Biophilia Hypothesis

Environment. Climate change. Urban ecology. Animals (domestic, farm, wild).  Desert. Prairies. Farms. Wilderness. My photography (never photoshopped). Issues that scratch my progressive mind. Take the kids outside. You go outside. Hike, bike, climb. Blackhawks. Chicago. Southern California.

[rjzimmerman]

See the First-Ever Photos of Cozumel’s Mysterious Dwarf Fox

See the First-Ever Photos of Cozumel’s Mysterious Dwarf Fox: Many believed the tiny fox had gone extinct

Excerpt from this story from Nautilus:

Strange things happen to animals when they colonize islands. Some of them get larger, like the enormous rabbit Nuralagus rex of ancient Menorca, while others get smaller, like the dwarf fox of Cozumel. This mysterious species of gray fox is estimated to be only around 60 to 80 percent the size of its larger mainland brethren. Fossils indicate it first arrived on the Mexican island around 5,000 years ago, predating the arrival of humans. 

Since then it’s become critically endangered. In fact, the Cozumel dwarf fox is so rare, the last secondhand sighting was more than two decades ago, in 2001. Many believed the species to be extinct. Then, in 2023, reports of a disoriented animal meandering along the highway poured into the Cozumel Parks and Museums Foundation, and officials raced to rescue the wayward critter. They also snapped some photos—the first taken of the dwarf fox.

After scooping him up and providing a full health assessment, the dwarf fox was relocated to the Laguna Colombia State Reserve, far from any dangerous roadways. While this particular animal was spared, the species is still in dire straits due to habitat loss, invasive species, and climate change.

“The biggest challenge facing the Cozumel fox is that we still know almost nothing about it, including its remaining population size, distribution, or ecology,” Travis Bayer, author of a recent paper on the sighting published in Neotropical Biology and Conservation said in a statement. “That uncertainty alone is dangerous, because it makes effective conservation extremely difficult.”

[rjzimmerman]

Video from the Center for Biological Diversity.

[rjzimmerman]

Court Ruling Protects Endangered Wildlife Nationwide From Dangers of Coal Mining

Center for Biological Diversity: CHARLESTON, W.Va.— A federal court ruled today that the federal government’s attempts to undercut Endangere

Excerpt from this press release from the Center for Biological Diversity:

A federal court ruled today that the federal government’s attempts to undercut Endangered Species Act protections for the sake of coal mining were illegal. Coal mines will now be required to follow the law and ensure their activities don’t harm protected plants and animals.

“This is an incredibly important victory for the streams and rivers of Appalachia and the people and wildlife who rely on them,” said Jared Margolis, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “For too long regulators have allowed coal mining to devastate wildlife. This decision will require coal mines to fully account for their threats and harms and do more to ensure that imperiled wildlife aren’t pushed to extinction for dirty fossil fuel profits.”

The decision was issued by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and invalidates the federal government’s unlawful attempt to streamline how coal mines comply with the Endangered Species Act. The Center for Biological Diversity and Appalachian Voices sued the U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2023 for failing to protect highly imperiled wildlife from the devastating harms of coal mining. The court today agreed, finding the agencies failed to implement required protections for species, putting wildlife at great risk.

Coal mines had been allowed to rely on a watered-down process that did not require an analysis of the harm they actually cause and were operating without limits on the extent of that harm. The Endangered Species Act requires such analyses to ensure that wildlife won’t be lost forever. The court found that the government’s process wasn’t consistent with the law and vacated the nationwide biological opinion that coal mines in many states used to avoid the more thorough analysis and implementation of mitigation measures that are essential to protect wildlife.

[rjzimmerman]

Groups to sue Bitterroot Forest over vague logging project

Five conservation organizations sent a 60-day notice of their intent to sue the U.S. Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife Service if the Bit

Excerpt from this story from The Missoula Current News:

Following a recent court ruling faulting a Bitterroot National Forest amendment, conservation groups are warning federal agencies to shut down the Bitterroot Front project due to similar violations of federal law.

