Sat.Jun 25, 2022 - Fri.Jul 01, 2022

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Will a Nile Canal Project Dry Up Africa’s Largest Wetland?

Yale E360

South Sudan is moving ahead with plans for a 240-mile canal to divert water from the White Nile and send it to Egypt. But critics warn the megaproject would desiccate the world’s second largest wetland, impacting its rich wildlife and the rains on which the region depends. Read more on E360 ?.

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Mmm-k scale climate models

Real Climate

Ocean eddy visualization ( Karsten Schnieder ). Two opinion pieces ( Slingo et al. , and Hewitt et al. ) and a supportive Nature Climate Change editorial were published this week, extolling the prospects for what they call “k-scale” climate modeling. These are models that would have grid boxes around 1 to 2 km in the horizontal – some 50 times smaller than what was used in the CMIP6 models.

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Pennsylvania County Implementing Energy Performance Program to Save Millions

Environment + Energy Leader

Greene County in Pennsylvania is using a program to improve efficiencies with its lighting, HVAC, and water systems to save millions over the next 20 years. The post Pennsylvania County Implementing Energy Performance Program to Save Millions appeared first on Environment + Energy Leader.

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The Profound Climate Implications of Supreme Court’s West Virginia v. EPA Decision

Union of Concerned Scientists

This term, alongside a number of cases with the potential for seismic implications, the Supreme Court also took up West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency. Though the case caught fewer headlines, it, too, threatened Earth-shifting implications all its own by thrusting into question a critical EPA lever for addressing climate change. Now we have that decision in hand , and with it the dismal confirmation that indeed, another seismic shift has just occurred.

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Implementing D.E.J.I. Strategies in Energy, Environment, and Transportation

Speaker: Antoine M. Thompson, Executive Director of the Greater Washington Region Clean Cities Coalition

Diversity, Equity, Justice, and Inclusion (DEJI) policies, programs, and initiatives are critically important as we move forward with public and private sector climate and sustainability goals and plans. Underserved and socially, economically, and racially disadvantaged communities bear the burden of pollution, higher energy costs, limited resources, and limited investments in the clean energy and transportation sectors.

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In World First, Netherlands Caps Flights at Major Airport to Cut Pollution

Yale E360

The Dutch government is capping the number of flights from Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport at 440,000, a 12 percent cut from pre-pandemic levels. The new policy, set to take effect at the end of 2023, is the world's first to limit flights for environmental reasons. Read more on E360 ?.

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What’s Up With Water — June 28, 2022

Circle of Blue

This week’s episode of What’s Up With Water covers water shortages in Mexico and Italy. Plus, Circle of Blue reports on the U.S. government’s response to forever chemicals in drinking water. Transcript. Welcome to “What’s Up With Water” – your need-to-know news of the world’s water from Circle of Blue. I’m Eileen Wray-McCann.

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More Trending

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Healthcare Professionals Ask EPA to Protect Frontline Communities

Union of Concerned Scientists

The Sunday after Thanksgiving is usually quiet, but for those who live along Route 9 in New Castle, Delaware, it’s hard to forget the harrowing events that unfolded in November 2018. A local chemical manufacturer had an ethylene oxide leak , with nearly 3,000 pounds of the chemical released into the community. The risk of explosion ultimately shut down the Delaware Memorial Bridge to traffic, and residents were told to shelter in place as the flammable chemical leaked from the plant.

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Some quick reactions to W Va v. EPA

Legal Planet

Dan already has a good post up on the basics of the Supreme Court’s ruling today in the climate case West Virginia v. EPA , with initial thoughts on its implications (and more to come, I’m sure). Here are some quick thoughts from my morning’s reading of the case, in which William Boyd, Andria So and I filed an amicus brief on behalf of electricity grid experts in favor of EPA’s position.

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The Stream, June 29, 2022: Milan Officials Turn Off Public Fountains, Plead Residents to Reduce Water Use

Circle of Blue

Milan, Italy. Photo © Marivaldo Vovan / Unsplash. YOUR GLOBAL RUNDOWN. A dry riverbed in Mexico is coming back to life due to an agreement between Mexican and U.S. governments. . Millions of children in Bangladesh are at risk as the country battles its worst flooding in a century. . Cholera outbreaks are a top concern for aid organizations in Afghanistan where a devastating earthquake struck last week.

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Steel Dynamics, Aymium to Reduce Steel Emissions with Biocarbon

Environment + Energy Leader

A joint venture by Steel Dynamics and Aymium is expected to significantly lower the emissions in the steelmaking process. The post Steel Dynamics, Aymium to Reduce Steel Emissions with Biocarbon appeared first on Environment + Energy Leader.

