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Long Phased-Out Refrigeration and Insulation Chemicals Still Widely in Use and Warming the Climate

Posted by GreenDog on Thursday, 09 April 2020 in Climate Change

New study concludes that "banked" CFCs have greenhouse gas impacts equal to all registered U.S. cars and slow the shrinking of the ozone hole. BY PHIL MCKENNAÂ MAR 17, 2020Starting decades ago, international governments phased out a class of chemical refrigerants that harmed the ozone layer and fuel...

Q&A: A Harvard Expert on Environment and Health Discusses Possible Ties Between COVID and Climate

Posted by GreenDog on Thursday, 09 April 2020 in Air Quality

Air pollution makes people more vulnerable to respiratory infections; climate change brings people in closer contact with animals that can spread disease. BY NEELA BANERJEE MAR 12, 2020 Doctors and public health researchers are getting an increasingly accurate and nuanced picture o...

AIR POLLUTION Numbers drop as drivers stay put

Posted by GreenDog on Monday, 06 April 2020 in Air Quality

Shared from the 4/5/2020 The Denver Post eEdition Scientists study the impact as coronavirus pandemic results in less driving and industrial activity By Bruce Finley  The Denver Post So long, sulfur dioxide. Goodbye, carbon monoxide. At least temporarily, air pollution that hurts ...

2020 United Nations-sponsored climate talks postponed

Posted by GreenDog on Friday, 03 April 2020 in Climate Change

THE NYT By Somini Sengupta April 1, 2020, 4:33 p.m. ET This year’s United Nations-sponsored climate talks, widely regarded as the most important climate meeting of the past four years, were postponed on Wednesday because of the coronavirus pandemic. The session, known as the Conference o...

Coal's Future looking grim, how the virus changes that

Posted by GreenDog on Thursday, 02 April 2020 in Fossil Fuels

The coal sector has been in decline for a long time—year upon year—and 2020 will be no different. Indeed, this may be the year in which an array of market forces in combination may simply overwhelm the industry. Five problems persist: • Long-term low gas prices and capacity expansion by both the so...

YOU_Tell Automakers It's Time to Commit to a Cleaner Future

Posted by GreenDog on Wednesday, 01 April 2020 in Fossil Fuels

Even while the country is in the midst of the unprecedented COVID-19 health emergency, the Trump administration has taken the time to roll back vehicle emission standards, throwing out critical public health and environmental protections that were meant to benefit all of us. Unfortunately, General ...

MILEAGE STANDARDS Trump rollback guts climate change push

Posted by GreenDog on Wednesday, 01 April 2020 in Fossil Fuels

Shared from the 4/1/2020 The Denver Post eEdition By Ellen Knickmeyer and Tom Krisher The Associated Press WASHINGTON» The Trump administration’s rollback of mileage standards Tuesday marks a win for Americans who like their SUVs and pickup trucks, but the government’s own estimates show big c...

Whales are dying, but numbers are unknown. Coronavirus has stalled scientific fieldwork

Posted by GreenDog on Tuesday, 31 March 2020 in Wildlife Conservation

By SUSANNE RUST, ROSANNA XIA MARCH 28, 20207:53 AM As gray whales began their northern migration along the Pacific coast, earlier this month — after a year of unusually heavy die-offs — scientists were poised to watch, ready to collect information that could help them learn what was killing them. ...

Fish and Wildlife Service denies Endangered Protection for bi-state sage grouse

Posted by GreenDog on Tuesday, 31 March 2020 in Wildlife Conservation

Daniel Rothberg March 30th, 2020 - 12:10pm The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service denied Endangered Species Act protection for the bi-state sage grouse, an iconic bird that roams western Nevada and eastern California, according to a document filed on the Federal Register website Monday. ...

ENVIRONMENTAL ROLLBACK U.S. reveals new auto pollution rules

Posted by GreenDog on Tuesday, 31 March 2020 in Climate Change

Shared from the 3/31/2020 The Denver Post eEdition By Coral Davenport © The New York Times Co. WASHINGTON»The Trump administration is expected Tuesday to announce its final rule to roll back Obama-era automobile fuel efficiency standards, relaxing efforts to limit climate-warming tailpipe poll...

