Pattie Gonia is an environmentalist drag queen on a mission to build a more inclusive climate movement. Pattie has more than 300,000 followers on Instagram, where she shares photos and videos of herself hiking and camping, both in and out of drag. She’s posed next to an oil rig to push for fossil fuel divestment […]
Posted inAudio
Environmentalist drag queen says the outdoors belongs to everyone
High heels may not be practical footwear for hiking. But when Pattie Gonia pulls on her six-inch stilettos to strut across a mountaintop, the environmentalist drag queen is not trying to rack up miles. She’s working to build a more inclusive climate movement. She says it starts by reclaiming the outdoors as a place where […]
Posted inEye on the Storm
More warming a threat to the Hajj – and human habitation – in the Middle East
It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity. That simple phrase sums up a major danger pilgrims face (in addition to COVID-19) during the coming week during the Hajj, the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca (Makkah), the holiest city for Muslims. This year, the Hajj falls during the period July 17-22, which is typically among the […]
Posted inAudio
Underserved communities could miss out on access to electric vehicles
To meet climate goals, many states and utilities are investing in electric vehicle chargers. But only a few are working to ensure that underserved communities have access to charging and benefit from the cleaner air that electric vehicles provide. That’s according to a report by Peter Huether of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. […]
Posted inEnergy
The number of lives that clean energy could save, by U.S. state
The United States can achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 while creating half a million new jobs, modernizing the energy infrastructure, and avoiding hundreds of thousands of needless deaths, according to the comprehensive Net Zero America study by researchers at Princeton University. The study concluded that the price tag for a major energy transition would […]
Posted inCommentary
Equity and fair shares in a net-zero world
The Paris Climate Agreement survived four years of the Trump administration, but it’s hardly thriving. Fortunately, and however you judge its overall efficacy, Paris is built for change. The question, as we stumble forward through the pandemic, involves whether the pace and direction of change are likely to deliver on the agreement’s central goal of […]
Posted inAudio
Wildfire smoke may be even more toxic than previously thought
Wildfires are dangerous. And some of the threats come not from the flames themselves but from inhaling the tiny toxic particles in wildfire smoke. “They are small enough that they can penetrate deep into the respiratory system, so they can get to the lungs, and then from there to the bloodstream, and affect other organs,” […]
Posted inEye on the Storm
June 2021: Earth’s fifth-warmest June on record, warmest over land areas
June 2021 was the fifth-warmest June – and the warmest for Earth’s land areas – since global record-keeping began in 1880, 0.88 degrees Celsius (1.58°F) above the 20th-century average, NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, NCEI, reported July 13. NASA rated the month the third warmest June on record, 1.13 degrees Celsius (2.03°F) above the 1880-1920 period, which […]
Posted inJobs & Economy
The end of glacier guides in New Zealand?
New Zealand’s Southern Alps are crowned by some of the most accessible glaciers on Earth. Despite the country’s temperate latitude, large glaciers like the Fox and Franz Josef sweep down from the mountains to the coastal rainforest below. However, climate change may be altering that. Low-elevation glaciers like the Fox and Franz are retreating quickly […]
Posted inAudio
Seagrass can help reduce ocean acidification at local scales
Burning fossil fuels doesn’t just pollute the atmosphere. The ocean absorbs about a quarter of the CO2 emitted by human activity each year. “The ocean absorbs carbon dioxide like a sponge,” says Aurora Ricart of the University of California, Davis. She explains that increased concentrations of CO2 cause water to become more acidic, which can […]
Posted inEye on the Storm
Death Valley, California, breaks the all-time world heat record for the second year in a row
For the second consecutive year, Death Valley, California, has set a world record for the hottest reliably measured temperature in Earth’s history. Death Valley National Park’s Furnace Creek Visitor Center hit an astonishing 130.0 degrees Fahrenheit (54.4°C) on Friday afternoon, July 9, 2021, beating the previous world record of 129.9 degrees Fahrenheit (54.4°C), set there […]
Posted inPolicy & Politics
A conversation with the NAACP’s Jacqueline Patterson
For generations, the NAACP has helped advance civil rights and build racial equity in the United States. Today, that work includes tackling climate change and addressing its impacts. As climate change causes sea levels to rise and storms to grow more extreme, the risk of flooding is growing, particularly in low-lying coastal communities. Flooding can […]