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Shaping a Resilient Future: Climate Impact on Vulnerable Populations

Speaker: Laurie Schoeman Director, Climate & Sustainability, Capital

As households and communities across the nation face challenges such as hurricanes, wildfires, drought, extreme heat and cold, and thawing permafrost and flooding, we are increasingly searching for ways to mitigate and prevent climate impacts. During this event, national climate and housing expert Laurie Schoeman will discuss topics including: The two paths for climate action: decarbonization and adaptation.

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Overselling k-scale? Hmm

Real Climate

Guest commentary from Paul Bates, Peter Bauer, Tim Palmer, Julia Slingo , Graeme Stephens, Bjorn Stevens, Thomas Stocker and Georg Teutsch. Gavin Schmidt claims that the benefits of k-scale climate models (i.e. global climate models with grid spacing on the order of 1 km) have been “potentially somewhat oversold” in two recent Nature Climate Change papers.

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Will Russia “Win” the Climate Crisis?

Legal Planet

The conventional view is that climate change is going to be a great thing for Russia. The reason is pretty obvious: a lot of Russia is cold and icy right now; warming will be an improvement. That’s likely to be true in some ways, but warming may be a mixed blessing. Whether what is good for Russia will turn out to be good for the Russian people is another question.

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Dangerous Viruses Can Survive in Fresh Water by Clinging to Plastic Waste, Study Finds

Yale E360

Viruses are able to survive in fresh water by clinging to microscopic pieces of plastic, posing a potential threat to public health, according to a new study. Read more on E360 ?.

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Delta Has Spent $3.2 Billion to be Environmentally Sustainable. The Progress?

Environment + Energy Leader

In 2021, Delta spent about $3.2 billion to become more environmentally sustainable. Most of that money went to new aircraft that are 25% more fuel-efficient per mile. The post Delta Has Spent $3.2 Billion to be Environmentally Sustainable. The Progress? appeared first on Environment + Energy Leader.

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Sustainability at Retail

Sustainability impacts every nation, company, and person around the world. So much so that, in 2015, the United Nations (UN) issued a call for action by all countries to work toward sustainable development. In response to this and as part of a global Sustainability at Retail initiative, Shop! worked collaboratively with its global affiliates to address these critical issues in this white paper.

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West Virginia v. EPA Limits the Federal Government’s Power to Promote Clean Energy and Combat Climate Change

Law and Environment

The Supreme Court decided West Virginia v. EPA on Thursday, June 30, 2022, curbing the power of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants across the country. The decision focuses on EPA’s authority under a specific section of the Clean Air Act. But a closer read suggests more sweeping, longer-term implications for incentivizing the development of clean energy projects nationwide.

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EPA’s Best Option: Co-Firing

Legal Planet

What can EPA do to cut carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants after yesterday’s decision in West Virginia v. EPA ? The decision clearly ruled out any direct mandate to shift generation from coal generators to cleaner power generators. But the Supreme Court didn’t endorse Trump’s ultra-limited interpretation of the law either. This leaves EPA with a powerful regulatory tool: a requirement that generators add natural gas or other lower-carbon fuels to their power mix.

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Were the Mineral Deeds a Gift or a Sale? It Made a Difference.

Energy & the Law

Co-author Carolina Cuppitelli*. The question presented in Aaron v. Fisher et al : Did mineral deeds bestow separate property upon the grantees by gift, or did they convey a community property interest to the grantees and their spouses by sale for consideration? Why was the question important? A gift is the grantee’s separate property; a sale is community property if the grantee is married.

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Tata Chemicals Europe Opens Industrial Scale Carbon Capture and Usage Plant

Environment + Energy Leader

Tata Chemicals Europe (TCE) opened the UK’s first industrial scale carbon capture and usage plant. The post Tata Chemicals Europe Opens Industrial Scale Carbon Capture and Usage Plant appeared first on Environment + Energy Leader.

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Biden-Harris Administration Announce New Proposed Rules for National Electric Vehicle Charging Network

Law and Environment

On June 9, 2022, the Biden-Harris Administration announced a notice of proposed rulemaking to set minimum standards and requirements for projects funded through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program (“NEVI”), which was created by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Generally, NEVI will distribute $1 billion per year, for FY 2022-2026, in appropriations to help fund the construction of EV charging stations and related infrastructure.

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Unquantified Benefits

Legal Planet

Like it or not, quantitative cost-benefit analysis has been a key part of the regulatory process for forty years and seem likely to stay that way. Yet even economists admit that they don’t (yet) know how to put numbers on the value of some important regulatory benefits. But how can those qualitative assessments be combined with a quantitative analysis?

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Federal Water Tap, June 27: Forest Service Errors Led to New Mexico Wildfire

Circle of Blue

The Rundown. The U.S. Forest Service examines mistakes that turned a prescribed burn in New Mexico into the state’s largest-ever wildfire. USAID releases a draft version of its contribution to the government’s global water strategy. The Bureau of Reclamation asks the public what to do about water in the Colorado River basin. The EPA’s internal watchdog surveys Superfund project managers about pandemic-related delays.

