is the editor of The Revelator. An award-winning environmental journalist, his work has appeared in Scientific American, Audubon, Motherboard, and numerous other magazines and publications. His “Extinction Countdown” column has run continuously since 2004 and has covered news and science related to more than 1,000 endangered species. He is a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists and the National Association of Science Writers. John lives on the outskirts of Portland, Ore., where he finds himself surrounded by animals and cartoonists.
Less than three weeks after crude oil started flowing through the Dakota Access Pipeline, a judge has ruled that the pipeline’s environmental review was inadequate and did not address potential impacts to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s fishing and hunting rights, or on environmental justice. President Trump ordered an expedited approval process for the Dakota and Keystone XL pipelines this past January, following years of protests by environmental groups.
An expedition to study how climate change is affecting Arctic ecosystems has been cancelled — because of climate change. According to the University of Manitoba, warm weather has thinned the ice around the Strait of Belle Isle, where the expedition was to take place. This actually makes traveling in the region — even on an icebreaker — more dangerous because the ice is now more mobile and unpredictable. The university says this revelation “clearly illustrates that Canada is ill-prepared to deal with the realities of climate change.”
Citizens of the Silver State may soon be able to go solar once again. A bill going to Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval’s desk next week would restore net metering, which the state’s utility regulators phased out in 2015. Net metering allows households to sell their excess solar energy back to utilities, making solar panels more affordable. Several solar companies stopped adding new Nevada customers after net metering was shut down. Now Tesla and Sunrun say they plan to come back if the bill is signed.
An Obama-era rule to reduce ground-level ozone has been delayed by one year, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced Tuesday. The National Ambient Air Quality Standards were supposed to identify cities that currently have ozone levels above 70 parts per billion. The EPA itself calls ground-level ozone “bad ozone” and says it has been linked to numerous environmental and health effects, including “chest pain, coughing, throat irritation, and airway inflammation,” which can lead the asthma or other problems. The announcement about this delay, however, claims the EPA does not “fully understand the role of background ozone levels.”