The Amazon rainforest staggered through another difficult year in 2024.

2024 was another banner year for a source of electricity that is better for people’s lungs, better for climate change and may be reaching your home now when you turn on the lights or turn up the thermostat — large banks of batteries.

The Tribune’s data journalists helped visualize everything from voter participation and extreme weather to gaps in the state’s border wall. Here are some of the highlights.

Parts of Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas are under severe weather watches as the National Weather Service predicts a storm system in the Gulf of Mexico could bring high winds, hail and possible tornadoes to the region.

Scientists say human-caused climate change added an average of 41 days of dangerous heat worldwide in 2024.

Large fossil fuel companies would have to pay fees to help New York fight the effects of climate change under a bill signed by Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Here are a few takeaways on electric vehicles in 2024: As of November, the global EV market grew by 25% year-over-year.

A look at some of the best photos from the stories we published over the last year.

Jerry and Sibrina Barnett never spent a single day apart in 35 years together.

A great gray owl and a snowy owl are being treated by experts after being rescued by a northern Minnesota woman.

A Japanese government panel has largely supported a draft energy policy calling for bolstering renewables up to half of Japanese electricity needs by 2040.

Qurrata Ayuni, a 28-year-old survivor of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated her hometown two decades ago, has transformed her resilience into purpose.

California has been hit hard by extreme weather over the past several weeks.

Persistent high surf and flooding threats along California's coast have residents on high alert a day after a major storm was blamed for one man's death and the partial collapse of a pier.

Our journalists brought life to the experiences of everyday Texans, held powerful institutions accountable and surfaced stories that went beyond the daily news cycles.

A third endangered whale has been spotted entangled in fishing gear off the East Coast, marking an alarming end to the year for a species threatened with extinction.

The Moken, a group of indigenous people from Thailand and Myanmar, once sailed freely between the archipelago of 800 islands off the coast of the two countries.

A week after Cyclone Chido ravaged Mayotte, France’s poorest territory, the island remains in crisis.

Farmers in Georgia are still reeling more than two months after Hurricane Helene blew away cotton, destroyed ripened squash and cucumbers and uprooted pecan trees and timber.

San Miguel Electric Cooperative's plan to turn into a solar and battery plant will leave only 14 coal-fired power plants in the state.

The bill would require companies to test fertilizer made from sewage sludge for PFAS and meet limits before selling them to Texas farmers and ranchers.

An Indigenous community in Peru has won the latest stage of a legal battle to reclaim lost rainforests.

Michael Regan, who has led the Environmental Protection Agency throughout President Joe Biden’s four-year term, said Friday he will be leaving the agency Dec. 31, about three weeks before Biden’ leaves office.

Crowds in Mayotte have vented their frustration at French President Emmanuel Macron, with some booing.

The U.N.'s food agency says more than 40 million people are struggling to feed themselves across West and Central Africa.

Efforts to recover bodies of people trapped in collapsed buildings continues in the earthquake-hit Pacific nation of Vanuatu.

A hurricane and winter freeze devastated the South Texas industry. A lack of water is preventing a full recovery.

Huge quantities of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, are being emitting by oil and gas operators in the 75,000-square-mile Permian Basin straddling Texas and New Mexico.

For decades, largescale engineering projects for development and agriculture drained and partitioned South Florida's Everglades, a vast wetlands landscape home to endangered and threatened species and a vital source of drinking water for millions of Floridians.

Dozens of massive data centers are consuming more electricity than all of the urban homes in Ireland and starting to wear out the warm welcome that brought them here.

President Joe Biden is pledging to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by more than 60% by 2035.

French President Emmanuel Macron has traveled to the Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte to survey the devastation wreaked by Cyclone Chido.

The number of people killed and missing remains unclear two days after a magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu.

Global battery maker CATL says it will expand its electric vehicle battery swapping in China in 2025.

The federal government says that two endangered whales have been spotted entangled in fishing gear off Massachusetts and that one is likely to die from its injuries.

The Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte is reeling from Cyclone Chido, the most intense storm to hit the French territory in 90 years, according to officials.

In Nigeria, roughly 85 million people do not have access to electricity.

The Environmental Protection Agency has granted two requests from California to enforce strict standards for vehicle emissions, including a rule aimed at banning sales of new gasoline-powered cars in the state by 2035.

Barcelona's subway system is using regenerative braking to help power both its convoys but also recharge electric cars at street level.

A Jersey Shore environmental group says damage from decades of toxic waste dumping at one of America's most notorious pollution sites caused $1 billion worth of damages.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm says the incoming Trump administration should proceed cautiously as it considers proposals for new natural gas export terminals.

Indonesia's mining industry is rapidly expanding on demand for the minerals needed to help power the global energy transition, like nickel, cobalt and bauxite.

Boston is planning to renovate a crumbling stadium in one of the city's most diverse neighborhoods for its new professional women's soccer team.

An overnight curfew goes into force Tuesday evening as Mayotte struggles to recover from Cyclone Chido, the strongest storm to hit the French Indian Ocean archipelago in 90 years.

An annual report documents 2,870 active cases of groundwater contamination around the state. Groundwater provides more than half of the state’s water supply.

Interpol says a crackdown on suspected illegal deforestation in South America has netted 26 arrests.

In the past few months United Nations-sponsored negotiations to tackle climate change, plastic pollution, loss of global species and a growing number of deserts have either outright failed or come out with limited outcomes that didn’t address the scale of the problems.

Texas regulators are taking public comment about how they should implement an EPA rule to reduce methane leaks from the oil and gas industry.

France is rushing rescue workers and supplies to its Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte after the island group off Africa was battered by its worst cyclone in nearly a century.

Inclement weather has plagued areas of the U.S. in the first half of the weekend, with dangerous conditions including heavy snow, a major ice storm and unusual tornado activity.

Despite two weeks of U.N.-sponsored talks in Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh, the participating 197 nations failed to agree on a plan to deal with global droughts, made longer and more severe by a warming climate.

The Supreme Court says it will take up a business-backed appeal that could make it easier to challenge federal regulations, acting in a dispute related to California’s nation-leading standards for vehicle emissions.

Two weeks of historic and closely-watched hearings on the threat of climate change have wrapped up at the UN's top court.

A giant salamander that evolved on the supercontinent Pangaea and outlived the dinosaurs has been proposed for federal protection by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Saudi Arabia says that to host the 2034 World Cup in men’s soccer, it will build or renovate 15 stadiums, create a futuristic city and expand airports and public transport in a massive buildout to accommodate millions of athletes, coaches and spectators.

The incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump is likely to bring big changes to seafood, one of the oldest sectors of the U.S. economy.

Dozens of environmental nonprofits issued a manifesto Thursday condemning new laws in Brazilian states that threaten to dismantle the Amazon soy moratorium.

Citing all the work the company has put into the region, employees are requesting a special election in Cameron County to incorporate a city.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged rich nations to honor their new commitments to help the world’s poorer countries fight climate change in a speech to Lesotho’s Parliament.

More than 3,700 residents have returned to their Malibu homes as weather conditions improved enough to help firefighters battling a Southern California blaze.

A storm that swept up the East Coast that brought torrents of rain and high winds caused some misery for New England ski resort operators.

New Jersey is seeking to drastically reduce the amount of plastics and other packaging material that's tossed out once a package is opened.

North Dakota regulators have approved permits for underground carbon dioxide storage for a massive pipeline proposed for the Midwest.

New Jersey is considering charging fees on producers of fossil fuels to help the state that is home to several oil and gas facilities fight the effects of climate change.

The Biden administration has announced it is raising tariffs on solar wafers, polysilicon and some tungsten products from China to protect U.S. clean energy businesses.

Paxton’s office has accused 3M and DuPont of misrepresenting or concealing the health risks of PFAS, which have been sold for decades for use in consumer products.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes says she is suing a Saudi Arabian agribusiness over what she calls “excessive pumping” of groundwater.

