Most recent 40 articles: New York Times - Climate Section
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How Elon Musk Became 'Kind of Pro-China’ - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 27) |
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Mar 27 · Mr. Musk helped create China’s electric vehicle industry. But he is now facing challenges there as well as scrutiny in the West over his reliance on the country. When Elon Musk first set up Tesla’s factory in China, he appeared to have the upper hand. He gained access to top leaders and secured policy changes that benefited Tesla. He also got workers accustomed to long hours and fewer protections, after clashing with U.S. regulators over labor conditions at his California plant. The Shanghai factory helped make Tesla the most valuable car company in the world and Mr. Musk ultrarich. But Tesla is now struggling. Mr. Musk helped create his competition, Chinese E.V. ... | By Mara Hvistendahl Read more ... |
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They Grow Your Berries and Peaches, but Often Lack One Item: Insurance - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 27) |
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Mar 27 · Farmers of fruits and vegetables say coverage has become unavailable or unaffordable as drought and floods increasingly threaten their crops. Farmers who grow fresh fruits and vegetables are often finding crop insurance prohibitively expensive - or even unavailable - as climate change escalates the likelihood of drought and floods capable of decimating harvests. Their predicament has left some small farmers questioning their future on the land. Efforts to increase the availability and affordability of crop insurance are being considered in Congress as part of the next farm bill, but divisions between the interests of big and small farmers loom over the ... | By Patrick Cooley Read more ... |
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A New Law Would Remove Many Architectural Protections in Miami Beach - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 26) |
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Mar 26 · Lawmakers say preservationists held too much power over decisions on whether buildings should be demolished and what should be allowed to replace them. The oceanfront Eden Roc Hotel is an icon of Miami Modernist architecture, a style that epitomized the postwar glamour and grandeur of Miami Beach. Two turquoise panels wrap the white facade. The oval canister perched atop the building resembles a cruise ship’s funnel. Crooners like Frank Sinatra, Harry Belafonte, and Sammy Davis, Jr., stayed and played there. But a new Florida law could make it easier for hotels like the Eden Roc and other architectural icons along Miami Beach’s coastline to be demolished. The ... | By Julia Echikson Read more ... |
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In France, the Future Is Arriving on a Barge - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 26) |
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Mar 26 · The Seine is becoming a test case for a European plan to cut carbon emissions by turning rivers into the new highways. A barge filled with items for Franprix supermarkets in Paris made its way along the Seine, not far from the Eiffel Tower.Credit... Photographs and Video by James Hill Reported and photographed along the Seine, between Le Havre and Paris. As pale morning light flickered across the Seine, Capt. Freddy Badar steered his hulking river barge, Le Bosphore, past picturesque Normandy villages and snow-fringed woodlands, setting a course for Paris. Onboard were containers packed with furniture, electronics and clothing loaded the night before ... | By Liz Alderman Read more ... |
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In France, the Future Is Arriving on a Barge - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 26) |
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Mar 26 · The Seine is becoming a test case for a European plan to cut carbon emissions by turning rivers into the new highways. A barge filled with items for Franprix supermarkets in Paris made its way along the Seine, not far from the Eiffel Tower.Credit... Photographs and Video by James Hill Reported and photographed along the Seine, between Le Havre and Paris. As pale morning light flickered across the Seine, Capt. Freddy Badar steered his hulking river barge, Le Bosphore, past picturesque Normandy villages and snow-fringed woodlands, setting a course for Paris. Onboard were containers packed with furniture, electronics and clothing loaded the night before ... | By Liz Alderman Read more ... |
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Vacation Rentals: How to Shrink Your Carbon Footprint - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 26) |
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Mar 26 · Elaine Glusac is the Frugal Traveler columnist, focusing on budget-friendly tips and journeys. Travelers choosing to stay in a vacation home instead of a hotel may have to spend more time searching for sustainable lodgings, but ultimately they will have more control over their environmental impact. The following are steps short-term renters can take to shrink their carbon footprint. The nonprofit Sustonica validates short-term rentals based on sustainability standards, including conserving water and minimizing waste. But it does not act as a search engine. Instead, travelers will find its logo on certified listings on platforms like Airbnb and Booking.com. Airbnb’s ... | By Elaine Glusac Read more ... |
