Climate Change News

Warming water is threatening to undo decades of efforts aimed at improving aquatic habitat in the Chesapeake region, from headwater streams to… Read StoryThe heat is on: Warming water threatens aquatic life in Chesapeake Bay region

Lawmakers from Virginia pushed for securing $25 million in December’s federal omnibus spending bill to fortify Tangier Island against climate change. Read StoryFederal spending bill offers (smaller) lifeline to Tangier Island

Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay has long been engaged with a battle against erosion and rising water. Has its salvation been skulking jus… Read StoryOyster reefs along Tangier Island could help keep its land in place

On a chilly, sunny morning in mid-November, community leaders of Turner Station, MD, grabbed shovels to finish planting the last of 140 “witne… Read Story‘Witness trees’ signal hope in flood-prone MD community

Highland Beach, a historic black town in Anne Arundel County, MD, is washing away into the Chesapeake Bay, giving ground at a rate of more tha… Read StoryMaryland’s first African American town faces a shrinking shoreline

Pennsylvania has adopted new rules to bring down smog and global-warming methane emissions from conventional oil and gas wells. Read StoryPennsylvania passes emergency rule to trim smog and methane emissions at oil, gas wells

The photo gallery on this page bears witness to a changing landscape. For decades, Bay Journal photographer Dave Harp has been documenting the… Read StoryA photographic farewell to James Island

Ellicott City, MD, finally has a measure of protection against flash floods like the ones that devastated this historic mill town in 2016 and … Read StoryEllicott City sees first outcome of flood protection plan

A Chesapeake Bay workforce training program borne out of the Great Recession is expanding its footprint — and focus — to address emerging challenges. Read StoryChesapeake Conservation Corps delivers results – and expands

Cover image: Orange plastic tape hangs from mature trees in an eight-acre wooded tract in Charlottesville, VA, which a developer plans to clea… Read StoryChesapeake Bay region loses ground in effort to increase tree canopy

Federal grants totaling hundreds of millions of dollars are heading to Chesapeake Bay drainage states as part of an initiative to get farmers … Read StoryChesapeake states to get millions for climate-smart ag practices

When the fast-growing Cedar Ridge Community Church bought a 63-acre historic property in 1996 in the Washington, DC, suburbs of Montgomery Cou… Read StoryHow a mission to fight climate change led to the first faith-based community solar project in Maryland

The day was turning balmy, surging toward 80 degrees. But the water gliding down this unusual West Virginia waterway on a sun-drenched August … Read StoryAmong the ‘last cold places,’ a fish defies climate change

A long-awaited, large-scale fix could soon move tons of earth to help save Virginia’s Tangier Island from disappearing beneath the Chesapeake Bay. Read StoryTangier Island may receive $25 million to help save its shorelines

Cover photo: This solar facility, built by Utah-based Sustainable Power Group, or sPower in Spotsylvania County, VA, covers more than 6,000 ac… Read StoryProtecting the water while harvesting sunshine

With Baltimore facing increased risks of coastal flooding from storms as sea level rises, federal officials have put forward a $138 million pl… Read StoryWith waters rising, Baltimore eyes $138 million plan to limit coastal flood damage

Fifty years ago, Tropical Storm Agnes detonated a water bomb over the Mid-Atlantic. Over a handful days in June 1972, relentless rain triggere… Read Story50 years later: Killer storm Agnes continues to haunt Chesapeake Bay watershed

A solar power boom generated by new renewable energy mandates is unfurling in the Chesapeake Bay region. Virginia, for example, was ninth in t… Read StorySheep and solar panels: Using solar sites for pastureland

The new director of Virginia’s top environmental agency seemed to be stating the obvious when he said at a conference in late March that “wate… Read StoryVirginia debates impacts of solar panels on stormwater runoff

After more than 2 years in legal and legislative battles, Pennsylvania is poised to become the twelfth state to join the carbon-cutting effort… Read StoryPennsylvania to join Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative

In low-lying spots bordering the Chesapeake Bay, it’s easy to spot the dead trees, leafless and shorn of limbs. These “ghost forests,” their g… Read StoryScientists flood woodland to research ‘ghost forests’

After two years of frustration, Maryland environmental advocates have much to celebrate after the conclusion earlier this week of what one cal… Read StoryMaryland lawmakers pass sweeping climate legislation, wave of environmental bills

