Sat.Oct 26, 2024 - Fri.Nov 01, 2024

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A Framework for Equitable Climate Infrastructure Investments

Legal Planet

Achieving climate goals requires significant investments in clean energy, transportation, and other climate technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and remove carbon from the atmosphere. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act have resulted in historic levels of public investment to transform existing energy and transportation systems and lay the foundation for emerging climate technologies.

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How to Grow a Forest: It Takes More than Just Planting Trees

Yale E360

In an e360 interview, microbial ecologist Jake M. Robinson, of Australia’s Flinders University, takes a critical look at tree planting campaigns and discusses scientists’ varied approaches to both “planting” and “growing” forests to restore their ecological functions.

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COP29 Must Increase Climate Finance and Stand Up to the Fossil Fuel Industry 

Union of Concerned Scientists

After spending a week in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, I’m now gearing up to attend the 29 th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP29) to the Framework Convention on Climate Change in Baku, Azerbaijan, from November 11-22. I am grateful to have met and learned from people who experience on a daily basis the devastation wrought by fossil fuel production and fossil fuel-driven climate change—and who are now campaigning for a fossil-free Niger Delta.

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UPCYCLING: WHY ARE WE STILL PRODUCING PLASTIC?

Cleannovate

Plastics generate interest because they are easy to make but very difficult to degrade leading to a plastic solid waste catastrophe. Most plastics are a by-product of petroleum refining, which make their presence a guarantee as long as we use fossil fuels. Some might say that we can recycle plastics into other products like building blocks, diesel etc However, is this form of recycling- also called chemical recycling- really sustainable?

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How to Drive Cost Savings, Efficiency Gains, and Sustainability Wins with MES

Speaker: Nikhil Joshi, Founder & President of Snic Solutions

Is your manufacturing operation reaching its efficiency potential? A Manufacturing Execution System (MES) could be the game-changer, helping you reduce waste, cut costs, and lower your carbon footprint. Join Nikhil Joshi, Founder & President of Snic Solutions, in this value-packed webinar as he breaks down how MES can drive operational excellence and sustainability.

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No More ‘House of Horrors’ Thanks to These New Laws

Legal Planet

Halloween is the one time when we welcome ghouls, ghosts, and goblins coming to our homes (and, if your neighborhood is anything like mine, a variety of tiny superheroes). This season, however, the Legislature is dealing with a different kind house of horrors: dangerous chemicals in everyday products that affect millions of Californians’ health. From cancer-causing food dyes to lung-damaging fiberglass in our furniture, California’s State Legislature and the Governor have enacted legislation thi

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Greening Concrete: A Major Emitter Inches Toward Carbon Neutrality

Yale E360

Concrete is the most ubiquitous manmade building material on the planet, but making it generates massive amounts of CO2 pollution. Companies are experimenting with ways to green the process, from slashing the use of limestone to capturing the carbon generated when it’s burned.

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What Ontario stands to lose in Premier Ford’s push for more cars everywhere

Enviromental Defense

What do the proposed Highway 413, the Bradford By-Pass, the 401 Mega-Tunnel, ripping up and banning bike lanes, extending the “temporary” gas tax rebate for the fourth time or canceling license plate renewal fees have in common? The answer of course is cars. Do more highways and less bike lanes actually reduce gridlock? The simple answer is no, more highways don’t make traffic better.

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Reducing Financing Costs for New Transmission in California

Legal Planet

California will need a significant build-out of new high-voltage transmission lines to meet state goals for renewable energy deployment and a decarbonized grid by 2045, which requires quadrupling its current in-state solar and wind capacity. But if this new infrastructure is paid for solely through electricity rates, it could increase them significantly, when they have already increased roughly 50% over the past three years for investor-owned utility customers.

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China Appears On Track to See Its Emissions Fall This Year

Yale E360

China is likely to see its emissions fall this year, despite rising power demand, as it continues to build out renewable power at unparalleled speed, a new analysis finds.

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Climate-Fueled Extreme Weather Events Are Worsening. We Need Action at COP29

Union of Concerned Scientists

2024 will be a year to remember. As a result of fossil fuel-driven climate change, it’s on track to be the warmest year in recorded history. This heat fueled extreme weather events across the world, with most having significant impacts on human life and infrastructure and ecosystems. In the United States, communities are still recovering from Hurricanes Beryl, Helene, and Milton.

