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New Federal Report Warns of Financial Havoc From Climate Change

WASHINGTON — A report commissioned by federal regulators overseeing the nation’s commodities markets has concluded that climate change threatens U.S. financial markets, as the costs of wildfires, storms, droughts and floods spread through insurance and mortgage markets, pension funds and other financial institutions.

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Damage from whopper hurricanes rising for many reasons

 ...America and the world are getting more frequent and bigger multibillion dollar tropical catastrophes like Hurricane Laura, which is menacing the U.S. Gulf Coast, because of a combination of increased coastal development, natural climate cycles, reductions in air pollution and man-made climate change, experts say.

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Most U.S. Companies Say They are Planning to Transition to a Circular Economy

But the definition of circular economy remains unhelpfully broad.

fastcompany.com - by Adele Peters - February 5, 2019

When Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport remodeled a terminal, it didn’t buy light bulbs; instead, the company signed a contract for “light as a service” from Signify, the company formerly known as Philips Lighting. Signify owns the physical lights, giving it the incentive to make products that last as long as possible and that can be easily repaired and recycled if anything breaks.

The service is one example of a shift to a circular economy model. Rather than just mining materials and manufacturing products that ultimately end up in landfills, companies are increasingly trying to figure out how to use resources in closed loops.

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Wildfires Sweep Across Northern California; 15 Are Dead

Map of active north California wildfires as of Monday October 9th 2017. By The New York Times | Sources: NASA MODIS, Santa Rosa Fire Department.

Image: Map of active north California wildfires as of Monday October 9th 2017. By The New York Times | Sources: NASA MODIS, Santa Rosa Fire Department.

nytimes.com - Thomas Fuller, Jonah Engel Bromwich, Julie Turkewitz - October 10th 2017

Wine country was shrouded in a thick layer of smoky haze here on Tuesday as firefighters continued to battle wildfires that have left at least 15 people dead and have damaged or destroyed more than 1,500 structures, including wineries, homes and resorts.

State fire officials estimated that 17 separate fires, the first group of which began Sunday night, had burned about 115,000 acres over eight counties. More than 100 people had been taken to hospitals by Tuesday morning, and officials said that the tallies of the dead and injured were likely to rise.

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Is Our Government Looking the Other Way on Contaminated Ground Water and Aquifers?

How Much Drinking Water Has California Lost to Oil Industry Waste? No One Knows

"California survived its historic drought, in large part by using groundwater. It was a lifeline in the Central Valley, where it was the only source of water for many farmers.

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Lake Mead Drops to Record Low: What Now?

           

Vegetation grows between boat docks at the now defunct Echo Bay Marina in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Thursday, May 19, 2016, near Las Vegas. Lake Mead's surface was at its lowest level Wednesday since the reservoir was created.
(AP Photo/John Locher)

Lake Mead's drop to an all-time low is another sign that solutions to the West's prolonged drought may involve creative approaches to water allocation and conservation.

csmonitor.com - by Lucy Schouten - May 21, 2016

Extended droughts has shrunk the country's largest reservoir to an all-time low, and leaders in the West's water planning say the area's water users must shift how they view their most valuable resource.

“California and the rest of the West are now at a point where they really can’t dismiss ideas that once would have been considered downright silly,” Rich Golb, former president of the Northern California Water Association, and now a Vancouver-based water consultant for PacificComm, LLC, told The Christian Science Monitor. 

Lake Mead, hemmed in by the Hoover Dam, is the largest manmade reservoir in the United States and supplies water to California, Nevada, and Arizona, according to the Bureau of Reclamation.

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What Will it Take to Fix the Porter Ranch Leaking Gas Well?

                      

Southern California Gas Co. released these images of two ways it can potentially stop the Aliso Canyon gas leak by pumping fluid directly into the well or via a relief well. (Image courtesy of SoCalGas) 

dailynews.com - by Gregory J. Wilcox - December 19, 2015

The latest attempt by Southern California Gas Co. to kill its leaking well above Porter Ranch amounts to a deep shot in the dark.

All the repair crew has to do is hit a 7-inch target at the bottom of a shaft a mile and a half under Oat Mountain at the northern rim of the San Fernando Valley.

Undoubtedly, it’s a complicated situation, one industry expert said.

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EPA Report Cites Benefits of Limiting Emissions, Climate change

By William Yardley, LA Times, June 23, 2015 | Photo: Jim Cole, Associated Press

coal-fired plant is Merrimack Station in Bow, N.H.  (Jim Cole / Associated Press)

EPA report cites benefits of reducing emissions, including at power plants, and of limiting climate change. This coal-fired plant is Merrimack Station in Bow, N.H.  (Jim Cole / Associated Press)

Reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change could prevent tens of thousands of deaths and hundreds of billions in economic losses in the United States, according to a new study by the Environmental Protection Agency.

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