Observations from the Little Bunker
A systematic observation of climate change, extreme weather events, and their cascading effects on society
🌍 Latest Environmental Observations
Growing Tensions with Air Regulator Lead Top California Environmental Justice Advisor to Resign
The departure points to an intractable conflict between environmental justice groups and the California Air Resources Board over the impacts of carbon markets.By Blanca BegertWhile...
Can a smaller U.S. National Academies remain relevant?
Loss of federal support leads to staff layoffs and fewer committees of outside experts
Trump’s Plans to Expand Offshore Drilling Meet Bipartisan Opposition
California and Florida lawmakers oppose the plan. It’s the latest in the president’s doubling down on fossil fuels, and a rare example of Republican pushback.By...
COP30’s biofuel gamble could cost the global food supply — and the planet
First the plant stalk is harvested, shredded, and crushed. The extracted juice is then combined with bacteria and yeast in large bioreactors, where the sugars...
Colombia seeks to speed up a “just” fossil fuel phase-out with first global conference
As sharp divisions at UN talks stall progress on a shift away from fossil fuels, 24 countries have backed a first global conference on the...
Global carbon emissions will soon flatten or decline
With China’s surge in renewable energy, greenhouse gases are reaching a turning point
Airplane contrails may not be the climate villain once feared
Studies raise questions about the benefits of adjusting flight paths to minimize heat-trapping clouds
Cop30 delegates ‘far apart’ on phasing out fossil fuels and cutting carbon
President of talks urges ministers and high-ranking officials to find common ground as conference nears its endCop30 live – latest updatesClimate crisis talks look likely...
Food security beyond borders: how crop imports affect drought risk of conflict-affected countries
Drought events can disrupt food security and increase the risk of violent conflicts. In an interconnected global food system, countries rely on both local food...
Large-scale historical land use mapping in Vietnam and Laos using military topographic maps
Land use cover change (LUCC) is a major driver of global environmental and socio-economic transformations, with implications for carbon emissions, biodiversity, and sustainable development. However,...
Adapting urban water supply infrastructure and policies for wildfire in the 21st century
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Just transition, finance and equity – that’s how we get COP30 to act on fossil fuels
Brandon Wu oversees research, advocacy, coalition building and campaigning work for ActionAid USA. Leaders are supposed to lead by example. If you broke it, you’re...
Unanticipated cooling gains from afforestation in Southwestern China
Amid accelerating forest degradation and climate warming, afforestation is increasingly regarded as a strategic intervention to reconfigure land–atmosphere energy exchange. However, most existing studies have...
Influence of country development levels and agricultural burning policies on global cropland biomass burning observed from satellites
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from biomass burning, including cropland fires, are a critical component affecting climate change. However, the long-term variations in GHGs from cropland...
Challenging Discriminatory Cultural Norms to Build Fair, Resilient Communities in Sub-Saharan Africa
Social norms and gender biases are widely recognized as major barriers to the social and economic empowerment of women, people with disabilities and other underrepresented...
DeBriefed 21 November 2025: [COP30 DeBriefed] ‘Mutirão’ text latest; ‘Roadmaps’ explained; COP finish times plotted
Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed. An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change. This week Key ‘mutirão’ text emerges ‘MUTIRÃO’ 2.0:...
Development to distribution: a co-creation approach to wildfire smoke communications
Manufactured home communities in the US Mountain West face increasing amounts of exposure to wildfire smoke, magnifying existing environmental health disparities. This study explores a...
Deep learning-constrained projection of global fluvial floods and their socioeconomic implications under global warming
Fluvial floods characterized by either large volume or prolonged duration severely impede the sustainable development of socio-ecological systems, which may intensify with global warming. However,...
Exclusive: CDC to end all monkey research
Studies related to HIV and other infectious diseases will be phased out, sources say; fate of the agency’s animals remains unclear
Politicizing the climate-poverty governance nexus: just transition dynamics in Kenya
In Sub-Saharan Africa, climate policies without progressive redistribution risk exacerbating poverty, potentially undermining the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 1 (No Poverty) while striving to...
Improving the quantification of global free-living and symbiotic nitrogen fixation in natural terrestrial ecosystems: present-day estimates and 21st century projections
Biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) is a critical natural nitrogen input that sustains terrestrial carbon cycling, yet it remains poorly represented in terrestrial ecosystem models (TEMs)....
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