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| Union of Concerned Scientists,Union of Concerned Scientists - Energy,Union of Concerned Scientists - Food and Agriculture,Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming,Union of Concerned Scientists - Science and Democracy,Union of Concerned Scientists - Science Communication,Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity,Union of Concerned Scientists - Tropical Forests,Union of Concerned Scientists - Nuclear Power,Union of Concerned Scientists - Nuclear Weapons,Union of Concerned Scientists - Vehicles,Union of Concerned Scientists - Water,Union of Concerned Scientists - Biofuel |
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What Is FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund? What You Should Know, Why Costs Keep Rising and What We Can Do About It - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Oct 22, 2024) |
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Oct 22, 2024 · The nation is grappling with yet another year of climate change-fueled disasters with billion-dollar price tags, from the extreme heat and wildfires out west and back-to-back hurricanes. At this moment, the last thing federal, state and local governments need is to divert precious resources to debunk baseless conspiracy theories and disinformation. Regrettably, this is where we find ourselves. President Biden, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and state and local government representatives have been busy trying to communicate the truth about the response and recovery efforts related to Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton. Due to the extent of the baseless rumors, ... Read more ...
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Wetland Protections Remain Bogged Down in Mystery - Union of Concerned Scientists - Food and Agriculture (Oct 17, 2024) |
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Oct 17, 2024 · It is mind-bog-gling, syllable pun intended, that scientists still do not know how many wetlands lost protection in last year’s crippling of the Clean Water Act by the Supreme Court. A new peer-reviewed study in the journal Science said the range of possible protection loss is between a fifth of nontidal wetlands to nearly all of them.
Lead author Adam Gold, a watershed researcher for the Environmental Defense Fund, said the wild uncertainty is because the court arbitrarily created a new standard for federal protection divorced from the science of how wetlands support larger streams, rivers, lakes and the ocean.
The Sackett case involved an Idaho couple who sued after ... Read more ...
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Hurricanes Helene and Milton Further Proof We’re Not Ready for Fossil Fuel-Caused Climate Change - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Oct 17, 2024) |
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Oct 17, 2024 · In August, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued its updated forecast for the 2024 hurricane season. It was to be above normal in every regard: more named storms and stronger hurricanes than usual. One of the main reasons for this forecast? Significantly warmer than usual surface temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean, which come largely as a result of human-caused climate change.
Despite a quiet peak hurricane season in August and early September, 2024 will be a year to remember. In late June, Beryl became the earliest Category 5 hurricane in recorded Atlantic history. And in just the last two weeks, we’ve observed two powerful hurricanes develop in ... Read more ...
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Project 2025’s Assault on EPA, Human Health and the Environment Must Never Be Put into Action - Union of Concerned Scientists - Energy (Oct 15, 2024) |
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Oct 15, 2024 · For more on other harmful aspects of Project 2025, see this blog.
The Heritage Foundation’s blueprint - Project 2025 - to dramatically alter the US Environmental Protection Agency should concern you. It does me.
This summer my family vacationed in Vancouver, BC, Canada where we had the good fortune of going on a whale watching trip and seeing majestic orcas. I’ll never forget witnessing how a family moved around hunting their prey - sea lions - and celebrated by springing out of the water.
The trained marine biologist guides shared that water pollution in the Pacific Ocean and local bay have contributed to the population’s decline, and they talked about what is ... Read more ...
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Gas Plants Have a Real Climate Problem. So Do Some Proposed Approaches for Addressing It. - Union of Concerned Scientists - Energy (Oct 14, 2024) |
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Oct 14, 2024 · Power plants fueled by methane gas have a serious climate problem. The fuel, commonly known as natural gas, now powers the biggest portion of US electricity generation - more than 40 percent. It has also grown to be the largest source of carbon pollution from the US power sector, even as zero-carbon renewable energy has been growing by leaps and bounds. Moreover, gas-fired electricity generation hurts communities and the environment in numerous additional ways beyond climate.
So the conversation around how to rapidly drive down gas plant pollution has been (rightly) heating up.
While maximizing energy efficiency is crucial, there will still be enormous amounts of ... Read more ...
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Ask a Scientist: How Close Are We to a Clean Energy Transition? - Union of Concerned Scientists - Energy (Oct 09, 2024) |
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Oct 09, 2024 · After the hottest summer on record, the world continues to witness extreme weather fueled by the burning of fossil fuels. In the United States alone, we’re in the midst of a record-setting hurricane season, with back-to-back destructive hurricanes, Helene and Milton, causing immense destruction in Florida and neighboring states. Both hurricanes were exacerbated by warmer ocean surface temperatures, and are examples of “what hurricanes will look more like in the future,” according to Dr. Marc Alessi, an atmospheric scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists.
We need to stop burning fossil fuels immediately.
Thankfully, we are in the midst of a much-needed transition ... Read more ...
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How Proposition 4 Would Prepare California for Climate Change’s Dangers - Union of Concerned Scientists - Food and Agriculture (Oct 07, 2024) |
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Oct 07, 2024 · Proposition 4 is a critical water and wildfire bond for California, and all Californians should understand it well to make an informed decision in the November elections. However, there are many people who don’t know about it yet.
That’s why, when Radio Bilingüe invited me to talk about the facts surrounding Prop 4, I felt it was a good opportunity to provide Californians, especially Spanish speaking residents of the Central Valley, with information they often don’t receive.
Chelis López and her Línea Abierta team are fantastic and a reliable source of independent, high-quality information. Chelis asks excellent questions, and I admit I study before her ... Read more ...
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Hurricane Helene’s Massive Destruction Was Supercharged by Climate Change, Here’s How You Can Help - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Oct 03, 2024) |
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Oct 03, 2024 · Hurricane Helene has left an 800-mile path of destruction across Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and Kentucky. Right now, people are desperately waiting to hear from loved ones to confirm their safety, while others are living their worst fears as the death toll rises.
My heart is heavy. The grief of yet another climate-changed event is overwhelming. I am writing this post to share how this disaster has affected people I care about and to share resources for folks looking to support organizations on the ground helping survivors access critical food, water, and shelter (see list below).
Alongside the incredible mutual aid efforts, the ... Read more ...
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This Hydrogen Tax Loophole Would Spike Carbon Emissions–But it’s Not Too Late. - Union of Concerned Scientists - Energy (Oct 02, 2024) |
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Oct 02, 2024 · For hydrogen to have any role in the clean energy transition, it must be cleanly produced.
The Section 45V Clean Hydrogen Production Tax Credit (“45V”), passed as part of 2022’s landmark climate investment law, was specifically designed to spur the shift away from today’s dirty methods of hydrogen production to truly clean production processes instead.
But as I’ve previously written, it turns out that under the 45V credit eligibility framework, there are a lot of ways for hydrogen production to look clean while actually resulting in substantial increases in carbon emissions overall - not to mention electricity price spikes, worsened air pollution, delayed retirements of ... Read more ...
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Bankrolling the Burn: Why Climate Scientists are Taking on Fossil Fuel Financiers - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Oct 01, 2024) |
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Oct 01, 2024 · Timed to coincide with the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), last week’s Climate Week in New York City s spotlighted the urgent need for ambitious worldwide climate action. The death toll and devastation of Hurricane Helene has underscored that urgency. UNGA and the upcoming international climate negotiations in Baku, Azerbaijan (known as COP29), are crucial because governments bear primary responsibility for adopting and implementing policies that will sharply reduce global warming emissions, increasing international climate finance, and defending people and policy-making processes against fossil fuel industry misconduct. Climate Week events highlighted commitments and ... Read more ...
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Oil Refineries: A Deadly Industry - Union of Concerned Scientists - Vehicles (Sep 26, 2024) |
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Sep 26, 2024 · Many of us have driven by a refinery and witnessed the sprawling and dystopic-looking installations that produce the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel that power our vehicles, and other petroleum products such as asphalt for our roads. You might have smelled the invisible toxic pollutants in the air and rolled up your car windows. Tragically, many refineries are located near highways and places where people live, work, go to school and do errands. Many people, including refinery workers, have no choice but to breathe that foul air day after day, year after year.