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Why Palm Oil Is Still a Big Problem - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 26) |
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Mar 26 · Subscriber-only Newsletter Climate Forward The ubiquitous ingredient contributes to the loss of tropical forests. Palm oil - the ubiquitous ingredient for all things spreadable, from toothpaste to ice cream - is now the commodity consumed by Americans that contributes most to the loss of tropical forests. That’s the conclusion of a new analysis by Global Witness, an environmental watchdog organization, and Trase, a nonprofit that analyzes supply chains. Cattle products, especially from Brazil and Australia, are a close second. Colombian coffee had a big footprint, too. I want to focus on palm oil today because we’ve known about this problem for a long ... | By Manuela Andreoni Read more ... |
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Energy Dept. Awards $6 Billion for Green Steel, Cement and Even Macaroni Factories - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 25) |
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Mar 25 · Industries produce 25 percent of America’s planet-warming emissions but so far have proved very hard to clean up. The Biden administration is trying. Reporting from Washington The Biden administration plans to spend up to $6 billion on new technologies to cut carbon dioxide emissions from heavy industries like steel, cement, chemicals and aluminum, which are all enormous contributors to global warming but which have so far been incredibly difficult to clean up. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said Monday that her agency would partially fund 33 different projects in 20 states to test methods for curbing emissions from a wide variety of factories and industrial ... | By Brad Plumer Read more ... |
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Germany’s Solar Panel Industry, Once a Leader, Is Getting Squeezed - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 25) |
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Mar 25 · Domestic manufacturers are caught between China’s low prices and U.S. protectionist policies, even as demand increases. Reporting from Berlin Before China came to dominate the solar panel industry, Germany led the way. It was the world’s largest producer of solar panels, with several start-ups clustered in the former East Germany, until about a decade ago when China ramped up production and undercut just about everyone on price. Now as Germany and the rest of Europe try to reach ambitious goals to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the demand for solar panels has only increased. Some of the last remaining manufacturers in Germany’s solar industry are not ready to ... | By Melissa Eddy Read more ... |
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A New York Bill Seeks to Reduce Natural Gas Use. Here’s What to Know. - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 23) |
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Mar 23 · Legislators and activists are rallying to squeeze the NY HEAT Act into the state budget by the April 1 deadline. Reporting from Albany, N.Y. A bill gaining traction in Albany aims to break New Yorkers’ reliance on natural gas in hopes that they will seek out greener alternatives. Efforts to shoehorn the NY HEAT Act into a packed state budget are underway, with supporters contending that swift action is necessary because of the pressures of climate change and opponents say the proposed law should be set aside and more carefully considered. The deadline to finalize the budget is April 1. But what does the bill propose, exactly? Here’s what to know. What ... | By Hilary Howard Read more ... |
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It’s a Golden Age for Shipwreck Discoveries. Why? - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 23) |
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Mar 23 · More lost shipwrecks are being found because of new technology, climate change and more vessels scanning the ocean floor for science or commerce. Some were fabled vessels that have fascinated people for generations, like Endurance, Ernest Shackleton’s ship that sank in the Antarctic in 1915. Some were common workhorses that faded into the depths, like the Ironton, a barge that was carrying 1,000 tons of grain when it sank in Lake Huron in 1894. No matter their place in history, more shipwrecks are being found these days than ever before, according to those who work in the rarefied world of deep-sea exploration. “More are being found, and I also think more people ... | By Michael Levenson Read more ... |
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America Is on Fire, Says One Climate Writer. Should You Flee? - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 22) |
