"The dangerous heat wave shattering March records all over the U.S. Southwest is more than just another extreme weather blip. It’s the latest next-level weather wildness that is occurring ever more frequently as Earth’s warming builds."
The capacity to visualize Earth’s ecosystems in detail is an invaluable aid to reporting on the environment. That’s now being bolstered with an ongoing upgrade to NASA’s Earthdata program, fueled by its ranks of satellites. Reporter’s Toolbox says the refurbishment offers treasures for journalists ranging from oceans, groundwater and land surfaces to the biosphere and atmosphere.
Bugs may get a bad rap, but a serious possible global decline in their populations is making clearer what may be lost for ecosystems and human societies. Issue Backgrounder peers beneath the detritus to find what insects do, how we try to kill them and how they survive, and why it’s so hard to pin down the data around their shifting numbers.
"These books and reports explore climate change through historical, scientific, social, and political lenses."
"On Friday, March 20, eight states set an all-time March heat record, and the U.S. national March heat record was set or tied for the third consecutive day"
"A year ago, federal environmental regulators told West Virginia officials that their plan to clear sulfur and smog from skies over the state’s national wilderness areas wasn’t good enough because a dozen coal plants didn’t analyze whether they needed better pollution controls."
"States are fighting a requirement that chargers getting federal funding be made with 100% American components — a standard no manufacturers currently meet."
"Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, will be the opening speaker at a conference next month sponsored by the Heartland Institute, a group that rejects the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change, the organization has announced."
"Trump officials are heralding a potential new coal plant in Alaska, but the project faces mounting opposition and tricky data center politics."
"A Wisconsin project dubbed the “world’s largest manure biogas project” emits nearly 5,000 metric tons of climate-warming methane annually, roughly equivalent to emissions from 30,000 gasoline-powered vehicles, according to state data that adds to concerns about the impacts of large-scale manure digesters."
