Climate Home

4/16/21, Climate diplomacy won’t wait – Climate Weekly

4/16/21, Pakistan explores debt-for-nature scheme to accelerate its 10 billion tree tsunami

4/16/21, Interim UN climate talks move online to address negotiation backlog

4/15/21, In Amazon protection talks, US demands action from Bolsonaro

4/14/21, Climate watchers pay tribute to Nicaraguan envoy Paul Oquist, who died on Monday

4/13/21, Joe Biden’s $1.2bn budget for Green Climate Fund falls short of campaigner demands

4/12/21, Total signs deal to build East African oil pipeline, despite lack of finance

4/9/21, Emerging economies share ‘grave concern’ over EU plans for a carbon border tax

4/9/21, Green debt relief in sight – Climate Weekly

4/9/21, Cyclone Seroja kills 160 people, exposes Indonesia’s climate vulnerability

4/8/21, Japan set to raise ambition of 2030 climate goal

4/8/21, Climate vulnerability should be factored into debt relief, says IMF head

4/7/21, Health must be put at the heart of national climate plans

4/6/21, South Africa sets out to tighten 2030 emissions target

4/1/21, A test of trust – Climate Weekly

4/1/21, UK pledges to make scaling up adaptation finance a priority at G7 summit

4/1/21, It took the Suez Canal crisis to highlight the scale of the polluting shipping sector

3/31/21, India calls out rich nations for setting net zero goals over robust short-term targets

3/31/21, Saudi Arabia aims for 50% renewable energy by 2030, backs huge tree planting initiative

3/30/21, EU member states and lawmakers at loggerheads over 2030 climate target

Yale Environment 360

4/15/21, Most Global Food Brands Continue to Have a Dismal Record on Beef and Deforestation

4/15/21, Entries Invited for the Eighth Annual Yale Environment 360 Video Contest

4/14/21, France Will Ban Short Flights That Could Be Replaced By a Train Trip

4/13/21, Why the Market for ‘Blue Carbon’ Credits May Be Poised to Take Off

4/8/21, Are Huge Tree Planting Projects More Hype than Solution?

4/5/21, Births Among Endangered Right Whales Show an Encouraging Rebound

4/1/21, In Europe, a Backlash Is Growing Over Incinerating Garbage

3/31/21, Washington’s Famed Tidal Basin and Cherry Trees Face Rising Waters

3/31/21, The Oil Well Next Door: California’s Silent Health Hazard

3/26/21, Indigenous Lands Contain Nearly Half of the Amazon’s Intact Forest

3/25/21, Why a Big Mining Project Could Wipe Out Rural Villages in Indonesia

3/24/21, Despite Pledges to Cut Emissions, China Goes on a Coal Spree

3/23/21, Cost of Lithium-ion Batteries Has Fallen by 97 Percent, Study Says

3/18/21, UK Is Now Halfway Toward Meeting Its Zero-Carbon Goal by 2050

3/18/21, Stealth Chemicals: A Call to Action on a Threat to Human Fertility

3/15/21, EV Turning Point: Momentum Builds for U.S. Electric Vehicle Transition

3/11/21, In Peru, an Indigenous Group Fights to Protect Land from Drug Traffickers and Deforestation

3/10/21, Summer Could Last Six Months by 2100, Study Finds

3/9/21, Is the ‘Legacy’ Carbon Credit Market a Climate Plus or Just Hype?

3/4/21, Emissions Drop Equivalent to Covid Shutdowns Needed Every Two Years to Limit Warming to 2 Degrees C

U.S. Global Change Research Program

1/25/21, Updates on NCA5

1/25/21, NASA/JPL Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich Satellite Launched November 21, 2020

1/25/21, National Council for Science and the Environment Drawdown 2021 Conference

1/25/21, American Meteorological Society 101st Annual Meeting

1/25/21, North American Carbon Program 7th Open Science Meeting

1/25/21, American Geophysical Union 2020 Fall Meeting

8/7/20, Remembering Dr. Mike Freilich

11/22/19, USGCRP at the AGU 2019 Fall Meeting

8/9/19, Remembering Tony Janetos

11/20/18, On the release of NCA4 Volume II and SOCCR2: A letter from the Acting Chair of the Subcommittee on Global Change Research and our Executive Director