On Tuesday, five conservation organizations sent a 60-day notice of their intent to sue the U.S. Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife Service if the Bitterroot National Forest doesn’t stop and reconsider how the 20-year Bitterroot Front project would affect threatened species. The organizations include the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Bitterroot, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, WildEarth Guardians, Friends of the Clearwater and Native Ecosystems Council.

“This lawsuit takes aim at the Trump administration’s complete failure to consider how clearcutting this area will threaten grizzly bears, bull trout, wolverines and other imperiled animals that call the Bitterroots home,” said Kristine Akland, Center for Biological Diversity Northern Rockies director. “It’s utter nonsense to justify this massive project as an emergency action when it’ll take at least two decades to implement. Those of us who love the Bitterroots know that this spectacular forest and its endangered wildlife deserve stewardship and care, not reckless acquiescence to the logging industry.”

On May 12, the Bitterroot National Forest approved the Bitterroot Front Project, which includes road projects, logging and burning across 144,000 acres or 225 square miles, from the northern boundary with the Lolo National Forest south to the West Fork of the Bitterroot River. The logging activities will be conducted in four phases, with each phase occurring in successive years. Commercial logging is authorized on almost 44 square miles, noncommercial cutting will occur across 5 square miles, and slashing will be carried out on 28 square miles. Most of the commercial logging is planned for the southern end of the project area and will occur during the first two phases or years.

That’s all the information that the Bitterroot Forest provided about the project because it will be “condition-based.” But that makes it hard to know where roads will be built or where or when work will take place. Because of that, the organizations question how the Forest Service or the Fish and Wildlife Service could say with any certainty that the project activities won’t affect threatened grizzly bears or bull trout.

[rjzimmerman]

West Coast Whale Entanglements Still High in 2025, 9 Seen in 2026 So Far

Center for Biological Diversity: SAN FRANCISCO— Federal data shows that 33 whales were reported entangled in fishing gear off the U.S. West

Excerpt from this press release from the Center for Biological Diversity:

Federal data shows that 33 whales were reported entangled in fishing gear off the U.S. West Coast in 2025. That’s just one fewer than the 34 entangled in 2024, which was the highest number since 2018. At least nine whales have already been seen entangled in 2026, including two humpbacks entangled near Monterey, Calif., in late May.

“It’s just devastating that so many whales are getting tangled up in fishing gear. Whale entanglement is not a new problem and it shouldn’t still be happening at these high rates off the West Coast,” said Ben Grundy, an oceans campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity. “These deaths could be prevented by closing whale hot spots to fishing or only allowing pop-up gear that reduces the risk of entanglements. If we don’t make changes, more whales will suffer and die.”

Seven of last year’s entanglements were humpbacks caught in fishing gear from the commercial Dungeness crab fishery. The California coonstripe shrimp fishery — with fewer than 20 participating boats — entangled two humpbacks. Of the 2025 data, 20 entangled whales were reported in California, 9 in Washington, 3 in Oregon, and one in Mexico entangled in Oregon gear.

Because not all entanglements are reported, these fisheries may be responsible for five times as many entanglements as the number reported, according to federal scientists.

To help reduce entanglement risk, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for the first time closed areas to Dungeness crab fishing effective March 27 and authorized the use of alternative gear starting April 3.

Most of the 2025 entanglements affected threatened or endangered humpback whales, while three of the reports involved gray whales. The population of gray whales has declined 50% in the past decade.

A marine heatwave currently off California is predicted to increase and persist through the summer, which will likely lead to more overlap between whales and fishing gear. Already at least 55 whales have stranded in 2026 off the West Coast because of starvation and ship strikes, another primary threat to whales. The last time there was a serious heatwave, known as the West Coast Blob, whale entanglements spiked and elevated levels have persisted since 2015.

