Ecology
11 US States To Challenge EPA Rollback Of 2025 Fuel-Efficiency Standards
The US EPA is pursuing a rollback of earlier plans (implemented under Obama’s presidency) to raise the new-vehicle fuel-efficiency standard to nearly 50 miles per gallon by 2025 (that would be a fleet-level requirement, not model level). In response to…
Crop Fires Can Push Delhi Air Pollution 20 Times Beyond Safe Levels, Study Finds
As of 2016, New Delhi was the 11th most polluted city in the world, which was a positive development compared to 2014, when it had the dubious honor of being number one, according to World Health Organization (WHO) data reported…
Antarctica Lost a London-Sized Area of Underwater Ice in Only 6 Years
Antarctica’s ice sheet is retreating due to warm ocean water circulating beneath its floating edge, researchers from the UK Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling at the University of Leeds have found. The study, published in Nature Geoscience, shows that…
China Joins World Green Building Council Community
China’s Green Building Council has officially partnered with the World Green Building Council in a major boost to international efforts to curb the environmental impact of the building and construction sectors, the two organisations announced yesterday. The partnership was hailed…
EPA Moves to Relax US Vehicle Emission Standards
Scott Pruitt, the head of the US Environment Protection Agency (EPA), has revealed plans to roll back emissions standards for vehicles in a move that could impact the country’s transport emissions for decades to come. In a statement released yesterday…
Half a Degree of Warming Makes a Big Difference to Global Food Security, Study Finds
A study published Monday indicates that it makes a big difference to global food security whether signatories to the Paris agreement are able to keep global temperature to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, or allow it to rise a full two…
Melting Permafrost Emits More Methane Than Scientists Thought
Methane emissions are the source of the greenhouse gas which, after carbon dioxide, probably causes climatologists more sleepless nights than any of the other gases. And now it appears they have quite a lot more to bother them than they…