ICYMI: Falling Iguanas, Dying Sequoias, Mops and Buckets & More

A weekly roundup for busy people

By Paul Rauber

Illustrations by Peter Arkle

January 24, 2020

Florida is experiencing a cold snap, and the National Weather Service's Miami office advises residents to beware of frozen iguanas falling out of trees

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals dismisses Juliana v. United States, ruling that its 21 young plaintiffs lack standing to sue the federal government for failing to act on climate change.

Emails between Trump’s Justice Department and oil-industry lawyers show that they worked together as a “team” to oppose climate lawsuits from coastal cities.

The carbon emissions from Australia's January fires near 540 million tons, just short of the country's anthropogenic emissions for an entire year.

BHP, Australia's largest coal producer, complains that smoke from the country's massive wildfires is curtailing its ability to mine coal

Since 2014, 28 giant sequoias have died in Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks because of conditions linked to climate change.

In response to a Freedom of Information Act request and subsequent lawsuit by the Sierra Club, the EPA admits that administrator Andrew Wheeler had no scientific basis for his claim that “most of the threats from climate change are 50 to 75 years out.” 

New York City contemplates a six-mile, $119 billion sea wall to protect itself against climate-fueled storm surges like that from Hurricane Sandy. Trump suggests any problem of flooding can be solved with “mops & buckets.” 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration gets funding from Congress to study two methods of geoengineering to cool the earth

The Trump administration approves a rule that will make it much harder to set new energy-efficiency standards for common household appliances in the future.

The Trump administration weakens Obama-era clean water rules, allowing industry to dump pollutants into ephemeral streams and wetlands.

The Trump administration will allow the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline to be built across a key stretch of federal land in Montana. 

For the first time in more than 60 years, a juvenile eastern indigo snake is found in the wild in Alabama, proof that a reintroduction program is working.

China proposes a sweeping ban on single-use plastic, especially plastic bags from supermarkets and food-delivery businesses.

Starbucks vows to halve its waste, water use, and carbon emissions by 2030.

Microsoft says it will be carbon negative by 2030, and by 2050 will remove as much carbon from the atmosphere as the company has ever emitted.

Coca-Cola, the world’s biggest corporate plastic polluter, says that it won’t abandon single-use plastic bottles because people like them

The Zurich airport makes green jet fuel available for the hundreds of private jets arriving for the World Economic Forum in Davos. 

The Rockford (Michigan) Chamber of Commerce proclaims Wolverine World Wide, the footwear company responsible for contaminating local groundwater with toxic PFAS, as "business of the year."