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Keeping It Green

Atmospheric CO2 Levels

(Monthly Averages)

Apr. 22, 2025: 430.5 ppm
10 years ago: 396 ppm
Pre-industrial base: 280
Safe level: 350 ppm

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

Page Updated:
April 29, 2025

• The 2024 Clean 15 (Safe Foods)
• Get the Lead Out Toolkit
• Oil Spill History
• World Air Quality Report
• Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act

• US Emissions by Sector Chart

  
  

  Where is all that CO2 coming from? This graph breaks it down by economic sector.

• Greenest U.S. Cities
• Safe Water in Pictures
• U.S. WEA Grassroots Accelerator
• Safer Habitats

• • Common Chemicals in Plastic Linked
  to Over 350,000 Deaths From Heart Disease

  Exposure to Phthalates Could Contribute to 13 percent of All Heart Disease Deaths in People Between Ages 55 and 64 Each Year Worldwide
  
  

  Apr. 29, 2025 -A set of chemicals found in food packaging, plastics, and lotions and shampoos has been linked to hundreds of thousands of deaths from heart disease, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal eBioMedicine.

  These chemicals, known as phthalates (pronounced tha-lates), were responsible for more than 350,000 deaths worldwide in 2018, researchers found.

• • This Solar-Powered Device Sucks
  CO2 From the Air—and Turns It Into Fuel

  Researchers Harness Sunlight to Convert CO2 into Sustainable Fuel
  
  

  Apr. 28, 2025 -In a world grappling with the escalating climate crisis, we need all the help we can get. Now, a team of scientists from the University of Cambridge has unveiled an intriguing device that could transform the way we think about carbon dioxide. While others have focused on capturing heat-trapping CO2 from the atmosphere and then storing it underground, the Cambridge team developed a solar-powered reactor that turns it into something far more practical: fuel.

  The device, described in a recent study published in Nature Energy, captures carbon dioxide directly from the air and converts it into syngas—a versatile mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide.

• • Massive Power Outage Hits Spain and Portugal

  The Cause of the Blackout that Spread Chaos Across the Iberian Peninsula and Beyond was Not Immediately Known
  
  

  Apr. 28, 2025 -A massive power outage paralyzed Spain and Portugal on Monday in an incident with no immediate explanation.

  “It’s best to not speculate. We will know the causes soon. We are not discarding any hypothesis, but right now, we just focus on what’s most important: returning electricity to our homes,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said during a news conference Monday.

• • Plastics that Melt in the Ocean Offer New Hope for Cleaner Seas

  One Day We Can
  Say Goodbye to Microplastics
  
  

  Apr. 25, 2025 -Plastic has become a permanent fixture in modern life—and that’s exactly the problem. Designed for convenience, it clogs oceans, chokes marine life, and lingers in ecosystems for centuries. Even when it breaks down, it often becomes microplastics that infiltrate food chains. Despite efforts like recycling, bans, and biodegradable alternatives, microplastic pollution remains an overwhelming challenge.

  But scientists may have discovered a promising new approach: a type of plastic that doesn’t stick around. A study published in Science introduces “supramolecular plastics,” materials that dissolve safely into saltwater.

• • Fifty States - Fifty Fixes

  Now More than Ever, Environmental Solutions May Seem Out Of Reach. But They’re Happening All Over the Country
  
  

  Apr. 25, 2025 -This year, we’ll be highlighting one thing that’s working in every state.

  See the State by State practices to tackle climate challenges.

• • A Brood of Cicadas that Last Screeched
  Under George W. Bush Returns this Spring

  Millions of Red-Eyed, Singing Cicadas Will Emerge Across 13 States this Spring, as Brood XIV — Which Last Surfaced in 2008 — Makes Its Presence Known
  
  

  Apr. 24, 2025 -This spring, millions of noisy, red-eyed cicadas from Brood XIV will blanket parts of the United States for the first time since 2008, when George W. Bush was in the White House and Donald Trump was hosting “The Apprentice.”

  The bugs come in two varieties, annual and periodical. This year’s cicadas are members of the second largest periodical group after Brood XIX, which surfaced last year in parts of the American Midwest and South. Brood XIV, also known as the Great(er) Eastern Brood, is larger than Brood X, the group that overtook the D.C. region in 2021.

• • Sponge Made from Food Scraps Produces Clean Water from Thin Air

  A Hydrogel Made from Waste Natural Materials Pulls Over 14 Liters of Drinkable Water from Air Per Day, Offering a Sustainable Way to Alleviate Water Scarcity
  
  

  Apr. 24, 2025 -A sponge-like gel made from food scraps and other natural materials can draw moisture from air even in dry conditions. The system, reported in the journal Advanced Materials, provides a sustainable way to produce drinkable water for low cost to address global water scarcity.

  Water has become a precious commodity in many parts of the world, a problem getting exacerbated by a warmer world and rising population. One in three people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water, according to the UNICEF and World Health Organization.

• • The ‘Owl Man’ is Busy at Boston Logan Airport

  Norman Smith has Trapped and Released More than 900 Arctic Raptors for the Safety of the Birds and the Planes
  
  

  Apr. 23, 2025 -Every winter, Arctic snowy owls fly thousands of miles south to Boston Logan International Airport. And every season, Norman Smith drives less than an hour to try to snatch them up.

