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The False Promise of Carbon Capture as a Climate Solution - Scientific American - Climate (Mar 1) |
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Mar 1 · The False Promise of Carbon Capture as a Climate Solution
Fossil-fuel companies use captured carbon dioxide to extract more fossil fuels, leading to a net increase in atmospheric CO2
Izhar Cohen
Last December the leaders of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai declared victory as the parties agreed to “transition away” from fossil fuels. But there's a big issue that will remain contentious as countries try to define what counts as a transition: so-called unabated fossil-fuel use. Among its provisions, the agreement called for “accelerating efforts towards the phase-down of unabated coal power.”
Abatement in ... | By Naomi Oreskes Read more ...
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Russia’s War on Ukraine Chills Arctic Climate Science - Scientific American - Climate (Feb 23) |
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Feb 23 · In the two years since Russia invaded Ukraine, a chasm has grown between Russian scientists who are studying the Arctic and their counterparts around the world
A Russian officer and soldiers stand next to a special military truck at the Russian northern military base on Kotelny island, beyond the Arctic Circle on April 3, 2019.
Maxime Popov/AFP via Getty Images
CLIMATEWIRE | For much of his career, Alaska-based scientist Vladimir Romanovsky has collaborated with colleagues back home in his native Russia on one of the most important — and enigmatic — aspects of Earth’s climate system.
They’ve been monitoring gradual shifts in Arctic ... | By Chelsea Harvey & E&E News Read more ...
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Chicago Becomes the Latest City to Sue the Oil Industry over Climate Change - Scientific American - Climate (Feb 21) |
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Feb 21 · Chicago has joined several other cities and states in suing oil companies. The effort seeks to hold fossil fuel producers financially accountable for the effects of climate change
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
CLIMATEWIRE | Chicago filed suit Tuesday against six oil companies and an influential industry ally, joining the ranks of local governments looking to hold fossil fuel producers financially accountable for the effects of climate change.
The lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court accuses the companies, their subsidiaries and industry trade association the American Petroleum Institute of waging a campaign to discredit climate ... | By Lesley Clark & E&E News Read more ...
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Unprecedented Fire Season Has Raged Through One of Earth’s Biodiversity Hotspots - Scientific American - Climate (Feb 16) |
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Feb 16 · More than 500 fires have burned across Colombia, including in its delicate and unique highland wetlands, one of the fastest evolving ecosystems on Earth
A woman puts out a forest fire in Bogota on January 25, 2024. This Thursday, Colombia asked the member countries of the United Nations for help to extinguish around thirty forest fires that are ravaging several regions and drowning the capital, Bogota, in smoke.
Raul Arboleda/AFP via Getty Images
With ecosystems ranging from Andean highlands to vast plains to the Amazon rain forest, Colombia—perched at the juncture of Central and South America—is home to nearly 10 percent of the world’s ... | By Quentin Septer Read more ...
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Electric Vehicles Aren’t Ready for Extreme Heat and Cold. Here’s How to Fix Them - Scientific American - Climate (Feb 15) |
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Feb 15 · New materials would help the cars of the future survive cold snaps and other climate disruptions
Lev Dolgachov/Alamy Stock Photo
A bitter cold snap in Chicago forced electric vehicle (EV) drivers to wait in line for hours at charging stations last month; some even found themselves stranded when their battery died while they waited in the queues. The rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power most EVs perform poorly in the cold, so scientists and carmakers around the world are busy scrambling for solutions. These include fancier computer models to ensure peak performance, as well as hardier batteries that keep cars going—and their drivers safe—whether ... | By Molly Glick Read more ...
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Solar Geoengineering Looks to Silicon Valley for New Wave of Funding - Scientific American - Climate (Feb 15) |
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Feb 15 · Tech billionaires are funding research into controversial methods for cooling the planet
The Sun surrounded by heavy smoke from the burning forests in The Sonoran Desert of Phoenix Arizona USA. Solar geoengineering research could get a funding boost.
Vlad Georgescu/Getty Images
CLIMATEWIRE | Climate scientists, environmental activists and philanthropists met privately last month to prepare for an expected surge of Silicon Valley funding related to last-ditch measures for slowing global warming.
The two-day gathering on solar geoengineering — or efforts to increase the reflectivity of the planet through spraying particles into the stratosphere or ... | By Corbin Hiar & E&E News Read more ...
