Super Typhoon Chanthu, which has maintained an extreme intensity for days, is slated to make a direct hit on Taiwan beginning Saturday, local time.
Why it matters: The storm, which currently features maximum sustained winds of 180 mph, making it a fearsome Category 5, could cause significant damage as it moves across the highly populated island from south to north.
Construction was officially completed Friday on the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which will allow Russia to bypass Ukraine in delivering natural gas directly to the heart of Europe, according to Russian energy giant Gazprom.
Why it matters: The $11 billion pipeline has been condemned as a "Kremlin geopolitical project" by the Biden administration and is vigorously opposed by Ukraine, which considers it to be a grave threat to national security.
Walmart just raised the largest green bond ever in the U.S. corporate bond market.
Why it matters: The $2 billion bond deal illustrates that U.S. investors’ interest in green bonds is not going anywhere. Companies are tapping into that demand, and putting money behind efforts to battle climate change.
The future of natural gas could rest at least partly on whether the widely used fuel keeps going by that name, a new study finds.
Driving the news: Yale University researchers, in a survey, found lower support for several other titles. Those included "natural methane gas," "methane," "fossil gas" and "fracked gas."
The Environmental Protection Agency will restore protections for Alaska's Bristol Bay, per a court filing Thursday, a move that will block the construction of a controversial gold and copper mine in the region, the Washington Post reports.
Why it matters: The policy shift, which comes in response to a lawsuit filed by natives of the area, will halt the near decade-long project that would have a significant impact on a sensitive southwest Alaskan ecosystem.
The past three months of disaster-filled weather across the lower 48 states ranks in a statistical dead heat with the Dust Bowl year of 1936 as the hottest summer on record, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported Thursday.
Why it matters: A record 18.4% of the contiguous U.S. experienced record-warm temperatures this summer, while five states — California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Utah — reported their hottest summers on record.
Tomorrow.io, the fast-growing weather and climate intelligence provider, unveiled Thursday a flood risk index for its data platform. The goal is to help cities, companies and others better prepare for extreme precipitation events.
Why it matters: The new product, first revealed by Axios, arrives following devastating flooding from Hurricane Ida, which left dozens dead in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York last week.
The U.S. Coast Guard confirmed Thursday it has assessed more than 800 of over 2,000 reports of pollution in the wake of Hurricane Ida. Nearly 350 of these have been reports of oil spills.
What's happening: The Coast Guard has established a pollution response team in Baton Rouge following the reports that have emerged since the Aug. 29 hurricane, which first made landfall with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph in Port Fourchon, Louisiana — a key oil industry hub and staging area.
