WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, a report based on findings from NASA, NOAA, the United Kingdom’s Met Office, and Berkeley Earth was released showing that 2020’s temperatures rivaled those of the hottest year on Earth — the “super” El Niño year 2016. Last year’s temperatures breached this record without a boost from a heat-circulating El Niño event, revealing a sharp acceleration of global warming. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the United States experienced 22 billion-dollar disasters, the most ever, fueled by the dry conditions in the West and the above average heat across the country in 2020. The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, which President-elect Biden has said he will immediately rejoin after Donald Trump’s unprecedented exit from the global pact, set a more firm limit of “well below” 2 degrees Celsius of warming. Scientists have made clear that warming above 1.5 degrees Celsius could cause severe, irreversible damage to the planet, including the loss of most of the globe’s coral reefs, increasing risks of a nearly ice-free Arctic Ocean in the summer and further destabilization of the polar ice sheets, locking in large-scale sea-level rise.
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WASHINGTON, D.C.-- Donald Trump later today is expected to sign an Executive Order creating an interagency council to coordinate the U.S.’s participation in the international One Trillion Trees Initiative. The Order follows repeated climate denial from the Trump administration and a proposal last month to open vast swaths of irreplaceable old-growth rainforest in the Tongass National Forest to clearcut logging.
WASHINGTON, D.C.-- The House Natural Resources Committee today passed out of committee several important pieces of legislation, including the Boundary Waters Wilderness Protection and Pollution Prevention Act, H.R. 5598, sponsored by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-N.M), the Robert E. Lee Statue Removal Act, H.R. 970, sponsored by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), and a bill on the removal of the Albert Pike statue near Judiciary Square, H.R. 4135 introduced by Rep. Eleanor Norton (D-DC).
Sierra, la revista nacional del Sierra Club, emitió su decimocuarta lista de las universidades más verdes (“Cool Schools”) de Norteamérica. Este año, Sierra recibió candidaturas de 312 instituciones de Estados Unidos y Canadá, un nuevo récord.
OAKLAND -- Donald Trump today visited California for a briefing on wildfires burning across the Pacific Northwest. During his remarks, Trump once again promoted his denial of climate science.
Current wildfires burning across California are slowly coming under control and evacuation orders have been lifted in several parts of the state, though not all. Smoke from the fires continues to create dangerously unhealthy air across the state and the West-- an increased health risk in the midst of the pandemic. These fires in California killed seven people and burned hundreds of homes and businesses. Dozens of large fires continue to burn across the West, including several in Colorado. While fire is a natural part of the landscape, the climate crisis has lengthened the fire season and raised the risk of unnaturally large and more dangerous fires across the country.
DENVER— Climate groups sued the Trump administration today over its plan to expand drilling, fracking and mining across 1.7 million acres of public lands in southwestern Colorado, one of the fastest-warming regions in the nation.
WASHINGTON,D.C. --- The Trump administration today released a new proposal that would severely limit critical habitat protections for endangered wildlife. The proposal runs counter to warnings of scientists around the world who have identified habitat loss as the single largest driver of species imperilment and a major contributing factor to pandemics, such as COVID-19. The new proposed definition of “habitat” seeks to prevent former habitat from being designated as critical habitat, even when that habitat has irreplaceable characteristics vital to the recovery of a species. It would also prevent areas that will be the last refuge for species harmed by climate change from being designated as critical habitat until it’s too late.
Today, following years of legal and community opposition, Duke Energy and Dominion Energy announced they are cancelling construction of their 600-mile, $8 billion fracked gas Atlantic Coast Pipeline.
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - On March 18, the Sierra Club and partner organizations released their 2020 banks scorecard, Banking On Climate Change, ranking the top international financiers of fossil fuels. The report demonstrates that--despite the ongoing climate crisis--Wall Street continues to pour money into fossil fuel projects, including a number of projects in (or connected to) Minnesota.
Bakersfield, CA— Today, reports suggest that Donald Trump and Interior Secretary Bernhardt will officially grant a permanent contract to Westlands Water District to divert water from California’s Central Valley to wealthy agricultural interests. Sec.
Washington, DC-- Today, the House of Representatives hosted a hearing on the Boundary Waters Wilderness Protection and Pollution Prevention Act-- a bill that would permanently protect more than 200,000 acres of the Superior National Forest in northeastern Minnesota from copper, nickel and precious metals mining. The legislation would safeguard the watershed of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness from toxic sulfide-ore copper pollution.