Today's Top 5

White House Eyes Plan to Cut EPA By a Fifth, Eliminating Key Programs

The plan to slash EPA’s staff from its current level of 15,000 to 12,000 is one of several changes for which the new administration has asked agency staff for comment by close of business Wednesday. The proposal also dictates cutting the agency’s grants to states, including its air and water programs, by 30 percent, and eliminating 38 separate programs in their entirety. Programs designated for zero funding include grants to clean up brownfields, or abandoned industrial sites; a national electronic manifest system for hazardous waste; environmental justice programs; climate-change initiatives; and funding for native Alaskan villages. - Washington Post

Senate Confirms Ryan Zinke As Interior Secretary

Democrats were wary of Zinke despite his declaration that he believes humans contribute to climate change. “Man has had an influence,” he said under questioning by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Zinke’s assertion that the level of human contribution is unknown, despite the near unanimous opinions of climate scientists who say it’s overwhelming, didn’t help. Liberals worried that Zinke would open more land to exploitation at the expense of wildlife and their declining habitat. - Washington Post

Get Ready for the Trump Pipeline Boom

The rush to build massive pipelines began before the election of President Trump, spurred in part by Congress's repeal of a 40-year-old ban on oil exports in December 2015 (backed by then-President Barack Obama). Even before that decision, the United States was already the world's largest exporter of diesel, gasoline, and aviation fuel, and a net exporter of coal. With a glut of oil and gas discoveries in the Marcellus, Barnett, and Bakken shale formations, an increase in American large-scale fossil fuel production has long been in the works and is expected to flourish in the coming years. Pipeline construction will likely expand under President Trump's new infrastructure plan; maps of pending projects for crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids show just how extensive this development will be. - Mother Jones

Inside the Quest To Monitor Countries' CO2 Emissions

Nearly 200 nations pledged to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions under the Paris Agreement on climate change. But how will we know if some don’t follow through. The current inability to verify that a nation has made its promised carbon cuts remains a long-standing loophole that experts say must be closed to make the global pact effective. - Climatewire

Massive Permafrost Thaw In Canada Portends Huge Carbon Release

Huge slabs of Arctic permafrost in northwest Canada are slumping and disintegrating, sending large amounts of carbon-rich mud and silt into streams and rivers. A new study that analyzed nearly a half-million square miles in northwest Canada found that this permafrost decay is affecting 52,000 square miles of that vast stretch of earth—an expanse the size of Alabama. - InsideClimate News

Today's Top 5

Pruitt: Aggressive Cuts to Obama-Era Green Rules to Start Soon

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration will begin rolling back Obama-era environmental regulations in an "aggressive way" as soon as next week, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency said on Saturday - adding he understood why some Americans want to see his agency eliminated completely. Pruitt added the EPA's focus on combating climate change under former President Barack Obama had cost jobs and prevented economic growth, leading many Americans to want to see the EPA eliminated completely. - Reuters

Amazon Deforestation, Once Tamed, Comes Roaring Back

A decade after the “Save the Rainforest” movement forced changes that dramatically slowed deforestation across the Amazon basin, activity is roaring back in some of the biggest expanses of forests in the world. That resurgence, driven by the world’s growing appetite for soy and other agricultural crops, is raising the specter of a backward slide in efforts to preserve biodiversity and fight climate change. - New York Times

A World Turned Upside Down

Wind and solar energy are disrupting a century-old model of providing electricity. What will replace it? - The Economist

Firefighters and Cancer: Is a Risky Job Even Riskier?

