Only 10 countries and territories out of 134 achieved the World Health Organization’s standards for a pervasive form of air pollution last year, according to air quality data compiled by IQAir, a Swiss company. The pollution studied is called fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, because it refers to solid particles less than 2.5 micrometers in […]
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U.S. Bans the Last Type of Asbestos Still in Use
The Biden administration on Monday finalized a ban on the only type of asbestos still used in the United States, the first time since 1989 the federal government has moved to significantly restrict the toxic industrial material. The regulation from the Environmental Protection Agency would prohibit the use, manufacture and import of chrysotile asbestos, which […]
Read MoreThe Best Way to Find Out if We Can Cool the Planet
A few years ago, the idea of deliberately blocking the sun to combat climate change was so taboo for scientists. But a lot can change in a short time. As the disastrous effects of climate change mount, Congress has asked federal scientists for a research plan, private money is flowing and rogue start-ups are attempting […]
Read MoreIn Paris, the Olympics Clean Up Their Act
How do you produce a global sporting event, with millions of people swooping down on one city, in the age of global warming? That is the test for the Paris Olympics this summer. The organizers say they’re putting the games on a climate diet. These Olympics, they say, will generate no more than half the […]
Read MoreAspen’s Slopes Draw Skiers and Influencers to the Colorado Town
The influencers were not in Aspen to ski. In their Barbie-pink ski suits and matching Moon Boots, they rode the Silver Queen gondola to the top of the mountain, smiling and jumping for their cameras and social media feeds. Soon they would get back on the gondola and ride down, perhaps to pose for more […]
Read MoreWhat About Nature Risk?
Reporting the corporate risks of climate change is increasingly becoming a required part of doing business. This month, the Securities and Exchange Commission made such disclosures mandatory for public companies in the United States, following the lead from the European Union and California. But climate is not the only aspect of the natural world that […]
Read MoreCan Europe Save Forests Without Killing Jobs in Malaysia?
The European Union’s upcoming ban on imports linked to deforestation has been hailed as a “gold standard” in climate policy: a meaningful step to protect the world’s forests, which help remove planet-killing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. The law requires traders to trace the origins of a head-spinning variety of products — beef to books, […]
Read MoreCan Europe Save Forests Without Killing Jobs in Malaysia?
The European Union’s upcoming ban on imports linked to deforestation has been hailed as a “gold standard” in climate policy: a meaningful step to protect the world’s forests, which help remove planet-killing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. The law requires traders to trace the origins of a head-spinning variety of products — beef to books, […]
Read MoreWhy Snake Catchers in Australia Are Getting Busier
The phone rings. It’s the local prison. There’s a snake in a cell. Within a few hours, snakes have also been spotted at a school, beneath a piano stored in a private garage and near a lagoon-like swimming pool at a retirement home. Customers want them gone. Business has never been so good for Stuart […]
Read MoreBrazil’s Clashing Goals: Protect the Amazon and Pump Lots More Oil
Through his office window, the head of Brazil’s state-run oil company looked out at the cluttered landscape of Rio de Janeiro. Looking back at him, across the city’s run-down high-rises, was the looming statue of Christ the Redeemer. Hawks circled an overflowing trash heap. Plumes of smoke rose from a blaze in a hillside shantytown. […]
Read MoreIn the Fight Over N.Y.C. Sidewalks, Tree Beds Are the Smallest Frontier
Over 660,000 trees line the streets of New York City, and the beds around them take up more than 400 acres, according to a city estimate. While many people just walk by the rectangular openings in the sidewalk from which the trees spring — or, worse, use the spaces as trash cans and doggy litter […]
Read MoreComing Soon to Manhattan, a Brand-New Tiny Forest
A trend that’s gaining momentum around the world is set to finally arrive in Manhattan. It’s a tiny forest, to be planted on the southern end of Roosevelt Island, in the East River, this spring. According to its creators, it would be the first of its kind in the city and would consist of 1,000 […]
Read MoreRains Are Scarce in the Amazon. Instead, Megafires Are Raging.
By this time of the year, rain should be drenching large swaths of the Amazon rainforest. Instead, a punishing drought has kept the rains at bay, creating dry conditions for fires that have engulfed hundreds of square miles of the rainforest that do not usually burn. The fires have turned the end of the dry […]
Read MoreThese Startups Want to Make Palm Oil. In a Lab. Without Palm Trees.
