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Category Archives: Climate Change

Turning off the Tap: How the world can end plastic pollution and create a circular economy

UN Environment Programme – Turning off the Tap: How the world can end plastic pollution and create a circular economy – The report proposes a systems change to address the causes of plastic pollution, combining reducing problematic and unnecessary plastic use with a market transformation towards circularity in plastics. This can be achieved by accelerating three… Continue Reading

Global temperatures set to reach new records in next five years

“Global temperatures are likely to surge to record levels in the next five years, fuelled by heat-trapping greenhouse gases and a naturally occurring El Niño event, according to a new update issued by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).  There is a 66% likelihood that the annual average near-surface global temperature between 2023 and 2027 will be… Continue Reading

Casey Tree Report – DC

“Last year Casey Trees reported that DC lost 550 acres of canopy—an area roughly the size of the National Mall—largely to development. While we recognize that a growing DC is a healthy DC, development that does not preserve existing trees and replace those that are lost makes neighborhoods hot, unhealthy, and unsustainable. In response, this… Continue Reading

Climate Policy Radar and Grantham Research Institute launch revamped research and policy resource

“We’re delighted to launch our upgraded version of the Climate Change Laws of the World database, offering new tools and features to make it easier to understand and analyse the global climate law and policy landscape. Climate Policy Radar and the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at LSE have partnered to… Continue Reading

Climate-juiced heat waves topple records around the globe

ClimateWire: “A record-breaking heat wave in the western Mediterranean last month would have been nearly impossible without the influence of climate change, new research [Extreme April heat in Spain, Portugal, Morocco & Algeria almost impossible without climate change] finds. And even with the help of global warming, it was an extraordinary event. Statistically speaking, a… Continue Reading

Yet Another Problem With Recycling: It Spews Microplastics

Wired – “Recycling was already a mess. Now a study finds that one facility may emit 3 million pounds of microplastics a year. The plastics industry has long hyped recycling, even though it is well aware that it’s been a failure. Worldwide, only 9 percent of plastic waste actually gets recycled. In the United States, the rate… Continue Reading

CRISK: Measuring the Climate Risk Exposure of the Financial System

New York Fed – Liberty Street Economics, Hyeyoon Jung: “A growing number of climate-related policies have been adopted globally in the past thirty years (see chart below). The risk to economic activity from changes in policies in response to climate risks, such as carbon taxes and green subsidies, is often referred to as transition risk.… Continue Reading

eBird Status and Trends

“High-resolution data, visualizations, and tools describing where bird populations occur and how they change through time—powered by eBird data and updated annually, providing you with the best available science. The eBird Science team uses state-of-the-art statistical models and machine learning to build visualizations and tools to help decision makers, scientists, and birders alike to better… Continue Reading

DOE Launches New Consumer Energy Savings Hub

“The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today launched the Energy Savings Hub — an online one-stop shop for American families and consumers to access the savings tools that President Biden’s Investing in America agenda has made available to drastically cut energy costs. The new website—Energy.gov/Save—puts President Biden’s clean energy tax credits and forthcoming rebates right at… Continue Reading

Rare-earth mining

Rare-earth mining. “Shuang-Liang Liu et al. have compiled a dataset of 146 mining projects targeting rare-earth elements, which serve as “critical raw materials in many low-carbon technologies.” The dataset lists each project’s name, company, location, status, deposit type, estimated tonnage of deposits, element composition, and other details sourced from “company annual reports and public presentations,… Continue Reading

New Research Sparks Concerns That Ocean Circulation Will Collapse

Yale Environment 360: “Scientists have long feared that warming could cause a breakdown of ocean circulation in the North Atlantic. But new research finds the real risk lies in Antarctica’s waters, where melting could disrupt currents in the next few decades, with profound impacts on global climate. It is being hailed as a sea change… Continue Reading