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A New National Spotlight Shines on Josh Shapiro’s Contested Environmental Record
It was supposed to be a triumphant moment. Five months ago, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro traveled to a union hall in Scranton to announce a new energy plan his administration touted as a “bold vision for Pennsylvania’s energy future.”. But his speech was interrupted with a searing question...
At the Olympics, Heat Can Raise the Danger Bar of Competitions
Athletes from more than 200 countries have convened in Paris for the Olympic Games. But looming over it is the memory of the last summer Olympics in 2021, the hottest on record. Forced to compete in temperatures regularly above 92 degrees Fahrenheit, athletes from different sports buckled under Tokyo’s unusually high summer temperatures. Marathoners vomited or fainted minutes after crossing the finish line (if they were able to finish at all). Tennis players paused mid-match as they struggled against heat exhaustion.
Climate Change Contributes to Shift in Lake Erie’s Harmful Algal Blooms
Lake Erie’s harmful algal blooms have started sooner and had longer peak periods over the past decade compared to earlier years, newly released data shows. Warming temperatures linked to climate change are a cause, according to researchers for NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, with interactions among species likely playing a role as well.
Western States and Industry Groups Unite to Block BLM’s Conservation Priority Land Rule
Efforts are growing in the West to block the Bureau of Land Management’s new public land policy aimed at enhancing the conservation and ecological health of public lands. The WEST (Western Economic Security Today) Act, which passed in the U.S. House of Representatives last week, is the latest attempt by Western states to repeal the policy aimed at enhancing the conservation and ecological health of public lands, which critics say harms economic activities including ranching, mining, fossil fuel production and energy development.
White House Looks to Safeguard Groundwater Supplies as Aquifers Decline Nationwide
PHOENIX—In the middle of summer in the nation’s hottest city, water experts from local governments, tribal nations, universities and industry groups gathered Monday to discuss how the federal government could help local communities sustainably manage their declining aquifers. The White House is taking the initial steps to create...
UN Secretary-General Says the World Must Turbocharge the Fossil Fuel Phaseout
Ongoing deadly heat waves around the world, set against the backdrop of a seemingly endless series of annual, monthly and daily heat records on every continent and ocean, prompted United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to make an urgent call to “turbo charge” cuts to fossil fuels. “All countries...
In Northeast Ohio, Hello to Solar and Storage; Goodbye to Coal
A coal-fired power plant that started running more than a century ago is about to get a long-overdue retirement, and its electricity will be replaced by a solar farm and a battery storage system on an existing brownfield. The project in Painesville, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, is one of...
Historic Investments and Accountability Push Chesapeake Bay Cleanup Efforts In Right Direction, Says EPA Mid-Atlantic Administrator
On a recent afternoon, Adam Ortiz, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Mid-Atlantic region office, and Bill Dennison, a professor and vice president at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES), gathered to discuss a favorite, albeit complicated topic: the Chesapeake Bay. Ortiz and Dennison were...
New York City’s Marshes, Resplendent and Threatened
NEW YORK—Walter Mugdan looks out at the marshes that make up part of Udall’s Cove Park and Preserve in Little Neck, Queens. He points out the ospreys that inhabit one of the nesting platforms in the area, hoping to catch one of them diving down into the marsh for food.
New York’s Marshes Plagued by Sewage Runoff and Lack of Sediment
NEW YORK—New York City marshes are not only impacted by storm surge and rising sea levels, they are also threatened by the outflows of sewage and stormwater that the city releases into the waterways during rainstorms, as well as the high nitrogen levels present in treated water. The amount...
Biden Administration Targets Domestic Emissions of Climate Super-Pollutant with Eye Towards U.S.-China Climate Agreement
WASHINGTON, D.C.—The first details of a potential, and possibly massive, climate agreement between the U.S. and China were announced at a climate summit at the White House on Tuesday. The initiative could significantly reduce emissions of nitrous oxide, a potent and largely overlooked greenhouse gas that also harms the...
Fire Once Helped Sequoias Reproduce. Now, it’s Killing the Groves.
Giant sequoia groves in California’s Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks that were extensively burned in the megafires of 2020 and 2021 produced numbers of seedlings that were so “drastically low” in some areas that they may not naturally regenerate, according to two new studies by government scientists.
Biden’s Election Exit and the New Nominee Could Have Profound Impacts for the Climate, Experts Say
What could President Joe Biden’s exit from the 2024 election mean for the climate? Questions have come pouring in from both sides of the aisle about what will happen now, though all signs point to Vice President Kamala Harris taking over the ticket following a rush of support and funding.
For Appalachian Artists, the Landscape Is Much More Than the Sum of Its Natural Resources
In a 2018 photograph taken by the Philadelphia artist Andrea Walls, a ghost floats toward the viewer. Draped in a white shroud and framed by power lines and splintered tree branches, the faceless figure is following train tracks that fall off the edge of the page. Walls’ eerie portrait, called...
To Help Stop Malaria’s Spread, CDC Researchers Create a Test to Find a Mosquito That Is Flourishing Thanks to Climate Change
For years, climate scientists have cautioned that the warming world could create conditions where animals, insects and other creatures would establish themselves in places they had not been found before—and bring diseases harmful to humans with them. That scenario is now playing out in Africa, where a mosquito native...
New Federal Grants Could Slash U.S. Climate Emissions by Nearly 1 Billion Metric Tons Through 2050
The Biden administration on Monday announced that it’s awarding $4.3 billion in federal grants to projects in 30 states aimed at boosting clean energy development and other efforts to reduce the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. The grants are among the largest cash subsidies under the Inflation Reduction Act,...
Judge Orders Oil and Gas Leases in Wyoming to Proceed After Updated BLM Environmental Analysis
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia this month allowed the sale of leases for oil and gas drilling on almost 120,000 acres of public land in Wyoming. The ruling comes three months after the same court determined that the Bureau of Land Management had failed to adequately tie the environmental impacts from proposed oil and gas drilling to its decision to hold a lease auction, placing the sale agreements on hold.
Fossil Fuel Development and Invasive Trees Drive Pronghorn Population Decline in Wyoming
Pronghorn in Wyoming are experiencing long-term declines in the number of young they are rearing due to increased oil and gas development and encroaching woody vegetation, according to a new study. Although pronghorn populations in Wyoming have been largely stable, the new analysis shows that many herds are experiencing long-term declines in fawn production.
New York Regulators Found High Levels of TCE in Kindra Bell’s Ithaca Home. They Told Her Not to Worry
ITHACA, N.Y.—On the ice, life made sense. Kindra Bell has played ice hockey in Ithaca since she was a kid and later, as a freshman, her team brought home the Ivy League Championship for Cornell University. But her diagnosis, well, that didn’t make any sense to her at all....
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