Climate Change

Hotter temperatures and strengthening winds raised wildfire risk in California and prompted power shutoffs.

"Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett called climate change 'a contentious matter' and declined to acknowledge the existence of the scientifically established phenomenon during the third day of her confirmation hearing."

"In 2010, the International Energy Agency called coal “the backbone of global electricity generation” in its outlook for the next decade of worldwide energy markets. On Tuesday, the Paris-based intergovernmental organization said renewables would make up 80% of new power generation by 2030, overtaking the fossil fuels that presently dominate electricity production."

"Half of the coral populations on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef — from “big mamas” to the little baby coral they spawn — have been wiped out in the warming ocean, a new study says."

"Even the pitch black, nearly freezing waters at the bottom of the ocean – far from where humans live and burn fossil fuels – are slowly warming, according to a study of a decade of hourly measurements."

"There is this existential threat facing humanity. You might have heard about it. Maybe if you’re President Donald Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court that Republicans are rushing through before the election, you will admit to having read something about it."

"The region is unravelling faster than anyone could once have predicted. But there may still be time to act".

"Thirty of the world’s largest asset owners, with portfolios worth a combined $5tn (£3.8tn), have committed to cutting the carbon emissions linked to companies they invest in by up to 29% within the next four years."

"The industry that operates America’s hydroelectric dams and several environmental groups announced an unusual agreement Tuesday to work together to get more clean energy from hydropower while reducing the environmental harm from dams, in a sign that the threat of climate change is spurring both sides to rethink their decades-long battle over a large but contentious source of renewable power."

"This has been the 2020 pattern: Politics has thoroughly contaminated the scientific process. The result has been an epidemic of distrust, which further undermines the nation’s already chaotic and ineffective response to the coronavirus."