  Known as the “owl man of Logan Airport,” the raptor researcher has caught and released into the wild more than 900 snowy owls that decided that Boston Logan was their Boca Raton. When the temperature begins to drop, the Arctic raptors, especially the juveniles, migrate to relatively warmer climates. Many choose the airport, home to the largest known concentration of snowy owls in New England.

• • Almost Half of Americans Breathe Unhealthy Air

  Weakening or Rolling Back Longstanding Environmental Regulations would Worsen the problem, the American Lung Association Assessment Says
  
  

  Apr. 23, 2025 -At least 156 million Americans, about 46 percent of the population, live with unsafe levels of ozone, particulate pollution or both, according to the American Lung Association’s annual State of the Air report.

  Plans by the Trump administration to loosen environmental regulations and cut funding for air quality research would make matters worse, the report says.

• • World’s Largest Bleaching Event
  on Record Has Harmed 84% of Coral Reefs

  Bleached Coral Dies When Exposed to Heat Stress for Too Long, Threatening the Bountiful Marine Ecosystem that Depends On It For Survival
  
  

  Apr. 23, 2025 -Coral reefs around the world are losing their color at an unprecedented scale as a result of rising sea temperatures, federal marine scientists announced this week, with 84 percent of reefs exposed to bleaching levels of heat since 2023.

  The massive blow to marine habitats reported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — the highest share ever recorded — comes as the planet experiences its fourth global coral bleaching event, which occurs when bleaching is confirmed in all of the oceans’ basins at once.

• • RFK Jr Suspends Milk Quality Tests Due to Trump Cuts

  Imagine Pouring a Glass of Milk for Your Child and Wondering If it’s Safe
  
  

  Apr. 23, 2025 -On Monday morning, a seemingly unassuming email arrived in inboxes across a national network of food safety laboratories. It came from the Food and Drug Administration’s Division of Dairy Safety. The FDA, the agency responsible for the safety of everything from lettuce to life-saving drugs, was suspending its proficiency testing program for Grade “A” milk — the gold standard for fluid dairy products in the United States.

  The program has been a cornerstone of the nation’s dairy oversight system. It ensured that labs around the country could consistently detect pathogens and contaminants in the milk Americans pour into their cereal bowls and coffee cups. But apparently, the FDA’s own testing laboratory could no longer operate.

• • This Surprising Protein Shift Could Add Years to Your Life

  A Global Study Ties Plant Protein to Longer Adult Lives, but Early Life Needs Differ
  
  

  Apr. 23, 2025 -Among nutritionists, the type of protein we should eat is always a cause for debate. A new global analysis has brought the conversation into sharper focus.

  In a study spanning six decades and over 100 countries, researchers at the University of Sydney found that plant-based proteins are linked to longer adult life expectancy, while animal proteins appear to benefit survival in early childhood. The findings strengthen the case but also add a layer of nuance to the global push toward sustainable, plant-forward diets.

• • Smoke from New Jersey Wildfire Blows Toward New York

  The Wildfire that Erupted Tuesday Night Burned at least 12,000 Acres
  
  

  Apr. 23, 2025 -Evacuation orders have been lifted and roads reopened in parts of New Jersey on Wednesday, police said, after a wildfire that erupted the previous evening burned at least 13,000 acres.

  Heavy smoke conditions were expected to continue from Wednesday night into Thursday, as shifting winds sent smoke from the fire northward toward New York. An air quality alert was issued for New York City, Long Island and the lower Hudson Valley, with the potential to cause a reduction in air quality through Thursday, especially for sensitive groups.

• • When They Created a Reverse Bounty for Threatened
  Species, Scientists Got the Opposite Outcome They Wanted

  A Study of Indonesian Fishers Who Were Paid to Release Threatened Fish Species Found the Program Actually Caused More Fish Deaths
  
  

  Apr. 23, 2025 -Economic markets are a potent force when it comes to conservation. The quest for profits is a primary driver of today’s extinction crisis, from the black-market trade in rhino horns to the devastation of global rainforests in the pursuit of gold, lumber, and farmland.

  Conservationists have begun trying to harness these same powers in the name of protecting biodiversity, by creating financial incentives for people to protect the natural world rather than pillage it.

• • Sludge Contaminated 10,000 Acres of Farmland

  What Should Be Done?
  
  

  Apr. 21, 2025 -The abandoned Galey & Lord textile mill in Society Hill, S.C., resembles an apocalyptic wasteland. Looters have hauled away the steel gates for scrap metal. Rusting tanks sit in pools of dark water. Alligators lurk in wastewater ponds.

  But the real danger, environmental officials say, lies in the surrounding fields, as many as 10,000 acres of contaminated farmland, including fields still growing food, that South Carolina says should be part of an unprecedented federal Superfund cleanup.

• • Hurricane-hit Grenadians See Climate
  Change and Reparations as One Struggle

  Island Country Deals With Drought and Hurricane Damage as It Pushes for Reparations From Countries that Benefited From Slavery
  
  

  Apr. 21, 2025 -When category 4 Hurricane Beryl hit the Caribbean last June, the three-island nation of Grenada bore the brunt of its wrath. At the time, the country’s prime minister, Dickon Mitchell, described the destruction as “almost Armageddon-like”. On the small island of Carriacou, it was estimated by officials that more than 90% of the buildings were damaged or destroyed. Agriculture and infrastructure for electricity and communication were almost completely wiped out.

