The Elephant
A resource for journalists, politicians, policy makers, activists and citizens interested in climate change and the environmental emergency
The ElephantA resource for journalists, politicians, policy makers, activists and citizens interested in climate change and the environmental emergency
Visit: washingtonpost.com
NOAA Atlantic hurricane season outlook predicts exceptionally active storms - The Washington Post
2024-05-23 in The Washington PostThe NOAA outlook predicts 17 to 25 tropical storms, eight to 13 hurricanes and four to seven “major” hurricanes, and is the most aggressive May prediction the agency has made.
What a years-long probe of Big Oil reveals about its climate strategy - The Washington Post
2024-04-30 in The Washington PostExxon downplayed Paris agreement climate targets, according to documents, while others privately were skeptical of achieve their “net zero” commitments.
Forecast group predicts most active Atlantic hurricane season on record - The Washington Post
2024-04-24 in The Washington PostUniversity of Pennsylvania climate scientist Michael Mann cites record ocean warmth as key factor in unprecedented Atlantic forecast.
Earth’s record hot streak might be a sign of a new climate era - The Washington Post
2024-04-19 in The Washington PostEach of the past ten months has been the hottest on record – an unprecedented streak of unprecedented temperatures that has fueled alarm among climate scientists.
The world is ‘woefully off track’ on climate goals, scientists find - The Washington Post
2023-11-14 in The Washington PostThe rise of electric vehicles stands out as a bright spot in the effort to cut down on emissions.
Tagged under: The Paris Agreement | Climate Change Adaption | Washington State
The Lego-like way to get CO2 out of the atmosphere - The Washington Post
2023-11-13 in The Washington PostA company says it has found a way to remove CO2 from the air for less than $100 per ton.
U.S. faith groups do not view climate change as a crisis, new poll finds - The Washington Post
2023-10-06 in The Washington PostAmong White evangelicals, the view that the Earth is in crisis dropped — from 13 percent in 2014 to 8 percent today.
Tagged under: Religion
A saltwater wedge climbing the Mississippi River threatens drinking water - The Washington Post
2023-09-21 in The Washington PostA saltwater wedge is making its way up the drought-stricken Mississippi River, threatening drinking water. New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell signed an emergency declaration Friday.
Tagged under: Drought | Rivers | Louisiana
Home insurers cut natural disasters from policies over climate risk
2023-09-03 in The Washington PostMajor insurers say they will cut out damage caused by hurricanes, wind and hail from policies underwriting property along coastlines and in wildfire country.
Tagged under: Insurance | Washington State
Oil companies are hiring TikTok influencers to court young people - The Washington Post
2023-08-17 in The Washington PostMore than 100 influencers have used their platforms to promote fossil fuel companies since 2017.
Tagged under: US Politics
Judge rules in favor of youths in landmark Montana climate trial - The Washington Post
2023-08-14 in The Washington Post“This is a monumental decision," said a lawyer for the young plaintiffs, and could influence similar cases in other states.
Why a power outage amid this Phoenix heat wave would be so deadly - The Washington Post
2023-07-13 in The Washington PostA heat wave combined with a power blackout in Phoenix could kill thousands and send half the city to the emergency room, a study says. Is Phoenix prepared?
Canada sees farthest north 100-degree temperature amid burning wildfires - The Washington Post
2023-07-10 in The Washington PostThe 100-degree reading in Norman Wells in the Northwest Territories Saturday was the highest on record so far north in the Western Hemisphere.
Tagged under: Wildfires
Earth shatters heat records, faces uncharted extreme weather - The Washington Post
2023-07-06 in The Washington PostScientists say to brace for more extreme weather and probably a record-warm 2023 amid unprecedented temperatures.
This is now Canada’s worst fire season in modern history as smoke fills skies - The Washington Post
2023-06-26 in The Washington PostIn the seven days ending Sunday, more than 3.5 million acres had burned. That's nearly 70 percent of an average full fire season in the country.
Tagged under: Canada | Wildfires
The punishing Texas heat wave could expand and get worse - The Washington Post
2023-06-23 in The Washington PostDangerous heat expected to continue for at least another week and possibly longer.
Iowa meteorologist Chris Gloninger steps down after receiving threats - The Washington Post
2023-06-22 in The Washington PostMeteorologist Chris Gloninger will step down from Iowa station KCCI partly because of PTSD he suffered after receiving threats related to his climate coverage.
Global Heat Records Are Falling. A Little Panic Might Be in Order. - The Washington Post
2023-06-16 in The Washington PostSoaring temperatures this spring should spur governments to finally live up to their pledges to curb fossil-fuel use.
Demand for EV mineral skyrockets, leaving miners largely overlooked - Washington Post
2023-06-15 (or before) in The Washington PostSouth Africa is the world’s largest producer of manganese, but the EV industry has done little to protect miners from the neurological hazards of the mineral.