NOAA State of the Climate updates

4/16/21, March 2021 National Climate Report

4/16/21, March 2021 Global Climate Report

4/16/21, March 2021 Regional Analysis

4/16/21, March 2021 Wildfires

4/16/21, March 2021 Tornadoes

4/16/21, March 2021 Synoptic Discussion

4/16/21, March 2021 National Snow and Ice

4/16/21, March 2021 Drought

4/16/21, March 2021 Tropical Cyclones

4/16/21, March 2021 Global Snow and Ice

The Guardian

4/13/21, France’s ban on short flights should be a wake-up call for Britain | Leo Murray

4/13/21, Purple revolution: India’s farmers turn to lavender to beat drought

4/12/21, Racked with guilt and grief and climate despair – how do we go on!? | First Dog on the Moon

4/8/21, The Guardian view on peat: keep it in the ground | Editorial

4/8/21, Third of Antarctic ice shelves ‘will collapse amid 4C global heating’

4/8/21, Sea-level rise is creating ‘ghost forests’ on an American coast | Emily Ury

4/6/21, If we want to fight the climate crisis, Sadiq Khan is the only choice for London mayor

3/31/21, The Guardian view on cherry blossom: lessons from fragile, fleeting beauty

3/24/21, Rising risk of wildfires across UK from climate crisis, scientists warn

3/24/21, Scientists need to face both facts and feelings when dealing with the climate crisis | Kimberly Nicholas

I was taught to use my head, not my heart. But acknowledging sadness at what is lost can help us safeguard the future

Over the course of my career, the climate crisis has changed from something only experts could see – reading clues trapped in frozen air bubbles or statistical patterns in long-term data sets – to something that everyone on Earth is living through. For me, it has gone from being something I study to a way that I see the world and experience my life. It’s one thing to publish a study on the hypothetical impact of increasing temperature on California’s people and ecosystems; it’s another to feel my stomach gripped by fear as my parents flee a catastrophic California wildfire cranked up by longer, hotter, drier summers.

Bearing witness to the demise or death of what we love has started to look an awful lot like the job description for an environmental scientist these days. Over dinner, my colleague Ola Olsson matter‑of‑factly summed up his career: “Half the wildlife in Africa has died on my watch.” He studied biodiversity because he loved animals and wanted to understand and protect them. Instead his career has turned into a decades-long funeral.

As a scientist, I was trained to be calm, rational, and objective, to focus on the facts, supporting my claims with evidence and showing my reasoning to colleagues to tear apart in peer review. I was trained to use my brain but not my heart; to report methods and statistics and findings but not how I felt about them. In graduate school, I was surrounded by brilliant, serious men who spoke in even, measured tones about the loss of California snowpack and crop yields; I tried to do the same.

I felt my credibility as a scientist was on the line, as was the respect of those who would sit on my future hiring committee and determine whether I would get a tenure- track job. I internalised the idea that scientists should be “policy-relevant and yet policy-neutral, never policy-prescriptive.” I was not supposed to have a preference, much less an emotional attachment, to one outcome or another, even on matters of life and death; that was for “policymakers” to decide. (This reticence goes against the wishes of 60% of Americans, as expressed in Pew Research polling, that scientists take an active role in policy debates about scientific issues.)

My dispassionate training has not prepared me for the increasingly frequent emotional crises of climate change. What do I tell the student who chokes up in my office when she reads that 90% of the seagrasses she’s trying to design policies to protect are slated to be killed by warming before she retires? In such cases, facts are cold comfort. The skill I’ve had to cultivate on my own is to find the appropriate bedside manner as a doctor to a feverish planet; to try to go beyond probabilities and scenarios, to acknowledge what is important and grieve for what is being lost.

Kimberly Nicholas is associate professor of sustainability science at Lund University in Sweden. This is an edited excerpt from her new book, Under the Sky We Make

3/23/21, Australia's floods: what the disaster tells us about a climate crisis future

3/22/21, Is NSW flooding a year after bushfires yet more evidence of climate change?

