As reported by the New York Times, the court has agreed to hear arguments related to a petition filed by ExxonMobil and Canadian energy firm Suncor related to a 2018 lawsuit by the city of Boulder, Colorado that seeks financial damages from the companies for their role in causing global climate change.
The Times report noted that dozens of similar lawsuits have been filed by states and municipalities over the last decade, and they generally seek money from energy firms to help mitigate or repair damage done by extreme weather exacerbated by the climate crisis.
According to the Associated Press, attorneys for the energy companies are petitioning to have the case moved from state courts to federal courts that have in the past dismissed similar complaints.
“The use of state law to address global climate change represents a serious threat to one of our nation’s most critical sectors,” the attorneys claimed.
The Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case comes months after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Boulder’s lawsuit could initiate the discovery process and move toward a trial.
In an interview with the Colorado Sun, Boulder County Commissioner Ashley Stolzmann said that the city wasn’t backing down from its efforts make the fossil fuel industry pay for the damage it’s done.
“The oil companies have tried every avenue to delay our climate accountability case or move it to an out-of-state court system,” said Stolzmann. “As everyone continues to face rising costs that put budgets under pressure, we must hold oil companies accountable for the significant harm they’ve caused our communities.”
Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity, said that the merits of the Boulder lawsuit are clear, regardless of the Supreme Court’s intervention.
“Big Oil’s climate lies are the most consequential and harmful corporate deception campaign in history,” Wiles said, “and the communities paying the price for that deception deserve to put these companies on trial. Exxon’s desperation to escape accountability does not change the evidence of their wrongdoing or the law that lower courts agree is on Boulder’s side.”
Alyssa Johl, vice president of legal and general counsel at the Center for Climate Integrity, said the Supreme Court should simply affirm lower court rulings stating that “communities like Boulder have the right to seek accountability in their state courts when corporations have knowingly caused local harms.”
Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.Orcas discuss Donald Trump and the killer apes’ concept of democracy. Front Orca warns that Trump is crashing his country’s economy and that everything he does he does for the fantastically wealthy.Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
In 1976, the film Network premiered, featuring one of the most iconic scenes in film history. Howard Beale, played by Peter Finch, unleashes a rant that would be right at home in the present day:
“We know things are bad—worse than bad. They’re crazy. It’s like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don’t go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, ‘Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms.’”
He was right, then and now. And while Beale was raving against the media’s pursuit of sensationalism over journalistic integrity, we see the same thing happening today. Things are indeed bad, to put it mildly, and we do not have the luxury of hiding away in our living rooms.
In early January of this year, a New York Times headline read, “The EPA will stop considering lives saved when setting pollution limits and instead calculate only the cost to businesses.” The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) is openly letting the American people know that it does not care about us. Dead people are just the cost of doing business, and boy, business is booming.
In yet another glaring example of the business owners and the ruling class placing profits over people, the EPA under the current Republican administration is shifting its policy from environmental protection to the economic costs of regulations. The EPA will no longer track the health impacts of air pollution or quantify the financial impacts of health improvements; instead, it will focus on the financial impact of regulations on businesses. The return of the days when smog was a staple in large metro areas is looking to make a comeback, and it’s only a matter of time before the Cuyahoga River catches fire again.
The shift at the EPA is at odds with the Make America Healthy Again movement, but then again, so is nearly everything else in this administration. While the MAHA movement continues to wage a war against vaccines, thereby ensuring a victory for preventable diseases, the American people will soon be dealing with a rise in air pollution. Clean air and water, once considered a human right, are an impediment to big business shareholders, and the Trump administration sided with big business.
At the same time, the EPA under the Trump administration revoked all scientific findings that greenhouse gases endanger public health. This revocation comes on the heels of the past three years being the hottest years on record. While states and cities grapple with the escalating costs of dealing with extreme weather, the federal government has not only effectively abandoned them but also removed years of climate research and findings.
President Donald Trump departs with Environmental Protection Agency director Lee Zeldin and Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought, right after announcing the EPA will no longer regulate greenhouse gases, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026, in Washington.| Evan Vucci/AP
“President Trump will be taking the most significant deregulatory actions in history to further unleash American energy dominance and drive down costs,” said White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt. Lower costs are not only a plus, but they will also be necessary, as we will need more money to offset the rising healthcare costs associated with polluted air.
Michelle Roos, executive director of the Environmental Protection Network, a group of former EPA employees, said, “Communities across the country will bear the brunt of this decision–through dirtier air, higher health costs, and increased climate harm. The Trump EPA is surrendering its responsibility, turning its back on families and communities already facing the highest pollution and health risks, and dismantling decades of science and progress.”