Tagged under: Minerals | South Africa | Africa
How recycling centers could be making our plastics problem worse - The Washington Post
2023-05-22 in The Washington PostA study of one recycling facility in the United Kingdom estimated anywhere between 6 to 13 percent of the plastic processed could end up being released into water or the air as microplastics.
Tagged under: Microplastics and Nanoplastics
To mine EV minerals, industry turns to dangerous refinery technology - Washington Post
2023-05-21 (or before) in The Washington PostIndonesia is richly endowed with nickel, but refining it for electric vehicle batteries poses a daunting environmental challenge.
Tagged under: Minerals | Indonesia
Quest for coveted EV battery metals yields misery in Guinea - Washington Post
2023-05-21 (or before) in The Washington PostThe soaring demand for electric vehicles is fueling dramatic changes in Guinea, home to the world’s largest bauxite reserves.
Tagged under: Africa | Minerals | Mining
Industry pushes back against Biden rules on climate disclosure
2023-05-02 in The Washington PostBig business is bucking President Biden’s efforts to use SEC rules and the purchasing power of the U.S. government to reveal and reduce climate emissions.
Tagged under: Climate Change | Washington State
Harvard climate expert draw fire for serving on Willow oil company board - The Washington Post
2023-04-22 in The Washington PostJody Freeman has served on the board of ConocoPhillips for 11 years. She’s made a “positive difference,” she said, but her detractors disagree.
Tagged under: Alaska
Book review of The Big Myth: How American Business Taught us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway - The Washington Post
2023-03-10 in The Washington Post“The Big Myth,” by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, recounts the coordinated 20th-century effort to instill unquestioning faith in markets above all.
Greenland temperatures surge up to 50 degrees above normal, setting records - The Washington Post
2023-03-07 in The Washington PostThe record-breaking warmth is raising concerns about melting summer ice.
Tagged under: Ice Melting
Ski resorts can now make fake snow in 80 degrees. Here's why that's a problem. - The Washington Post
2023-01-28 in The Washington PostMore companies in the United States, Canada and Europe are using new snow-making technology to fill slopes during warm winter spells.
Tagged under: Climate Change
When scientists tagged a curious seal, he led them to signs of a potential climate disaster
2023-01-20 in The Washington PostScientists found a climate change disaster waiting to happen in one of the most mysterious regions on Earth.
Tagged under: Climate Change | Antarctic | Washington State
Scientists thought carbon emissions had peaked. They’ve never been higher.
2022-12-05 in The Washington PostThese three charts show why carbon emissions are expected to hit another record high in 2022.
How we can keep global warming below the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal - Washington Post
2022-12-01 (or before) in The Washington PostThese scenarios help show us what needs to be done — and what we can still do.
Venice's new MOSE barrier just prevented a historic flood - The Washington Post
2022-11-26 in The Washington PostThe Washington Post got an up-close look at the $6 billion MOSE barrier system, including a hidden world of underwater tunnels.
Judge throws out Biden administration’s massive Gulf of Mexico lease sale, in win for environmentalists - The Washington Post
2022-01-28 in The Washington PostA federal judge has invalidated a record offshore lease sale held by the Biden administration, arguing the government had used a flawed analysis to analyze the climate impacts of drilling for oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico.
Tagged under: Joe Biden
An urgent effort is underway to save Florida’s manatees - The Washington Post
2022-01-23 in The Washington PostFlorida is scrambling to prevent another horrific year of starvation deaths among the beloved mammals
Tagged under: Florida
Greta Thunberg on the state of the climate movement and the roots of her power as an activist
2021-12-29 (or before) in The Washington PostThe Swedish activist discusses being catapulted to the world stage, and how Asperger’s has helped her stay so focused.
Tagged under: Greta Thunberg | Activism
Derecho, rare tornadoes strike Upper Midwest amid wind storm - The Washington Post
2021-12-15 in The Washington PostWeather Service reports record numbers of hurricane-force wind gusts and 19 tornadoes, plus dust storms and fires.
Joe Manchin's blind trust does not include his family's coal company, contradicting his claims as he votes on climate bills - The Washington Post
2021-12-13 in The Washington PostContrary to his public statements, documents filed show that the senator's blind trust is much too small to account for all his reported earnings from the coal company.
Tagged under: Climate Change | US Politics
The Arctic could become dominated by rain rather than snow in some seasons earlier than expected, new study shows - The Washington Post
2021-11-30 in The Washington PostParts of the Arctic could become dominated by rain rather than snow during certain seasons by 2060 or 2070, according to new findings published in the journal Nature, particularly if the Earth continues to warm at its current rate.
Tagged under: Arctic | Climate Change
Climate pledges built on flawed emissions data, Post investigation finds - Washington Post
2021-11-09 (or before) in The Washington PostAn examination of 196 country reports to the United Nations reveals a giant gap between what nations declare their emissions to be versus the greenhouse gases they are sending into the atmosphere. The gap ranges from at least 8.5 billion to as high as 13.3 billion tons a year -- surpassing the annual emissions of China.
