Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
FORMER BP ATTORNEY CONFIRMED AS TOP US ENVIRONMENTAL LAWYER: The Senate voted Thursday to confirm a climate change skeptic and former industry attorney to lead the Department of Justice's environment division. Lawmakers voted 52 to 45 to confirm Jeffrey Bossert Clark to be the assistant attorney general for environment and natural resources.
The day after an international panel of scientists issued a stark warning about the short window in which world leaders can act to avoid catastrophic climate change, the president of the United States didn't comment on whether the U.S. accepts or will act on the findings. A panel of more than 90 scientists under the United Nations published a report warning that the world has about 12 years to drastically reduce carbon emissions before the impact of climate change could become irreversible.
The Trump administration is moving to allow year-round sales of gasoline with higher blends of ethanol, a boon for Iowa and other farm states that have pushed for greater sales of the corn-based fuel.
Dan McCready is a boyish ex-Marine, a solar energy entrepreneur and a favorite candidate of national Democrats hoping to nab a Republican seat in their battle for the House. His company, Double Time Capital, says its mission is to hasten "our country's important transition to clean energy" because of climate change.
The City is seeking Solar Developers to design, install, own, operate and maintain ground-mounted solar panels on large parcels of underutilized City-owned vacant land. Mayor Rahm Emanuel today announced the Chicago Solar-Ground Mount initiative, a multi-site solar energy development project for city-owned vacant lands.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been awarded with the United Nations' highest environmental honour, bestowed upon five other individuals and organisations, for his leadership of the International Solar Alliance and pledge to eliminate single use plastic in India by 2022. Six of the world's most outstanding environmental change makers have been recognised with the Champions of the Earth Award.
A Union of Concerned Scientists analysis released today highlights the significant health risks posed to military families and communities by a class of synthetic chemicals found in firefighting foam, nonstick cookware and other products. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances are long-lasting compounds known to accumulate in the human body and environment, including water supplies.
A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit [official website] on Monday reversed [opinion, PDF] a district court order that required the Tennessee Valley Authority [official website] to dig up and remove a large amount of coal ash at one of its power plants, holding that the Clean Water Act [materials] does not regulate pollutants that reach navigable waters through groundwater. The appeal concerned a US District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee [official website] order requiring the TVA to "fully excavate" the coal ash ponds of its Gallatin Fossil Plant.
California officials demanded Monday that the Trump administration back off a plan to weaken national fuel economy standards aimed at reducing car emissions and saving people money at the pump, saying the proposed rollback would damage people's health and exacerbate climate change. Looming over the administration's proposal is the possibility that the state, which has become a key leader on climate change as Trump has moved to dismantle Obama-era environmental rules, could set its own separate fuel standard that could roil the auto industry.
A large auto industry trade group isn't stating explicitly that it favors freezing federal gas mileage requirements at the 2021 level, but it's says the current plan won't work. In testimony prepared for a public hearing Monday in Fresno, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers said customers aren't buying more efficient vehicles.
Scores of people have spoken against the Trump administration's plan to roll back car-mileage standards at a hearing in California that ended earlier than expected.
Two new studies have confirmed that farmers can win both ways, achieving a boost in harvests and helping to slow climate change. One says that they can successfully farm with techniques that can help slow global warming and add to the store of carbon sequestered in the soils around the globe.
Mayors, governors, entrepreneurs, CEOs, investors and celebrities delivered a double-edged message Friday at the close of a climate summit in San Francisco: global warming is making the planet unliveable -- but we know how to fix it. "We are using the sky as an open sewer, it's insane," former US vice president Al Gore told the conference, noting that humanity belches 110 million tons of heat-trapping pollution into the atmosphere every day.
Thousands of mayors, climate activists and business leaders from around the world descended Thursday on San Francisco to cheer on efforts to reduce global warming, even after U.S. President Donald J. Trump signaled his disdain for the issue. The Global Climate Action Summit, organized by California Gov. Jerry Brown, included a report that 27 major cities around the world have seen emissions decrease over a five-year period and are now at least 10 percent lower than their peak.
Voters in Washington state will be asked this fall to do what state and federal leaders have been reluctant to: charge a direct fee on carbon pollution to fight climate change. If the ballot measure passes, it will be the first direct fee or tax charged on carbon emissions in the U.S. Experts say it will prove states can take action even if the Trump administration doesn't, and nudge other states to follow.
In this March 25, 2014 file photo, a worker adjusts pipes during a hydraulic fracturing operation at a well pad near Mead, Colorado. The Trump administration is moving to roll back Obama-era rules intended to reduce leaks of climate-changing methane from oil and gas facilities.
In a recent interview with the Vatican News service, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore again claimed "the climate crisis is now the biggest existential challenge humanity has ever faced." Gore boasted, "I have been fortunate to be able to pour every ounce of energy I have into efforts to contribute to the solution to his crisis."
Global commerce, reliant on ever-increasing development, makes it all too easy to pick a product off the shelf, take a quick glance, bring it up to the counter without a second thought. The many facets of production are often ignored by the consumer, leaving opportunities for manufacturers to commit harmful actions against the environment with minimal public outcry.