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More than 11,000 scientists worldwide warn of “climate emergency”

In strongly worded new report signed by more than 11,000 scientists in 153 countries the authors lay bare a “climate emergency” they say requires rapid changes in the way humans live to prevent the worst predictions from coming true.  Titled the “World scientists’ warning of a climate emergency” the report, published Tuesday in the journal … Continued
November 8, 2019

Auburn awarded $3 million grant to fund climate change education

Auburn University has been awarded a $3 million grant to help fund climate change resilience education for graduate students.  Less than 10 percent of the applications to the National Science Foundation Research Traineeship get funded, said Karen McNeal, associate professor of geosciences at Auburn and the principal investigator on the project, speaking to APR on … Continued
October 30, 2019

Trial begins for Exxon, accused of misleading investors on climate change costs

Editor’s note: Eddie Burkhalter is a staff writer at Alabama Political Reporter and a fellow at the Poynter-Koch Media and Journalism Fellowship. The program is a partnership between the Poynter Institute and the Charles Koch Institute. Charles G. Koch is director of the Charles Koch Institute and CEO of the multinational petroleum company Koch Industries. … Continued
October 23, 2019

Drought hitting Alabama cattle producers hard

Recent rains across parts of Alabama have helped some, but Alabama cattle producers are still reeling from “flash drought” conditions that is impacting grazing pastures, hay production and delaying planting of winter grasses used to feed cattle.  According to the U.S. Drought Monitor report released last week portions of 16 states across the south are … Continued
October 22, 2019

Alabama PSC commissioners signed letter written by coal lobbying group, sent them to federal agency

Alabama Public Service commissioners Chip Beeker and Jeremy Oden both signed their names to letters they did not write and sent them to a federal agency on behalf of a coal lobbying firm.  The body of Beeker’s Sept. 6 letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) was virtually identical to letters written by utility … Continued
October 16, 2019

Alabama Public Service Commission sets public hearing on solar fees

The Alabama Public Service Commission on Monday announced it would hold a “limited” public hearing to discuss a complaint over Alabama Power’s fees to customers with solar rooftop arrays.  For many months it was unclear whether the PSC would allow the environmental group complainants — Energy Alabama and the Birmingham-based Gasp, represented by the Southern … Continued
October 10, 2019

Temps cooling off after record-breaking heatwave

Monday brought cooler weather and a little rain across parts of Alabama, a much-needed respite from a heatwave last week in which several Alabama cities ranked as the hottest in the nation.   Jessica Winton, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Birmingham, told APR on Monday that Huntsville would see highs in the upper … Continued
October 8, 2019

Goldman Sachs report analyzes climate change impacts

Investment banking powerhouse Goldman Sachs’s recent report predicts climate change will drive the “largest infrastructure buildout in history” as cities spend big to mitigate rising seas, flooding, increasingly strong storms longer and more intense heat waves and threats to food and water supplies.  The report by Global Market Institute, Goldman Sachs’ research think tank, states … Continued
October 1, 2019

Gulf environmental group’s lawsuit claims waivers for offshore oil drillers are unsafe, illegal

An environmental advocacy group on Thursday filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration claiming the government is allowing offshore oil drillers to skip critical safety tests put in place to prevent another event like the deadly Deepwater Horizon disaster.  The Washington D.C.-based nonprofit legal advocacy group Democracy Forward filed a civil suit in the U.S. … Continued
September 27, 2019

New U.N. report finds sea levels rising faster, oceans getting hotter

Flooding along coastal regions and monster tropical storms are becoming more severe and more frequent, and sea levels are rising more rapidly than was predicted because of human-caused climate change, according to scientists.  In a new report released Wednesday and written by more than 100 authors, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that unless … Continued
September 26, 2019