The rollout of solar and other renewable energy projects that Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia are counting on to end fossil-fuel reliance … Read StoryMore than 800 solar projects in Bay states stuck waiting for review

The Maryland Senate on a March 31 party-line vote passed sweeping climate legislation, setting up a political showdown with Gov. Larry Hogan, … Read StoryMaryland Democrats pass climate bill, setting up likely veto fight

Facing a greater degree of sea level rise than almost any other part of the country, Norfolk is on the verge of launching a $1.6 billion count… Read StoryIn danger of drowning, Norfolk faces criticism over flood-protection plan

In an effort to combat climate change, some owners of small forests in Chesapeake Bay drainage states are being paid to either delay harvestin… Read StoryMoney grows on trees for owners who save small forests

Marine heat waves could lay siege to the Chesapeake Bay for more than half of a typical year by 2100, pushing its ecosystem “past a dangerous … Read StoryMarine heat waves could become more common in the Chesapeake

Delaware Gov. John Carney unveiled in early November the state’s most comprehensive plan yet to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and slow the e… Read StoryDelaware climate plan trails neighboring states’ pledges

As lawmakers in Chesapeake Bay watershed states convene in the new year, a variety of environmental issues are expected to come up for debate … Read StoryAhead on state agendas: Climate, environmental justice, Chesapeake cleanup funds

Jamestown’s story is overflowing with twists and turns. So, why not one more? Read StoryJamestown Island up against wall as rising waters imperil artifacts

Large white shrimp — the kind that might star in a white-wine scampi — have been riding warmer waters into the Chesapeake Bay in growing numbe… Read StoryWarm temperatures move more shrimp into Chesapeake waters

Chesapeake Bay summer water temperatures are increasing by nearly a half degree Fahrenheit per decade and rising nearly twice as fast as globa… Read StoryChesapeake warming faster than ocean surface, study shows

Rising seas are engulfing Tangier Island so quickly that most of its remaining residents may be forced to flee the low-lying Chesapeake Bay co… Read StoryStudy: Tangier’s imminent climate change demise ‘should alarm us all’

Holly Gaff and Tori Rose were hunting for ticks in a pine needle-strewn forest in a nature preserve on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Their first h… Read StoryWarming climate draws new tick threat into Chesapeake region

Until recently, the West River United Methodist Center had a problem. The 45-acre retreat and camp facility in Shady Side, MD, south of Annapo… Read StoryMaryland grants aim to reduce flooding, improve climate resilience

Climate experts have long warned that rising seas could add more destructive power to hurricane-whipped storm surges. But a new study centered… Read StoryWhat are the Chesapeake Bay's marshes worth? New study suggests billions

The governors of nearly all the states in the Chesapeake Bay drainage basin have inked a bipartisan pledge with the federal government to keep… Read StoryChesapeake cleanup partners pledge to fight global warming, but find cool reception

It seemed like an inauspicious start to a morning of birding. Read StoryA search for the Chesapeake's vanishing saltmarsh sparrow

Climate change is clearly observable in every region of the planet, and the window is closing for nations to take actions that would stem the … Read StoryTrends in U.N. climate report point to an altered Chesapeake Bay

After hitting a temporary roadblock, the Hogan administration’s hotly disputed “traffic relief plan” for widening congested highways in Maryla… Read StoryCapital Beltway widening project gets green light – for now

One of Maryland’s most recognizable waterfront townscapes is getting harder to see. Portions of the Annapolis City Dock are underwater 50–60 d… Read StoryCan makeover save Annapolis City Dock from sea level rise?

Pennsylvania is ideally suited to help the nation fight global warming by becoming a leader in the effort to capture and store emissions of ca… Read StoryAs federal support emerges, PA wants to be a carbon capture hub

The Potomac Conservancy has released an analysis of the “new climate reality” that is already dawning on the Potomac River watershed, hoping t… Read StoryPotomac Conservancy looks at local impacts of climate change

Throwing food away is more than wasteful. When it gets buried in a landfill, it generates methane, a climate-warming greenhouse gas many times… Read StoryMaryland landfills pose bigger climate problem than previously thought

Deal Island is disappearing beneath the Chesapeake Bay from the inside out. Read StoryAt Deal Island, marsh grass predicts where land will drown

When Bruce Vogt launched his oyster farm a decade ago, he opted to raise his bivalves in a creek near the mouth of the York River because of i… Read Story$1 million study races to save oysters from acidification in Bay