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Governments must start to distinguish between the good subsidies they need to fight the climate crisis and the bad ones that are increasing greenhouse gas emissions, the world’s trade chief has said. Subsidies and other incentives to burn fossil fuels and encourage poor agricultural practices, amounting to about $1.7tn a year, are distorting world trade and hampering the fight against climate breakdown, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the director general of the World Trade Organization, told the Guardian. “Can you imagine if we said, we are going to repurpose those subsidies into other friendly subsidies, like for research and innovation?” she said. “I don’t mind that kind of subsidy.” She gave the example of clean cooking stoves in the developing world. Instead of subsidising fossil fuels, governments could subsidise clean stoves that use solar power or electricity instead of burning wood. “These kinds of sub...

In the ever-shifting landscape of Washington politics, a noteworthy narrative is unfolding—one that hinges on the interplay between climate change, national security, and fiscal responsibility. At the heart of this story is the Pentagon and its efforts to integrate climate risk management into its strategic framework. At Taxpayers for Common Sense, we’ve documented the growing costs of climate change to taxpayers and national security, so we know how important it is for the Pentagon to reckon with these risks. Unfortunately, Congress is still wedded to a more traditional approach—willful, if not so blissful, ignorance.  The debate centers around the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council’s proposal, a common sense rule change requiring major Pentagon suppliers to report their greenhouse gas emissions and set emissions reduction targets. It’s not just environmental bookkeeping; it’s about understanding...

Two years after the scientists in Finland successfully made coffee in a laboratory, VTT Technical Research Center of Finland Ltd has released detailed information on the process. Published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, the scientific paper describes the exact process the scientists used to produce coffee starting from the original coffee plant itself, and establishing cell cultures to alter its aroma in the roasting process, caffeine content, flavor analysis, and sensory profiling by a panel of tasters. While demand for coffee is rising, the production of coffee beans faces multiple sustainability challenges, concerning land and water use, laborers’ rights, and climate change. According to the Center for the Promotion of Imports, Europe, the highest consumer of coffee in the world, imported over 3,602 thousand tons (3.6 million tons) of green coffee in 2021, with an estimated average of 5 kg of coffee consumed per pe...

Record-setting rainfall this past week sent Puget Sound’s rivers and streams over their banks, flooding homes in Snohomish County, closing roads and triggering mudslides. The atmospheric river was another blunt reminder of the dangers floodwaters pose to human-made infrastructure, including the culverts that guide waterways underneath the region’s roads. At least one creek’s surge outside Port Orchard overwhelmed a three-foot-wide metal culvert beneath Sunnyslope Road, washing out the road above it. Repairs will take months, closing the thoroughfare indefinitely. Culverts, the artificial pipes that squeeze once-meandering streams through a bottleneck of concrete or metal, exact an ecological toll on species like salmon. But they’re also an increasing liability in an era of climate change. Washington’s transportation network must become more resilient to such flooding in a time of diminished snowpack, heavy rainfall...

Recent courtroom wins for advocates of a more competitive process for approving interstate electric transmission lines could help clear the way for greater access to clean energy for Americans in the long run. On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to hear Texas’ defense of its “right of first refusal,” or ROFR, law that gave preference for certain utilities to build new power lines across state borders. The law was struck down by a lower bench last year. The justices’ order, which keeps Texas’ law off the books, could serve as a check against adoption of similarly restrictive laws in other states, said Ari Peskoe, director of the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard Law School. “If utilities had pushed that model across the country, that really would have solidified utility dominance over our transmission systems,” Peskoe said. “The Supreme Court’s decision … should at least prevent tha...

Research reveals that oceans store 20% more carbon dioxide than previously estimated, primarily through plankton transporting carbon to the seabed. This new understanding, however, doesn’t significantly impact the current CO2 emission crisis. The ocean’s capacity to store atmospheric carbon dioxide is some 20% greater than the estimates contained in the latest IPCC report.[1] These are the findings of a study that was published in the journal Nature on December 6, 2023, led by an international team including a biologist from the CNRS.[2] The scientists looked at the role played by plankton in the natural transport of carbon from surface waters down to the seabed. Plankton gobble up carbon dioxide and, as they grow, convert it into organic tissue via photosynthesis. When they die, part of the plankton is transformed into particles known as ‘marine snow’.  Being denser than seawater, these particles sink dow...

What happens to bee populations in areas of massive human population growth like Wake County, North Carolina, where the population is more than 16 times greater than it was at the turn of the 20th century? Examining historical museum specimens along with online bee repositories and university bee collections, researchers at North Carolina State University show that bee species richness – the number of different bee species – has varied over the past 118 years, with no clear downward trend emerging over time, said Selina Ruzi, a postdoctoral researcher in biological sciences at NC State and corresponding author of a paper describing the research. With that good news, though, comes some not-so-great news. The study showed that, of 328 bee species collected in Wake County over the study period (1900-2018), 195 species have not been collected since 1969; many of these missing species are bees that nest underground. “Our hypothesis was th...