A Study In The Journal Science Advances Looked At Population Trends Of Sea Turtles Across 299 Populations

Another graph from Theda Skocpol's analysis of why the 2009 Cap and Trade bill failed, this one looking at increasing political polarization between the Democrats and the GOP from the 1970s on.

*The LCV (League of Conservation Voters) average reflects LCV scores given to lawmwakers, which are based on their votes on important environmental legislation. The higher the score the more "pro-environment" the lawmaker.

Let's look at the false choice too often portrayed in the media and by politicians of jobs vs. the environment in the context of mountaintop removal mining (MTR). Coal companies claim that any efforts to stop or restrict MTR will cost jobs and devastate economies in Appalachia. Yet, the graph above shows that as coal production has increased, employment of coal miners has decreased. This is because MTR replaces coal miners with big machinery and explosives. The reason coal companies like it is because it increases profits, in part by decreasing labor costs. Thus, it is MTR, not efforts to protect the environment by restricting MTR, that is destroying jobs in the mountains of Appalachia

From mic.com:

This map traces the ideal deployment of solar energy plants in the Sahara Desert to generate electrical power for the world's population. It might not look like a lot, but there are some major caveats here. For one, this map seems to assume 100% efficiency. In reality, current solar panel technology is only able to capture around 20% of solar energy, even in the desert. So the 254-by-254 kilometer area in the Sahara Desert that could theoretically absorb enough rays to power the entire world would have to be five times larger. Second, large amounts of electric power are lost over large transmission distances, meaning that a single power plant could never really power the entire planet.

Still, this map is a good illustration of how little space would be needed to power the entire planet. According to May, some 3.49 million square kilometers are available for solar thermal power facilities in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt alone. Worldwide, the potential high-energy solar sites far outstrip any plausible need.

Per capita CO2 emissions in Europe

Changes in US tree cover since 2000 (purple is gain, red is loss)

From the Washington Post:

"There are two ways to think about the cost of energy. There’s the dollar amount that shows up on our utility bills or at the pump. And then there’s the “social cost” — all the adverse consequences that various energy sources... end up foisting on the public."

"The blue bars represent the current market cost of various energy sources. On top of that, Greenstone and Looney have added estimated health damages from air pollution (the purple bar), as well as the cost of climate-changing carbon emissions that come with burning fossil fuels (the gray bar)."

"At the end of the paper, Greenstone and Looney argue that the government should put a price on the social costs of fossil fuels — either through a cap on emissions or a tax. “If firms and consumers faced the full cost of their energy use,” they write, “they would have a greater incentive to make more-informed and socially efficient decisions about energy consumption.”"

Elephant populations are in decline throughout Africa largely due to poaching. Poaching is a problem in all regions of Africa, but especially severe in western and central Africa.

The larger the share of overall energy jobs that are solar and wind jobs, the more likely a state was to support the Democratic candidate in 2016. This has an important lesson for Trump as his administration crafts energy policy.

Per Axios: 

...for the most part, states that Trump narrowly won have a higher percentage of energy jobs that are renewable-energy jobs than safe Republican states.

Thus, an energy policy that shuns renewables in favor or jobs in fossil fuels could bolster his support in solid red states, while jeopardizing his support in the swing states he narrowly won to give him the presidency. Trump would be wise to continue Obama’s investment in renewables.

Graph showing carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere over the past 650,000 years. Concentrations are measured by examining trapped air bubbles in prehistoric ice cores. The graph shows current CO2 levels at an unprecedented high level in the atmosphere, far greater than during past natural climate cycles. A rapid increase is observed since the industrial revolution, highlighting the contribution of the burning of fossil fuels.