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U.S. Plans Curbs to Oil and Gas Leasing as Satellite Data Show Massive Loss of Earth’s Ice Sheets

HeadlineJan 26, 2021

In climate news, a satellite survey by British researchers finds Earth’s ice sheets lost 28 trillion metric tons between 1994 and 2017 due to global heating from human activity. That’s enough to cover the state of Michigan with a sheet of ice 100 meters thick.

This comes as the White House is preparing to announce several executive actions Wednesday meant to mitigate the climate crisis, including a ban on some new oil and gas leases on federal land.

On Monday, U.S. climate ambassador John Kerry told world leaders at the United Nations Climate Adaptation Summit that he was proud the U.S. had rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement. Former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the news.  

Ban Ki-moon: “This means the multilateralism which has been in disarray during the last four years is now back.”

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