The Year in Climate News
It began with a presidential transition, riots at the Capitol and a blackout in Texas. Before summer had even begun, drought, heat and fires had already torn across the West. The Biden administration faced a number of challenges to its climate agenda at home. And then came the United Nations international climate conference in Glasgow in the fall. Feel like a blur? Heres a recap of the year in our coverage. Texas went dark. Huge winter storms plunged large parts of the central and southern United States into an energy crisis. By Brad Plumer Despite inaccurate claims from Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, we explained: No, the reason for the blackouts was . The main problem was frigid temperatures that stalled natural gas production, which is responsible for the majority of Texas power supply. when it wasnt technically summer yet, but the American Southwest . By Somini Sengupta By Nadja Popovich were really bad this year. We took a look at the conditions in California before fire season really took off, and in specifically; in ; and in the whole American West over time. had an , which caused and Across the country, fire season was in full force. Both the Bootleg and Dixie fires were so bad that they . By Nadja Popovich, Noah Pisner, Nicholas Bartzokas, Evan Grothjan, Daniel Mangosing, Karthik Patanjali and Scott Reinhard Meanwhile, other parts of the United States, and the world, were inundated with water. Record rain and damaging fossil fuel infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico and causing deaths from Louisiana to the Northeast By Aatish Bhatia and Nadja Popovich By Dan Egan By Blacki Migliozzi and Hiroko Tabuchi climate change is leading to big shifts. The warming atmosphere is causing an arm of the powerful Gulf Stream to weaken, some scientists fear, which could have major climate ramifications from the Eastern United States to the Sahel in Africa. And in the Antarctic, wilder winds are altering currents, the sea is releasing carbon dioxide and ice is melting from below. By Moises Velasquez-Manoff and Jeremy White By Henry Fountain and Jeremy White By Catrin Einhorn The effects of climate change are not equally felt. Nor is the blame equally shared. We reported on some of Americas biggest, and . And we took a look at the countries with the most greenhouse gas emissions in history. By Nadja Popovich and Brad Plumer We covered . And how Native Americans, forced into the most undesirable areas of America by white settlers and the government, are now on land thats becoming uninhabitable. By Christopher Flavelle and Kalen Goodluck Though the science of climate change is settled and we have the technology to address it, the biggest question now is: Who should pay the bill? This year, reached a boiling point at the COP 26 climate conference in Glasgow. By Shola Lawal By Christopher Flavelle We investigated how for fracking a decade ago. And investigated an unforeseen consequence of luxury auto sales: By Manuela Andreoni, Hiroko Tabuchi and Albert Sun We explained why thieves nationwide . And how both Bitcoin and : By Jon Huang, Claire ONeill and Hiroko Tabuchi in August summed things up. By Brad Plumer and Henry Fountain By Brad Plumer and Nadja Popovich Knowledge about sustainable living has existed for centuries, and is often overlooked. Native people, often among the most effective stewards of nature, have often been disregarded, or worse. By Somini Sengupta, Catrin Einhorn and Manuela Andreoni We know that the way forward requires a transition to renewable energy, but the transition is not always straightforward. By Dionne Searcey By Gabriel Popkin is one of the most critical sectors to clean up. Some for how to electrify public transit. will be key in reducing emissions, but ? Whenever that is, they wont be here without cobalt. And with more than two-thirds of the worlds cobalt production coming from the Democratic Republic of Congo, the country is taking center stage. The quest for Congos cobalt is caught in an international cycle of exploitation, greed and gamesmanship. By Dionne Searcey, Michael Forsythe and Eric Lipton We also took a look at some drawbacks of Americas highways how theyve divided many Black communities, increased car dependence and led to wildlife deaths and some solutions to those problems. By Nadja Popovich, Josh Williams and Denise Lu By Catrin Einhorn And heres how one Indiana city has experimented with roundabouts to reduce emissions and save lives: By Cara Buckley We reported on , on , and on a possible fix for our broken recycling system: By Winston Choi-Schagrin with a new administration, a big infrastructure bill and the perennial debate over how to address climate change, it was a busy year in politics. While the Trump administration often dismissed science, the Biden administration attempted to restock , but it wasnt easy: By Coral Davenport, Lisa Friedman and Christopher Flavelle Biden tightened pollution rules in , but worsening fires in California . Hitting climate targets will require a lot. Pretty much . And change will require bipartisanship. As we reported this year, many Republicans in Congress no longer deny that Earth is heating because of fossil fuel emissions. In fact, some find the failure to grapple with climate change to be a for the party. But they also say abandoning oil, gas and coal . At the same time, Democrats cant completely agree among themselves. By Coral Davenport By Christopher Flavelle Ultimately, even as paid family leave and other priorities were taken out of Bidens plan, the largest piece of his spending bill two big conferences took place this year. One you may have heard of. Another, maybe not: By Catrin Einhorn Leading up to COP 26 in Glasgow, John Kerry, the first presidential envoy for climate, worked on And at the Glasgow conference, the U.S. and China , despite the challenges ahead for China: By Keith Bradsher and Lisa Friedman After two weeks of lofty speeches and bitter negotiations among nearly 200 nations, the question of whether the world will make significant progress to slow global warming still comes down to the actions of a handful of powerful nations. And those nations remain at odds over how best to address climate change. By Somini Sengupta Now that youre caught up on the news, its never too late to freshen up your climate science knowledge whether youre a kid, or a kid at heart. By Julia Rosen By Julia Rosen