Ask a Scientist: What Should the Biden Administration and Congress Do to Address the Climate Crisis?

What a difference an election makes. Thanks to the Biden-Harris victory in November, the next administration is poised to make a 180-degree turn to again address the climate crisis. President Trump famously called climate change a “hoax,” appointed fossil fuel industry lobbyists to key positions in his administration, rolled back the Obama-era rule that would […]
ExxonMobil Claims Shift on Climate But Continues to Fund Climate Science Deniers

ExxonMobil pledged $5 million to help pay for renovating the US Chamber of Commerce’s headquarters (above) in Washington, despite the fact that the Chamber opposes government action on climate change. Elliott Negin After decades of public denial, ExxonMobil now acknowledges that “the risk of climate change is real” and says it is “committed to being […]
Ask a Scientist: Nearly Everything You Want to Know about Climate Lawsuits

This summer Connecticut, Delaware and Minnesota joined some 20 states, cities and counties across the country that have filed climate change lawsuits against fossil fuel companies, charging that they have been aware of the threat their products pose to the climate for decades and deliberately misled the public about the reality and seriousness of global […]
Ask an Expert: Reviving the Gulf of Mexico’s Dead Zone

Every summer, a low-oxygen area called a dead zone develops off the coast of Texas and Louisiana when nutrient-polluted water from the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers flows into the Gulf of Mexico. Over the last five years, the dead zone averaged 5,770 square miles in size, slightly larger than the state of Connecticut. Mainly caused […]
Ask an Expert: Congress Plans to Spend Billions on Dangerous, Unnecessary Nuclear Weapons

Airman 1st Class Braydon Williams/US Air Force This week is the 75th anniversary of the US bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the only time nuclear bombs have been used in a conflict—and one could only hope the last time. To commemorate the anniversary, I thought it would be appropriate to devote this column to taking […]