• • Maryland Protected Nearly a Third
  of Its Land, and It’s Reaching for More

  Nine States Have Set Goals to Conserve 30 Percent of Their Land By 2030. Maryland Got There First
  
  

  Apr. 21, 2025 -The protected land includes a one-acre fish hatchery at Unicorn Lake in eastern Maryland and the sprawling Green Ridge State Forest in the west. It includes shorelines, farms and woods around Naval Air Station Patuxent River, and the Chesapeake Forest Lands, some 75,000 wooded acres that are home to species like bald eagles and the once-endangered Delmarva fox squirrel.

  None of it can be developed, and all of it has helped Maryland reach a landmark conservation goal six years ahead of schedule, before any other state that’s joined an effort known as “30 by 30.”

• • Fighting Louisiana Floodwaters With Patches of Green

  Simple, Affordable Initiatives Like Rain Gardens are Helping to Soak Up Water in New Orleans
  
  

  Apr. 21, 2025 -When Angela Chalk first heard there were ways that ordinary people could offset flooding in New Orleans, she was skeptical.

  Her neighbors in the Seventh Ward knew all about heavy rains that brought knee-high floodwaters, spilling into porches and marooning cars and homes, and were frustrated that it was something they felt powerless to stop.

  Then she heard Jeff Supak, head of a nonprofit organization now called Water Wise Gulf South, talk about how simple fixes like rain gardens and vegetated ditches, also known as bioswales, could soak up extra rain.

  She challenged Mr. Supak to prove it.

• • Texas Was Once Affordable. After Hail and Hurricanes, Not Anymore

  Worsening Storms Fueled by Climate Change, Coupled With Inflation, are Driving Some of the Highest Home Insurance Costs in the Country
  
  

  Apr. 21, 2025 -When Bob Dempsey began shopping for a new home insurance policy last summer, he did not think of his neighborhood as prone to dangerous weather.

  His two-story brick home in the Houston suburb of Clear Lake is not directly on the water. In 2017, when Hurricane Harvey unleashed more than 25 inches of rain on the region, Dempsey’s house did not flood. Yet most major insurers turned him down last year. The ones that did offer to sell him a policy — companies he had never heard of — were charging annual premiums between $10,000 and $15,000.

• • E.P.A. Set to Cancel Grants Aimed
  at Protecting Children From Toxic Chemicals

  The Cancellations, Set to Apply to Pending and Active Grants, Also Affect Research Into “Forever Chemicals” Contaminating the Food Supply
  
  

  Apr. 21, 2025 -The Trump administration is set to cancel tens of millions of dollars in grants to scientists studying environmental hazards faced by children in rural America, among other health issues, according to internal emails written by senior officials at the Environmental Protection Agency.

  The planned cancellation of the research grants, which were awarded to scientists outside the agency, comes as President Trump continues to dismantle some of the E.P.A.’s core functions.

• • Half a Million Honeybees Dead in
  Suspected Poisoning at Army Veteran’s Farm

  The Virginia Farm’s Owner Estimates that the Damage Could Total Almost $20,000 and Says that it Was a Premeditated Attack.
  
  

  Apr. 20, 2025 -When Jerry Mattiaccio noticed the thick steel chains and padlock wrapped around the gate of his Virginia bee farm last Sunday afternoon, he suspected he had aggravated some neighbors. Not everyone loves living in the shadow of more than a thousand bee colonies, he thought.

  He tried to cut open the lock on his own, but it proved too thick. When his staff arrived the next morning to help him slice through the chains, they realized this was no harmless prank.

• • Microplastics Found in Human
  Ovary Follicular Fluid for the First Time

  Peer-Reviewed Study’s Findings Raises Fresh Question on the Toxic Substances’ Impact on Fertility
  
  

  Apr. 19, 2025 -Microplastics have been found for the first time in human ovary follicular fluid, raising a new round of questions about the ubiquitous and toxic substances’ potential impact on women’s fertility.

  The new peer-reviewed research published in Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety checked for microplastics in the follicular fluid of 18 women undergoing assisted reproductive treatment at a fertility clinic in Salerno, Italy, and detected them in 14.

• • About Rare Earth Minerals and Renewable Energy

  The Shift to Cleaner Power Needs Resources From China. An Export Ban Just Cut Off Some Supplies
  
  

  Apr. 17, 2025 -In 1886, a French chemist dissolved holmium oxide in acid. Then, he added ammonia. Toiling over the marble slab of his fireplace, he repeated the procedure dozens of times.

  Finally, voilà: He’d extracted a new element.

  More than a century later, Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran’s painstaking discovery — which he named dysprosium, from the Greek for “hard to get” — is a crucial ingredient in the powerful magnets used in wind turbines and electric vehicle motors.

• • Where Does Hurricane Waste Go?

  The Small 1.54-Square-Mile Treasure Island Would Produce Over 128,000 Cubic Yards of Debris After the Storms — Roughly 2 Million Standard Kitchen Trash Bags Worth of Waste
  
  

  Apr. 17, 2025 -Days after the one-two punch of Hurricanes Helene and Milton struck Florida’s Gulf Coast last fall, piles of waste and debris walled the streets of this community.The Trump administration announced it is cutting nearly $4 million in federal funding for climate change research at Princeton University, saying that the work promoted “exaggerated and implausible climate threats” and increased “climate anxiety” among young Americans.

