Republican millennials are much more likely than boomers to want the federal government to play a role.
Jun 24, 2020 - Energy & EnvironmentThey're both big risks, but that's where the similarity ends.
Jun 1, 2020 - Energy & EnvironmentThere is bipartisan support for renewables but steep divides over fossil fuels.
Nov 26, 2019 - Energy & EnvironmentIt's both a defining and a polarizing election issue.
Nov 24, 2019 - Energy & EnvironmentFuture climate conditions may have no parallel in modern human history, researchers say.
Updated Feb 15, 2019 - Energy & EnvironmentInequality among regions in the U.S. is likely to increase, with the South and lower Midwest hit the hardest.
Updated Jun 23, 2018 - Energy & EnvironmentPhoto illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Getty Images photos: David McNew and George Rose
Climate scientists are increasingly able to use computer models to determine how climate change makes some extreme weather more likely.
Why it matters: Climate change's effects are arguably felt most directly through extreme events. Being able to directly attribute the role climate plays in natural catastrophes can help us better prepare for disasters to come, while driving home the need to tackle greenhouse gas emissions.
Photo illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Getty Images photo: Jit Chattopadhyay/Pacific Press/LightRocket
The tech industry is playing a growing role in fighting climate change, from zero-carbon commitments to investments in startups and pushing for the use of data to encourage energy efficiency.
Why it matters: Big Tech is already dominating our economy, politics and culture. Its leadership in helping to address climate change — and reckon with its role in contributing to it — could have similarly transformative impacts.
The Trump administration's scuttling or weakening of key Obama-era climate policies could together add 1.8 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent to the atmosphere by 2035, a Rhodium Group analysis concludes.
Why it matters: The 1.8 gigatons is "more than the combined energy emissions of Germany, Britain and Canada in one year," per the New York Times, which first reported on the study.
Kara Hurst in Seattle.
Partnering with oil and gas producers is necessary for Amazon and other companies to achieve their climate goals, the tech giant's chief of sustainability, Kara Hurst, said during an Axios virtual event on Thursday.
The big picture: Amazon aims to hit carbon neutrality in 2040, 10 years earlier than the Paris climate accord. The company plans to reach its goal in part by helping companies develop climate-friendly technologies through a $2 billion venture fund. The first recipients were announced on Thursday.
The air quality in Portland has become the worst in the world — with Seattle, Los Angeles and Denver also ranking up there with notoriously polluted places like Delhi and Shanghai.
Why it matters: Big-city residents often consider themselves smugly immune to the physical wreckage of calamities like wildfires, floods and hurricanes. The pernicious smoke now blanketing the splendid cities of our nation's Western spine is a reminder that no one is exempt from climate change.
Axios' Amy Harder and Gov. Jay Inslee.
Gov. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) is urging Americans to "vote against candidates that deny climate change" in November, during an Axios virtual event on Thursday.
What he's saying: "I hope you'll make a voting decision this year that you are gonna vote against candidates that deny climate change, or even worse, accept the fact that there is climate change but refuse to do something about it," Inslee said.
Photo: Elaine Thompson - Pool/Getty Images
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee indicated at an Axios virtual event Thursday that he’s not interested in a Cabinet post should Joe Biden win the presidency.
Why it matters: Inslee, who briefly ran for president on a campaign based solely on climate change, has been rumored among environmentalists and experts close to the campaign as a possible Environmental Protection Agency administrator.
Gov. Jay Inslee in Olympia, Washington. Photo: Axios
Gov. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) described the deadly wildfires sweeping the West Coast as "cataclysmic" for Washington state at an Axios virtual event on Thursday and said that climate change has made the problem worse.
What he's saying: "What we're experiencing in Washington is profound changes particularly in our grassland and our sage brush. It's incredibly dry, very hot, and as a result we have explosive conditions in the state of Washington," he said.
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Amazon just named the first recipients of money from the $2 billion venture fund it rolled out in June to help companies develop climate friendly technologies.
Driving the news: Amazon, which has pledged to have "net zero" emissions by 2040, said on Thursday morning initial recipients are...
A firefighter works on the scene of a wildfire in California on Sept. 15. Photo: Ringo Chiu/AFP via Getty Images
The catastrophic wildfires in parts of the West are a product of climate change, but also decades of failure to use controlled fire to reduce fuel load.
Why it matters: Warming temperatures in the years ahead will only intensify the climatic conditions that can lead to massive wildfires. That puts more pressure to scale up land management techniques that can clear overgrown forests before they ignite.