CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Better catch this week’s supermoon. It will be a while until the next one.
This will be the year’s fourth and final supermoon, looking bigger and brighter than usual as it comes within about 225,000 miles (361,867 kilometers) of Earth on Thursday. It won’t reach its full lunar phase until Friday.
The supermoon rises after the peak of the Taurid meteor shower and before the Leonids are most active.
In 2025, expect three supermoons beginning in October.
What makes a moon so super?
More a popular term than a scientific one, a supermoon occurs when a full lunar phase syncs up with an especially close swing around Earth. This usually happens only three or four times a year and consecutively, given the moon’s constantly shifting, oval-shaped orbit.
A supermoon obviously isn’t bigger, but it can appear that way, although scientists say the difference can be barely perceptible.
How do supermoons compare?
This year features a quartet of supermoons.
The one in August was 224,917 miles (361,970 kilometers) away. September’s was 222,131 miles (357,486 kilometers) away. A partial lunar eclipse also unfolded that night, visible in much of the Americas, Africa and Europe as Earth’s shadow fell on the moon, resembling a small bite.
October’s supermoon was the year’s closest at 222,055 miles (357,364 kilometers) from Earth. This month’s supermoon will make its closest approach on Thursday with the full lunar phase the next day.
What’s in it for me?
Scientists point out that only the keenest observers can discern the subtle differences. It’s easier to detect the change in brightness — a supermoon can be 30% brighter than average.
With the U.S. and other countries ramping up lunar exploration with landers and eventually astronauts, the moon beckons brighter than ever.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Opponents of offshore wind energy projects expect President-elect Donald Trump to kill an industry he has vowed to end on the first day he returns to the White House.
But it might not be that easy.
Many of the largest offshore wind companies put a brave face on the election results, pledging to work with Trump and Congress to build power projects and ignoring the incoming president’s oft-stated hostility to them.
In campaign appearances, Trump railed against offshore wind and promised to sign an executive order to block such projects.
“We are going to make sure that that ends on Day 1,” Trump said in a May speech. “I’m going to write it out in an executive order. It’s going to end on Day 1.”
“They destroy everything, they’re horrible, the most expensive energy there is,” Trump said. “They ruin the environment, they kill the birds, they kill the whales.”
Numerous federal and state scientific agencies say there is no evidence linking offshore wind preparation to a spate of whale deaths along the U.S. East Coast in recent years. Turbines have been known to kill shorebirds, but the industry and regulators say there are policies to mitigate harm to the environment.
Trump has railed against offshore wind turbines spoiling the view from a golf course he owns in Scotland. But numerous environmental groups say the real reason he opposes offshore wind is his support for the fossil fuel industry.
There is almost 65 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity under development in the U.S., enough to power more than 26 million homes, and some turbines are already spinning in several states, according to the American Clean Power Association.
Currently operating projects include the Block Island Wind Farm in Rhode Island, the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind pilot project and the South Fork Wind Farm about 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of Montauk Point on New York’s Long Island.
Trump is unlikely to end those projects but might have more leverage over ones still in the planning stage, those in the debate say.
Bob Stern, who headed an office in the U.S. Energy Department responsible for environmental protection during the Ford, Carter and Reagan administrations, said Trump can get Congress to reduce or eliminate tax credits for offshore wind that were granted in the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act. Those credits are an integral part of the finances of many offshore wind projects.
Stern, who leads the New Jersey anti-offshore wind group Save LBI, said Trump also could issue executive orders prohibiting further offshore leases and rescinding approval for ones already approved while pushing Congress to amend federal laws granting more protection for marine mammals.
The president-elect also can appoint leaders of agencies involved in offshore wind regulation who would be hostile to it or less supportive.
Opponents of offshore wind, many of them Republicans, were giddy following the election, saying they fully expect Trump to put an end to the industry.
“I believe this is a tipping point for the offshore wind industry in America,” said Robin Shaffer, president of Protect Our Coast NJ, one of the most vocal groups opposing offshore wind on the East Coast. “They have been given a glidepath by Democrat-run administrations at the federal and state level for many years. For this industry, (Tuesday’s) results will bring headwinds far greater than they have faced previously.”
But Tina Zappile, director of the Hughes Center for Public Policy at New Jersey’s Stockton University, noted that in 2018, Trump Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke voiced strong support for offshore wind. And even though the president-elect has bashed the technology, she predicted he won’t just make it go away.
