Climate Change

The Washington Post reports: President Biden is considering declaring a national climate emergency as soon as this week as he seeks to salvage his environmental agenda in the wake of stalled talks on Capitol Hill, according to three people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private deliberations. If an emergency is invoked, …

The Daily Beast reports: Environmental activists smashed the windows of Rupert Murdoch’s News Building in London Tuesday morning after taking issue with his paper’s coverage of this week’s heat wave in the U.K. Protesters from Extinction Rebellion (XR) scrawled messages including “TELL THE TRUTH” and “40 DEGREES = DEATH” on the lavish office building in central London alongside recent headlines …

The BBC reports: The UK is set to see its hottest day on record, with temperatures on Tuesday expected to reach up to 42C (107.6F). A high of 38.1C was reached in Suffolk on Monday, just short of the UK record of 38.7C set in 2019. Wales recorded its hottest day on record with 37.1C. The Met Office has issued …

Britain’s The Metro reports: All British troops are believed to have been effectively grounded after military officials said the runway at the country’s largest air base ‘melted’. The RAF has halted all flights in or out of Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on Monday, according to sources cited by Sky News. The base is the sole point of air embarkation for …

Mediaite has the transcript: Now what are greenhouse gases? Are greenhouse gases poisonous? It sounds so ominous. Greenhouse gases are in the atmosphere. You ever drive by one of these sorta glass buildings, and they create a greenhouse gas environment, so they can grow plants during the winter or during a harsh season. Those are greenhouses, right? That’s greenhouse gas. …

The BBC reports: The UK could have its hottest day on record this week, with temperatures forecast to hit up to 41C (106F). The Met Office has issued a red extreme heat warning on Monday and Tuesday in much of England, from London and the south-east up to York and Manchester. The current highest temperature in the UK is 38.7C, …

The Washington Post reports: Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) told Democratic leaders Thursday he would not support an economic package that contains new spending on climate change or new tax increases targeting wealthy individuals and corporations, marking a massive setback for party lawmakers who had hoped to advance a central element of their agenda before the midterm elections this fall. …

“In the past year, the United States has experienced blackouts in some of our biggest states. Why? Because they’re relying more and more on renewables, places like California and even Texas. Just yesterday, in order to avoid a blackout, the largest grid operator in the state of Texas begged residents to turn up their thermostats — no more A/C for …

The Texas Tribune reports: With a punishing heat wave across Texas driving record high power demand, The Electric Reliability Council of Texas late Sunday sent out a request that Texans cut back on their energy use on Monday. ERCOT, the state’s power grid operator, asked Texans to turn up their thermostats and postpone running major appliances between 2 p.m. and …

CBS News reports: Some of the oldest and largest trees on earth are under threat after a wildfire in Yosemite National Park more than doubled in size in a day. Blistering temperatures, low humidity, and heavy terrain have made it difficult for firefighters to gain control of the Washburn Fire, which has grown to over 2,000 acres. More than 500 …

Salt Lake City’s Fox affiliate reports: The Great Salt Lake has dropped to a new historic low, FOX 13 News has confirmed. The imperiled lake has dropped to 4,190.1, below last year’s record low of 4,190.2 feet. The Great Salt Lake has already dropped 11 feet since it was first measured in the 1800s as a result of water diversion, …

USA Today reports: The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled against an Environmental Protection Agency effort to regulate power plant emissions, dealing a blow to the Biden administration in one of the most significant climate cases decided by the high court in more than a decade. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion for a 6-3 majority. The court’s three liberal …

CNN reports: In the coming week, about 70% of the US population will see temperatures in the 90s, and almost 20% of people in the country will experience temperatures greater than 100 degrees. Many major metro areas, including Minneapolis, Chicago, Nashville, Memphis, Dallas, New Orleans and Atlanta, may experience temps near or above 100. More than 100 high temperature records …

NPR reports: Intense heat that baked Kansas over the weekend is being blamed for killing thousands of cattle — a toll documented in striking images on social media. In widely seen video footage, rows of carcasses are shown lined up along the edge of a farm field. State officials are blaming a heat wave that sent temperatures higher than 100 …

Via press release from NOAA: Forecasters at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, a division of the National Weather Service, are predicting above-average hurricane activity this year — which would make it the seventh consecutive above-average hurricane season. NOAA’s outlook for the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season, which extends from June 1 to November 30, predicts a 65% chance of an above-normal season, …

The Hill reports: Wind power was the number-two source for power generation in the U.S. for the first time ever on March 29, surpassing coal and nuclear power, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Thursday. Wind turbines in the continental U.S. produced 2,017 gigawatthours of electricity on the 29th, according to data from the EIA. While there have been …

The Washington Post reports: The coldest location on the planet has experienced an episode of warm weather this week unlike any ever observed, with temperatures over the eastern Antarctic ice sheet soaring 50 to 90 degrees above normal. The warmth has smashed records and shocked scientists. “This event is completely unprecedented and upended our expectations about the Antarctic climate system,” …

Courthouse News Service reports: One of the world’s biggest oil and gas companies appeared to be running on fumes Wednesday in its bid to avert liability for publicly downplaying both the risks of climate change and how its business contributes to global warming. The steady disintegration of the appeal began only moments into oral arguments at the Supreme Judicial Court …

Changing America reports: As the U.S. experiences more and more severe weather events, a special satellite was launched into space today that aims to help scientists on Earth predict when hurricanes will hit, lightning might strike and fires break out. NASA successfully launched a third satellite in a series of next-generation weather satellites for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration …

The Washington Post reports: The extreme heat and dry conditions of the past few years pushed what was already an epic, decades-long drought in the American West into a historic disaster that bears the unmistakable fingerprints of climate change. The long-running drought, which has persisted since 2000, can now be considered the driest 22-year period of the past 1,200 years, …