Pacific Gas & Electric reached a $125 million settlement with California's energy regulator Tuesday over the 2019 Kincade Fire, which burned more than 77,000 acres, destroyed hundreds of homes and injured four people in Sonoma County.
The big picture: The California Public Utilities Commission said in a statement the proposed settlement would address "multiple violations" that its safety and enforcement division found — notably a worn power line that investigators said "failed" and broke off a transmission tower during the blaze.
Jeff Bezos, one of the richest men in the world, made a climate philanthropy pledge to spend $2 billion on restoring natural habitats and transforming food systems in a speech at the COP26 conference in Glasgow, Scotland.
Why it matters: This is in addition to the $1 billion for conservation and biodiversity the Bezos Earth Fund committed to in September.
Climate change is spurring people to rapidly accelerate their bucket lists — see the millennia-old Sequoia trees before they burn, the glaciers before they melt or the tropical reefs before they die.
Why it matters: Climate change is having a profound impact on the earth's natural wonders.
Astronomers are on the edge of their seats this week, awaiting the release of a document on Thursday that will help govern the next 10 years of their field.
Why it matters: Funding agencies like NASA rely on the document — called the decadal survey — to help them decide what missions should be supported in the future.
Pine nuts, known as piñons in New Mexico, aren't as plentifulas in previous years thanks to drought, beetle infestations and climate change in the delicate desert.
The big story: The lack of piñons in the mountains is putting at risk a Hispanic tradition of families venturing into the mountains to pick the nuts for holiday dishes, sparking fear that piñons may be in long-term danger.
The next space race will be defined by private companies teaming up to build space stations for NASA and industry.
Why it matters: Operation of the International Space Station is expected to end by 2030, if not before. The future of U.S. astronauts spending any time in orbit depends on these private stations.
Human-caused climate change is the main driver behind increased wildfire risk in the U.S. West, according to a study published Monday.
Why it matters: Researchers hadn't expected human-caused global warming to take over from natural climate variability as the main contributor to fire weather until much later this century, around 2080, per the Los Angeles Times.