A handful of startups are trying to reinvent one of the most ubiquitous, but also environmentally destructive, ingredients in our diets: palm oil. Palm oil is in bread, instant noodles, Girl Scout cookies, lipstick, Nutella and ice cream, to name a few. People around the world use it to cook daily. But to make all […]
Read MoreToyota’s Hybrid-First Strategy Is Delivering Big Profits
In today’s high-tech, high-stakes auto industry, fortunes can change quickly, and there’s no better example of that right now than Toyota Motor. Not long ago, it looked as if Toyota had fallen dangerously behind in electric vehicles. Tesla, the electric car pioneer, has grown rapidly and become the world’s most valuable automaker. Seeing Tesla’s success, […]
Read MoreBiden Makes the Case on Climate
President Biden and former President Trump are worlds apart on climate policy. But do voters know it? Polls show that most Americans don’t know that Biden signed into law the biggest climate law in U.S. history. And many may not remember that Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Agreement, the world’s most important climate […]
Read MoreOrphaned Manatees Return to the Wild After 3 Years of Rehab
The orphans, three baby females, arrived one after the other at ZooTampa’s manatee hospital. The first had been found swimming alone in shallow waters, her umbilical cord still attached. Two months later, another was rescued from a canal. Then came the smallest they’d ever gotten: Manatees typically should weigh about 65 pounds at birth, but […]
Read MoreWinter Heat Waves and Hottest Ocean Ever
Winter was weirdly warm for half the world’s population, driven in many places by the burning of fossil fuels, according to an analysis of temperature data from hundreds of locations worldwide. That aligns with the findings published late Wednesday by the European Union’s climate monitoring organization, Copernicus: The world as a whole experienced the hottest […]
Read MoreGray Whale, Long Absent From the Atlantic, Is Spotted Off Massachusetts
Researchers with the New England Aquarium were conducting a regular survey of the waters south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket in Massachusetts last week when something caught their eye. What they spotted, a whale without a dorsal fin, led the researchers to think that it might be a North Atlantic right whale, a critically endangered […]
Read MoreNearly Half the States Sue E.P.A. Over New Limits on Deadly Pollution
Manufacturers and 24 states sued the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday over the Biden administration’s decision to tighten limits on fine industrial particles, one of the most common and deadliest forms of air pollution. The state lawsuits are led by Republican attorneys general and argue that the E.P.A. overstepped its authority last month when it […]
Read MoreSatellite Data Gives Crisper Look at Cities at Risk of Sea Level Rise
A new study of sea-level rise using detailed data on changes to land elevation found that current scientific models may not accurately capture vulnerabilities in 32 coastal cities in the United States. The analysis, published Wednesday in Nature, uses satellite imagery to detect sinking and rising land to help paint a more precise picture of […]
Read MoreS.E.C. to Approve New Climate Rules Far Weaker Than Originally Proposed
The Securities and Exchange Commission is expected on Wednesday to approve new rules detailing if and how public companies should disclose climate risks and how much greenhouse gas emissions they produce, but there are fewer demands on businesses than the original proposal made about two years ago. The rules represent a step toward requiring corporations […]
Read MoreSeeing Stars, Sperm and Millions of Spawn After a Valentine’s Day Rendezvous
On Valentine’s Day, Melissa Torres strung up red tinsel hearts around a shallow pool at her workplace, the Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif. She and her colleagues were arranging a romantic encounter of sorts, and the stakes were high. The happy couple, a pair of sunflower sea stars, belonged […]
Read MoreHow a Climate Rule Got Watered Down
What should companies have to tell their investors about climate change risks? The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will unveil its long-awaited disclosure rules tomorrow. They are expected to be much weaker, Reuters reported, than what the agency first proposed more than a year ago, after intense corporate lobbying and a backlash from Republicans. “The […]
Read MoreHe’s Accused of Smuggling, but Not Drugs or Guns: It’s Greenhouse Gases
The unusual contraband is sold on Craigslist and Facebook for hundreds of dollars: canisters of a banned refrigerant, for use in outdated refrigerators and air-conditioners, that is also a potent planet-warming gas. On Monday, a California man became the first in the nation to be arrested and charged with smuggling the powerful gases into the […]
Read MoreGlobal Warming Is Particularly Bad for Women-Led Families, Study Says
Extreme heat is making some of the world’s poorest women poorer. That is the stark conclusion of a report, released Tuesday, by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, based on weather and income data in 24 low- and middle-income countries. The report adds to a body of work that shows how global warming, driven […]
Read MoreAre We in the ‘Anthropocene,’ the Human Age? Nope, Scientists Say.
The Triassic was the dawn of the dinosaurs. The Paleogene saw the rise of mammals. The Pleistocene included the last ice ages. Is it time to mark humankind’s transformation of the planet with its own chapter in Earth history, the “Anthropocene,” or the human age? Not yet, scientists have decided, after a debate that has […]
Read MoreCanada Braces for Wildfire Season as ‘Zombie Fires’ Blaze
Canada’s emergency preparedness minister is warning that this year’s wildfire season will be worse than the record-breaking season of 2023, when thousands of fires burned tens of millions of acres and set off massive plumes of smoke that enveloped major U.S. cities, including New York and Washington. This year’s fires could be especially bad in […]
Read MoreClimate Change and ‘Last-chance Tourism’
A lot of climate discussion revolves around time. Lines rise across charts predicting the next century. Scientists set deadlines for the coming decades. Each month seems to bring news of a new heat record. The sense that time is running out can be heady. As the Earth warms, natural wonders — coral reefs, glaciers, archipelagos […]
Read MoreClimate Change and ‘Last-chance Tourism’
A lot of climate discussion revolves around time. Lines rise across charts predicting the next century. Scientists set deadlines for the coming decades. Each month seems to bring news of a new heat record. The sense that time is running out can be heady. As the Earth warms, natural wonders — coral reefs, glaciers, archipelagos […]
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