Axios

Federal officials on Tuesday proposed adding the tricolored bat, a microbat native to eastern North America, as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

Why it matters: The tricolored bat is one of the bat species affected by a deadly fungal disease called white-nose syndrome. The disease, caused by an invasive fungus, has killed over 90% of its population in under 10 years, according to a study released last year.

A new climate software firm that's announcing itself to the world on Tuesday says it has a competitive edge that other companies lack.

The big picture: Climate Alpha, which just raised a $4 million seed round, uses AI and machine learning to tell customers where to invest and move to in light of climate change and other factors.

A U.S. appeals court on Monday heard arguments on minimum airplane seat size rules that a flyer advocacy group says is necessary for passenger safety, per Reuters.

Driving the news: The Justice Department said the Federal Aviation Administration's "examination of existing evidence has not yet demonstrated a safety need for minimum seat dimensions" but that the agency is continuing to examine the issue, Reuters reported.

Twitter lost a key data center that went offline due to the extreme heat wave in California last week, CNN reports.

Why it matters: Major social media platforms largely rely on these data centers — facilities that house computers, servers and storage systems — to keep their services running. Another outage may result in Twitter going dark for some of its users.

Wildfires, droughts, and extreme heat waves are raging through Europe, North America, South America, the Middle East and Asia as we head into the heat of fall.

The big picture: A heat wave and coinciding drought in China have no precedent in modern weather records, given the heat's severity and duration.

A new assessment of tipping points within the climate system concludes that far more stringent emissions cuts are needed, compared to the most ambitious current plans.

Why it matters: The new study, published Friday in Science, finds tipping points lurking much closer to the present level of warming, and that the Paris Agreement's most stringent warming target of 1.5°C compared to preindustrial levels could trigger four of them.

Farmers and researchers are experimenting with installing solar panels over active agricultural land in an emerging field called agrivoltaics.

Why it matters: As the world seeks to wean itself off fossil fuels, solar power will indisputably be part of the post-carbon energy mix.

Dozens of large wildfires covered the U.S. West in smoke over the weekend, triggering air quality alerts across the region.

Why it matters: Wildfire smoke, especially when it coincides with high temperatures, can be hazardous to the health of humans even hundreds of miles away from the actual fire because it carries harmful microscopic particles that can trigger inflammation in the lungs.