"$300 billion. That’s the money needed to stop the rise in greenhouse gases and buy up to 20 years of time to fix global warming, according to United Nations climate scientists. ... The sum is not to fund green technologies or finance a moonshot solution to emissions, but to use simple, age-old practices to lock millions of tons of carbon back into an overlooked and over-exploited resource: the soil."
"The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) inspector general is launching a probe into whether the agency withheld reports on climate change."
"The Trump administration on Tuesday moved to weaken protections for a threatened California fish, a change that would allow large amounts of water to be diverted from the San Francisco Bay Delta to irrigate arid farmland and could harm the region’s fragile ecosystem."
"A class of toxic chemicals known to have contaminated drinking water in many areas across the country is also presenting human health risks via another exposure method — our food supply."
The links between agriculture and climate are as old as the Indus Valley Civilization and as current as this year’s Mississippi Basin floods. And stories about how each influences the other will likely unfold at an ever faster rate, according to this week’s TipSheet. The backstory, with an outline of the interactions between ag and global warming, plus story ideas and reporting resources.
"A federal court won’t allow the Trump administration to enforce its plans for managing sage grouse in Western states while litigation is still pending."
"In Iowa, researchers and farmers are discovering that planting strips of native prairie amidst farmland benefits soil, water, biodiversity, and more."
"The Trump administration, in an effort to mend fences with the powerful corn lobby, proposed a new formula on Tuesday to boost biofuels demand, but the proposal instead only provoked more consternation from the industry."
Missed the Society of Environmental Journalists’ annual gathering in Fort Collins? Never fear, for our in-house humorist David Helvarg has herein recounted the “highs” (and paranoid lows). Among them: oddball scientists, strolls in a snow storm, bad burros and beet-based dinners. Plus, the secret strategy behind SEJ’s conference site selection.
"Beginning in early 2020, California will ban the sale of the pesticide chlorpyrifos which state environmental officials say has been linked to brain damage and other health defects in children."
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