While some who drive past these refineries don’t have to live near them or work in them, those who do can be harmed by ... Read more ...
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The Kids Get It: Why Proposition 4 Is the Right Thing to Do - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Sep 23, 2024) |
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Sep 23, 2024 · Last week, we received our voter information guides in the mailbox. Before I had a chance to even take a look, I found my fifth-grader reading through the guide with a checklist. Looking over her shoulder, I saw her list of the proposition numbers – most with question marks next to them – but one with a big, bold check mark: Proposition 4.
Even though I hadn’t said a word, she gets it. In her short life, she has been through three wildfire evacuations, she has been told not to drink the toxic drinking water in our friend’s neighborhood in Merced County, and she has been kept inside for days and weeks on end due to dangerous, orange, smoky skies. I don’t have to explain why ... Read more ...
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Three International Climate Priorities for UNGA and NYC Climate Week - Union of Concerned Scientists - Energy (Sep 23, 2024) |
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Sep 23, 2024 · This week, New York City is hosting the UN General Assembly meetings and the annual Climate Week events. With the continued trend of extreme climate-fueled disasters around the world - including deadly and damaging heatwaves, floods, fires, and storms - the urgency of solutions for the climate crisis couldn’t be clearer.
What we hear from world leaders this week will give us an indication of their seriousness in helping to secure an ambitious outcome at the annual UN climate talks, COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan in November. Civil society groups will also be at climate week to demand action and remind world leaders of their responsibilities. And business leaders will have the ... Read more ...
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Energy Efficiency Home Retrofits Can Protect You During Extreme Temperature Events - Union of Concerned Scientists - Energy (Sep 19, 2024) |
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Sep 19, 2024 · As human actions worsen climate change, severity and frequency of extreme weather events increase.
Within the category of extreme weather events, heat waves and cold flashes push the human body to its upper and lower limits of temperature regulation. When the power fails, our homes are similarly unable to regulate their interior temperatures. However, homes with energy efficiency retrofits can retain cool or warm air longer, while simultaneously saving money throughout normal yearly temperature fluctuations.
Energy efficiency retrofits increase home comfort during normal temperature deviations and home safety during extreme events.
For example, during a normal ... Read more ...
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Delivery Vans Are Going Electric: Where and Why - Union of Concerned Scientists - Vehicles (Sep 17, 2024) |
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Sep 17, 2024 · Let’s start this one with some good news: the transition toward clean freight is picking up speed. Over the past few years, we’ve started to see more and more zero-emission commercial trucks, delivery vans, and buses hit the road. The much-needed evolution of our on-road freight system to one that’s cleaner and more equitable is gaining momentum – and not a moment too soon.
Medium- and heavy-duty vehicles (MHDVs), like the big rigs on our highways and the vans that deliver our packages, make up just over 1 in 10 of the vehicles on our roads, but are responsible for over half of ozone-forming nitrogen oxide pollution and lung-damaging fine particulate pollution from on-road ... Read more ...
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The Electricity Distribution System Can Stay Resilient in Extreme Weather - Union of Concerned Scientists - Energy (Sep 17, 2024) |
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Sep 17, 2024 · When Hurricane Beryl hit Texas this past July, millions of customers lost their power, some for over a week. This event, though saddening, is not a unique one. In recent years the frequency of extreme weather events has skyrocketed, and many events have included power outages that threaten people’s safety and even lives.
Extreme weather, which is increasing due to climate change, can degrade the electricity system and cause these failures. In fact, between 2000 and 2023, 80% of all major power outages in the United States were due to weather, including severe storms, wildfires, and extreme heat. Power outages are costly, can have extreme impacts on both the health and safety ... Read more ...
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Michigan Can Get Solar for All Right With These Steps - Union of Concerned Scientists - Energy (Sep 17, 2024) |
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Sep 17, 2024 · Michigan, along with many other states, is set to receive significant funding under the federal Inflation Reduction Act’s Solar for All program (more than $156 million for Michigan specifically). With these funds the state can dramatically increase community and household access to the benefits of solar energy. The program requires that participating low-income households see a minimum of 20% savings in their electricity bills - but it’s important for Michigan officials to get the details right in setting up the program.
