The heat extremes were especially pervasive in the Arctic, with temperatures in the fall running 20 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit above normal across large stretches of the Arctic Ocean. Sea ice in that region has been in precipitous decline for years, and Arctic communities are already wrestling with enormous problems, such as rapid coastal erosion, […]
Category: Environmental
Trump Issues Gag Order On EPA And USDA
WASHINGTON – A Trump Administration directive ordering employees at the Environmental Protection Agency to halt external communications and posts on social media fueled news reports Tuesday that a number of other agencies were issuing similar gag orders to their workers. But while the EPA confirmed it was freezing such activity as well as new contracts and […]
Trump Administration Erases Climate Change Research
Just moments after President Donald Trump took the oath of office Friday, the official White House website was transformed into a set of policy pledges that offered the broad contours of the Trump administration’s top priorities — a list that included fierce support for law enforcement, an immediate elimination of the White House’s policy page […]
Norway’s Leading Oil Company Investing In Wind Farm Off New York Coast
NEW YORK ― Winds off the coasts of the United States are so dependably strong, turbines built offshore could produce four times the amount of electricity that’s currently generated from all sources in the country. At least, that’s what Norway’s biggest oil company is betting. Statoil, the fossil fuel cash cow that made Norway the […]
Obama Bans Offshore Drilling In Atlantic And Arctic Oceans
President Obama moved to solidify his environmental legacy Tuesday by withdrawing hundreds of millions of acres of federally owned land in the Arctic and Atlantic Ocean from new offshore oil and gas drilling. Obama used a little-known law called the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to protect large portions of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas in […]
House GOP Shuts Door On Flint Water Investigation
WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans quietly closed a year-long investigation into Flint, Michigan’s crisis over lead in its drinking water, faulting both state officials and the Environmental Protection Agency for contamination that has affected nearly 100,000 residents. In letters to fellow Republicans, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said Friday that Michigan […]
Over Year Later, Flint Water Still Unsafe To Drink
The state says more than 600 pipes have been replaced in Flint, Mich., this year — but 30,000 suspect pipes remain. A year ago, Flint, Mich., Mayor Karen Weaver declared a state of emergency because of lead-contaminated drinking water, attracting national outrage and sympathy, and millions of gallons of donated water. But a year later […]
North Dakota Pipeline Spills Over 170,000 Gallons Of Oil Into Creek
About 150 miles from where thousands have protested for months that the Dakota Access pipeline could threaten a Sioux tribe’s water supply, a pipeline in the western part of North Dakota has spilled more than 130,000 gallons of oil into a creek, state officials said. In all, the Belle Fourche pipeline lost 4,200 barrels of […]
Trump Continues To Claim No One Knows If Climate Change Is Real
President-elect Donald Trump said Sunday that “nobody really knows” whether climate change is real and that he is “studying” whether the United States should withdraw from the global warming agreement struck in Paris a year ago. In an interview with “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace, Trump said he’s “very open-minded” on whether climate change is […]
Is Jurassic Park closer than we think? Scientists discover dinosaur trapped in amber
The tail of a 99-million-year-old dinosaur has been found entombed in amber, an unprecedented discovery that has blown away scientists. Xing Lida, a Chinese paleontologist found the specimen, the size of a dried apricot, at an amber market in northern Myanmar near the Chinese border. The remarkable piece was destined to end up as a […]
Gore Meets With Trump About Climate Change
As Donald Trump continues to indicate that he might be willing to change his position on climate change, which he has long called a “hoax,” the president-elect met Monday with former vice president Al Gore, who has become a prominent activist in the fight against global warming. “I had a lengthy and very productive session […]
Army Corps Of Engineers Shutdowns Key Stretch Of Dakota Access Pipeline
Protesters celebrate at Oceti Sakowin Camp earlier Sunday. The Army Corps of Engineers notified the Standing Rock Sioux that the current route for the Dakota Access Pipeline will be denied. The Army Corps of Engineers has decided to deny a permit for the construction of a key section of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The decision […]