Justine Calma

Hurricane Idalia made landfall in the Florida Big Bend this morning as a dangerous Category 3 storm. Governor Ron DeSantis said the state has deployed hundreds of Starlink units to affected areas to help emergency responders connect to the internet. Starlink also stepped in during relief efforts after the Maui wildfires this month and volcano eruption near Tonga in 2021, but Starlink has also been called out for promoting itself to communities reeling from disaster.

Google Workspace admins can now track the impact their work on Google Meet, Gmail, and Google Docs has on climate change. Google announced a new Carbon Footprint reporting tool today that’s available in the admin console. It shows carbon dioxide emissions over time and by service. Google still has a lot of work to do to cut down the greenhouse gas emissions; it has a goal of running its data centers on carbon pollution-free energy sources by 2030.

Flames have consumed at least 81,000 hectares (200,155 acres) in Greece’s Alexandroupolis region in the past couple weeks. The devastation officially marks the largest wildfire in the European Union since record keeping started in 2000, according to the European Commission.

Climate change threatens a child’s right to life and states are responsible for “providing a safe and enabling environment and a legal and institutional framework within which children can effectively exercise their rights,” the UN said in a 20-page comment released this week. It’s based on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a treaty that has been ratified by every country except the US. It comes after a group of young plaintiffs won their suit saying the state of Montana violated their right to a healthy environment. The Biden administration also faces a federal climate suit filed by young plaintiffs in 2015.

It’s part of a suite of new environmental APIs the company plans to offer customers. The pollen API includes information on common allergens across more than 65 countries. A travel app might want to use it to help people plan their commutes or vacations with allergens in mind, according to Google. Aside from the pollen API, Google also plans to sell access to mapping APIs for air quality and solar installation.

Google has new APIs that it will offer to companies interested in installing solar panels or gathering information on air quality, according to CNBC. The solar API gives customers access to mapping data that could help companies see the best locations to install solar panels. A separate API will allow customers to gather data on hourly air quality information, CNBC reports.