[rjzimmerman]

One of the baby falcons that recently hatched outside Aurora City Hall rescued from Fox River, city says

A community member and an animal control officer involved in rescuing and reuniting the bird with its mother were honored by the city Tuesda

Excerpt from this Chicago Tribune story:

One of the baby falcons that recently hatched outside Aurora City Hall was rescued from the Fox River and reunited with its mother last week, according to the city.

Ed Bernal was visiting downtown Aurora for a haircut last Thursday, according to the city, when he noticed a number of people looking down at the Fox River as he rode his bike on the Downer Place bridge.

Stopping, Bernal joined the crowd and saw one of the baby falcons that had recently hatched outside City Hall, Hope, stuck in the river and being pushed by the current toward a wall, the city said in a news release.

A bystander had a bucket and a towel, and Bernal climbed down the wall to rescue Hope, per the city. He used the towel to take hold of her and place her, unharmed, into the bucket, and then waded downstream to a set of stairs to climb out of the river.

Afterwards, a group of community members drove the falcon to the DuPage Wildlife Conservation Center for a medical evaluation, the city news release said, and she was then taken back to Aurora.

The baby falcon stayed perched on the south side of City Hall for hours, according to the city, as passersby attempted to guide her back to the nest and her mother. Eventually, Quentin Johnson, an animal control officer with the city, was able to lure Hope off her perch, capture her and then transport her back to her mother and nest on the opposite side of City Hall.

The four baby falcons hatched in early May, laid by a five-year-old falcon named Vixen, who began nesting in a crevice on the second floor of the exterior of Aurora City Hall in early April. Vixen met an adult male peregrine named Dave, who was fledged from a nest in Chicago in 2020, and went on to lay four eggs that would hatch into the baby falcons.

[rjzimmerman]

California sues US EPA over sending emissions rules to Congress for potential reversal. (Reuters)

Excerpt from this story from Reuters:

The state of California sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday after the agency earlier ‌this month sent the Republican-controlled Congress landmark state vehicle emissions rules for potential repeal.

The EPA said waivers under the Clean Air Act for California environmental regulations approved under prior Democratic administrations should have been sent to lawmakers under the ​Congressional Review Act.

California said the action was illegal and should be blocked by the U.S. ​District Court for the District of Columbia, arguing that the EPA was seeking ⁠to "wave a magic wand" and turn a waiver into a rule.

"These latest illegal actions would mean more ​pollution, poorer air quality, more market uncertainty, and greater health risks for communities already overburdened by emissions,” ​said California Attorney General Rob Bonta, noting the state has received more than 75 waivers for environmental actions.

The EPA did not immediately comment.

The Trump administration has mounted a multi-pronged effort to deny California the ability to require cleaner vehicles and ​more electric vehicles. The EPA has also enacted rules making it easier for automakers to sell more ​gasoline-powered cars and trucks, while making it more expensive to buy EVs.

[rjzimmerman]

12 wolves. One snowmobile. No survivors. - Environmental Action

They were a thriving family until a single hunter changed everything.

Excerpt from this story from Environmental Action:

Whenever someone asks why Environmental Action exists, we sometimes mention the Dog Creek wolf pack — which was erased by a hunter in a single afternoon.

The pack was once a thriving, 12-member family in the heart of Wyoming’s Grand Tetons. Like all families, all the pack wanted was to hunt together and play together.

But by using a snowmobile as a weapon, a hunter pursued the pack through the deep powder and picked them off, one by one, until every last member was killed.

It’s called “wolf whacking,” and it’s perfectly legal under Wyoming’s current laws.

Wolf whacking isn’t the only way that hunters kill wolves. In many areas of the Northern Rockies, wolves are classified as trophy game or even vermin, which opens the door to methods of killing that defy the standards of humane wildlife management.

Hunters often shoot wolves from helicopters. This tactic, also called aerial gunning, leaves wolves with no cover and no chance of escape.