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Mar 22 · In “On the Move,” Abrahm Lustgarten predicts a massive demographic shift in response to an increasingly unlivable world. Jon Gertner’s most recent book is “The Ice at the End of the World: An Epic Journey Into Greenland’s Buried Past and Our Perilous Future.” ON THE MOVE: The Overheating Earth and the Uprooting of America, by Abrahm Lustgarten It’s happening already, of course. You can see it in the blazes in California, incinerating homes and forcing residents to escape the terror of wildfires. You can glimpse it in Arizona, where droughts have pushed farmers to give up on growing crops and sell their fields to developers. On the coasts, tides are rising, ... | By Jon Gertner Read more ... |
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How Toyota, a Laggard on Electric Cars, Got Its Fight Back - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 22) |
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Mar 22 · The auto giant lobbied hard against tougher pollution rules. This week, the E.P.A.’s new rules proved favorable to hybrid technology, an area that Toyota dominates. The breakfast at Toyota’s annual dealership gathering in Las Vegas last fall was an exclusive, invite-only affair, where attendees were told to cover their cellphone cameras with red stickers. Speaking was Stephen Ciccone, Toyota’s top lobbyist. He said the industry was facing an existential crisis - not because of the economy or fuel prices, but because of stronger tailpipe pollution limits being proposed in the United States. The rules were “bad for the country, bad for the consumer, and bad for the auto ... | By Hiroko Tabuchi Read more ... |
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Utility-Caused Wildfires Are Becoming a National Problem - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 22) |
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Mar 22 · Climate change is raising the risk of blazes that are started by power lines and other utility equipment in many parts of the U.S. besides California. Reporting from Otis and Portland in Oregon After a utility pole fell and ignited a wildfire, Frank King and his family raced to escape as electrical transformers exploded around their homes near Oregon’s coast. A bright red glow was visible in the rearview mirror for miles. The fire three and a half years ago destroyed 300 homes in Otis, Ore., including the one that Mr. King, a 101-year-old veteran of World War II, had lived in for almost three decades. “A lot of the things that reminded me of the good things ... | By Ivan Penn Read more ... |
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Climate Change Made an Early Heat Wave in West Africa 10 Times as Likely - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 21) |
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Mar 21 · Temperatures in the region rose above 40 degrees Celsius in February, with humidity pushing the heat index even higher. A remarkably early, record-breaking heat wave hit the southern part of West Africa in mid-February. Climate change made this extreme heat 10 times as likely, according to a new analysis by an international team of scientists. It also pushed the heat index about four degrees Celsius higher than it would have been without the extra greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels. Officials saw the unusual temperatures coming, and national weather agencies in Ghana and Nigeria issued warnings to the public. The Africa Cup of Nations soccer ... | By Delger Erdenesanaa Read more ... |
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Inside the Republican Attacks on Electric Vehicles - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 21) |
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Mar 21 · President Biden’s new rule cutting emissions from vehicle tailpipes has deepened a partisan battle over automotive technology. Credit...Pete Kiehart for The New York Times Coral Davenport and Lisa Friedman have covered climate change policy and politics and Jack Ewing has covered the automobile industry for nearly two decades. The electric vehicle, a breakthrough achievement in automotive technology, has driven into this year’s presidential election, inflaming partisan fights that have come to define much of American culture. One reason is that President Biden has made electric vehicles central to his strategy to combat climate change. This week, his ... | By Coral Davenport, Lisa Friedman and Jack Ewing Read more ... |
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The Roadblocks to Biden’s Electric Vehicles Plan - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 21) |
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Mar 21 · Subscriber-only Newsletter Climate Forward E.V.s have become part of the political culture wars The Biden administration rolled out new rules on Wednesday designed to thrust the United States - the greatest car culture the world has ever known - into the era of electric vehicles. With new tailpipe pollution limits from the Environmental Protection Agency, automakers will effectively be forced to make a majority of new passenger cars and light trucks sold in the United States all-electric or hybrids by 2032. To meet the new standards, 56 percent of new cars sold by 2032 would be zero-emissions and another 16 percent would be hybrid, according to the E.P.A.’s ... | By David Gelles Read more ... |
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Biden Administration Announces Rule Aimed at Expanding Electric Vehicles - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 20) |
