Climate Change

College Hall in daylight in autumn surrounded by fall foliage.

News

Measurable progress in campus sustainability goals

An FY25 progress report highlights achievements on the goals of the University's Climate & Sustainability Action Plan 4.0 on campus and beyond.

The human side of clean energy

In their new book “Power Lines: The Human Costs of American Energy in Transition,” Sanya Carley and David Konisky ask what happens to the people left behind in America’s energy transition.

2 min. read

Melissa Charenko stands in front of art in her office.

Understanding the climate record through objects

Melissa Charenko’s new book shares the history of how 20th-century scientists used climate “proxies”—such as tree rings and fossil pollen—to understand past climates, which has implications for future climate action.

3 min. read

It’s getting harder to figure out whether you live in a flood zone or not

A Wharton School study found that homes damaged by Hurricane Harvey in 2017 were far less likely to default if they were inside the federal flood zone.

Bill Gates doesn’t regret his controversial climate memo

Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences says, “We don’t have decades to address the climate crisis.”

A researcher walking through a glacier in Greenland.

A massive chunk of ice, a new laser, and new information on sea-level rise

For nearly a decade, Leigh Stearns and collaborators aimed a laser scanner system at Greenland’s Helheim Glacier. Their long-running survey reveals that Helheim’s massive calving events don’t behave the way scientists once thought, reframing how ice loss contributes to sea-level rise.

5 min. read

Category 6 is the new hurricane normal, scientists warn

Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences says that it no longer makes sense to artificially cap the hurricane scale at five while wind-based metrics continue to be used.

Bill Gates claims climate change won’t destroy humanity after all

Micheal Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences discusses Bill Gates’ shift in rhetoric on climate.

Researcher Xin Sun injects substance into glass vials.

Can tiny ocean organisms offer the key to better climate modeling?

In the shadowy layers of the Pacific, microbes decide how much nitrous oxide—a potent greenhouse gas—rises skyward. New research from Penn’s Xin Sun offers an improved understanding of microbial ecology and geochemistry—key to forecasting global emissions in response to natural and man-made climate change.