Environmental groups are asking the U.S. government to do more to protect grizzly bears in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.

Criminal gangs are operating in over a third of municipalities in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest driving a boom in violence, according to a report published by the Brazilian Forum of Public Security.

The next United Nations climate conference will be held in Belem, the capital of an Amazon region where widespread deforestation has turned the surrounding rainforest from a vital carbon sink into a significant carbon source.

Weather conditions have improved enough in Southern California for forecasters to say that the worst of the high winds that drove a wildfire through part of Malibu have passed.

The East Coast is experiencing a whiplash-inducing stretch of weather.

President-elect Donald Trump is promising expedited federal permits for energy projects and other construction worth more than $1 billion.

In coastal Southern California, a university has extensive plans for students to shelter in place in case of a wildfire.

The East Coast is due for a whiplash-inducing rainy, windy and potentially dangerous stretch of weather.

Protesters across North Macedonia have taken part in demonstrations to demand better air quality in cities that are among the most polluted in Europe.

U.S. wildlife officials have decided to extend federal protections to monarch butterflies.

Oilfield wastewater injected underground is causing earthquakes and blowouts. Now, pilot projects are exploring whether this water could be treated and used to grow crops.

Chinese electric battery company CATL and automaker Stellantis say they will build a major battery factory in northern Spain.

Thousands of Southern California residents are under evacuation orders and warnings as firefighters battle a wind-driven wildfire in Malibu.

The Supreme Court seemed to favor a Utah oil railroad expansion in arguments on Tuesday, but appeared more skeptical of putting strict new limits on a key national environmental law.

The great-granddaughter of the last Alaska Native chief of a remote island in the Bering Sea believes Japan should pay more restitution for what its soldiers did to the residents of Attu Island during World War II.

The Biden administration has given approval for the sale of oil and gas leases in Alaska, leaving the door open for drilling in a portion of the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Wildlife rescuers are rushing to tend to dozens of geese and ducks that were soaked in oil after a spill in a Boston river.

For eight years a Chinese mining company has been vastly expanding inside an endangered World Heritage Site, accused by locals and conservationists of decimating the environment.

Indonesian rescuers have recovered 10 bodies that were swept away in flash floods or buried under tons of mud and rocks that hit hilly villages on the country’s main island of Java.

It was 1906 when U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt designated the first national monument — Devils Tower in Wyoming.

Some residents of seven Louisiana nursing homes who were sent to ride out 2021's Hurricane Ida in a warehouse are being offered shares of a nearly $9 million settlement.

A new report says Earth just experienced its second-warmest November on record — second only to 2023 — making it all but certain that 2024 will end as the hottest year ever measured.

A closely-watched international climate case that could yield guidance for governments around the world wrapped its first week of arguments before the top court of the United Nations in The Hague Friday.

A surprising study of temperature-related deaths in Mexico upends conventional thinking about what age group is hit hardest by heat.

A 7_0 magnitude earthquake struck in what's known as California's “earthquake country.”.

The oldest-known wild bird in the world has laid an egg at the ripe age of 74, her first in four years.

The powerful earthquake that struck in Northern California on Thursday prompted a brief tsunami warning affecting about 5 million people along long stretch of the West Coast — from Northern California to Oregon — before being canceled.

The Environmental Protection Agency says it concluded more than 1,800 civil cases this year, a 3% increase over 2023, and charged 120 criminal defendants, a 17.6% increase over the previous year.

In 2024, U.S. photographers captured glimpses of humanity, ranging from a deeply divisive presidential election, to hurricanes and fires that ravaged communities, to campus protests over the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Facebook’s parent company Meta says it will build a $10 billion artificial intelligence data center in northeast Louisiana.

Swaths of Pennsylvania and many other states are honeycombed with old, unstable mines that can cause the earth to suddenly give way.

Since winning election, President-elect Donald Trump has been talking about immigration, border security and government efficiency.

The European Union has agreed to delay by a year the introduction of new rules to ban the sale of products that lead to massive deforestation.