3/21/21, Climate fight 'is undermined by social media's toxic reports'

3/20/21, Canadian Conservative party votes not to recognize climate crisis as real

3/20/21, ‘Our biggest challenge? Lack of imagination’: the scientists turning the desert green

3/19/21, Activist dives for global climate strike in first underwater protest for the planet – video

3/16/21, Don't believe hydrogen and nuclear hype – they can’t get us to net zero carbon by 2050 | Jonathon Porritt

3/15/21, Climate crisis: recent European droughts 'worst in 2,000 years'

3/14/21, UK scientists attack 'reckless' Tory cuts to international research

3/9/21, It's unavoidable: we must ban fossil fuels to save our planet. Here's how we do it | Roland Geyer

Inside Climate News

4/16/21, Politicians Are Considering Paying Farmers to Store Carbon. But Some Environmental and Agriculture Groups Say It’s Greenwashing

4/15/21, Today's Climate - Brendan Mallory Confirmed as First Black Leader of White House Environmental Council

Today's Climate - Brendan Mallory Confirmed as First Black Leader of White House Environmental Council

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Updates from

Today’s Climate – Inside Climate News

04/15/2021

Brendan Mallory Confirmed as First Black Leader of White House Environmental Council

The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Brenda Mallory to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality, which advises the president on issues such as environmental justice and conserving oceans, lands and wildlife, The Hill reports. Three Republicans joined Democrats in confirming Biden’s pick, who is now the first African American to run the agency.

(The Hill)

JPMorgan Pledges $2.5 Trillion Over the Next Decade to Tackle Climate Change

JPMorgan Chase said Thursday that it will commit more than $2.5 trillion over the next decade toward long-term solutions that tackle climate change and contribute to sustainable development, CNBC reports. The financial firm’s initiative will focus on ways to speed the transition to a low-carbon economy, as well as to support socioeconomic progress in developing countries.

(CNBC)

DeSantis Recognizes the Threat Posed by Climate Change, but Hasn’t Embraced Reducing Carbon Emissions

Few states face the kind of impacts from climate change that Florida does. So when Gov. Ron DeSantis took office in 2019 and made early environmental moves, some climate hawks were hopeful. But as DeSantis looks to a 2022 reelection bid, and possibly a run for president in 2024, the Florida governor faces criticism for not doing enough to reduce the state’s reliance on fossil fuels.

(Inside Climate News)

Inside Clean Energy: The Rooftop Solar Income Gap Is (Slowly) Shrinking

One of the most common arguments against subsidizing rooftop solar is that the benefits mostly go to affluent households that don’t need any help. But new research shows that the declining costs of rooftop solar, along with other factors, are helping to reduce the income gap between solar households and U.S. households in general. That and more in the latest Inside Clean Energy by Dan Gearino.

(Inside Climate News)

It Was an Old Apple Orchard. Now It Could Be the Future of Clean Hydrogen Energy in Washington State

An old apple orchard could soon become the site of a new hydrogen plant in Washington state. Development of hydrogen fuel, which doesn’t produce greenhouse gases when burned, is seeing billions of dollars in investment. But challenges remain, including the massive amounts of electricity that would be required to make the fuel a building block of the 21st century low-carbon economy.

(Inside Climate News)

Seeking Cooperation on Climate, the United States Faces Friction With China

John Kerry, President Biden’s climate envoy, met with Chinese officials Thursday to press the country on reducing its carbon emissions, at a time when an emboldened Communist Party leadership has become increasingly dismissive of American demands, the New York Times reports. While tackling climate change is one of the few areas where the two countries agree, working together could remain difficult.

(The New York Times)

4/15/21, The Rooftop Solar Income Gap Is (Slowly) Shrinking

The Rooftop Solar Income Gap Is (Slowly) Shrinking

Clean energy stories behind the headlines reported by Dan Gearino

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One of the most common arguments against subsidizing rooftop solar is that the benefits mostly go to affluent households that don’t need any help.

But the reality is that the declining costs of rooftop solar, along with access to solar leasing and other financing methods, are helping to reduce the income gap between solar households and U.S. households in general.

A new report from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory shows a continuing diversification of solar adopters in terms of income and race. Solar households had a median income of $113,000 last year, compared to the median income for all U.S. households of $64,000, a difference that is much smaller than it was in 2010 when the median income of a solar household was about $140,000.

It is accurate to say that solar households tend to have higher incomes than households in general, but this kind of broad-brush statement—often made by utilities—is becoming less so with just about each passing year.

Among households that added solar in 2019, 21 percent had incomes that were below 80 percent of their “area median income,” a threshold often used to define low income, the report said. The share of solar adopters in this income category continues to rise.

Solar advocates can find some things to like in this research, and some to lament. The income gap is shrinking, but the pace of that trend is gradual.