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Mar 20 · The regulation would require automakers to sell more electric vehicles and hybrids by gradually tightening limits on tailpipe pollution. Coral Davenport has been covering the federal government’s efforts to fight climate change by regulating auto pollution since 2009. The Biden administration on Wednesday issued one of the most significant climate regulations in the nation’s history, a rule designed to ensure that the majority of new passenger cars and light trucks sold in the United States are all-electric or hybrids by 2032. Nearly three years in the making, the new tailpipe pollution limits from the Environmental Protection Agency would transform the American ... | By Coral Davenport Read more ... |
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Can Climate Cafes Help Ease the Anxiety of Planetary Crisis? - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 20) |
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Mar 20 · The groups, which allow people to talk through their emotions around environmental change, have sprung up across the country, including for therapists. Lola Fadulu reported from New York, and Emily Schmall from Chicago. In a small room in Lower Manhattan, a group of eight New Yorkers sat in a circle sharing kombucha and their climate fears against the background of pattering rain and wailing sirens. In Champaign, Ill., a psychotherapist facilitating a meeting for other therapists held up a branch of goldenrod, asking the half-dozen participants online to consider their connection to nature. And in Kansas City, Mo., a nonprofit that runs a weekly discussion on ... | By Lola Fadulu and Emily Schmall Read more ... |
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Extreme Heat Wave Pushes South Sudan to Close Schools - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 20) |
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Mar 20 · Climate change already worsened floods and droughts in the young nation. Now, soaring temperatures are forecast for two weeks. Reporting from Nairobi, Kenya South Sudan has long been hit by climate change-exacerbated disasters like recurring droughts and floods. Now, extreme heat is forcing the world’s youngest nation to close its schools. The authorities have ordered schools across the country shuttered since Monday because of a wave of excessive heat that is expected to last at least two weeks. Temperatures are forecast to reach 113 degrees Fahrenheit, far above the 90-degree highs typically experienced in the dry season from December to March. Officials ... | By Abdi Latif Dahir Read more ... |
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New Rules Will Still Push Carmakers to Sell More Electric Cars - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 20) |
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Mar 20 · New Biden administration auto rules are less forceful than an earlier proposal but will still add to market pressure for cheaper electric vehicles. Even if clean air rules announced on Wednesday in Washington are less forceful than some environmentalists would have liked, they should still have a powerful effect on the kinds of cars appearing in showrooms over the next several years, experts said. The rules will amplify market forces pushing the industry toward battery power, giving automakers a strong incentive to sell a broader, more affordable variety of electric cars - not just the expensive sport utility vehicles that have dominated sales so far. “It probably ... | By Jack Ewing Read more ... |
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What to Know About the Clean Auto Rule: It’s Not a Ban on Gas Cars - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 20) |
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Mar 20 · The measure aims to encourage sales of electric vehicles and hybrids. Here’s how it works. The Biden administration’s new regulation limiting tailpipe emissions from cars and light trucks would transform the American automobile market, charting a course away from the internal combustion engine and toward a future of electric cars and hybrids. Here’s what to know about the measure. It’s a big deal in the fight against climate change In terms of lowering the emissions that are heating the planet, this regulation does more than any other climate rule issued by the federal government and more than any measure planned in the remainder of Mr. Biden’s first ... | By Coral Davenport Read more ... |
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Barren Fields and Empty Stomachs: Afghanistan’s Long, Punishing Drought - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 19) |
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Mar 19 · In a country especially vulnerable to climate change, a drought has displaced entire villages and left millions of children malnourished. The countryside in Samangan Province in north-central Afghanistan, where water for agriculture, and even drinking, is scarce.Credit... Text by Lynsey Addario and Victoria Kim They awake in the mornings to find another family has left. Half of one village, the entirety of the next have departed in the years since the water dried up - in search of jobs, of food, of any means of survival. Those who remain pick apart the abandoned homes and burn the bits for firewood. They speak of the lushness that once blessed this corner of ... | By The New York Times Read more ... |
