Tag Archive for: Climate Change

Opinion: California Needs Clean, Healthy and Safe Local Energy Systems – Microgrids

/in , , /by /CalMattersby Steve Weissman and Barry Vesser

With climate change-amplified wildfires and power shut-offs becoming commonplace, all Californians are worried about how to stay safe and keep the lights on. Thousands have already purchased dirty, dangerous and noisy fossil fuel generators that exacerbate air pollution and climate change.

New research suggests that polluted air is linked to higher COVID-19 death rates. And coronavirus is expected to be with us through the 2020 fire season. Is it a good idea to add tons of dangerous particulate matter to the air we breathe during a pandemic that attacks the respiratory system? Of course not.

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Cash Flows: How Investors Are Banking On the West’s Water Scarcity

/in , , /by /KUNC Coloradoby Aspen Journalism

In the arid West, scarce water supplies are growing scarcer. Climate change is shrinking snowpack in river basins throughout the region, leaving the future water supplies for cities, industries and farmers uncertain.

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In a Dry Year, Valley Water Sales Get an Extra Dose of Scrutiny

/in , , /by /The Sun (Central Valley)by Alex Tavlian

As California navigates a critically dry water year, many business-as-usual elements are getting a second look. One such transaction is a proposed water sale by the Merced Irrigation District.

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Extreme Heat Expected Again In County Deserts, Cooling Arrives On Friday

/in , , /by /KPBS San Diegoby City News Service

The mercury could soar to 112 again Thursday in the San Diego County deserts, but cooler weather will arrive on Friday, according to the National Weather Service. The high pressure that has caused sweltering conditions since Tuesday will be replaced by a low-pressure system, which will also bring a slight chance of rain Friday night through Saturday morning everywhere except the deserts, forecasters said.

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House Democrats to Unveil Green Infrastructure Bill This Week

/in , , /by /E&E Newsby Maxine Joselow and Geof Koss

House Democrats plan to release a massive green infrastructure package this week, an aide confirmed to E&E News, ending months of anticipation among transportation and infrastructure advocates.

The long-awaited package, which would include reauthorization of expiring surface transportation provisions, is expected to resemble a framework unveiled in January (Greenwire, Jan. 29).

“Text of the surface bill will be released in the coming days,” a House Democratic aide said in an email to E&E News yesterday. “Like the framework House Democrats released earlier this year, it’s expected a number of items will address climate change and safety, which are focal points.”

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New Study Shows Global Warming Intensifying Extreme Rainstorms Over North America

/in , , /by /InsideClimate Newsby Bob Berwyn

New research showing how global warming intensifies extreme rainfall at the regional level could help communities better prepare for storms that in the decades ahead threaten to swamp cities and farms.

The likelihood of intense storms is rising rapidly in North America, and the study, published Monday in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, projects big increases in such deluges.

“The longer you have the warming, the stronger the signal gets, and the more you can separate it from random natural variability,” said co-author Megan Kirchmeier-Young, a climate scientist with Environment Canada.

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Australia’s Water Is Vanishing

/in , , /by /Bloomberg Greenby Matthew Campbell

The early afternoon sun was pounding the parched soil, and Gus Whyte was pulling on his dust-caked cowboy boots to take me for a drive. We’d just finished lunch—cured ham, a loaf of bread I’d bought on the trip up, chutney pickled by Whyte’s wife, Kelly—at his house in Anabranch South, which isn’t a town but rather a fuzzy cartographic notion in the far west of New South Wales, a seven-hour drive from Melbourne and half as far again from Sydney.

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U.S. EPA Moves to Curb State Powers to Deny Permits for Energy Projects

/in , , /by /Reutersby Valerie Volcovici

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler signed on Monday a rule limiting state powers to block energy infrastructure projects, setting up a fight with some Democratic governors who say Washington is stripping their ability to protect their states’ interests and combat climate change.

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Sunniest Spring on Record Raises U.K. Drought Risk

/in , /by /Bloomberg Greenby Rachel Morison and Jess Shankleman

The U.K. had its driest May in 124 years and sunniest spring on record, increasing the threat of a summer drought and compounding conditions that have been made worse by climate change.

The country had 9.6 millimeters of rain in May, which is just 16% of the average for the month and the least since 1896, according to early data by the U.K.’s Meteorological Office. It also recorded 573 hours of sunshine during Spring, which is due to end May 31. That makes it the sunniest spring since records began in 1929.

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Trump’s Fossil Fuel Agenda Gets Pushback from Federal Judges

/in , /by /AP Newsby Matthew Brown

Federal courts have delivered a string of rebukes to the Trump administration over what they found were failures to protect the environment and address climate change as it promotes fossil fuel interests and the extraction of natural resources from public lands.

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