News at a glance: Methane-hunting satellite, Elsevier ’s earnings, and protecting Kinsey

ENVIRONMENT White House wants to weigh ecosystem benefits President Joe Biden’s administration published guidance last week for U.S. federal agencies to weigh benefits to human health and welfare provided by natural resources when considering whether to undertake or approve actions that could harm them. These “ecosystem benefits” include clean water and air and intangible perks such as spiritual connections to nature. Until now, federal rules have required agencies to analyze costs and benefits when building roads or issuing permits for logging or mining, for example, but did not explicitly mention ecosystem benefits as a focus for review. The new guidelines are not mandatory, but provide a standard approach for how agencies can broaden their analyses to consider a variety of contributions from nature. The changes are part of a wider set of research-based actions by the White House to modernize methods for these cost-benefit calculations, changes intended to help combat climate change and poverty, for example. CLIMATE SCIENCE Methane satellite begins work The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) this week became the first nonprofit group to launch a satellite to track methane emission sources. MethaneSAT, funded by EDF donors, is designed to detect methane emissions in high resolution above known oil-and-gas facilities, filling a gap in coverage. Its data will support efforts to regulate and reduce leaks a...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research