Climate Desk

This Sunday, we are launching “Climate Desk Weekly.” This free dispatch will act as Mother Jones' Sunday newsletter and share the week’s need-to-know climate news right in your inbox from our collaboration of 15 award-winning media outlets. Sign up at: www.motherjones.com/newsletters/

From 2012, but even more relevant now: If average global temperatures increased by 10 degrees C by century's end, what would that actually look like? Climatologist Matthew Huber gamed it out. via @motherjones.com

When extreme weather strikes, misinformation can spread fast. Join @grist.org and #ClimateCentral for a webinar on how we can communicate more accurately and thoughtfully before, during, and after the storm. 📅October 28, 2026 ⏰1 PM ET Register: climatecentral-org.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Too little, too late? We'll soon see.

Wow. If this is truly the US military's intent, it's very hard to see how it isn't a war crime. (Or should we say "another" war crime.) via @theguardian.com

Trump and Zeldin are reportedly set to announce this today at a Ken Paxton rally in Texas. But that's okay, because as Trump just noted: "The United States oil and gas business is making hundreds of billions of dollars. I don’t give a damn, I’m going to say it — we’re making a freaking fortune."

As new neighborhoods are built in Texas, residents don’t always know they’re living on top of oilfields—which can leak and present future liabilities.

The planet’s vital signs are getting worse. One of the easiest fixes is your diet.

The midterms are packed with ballot measures that could dramatically affect natural spaces. www.vox.com/climate/5073...

There’s a lot that scientists don’t yet know about how fires, especially megafires, affect wildlife at a population level. For mountain yellow-legged frogs, affectionally known as MYLFs, the 2020 Bobcat Fire in Los Angeles County gave scientists a chance to learn more.

In a little-noticed webpage update, the Environmental Protection Agency has announced a plan to decommission its online web archive at the end of the year, a move that would wipe tens of thousands of publicly available environmental resources from the web.

Oh, boy. Fossil-fuel dollhouse.

The Trump administration went all-in for glyphosate, but that's not the only controversial chemical people that people, including the Make America Healthy Again crowd, are worried about. From our partner @theguardian.com

How climate anxiety and heat waves pushed students to the brink—and contributed to a historic youth movement taking over France.

Cutting down trees for golf courses, cutting down trees for border walls, cutting down trees to own the libs, cutting down trees to...

Fun protest tactic. The irony is that Byron Donalds, the man who will almost certainly replace DeSantis as Florida's governor. is one of those troglodytes who still believes (or claims to) that climate change is unrelated to human activities. C'mon! via @olliemilman.bsky.social @us.theguardian.com

This is...not good.

Our house punster approves of this headline.

Well this is fun: @grist.org's Jake Bittle, like many, hated "Digger." But his colleague @fridagarza.bsky.social loved it. Battle! (Frida links to Jake's review.)

We probably wouldn't go it the water, though, because where you have giant, prehistoric-looking lilies, who knows what other giant prehistoric-looking critters might be swimming around in there?

Trump is gutting the Endangered Species Act. These 10 species show what’s at stake.

Taan Forest, a Haida-owned forestry company, has set out to build and restore bear dens affected by prior logging. Check out this footage of bears using modified dens. And read the story in @nationalobserver.com www.nationalobserver.com/2026/10/06/n...

You know how communities are freaking out about data center noise? Well, guess what we're doing to our friends who in the sea... via @nationalobserver.com

Not a climate story, exactly, but super interesting, and involves a Nobel Prize and the IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center, so, here you go! via @wired.com

The Trump administration tried to claim Big Bend was a "high activity" sector for border crossings, but evidence presented in court indicated it was dead last. It's a real shame that the government can no longer be trusted to give truthful testimony.

Buckle up. Gabby Cannon of @us.theguardian.com on what the Golden State may face this year and next.

Two great @motherjones.com talents, @garrisonhayes.bsky.social & @timothypmurphy.bsky.social, discuss the most toxic issue in the midterms: data centers. Check it out.

The Wuikinuxv Nation's roughly 11-week creek-walking season runs until late October. This year, crews are using it to map where water is disappearing, banks are washing away and salmon habitat has been lost — information that will help Wuikinuxv decide where future restoration money should go.

This is a great piece.

Climate change is increasing the frequency of the blooms. Here’s what you need to know.

Scientists have found a new form of pollution, one where plastic and pieces of coral become irreversibly intertwined. www.wired.com/story/plasti...

Kinda glad Climate Desk doesn't own any waterfront property.

This is excellent news, and it will allow lots of people, including renters, to reduce their energy bills without all the red tape.

"What [Boulder is] saying is, the companies lied about what they knew about the dangers of climate change. Fraud is the heart of it.” via @motherjones.com

US states and cities sue over Trump EPA’s repeal of emissions rules

Hmmm.

i did a little Climate Week postmortem on data centers: co2 emissions are far & away the most alarming part of the buildout. but there hasn't been much of a reckoning beyond climate spaces kind of wondering when it'll enter the larger convo, if at all, and what that may look like

The border, and especially Trump’s border wall, have disrupted so many lives —both human and nonhuman — and yet the Borderlands remain a dynamic region of blending cultures and ecological connectivity. buff.ly/fr3OUki

Move fast, pollute things.

A conservative biographer wrote, of why SCOTUS' Sam Alito and his wife have held onto their oil stocks: “They hold not just financial value for her but sentimental value as well, making her disinclined to sell them.” Sentimental value? Stocks? Now we've seen everything. via @insideclimatenews.org

What's that expression—what goes around comes around? Amid soaring gas prices, hypermiliers are a thing again. Read this fabulous story from the @motherjones.com archives.

Germany sets out roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Soaring energy costs are driving a solar rush in developing countries. If left unmanaged, the growth of solar could destabilize power systems and deepen economic inequality, Jan Rosenow writes.

You can still watch the whole thing here!

More than 450,000 people are projected to die in the next six months from the additional heat brought by a super El Niño, according to estimates from climate scientists released Wednesday. The estimated heat death toll is on top of impacts from droughts, wildfires and floods.

Could New York City Mayor @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social be the Jalen Brunson of climate change? Mamdani talked the Knicks, making the climate crisis a priority, and more at a Climate Week fireside chat with our @garrisonhayes.bsky.social this morning. Watch:

Could there be more apt metaphor (for...something) than a sinkhole opening up in Nicolas Cage's driveway?

We need a Hail Mary. (Sorry, sorry.)

Go Garrison!

Are you friggin' kidding? Alas, no. Climate Desk partner @grist.org with some disruptive news.

Gotta say, that is one very weird-looking, but also adorable, bat.