Slash-and-burn farming is to blame for many of the nearly 2,000 wildfires that have spread smoke over swathes of Indonesia and caused respiratory problems for at least 920,000 people, the New York Times reports.
Context: The government tends to ignore violations from palm oil and wood pulp producers who intentionally start the fires, but pressure is mounting on President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) to take action.
Mining behemoth Rio Tinto announced a new partnership with China Baowu Steel Group, which is China's largest steel producer, and Tsinghua University on making production more climate-friendly.
Driving the news: Rio Tinto said Wednesday that the parties will work together on "identifying a pathway to support the goal of reducing carbon emissions across the entire steel value chain."
New research from the Rhodium Group consultancy finds that extension and broadening of federal tax incentives for climate-friendly energy and transportation could yield substantial carbon emissions cuts.
Why it matters: As Rhodium points out, big climate legislation isn't on the menu right now. But they argue that there's at least some political opening in this Congress for agreement on legislation around federal tax credits for renewable power, storage, nuclear energy, EVs and more.
Remember the Jurassic era of oil markets in, uh, mid-September, when aerial attacks left the Saudis reeling and talk of big geopolitical risk premium was all the rage? Things look rather different now.
Driving the news: Both Brent and WTI prices have come down a lot since soaring after the attacks that initially knocked 5.7 million barrels per day of Saudi production offline. The chart above captures WTI's moves.
Billionaires Stewart and Lynda Resnick will be donating $750 million to the California Institute of Technology to build a research center and support projects focusing on combating climate change, reports the New York Times.
Why it matters: This is the second largest gift to an American university in history.
BP chief executive Bob Dudley has indicated that his company is likely to stay in industry trade groups despite differences in positions on climate policy.
What they’re saying: "BP believes that you can influence trade associations and other groups by being a part of them rather than outside of them," Dudley told Axios on the sidelines of a climate-change event in New York this week.
As world leaders waffle on policies to head off the extraordinary climate change threat, the retail sector — America’s largest private employer — is moving on its own to cut back its environmental harm.
Why it matters: E-commerce and retail giants pump out emissions and pollution through mass manufacturing, incessant speedy shipping and uncurbed waste. Per one estimate, the fashion industry alone will burn up a quarter of the world's carbon budget by 2050.
Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist who inspired a global protest movement, responded Wednesday after a wave of climate science deniers targeted her following her UN speech this week — including President Trump.
Driving the news: Trump was the most prominent person to dismiss Thunberg, mocking her in a late-night tweet Monday after she urged leaders in New York to act because people are already dying from climate change. But many others have weighed in to attack her, from a TV pundit to a state governor, and some of the commentary got personal.
After a year-long pilot program, San Francisco has granted operating permits to 4 scooter companies: Lime, JUMP (owned by Uber), Scoot (owned by Bird), and Spin (owned by Ford). Existing permit holder Skip did not make the cut.
Why it matters: As the home of a number of these scooter companies — and a frequent battleground between the local tech industry and its government — San Francisco's permits have been among the most coveted. And despite an early backlash to the 2-wheeled vehicles from residents and city officials, scooters are here to stay in San Francisco.
Italian authorities closed roads and evacuated mountain homes in northwestern Italy on Wednesday after experts warned that 250,000 cubic meters of ice could break away from a glacier on the Mont Blanc massif in the Alps at any moment, according to The Guardian.
Why it matters: A geologist who has monitored the glacier since 2013 told the New York Times that, although climate change was not directly connected to the creation of the crevasse, its melting rate has significantly increased as a result of rising temperatures.
Even cops get range anxiety sometimes: a Fremont, Calif., police officer radioed his dispatcher that he might have to give up a high-speed chase because his Tesla Model S patrol car was about to run out of juice.
Details: "I am down to 6 miles of battery," officer Jesse Hartman radioed, asking if another patrol car could take over the chase, which hit speeds of 120 miles per hour on Interstate 680, according to the Mercury News.
Electric vehicles, which don't have an engine, transmission or other space-eating components, allow automotive designers the freedom to rethink what a car should be. One example: Canoo, which debuted Tuesday night in Los Angeles.
Why it matters: Canoo reimagines everything about the automobile, including the business model. Instead of buying a Canoo, consumers will only be able to get one via monthly subscription.
A new Emerson College poll suggests that the wording around carbon pricing — whether voters support a carbon "tax" versus a carbon "fine on corporations" — could matter a lot.
Why it matters: Several 2020 White House hopefuls — including Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren — have endorsed some kind of pricing, though details are scarce.
A new Dallas Fed note explores a metric of what the shale-driven U.S. production surge has meant for the wider economy.
What they found: "The share of the upstream oil and gas sector in the level of U.S. nonresidential fixed investment doubled from 3.4 percent in the decade before the shale oil boom to an average of 6.4 percent since 2008."
Tropical Storm Karen triggered limited power outages, flooding and landslides to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands as it barreled across the region early Wednesday, AP reports.
Why it matters: The islands are still recovering from the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria 2 years ago.
Global warming is greatly transforming the planet's oceans and frozen regions, and future emissions levels will dictate how much additional harm unfolds this century and beyond, a major United Nations-led scientific analysis shows.
Why it matters: "The ocean is warmer, more acidic and less productive. Melting glaciers and ice sheets are causing sea level rise, and coastal extreme events are becoming more severe," the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in a statement alongside Wednesday's report.
