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☆ With Great Salt Lake at rock bottom, lawmakers aim for rescue
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( Evan Bush | Evan Bush Is A Science Reporter For Nbc News. He Can Be Reached At Evan.Bush Nbcuni.Com. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Water volume on the Great Salt Lake has dropped by more than two-thirds since pioneers once settled the Salt Lake Valley. Much of the lake surface is now exposed. Photographs of empty marinas and the cracking crust of the lake’s surface often illustrate the lake’s decline. The rivers and streams that feed The Great Salt Lake are overallocated, which means farmers and other water users collectively have rights to more water than what typically flows through each year. Spencer Cox last November closed the Great Salt Lake basin to appropriations for new water uses, effectively capping the line of water users wanting to use what flows into the lake.

☆ California has been hammered with rain. It may not be enough to reverse its drought.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Evan Bush | Evan Bush Is A Science Reporter For Nbc News. He Can Be Reached At Evan.Bush Nbcuni.Com. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

California counts on a system of about 1,400 human-made surface reservoirs and thousands upon thousands of miles of levees to manage surface water. During the recent storms, extreme drought has buffered some impacts of intense rainfall with plenty of space in the state’s largest reservoirs, which have withered under drought. Before the series of atmospheric rivers, it was storing less than 1 million acre-feet of water. In the Central Valley, Californians extract about 2 million acre-feet more than what returns to the ground, on average, every year, Lund said. California legislators in 2014 passed the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, which requires local agencies to reach groundwater sustainability by 2042.

LONDON, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Asset Management, the fund arm of Goldman Sachs (GS.N), said on Tuesday it had raised $1.6 billion for its first private equity fund focused on investing in companies providing climate and environmental solutions. The final close of GSAM's Horizon Environment & Climate Solutions I comes as investors increasingly turn their attention to companies that can help in the world's fight against global warming. The fund, launched in 2021, provides so-called "growth capital" to companies further along in developing solutions in clean energy, sustainable transport, waste and materials, sustainable food and agriculture and ecosystem services. While investors have long invested in real assets such as wind and solar, or in early stage venture capital, the demand for the fund showed they were increasingly willing to back bigger companies, Pontarelli said. In December private equity firm General Atlantic launched a $3.5 billion climate fund while a month earlier Morgan Stanley Investment Management launched a $1 billion private equity strategy to invest in companies that will help reduce 1 gigatonne of carbon dioxide emissions.

Here are four climate and environment lawsuits that are likely to make headlines in 2023. The oil companies in the nation's high court are hoping to upend a series of circuit court decisions saying the cases belong in state courts where they were filed. If the court takes the appeal and rules for the oil companies, then the cases would be moved to federal court, the preferred venue for the industry defendants. (Bellwether trials are chosen as test cases and are used to work through common legal and factual issues.) "I think it will be a huge year for this issue," Conroy said of 2023.

☆ EPA issues new rule to strengthen water protections in the U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Lucas Thompson | Lucas Thompson Is A Content Producer For The Nbc News Climate Unit. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

At issue is which types of waterways — wetlands, rivers, lakes, etc. The act regulates water pollutants and empowers the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers to define which particular bodies of water are protected by law. Protected bodies of water qualify for federal programs pertaining to oil spill prevention, water quality regulation and more. The new definition announced this week instates similar protections to those that were in place before 2015, while also clarifying certain qualifications for protected waters. "This comes at a time when we’re seeing unprecedented attacks on federal clean water protections by polluters and their allies," said Jon Devine, director of federal water policy for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

☆ EPA issues clean water rule that repeals Trump administration changes
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Emma Newburger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The Biden administration on Friday issued a rule that defines which types of waterways in the U.S. will receive federal water quality protections under the 1972 Clean Water Act, repealing a Trump-era rule that federal courts rejected and that environmental groups argued left waterways open to pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Army said the revised rule is based on definitions that were in place before 2015, when the Obama administration sought to expand federal protections. Federally protected waters qualify for government programs focused on maintaining water quality and preventing oil spills, among other things. Environmental groups have long argued that efforts to loosen federal water protections would significantly harm the country's sources of safe drinking water. Farming groups, oil and gas producers, and real estate developers have criticized such regulations as overbearing and burdensome to business, and many supported the 2020 Trump administration rule that attempted to dismantle protections.