“Offshore wind might appear to be on the chopping block — Trump’s explicitly said this was something he’d fix on the first day — but when the economics of offshore wind are in alignment with his overall strategies of returning manufacturing to America and becoming energy-independent, his administration is likely to back away slowly from this claim,” she said in an interview. “Offshore wind may be temporarily hampered, but its long-term prospects in the U.S. are unlikely to be hurt.”
Commercial fishermen in Maine said they hope the Trump administration will undo policies designed to help build and approve offshore wind projects, saying regulators attempted to “future-proof” the industry against political change. Jerry Leeman, CEO of the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association, called on Trump to reverse a commitment to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore wind industry is taking an optimistic stance, pledging to work with Trump his political allies. National and New Jersey wind industry groups, and several offshore wind developers including Atlantic Shores and Denmark-based Orsted, issued similarly worded statements highlighting terms likely to appeal to Republicans including job creation, economic development and national security.
“By combining the strengths of all domestic energy resources, the Trump administration can advance an economy that is dynamic, secure, and clean,” Jason Grumet, CEO of the American Clean Power Association, said in a statement. “We are committed to working with the Trump-Vance administration and the new Congress to continue this great American success story.”
But few Republicans were in a welcoming mood following the election. New Jersey Assemblyman Paul Kanitra listed the major offshore wind companies in a Facebook post, saying, “It’s time to pack your bags and get the hell away from the Jersey Shore, our marine life, fishing industry and beautiful beaches.”
Kanitra said he was looking forward “to your stock prices tanking.” And that was starting to happen.
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The stock prices of European offshore wind companies, many of which are planning or building projects on the U.S. East Coast, plunged amid fears the new administration would seek to slow or end such projects. Orsted closed down nearly 14% on Wednesday and was down 11% over the past five days. Turbine manufacturer Vestas Wind Systems was down nearly 24% over that same period.
Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a New Jersey Republican, hosted Trump at a rally earlier this year at which Trump again vowed to kill offshore wind.
“We are currently working out the specifics of what that will look like once he takes office again this January,” VanDrew said. “President Trump is a good friend of New Jersey, and he understands the devastating impact these projects will have on our communities.”
President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to involve anti-vaccine activist and conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in his next administration in some capacity, but whoever else he picks to run the major health agencies will have a major impact on the GOP health agenda of the next four years.
Top posts require Senate confirmation, meaning Trump will need Senate buy-in too. Positions include Health and Human Services secretary, which requires Senate confirmation; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director, which will require Senate confirmation beginning in January 2025; Food and Drug Administration commissioner and National Institutes of Health director, which also require Senate confirmation.
Republican health priorities will likely include increased health care transparency and lowering drug costs, as well as limiting health care access for LGBTQ individuals and, potentially, further limiting access to abortion. This might look like rolling back Title X regulations, which are federal dollars for family planning, or the Mexico City policy, which blocks federal funding for nongovernmental organizations that provide abortion counseling or services.
It could also look like rollbacks of rules regarding nondiscrimination in health care, drug price negotiation interference or nursing home staffing mandates.
Here are some of the names being mentioned for future Trump health policy roles:
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Trump reiterated his pledge to involve RFK Jr. in his administration during his victory speech on Tuesday, but it’s unlikely he’ll be nominated to lead a major agency.
“He’s going to help make America healthy again. He’s a great guy and he really means it. He wants to do some things, and we’re going to let him go to it,” Trump told supporters at the West Palm Beach Convention Center during his victory speech Tuesday night.
In an MSNBC interview on Wednesday morning, Kennedy said he would clear out entire departments of the FDA, including the nutrition department, which was recently revamped as part of the agency’s effort to create a Human Foods Program.
Many experts say they imagine Kennedy will serve more as an informal adviser to Trump, because it could be difficult to get a majority of senators, even in a GOP-led chamber, to confirm him.
“I see someone like that a little more in kind of the Elon Musk type of role … somebody who is whispering in the ear of the administration,” said K&L Gates government affairs adviser and former RNC delegate Amy Carnevale.
Joseph A. Ladapo
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo is under consideration to lead HHS, ABC News first reported.
Like Kennedy, Ladapo is a vaccine skeptic.
Under his leadership, Florida skirted CDC pandemic guidelines regarding masks and social distancing, as well as vaccine requirements for children. In October 2022, he recommended that men between ages 18 and 39 avoid the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines because of a slightly increased risk for cardiac-related deaths. The study he referenced was widely criticized, and the FDA and CDC sent him a letter asking him to stop spreading disinformation.
Lapado was first appointed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2021.