“The core finding in this work is that there’s this income disparity and it’s declining over time, but it’s declining quite slowly,” said Galen Barbose, a research scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley lab and the report’s lead author.

I asked him how his research should fit into some of the policy debates about subsidies for rooftop solar. His answer was that he was reluctant to connect the findings to any debate, and will let others figure out the relevance for policy questions.

“While it’s true that solar adoption has skewed toward higher-income households, it’s also true that it would be an oversimplification to say that solar adopters are simply wealthy households,” he said.

This is the second report in a series that began early last year, part of the Lawrence Berkeley lab’s continuing research into the finances and demographics of rooftop solar owners.

The report used a sample of 1.9 million rooftop solar systems obtained by the lab, plus estimates of household incomes provided by Experian, the credit reporting company. The sample doesn’t include households with community solar, in which subscribers get a share of the electricity from larger solar systems.

The authors also identified racial and ethnic categories using block-level data, finding that solar adopters live on blocks that have larger Hispanic and Asian populations than the country as a whole. But some of this is because California has the most solar adoption of any state and has large Hispanic and Asian populations.

Within most states, the report showed solar adoption skews toward blocks with high white populations.

Previous research from the Lawrence Berkeley lab has shown some of the drivers of solar adoption by people with low-to-moderate incomes. An important factor is the availability of solar leasing, which allows customers to pay a monthly charge for a solar system, rather than making an up-front payment that now is an average of $11,240 for a 4-kilowatt system, a common system size. Sunrun, the country’s market leader in solar installation, uses leasing as a key part of its business model.

Also, the installed cost of residential rooftop solar has fallen by about half since 2010, according to the Lawrence Berkeley lab’s annual “Tracking the Sun” reports.

People who buy rooftop solar get help from federal policies like the investment tax credit, which shaves 26 percent off of the cost, and from state policies like net metering. As I wrote last week, some of the fiercest debates are about net metering, which refers to the way that utilities buy excess electricity from solar owners. Some states are looking to change net metering policies to reduce the benefits for solar owners.

Solar advocates have long argued for the continuation and even expansion of government aid, based on the idea that solar has broad benefits for the public, reducing the need for centralized power plants and giving people more of a personal stake in the transition to clean energy.

Many of those same advocates have worked to expand programs that provide solar to low-income households, like the Solar for All program in Illinois or the Low-Income Solar Program in Colorado.

The Lawrence Berkeley lab report doesn’t attempt to quantify the role of low-income solar programs in broadening solar adoption, but it does show an unmistakable shift toward the kind of market in which rooftop solar is no longer a luxury item.

Some other stories about the energy transition to take note of this week:

Xcel Goes from Coal to Solar: Xcel Energy has proposed what would be, by far, the largest solar array in Minnesota, and it would be built adjacent to the company’s Sherco coal-fired power plant. Mike Hughlett of The Star Tribune reports that the solar array would be 460 megawatts and cost $575 million. The new project would go online in 2024, which is when the first of three generating units at the Sherco plant will be closing, part of an existing plan to completely close the plant by 2030. Xcel was the first large U.S. utility to set a goal of getting to net-zero emissions, which it aims to do by 2050, and this solar project is part of that transition, the company said. By building in the same city as the Sherco plant, Xcel can use the grid connections that are already there for the coal plant and it can help to address ongoing concerns that the community will have a difficult time replacing the jobs and tax revenue from the coal plant.

Looking at the New Players in Long-Duration Energy Storage: I wrote last month about the sad end of Greentech Media, one of the leading news outlets for covering the business of the energy transition. So I was pleased last week when RMI, the research and advocacy organization formerly known as the Rocky Mountain Institute, announced it had sponsored the launch of Canary Media, a new nonprofit news outlet that features most of the staff from Greentech Media, plus several other familiar and well-regarded names. Eric Wesoff, the new site’s managing editor, has the kind of story I liked so much at Greentech Media, a roundup of the companies that are developing energy storage systems that can discharge for days as opposed to hours. Welcome back, everyone. You weren’t gone long, but you were missed.

Probing Conditions in China’s Solar Industry: One of the nagging issues in the growth of solar power is that China’s Xinjiang region produces about half the world’s polysilicon, an essential raw material in the most common solar panels, and there are ongoing concerns about labor conditions in the plants there. Because of the secrecy of the Chinese government, we know little about what’s happening. That’s why a story this week from a team of reporters at Bloomberg Green is so important, helping to explain the region’s solar industry, and contributing new and troubling insights about the conditions there.