  Furniture, appliances and family pictures were dumped onto the street after the first system’s storm surge washed waist-high seawater through the barrier island. The second hurricane struck just two weeks later, compounding the cleanup effort and further contaminating and soaking through crumbling piles of debris.

• • Crews Work to Restore Power After Another Puerto Rico Blackout

  Officials Demand Answers
  
  {FACTOR THIS}
  
  

  Apr. 17, 2025 -Crews worked early Thursday to restore power to Puerto Rico after a blackout that hit the entire island affected the main international airport, hospitals and hotels filled with Easter vacationers.

  The outage that began past noon Wednesday left 1.4 million customers without electricity and more than 400,000 without water. More than 742,600 customers, or 51%, had power back by Thursday morning, while 83% of customers had water restored. Officials expected 90% of customers to have power back within 48 to 72 hours after the outage.

• • Redefining ‘Harm:’ Agencies Aim
  to End Longstanding Wildlife Protections

  Trump Officials Have Proposed Changing a Decades-Old Interpretation of a Key Word in the Endangered Species Act, Which Would Make It Much Easier to Log, Build Or Drill for Oil
  
  

  Apr. 17, 2025 -The Trump administration is moving to effectively eliminate a crucial protection in the half-century-old Endangered Species Act by redefining a single word: harm.

  A proposed rule, issued on Wednesday from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, would repeal a longstanding interpretation of what it means to harm imperiled plants and animals to exclude the destruction of habitat.

• • The Hidden Climate Costs of Exporting US Liquefied Natural Gas

  A Single Year Of Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Tankers Carrying LNG from the United States More than Cancels Out the Annual Reductions Achieved Through Driving All the Electric Vehicles Currently on U.S. Roads
  
  

  Apr. 16, 2025 -For a ship the length of nearly three football fields, Energy Intelligence seemed to turn on a dime. With tugboats pushing and pulling at its bow and stern, the 295-meter liquefied natural gas tanker pivoted 180 degrees in the brackish waters of the Calcasieu Ship Channel in late February, preparing to refuel for a trip to the Netherlands.

  Its journey is part of a seismic shift that in the past decade has seen the U.S. go from an LNG importer to the world’s largest exporter, fueled by an ongoing boom in hydraulically fractured natural gas.

• • Is the Planet Losing One of Its Best Ways to Slow Climate Change?

  The Concentration of Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere Rose Last Year at the Fastest Rate on Record
  
  

  Apr. 16, 2025 -The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere last year grew at the fastest rate in recorded history — a dramatic spike that scientists fear may indicate that Earth’s ecosystems are so stressed by warming they can no longer absorb much of the pollution humanity emits.

  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Global Monitoring Laboratory on Monday released data showing the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increased by 3.75 parts per million in 2024. That jump is 27 percent larger than the previous record increase, in 2015, and puts atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations at a level not seen in at least 3 million years.

• • New Stream Gauges and Weather Stations
  Poised to Help Wyoming Tribes Endure Flooding and Drought

  The New Devices Will Help the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Improve Their Disaster Warning System
  
  

  Apr. 15, 2025 -Travis Shakespeare and Lokilo St. Clair of the Northern Arapaho tribe were driving through central Wyoming’s Wind River Indian Reservation in May 2010 to check the integrity of bridges during a wet spring full of snow and rain that sent water roaring through rivers across the reservation.

  When they came upon 17-mile Bridge, it was already up to its shoulders in water. “Did you feel that?” St. Clair asked Shakespeare as they drove across the span over the Little Wind River.

• • How Holy Water from Ethiopia
  Sparked a Cholera Outbreak in Europe

  Imported Holy Water Was Linked to Rare European Cholera Infections
  
  

  Apr. 14, 2025 -What started as a spiritual cleanse turned into a gastrointestinal purge. In January 2025, seven people in Europe came down with cholera after sipping or splashing themselves with holy water brought from a sacred Ethiopian well.

  The holy water, it turns out, was teeming with drug-resistant Vibrio cholerae bacteria.

• • Rewiring Britain for an Era of Clean Energy

  National Grid is Rebuilding it in a Government-Backed Drive to Attract Investment and Tackle Climate Change
  
  

  Apr. 14, 2025 -In a career spanning more than 30 years, John Pettigrew has seen big changes in the electricity industry. He started out in 1991, working to introduce natural-gas-fired power plants to the grid, gradually replacing polluting coal plants.

  Now, once again, he is managing a tectonic shift to an electrified economy that runs on renewable energy like wind and solar power. But these sources of power generation are far trickier to manage than their coal and gas predecessors.

• • China Halts Critical Exports as Trade War Intensifies

  Beijing has Suspended Exports of Certain Rare Earth Minerals and Magnets That Are Crucial For the World’s Car, Semiconductor and Aerospace Industries
  
  

  Apr. 13, 2025 -China has suspended exports of a wide range of critical minerals and magnets, threatening to choke off supplies of components central to automakers, aerospace manufacturers, semiconductor companies and military contractors around the world.

  Shipments of the magnets, essential for assembling everything from cars and drones to robots and missiles, have been halted at many Chinese ports while the Chinese government drafts a new regulatory system. Once in place, the new system could permanently prevent supplies from reaching certain companies, including American military contractors.

• • Paris Said Au Revoir to Cars

  Air Pollution Maps
  Reveal a Dramatic Change
  
  

  Apr. 12, 2025 -Over the past 20 years, Paris has undergone a major physical transformation, trading automotive arteries for bike lanes, adding green spaces and eliminating 50,000 parking spaces.

  Part of the payoff has been invisible — in the air itself.

• • Trump Guts Agency Critical to Worker Safety as Temperatures Rise

  On the Heels of
  the Hottest Year On Record
  
  

  Apr. 11, 2025 -The administration plans to close 11 area offices of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, which issues regulations to protect workers from hazardous conditions like extreme heat. And at the beginning of the month, it started terminating the vast majority of workers at an obscure research agency that is vital to OSHA’s work: the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH.

• • A Byproduct of Manure Runoff Pollutes
  Drinking Water in Thousands of US Communities

  The Analysis, From the Environmental Working Group, Takes a First-Of-Its-Kind Look At Trihalomethanes, a Contaminant Linked to Cancers and Stillbirth
  
  

  Apr. 11, 2025 -Tens of millions of Americans have likely consumed drinking water containing cancer-causing chemicals that form when livestock manure and other organic substances end up in public water sources, according to a new analysis.

  Thousands of industrial-scale farms across the country spray manure from livestock onto farm or other lands, which then runs off into waterways. When water utilities disinfect water using chlorine and other chemicals, the process interacts with manure runoff to create a byproduct known as trihalomethanes, or TTHMs, which have been found to cause birth defects and cancers.

• • Where Drought Conditions Have Plagued
  U.S. — and Why It’s Been So Dry

  Learn Where Dryness Has Been Most Severe, Where Your County Ranks, and What’s to Come
  
  

  Apr. 11, 2025 -Winter has come and gone, but unusually dry conditions that developed last fall are still plaguing much of the United States.

  As of early April, around 60 percent of the contiguous states is facing abnormal dryness, covering parts of 44 states and a population of over 163 million people. Over the past six months, the Southwest and East Coast have been the driest regions of the country relative to average.

• • A Sign Your Fish Might Be on Drugs: Risky Behavior

  What About Humans?
  
  

  Apr. 10, 2025 -Pharmaceutical pollution is rampant. Nearly 1,000 drugs and their byproducts have been detected in the world’s waterways, including in surprising places like Antarctica. They enter the environment as direct pollution from drug producers, from people flushing unused medications, and from human and animal waste.

• • Record Heat Is Ramping Up in the West

  Temperatures Around 100 to 110 Degrees are Expected in the Deserts of California and Arizona...
  
  

  Apr. 10, 2025 -Records will be tested and breached across the western United States on Thursday and through the weekend as an early-season heat dome expands and intensifies.

  The most extreme temperatures compared with normal are expected from the Desert Southwest to the Rockies through late week. Heading into the weekend and early next week, the heat wave will migrate east, bringing the hottest weather of the season so far to a slug of the Plains and the South.

• • Earth Might Run Out of Room for
  Satellites by 2100 Because of Greenhouse Gases

  Satellite Highways May Break Down Due to Greenhouse Gases in the Uppermost Layers of the Atmosphere
  
  

  Apr. 9, 2025 -Imagine there’s a super-rich alien living on a nearby planet. It runs a business that involves making and launching hi-tech satellites (far better than those made by NASA). While looking for new opportunities to expand its business, the alien came across Earth, the only other known planet where thousands of satellite launches happen every year.

  His company has a superior technology, can provide services at a lower cost, and there’s no shortage of clients on Earth. However, the alien still drops the plan. Can you guess why? No, not because they watched Independence Day, but rather because, unlike most business people on Earth, this alien listens to what the science says.

• • NOAA Staffing Cuts Threaten Years of Salmon Harvests

  Wash. State, Where Salmon is A Multibillion Dollar Industry, Government Staff Terminations and Budget Freezes May Put Salmon Production At Risk
  
  

  Apr. 9, 2025 -In Washington State, April is when millions of young Chinook salmon are released from hatcheries, where they started as tiny, pink globes, to swim downstream and rebuild the salmon population. They are part of an ecosystem that affects tribal, commercial, and recreational fishing and are a main source of food for endangered killer whales.

  But this year, almost a dozen hatcheries in the Puget Sound region are in limbo because a single employee from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was terminated in February, a casualty of cuts made by billionaire Elon Musk’s advisory group known as the Department of Government Efficiency.

• • How the Caribbean Could Turn
  a Plague of Seaweed into Fuel and Fertilizer

  Sargassum Seaweed is a Problem Throughout the Caribbean. But Scientists are Exploring the Opportunities it May Offer
  
  

  Apr. 9, 2025 -Stinking mats of rotting seaweed are already starting to pile up on beaches across the Caribbean.

  These mega-blooms of slimy brown algae called sargassum were once seldom seen — but climate change and water pollution have turned them into an annual plague for the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and Florida’s east coast. As mounds of seaweed smother the coasts, they repel tourists, vex fishermen and foul the air with unhealthy fumes that warm the planet and cause breathing problems.

• • How Long Will the ‘End of the World’ Stay Wild?

  Crowds of Tourists Bound for Antarctica have Brought Prosperity to Argentina’s Southernmost City, but the Boom is Also Squeezing Locals and Stressing the Environment
  
  

  Apr. 8, 2025 -It was summer in the city that proudly calls itself the “end of the world,” and the tourists were flocking like the penguins they had traveled thousands of miles to see.