Pups are also murdered in their dens. Den raiding eliminates a pack’s next generation and threatens the long-term stability of the species.

Steel traps are particularly inhumane. These devices snare a wolf’s neck, starving its brain of blood and leaving a wolf in agony before a hunter arrives to finish the job.

These practices aren’t just inhumane. They are a direct threat to the long-term survival of gray wolves. And when entire packs such as the Dog Creek family are erased, it disrupts the ecological balance of our national parks and the surrounding wilderness.

[rjzimmerman]

Pumas are quietly tracking your hiking and biking habits better than you think. (Anthropocene Magazine)

Excerpt from this story from Anthropocene Magazine:

What can land managers do when they oversee a place that is both home to dozens of mountain lions and a destination for tens of thousands of people drawn to picturesque trails?

For starters, they might want to keep people on more heavily-traveled routes and resist the impulse to kill lions that appear habituated to nearby humans. Those are some of the insights that emerged from research tracking mountain lions in California’s Santa Cruz Mountains.

“The long assumption here in the U.S. and beyond has been that habituation equals dangerous, with the result that wildlife agencies generally kill any carnivore they think is becoming habituated,” said Mark Elbroch, of the conservation group Panthera, a co-author of a new paper in Current Biology. “There may be a spectrum of habituation that is in fact supporting peaceful coexistence between people and these amazing animals.”

The Santa Cruz Mountains separate California’s Pacific Coast from millions of people who live in the Silicon Valley and the broader San Francisco Bay area, making it a popular playground for people seeking to get outdoors. At the same time, it’s home to fewer than 100 adult mountain lions. The California Fish and Game Commission recently voted to protect the cats there, and in other parts of central and southern California, under the state’s Endangered Species Act. Mountain lions in this populous state must navigate a minefield of car traffic, sprawling subdivisions, bright lights and other hazards.

To better understand how humans and cats are interacting in the Santa Cruz Mountains, the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, which manages 28,000 hectares of mountain land visited by some 2.5 million people a year, enlisted a group of scientists.

The researchers delved into data tracking the movements of both mountain lions and people to get a detailed look at how the two are overlapping. For the cats, the scientists had six years of data from radio collars attached to 36 adults. For the humans, there was information acquired from Strava, a workout tracking app popular with outdoor recreationists.

The analysis revealed that much of the time, mountain lions are effectively self-policing by avoiding trails and other places with lots of human traffic.  

“They know which trails are used, when, and how much, and they avoid places that are consistently busy, rather than just reactively getting out of there when someone comes down the trail,” said Chris Wilmers, an ecologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz Environmental Studies Professor and leader of the Santa Cruz Puma Project, a program for mountain lion research in the area.

While the cats typically keep their distance, the analysis did reveal that some cats appear more comfortable in closer proximity to people. Those were animals that already spent more time in habitat with a lot of humans running, hiking and biking nearby. It’s possible, the scientists suggest, that these cats have learned that they can get a bit closer to people – within 30 meters – without getting into trouble.

That might set off alarm bells among people who think that as mountain lions get closer to people, they are more likely to attack. But that’s not what scientists found. When they ran computer simulations of different patterns of cat behavior and compared it to where people had encounters with cats (ranging from sightings to attacks), the more habituated cat behavior didn’t correlate with more encounters.

[rjzimmerman]

Justice Department Makes It Easier to Bypass Pollution Controls on Pickups. (New York Times)

Excerpt:

It was one of the easiest ways to make a diesel truck faster, more powerful and more reliable: Pay a local shop to quietly gut the emissions controls with an illegal “defeat device.”

Now the federal government has largely stopped prosecuting the people who sell and install them.

The devices, which often include both hardware and software, began exploding in popularity about 20 years ago as pollution-control systems made tailpipe emissions cleaner but put more strain on engines. Some truck owners and mechanics have called defeat devices a necessity.