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Biden’s Climate Law Has Created a Growing Market for Green Tax Credits - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 19) |
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Mar 19 · New Treasury Department data shows companies have registered 45,500 projects for possible sale on a new tax-credit marketplace. Jim Tankersley covers economic policy from the White House. The climate law that President Biden signed in 2022 has created a large and growing market for companies to buy and sell clean-energy tax credits, new Treasury Department data suggests, creating opportunities for start-ups to raise money for projects like wind farms and solar panel installations. The market also provides new opportunities for large companies and financial firms to make money. Treasury officials will report on Tuesday that more than 500 companies have ... | By Jim Tankersley Read more ... |
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Biden’s Climate Law Has Created a Growing Market for Green Tax Credits - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 19) |
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Mar 19 · New Treasury Department data shows companies have registered 45,500 projects for possible sale on a new tax-credit marketplace. Jim Tankersley covers economic policy from the White House. The climate law that President Biden signed in 2022 has created a large and growing market for companies to buy and sell clean-energy tax credits, new Treasury Department data suggests, creating opportunities for start-ups to raise money for projects like wind farms and solar panel installations. The market also provides new opportunities for large companies and financial firms to make money. Treasury officials reported on Tuesday that more than 500 companies had registered ... | By Jim Tankersley Read more ... |
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Making the Case for Capitalism - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 19) |
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Mar 19 · Subscriber-only Newsletter Climate Forward A new book argues that short-term profit incentives can deliver long-term changes to benefit the climate. Combating the climate crisis is the ultimate long-term challenge. Can society rapidly overhaul energy production, transportation, heavy industry, agriculture and more in order to prevent truly catastrophic global warming? The jury is still out, and time is running short. And there are very real questions whether such a quest can succeed within the constraints of an economic system that is famously focused on short-term incentives. The stock market, corporate governance and executive compensation all ... | By David Gelles Read more ... |
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Oil Executives, Meeting in Texas, Cast Doubts on 'Fantasy’ Energy Transition - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 19) |
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Mar 19 · The comments by a Saudi executive raised questions regarding whose predictions about the future of oil and gas are more likely to be true. Max Bearak reported from New York and Brad Plumer from the energy-industry conference in Houston. To some, it felt like the oil executive blurted the quiet part out loud. “We should abandon the fantasy of phasing out oil and gas,” said Amin Nasser, head of what is, by far, the world’s biggest oil producer, Saudi Aramco. The energy transition was “visibly failing,” he added, saying that predictions of impending peak oil and gas demand were flatly wrong. The room, full of representatives of the fossil-fuel industry at a ... | By Max Bearak and Brad Plumer Read more ... |
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One Thing Most Countries Have in Common: Unsafe Air - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 19) |
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Mar 19 · Only 10 countries and territories out of 134 achieved the World Health Organization’s standards for a pervasive form of air pollution last year, according to air quality data compiled by IQAir, a Swiss company. The pollution studied is called fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, because it refers to solid particles less than 2.5 micrometers in size: small enough to enter the bloodstream. PM2.5 is the deadliest form of air pollution, leading to millions of premature deaths each year. “Air pollution and climate change both have the same culprit, which is fossil fuels,” said Glory Dolphin Hammes, the CEO of IQAir’s North American division. The World Health Organization ... | By Delger Erdenesanaa Read more ... |
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Storing Renewable Energy, One Balloon at a Time - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 18) |
