The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced Thursday it would channel nearly $600 million into helping the rural and agricultural U.S. transition to renewable energy and respond to the climate crisis.
By Theodore J. Kury The good news when Hurricane Ida churned into Louisiana on Aug. 29, 2021 was that levees held up – especially those that were strengthened after Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans in 2005. The bad news: In many places, power systems failed. Nearly five days later, more than 80% of New Orleans […]
By Jenna McGuire While celebrated as a climate victory by the Biden administration, the large infrastructure bill passed in the U.S. Senate this week includes billions of dollars of funding toward “blue hydrogen,” which new research published Thursday finds is more polluting than coal. The $550 billion bipartisan infrastructure package passed Tuesday includes $8 billion […]
By Bryan Keogh and Stacy Morford Congress appears close to a trillion-dollar infrastructure deal that recognizes the risks of climate change and the need to make America’s coasts more resilient. On July 28, a bipartisan group of senators who have been working on the package for weeks announced an agreement on “major issues” of the […]
By Neil Carter Tigers are one of the world’s most iconic wild species, but today they are endangered throughout Asia. They once roamed across much of this region, but widespread habitat loss, prey depletion and poaching have reduced their numbers to only about 4,000 individuals. They live in small pockets of habitat across South and […]
By Mikhail Chester, Braden Allenby and Samuel Markolf The most recent international report on climate change paints a picture of disruption to society unless there are drastic and rapid cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. Although it’s early days, some cities and municipalities are starting to recognize that past conditions can no longer serve as reasonable […]
By Nexus Media, with William F. Laurance Humans are ravaging tropical forests by hunting, logging and building roads and the threats are mounting by the day. China is planning a series of massive infrastructure projects across four continents, an initiative that conservation biologist William Laurance described as “environmentally, the riskiest venture ever undertaken.” In a […]
By Sam Schipani Since the early days of his campaign for president, Donald Trump has been promising to make major investments in infrastructure. While the president has not been able to push his $1.5 trillion infrastructure package through Congress, during the past few months lawmakers have moved forward with small pieces of legislation aimed at […]
From doping scandals to security concerns, the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil has been embroiled by one crisis after another—and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. As athletes and hundreds of thousands of tourists around the world descend into Rio de Janeiro, here are seven health and environmental controversies that have already made headlines […]