In the past year, we’ve covered greenhouse gas emissions, climate policy, wildfires, air pollution and drinking water, biodiversity, conservation and deforestation, renewable energy, carbon capture, oil and gas pipelines, and just transitions. In all, we published 177 energy and environment articles by 253 authors.

Needless to say, 2020 was dominated by the coronavirus pandemic, and our authors highlighted the links between the virus, its impact on society and the environment. Terry Sunderland wrote about how the erosion of the forest frontier for food has increased our exposure to infectious diseases, and Livia O. Loureiro explained why bats don’t get sick from the viruses they carry, but humans can.

In the midst of lockdowns, we also launched our first international series on the global ocean, with editors across The Conversation network pulling in authors from around the world to explain the state of the world’s ocean. We kicked that off in early December with long-form profiles of the five ocean basins — the Arctic, Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and Southern. Despite being published at the tail end of the year, the article on the Arctic Ocean was one of our most read stories. The authors, based in four countries, explained how climate change, shipping and increased industrial activity are bringing more light and new species to the Arctic Ocean.

Our coverage of wildlife, conservation and the biodiversity crisis has always been popular, and this year was no different. Many people in both the U.S. and Canada continue to be concerned about the killer whales that live along the Pacific coast of North America. In their article, Stephen Raverty and Joseph K. Gaydos offer an in-depth analysis of how these killer whales are dying, information that can be used to develop evidence-based policies to improve their health and survival.

Other favourites were Eric Guiry’s story about the demise of the passenger pigeon a century ago, Oana Birceanu’s article on the ‘vampire fish’ that once gorged on trout in the Great Lakes, and Hanane Hadj-Moussa and Kenneth B. Storey’s article on jumbo squids, aka “devils of the deep.”

The year 2020 may be the hottest year on record — so far, it’s virtually tied with 2016 — and this year has been a long list of powerful hurricanes, intense wildfires, shrinking sea ice and relentless heatwaves. Despite COVID-19 lockdowns, young people continued to be a mighty force in drawing attention to the climate crisis. And governments have said they’ll do more to tackle carbon emissions by transforming energy and transportation systems. The urgency of these environmental issues leaves me with some hope that 2021 will bring some solutions to tackling these challenges.

Have a happy new year, and see you again in 2021.