Environment

CNN reports: Republican officials in 24 states asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to halt a Biden administration effort to reduce emissions of the planet-warming gas methane, adding to a series of emergency appeals challenging environmental regulations. Led by Oklahoma, the states are asking the high court to pause an Environmental Protection Agency rule that went into effect earlier this …

Courthouse News reports: Fossil fuel industry groups and over two dozen Republican-led states on Friday asked the Supreme Court to block the Environmental Protection Agency’s emissions regulations for power plants. In hopes of ushering in climate-friendly energy alternatives, the Biden administration’s rule would force fossil fuel power plants into retirement, West Virginia said. Joined by 24 other states, the Mountain …

USA Today reports: Climate change is taking a dramatic toll on glaciers in Alaska: Glacier melt in a major Alaskan icefield has accelerated and could reach an irreversible tipping point earlier than previously thought, a new scientific study released this week suggests. Alaska has some of our planet’s largest icefields, and their melting is a major contributor to sea-level rise. …

The Washington Post reports: D.C. Water and Arlington County advised residents late Wednesday to boil their water for at least one minute before drinking, using it to cook food or giving it to pets, after the Army Corps of Engineers warned of clarity issues in local water sources. The warnings were issued because of “elevated turbidity levels in water supply …

The Tampa Bay Times reports: Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday night vetoed a measure that would have increased warnings for Floridians and tourists when a beach or public waterway is polluted. The bill required the Florida Department of Health to issue health advisories if water quality failed to meet the agency’s standards and required closing polluted beaches “if it is …

The Associated Press reports: Sea turtles and marine birds will be protected under a new Florida law that bans the intentional release of balloons. The law, signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, replaces an existing ban of releasing ten or more balloons within 24 hours. The Legislature approved the bill with bipartisan support in March and the law is praised …

Axios reports: Flooding — which has gotten increasingly severe in an era of extreme weather — costs the U.S. economy an estimated $179.8 to $496 billion per year in 2023 dollars, according to new data from Democrats on the Senate Joint Economic Committee. The estimates are the equivalent of over 1% of 2023’s gross domestic product, the report notes. It …

Miami’s ABC affiliate reports: One day after a video went viral showing a group of teens dumping trash just off the Boca Inlet, the public has responded with outrage. “It’s shocking, disheartening, a lot of anger, and honestly, the thing that was most shocking to me is the age of the people on the boat,” said Madeline Kaufman of Debris …

Gothamist reports: Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez said on Tuesday that the event will be the biggest to date, with drivers getting the boot from sections of 53 streets between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 20. That’s up from 30 car-free streets during last year’s event. Major areas where cars will be banned include Broadway in Manhattan from …

Ars Technica reports: The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday finalized a ban on the only type of asbestos still used in the US, chrysotile asbestos. This move was decades in the making. Chrysotile asbestos, aka “white asbestos,” is still imported, processed, and used in the US for diaphragms (including those used to make sodium hydroxide and chlorine), sheet gaskets, brake …

The Guardian reports: Emergency teams worked through the night to bolster defensive barriers around the evacuated fishing town of Grindavik as lava from the fourth volcanic eruption on Iceland’s Reykjanes peninsula since December flowed towards it. After weeks of warnings that semi-molten rock was building up under the ground, the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said the eruption, at 8.23pm local …

The New York Times reports: The Triassic was the dawn of the dinosaurs. The Paleogene saw the rise of mammals. The Pleistocene included the last ice ages. Is it time to mark humankind’s transformation of the planet with its own chapter in Earth history, the “Anthropocene,” or the human age? Not yet, scientists have decided, after a debate that has …

The Associated Press reports: Earth last year shattered global annual heat records, flirted with the world’s agreed-upon warming threshold and showed more signs of a feverish planet, the European climate agency said Tuesday. In one of the first of several teams of science agencies to calculate how off-the-charts warm 2023 was, the European climate agency Copernicus said the year was …

NPR reports: As 2023 draws to a close, it’s going out on top. “It’s looking virtually certain at this point that 2023 will be the hottest year on record,” says Zeke Hausfather, climate scientist at Berkeley Earth, a non-profit that analyzes climate trends. Though temperature records from December have yet to be finalized, climate scientists at the National Oceanic and …

The Washington Post reports: For the past several years, a small group of scientists has warned that sometime early this century, the rate of global warming — which has remained largely steady for decades — might accelerate. Temperatures could rise higher, faster. The drumbeat of weather disasters may become more insistent. And now, after what is poised to be the …

Reuters reports: Representatives from nearly 200 countries agreed at the COP28 climate summit on Wednesday to begin reducing global consumption of fossil fuels to avert the worst of climate change, a first of its kind deal signaling the eventual end of the oil age. The deal struck in Dubai after two weeks of hard-fought negotiations was meant to send a …

Reuters reports: Destruction across the Amazon rainforest so far this year has slowed dramatically, down 55.8% from the same period a year ago in a major turnaround for the region vital to curbing climate change, according to an analysis provided to Reuters. The analysis by the nonprofit Amazon Conservation’s MAAP forest monitoring program offers a first look at 2023 deforestation …

Reuters reports: The world’s largest iceberg is on the move for the first time in more than three decades, scientists said on Friday. At almost 4,000 square km (1,500 square miles), the Antarctic iceberg called A23a is roughly three times the size of New York City. Since calving off West Antarctica’s Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in 1986, the iceberg — which …

The Associated Press reports: An exploding population of hard-to-eradicate “super pigs” in Canada is threatening to spill south of the border, and northern states like Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana are taking steps to stop the invasion. In Canada, the wild pigs roaming Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba pose a new threat. They are often crossbreeds that combine the survival skills …

Bloomberg News reports: The people of Iceland are bracing for what could be the country’s most devastating volcanic eruption in 50 years, with a small fishing town at risk of being destroyed. There’s a significant likelihood of magma busting to the surface over the coming days at Grindavik, home to over 3,600 people, the Met Office said on Sunday. More …