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Delta Has Spent $3.2 Billion to be Environmentally Sustainable. The Progress?

Environment + Energy Leader

In 2021, Delta spent about $3.2 billion to become more environmentally sustainable. Most of that money went to new aircraft that are 25% more fuel-efficient per mile. The post Delta Has Spent $3.2 Billion to be Environmentally Sustainable. The Progress? appeared first on Environment + Energy Leader.

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Xanadu puts quantum advantage in the cloud

Physics World

Researchers at Xanadu , a Canadian company specializing in photonic quantum computing, claim to have achieved quantum computational advantage with an experiment run on their cloud-accessible Borealis machine. The term “quantum advantage” (sometimes called quantum supremacy) refers to a situation in which a quantum machine carries out specific computational tasks that would be intractable for a classical computer.

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Catch 22 at the Supreme Court

Legal Planet

There is quite a bit to unpack with West Virginia v. EPA. I will leave to others a discussion of “major question doctrine” and other aspects of the West Virginia case. I want to focus on the disingenuous way the Supreme Court deals with a previous ruling, and its implications for states. In 2011, in AEP v. CT , the Supreme Court said this: We hold that the Clean Air Act and the EPA actions it authorizes displace any federal common law right to seek abatement of carbon-dioxide emissions from fo

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Reclassification of Earth's minerals reveals 4000 more than we thought

New Scientist

Some scientists suggest minerals should be reorganised by the methods that make them, which would increase the known number of minerals on Earth by 75 per cent

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York Region set to debate illegal land grab

Enviromental Defense

ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE, STOP SPRAWL YORK REGION. Ambush in the Greenbelt: York Region set to debate illegal Official Plan land grab. Toronto | Traditional territories of the Huron-Wendat, the Anishnaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Chippewas and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation – Premier Doug Ford’s promise that his government “won’t touch the Greenbelt, we won’t build on the Greenbelt” may soon be put to its first post-election challenge.

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Birthday boson: 10 years of living with the Higgs particle

Physics World

Monday 4 July 2022 marks the 10-year anniversary of that famous seminar at CERN when the discovery of a Higgs-like boson was confirmed. It was a shining example of the power of international collaboration and curiosity-driven research, and many hoped it would usher in a new era of discoveries beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. In truth, the subsequent decade has been underwhelming for particle physics with few significant breakthroughs.

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West Virginia v. EPA: A Quick Explainer

Legal Planet

Download as PDF. The post West Virginia v. EPA: A Quick Explainer appeared first on Legal Planet.

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Every heatwave occurring today is more intense due to climate change

New Scientist

It's no longer important to use modelling to determine whether a heatwave was made more likely by climate change, say scientists, because all heatwaves today are climate change-related

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Natural Gas Samples Taken from Boston-Area Homes Contained Numerous Toxic Compounds, a New Harvard Study Finds

Inside Climate News

Almost all of them contained low levels of benzene, a carcinogen. Additional studies are underway to see if homeowners are exposed to this and other toxins when cooking with gas. By Hannah Loss Samples of natural gas taken before it was burned for cooking in homes in the Boston area contained 296 chemical compounds, including 21 that are toxic to humans, researchers led by the Harvard T.H.

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Applied physicist Arati Prabhakar becomes first female US science advisor

Physics World

The applied physicist Arati Prabhakar has been nominated by US president Joe Biden as the next director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). If approved by the US Senate, the 63-year-old would become the first woman – and the first immigrant and person of colour – to take up this key role in US science. Biden has also announced that Prabhakar will become US science advisor and will join the president’s cabinet.

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Robotic arms connected directly to brain of partially paralyzed man allows him to feed himself

Frontiers

By Peter Rejcek, science writer. Image: Shutterstock.com. Recent advances in neural science, robotics, and software have enabled scientists to develop a robotic system that responds to muscle movement signals from a partially paralyzed person relayed through a brain-machine interface. Human and robot act as a team to make performing some tasks a piece of cake.

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10 environmental books to read this summer

Eco Justice

Heading into the long weekend, we here at Ecojustice hope you’ll be able to enjoy some downtime and connect with nature however you can. Maybe you even fancy bringing an. Read more. The post 10 environmental books to read this summer appeared first on Ecojustice.

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A new farming proposal to reduce carbon emissions involves a lot of trust – and a lot of uncertainty

Environmental News Bits

by Ralph Sims, Massey University After decades of avoiding inclusion in the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), New Zealand’s primary production sector has begrudgingly acknowledged that reducing on-farm emissions of greenhouse gases is an imperative. Charged by the government with developing a pricing mechanism and strategy as an acceptable alternative to joining the ETS in 2025 … Continue reading A new farming proposal to reduce carbon emissions involves a lot of trust – and a lot of uncerta