Climate Change

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, …

Roll Call reports: Not only does Manchin’s opposition place at risk what experts have called the biggest climate legislation Congress has ever considered, but it threatens policies that might benefit his West Virginia constituents, including thousands of coal miners. In a statement Monday, Cecil Roberts, the head of the UMWA, which endorsed Manchin in his 2018 Senate reelection campaign, said …

Courthouse News reports: With a 40-7 vote by the city council, New York City became the largest U.S. city to bar the use of natural gas for building heat, setting a significant precedent for other cities and states to follow as part of a nationwide effort to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. The legislation, which will ban natural gas hookups …

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports: Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a series of steps to defend Florida against rising sea levels Tuesday, even as he denounced the use of the term “global warming” as a “pretext to do a bunch of left-wing things.” The governor submitted 76 projects to the state Legislature to improve drainage, raise sea walls and take other …

Politico reports: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants half a billion dollars to protect his state from the ravages of “extreme weather events.” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott devoted $1.6 billion toward preparing communities for increasingly devastating hurricanes. But they still won’t say if they believe in climate change. Even if conservative politicians can’t stomach the words, they’re spending money to combat …

The Hill reports: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday announced that all new homes and buildings in England will be required to have electric car chargers installed beginning next year. The legislation, which Johnson announced at the annual Confederation of British Industry (CBI) conference, will install up to 145,000 extra charging points throughout Europe every year, according to a …

The New York Times reports: With the bang of a gavel, diplomats from nearly 200 countries on Saturday struck a major agreement aimed at intensifying efforts to fight climate change, by calling on governments to return next year with stronger plans to curb their planet-warming emissions and urging wealthy nations to “at least double” funding by 2025 to protect the …

“Listen, I’m here from the state of Utah, and I guarantee you there are more Republicans here than most places, and I know deep down, everybody cares about this planet. “We want to do what’s best for it. We want to leave it off better for our children. It’s fair to say we’re turned off by the extremist rhetoric, and …

The Guardian reports: Pope Francis has urged world leaders to take “radical decisions” at next week’s global environmental summit in a special message recorded for BBC Radio 4’s Thought for the Day. Leaders attending the Cop26 conference in Glasgow must offer “concrete hope to future generations”, the pontiff said. Francis is not attending the summit, despite earlier suggestions that he …

The Guardian reports: The chief executive of ExxonMobil, Darren Woods, was accused of lying to Congress on Thursday after he denied that the company covered up its own research about oil’s contribution to the climate crisis. For the first time, Woods and the heads of three other major petroleum companies were questioned under oath at a congressional hearing into the …

Vice News reports: Nearly half of Americans still don’t think climate change is caused by human activities, but Democrats were far less likely than Republicans to hold those views, a new VICE News and Guardian poll has found. This year was marked by several unprecedented natural disasters, including a “heat dome” marked by sweltering temperatures of up to 113 F …

Reuters reports: Greenhouse gas concentrations hit a record last year and the world is “way off track” on climate goals, the U.N. weather agency said on Monday, showing the scale of the task facing governments scrambling to avert dangerous levels of warming. A report by the World Meteorological Organization showed that carbon dioxide levels surged to 413.2 parts per million …

The Washington Post reports: Queen Elizabeth II is not amused. Britain’s monarch has hit out world leaders who “talk” but they “don’t do” on climate change, remarks that have been interpreted as expressing a degree of exasperation at possible no-shows for the upcoming COP26 climate conference. Her remarks weren’t meant for public consumption — this is the queen, after all, …

From the Nobel Prize Committee: Complex systems are characterised by randomness and disorder and are difficult to understand. This year’s Prize recognises new methods for describing them and predicting their long-term behaviour. One complex system of vital importance to humankind is Earth’s climate. Syukuro Manabe demonstrated how increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere lead to increased temperatures at …

Newsweek reports: Atlantic storm names are set to run out for the second year running, with only two left on the official list. The 2021 season has seen a “record-setting” start, with 19 named hurricanes forming in the Atlantic basin so far. “Teresa is the 19th storm to form in the 2021 Atlantic Hurricane season, which is well above normal. …

The Los Angeles Times reports: As the growing KNP Complex fire continues its march through Sequoia National Park, fire crews on Thursday were prepping the famed Giant Forest for flames by wrapping some of the massive sequoias in fire-resistant aluminum material. The Colony fire — one of two blazes making up the more than 9,000-acre complex fire — is within …

The Hill reports: Solar energy could supply nearly half of the nation’s electricity nationwide by 2050 in a scenario where the U.S. reaches net-zero carbon emissions, according to a study released Wednesday by the Department of Energy. The Department’s Solar Futures study analyzes three possible scenarios, including two in which the U.S. grid is 95 percent decarbonized by 2035 and …

“Look, leftism infects every single institution it infiltrates. Nothing is too sacred for the left to use to advance its agenda. “Even as Americans face the devastation of Hurricane Ida, the Democrats didn’t see the need for empathy, but they did see an opportunity for political grifting by blaming it on climate change and using it to ask for more …

“Whenever you actually kind of push at the climate change, the claims they make, ask for data, it’s never there. “So they always say it’s an increase in weather event without ever saying the severity of it, which goes to your point about deaths. The severity has been on the decline. “And we’ve been starting to — we’re keeping track …