  On a late-January afternoon, five hulking cruise ships crowded the docks in Ushuaia, Argentina, waiting to take deep-pocketed passengers who had paid $15,000 to $18,000 each, on average, for once-in-a-lifetime 10-day trips to Antarctica.

• • Bolivia’s $1.2 Billion Deal to Protect Its Forests:

  A Climate Boon—or a False Solution?
  
  

  Apr. 8, 2025 -Sometime next month, the Bolivian government and a company you probably haven’t heard of are poised to offer what could be the largest single sale of carbon credits in history. The deal will be unusual not only for its size—$1.2 billion, organizers said—but also because it will be backed by a national government and packaged under new rules developed as part of the Paris Agreement.

  Depending on who you ask, the sale could mark a new frontier in global climate finance, the latest offering in a long and dubious line of carbon credits or, potentially, a giant escalation in corporate greenwashing.

• • “Thirstwaves” Are Growing More Common Across the United States

  Like Heat Waves, These Periods of High Atmospheric Demand For Water Can Damage Crops and Ecosystems and Increase Pressure On Water Resources
  
  

  Apr. 8, 2025 -As the climate warms, the atmosphere is getting thirstier. Scientists define this atmospheric thirst, or evaporative demand, as the amount of water that could potentially evaporate from Earth’s surface in response to weather.

  Standardized short-crop evapotranspiration (ETos) is a metric that estimates how much water would evaporate and transpire across a uniform, well-watered grass surface. It is used to measure the evaporative demand experienced by land covered by agricultural crops. Past studies have shown that ETos has increased over time in response to factors such as air temperature, solar radiation, humidity, and wind speed.

• • Ohio River Valley Continues to Deal With
  Flood Conditions Following Days of Heavy Rainfall

  High Water Conditions Along the Ohio River Valley Continue To Improve After Several Days of Heavy Rainfall Pushed Through the Tri-State
  
  {EYEWITNESS NEWS}
  
  

  Apr. 8, 2025 - Several areas remain flooded from Ravenswood to Portsmouth.

  While levels continued to drop Tuesday, a Proctorville ballfield was still underwater and a parking lot in downtown Pomeroy remained unnavigable.

• • Dozens Die in Floods Hitting Congo’s Capital

  While the DRC Reels from a New Rebel Offensive in the East, Its Capital in the West, Kinshasa, Grapples With Deadly Floods
  
  

  Apr. 8, 2025 -Dozens of people have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo after torrential rains flooded the capital, Kinshasa, in the last few days, and destroyed hundreds of homes.

• • How Just Trying to Stay Warm is Killing
  Thousands a Year In the World’s Coldest Capital

  Extreme Weather Drives Families Off the Mongolian Steppes Into the City the Aicomes More Deadly
  
  

  Apr. 8, 2025 -The eldest child was away training for the army when his family died in their sleep. All six of them, two adults and four children, were poisoned by carbon monoxide gas seeping out from their coal-fired stove into their home in Ulaanbaatar in January, the coldest month in the world’s coldest capital city.

• • Relentless Rain and Storms Kill at Least 24 in South and Parts of Midwest

  Mountain Waters are Essential to Humans and Ecosystems
  
  {CBS NEWS}
  
  

  Apr. 7, 2025 - U.S. Relentless rain and storms kill at least 24 in South and parts of Midwest.

  Days of unrelenting heavy rain and storms killed at least 24 people across seven states, as some rivers rose to near-record levels and inundated towns in already saturated areas of the South and parts of the Midwest.

  The deaths since the storms began on Wednesday included 10 in Tennessee, which saw powerful tornadoes spring up from an initial wave of storms last week and continued to face heavy flooding through the weekend. Flooding killed at least five more in Kentucky — including a 9-year-old boy swept away Friday on his way to school, and a 74-year-old whose body was found Saturday inside a submerged vehicle, authorities said.

• • Why California and the West Could
  Face a ‘Big Fire Season’ Later This Year

  Hot and Dry Conditions in the Region Could Accelerate Yet Another Wildfire Season, With High Risks of Concerning Conflagrations Even For Areas that had Rain and Snow this Winter
  
  

  Apr. 7, 2025 -As California continues to recover from devastating January wildfires and extreme dryness that reached deep into winter, there are early signs that the state and surrounding region could face a troubling fire season in the months ahead.

  The rainy season in the West is winding down, but much of the region remains well behind on rainfall.

• • Should I Ditch My Gas Appliances?

  They’re a Big
  Source of Greenhouse Gases
  
  

  Apr. 7, 2025 -About 7 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions in the United States come from fossil fuels burned inside homes for things like heating, cooking and cooling.

  That’s bad for the climate and, sometimes, bad for your health. Gas stoves, in addition to those planet-warming emissions, release toxic pollutants directly into the home.

• • Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal as an Alluring New Waterfronts

  But for Years, It Stunk
  
  

  Apr. 6, 2025 -The EPA has been working for 12 years on two huge underground tanks to keep sewage overflows from polluting the canal. The city’s DEP, which for years has done little to speed the process, announced late last month that it’s now ahead of schedule.

  For more than a century, the Gowanus Canal has been a symbol of industrial pollution.

