Birds and birding news
Science and nature blogging
Biodiversity and conservation
Climate change and environmental politics
- It is well known that the Trump administration has tried its hardest to suppress climate science, but the directives often come from lower level managers trying to protect their offices rather than top political officials.
- Exposure to air pollution during pregnancy results in premature or underweight births, and this disproportionately affects Black women. That is one example of how environmental problems affect Americans unequally. This is why solving environmental issues like climate change requires undoing white supremacy.
- Global carbon emissions have rebounded as countries eased their travel restrictions due to coronavirus outbreaks. However, the pandemic and economic downturn may force some coal plants to shut down for good.
- The violent response to protests at Lafayette Square in Washington is raising questions about why the National Park Service has militarized police and whether they are being used appropriately.
- The Senate passed a bipartisan public lands bill to provide permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund and set aside money for fixing the maintenance backlog in national parks. The bill still needs to pass the House and be signed into law.
- Siberia is in the midst of a major heat wave, with temperatures running 10°C above normal, with at least one town in the Arctic circle hitting 30°C. The extreme heat is causing permafrost to thaw, which leads to infrastructure failures.
- Border wall construction continues to destroy cultural and environmental resources.
- The Bureau of Land Management approved oil wells and pipelines in the Carrizo Plain National Monument, despite the slump in oil prices and presence of threatened and endangered species.
- The U.S. has millions of abandoned oil and gas wells, many of which are leaking greenhouse gases or contaminating groundwater.
- The Atlantic Coast pipeline got a favorable ruling from the Supreme Court this week, but still needs several more permits approved.
- A coal company expanded its operations into a roadless area in Colorado despite a court ruling against it.
- New Jersey is considering requiring that plastic containers include a certain amount of recycled material to help create a market for plastic recycling and reduce waste. Some environmentalists would prefer that the legislature pass its proposed single-use plastic ban.
- One reason it is imperative to reduce plastic use is that so much of it is spreading so far in our environment.
- It looks like the water diversion planned for the Gila River in New Mexico will not go through.
- New Jersey is building a port along the Delaware for assembling wind turbines, on the same island as the Salem nuclear plant. Turbines will be assembled there and towed out to sea upright to be installed.