Tagged under: Greenhouse Gases
How The Post did its global emissions analysis - The Washington Post
2021-11-08 in The Washington PostA Post analysis of nearly 200 country greenhouse gas reports to the U.N. finds a significant gap between countries' estimates, which guide their Paris Agreement pledges, and independent scientific inventories. The discrepancy ranges from 8.5 to 13.3 billion tons of gases – approaching the annual emissions of China. Here's how The Post calculated the gap.
Tracking Biden’s environmental actions
2021-10-13 (or before) in The Washington PostPresident Biden is unwinding Donald Trump’s environmental legacy while forging his own. The Washington Post is chronicling every step.
Tagged under: Joe Biden
85 percent of the world population lives in areas affected by climate change, new study shows - The Washington Post
2021-10-11 in The Washington PostResearchers used machine learning to analyze more than 100,000 studies of weather events and found that four-fifths of the world’s land area has suffered impacts linked to global warming.
Tagged under: Climate Change | Climate Change Impacts
The amount of heat the Earth traps has doubled since 2005, NASA says - The Washington Post
2021-06-16 in The Washington PostThe amount of heat the Earth traps has roughly doubled since 2005, according to new research from NASA and NOAA. The additional energy is equivalent to four detonations per second of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
Tagged under: Global Warming | Earth Energy Imbalance
An enormous missing contribution to global warming may have been right under our feet - The Washington Post
2021-06-04 in The Washington PostA new study finds a massive, previously unknown contribution to climate change in the form of human conversion of peatlands.
Tagged under: Climate Change
Rebel shareholders with percent of the vote - The Washington Post
2021-05-26 in The Washington PostEXXONVOTE - Today is the showdown between ExxonMobil and rebel shareholders trying to convince the company to confront climate change and install four new independent directors. The vote will come at today's ExxonMobil annual meeting. The country's biggest pension funds have openly sided with rebel shareholders, and the votes of the major fund managers -- BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street -- hung in the balance.
Tagged under: Exxon | Climate Change
Effort to cut world’s greenhouse emissions may be hampered by a giant accounting problem. - The Washington Post
2021-04-26 in The Washington PostCountries are adopting very different strategies for how they take into account carbon pulled out of the air by their forests.
Tagged under: Greenhouse Gases | Trees
An evangelical scientist on reconciling her religion and the realities of climate change - The Washington Post
2021-02-26 in The Washington PostKatharine Hayhoe says using our voices to call for action can help change social norms.
Tagged under: Climate Change | Religion
Texas electric grid was at the mercy of cold weather - The Washington Post
2021-02-16 in The Washington PostThe widespread power failures in Texas in the face of a winter cold snap shine a light on what some see as the derelict state of America’s electricity infrastructure, a mirror reflection of the chaos that struck California last summer.
Tagged under: Electricity | Texas | California | Electricity Grid
White House removes climate scientist Michael Kuperberg heading USGRP - The Washington Post
2020-11-09 in The Washington PostChange at Global Change Research Program may allow climate contrarian David Legates to take over.
Tagged under: Donald Trump | Climate Change
NOAA hires David Legates, who has a long record questioning human-caused climate change - The Washington Post
2020-09-13 in The Washington PostNOAA is appointing Legates to a top position, raising concerns about his influence on the agency's climate science work.
Tagged under: Climate Change
Power Up: Trump says he has the best environmental record. That's not true. - The Washington Post
2020-07-17 in The Washington PostThe president will today speak on his 'environmental leadership.'
Tagged under: Donald Trump
The Energy 202: The U.S. just hit a major milestone as a petroleum exporter - The Washington Post
2020-07-17 in The Washington PostProduction from fracking is the major reason why.
Tagged under: Fracking
EPA wants to rollback environmental regulations despite criticism from scientific advisers. - The Washington Post
2019-12-31 in The Washington PostDraft reports target moves to weaken gas mileage standards and water pollution safeguards.
Arctic report card: Melting permafrost is transforming the region into a carbon source - The Washington Post
2019-12-10 in The Washington PostA new federal report on the Arctic finds the region is in the midst of drastic and sudden changes as a result of human-caused warming.
Tagged under: Arctic | Climate Change
California’s governor declares statewide emergency over wildfires as mass evacuation continues - The Washington Post
2019-10-27 in The Washington PostThe mandatory evacuations affected nearly 180,000 people. About 54,000 acres already have been torched, 94 structures destroyed and State Route 128 turned into a hellish gantlet.
Tagged under: Wildfires | California
Scientists say climate change is pushing Alaska’s weather ‘into record territory.’ - The Washington Post
2019-07-30 in The Washington PostAlaska will soon shatter its record for warmest month, and between sea ice loss, permafrost melt and skyrocketing temperatures, scientists say climate change is thrusting its weather “into record territory.”
Tagged under: Climate Change | Alaska
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