The displacement of populations by climate impacts, while not a new phenomenon in human history, is worsening in the face of global warming’s extreme weather patterns. Yet the extensive international regime to aid refugees doesn’t cover those migrating due to flooding, drought, natural disasters or climate change. Backgrounder considers the implications and how nations will respond to the new realities.
"The red-cockaded woodpecker, an iconic bird in southeastern forests, has recovered enough of its population to be downlisted from an endangered species to a threatened one, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Thursday."
"Faced with worsening climate-driven disasters and an electricity grid increasingly supplied by intermittent renewables, the US is rapidly installing huge batteries that are already starting to help prevent power blackouts."
"The methane released by U.S. landfills could be cut in half in the next 25 years if the EPA adopts policies that some states have now, a new study finds."
"Owasco Lake is called the region’s “canary in the coal mine” for harmful algal blooms, which threaten swimmers, pets and some local drinking water supplies."
"The once-mighty river is barely a trickle through much of West Texas. Scientists and advocates say local initiatives could be scaled up to restore flows to the river."
"New York, New Jersey and Delaware were accused in federal lawsuits Thursday of improperly allowing Atlantic sturgeon to be killed by commercial fishing operations even as the prehistoric fish is on the brink of disappearing."
"With tales of sharks, whales and water dumping, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX is targeting environmental agencies and rules."
"The Environmental Protection Agency is at risk of misallocating nearly $1 billion in lead pipe replacement funding to the wrong states because it didn’t verify inaccurate data provided by Texas and Florida, an agency watchdog announced."
"For the first time under President Joe Biden, a federal permit for a new lithium mine has been approved for a Nevada project essential to his clean energy agenda, despite conservationists’ vows to sue over the plan, which they say will drive an endangered wildflower to extinction."
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