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"The third weekend of August 2020 was a hectic time for California. Wildfires raged, smoke filled the air, and power shortages had forced state officials to order rolling blackouts, meaning hundreds of thousands of homes lacked air conditioning during a brutal heat wave."
"Conservation efforts could be key to preventing the next pandemic, according to a new paper from 20 public health experts around the globe."
"About 86 percent of people living in urban areas worldwide — 2.5 billion people — are being exposed to air pollution levels roughly seven times greater than World Health Organization guidelines, according to new research, led by George Washington University researchers and published in the Lancet Planetary Health journal."
"Studies in Kern County, performed by oil industry consultants, cannot answer fundamental safety questions about irrigating crops with “produced water,” the board’s own panel of experts concedes."
"President Biden’s nominee to be the Federal Reserve’s top banking regulator came out swinging yesterday against Republican assertions that she’s on a mission to combat climate change by diverting dollars away from the oil and gas sector."
"Some of the world’s best-known corporations have clamored to show how seriously they are taking climate change, with an increasing number pledging to eliminate their carbon footprints in the decades ahead. But many of those firms are not yet doing nearly enough to back up their promises, according to a new analysis by the New Climate Institute, an independent organization based in Germany that promotes measures to slow Earth’s warming."
"The House passed a sprawling competition and innovation package this morning [Friday] that would boost Department of Energy and National Science Foundation spending, along with promoting international climate action."
"President Biden announced today [Fri.] he would extend the Trump administration’s tariffs on solar imports for another four years, but with key exemptions that pleased developers and disappointed U.S. manufacturers."
"The Biden administration reversed a Trump administration position and upheld the Mandan, Hidatsa Arikara Nation's claim to mineral rights beneath the Missouri River within the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation."
"Temperatures in 499 counties across west, northeast and upper midwest US have already breached 1.5C (2.7F)".
"More than a third of the American population is currently experiencing rapid, above-average rates of temperature increase, with 499 counties already breaching 1.5C (2.7F) of heating, a Guardian review of climate data shows.
"From the Canadian Rockies to Patagonia, pumas have the largest terrestrial range of any mammal in the Americas. Now, a new study has reported the web of life these elusive cats support, showing how they are connected to more than 485 other species, from eagles feeding on their carrion to elk impacted by their “fear effect”."
"A growing constellation of methane-detecting satellites is giving researchers new and disturbing insights into “super emitters” around the globe — from pipelines in Russia to North America’s oil fields. But as the reams of data reveal the depth of the problem, they also have made clear a potential tool to combat climate change, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science."
"After years of largely neglecting the buildup of plastic waste in Earth’s environment, the U.N. Environment Assembly will meet in February and March in the hopes of drafting the first international treaty controlling global plastics pollution."
"Protecting people from exposure to toxic “forever chemicals” will be a top priority for new state regulations throughout the U.S. in 2022, according to a new analysis."
"Board members of four major oil companies declined to appear at a House oversight panel hearing scheduled for Feb. 8 to answer questions about their companies’ climate change plans, the committee said on Thursday."
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