Tree Planting Is Booming. Here’s How That Could Help, or Harm, the Planet
"Reforestation can fight climate change, uplift communities and restore biodiversity. When done badly, though, it can speed extinctions and make nature less resilient."
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"Reforestation can fight climate change, uplift communities and restore biodiversity. When done badly, though, it can speed extinctions and make nature less resilient."
"As the world reels from spikes in oil and gas prices, the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has laid bare a dilemma: Nations remain extraordinarily dependent on fossil fuels and are struggling to shore up supplies precisely at a moment when scientists say the world must slash its use of oil, gas and coal to avert irrevocable damage to the planet."
"One of the chief economic fears of Europeans otherwise out of harm’s way from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is that natural gas supplies could be cut off to large sections of the continent. The conflict lurched in that direction yesterday when Russian troops seized two pipeline compressor stations along a major export pipeline that runs through Ukraine."
"Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan on Thursday put the U.S. power sector on notice, outlining how the Biden administration plans to cut air and water pollution spewing from the nation’s electricity plants."
"Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) on Wednesday announced that he and the state's General Assembly would work to temporarily halt state gas taxes, citing drastically rising fuel prices."
"The world has a “once in a lifetime” chance to protect the high seas from exploitation, warned scientists and environmentalists, as negotiators meet at the UN headquarters in New York this week to hammer out a new treaty on the oceans."
"From the challenge of feeding millions of refugees to rising food prices and disrupted wheat crops, the war could have an outsized impact on the food system."
"In two dozen climate liability cases, companies are arguing that their public statements about climate change are not ‘deceptive’ so much as persuasive – and protected free speech".
"The Securities and Exchange Commission is set to vote on a groundbreaking rule later this month that for the first time would require public companies to disclose the risks they face from climate change."
"Authorities are investigating a natural gas leak detected last week at a ConocoPhillips Alaska oil drill site on Alaska’s North Slope, officials said."
"In 1883, the public was transfixed by Yellowstone National Park, and not in a good way. This 2-million-acre natural treasure — mostly in Wyoming but with some land in Montana and Idaho — was being despoiled by commercial interests through the slaughter of wild animals, unrestricted logging and vandalism of hot springs."
"California is back in the driver’s seat as it steers the nation toward a future of cleaner cars and light trucks. The Biden administration on Wednesday reinstated the state’s authority to set motor vehicle pollution standards stricter than the federal government’s."
"President Biden vowed yesterday to avoid repeating the “mistake” of Agent Orange in determining when rare diseases suffered by veterans are tied to environmental exposures during military service, throwing his support behind expansive legislation aimed at providing more benefits to veterans suffering health problems linked to burn pits."
"As climate change fuels more severe wildfires that burn through larger swaths of forestland and homes each year, firefighters are facing increasingly unpredictable, catastrophic blazes, leading many to speak out about suicide among their ranks, an occupational hazard they once kept to themselves."
"About half of U.S. adults alive today were exposed to harmful levels of lead as children from the burning of leaded gasoline, according to a new study, which estimates that lead contamination has lowered Americans’ IQ scores by more than two points on average."