Climate Change

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration on Wednesday finalized a package of new rules to replace the Clean Power Plan, former President Barack Obama’s signature effort to reduce planet-warming emissions from coal plants. The new measure, known as the Affordable Clean Energy rule, will very likely prompt a flurry of legal challenges from environmental groups that could have …

The Washington Post reports: Ice is melting in unprecedented ways as summer approaches in the Arctic. In recent days, observations have revealed a record-challenging melt event over the Greenland ice sheet, while the extent of ice over the Arctic Ocean has never been this low in mid-June during the age of weather satellites. Greenland saw temperatures soar up to 40 …

The Washington Post reports: White House officials barred a State Department intelligence agency from submitting written testimony this week to the House Intelligence Committee warning that human-caused climate change could be “possibly catastrophic” after State officials refused to excise the document’s references to the scientific consensus on climate change. The effort to edit, and ultimately suppress, the State Department’s Bureau …

Axios reports: Resolutions pushing ExxonMobil and Chevron to get more aggressive on climate change were soundly defeated at annual shareholder meetings on Wednesday. The meetings were the latest example of growing investor pressure on oil giants over global warming. At Exxon’s meeting, a resolution calling for a new board committee on climate won just 7.4% support. At Chevron’s meeting, roughly …

The New York Times reports: The federal government will no longer fulfill what scientists say is one of the most urgent jobs of climate science studies: reporting on the future effects of a rapidly warming planet and presenting a picture of what the earth could look like by the end of the century if the global economy continues to emit …

ABC News reports: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday praised the Arctic region — and its rapidly shrinking levels of sea ice — for its economic opportunities, despite continued warnings about the catastrophic effects of climate change. “The Arctic is at the forefront of opportunity and abundance,” Pompeo said in remarks in Rovaniemi, Finland. “It houses 13 percent of …

NBC News reports: A sweeping report assessing the state of the natural world found that humans are having an “unprecedented” and devastating effect on global biodiversity, with about 1 million animal and plant species now threatened with extinction. A summary of the report’s findings was released Monday by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, which was established …

The Hill reports: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told those gathered at a Dallas-based sustainability conference that President Trump has a long way to go in acknowledging the science behind climate change. “Climate change is real, the science is sound and the solutions are available,” Graham said, adding jokingly, “If I told Trump that [special counsel Robert] Mueller thinks climate change …

Just in from the White House: Earth Day is a celebration of the abundant beauty and life-sustaining bounty of our natural environment. On this day, we reaffirm our responsibility to protect God’s wondrous creation for future generations. From the Appalachian Mountains to the golden shores of California, America is blessed with some of the most beautiful scenery on Earth. As …

Sara Nelson, president of the 50,000 member International Association of Flight Attendants, writes for Vox: “Pretty much everyone on the plane threw up” is not a sentence most travelers want to hear. But that’s a direct quote from the pilots’ report after United Express Flight 3833 operated by Air Wisconsin hit extreme turbulence on approach to Washington, DC, in 2018. …

Reuters reports: Royal Dutch Shell on Tuesday became the first major oil and gas company to announce plans to leave a leading U.S. refining lobby due to disagreement on climate policies. In its first review of its association with 19 key industry groups, the company said it had found “material misalignment” over climate policy with the American Fuel & Petrochemical …

CNN reports: Mount Everest expedition operators are finding increasing numbers of climbers’ dead bodies on the world’s highest peak as high temperatures melt glaciers and snow. More than 200 mountaineers have died on the peak since 1922, when the first climbers’ deaths on Everest were recorded. The majority of bodies are believed to have remained buried under glaciers or snow. …

The Guardian reports: In the first significant check on the Trump administration’s “energy-first” agenda, a federal judge has temporarily halted hundreds of drilling projects for failing to take climate change into account. The decision stems from an environmental lawsuit. WildEarth Guardians, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and the Western Environmental Law Center sued the BLM in 2016 for failing to calculate …

The Guardian reports: Sharp and potentially devastating temperature rises of 3C to 5C in the Arctic are now inevitable even if the world succeeds in cutting greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris agreement, research has found. Winter temperatures at the north pole are likely to rise by at least 3C above pre-industrial levels by mid-century, and there could …

Trump is watching last night’s Tucker Carlson show: Greenpeace founder Patrick Moore, a vocal critic of the Green New Deal, appeared on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Monday to make the case that the sweeping plan introduced by Rep. Alexandria-Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., would be a disaster for mankind. Moore warned that the implementation of the agenda being promoted by prominent Democrats, including several …

The New York Times reports: The Senate on Thursday confirmed Andrew R. Wheeler to be the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, giving oversight of the nation’s air and water to a former coal lobbyist and seasoned Washington insider. The confirmation formalized a role Mr. Wheeler has held in an acting capacity since the summer when President Trump’s first administrator, …

The Guardian reports: The world’s insects are hurtling down the path to extinction, threatening a “catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems,” according to the first global scientific review. More than 40% of insect species are declining and a third are endangered, the analysis found. The rate of extinction is eight times faster than that of mammals, birds and reptiles. The total …

Politico reports: Speaker Nancy Pelosi built out the Democratic roster for her special select panel on climate change, pulling from a mix of old and new lawmakers but leaving off the highest profile freshmen like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). “This new Select Committee will spearhead Democrats’ work to develop innovative, effective solutions to prevent and reverse the climate crisis,” Pelosi …

Roll Call reports: Earth as we know it will look far different in a generation because of climate change and the future is bleak without bipartisan action by lawmakers to slow greenhouse gas emissions and overhaul the nation’s energy infrastructure, environmental experts told Congress on Wednesday. Wednesday marked the first time in six years the House Committee on Energy and …

A joint report from NOAA and NASA: Earth’s long-term warming trend continued in 2018 as persistent warmth across large swaths of land and ocean resulted in the globe’s fourth hottest year in NOAA’s 139-year climate record. The year ranks just behind 2016 (warmest), 2015 (second warmest) and 2017 (third warmest). In separate analyses of global temperatures, scientists from NASA, the …