Gas storage tanks receiving natural gas from feeder pipelines before compression for transport in high-pressure pipelines at the Haynseville shale formation, Texas. This photo was taken with a forward-looking infrared (FLIR) camera tuned to the infrared spectrum of methane, allowing visualization of methane, which is invisible in the normal camera view and to the naked eye. Photo: Sharon Wilson / Howarth, 2019 / Biogeosciences

U.S. proposes easing rules on methane emissions from oil and gas production – Latest rollback “highlights the Trump administration’s complete contempt for our climate”

By Ellen Knickmeyer 29 August 2019 WASHINGTON (AP) – Oil and gas companies could face far looser oversight of emissions of potent climate-changing methane gas under a proposal expected from the Trump administration as soon as Thursday, oil industry and environmental groups said. The government’s plan would ease requirements on oil and gas sites to monitor for […]

List environmental regulations rolled back by the Trump administration, updated on 7 June 2019. Graphic: The New York Times

83 environmental rules being rolled back under Trump

By Nadja Popovich, Livia Albeck-ripka, and Kendra Pierre-Louis 7 June 2019 (The New York Times) – President Trump has made eliminating federal regulations a priority. His administration, with help from Republicans in Congress, has often targeted environmental rules it sees as burdensome to the fossil fuel industry and other big businesses. [cf. Trump regulation rollbacks will […]

Cover of “State of India’s Environment 2019: In Figures”. Graphic: Centre for Science and Environment

Air pollution kills 100,000 children in India every year, study finds – “The country’s progress in renewable energy in 2018-19 has also been dismal”

5 June 2019 (AFP) – The noxious air hanging over India’s towns and cities kills more than 100,000 children under five every year, a damning study published Wednesday for World Environment Day found. India has repeatedly failed to address environmental concerns. Last year a UN report found 14 of the world’s 15 most polluted cities […]

Global average abundance of atmospheric carbon dioxide in 2018. Graphic: NOAA

Graph of the Day: NOAA Annual Greenhouse Gas Index, 1700-2018

30 May 2019 (Desdemona Despair) – Last week, the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory posted its annual update to the NOAA Annual Greenhouse Gas Index (AGGI), which measures the climate-warming influence of long-lived trace gases, including carbon dioxide and methane. To nobody’s surprise, the AGGI continued its inexorable rise in 2018 because, for another year, […]

Reducing air pollution may worsen droughts globally – “It’s mind boggling. There is a really clear signal of the effects of human greenhouse gases on the hydroclimate.”

By James Temple1 May 2019 (Technology Review) – Climate change is clearly making some regions wetter and others drier. But it’s been difficult for scientists to detect a clear, consistent human role in increasing the frequency and severity of global droughts given natural climate variability, regional differences, and limited data. A new report in Nature adds evidence […]

25th anniversary edition of WMO’s State of the Climate report shows accelerating global warming impacts – “The data released in this report give cause for great concern”

28 March 2019 (WMO) – The physical signs and socio-economic impacts of climate change are accelerating as record greenhouse gas concentrations drive global temperatures toward increasingly dangerous levels, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization. The WMO Statement on the State of the Global Climate in 2018, its 25th anniversary edition, highlights […]

Sharp rise in methane levels threatens world climate targets – “What we are now witnessing is extremely worrying”

By Robin McKie 17 February 2019 (The Guardian) – Dramatic rises in atmospheric methane are threatening to derail plans to hold global temperature rises to 2C, scientists have warned. In a paper published this month by the American Geophysical Union, researchers say sharp rises in levels of methane – which is a powerful greenhouse gas […]

Study finds aerosol cooling effect on climate nearly two times higher than previously thought – “The warming effect of the greenhouse gases has also been larger than we thought, enabling greenhouse-gas emissions to overcome the cooling effect of aerosols”

20 January 2019 (ISRAEL21c) – The world’s scientific community has known for a long time that global warming is caused by manmade emissions in the form of greenhouse gases, while global cooling is caused by air pollution in the form of aerosols. In a new study published in the journal Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem […]

Trudeau calls liquefied natural gas project in B.C. the biggest private investment in Canada’s history – Climate activists call it “irresponsible”

By Tiffany Crawford    2 October 2018 (Vancouver Sun) – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada is celebrating the single largest private investment in Canadian history with the $40-billion liquefied natural-gas export terminal on B.C.’s North Coast. Trudeau was in Vancouver on Tuesday to formally announce the giant energy project’s go-ahead, along with Premier John Horgan, […]

Rising gas output lifts Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions – “Pollution is going up, the government boasts it has no renewables policy, and global warming is getting worse”

By Peter Hannam 28 September 2018 (The Sydney Morning Herald) – Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions have continued to climb, reaching the highest levels on a quarterly basis since 2010, led by a surge in gas production.For the 12 months to March 31 2018, emissions totalled 529.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent, up 1.3 per cent […]

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