By 2020, the most recent numbers available, the E.P.A. estimated that the emissions controls had been removed from more than 550,000 diesel pickup trucks over the prior decade, or roughly 15 percent of all diesel trucks originally certified with those controls. The effect, the agency found, was the equivalent of adding more than nine million additional diesel pickups to American roads, spewing harmful nitrogen oxides at levels up to 300 times the legal limits.

After a headline-grabbing case in 2015 in which Volkswagen was caught secretly using defeat-device software in millions of its cars, the Justice Department began to pursue criminal charges under the Clean Air Act against shop owners who installed the devices on individual vehicles. Those prosecutions have now ended, according to a Justice Department post on X earlier this year that went little-noticed outside the trucking world.

[rjzimmerman]

Interior Department Moves to Relax Rules for Drilling on Public Lands. (New York Times)

Excerpt:

The Trump administration on Monday moved to relax environmental rules governing the extraction of oil, gas and coal from public lands across the country.

The Interior Department issued a pair of proposed rules that would reduce costs and weaken requirements for fossil fuel companies that operate on federal lands. The first rule would drastically lower the fees that companies must pay before drilling, while the second could allow firms to release more methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change.

Together, the proposals were the latest effort by the Trump administration to boost drilling and mining on millions of acres of lands and waters that the federal government owns. President Trump has summarized his energy policies as “drill, baby, drill,” and his administration has taken sweeping actions to dismantle environmental regulations, sideline conservation and fast-track the leasing of public lands for fossil fuel production.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement on Monday that the moves would ease burdensome restrictions on domestic energy production.

[rjzimmerman]

Climate.us Home

independent, nonprofit, and immune to politics

I just posted a story from the New York Times about the efforts of former employees of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) who were fired by trump to reconstruct former climate web sites shut down by trump. They have that, under the new, non-governmental website climate.us. This post includes an excerpt from the story about climate.us, from the perspective of those who assembled it.

Climate.us today launched the full version of its new independent, nonprofit climate information website, creating a public-backed home for trusted climate science at a time when access to federal climate resources has become increasingly vulnerable to disruption.

The launch reflects strong public demand for reliable climate information. One-third of the funding to support the launch of Climate.us came from more than 2,500 small donations (approximately $250,000) from people who contributed to help preserve access to science-reviewed climate information. More than 80 scientists have volunteered to serve as subject matter expert reviewers.

Built by former members of the team behind the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's popular Climate.gov website, Climate.us will keep climate information accurate, accessible, scientifically rigorous, and useful for the people who rely on it, including educators, students, journalists, scientists, community leaders, local and state decision-makers, and members of the public.

“Trusted climate information should not disappear when politics change,” said Rebecca Lindsey, Managing Director of Climate.us. “Climate.us is building an independent, durable platform so people can continue to find the data and information they need to understand and talk about climate, and to teach, report, plan, prepare, and make informed decisions.”

The website features Climate.gov's 15-year collection of climate news and stories, expert blogs, visual status reports on key climate indicators, maps and data pathways, climate literacy resources, classroom materials, and restored access to the Fifth National Climate Assessment.

Climate.us is not an official U.S. government website. It is an independent nonprofit project created to protect public access to climate knowledge and continue the plain-language, science-reviewed communication that made Climate.gov an essential resource for educators, journalists, decision-makers, and communities across the country.

[rjzimmerman]

Former NOAA Employees Revive Climate Site Shut by Trump Administration. (New York Times)

Excerpt:

A small group of former government workers has recreated a valuable climate-science website that had been shuttered last year under the Trump administration.

The new site, climate.us, is an effort by former staff members at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to present climate science previously housed at climate.gov, including data, reports, articles, and congressionally mandated national climate assessments.

The new site is effectively the “first full clone” of climate.gov, said Rebecca Lindsey, managing director of climate.us. It became fully active on Tuesday morning.

