BOSTON – Governor Maura Healey has filed reforms to implement a new streamlined process making it, according to the governor’s office, easier and faster to build homes and lower housing costs.

The reforms to the review process for housing development of the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act Office will make it faster, simpler, and more predictable while maintaining strong environmental protections, according to Healey’s office.

The reforms are set to take effect on January 30th.

Healey says review timelines will be shortened from years to just 30 days.

Wildfires in Chile's Ñuble and Biobío regions killed at least 18 people and forced over 50,000 to evacuate, highlighting the dangers of the worsening climate emergency.

On the heels of another historically hot year for Earth, disasters tied to the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency have yet again turned deadly, with wildfires in Chile’s Ñuble and Biobío regions killing at least 18 people—a figure that Chilean President Gabriel Boric said he expects to rise.

The South American leader on Sunday declared a “state of catastrophe” in the two regions, where ongoing wildfires have also forced more than 50,000 people to evacuate. The Associated Press reported that during a Sunday press conference in Concepción, Boric estimated that “certainly more than a thousand” homes had already been impacted in just Biobío.

Forests, especially old, undisturbed ones, not only contribute to replenishing our groundwater but also act as the first source of filtration for streams, ponds, and reservoirs.

150 million people in the United States have some of their drinking water filtered by forests. Forests, especially old, undisturbed ones, not only contribute to replenishing our groundwater but also act as the first source of filtration for streams, ponds, and reservoirs. Approximately 74 percent of all water in the U.S. is sourced from above-ground water sources. Prioritizing the protection of old-growth forests is an easy way to ensure that we continue to supply Americans with clean drinking water. 

I watched the late afternoon sun sparkle and dance across the water of a Rio Grande tributary in northern New Mexico. I marveled at the healing this small river has undergone. Today, the riverbed is reconnected to its floodplain and flowing in numerous interconnected channels and wetlands. But a few years ago, this view was dramatically different as this river was eroded six feet below its bank and there were no beavers in sight.

What Was Taken from Our Rivers

Prior to European colonization, North American rivers contained millions of beaver dams and large amounts of woody debris, such as large dead trees. Soon, however, people began to rapidly remove woody debris and beavers were indiscriminately trapped to provide for the European fur trade.  Prior to trapping, the North American beaver population was estimated to be around 400 million. It’s roughly 12 million today, and most experts believe beavers are functionally extinct, meaning they do not exist in numbers that result in ecosystem improvements. 

Ohio is letting the oil and gas industry put more toxic waste underground despite community concerns — even as the state defers to local opponents of of clean energy.

The Trump administration is continuing its all-out assault on public lands and waters in Alaska’s Arctic to maximize oil and gas drilling for the benefit of corporate polluters.

Earthjustice has spent decades fending off oil and gas drilling proposals in the region’s most sensitive landscapes to protect irreplaceable ecosystems, traditional ways of life, and our planet. By fighting to keep fossil fuels in the ground in Alaska and elsewhere, we are helping to rein in a worsening climate crisis that is warming the Arctic nearly four times faster than anywhere else. Alaska needs ways to power its economy that respect its lands and people – not this.

Now this work is more urgent than ever.

NASA released its findings on 2025 temperatures, but unlike previous agency statements, this one does not mention climate change—in line with the Trump administration's sweeping war on science.

Thirty-one people died. More than 16,000 homes, businesses and other structures burned between Altadena, Pacific Palisades and Malibu a year ago.

Just 10 homes have been rebuilt – one of the numbers that tell a powerful story. But climate reporter Dorany Pineda and photographer Jae C. Hong report on a less visible struggle – people whose homes are standing but were contaminated with toxic smoke, soot and ash. What lurks inside has been a secondary trauma.

The environmental difficulties in California are frequently seen following major disasters, particularly in flooding, which can expose people to all kinds of toxins carried by the waters.

The frozen edges of Antarctica are less stable than they appear. Beneath the wide, seemingly immovable shelves of ice, the ocean is at work. Currents carry heat into hidden cavities, silently reshaping the foundation of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Most of what lies below the ice remains out of reach. Or at least, it did.

In recent years, scientists have begun to penetrate these spaces using advanced autonomous vehicles. These underwater robots are deployed beneath the shelves to map terrain, measure melt, and study how seawater and glacial ice interact in places satellites cannot see. One such mission, conducted beneath the Dotson Ice Shelf, returned with the most detailed images yet of an Antarctic glacier’s underside.

Then the robot disappeared. But, before contact was lost, it had recorded unexpected structures beneath the ice.

CAPE & ISLANDS – State officials with the Department of Energy and Environmental Affairs have announced that Nantucket County has moved into a state of critical drought, while significant

drought conditions continue throughout Cape Cod. 

The update mirrors declining trends in the Northeast and Southeast coastal regions, with the exception of Dukes County, where drought conditions are no longer present.  

An Interior Department memo is hampering wind and solar on public lands. It’s one of many federal actions slowing the build-out of cheap, clean energy.

The US government used to have American farmers’ backs, but that support has been dwindling for decades. New subsidies signal big changes for farmers.

Pennsylvania contains almost 83,000 miles of rivers and streams, ranging from small trickles to large rivers. These waterways are important because they provide water for people, farms, and industries; provide habitat for many kinds of wildlife and fish; and also provide us with great places to fish, swim, and boat.

As our landscape changes, it begins to have an impact on stream health. What we do on or to the land affects both the quantity (volume) and quality (pollutant levels) of the water in our streams and lakes. The land area through which any water moves, or drains, to reach a stream is called a watershed.

Drivers exposed to several types of life-threatening oil and gas waste are now asking the Department of Transportation to enforce regulations to protect them.

Sure, coal had a comeback in 2025. But the year also marked the first time Texas got more power from solar than from the increasingly expensive fossil.

It started with an order to restore climate funding for blue states, and ended today with yet another judge saying Trump can't halt offshore wind construction.