In a remote and heavily forested region of northern Maine, a critical resource in the fight against climate change has been hiding beneath the trees. In November, scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey, or USGS, announced the discovery of rocks that are rich in rare earth elements near Pennington Mountain. A category of metals that […]
If Hollywood has the power to shape our collective imagination for good, it has too often failed when it comes to compelling stories about climate. But that untapped power is part of what makes Extrapolations, the new Apple TV series being touted as the biggest-budget scripted TV show ever made about global warming, so intriguing. […]
As Academy Award nominees opened up their exclusive goody bags this year, they found vouchers for cosmetic surgery, invitations for complimentary stays at a lighthouse in Italy, and a chocolate box with a personalized video embedded inside. They also found a certificate to plots of land in Australia, one square meter of Indigenous territory in […]
This article was copublished with The Markup, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates how powerful institutions are using technology to change our society. Sign up for its newsletters here. New York state took a historic step toward curbing the power of Big Tech when lawmakers passed the Digital Fair Repair Act, giving citizens the right to fix their […]
President Joe Biden took a victory lap on his climate record during last night’s State of the Union, touting his administration’s major investments in clean energy and resilient infrastructure. He celebrated the passage of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, as well as the Inflation Reduction Act, “the most significant investment ever to tackle […]
In early February, 15 First Nations and the Canadian government announced a new plan for a network of marine protected areas on Canada’s west coast. The Marine Protected Areas Network Action Plan for the Northern Shelf Bioregion provides a strategy to create protected areas that will safeguard more than two hundred species of fish, marine […]
In a first-of-its-kind victory for the right-to-repair movement, Microsoft has agreed to take concrete steps to facilitate the independent repair of its devices following pressure from its shareholders. On Monday, Microsoft and the investor advocacy nonprofit As You Sow reached an agreement concerning a shareholder resolution As You Sow filed in June urging the tech […]
The record backlog of cargo ships off the coast of Southern California isn’t just making it harder to find furniture, children’s toys, or pet food in stores across the country. It’s also driving a spike in dirty exhaust that threatens the health of vulnerable communities nearby, according to California regulators. Dozens of vessels are running […]
Folded into the Democrats’ multitrillion-dollar budget reconciliation package is some of the U.S.’s most far-reaching climate legislation ever. Even scaled back from its originally proposed size of $3.5 trillion, the bill could go a long way toward helping the nation meet the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees […]
Last month, the climate advocacy organizations Pacific Environment and Stand.earth released a report highlighting the hidden toll retail giants are taking on the planet by ferrying goods across the world on fossil-fuel-powered container ships. This month, the Swiss outdoor clothing company Mammut took a small but “industry-leading” step toward addressing that problem. In early August, […]