This Week on Earth: Jan 28-Feb 3
Sunset over Lincoln Park, Chicago. (Jonathan Zhao/ION)
United States
Last week on Wednesday, the Senate voted 56-42 to confirm Lee Zeldin as the new Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Zeldin, a former representative and state senator from New York, has been a staunch ally of Donald Trump since his first presidency in 2017.
“I strongly believe we have a moral responsibility to be good stewards of our environment for generations to come,” Zeldin said during his confirmation hearing.
Zeldin stated that he believes in climate change, but he also acknowledged complaints from Trump and other Republicans against the previous administration’s environmental policies, which they think resulted in wasteful spending and hampered economic progress. So far, Zeldin has indicated unwavering support for President Trump and his new policies.
“I don’t believe that anyone should be here at EPA who is not committed to the agency mission and the lawful directives coming from the duly elected president of the United States,” Zeldin said last Friday.
The agency is in turmoil after Trump’s recent executive order to freeze federal funding for various government agencies, including the EPA. Though the order was blocked by a federal judge one day later, some EPA grant recipients reported that they still could not access the agency’s funding portal.
Furthermore, over one thousand EPA employees have since been warned that they may face immediate termination.
"President Trump was elected with a mandate from the American people, and he is following through on his promises,” a statement from the EPA read.
Florida
An unexpected blizzard hit the southeastern United States last week, with some areas of the western Florida Panhandle seeing as much as a foot of accumulation. Stretches of some interstate highways were closed last Wednesday evening after several crashes occurred due to icy conditions. Nationwide, 11 deaths have been attributed to the extreme weather. This is the heaviest snowfall in Florida’s history, shattering the previous record of four inches in 1954.
"Many of these cities likely won't ever see this much snow ever again,” said meteorologist Jonathan Belles of The Weather Channel.
Despite the bizarre storm’s seemingly contradictory indications in the midst of a warming planet, one expert believes that climate change may be the culprit.
"The strength of the polar vortex depends upon a strong temperature difference between the equator and the Arctic," said climate scientist Marc Alessi of the Union of Concerned Scientists. "As the Arctic warms faster than the equator, we might observe more disruption events, which lead to jet streams pushing further south, which then lead to more cold air outbreaks."
Unseasonably cold weather in the Deep South isn’t without precedent. In February 2021, a series of severe winter storms swept across Texas, causing at least 246 deaths and triggering a catastrophic failure of the state’s unprepared energy infrastructure.
With temperatures back in the 70s in northern Florida, the snow has long melted away. Still, this is definitely a winter to remember for years to come.
Worldwide
A new study published in the Science Advances found that climate change could be driving the growth of rat populations in major cities around the globe, including Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Toronto, New York City and Amsterdam. Rats, which already thrive in urban areas thanks to plentiful food and shelter, are normally kept at bay by the bitter cold of the winter months.
"If the weather stays warmer a little bit later into the fall or into the winter, or if the spring starts a little bit earlier, just by a week or two, that should allow the rats to be above ground, forage for a little bit longer, secure more food and presumably turn that into baby rats," said lead author Jonathan Richardson, a biology professor at the University of Richmond.
Rats aren’t the only species whose distribution is being affected by higher temperatures, however. For example, the appearance of shrubs in the Arctic has allowed animals such as moose and beavers to live in areas previously deemed inhospitable.