Last month, the Empower Michigan coalition shared resources on best practices for community engagement and program design with the Michigan Department of ... Read more ...
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How Do You Talk to Children about Climate Change? One Book Has a Few Ideas - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Sep 12, 2024) |
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Sep 12, 2024 · Science communication is strengthened when we use creative approaches. Art is such a powerful tool for this, especially when communicating to kids.
Last year, I met Dave Schneider, a climate scientist who studies ice sheets and climate systems, work very similar to my own. He recently published a children’s book titled Goodnight Fossil Fuels! that’s specifically about climate change and fossil fuel accountability. The book was co-written and illustrated by environmental educator and artist Kira Davis. It stars a penguin who teams up with scientists to help solve the problem of how fossil fuels are harming the climate system and features colorful watercolor ... Read more ...
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Hottest Summer on Record May Be Ending, but Fight to Protect Workers from Heat Is Far from Over - Union of Concerned Scientists - Food and Agriculture (Sep 12, 2024) |
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Sep 12, 2024 · Over the last three months, which have been declared the world’s hottest summer on record, outdoor workers across the US have endured dangerously hot conditions on the job. They’ve cut grass in 112°F heat in California’s Coachella Valley, handled baggage on the hot tarmac of airports across the country, harvested fruit, delivered packages, and performed countless other functions that go largely unnoticed by our society.
Unlike past Danger Seasons, however, this one included glimmer of hope: After decades of stalling, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has published a proposed federal heat-protection standard that would require employers to protect their ... Read more ...
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Has Gasoline Use in California Peaked? - Union of Concerned Scientists - Vehicles (Sep 10, 2024) |
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Sep 10, 2024 · Despite adding six million more passenger cars, trucks, and SUVs to the roads over the last 10 years, California’s gasoline consumption has dropped over two billion gallons from its peak in 2005. More efficient (and cleaner) gasoline cars are part of the reason why gasoline use is down, but the increasing number of electric vehicles being sold in the state will likely drive gasoline use down even further.Switching from fossil fuels like gasoline to increasingly clean electricity sources is vital for hitting climate and air pollution goals. This trend is clear, but this transition away from petroleum needs to speed up to reduce emissions as fast as possible. At the same time, we need ... Read more ...
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Newsom Can Continue His Climate Leadership by Signing These Three Bills - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Sep 05, 2024) |
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Sep 05, 2024 · Throughout his two terms, Governor Gavin Newsom has driven California to the top of the world in clean transportation policies that will improve air quality and fight the climate crisis. Under Newsom, California passed policies to get the state to 100% zero emission vehicle (ZEV) sales, transition large truck fleets from dirty diesel to zero emissions, and fund billions of dollars in incentives and infrastructure for clean transportation.
But California can’t take the foot off the gas (or uh, accelerator) now and neither can Newsom. As these policies change our transportation future, new hurdles arise, and we need new solutions to address them.
EVs are abundant in much ... Read more ...
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New Energy Permitting Legislation: One Step Forward, Too Many Steps Back - Union of Concerned Scientists - Energy (Sep 03, 2024) |
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Sep 03, 2024 · The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee recently approved bipartisan energy permitting legislation (S.4753) sponsored by Chair Joe Manchin (I-WV) and Ranking Member John Barrasso (R-WY). The legislation combines worthwhile provisions to speed transmission buildout for renewable energy with windfalls for fossil fuel and mining companies, including provisions that would degrade public lands, double down on fossil fuels, harm frontline communities, and fail to meet the moment when it comes to responding to the climate crisis in an equitable and just manner.
In its current form, the price of the Manchin/Barrasso bill is simply too high. As a result, UCS joined more than ... Read more ...
