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For the first time, US public companies will be required to tell investors about their exposure to climate risks and greenhouse gas emissions.

On Wednesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved requiring US-listed companies to communicate how they are managing material risks related to climate change and how those risks affect their bottom lines. Large companies will also be required to disclose their direct emissions from their operations and energy use, known as Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions.

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The current El Niño is now one of the strongest on record, new data shows, catapulting it into rare “super El Niño” territory, but forecasters believe that La Niña is likely to develop in the coming months.

One of the main ways scientists determine whether El Niño is present, and a key indicator of its strength, is through ocean surface temperatures. And from November to January, the temperature of the tropical Pacific Ocean where El Niño originates was 2 degrees Celsius warmer than normal, according to NOAA’s Climate Prediction center – a threshold that has only been breached six times on record. It means a very strong El Niño is ongoing.

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Beginning in 2018, North American farmers and scientists started noticing an unnerving and unusual trend: Oysters were dying at alarming rates in mass mortality events.

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Anthropogenic emissions drive global-scale warming yet the temperature increase relative to pre-industrial levels is uncertain. Using 300 years of ocean mixed-layer temperature records preserved in sclerosponge carbonate skeletons, we demonstrate that industrial-era warming began in the mid-1860s, more than 80 years earlier than instrumental sea surface temperature records. The Sr/Ca palaeothermometer was calibrated against ‘modern’ (post-1963) highly correlated (R2 = 0.91) instrumental records of global sea surface temperatures, with the pre-industrial defined by nearly constant (<±0.1 °C) temperatures from 1700 to the early 1860s. Increasing ocean and land-air temperatures overlap until the late twentieth century, when the land began warming at nearly twice the rate of the surface oceans. Hotter land temperatures, together with the earlier onset of industrial-era warming, indicate that global warming was already 1.7 ± 0.1 °C above pre-industrial levels by 2020. Our result is 0.5 °C higher than IPCC estimates, with 2 °C global warming projected by the late 2020s, nearly two decades earlier than expected.

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• Dive Brief:
• The Biden administration is recruiting the next generation of conservation leaders to advance regenerative agriculture and other climate-smart farming practices across U.S. farms.
• The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Monday said it will create paid service opportunities for more than 100 young people to promote sustainable agriculture as part of the Working Lands Climate Corps.
• The initiative is part of the American Climate Corps, an effort to train more than 20,000 young people and prepare them for careers in a clean energy economy.

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Scientists have issued a dire warning over the survival of polar bears as a previous theory that the species may adapt to warming temperatures has been scrapped.

As climate change continues to put the ice-reliant animals in jeopardy, some experts have previously theorized that they may, in fact, adapt to living with less ice. They believe the species may, with time, start adapting traits from their relatives, the grizzly bear, and begin resting for long periods or switching their diet to land-based animals.

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Feb 20 (Reuters) - The White House will approve a request from a group of Midwest governors to allow year-round sales of gasoline with higher blends of ethanol, but will push the start date into next year, two sources familiar with discussions said.

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In a publication announced at the Stanford Geothermal Workshop this week, Fervo said it has been able to drill a horizontal well in just 21 days. That's a 70% reduction in drilling time over its first horizontal well, which was drilled in Nevada in 2022 as part of a Google-backed effort known as Project Red. The company says this reduction in time has led to an additional reduction of costs, with the latest well coming in at US$4.8 million, down from $9.4 million.

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The goal of sustainability in cotton is moving beyond the field to the entire supply chain. The focus is shifting to put more focus on the manufacturing process and chemistry.

“Verification through the U.S. Cotton Trust protocol will be an important component for U.S. cotton. The days of not having to do anything are probably over. We’re going to see continued trends from brands and retailers asking our industry for more verification,” says Berrye Worsham, president and CEO of Cotton Incorporated.

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In the heart of the Arctic’s ethereal vastness, where the whispers of cold winds meld with the ethereal dance of the auroras, resides the polar bear, a creature as majestic as it is a poignant symbol of the environmental challenges of our time. Known scientifically as Ursus maritimus, these creatures are not merely the Arctic’s apex predators but also key components of their fragile ecosystem. Their seemingly white fur, composed of clear, hollow tubes alongside a substantial layer of blubber, equips them superbly for survival in their frigid realm. These natural adaptations enable not just warmth in the biting cold but also camouflage against the ice and snow, making polar bears unparalleled hunters of the Arctic.

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