Environment & Health - Inside Climate News

Biden Administration Backs Plastic as Coal Replacement to Make Steel. One Critic Asks: ‘Have They Lost Their Minds?’

By James Bruggers — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 09:05:00 +0000

After a Pennsylvania business scored $182.6 million in loan guarantees with promises the project would fight climate change, environmentalists called on Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to change course.

By James Bruggers

Jane Williams read the announcement with dismay.

University of Maryland Researchers Are Playing a Major Role in the Future of Climate-Friendly Air Conditioning

By Hannah Marszalek — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Thanks to consistent funding from the Department of Energy, the Center for Environmental Energy Engineering has been improving the global landscape of energy conversion.

By Hannah Marszalek

As global temperatures continue to rise at a dangerous rate, so does the number of air conditioning units in use. Researchers at the University of Maryland’s Center for Environmental Energy Engineering have been working for years on Department of Energy-funded projects to implement technologies that may be the solution to making these machines more efficient and eco-friendly as dependence on them grows.

In the First Community Meeting Since a Fatal Home Explosion, Residents Grill Alabama Regulators, Politicians Over Coal Mining Destruction

By Lee Hedgepeth — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 21:33:54 +0000

Dozens of residents expressed fear and frustration over what they call “mining mayhem.” The regulators and politicians acknowledged for the first time that there may be a need for changes.

By Lee Hedgepeth

Undermined: Eighth in a series about the impacts of longwall mining in Alabama.

Nonprofit Law Center Asks EPA to Take Over Water Permitting in N.C.

By Lisa Sorg — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 17:35:31 +0000

The unprecedented move highlights regulatory tensions between Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, and an environmental rule-making commission controlled by appointees of Republican state legislative leaders.

By Lisa Sorg

RALEIGH, N.C.—The Southern Environmental Law Center is petitioning the Environmental Protection Agency to take over the state’s water permitting authority, an unprecedented move for North Carolina.

Surging Methane Emissions Could Be a Sign of a Major Climate Shift

By Bob Berwyn — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 09:05:00 +0000

New studies suggest global warming boosts natural methane releases, which could undermine efforts to cut emissions of the greenhouse gas from fossil fuels and agriculture.

By Bob Berwyn

A 2021 pledge by more than 100 nations to cut methane emissions from anthropogenic sources 30 percent by 2030 might not slow global warming as much as projected, as new research shows that feedbacks in the climate system are boosting methane emissions from natural sources, especially tropical wetlands.

In Final Rock Springs Resource Management Plan, BLM Sticks With Conservation Priorities, Renewable Energy Development

By Jake Bolster — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 08:55:00 +0000

The controversial plan would also place new limits on the terrain open to coal mining and oil and gas drilling, mainly due to a lack of resources in the areas, irking many fossil fuel advocates in the state.

By Jake Bolster

The Bureau of Land Management, on Aug. 22, released its final Resource Management Plan for its Rock Springs District in Southwest Wyoming, spurring blowback from the governor and the fossil fuel industry, and drawing mostly praise from conservation groups.

When a Glacier Melts, What Does It Leave Behind?

By Kiley Price — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 19:19:43 +0000

In the past few years, scientists have discovered greenhouse gases, toxic metals and dead bodies emerging from melting glaciers.

By Kiley Price

“This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it.”

EPA Thought Industry-Funded Scientists Could Support Its Conclusion That a Long-Regulated Pesticide Is Not a Cancer Risk

By Liza Gross — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 09:05:00 +0000

The consultants, who worked for Dow, the pesticide’s manufacturer, help corporate interests defend their products against environmental and health regulations.

By Liza Gross

On a Southern California spring morning in 1973, a tanker truck driver jackknifed his rig and dumped the agricultural fumigant he was transporting onto a city street. A Los Angeles Fire Department emergency response team spent four hours cleaning up the chemical, 1,3-dichloropropene, or 1,3-D, a fumigant sold as Telone that farmers use to kill nematodes and other soil-dwelling organisms before planting.

Pacific Islands Climate Risk Growing as Sea Level Rise Accelerates

By Bob Berwyn — Mon, 26 Aug 2024 23:18:20 +0000

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warns that the climate crisis will leave many people stranded “without a lifeboat.”

By Bob Berwyn

The realm of island nations spread across the vast Southwestern Pacific Ocean can conjure up an idyllic image of tiny tropical gems scattered on a deep blue jewelry table.

Water Issues Confronting Hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail Trickle Down Into the Rest of California

By Bing Lin — Mon, 26 Aug 2024 09:05:00 +0000

From the sky-scraping snow drifts that can close the trail to the desert tracks without a drop for miles, water challenges high country hikers face in California reflect the bigger hydrology issues the state is dealing with.

By Bing Lin

Miles to Go: The third in an ongoing series Inside Climate News fellow Bing Lin is reporting from the Pacific Crest Trail in Northern California. Over the course of a 500-mile-hike, the series is exploring the impacts of climate change on the trail and what outdoor recreation can teach society about sustainability, adaptation and coexistence in a warming world.