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Climate Plans for Aging US Must Focus on Higher Risks to Older Adults - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Sep 03, 2024) |
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Sep 03, 2024 · It’s hard to keep up with the latest stories on extreme heat. 2023 was the world’s hottest year - a record that is likely to be broken by 2024. And just last month, NASA recorded the hottest day on record ever on July 22, the latest in a 13-month stretch of consecutive record-setting weather. These events are part of an upward march in extreme heat in the US that has turned summer into a veritable danger season. And what gets lost as we confront these record-breaking conditions is the reality that heat - like many other effects of climate change - has a disproportionate impact on older adults. But the good news is that when we center our heat response and broader climate resilience ... Read more ...
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Safety and Equity Must be Central to Battery Storage Development. - Union of Concerned Scientists - Energy (Aug 30, 2024) |
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Aug 30, 2024 · Battery storage is essential to integrating more renewable energy into the grid. It provides energy resiliency in the case of natural disasters. It can advance environmental justice by replacing peaker plants, gas or oil plants that run when there is high demand. Peaker plants are dirtier than most power plants and usually sited in low-income communities and communities of color.
There have increasingly been concerns about the safety of large-scale battery storage systems. You may have seen news stories about large battery storage systems, particularly those with lithium-ion batteries, catching fire or exploding. These stories are alarming. Battery failures can emit dangerous ... Read more ...
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Solutions to Rising Cost of Climate Change in California Should Include Passage of Prop 4 - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Aug 26, 2024) |
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Aug 26, 2024 · The heat is on: it’s burning down forests and towns, it’s melting down grids, and it’s making hard jobs even harder. Beyond the staggering human and environmental toll of danger season’s extreme weather, there are rising costs associated with climate damages. And those costs are not being borne equitably. California has taken important steps to address some of these equity concerns - and now has another big opportunity to pass the water and wildfire bond, which will be on the ballot this November as Proposition 4.As one example of these rising costs, Californians’ electricity bills have been skyrocketing over the past few years. This is concerning not only because people are ... Read more ...
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Seven Years after Hurricane María, in Puerto Rico You Can’t Even Count on Keeping the Lights On - Union of Concerned Scientists - Energy (Aug 22, 2024) |
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Aug 22, 2024 · On August 13, Tropical Storm Ernesto rapidly intensified just before hitting Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The intensification and trajectory merited a hurricane warning for the Virgin Islands as well as the island municipalities of Vieques and Culebra. Despite not making landfall in either archipelago, Ernesto brought with it winds of up to 50 miles per hour (80.5 kilometers per hour) and up to 10 inches (25.5 cm) of rain to Puerto Rico. The next day, Wednesday, August 14, Puerto Rico woke up with 728,000 clients (almost half) without electricity, thousands without drinking water (because many communities rely on electricity to pump water), and flood warnings throughout the ... Read more ...
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These Are the Critical Issues to Track with the New “Tech-Neutral” Clean Electricity Tax Credits - Union of Concerned Scientists - Energy (Aug 20, 2024) |
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Aug 20, 2024 · The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) included a major - forthcoming - refresh for one of the biggest policy drivers of the nation’s clean energy transition to date: tax credits subsidizing the deployment of clean electricity resources.
These incentives aren’t just historically important. Across multiple analyses, they’ve been repeatedly identified as one of, if not the, single most impactful incentives coming out of the IRA for delivering future emissions reductions, too, by supporting the deployment of hundreds upon hundreds of gigawatts of renewable resources.
Yet, for how pivotal these tax credits are, exactly how the refresh plays out is still to be ... Read more ...
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UCS Expert Testifies on the New Clean Electricity Tax Credits - Union of Concerned Scientists - Energy (Aug 20, 2024) |
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Aug 20, 2024 · Earlier this month, the US Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service hosted a public hearing on their recent proposed rules governing implementation of the Section 45Y Clean Electricity Production Credit and the Section 48E Clean Electricity Investment Credit.
My testimony is copied below. It covered a subset of issues from the full set of technical comments UCS submitted to the record earlier in August and focused on:
For more information about the tax credits and the key issues at play, see this accompanying blog post.
Presented telephonically during the August 13th, 2024, public hearing for Docket ID No. REG-119283-23.
My name is Julie ... Read more ...
