Water & Oceans

"Thwarting the coronavirus means washing hands and staying hydrated. That’s not easy for the 2 million Americans still without plumbing in 2020."

"The Great Barrier Reef is experiencing another "mass bleaching event," according to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. The government agency said that the widespread bleaching was caused by the high temperatures during Australia's record hot summer."

"The Minnesota Court of Appeals sent an air-emissions permit for the PolyMet copper-nickel mine back to state regulators for further review on Monday, giving another victory to environmental groups who oppose the project."

"Scientists have found a new point of major vulnerability in the Antarctic ice sheet, in a region that already appears to be changing as the climate warms and has the potential to raise sea levels by nearly five feet over the long term."

"Removing one gigantic dam can have a massive effect on restoring a river ecosystem. But bringing down more than 80 smaller dams? That can also cause a transformation."

"Cambodia announced on Wednesday that it would not build any new hydropower dams on the mainstream Mekong for the next decade, allaying fears that the river’s fragile biodiversity could be further devastated by development projects."

A group of eight Democratic senators have written the House and Senate leaders asking that the third Covid-19 aid package require that aviation, cruise, and other industries reduce polluting emissions in exchange for bailouts.

"Brace for another flooded spring — but not one as bad as last year, forecasters from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned on Thursday."

"Greenland’s unusually mild summer in 2019 caused the world’s largest island to lose 600 billion tons of ice in just two months, rivaling the summer of 2012 for the most ice mass lost in a single melt season, according to NASA data released Wednesday."

"More than 100 public utilities in at least 34 states have agreed to halt the practice of cutting off water to homes that fail to pay their water bills during the coronavirus crisis."