Renewable Resources Report
Updating suspended during November 2022.
By Fred Lewsey, University of Cambridge Nature is a “blind spot” in economics. We can no longer afford for it to be absent from accounting systems that dictate national finances, or ignored by economic decision makers. This is according to an independent review on the economics of biodiversity, produced by Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta from…
By Molly Seltzer, Princeton University Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment With a massive, nationwide effort the United States could reach net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050 using existing technology and at costs aligned with historical spending on energy, according to a study led by Princeton University researchers. The new “Net-Zero America” research…
Åsa Giertz, Senior Agriculture Economist working with the Africa region at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., spoke at a virtual meeting of the RNRF Washington Round Table on Public Policy on December 16, 2020. Her talk was titled, “The Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Global Food Systems.” The COVID-19 pandemic is taking place…
Plastic pipes are polluting drinking water systems after wildfires – it’s a risk in urban fires, too
Andrew J. Whelton, Purdue University; Amisha Shah, Purdue University, and Kristofer P. Isaacson, Purdue University When wildfires swept through the hills near Santa Cruz, California, in 2020, they released toxic chemicals into the water supplies of at least two communities. One sample found benzene, a carcinogen, at 40 times the state’s drinking water standard. Our…
A team of researchers led by Arizona State University School of Earth and Space Exploration Professor Lindy Elkins-Tanton has provided the first ever direct evidence that extensive coal burning in Siberia is a cause of the Permo-Triassic Extinction, the Earth’s most severe extinction event. The results of their study have been recently published in the journal Geology…
The physical and ecological effects of wildfire (hereafter fire severity) have important consequences in terms of soil erosion, carbon storage, forest succession, wildlife habitat, and human safety and infrastructure. This study evaluated changes in fire severity in western US forests from 1985 to 2017 and tested whether fire severity varied with fire‐season climate. Results show…
On June 1, 2017, President Donald Trump announced that the United States would be leaving the Paris Agreement. In accordance with Article 28 of the agreement, member states cannot give notice of withdrawal until three years after the agreement’s start date in that country. On November 4, 2019, the earliest possible date, the administration submitted…
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to take lives and disrupt economies across the world, a new report warns that further outbreaks will emerge unless governments take active measures to prevent other zoonotic diseases from crossing into the human population, and sets out ten recommendations to prevent future pandemics. The report, “Preventing the Next Pandemic: Zoonotic…
A recently released Pennsylvania Grand Jury report lambasted the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for failing to protect the public from health hazards tied to hydraulic fracturing. The Grand Jury found that regulators had failed to set and enforce rules to protect public health and instead deferred to the hydraulic fracturing industry’s assurances of safe…
It is well-established that human-generated carbon dioxide emissions (e.g., burning fossil fuels and deforestation) are warming the planet. There has been uncertainty, however, as to how warm the planet will get. A recent analysis, conducted by 25 researchers from around the globe and sponsored by the World Climate Research Program, found that it is very…