plan to slash emissions

Northeastern researchers have a plan to protect Boston from rising sea levels: floating vegetation mats they call the ‘Emerald Tutu’

ENVIRONMENT

DEM: ‘Substantial’ solid waste from Woonsocket sewage plant released into Blackstone River daily

More Climate stories

Study: Enough rare earth minerals to fuel green energy shift

With a push to get more electricity from solar panels, wind turbines, hydroelectric and nuclear power plants, some people have worried that there won’t be enough key minerals to make the decarbonization switch. A new study shows we have enough.

Boston Metal gets $120 million boost to make ‘green steel’

Boston Metal, which has a pilot plant in Woburn, uses renewable electricity to convert iron ore into steel.

Biden administration sets a mining Ban in Boundary Waters wilderness

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration Thursday said it will establish a 20-year moratorium on mining upstream from Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, a vast preserve of lakes and woods that has been at the center of a fierce dispute over a proposed copper and nickel mine.

Power to the people: How activists are working to change New England’s grid operator from the inside

In between meetings about how to block coal trains, a group of climate activists hatched a plan to take on a little-known group at ISO-New England.

Boston’s public housing is getting a green makeover

The move could benefit lower-income Bostonians, a population that is harshly impacted by environmental degradation but is often left behind by green innovation, the city says.

In first State of the City address, Michelle Wu pledges to overhaul Boston’s planning process

Mayor Wu’s address, delivered Wednesday evening at the MGM Music Hall in Fenway to an audience of several thousand, signaled that her second year as mayor will be focused largely on housing, development, and climate goals.

EV reliance is sparking a dangerous mining boom. There’s another way to cut emissions, study says.

Instead of simply swapping traditional cars for EVs, the report released Tuesday from the Climate and Community Project offers another way to tackle the climate crisis: reducing dependency on cars in general.

Cephalopods are ‘incredibly intelligent.’ Wildlife advocates are urging regulators to do more to protect them.

The qualities that make octopuses such valuable research subjects have also made them increasingly controversial.

Opinion

IDEAS | JENNIFER NASH

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

After devoting my career to the environment, I began to hide from bad news about it. I had to learn to feel all over again.
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

Bill McKibben

Heat pumps could help ease the climate crisis — and the war in Ukraine