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AI Reveals Hotspots of Climate Denial - Scientific American - Climate (Feb 14) |
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Feb 14 · Echo chambers of climate denial on social media are strongest in the U.S. Midwest and South and in states that depend heavily on fossil fuels
A cracked lake bed at Nicasio Reservoir during a drought in Nicasio, California, U.S., on Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021.
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
CLIMATEWIRE | Nearly 15 percent of Americans still deny that climate change is happening, according to a new study that used artificial intelligence to gather data from social media.
That conclusion is similar to findings from other recent surveys. But by using a deep learning model — based on the technology used in ChatGPT — researchers were able to ... | By Chelsea Harvey & E&E News Read more ...
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What a Climatologist’s Defamation Case Victory Means for Scientists - Scientific American - Climate (Feb 14) |
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Feb 14 · A jury awarded Mann more than $1 million—raising hopes for scientists who are attacked politically because of their work
Michael Mann was responsible for the famous ‘hockey-stick graph’ depicting climate warming.
Greg Grieco/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)
US climate scientist Michael Mann has prevailed in a lawsuit that accused two conservative commentators of defamation for challenging his research and comparing him to a convicted child molester. A jury awarded Mann, who is based at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, more than US$1 million in a landmark case that legal observers see as a warning to those who attack scientists working ... | By Jeff Tollefson & Nature magazine Read more ...
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Sucking Carbon from the Air Becomes A Lead Strategy - Scientific American - Climate (Feb 13) |
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Feb 13 · The U.S. Department of Energy will award up to $100 million for projects that remove CO2 from the atmosphere
The Department of Energy said it would provide $100 million for carbon removal pilot projects.
Bernard Lynch/Getty Images
CLIMATEWIRE | The Department of Energy announced up to $100 million in funding for carbon removal pilot projects Monday in an effort to advance technologies designed to suck CO2 directly out of the atmosphere.
While there are a variety of strategies that can be used to remove carbon from the air, both natural and technological, applicants are invited to focus on three specific kinds of pathways.
The first, biomass carbon ... | By Chelsea Harvey & E&E News Read more ...
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Embattled Climate Scientist Michael Mann Wins $1 Million in Defamation Lawsuit - Scientific American - Climate (Feb 9) |
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Feb 9 · Michael Mann secured a win in his legal battle against conservative bloggers who said the climatologist “molested and tortured data” and compared him to a convicted child abuser
Michael E. Mann.
Oregon State University/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED)
CLIMATEWIRE | Climate scientist Michael Mann on Thursday secured a win in his long-running legal battle against conservative bloggers who once compared him to a convicted child abuser.
After a four-week trial, a D.C. Superior Court jury awarded the climatologist $1 million after finding that Rand Simberg, writing for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and Mark Steyn, writing for the National Review, had ... | By Pamela King & E&E News Read more ...
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Air Pollution Threatens Millions of Lives. Now the Sources Are Shifting - Scientific American - Climate (Feb 8) |
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Feb 8 · As EPA tightens air pollution standards for particulate matter, new research suggests some components of that pollution could worsen with climate change
Sergii Kolesnikov/Getty Images
Particle-based ambient air pollution causes more than 4 million premature deaths each year globally, according to the World Health Organization. The tiniest particles—2.5 microns or smaller, known as PM2.5—pose the greatest health risk because they can travel deep into the lungs and may even get into the bloodstream.
Although total PM2.5 levels have decreased 42 percent in the U.S. since 2000 as a result of clean air regulations, scientists are concerned about the health ... | By Virginia Gewin Read more ...
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Beyond the Doom and Gloom, Here’s How to Stimulate Climate Action - Scientific American - Climate (Feb 8) |
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Feb 8 · A gloom and doom approach does not always spur climate action, it turns out. A new study tells you when it works and when it doesn’t
A double rainbow appears during a monsoonal thunderstorm at Zion National Park, Utah.
MichaelJust/Getty Images
Another year of record fossil fuel burning leading to record high global temperatures. Time is running out to solve the climate crisis, and catastrophe looms. You’re probably used to such headlines, and if you are like us, you have already had your moment of gloom when you felt hopeless about the future. But can you turn the doom-induced hopelessness into meaningful change? Our recent global study says ... | By Madalina Vlasceanu & Jay J. Van Bavel Read more ...
