United States District Judge Tonya S. Chutkan on Tuesday temporarily blocked the Trump Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from halting $14 billion in grants that the Biden administration had awarded to three climate groups.

Judge Chutkan said the government’s “vague and unsubstantiated assertions of fraud are insufficient,” reported The Associated Press.

Climate United Fund, Coalition for Green Capital and Power Forward Communities each received $7 billion, $5 billion and $2 billion, respectively. They were among five other recipients of more than $20 billion from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund — known as the “green bank” — established as part of former President Joe Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, The Washington Post reported.

The judge also stopped Citibank — the holder and administrator of the grant funds — from transferring the money to anyone, including the government.

“At this juncture, EPA Defendants have not sufficiently explained why unilaterally terminating Plaintiffs’ grant awards was a rational precursor to reviewing” the green bank program, Chutkan wrote in the 23-page opinion.

The purpose of the green bank is to leverage both public and private monies for investment in clean-energy technologies like solar panels and heat pumps, including through community lenders located in low-income areas, reported Politico.

“We have collectively deployed or invested over $100 billion in community-based housing, health, environmental, and economic development initiatives and created or preserved over 1.4 million affordable housing units,” Power Forward Communities wrote in a work plan submitted to the EPA for its share of the grants.

Prior to freezing the grants, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin had accused recipients of fraud, mismanagement and self-dealing.

Before issuing a temporary restraining order on the grant stoppages, Chutkan said the actions by the EPA raised “serious due process concerns.” The judge ordered that the funds be held in the grantees’ Citibank accounts rather than being clawed back or used for another purpose while the case moves forward, but did not release the money.

Chutkan said the EPA was not being forced to “undo” termination of the grants and that the ruling would not make the funds unrecoverable, but its purpose was to ensure the government abided by laws and regulations related to grants, “which serves the public interest.”

“The government can’t just void contracts and void agreements and terminate things without following its own regulation,” the judge had said during an earlier court hearing.

Climate United CEO Beth Bafford said Tuesday’s ruling was “a step in the right direction.”

“In the coming weeks, we will continue working towards a long-term solution that will allow us to invest in projects that deliver energy savings, create jobs, and boost American manufacturing in communities across the country,” Bafford said, as The Associated Press reported.

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Wild cougar cubs have been seen in the western part of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula for the first time in over a century.

Last week state biologists confirmed that the spotted cubs — thought to be between seven and nine weeks old — were living on private property in Ontonagon County, a press release from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said.

“It’s pretty exciting, considering this could be the first known cougar reproduction in modern times in the western Great Lakes states,” said wildlife biologist Brian Roell, a DNR large carnivore specialist and leader of the cub verification team, in the press release. “It really shows that we have a unique place in Michigan where someone has a chance to see a wolf, a moose and a cougar in the wild. It’s something that should be celebrated, that we have the habitat to support an elusive animal like this.”

A local resident took photos of the cubs on March 6, which Roell and the team used to verify the cubs’ presence in the area.

Originally native to Michigan, cougars were hunted to extinction in the state around the early 1900s. The last wild cougar who was legally taken was near Newberry in 1906, DNR said on its website.

“There have been many confirmed cougar sightings since 2008, including two illegal harvests in the Upper Peninsula,” the website said. “This situation is not unique to Michigan, but has been occurring in many other mid-western and eastern states, as young males disperse from core range in the western United States.”

Although cougars have been spotted in Michigan in the recent past, it was the first verified sighting of cougar cubs since their populations were decimated, Roell said.

The photographs were of the cubs without their mother, and they have not been seen again since March 6. Extremely dependent on their mothers, cougar cubs often remain with them throughout their first two years.

“Those young cougars are very vulnerable right now,” Roell said. “We don’t know where they are or if they’re even alive. Mother Nature can be very cruel.”

While cougars are Michigan natives, most of those there now seem to be transient, dispersing across the border from Western states.

Roell said there have been 132 reports of adult cougars verified by the DNR, but DNA testing had only confirmed male cougars to date.

Because they are listed as endangered in Michigan, it is illegal to harass or hunt cougars, including attempting to locate their den, Roell said.

Cougar sightings in Michigan can be logged through the Eyes in the Field reporting system, operated by the DNR.

Cougar cubs photographed by a Michigan resident who asked to remain anonymous. Michigan Department of Natural Resources

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According to a new study, restored grasslands will require long-term management in order to bring back specialized pollinators and ultimately restore biodiversity.

The study, published in Journal of Applied Ecology, analyzed the pollination success of native plants for varying durations of grassland management at the ski slopes in Nagano Prefecture. The restored areas studied spanned between 2 and 75 years since grassland restoration, and researchers examined native plant pollination across 28 different pollination networks. Researchers also examined old grasslands in the area for comparison.

“There is no place better suited to survey restored grasslands with very different management durations within a relatively small area than ski slopes,” Gaku S. Hirayama, doctoral student at Kobe University and corresponding author of the study, said in a statement.

As explained by the study, land use changes like agriculture and development are causing rapid decline of grasslands. In 2021, a report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) determined that 1.6 million acres of grasslands in the Great Plains of North America alone were lost in just one year. In 2022, this number increased to 1.9 million acres in this region. As BirdLife International reported, half of all grasslands on Earth have been degraded in some capacity.

But while restoration helps improve biodiversity lost to land use changes, previous research has shown that undisturbed grasslands with long-standing management practices (over centuries to millennia) have much higher levels of biodiversity and climate resilience compared to restored grasslands, emphasizing an importance in not just restoring but preserving existing ecosystems. 

“The finding shows that once valuable old grasslands are lost, their restoration cannot be achieved quickly,” Hirayama said.

Over the course of the study, the researchers examined over 10,800 pollinator visits from 294 different pollinator species to 79 flowering plants in 2021. In 2022, they observed over 19,690 pollinator visits from 297 pollinator species to 88 flowering plants. Overall, they determined that older grasslands had a greater range of native plant biodiversity than younger, restored grasslands. 

Further, the results showed that plants’ reproductive success, pollination function and pollinator network-level specialization were all worse in grasslands restored after deforestation compared to older grasslands. Overall, the study revealed that newly restored grasslands need at least 75 years for pollinator specialization and function and for plant diversity to even begin to compare to the biodiversity of older grasslands.

Pollinator specialization is important to improving plant reproduction. As Kobe University reported, younger restored grasslands still had pollinators, like flies and hoverflies, but they are more general in their pollination behaviors. By comparison, specialized pollinators are more likely to transfer pollen between plants of the same species for proper pollination.

The findings revealed that both preservation of existing grasslands and close management of restored grasslands will be important in reclaiming biodiversity.

Atushi Ushimaru, ecologist at Kobe University and a co-author of the study, explained, “It may also indicate that grassland restoration should not just be left to nature, but could require active human involvement such as by sowing seeds or by planting seedlings of native bee- and butterfly-pollinated grassland plants.”

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A lawsuit filed by a Peruvian farmer against major German energy company RWE began on Monday.

The claim, which argues that global heating fueled by the firm’s greenhouse gas emissions poses a risk to the farmer’s home, could set a new precedent for climate litigation, reported The Associated Press.

“We have waited 10 years for this day, this decisive day,” said Saúl Luciano Lliuya, as supporters cheered outside the courthouse. “I’m very excited; I hope that everything goes well.”

The lawsuit, filed in the Higher Regional Court in Hamm, western Germany, makes the case that RWE’s historical emissions have contributed to the global warming that has accelerated glacial melt near Lliuya’s hometown of Huaraz. This has caused Lake Palcacocha to rise to dangerous levels, raising the risk of disastrous flooding in the community.

Standing in front of photographs of glaciers shaped like mountains, Lliuya said that the lakes, glaciers and mountains “give us water, give us life,” as Euronews reported.

“[T]he glaciers are melting, are disappearing bit by bit. Some lakes, lakes like Palcacocha – it’s a risk to me, to more than 50,000 people who live in the zone at risk,” Lliuya said.

RWE does not operate in Peru and denied legal responsibility, saying there are many contributors to the global problem of climate change.

Lliuya first challenged RWE following a Carbon Majors Study from 2013 that said the company was responsible for 0.5 percent of post-industrialization climate change.

Huaraz is asking the energy company to pay roughly 0.5 percent of how much it will cost — an estimated $18,562 — to protect Huaraz from imminent flood risk and the overflow from the nearby lake.

“What I am asking is for the company to take responsibility for part of the construction costs, such as a dike in this case,” Lliuya told reporters in early March, as reported by Euronews.

Lliuya originally filed a lawsuit against RWE that was dismissed by an Essen court. An appeal to a higher court in 2017 led to the current hearing.

Roda Verheyen, lead lawyer in the case, said she was “calm but hopeful,” The Associated Press reported.

“[T]here is no time to be lost, because the glaciers are melting every day,” Verheyen said.

RWE said it has complied with government greenhouse gas emissions guidelines and has a target of being carbon-neutral by 2040. However, its historical contribution to global heating has brought attention to corporate responsibility for climate change in addition to cross-border legal accountability.

RWE “is still one of the biggest emitters of CO2 in all of Europe,” Verheyen said. “This is only a very first step — a trampoline for further cases of this kind.”

According to nonprofit research group Zero Carbon Analytics, there are more than 40 ongoing climate damage cases worldwide.

Flood risk from Lake Palcacocha is a real concern for the residents of Huaraz, reported NPR. A 1970 earthquake in the valley triggered a deadly landslide that took the lives of approximately 25,000 people.

In addition to the risk of flash flooding, avalanches and landslides, glacial melt is also interfering with the availability of drinking water for many communities. As ice sheets melt away, local streams have become toxic and discolored from recently exposed rocks containing heavy metals.

