At least 94 people died and dozens remain missing after heavy rain triggered flooding and mudslides in the Brazilian city of Petrópolis this week, Reuters reports.
The big picture: The death toll is expected to rise as rescue workers continue to wade through the destruction left in Brazil's so-called "Imperial City." Hundreds have been displaced.
A new study found that the West is experiencing an increasing occurrence of hot, dry nights that are contributing to more intense wildfires.
Why it matters: The trends identified in the study, published in the journal Nature, mean that wildfires are able to grow larger and destroy more structures than they used to. It also means less rest for firefighters.
Google will help its Cloud users save energy and reduce emissions by providing new tools to let them manage energy use from their idle projects.
Driving the news: Google on Wednesday introduced the Carbon Sense suite. It's a collection of features that aims to help companies quantify and report their emissions, as well as reduce them.
IBM will provide pro bono tech services and expertise to organizations serving communities vulnerable to climate change and other environmental hazards.
Driving the news: The tech giant's new IBM Sustainability Accelerator is live today with a public request for proposals from nonprofit and government organizations. The 2022 awards will focus on clean energy.
The plume from an undersea volcanic eruption near the uninhabited island of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai last month reached the mesosphere — the third layer of Earth's atmosphere, according to NASA.
Why it matters: NASA scientists estimate that it was likely the highest volcanic plume ever recorded, with gas, steam and ash rising 36 miles after the explosion, the aftereffects of which killed at least three people in Tonga.
Former longtime National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins will step in as interim science adviser to President Biden, while Alondra Nelson — the deputy director at the Office of Science and Technology Policy — will step into the top role at that agency, the White House announced Wednesday.
Why it matters: The moves establish leadership for the White House in terms of climate policy, in the fallout of the resignation of Eric Lander, who was found to have violated the Biden administration's workplace policy by bullying staff.
Researchers have developed an algorithm to control the hot, chaotic plasma that fuels fusion energy reactors.
Why it matters: The plasma in fusion reactors needs to be controlled in order to extract energy from the reactions. Fusion is a potential source of clean fuel that has long been promised — but not yet delivered.
The U.S. is poised to see as much of a rise in sea levels through the year 2050 as it has experienced in the past century, with additional increases through 2150, according to a comprehensive new federal report out Tuesday.
Why it matters: Sea-level rise is one of the most tangible present-day effects from human-caused climate change that is being felt in the U.S., with coastal flood events becoming far more common and damaging in just the past few decades.
A new analysis offers a sobering window into the challenge of slashing emissions enough to meet the temperature-limiting goals of the Paris Agreement.
Driving the news: The International Energy Agency explores per-capita emissions of people born in different decades that would be consistent with a pathway to net-zero global emissions by 2050.
There's already enough offshore wind power in the U.S. development pipeline to exceed the White House target of 30 gigawatts of capacity by 2030, per S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Why it matters: Marine wind power, a largely untapped resource in the U.S., is among the tools that can help decarbonize the country's electricity.
The Biden administration is expected to reinstate California's authority to set stricter tail pipe emissions rules as early as Wednesday, the New York Times first reported.
Why it matters: The move would restore California's ability to be an environmental regulator after former President Trump stripped the state of that when he was in office.
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