Most recent 40 articles: Scientific American - Climate
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Google Taps Hot Rocks to Cool Climate - Scientific American - Climate (Dec 5) |
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Dec 5 · The potential of geothermal energy as a carbon-free power source is well known. Now companies such as Google are helping to unlock it
A geothermal production well and the Blundell Geothermal Power Plant near Milford, Utah. This well provides 400 degree steam and hot water from deep underground to run the turbines at the power plant.
Jon G. Fuller/VW Pics/ Universal Images Group via etty Images
CLIMATEWIRE | Corporate America has learned to love renewables. Now, it is beginning to dabble in next-generation climate solutions.
An advanced geothermal project supported by Google began generating electricity last week, a big step in the search for technology that ... | By E&E News & Benjamin Storrow Read more ...
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Don’t Fall for Big Oil’s Carbon Capture Deceptions - Scientific American - Climate (Dec 4) |
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Dec 4 · Carbon capture technology is a PR fig leaf designed to help Big Oil delay the phase-out of fossil fuels
Moor Studio/Getty Images
It’s that time of year again. The political and media circus of the United Nation’s big climate change meeting COP28 is about to begin, this time in in Dubai. And it’s bound to be quite a show.
In the inevitable crescendo of hype and greenwashing that’s coming our way, we’ll doubtless hear a lot about industrial carbon capture technologies that attempt to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The COP 28 host country, the United Arab Emirates, the world’s largest oil companies and even programs in ... | By Jonathan Foley Read more ...
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New EPA Methane Rule Will Slash Emissions from Oil and Gas - Scientific American - Climate (Dec 4) |
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Dec 4 · At the COP28 climate meeting, the EPA announced the final version of a rule that aims to deeply cut methane emissions by requiring equipment upgrades and regular leak inspections
A natural gas flare burns near an oil pump jack at the New Harmony Oil Field in Grayville, Illinois, US, on Sunday, June 19, 2022.
Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images
CLIMATEWIRE | More U.S. oil and gas operations will be regulated for methane than ever before under sweeping new federal standards, which for the first time cover petroleum infrastructure built prior to 2015.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan announced the new standards on Saturday at the COP28 climate talks in ... | By Jean Chemnick & E&E News Read more ...
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Efforts to Slow Climate Change Could Inadvertently Create Humanitarian Crises - Scientific American - Climate (Dec 1) |
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Dec 1 · In promoting renewable energy, wealthier nations could worsen health, housing and labor problems in the developing nations where materials are sourced
The Democratic Republic of Congo is rich in natural resources, including metals like cobalt that are in massive demand globally. Many mines are small, like this one, seen in 2022. They are often poorly regulated, and miners subject to dangerous working conditions.
Junior Kannah/AFP via Getty Images
As leaders converge on COP 28 in the United Arab Emirates, the international climate change meeting will have for the first time an explicit focus on climate change’s effect on health and wellness.
As ... | By Marx Itabelo Lwabanya & James Huang Read more ...
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Your Guide to the COP28 Climate Meeting in Dubai - Scientific American - Climate (Dec 1) |
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Dec 1 · The COP28 climate summit in Dubai has begun. Here’s how to understand the negotiations and squabbles about money and the “phaseout” versus “phasedown” of fossil fuels
Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber (C), President of the UNFCCC COP28 Climate Conference, attends the opening session of the conference shortly after he was confirmed COP28 president on November 30, 2023 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The COP28, which is running from November 30 through December 12, is bringing together stakeholders, including international heads of state and other leaders, scientists, environmentalists, indigenous peoples representatives, activists and others to discuss and ... | By E&E News, Sara Schonhardt, Zia Weise & Charlie Cooper Read more ...
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Doubling Energy-Efficiency Gains Is Necessary to Meet Climate Goals - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 30) |
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Nov 30 · Countries need to double their energy-efficiency gains to achieve the emissions reductions required to meet the goals of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, a new report finds
International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol speaks at a press conference at the European Council Building in Brussels, on December 21, 2022. Birol warns in a new report that nations must accelerate their energy efficiency gains.
