Something to Build On

As an environmental journalist, I spend a lot of my time reading about, writing about, and sharing what can only be described as bad news. Yes, sometimes I am able to delve into truly inspiring stories about frontline activists pushing for change, but the big headlines are typically about rising temperatures, environmental injustices, climate inaction, and so on.
 
Which is why, like so many people, I was caught a little off guard by Senator Joe Manchin’s Wednesday about-face on federal climate legislation. After blocking action for months, the West Virginia senator’s new-found willingness to support a $369 billion federal climate bill means we may finally set our country on a path towards meaningful emissions reductions. It’s taken a while for this good news to sink in.
 
Of course, the bill isn’t perfect — no big surprise given its backing by the conservative Manchin. It contains what the Center for Biological Diversity refers to as “poison pills,” most notably requirements that the federal government reinstate a controversial 2021 oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico, and provisions tying renewable energy development to fossil fuel extraction on public lands. It also includes incentives for questionable climate solutions like biofuels and carbon capture.
 
Still, I can’t help but feel cautiously optimistic. If passed, the legislation would, among other things, provide major incentives for clean energy development, fines for methane leakage at oil and gas sites, and $60 billion for environmental justice communities to address poor air quality, invest in climate resiliency, and more. And while it won’t get us to President Biden’s stated goal of reducing emissions by 50 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, experts say it will get us to 40 percent, a significant improvement over our current trajectory.
 
To me, that feels like a win worth celebrating. And something to build on.

Oil Threat to Okavango

The amazingly biodiverse Okavango Delta is among the world’s few large inland delta systems that do not connect to the sea. Now this relatively untouched UNESCO World Heritage Site faces the threat of oil and gas exploration.

Beastly Problem

Two summers ago, poor salmon runs sent a record number of bears foraging for food in a small Alaskan town and resulted in a “Bearpocalypse.” Now Haines is trying to figure out how it can better coexist with bruins.

Broken Rules

The US Forest Service’s misguided forest thinning plans, which exploit a loophole in the federal Roadless Area Conservation Rule, are threatening New England's wildest and oldest forests.

Send this to a friend: