PALM BEACH, Florida/COPENHAGEN, Dec 22 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump reasserted on Monday that the United States needs Greenland for its national security and said a special envoy he appointed to the Arctic island would "lead the charge."

Trump named Louisiana Governor ​Jeff Landry on Sunday as his special envoy to Greenland, drawing renewed criticism from Denmark and Greenland over Washington's interest in the ‌mineral-rich Arctic island.

Trump has advocated for Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory, to become part of the United States, citing its strategic importance and mineral resources. Landry, who took office as ‌governor in January 2024, publicly supports the idea.

The Trump administration suspended leases on Monday for five large offshore wind projects that are under construction off the US East Coast over what it called national security concerns, sending shares of offshore wind companies plunging.

The destruction of food supplies by crop pests is being supercharged by the climate crisis, with losses expected to surge, an analysis has concluded.

Researchers said the world was lucky to have so far avoided a major shock and was living on borrowed time, with action needed to diversify crops and boost natural predators of pests.

The key global crops, wheat, rice and maize, are expected to see the losses to pests increase by about 46%, 19% and 31% respectively when global heating reaches 2C, the scientists said.

Tuesday's lawsuit addresses the withholding of over $2 billion in funding for two electric vehicle charging programs.

Many Gulf Coast refiners have a stake in the future of Venezuelan oil exports, as they've spent billions to process the country's heavier crude.

Rising home insurance costs are making life unaffordable for both homeowners and renters. Robust climate policy and public disaster insurance could save many households’ finances.

Climate and human rights advocates are outraged by the European Parliament's approval of a deregulation package that weakens corporate sustainability rules.

The revisions raise questions about the quality of climate-related data and the efficacy of America’s voluntary reporting system.

A large majority of S&P 500 companies revise their annual greenhouse gas emissions disclosures, raising serious questions about the quality of climate-related data and the efficacy of America’s voluntary reporting system. More than 135 million tons of emissions went unreported, more than the annual total for many countries. While there is no federal regulation in sight, states and foreign countries are pressing forward with their own rules, which threaten to create a patchwork regulatory environment for many of the world’s largest companies. Meanwhile, the market demand for emissions data is unlikely to subside.

Ford is ending production of the fully-electric F-150 Lightning as part of a broader companywide shakeup of its electric vehicle plans, the company announced Monday. In its place, Ford will sell what’s known as an “extended range electric vehicle” version of the truck, which adds a gas generator that can recharge the battery pack to power the motors for over 700 miles. 

The company did not share when the new F-150 Lightning will go on sale, or how much it will cost. 

The pivot will come with a substantial price tag for Ford.

Between now and the end of the century, climate change will trigger a cascade of rapid, irreversible environmental changes that will make it impossible for people to establish a sense of place, writes Frederick Hewett.

BURLINGTON, Wash. (AP) — Record floodwaters began slowly receding in Washington state on Friday after triggering evacuations, inundating communities and prompting dramatic rescues from rooftops and vehicles. But authorities warned that waters would still be high for days, and that danger from potential levee failures remained.

“This is not just a one- or two-day crisis,” Gov. Bob Ferguson said at a news briefing. “These water levels have been historic, and they’re going to remain very high for an extended period of time.”

President Donald Trump has signed the state’s request for an emergency declaration, Ferguson said.

An unusually strong atmospheric river dumped a foot (30 cm) or more of rain in parts of western Washington over several days and swelled rivers. No deaths have been reported, Ferguson said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration said Monday it is pausing leases for five large-scale offshore wind projects under construction in the East Coast due to unspecified national security risks identified by the Pentagon.

The suspension, effective immediately, is the latest step by the administration to hobble offshore wind in its push against renewable energy sources. It comes two weeks after a federal judge struck down President Donald Trump’s executive order blocking wind energy projects, calling it unlawful.

The administration said the pause will give the Interior Department, which oversees offshore wind, time to work with the Defense Department and other agencies to assess the possible ways to mitigate any security risks posed by the projects. The statement did not detail the national security risks. It called the move a pause, but did not specify an end date.

The action comes two weeks after a federal judge struck down Trump's executive order blocking wind energy projects, saying the effort to halt virtually all leasing of wind farms on federal lands and waters was "arbitrary and capricious."

These graphs tell an important story. On the left is how horses disappeared from cities once cars took off. On the right is the same kind of substitution curve - petrol and diesel powered cars giving way to EVs. Horses didn’t fade gently; they were replaced rapidly. And internal combustion engines aren't “phasing down” with polite applause either. They’re already being substituted - and the steep part of the curve is the part we’re entering.

A new paper from the Centre for Net Zero explains what many of us can already see at the traffic lights: the global transition to electric vehicles has reached a tipping point. One in five new cars sold worldwide is now electric, and we’re approaching the steep, exponential phase of the S-curve.

As officials from around the world met in Brazil for the Cop30 climate summit last month, the US president was nowhere to be found, nor were any members of his cabinet. Instead, the most prominent American voice in Belém was that of the California governor, Gavin Newsom.

During the five days he spent in Brazil, Newsom described Donald Trump as an “invasive species” and condemned his rollback of policies aimed at reducing emissions and expanding renewable energy. Newsom, long considered a presidential hopeful, argued that, as the US retreated, California would step up in its place as a “stable, reliable” climate leader and partner.

Among the talking points he used to demonstrate California’s leadership was its progress on renewable energy – and the battery capacity needed to store that power.

Thwaites, the most studied glacier in the world, commands attention because it is not only the widest in the world at 80 miles but also the shakiest. And its nickname “The Doomsday Glacier” certainly sets it apart from the 500 other named glaciers in Antarctica.

Based upon new research of 2024-25, polar scientists have been speaking out like never before, making public predictions about a rapidly deteriorating situation and insisting upon an end to burning fossil fuels, or else!

Colorado officials are vowing to fight the Trump administration's attack on climate research at NCAR with every legal tool. Will dismantling this renowned scientific facility jeopardize our ability to predict severe weather events and protect lives? The decision is seen as blatantly retaliatory and a dangerous move against science.

Proponents of driverless cars often tout them as a safer alternative to cars with human drivers—but such claims don’t appear to be holding up so far in the case of Tesla’s Robotaxis.

A Monday report from Elektrek found that Tesla Robotaxis are crashing much more frequently than cars driven by humans, as the company has now reported eight crashes of its driverless taxi fleet in Austin, Texas to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration since July.

The writer John McPhee once described Alaska’s Salmon River as having “the clearest, purest water” he’d ever seen. Today, that same river runs orange with toxic metals unleashed by thawing permafrost.

“During the summer of 2019, the clear waters of the Salmon turned distinctly orange and have remained discolored and turbid since,” according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The Salmon River’s transformation represents a much larger crisis. In Alaska’s Brooks Range,75 streams have “recently turned orange and turbid,” the study found.

“This is what acid mine drainage looks like,” said Tim Lyons, a biogeochemist at the University of California, Riverside, and co-author of the study. “But here, there’s no mine. The permafrost is thawing and changing the chemistry of the landscape.”

Most of the incentives and regulatory requirements that spurred carmakers to build more EVs are gone. But there are more EVs on American roads than ever.

The shifts in the automaker's electric vehicle strategy will cost the Detroit automaker up to $1.9 billion in expenses and write-downs.

The startup built a compact solar-battery combo that connects directly to key household appliances, is easy to plug in, and requires no special permits.