In 2015, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the final results of what is currently the largest study of cancer risk among career firefighters ever conducted in the United States. The study of about 30,000 firefighters over a 60-year span showed that compared with the general population, firefighters on average are at higher risk for certain kinds of cancer — mainly oral, digestive, respiratory, genital and urinary cancers. The CDC also found that firefighters who were exposed to more fires than their peers experienced more instances of lung cancer and leukemia, said Robert Daniels, the principal investigator of the project and a research epidemiologist at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The risks come on many fronts, research has indicated. - Washington Post

South Florida Continues Prep For Sea Level Rise

The causes of climate change and debate about how far government should go to prepare for it continue to be a political flash point nationally. But at Florida’s southern end, densely populated and with billions in real estate at stake, preparing for it has become commonplace. - Sun Sentinel

Today's Top 5

Critical Condition: Health Experts Sound the Alarm On Climate

In a gathering impacted by presidential politics, an all-star cast of public health experts largely stuck to their own bleak script: Climate change is poised to unleash an unprecedented, global public health crisis. Not even former Vice President Al Gore, who served as the day's emcee, waded into the political swamp. He presented a half-hour, health-themed version of his much-lauded slide show. - The Daily Climate

Judge Rules Against Pruitt, Ordering Trump's EPA Nominee to Release Emails

An Oklahoma County District judge on Thursday ordered Attorney General Scott Pruitt’s office to turn over emails and other documents requested two years ago by a watchdog group. In the ruling against Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Environmental Protection agency, judge Aletia Haynes Timmons said the agency violated state transparency laws. - State Impact/NPR

EPA Workers Try to Block Pruitt in Show of Defiance

Employees of the Environmental Protection Agency have been calling their senators to urge them to vote on Friday against the confirmation of Scott Pruitt, President Trump’s contentious nominee to run the agency, a remarkable display of activism and defiance that presages turbulent times ahead for the E.P.A. Many of the scientists, environmental lawyers and policy experts who work in E.P.A. offices around the country say the calls are a last resort for workers who fear a nominee selected to run an agency he has made a career out of fighting — by a president who has vowed to “get rid of” it. - New York Times

TransCanada Files KeystoneXL Route Application in Nebraska

TransCanada Corp filed an application with Nebraska authorities on Thursday to route its Keystone XL pipeline through the state, saying it expected a decision this year for this crucial leg of the $8 billion project that had been stymied by environmental groups and other opponents U.S. President Donald Trump cleared the way for the project at the federal level last month, reversing an earlier decision by former President Barack Obama, who had blocked it over environmental concerns. - Reuters

Mexico City, Parched and Sinking, Faces a Water Crisis

Always short of water, Mexico City keeps drilling deeper for more, weakening the ancient clay lake beds on which the Aztecs first built much of the city, causing it to crumble even further. It is a cycle made worse by climate change. More heat and drought mean more evaporation and yet more demand for water, adding pressure to tap distant reservoirs at staggering costs or further drain underground aquifers and hasten the city’s collapse. - New York Times

Today's Top 5

EPA Staff Told To Prepare For Trump's Executive Orders

Staff at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have been told that President Donald Trump is preparing a handful of executive orders to reshape the agency, to be signed once a new administrator is confirmed. Trump has promised to cut U.S. environmental rules - including those ushered in by former President Barack Obama targeting carbon dioxide emissions - as a way to bolster the drilling and coal mining industries, but has vowed to do so without compromising air and water quality. Meanwhile, a new House bill would eliminate the EPA completely by the end of 2018. - Reuters

Standing Rock: Tribes File Last-Ditch Effort to Block Dakota Access Pipeline

The motion, filed Tuesday by the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux tribes, asks the court to reverse an easement for the pipeline that the Army Corps of Engineers granted. That easement lifted the final hurdle for the project's completion. The tribes said the Corps' actions violate the National Environmental Policy Act and the Corps' responsibility to protect the tribes' treaty rights. They called the decision "arbitrary, capricious, and contrary to law." - InsideClimate News

When Climate Change Starts Wars

The warming rate in Central Asia has been twice the average global warming rate over the same period, and larger than any previous decade, over the first 12 years of the 21st century. As the region heats up, it faces increasing political instability and violence. - Nautilus

Researchers Find Pesticides Spills, Accidents May Alter Farmworkers' DNA

Farmworkers who have a high pesticide exposure event—such as a spill—are more likely to experience molecular changes on DNA that may lead to certain cancers, according to a large U.S. study of pesticide applicators in Iowa and North Carolina. The research, part of the ongoing Agricultural Health Study that is monitoring the health of more than 57,000 private and commercial pesticide applicators in Iowa and North Carolina, adds to growing evidence that high exposure to certain pesticides may spur prostate and other cancers in people handling the chemicals. - Environmental Health News

