This month’s good climate news
Fighting for the planet isn’t easy. These wins prove it’s worth it.
Plug it in, plug it in
Want solar panels, but worried about the potential heavy lift involved? Meet plug-in solar, the DIY answer to your solar dreams.
With plug-in solar (also called balcony solar), even renters can get solar power at home. Basically, you buy a few solar panels online for a fraction of the cost of rooftop panels, mount them to a balcony or backyard fence, and plug them into an outdoor outlet. It's that simple. And while you won't get as much juice as you'd get from rooftop solar, you will still save on your electric bill — for some people, as much as $600 a year.
Eight states have now fully authorized plug-in solar, and 26 more have legislation in the works. (Technically, plug-in solar is not illegal anywhere in the U.S.)
Amazon rainforest deforestation down
Deforestation in the Amazon is down to its lowest level in a decade, according to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research.
The DETER system, which uses satellites to measure rainforest loss in real-time, reported 1,295 square kilometers (500 square miles) of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon from January through June this year, which is 38% lower than during the same period in 2025.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who campaigned on protecting Brazil's natural resources, has pledged to end illegal deforestation by 2030.
Two court wins for clean air
Soot pollution, released from burning fossil fuels, can cause serious and fatal health problems. The EPA’s soot standards were strengthened under the Biden administration, but the Trump EPA has attempted to reverse those limits and then refused to enforce them. Federal courts struck down both those actions.
In late June, a D.C. Circuit Court upheld federal soot pollution standards established by the Biden EPA, and on July 20, a federal judge in Oakland ruled that the Trump EPA must enforce those clean air standards by next February.
Sarah Vogel, the senior vice president for Healthy Communities at the global nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund, called it, "Good news for the air that we breathe every second of every moment of our lives."