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Wildfire Science Gets a Boost from Worried Insurance Companies - Scientific American - Climate (Feb 8) |
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Feb 8 · Wildfires have upended the insurance industry, in part because climate change is fueling bigger and more destructive blazes
A home is engulfed in flames as the Dixie fire rages on in Greenville, California on August 5, 2021.
Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images
CLIMATEWIRE | A small engineering team at a cavernous lab in South Carolina spends its days setting buildings, fences and bushes on fire — and studying what happens next.
The industry in response has tapped the scientists to investigate how wildfires spread through urban areas, a field of study that has taken on greater importance as climate change fuels bigger and more destructive ... | By Avery Ellfeldt & E&E News Read more ...
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Coal Is Bad for the Environment. Is Liquified Natural Gas Any Better? - Scientific American - Climate (Feb 6) |
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Feb 6 · The contentious debate over whether liquefied natural gas is cleaner than coal has been elevated by President Joe Biden’s move to halt approvals of gas export terminals
A large liquified natural gas transport ship sits docked in the Calcasieu River on Wednesday, June 7, 2023, near Cameron, La.
Jon Shapley/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images
CLIMATEWIRE | The White House decision to pause approvals of liquefied natural gas terminals has fed a contentious debate: Is LNG dirtier than coal?
Many environmentalists argue that it is, challenging the conventional wisdom that gas is a sort of diet fossil fuel that could help reduce climate pollution as the energy ... | By Benjamin Storrow & E&E News Read more ...
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New NASA Earth Science Mission Could Change the Way We See Our Planet - Scientific American - Climate (Feb 5) |
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Feb 5 · NASA’s PACE mission aims to increase our understanding of Earth’s carbon cycle, pollution particles and ocean plankton
NASA GSFC
CLIMATEWIRE | With good weather and little luck, NASA’s newest Earth-observing satellite will launch early Tuesday morning from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The flight will conclude nearly a decade of mission development — and its payload could help usher in a new era of Earth science.
“It’s groundbreaking,” said Jeremy Werdell, project scientist for the PACE satellite mission. “In 25 years at NASA, it’s the first mission I feel I can grow into instead of knowing exactly what I’m ... | By Chelsea Harvey & E&E News Read more ...
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How to Make Urban Agriculture More Climate-Friendly - Scientific American - Climate (Feb 2) |
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Feb 2 · The process of growing fruits and vegetables in cities can emit more carbon than conventional farming
Siegfried Layda/Getty Images
Stroll through any trendy neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y., and you’ll notice little pockets of green tucked between the concrete and brownstones. Many of these miniature oases are community gardens, spaces dedicated to growing produce ranging from kale to squash to tomatoes right in the heart of the city. Such projects are often seen as a climate solution—a way to enjoy fresh, local food with minimal environmental impact. But though these spaces have many upsides, reducing carbon emissions isn’t always one of them.
A ... | By Joanna Thompson Read more ...
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Trump Allies Plan to Gut Climate Research if He Is Reelected - Scientific American - Climate (Feb 2) |
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Feb 2 · Dozens of conservative organizations have banded together to provide Trump a road map—known as Project 2025—to boost fossil fuels and limit government climate science
A forest is incinerated by the Oak Fire near Midpines, northeast of Mariposa, California, on July 23, 2022. - The California wildfire ripped through thousands of acres July 23 after being sparked a day earlier, as millions of Americans sweltered through scorching heat with already record-setting temperatures due to climb.
David McNew/AFP via Getty Images
CLIMATEWIRE | Former President Donald Trump’s second term could begin with a clear direction on climate policy: Trash ... | By Scott Waldman & E&E News Read more ...
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Visualizing Climate Disasters’ Surprising Cascading Effects - Scientific American - Climate (Feb 1) |
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Feb 1 · See how climate disasters cause rippling effects far beyond the initial event
Federica Fragapane
When people imagine the aftermath of a natural disaster, skin infections and gastrointestinal illnesses aren't usually the problems that come to mind. But these conditions are embedded in a cascade of extensive and often unexpected consequences of wildfires, hurricanes, and other calamities related to climate change. A report entitled Atlas of Disaster connects the dots between the initial effects of climate hazards and the longer-term outcomes. Most of the U.S. is already feeling the impact—90 percent of American counties experienced a climate-related disaster in the ... | By Lori Youmshajekian & Federica Fragapane Read more ...