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The Key to Sustainable Energy Optimization: A Data-Driven Approach for Manufacturing

Speaker: Kevin Kai Wong, President of Emergent Energy Solutions

In today's industrial landscape, the pursuit of sustainable energy optimization and decarbonization has become paramount. ♻️ Manufacturing corporations across the U.S. are facing the urgent need to align with decarbonization goals while enhancing efficiency and productivity. Unfortunately, the lack of comprehensive energy data poses a significant challenge for manufacturing managers striving to meet their targets. 📊 Join us for a practical webinar hosted by Kevin Kai Wong of Emergent Ene

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We've seen particles that are massless only when moving one direction

New Scientist

Inside a hunk of a material called a semimetal, scientists have uncovered signatures of bizarre particles that sometimes move like they have no mass, but at other times move just like a very massive particle

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Halloween Ideas for a Warming Planet

Legal Planet

Children will be roaming the streets tonight dressed as Superheroes, Princesses, and Evil Villains. But really, these invented figures can’t hold a candle to the real ones in our world. Continuing a longstanding tradition — three years in a row! — here are some possibilities for this year: The Villains Cruela de Coal. This is an easy make-over of the Disney costume.

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Pollution from Gas Stoves Kills 40,000 in Europe Each Year

Yale E360

Pollution seeping from gas stoves kills 40,000 people each year across the U.K. and EU, according to a new report, the latest contribution to a growing body of evidence that stoves pose a threat to human health.

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Will UN Climate Talks in Azerbaijan Deliver on Finance and Emission Reductions? 

Union of Concerned Scientists

The annual UN climate talks, COP29, will kick off on November 11, just days after the US elections and in a year of numerous consequential elections around the world. Coming at the end of what is certain to be the hottest year on record , with millions of people experiencing devastating climate-fueled disasters and global heat-trapping emissions still rising , this COP has a sobering backdrop.

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Implementing D.E.J.I. Strategies in Energy, Environment, and Transportation

Speaker: Antoine M. Thompson, Executive Director of the Greater Washington Region Clean Cities Coalition

Diversity, Equity, Justice, and Inclusion (DEJI) policies, programs, and initiatives are critically important as we move forward with public and private sector climate and sustainability goals and plans. Underserved and socially, economically, and racially disadvantaged communities bear the burden of pollution, higher energy costs, limited resources, and limited investments in the clean energy and transportation sectors.

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New Report Shows How Human-Caused Warming Intensified the 10 Deadliest Climate Disasters Since 2004

Inside Climate News

A decade of attribution research shows that “burning fossil fuels causes climate change and climate change causes death and destruction.” By Bob Berwyn The 10 deadliest weather disasters since 2004, including three tropical cyclones, four heatwaves, two floods and a drought, killed at least 570,000 people, and a new study shows how all of them were intensified by global warming, “caused by the burning of oil, gas and coal and deforestation.

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Do Spiders Dream Like Humans Do?

Scientific American

During the pandemic, researcher Daniela Rößler couldn't go out, so she started looking around her for her next research project. Then she found a really big one, and it had been right in front of her all along.

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Satellite Imagery Shows Breadth of Flooding in Spain

Yale E360

Record rainfall flooded parts of Spain this week, killing more than 150 people in the nation's deadliest natural disaster in decades. New satellite imagery from NASA and the European Space Agency shows the extent of flooding around the coastal region of Valencia.

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When Danger Season Collides with the Affordable Housing Shortage

Union of Concerned Scientists

The housing affordability crisis in the United States is particularly hard for renters. Nearly half of American renters —and over 56% of Black renter households—spend more than 30% of their income in rent. And throughout the country, our longstanding housing shortage and affordability crisis are coming into closer and closer contact with the climate crisis.

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Shaping a Resilient Future: Climate Impact on Vulnerable Populations

Speaker: Laurie Schoeman Director, Climate & Sustainability, Capital

As households and communities across the nation face challenges such as hurricanes, wildfires, drought, extreme heat and cold, and thawing permafrost and flooding, we are increasingly searching for ways to mitigate and prevent climate impacts. During this event, national climate and housing expert Laurie Schoeman will discuss topics including: The two paths for climate action: decarbonization and adaptation.