☆ Christmas gifts come by boat to isolated Romanian Danube Delta villages
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/4] Romanian coast guard deliver Christmas presents to villagers at an unspecified location, along the Danube delta, Romania December 20, 2022. So, days before Christmas, Romanian coast guard officers braced against icy winds to deliver care packages of food and cleaning staples as well as fruits and sweets to some of the most vulnerable villagers. The Danube Delta, sprung where the river meets the Black Sea, straddles the Romanian-Ukrainian border. So the arrival of the coast guard bearing gifts will be warmly welcomed. "The Sulina coast guard want to bring a little joy in people's homes for the holidays in the isolated villages of the Danube Delta," said Chief Inspector Razvan Duta.

☆ World leaders want to protect a third of the Earth's land and water to save wildlife from extinction. There's a climate connection, too.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Catherine Boudreau | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Nearly 200 countries agreed to protect 30% of Earth's land and water at a UN biodiversity meeting. The meeting, known as COP15, also underscored the link between nature and the climate crisis. Indigenous peoplesFor the first time, the biodiversity framework acknowledged the role of Indigenous people in protecting and restoring land and water. But world leaders didn't designate their land and territory as a separate category of conservation, which groups including Amnesty International and Greenpeace called for. Countries didn't achieve any of the targets to slow biodiversity loss by 2020 included in a previous framework, known as the Aichi targets.

☆ Pelicans rest up in Mexico City as clean water push bears fruit
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Carlos Carrillo | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MEXICO CITY, Dec 16 (Reuters) - On the northern flank of the bustling hubbub of Mexico City, white American pelicans paddle on the waters of a lake after traveling thousands of miles from the United States and Canada to escape the bite of a northern winter. Part of migratory flocks that come to Mexico every year to feed and rest, the pelicans began stopping at the lake at Bosque San Juan de Aragon after the city and scientists a decade ago began creating nearby wetlands to revive the local environment. [1/7] A flock of white American pelicans rest during their winter migration from the United States and Canada, at the Bosque de San Juan de Aragon in Mexico City, Mexico December 14, 2022. REUTERS/Raquel Cunha 1 2 3 4 5Growing out of a initiative between the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the Mexico City government to clean up local water supply by creating a wetland in 2010, the cleaned up water refuge was designed to attract wild life. To visitors, it is a reminder that Mexico City has more to offer than building sites and traffic jams.

And Wagner’s beloved fireflies – like so many insects worldwide – have largely vanished in what scientists are calling the global Insect Apocalypse. “Insects are the food that make all the birds and make all the fish,” said Wagner, who works at the University of Connecticut. Humans, too, see some 2,000 species of insects as food. “We’d see yields dropping of all of these crops.”And in nature, about 80% of wild plants rely on insects for pollination. WINNERS AND LOSERSWhile the situation is bleak for insects at large, a few types of insects are thriving.

☆ Analysis: COP27 does little for next month's global agenda: nature loss
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Gloria Dickie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Many environment ministers and campaigners have said the climate talks should underline the importance of protecting nature to help to limit climate change. The "landmark" target of the draft Montreal deal proposes protecting 30% of the world's land and sea by 2030 - known informally as 30-by-30. The world's wildlife crisis is largely driven by habitat loss, with wild spaces turned into agricultural fields and cities, or degraded by pollution. But climate change poses an increasing threat as temperatures climb, pushing species out of their comfortable ranges. It encouraged parties to "consider, as appropriate, nature-based solutions or ecosystem-based approaches" to climate change.

☆ Remaking the River That Remade L.A.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Michael Kimmelman | Photographs Adali Schell | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +33 min

Remaking the River That Remade L.A.February 1938 was a wet month in Los Angeles. Reservoirs overflowed, dams topped out and floodwaters careered down Pacoima Wash and Tujunga Wash toward the Los Angeles River. The Los Angeles River was never a storybook river of the kind that, like the Hudson or the Seine, we associate with great cities. Among the naysayers is a venerable organization called Friends of the Los Angeles River, founded by the Texas-born poet and performance artist Lewis MacAdams. “With all the problems L.A. is facing,” he said, “even if it costs $50 billion to fix the river, we should just effing do it.”The headwaters of the Los Angeles River aren’t easy to find.

