Researchers with the European Space Agency (ESA) have mapped in stunning detail the extensive retreat of South America’s Patagonian ice fields, where some glaciers are melting at the highest rates on Earth and contribute to global sea level rise. In a report this week, ESA revealed that between the years 2011 and 2017, Patagonia’s ice […]
For centuries, human beings have wondered about the possibility of other Earths orbiting distant stars. Perhaps some of these alien worlds would harbor strange forms of life or have unique and telling histories or futures. But it was only in 1995 that astronomers spotted the first planets orbiting sunlike stars outside of our solar system. […]
By Alex Kirby Methane emissions are the source of the greenhouse gas which, after carbon dioxide, probably causes climatologists more sleepless nights than any of the other gases. And now it appears they have quite a lot more to bother them than they had realized. Methane is reckoned to be at least 30 times more […]
By Yogin Kothari After a long wait, late Wednesday night, Congress posted a spending agreement for the rest of the 2018 fiscal year. For the most part, we achieved significant victories, especially given the challenging political environment, in repelling proposals that would have directly undermined the role of science in public health and environmental policymaking. […]
By Jeremy Deaton Climate change is a big, ugly, unwieldy problem, and it’s getting worse by the day. Emissions are rising. Ice is melting, and virtually no one is taking the carbon crisis as seriously as the issue demands. Countries need to radically overhaul their energy systems in just a few short decades, replacing coal, […]
By Ken Kimmell A major front in the climate change debate has moved to the courtroom, as I’ve previously discussed. Last week, plaintiffs in two separate cases won significant procedural victories—one against major fossil fuel companies, and a second against the Trump administration. Here are the latest developments and their implications. Bay Area vs. Big […]
White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly put a stop to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head Scott Pruitt‘s plan to hold nationally-publicized debates on the science of climate change, The New York Times reported Friday. According to the Times, Pruitt had been developing the idea since before June 2017, when he told the board […]
By AnaChristina Arana President Trump has released his 2019 budget proposal, and when it comes to environmental policy, it’s full of bad ideas. The proposal he sent to Congress on Feb. 12 threatens our health, safety and economic future through major cuts to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), essential environmental programs and our judicial […]
On March 7, POLITICO published an in-depth look at how the climate skepticism of Trump appointees might impact their decision making. That evening, The Washington Post reported on an Interior Department email thread released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that provides a behind-the-scenes look at the administration’s aversion to accurate climate science. In […]