Businesses large, small have stepped up in Pandemic

Posted by GreenDog on Monday, 30 March 2020 in Sustainable Development

SB. Sustainable Business Updates, March 30, 2020 While the government stalls under pressure to provide necessary aid to the millions affected by COVID-19, a silver lining to this pandemic is being revealed as more and more businesses exemplify efforts to put people before profit. Businesses large ...

Can dinosaur save community transitioning from fossil fuel

Posted by GreenDog on Friday, 27 March 2020 in Sustainable Development

Shared from the 3/27/2020 The Denver Post eEdition MOFFAT COUNTY By Sam Brasch Colorado Public Radio CRAIG» (Making the most of your local assets to transition to a sustainable new economy) Walter the dinosaur doesn’t look like an economic savior. At the moment, he’s not even a fully ex...

U.S. JUDGE ORDERS ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW OF PIPELINE

Posted by GreenDog on Thursday, 26 March 2020 in Fossil Fuels

Shared from the 3/26/2020 The Denver Post eEdition FARGO, N.D. » A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to conduct a full environmental review of the Dakota Access pipeline, nearly three years after it began carrying oil despite protests by people who gathered in Nort...

NEW YORK State’s last coal-fired power plant closing

Posted by GreenDog on Tuesday, 24 March 2020 in Fossil Fuels

Shared from the 3/22/2020 The Denver Post eEdition By Anne Barnard © The New York Times Co. The Somerset Operating Company in Somerset, N.Y., will close this month, spurring a debate over alternative energy projects. BARKER, N.Y.» It is the last coal-fired power plant in New York. White...

Judge asked to force decision on U.S. wolverine protection

Posted by GreenDog on Tuesday, 24 March 2020 in Wildlife Conservation

Shared from the 3/22/2020 The Denver Post eEdition WILDLIFE Judge asked to force decision on U.S. wolverine protection By Matthew Brown  The Associated Press BILLINGS, MONT.»Wildlife advocates on Wednesday asked a U.S. judge to force the government into deciding if the snow-loving w...

River of grass the shrinking Everglades

Posted by GreenDog on Tuesday, 24 March 2020 in Lakes/Rivers/Wetlands

Shared from the 3/22/2020 The Denver Post eEdition By Nina Burleigh © The New York Times Co. For years, whenever I found myself in Miami with an afternoon to spare, I sneaked off west to where a road abruptly separates the urban grid from the Everglades. Depending on time, I drove as deep int...

Surveying Life On Sea Turtles

Posted by GreenDog on Monday, 23 March 2020 in Ocean/Seas/Coastlines

“It is strange to think of a sea turtle as an ecosystem,” says Amanda Feuerstein, program coordinator and research assistant at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, “but they are…they have all of these other animals living on their skin and shells.” Feuerstein is co-author of a rec...

Make way for the sea urchin apocalypse

Posted by GreenDog on Friday, 20 March 2020 in Ocean/Seas/Coastlines

Shared from the 3/20/2020 The Denver Post eEdition By Asta Bowen Writers on the Range As if its year-round wildfires weren’t enough, California is leading the way toward a zombie apocalypse. But unlike flames roaring across the landscape, this apocalypse is happening quietly, just below t...

methane emissions have accelerated, spiking in 2014 and again in 2018.

Posted by GreenDog on Thursday, 19 March 2020 in Climate Change

Shared from the 3/11/2020 The Denver Post eEdition By Mark Buchanan Bloomberg Opinion The biggest cause of global warming is all the carbon dioxide we have expelled into the atmosphere since the beginning of industrial times. The greenhouse gas traps heat in the atmosphere, raising temperatur...

Coronavirus and Investing in Healthier Communities

Posted by GreenDog on Tuesday, 17 March 2020 in Human Health

March 09, 2020 David Wallinga, MD The field of public health began more than 160 years ago when a physician named John Snow, who believed the epicenter of a London cholera outbreak was a contaminated public well on Broad Street, acted to change that environment. He took the handle off the Broa...