Pressure Builds for Biden to Announce Aggressive Climate Target: It’s not enough that the United States has rejoined the Paris Agreement. The Biden Administration is also facing pressure from environmental advocacy groups to be more ambitious and adopt a new goal of cutting emissions 50 percent from 2005 levels by 2030, according to a story from my colleague Marianne Lavelle. The administration is likely to announce its plans in the next two weeks. “At this moment, it’s not enough to just say, we’re back,” said Rachel Cleetus, policy director for the climate and energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “We have to come back with a very bold commitment to climate action.”

Inside Clean Energy is ICN’s weekly bulletin of news and analysis about the energy transition. Send news tips and questions to dan.gearino@insideclimatenews.org.

Go Deeper

Biden’s Paris Goal: Pressure Builds for a 50 Percent Greenhouse Gas Cut by 2030

The First Native American Cabinet Secretary Visits the Land of Her Ancestors and Sees Firsthand the Obstacles to Compromise

Driven by Industry, More States Are Passing Tough Laws Aimed at Pipeline Protesters

4/15/21, It Was an Old Apple Orchard. Now It Could Be the Future of Clean Hydrogen Energy in Washington State

4/14/21, Today's Climate - The EPA Is Asking a Virgin Islands Refinery for Information on its Spattering of Neighbors With Oil

Today's Climate - The EPA Is Asking a Virgin Islands Refinery for Information on its Spattering of Neighbors With Oil

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Updates from

Today’s Climate – Inside Climate News

04/14/2021

The EPA Is Asking a Virgin Islands Refinery for Information on its Spattering of Neighbors With Oil

Federal regulators sent a letter to the Virgin Islands Limetree Bay refinery requesting a host of information pertaining to a February flaring incident, in which more than 130 homes were spattered with oil. The letter also asks for expansive details about the refinery’s operations, leading some experts to believe the EPA could be preparing to take additional action against Limetree.

(Inside Climate News)

Biden Wants Leaders to Make Climate Commitments for Earth Day

Japan, South Korea and Canada are expected to join the U.S. in committing to emissions reductions during President Biden’s climate change summit next week. But getting commitments from big emitters like China, Brazil and India is still up in the air. Climate envoy John Kerry is in China this week speaking with leaders ahead of the summit.

(The New York Times)

An Unusual Coalition of Environmental and Industry Groups Is Calling on the EPA to Quickly Phase Out Super-Polluting Refrigerants

In a rare alliance, a coalition of manufacturers and environmental groups is calling on the federal government to quickly phase out the worst climate super-polluting chemicals currently used in air conditioners, refrigerators and other appliances. The petitions reflect strong agreement on the need for aggressive federal leadership on climate policy.

(Inside Climate News)

Carbon Emissions Could Plummet. The Atmosphere Will Lag Behind

The Biden administration is expected to announce massive cuts to greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., but that won’t quickly halt global warming, NPR reports. That’s because the carbon dioxide and other planet warming gases that are already in the atmosphere will take centuries to fully dissipate.

(NPR)

Trading Clunkers for Electric Bikes: France Moves to Offer Financial Incentive

France is considering offering nearly $3,000 to owners of old cars to turn in their beaters for scrap and buy a bicycle. The measure has been approved by lawmakers in a preliminary vote as the nation aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030.

(Reuters)

Here’s What A Civilian Climate Corps Could Look Like

A climate group published a 20-page report this week outlining what a 21st century version of the Civilian Conservation Corps could look like. The New Deal-era version of the corps didn’t pay well and only really employed young, white men. But in Evergreen Action’s vision, the program could provide good pay, benefits and on-the-job training—and it would need to be five times bigger.

(HuffPost)

4/14/21, The EPA Is Asking a Virgin Islands Refinery for Information on its Spattering of Neighbors With Oil

4/13/21, Today's Climate - Biden’s Paris Goal: Pressure Builds for a 50 Percent Greenhouse Gas Cut by 2030

Today's Climate - Biden’s Paris Goal: Pressure Builds for a 50 Percent Greenhouse Gas Cut by 2030

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Updates from

Today’s Climate – Inside Climate News

04/13/2021

Biden’s Paris Goal: Pressure Builds for a 50 Percent Greenhouse Gas Cut by 2030

Hundreds of businesses have joined environmental activists calling on the Biden administration to announce a 50 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 as the United States plans its actions to meet the goals of the Paris climate accord. President Biden will unveil the nation’s new commitments under the agreement in the next two weeks.

