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The Camp Fire burns a store in Paradise in Northern California. JOSH EDELSON / AFP / Getty Images

‘We Were Engulfed in Flames’: Rapid Wildfire Devastates Entire Town of Paradise, CA

A wind-driven wildfire broke out in Northern California at 6:30 a.m. Thursday morning and took off at a rate of around 80 football fields per minute, covering 18,000 acres by 2 p.m., CNN reported.

The Camp Fire went on to engulf the town of Paradise, home to 27,000 people, forcing evacuations and damaging thousands of buildings, the Associated Press reported.

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Politics
Democratic Colorado Governor-elect Jared Polis arrives onstage with running mate Dianne Primavera on Nov. 6 in Denver. Rick T. Wilking / Getty Images

Colorado Governor-Elect Has Most Ambitious Renewables Goal in U.S.

Jared Polis, who won Colorado's gubernatorial race to become the nation's first openly gay governor-elect, is charting the state's bold path towards clean energy.

The Democrat, who has served in the House of Representatives since 2009, ran on a platform of transitioning Colorado to 100 percent renewable energy by 2040—the most ambitious renewable goal in the entire country, Climate Home News reported. That's even faster than California and Hawaii, which both aim to phase out of fossil fuel generation by 2045.

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Renewable Energy
The Walney offshore windfarm. David Dixon / CC BY-SA 2.0

Britain Achieves the 'Unthinkable' as Renewables Leapfrog Fossil Fuel Capacity

Britain's electricity grid hit a "major milestone," as its total renewable electricity capacity leapfrogged fossil fuels for the first time, experts revealed Tuesday.

The total available capacity from wind, solar, biomass, hydro and other renewables reached a record 42 gigawatts between July and September, overtaking the 40.6 gigawatts available from fossil fuels, according to a report commissioned by Drax's Electric Insights and produced by Imperial College London researchers.

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Climate
Weather destroyed boats in an Italian harbor near Genoa. MARCO BERTORELLO / AFP / Getty Images

Tragedy in Sicily Pushes Italian Storm Deaths Above 30

A river overran banks in Sicily Saturday night, flooding a villa and drowning nine members of two families who were staying inside, The New York Times reported.

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Climate
Pexels

Putting Speed Bumps in Hurricane Alley

By Marlene Cimons

The advantages of wind power are well-known. Wind is clean, plentiful and renewable. Installing turbines in large numbers could help wean our carbon-intensive civilization from its addiction to fossil fuels. New research suggests that one day there could be another major benefit: massive installations of wind turbines could lessen the deluge when powerful hurricanes bring devastating amounts of rain onto land. During such recent storms as Harvey and Florence—which brought historic levels of rainfall—this could have meant less flooding and destruction, and fewer deaths.

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Animals
Terry Whittaker / WWF

83% Decline of Freshwater Animals Underscores Need to Protect and Restore Freshwaters

This year's Living Planet Report shows that populations of animals—including mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians—plummeted by 60 percent between 1970 and 2014. But those living in freshwater are experiencing a far more drastic decline: 83% since 1970. It's a sobering statistic and one tied directly to the ever-increasing pressures that people are putting on natural habitats.

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Climate
A tree falling on a power line ignites a fire in Colesville, MD on June 13, 2013. A California utility cut power to 60,000 customers to prevent a wildfire sparking from an incident like this. Michael S. Williamson / The Washington Post via Getty Images

Power Cut to 60,000 in Northern California to Prevent Wildfires

Major California utility Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) shut off power to 60,000 Northern California residents Sunday night in an attempt to reduce the risk of wildfires sparking from hot, dry windy weather, the Huffington Post reported Tuesday.

A total of 100,000 people were warned their power might be cut off due to wind speeds of 60 miles per hour and gusts of 70 miles per hour increasing the risk of electrical fires.

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A satellite image of Hurricane Leslie as it approached Portugal. NOAA Satellites

27 Injured, 300,000 Without Power as Leslie Becomes Strongest Storm to Hit Iberian Peninsula Since 1842

Leslie became the rare named Atlantic tropical system to hit Europe late Saturday when it rammed into Portugal as a post-tropical cyclone, injuring 27 and leaving more than 300,000 without power, The Associated Press reported Sunday.

Leslie had been downgraded from a Category One hurricane before making landfall, but it still lashed Portugal with hurricane-force winds. The seaside town of Figueira da Foz recorded wind speeds of 105 miles per hour.

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Climate
Hurricane Florence caused flooded roads in Mullins, SC on Sept. 20. U.S. Army National Guard Photo by Staff Sgt. Jorge Intriago

We’re Running Out of Time

By Rhea Suh

A widening madness threatens the world, only one thing can avert catastrophe, and we're running out of time.

That's no Hollywood action film trailer. It's the sobering and all-too-real warning sounded by the world's top climate scientists in an authoritative report released this week. We can still prevent runaway climate disaster, they conclude, but only by taking "rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented" action now to shift to cleaner, smarter ways to power our future. We can do this, the report says, but we have about a decade—tops—to get it right.

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