The region’s seasons are also affected, hindering agriculture.

“It is scary, the risk from climate change. For example, it has been raining. Even the rivers that pass through the city have risen,” Lliuya told NPR. “There is a lot of fear and the lake’s levels have risen. People are very worried.”

The case is being litigated near the head offices of RWE in Hamm and is expected to last several weeks.

“We want Saúl and the people of Huaraz to live in safety. No one should live in fear of losing their home due to the climate crisis. Polluters have to step up and pay the true price of their business model,” said Francesca Mascha Klein, a Germanwatch lawyer who is working with Lliuya on the case, as NPR reported.

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Whales are important for healthy oceans. They move tons of deep-water nutrients to the surface when they poop, and, according to new research, they also transport massive amounts of nutrients from Alaska to Hawaii in their urine.

Fifteen years ago, scientists discovered that whale poop provided a crucial resource for the growth of plankton, contributing to ocean productivity, a press release from the University of Vermont (UVM) said.

Now, a new UVM-led study has found that whales carry large amounts of nutrients across entire ocean basins — from the cold waters of their feeding grounds to the warm seas where they mate and birth their calves near the equator. Most of the nutrients are transported through their urine, with carcasses, sloughed skin, placentas and calf feces also contributing.

“These coastal areas often have clear waters, a sign of low nitrogen, and many have coral reef ecosystems,” said co-author of the study Joe Roman, a biologist at UVM, in the press release. “The movement of nitrogen and other nutrients can be important to the growth of phytoplankton, or microscopic algae, and provide food for sharks and other fish and many invertebrates.”

The researchers calculated that, throughout the world’s oceans, great whales — including gray whales, humpbacks and right whales — move roughly 4,000 tons of nitrogen annually to tropical and subtropical low-nutrient coastal areas.

These massive whales also bring over 45,000 tons of biomass. Before whaling by humans decimated whale populations, at least three times more nutrients might have been transported these incredible distances.

“We call it the ‘great whale conveyor belt,’” Roman said, “or it can also be thought of as a funnel because whales feed over large areas, but they need to be in a relatively confined space to find a mate, breed, and give birth. At first, the calves don’t have the energy to travel long distances like the moms can.”

The whales also likely stay in sandy, shallow waters to muffle their sounds.

“Moms and newborns are calling all the time, staying in communication, and they don’t want predators, like killer whales, or breeding humpback males, to pick up on that,” Roman said.

This means the nutrients that are spread throughout the ocean are concentrated in much smaller coral and coastal ecosystems, “like collecting leaves to make compost for your garden,” Roman said.

During the summer months, adult whales feed in northern latitudes like Iceland, Alaska and Antarctica, eating herring and krill to put on tons of fat. Recent research has found that North Pacific humpbacks gain approximately 30 pounds a day from spring to fall.

“They need this energy for an amazing journey: baleen whales migrate thousands of miles to their winter breeding grounds in the tropics — without eating. For example, gray whales travel nearly 7000 miles between feeding grounds off Russia and breeding areas along Baja California. And humpback whales in the Southern Hemisphere migrate more than 5000 miles from foraging areas near Antarctica to mating sites off Costa Rica, where they burn off about 200 pounds each day, while urinating vast amounts of nitrogen-rich urea,” the press release said. “One study in Iceland suggests that fin whales produce more than 250 gallons of urine per day when they are feeding. Humans pee less than half a gallon daily.”

Whale migrations are the longest of any mammal on the planet.

“Because of their size, whales are able to do things that no other animal does. They’re living life on a different scale,” said co-author of the study Andrew Pershing, an oceanographer at nonprofit Climate Central, in the press release. “Nutrients are coming in from outside — and not from a river, but by these migrating animals. It’s super-cool, and changes how we think about ecosystems in the ocean. We don’t think of animals other than humans having an impact on a planetary scale, but the whales really do.”

Before industrial whaling in the 19th century, whales’ nutrient inputs would have “been much bigger and this effect would’ve been much bigger,” Pershing added.

Nutrient inputs for Earth’s largest animal ever, the blue whale, are unknown, so they were not included in the study’s primary calculations. Population numbers for blue whales who live in the Southern Ocean are still much lower than they once were after being decimated by hunting in the 20th century.

“There’s basic things that we don’t know about them, like where their breeding areas are,’’ Pershing said, “so that’s an effect that’s harder for us to capture.”

Humpbacks and blue whales were both depleted by whaling, but some humpback populations are rebounding after decades of conservation efforts.

“Lots of people think of plants as the lungs of the planet, taking in carbon dioxide, and expelling oxygen,” Roman said. “For their part, animals play an important role in moving nutrients. Seabirds transport nitrogen and phosphorus from the ocean to the land in their poop, increasing the density of plants on islands. Animals form the circulatory system of the planet — and whales are the extreme example.”

The study, “Migrating baleen whales transport high-latitude nutrients to tropical and subtropical ecosystems,” was published in the journal Nature Communications.

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