New Haven, Conn. — Normally, throwing rocks at a problem isn’t the best idea.

But in the multi-faceted fight to combat climate change, scientists are finding that crushed rocks judiciously applied to farmers’ fields may be a powerful force in removing heat-trapping carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and storing it safely for thousands of years.

How powerful is this idea? Powerful enough to win the four-year, $100 million XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition.

On Earth Day, April 22, XPRIZE officials announced that Mati Carbon, a non-profit based in part on the research of Yale geochemist Noah Planavsky, won the competition’s grand prize of $50 million. More than 1,300 groups from 88 countries took part in the competition, which required teams to create and demonstrate a system for pulling CO2 directly from the atmosphere or oceans and durably sequester it. (Another $50 million in prize money will be distributed to other winners.)

Local authorities must do more to prepare communities in British Columbia for the dangers of extreme heat, according to a new research paper from Simon Fraser University. 

Four years after the infamous 2021 heat dome, which killed more than 600 people in B.C. alone, the ground-breaking study found significant differences in how municipalities within the Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley regional districts are preparing for heat events.   

24 April 2025/Kiel. When bottom trawls are dragged across the seafloor, they stir up sediments. This not only releases previously stored organic carbon, but also intensifies the oxidation of pyrite, a mineral present in marine sediments, leading to additional emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂). These are the findings of a new study conducted by the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. Based on sediment samples from Kiel Bight, the researchers investigated the geochemical consequences of sediment resuspension. Their conclusion: areas with fine-grained sediments, which play a crucial role in CO₂ storage in the Baltic Sea, should urgently be placed under protection. The study has now been published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.