☆ UN warns 'time is running out' as greenhouse gases surge
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Emma Farge | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Hikes in the atmospheric concentration of all three greenhouse gases - carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide - outstripped the average increase over the past decade, it showed, meaning they are now all at new record levels. Concentrations of the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide rose by 2.5 parts per million to 415.7 - a level not seen since at least 3 million years ago when the Earth was much warmer. The jump in the potent, heat-trapping gas methane was the highest since records began in 1983, the report said. Greenhouse gases are responsible for warming the planet and triggering extreme weather events like heatwaves and intense rainfall. The WMO said scientists are investigating the reason for the exceptional hike in methane levels of 18 parts per billion to 1,908 last year following a similar increase in 2020.

☆ EU targets deadly air pollution, pushes for cleaner water
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Kate Abnett | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Among them is a requirement that, by 2030, EU countries must meet new legally-binding air pollution limits that will be closer to the stricter World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations. The WHO tightened its air quality guidelines last year, hoping to push countries toward clean energy and prevent deaths caused by dirty air. Air pollution causes 300,000 premature deaths in Europe each year. Europe's air quality has improved over the last decade, but many countries still breach the current EU limits. EU countries will separately determine how to achieve air quality standards and where to set any penalties.

The Supreme Court in June announced it would hear the case in its new term, which begins on Monday. This showed the increasing willingness of its 6-3 conservative majority take on divisive issues as it steers the court on a rightward path. According to Irv Gornstein, executive director of Georgetown University Law Center's Supreme Court Institute, Kavanaugh now wields outsized influence over the speed and limits of the court's rightward shift. In its most recent term, there were 14 rulings decided on a 6-3 tally with the conservative justices on one side and the liberals on the other. The court appears likely to continue to take up cases particularly important to conservatives, Feldman said.

☆ Fact Check-Viral video does not show crocodiles ‘invading’ a beach in Brazil, contrary to claims online
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-23 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

A video showing a riverbank full of caimans in the Pantanal region of Brazil has been misrepresented in viral social media posts, with users falsely claiming the clip shows crocodiles crowding a beach in the South American country, leading to panic among locals. Experts said the scene resembles caiman activity in the Pantanal region. More information about the climate conditions in the Pantanal region can be found (here) (here) (here). This clip does not show crocodiles “invading” a “beach” in Brazil. According to experts, the footage shows Yacare Caiman in the interior Pantanal region of Brazil, clustering near a river due to seasonal drought.

☆ Melting ice in Alaska is forming new lakes full of bacteria 'belching' methane into the atmosphere, NASA scientist warns
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-23 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

NASA is studying "thermokarsts" in Alaska, lakes that appear as permafrost there thaws. Walter Anthony has been working with NASA's ABoVE project to study Big Trail lake's effect on climate change. "As they decompose it, they are belching out methane gas," she said. Walter Antony is seen in a kayak on Big Trail lake in Alaska. It's only the newer lakes, like Big Trail, which appeared less than 50 years ago, that give off high levels of the gas.

☆ China lost its Yangtze River dolphin. Climate change is coming for other species next
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-17 | by ( Heather Chen | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

China has been grappling with its worst heat wave on record and the Yangtze, the third longest river in the world, is drying up. Parts of the Yangtze River have dried up from the extreme heat. Experts have also noticed a drastic decline of many native freshwater species of fish, like the now extinct Chinese paddlefish and sturgeon. “The Yangtze is the longest river in China and (all of) Asia and has long been a cradle of civilization. “If there’s anything we can learn from the death of the Yangtze River dolphin, it’s that extinction is forever and we can’t afford to take it lightly.”