(Inside Climate News)

NFTs Are Shaking Up the Art World. They May Be Warming the Planet, Too.

Nonfungible tokens, the lucrative digital artwork that has exploded in popularity in the past few months, require blockchain technology, which uses a massive amount of energy and comes at a high cost to the planet. The greenhouse gas emissions from an average NFT are equivalent to driving 500 miles in a typical car.

(The New York Times)

New Zealand Introduces World’s First Climate Change Law for Financial Firms

New Zealand has introduced a first-of-its-kind law that will require banks, insurers and investment managers to report the impacts of climate change on their business, Reuters reports. The law would bring climate change risks to the heart of business and finance decisions, the country’s minister for climate change said in a statement.

(Reuters)

‘I’m Hopeful’: The 18-Year-Old Helping to Craft US Climate Policy

Jerome Foster spent every Friday for 58 weeks protesting outside of the White House for action on climate change. Now, he is by far the youngest member of a panel advising President Biden on environmental justice issues.

(The Guardian)

California Dairy Farmers are Saving Money—and Cutting Methane Emissions—By Feeding Cows Leftovers

California’s dairy farmers have started feeding cows leftover nut shells from nearby almond orchards instead of traditional forage. The move not only saves farmers money, but it curbs emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

(Inside Climate News)

600 Manatee Deaths in Florida Raise Concerns Over Sustainable Habitat

Manatees are dying at three times their average rate this year, leading environmentalists to question the sustainability of Florida’s waterways. The state’s fish and wildlife agency noticed in December that manatees in the Indian River Lagoon—home to nearly one-third of the entire U.S. manatee population—were emaciated and dying at higher rates.

(The Hill)

4/13/21, Biden’s Paris Goal: Pressure Builds for a 50 Percent Greenhouse Gas Cut by 2030

4/12/21, Today's Climate - Driven by Industry, More States Are Passing Tough Laws Aimed at Pipeline Protesters

Today's Climate - Driven by Industry, More States Are Passing Tough Laws Aimed at Pipeline Protesters

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Updates from

Today’s Climate – Inside Climate News

04/12/2021

Driven by Industry, More States Are Passing Tough Laws Aimed at Pipeline Protesters

More than 200 protesters have been arrested in Minnesota for trespassing on energy infrastructure as environmental and Indigenous activists continue to oppose the construction of the Line 3 oil pipeline. A growing number of states have passed or are considering bills that increase the penalty for trespassing on energy infrastructure. In Minnesota, a proposed bill would make such an offense punishable by up to five years in prison.

(Inside Climate News)

Biden Administration Will Not Shut Down Dakota Access Pipeline During Environmental Review

The Biden administration told a federal judge on Friday that it will not shut down the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline while an environmental review is conducted, a blow to the environmental and tribal groups that have rallied against the project for years, CNN reports. Opponents to the pipeline say it tramples on Indigenous rights and endangers the environment and climate.

(CNN)

France to Ban Shorter Domestic Flights Where Traveling by Train Is Available

French officials have voted to suspend domestic airline flights that can be made by train in less than two and a half hours as part of the country’s efforts to tackle climate change, the Guardian reports. President Emmanuel Macron’s climate committee had recommended banning flights where train rides could be made in less than four hours, leaving some to say the move doesn’t go far enough.

(The Guardian)

The First Native American Cabinet Secretary Visits the Land of Her Ancestors and Sees Firsthand the Obstacles to Compromise

Originally created by President Obama to honor a request by Native Americans, the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah was reduced by 85 percent under the Trump administration. Now conservationists are looking to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the nation’s first Indigenous cabinet secretary, to restore the monument to its original size as the Biden administration reconsiders the issue.

(Inside Climate News)

Nervous North American Farmers Plan to ‘Seed in Faith’ as Drought Conditions Persist

Fields across the Canadian Prairies and the U.S. Northern Plains are among the driest on record, raising production risks in one of the world’s key growing regions for canola and spring wheat, Reuters reports. As planting season begins, farmers are planting their crops in dusty soils, where they fear seeds will fail to germinate or yield smaller batches in a year where canola supply is already at a record low.

