McNeese State University in Louisiana building a liquefied natural gas center, prompting fears of ‘corporate capture’
One of Louisiana’s top public universities has prompted concerns about “corporate capture” over its expanding relationship with the liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry, despite environmental warnings about pollution and prolonging fossil fuel use.
As the US’s LNG boom gained momentum in south-west Louisiana, McNeese State University courted the industry to help launch a new LNG Center of Excellence currently under construction, hired a director doubling as an LNG industry lobbyist, and approached federal regulators to co-locate their own research center at the university, according to emails obtained via public records requests by DeSmog and the Guardian.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
01/09/2025 - 15:35
01/09/2025 - 13:33
Panels installed on south quire roof expected to meet a third of church’s electricity needs
“And God said, Let there be light” – and on a witheringly cold winter morning there was light, as the Dean of York carried out a rooftop blessing for the minster’s 184 new solar panels.
The sky was blue and the sun shone when the Very Rev Dominic Barrington led the blessing ceremony as the panels were switched on for the first time. “They were absolutely gleaming,” said one witness.
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01/09/2025 - 12:00
The current fires in Los Angeles are reminders of the costs of forgetting
The fires raging in and around Malibu are huge, and they’re terrible, and they’re also the latest in a series of catastrophic fires in Los Angeles county and the region, the latest consequence of heat and drought and wind that have long created the region’s volatile fire weather.
The climate crisis has made it hotter and drier and made wildfire worse here and across the west and around the world, but this region’s ecology has always been wedded to fire. Homes built in and around natural landscapes – canyons, chaparral coastal hills, forests, mountainsides – with a history of wildfire that are pretty much guaranteed to burn again sooner or later create the personal tragedies and losses and the pressure for fire crews to try to contain the blazes. But suppressing the blazes lets the fuel load build up, meaning that fire will be worse when it comes.
Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. She is the author of Orwell’s Roses and co-editor with Thelma Young Lutunatabua of the climate anthology Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility
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01/09/2025 - 11:00
With 2024 set to go down as the hottest year on record, we know that what is coming is truly horrifying
The past 12 months have seen our world enter new territory. Last year will go down as the first time that the global average temperature exceeded 1.5C above preindustrial times over a calendar year. We could crash permanently through the 1.5C guardrail within the next five years, and shatter the 2C limit as soon as 2034. This will almost certainly result in the tipping points for collapse of the Greenland and west Antarctic ice sheets being crossed, committing us to the drowning of coastal towns and cities.
In years to come, we will look back at this time and ask the same question that future generations will ask: why didn’t we stop this catastrophe?
Bill McGuire is professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at UCL and author of Hothouse Earth: an Inhabitant’s Guide
Roger Hallam is co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil
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01/09/2025 - 10:41
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01/09/2025 - 09:01
Steve Reed says planning rules ‘have got in the way’ of farmers and apologises for ‘shock’ of inheritance tax change
UK politics live – latest updates
Labour’s proposal to loosen planning regulations for farmers will deluge rivers with chicken faeces, environmental campaigners have warned.
The environment secretary, Steve Reed, promised farmers on Thursday they would be able to build larger chicken sheds, but experts have said this would create “megafarms” and contribute to river pollution.
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01/09/2025 - 09:00
Bureau of Meteorology says showers and storms a regular feature of Australian summer but warm and dry periods still to come
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Showers are expected to continue for Sydney and Brisbane throughout much of the coming week but summer isn’t over yet, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
In fact, the senior meteorologist Miriam Bradbury said showers and storm activity were a regular feature of the Australian summer, especially for northern Australia, as well as south-east Queensland and eastern New South Wales.
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01/09/2025 - 08:42
Cities cancel flights and school in anticipation as Dallas, Texas, is expected to get a year’s worth of snow
Parts of Texas and the US south are getting hit with yet another winter storm.
The winter storm will hit central and northern Texas with 1-6in (3-15cm) of snow, according to the latest update from AccuWeather. Pockets of snowfall from 6-12in are expected to hit north of Dallas, Texas; to Arkansas, Tennessee and eastern North Carolina through Friday.
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01/09/2025 - 08:00
New rule hailed as major step toward reining in source of local toxic air pollution that hits low-income neighborhoods
The EPA plans to require the nation’s municipal waste incinerators to monitor for dangerous air emissions, a move environmental groups have hailed as a major step toward reining in a staggering source of localized toxic air pollution that most frequently hits low-income neighborhoods.
Municipal incinerators’ stacks often spew hazardous pollutants like dioxins, particulate matter, PFAS, carbon monoxide, acid gases, or nitrogen oxides. The substances are linked to cancer, developmental disorders and other serious diseases, but still are burned with limited or patchwork oversight.
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01/09/2025 - 05:18
Environment secretary Steve Reed urged to bring in ‘full and swift ban’ to protect health of people, wildlife and pets
Wildlife charities have called on the government to ban the sale and use of lead in ammunition used for outdoor shooting.
The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT), RSPB, Wildlife and Countryside Link, Chem Trust and Wild Justice have sent an open letter to the environment secretary, Steve Reed, asking for a 18-month transition period for a ban on lead in ammunition sales.
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