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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Governor Jerry Brown at the United Nations Paris agreement signing ceremony dinner. Mike Bloomberg / Flickr

Jerry Brown and Justin Trudeau: Climate Advocates, or Hypocrites?

By Andy Rowell

Two leading political figures from the U.S. and Canada, who have boasted about the need to fight climate change, are now under fire for being climate change hypocrites: saying they care about the climate, but allowing drilling and fossil fuel infrastructure to be built anyway.

On Wednesday, more than 750 public interest groups from California and around the world, including Oil Change International, started a campaign urging the governor of California, Jerry Brown, to stop building fossil fuel infrastructure, including no new exploration permits offshore.

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Pacific Coast Highway traffic. Kenyon Edmond / Flickr

Koch vs. California: These Groups Want Pruitt to Undo the State’s Right to Regulate Auto Emissions

By Ben Jervey

A coalition of conservative groups, many with close ties to the Koch brothers, is calling for U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt to strip California of its right to set stricter greenhouse gas limits for personal vehicles.

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View from the summit of Mt. Whitney in California's Sierra Nevada mountain range on Dec. 19, 2017. dhruv's world / Flickr

California’s Dwindling Snowpack: Another Year of Drought, Floods, Wildfires and Mudslides?

By Jeremy Deaton

California is likely facing another year of water woes. The Sierra Nevada snowpack, which supplies up to a third of California's water, is exceptionally meager this year. Experts found around half as much snow on the mountains as they typically would in early April, when the snowpack is historically most voluminous.

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Traffic on the I-405 in Los Angeles. Eric Beteille / Flickr

Why California Gets to Write Its Own Auto Emissions Standards: 5 Questions Answered

By Nicholas Bryner and Meredith Hankins

Editor's note: On April 2, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt announced that the Trump administration plans to revise tailpipe emissions standards negotiated by the Obama administration for motor vehicles built between 2022 and 2025, saying the standards were set "too high." Pruitt also said the EPA was re-examining California's historic ability to adopt standards that are more ambitious than the federal government's. Legal scholars Nicholas Bryner and Meredith Hankins explain why California has this authority—and what may happen if the EPA tries to curb it.

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'Unprecedented Rescue Operation': Sea Shepherd Saves 25 Critically Endangered Totoabas at the Height of Spawning Season

At 7:45 p.m. PST Monday, the Sea Shepherd vessel M/V SHARPIE came upon an illegal gillnet within the Vaquita Refuge in the Northern Sea of Cortez, Mexico. The gillnet was entangled in a longline. As the ship's crew began to separate the illegal fishing gear, they noticed live totoaba bass in the net, embarking on an unprecedented rescue operation.

It is the height of totoaba bass spawning season in the Upper Gulf of California, when the endangered fish migrate directly to an area inhabited by the vaquita porpoise. The vaquita is currently the most endangered marine mammal in the world, and continues to be threatened as bycatch in the illegal totoaba trade.

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Coffee's Environmental Footprint Should Be Harder to Swallow Than Dubious Cancer Claims

Coffee is not only my favorite drink, it's a necessity (I get headaches from caffeine withdrawal). Even after a California judge decided this week that coffee should come with a cancer warning, my immediate response was to take another sip.

That's because coffee does not cause cancer, top scientists have concluded. In fact, numerous studies show that coffee has incredible health benefits, from lowering diabetes risk and, yes, protection against cancer.

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Climate
Alaska's Columbia glacier has melted away, leaving a pool of water in its wake. NASA

Trump Wants to Eliminate NASA’s Climate Research Programs: These Pictures Show What a Loss That Would Be

By Jeremy Deaton

President Trump's proposed 2019 budget would slash funding for NASA's Earth Science Division, and while his budget hasn't gained traction in Congress, it is an important statement of the administration's priorities. In a nod to his allies in the fossil fuel industry, Trump is calling for the elimination of vital programs that monitor carbon pollution and climate change.

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Fuel economy and air pollution regulations have lowered pollution and pushed industry innovation. Federated Conservationists of Westchester County / Flickr

Why EPA’s U-Turn on Auto Efficiency Rules Gives China the Upper Hand

By Greg Dotson

The Trump administration is poised to ease pollution and efficiency rules for new passenger cars and trucks, giving automakers a reprieve from more stringent Obama-era standards. But in the process, it could yield global leadership in the auto sector to the Chinese.

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Fire Seasons Have Become Longer Globally, Experts Say

Experts say that climate change is lengthening global fire seasons, as the southern hemisphere experiences "freak autumn heat" and major weekend bushfires devastate the Australian states of Victoria and New South Wales.

"March is not traditionally seen as a time when the bushfire danger escalates, but as the fires in Tartha NSW, and south west Victoria show, bushfires do not respect summer boundaries," said Richard Thornton, the CEO of the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre.

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