Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund In the wake of President Trump’s inauguration, one thing has become very clear. If there is to be progress on climate change in America it will likely come from state, regional and international actions, not Washington, D.C. Given this new context, developing a regional electricity grid that brings […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Today, President Trump signed an executive order directing the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers to begin repealing the Clean Water Rule, a landmark measure many years in the making. Likewise, new EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt recently told Fox News that he plans to go […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Prior to taking office the Trump administration talked about making $1 trillion in new infrastructure investments. Since taking office, the administration hasn’t said much about infrastructure, but Senate Democrats have put forward their own plan. Instead, the Trump administration has begun an assault on our environment and the […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Tree moss growing in southeastern Portland, Oregon Alex Milan Tracy/Sipa USA/Newscom Orthotrichum lyellii is the hero of this story. You’ve probably met it before: a tuft of green with soft tassels of leaves, stuck to a tree trunk or possibly a rock. Unlike plants with roots, this moss […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund NRDC filed two lawsuits this week against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failing to enforce the Clean Water Act against stormwater polluters in the Baltimore and Los Angeles areas. Privately-owned commercial, industrial, and institutional sites have long contributed to the degradation of the Dominguez Channel and Los […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Kids can die from superbugs, just as adults do. But a new study last week was among the first I’d seen to dive more deeply and specifically into how this superbug crisis threatens your kids. The study’s findings, which the author called “ominous”, appeared in the Journal of the […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Today, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a list of 12 antibiotic-resistant bacteria that pose the greatest threat to human health. On it? A bunch of bacteria that have become resistant to modern antibiotics used to treat people who get sick from them including several bacteria resistant to […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Congress’s favorite zombie ballast water bill has emerged from the grave again this year, hell-bent on letting special interests devastate the Great Lakes and other US waters. This is the fourth year in a row we’ve seen this legislation, which would roll back clean water protections and make […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Welcome to our weekly Trump v. Earth column, in which onEarth reviews the environment-related shenanigans of President Trump and his allies. Polluters hail Pruitt. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Scott Pruitt’s confirmation a week ago with fanfare—really, really strange fanfare. The agency’s press release featured gleeful quotes from some […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Republicans on Capitol Hill are busy paving the path for a foreign mining company to destroy the world’s greatest wild salmon fishery in Bristol Bay, Alaska—over the opposition of the people of Alaska. Robert Glenn Ketchum First, Representative Tom Rice (R-SC) introduced H.R. 1179, a bill to amend […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund emmapatsie/Flickr One of my all-time favorite articles from the spot-on satirical publication The Onion ran under this brilliant headline: “Report: 98 Percent of Commuters Favor Public Transportation for Others.” The headline and the (forgivably) fake news story that followed captured perfectly the mentality that has often clouded progressive […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund AIRS instrument on NASA’s Aqua spacecraft shows high carbon dioxide concentrations in the Northern Hemisphere. NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio/NASA/JPL AIRS Project Record floods. Raging storms. Deadly heat. Climate change manifests itself in myriad ways, and it’s the ultimate equalizer: a challenge faced by every living […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Co-authored with Liz Barratt-Brown, NRDC Senior Advisor After years of public debate, a majority of Americans now believe that it is not in the national interest to build the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Given this, why is President Trump ramming through a project that Americans don’t want? As […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Today, a pre-eminent think tank in the United Kingdom, Chatham House, issued a seminal report challenging a fundamental assumption underlying European renewable energy policy: that burning forest biomass to produce electricity is “carbon neutral.” The report Woody Biomass for Power and Heat: Impacts on the Global Climate, finds […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Argentina’s first green bond, Colombia seeks new carbon capture source, will climate change lead Mexico City to collapse? To get the weekly Latin America Green News blog delivered directly to your email, subscribe here. February 17 – 23, 2017 Climate Change Mexico City skyline Kasper Christensen Mexico City, […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Air conditioning demand is expected to boom in India during the next decade. Bhaskar Deol It’s official—2016 was the hottest year on record, and the third year in a row to break global heat records. In May, temperatures hit 123.8 degrees F (51 degrees C) in Phalodi, Rajasthan, […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Tony Fischer via Flickr What happens to the electric grid, your wallet, and carbon emissions when you retire a troubled nuclear power plant just north of New York City? That’s the central question explored by Synapse Energy Economics, a leading utility industry firm, in a report released today […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund We depend on electric power like we do the air. Without electricity our society could not function. For something so important, we all benefit from learning a bit more about why the electrical system works so well, how electricity moves through the grid, and how wind and solar […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Y Nakanishi/Flickr The African penguin, sometimes called the “jackass penguin” for the way its squawks resemble donkey brays, hasn’t had the best century. People have gathered their eggs for supper and disturbed their nest sites to scrape up guano for use in fertilizers. Oil disasters, like the MV […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund The woodland caribou is one of Canada’s national icons. Think America’s bald eagle or China’s giant panda. It might be better known down here as the trusty steed that pulls Santa’s sleigh—Christmastime’s “reindeer.” Despite the species’ special place in Canada’s national iconography, today many herds across Canada are […]