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New FEMA Study: Climate Change Will Greatly Increase Flood Risk, Debt

Peter Lehner
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The Federal Emergency Management Agency, in a study finally released last week after five years in the making, predicted that areas at risk of flooding in the United States would increase 45 percent by 2100, largely because of climate change....continued | comments

China Environmental News Alert

Greenlaw from NRDC China
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June 20-27, 2013NRDC has been working in China for over fifteen years on such issues as energy efficiency, green buildings, clean energy technologies, environmental law, and green supply chain issues. This China Environmental News Alert is a compilation of news...continued | comments

Sad but true: Iceland has resumed hunting fin whales

Taryn Kiekow
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Despite international condemnation – and diplomatic sanctions imposed by the United States – Iceland resumed its controversial commercial hunt of fin whales after a two-year hiatus.  It just killed and butchered its first fin whale this week. (Photo courtesy of...continued | comments

Climate disruption: the 10 percent doctrine?

Laurie Johnson
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What do the odds of a catastrophe have to be for insurance to be a wise investment? Apparently extremely low for a father or mother buying life insurance. For example, the probability of dying at age 35 is 0.1 percent....continued | comments

Rethinking Chile's energy future starts with making the right choices now

Carolina Herrera
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With abundant renewable energy potential throughout the region, Latin America is poised to be a global clean energy leader – but only under the right policy conditions according to a new report from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The report,...continued | comments

Building Confidence in Energy Savings Estimates to Unleash Energy Efficiency

Peter Miller
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Energy efficiency is California’s top priority and cheapest resource for meeting our energy needs, but controversy over how to evaluate the state’s energy-savings efforts is limiting their potential to save money and slash pollution. The lead commissioner overseeing energy efficiency...continued | comments

Reinvigorating RGGI: June's Allowance Auction Success Shows Pollution Cuts Are Working To Improve This Innovative Program.

Luis Martinez
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Two weeks ago, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative’s (RGGI) quarterly pollution allowance auction brought in a near-record $124.4 million. That’s money nine Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states will use, as the bipartisan group of governors who designed the program intended, to...continued | comments

How Many Dollars and Power Plants Does It Take to Run our Modems & Routers?

Noah Horowitz
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If you’re a high-speed Internet service subscriber like 88 million other U.S. households, you’ve likely got a couple of black boxes in your home that blink all day and all night long, too, eating electricity as they stand ready to...continued | comments

New investigation: fracking is increasing competition for water and its price in counties with drought

Amy Mall
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A new investigation by AP has found that the vast majority of counties where fracking is occurring in seven states are also suffering from drought. The AP found that fracking is presenting new strains on water supplies in some drought-stricken areas of the...continued | comments (1)

Time to Pump Up Transit

Rob Perks
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Dump the pump. Save money. Ride transit. That's the message for Dump the Pump Day tomorrow, an annual event promoted by our friends at the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) -- of which NRDC is a proud partner. On this day people who...continued | comments

Take a 'Snapshot' of How Climate Change Affects Your Community

Kim Knowlton
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Today, NRDC is launching a new webtool that lets you take a ‘Snapshot’ of what climate change means in your area. You can read whether current conditions and trends in your area indicate a higher vulnerability to extreme weather events, such as...continued | comments

Best & worst cities for convenient public parks, and why it matters

Kaid Benfield
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  In Minneapolis, the Trust for Public Land (TPL)’s highest-rated big city for public parks, 95 percent of residents (including roughly the same portion of low-income residents) live within a ten-minute walk of a city park.  But in Charlotte, the...continued | comments

Livestock industry bullying on Meatless Mondays campaign doesn't change facts--or consumer trends.

Sasha Lyutse
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The Meatless Mondays campaign encourages consumers to skip meat one day a week in favor of plant-based foods, and highlights how this simple action can help improve their health and reduce the environmental impacts of their diets. Seems small, but...continued | comments (1)

Reviving U.S.-India Cooperation on Climate Change During Secretary Kerry's Visit to New Delhi

Anjali Jaiswal
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Secretary of State John Kerry heads to New Delhi next week. The visit is a key opportunity for Secretary Kerry to reinvigorate U.S.-India cooperation on climate change and to continue to make progress under the Green Partnership, the landmark clean...continued

Slaughtering Wolves Is Not Wildlife Management

Zack Strong
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Last month, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) issued proposed rules for a 2013-14 wolf hunting and trapping season.  Although wolves in Montana are still fresh off the endangered species list, and the state's wolf population declined by 4%...continued | comments (2)

California, by Planning Early for Nuclear Retirement, Positioned to More Safely End its Nuclear Era

Carl Zichella
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With the announcement that the two remaining San Onofre nuclear plants in southern California are being retired permanently, you may wonder what will happen to the remains, some of which retain significant levels of radioactivity, and how the costs will...continued | comments

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Switchboard is the staff blog of the Natural Resources Defense Council, the nation’s most effective environmental group. For more about our work, including in-depth policy documents, action alerts and ways you can contribute, visit NRDC.org.

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