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Electric School Buses: The Best Choice for Our Kids and Communities - Union of Concerned Scientists - Vehicles (Aug 20, 2024) |
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Aug 20, 2024 · The iconic yellow school bus is a familiar sight on our streets no matter where you live in the US, transporting millions of kids safely to and from school every day. While the color of school buses is still the same old yellow that it was when I was going to elementary school, there’s been a lot of changes going on under the hood recently. It turns out school buses are at the leading edge of the transition to electric heavy-duty vehicles. This is great news for our kids, our communities and our climate.
But just in case there was any doubt, UCS crunched the numbers to compare the different types of school buses from gasoline and diesel-powered option, to natural gas, electric ... Read more ...
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Heat, Flooding, and Fire Overwhelming Halfway through 2024 Danger Season - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Aug 13, 2024) |
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Aug 13, 2024 · It is halfway through August and this year’s Danger Season, the period between May and October when climate change makes summers extremely hot and brings more intense hurricanes, heat waves, flooding, and wildfires. Just this past week, the US was hit with record heat, wildfires, and a hurricane, with 2024 already ranking second for the number of billion-dollar disasters recorded.
In our Danger Season tracker, we are keeping tabs on how many people in the US, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands have been under heat, storm, flooding, or fire weather alerts issued by the National Weather Service.
Danger Season got a quick jump start early this year. By May 7, ... Read more ...
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Can EV Batteries Be Used Again? - Union of Concerned Scientists - Vehicles (Aug 13, 2024) |
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Aug 13, 2024 · This blog was written in coordination with Ellie Peichel at Plug In America.
The number of electric vehicles (EVs) on our roads has been increasing at an exceptional rate, reaching 9.5 million EVs sold around the world in 2023. The EV transition offers many advantages, including the ability to reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector.
At the end of an EV’s 10-15 year lifespan, the lithium-ion batteries powering the vehicle typically retain about 70-80 percent of their original capacity. At this point, there are several great options for the battery: it can be reused, repurposed, or recycled. Battery reuse includes using batteries in a ... Read more ...
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Ask A Scientist: What Energy Solutions to the Climate Crisis Are Within Reach? - Union of Concerned Scientists - Energy (Aug 13, 2024) |
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Aug 13, 2024 · As electric vehicle charging stations sprout like mushrooms along our roads and clusters of new wind turbines come online, these two clean energy solutions to the climate crisis are becoming more commonplace. Also more commonplace are the obvious, dangerous, and destructive effects of climate change on people and communities.
The United States needs to speed its transition to clean energy in order to stave off even worse impacts of climate change. But beyond more electric cars and solar panels, what can everyday people do?
One place to look is the power grid, responsible for a quarter of the United States’ carbon emissions. UCS grid modeling shows that there are readily ... Read more ...
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New England’s Offshore Wind Resource Is a Winter Powerhouse - Union of Concerned Scientists - Energy (Aug 04, 2024) |
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Aug 04, 2024 · It was a bitter cold day on January 5, 2018, and Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker had no choice. An Arctic air mass had descended on New England, causing temperatures in Boston to remain below 20 degrees Fahrenheit for a week. Outside, the windchill was negative 15 degrees, and the regional grid operator was warning that the situation was dire. Demand for electricity was high, but there was not enough gas available to keep all the gas-fired power plants running. Meanwhile, the power plants that burned oil had only a few days’ worth of fuel left in their tanks.
To make matters worse, the oil truck drivers, who had been working overtime to make deliveries to power plants as ... Read more ...
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Inside the IPCC 61st Plenary Meeting: Debates and Decisions Shaping Climate Policy - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Aug 02, 2024) |
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Aug 02, 2024 · This post was co-authored by UCS Principal Climate Scientist Kristina Dahl.
Last week, we participated in an IPCC plenary meeting held in Sofia, Bulgaria. Delegates from around the world convened with three main, substantive tasks: approving outlines for a new special report on cities and climate change; approving outlines for a methodology report on short-lived climate pollutants; and agreeing on a timeline for the publishing the three main IPCC working group reports for the organization’s seventh assessment cycle.
As the IPCC has a consensus-based decision-making system, the days involved long, detailed, intense debates. At times, it seemed as though consensus would be ... Read more ...
