Pope Francis on Wednesday implored the world to protect the “suffering” planet, lamenting that scant progress had been made in the eight years since he refocused the Roman Catholic Church more fully on environmental issues in a landmark and widely praised treatise. “With the passage of time, I have realized that our responses have not […]
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Homeowners’ insurance has helped us out in recent storms—but for how much longer? Insurance companies are refusing to cover homes in California, thanks to the intensifying wildfire season. Insurers have also been backing out of some coastal regions, due to sea level rise, while jacking up rates elsewhere. In August, the Council on Foreign Relations, […]
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There are some good reasons why most policymakers have concrete plans to phase out coal power plants but take only occasional, haphazard steps to limit the growth in the number of farmed animals. Meat, milk, and eggs can be an important source of protein and nutrients. Increasing access to animal products can change lives and […]
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The Biden administration announced Friday it would lease a handful of spots in the Gulf of Mexico to oil companies for drilling over the next five years, a move that is likely to anger both climate activists and the fossil fuel industry. The administration said oil and gas companies would be able to drill in […]
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For much of the 20th century, Fort Ord was one of the largest light infantry training bases in the country, a place where more than a million U.S. Army troops were schooled in the lethal skills of firing a mortar and aiming a rifle — discharging thousands of rounds a day into the scenic sand […]
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Low water levels expose patches of sand on the Mississippi River in Memphis, Tennessee, US, on Monday, Nov. 7, 2022. Photo: Houston Cofield/Bloomberg (Getty Images) New Orleans has faced more than its fair share of environmental crises. But this time, a massive drought has the Crescent City bracing for impact. Courtney B. Vance in Heist […]
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AI’s carbon footprint is no open-and-shut case, according to scientists from the University of California-Irvine and MIT, who published a paper earlier this year on the open access site arXiv.org that shakes up energy use assumptions of generative AI models, and which set off a debate among leading AI researchers and experts this past week. […]
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A directive issued on Thursday by the Biden administration would, for the first time, have federal agencies consider the economic damage caused by climate change when deciding what kinds of vehicles, equipment and goods to buy. The new guidance from President Biden could affect purchasing decisions across the government, from agriculture to defense to health […]
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The Amazon river basin is known for its immense and lush tropical forests, so one might assume that the Amazon’s land is equally rich. In fact, the soils underlying the forested vegetation, particularly in the hilly uplands, are surprisingly infertile. Much of the Amazon’s soil is acidic and low in nutrients, making it notoriously difficult […]
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Call it a win for the little species, though all kinds of endangered animals and plants stand to benefit. A sweeping legal settlement approved this week has put the Environmental Protection Agency on a binding path to do something it has barely done before, by its own acknowledgment: Adequately consider the effects on imperiled species […]
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On the Islands and Oceans trail to Bishop’s Beach, walkers have noticed pink salmon in the Beluga Slough drainage ditch on Bunnell Avenue. This is not the first year the occurrence has happened. A September 2017 article in the Homer News reported similar observations in several other unusual locations in the region, including Mariner Park […]
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Smart thermostats have changed the way many people heat and cool their homes by using machine learning to respond to occupancy patterns and preferences, resulting in a lower energy draw. This technology — which can collect and synthesize data — generally focuses on single-dwelling use, but what if this type of artificial intelligence could dynamically […]
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After three years leading biking tours through U.S. National Parks, Jackson Jewett decided it was time for a change. “It was a lot of fun, but I realized I missed buildings,” says Jewett. “I really wanted to be a part of that industry, learn more about it, and reconnect with my roots in the built […]
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The environmental activists who delayed the U.S. Open semifinal Thursday night by staging protests in Arthur Ashe Stadium join a long line of high-profile public disruptions aimed at drawing attention to the existential threat posed by climate change. Activists have staged what many call “guerrilla protests” across the United States and Europe. The provocative actions […]
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The U.S. Open semifinal match on Thursday night between Coco Gauff and Karolina Muchova was delayed by more than 40 minutes early in the second set by a group of environmental protesters in the upper levels of Arthur Ashe Stadium. The protest confused fans, television commentators and the players themselves, who were trying to understand […]
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President Biden’s decision on Wednesday to block drilling on millions of acres of Alaskan tundra was the latest in a series of aggressive actions recently taken by the administration to curtail fossil fuel extraction on public land and in federal waters. Over the past several months, the administration has moved to bar drilling on 1.8 […]
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The transportation of goods forms the basis of today’s globally distributed supply chains, and long-haul trucking is a central and critical link in this complex system. To meet climate goals around the world, it is necessary to develop decarbonized solutions to replace diesel powertrains, but given trucking’s indispensable and vast role, these solutions must be […]
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Prescribed burns around the Chugach National Forest will produce smoke visible at several points along the Sterling and Seward Highways over the next couple of months, an Aug. 31 media advisory from the Chugach National Forest says. The burns are part of ongoing spruce beetle mitigation efforts, the forest says, and will reduce hazardous fuel […]
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Alaska environmental protection agencies last month hosted a statewide event in Homer discussing the discovery of invasive European green crabs in Alaska waters. The event, held Aug. 29-31, addressed what agencies can do collectively to detect and protect against the species. The organizers were particularly interested in improving public awareness on the topic and in […]
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Before Leila Mirzagholi arrived at MIT’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) to begin her postdoc appointment, she had spent most of her time in academia building cosmological models to detect properties of gravitational waves in the cosmos. But as a member of Assistant Professor César Terrer’s lab in CEE, Mirzagholi uses her physics […]
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There should be little doubt that Tyson’s USDA-sanctioned “climate-friendly beef” label will confuse and mislead consumers. Getting consumers to change their diets is notoriously difficult, especially when it comes to making more climate-friendly choices. Asking people to reduce meat consumption runs headlong into a wall of dietary and cultural habits, concerns around food costs and […]
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July 2023 was the hottest month globally since humans began keeping records. People all over the U.S. experienced punishingly high temperatures this summer. In Phoenix, there were a record-setting 31 consecutive days with a high temperature of 110 degrees Fahrenheit or more. July was the hottest month on record in Miami. A scan of high […]
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It was only in 2010 that FEMA launched an Office of Disability Integration and Coordination, which made coordinating with stakeholders to better serve disabled people part of its core mandate. Unfortunately, until recently, Parodi said there had been “little engagement from ODIC to the disability community, which creates the failures that we see.” Under new […]
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