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Mar 18 · To decarbonize the electrical grid, companies are finding creative ways to store energy during periods of low demand. A carbon dioxide storage prototype built by Energy Dome in Ottana, Sardinia.Credit...Gaia Squarci for The New York Times Central Sardinia is not generally considered a hotbed of innovation: Arid and rural, some of its road signs riddled with bullet holes made by target-practicing locals, the setting recalls a Clint Eastwood western. Yet in Ottana, on the brownfield site of a former petrochemical plant, a new technology is taking shape that might help the world slow climate change. The key component of this technology is as unlikely as the remote location: ... | By Amos Zeeberg Read more ... |
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Trump’s Violent Language Toward EVs - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 18) |
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Mar 18 · The former president has deployed increasingly aggressive talk about electric vehicles and their effect on the American economy. Former President Donald J. Trump says that his recent warning of a “blood bath” if he is not elected president in November was made in the context of electric vehicles and that he was not talking about political violence generally. But if discussing a type of automotive technology in bloody terms seems odd to some, it fits in the increasingly brutal language Mr. Trump has been applying to electric vehicles, one of his favorite foils. He has long claimed electric cars will “kill” America’s auto industry. He has called them an ... | By Lisa Friedman Read more ... |
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In Paris, the Olympics Clean Up Their Act - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 16) |
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Mar 16 · Organizers of the Games promise to slash greenhouse gas emissions by re-using historic buildings, adding bike lanes, even putting solar panels on the Seine. Will it work? A pool from the 1924 Paris Olympics is getting a makeover for the 2024 games.Credit...Yulia Grigoryants for The New York Times Somini Sengupta and Catherine Porter reported across Paris and the northern suburbs in Seine Saint-Denis. How do you produce a global sporting event, with millions of people swooping down on one city, in the age of global warming? That is the test for the Paris Olympics this summer. The organizers say they’re putting the games on a climate diet. These Olympics, ... | By Somini Sengupta and Catherine Porter Read more ... |
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Climate Protesters Disrupt Broadway Play Starring Jeremy Strong - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 15) |
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Mar 15 · A performance of a new production of Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People” was interrupted by protesters who shouted “no theater on a dead planet.” A trio of climate change protesters disrupted a performance of “An Enemy of the People,” starring Jeremy Strong, on Broadway Thursday night, shouting “no theater on a dead planet” as they were escorted out. The show they disrupted is selling quite well, thanks to audience interest in Strong, who is riding a wave of fame stemming from his portrayal of Kendall Roy in the HBO drama “Succession.” Strong stars in the play as a physician who becomes a pariah after discovering that his town’s spa baths are contaminated with bacteria; ... | By Michael Paulson Read more ... |
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The Zombies of the U.S. Tax Code: Why Fossil Fuels Subsidies Seem Impossible to Kill - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 15) |
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Mar 15 · For the fourth year in a row, President Biden is trying to eliminate federal tax breaks for coal, oil and gas companies. But fossil fuel subsidies have proven difficult to stop. An oil field at Signal Hill near Long Beach, Calif., in 1927.Credit...Sueddeutsche Zeitung Photo, via Alamy SHINGTON - As a candidate in 2020, Joseph R. Biden Jr. campaigned to end billions of dollars in annual tax breaks to oil and gas companies within his first year in office. It’s a pledge he has been unable to keep as president. Mr. Biden’s budget request to Congress this week was his fourth attempt to eliminate what he called “wasteful subsidies” to an industry that is enjoying ... | By Lisa Friedman Read more ... |
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Biden Administration Moves to Protect the Sage Grouse - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 14) |
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Mar 14 · A new proposal lays out six possible plans, singling out one compromise approach as the preferred option. The Biden administration on Thursday proposed plans to save the greater sage grouse, a move that could tighten restrictions on drilling, mining and other commercial activities on public lands in the West. The sage grouse, a ground-nesting bird that is known for the males’ flamboyant mating dance, has been at the center of a decade-long battle between industry and conservationists. The new plan, issued by the Bureau of Land Management, is expected to set off a new round of debate and legal challenges. The bureau controls the country’s largest single share of ... | By Lisa Friedman and Catrin Einhorn Read more ... |
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Can Europe Save Forests Without Killing Jobs in Malaysia? - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 14) |