Endangered Species Act May Be Headed For Threatened List

A Senate hearing to “modernize the Endangered Species Act” unfolded Wednesday just as supporters of the law had feared, with round after round of criticism from Republican lawmakers who said the federal effort to keep species from going extinct encroaches on states’ rights, is unfair to landowners and stymies efforts by mining companies to extract resources and create jobs. - Washington Post

Today's Top 5

Judge Rejects Standing Rock Request to Block Dakota Access Pipeline Drilling

A federal judge has rejected a request from indigenous tribes to block drilling of the Dakota Access pipeline, the latest blow to the Standing Rock Sioux after Donald Trump fast-tracked final permits for the last phase of construction. The tribe has argued that it’s unlawful for Trump’s administration to throw out the lengthy environmental review process that the US army corps of engineers began under Obama, which would have required close scrutiny of potential harms and consideration of alternative routes. Trump has been an investor in the pipeline operator Energy Transfer Partners, and its CEO donated to his presidential campaign. - The Guardian

Oroville Dam: Feds and State Ignored Warning 12 Years Ago

More than a decade ago, federal and state officials and some of California’s largest water agencies rejected concerns that the massive earthen spillway at Oroville Dam — at risk of collapse Sunday night and prompting the evacuation of 185,000 people — could erode during heavy winter rains and cause a catastrophe. - San Jose Mercury News

Trump Would Face Legal Battle For Dumping Climate Treaty

A complicated legal battle awaits the Trump administration if it tries to withdraw from the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, said the Congressional Research Service in a new report. The paper, released last week, examines the long-standing debate between the legislative and executive branches over the process for backing away from agreements under domestic and international law. - Greenwire

Heat Waves Scorch The Arctic, Australia, Parts of the US

For climate scientists, the relative warmth in the Arctic is arguably the most troubling. Temperatures in the far north of the planet have risen more than 20 degrees above normal on average in the past week, according to data from the Danish Meteorological Institute. Last week, the National Snow and Ice Data Center announced that the polar ice cap in January stood at a record low for the 38 years it has collected satellite data. Compared to a year earlier, which set the previous record for the smallest January ice cap, the North Pole had lost a Wyoming-sized area of ice. - InsideClimate News

Trump Administration Wants King Gold Mine Case Dismissed

The Trump administration is asking a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit by New Mexico and the Navajo Nation over a 2015 mine-waste spill caused by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Justice Department filed a brief Monday arguing that the EPA, as a government agency, has sovereign immunity because its workers and contractors were trying to clean up the abandoned Gold King Mine when it caused the spill in Colorado. The government is continuing the same argument of the Obama administration, which concluded in January that the EPA was legally barred from paying out the $1.2 billion in claims from people, businesses, governments and others who said they were harmed by the spill. - The Hill

Today's Top 5

Thousands Ordered to Evacuate Towns Near Lake Oroville Dam

The evacuation orders arrived Sunday afternoon, only hours after officials with the California Department of Water Resources sought to assure residents that the rain-engorged reservoir’s dam and its spillways were stable. The orders included the counties of Butte, Yuba and Sutter. Oroville residents were told to make their way north of the lake to Chico, where an impromptu evacuation shelter had been set up at the Silver Dollar fairgrounds. - Los Angeles Times

DuPont to Pay $670 Million to Settle C8 Lawsuits

A study found that, in general, area residents who drank water from wells near the plant had a median level of 38 parts per billion of C8 in their blood — 7.6 times more than the average American. In 2012, a science panel concluded a "probable link" existed between C8 and six diseases: kidney cancer, testicular cancer, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, pregnancy-induced hypertension and high cholesterol. The 200 or so plaintiffs with cancer are expected to receive at least $1 million. At the lower end, those with high cholesterol could receive awards in the five figures. - The Columbus Dispatch

