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More than 171 trillion pieces of plastic litter the ocean, according to recent estimates.

UN members have agreed on a treaty to protect ocean biodiversity.

Sea ice in the Antarctic is at the lowest levels ever recorded. Scientists investigating environmentally flying options have come up with a sad conclusion: green flights are a long way off. The so-called Doomsday Glacier—a glacier that, were it to melt, could lead to catastrophic sea level rise, is at risk of collapse. Ice levels in the Arctic sea are at a record low.

Major corporations are failing to deliver on their promises to cut emissions. A new study suggests that up to 15 million people are threatened by climate-induced glacial melt. In a first-of-its-kind case, Shell’s board of directors is being personally sued over the company’s contributions to climate change. According to a recent study, 40% of animals and 34% of plants are at risk of extinction.

A cold front is bringing windchill temperatures as low as -40F to the U.S. East.

The Amazon rainforest is deteriorating at a faster rate than its species, and even the climate itself, to adapt. An iceberg the size of London has broken off the Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica. According to the Met Office, 2022 was the sixth warmest year on record.

Much of California is out of the worst drought category after the state got pounded by brutal storms. In other climate news, thousands of records have been shattered as Europe experiences an unusually warm summer. At the same time, an arctic storm left more than a million people without power and 1nearly a score dead.  At least 10,000 flights were canceled on Saturday, Christmas eve..

The storm’s severity is perhaps linked to climate change. According to a new International Energy Agency report, the world is burning more coal than ever.

The UN has proposed holding nations criminally accountable for contributing to climate change. In a similar vein, the EU has passed a law blocking the sale of products grown on land deforested after 2020.

In other climate change news, cities in the United States West are removing decorative grass to save water.

The Western United States and Mexico are experiencing the worst drought in 1,200 years. Meanwhile, a report by the New Climate Institute accuses top companies like Facebook, Apple, and Google are not changing quickly enough to slow climate change, and what’s worse they’re exaggerating their progress.

All of the snow at the Beijing Olympics is human made, a bad sign for both the climate and future winter Olympics. The Great Salt Lake is disappearing, which could lead to a major ecological disaster. New research suggests that the extreme heat in the oceans passed the point of no return in 2014, meaning warmer oceans are now the new norm.

Last year, climate change-related disasters cost the world some $100 billion. Record temperatures topping 67º F hit Alaska this month, setting a record for December. The weather has led to torrential rain, and raises the possibility of major flooding as the climate continues to warm.

According to the annual Global Carbon Budget Report, the planet has eleven years to avoid dire climate scenarios.

The largest delegation at the COP26 climate conference is affiliated with the fossil fuel industry. Perhaps this is why Greta Thunberg has called the COP26 climate conference a failure. “It is not a secret that COP26 is a failure. It should be obvious that we cannot solve a crisis with the same methods that got us into it in the first place,” she said. As if to make her point, Japan has refused to sign the statement on ending the use of coal-powered plants.

The CEO of Exxon has been accused of lying to Congress about his company’s knowledge of its contribution to climate change––and its attempts to cover that all up.

A major document leak has revealed that wealthy nations like Saudi Arabia, Japan, and Australia (among others) are pressuring the UN to slow their shift away from climate change. Wealthy nations are also questioning why they should pay poor countries to shift towards green technologies.

A metastudy of of nearly 90,000 climate studies reveal that 99.9% of studies agree that humans caused climate change, effectively quashing the argument that there’s any kind of debate.

More news.