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Mar 14 · A new regulation aims to rid the palm oil supply chain of imports that come from former forestland. Southeast Asian countries say it threatens livelihoods. Malaysia and Indonesia supply 85 percent of the world’s palm oil.Credit...Video by Jes Aznar For The New York Times Photographs and Video by Jes Aznar Patricia Cohen and Jes Aznar interviewed farmers and landowners during a 900-mile road trip on Borneo, as well state officials in Kuala Lumpur, in Malaysia. The European Union’s upcoming ban on imports linked to deforestation has been hailed as a “gold standard” in climate policy: a meaningful step to protect the world’s forests, which help remove ... | By Patricia Cohen Read more ... |
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Snakes in the Grass - and Under the Piano, by the Pool and in the Prison - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 14) |
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Mar 14 · Business is good for snake catchers in Australia, as the period of brumation, a sort of hibernation for reptiles, is shrinking - a result of the warming earth. Stuart McKenzie, who runs a snake-catching service in the Sunshine Coast, Australia, removing a python from a storage shed in a school.Credit...By David Maurice Smith Natasha Frost spent two days trailing snake catchers on the Sunshine Coast, Australia. The phone rings. It’s the local prison. There’s a snake in a cell. Within a few hours, snakes have also been spotted at a school, beneath a piano stored in a private garage and near a lagoon-like swimming pool at a retirement home. Customers want them ... | By Natasha Frost Read more ... |
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U.S. Approves $500 Million for Bahrain Oil Project, Despite Opposition - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 14) |
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Mar 14 · The financing faced criticism that it doesn’t mesh with U.S. commitments on climate change. Earlier, two climate advisers had resigned over the plan. A federal bank that finances projects overseas voted Thursday to put $500 million toward an oil and gas project in Bahrain, a transaction that critics said was out of step with President Biden’s climate commitments. Just days before the vote, six lawmakers had urged the bank, the Export-Import Bank of the United States or ExIm, not to move ahead with the financing, given the project’s negative effects on the climate. “We cannot afford to have ExIm undermine domestic and international climate progress,” lawmakers led by ... | By Hiroko Tabuchi Read more ... |
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A New Surge in Power Use Is Threatening U.S. Climate Goals - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 13) |
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Mar 13 · Flat electricity demand 4 2022 2007 3 1989 2 1 0 GWh per year, in millions we are 5 2033 Flat electricity demand 4 2022 2007 3 1989 2 1 0 GWh per year, in millions we are 5 Flat electricity use 4 2022 2007 3 1989 2 1 0 A boom in data centers and factories is straining electric grids and propping up fossil fuels. Something unusual is happening in America. Demand for electricity, which has stayed largely flat for two decades, has begun to surge. Over the past year, ... | By Brad Plumer and Nadja Popovich Read more ... |
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Brazil’s Clashing Goals: Protect the Amazon and Pump Lots More Oil - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 13) |
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Mar 13 · State-owned Petrobras could soon be the world’s third-biggest oil producer, in stark contrast to the country’s promises to fight climate change and slow Amazon destruction. Max Bearak reported from Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil. Through his office window, the head of Brazil’s state-run oil company looked out at the cluttered landscape of Rio de Janeiro. Looking back at him, across the city’s run-down high-rises, was the looming statue of Christ the Redeemer. Hawks circled an overflowing trash heap. Plumes of smoke rose from a blaze in a hillside shantytown. His company, Petrobras, is planning such a rapid increase in oil production that it could become the ... | By Max Bearak Read more ... |
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Oil Fields Release Far More Methane Than Thought, Study Finds - New York Times - Climate Section  (Mar 13) |
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Mar 13 · In parts of New Mexico, more than 9 percent of all natural gas produced goes into the atmosphere, where it acts as a powerful greenhouse gas. Oil and gas producers in major oil fields across the United States may be emitting three times as much planet-warming methane gas as official estimates, according to new research published Wednesday, the latest study to suggest that emissions from the fossil fuel sector may be grossly undercounted. In some parts of New Mexico, more than 9 percent of the natural gas produced was escaping into the atmosphere, researchers said in the study, published in the journal, Nature. Methane is the main component of natural gas, and when ... | By Hiroko Tabuchi Read more ... |
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