The White House on Monday said that President Trump would withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, the pact among almost all nations to fight climate change. By withdrawing, the United States would join Iran, Libya and Yemen as the only four countries not party to the agreement, under which nations work together to keep global warming below levels …
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Airborne Lead and Chlorine Levels Soared as L.A. Wildfires Raged
At the height of the Los Angeles County wildfires, atmospheric concentrations of lead, a neurotoxin, reached 100 times average levels even miles from the flames, according to early detailed measurements obtained by The New York Times. Levels of chlorine, which is also toxic at low concentrations, reached 40 times the average. The spiking levels underscore the added danger from wildfires …
Read More »Fake Meat Is Processed. What Does That Mean for Its Health Benefits.
It’s not exactly the best moment to pitch ultraprocessed foods as healthy and delicious, but that’s exactly what two major producers of plant-based meat are trying to do. Beyond Meat wants to convince people that its vegan versions of meat products are good for you. So does its competitor, Impossible Foods, which recently changed its packaging colors from green to …
Read More »The Next Threat to L.A.? Rainfall That Could Cause Landslides
While winds and flames continued to ravage Los Angeles, small teams began creeping onto the charred soils left in their wake. Roughly a dozen members of the California Watershed Emergency Response Teams and the United States Forest Service are studying the edges of the Eaton and Palisades fires to determine what patches of land burned most severely. Soon, they’ll issue …
Read More »Lee Zeldin, Trump’s Pick to Head E.P.A., Faces Senate Confirmation Hearing
Of all the government agencies that President-elect Donald J. Trump has threatened to shrink or eliminate, perhaps none has been a greater target than the Environmental Protection Agency. During the first Trump administration, the nation’s top regulator of air and water pollution and industrial chemicals saw its budget slashed, leading to an exodus of employees and weakened enforcement of environmental …
Read More »Fake Meat Is Processed. What Does That Mean for Its Health Benefits.
It’s not exactly the best moment to pitch ultraprocessed foods as healthy and delicious, but that’s exactly what two major producers of plant-based meat are trying to do. Beyond Meat wants to convince people that its vegan versions of meat products are good for you. So does its competitor, Impossible Foods, which recently changed its packaging colors from green to …
Read More »Even Homes That Evade the Fire Face Toxic Ash Risk, Studies Show
Armed with two garden hoses hooked up to a sputtering tap, Matthew Craig battled fire and smoke to save his house from the onslaught of flames that devastated much of Altadena, a once leafy corner of Los Angeles County. The wind felt like dragon’s breath, he said, and “we were all eating smoke.” But even though his home is secure, …
Read More »Are Biden and Trump at Odds on Global Energy Strategy? Maybe Not So Much.
At their confirmation hearings on Wednesday, the two men in line to oversee the United States’ global energy policies, Senator Marco Rubio and the fossil fuel executive Chris Wright, are expected to assail President Biden as overly concerned with climate change. According to a spokeswoman, Mr. Wright, who was picked to lead the Department of Energy, will say that Mr. …
Read More »Choice for Energy Secretary Has Been an Evangelist for Fossil Fuels
Chris Wright, Donald J. Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Energy, landed the job during his first encounter with the past and future president. The founder and chief executive of Liberty Energy, a fracking services company based in Colorado, Mr. Wright was among about 20 oil and gas executives whom Mr. Trump gathered at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida …
Read More »Economic Toll of Los Angeles Fires Goes Far Beyond Destroyed Homes
After decades of mounting damage from climate-fueled natural disasters, researchers have compiled many misery-filled data sets that trace the economic fallout over weeks, months and years. The fires still burning in Los Angeles are sure to rank among America’s most expensive — but there is no perfect analogue for them, making it difficult to forecast the ultimate cost. The main …
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