Ecology

Public Citizen Insurance companies are proposing a 42% rate increase in North Carolina. Why? Because climate disasters are getting “too expensive."

Nice News - With rain continuing to fall on drought-prone Los Angeles, the metro is setting an example when it comes to effective flood control and water preservation amid climate change. How? By becoming a “sponge city.” For the last several years, LA has been replacing concrete with dirt and plants, adding green spaces near roadways, and building “spreading grounds” that allow water to be soaked up by the earth. The idea: With more dirt and plants, more water can be absorbed during the rainy season, thus reducing flooding and conserving the water for use when it’s drier. These efforts, combined with traditional dams, allowed LA to capture 8.6 billion gallons of stormwater — enough to provide for 106,000 households for a year — between Feb. 4 and Feb. 7 alone, Wired reports. As an added bonus, more greenery is linked to improved mental health and overall well-being. In this sense, preparing for wetter weather doubles as an opportunity to improve residents’ quality of life, one urban garden at a time.

NPR - The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in an important environmental case today. It will consider whether to pause a federal rule obligating states to be a "good neighbor." At the heart of the dispute is a provision of the Clean Air Act that protects people and states subject to pollution that floats downwind from other states. These "downwind states" struggle to meet federal air quality standards, and their residents can face health complications due to pollution from afar. Ohio, Indiana and West Virginia, along with several companies and trade groups, want the court to block the rule, saying it is unreasonable and imposes a financial burden.

Interesting Facts - Sometimes, when land-based glaciers get massive (specifically 19,300 square miles), they become what’s known as an ice sheet. During the last ice age, the Laurentide Ice Sheet stretched 5 million square miles, was 2 miles thick, and covered most of Canada and the northern U.S., stretching as far south as the 37th parallel  — in fact, a small part of it still exists in Hudson Bay. Today, however, the big ice sheets are in the Antarctic and Greenland. Although climate change has caused these sheets to lose ice mass, they still contain 99% of the world’s freshwater ice and 68% of its total fresh water. Currently, the Antarctic Ice Sheet is about as big as the Laurentide was at its height, at roughly 5.4 million square miles.