Articles by Fred Pearce, Yale Environment 360

Fred Pearce is a freelance author and journalist based in the U.K. He is a contributing writer for Yale Environment 360 and is the author of numerous books, including The Land Grabbers, Earth Then and Now: Amazing Images of Our Changing World, and The Climate Files: The Battle for the Truth About Global Warming.

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An aerial view of many solar panels under a smoggy sky

A sea of solar panels is rapidly engulfing one of the world’s largest salt deserts. By 2029, nearly 60 million panels will cover 280 square miles of India’s Rann of Kutch, extending right up to the border with Pakistan. The Khavda solar park is set to be the world’s largest and most powerful supplier of electricity from the sun, with a generating capacity of 30 gigawatts — 30 times the size of a typical coal or nuclear power station and enough to power Austria.

With India’s economy now growing faster than China’s, Khavda epitomizes the country’s breakneck rush to electrify with solar power. Installed solar capacity in India has been growing by 40 percent a year. In March, it passed 150 gigawatts, and by 2030 is set to double again.

Analysts say the world’s most populous nation is on the verge of becoming the first major country to power its industrialization predominantly with solar energy.

Cheap solar is “enabling India to develop wit... Read more

Fred Pearce, Yale Environment 360 Energy

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A more troubling picture of sea level rise is coming into view

Scientists have uncovered a “blind spot” in the research on rising seas, revealing that tens of millions of people thought safe from coastal flooding are at risk of inundation.

Fred Pearce, Yale Environment 360 Oceans
Species slowdown: Is nature’s ability to self-repair stalling?

When scientists recently analyzed hundreds of studies of ecosystems, they were surprised to see a marked slowing in the rate of species turnover.

Fred Pearce, Yale Environment 360 Science
Overshoot: The world is hitting point of no return on climate

With warming set to pass the critical 1.5-degree limit, scientists are warning that the world is on course to trigger tipping points that would lead to cascading consequences — from the melting of ice sheets to the death of the Amazon rainforest — that could not be reversed.

Fred Pearce, Yale Environment 360 Science
As ‘doomsday’ glacier melts, can an artificial barrier save it?

Relatively warm ocean currents are weakening the base of Antarctica’s enormous Thwaites Glacier, whose demise could raise sea levels by as much as 7 feet. To separate the ice from those warmer ocean waters, scientists have put forward an audacious plan to erect a massive underwater curtain.

Fred Pearce, Yale Environment 360 Science