The hottest Climate change Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Climate & Environment Topics

When All the Buffers Empty

Anima Mundi • 1030 implied HN points • 15 Mar 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. Modern civilization is held up by many buffers — savings, ecosystems, reserves, and redundant systems — and many of those buffers are now nearly empty, so a single shock can cause multiple systems to strain or fail at once.
  2. The Strait of Hormuz closure showed a hidden danger: fuel and sulfur disruptions also stop nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers from moving, threatening spring planting and risking sharply lower harvests and higher food prices months later.
  3. Background trends — faster warming, slow carbon releases from boreal peat, ocean nutrient shifts, insect collapses, and material bottlenecks like copper — are accelerating systemic risk and weakening the energy transition and governance, which means we urgently need institutions that synthesize knowledge across domains to spot and manage these convergences.

Now comes the heat

The Crucial Years • 7892 implied HN points • 13 Mar 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. A strong "super" El Niño looks likely and, combined with already record-warm oceans and a powerful heat dome, will drive unprecedented heat, worsening droughts, fires, and chaotic weather over the next year.
  2. Weather and water systems are more vulnerable than ever. Forecasting capabilities have been degraded by data cuts just as snowpacks and reservoirs hit record lows, raising the risk of surprise disasters and real shortages.
  3. Energy politics are amplifying the crisis—war and fossil-fuel leverage are driving up prices while utilities and some politicians push back against rooftop solar and climate laws, even as cheap, flexible solar technologies offer a fast path to cleaner, decentralized power.

So You Want to Learn Geoengineering?

Popular Rationalism • 1069 implied HN points • 10 Oct 24
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. Geoengineering is a real science aimed at fighting climate change. It includes methods like cloud seeding and solar reflection, but it needs full public transparency since it could affect everyone.
  2. There’s a long history of weather manipulation efforts, like Project Cirrus and Project Stormfury. Many of these projects had mixed results, leading to both discoveries and unexpected consequences.
  3. Public engagement is key for geoengineering to be used responsibly. People need to stay informed and participate in discussions about these technologies to ensure decisions are made ethically and transparently.

Notes on winter

The Crucial Years • 2720 implied HN points • 08 Feb 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. Winter offers special pleasures — the slick freedom of skating and skiing, the hush of fresh snow, and a playful elegance you don’t get in other seasons.
  2. Climate change is eroding winter: Arctic sea ice loss, fewer freezing days, and declining snowpacks are shortening the season and threatening winter landscapes and sports.
  3. People and institutions are pushing back — athletes, activists, businesses and technologists are advocating for climate action and building alternatives like EVs, new batteries, and more solar to help protect winters and public health.
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Space Junk: The Hidden Cost of Satellite Boom

Adetokunbo Sees • 104 implied HN points • 15 Mar 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. Companies plan to launch tens of thousands of low‑Earth‑orbit satellites, massively increasing orbital congestion and the number of objects burning up in the atmosphere.
  2. Satellites and rockets release pollutants like alumina, black carbon, and lithium when they burn up or launch, which can harm the ozone layer, warm the upper atmosphere, and accelerate climate change.
  3. Adopting sustainable manufacturing, better launch trajectories, carbon offsets, and stronger regulation could reduce these environmental risks, but without such measures the satellite boom could seriously alter climate, precipitation, and polar ice.

Greenland has a 'vital strategic asset'

The Crucial Years • 4115 implied HN points • 06 Jan 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. Greenland's massive ice sheet is its most important strategic asset because if it melts it could raise global sea levels by many feet and disrupt ocean currents, changing climates and flooding coastlines worldwide.
  2. Talk of seizing Greenland is a dangerous, colonial-minded idea that would violate Greenlanders' sovereignty, strain international alliances, and overlooks that most Greenlanders oppose joining the U.S.; Greenland has already banned new oil exploration and relies largely on renewables.
  3. Practical climate action works and matters: community organizing, clean transport like e-bikes, and renewable projects (from floating offshore solar to solar on reclaimed Superfund land) can help, but policy choices — for example on energy-efficiency standards for manufactured homes — will determine who benefits and who pays.

Global Tropical Cyclone Landfalls

The Honest Broker Newsletter • 2188 implied HN points • 15 Jan 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. 2025 was a fairly typical year for global tropical cyclone landfalls, with 19 landfalls worldwide and 7 of those being major hurricanes.
  2. Long-term records (1970–2025) show no clear upward trend in global landfall frequency, though the proportion of landfalls that are major storms has increased and may be part of natural multi-decadal variability.
  3. Historical cyclone data are heterogeneous and observation changes make trend detection and attribution difficult. As a result, confidence in long-term trends is low and a clear human-caused signal in landfall frequency or economic losses may not be detectable for decades.

Buried by Snow—and by Shaky Science

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 445 implied HN points • 25 Feb 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. Recent winters have felt more extreme, but scientists currently don’t have strong evidence that the most intense nor’easters are getting steadily stronger over the long term.
  2. The IPCC plays a key role by sorting through hundreds of different and sometimes conflicting studies to give cautious, evidence-based conclusions instead of relying on any single paper.
  3. Science advances by testing claims, being honest about uncertainty, and changing course when new evidence shows earlier conclusions were wrong.

Consequences of Climate Change

David Friedman’s Substack • 314 implied HN points • 02 Mar 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. In the short run, warming tends to make us worse off because societies and systems are optimized for current conditions, but over centuries people can move, change crops, and adapt so long-run effects may be less harmful or even beneficial.
  2. Moderate warming can increase habitable land (cold areas warm more than hot ones) and CO2 fertilization raises crop yields and lowers water needs, while land loss from sea-level rise is much smaller than these potential gains.
  3. Burning all known fossil fuels could raise global temperatures by roughly 12°C over millennia and raise sea level by about 50 meters, which would be severe for many regions but, judging by past warm periods, not necessarily globally uninhabitable; the rate of warming matters because rapid change would be far more catastrophic than slow change that allows adaptation.

Global Shield Briefing (23 October 2024)

Global Shield's Newsletter • 59 implied HN points • 23 Oct 24
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. Many countries are focusing on improving civil defense. This means everyone from the government to local communities needs to work together to be prepared for emergencies.
  2. Climate change is making existing global threats worse. Problems like pandemics and geopolitical tensions are now linked to changes in the climate.
  3. People need to listen actively to warnings about risks. If the audience isn't ready or willing to hear these messages, the warnings may not help at all.

The Four Withdrawals

Anima Mundi • 576 implied HN points • 02 Feb 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. We are quietly withdrawing our commitment to maintaining shared systems and infrastructure. Trading resilience for short-term efficiency shrinks margins for error and makes cascading failures and inequality more likely.
  2. The planet is storing heat and the impacts keep accumulating, so climate-driven risks will persist and compound even without dramatic new events. That truth erodes confidence in a stable future and reduces people's willingness to invest in long-term projects.
  3. Trust, cooperation, and belief in the future are fraying as people and nations pull back from each other, from treaties, and even from having children. That loss of social commitment undermines our ability to solve shared problems and sustain institutions.

The Blue Whales Have Stopped Singing

Caitlin’s Newsletter • 2370 implied HN points • 08 Dec 25
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. The natural world is collapsing — whales fall silent, krill vanish, and oceans warm, signaling urgent ecological decline.
  2. Communities and people are enduring deep social and economic collapse, with addiction, abandoned towns, war, and widespread human suffering intertwined.
  3. In response to this ruin, small acts of tenderness and solidarity — meeting, sharing stories, and tending to one another’s wounds — offer a way to cope, resist, and heal.

On Becoming The First Species To Go Extinct From Politeness

Caitlin’s Newsletter • 2468 implied HN points • 04 Dec 25
🌍 World Politics Climate change
  1. Politeness and widespread obedience let powerful elites run dangerous agendas—like environmental destruction, nuclear brinkmanship, and unregulated AI—without accountability, creating an existential threat.
  2. It would be absurd and humiliating if our species went extinct simply because we were too reluctant to confront those causing the harm, especially if we’re among the first intelligent civilizations.
  3. We need to stop prioritizing politeness over survival by confronting and holding the rich and powerful accountable through resistance and collective action before it’s too late.

Learn smart lessons from the L.A. fires, not stupid lessons

Noahpinion • 30118 implied HN points • 10 Jan 25
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. Wildfires are getting more common, and insurance companies can't keep up. When too many people claim losses at once, some might not get paid.
  2. Climate change is making wildfires worse, but we can't change it overnight. It's a big issue that affects fire patterns.
  3. We really need to prepare for wildfires better than before because they are becoming more frequent and damaging. Improving forest management and regulations is crucial.

Greenland Fantasia

Justin E. H. Smith's Hinternet • 483 implied HN points • 25 Jan 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. Greenland's future is framed as crucial to the fate of the whole planet, highlighting its global environmental and geopolitical importance.
  2. Historical imagery of a Moravian mission ties Greenland's colonial and cultural past to present concerns, suggesting history matters for understanding its current challenges.
  3. The content sits behind a paid, subscription-based publication and is presented as exclusive, with clear prompts encouraging readers to subscribe.

One Thing Becomes A Million Things

Everything Is Amazing • 801 implied HN points • 17 Jan 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. Sleeping outdoors can turn a vague idea of "nature" into a million small details — learning to ID trees and routines makes the world feel more familiar and alive.
  2. Modern wild camping is often practical and gear-driven: people use tarps, ridgelines, cars or vans, gyms and laundrettes to make living outside feasible while trying to follow Leave No Trace.
  3. It comes with real trade-offs — legal and safety risks, a risk of feeling privileged or exploitative, and the danger of treating nature as a quick health cure — so be cautious, respectful and realistic.

Is this a watershed moment?

NN Journal • 178 implied HN points • 03 Oct 24
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. Northamptonshire experienced the wettest September on record, leading to serious flooding and a review of flood management systems in the area.
  2. Experts emphasize the need for communities to adapt to climate change to become more resilient against flooding risks.
  3. Local leaders are seeking funding to improve flood defenses, as more extreme weather events are expected in the future.

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and "Love" The Collapse

OK Doomer • 196 implied HN points • 20 Feb 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. People are moving past mourning the old future and choosing practical action. They’re learning skills like growing food, installing power systems, and staying healthy to survive and thrive.
  2. Community resilience is rising as friends and neighbors start homesteading where they live and building local networks and shared resources. At the same time, people are staying cautious about what they share and who they trust.
  3. The larger system is collapsing, so the focus has shifted from trying to save it to making a soft landing and building alternative systems. The priority now is preserving what can survive and creating practical, local solutions.

Biden's media problem

Slow Boring • 7173 implied HN points • 22 Jan 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Climate change
  1. The media landscape skews left due to demographics, influencing the coverage of political topics
  2. Media coverage focuses more on student loans than Medicare, impacting public perception of key policies
  3. Left-wing media's emphasis on negativity can hinder positive reporting on successful policies

A Takeover of the IPCC

The Honest Broker Newsletter • 4102 implied HN points • 20 Aug 25
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. The IPCC is changing its approach to studying extreme weather events. Instead of just focusing on long-term changes, they are now looking at specific events and linking them to climate change.
  2. The new author team for the IPCC's report seems to be mainly focused on extreme event attribution, which may lead to more politically motivated claims about climate change and disasters.
  3. There are conflicting views in scientific studies about whether climate change is increasing monsoon rainfall in places like Pakistan. This shows the challenges and complexities involved in understanding climate impacts.

Chewing the cud could sink the planet

The Global Jigsaw • 119 implied HN points • 04 Oct 24
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. Raising cows and sheep produces a lot of methane, which is a major contributor to climate change. This is because methane is released when these animals digest their food and is much worse for the planet than carbon dioxide.
  2. Livestock generates 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions, which is even more than the transport sector. This includes not just the methane from their digestion, but also emissions from raising feed and pasture.
  3. A Japanese seaweed startup has found a way to cut methane emissions from cows by adding a specific type of red algae to their feed. This could reduce their methane output by more than 90%.

Human Progress versus Climate Evangelism

The Honest Broker Newsletter • 4583 implied HN points • 21 Jul 25
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. The first half of 2025 saw remarkably low deaths from extreme weather events, much lower than the historical average. This suggests significant progress in disaster management and safety.
  2. Despite these achievements, there is a push from climate advocates to create more fear about climate change, aiming to mobilize public concern and policy changes.
  3. It's important to recognize and celebrate the progress made in reducing weather-related deaths while being cautious about the narrative that emphasizes only the dangers.

