When nations converge this fall for the latest round of annual talks on harnessing climate change, they meet at a crucial juncture. Will the increasingly dramatic impacts of global warming, and the prospects of worse, focus their attention enough to bring about progress? In this sweeping analysis, Backgrounder assesses the varied pressures at play at the coming COP28, along with tips for covering it, from up close or afar.
In the aftermath of breaking wildfire news, when environmental journalists are looking to tell the bigger picture story, there are myriad resources that provide data and insight. To help you sort through it all, the latest Reporter’s Toolbox scans eight powerful data portals that provide everything from real-time tracking and satellite data to risk analysis and health impacts.
"Almost 50 years ago, conservationists reintroduced white-tailed eagles to Scotland. It’s gone well. Some say too well."
"A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to take another look at its 2019 decision denying endangered status protection for the eastern hellbender, the nation’s largest aquatic salamander that is found in low numbers in all Chesapeake Bay drainage states."
"Offshore wind projects need more federal funding and planning assistance to ensure they get built, the Democratic governors of six northeastern states told the Biden administration, warning that a cornerstone of the climate change fight could be in jeopardy."
"“The state wasn’t interested,” said an engineer who published a paper on why Derna’s dams, after decades of postponed repairs, might fail under the stress of a powerful storm."
"The Biden administration’s recent endangered species rules are vulnerable to court challenges by both environmentalists and industry groups because the proposals keep some Trump-era provisions while providing safeguards that anger developers."
"Since the Dakota Access Pipeline conflict, 17 states have passed laws aimed at restricting protests, according to the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL). Much of that legislation is aimed specifically at environmental protests, raising the penalties for gatherings that take place on "critical infrastructure" sites like pipelines."
"If President Biden wins a second term, his climate policies would take aim at steel and cement plants, factories and oil refineries — heavily polluting industries that have never before had to rein in their heat-trapping greenhouse gases."
"Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday announced that he will sign the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act, Sen. Scott Wiener’s greenhouse gas emissions disclosure requirement bill."
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