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Category Archives: Climate Change

2024 Law Firm Climate Change Scorecard

Law Students for Climate Accountability: “We are delighted to announce the launch of our first-ever multinational report. Expanding upon our 2024 Law Firm Climate Change Scorecard, which grades the “Vault 100” firms according to their fossil fuels work, the full report includes additional U.K. and Irish firms as well as lessons from COP28 and recent… Continue Reading

Global warming and heat extremes to enhance inflationary pressures

Kotz, M., Kuik, F., Lis, E. et al. Global warming and heat extremes to enhance inflationary pressures. Commun Earth Environ 5, 116 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-01173-x – “Climate impacts on economic productivity indicate that climate change may threaten price stability. Here we apply fixed-effects regressions to over 27,000 observations of monthly consumer price indices worldwide to quantify the… Continue Reading

First 2 years of Russia’s War on Ukraine Increased Climate Pollution by 175 Million Tonnes

EcoWatch: “In addition to the devastating death toll and widespread destruction of Russia’s war on Ukraine, the ongoing conflict has brought extensive climate damage to the planet. New research reveals that the first 24 months of the Ukraine war had a climate cost greater than the annual greenhouse gas emissions of 175 individual countries, adding… Continue Reading

How Specialty Recycling Companies Reduce Plastic Waste

Civil Eats – “With the lack of a national recycling standard and a confusing patchwork of local rules, specialty recyclers are stepping in to take whatever traditional recyclers reject. We ask a lot of food packaging. It needs to look good and keep perishable food safe, intact, and unblemished as it travels from the producer… Continue Reading

A New Book About Plant Intelligence Highlights the Messiness of Scientific Change

The New Yorker [unpaywalled], In “The Light Eaters,” by Zoë Schlanger the field of botany itself functions as a character—one in the process of undergoing a potentially radical transformation: “During the nineteen-seventies and eighties, a researcher at the University of Washington started noticing something strange in the college’s experimental forest. For years, a blight of… Continue Reading

Check out these new ‘HeatRisk’ tools to stay up to date on US heatwaves

The Verge: “Extreme heat is in store for communities across the US this week, and the CDC and National Weather Service (NWS) have new tools to help people prepare for the health risks. Heat is the top weather-related killer in the US, a threat that’s growing worse with climate change. But even though heatwaves kill… Continue Reading

Climate Quick Reference Guides Now on Farmers.gov

“Even when data is at your fingertips it can sometimes still be hard to find what you’re looking for – especially when it comes to climate information. USDA’s Climate Hubs and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) are helping to meet that need by providing Climate Quick Reference Guides for agricultural producers and landowners seeking basic… Continue Reading

Build it and they will come? The effects of a new infrastructure on cycling practices and experiences

Patrick Rérat, Aurélie Schmassmann, Build it and they will come? The effects of a new infrastructure on cycling practices and experiences, Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Volume 25, 2024, 101121, ISSN 2590-1982, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trip.2024.101121. Abstract: What are the effects of cycling infrastructure? This question is crucial as cities begin to give more space to cycling. In this… Continue Reading

All the place where you can now find microplastics

Washington Post [unpaywalled]: “Microplastics have popped up in rivers, oceans, soil, food, tea and even Antarctic snow — and now these tiny plastic particles are showing up in clouds. A group of researchers from Waseda University in Tokyo recently found microplastics in the clouds above Mount Fuji. In a paper published in Environmental Chemistry Letters,… Continue Reading

Meth-addict fish, aggro starlings, caffeinated minnows: animals radically changed by human drugs

The Guardian: “From brown trout becoming “addicted” to methamphetamine to European perch losing their fear of predators due to depression medication, scientists warn that modern pharmaceutical and illegal drug pollution is becoming a growing threat to wildlife. Drug exposure is causing significant, unexpected changes to some animals’ behaviour and anatomy. Female starlings dosed with antidepressants… Continue Reading

How climate change is making us sick

Grist: “These climate-driven impacts are taking a serious toll on human health. Cases of disease linked to mosquitos, ticks, and fleas tripled in the U.S. between 2004 and 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The threat extends beyond commonly recognized vector-borne diseases. Research shows more than half of all the pathogens… Continue Reading