The cognitive bias behind bad climate math
A new study finds two persistent mental shortcuts—not ignorance—are why people keep overrating recycling and underrating flying less.
Aug 2026 18
Sarah DeWeerdt
Sarah DeWeerdt is a Seattle-based freelance science journalist specializing in biology, medicine, and the environment. In addition to Anthropocene, her work has appeared in Nature, Newsweek, Nautilus, Spectrum, and many other publications. Find her on Twitter at @DeWeerdt_Sarah.
Aug 2026 11
When should you scrap your gasoline car? The answer is almost certainly now.
Researchers calculated the carbon footprint of vehicle trade-ins across a wide variety of scenarios, and EVs emerged as the clear winner
Aug 2026 4
A majority of Americans don’t actually fit either climate camp
An analysis of 20 years of polling data shows how age, education and income—in addition to political affiliation—shape views on climate policy
Jul 2026 28
Do small climate habits help or hurt the bigger cause? What a 4-year study found.
Researchers tracked nearly 2,800 people’s habits, protests, and policy views to test whether small green acts help or hurt the bigger fight. Neither, it turns out.
Jul 2026 21
Obeying the speed limit would save 57,000 tons of carbon a day. It would cost you 54 seconds.
A study of more than 120 million trips finds that Americans’ rush to save time on the road comes at an outsize environmental cost.
Jul 2026 14
The surprising upside of asking people to use less energy
New research complicates the long-held belief that climate policy is a trade-off between cost and carbon, adding a third factor: it might make daily life better, too.
Jul 2026 7
The overlooked wiring problem in the clean-energy transition
As more households add solar panels, batteries and heat pumps, researchers at Purdue found that running them all on DC power—not the AC current from the wall—could cut energy use and emissions.
Jun 2026 30
Ironically, buying green can quietly erase its own efficiency gains, new study finds
Researchers show how consumer eco-consciousness can trigger discounts on inefficient products, canceling the gains shoppers thought they’d locked in.
Jun 2026 23
New AI agent tallies a gadget’s emissions in the time it takes to brew tea
Researchers just built a multimodal AI system that scours spec sheets, iFixit teardowns, and YouTube videos to do carbon math that used to take human experts months.
Jun 2026 16
The climate friendly city is a bullseye
Urban planners have been asking the wrong question. It’s not how dense a city is—it’s how close. The sweet spot for shorter commutes and lower emissions, for many cities, forms a ring.
