Articles include: Making way for wildlife; Biden suspends drilling in the Arctic Refuge; imagining life after highways; methane emitters; where solar & wind power are needed; Study: heat deaths & climate change; Trump denial; airlines & GHGs; Norwegian environmental base.
Category: Environmental Groups
Multiple environmental groups fighting global warming.
Native American film about shutting down the Dakota Access Pipeline
Greens track deniers ahead of Biden climate push
E&E News discusses Greens track deniers ahead of Biden climate push.
A coalition of environmentalists is tracking online disinformation about climate change in response to a rising tide of conspiratorial thinking among the American electorate.
The informal group is led by representatives of Friends of the Earth and the Environmental Defense Fund, and includes members of around a dozen environmental groups. This is the first time the initiative is being reported on.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the coalition has been working with a data analytics firm to monitor online conversations about climate change ahead of an expected push for environmental policies during the Biden administration. The group has found overlap among climate deniers, vaccine skeptics, supporters of QAnon and other conspiracy theory adherents.
The coalition may use its findings to rebut lies and confusion about potential climate legislation and push to reform social media regulations, according to members.
Report: Deep-sea ‘gold rush’: secretive plans to carve up the seabed decried
The Guardian discusses Deep-sea ‘gold rush’: secretive plans to carve up the seabed decried. Greenpeace report warns against granting licences to ‘deeply destructive’ industry with opaque oversight, and calls for global ocean treaty.
Private mining firms and arms companies are exerting a hidden and unhealthy influence on the fate of the deep-sea bed, according to a new report highlighting the threats facing the world’s biggest intact ecosystem.
An investigation by Greenpeace found a handful of corporations in Europe and North America are increasingly dominating exploration contracts, mainly in search of cobalt and nickel, and have at times taken the place of government representatives at meetings of the oversight body, the UN’s International Seabed Authority (ISA).
Greenpeace said this undermines effective environmental management and fair distribution of risks and rewards from the ocean floor, which some states and companies want to open up for exploitation next year.
Environmental Health News: Children’s Health & Coronavirus & Health
EHN discusses Top news on children’s health.
Republicans are coming around to climate change, poll shows
FloridaPolitics.com discusses Republicans are coming around to climate change, poll shows.
Florida Republicans’ views on environmental policy are shifting and supporting pro-environment initiatives no longer poses a threat to their support among the party’s base, a new survey shows.
North Star Opinion Research, commissioned by the Environmental Defense Fund, polled 600 registered voters in Florida and found support for environmental policies would have a net positive effect on voting, even among Republicans who, historically, have been reluctant to support climate change policy.
“By helping to shape and pass these proposals, Republicans can expand their support without losing their base,” the polling memo reads.
Report: Many U.S. states are behind on their own climate milestones
Reuters discusses Many U.S. states are behind on their own climate milestones: report. Many of the U.S. states with bold commitments to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions are on track to miss their targets, according to an analysis published on Tuesday by green group Environmental Defense Fund. [No link provided.]
Study: How You Can Help Count and Conserve Native Bees
The New York Times discusses How You Can Help Count and Conserve Native Bees. Honeybees and their problems get the most attention, but scientists are using tactics learned from bird conservation to protect American bees.
In the last 20 years, the rusty patched bumblebee population declined by 87 percent because of habitat loss, use of pesticides and disease. This fuzzy bee, native to the continental United States, gets its name from the rusty patch on its back.
These bumblebees pollinate fruits and vegetables we eat, unlike the Gulf Coast solitary bee, which gathers pollen from only one plant — the Coastal Plain honeycomb head, a member of the aster family. You could say they’re specialists, whereas, rusty patched bumblebees and honeybees are generalists.
Dr. Woodard and colleagues explained this problem in a paper published this month in the journal Biological Conservation, and proposed a new approach to monitoring native bees. But she and scientists at institutions across the United States are going beyond doing studies about the problem. They have also started an effort to collect better data on native bee populations, as well as efforts to conserve them, as part of the U.S. National Native Bee Monitoring Research Coordination Network. The project, supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will train members of the public to look for and track wild bees.
Lawsuit Filed Against Trump Administration For Relaxing Limits On Coal Plant Pollution
Wisconsin Public Radio discusses a Lawsuit Filed Against Trump Administration For Relaxing Limits On Coal Plant Pollution. Environmental Groups Say US EPA Weakened Obama-Era Regulations.
Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its rule that weakens Obama-era requirements to reduce pollution from wastewater of coal-fired power plants.
The waste from burning coal contains heavy metals that can contaminate surrounding waterways and pose a threat to public health.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency relaxed requirements of a 2015 rule issued by the Obama administration in August that could have implications for two Wisconsin coal plants. The changes give utilities more time to reduce pollution and allow them to use cheaper pollution control technologies.
The lawsuit, filed by a coalition of environmental groups including the Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council, comes just a day before the presidential election. Thom Cmar, an Earthjustice attorney representing those groups, said the challenge would’ve been filed regardless of politics.