• • Chemical Industry Asks Trump for Exemption From Pollution Limits

  The Biden-era Limits Were Designed to Reduce Emissions of Toxic Pollutants, Including a Cancer-Causing Ingredient Used in Antifreeze and Plastics
  
  

  Apr. 5, 2025 -Two chemical industry groups are asking President Trump for a complete exemption to free their factories from new limits on hazardous air pollution.

  Under a new rule finalized by the Biden administration last year, chemical plants would soon be required to monitor and reduce emissions of toxic pollutants, like ethylene oxide, a cancer-causing ingredient used in antifreeze and plastics.

• • Dangerous Rains Batter Central U.S.
  as More Tornadoes Swarm the South

  Some Places Could See Rain Totals Nearing 15 Inches from the Storm, Driving a High Risk of Flooding
  
  

  Apr. 5, 2025 -Several more people were killed amid the relentless storms and flooding across the Mid-South on Saturday, as rescue teams worked across communities already devastated by heavy rains in the days before.

  At least 15 people across five states have been killed so far, including a five-year-old in Arkansas, a young boy on his way to school in Kentucky and a fire chief in Missouri assisting with search-and-rescue efforts.

• • Greece’s Aegean islands Reel From
  ‘Lake Of Mud’ Flash Floods Before Easter Rush

  Authorities Race to Complete Clean-Up Operation After Devastation From Gales and Heaviest Rainfall In 20 Years
  
  

  Apr. 4, 2025 -People on the Aegean islands, more used in April to the sight and scent of spring’s blossoms, have been left reeling from flash floods spurred by typhoon-strength gales, with authorities calling a state of emergency in some of Greece’s most popular destinations less than three weeks before Easter.

  “It’s a total catastrophe and it happened in just two hours,” said Costas Bizas, the mayor of Paros, the island worst hit by weather not seen in decades. “We need all the help we can get.”

• • EPA Cuts Could Leave Small Rural Towns Choking in Smoke

  The EPA’s Slashing of More Than $1 Billion in Grant Funding Has Hit Hard in Western Communities That Have Felt Climate Impacts From Flooding, Wildfire Smoke and Melting Permafrost
  
  

  Apr. 3, 2025 -When wildfire smoke drifts into the Methow Valley, it tends to stay, settling in the folds of the Cascade foothills like a choking fog. Recent summers have brought weeks-long binges of unhealthy air to one of Washington state’s poorest counties, rivaling some of the most polluted cities in the world.

• • Restoration Continues For Hydro One Customers

  Still Without Power After Massive Ontario Ice Storm
  
  {FACTOR THIS}
  
  

  Apr. 3, 2025 - This past weekend, a major winter storm system hammered the Canadian province of Ontario, impacting nearly 1 million customers across Hydro One territory. Hydro One Limited, through its wholly-owned subsidiaries, is Ontario’s largest electricity transmission and distribution provider, boasting approximately 1.5 million customers, meaning roughly two-thirds felt the brunt of the storm. The utility says the damage is “the most devastating and widespread” since the Great Ice Storm of 1998.

  Since the start of the storm on March 28 at about 11 pm ET, Hydro One estimates crews have restored power to more than 89% of customers, up from 85% on Thursday and 80% as of Wednesday night.

• • How Trump’s Tariffs Could Hobble
  the Fastest-Growing Energy Technology

  Across the Country, Companies have been Installing Giant Batteries that Help Them Use More Wind and Solar.
  That’s About to Get Much Harder
  
  

  Apr. 3, 2025 -The sweeping tariffs that President Trump announced on Wednesday could hobble the use of giant batteries that energy companies are increasingly installing to help them tap more wind and solar power and make the broader electric grid more reliable.

  Over the past five years, grid batteries have become one of the biggest growth industries in the U.S. energy sector. In states like Texas and Arizona, companies have been installing stacks of lithium-ion cells the size of shipping containers. They can soak up excess wind and solar energy and save it for when it’s needed.

• • Northern Michigan — No Stranger to Wild Weather

  Tries to Cope With Days of No Power
  
  {FACTOR THIS}
  
  

  Apr. 2, 2025 - The tip of Michigan’s mitten struggled through another day without electricity Tuesday as restless residents tried to stay warm while utilities scrambled to restore power in a region waylaid by weekend freezing rain that brought down countless trees and poles.

  Schools in several counties were closed again at the top of the Lower Peninsula. Sheriff’s deputies armed with chain saws cleared roads and were even delivering oxygen for the homebound. Drivers idled their vehicles in gas station lines that were blocks long.

  Northern Michigan lives with crazy weather — Gaylord got 199 inches (5 meters) of snow this winter — but this wave is much different.

• • Americans View Water That’s Safe to
  Drink and Reliably Supplied as Top Issues

  A Majority of Respondents Support Additional Investments to Improve Water Infrastructure, Even if it Means Higher Bills
  
  

  Apr. 2, 2025 -New polling shows Americans view ensuring a reliable water supply as their top issue, beating out inflation, healthcare reform and others.

  The polling comes from the US Water Alliance’s Value of Water Campaign, an effort to raise awareness of the need to support water infrastructure, and is the first time a reliable water supply topped the list of key issues. Reducing water contamination came in third, behind inflation.

• • These Old Roman Buildings Could
  Unlock How to Build in a Warming World

  The Recycled Buildings of Rome, Long Dismissed by Architects, are Getting a Reappraisal as a Model for How to Reduce Waste While Creating Something Fresh
  
  

  Apr. 2, 2025 -For centuries, historians and architecture critics have been embarrassed by buildings like San Giorgio in Velabro. The exterior of the medieval church is inoffensive enough: trim portico, unprepossessing facade, simple bell tower.