☆ Giant invasive pythons run rampant in Florida and wreak havoc on native species — but python hunters are here to help
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-03 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Invasive Burmese pythons have decimated native species in Florida. The invasive pythons are feasting on native speciesSiewe is one of 100 licensed hunters contracted by Florida to catch and kill the invasive reptiles, which have wreaked havoc on the ecosystem and decimated native species. One of the largest of all snakes, pythons can grow up to 20 feet long and feast on animals as large as white-tailed deer. Paid to hunt — in the name of conservationWildlife officials are working on projects to estimate the python population, but the most successful effort to address the problem has been the python hunters, Kirkland said. "I know it sounds crazy, but it is the easiest way to catch these pythons," Siewe said, adding she's been bit many times.

☆ Liquid nitrogen leaked onto wetlands around SpaceX launch pad before rocket-test explosion, federal regulators confirm
▼ + stars: | 2022-07-15 | by ( Kate Duffy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

There was a liquid-nitrogen leak at SpaceX's Texas launch site, federal regulators told Bloomberg. An aerial video shows patches of wetland that are snow-white from the liquid-nitrogen leak. Elon Musk's aerospace company uses liquid nitrogen as a coolant when launching rockets. Bloomberg reported that the leak happened three days before SpaceX's Starship rocket booster prototype burst into flames at the launch site. SpaceX didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider about the liquid-nitrogen leak outside normal business hours.

Flooding caused by rising sea levels has increased by 247% in some areas of New York since 2000. The nonprofit Billion Oyster Project aims to restore oyster reefs in New York's five boroughs. However, in New York, a secret weapon has emerged in the fight against rising sea levels — oysters. The Billion Oyster project plans to restore 100 million oysters in New York Harbor over the next five years. New York isn't the only place in the US using oysters to tackle rising sea levels.

☆ Made Men: A photo tour of the most notorious sites of New York Mafia history – and what they look like now
▼ + stars: | 2021-07-23 | by ( Andrew Lichtenstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +25 min

Andrew Lichtenstein for InsiderManhattan's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, on the western edge of Midtown, got its name from its crowded tenements. On March, 13, 2019, Gambino family crime boss Frankie Cali was shot dead in the driveway outside his Todt Hill home. Andrew Lichtenstein for InsiderThe service road to the Belt Parkway runs through the northern edge of the Brighton Beach neighborhood. John Gotti's Family Home, Howard Beach, QueensThe home where John Gotti, the leader of the Gambino crime family. It's here that John Gotti, the leader of the Gambino crime family and thus the 'Godfather' of the American mafia, lived and raised his family.

☆ Знаете ли вы, что птицы фламинго могут дружить не один год? (ВИДЕО)
▼ + stars: | 2021-04-10 | by ( Mld Media Srl | ) noi.md time to read: +2 min

Близкие социальные связи в стаях фламинго формируют не только так называемые «супружеские пары», но и однополые птицы. Исследование ученых из Университета Эксетера показало, что фламинго формируют дружеские отношения, которые длятся годами, а также избегают определенных особей, с которыми они «не ладят», передает vokrugsveta.ua. В период между 2012 и 2016 годами команда изучала поведение четырех видов фламинго, обитающих в центре водно-болотных угодий Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust Slimbridge. Близкие социальные связи в стаях фламинго формировали не только так называемые «супружеские пары», но и однополые птицы. В общем результаты исследования свидетельствуют о том, что фламинго формируют более сложные общества, чем считалось ранее.

Organizations: Wetlands, Университет Эксетера, Вокруг свет Украина Locations: vokrugsveta.ua

☆ Water's edge: the crisis of rising sea levels
▼ + stars: | 2014-09-04 | by ( Reuters Graphic | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +20 min

But sea levels have been rising for 100 years in Baltimore.”ROCKET SCIENCEThe irony is evident at Wallops Flight Facility. Yet this bastion of climate research has been slow to apply the science of sea level rise to its own operations. Reviewers from state and federal agencies criticized the 348-page document for failing to adequately take rising sea levels into account in the project design and impact, or to temper future plans for expansion. Joshua Bundick, Wallops’s environmental planning manager, explained that he distilled the issues “down to only the highest points,” and sea level rise wasn’t among them. The cost to American taxpayers of repeated destruction of the parking lot and causeway from rising sea levels would only increase, Fish and Wildlife officials said.

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