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"The Iran conflict is driving up energy and fertilizer costs, raising alarms over a return of food inflation. Farmers are bracing for resource shortages that could drag down harvests."
"In a map update posted last month to U.S. Custom and Border Protection’s website, the agency charted a major expansion of the border wall. It included terrain belonging to one of America’s most iconic wild areas, Big Bend National Park, an 800,000-acre desert landscape that includes the entire Chisos mountain range and more than 100 miles of the Rio Grande."
"Proposed legislation offers perks for data centers that invest in clean energy. A broad coalition supports the bill, but details still need to be hammered out."
"Fish are evolving ever smaller in order to survive temperature increases, new research warns. It’s a biological shift that will rob billions of meals from those who rely on fish for protein."
"World leaders have tried and failed to curb climate change by appealing to nations to act for the common good. Now, the Iran war and its costly energy crunch have some experts wondering if selfishness and nationalism may be a more likely way to save the planet, by boosting support for homegrown renewables over imported fossil fuels."
"On a recent afternoon, deep in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley and less than an hour’s drive from Shenandoah National Park, a tricolored bat was moving its mouth rapidly, as if it was trying to chew something. In fact, it was echolocating, using its mouth to shape and direct pulses of ultrasonic sound as a way to survey its surroundings."
"A group representing many of the world’s wealthiest countries agreed Wednesday to release the largest volume of emergency oil reserves in its history, in a bid to counter the effects of the Iran war on energy markets and the halt of cargo shipping through the Strait of Hormuz."
"Top US regulators met with Bayer’s CEO last year to discuss “litigation” issues – including “Supreme Court Action” over its glyphosate weed killer – just months before the Trump administration took a series of steps to boost Bayer’s case at the high court, internal government records show."
"EPA is canceling its collective bargaining agreement with its second-biggest union, a fierce critic of the Trump administration."
"A major environmental justice case tying slavery’s legacy to Cancer Alley reached a new phase after a judge rejected defendants’ motion to dismiss last month."
"Nearly 40% of nonorganic fruits and vegetables grown in California contain traces of pesticides that are also PFAS, or “forever chemicals,” according to a new investigation."
"Ethics staff at EPA found last summer that employees who signed an open dissent letter were within their rights to do so, internal emails show. Nevertheless, the agency suspended most and fired some, a controversial move seen as silencing their criticism and is now being challenged by litigation."
"Environmentalists say the war’s effects on oil and gas prices are an argument for countries to get off fossil fuels. But the reality is likely to be messier."
"At least 18.7 million people are served by one of roughly 1,000 utilities that are in serious violation of pollution limits. At least 2.7 million live with a system that violated federal clean water rules continually over the last three years, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal data."
"A key federal vaccine advisory panel has abandoned an attack on the covid-19 mRNA vaccines — a shift that comes as some Republicans warn that any more changes to vaccine policy could damage the party in the midterms."
