Levels of methane in the atmosphere have soared by record-breaking amounts since 2020, according to new research. Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, locks in around 80 times more warming over the course of two decades than CO2, but fades more quickly from the atmosphere. As a result, cutting methane emissions is widely viewed as a crucial part […]
Methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gases on the planet. It’s more than 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide and is responsible for nearly half of the global temperature rise the world has already experienced. By Shazabe Akhtar and Katie Ross World Resources Institute In 2021, more than 100 nations signed on to the Global Methane Pledge, a groundbreaking commitment […]
In 1938, a British engineer and amateur meteorologist made a discovery that set off a fierce debate about climate change. Scientists had known for decades that carbon dioxide could trap heat and warm the planet. But Guy Callendar was the first to connect human activities to global warming. By Sylvia G. Dee, Rice University The […]
As the 2021 wildfire season begins to unfold, the memories of past seasons linger — in the lungs of people, in the communities and landscapes that burned and in the atmosphere, where greenhouse gases from wildfires continue to warm our planet. Carly Phillips, University of Victoria The Conversation Wildfires wreaked havoc across the world over […]
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is moving to eliminate a class of chemicals widely used as coolants in refrigerators, air conditioners and heat pumps. If that feels like déjà vu, it should. By Scott Denning, Colorado State University The Conversation These chemicals, called hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, were commercialized in the 1990s as a replacement for […]
The climate crisis is no longer a looming threat – people are now living with the consequences of centuries of greenhouse gas emissions. But there is still everything to fight for. How the world chooses to respond in the coming years will have massive repercussions for generations yet to be born. By Mark Maslin, UCL […]
Last week, Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection released its CO2 Budget Trading Program Draft Final-Form Rulemaking. By the Evangelical Environment Network We join the comments of over 30,500 Pennsylvania pro-life Christians who voiced support for the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) saying: “As a pro-life Christian, I am deeply concerned that pollution harms unborn and […]
Avoiding more than 200 deaths`a year due to air pollution. Saving close to $2 billion a year in health spending. These are some of the “fringe benefits” Suffolk County, Massachusetts, could reap from the city of Boston’s ambitious plan to become carbon neutral by 2050, according to a research collaboration among NOAA, NASA, and the […]
The European Commission announced on Wednesday that it had adopted a new long-term strategy that will aim to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 through investing in “realistic” technological solutions, empowering the citizenry, and aligning action in key areas such as industrial policy, finance, and research. By Joshua S Hill Cleantechnica Announced just days […]
To mark the launch of the UK’s first-ever Green GB & NI Week, the country’s Energy and Clean Growth Minister Claire Perry has written to the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) asking for advice on a range of questions, spurred by the publication of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C which […]
By Meteor Blades The U.S. Supreme Court heard extended oral arguments Monday morning on its third major Environmental Protection Agency greenhouse gas regulatory case in seven years. You can see the preliminary transcript here. Predictions of Court rulings based on questioning in oral arguments from the justices is always risky. But after winning the previous cases, the […]
Well, the House went ahead and did it today, voting 255-172 to strip the Environmental Protection Agency of any possible option for fighting climate change and global warming.
The Tea Party wing of the GOP (which is pretty much everyone at this point) argued that the science isn’t settled yet. They argued that the EPA went too far. They argued that it would kill jobs. They argued that it should be Congress that sets policy, not “unelected bureaucrats” (although it was the Supreme Court and a bunch of states that reminded the EPA during the Bush years that they had to enforce the Clean Air Act, which was pretty clear on the issue).
President Obama issued a threat today that he’ll veto the GOP’s latest attempt to muzzle the EPA’s regulation of CO2.
But this is just the latest in a string of such attempts, and probably won’t be the last
After months of delays and piles of legal filings, it looks like the Environmental Protection Agency will finally begin implementing rules to cut back our nation’s output of greenhouse gases. Cutting back on carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and methane will not only help fight global warming and climate change – it’ll help increase efficiency, which […]
[social_buttons] As I described in an earlier post, I was privileged to attend a DOE-sponsored scientific meeting last week about how the fast-moving science of “Genomics” is being applied to issues related to climate change. This was a meeting of scientists who are using state-of-the-art genetic technology, and in this post I’ll talk about how they are using […]