Auto CEOs Want Trump to Order Review of 2025 Fuel Rules

The chief executives of 18 major automakers and their U.S. units urged President Donald Trump to revisit a decision by the Obama administration to lock in vehicle fuel efficiency rules through 2025. In a letter sent late Friday and viewed by Reuters, the chief executives of General Motors Co, Ford Motor Co, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, along with the top North American executives at Toyota Motor Corp, Volkswagen AG, Honda Motor Co, Hyundai Motor Co, Nissan Motor Co, and others urged Trump to reverse the decision, warning thousands of jobs could be at risk. On Jan. 13, the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized a determination that the landmark fuel efficiency rules instituted by then President Barack Obama should be locked in through 2025, a bid to maintain a key part of his administration's climate legacy. - Reuters

Humans Causing Climate to Change 170 Times Faster Than Natural Forces

The authors of the paper wrote that for the past 4.5bn years astronomical and geophysical factors have been the dominating influences on the Earth system. But over the past six decades human forces “have driven exceptionally rapid rates of change in the Earth system,” the authors wrote, giving rise to a period known as the Anthropocene. “Human activities now rival the great forces of nature in driving changes to the Earth system,” the paper said. - The Guardian

In The Sierras, New Approaches to Protecting Trees Under Stress

In California’s Sierras and around the world, extreme drought and rising temperatures are killing trees and threatening the viability of forests. Some ecologists are saying that land managers now need to adopt radically new strategies. - Yale Environment360

Today's Top 5 Trending: Atlantic Oil Drilling, Arsenic in Texas Water, Inequality and Zika, Australia's Penguin Scientists, US Climate Displaced

Obama's Atlantic Oil Drilling Program Takes Friendly Fire - From the Pentagon

The Obama administration is reworking its plan to open the southern Atlantic Coast to offshore oil exploration because of strong opposition from the Pentagon, which says the activity could hurt military maneuvers and interfere with missile tests the Navy relies on to protect the coast. - Washington Post

High Arsenic Levels In Many Texans' Water

Tens of thousands of Texans live in places where the drinking water contains toxic levels of arsenic — a known carcinogen — and the state isn’t doing enough to discourage them from consuming it, according to a new report from an environmental group. - Texas Tribune

Infrastructure Epidemic Is Catalyst for Brazil's Zika Epidemic

The mosquito, a Brazilian saying goes, is a democratic devil - it bites rich and poor alike. But an outbreak of the Zika virus has revealed deep inequality when it comes to who bears the brunt of living among the insects. - Reuters

Meet Australia's Next Generation of Scientists: Penguins

Human researchers are hoping Phillip Island little penguins will help reveal what is happening out in the oceans off Australia's south-east. A team from Monash University and Phillip Island Nature Park are attaching sensors on the little seabirds to shed light on what happens at sea, using some fairly common technology. - ABC

Louisiana's Vanishing Island: The Climate Refugees Resettling for $52 million

With new federal funding, the Isle de Jean Charles tribe will be part of the first program in the lower 48 states to address an entire community’s resettlement needs due to climate change and increased natural disasters. - The Guardian

Today's Top 5 Trending

"In Alaska, Obama Will Be in Middle of Oil and Climate Change Battle"

As Mr. Obama comes north for what the White House has described as an examination of the effects of climate change, Alaska is battling over oil — its chief source of revenue — and the thorny implications of drilling.  -- The New York Times

"Even the Bottom of the Grand Canyon is Now Contaminated"

Fish and other creatures in remote stretches of the Colorado River are contaminated with levels of mercury and selenium known to harm wildlife. -- National Geographic News

"Colombia to End Glyphosate Coca Farm Spraying"

After nearly 20 years of international and local pressure, Colombia may finally stop spraying suspected carcinogens on its own population. -- Newsweek

"Judge Throws Major Obama Water Rule Into Doubt"

The legal and practical morass surrounding the Obama administration's controversial water rule just got more muddied yesterday. -- Greenwire

"China To Relocate Almost 1000 Chemical Plants in Wake of Tianjin Blasts"

Industry minister, Miao Wei, says local government and companies involved would have to subsidize plans made to help improve pollution levels. -- The Guardian