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Quantum batteries could discharge more power than they store

New Scientist

Simulations suggest that when a quantum battery shares a quantum state with the device it is powering, the device can gain more charge than was stored in the battery to begin with

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One in Three Tree Species Is at Risk of Extinction

Scientific American

A review of 47,282 tree species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature found that more than one third are at risk of extinction

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New Reports Ahead of COP29 Show The World Is Spinning Its Wheels on Climate Action

Inside Climate News

The currently projected warming of about 3 degrees Celsius is “too hot to handle,” says Ko Barrett, a NOAA climate advisor and deputy secretary general of the World Meteorological Organization. By Bob Berwyn A trio of reports released ahead of next month’s COP29 climate conference in Azerbaijan all show that the existing national policies to cut greenhouse gas emissions under the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement will heat the planet by close to 3 degrees Celsius by 2100, as warming has accelerated

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Environmental Groups File Notice Of Intent To Sue The Shell Petrochemical Plant In Beaver County For Air Pollution Violations: Similar Action In 2023 Resulted In $10 Million Settlement

PA Environment Daily

On October 23, 2024, the Clean Air Council and the Environment Integrity Project filed a notice of intent to sue the Shell Petrochemical Plant in Beaver County for emitting particulate matter (PM 2.5) and nitrogen oxides in violation of the federal Clean Air Act, the state Air Pollution Control Act and the plant's permit. "As of the date of this letter, neither EPA nor DEP have commenced a civil action in federal or state court, nor has DEP initiated litigation before the Pennsylvania Environmen

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Sustainability at Retail

Sustainability impacts every nation, company, and person around the world. So much so that, in 2015, the United Nations (UN) issued a call for action by all countries to work toward sustainable development. In response to this and as part of a global Sustainability at Retail initiative, Shop! worked collaboratively with its global affiliates to address these critical issues in this white paper.

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Viruses may help store vast amounts of carbon in soil

New Scientist

Soil is full of an uncountable number of viruses, and scientists are only beginning to understand just how substantial their role in the carbon cycle may be

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Why Are Close Elections So Common?

Scientific American

When voters decide between two alternatives, as is effectively the case in the U.S. presidential election, it usually comes down to a neck-and-neck race.

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Washington, D.C., Is about to Get Busy: What Will Happen during the 76-Day Sprint from Election Day to Inauguration Day

Nanotech

There is much that happens in Washington, D.C., and in the states in the 76 days between Election Day (November 5, 2024) and Inauguration Day (January 20, 2025). My last post identified some of the unfinished business the 118th Congress needs to address (e.g., funding the government beyond December 20, 2024, passing the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), and providing funding for disaster relief) before it adjourns sine die.

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DEP Invites Comments On New Air Pollution Permit For Revolution Natural Gas Cryogenic Processing Plant In Washington County; Plant Suffered Major Explosion, Fire In 2022

PA Environment Daily

The Department of Environmental Protection invites comments on a new State Only Minor Air Quality Operating Permit for the continued operation of the ETC Northeast Pipeline LLC [Energy Transfer] Revolution Natural Gas Cryogenic Processing Plant in Salem Township, Washington County. ( PA Bulletin, page 7239 ) The facility has previously been permitted under a GP-5 and GP-1 Air Quality General Permits.

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Chimpanzees will never randomly type the complete works of Shakespeare

New Scientist

The Infinite Monkey Theorem states that illiterate primates could write great literature with enough time, but the amount of time needed is much longer than the lifespan of the universe

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An Enormous Meteorite, Bird Flu in Washington State and a Troubling Scurvy Case Study

Scientific American

We cover a 3.26-billion-year-old meteorite impact, the spread of bird flu and a scurvy case study that serves as a cautionary tale in this week’s news roundup.

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Community Supported Agriculture: Introduction

National Law Center

If you are a consumer interested in connecting with and financially supporting farmers in your local community, one option is Community. The post Community Supported Agriculture: Introduction appeared first on National Agricultural Law Center.

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COP16 Dispatch: Week 1 Science Policy Forum from ESA

ESA

By Astrid Caldas, Jeannine Cavender, and Stephanie Hampton. Over twenty ESA members are attending COP16 in Cali, Colombia as delegates badged by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity From left to right: Astrid Caldas, Kofi Akamani, Jeannine Cavender, Leisa Perch, Stephanie Hampton, and James Reed at the COP16 panel on October 26, 2024. Secretariat with official observer status.

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Data centres may soon burn as much extra gas as California uses daily

New Scientist

In support of their AI ambitions, tech companies are rapidly expanding US data centres, and this growth is on track to significantly increase US gas demand by 2030

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Catastrophic Floods in Spain Kill at Least 95 People

Scientific American

Torrential rain, made worse by climate change, has lashed Spain, with Valencia bearing the brunt of the floodwaters