At the Democratic National Convention this week, presidential and vice-presidential candidates Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will make the case for spending $2 trillion, or $500 billion per year, to transition the U.S. away from fossil fuels toward renewables like solar and wind.

Biden has said he would not “tinker around the edges” with his plan. “We’re going to make historic investments that will seize the opportunity.”

IT’S RARE TO HEAR THE TERM “CLIMATE EMERGENCY” in media and political discourse in the United States, even though that is the term thousands of scientists say most accurately describes the situation facing humanity. More than 13,000 scientists have now signed the “World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency,” which begins by affirming that scientists have “a moral obligation … to ‘tell it like it is’” before enumerating all the many “alarming trends [that make] it urgently necessary to act.”

The Book of Genesis describes the pharaoh of Egypt having two dreams: one in which he is standing by the Nile and sees seven fat cows devoured by seven thin cows, and one in which he sees seven healthy ears of grain swallowed up by seven thin and blighted ones.

Atlantic hurricane records go back to 1851, and in all that time the ocean has never piled up so many storms in such a short span as this year.

Amid pressure from Democrats and some Republicans, the Trump administration is planning to withdraw its controversial nominee to head the federal Bureau of Land Management.

The sprawling public lands agency, which manages roughly a tenth of the landmass of the United States, has not had a permanent, Senate-confirmed director for the entire Trump era.

The Canadian Arctic’s last fully intact ice shelf has collapsed, losing almost half of its area—larger than the borough of Manhattan—in just two days, scientists say.

Milne Ice Shelf is located off the northern coast of Ellesmere Island in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, a northern Canadian territory home to some 40,000 people, mostly Inuit. Canadian Ice Services said above normal temperatures, offshore winds, and open water in front of the ice shelf caused the calving event over July 30-31.

It’s been a long time coming, but some Republicans seem to have finally gotten serious about climate change. In June, a handful of senators rolled out a bipartisan climate change bill. It is co-sponsored by Debbie Stabenow, Democrat of Michigan, and Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina.

The bill, the Growing Climate Solutions Act, makes it easier to pay farmers to capture carbon. It is the latest in a series of actions Republicans have taken in the past year to combat climate change.

During a recent virtual fundraiser focused on climate action, former vice president Joe Biden made a direct appeal to voters young enough to be his grandchildren.

“I want young climate activists, young people everywhere, to know: I see you. I hear you. I understand the urgency, and together we can get this done,” said the 77-year-old Democrat, who days earlier had announced a $2 trillion plan to combat climate change and environmental racism — the most ambitious blueprint released by a major party nominee for president.

The moment marked a shift months in the making.

On July 22, Congress passed the biggest public-lands spending bill in half a century. The bipartisan bill, called the Great American Outdoors Act, puts nearly $10 billion toward repairing public-lands infrastructure, such as outdated buildings and dysfunctional water systems in national parks. It also guarantees that Congress will spend the $900 million it collects each year through the Land and Water Conservation Fund, or LWCF. The legislation boosts access to nature, funds city parks and will pay for a significant chunk of the massive maintenance backlog on public lands in the US.

The annual flow of plastics into our oceans is on a trajectory to triple over the next 20 years, which could add up to 110 pounds of plastic trash for every meter of coastline worldwide, a new report finds.

That path is not inevitable, however. The volume could be cut by 80%, the analysis found, by taking actions to reduce the growth of virgin plastic production, improve waste collection systems across the globe, and invest in the creation of plastic materials that are easier to recycle.