It comes as no surprise, then, that Big Oil spent almost half a billion dollars on the last election. Oil company CEOs and shareholders need allies in powerful places, and it doesn’t get any higher than Congress and the President. And no one spends that much money without expecting large dividends.
A panel of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) recently released a statement reading, in part, “The evidence for current and future harm to human health and welfare created by human-caused greenhouse gases is beyond scientific dispute.” The current argument against this is “nuh uh,” often used by the dumbest people you went to high school with, making it very difficult to know who to believe.
The most recent National Climate Assessment, released in 2023, reported that temperatures in the contiguous U.S. have increased by 1.4 °C since 1970. The frequency of annual heat waves has tripled since the 1960s, while storms are producing heavier rainfall, and wildfires have become more severe. Since the Earth is on track to reach 2-3 °C, we are rapidly approaching the point of no return, where climate scientists say that no matter what we do to mitigate climate change, it will be too little, too late.
Recent scientific findings point to tipping points that, in turn, lead to feedback loops. The destruction of the Amazon rainforest releases carbon into the air that would otherwise not have been released, thereby amplifying global warming. Capitalists are actively killing the planet in the name of profit, and since money is all they care about, there is no incentive for them to stop. It also doesn’t help that most of them are sociopaths. And because there is a lack of class consciousness in the U.S., this Steinbeck quote is all the more relevant: “I guess the trouble was that we didn’t have any self-admitted proletarians. Everyone was a temporarily embarrassed capitalist.”
The ruling class loves to place the blame on the working class, insisting that we carpool and recycle our cardboard boxes and plastic bottles. And while we should do these things, that alone will not solve our problem, and it ignores the fact that over 70% of emissions come from 100 corporations. They want us to carpool so they don’t have to pay for public transportation, and they want us to recycle our cardboard so we feel like we’re saving the planet from the comfort of our living room. We do not have that luxury, which means Howard Beale was right.
As with all news-analysis and op-ed articles published by People’s World, the views reflected here are those of the author.
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Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Keeping global warming to less than 2C above pre-industrial temperatures is “crucial” for limiting damage to the Antarctic Peninsula’s unique ecosystems, according to a new study.
The paper, published in Frontiers in Environmental Science, reviews the latest literature on the impacts of warming on Antarctica’s most biodiverse region.
The Antarctic Peninsula is home to many types of penguins, whales and seals, as well as the continent’s only two flowering plant species.
The study also analyses previously published data and model output to create a fuller picture of the potential futures facing the peninsula under different levels of global warming.
Under a low-emissions scenario that keeps global temperature rise to less than 2C, the Antarctic Peninsula will still face 2.28C of warming by the end of the century, the study says, while higher-emissions futures could push the region’s warming above 5C.
Limiting warming to 2C would avoid the more dramatic impacts associated with higher emissions, such as ice-shelf collapse, increasingly frequent extreme weather events and extinction of some of the peninsula’s native species, according to the paper.
However, warming of 4C would result in “dramatic and irreversible” damages, it adds.
Importantly, the paper shows that the outlook for the peninsula is “dependent on the choices we make now and in the near future”, a researcher not involved in the study tells Carbon Brief.
‘Alternative futures’
The Antarctic Peninsula juts northwards from West Antarctica, stretching towards the tip of South America.
The region is made up of the main peninsula, which spans around 232,000 square kilometres (km2) and a series of islands and archipelagos that cover another 80,000km2. The mainland peninsula is nearly entirely covered in ice, while its islands – many of which are further north – are around 92% covered.
Taken as a whole, the Antarctic Peninsula is the most biodiverse region of the icy continent, and a “beautiful, pristine environment”, says Prof Bethan Davies, a glaciologist at Newcastle University, who led the new work.
It hosts many species of penguins and whales, as well as apex predators, such as orcas and leopard seals. Each spring, more than 100m birds nest there to rear their young. It is also home to hundreds of species of moss and lichens, along with the only two flowering plant species on the continent.
In 2019, a group of researchers published a study on the fate of the Antarctic Peninsula at 1.5C of global warming above pre-industrial temperatures. However, it has since “become apparent” that keeping warming below this limit is no longer in reach, Davies says.
SSP1-2.6 represents the “new goal” of keeping warming less than 2C, Davies says.
SSP3-7.0 and SSP5-8.5 represent “alternative futures” – with the former being one that “felt quite relevant” to the current state of the world and the latter being “useful to consider as a high end”, she adds.
For each potential future, the researchers conducted a literature review to assess the changes to different parts of the peninsula’s physical and biological systems. To fill gaps in the published literature, the team also reanalysed existing datasets and results from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 6 (CMIP6) group of models developed for the IPCC’s latest assessment cycle.
“By choosing three different emissions scenarios, they’ve shown just how much variability there is in the possible future of the Antarctica Peninsula that is dependent on the choices we make now and in the near future.”
Buzzard, who was not involved in the new study, adds that it “highlights the consequences of this [change] for the glaciers, sea ice and unique wildlife habitats in this region”.
Physical changes
The Antarctic Peninsula is already experiencing climate change, with one record showing sustained warming over nearly a century. The peninsula is also warming more rapidly than the global average.
For the new study, Davies and her team assess the changes in temperature for the decade 2090-99 across 19 CMIP6 models.
They find that under the low-emissions scenario, the Antarctic Peninsula is projected to warm by 2.28C compared to pre-industrial temperatures, or about 0.55C above its current level of warming. Under the high- and very-high-emissions scenarios, the peninsula will reach temperatures of 5.22C and 6.10C above pre-industrial levels, respectively.
They also analyse output from 12 sea ice models.
In each scenario, they find that the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula experiences the largest declines in sea ice concentration during the winter months of June, July and August. For the southern hemisphere’s summertime, it is the eastern side of the peninsula that shows the largest decreases.
The maps below show the projected change in sea-ice concentration around the Antarctic Peninsula for each season (left to right) under low (top), high (middle) and very high (bottom) emissions. Decreasing concentrations are shown in blue and increasing concentrations are shown in red.
Changes in the concentration of sea ice around the Antarctic Peninsula in the 2090s, as compared to the 2020s. Decreases (increases) in sea ice concentration are shown in blue (red). The rows show the different future pathways (top to bottom): SSP1-2.6, SSP3-7.0 and SSP5-8.5. The columns show three-month chunks of the year (left to right): December, January and February; March, April and May; June, July and August; and September, October and November. Source: Davies et al. (2026)
The paper gives a “great overview of the current literature on the Antarctic Peninsula, examining multiple aspects of the region holistically”, Dr Tri Datta, a climate scientist at the Delft University of Technology, tells Carbon Brief.
However, Datta – who was not involved in the study – notes that the coarse resolution of CMIP6 models means that the “most vulnerable regions are too poorly represented to capture important feedbacks”, such as the forming of meltwater ponds on the tops of glaciers, which warm much more than the icy surface around them.
Ecosystem impacts
The study also looks at potential futures for the Antarctic Peninsula’s marine and terrestrial ecosystems – albeit, much more briefly than it examines the physical changes.
This is because modelling ecosystem change is very difficult, Davies explains:
“If you’re going to model an ecosystem, you have to model the climate and the ocean and the ice and how that changes. Exactly how that ecosystem responds to those changes is still beyond most of our Earth system models.”
Still, by looking at trends in the Antarctic over the past several decades, as well as changes that have occurred in other high-latitude regions, the researchers piece together some of the potential impacts of warming.
They conclude that under SSP1, the changes experienced by ecosystems are “uncertain”, but will “likely” be similar to present day – with some terrestrial species, such as its flowering plants, even benefitting from increased habitat area and water availability.
Flowering plants on rock crevices in Antarctica. Credit: Colin Harris / era-images / Alamy Stock Photo
However, under higher-emissions scenarios, species will become “increasingly likely” to experience warmer temperatures than they are suited for.
Other changes that may occur in the very-high-emissions scenario are closely linked to the projected reductions in sea ice. These include the increased spread of invasive alien species, reduced ranges for krill and the displacement of animals unable to tolerate the warmer temperatures by those more able to adapt.
Prof Scott Doney, an oceanographer and biogeochemist at the University of Virginia, notes that some of these changes are already happening. Doney, who was not involved in the study, is part of an ongoing research programme on the Antarctic Peninsula known as the Palmer Long-Term Ecological Research project.
He tells Carbon Brief that Adélie penguins, which are a polar species, have “seen a massive drop in their breeding population” at their research sites. Meanwhile, gentoo penguins – whose range extends into the subpolar regions – “have been quite opportunistic” in colonising those breeding sites.
‘Changes here first’
Antarctica is home to 50 year-round research stations and dozens of summer-only ones, operated by more than 30 countries.
Around a dozen year-round stations are found on the peninsula and its islands, including the oldest permanent settlement in Antarctica – Argentina’s Base Orcadas, established in 1903 by the Scottish national Antarctic expedition.
The continent is home to commercially important fisheries – particularly krill, which also play a critical role in the Antarctic marine food chain.
Increasingly, the Antarctic Peninsula is also a tourist destination.
Climate change poses a threat to all of these activities, Davies says.
For example, much of the research infrastructure on the Antarctic Peninsula was “built to assume dry, snowy conditions”, she says. Rain can “cause quite a lot of difficulty”, she adds.
(In an article published last year, Carbon Brief looked at the causes of rain in sub-zero temperatures in West Antarctica.)
Decreased sea ice cover can impact krill populations. It can also lead to increased ship traffic, as more of the continent becomes accessible throughout more of the year.
Furthermore, Davies says, the changes occurring on the peninsula will reverberate across Antarctica and around the world. She tells Carbon Brief:
“We’ll see changes here first and those changes will continue to be felt in West Antarctica and continent-wide…What happens in Antarctica doesn’t stay in Antarctica.”
Davies, B. J. et al. (2026). The Antarctic Peninsula under present day climate and future low, medium-high and very high emissions scenarios, Frontiers in Environmental Science, doi:10.3389/fenvs.2025.1730203.
Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
dizzy: The article discusses of global rises of 4C while humans won’t exist to witness that. It’s also unrealistic to expect limiting warming to 2C, that is so unlikely.
A technician works at an Amazon Web Services artificial intelligence data center in New Carlisle, Indiana on October 2, 2025. (Photo by Noah Berger/Getty Images via Amazon Web Services)
The New Brunswick, New Jersey City Council voted Wednesday to cancel plans to construct an artificial intelligence data center and instead build a new public park where the 27,000-square foot facility would have gone.
Artificial intelligence data centers—which house the servers and other infrastructure needed to train and power AI models—have major environmental and climate impacts, as they consume massive amounts of electricity and water, as well as rare earth metals and other resources.
According toNew Brunswick Patch, hundreds of people packed into Wednesday evening’s city hall meeting to voice concerns that the proposed data center would send their electricity and water bills skyrocketing, and that the facility would harm the environment.
“Many people did not want this in their neighborhood,” New Brunswick NAACP president Bruce Morgan said during the council meeting. “We don’t want these kinds of centers that’s going to take resources from the community.”
The site of the nixed data center, 100 Jersey Avenue, is already slated for development including 600 new apartments—10% of which will be affordable housing units—and warehouses for startups and other small businesses. Now, thanks to Wednesday’s vote, a park is on the agenda too.
“This is great news, no data center,” New Brunswick resident Anne Norris told Patch.
“My kids went through the public school system; we didn’t pay for lunch because we have so many families under the poverty line,” Norris said before taking aim at what she said was the dearth of affordable housing approved for the site.
“Given the economic status of the people who live in New Brunswick, I don’t think 10% is really sufficient,” she contended.
A data center in New Brunswick was canceled tonight when hundreds of residents showed up. When fight big tech and private equity we win. pic.twitter.com/doZ63Pdwue
Following the council meeting, jubilant residents celebrated the data center’s cancellation, chanting slogans including, “The people united will never be defeated!”
“We say a big ‘fuck you’ to Big Tech!” local organizer Ben Dziobek shouted to the crowd. “We say a big ‘fuck you’ to private equity! And it’s time to build communities, not data centers.”
dizzy: There’s a UK expression about getting your knickers in a twist – it’s about getting confused and making a mess of things … ed: might have a different meaning about getting frustrated by events which doesn’t really apply.
Orcas discuss Donald Trump and the killer apes’ concept of democracy. Front Orca warns that Trump is crashing his country’s economy and that everything he does he does for the fantastically wealthy.Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Ed Milband and Gavin Newsom at the signing event in London. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA
President says it is inappropriate for UK to be dealing with Gavin Newsom after Ed Miliband meets governor in London
Donald Trump has vented his fury against a green energy deal between the British government and California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, a likely future Democratic presidential candidate.
“The UK’s got enough trouble without getting involved with Gavin Newscum,” Trump said in an interview with Politico, using the derogatory nickname he reserves for Newsom. “Gavin is a loser. Everything he’s touched turns to garbage. His state has gone to hell, and his environmental work is a disaster.”
In an intervention that is likely to be clocked by British government officials wary of potential new landmines in the UK’s relationship with the White House, Trump went on to say it was “inappropriate” for Newsom to strike such agreements and “inappropriate for them [the UK] to be dealing with him”.
Newsom, one of the loudest domestic opponents of the US president on issues ranging from ICE deportation raids to the climate crisis, signed a memorandum of understanding in London with the UK’s energy secretary, Ed Miliband.
Their agreement is aimed at deepening existing cooperation between the UK and California and creates a new framework to scale up clean energy technologies and enhance ties between businesses and researchers in Britain and the US state, which is in effect the world’s fourth largest global economy.
Power-mad orange gasbag Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
