QUOTE OF THE WEEK
CCR’s weekly newsletter features breaking news, upcoming events, actions to take, interesting FAQs, and resources to learn more about the history, politics, science, and important voices of climate change.
3.7 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide avoided in one year. That’s how much higher global power-sector emissions would have been in 2025 without the growth of wind and solar since 2005, according to climate scientist Zeke Hausfather’s analysis. That avoided pollution equals roughly three-quarters of annual U.S. CO₂ emissions. His model holds electricity demand constant and estimates which fossil fuels would otherwise have supplied the power. Renewables are making a substantial difference—even when growing electricity demand obscures the progress.
Image By Arjun Malakar and AI 
Tom Cruise takes on climate catastrophe in Digger, a dark satire directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu. Critics have been harsh, but David Gelles argues that the film’s ambitious climate message deserves attention: it brings the causes of global warming, its potentially catastrophic consequences, and questions of responsibility into a major Hollywood production. Whatever its cinematic shortcomings, putting climate change this prominently on the big screen matters.
Avoiding the worst imaginable climate future does not mean we’ve avoided dangerous climate change. In HEATED’s “Who’s telling you climate change is no big deal?”, Emily Atkin speaks with climate scientist Kate Marvel and disinformation researcher Philip Newell about how an update to climate scenarios became fodder for misleading claims that scientists had withdrawn their warnings. The episode also follows the fossil-fuel financial connections behind platforms amplifying that message. Progress is real; declaring the problem solved is spin.
Please read. He is simply so smart. Bill McKibben’s “From Bad to Better” is another inspiring call to climate optimism. Beginning with the frightening evidence of a strengthening El Niño, he turns toward reasons to keep fighting: affordable clean energy, countries responding to fossil-fuel insecurity by accelerating electrification, and efforts to hold oil companies accountable. His hope rests on the tools we have right now and our willingness to use them. He even leaves us with giant tortoises thriving after sustained conservation. A sobering, energizing read.
The climate movement’s struggles are no accident, argues investigative journalist Amy Westervelt. In this forceful essay for Drilled, she traces the corporate campaigns, legal threats, and political attacks that have weakened climate organizations and criminalized protest. Her case for fighting back centers on solidarity: protecting a livable planet requires defending democracy, civil rights, and the people organizing for change. A pointed challenge to those urging climate advocates to narrow their ambitions.
San Francisco broke its October high-tide record twice in two days. After Saturday’s record, a Crissy Field gauge registered water 1.73 feet above the average highest daily tide on Sunday, surpassing Saturday’s 1.62 feet. Flooding reached parts of the Bay Area, including streets in downtown Tiburon.
300 million: The target for the number of solar panels to be installed on global rooftops by 2030 under the Global Rooftop Solar Pledge, announced at Pre-COP.
Image By Arjun Malakar and AI Google and Constellation plan to add 890 megawatts of nuclear capacity by upgrading existing reactors, roughly equivalent to a large new reactor. The agreement supports more than $4.3 billion in investments across six sites in Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, with the first additional output expected in 2028.
The diesel squeeze is finally reaching the dinner table. Disruption in the Strait of Hormuz, compounded by Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries, is raising farmers’ fuel costs just as major agricultural regions enter harvesting and planting seasons. Bloomberg reports that Missouri farmer Marty Richardson recently paid $6 a gallon, while Louisiana rice and soybean farmer Julie Richard spent almost $20,000 on roughly two and a half weeks of equipment fuel—excluding trucks that haul the harvest. Diesel powers the machinery that plants, irrigates, harvests, and transports food. Higher costs and uncertain deliveries therefore threaten farm finances and could add to food inflation. Farmers cannot simply postpone harvesting until fuel gets cheaper.
More of Exxon’s internal climate record is coming into public view. Inside Climate News’ Nicholas Kusnetz examined previously undisclosed documents filed in Massachusetts’s climate-deception lawsuit, including internal deliberations dating from the 1980s to the 2010s. The reporting also explores statements by company scientists questioning claims about algae biofuels and carbon capture. The documents add detail to what the company understood, how it evaluated threats to its business, and what it told the public. Exxon denies misleading the public or investors and disputes the lawsuits’ legal and factual foundations.
