Environment

In 2017, Rollie Williams was a struggling comedian when he came across a copy of “An Inconvenient Truth,” Al Gore’s book on climate change.While a New York Times review describes the book as “lucid, harrowing and bluntly effective,” Mr. Williams was struck by the potential for comedy. It had been 10 years since the former vice president’s passionate appeal, and the planet had just kept heating up.“I thought Al Gore on an ‘I-told-you-so tour’ would be a funny premise for a comedy show,” he said. The resulting production was a hit.Mr. Williams, who lives and works in Brooklyn, now makes comedic videos about the environment. He is part of a growing movement that takes on the climate crisis with humor. From Hollywood movies like Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up” to independent sketches on YouTub...

The climate scientist Michael Mann on Thursday won his defamation lawsuit against Rand Simberg, a former adjunct scholar at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and Mark Steyn, a contributor to National Review.The trial transported observers back to 2012, the heyday of the blogosphere and an era of rancorous polemics over the existence of global warming, what the psychology researcher and climate misinformation blogger John Cook called “a feral time.”The six-member jury announced its unanimous verdict after a four-week trial in District of Columbia Superior Court and one full day of deliberation. They found both Mr. Simberg and Mr. Steyn guilty of defaming Dr. Mann with multiple false statements and awarded the scientist $1 in compensatory damages from each writer.The jury also found t...

The estimated price tag for President Biden’s clean-energy and climate agenda has effectively doubled since the Inflation Reduction Act was signed into law a year and a half ago.Nearly all of the increase is attributable to forecasters’ belief that the law will be more popular than they had originally expected, in part because of the way the Biden administration wrote certain regulations. That rising price tag may actually be good for reducing greenhouse gas emissions — and for the U.S. economy.The Inflation Reduction Act, which Democrats passed on a party-line vote in summer 2022, includes tax credits and other subsidies for low-emission energy technologies that are meant to help wean the nation from fossil fuels.Many of those credits are effectively unlimited, meaning the more people ...

Male elephant seals are not known for their paternal instincts. While splayed out on the beach during the breeding season, these far-from-gentle giants focus on mating with females and fighting other males. As they hustle their two tons of bulk around the colony in pursuit of these goals, “they’ll run over pups” without hesitation, crushing even their own offspring, said Daniel Costa, an ecologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz.Which made the events of Jan. 27, 2022, all the more striking. Sarah Allen and Matthew Lau, wildlife biologists at the National Park Service, were surveying the northern elephant seal population at Point Reyes National Seashore, about 30 miles northwest of San Francisco. As they walked past a colony lounging on the beach, they noticed a young pup res...

A backlash against plans to reform agriculture in Wales is predicted by union leaders. Source link

The climate scientist Michael Mann on Thursday won his defamation lawsuit against both Rand Simberg, a former adjunct scholar at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and Mark Steyn, a contributor to National Review.The trial transported observers back to 2012, the heyday of the blogosphere and an era of rancorous controversy over the existence of global warming, what the psychology researcher and climate misinformation blogger John Cook called “a feral time.”The six-person jury announced its unanimous verdict after a four-week trial in District of Columbia Superior Court and one full day of deliberation. They found both Mr. Simberg and Mr. Steyn guilty of defaming Dr. Mann with multiple false statements and awarded the scientist $1 in compensatory damages from each writer.The jury also...

Our planet’s hottest January on record also helped global warming pass a different, unwelcome milestone, according to data released on Thursday by the European Union climate monitor: Over the past 12 months, the average temperature worldwide was more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, higher than it was at the dawn of the industrial age.That number carries special significance in the international effort to stop dangerous climate change. Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, nations agreed to try to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared with preindustrial times, or at least to keep it comfortably below 2 degrees Celsius.The latest temperature data doesn’t mean we’ve already passed that lower limit. Still, it is a potent symbolic reminder that, barring huge cha...

Breaking Records at the JET Laboratory The Path to Limitless, Clean Power In a groundbreaking experiment at the UK-based JET laboratory, nuclear fusion has achieved a new world record, catapulting humanity closer to the dream of unlimited, clean energy. Unveiling the Power of Nuclear Fusion A Glimpse into the Sun's Energy Source Nuclear fusion, the process that fuels stars like our Sun, holds immense potential for producing copious amounts of energy without detrimental environmental effects. Triumph Amidst Decades of Research European Scientists Lead the Charge After over 40 years of dedicated fusion research, European scientists at the JET facility have achieved unprecedented success, marking a significant milestone in the pursuit of sustainable energy solutions. Ministerial Appl...

If you’re one of the lucky fans who managed to get tickets to the Super Bowl, congratulations. You’re in for a thrilling experience. But if you’re still looking for tickets and are tempted by offers on social media platforms, beware. You might end up with a fake ticket and a lot of disappointment.Counterfeit tickets are a serious issue that affects many major events, especially the Super Bowl. According to members of the intelligence team at managed intelligence company Nisos, scammers are actively seeking victims who are hoping to get last-minute tickets to the Super Bowl, often preying on their desperation and the scarcity of tickets to take advantage of them. Nisos has been compiling a data dive on counterfeit Super Bowl tickets for this Sunday’s big game and has uncovered some alar...