This Week on Earth

EDN Week in Review: Environmental News for the Week of May 14

“Scientists Created a Surfboard Fin to Collect Valuable Data about the Oceans of the World” (Surfer Today)
“The small piece of surf gear collects valuable data about the oceans of the world, as the surfboard glides across the waves. The goal is to understand how seawater is changing, and how we can reverse climate change.” More…

“Urgent Climate Action Required to Protect Tens of Thousands of Species Worldwide, New Research Shows” (John H. Cushman Jr. and Neela Banerjee, Inside Climate News)
“One key to salvaging plant and vertebrate habitat and protecting the world’s biodiversity is to limit warming to the most challenging benchmark established under the 2015 Paris treaty—1.5 degrees Celsius of warming—not to the treaty’s less stringent 2 degree guardrail, the study found.” More…

“Global Economy Improving, but Progress on Emission Reductions too Slow” (UN)
“The study by the UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs points towards a 1.4 percent increase of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in 2017 due to a combination of accelerated economic growth, relatively cheap fossil fuels and weak energy efficiency efforts.” More…

“Trump’s NASA Chief: ‘I Fully Believe and Know the Climate Is Changing'” (Marina Koren, The Atlantic)
“Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas. We’re putting it into the atmosphere in volumes that we haven’t seen, and that greenhouse gas is warming the planet. That is absolutely happening, and we are responsible for it….” More…

“Younger Republicans Are Slightly More Liberal on Climate Change” (Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic)
“Millennial Republicans are more likely to endorse centrist environmental positions than their Boomer or Gen X co-partisans, the study found…” More…

“Banned Ozone-Harming Gas Creeps Back, Suggesting a Mystery Source” (Henry Fountain, New York Times)
“Global production of CFC-11, which has been used as a refrigerant and in insulating foams, has been banned since 2010 under an environmental pact, the Montreal Protocol….” More…