A low point

The Crucial Years • 817 implied HN points • 19 Dec 25
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. There’s a clear sense of being at a low point and feeling emotionally strained.
  2. There’s cautious hope that things will get better, but that optimism is tentative and uncertain.
  3. The content is behind a paywall and only available to paid subscribers, requiring subscription or sign-in to access.

Revenge of the Wild: The Changing Game of Human-Wildlife Conflict

Adetokunbo Sees • 312 implied HN points • 25 Jan 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. Many animals are changing their feeding habits and moving into human areas — mosquitoes, elephants, and rats are leaving shrinking habitats, raiding crops and settlements, and living off our waste.
  2. This shift is increasing human–wildlife conflict now and is expected to grow by 2050, with more places becoming suitable for disease-carrying mosquitoes, crop-raiding elephants, and larger urban rat populations.
  3. Experts say preventing worse conflicts means cutting fossil fuel use, reducing consumption, and switching to renewable energy to slow climate change and protect habitats.

Emissions Scenarios, CWG Fact Check 1

The Honest Broker Newsletter • 3699 implied HN points • 03 Aug 25
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. Recent projections of climate change are showing less severe outcomes than before. This means the future might not be as bad as some had predicted.
  2. Scientists have recently agreed that the world will probably warm less than previously thought. This is a positive development and could change how we approach climate policies.
  3. Regulations aimed at reducing emissions, like those from the EPA, might not have a big impact on global emissions. More effective methods to tackle climate change could be needed.

An Eerie Light

The Crucial Years • 3457 implied HN points • 08 Aug 25
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. America's relationship with science is changing. Instead of supporting scientific exploration, there seems to be a trend towards cutting funding for important research, which is really concerning.
  2. Fairness in society is declining, with actions that reverse progress made in terms of equality. This includes moves against voting rights and support for disadvantaged communities, showing a shift away from promoting fairness.
  3. A sense of servility is growing, where companies and individuals seem to be bowing down to those in power instead of standing up for democratic values. It's important to resist and push for change where we can.

Pouring Literal Gasoline on the Fires of Hate

The Crucial Years • 827 implied HN points • 05 Dec 25
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. Someone is literally pouring gasoline on fires of hate, signaling a direct and dangerous escalation that intensifies harm.
  2. The line "Not a metaphor, not at all" emphasizes that the action is meant to be taken literally rather than figuratively.
  3. The full discussion is behind a paid subscription, so detailed coverage is available only to paying readers.

The Silent Fall: How Climate Change Is Killing the World’s Trees - and our Future

Adetokunbo Sees • 312 implied HN points • 18 Jan 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. Trees worldwide — old growth, newly planted, and reforested — are dying much faster because of hotter, drier conditions, wildfires, pests and disease linked to climate change.
  2. Widespread tree loss could release huge amounts of carbon, raise local temperatures, worsen flooding, and threaten species and human resources like medicine, food and fuel.
  3. Preventing a worse crisis requires cutting emissions and protecting existing forests; shifting to renewables and safeguarding old-growth trees are key since many new saplings also fail to survive.

Can we break the human development-environment trade-off?

Sustainability by numbers • 761 implied HN points • 09 Dec 25
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. For the first time we can improve human wellbeing while reducing environmental harm. Cheap clean energy, smarter farming, and meat alternatives make less-damaging development feasible.
  2. Many major gains in health, education, and poverty reduction were achieved at a big environmental cost, especially from fossil fuels and expanded agriculture, while earlier societies had lower impact but much worse living conditions.
  3. Breaking the trade-off is an opportunity, not inevitable — it requires deliberate investments, policies, and support for poorer countries; the world is still awful in many ways, but it is also much better than before and can become much better.

Ice: The Penultimate Frontier

Transhuman Axiology • 813 implied HN points • 13 Jul 24
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. Floating ice islands could be a practical solution for creating new land, much cheaper than colonizing other planets. We already have icebergs that can be transformed into usable land without the high costs of space travel.
  2. The process to insulate these icebergs from melting is affordable and could really help maintain their size for a long time. Using air and lightweight materials, we can keep the ice from melting when in warm waters.
  3. Setting up a community or business on these ice islands might be more viable than starting a space colony. It’s a way to explore new opportunities without the severe risks and costs associated with space exploration.

