"Volunteers Are Growing Oyster Gardens To Help Restore Reefs"
"It’s time to agitate the oysters at St. Stanislaus High School on Mississippi’s Gulf coast."
Source: AP, 12/16/2021
EJToday: Top Headlines
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"Biden Set To Tour Kentucky Communities Devastated By Tornadoes"
"President Joe Biden on Wednesday is set to tour the damage in Kentucky caused by tornadoes that ripped through the state and several others over the weekend." "Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said 74 people have been confirmed dead and more than 100 are unaccounted for."
Source: NBC News, 12/15/2021High Rates Of Methane Spewing From Permian Oilfield Operations: Report
"Methane continues to escape at a high rate from oil and gas operations in the Permian Basin, according to an aerial survey released Tuesday that detected major methane plumes from 40% of 900 sites that were measured. The latest research conducted by the Environmental Defense Fund via helicopter during the first two weeks of November found that 14% of those plumes were the result of malfunctioning flares."
Source: Reuters, 12/15/20218 Feet Of Snow Possible In Mountains As Powerful Storm Lashes California
"A powerful storm walloped California with heavy rain and snow on Tuesday, as several inches of rain fell in the Los Angeles area and feet of snow were reported the Sierra Nevada." "The storm brought much-needed moisture to the broader region that’s been gripped by drought."
Source: USA TODAY, 12/15/2021"Trends in Arctic Report Card: ‘Consistent, Alarming and Undeniable’"
"The changes happening at the top of the planet could unfold elsewhere in the years to come, scientists report." "Across the icy dome that crowns the Earth, rising temperatures are turning the tundra greener and more lush. Beavers are expanding their range. Garbage from passing ships is fouling the shores. Wildfires are scorching the once permanently frozen lands of Siberia."
Source: NYTimes, 12/15/2021What We Know, And Don’t, About Effects Of Climate Change On Tornadoes
"Scientists have been able to draw links between a warming planet and hurricanes, heat waves and droughts, attributing the likelihood that climate change played a role in individual isolated events. The same can’t be said for tornadoes yet."
Source: NYTimes, 12/15/2021"Manchin Huddle With Biden Fails To Break Impasse"
"Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is ramping up the pressure to finish his party’s climate and social spending bill by Christmas, but it looks like an increasingly difficult task given continued concerns from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and the lengthy process of clearing the legislation with the Senate parliamentarian."
Source: E&E News, 12/15/2021"Rising From the Antarctic, a Climate Alarm"
"The immense and forbidding Southern Ocean is famous for howling gales and devilish swells that have tested mariners for centuries. But its true strength lies beneath the waves." "Wilder winds are altering currents. The sea is releasing carbon dioxide. Ice is melting from below."
Source: NYTimes, 12/15/2021"Coal Interests Press Supreme Court To Limit EPA Reach"
"Coal companies and Republican-led states yesterday called on the Supreme Court to constrain EPA from going as far as the Obama administration did when it crafted a systemwide approach to curb carbon emissions from existing power plants."
Source: E&E News, 12/15/2021"A Key Tool for Cleaning Up Oil Spills Is More Hazardous Than Helpful"
"In the decade since the record-breaking use of oil dispersants in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill response, science shows they’re dangerous, potentially deadly, and rarely useful. A new court case is forcing the US EPA to reconsider their use."
Source: Hakai, 12/15/2021"N.Y.C.’s Gas Ban Takes Fight Against Climate Change to the Kitchen"
"New York is set to become the nation’s largest city to enact a ban on gas heat and stoves in new buildings. It’s a major step away from fossil fuels that is expected to influence wider markets."
Source: NYTimes, 12/15/2021"Study: Winter Tornadoes To Get More Powerful As World Warms"
"Nasty winter tornadoes — like the deadly ones last week that hit five states — are likely to be stronger and stay on the ground longer with a wider swath of destruction in a warming world, a new study shows."
Source: AP, 12/14/2021Biden Admin Was Not Legally Bound To Auction Gulf Drilling Rights
"The Biden administration admitted that a court decision did not compel it to lease vast tracts of the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas drilling, shortly before claiming it was legally obliged to do so when announcing the sell-off, the Guardian can reveal."
Source: Guardian, 12/14/2021"Watchdog: Federal Anti-Terror Unit Investigated Journalists"
"A special Customs and Border Protection unit used sensitive government databases intended to track terrorists to investigate as many as 20 U.S.-based journalists, including a Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press reporter, according to a federal watchdog."
Source: AP, 12/14/2021Russia Vetoes UN Resolution Linking Climate Change, Security
"Russia has vetoed a first-of-its-kind UN security council resolution casting the climate crisis as a threat to international peace and security – a vote that sank a years-long effort to make global heating more central to decision-making in the UN’s most powerful body."
Source: AP, 12/14/2021
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