“AirNow is your one-stop source for air quality data. Our recently redesigned site highlights air quality in your local area first, while still providing air quality information at state, national, and world views. A new interactive map even lets you zoom out to get the big picture or drill down to see data for a… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Climate Change
Saving the American Chestnut
New York Intelligencer [no paywall]: “…In 1904, Herman W. Merkel, a forester at the Bronx Zoo, noticed chestnuts near the park’s perimeter were speckled with a strange orange fungus. Merkel called in William A. Murrill, a mycologist at the New York Botanical Garden, and the two men spent the next year identifying a fungus now… Continue Reading
Ditch brightly coloured plastic, anti-waste researchers tell firms
The Guardian: “Retailers are being urged to stop making everyday products such as drinks bottles, outdoor furniture and toys out of brightly coloured plastic after researchers found it degrades into microplastics faster than plainer colours. Red, blue and green plastic became “very brittle and fragmented”, while black, white and silver samples were “largely unaffected” over… Continue Reading
We’re All Roadkill. Now Cars flatten animals and humans
Slate – “…Alongside washed-up Coke bottles and cigarette butts, the Anthropocene’s most ubiquitous emblem might be roadkill. The demolished deer, the obliterated opossum, the wrecked raccoon: This is the detritus of our human-dominated age. Every day in the U.S. alone, more than a million vertebrate animals meet their end on the asphalt, among them rarities… Continue Reading
The best way to compost your food scraps
Edgadget- Or, why I pay someone else to do it for me. “The EPA estimates each person in the US sends 200 pounds of food to the landfill each year where it disgorges methane and contributes to climate change. Composted, those scraps turn into soil-feeding, carbon-capturing humus instead. If that sounds like the better option,… Continue Reading
Big Oil Reality Check: Oil and Gas Companies Failing on Climate
“Oil Change International released our Big Oil Reality Check report today in collaboration with over 200 organizations worldwide. The report assesses the climate pledges and plans of eight international oil and gas companies – Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, TotalEnergies, BP, Eni, Equinor, and ConocoPhillips – against 10 criteria representing the bare minimum for aligning with the… Continue Reading
Amazing Winners of the GDT Nature Photographer of the Year 2024
My Modern Met: “This dreamy winter scene has earned Dieter Damschen the title of GDT Nature Photographer of the Year. The competition is run by the Germany Society for Nature Photographers to highlight the talent of its members. This year, 481 members from 13 countries entered just under 8,000 images. Damschen rose to the top… Continue Reading
Banking and the Climate Crisis
Fossil Fuel Finance Report 2024 – “The world’s 60 biggest banks committed $6,900,000,000,000 over 8 years to the fossil fuel industry, driving climate chaos & causing deadly local community impacts.” Continue Reading
Greenhouse gas giants
Data is Plural: “Carbon Majors, run by the UK-based InfluenceMap, “is a database of historical production data from 122 of the world’s largest oil, gas, coal, and cement producers.” It attributes to these producers 1,421 metric gigatons of CO2-equivalent emissions from 1854 through 2022. Launched last month, the database provides downloads at several levels of… Continue Reading
How to prepare for another season of wildfire smoke
Vox: “Several US states are again experiencing an influx of wildfire smoke as Canada’s summer fire season gets underway. Due to the scale of the wildfires and natural weather patterns, enormous amounts of smoke are drifting southward — much like last year. North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Minnesota are among the earliest states to… Continue Reading
As Insurers Around the U.S. Bleed Cash From Climate Shocks, Homeowners Lose
The New York Times [unpaywalled]: “The insurance turmoil caused by climate change — which had been concentrated in Florida, California and Louisiana — is fast becoming a contagion, spreading to states like Iowa, Arkansas, Ohio, Utah and Washington. Even in the Northeast, where homeowners insurance was still generally profitable last year, the trends are worsening.… Continue Reading
Automakers and Climate Policy Advocacy: A Global Analysis
“New InfluenceMap analysis finds that negative lobbying by the world’s largest automakers is putting global climate targets at risk and threatening the transition to electric vehicles. This report analyses the climate policy engagement strategies of fifteen of the largest global automakers in seven key regions (Australia, EU, Japan, India, South Korea, UK, US). It shows… Continue Reading