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Wetlands Made Salty by Rising Seas Produce More Heat-Trapping Methane - Scientific American - Climate (Feb 1) |
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Feb 1 · Wetlands with a small amount of salinity can produce more methane gas than those filled with freshwater or lots of seawater, new research suggests
Aerial view above tidal wetlands and mud flats South San Francisco Bay.
Aerial Archives/Alamy Stock Photo
CLIMATEWIRE | Sea-level rise could cause some coastal wetlands to release huge quantities of methane gas, according to a new study that challenges how scientists view the relationship between salinity levels and climate-warming emissions.
Wetlands are diverse ecosystems that help protect nearby communities from floods and filter pollutants out of larger rivers and waterways. While they are also the largest ... | By Miranda Willson & E&E News Read more ...
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What Are Atmospheric Rivers, and How Are They Changing? - Scientific American - Climate (Feb 1) |
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Feb 1 · Though atmospheric river storms are dreaded for the damage they can cause, they are also essential to the western U.S.’s water supply, particularly in California
A satellite image shows a powerful atmospheric river hitting the U.S. West Coast on Jan. 31, 2024.
NOAA GOES
The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research.
Millions of people were under flood alerts and winter storm warnings on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, 2024, as a series of atmospheric rivers brought heavy downpours and the threat of flooding, mudslides and avalanches to the Pacific Northwest and California. Another powerful ... | By Qian Cao & The Conversation US Read more ...
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AI’s Climate Impacts May Hit Marginalized People Hardest - Scientific American - Climate (Jan 31) |
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Jan 31 · A Brookings Institution report warns that energy-hungry artificial intelligence tech will worsen the climate crisis
Olemedia/Getty Images
CLIMATEWIRE | It’s been celebrated for its potential to save lives through improved forecasting during deadly weather.
But artificial intelligence also plays "a significant role in exacerbating the climate crisis” and could widen gaps that have left marginalized people highly vulnerable to global warming, warns a Brookings Institution report released Tuesday.
“By fundamentally changing how we live, both AI and climate change could tip the scales of U.S. communities in ways that are unfair or unjust,” ... | By Thomas Frank & E&E News Read more ...
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Why New Liquified Natural Gas Infrastructure Is on Hold - Scientific American - Climate (Jan 30) |
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Jan 30 · A Biden administration review of natural gas exports could show the U.S. was relying on outdated assumptions about gas’s impact on renewable energy and carbon pollution
The Asia Vision LNG carrier ship sits docked at the Cheniere Energy Inc. terminal in this aerial photograph taken over Sabine Pass, Texas.
Lindsey Janies/Bloomberg via Getty Images
CLIMATEWIRE | The Biden administration is taking a fresh look at what U.S. liquefied natural gas exports mean for climate change. And the review could push the Energy Department to make President Joe Biden’s temporary pause on new LNG approvals permanent.
Experts say the review will likely focus on two ... | By Jean Chemnick & E&E News Read more ...
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Glacier Meltwater Destroys Precious Climate Data in the Alps - Scientific American - Climate (Jan 29) |
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Jan 29 · Rising temperatures are melting an area of the Swiss Alps where scientists have been working to collect centuries-old ice cores that contain evidence of past environmental conditions
An epiglacial torrent or bédière on the surface of glacier de Corbassière, Grand Combin mountain massif, Swiss Alps.
Alberto Perer/Alamy Stock Photo
CLIMATEWIRE | If glaciers have memories, climate change is erasing them.
Rising temperatures are melting an area of the Swiss Alps where scientists have been working to collect centuries-old ice cores that contain evidence of past environmental conditions. Now, researchers say they're out of time. Ice in that ... | By Chelsea Harvey & E&E News Read more ...
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Climate Disasters Prompt Another Home Insurance Company to Leave a State - Scientific American - Climate (Jan 26) |
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Jan 26 · The Hartford Financial Services Group is the latest insurer to say it won’t offer new policies to homeowners in California
A home burns during the Dixie fire on July 24, 2021, in the Indian Falls neighborhood of unincorporated Plumas County, California.
Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images
CLIMATEWIRE | Another major insurer is capping how many households it’s willing to insure in wildfire-ridden California, applying more pressure to a market where consumers already struggle to access coverage.
The Hartford Financial Services Group starting in February will no longer offer new policies to homeowners in the Golden State, the firm said this ... | By Avery Ellfeldt & E&E News Read more ...
