Go behind the scenes with managing editor Jamie Smith Hopkins, Texas reporter Dylan Baddour and data journalist Peter Aldhous as they discuss ICN’s new investigation into how the fracking boom put an oil field in the Guadalupe River floodplain.

An epic flood a generation ago drenched areas around Texas’ Guadalupe River, showing how quickly and dangerously the region could be submerged.

Since then, Texas — with no state floodplain policy — has allowed oil companies to frack this same area, extracting fossil fuels underground in the Eagle Ford Shale. It may be, as one resident describes, “a disaster waiting to happen.”

A new investigation by Inside Climate News found that more than 500 enormous oil tanks now dot the floodplains of the Guadalupe River — tanks that could upend, spill or float away in another devastating flood.

Dylan and Peter explain how they undertook this important investigation and what it would mean if the basin floods again.

Read the story: https://insideclimatenews.org/news/08...

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Go behind the scenes with executive editor Vernon Loeb and fisheries and aquaculture reporter Johnny Sturgeon as they discuss heat, health and opportunity in the world’s oceans.

Oceans cover 70% of the earth’s surface, absorb 90% of excess heat trapped by greenhouse gases, and help prevent dramatic temperature spikes on land. Yet they’re often overlooked in conversations about climate change.

The consequences are significant. Ignoring ocean damage nearly doubles the cost of climate change and has left a multi-trillion-dollar blind spot in climate finance, according to a new study released last week.

Global ocean heat content also increased for the ninth consecutive year in 2025. Every second of last year, the Earth’s oceans absorbed the equivalent in energy to 12 Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs.

Johnny, ICN’s newest staff reporter, pulls back the curtain on these and more of the most interesting developments in the oceans, including the untapped clean energy of the tidal energy industry, which has the potential to provide a carbon-free source of power with complete predictability.

Read the story: https://insideclimatenews.org/news/15...

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Go behind the scenes with executive editor Vernon Loeb and science reporter Bob Berwyn as they discuss the latest reports on relentless human-caused global warming.

Several new climate reports released this week indicate “an unprecedented run of global heat” in 2025, especially in the oceans and at the poles.

Ten years ago, the signers of the Paris Climate Accord sought to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures. But at today’s pace of emissions, scientists say, the world is on track to hit that limit permanently by the end of this decade, sooner than expected when the deal was signed.

Bob breaks down what this data means in practical terms, the threats to systems that sustain human societies, and how warming is colliding with the basic machinery of modern life.

Read the story: https://insideclimatenews.org/news/13...

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Go behind the scenes with executive editor Vernon Loeb and Washington bureau chief Marianne Lavelle as they discuss the complex and uncertain future of America’s oil interests in Venezuela.

After the United States’ dramatic raid and capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the Trump administration announced that U.S. oil companies would step into the high-cost, high-risk venture of rebuilding the Venezuelan industry.

But will they? Given Venezuela’s murky political future, few analysts expect a rush to invest the billions needed to pump more oil from the world’s largest reserves.

Marianne explains the history and context of this grab for Venezuelan oil, why American oil companies may eye the situation warily, and how to make sense of Trump’s ambitions.

Read the story: https://insideclimatenews.org/news/07...

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Go behind the scenes with executive editor Vernon Loeb and reporter Dan Gearino as they discuss the good, the bad and the ugly in climate news from 2025.

What a year: policy fiascos, natural disasters and a steady march toward a future that is too hot.

The Trump administration’s dismantling of environmental protection rules exceeded expectations, and on the world stage, the United States largely ceded its leadership role in climate policy to China.

Each December, Inside Climate News takes a look back at the most consequential stories our team tracked across the year.

Dan walks us through this year in climate, from attacks on science to the major cuts at federal agencies and the rapid rise of data centers – with some good news thrown in at the end.

Read the story: https://insideclimatenews.org/news/28...

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Go behind the scenes with managing editor Jamie Smith Hopkins and reporter Kiley Bense as they discuss how Pennsylvania is failing to track toxic oil and gas waste, while the amount sitting in landfills grows every year.

Pennsylvania is ground zero for the fracking boom. It’s increased natural gas production there 37-fold since 2008. That production generates a lot of waste, but the state’s ability to track it has failed to keep up.

A decade ago, regulators promised to improve reporting standards for the waste, which can include radioactive material, heavy metals and carcinogenic chemicals. But a new Inside Climate News investigation found huge discrepancies in state records, making it hard for Pennsylvania to enforce regulations around spills, leaks, transport and dumping on roads or in public waterways. “It could be dumped right next to somebody’s house and they would not even know,” a former state regulator told ICN.

Kiley, who’s been digging into this issue all through 2025, explains what happens to oil and gas waste in Pennsylvania, what it means for residents, and the consequences of having so few guardrails.

Read the story: https://insideclimatenews.org/news/19...

Explore ICN’s reporting on fracking waste: https://insideclimatenews.org/project...

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Go behind the scenes with executive editor Vernon Loeb and reporter Georgina Gustin as they describe how a new Chinese-backed megaport in Peru could push the Amazon rainforest past its breaking point.

When a massive Chinese-backed port opened in Chancay, Peru, it was the realization, nearly two decades in the making, of a dream to revolutionize global trade by connecting South America to Asia with a straight-shot shipping route across the Pacific.

The port — Peru’s first project under the banner of China’s Belt and Road Initiative and China’s flagship infrastructure investment in South America — brings tremendous economic opportunities, but also environmental threats.

The port reawakens old ambitions of roads, railways and water routes that could connect the riches of the Amazon to the continent’s west coast and the world’s largest ocean, efforts that scientists warn could speed the destruction of the world’s most climate-critical ecosystem.

Georgina, our award-winning agriculture reporter who spent a month in Peru reporting this story, explains the enormous complexities and consequences flowing from the new port’s development and how its magnetic pull may spell disaster for communities and ecosystems in its orbit.

Read the story: https://insideclimatenews.org/news/01...

Explore ICN’s reporting on China’s Belt and Road Initiative: https://insideclimatenews.org/project...

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Go behind the scenes with managing editor Jamie Smith Hopkins and reporter Anika Jane Beamer as they explain why no one knows what happens to 110 billion pounds of manure produced in Iowa every year.

Iowa raises about 23 million hogs each year. That many animals produce a lot of manure — some 110 billion pounds of it — but no one keeps track of where it goes.

That’s a problem. Most manure from Iowa’s concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) gets spread as fertilizer across the state’s cropland, but if it isn’t handled well, the manure ends up in waterways, triggering algal blooms, polluting drinking water and endangering public health.

Anika Jane, ICN’s Iowa reporter, explains how the state’s tracking system is failing, practical steps to solve the problem, and why Iowa’s manure problem matters to residents both in and outside the state.

This story is a collaboration between Inside Climate News and Sentient Media.