Welcome to The Sponge, the place to soak up a week’s worth of environmental news. Bootleg Fire Smoke Goes Coast to Coast Smoke from the nation’s largest wildfire in Oregon can be seen from space. Oof. We couldn’t give Jeff Bezos a better view? You can’t escape everything in space. Meanwhile, the fires in the Western U.S…

Welcome to The Sponge, the place to soak up a week’s worth of environmental news. The Amazon Rainforest was a Carbon Sink…Aaaand Now That’s Gone A new study shows that the Amazon Rainforest has been emitting a billion more metric tons of carbon dioxide than it absorbs. Isn’t that just photosynthesis? You’ve got it backwards. The Amazon Rainforest has earned…

Welcome to The Sponge, the place to soak up a week’s worth of environmental news. Fight Climate Change, or Elsa. Tropical Storm Elsa packed a punch last week and we were NOT ready. My socks were soaked. That’s the worst. The tropical storm splashed down in Florida, caused a tornado in Georgia, then headed towards…

Welcome to The Sponge, the place to soak up a week’s worth of environmental news. “Eye of Fire”, AKA the Pits of Hell Early Friday morning, an underwater oil pipeline leak in the Gulf of Mexico caught fire, creating an “eye of fire” that looked like molten lava bubbling at the water’s surface. The Mexican state-owned oil company…

Welcome to The Sponge, the place to soak up a week’s worth of environmental news. The US is So Hot Right Now We didn’t need to tell you that, though. The Pacific Northwest, especially, is encountering what some deem a “once-in-a-millenium heat dome”. Portland, OR and Seattle, WA experienced record-high temperatures over the past few days at…

Welcome to The Sponge, the place to soak up a week’s worth of environmental news. Big Oops from Big Oil: Refinery Shuts Down After a series of environmental catastrophes and financial troubles, the Limetree Bay refinery officially shut down last week. Define environmental catastrophe. Like it literally rained oil in St. Croix, the US Virgin Island where the…

Welcome to The Sponge, the place to soak up a week’s worth of environmental news. Officially Cancelled: Bye Bye to the Keystone XL Pipeline After over a decade of political back-and-forth, protests, and thanks to the dedicated efforts of Indigenous tribes, environmentalists, and activists, the Keystone XL (KXL) oil pipeline project has officially been terminated. Should we pop the…

Welcome to The Sponge, the place to soak up a week’s worth of environmental news. Shut Up and Grab a Shovel A recent report from the UN states that regreening 1 billion hectares of land by 2030 can change the game for issues like hunger, climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. New hashtag alert: #GenerationRestoration. Regreening…

Welcome to The Sponge, the place to soak up a week’s worth of environmental news. Three Strikes: Bad Day for Big Oil Last Wednesday saw three major wins for climate activism over some of the biggest names in fossil fuels. oH nO, I fEeL sO bAd FoR tHeM Bless their hearts. A BlackRock-backed private investment firm, Engine…