  But step inside and the structure is a hodgepodge, seeming to break the rules of architecture right and left.

• • What Are the Rights of Nature?

  Securing Legal Rights for Ecosystems and Other Parts of the Natural World
  
  

  Apr. 2, 2025 -“Rights of nature” is a movement aimed at advancing the understanding that ecosystems, wildlife and the Earth are living beings with inherent rights to exist, evolve and regenerate.

  Legal rights are the highest form of protection in most governance systems. In the United States, humans and non-humans have enforceable legal rights, like corporations’ right to freedom of speech.

• • Ukraine’s Ravaged Environment

  Fires and Smoke Foul the Air. Toxins Seep Into the Earth and Water. Habitats for Wildlife Disappear
  
  

  Apr. 2, 2025 -The human costs of Russia’s war in Ukraine are enormous, measured in mass graves, nightly missile attacks, traumatized children and hundreds of thousands of soldiers dead or wounded.

  But Ukraine’s environment is also being devastated. The war may end, but damage from artillery shells, mines, drones and missiles will endure for decades, experts say, degrading industries like farming and mining, introducing health risks and eroding natural beauty.

• • Tariffs Are Likely to Hit U.S. Renewable Energy

  The Components Used to Assemble Wind Turbines are Made By Suppliers Around the Globe
  
  

  Apr. 2, 2025 -President Trump’s tariffs are likely to raise the costs of building renewable energy projects in the United States, analysts say, adding to the challenges of an already struggling industry.

  Generating equipment, like wind turbines, is often made with parts from many suppliers around the globe, and assembled in the United States. Tariffs are likely to increase the cost of each imported part.

• • Mountains and Glaciers = Water Towers

  Mountain Waters are Essential to Humans and Ecosystems
  
  {unesco}
  
  

  Apr. 1, 2025 - The 2025 edition of the United Nations World Water Development Report highlights the importance of mountain waters, including alpine glaciers, which are vital for meeting basic human needs such as water supply and sanitation

• • Should Oil and Gas Drilling Expand in This Biodiverse National Forest?

  The Public Overwhelmingly Says No
  
  

  Apr. 1, 2025 -Jimmy Stiles knows Conecuh National Forest. He lives in it.

  Stiles, a field biologist, has lived in his home in the northern section of the forest, which lines the Alabama-Florida border, for nearly 25 years. He said he’s loved every second of it.

  That’s why, Stiles said, he’s willing to fight for the forest.

• • A New Antibiotic Was Hiding in Backyard Dirt

  It Might Save Millions
  
  

  Apr. 1, 2025 -Beneath a patch of soil in Hamilton, Ontario, scientists may have found a long-awaited answer to one of medicine’s most pressing problems.

  They found a new molecule named lariocidin—a potential new antibiotic with the power to kill some of the world’s most drug-resistant bacteria. The molecule belongs to a rare class called lasso peptides, and its discovery marks what scientists are calling a major step forward in the decades-long stagnation of antibiotic innovation.

• • Myanmar Just Had ‘the Big One’

  A Wake-Up Call For California?
  
  

  Apr. 1, 2025 -For more than a century, stress was mounting across a section of an 800-mile-long crack in Myanmar. Known as the Sagaing Fault, the crack ran between the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates, which were locked deeper below the surface. The Indian plate was moving north but snagged, building tension like a coiled spring — until it finally released as a deadly 7.7-magnitude earthquake Friday.

• • ‘Water Is the New Oil’ as Texas Cities Square Off Over Aquifers

  Two Cities and the Texas A&M University System are Suing to Stop a Project that Would Pump Up to 89 Million Gallons Per Day of Groundwater 80 Miles Away
  
  

  Mar. 21, 2025 -In Central Texas, a bitter fight over a $1 billion water project offers a preview of the future for much of the state as decades of rapid growth push past the local limits of its most vital natural resource.

  On one side: Georgetown, the fastest growing city in America for three years straight, which in 2023 signed a contract with an investor-funded enterprise to quickly begin importing vast volumes of water from the Simsboro Formation of the Carrizo Wilcox Aquifer, 80 miles to the east.

• • Breathing Dirty Air is Worse For Your Health than We Thought

  A New Study Found Elevated and Previously Overlooked Health Risks for Communities Living Near Industrial Polluters
  
  

  Mar. 31, 2025 -Many people who live near heavy industry are routinely exposed to dozens of different pollutants, which can result in a multitude of health problems.

  Traditionally, environmental regulators have assessed the risks of chemical exposure on an individual basis. But that approach has led to underestimates of the total health risks faced by vulnerable populations, according to a new study.

• • China Is Reshaping Global Development

  Is That Good for the Planet?
  
  

  Mar. 30, 2025 -Deep in Southern Patagonia, Mariana Martinez wades barefoot into the turquoise waters of a glacial lake. In the rugged mountains surrounding her, the sun streams into forest-draped valleys and intense Patagonian winds spray water into the air.

  This is a landscape of extremes, a region at the southern tip of South America where nature, in its rawest form, still reigns supreme. To Martinez, the idea of bending the terrain to humans’ will seems a folly.

  Yet for more than a decade, Argentine and Chinese leaders have been attempting just that.