Climate Change

The Endhó Dam: One of the World’s Least Known Sacrifice Zones

It’s well past time to end sacrifice zones, including the area that has been treated as “Mexico’s toilet bowl” for decades.

Last week, about halfway down the New York Times’ Monday morning newsletter, there was a video titled “Living Next to Mexico’s Toxic Reservoir.”  I watched it, appalled not only by the dangerous conditions described in the video and accompanying article, but also by the fact that I had never heard of this enormous environmental justice …

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Who Cares About Affordability and Gas Prices? Not DOT

The Trump administration’s new CAFE standards actually make cars LESS fuel efficient, defy Congressional intent, and increase air and climate pollution.

The Trump Administration today issued new fuel economy standards that require average fuel economy that will be LOWER by 2031 than what Congress mandated for 2020. While consumers are paying an average of $4.49 a gallon of gas, the Department of Transportation is setting standards that require only 34.9 miles per gallon (MPG) by 2031 …

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By Our Powers Combined, We Are Captain Planet

A large group of people pose for a photo in front of a screen displaying GCF task force Technical Exchange with a toucan logo and various national flags on the table in front of them.

Facing climate disasters, the GCF Task Force is putting the network theory of governance into practice.

I don’t need to tell you that the last several months have seen an increasing number of climate-related disasters, including severe heatwaves throughout Europe and droughts that are impacting water supply and reducing ship passages through the Panama Canal. This year’s super El Niño has exacerbated the ongoing fires across Indonesian Borneo. It is projected …

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The Overlooked Fast Track for Cutting Planetary Warming

A wildfire burns through a forested hillside at dusk, with orange flames and thick smoke rising against a dark mountain silhouette and glowing, hazy sky.

Guest contributors V. Ram Ramanathan, Durwood Zaelke, and Marcelo Suárez-Orozco write that we can cut the rate of warming by 30% to 50% within 15 years. “And we must.”

This guest post is authored by V. Ram Ramanathan, Durwood Zaelke, and Marcelo Suárez-Orozco and is informed by a presentation that Ramanathan is set to give at the Vatican on September 26. Among the three of us, we have 15 decades of high-level experience in climate science, policies and actions, and we have never been …

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Ya Gotta Read The Syllabus!!

A man in sunglasses with text overlaid: WHAT IF I TOLD YOU IT IS IN THE SYLLABUS. The image mimics a popular meme format from The Matrix movie.

A new study reveals the pervasiveness of academic groupthink — with warnings for environmental scholars

One of the most frustrating aspects about the debate over the degree to which “Wokeness” (never defined) has taken over the Academy (or not) is that it relies almost exclusively on anecdotes. Someone says or writes something ridiculous; someone else is fired for saying or writing something ridiculous (or often not ridiculous). It is very …

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The Polluter-Pays Principle and Its Enemies

A corner of the Supreme Court building being hit by afternoon sun

An essay by Alejandro Camacho and Robert L. Glicksman on corporate fraud, weaponizing preemption, and the survival of climate accountability.

This post by Alejandro Camacho and Robert L. Glicksman is an excerpt from an article first published in the University of Chicago Law Review. On the morning of December 30, 2021, the Marshall Fire ignited in Boulder County, Colorado. Driven by hurricane-force winds and fueled by vegetation desiccated by years of drought, it burned more than six …

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Good News from Turkmenistan! Bad News from the UN

Three news articles report on climate issues: Nepal flood devastation, Turkmenistan methane leaks, and a UN report on limiting overshoot, shown as overlapping magazine covers with relevant images and headlines.

The Drain is a roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times — this week, like most weeks. The UN Environment Programme’s new report, “Limiting Overshoot: Navigating exceedance of 1.5°C and pathways toward return” was simultaneously big news and yet met with stony silence in many quarters of the media. The report narrates what it …

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Word on The Street

A Wall Street sign is in focus with a blurred American flag in the background. A Broad Street sign is partially visible below the Wall Street sign.

The Wall Street Journal’s news coverage of EVs is surprisingly positive.

You might expect the Wall Street Journal to take a dim view of electric vehicles, given the paper’s conservative slant. You’d be wrong. The Journal’s news coverage, which is less ideological than the opinion page, tells us something important. In a newspaper designed for businesspeople, electric vehicles are taken very seriously. That’s good news for the industry.

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Four Tight House Races in California

A round pin with red stars and stripes as well as white stars over a blue background reads "ELECTION 2026"

None of these is a true toss-up, but they’re still very much in contention.

I can only see four California congressional districts where Republicans seems to have any reasonable chance (apart from those where Republicans have been packed as part of the gerrymander).  They all lean at least slightly Democratic, but the Democrats are far from having these races locked down. I’ll start with the race that seems most in question and move to others that are tougher challenges for Republicans.

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The Logical Next Step After Renaming Lake Ontario

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How does the “National Oceanic and Manospheric Agency” sound?

Trump: The air resource is a tremendous asset to the United States and part of our Nation’s heritage The air has long been an integral asset to American exploration, settlement, commerce, and defense. American men pioneered air travel, starting with the Wright Brothers. Moreover, we have exploited the air’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide more than any other nation on earth. Under my Administration, the Secretary of Defense has taken steps to ensure the world’s highest testosterone levels for  our great Air Force. I claim the manosphere for America.

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