The Guardian: “Half of the world’s climate-heating carbon emissions come from the fossil fuels produced by just 36 companies, analysis has revealed…The Carbon Majors report calculates the emissions released by the burning of the coal, oil and gas produced by 169 major companies in 2023. The database also includes emissions from the production of cement, which rose by 6.5% in 2023. The researchers said the 2023 data strengthened the case for holding fossil fuel companies to account for their contribution to global heating. Previous versions of the annual report have been used in legal cases against companies and investors. The report found that the 36 major fossil fuel companies, including Saudi Aramco, Coal India, ExxonMobil, Shell and numerous Chinese companies, produced coal, oil and gas responsible for more than 20bn tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2023. If Saudi Aramco was a country, it would be the fourth biggest polluter in the world after China, the US and India, while ExxonMobil is responsible for about the same emissions as Germany, the world’s ninth biggest polluter, according to the data…”
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Category Archives: Environmental Law
The Biodiversity Collections Crisis
The Biodiversity Collections Crisis – “You might be familiar with the concept of the present “biodiversity crisis“. There is an increasing consensus in the ecological research community that the current loss of species this planet is experiencing is not sustainable, in the sense that the loss of some species may precipitate the loss of more, in… Continue Reading
New Articles and Columns – LLRX February 2025 Issue
Climate and DEI Deleted From Government Websites, Federal Workers Fired, Colleges Erase Programs and Research – “Colleges have been a conservative target for years. Under President Trump, it’s total warfare on all aspects of higher education — from student life to hiring to athletics.” This March 2, 2025 update by Sabrina I. Pacifici chronicles Trump’s… Continue Reading
DOGE eliminates critical federal employees, cancels leases on government office buildings across America
TMP Looting Watch by Josh Marshall – In case you didn’t hear the GSA today announced it’s going to sell off many if not all of the central buildings making up the headquarters of the American republic. Those buildings include FBI Headquarters in Washington, DC, the buildings which are the headquarters of the DOJ, HHS,… Continue Reading
Trump Moves to Increase Logging in National Forests
“A rarely used amendment to the Endangered Species Act allows for the creation of a committee nicknamed “the God Squad” to take unprecedented action during emergencies like hurricanes and wildfires. Trump wants to convene this committee to bypass endangered species protections and other environmental regulations to ramp up timber production across 280 million acres of… Continue Reading
EDGI Relaunches Federal Environmental Web Tracker
“In response to the Trump administration’s rapid dismantling of federal websites, the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative (EDGI) has relaunched its Federal Environmental Web Tracker. EDGI has long monitored thousands of federal webpages related to climate, energy, and the environment. The Federal Environmental Web Tracker makes records of significant changes to federal environmental websites publicly… Continue Reading
2025 Air Quality Standards database
“The World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), has unveiled the updated 2025 Air Quality Standards database. This resource compiles national air quality standards for major pollutants and other airborne toxics from countries worldwide. This latest update provides an overview of global efforts towards achieving the… Continue Reading
FEMA datasets
Jeremy Herzog rebuilt FEMA’s Future Risk Index after it was taken down last week. Continue Reading
Trump Quietly Plans To Liquidate Public Lands To Finance His Sovereign Wealth Fund
American Prospect: “On February 3, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to create a sovereign wealth fund (SWF), saying the United States will have one of the largest funds in the world. That requires raising trillions of dollars very quickly. For context, Norway’s fund is currently worth $1.8 trillion U.S. dollars. Sovereign wealth… Continue Reading
How to Get PFAS Out of Drinking Water—and Keep It Out
Wired [unpaywalled]: “Filters in water pitchers or under-sink systems capture dangerous chemicals, only for them to be returned to the environment. A researcher from North Carolina is pioneering a new system that could get rid of forever chemicals forever. There’s something scary in the water at Cape Fear. For years, chemicals giant DuPont and the… Continue Reading
Website tracking how many people have lost their jobs because of the USAID Stop-Work Order
US AID STOP WORK – Tracking. Informing: “As of February 19, 2025, 55K confirmed, 100K+ estimated globally – these are the confirmed jobs lost from USAID and their implementing partners who have had to lay off or furlough employees due to the funding freeze. The confirmed number is based on 83 organizations. These numbers are… Continue Reading
Fired NPS, USFS, BLM Employees Share Their Stories
The Guardian: “Approximately 5,000 people have been terminated from the agencies that manage the 35m acres (14m hectares) of federal public lands in the US. These are our lands. They encompass national parks and forests, wilderness and marine protected areas, scenic rivers. They are home to campgrounds, river accesses, hiking trails and myriad other sites… Continue Reading