Last February, Ms. Lindsey was among the hundreds of NOAA workers laid off from the agency as Trump administration staffing cuts swept the federal government. Then, last June, climate.gov was effectively shuttered. The web address redirected to a different NOAA website and Ms. Lindsey said that some of the information was no longer accessible. “They hid the front door” to a trove of climate data and other resources used by researchers, teachers, and journalists, Ms. Lindsey said. “It was heartbreaking.”

At the time, the government had also taken down the website for the U.S. Global Change Research Program, which housed the federal government’s national climate reports and other information about how the United States can adapt to climate change. And last July, the Department of Energy issued a report that downplayed the dangers of a warming world. (A judge later deemed the report unlawful.)

Last summer, Ms. Lindsey, along with a small team of former NOAA staff members, crowdsourced roughly $280,000, she said, and began a tedious process of sifting through the archived site, recataloging and re-linking more than a thousand reports, data sets, articles and other resources.

Now, much of that information, including data and reports on climate-change-related disasters like hurricanes, wildfires and drought, is available to the public and free to use, Ms. Lindsey said. The new website includes status reports on key climate indicators, blog posts from scientists, maps, data and resources for educators. The site also includes access to the Fifth National Climate Assessment, a key government report focused on the risks posed by climate change.

[rjzimmerman]

The Movement to Stop Data Centers. (New York Times)

Excerpt:

The backlash against energy-guzzling data centers has snowballed in recent months, prompting more than 100 proposed moratoriums at the local, county, state and national level.

Proposals for data center moratoriums fall into two categories: Most call for a short-term pause in permitting or construction to give local governments time to establish guidelines. A few others call for permanent construction bans.

Cities including Tulsa, Okla.; New Orleans; Birmingham, Ala.; and Ypsilanti Township, Mich.; have all implemented temporary bans on permitting or construction, as have dozens of other counties and towns, according to a database maintained by the hedge fund Interconnected Capital.

Bigger state-level proposals have so far seen mixed results. Democrats and Republicans in 14 states have proposed construction pauses. In April, Maine lawmakers passed a temporary statewide moratorium on new data centers, but it was vetoed by Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat.

On Friday, New York lawmakers passed their own statewide ban on large data centers.

Voters’ opinions on new data centers have done a U-turn in recent months, according to polling by Heatmap News. Last August, four out of 10 respondents said they’d oppose a data center being built in their area. By May, the number had risen to seven out of 10.

The survey found that people don’t just care about their own backyards. More than half supported a moratorium that covers the entire nation. (Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent, and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, have introduced legislation to enact what they call a “reasonable pause” on data center development.)

Americans are blaming data centers for rising energy bills, and many are feeling pessimistic about the broader effects A.I. will have on society, the survey found. Opponents have also raised concerns about noise, water use and air pollution.

Another factor driving opposition is the speed at which new facilities are opening. As Bloomberg News pointed out this month, data center construction spending topped $50 billion in April, surpassing total U.S. public spending on transportation projects like airports and subways.

Put another way, power demand from data centers is expected to double in 2027 compared with 2025, Goldman Sachs estimated in May, even though about half of announced projects are expected to open late or get canceled.

[rjzimmerman]

Trump Administration to Pay $765 Million to Cancel 4 More Wind Projects. (New York Times)

Excerpt:

The Interior Department said on Wednesday that it would pay the energy developer Invenergy hundreds of millions of dollars to abandon plans to build wind farms in the Atlantic and Pacific, in the third such deal struck by the Trump administration to cancel offshore wind leases.

Under the agreement Invenergy will voluntarily surrender four leases in federal waters for wind farms that would have been located in the New York Bight, off the Central Coast of California and in the Gulf of Maine. All of those projects were in the early stages of development and had little chance of moving forward under the Trump administration, which has halted all federal permitting for offshore wind.

The government will then reimburse Invenergy $765 million, or somewhat less than what the company had paid for the leases under the Biden administration.

