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Category Archives: Climate Change

Trump weakens environmental law to speed up permits for pipelines and other infrastructure

CNBC: “President Donald Trump on Wednesday finalized a rollback to the country’s landmark environmental law, the National Environmental Policy Act, by speeding up approval for federal projects like pipelines, highways and power plants.  NEPA was signed into law by President Richard Nixon 50 years ago and requires federal agencies to consider the environmental consequences of infrastructure projects before… Continue Reading

Your Car Is Spewing Microplastics That Blow Around the World

Wired – “When you drive, tiny bits of plastic fly off your tires and brakes. Now scientists have shown how all that road muck is blowing into “pristine” environments like the Arctic. “…Today in the journal Nature Communications, researchers model how microplastics from our cars are traveling from densely populated regions into the environment. These… Continue Reading

Socio-economic, environmental impacts of coronavirus quantified

University of Syndey: “How is COVID-19 impacting people and the planet and what are the implications for a post-pandemic world? This world-first study led by the University of Sydney quantifies the socio-economic losses and environmental gains. The first comprehensive study of the pandemic shows consumption losses amount to more than US$3.8 trillion, triggering full-time equivalent… Continue Reading

The Go-To Instagram for NYC Protest Updates Explains How They Do It

Vice – The team behind @justiceforgeorgenyc talked about what it takes to track protests and keep their followers informed…”VICE spoke to the people behind the go-to Instagram account for action tracking in New York City, @justiceforgeorgenyc. Their account quickly became a go-to source for anyone trying to make direct action a regular part of their… Continue Reading

How to catch a glimpse of the spectacular comet Neowise before it disappears for thousands of years

CBS News: “A newly-discovered comet is giving skywatchers quite the show during the month of July. Early risers may have already caught a glimpse of the comet Neowise as it streaks across the sky, but don’t worry — some of the best viewing moments have yet to come. What is NEOWISE? Astronomers discovered the comet,… Continue Reading

Winners of the 2020 Audubon Photography Awards

Audubon.org: “Every spring, the judges of the Audubon Photography Awards gather at Audubon’s headquarters in Manhattan to review their favorite images and select the finalists. But as with much of life in 2020, this year’s awards had to be handled differently due to pandemic-related travel, work, and social-distancing restrictions. So, for our 11th annual awards,… Continue Reading

Federal government moving ahead with removing protections for birds under Migratory Bird Treaty Act

“From the Cornell Lab of Ornithology e-newsletter: Public Comment Period Open: The federal government is moving ahead with removing protections for birds under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The American Ornithological Society has this summary, and you can provide public comments through July 20. The AOS statement (July 1) begins: In March, we published a blog post on the Migratory Bird… Continue Reading

The U.S. Is Lagging Behind Many Rich Countries

The New York Times – These Charts Show Why. “The United States is different. In nearly every other high-income country, people have both become richer over the last three decades and been able to enjoy substantially longer lifespans. But not in the United States. Even as average incomes have risen, much of the economic gains… Continue Reading

House Democrats release the most detailed climate plan in US political history

“Plan Would Put Americans Back To Work, Save Lives, And Help the United States Reach Net Zero By 2050 – On Tuesday, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Chair Kathy Castor (D-FL), members of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis unveiled a comprehensive plan titled “Solving the Climate Crisis: The Congressional Action Plan for a Clean Energy… Continue Reading

Mapping America’s Underwater Real Estate

Bloomberg Green – What happens to home prices if flood maps start measuring climate change? Millions of Americans are about to find out. “Millions of Americans just woke up in a flood zone that had never before been listed on U.S. government maps. The first-ever public evaluation of flood risk for every property in the 48… Continue Reading

Coronavirus Responses Highlight How Humans Have Evolved to Dismiss Facts That Don’t Fit Their Worldview

Scientific American – Science denialism is not just a simple matter of logic or ignorance:  “Americans increasingly exist in highly polarized, informationally insulated ideological communities occupying their own information universes. Within segments of the political blogosphere, global warming is dismissed as either a hoax or so uncertain as to be unworthy of response. Within other geographic or online… Continue Reading