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Washington Post – “This is starting out as a complicated season for leaf peepers. As the East Coast sweated through record October heat, parts of the Rockies were buried under wildly early snow. Late heat and early cold can stifle some of the most photo-worthy foliage, but soon enough, large swaths of the country will …
The effect of pollution on crime: Evidence from data on particulate matter and ozone. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management – Available online 30 September 2019, 102267. In Press, Journal Pre-proof [paywall]. – “We estimate the effect of short-term air pollution exposure (PM2.5 and ozone) on several categories of crime, with a particular emphasis on …
UK Guardian – Project to record cultural, geological and environmental treasures at risk from climate crisis – “A project to produce detailed maps of all the land on Earth through laser scanning has been revealed by researchers who say action is needed now to preserve a record of the world’s cultural, environmental and geological treasures. Prof …
The Verge – “A year ago, navigation app Waze made a risky bet on carpooling, a type of commuting that has waned since its heyday in the 1970s. It launched Waze Carpool, a dedicated app that lets nonprofessional drivers offer rides to people who are traveling on a similar route for a nominal fee. So …
Auduban – Survival by Degrees: 389 Species on the Brink: “If we take action now, we can improve the chances for hundreds of bird species. By stabilizing carbon emissions and holding warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, 76 percent of vulnerable species will be better off, and nearly 150 species would no longer be vulnerable to …
The New York Times – See driving-related emissions in your metro area, road by road – “These findings come from a New York Times analysis of new data released through Boston University’s Database of Road Transportation Emissions. The database provides the most detailed estimates available of local on-road CO2 over the past three decades. The …
EveryCRSReport – The Endangered Species Act and Climate Change: Selected Legal Issues . September 20, 2019 R45926:”For more than a decade, federal agencies have grappled with how to address climate change effects when implementing the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA). The ESA aims to protect threatened and endangered fish, wildlife, and plants from extinction. …
CRS report via FAS – Legal Authority to Repurpose Funds for Border Barrier Construction. Updated October 2, 2019: “President Trump has prioritized the construction of border barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border. Over the course of negotiations for FY2019 appropriations, the Administration asked Congress to appropriate $5.7 billion to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for …
Center for Data Visualization – “The Wall Street Journal has created a series of data visualizations showing how bad weather and the United States-China trade war have created significant challenges for U.S. farmers. The visualizations show that the months between July 2018 and June 2019 were the wettest in the United States since record-keeping began …
Smithsonian.com – A machine learning algorithm helped decode the squeaks Egyptian fruit bats make in their roost, revealing that they “speak” to one another as individuals: “Plenty of animals communicate with one another, at least in a general way—wolves howl to each other, birds sing and dance to attract mates and big cats mark their …
Earth and Space Science News (EOS) – “Climate change isn’t just captured by thermometers—grapes can also do the trick. By mining archival records of grape harvest dates going back to 1354, scientists have reconstructed a 664-year record of temperature traced by fruit ripening. The records, from the Burgundy region of France, represent the longest series …
The second National Task Force report on the Rule of Law & Democracy outlines how to curb political interference in government science and fix a broken appointments process. “In recent years, the norms and expectations that once ensured that our government was guided primarily by the public interest rather than by individual or partisan interest …
