fb-pixel Skip to main content

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

Boston plans to replace historic gas lamps with LEDs in effort to reduce carbon emissions

In a first step toward replacing its gas lamps, city officials last week installed Boston’s first faux gas lamp, which simulates a flame with highly energy efficient LED lights.

SEC plans to force public companies to disclose greenhouse gas emissions

The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to require all publicly traded companies to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and the climate risks their businesses face, part of the Biden administration's broader push to force the private sector to reckon with the dangers of a warming world.

The Lower Neponset River is a Superfund site now. What does that mean?

If you're wondering if it's okay to fish, swim, or row a boat in the river, here's what you need to know.
Analysis | Dharna Noor

Could clean energy replace Russian oil?

Fossil fuel interests are calling for more domestic drilling to supplant Russia's fossil fuels. But climate advocates say there’s a better alternative: Speeding the renewable energy transition.

EPA designates Lower Neponset River a Superfund site

After years of lobbying by local and state officials for federal help to clean it up, the US Environmental Protection Agency will designate a 3.7-mile stretch of the Neponset River as a Superfund site.

Featured projects

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.
The Lobster Trap: Part 2

Protests and prayers

Federal regulations designed to protect critically endangered whale populations are forcing Maine's proud lobster fishermen to adapt, but many are refusing change.
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.

An interactive look into climate change

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.

Data from the recent heat wave reveal troubling trends. These four charts show the damage inflicted

The stunning numbers highlight an alarming phenomenon at work as climate change makes periods of extreme heat more common and prolonged: The warming climate is leading us into a dangerous vicious cycle.

Accountability

Massachusetts’ roadmap bill created an environmental justice advisory council. Where is it?

Massachusetts 2021 climate law requires the state to appoint a council to weigh in on environmental justice issues. Nearly a year after the law's passage, the state hasn't appointed anyone.

Massachusetts surpassed its 2020 emissions goals — but there’s a big asterisk

Massachusetts appears to have cut its 2020 carbon emissions even more than was required by its ambitious climate law, but it’s not clear how much of the decline is attributable to the state’s climate policy, and how much can be attributed to the pandemic.

Biden plan to overhaul federal oil and gas leasing program stops short of leasing ban sought by climate activists

The long-awaited report by the Interior Department stops short of recommending an end to oil and gas leasing on public lands, as many environmental groups have urged.

Southwest Airlines commits $10 million to Yale University to support climate change initiatives

Southwest Airlines announced a $10 million commitment to Yale University’s Center for Natural Carbon Capture to research technological advancements and find new solutions to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate Science

Climate change could make pothole season worse
Climate change seems to make everything worse, including possibly pothole season.

Amazon is less able to recover from droughts and logging, study finds

What does the dire new UN climate report mean for New England?

Into the Red: How the Globe will cover climate change

The Globe's climate team wants to hear from you

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

Save the Date: Globe Sustainability Week

The Boston Globe is proud to present Sustainability Week, a week-long virtual event series focusing on the climate crisis, from April 18 through April 22, 2022. Experts from the private and public sectors will share insight into how we can mitigate this crisis with decisive action and supportive policies.

Politics and Policy

Boston plans to replace historic gas lamps with LEDs in effort to reduce carbon emissions

In a first step toward replacing its gas lamps, city officials last week installed Boston’s first faux gas lamp, which simulates a flame with highly energy efficient LED lights.

SEC plans to force public companies to disclose greenhouse gas emissions

The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to require all publicly traded companies to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and the climate risks their businesses face, part of the Biden administration's broader push to force the private sector to reckon with the dangers of a warming world.
Analysis | Dharna Noor

Could clean energy replace Russian oil?

Fossil fuel interests are calling for more domestic drilling to supplant Russia's fossil fuels. But climate advocates say there’s a better alternative: Speeding the renewable energy transition.

EPA designates Lower Neponset River a Superfund site

After years of lobbying by local and state officials for federal help to clean it up, the US Environmental Protection Agency will designate a 3.7-mile stretch of the Neponset River as a Superfund site.

How-Tos

As war rages, a struggle to balance energy crunch and climate crisis

Biden bill includes boost for union-made electric vehicles

Heat pumps could be key to fighting climate change, but how? We answer your burning questions

More Climate stories

A post marking a pipeline along Route 75 in Agawam, Oct. 28, 2010.

Federal regulators to reconsider controversial Springfield compressor station

Federal regulators will have to reconsider their approval of a controversial plan to expand natural gas infrastructure in Agawam, a federal court ruled on Friday.

An oil pumping jack, also known as a "nodding donkey", sat in an oilfield near Dyurtyuli, in the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia, on Thursday, Nov. 19, 2020.

As war rages, a struggle to balance energy crunch and climate crisis

As the world reels from spikes in oil and gas prices, the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has laid bare a dilemma: Nations remain extraordinarily dependent on fossil fuels and are struggling to shore up supplies precisely at a moment when scientists say the world must slash its use of oil, gas, and coal to avert irrevocable damage to the planet.

SHIRLEY LEUNG
A new zoning plan for the downtown waterfront has been put on hold by the Wu administration to prioritize planning for East Boston.

A plan for East Boston is great. But we need one for downtown, too.

When it comes to planning development around Boston Harbor, the Wu administration needs to push forward both on neighborhoods and downtown.

A huge pothole, 6 inches deep by 2 feet by 18 inches, opened up last months in the middle of East Broadway Street at D Street in South Boston.

Climate change could make pothole season worse

Climate change seems to make everything worse, including possibly pothole season.

Patricio Belloy, Rebecca Herst, and Antonio Raciti
The view of downtown from the East Boston waterfront, April 2020.

Make a green future work for all Bostonians

The urgency to act on the climate crisis should not get in the way of a truly inclusive process.

Sharon E. Burke
A red hot palladium ingot in the foundry at the Prioksky non-ferrous metals plant in Kasimov, Russia, in 2021.

Russia is a mineral powerhouse — and its war with Ukraine could affect global supplies

Many of these minerals are important for critical infrastructure, clean energy, and military uses, including aircraft frames, jet and helicopter engines, satellites, ships, submarines, and ground vehicles.

LETTERS
Seen in a long camera exposure, the Caldor fire burns on Aug. 29, 2021, in Eldorado National Forest, Calif.

The climate catastrophe is now. So is the urgency to act.

We’re like a patient bound for a heart attack who cuts out one soda a week but continues to subsist on a diet of pizza and television.

Fighting a fire in the Brazilian Amazon near Rio Pardo in 2019.

Amazon is less able to recover from droughts and logging, study finds

The Amazon is losing its ability to recover from disturbances like droughts and land-use changes, scientists reported Monday, adding to concern that the rainforest is approaching a critical threshold beyond which much of it will be replaced by grassland, with vast consequences for biodiversity and climate change.

Opinion

Patricio Belloy, Rebecca Herst, and Antonio Raciti

Make a green future work for all Bostonians

The urgency to act on the climate crisis should not get in the way of a truly inclusive process.
Sharon E. Burke

Russia is a mineral powerhouse — and its war with Ukraine could affect global supplies

LETTERS

The climate catastrophe is now. So is the urgency to act.

EDITORIAL

The political window is closing on climate change

Ronald J. Mariano and Jeffrey N. Roy

Offshore wind is the future for Massachusetts