Wildlife, soils, and the climate systems that sustain us are under mounting pressure. The October 4–10 edition of Last Week in Collapse brings together a sobering collection of reports and research. Some highlights include: a 73.2% decline in vertebrate wildlife, poor soil management, global warming unleashing more warming, A 7.7 earthquake hitting southern Panama, melting ice sheets ruining ocean circulation, disease in Russia and Kenya, and rising water prices.
EU to delay methane emissions rules for one year and no more, energy chief says
By Kate Abnett
Reuters, 10/6/26
The EU is considering a one-year postponement of methane-monitoring requirements for imported oil and gas. The United States, Europe’s largest LNG supplier, has urged a pause or rollback. The delay still requires legislative approval, and the EU’s energy commissioner says governments should be ready to enforce the rules afterward. More here.
Surging Water Costs amid the US Affordability Crisis
By Food & Water Watch
Food & Water Watch, 10/6/26
Typical household water bills rose an average of 62% between 2015 and 2025 among the 500 largest community water systems studied—outpacing overall inflation and income growth. The report examines how corporate ownership and inadequate infrastructure funding contribute to the affordability problem, with substantial differences across communities. Its comparisons use a consistent annual consumption of 60,000 gallons, helping distinguish changes in rates from changes in household water use. More here.
America is hurtling toward a power grid crisis
By Dana Nuccitelli
Yale Climate Connections, 10/2/26
Building power plants is only part of the job: electricity also needs a way to reach customers. Permitting and constructing a new U.S. transmission line takes about a decade on average, slowing efforts to relieve congestion and connect cleaner generation. Nuccitelli examines the grid’s bottlenecks and the competing priorities surrounding a bipartisan permitting proposal, with major implications for electricity costs and reliability. More here.
To Block Solar Energy Projects, One Community Lumped Them in With Junkyards and Adult Bookstores
By Dan Gearino
Inside Climate News, 10/8/26
Montgomery County, Indiana, rejected a 200-megawatt solar project after identifying utility-scale solar as an undesirable land use. Developer Engie said the project would have involved more than $300 million in construction spending and generated more than $40 million in local taxes over its lifetime. The dispute illustrates a limit to federal permitting reform: local opposition can still stop a project. More here.
How Alaska’s Fish Became a Defining Issue for the Midterms
By Anna Griffin
The New York Times, 10/6/26
Alaska supplies roughly 60% of the wild seafood harvested in the United States, making the health of its fisheries a national concern as well as a local livelihood issue. Candidates are sparring over trawling, accidental catches and outside fishing fleets, while scientists point to warming waters as a broader threat. The reporting explores why climate change receives less political attention in a state so dependent on oil revenue. More here.
Maryland Demands Answers as Fuel Leak Persists From Joint Base Andrews
By Aman Azhar
Inside Climate News, 10/8/2026
Maryland environmental regulators say jet fuel continues to seep into Piscataway Creek from Joint Base Andrews more than six months after the spill was reported, despite the base’s assurances that it has isolated the damaged fuel system and stopped the leak. More here.
Q: Could this El Niño really be the strongest in 1,000 years—and how do scientists know?
A: Yes—and the evidence starts with what the ocean is already doing. In The Climate Brink, climate scientist Zeke Hausfather reports that daily sea-surface temperature anomalies in the central tropical Pacific surpassed the previous record on September 20, and September’s monthly average also set a record. This event is already extraordinary, with several months potentially left to strengthen.
Forecast models broadly agree that more warming is coming. Columbia Climate School reports that all 22 models in its briefing point toward a very strong El Niño, with most reaching or exceeding 3°C above average in the tropical Pacific. Hausfather’s separate October analysis of 14 forecasting models puts the peak around 4°C above average, with the middle 80% of model runs between 3.3°C and 4.6°C. These numbers describe regional ocean temperatures, not global warming. Model agreement strengthens the case, although the eventual peak remains uncertain.
The thousand-year comparison comes from two independent natural archives: tree rings and corals. Tree rings preserve rainfall patterns associated with past El Niños, allowing researchers to reconstruct their strength back to 1100. Coral chemistry records ocean temperatures and shows that recent decades’ temperature swings exceed the preindustrial range. Together, these records suggest the strongest modern El Niños already rank near the top of the past millennium—and this year’s forecast sits substantially above those events. The archives are imperfect, but their agreement supports Hausfather’s conclusion: if the forecast peak materializes, this could indeed be the strongest El Niño in 1,000 years.