Joe Biden will be the 46th president of the United States. He wins the election over incumbent Donald Trump, the most anti-environmental president ever, with more than 74 million votes, surpassing the previous record for most votes cast set by Barack Obama in 2008.

Nevada voters approve a measure to require at least 50 percent renewable energy by 2030. 

Colorado voters approve reintroducing wolves. 

The US officially withdraws from the Paris climate accord. 

Vladimir Putin orders the Russian government to meet the Paris climate goals. 

An 1,800-square-mile iceberg known as A68a that broke off Antarctica’s Larsen C ice shelf in 2017 is on a collision course with South Georgia Island, with possible dire consequences for the island’s large seal and penguin populations. 

The Northeast Passage, along the Arctic Ocean’s coast with Siberia, finally freezes shut, after being open for a record 112 days. 

Before taking his place as the new chief scientist for that National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Ryan Maue purged his Twitter history of tweets ridiculing and insulting climate scientists, journalists, and activists. 

ExxonMobil touts biofuel from algae as a low-emission alternative to fossil fuels, but it has spent 10 times more on advertising than on actual algae research. 

The smoke plume from the 2019–20 Australian bushfires was 600 miles across, three times larger than any previously recorded. 

On November 4, for the first time in the United States, more than 100,000 new cases of COVID-19 are reported in a single day. The death toll now exceeds 234,000 people. 

Denmark plans to kill all of the country’s 15 million fur-farmed mink to prevent them from spreading the novel coronavirus.

California delays the start of its commercial crab season to avoid migrating whales getting tangled in fishing gear.

In the Netherlands, a runaway commuter train overshoots its elevated platform but is safely caught by a large sculpture of a whale’s tale. The artwork’s name: Saved by the Whale’s Tail.