After Trump’s win, Ladapo tweeted on Wednesday that the “future of health freedom in America looked brighter.”
“Just as in Florida, it’s time to say ‘No’ to trampling on people’s rights, to gaslighting citizens about experimental vaccines that harm instead of help & to muzzling doctors who dissent with orthodoxy. Light triumphs over darkness,” he said.
Roger Severino
Roger Severino, the former director of the HHS Office of Civil Rights under Trump and current vice president of domestic policy at the Heritage Foundation, wrote the HHS portion of Project 2025.
Severino is one of the most vocal abortion opponents in the GOP. He has repeatedly said that the government should not treat abortion as health care and calls for reversing approval of medication abortion, codifying the Hyde amendment and removing the morning-after pill from the contraceptive mandate.
In Project 2025 he also encourages the NIH to stop promoting “junk gender science” and redefine the definition of sex so it does not include gender identity, among other things.
Brian Blase
Brian Blase, a former Trump special assistant to the president for economic policy at the White House’s National Economic Council and currently the president of Paragon Health Institute, could come back around for a second administration.
In his most recent email blast, Blase called Trump’s victory “an opportunity to build on the health care successes of his first term” — pointing mainly to policies that expanded the availability of short-term health plans, association health plans and price transparency.
During the Biden administration, Blase has been analyzing and promoting the expansion of health savings account plans. He has proposed providing lower-income exchange enrollees the option to receive a portion of their subsidy as a HSA deposit rather than a subsidy to the insurer.
He also argued against the Biden administration’s expansion of Medicaid during the COVID-19 public health emergency, and called for limiting the program’s scope to just the lowest-income and most vulnerable individuals.
Paul Mango
Mango, another former Trump administration official and an adviser at the Paragon Institute, served as HHS deputy chief of staff from 2019 through 2021 and served as HHS Secretary Alex Azar’s formal liaison to Operation Warp Speed. From 2018 to 2019, Mango served as chief of staff for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. His institutional knowledge of the department could be seen as an asset to an incoming Trump administration.
Eric Hargan
Another Trump administration alumni, Eric Hargan served as deputy HHS secretary under Trump and also as acting secretary. He also served on the board of Operation Warp Speed. Hargan oversaw the setup and launch of the pandemic-era Provider Relief Fund.
Hargan was also acting HHS deputy secretary under then-President George W. Bush.
These days he’s the founder and CEO of the Hargan Group, where he focuses on health care, government relations and public affairs.
Joe Grogan
Joe Grogan served as an assistant to Trump and director of his Domestic Policy Council. He also was a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force in the early days of the pandemic. But Grogan didn’t stay in the administration the entirety of the first term and resigned in May 2020 to join Verde Technologies.
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During his time in the White House, Grogan worked closely on efforts to lower drug costs, ban surprise medical bills and expand COVID-19 testing. He’s been a vocal opponent of the Biden administration’s policies to have Medicare negotiate drug costs, saying it would lead to less pharmaceutical innovation, and has repeatedly called for FDA reform to speed up the drug review and approval process.
These days Grogan is also at Paragon Health Institute where he serves as chairman of the board.
Bobby Jindal
The former Louisiana governor is now chair of the Center for a Healthy America, a wing of the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank advising Trump. Jindal’s focus on health policy isn’t new: he served as HHS assistant secretary under George W. Bush. Over the last few years he’s called for changes to the health care exchanges, increased price transparency measures and advocated against single-payer health care.
BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Soaring rhetoric, urgent pleas and pledges of cooperation contrasted with a backdrop of seismic political changes, global wars and economic hardships as United Nations annual climate talks began Monday and got right to the hard part: money.
In Baku, Azerbaijan, where the world’s first oil well was drilled and the smell of the fuel was noticeable outdoors, the two-week session, called COP29, got right to the major focus of striking a new deal on how many hundreds of billions — or even trillions — of dollars a year will flow from rich nations to poor to try to curb and adapt to climate change.
The money is to help the developing world transition their energy systems away from planet-warming fossil fuels and toward clean energy, compensate for climate disasters mostly triggered by carbon pollution from rich nations and adapt to future extreme weather.
“These numbers may sound big but they are nothing compared to the cost of inaction,” the new COP29 president, Mukhtar Babayev, said as he took over. “COP29 is a moment of truth for the Paris Agreement ” which in 2015 set a goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times.
This year, the world is on pace for 1.5 degrees of warming and is heading to become the hottest year in human civilization, the European climate service Copernicus announced earlier this month. But the Paris 1.5 goal is about two or three decades, not one year of that amount of warming and “it is not possible, simply not possible,” to abandon the 1.5 goal yet, said World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Celeste Saulo.
