House Democrats Spell Out Climate, Clean Energy Pr...

The net-zero-by-2050 roadmap calls for clean energy tax credits, transmission expansion and a more resilient grid. Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on the Climate Crisis on Tuesday unveiled a mammoth and wide-ranging policy plan to embed climate action and resilience within the country’s economy. The report — which sought to put racial and environmental justice at the center of its...

New Poll: Voters Support Stimulus for Clean Energy...

We are pleased to release the results of a new national survey. We find that, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis, voters want climate action as part of the economic recovery plan and are more likely to vote for candidates that support renewable energy. The survey was conducted with Climate Nexus and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication. Seven in 10 (70%) voters say federal...

3 Years and $3 Trillion Could Shift the Climate Ch...

A new report from the International Energy Agency details what it will take to lock in this year’s drop in emissions. Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg Plummeting carbon emissions and big government spending—two of the defining narratives of 2020 so far—could create an unprecedented opportunity for the world to meet the goals enshrined in the 2015 Paris climate change...

Vatican Asks Catholics to Ditch Fossil Fuel Invest...

The Vatican urged Catholics to closely consider where they invest their money and to take a close look at the environmental impact of the companies they may be shareholders in, as Reuters reported. Pope Francis has frequently criticized wanton greed that has led to environmental degradation and a climate crisis that is uprooting the lives of the world’s most vulnerable and impoverished people. On Earth Day, the Pope...

The energy job market is in trouble. Here’s ...

The coronavirus is inflicting a heavy toll on America: Over 100,000 dead, almost two million infected, and more than 40 million unemployed. Beating the virus is the top priority. But we also need to put people back to work as fast as safety allows. How we go about that now will determine our nation’s economic future for decades. To achieve lasting prosperity, we need to rebuild better by investing in jobs that restart the...

For Indigenous Protesters, Defending the Environme...

Adán Vez Lira, a prominent defender of an ecological reserve in Mexico, was shot while riding his motorcycle in April. Four years earlier, the renowned activist Berta Cáceres was shot dead in her home in Honduras by assailants taking direction from executives responsible for a dam she had opposed. Four years before that, Cambodian forest and land activist Chut Wutty was killed during a brawl with the country’s military...

Fighting Climate Change Isn’t Just an Environmenta...

We constantly hear the narrative that climate change impacts us all. And while that’s true, the issue is disproportionately impacting people of color, especially Black, Latino, and Native Americans. And when it comes to environmental justice, we just aren’t talking about social equity enough. A decade ago, Grist reporter Alan Durning wrote on the topic of climate change and race, “It’s 2010. Some...

Why America Needs Environmental Justice

In recent weeks, our nation has been forced to come to grips with the variety of ways in which inequality harms minority communities, from the death of George Floyd at the hands of police to the disproportionate impact of COVID-19. A recent Harvard study concluded that air pollution — which is typically worse in areas with larger minority populations — is linked to higher coronavirus death rates, along with a slew of...

The race to preserve Earth’s historical climate re...

Engineers associated with the Ice Memory Project prepare to drill an ice core from the Col du Dôme glacier in the French Alps in 2016.Sarah Del Ben/Fondation UGA As climate change threatens Earth’s glaciers and ice sheets, climatologists and chemists are banking ice core samples for the future Climatologist Lonnie Thompson’s voice is still full of wonder when he talks about seeing the Quelccaya Ice Cap for the first time....

Investors Want Companies to Disclose Environmental...

There’s a growing push from large investors in publicly traded companies to hold the companies accountable for the environmental impact of their practices. In the latest salvo, global companies worth more than $10 trillion are urging companies to disclose their environmental impact to investors, as Forbes reported. Activist campaigns have proven remarkably effective recently, as major investment firms...

New Jersey Becomes First State to Put the Climate ...

New Jersey has invested in the future health of the planet by making sure the next generation of adults knows how human activity has had a deleterious effect on the planet. The state will be the first in the nation to make the climate crisis as part of its curriculum for all students, from kindergarten all the way to 12th grade, as NorthJersey.com reported. The Garden State’s Board of Education adopted the standards on...

If My House Were the World: The Renewable Energy T...

For the past two decades, my wife Janet and I have been trying to transition our home to a post-fossil-fuel future. I say “trying,” because the experiment is incomplete and only somewhat successful. It doesn’t offer an exact model for how the rest of the world might make the shift to renewable energy; nevertheless, there’s quite a bit that we’ve learned that could be illuminating for others as they contemplate what it will...

Clean Water Act Rollback: Trump’s EPA Limits...

The Trump administration has finalized a rule making it harder for states and tribal communities to block pipelines and other infrastructure projects that threaten waterways. The change concerns Section 401 of the Clean Water Act, which essentially gives states and tribes veto power over projects that would hurt their water quality, The Hill explained. The changes, announced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)...

As U.S. lakes and rivers warm, reports of harmful ...

Heavy downpours contribute to the problem by washing nutrients into waterways. During summer in central New York, residents often enjoy a refreshing dip in the region’s peaceful lakes. But sometimes swimming is off-limits because of algae blooms that can make people sick. “Some of the algae may produce chemical toxins that can have harmful effects on people, fish, shellfish, terrestrial and marine mammals, and birds,” says...

From Energy Transition to Energy Reduction

With the wholesale price for US crude oil famously, if briefly, turning negative recently, and – slightly less famously – with commenters in a thread under my last post suggesting that it’s technically straightforward to transition the existing energy system largely to renewables, it feels the time is right to address some post-lockdown and post-carbon energy realities. Let me state my three-part thesis upfront: It is not...