Air pollution (fine particulate matter PM2.5) in the United States, 2009-2018. in 2016, pollution started to increase significantly in the U.S. Midwest and West. Data: National Bureau of Economic Research. Graphic: The New York Times

America’s air quality worsens since Trump election, ending years of gains – “This increase is a real about-face”

By Nadja Popovich 24 October 2019 (The New York Times) – New data reveals that damaging air pollution has increased nationally since 2016, reversing a decades-long trend toward cleaner air. An analysis of Environmental Protection Agency data published this week by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University found that fine particulate pollution increased 5.5 percent on average across the […]

Andrew Crane-Droesch is a data scientist with the University of Pennsylvania Health System. He worked as a research economist at the Economic Research Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture between 2016 and 2019. Photo: UC Berkeley Energy and Resources Group

The Trump administration didn’t like my agency’s research. So it sent us to Missouri. – “They can’t tolerate it when scientists present hard truths they don’t like”

By Andrew Crane-Droesch 21 October 2019 (The Washington Post) – I joined the Economic Research Service (ERS) in 2016. I wanted to use my academic training to do something in the public interest — I didn’t really expect to get involved in agriculture. Then I got absorbed in the subject: Humanity’s dependence on the environment […]

Trump refers to a map, modified using a Sharpie, while talking to reporters following a briefing from officials about Hurricane Dorian in the Oval Office at the White House on 4 September 2019. Photo: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Top Commerce Department aides orchestrated NOAA’s Hurricane Dorian statement attacking NOAA meteorologists for contradicting Trump

By Jason Samenow and Andrew Freedman 10 October 2019 (The Washington Post) – A letter sent Thursday from the chair of the House Science Committee to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross reveals that it was the Commerce Department, not the leadership of its National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, that drafted a controversial NOAA statement on 6 […]

The top 20 companies that have contributed to 480 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent since 1965. At the top is Saudi Aramco, followed by Chevron, Gazprom, and Exxon Mobil. Data: Richard Heede / Climate Accountability Institute. Graphic: The Guardian

Revealed: the 20 firms behind a third of all carbon emissions – “The great tragedy of the climate crisis is that seven and a half billion people must pay the price so that a couple of dozen polluting interests can continue to make record profits”

By Matthew Taylor and Jonathan Watts 9 October 2019 (The Guardian) – The Guardian today reveals the 20 fossil fuel companies whose relentless exploitation of the world’s oil, gas and coal reserves can be directly linked to more than one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions in the modern era. New data from world-renowned researchers [Climate […]

Historical U.S. election industry spending, Energy vs. Environment, 1990-2019, showing contributions to candidate campaigns, party committees, and outside groups (1990-2018 federal election cycles). Graphic: Center for Responsive Politics

Fossil fuel industry continues to dwarf environmental groups in election-related spending – Industry gives millions to Trump Victory and Trump Make America Great Again Committee

By Yue Stella Yu 24 September 2019 (Center for Responsive Politics) – Following a global climate strike over the weekend, climate activists in Washington, D.C., raged on and flooded the district Monday as the United Nations Climate Action Summit took place in New York. Participating groups issued several demands, including the passage of the Green New Deal, the […]

Logo for the Republican Climate Resolution. Graphic: CCL

Republican Climate Resolution: “If left unaddressed, the consequences of a changing climate have the potential to adversely impact all Americans”

24 September 2019 (Desdemona Despair) – After yesterday’s sad display by the governments of the U.S., Australia, and Canada at the U.N. Climate Action Summit 2019, it’s good to remember that not all U.S. Republicans are antiscience fanatics. Here’s the text of the Republican Climate Resolution (H.Res.195 Expressing the commitment of the House of Representatives […]

Aerial view of the Amazon rainforest burning out of control in the municipality of Colniza, Mato Grosso state on 24 August 2019, just days before nine Amazon state governors met with Bolsonaro to discuss pkans to continue destroying the rainforest and assimilating the indigenous peoples of Amazonia. Photo: Victor Moriyama / Greenpeace

State governors support Bolsonaro’s plan to continue destruction of Amazon rainforest for mining and agribusiness – Indigenous peoples of Amazonia to be assimilated

By Jenny Gonzales 9 September 2019 (Mongabay) – It is not only President Jair Bolsonaro who views rainforests and indigenous people as obstacles to Brazilian economic development. Seven of the nine Amazon state governors are in line with the policies of the chief executive, as attested to at an August 27 meeting between the president and representatives […]

Neil Jacobs, the acting administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), speaks at a meteorological convention, Tuesday, 10 September 2019, in Huntsville, Alabama. Jacobs both defended the administration and thanked a local weather office that contradicted Trump’s claims about Hurricane Dorian threatening Alabama. Photo: Jay Reeves / AP Photo

In agency-wide email, NOAA chief moves to regain scientists’ trust after defending incorrect Trump tweet

By Jason Samenow 13 September 2019 (The Washington Post) – Neil Jacobs, the acting head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, sent an all-staff email Friday afternoon in an apparent effort to repair damage from an unusual 6 September 2019 statement that sided with President Trump rather than agency weather forecasters. The controversial NOAA […]

National Weather Service director Louis Uccellini led a standing ovation in the agency’s office in Birmingham, Alabama, for weather forecasters who corrected Trump when he falsely claimed Hurricane Dorian was set to hit Alabama. Speaking at an annual meeting of the National Weather Association on 9 September 2019, Uccellini praised the scientists for upholding "the integrity of the forecasting process." Photo: Rick Smith

Standing ovation for weather forecasters who corrected Trump after he said Dorian could hit Alabama – Tearful NOAA head offers halfhearted defense of Alabama forecasters – “He can’t have it both ways”

By Tom Porter 10 September 2019 (Business Insider) – National Weather Service director Louis Uccellini led an ovation for weather forecasters in the agency’s office in Birmingham, Alabama, who corrected President Donald Trump when he falsely claimed Hurricane Dorian was set to hit Alabama. Speaking at an annual meeting of the National Weather Association Monday, Uccellini […]

Closeup of the map Trump presented to the media in the White House in Washington on 4 September 2019, showing the projected path of Hurricane Dorian. The projected path of Hurricane Dorian has been extended into Alabama by amateurish drawing with a Sharpie, Trump’s favorite type of pen. When asked by reporters whether the map had been altered, Trump said he didn’t know how it had been amended. Photo: Tom Brenner / Bloomberg

NOAA staff warned in Sept. 1 directive against contradicting Trump – “This is the first time I’ve felt pressure from above to not say what truly is the forecast”

By Andrew Freedman, Colby Itkowitz, and Jason Samenow 8 September 2019 (The Washington Post) – Nearly a week before the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration publicly backed President Trump over its own scientists, a top NOAA official warned its staff against contradicting the president. In an agencywide directive sent Sept. 1 to National Weather Service […]

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