(Reuters)

Warming Trends: Mercury in Narwhal Tusks, Major League Baseball Heats Up and Earth Day Goes Online: Avatars Welcome

Major League Baseball is back after Covid shortened the 2020 season. But another global crisis could threaten America’s pastime—climate change. Also Earth Day is going virtual again. But this year, you can attend as a pixelated avatar and join in an online march, traveling through a digital landscape complete with trees, solar panels and bicycles. That and more in the latest Warming Trends.

(Inside Climate News)

4/12/21, Driven by Industry, More States Are Passing Tough Laws Aimed at Pipeline Protesters

Driven by Industry, More States Are Passing Tough Laws Aimed at Pipeline Protesters

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In the 04/12/2021 edition:

Driven by Industry, More States Are Passing Tough Laws Aimed at Pipeline Protesters

Driven by Industry, More States Are Passing Tough Laws Aimed at Pipeline Protesters

Bills to increase penalties for “impeding” the operations of a pipeline or power plant—in many cases elevating the offense to a felony—are pending in at least six states and have been enacted in 14 others.

By Nicholas Kusnetz

When Nancy Beaulieu’s Ojibwe ancestors signed a series of treaties with the federal government in the 19th century, one of the goals was to protect the land, she said. So she sees it as not just her right but her duty to protest the building of a major oil pipeline underway in northern Minnesota.

Climate Change News

Updates on NCA5

NASA/JPL Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich Satellite Launched November 21, 2020

National Council for Science and the Environment Drawdown 2021 Conference

American Meteorological Society 101st Annual Meeting

North American Carbon Program 7th Open Science Meeting

American Geophysical Union 2020 Fall Meeting

Remembering Dr. Mike Freilich

USGCRP at the AGU 2019 Fall Meeting

Remembering Tony Janetos

On the release of NCA4 Volume II and SOCCR2: A letter from the Acting Chair of the Subcommittee on Global Change Research and our Executive Director

Politicians Are Considering Paying Farmers to Store Carbon. But Some Environmental and Agriculture Groups Say It’s Greenwashing

Will a Recent Emergency Methane Release Be the Third Strike for Weymouth’s New Natural Gas Compressor?

Politicians Are Considering Paying Farmers to Store Carbon. But Some Environmental and Agriculture Groups Say It’s Greenwashing

Will a Recent Emergency Methane Release Be the Third Strike for Weymouth’s New Natural Gas Compressor?

Today’s Climate – Inside Climate News

Go Deeper

It Was an Old Apple Orchard. Now It Could Be the Future of Clean Hydrogen Energy in Washington State

Inside Clean Energy: The Rooftop Solar Income Gap Is (Slowly) Shrinking

DeSantis Recognizes the Threat Posed by Climate Change, but Hasn’t Embraced Reducing Carbon Emissions

It Was an Old Apple Orchard. Now It Could Be the Future of Clean Hydrogen Energy in Washington State

Inside Clean Energy: The Rooftop Solar Income Gap Is (Slowly) Shrinking

DeSantis Recognizes the Threat Posed by Climate Change, but Hasn’t Embraced Reducing Carbon Emissions

Today’s Climate – Inside Climate News

The EPA Is Asking a Virgin Islands Refinery for Information on its Spattering of Neighbors With Oil

An Unusual Coalition of Environmental and Industry Groups Is Calling on the EPA to Quickly Phase Out Super-Polluting Refrigerants

The EPA Is Asking a Virgin Islands Refinery for Information on its Spattering of Neighbors With Oil

An Unusual Coalition of Environmental and Industry Groups Is Calling on the EPA to Quickly Phase Out Super-Polluting Refrigerants

Today’s Climate – Inside Climate News

Biden’s Paris Goal: Pressure Builds for a 50 Percent Greenhouse Gas Cut by 2030

California Dairy Farmers are Saving Money—and Cutting Methane Emissions—By Feeding Cows Leftovers

Biden’s Paris Goal: Pressure Builds for a 50 Percent Greenhouse Gas Cut by 2030

California Dairy Farmers are Saving Money—and Cutting Methane Emissions—By Feeding Cows Leftovers

Today’s Climate – Inside Climate News

Driven by Industry, More States Are Passing Tough Laws Aimed at Pipeline Protesters

Driven by Industry, More States Are Passing Tough Laws Aimed at Pipeline Protesters