John Thys/AFP via Getty Images
CLIMATEWIRE | Countries need to double their energy efficiency gains to achieve the emissions reductions required to follow the 2015 Paris climate agreement and to avoid the worst impacts from global warming, according to a ... | By E&E News & Minho Kim Read more ...
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Commercial Airliner Is First to Cross Atlantic with Biofuel Power - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 29) |
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Nov 29 · Virgin Atlantic flew the first large commercial jet to traverse the Atlantic with 100 percent sustainable aviation fuel
A Virgin Atlantic Airways Boeing 787 Dreamliner as seen on final approach to London Heathrow Airport.
Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images
CLIMATEWIRE | A Boeing 787 departed London Heathrow on Tuesday with historic cargo: 60 tons of waste fats and low-carbon kerosene to power a Virgin Atlantic flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
Roughly seven and a half hours later, the aircraft touched down at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, becoming the first large commercial airliner to traverse the Atlantic with 100 percent ... | By Brian Dabbs & E&E News Read more ...
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COP 28 Is a Crunch Point for Countries on the Front Lines of Climate Change - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 29) |
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Nov 29 · To achieve climate justice, developed countries need to put their money where their mouth is
Cyclones, like this Category 5 one that hit Vanuatu in 2015, are becoming more frequent and stronger because of climate change. In 2023 alone, three highly destructive cyclones, Lola, Judy and Kevin, have caused extensive damage on the small Pacific island.
MR Roderick J. Mackenzie/New Zealand Defence Force via Getty Images
In late October, a monster storm named Lola hit the Southern Hemisphere, a week before the official start of the cyclone season, producing the earliest recorded Category 5 cyclone. Violent winds battered the island nation of Vanuatu, reaching 295 ... | By Josephine Latu-Sanft Read more ...
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COP 28 Is a Crunch Point for Countries on the Front Lines of Climate Change - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 29) |
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Nov 29 · To achieve climate justice, developed countries need to put their money where their mouth is
Cyclones, like this Category 5 one that hit Vanuatu in 2015, are becoming stronger because of climate change. In 2023 alone, three highly destructive cyclones, Lola, Judy and Kevin, have caused extensive damage on the small Pacific island.
MR Roderick J. Mackenzie/New Zealand Defence Force via Getty Images
In late October, a monster storm named Lola hit the Southern Hemisphere, a week before the official start of the cyclone season, producing the earliest recorded Category 5 cyclone. Violent winds battered the island nation of Vanuatu, reaching 295 kilometers per hour (183 ... | By Josephine Latu-Sanft Read more ...
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Could Tougher Building Codes Fix Climate Change? - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 27) |
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Nov 27 · States that adopt updated building codes also could see big savings in energy bills
Bilanol/Getty Images
CLIMATEWIRE | It seems almost too good to be true.
But the Energy Department says one step by states would help the United States reduce future carbon emissions by nearly 2 billion metric tons and cut $180 billion from the country's collective energy bill over 30 years. And the move needs no new technology, equipment, infrastructure or vehicles and would be the equivalent of removing 445 million gasoline-powered cars from the road over 30 years.
What's required is for states to force new buildings to meet stronger energy standards that reduce ... | By E&E News & Thomas Frank Read more ...
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Southern Hemisphere Braces for Record-Breaking Heat - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 23) |
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Nov 23 · Like the Northern Hemisphere before it, the Southern Hemisphere is set to be enveloped by sweltering heat during its upcoming summer
Aerial view of the city of Santiago showing the smog caused by high temperatures, taken on August 2, 2023. South American countries, such as Chile and Argentina, set heat records in the middle of the southern winter due to a combination of the El Niño phenomenon and climate change, which also impacts the northern hemisphere with record high temperatures, but in the summer.
Martin BernettiAFP via Getty Images
The southern hemisphere is facing a summer of extremes, say scientists, as climate change amplifies the effects of ... | By Bianca Nogrady & Nature magazine Read more ...
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The Amazon’s Record-Breaking Drought Is about More Than Climate Change - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 22) |
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Nov 22 · The Amazon rain forest is in the middle of a record-breaking drought because of deforestation, El Niño and climate change
By Nature magazine & Meghie Rodrigues
Aerial view as a small boat sails (known locally as "rabetas"), which are the only ones that can pass certain points of the drought-hit rivers, at "Furo do Paracuuba", a small branch of the Amazon River that connects with the Negro River on October 04, 2023 in Manaus, Brazil.
Bruno Zanardo/Getty Images
Last month, a portion of the Negro River in the Amazon rainforest near Manaus, Brazil, shrank to a depth of just 12.7 metres — its lowest level in 120 years, when measurements began. In Lake ... Read more ...
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U.S. Targets Methane Emissions in New Batch of Rules - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 22) |
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Nov 22 · The Biden administration is poised to release rules and guidance to curb emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas
The Biden administration is racing to finalize a series of methane rules on the oil and gas sector.
Martin Divisek/Bloomberg via Getty Images
CLIMATEWIRE | President Joe Biden pledged to use “all available tools” to rein in methane when he was elected three years ago.
Now his promise is coming due.
Federal agencies are poised to release a battery of rules in the coming months that crack down on the oil and gas sector for releasing the potent greenhouse gas. That includes regulations for leaky pipelines; energy production ... | By Jean Chemnick & E&E News Read more ...
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U.S. Carbon Emissions Set to Fall Again, a Key Sign of Progress - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 21) |
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Nov 21 · A projected drop in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions—one of the largest of the past decade—is still not enough to meet the country’s commitments under the Paris climate accord
Wind electric power generation turbines generate electricity outside Medicine Bow, Wyoming on August 14, 2022.
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
CLIMATEWIRE | America is cutting carbon again.
U.S. emissions are on track to fall by as much as 3 percent in 2023, according to a pair of recent analyses — reversing two years of flat or increasing output of planet-warming pollution.
The projected drop is particularly notable as it comes during a year when the ... | By E&E News & Benjamin Storrow Read more ...
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Meeting the 1.5°C Climate Goal Will Save Millions of People, and It’s Still Feasible - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 20) |
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Nov 20 · People already suffering from climate change are beseeching world leaders to hold global temperature rise to 1.5°C, even if we surpass that threshold temporarily
Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images
Imagine you started a fire in your neighborhood, down the street from your house. You didn't mean to—you’re no arsonist—but there it is, blazing before your eyes. Your neighbor’s house is about to go up in flames. What do you do?
There is only one answer, of course: You try to put it out. You run over with buckets and hoses. You do everything you can to be useful. As long as there is a chance of saving your neighbor's home, no matter how ... | By Amy Martin Read more ...
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The State of the Planet in 10 Numbers - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 20) |
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Nov 20 · Here is a snapshot of the warming world, from sea-level rise to fossil fuel subsidies to renewable energy growth
A woman looks at wildfires tearing through a forest in the region of Chefchaouen in northern Morocco on August 15, 2021.
Fadel Senna/AFP via Getty Images
CLIMATEWIRE | This story is part of POLITICO's COP28 Special Report.
The COP28 climate summit comes at a critical moment for the planet.
A summer that toppled heat records left a trail of disasters around the globe. The world may be just six years away from breaching the Paris Agreement’s temperature target of 1.5 degrees Celsius, setting the stage for much worse calamities to come. ... | By E&E News, Zia Weise & Chelsea Harvey Read more ...
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Net-Zero Emissions Would Save 32,000 Lives and $1 Trillion in the U.S. Alone - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 17) |
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Nov 17 · The U.S. will see “fewer emergency room visits, fewer asthma attacks” and will save money if it cuts carbon emissions, a new Union of Concerned Scientists analysis says
A person wearing a face mask takes photos of the skyline as smoke from wildfires in Canada cause hazy conditions in New York City on June 7, 2023.
Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images
CLIMATEWIRE | Cutting carbon emissions sharply over the next three decades will prevent tens of thousands of deaths in the U.S. and save trillions of dollars by reducing air pollutants and easing climate-fueled disasters, according to a report released Thursday.
The Union of Concerned Scientists advocacy ... | By Minho Kim & E&E News Read more ...
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New Space Station Sensor Can Reveal Hidden Greenhouse Gas Polluters - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 17) |
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Nov 17 · An instrument mounted to the International Space Station was built to map dust in the atmosphere, but it’s also giving scientists a wealth of information about methane and carbon dioxide emissions
An excavator at a landfill in New Delhi. Dumps, landfills and waste sites in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are huge emitters of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
Anindito Mukherjee/Bloomberg via Getty Images
An instrument recently installed on the International Space Station (ISS) is proving its mettle at spotting plumes of greenhouse gases that are altering Earth’s climate.
The sensor, called Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT), was ... | By Meghan Bartels Read more ...
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Climate Change is Disrupting Animals’ Brains. Here’s How - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 16) |
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Nov 16 · Shifting temperatures disrupt the cues animals rely on to navigate their environment
Animal nervous systems may lose their adaptive edge with climate change.
PM Images/Getty Images
The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research.
Human-driven climate change is increasingly shaping the Earth’s living environments. Rising temperatures, rapid shifts in rainfall and seasonality, and ocean acidification are presenting altered environments to many animal species. How do animals adjust to these new, often extreme, conditions?
Animal nervous systems play a central role in both ... | By Sean O'Donnell & The Conversation US Read more ...
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What the U.S.-China Agreement Means for Greenhouse Gas Emissions - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 16) |
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Nov 16 · The two nations announced limited steps to address climate change. But even a modest agreement could have far-reaching effects
An aerial view of the ships carrying coal transport to unload outside the coal fired power plant on November 11, 2021 in Hanchuan, Hubei province, China.
Getty Images
CLIMATEWIRE | The climate deal announced by China and the United States on Tuesday shows that the world’s two largest emitters agree on the need for more renewables. But whether they can meet their climate targets will depend in large part on how they plan to address fossil fuels.
The joint statement — emerging from four days of talks between U.S. climate ... | By Sara Schonhardt & Benjamin Storrow Read more ...
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U.S. and China Reach New Climate Agreement - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 15) |
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Nov 15 · China and the U.S. agreed to new greenhouse gas reduction commitments ahead of upcoming climate talks, but the relationship between the world’s top two emitters remains “challenging”
Smoke billows from smokestacks and a coal fired generator at a steel factory in the industrial province of Hebei, China.
Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
CLIMATEWIRE | China, the world’s largest climate polluter, has agreed in a deal with the United States to reduce planet-warming emissions from the power sector this decade and committed for the first time to curb all greenhouse gases.
The statement announcing the deal issued by special climate envoy John Kerry ... | By E&E News & Zack Colman Read more ...
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Climate Changes Threatens Every Facet of U.S. Society, Federal Report Warns - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 14) |
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Nov 14 · The new U.S. National Climate Assessment details how climate change will alter nearly every aspect of American life—and how the U.S. can help avoid “potentially catastrophic outcomes”
John Tully for The Washington Post via Getty Images
CLIMATEWIRE | A long-awaited federal climate report, released Tuesday, delivers a blunt warning: Rapidly curb planet-warming emissions or face dire consequences to human health, infrastructure and the economy.
The fifth installment of the National Climate Assessment presents the most comprehensive evaluation to date of U.S. climate science, impacts and action. Dozens of authors, including representatives from ... | By Chelsea Harvey & E&E News Read more ...
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U.S. Hits Carbon Tech Milestone with First Direct-Air Capture Facility - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 10) |
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Nov 10 · A new facility will suck carbon dioxide from the air, showcasing the potential of a nascent industry that some say is crucial to fighting climate change
CLIMATEWIRE | TRACY, Calif. — Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm used a pair of oversized red scissors Thursday to cut the ribbon on a potentially significant achievement in the battle against climate change: the first commercial direct air capture facility in the United States.
The new plant — built by Heirloom Carbon Technologies — is relatively small in terms of its direct impact on the planet. Heirloom estimates that, when fully operational in the coming months, the facility will be capable of ... Read more ...
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Climate Change Has Worsened Drought in the Fertile Crescent - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 9) |
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Nov 9 · Rising temperatures are increasing the likelihood of severe drought in Syria, Iraq and Iran
CLIMATEWIRE | The Middle East's Fertile Crescent is experiencing one of the most severe droughts in its history — and climate change has made it worse.
Rising temperatures, driven by human greenhouse gas emissions, are the primary driver of the ongoing drought in parts of Syria, Iraq and Iran, according to a new analysis from the science consortium World Weather Attribution, which investigates the links between extreme weather events and climate change.
The current drought is classified as “extreme,” according to the metrics used by the U.S. Drought ... Read more ...
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Earth Just Had the Hottest 12-Month Span in Recorded History - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 9) |
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Nov 9 · The planet just saw the hottest span of 12 months in human history because of climate change driven by the burning of fossil fuels
As this past October came to a close, it marked the hottest 12-month period ever recorded, a new analysis finds.
This stark milestone is the latest in a string of superlatives to emerge this year that show how much carbon pollution has warmed the planet—and how that trend is accelerating. It also comes just weeks before international negotiators are set to meet and hash out issues around achieving the Paris climate accord’s fundamental goal: limiting global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above ... Read more ...
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The Woman Who Demonstrated the Greenhouse Effect - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 9) |
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Nov 9 · Eunice Newton Foote showed that carbon dioxide traps the heat of the sun in 1856, beating the so-called father of the greenhouse effect by at least three years. Why was she forgotten?
In 1856, decades before the term “greenhouse gas” was coined, Eunice Newton Foote demonstrated the greenhouse effect in her home laboratory. She placed a glass cylinder full of carbon dioxide in sunlight and found that it heated up much more than a cylinder of ordinary air. Her conclusion: more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere results in a warmer planet.
Several years later a Irish scientist named John Tyndall conducted a far more complicated experiment that demonstrated the ... Read more ...
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Wildfires Threaten More Homes and People in the U.S. Than Ever Before - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 9) |
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Nov 9 · The number of homes located within the perimeters of wildfires has doubled since the 1990s. A surprising ecosystem is responsible for the risk
Smokey the Bear is famous for warning against forest fires—but for most U.S. homeowners, grass fires and shrubland fires are actually more of a threat. And there twice as many houses within the perimeters of wildfires today, compared with 30 years ago, meaning far more people and homes are at risk, according to a new study published on Thursday in Science.
Forest fires are well known for their ferocity. They accounted for just 33 percent of houses destroyed by wildfires in the early 2000s, however, the study authors found ... Read more ...
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Restoring the Planet Will Need More than a Climate Price Tag - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 8) |
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Nov 8 · In the extraordinary heat of July 2023, the planet perhaps experienced its hottest month in the past 120,000 years. Vast swathes of the world from the U.S. to China endured searing heat waves driven by a lethal combination of anthropogenic climate change and the recurring natural phenomenon known as El Niño.
Despite this alarming climate reality, carbon dioxide emissions have continued to surge, matched only by the growing deluge of proposals aimed at achieving “net zero” emissions. But could some of these proposed “solutions” be worse than the problem?
One problematic approach involves placing a monetary value on living beings. In an ... Read more ...
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State Election Results Bring Clean Energy Consequences - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 8) |
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Nov 8 · The outcomes of state elections this week may mean more natural gas plants in Texas, greater use of climate law funds in Kentucky and the continuation of the status quo in Maine and Mississippi
CLIMATEWIRE | Voters in a handful of off-year elections across the country green-lighted incentives for new power plants in Texas, rejected a Maine attempt to create a public electric utility and kept incumbent governors in Kentucky and Mississippi.
The results could have significant implications for the nation’s energy transition, especially as state governments start to receive billions of federal dollars to fight climate change from last year’s Inflation Reduction ... Read more ...
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Electric Vehicles Might Not Yet Have Replaced as Much Car Mileage as Hoped - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 7) |
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Nov 7 · Without policies to promote electric vehicle purchases and build up charging infrastructure, such vehicles might produce fewer emissions reductions than hoped
CLIMATEWIRE | Electric vehicles may one day dominate U.S. roads, but for now, they’re spending a lot of time in the driveway.
“If you’re going to craft a model that predicts how much emissions can be saved from EV adoption, that model heavily depends on how much you think EVs will be driven,” said John Helveston, a professor at George Washington University and one of the paper’s co-authors.
As an example, he pointed to EPA’s proposed regulations on the car industry, which ... Read more ...
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Quitting Cows Could Have Big Environmental Impacts, but It’s Harder Than It Sounds - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 7) |
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Nov 7 · Eating less beef, cheese and ice cream would slash emissions, but removing cattle from our agricultural system isn’t easy
Cattle play a colossal role in climate change: As the single largest agricultural source of methane, a potent planet-warming gas, the world’s 940 million cows spew nearly 10 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions — much of it through belches and droppings.
As such, there’s an astonishing amount of time and money being funneled into emission control. On-farm biodigesters, for example, take a backend approach by harvesting methane wafting from manure pits. A slew of research aims to curb bovine burps by feeding them seaweed, ... Read more ...
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Climate Benefits of Hydrogen Are at Risk as Fossil Fuel Industry Pressures Mount - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 6) |
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Nov 6 · Rigorous standards are required to scale hydrogen as a clean energy solution; otherwise, it will be a costly, polluting diversion
Hydrogen can play a critical role in the clean energy transition. However, hydrogen is not, and never will be, the core of the clean energy economy. Despite that, the littlest molecule has lately claimed the largest space in seemingly every climate conversation—and is increasingly grabbing an outsized share of climate funding, too.
One headline policy, the Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs program, or “H2Hubs,” is a $7 billion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law initiative charged with concurrently developing clean hydrogen production, ... Read more ...
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New Climate Compensation Agreement Raises International Tensions - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 6) |
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Nov 6 · A U.S. push for voluntary payments in high-stakes negotiations over a global fund for climate disasters has raised tensions ahead of the upcoming COP28 climate summit
CLIMATEWIRE | Negotiators struck a fragile agreement Saturday over the outlines of an international fund for climate-ravaged countries after hours of acrimonious haggling foreshadowed likely divisions at the global climate talks later this month.
The agreement, stitched tenuously together long after sunset in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, included a provision demanded by the U.S. that says payments into the fund would be voluntary — leaving the Biden administration with the option of not contributing. Read more ...
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Earth Reacts to Greenhouse Gases More Strongly Than We Thought - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 3) |
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Nov 3 · Climate scientists, including pioneer James Hansen, are pinning down a fundamental factor that drives how hot Earth will get
CLIMATEWIRE | Climate scientist James Hansen is frustrated. And he’s worried.
For nearly 40 years, Hansen has been warning the world of the dangers of global warming. His testimony at a groundbreaking 1988 Senate hearing on the greenhouse effect helped inject the coming climate crisis into the public consciousness. And it helped make him one of the most influential climate scientists in the world.
Hansen has spent several decades as director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and now at 82, he directs Columbia ... Read more ...
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Godzilla Is Warning Us Again about the Threats to Our Planet - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 3) |
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Nov 3 · It’s not just nukes: the power at the heart of the Godzilla franchise is our awareness of the global consequences of human folly
The beast is born in fire. Once a prehistoric denizen of the deeps, it comes ashore on a tsunami tide, tall as a thunderhead, shrugging off artillery as it bellows a foghorn scream. It stomps. It breathes atomic fire. And it’s the star of the world’s longest continually running film franchise, the latest of which debuts this December: Godzilla.
Constructed out of Japan’s postwar atomic-bomb trauma, the King of the Monsters has proven a remarkably malleable character, playing environmental protector or atomic avenger with ... Read more ...
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Rich Countries Owe More Than Ever in Climate Adaptation Funding - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 2) |
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Nov 2 · Rich nations haven’t met their promises to provide aid to developing countries to adapt to climate extremes, the U.N. says in a new report
CLIMATEWIRE | Climate adaptation funding is faltering as the dangers of rising temperatures accelerate, leaving cash-strapped nations increasingly exposed to higher seas and intensifying storms and drought.
Countries need between $215 billion and $387 billion a year this decade to prepare for the increasingly severe impacts of global warming, according to an annual U.N. report that tracks the most recent data for adaptation funding. That’s up to 18 times more in financing than is currently provided through international ... Read more ...
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Bold Climate Fixes Won’t Wreck Middle Class Retirement Plans - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 1) |
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Nov 1 · Inequality ensures that feared financial losses moving away from fossil fuels will fall most heavily on the wealthy, and not on the poor and middle class
Oil and gas industries just enjoyed a bumper profit year, with shareholders seeing record payouts. In its wake, Europe’s Shell and BP both walked back on their ambitious low-carbon transition plans, with firms across the sector increasing their investing in new production.
That’s not good news for climate change, largely driven by burning fossil fuels. One worry is these investments mean the industry and its political allies will fight tooth and nail for them to avoid “stranded assets” losses, ... Read more ...
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Dangerous 'Fill and Build' Floodplain Policy Should Be Scrapped, Experts Say - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 1) |
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Nov 1 · A FEMA advisory council says a program that allows developers to elevate homes on fill dirt is environmentally harmful and can increase flood risks for nearby homes
CLIMATEWIRE | Federal rules allowing developers to use fill dirt to elevate new houses in high-risk flood areas should be changed because the practice can exacerbate damage to nearby homes, according to an advisory board to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The Technical Mapping Advisory Council (TMAC) said the widespread use of "fill and build" in floodplains, which has drawn fire from environmental groups in low-lying neighborhoods, can be environmentally harmful.
The practice “can create ... Read more ...
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New Models Could Predict Climate Change Effects with Unprecedented Detail - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 1) |
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Nov 1 · Scientists have proposed a network of supercomputing centers that would focus on local climate impacts
A residental area in Pakistan flooded after heavy monsoon rains in 2022.
Fida Hussain/AFP via Getty Images
Scientists have used computer models to predict global warming's implications for more than five decades. As climate change intensifies, these increasingly precise models require more and more computing power. For a decade the best simulations have been able to predict climate change effects down to a 25-square-kilometer area. Now a new modeling project could tighten the resolution to one kilometer, helping policymakers and city planners spot the ... | By Susan Cosier Read more ...
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The Worst Wildfires Are Started by People. Here’s How - Scientific American - Climate (Nov 1) |
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Nov 1 · From stray bullets to power companies, humans spark almost all of California’s wildfires
Flames consumed multiple homes as the Caldor Fire pushed into the Echo Summit area in California on August 30, 2021.
Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images
On a sweltering summer day in 2021, fire suddenly swept through drought-dried underbrush and leaped across treetops in California's Sierra Nevada. A local father and son, charged with starting the 222,000-acre Caldor Fire with their target-shooting equipment, are among the thousands of humans accused of igniting nearly all the state's forest fires since 2000. In addition to executives of utility companies, whose faulty ... | By Jane Braxton Little Read more ...
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