The Revelator – How a study of so-called “trash birds” revealed conservation clues for urban species. “Why do some bird species seem to flourish alongside humans, eating our crumbs and nesting in our backyards, while others prefer to live as far as possible from dense human populations? Researcher Monte Neate-Clegg first began to ponder that… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Environmental Law
Global greenhouse gas emissions at all-time high, study finds
The Guardian – Scientists say world is burning through ‘carbon budget’ that can be emitted while staying below 1.5C: “Greenhouse gas emissions have reached an all-time high, threatening to push the world into “unprecedented” levels of global heating, scientists have warned. The world is rapidly running out of “carbon budget”, the amount of carbon dioxide… Continue Reading
GPO NOAA
“U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Central Library is working to add more than 47,000 unique items published by NOAA authors and grantees to the National Collection of U.S. Government Public Information. GPO shares NOAA’s goal of providing additional avenues to access Government research and making… Continue Reading
How do you read the EPA’s Air Quality Index?
MarketWatch: “The EPA says to think of the AQI as a yardstick that runs from 0 to 500. The higher the AQI value, the greater the level of air pollution and the greater the health concern. For example, an AQI value of 50 or below represents good air quality for essentially all the population. A… Continue Reading
Pesticide use data
Jeremy Singer-Vine, Data is Plural: “As part of its National Water-Quality Assessment Project, the US Geological Survey publishes maps and datasets that estimate local pesticide usage, based on “proprietary surveys of farm operations.” The datasets provide high/low estimates (measured in kilograms) by county, chemical, and year, as well as by crop group for each state.… Continue Reading
NYT launches a free, geo-targeted extreme weather newsletter
NiemanLab: “As the warming climate causes extreme weather events to become more frequent and severe, your everyday concern about weather risks may be growing. And you might not only be preoccupied with the chances of extreme weather where you live, but also in places you’re traveling, or where your friends and loved ones reside. What… Continue Reading
Struggles With Air Quality in Federal Offices Put Occupants At Risk of COVID Exposure
Office of Audits, Office of Inspector General, U.S. General Services Administration A201018/P/4/R2308. Audit of GSA’s Response to COVID-19: PBS Faces Challenges to Meet the Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality Standard in GSA-Owned Buildings. GovExec: “The federal government’s landlord has struggled to maintain air quality standards in its buildings thus putting occupants at risk for… Continue Reading
Google Flood Hub
“Flood Hub – “How it works – Flood Hub provides Google’s flood alerts to the general population. If you are in a flood prone area, open Flood Hub and see the current flood information in your area. If not, open Flood Hub, zoom out/in to find your area of interest and see the relevant flood… Continue Reading
Is That Climate Change? The Science of Extreme Event Attribution
CRS, Is That Climate Change? The Science of Extreme Event Attribution. June 1, 2023: “Climate change attribution is the study of whether, or to what degree, human influence may have contributed to extreme climate or weather events. Scientists can now estimate whether human activities have influenced extreme weather or climate events and changed how likely… Continue Reading
World Energy Investment 2023
MIT Technology Review: “The world saw about $2.8 trillion of investments in energy in 2022, with about $1.7 trillion of that going into clean energy…” See also: “The report provides a global benchmark for tracking capital flows in the energy sector and examines how investors are assessing risks and opportunities across all areas of fuel… Continue Reading
Safe and just Earth system boundaries
Rockström, J., Gupta, J., Qin, D. et al. Safe and just Earth system boundaries. Nature (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06083-8 [free PDF download] “The stability and resilience of the Earth system and human well-being are inseparably linked yet their interdependencies are generally under-recognized; consequently, they are often treated independently. Here, we use modelling and literature assessment to quantify… Continue Reading
‘Stars to completely disappear from night skies’
The News: “Scientists warn that, in 20 years time, humans may not be able to see a starry sky at night at all due to increasing light pollution. British astronomer Martin Rees, while talking with The Guardian, said that light pollution conditions have “rapidly worsened” over the past few years, quite significantly since 2016 when… Continue Reading