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Our New Research Says the Solid Earth Can Help Protect the Antarctic Ice Sheet - Only if We Cut Emissions Now - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Aug 02, 2024) |
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Aug 02, 2024 · This post was co-authored with Natalya Gomez, Associate Professor, Canada Research Chair in Geodynamics of Ice sheet – Sea level interactions at McGill University.
The Antarctic Ice Sheet faces an uncertain future under climate change. As the Earth’s air and oceans warm, the ice sheet is starting to melt at an ever-faster rate. As it melts it contributes to sea level rise, causing harm to coastal and island communities around the world.
To more accurately project how sea levels will rise in the future, scientists also need to consider the structure of the solid Earth that the ice sheet rests upon. This often ignored variable plays an important role in how the ice ... Read more ...
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What Happens at Meetings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change? - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Aug 01, 2024) |
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Aug 01, 2024 · Dearest blog readers, I’m attending my first meeting of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and it is so. dang. fascinating. For twenty-ish years, I’ve relied on the IPCC’s reports countless times, and in countless ways. But seeing the IPCC’s consensus-based decision-making process in action is giving me a new perspective on the incredible amount of work that goes into producing each of the organization’s reports. Here are some observations that have particularly struck me as a newbie to the world of the IPCC while attending its 61st session in Sofia, Bulgaria.
There have been Friday nights when my four-person household has failed to come to consensus on ... Read more ...
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Battery Minerals: A Common Fight Over Uncommon Things - Union of Concerned Scientists - Energy (Aug 01, 2024) |
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Aug 01, 2024 · The current media and political churn over the production and distribution of battery minerals is generating some energy of its own. The debate feels modern because it touches on the future of electric cars, wind turbines, solar panels, and energy storage. If we could only get our hands on some Vibranium! In reality, however, this is a classic question of balanced resource allocation.
What are the appropriate standards for mining, refining, and distributing this resource, given its manufacturing and political importance on one hand, and the potential for harmful social, environmental, and labor outcomes on the other? These concerns are not novel. In fact, they are centuries ... Read more ...
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Don’t Get It Twisted - Union of Concerned Scientists - Energy (Jul 30, 2024) |
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Jul 30, 2024 · A group of climate and energy experts and enthusiasts enters a theater to watch Twisters, hoping for a renewable energy twist. Little did they know they would be left chasing for more…
But really, as I entered the movie theater with my Chicago-based UCS colleagues and friends a week and a half ago, I knew we would be carefully watching the summer blockbuster for an accurate portrayal of our present situation: stark climate realities, Midwest experiences, and greatly impacted weather systems. Especially after 27 reported tornadoes in the Chicagoland area just this month, we all had high expectations for a story that connected all those realities - or at least a CGI-flying cow ... Read more ...
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Reporting from Bulgaria on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Jul 29, 2024) |
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Jul 29, 2024 · My colleague Dr. Kristy Dahl and I arrived in Sofia, Bulgaria, last week for the 61st session of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). We are here to engage in early discussions about timelines and content for this cycle of IPCC reports. Over the next week, we will hear delegations and organizations from all across the world discuss, debate, and make decisions that will set the stage for this 7th cycle of the IPCC.
For me, this planning is deeply personal and vital to my work. As a scientist, I rely heavily on the IPCC’s reports. These documents offer an internationally accepted summary of the state of climate science, and form the ... Read more ...
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Climate Change Fuels Catastrophic Wildfires Across the Western U.S. and Canada - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Jul 26, 2024) |
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Jul 26, 2024 · Over the past few weeks, many large wildfires have broken out across the Western United States and Canada, forcing thousands of people to evacuate. Hotter, drier conditions driven by climate change are a significant underlying factor in this trend toward larger wildfires and longer, more intense wildfire seasons in the West. And with more people and property located in close proximity to wildfire-prone terrain, the risks and costs are mounting as the erratic and extreme behavior of these fires has grown much more difficult to fight.
The largest wildfire in the U.S. right now - the Durkee Fire - is raging in Oregon, while the Park Fire, California’s largest so far this year, is ... Read more ...
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