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The Roman Empire's Worst Plagues Were Linked to Climate Change - Scientific American - Climate (Jan 26) |
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Jan 26 · Changes in the climate may have caused disruptions to Roman society that manifested as disease outbreaks, researchers have found
Jules Élie Delaunay’s Plague in Rome (1869).
Artepics/Alamy Stock Photo
The sixth-century C.E. Plague of Justinian was “a pestilence, by which the whole human race came near to being annihilated,” according to the Byzantine historian Procopius.
Up to half the population of the Roman Empire and tens of millions of people around the Mediterranean may have been killed in the pandemic, which is now known to have been an outbreak of bubonic plague. The disease typically started with a fever, followed by swellings ... | By Tom Metcalfe Read more ...
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The Roman Empire’s Worst Plagues Were Linked to Climate Change - Scientific American - Climate (Jan 26) |
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Jan 26 · Changes in the climate may have caused disruptions to Roman society that manifested as disease outbreaks, researchers have found
Jules Élie Delaunay's "Plague in Rome" (1869)
Artepics/Alamy Stock Photo
The sixth-century C.E. Plague of Justinian was “a pestilence, by which the whole human race came near to being annihilated,” according to the Byzantine historian Procopius.
Up to half the population of the Roman Empire and tens of millions of people around the Mediterranean may have been killed in the pandemic, which is now known to have been an outbreak of bubonic plague. The disease typically started with a fever, followed by swellings in ... | By Tom Metcalfe Read more ...
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Climate Concern Grows Nationwide, Even in Some Republican States - Scientific American - Climate (Jan 24) |
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Jan 24 · A national survey shows Americans are increasingly worried about global warming. But partisan politics continues to drive a wedge between red and blue states
A heat advisory sign is shown along US highway 190 during a heat wave in Death Valley National Park in Death Valley, California, on July 16, 2023.
Ronda Churchill/AFP via Getty Images
CLIMATEWIRE | American voters are increasingly concerned about global warming, a new national public opinion analysis found, but that hasn’t changed the deeply partisan lens through which voters still view climate policy.
The 2023 Yale Climate Opinion Maps report released Tuesday found that two-thirds of Americans ... | By Peter Behr & E&E News Read more ...
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Turning Doctors into Climate Health Advocates Is Good for Patients - Scientific American - Climate (Jan 23) |
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Jan 23 · Harvard researchers found that most doctors and nurses who took a course in community organizing believed they could help combat climate change’s negative impacts on health
Sean Anthony Eddy/Getty Images
CLIMATEWIRE | Teaching doctors about climate change advocacy can help them feel more empowered to take action, according to a new study from Harvard University researchers.
The report — published in Academic Medicine — looked at health care providers who participated in a six-month fellowship that taught them the basic skills of public narrative and community organizing. It found that by the end of the course, most participants believed they could ... | By Ariel Wittenberg & E&E News Read more ...
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Extreme Cold Snaps Could Get Worse as Climate Warms - Scientific American - Climate (Jan 22) |
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Jan 22 · Climate instability could be distorting the polar vortex, causing cold air outbreaks
A pedestrian navigates a snow-covered sidewalk on January 09, 2024 in Iowa City, Iowa.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research.
Extremely cold Arctic air and severe winter weather swept southward into much of the U.S. in mid-January 2024, breaking daily low temperature records from Montana to Texas. Tens of millions of people were affected by dangerously cold temperatures, and heavy lake-effect snow and snow squalls have had severe effects across the Great Lakes and ... | By Mathew Barlow & The Conversation US Read more ...
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Missing Russian Data Is Harming Arctic Research at a Critical Time - Scientific American - Climate (Jan 22) |
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Jan 22 · Russia makes up nearly half the terrestrial Arctic, but global collaboration with researchers there has ground to a halt since the invasion of Ukraine
A polar bear is seen on ice floes in the British Channel in Russia's Franz Josef Land archipelago on August 16, 2021.
The Arctic is warming at a rate of about two to four times that of the global average. As polar ice caps melt and permafrost thaws, scientists are scrambling to keep tabs on the changing region and its effects on the rest of the planet. Their research often entails formidable challenges—from harsh environments to polar bears that destroy instruments—but now they face an additional obstacle: a ... | By Rachel Nuwer Read more ...
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