SCIENCE<\/p>\n
David Gelles, a climate writer for the New York Times, just published this article about recent climate trends<\/a>. It contains interviews with a variety of climate scientists. A sample: “The world has already warmed nearly 1.5 degrees, and appears on track to blow past 2 degrees by the end of the century, if not sooner. Wall Street analysts are anticipating a world that has warmed at least 3 degrees<\/a>, a scenario that would render parts of the world uninhabitable and unleash vast economic devastation.”<\/p>\n Revolution Wind is on. On Friday, the 704-megawatt offshore wind farm started pumping electricity onto New England\u2019s grid from off the coast of Rhode Island. As the turbine array neared completion, the Danish developer Orsted was forced into battle against the Trump administration\u2019s attempts to yank permits from the project — and won repeatedly, as Heatmap\u2019s Jael Holzman wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Energy Ministers of the 9 North Seas countries gathered in On Thursday, EV manufacturer Rivian announced<\/a> an over $1.2 billion investment from Uber, the ride-sharing company, through 2031, as well as a deal for Uber to purchase between 10,000 and 50,000 autonomous R2 robotaxis. The fleet would first come online in San Francisco and Miami in 2028, and scale to 25 cities by 2031.<\/p>\n CLIMATE DESPOLIATION<\/p>\n The record-breaking heatwave scorching the US west this week would have been \u201cvirtually impossible\u201d if not for the climate crisis, a team of scientists has determined<\/a>.<\/p>\n Through the century-old Haber-Bosch process<\/a>, natural gas is combined with atmospheric nitrogen at extreme temperatures and pressures to produce ammonia, which is then converted into the nitrogen fertilizers that sustain global agriculture. The Persian Gulf is a fertilizer powerhouse — the same abundant natural gas that powers economies around the world also serves as the feedstock for ammonia production. Qatar and Saudi Arabia are major fertilizer exporters, and the wider Gulf region is a critical supplier of urea, ammonia, sulfur, and phosphates. Iranian drones struck QatarEnergy’s facilities early in the war, denting LNG production<\/a>. Yesterday, its CEO revealed to Reuters<\/a> that the cumulative damage is far worse than initially understood: 17 percent of Qatar’s LNG export capacity may have been knocked offline for perhaps three to five years. Because that same natural gas is the feedstock for ammonia and fertilizer production, this means the disruption to the global food supply chain will outlast any ceasefire. G7 countries don\u2019t maintain strategic fertilizer reserves. The Saudi bypass pipeline carries crude, not ammonia. A ship captain bold enough to brave the strait under drone fire would choose to carry oil over fertilizer — it\u2019s worth more per ton. Every piece of crisis infrastructure is built to protect the commodity that markets understand and value more. Fertilizer, the commodity that actually feeds people, is an afterthought. <\/p>\n DARK AGE CLIMATE POLITICS<\/p>\n
\nHamburg today to boost the expansion of offshore wind. Together with
\nindustry and transmission system operators they signed the \u201cInvestment Pact for the North Seas<\/a>\u201d. Governments commit to building 15 GW of
\noffshore wind per year over 2031-2040 and de-risking offshore wind
\ninvestments. The industry, in return, pledges cost reductions, 91,000
\nadditional jobs and generating \u20ac1tn of economic activity. With the
\nInvestment Pact, Europe is charting the massive offshore wind buildout
\nit needs to deliver on its energy security and competitiveness
\nobjectives. A total of 37 GWs already exists and they are aiming for at least 100 GWs.<\/p>\n\n
\n
\n
\nenvironmental reviews for projects that should have an \u201cinsignificant\u201d
\nimpact. But the rampant clearcutting the forest service oversaw under
\none of these categorical exclusions, CE-6, often has devastating impacts
\n on wildlife, soil and water quality, and the brush left behind may even
\n increase fire risk. So environmental groups, including WildEarth Guardians, Oregon Wild
\nand Green Oregon Alliance, sued the Forest Service, and a district judge
\n ruled in their favor, striking down the policy in January 2026.<\/a> [The federal Fix Our Forests Act, pending in the Senate, would reverse the effects of the court ruling.]<\/li>\n
\nofficials for imprisoning a county clerk backed by the president who was
\n convicted of helping election deniers meddle with voting equipment in
\n2020, a lawsuit filed Monday by the lab\u2019s leadership alleged.
\nThe
\n University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, a nonprofit consortium
\n of 129 North American universities, filed a lawsuit against four
\nfederal agencies and their directors on Monday claiming that the administration\u2019s efforts to dismantle<\/a>
\n the Boulder, Colo., lab \u201cpose a direct threat to national security,
\npublic safety, and economic prosperity and risk setting back the
\ncountry\u2019s global leadership in weather and space weather modeling and
\nforecasting.\u201d<\/li>\n
\nLeadership and Community Protection Act, from lawmakers failing to pass a
\n regulatory framework to raise revenue for implementation to
\nenvironmentalists suing Hochul for slow walking measures to cut
\nemissions. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n