Yessenia Funes

EartherClimate Change

Oil and Gas Goons Use Sexual Abuse Image to Mock Teen Activist Greta Thunberg

Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg has been the target of climate denying trolls before, but the latest example is too far even by already horrifying standards. A decal showing a naked female resembling the 17-year-old—who, let me remind you all, is still a goddamn minor—featuring the logo of X-Site Energy Services, an Albertan oil and … Continued

EartherEarth Science

No, China Is Not Sending a Giant Duck Army to Defeat Pakistan’s Locusts

The Associated Press published a story early Thursday morning using reporting from Chinese-based Ningbo Evening News that Chinese authorities were deploying 100,000 ducks to Pakistan to help combat the locust swarms plaguing the country. Outlets around the world picked the ducks vs. locusts battle up before AP amended its reporting to note “questions were raised” … Continued

EartherEnvironmental Justice

Trump Will Blow Up Sacred Lands the Same Day Tribal Leaders Testify Against It in Congress

On Wednesday, the House is holding a hearing on Trump’s racist border wall and the threat it poses to the cultural and environmental resources in Arizona, including Organ Pipe National Monument and parts of the Tohono O’odham Nation’s tribal lands. Guess what else is going down Wednesday? The Department of Homeland Security is blowing up … Continued

EartherEnvironmental Justice

Largest Bank in the US Will Not Fund Fossil Fuel Extraction in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

The largest bank in the U.S. will no longer fund drilling in the Arctic, according to its newly released its environmental and social policy framework. JPMorgan Chase—the bank in question—announced the change Tuesday during its annual Investor Day. Executives at the company presented a litany of policy changes, including ending the financing of oil and … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Study Shows Big Oil Rewards Members of Congress With Cash After Anti-Environment Votes

It’s no secret that the oil and gas industry is in the pockets of our elected officials. I mean, a climate denier doesn’t sit in the White House by accident, right? A new study, however, confirms just how powerful contributions from the oil and gas sector can be. Published in the Proceedings of the National … Continued

EartherEnvironmental Justice

In a Stunning Reversal, Company Realizes Its Giant Oil Sands Project Is a Poor Investment

In the middle of Canada’s majestic boreal forests, Vancouver-based Teck Resources Limited had proposed building one of the world’s largest oil sands mines. The Frontier Project would’ve stretched across more than 72,000 acres in Alberta, mining an area roughly the size of Arches National Park in Utah. On Sunday, however, the company abruptly withdrew its … Continued

EartherClimate Change

A Quarter of All Climate Tweets Come From Bots—and They’re More Likely to Peddle Denial

The bots are taking over, man. Researchers have found that bots are largely fueling climate denial propaganda on Twitter. In a draft research paper, scientists at Brown University found that a quarter of all tweets about climate change come from bots on an average day. That’s especially the case when it comes to climate denial. … Continued

EartherEnvironmental Justice

The Dakota Access Pipeline Is a Step Closer to Pumping More Oil Through Tribal Lands

North Dakota approved the expansion of the Dakota Access Pipeline on Wednesday. Yup, the same 1,172-mile-long crude oil pipeline that inspired a massive wave of indigenous protests at Standing Rock in 2016. Despite those protests, the pipeline went into operation in 2017 with the support of the Trump administration. Energy Transfer, the pipeline developers, first proposed … Continued

EartherClimate Change

How Climate Change Could Bring About the Next Great Recession

Our weather is becoming more extreme, litigation is targeting fossil fuel companies—and our whole economic system is at risk of imploding if the energy sector doesn’t prepare for climate change, financial experts warn. In a series of commentaries published in Nature Energy on Monday, experts shared their concern for what extreme heat, stronger hurricanes, and … Continued

EartherClimate Change

How Coronavirus and Climate Change Show the Limits of Globalization

Over the past few decades, the world has become connected in unprecedented ways. And in 2020, we’re living with those impacts in full force. The most in-your-face example is COVID-19, which has spread with alarming speed to 26 countries, killed nearly 1,800, and led to widespread quarantines as health authorities struggle to contain the outbreak. … Continued

EartherClimate Change

NASA Scientists Have Found Millions of Arctic Methane Hotspots

Scientists are taking to the skies to study methane emissions in the Arctic. In a series of more than 400 airplane rides in 2017, researchers with NASA’s Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment discovered 2 million methane hotspots. The findings point to one of the more disturbing aspects of climate change in the Arctic as frozen soil … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Trolls Force Artist to Cancel a Planned Greta Thunberg Mural in North Dakota

Drama is afoot in the capital of North Dakota. The state is the site of both the famous Standing Rock protests of 2016 and some of the country’s greatest crude oil reserves. And it was going to be home to one amazing mural of 17-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg in Bismarck, North Dakota until a … Continued

EartherEnvironmental Justice

Why Latinx Voters Make Nevada the First Climate Primary

With the New Hampshire primaries wrapped, all eyes are on Nevada, where the nation’s next presidential caucus is merely 10 days away. It’s the first caucus or primary in a state whose population is mostly people of color, so candidates would be foolish to ignore them—especially if they care about climate change. Climate justice is … Continued

EartherEarth Science

Spring Is Here… But It’s Still Winter

We’re more than a month out from the official start of spring, but that hasn’t stopped it from popping up earlier than expected. The USA National Phenology Network released data Monday showing that spring has arrived across the Southeast earlier than at any point in the last 39 years. Leaves and flowers appearing this early … Continued

EartherConservation

Australia’s Bushfires Brought 113 Species Closer to Extinction

Australia has been through the wringer this year. The disastrous bushfire season has led to a dramatic increase in carbon emissions, crazy conspiracy theories, firefighter deaths, some billions of dollars in damage, and the heartbreaking loss of more than a billion animals. A new report shows how more a hundred species on the continent are in … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Uh Oh, Antarctica Just Set a New Heat Record

It’s positively balmy in Antarctica. The National Meteorological Service of Argentina announced on Twitter that its Esperanza weather station recorded a new high for the continent: 18.3 degrees Celsius (64.9 degrees Fahrenheit). The previous temperature record for Antarctica was set on March 24, 2015, when this same weather station recorded 17.5 degrees Celsius (63.5 degrees … Continued

EartherConservation

Bumblebees Have Something New to Worry About

We know that the bees ain’t doing too well due to pesticides and even whack-ass bee houses! A new study, however, shed light on a whole new threat to bees: extreme weather. Turns out bumblebees are (unsurprisingly) another casualty of climate change, and that can be devastating to the ecosystems that rely on these little … Continued

EartherEnvironmental Justice

Mainstream Environmental Groups Are Finally Becoming More Diverse

A new report shows that environmental organizations are improving diversity among staff, but they’ve still got a long way to go. For five years, environmental group watchdog Green 2.0 has been putting out an annual report card of sorts on how different environmental nonprofits and foundations are doing when it comes to hiring and promoting … Continued

EartherClimate Change

The UK Plans to Ban the Sale of Gas and Hybrid Cars by 2035

The UK is going hard in its game to ban cars. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced at the launch of talks related to COP26, the next chapter of international climate talks, that his government would accelerate its ban on the sale of gas- and diesel-run vehicles from 2040 to 2035. Leaders are even adding hybrids … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Now Is the Perfect Time to Start Letting People Work From Home

While working from home is a luxury for some, it’s becoming a necessity for others. The world is currently witnessing its “largest work-from-home experiment,” as Bloomberg put it, due to the rapid spread of the Wuhan coronavirus that’s killed more people than the 2002-03 SARS outbreak. Many businesses across China are forcing workers to stay … Continued