• Politics

Trump Administration Had Secret Industry Backchannel for Comments on NEPA Rollback

• conservation
• environment
• National Environmental Policy Act
• NEPA
• science
• sunshine in government
• swamp

Environmental groups and Democratic Senators decried the White House Council on Environmental Quality using a separate, non-public email address for its select friends in industry and business to submit views on the administration’s proposal to weaken the regulations implementing a bedrock environmental law, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). 

Why This Matters:  The whole point of NEPA is for the public to know the environmental impacts of government actions and have a chance to comment on them — it is a sunshine law at its core.

• Land

Park Service Closes Shenandoah National Park But Some DC Monuments Remain Open

• #30x30
• #conservationist
• Appalachian Trail
• conservation
• environment
• hike
• Land and Water Conservation Fund
• science

The National Park Service continues to close parks on a piecemeal basis, this week Shenandoah National Park closed, but even after an appeal from D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) to close them before the weekend crowds descend, the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials in Washington, D.C. remain open.

Why This Matters:  Delegate Holmes Norton is right when she argues that “Federal agencies must do their part to flatten the curve,” but the Park Service is certainly not leading by example. 

• Sustainability

Blackrock Announces Climate Change/Sustainability Are Now Its Core Principles For Investing

• BlackRock
• climate change
• science
• sustainability

In a stunning and groundbreaking turnaround, the CEO of the world’s largest asset manager with $7T under its control, BlackRock, announced that from now on the company will make its investment decisions with environmental sustainability as a core goal and will take climate change into account.

Why This Matters:  This is HUGE.  BlackRock is the single largest investor in fossil fuels in the world.  And they are getting out of that business.  

• Climate Change

Scientists Speak Out for Climate Action

• activism
• march for science
• science

Historically, scientists have gone out of their way not to make political statements. After all, their job is to provide facts, not suggest policy prescriptions that can often be complicated to implement.

But now, a growing number of climate scientists are deciding to buck tradition and speak up for the urgency of climate action.

• People

One Cool Thing: The Best Science Pics of the Year

• photography
• Royal Society Publishing
• science

The Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition announced the winners of its fifth annual competition, for outstanding achievements in science photography,   According to CNN, “the competition ‘celebrates the power of photography in capturing scientific phenomena’ and recognizes the role images can play in making science more accessible.”  The top image of the year (above) taken by […]

• People

Gender Bias in the World’s Natural History Museums

• gender
• gender bias
• Natural History Museum
• science

A scientist at the Natural History Museum in London has discovered that while the institution boasts an incomparable natural history collection, it has significantly more male specimens than female specimens.

The Problem: We’re just so used to seeing the male body and lifestyle as just the standard human body and the standard human way of doing things.