Signs of climate disasters abound
FILE – Homes destroyed by Hurricane Beryl sit in Clifton, Union Island, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, July 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Lucanus Ollivierre, File)
The effects of climate change in disasters such as hurricanes, droughts and floods are already here and hurting, Babayev said.
“We are on the road to ruin,” he said. “Whether you see them or not, people are suffering in the shadows. They are dying in the dark. And they need more than compassion. More than prayers and paperwork. They are crying out for leadership and action.”
Her home was demolished and Florence focused one thing: “Being strong for her family and for her community. There are people like Florence in every country on Earth. Knocked down, and getting back up again.″
That’s what the world must do with climate change, especially with providing money, Stiell said.
“Let’s dispense with any idea that climate finance is charity,” Stiell said. “An ambitious new climate finance goal is entirely in the self-interest of every nation, including the largest and wealthiest” because it will keep future warming from hitting 5 degrees Celsius, where he said the world was going before it started fighting climate change.
A backdrop of war and upheaval hangs over talks
In the past year, nation after nation has seen political upheaval, with the latest being in the United States — the largest historic carbon emitter — and Germany, a climate leading nation.
“The global north needs to be cutting emissions even faster and should be decreasing by 20, 30, 40% now. But instead we’ve got Trump, we’ve got a German government that just fell apart because part of it wanted to be even slightly ambitious,” said Imperial College London climate scientist Friederike Otto. “So, we are very far off.”
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Initially, Azerbaijan organizers who were hoping to have nations across the globe stop fighting during the two weeks of negotiations. That didn’t happen as wars in Ukraine, Gaza and elsewhere continued.
Dozens of climate activists at the conference — many of them wearing Palestinian keffiyehs — held up banners calling for climate justice and for nations to “stop fueling genocide.”
“It’s the same systems of oppression and discrimination that are putting people on the frontlines of climate change and putting people on the front lines of conflict in Palestine,” said Lise Masson, a protester from Friends of the Earth International. She slammed the United States, the U.K. and the EU for not spending more on climate finance while also supplying arms to Israel.
Mohammed Ursof, a climate activist from Gaza, called for demonstrators at the talks to “get power back to the Indigenous, power back to the people.”
Jacob Johns, a Hopi and Akimel O’odham community organizer, came to the conference with hope for a better world.
“Within sight of the destruction lies the seed of creation,” he said at a panel about Indigenous people’s hopes for climate action. “We have to realize that we are not citizens of one nation, we are the Earth.”
Hopes for a strong outcome
A person walks outside the Baku Olympic Stadium, the venue for the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
People walk through an exhibit in the Green Zone at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
Simon Stiell, United Nations climate chief, speaks during the opening plenary session with images of Hurricane Beryl displayed at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
Simon Stiell, United Nations climate chief, speaks during the opening plenary session at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
Attendees listen to the opening plenary session at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber, left, hands over the gavel to Mukhtar Babayev, COP29 President, during the opening plenary session at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
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A person walks outside the Baku Olympic Stadium, the venue for the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
The financial package being hashed out at this year’s talks is important because every nation has until early next year to submit new — and presumably stronger — targets for curbing emissions of heat-trapping gases from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas. That’s part of the 2015 Paris agreement for nations to ratchet up efforts every five years.
Some Pacific climate researchers said that the amount of money on offer was not the biggest problem for small island nations, which are some of the world’s most imperiled by rising seas.
“There might be funding out there, but to get access to this funding for us here in the Pacific is quite an impediment,” said Hilda Sakiti-Waqa, from the University of the South Pacific in Fiji. “The Pacific really needs a lot of technical help in order to put together these applications.”
First, delegates must agree an agenda for the two-week meeting, and it’s already proved a sticking point.
“We’ve seen this (delay) in the past,” said Jennifer Morgan, State Secretary for Germany’s federal foreign office. “My experience right now is that countries are really here to negotiate.”
The long-term global average temperature is now 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.3 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, only two-tenths of a degree from the agreed-upon threshold.
For the world to prevent more than 1.5 degrees of warming, global carbon emissions must be slashed by 42% by 2030, a new United Nations report said.
“We cannot leave Baku without a substantial outcome,” Stiell said. “Now is the time to show that global cooperation is not down for the count. It is rising to the moment.”
Associated Press reporter Charlotte Graham-McLay in Wellington, New Zealand contributed.
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
