The United States is getting redder.
No, not that kind of red. (We’ll leave that to the political pundits.) We’re talking about the thermometer kind.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration last week issued its latest “climate normals”: baseline data of temperature, rain, snow and other weather variables collected over three decades at thousands of locations across the country. Continue reading.
The planned moratorium would pause oil and gas auctions as officials review the nation’s leasing system
President Biden is poised to impose a moratorium on new federal oil and gas leasing Wednesday, according to three people briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the plan was still being finalized. The move will deliver on one of Biden’s boldest climate campaign pledges but will encounter stiff resistance from the fossil fuel industry.
The White House has prepared documents that would pause new oil and gas auctions on federal land and water as the new administration reviews the program, these people said. The moratorium would not affect existing leases, meaning drilling would continue on public land in the West as well as in the Gulf of Mexico.
The memo remains a draft subject to final approval, said one person close to the White House who spoke on the condition of anonymity because it had not been formally announced. Administration officials had considered imposing a moratorium on new federal coal leasing as well, but one of the people briefed on the plan said officials are leaning against that option. Continue reading.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brutally and tragically exposed the extent to which the health and well-being of every family in America depends on the health and well-being of nature—both here at home and around the world. Nature is connected to human health, from the inherent mechanisms through which ecosystems regulate the emergence of new pathogens to the health benefits of spending time outdoors.1 But in our destruction of earth’s natural resources, we are losing these free services and reducing our resilience to new diseases.2
The current focus should remain on the immediate medical and socioeconomic needs in the United States. However, the COVID-19 outbreak has laid bare the need for a more proactive and integrated approach to fight infectious disease epidemics, which are becoming more common in many regions around the world.3 Specifically, alongside investments in epidemiological research and healthcare, we need to address the problem at its root: the destruction of nature.
COVID-19 is a zoonose, or an infectious disease that spreads to humans from nonhuman animals. Almost two-thirds of all emerging diseases are zoonoses, and 71 percent of those originated in wildlife.4 These include some of the deadliest recent pandemics, including HIV-AIDS, Ebola, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and, now, COVID-19. Continue reading.
The Trump administration on Tuesday rolled back an Obama-era law that pushes automakers to produce more fuel efficient vehicles, severely limiting a rule designed to decrease pollution from transportation in the face of climate change.
The new rule cuts the year-over-year improvements expected from the auto industry, slashing standards that require automakers to produce fleets that average nearly 55 mpg by 2025. Instead, the Trump rule would bring that number down to about 40 mpg by 2026, bringing mileage below what automakers have said is possible for them to achieve.
The Trump administration has argued that cutting Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards will allow automakers to produce cheaper cars, something they say will save 3,300 lives as lower prices spur consumers to upgrade to new vehicles with better safety features that guzzle less gas than older models.
Climate refugees cannot be sent home, the U.N. Human Rights Committee ruled in a landmark judgment.
“The decision sets a global precedent,” Kate Schuetze, Amnesty International’s Pacific Researcher said Monday, in response to the news. “It says a state will be in breach of its human rights obligations if it returns someone to a country where – due to the climate crisis – their life is at risk, or in danger of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment triggered.”
While the judgment is not binding, it does emphasize that countries have a legal responsibility to protect people whose lives are threatened by the climate crisis. Here’s what to know. Continue reading.
Deforestation and other fast-moving changes in the Amazon threaten to turn parts of the rainforest into savanna, devastate wildlife and release billions of tons carbon into the atmosphere, two renowned experts warned Friday.
“The precious Amazon is teetering on the edge of functional destruction and, with it, so are we,” Thomas Lovejoy of George Mason University and Carlos Nobre of the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, both of whom have studied the world’s largest rainforest for decades, wrote in an editorial in the journal Science Advances. “Today, we stand exactly in a moment of destiny: The tipping point is here, it is now.”
Combined with recent news that the thawing Arctic permafrost may be beginning to fill the atmosphere with greenhouse gases, and that Greenland’s ice sheet is melting at an accelerating pace, it’s the latest hint that important parts of the climate system may be moving toward irreversible changes at a pace that defies earlier predictions.
WASHINGTON, DC – Rep. Dean Phillips (MN-03) announced today that his amendment aimed at cleaning up a polluted former missile site in Watertown, MN was included in final passage of the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which passed the Senate today. President Trump is expected to sign the bipartisan agreement into law.
Watertown was the location of a Cold War anti-aircraft missile site until 1972. In 1974, it was jointly purchased from the military by 11 Minnesota communities – Mound, Chanhassen, Chaska, Eden Prairie, Excelsior, Long Lake, Maple Plain, Mayer, St. Bonifacius, Victoria and Watertown. The 11 communities established the Western Area Fire Training Academy (WAFTA), an agreement between their local volunteer fire departments. Under the agreement, the grounds were used to conduct fire training exercises for the group for over a decade, until it was discovered that the site was contaminated with harmful pollutants left over from the Nike missile program. Since the 1990’s, WAFTA has attempted to return the site to the military with the hope that it will be cleaned of pollutants. Continue reading “Rep. Phillips’ Amendment to Clean Up MN Missile Site Will Become Law”
A new report from the World Health Organization says we aren’t prepared enough for the mental and physical health risks caused by climate change. The study, titled the WHO Health and Climate Change Survey Report, took survey data from 101 countries and assessed the impact of climate-related events on residents’ health. The results were disheartening.
Although the countries could identify climate-related risks like “heat stress, injury, or death from extreme weather events, food, water, and vector-borne diseases (such as cholera, dengue, or malaria),” only 48% have actually conducted an assessment to predict how the changing climate can harm public health. Furthermore, despite the assessment, at least 60% of those countries were still unprepared to protect the health of their citizens. Only 38% had the means to partially implement a plan of action. Less than 10% could afford to fully fund a plan.
This is bad news. Extreme weather events caused by climate change — such as flooding, tropical storms, uncontrollable wildfires, and record-breaking heatwaves — can more easily spread diseases and threaten the world’s food supply. And the damage isn’t just physical; the report noted that depression, anxiety, PTSD, and other mental health issues can arise from the trauma of experiencing a climate-related disaster.
SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA — House Speaker Melissa Hortman released the following statement on today’s announcement from Governor Walz that the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency will be implementing clean car standards:
“I applaud Governor Walz for taking this important step. Climate change threatens the health of Minnesota’s crops, wildlife, lakes — and our people. Transportation accounts for a large portion of carbon pollution — and while we have significantly reduced carbon pollution from electricity by moving to renewable energy like wind and solar — it is time to reduce the carbon pollution coming from cars. As a result of the Walz Administration decision today, Minnesota consumers will have access to a wider selection of efficient vehicles – which will save them money.”
In a speech to the United Nations Climate Action Summit Monday, Swedish youth climate activist Greta Thunberg lit into world leaders for their “empty words” around solving the climate crisis and said decades of inaction have left her generation without a future.
“People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosytems are collapsing. We are at the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth,” said Thunberg. “How dare you!”
Thunberg delivered her remarks during a panel on the climate crisis after she was asked what she thought of the worldwide climate strike movement that she began, alone, 13 months ago. But the youth activist wasn’t interested in rehashing the past or praise from politicians.