Chartbook 402 Dual-circulation: travels through China in the summer of 2025.

Chartbook • 2818 implied HN points • 05 Aug 25
🌍 World Politics Climate change
  1. China's rapid urbanization and industrial growth have created cities and infrastructure on a scale that is unmatched anywhere else in the world. This makes understanding urban life in China crucial for grasping modern global dynamics.
  2. Experiencing life in China can shift your focus away from Western issues, highlighting how unique and self-contained China's culture and economy are. This perspective helps recognize China's central role in shaping global development.
  3. The concept of 'dual circulation' reflects how China engages with the world economically, emphasizing its independent and dynamic growth model, which is different from Western narratives. This indicates a new phase in globalization that moves beyond Western frameworks.

Quit your job, start a farm, write a book

As If We Were Staying • 15 implied HN points • 13 Mar 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. A personal journey from biotech and capitalist life to regenerative farming shows that confronting climate reality often means remaking your life and work to fit a future that can last.
  2. Seeing capitalism like a tumor highlights how systems shape people’s habits and protections, so real change means healing both the structures and the people adapted to them.
  3. The answer lies in relational thinking and local care — reconnecting with land and community through restorative practices creates hopeful, durable ways of living.

Shameless Self-Promotion

The Crucial Years • 2869 implied HN points • 19 Jul 25
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. The last few years have shown a big rise in clean energy, like solar and wind, which is starting to replace fossil fuels. This change is important because it can help fight climate change.
  2. Even though clean energy is getting cheaper and more available, there are still challenges to overcome, like the fossil fuel industry trying to hold back progress. Sticking together and pushing for change is essential.
  3. The book promotes the idea that clean energy should no longer be seen as an 'alternative' but as the main way to power our world. It emphasizes that moving away from fossil fuels can lead to a more equal and sustainable future.

A bunch of handy charts about climate change

Noahpinion • 21882 implied HN points • 13 Feb 24
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. Climate change is becoming increasingly severe, evidenced by events like record-breaking heat, melting sea ice, and more frequent natural disasters.
  2. Efforts to address climate change are promising, with advancements in green technologies like solar power and batteries offering hope for managing the crisis.
  3. The responsibility for carbon emissions is shifting, with developed countries like the US and Europe reducing emissions significantly, while countries like China remain major contributors.

More from a sense of duty...

The Crucial Years • 3059 implied HN points • 30 Jun 25
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. It's important to show our duty as citizens, even if things seem tough. Making calls to our Senators about energy policies can make a difference.
  2. Legislation aimed at slowing down clean energy is harmful to everyone, risking jobs, increasing electricity costs, and making it harder to fight climate change.
  3. We need to rebuild support for renewable energy like solar power and take collective action to make our voices heard, especially in response to bad legislation.

Shape-Shifting Planet: How Rising Heat Is Reshaping Life on Earth

Adetokunbo Sees • 104 implied HN points • 07 Feb 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. Global temperatures have risen rapidly in recent decades, producing the hottest years on record and pushing warming toward and beyond pre-industrial levels.
  2. Rising heat is already forcing biological changes — animals and plants are shifting ranges, changing body size and breeding times, and showing genetic responses to survive higher temperatures.
  3. If warming continues, habitat loss, higher mortality, and widespread coral bleaching will worsen. Continued burning of fossil fuels is a main driver and reducing it is needed to avoid the worst impacts.

Seventh Plan’s the Charm

Doomberg • 6232 implied HN points • 11 Jan 25
🌞 Climate & Environment Climate change
  1. Japan relies heavily on imports for its energy needs, which makes having a strong energy plan very important for the country. They need reliable and cheap energy to stay competitive in the global economy.
  2. After the Fukushima disaster in 2011, Japan's use of nuclear energy dropped significantly, but there are now efforts to reopen some reactors. This shift back to nuclear energy is seen as crucial for Japan's energy strategy.
  3. The upcoming Seventh Strategic Energy Plan will outline Japan’s energy goals for the next few years. This plan will impact investments and the country's approach to energy efficiency and renewable sources.