Renewable Revolution

May 31, 2019

SNIPPETS:

► Only 58 percent of the US corn crop had been planted as of May 28, the USDA reported Wednesday, compared to the five-year average of 90 percent by the same date, one of the slowest rates since USDA began collecting data.

► Puffin Die-Off Shows Ocean is 'Screaming': Climate change played a key role in a recent massive die-off of thousands of tufted puffins in the Bering Sea, new research shows. A study published this week in the journal PLOS ONE examines a mass mortality event for the birds between October 2016 and January 2017, when hundreds of emaciated puffin carcasses washed ashore on St. Paul Island in Alaska. The study, which estimates that between 3,000 and 8,000 birds ultimately died in this period, suggests that warmer sea surface temperatures made zooplankton in the Bering Sea scarce, causing the fish that form the puffins' main diet staple to also disappear. "There's no way to avoid that something is going on here," study author Julia Parrish told InsideClimate News. "The ocean is screaming."

► There's a war on clean air and our children will suffer the consequences

► New Study Puts a Price Tag on Climate Inaction

Read more: