Drought is an urgent environmental story, both as it emerges in its seasonal form and as part of larger related issues of allocation and climate change. As the drought season gets underway, this week’s TipSheet offers story angles and more than a dozen key resources for your coverage.
"John Tyndall, an Irish physicist, is usually recognized as the first person to prove the greenhouse-gas effect. But some of the credit should have gone to Eunice Foote, an American scientist, who, save a few mentions, remains largely unknown today."
"An environmental group and a largely African-American church tried to challenge North Carolina’s utility monopoly by generating cheap, clean power. They lost."
"Senators will have their first chance to question EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt since he has been beset by allegations of excessive spending and misuse of his Cabinet-level office."
"A review team today released a long-awaited report that criticizes NOAA Fisheries for not doing enough to investigate the unusual deaths of three fisheries observers, saying in one case there had been 'an information vacuum.'"
"For both humans and wildlife, the Republican reauthorization of the Farm Bill would usher in the weakest federal protections against pesticide abuse since Silent Spring."
"A high-level official at the Department of the Interior held meetings with a previous employer, the Koch-linked Texas Public Policy Foundation, while it was involved in legal action against the department, according to newly obtained documents."
"The Department of Energy won't hold the Solar Decathlon next year as originally scheduled and plans to have more industry 'engagement' during a future event, according to Department of Energy officials and an internal DOE document."
"In a paper published Monday in the American Heart Association's journal Hypertension, researchers reported that children of mothers who were exposed in their third trimester to higher levels of fine particulate pollution — the tiny airborne matter that causes haze in many cities around the world — were at a 61 percent higher risk of elevated blood pressure."
"An internal watchdog at the Environmental Protection Agency said Monday that Administrator Scott Pruitt demanded and received unprecedented, around-the-clock protection from armed officers on his first day — a detail that appears at odds with past claims that the stepped-up security measures came in direct response to death threats."