In exchange, Invenergy said it would put that money toward the development of at least five new natural gas-fired power plants in the Midwest, as well as in geothermal projects in the Western United States.

The agreement is similar to deals that the Trump administration has struck since March with other companies, including French energy giant TotalEnergies, to abandon wind farms off California, New Jersey, New York and North Carolina in exchange for investing in fossil fuel projects.

The announcement means the government has so far spent roughly $2.5 billion to get companies to terminate their offshore wind leases.

Wind power generates far fewer planet-warming emissions than using fossil fuels. But President Trump has criticized the technology as ugly and inefficient and has sought to block new wind turbines. Last year, the Interior Department ordered work to stop on five wind farms already under construction off the East Coast, but federal judges struck down all of those moves. The Pentagon has also sought to halt approvals of wind farms on land.

The agreements with companies to forfeit their offshore leases are a new strategy and represent a highly unusual use of taxpayer dollars. Seven Democratic-controlled states, including New York, have already sued the Trump administration over the Interior Department’s deal with TotalEnergies.

[rjzimmerman]

Trump Administration Backs Off Plan to End Ocean Monitoring. (New York Times)

Excerpt:

The Trump administration is abandoning its plan to dismantle a $368 million ocean monitoring system critical to understanding climate change and marine ecosystems, bowing to a bipartisan backlash on Capitol Hill.

The National Science Foundation had said in May that it would begin removing hundreds of underwater instruments this month that collect data on coastal flooding, marine heat waves and other climate and weather events.

But the agency announced on Thursday that it will pause efforts to take apart the system, known as the Ocean Observatories Initiative, while convening an expert panel to determine its future.

“Effective immediately, N.S.F. will not proceed with further removal or de-scoping of equipment,” the agency said in a statement.

The Senate passed a measure Wednesday that would block the government from dismantling the system, with lawmakers in both parties warning that the action would be illegal and would threaten the safety of coastal communities. The Trump administration had also tried to cut the program’s funds the last two years, but Congress restored the money both times.

In May, the science foundation had said it would send ships to start pulling up instruments anchored to the sea floor off the coasts of Oregon, Washington State, Alaska, North Carolina, and an area between Greenland and Iceland known as the Irminger Sea.

For the past decade, scientists have used data from these instruments to understand how the ocean is absorbing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, how marine heat waves could affect fisheries and how soon a vital ocean current could collapse.

Fishermen have also checked the real-time, publicly available data on wind and wave conditions before heading to sea. And meteorologists have used these observations to improve forecasts of disasters like hurricanes and tsunamis.

The National Science Foundation said on Thursday that it already had pulled some buoys, sensors and other instruments from the water off the coasts of Oregon and Washington State, but it was “developing plans to redeploy the equipment after servicing.”

[rjzimmerman]

California Needs Water and Clean Power. It Might Have a Fix for Both. (New York Times)

Excerpt:

In California, a sprawling 4,000-mile network of canals winds through citrus orchards and fields of tree nuts, delivering irrigation and drinking water to homes and farms across the state.

The canals are critical in an increasingly arid part of the country. But what if they could help fulfill another urgent need: renewable energy?

To test that idea, researchers, private enterprise and a public utility in the Central Valley are installing solar panels atop the man-made waterways.

The pilot program, called Project Nexus, is testing solar canopies that researchers say could generate gigawatts of power and save billions of gallons of water by providing shade that slows evaporation. It could be transformational if scaled up, researchers say, in helping the state to meet its ambitious climate and biodiversity goals.

California aims to generate 60 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030 and to rely entirely on carbon-free energy by 2045. It also aims to conserve 30 percent of its open land by 2030. Placing solar panels above the canals, rather than on undeveloped land or competing for space with agricultural interests, could be a double win.

The project grew out of a 2021 study by researchers at the University of California, Merced, that aimed to assess the viability of solar installations throughout California’s canal network.