'Like you’re in a horror movie’: pollution leaves New Zealand wetlands irreversibly damaged:
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| 'Like you’re in a horror movie’: pollution leaves New Zealand wetlands irreversibly damaged - Guardian - Climate Change |
Mar 2 · Ecologists say some bodies of water may already have passed the tipping points from which they may never recover
As David Klee nosed his boat out into the channels of Whangamarino, he saw the birds were dying. Hundreds were already dead, floating, the sheen of their feathers dulling in the scum near the banks of the river. Others, he could tell, would be dead soon: flocks that should have been sent flapping in alarm by the boat’s passage sat placid, unmoving in the water.
Often, the bird’s legs go first, says Klee, the local game bird manager for Fish & Game New Zealand. Instead of paddling, they start scooping their wings through the water to propel themselves forward, ... Read more ...
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'Spectacular’ spiny crayfish samples recovered amid Lismore floods key to mapping species:
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| 'Spectacular’ spiny crayfish samples recovered amid Lismore floods key to mapping species - Guardian - Climate Change |
Mar 2 · Australia Museum says 20-year-old collection will help understand and conserve threatened animals, which are sensitive to climate change
As floods devastated Lismore, a group of ecologists waited anxiously for a break in the weather so they could move an important scientific collection of “spectacular” spiny crayfish to a new home at the Australian Museum.
The samples of the crayfish were collected more than 20 years ago from deep within the rainforests of north-eastern NSW and southern Queensland by Dr Jason Coughran, a freshwater ecologist.
Prof Nigel Andrew, the chair of science at Southern Cross University, said the collection of multiple species was a ... Read more ...
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‘Extraordinarily bad timing’: Climate and energy experts say Newfoundland and Labrador’s new oil and gas initiatives defy logic | SaltWire:
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| ‘Extraordinarily bad timing’: Climate and energy experts say Newfoundland and Labrador’s new oil and gas initiatives defy logic | SaltWire - un |
Mar 20 · Watch the video here.
Dear friends,
Humanity is on thin ice – and that ice is melting fast.
As today’s report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) details, humans are responsible for virtually all global heating over the last 200 years.
The rate of temperature rise in the last half century is the highest in 2,000 years.
Concentrations of carbon dioxide are at their highest in at least two million years.
The climate time-bomb is ticking.
But today’s IPCC report is a how-to guide to defuse the climate time-bomb.
It is a survival guide for humanity.
As it shows, the 1.5-degree limit is achievable.
But it ... Read more ...
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12th Atmospheric River Slams California:
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| 12th Atmospheric River Slams California - Reuters |
Mar 23 · LOS ANGELES, March 22 (Reuters) - The latest bout of harsh, wintry weather to lash California drifted into neighboring states of the Desert Southwest on Wednesday as authorities reported at least five storm-related deaths in and around San Francisco, all from fallen trees.
As California's onslaught of rain, wind and mountain snow subsided, downed power lines from Tuesday's storm left more than 92,000 homes and businesses without electricity as of Wednesday afternoon, while lingering floods kept 14,000 people under evacuation orders.
Nearly 48,000 others statewide were warned to be ready to flee to higher ground in the event rain-swollen streams overflow their ... Read more ...
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2023 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #12:
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| 2023 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #12 - Skeptical Science |
Mar 19 · The final part of the world’s most comprehensive assessment of climate change – which details the “unequivocal” role of humans, its impacts on “every region” of the world and what must be done to solve it – has now been published in full by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The synthesis report is the last in the IPCC’s sixth assessment cycle, which has involved 700 scientists in 91 countries. Overall, the full cycle of reports has taken eight years to complete.
The report sets out in the clearest and most evidenced detail yet how humans are responsible for the 1.1C of temperature rise seen ... Read more ...
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3 ocean sequestration technologies you should know:
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| 3 ocean sequestration technologies you should know - Greenbiz |
Mar 23 · Microalgae cultivation, seaweed sinking and electrochemistry enhanced sequestration are new ocean-focused ways to pull CO2 out of the air.
Seaweed that grows on buoys to sequester carbon. Image courtesy of Running Tide.
Terrestrial carbon sequestration - trees, soils, wood vaults, biochar - has been hot in the carbon removal world for the past few years. There have been dozens of investigations into the legitimacy of forest sequestration claims, money from big food companies pouring into figuring out how farmers can use their crop land to pull more carbon into the soil and a humming ecosystem of startups, marketplaces and financing for terrestrial-based projects and credits. | By Jesse Klein Read more ...
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A 'greenwashing' crackdown in Europe hasn't gone down well. Here's what you need to know:
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| A 'greenwashing' crackdown in Europe hasn't gone down well. Here's what you need to know - ecostandard |
Mar 22 · Meant to prevent greenwashing by giving consumers reliable environmental information on products, the proposal falls short of its original ambition and fails to offer a robust, harmonised methodology for calculating environmental impacts.
The European Commission has just presented its proposal for the long-awaited Substantiating Green Claims Directive[1]. Environmental market leaders, and consumers wanting to buy sustainable products, are being actively undermined by the Commission’s proposal.
After months of intense lobbying, what could have been legislation contributing to providing reliable environmental information to consumers was substantially watered ... Read more ...
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A New Battleground in Big Oil’s War on Drilling Setbacks:
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| A New Battleground in Big Oil’s War on Drilling Setbacks - Legal Planet |
Mar 23 · Earlier this month, my colleague Beth Kent wrote a thorough overview of the referendum seeking to reverse SB 1137, a bill passed by the California Legislature establishing a 3,200-foot setback between new oil and gas wells and sensitive receptors, including homes, schools, and hospitals. That referendum (Ballot Measure 22-0006) will appear on the November 2024 ballot. While Californians patiently wait until then to cast their votes, SB 1137’s critical setback provisions are suspended.
But as Beth noted, Big Oil’s well-funded signature-gathering campaign has been tainted amid reports of petition circulators telling 'blatant lies’ to secure signatures. These alleged lies range ... Read more ...
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After L.A.’s strongest tornado in 40 years, storm system heads for the South:
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| After L.A.’s strongest tornado in 40 years, storm system heads for the South - Yale Climate Connections - Weather |
Mar 24 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our newsletters.
Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Just two days after Los Angeles experienced its strongest tornado since 1983, a volatile severe weather setup driven by the same upper-level storm was taking shape for Friday, March 24, from Louisiana and Arkansas into Mississippi.
The NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center placed the region under a moderate risk for severe weather - its second highest of five risk levels - and warned that an outbreak of strong tornadoes could emerge by Friday evening.
Both the ... Read more ...
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After twin cyclones leave thousands homeless, Vanuatu takes climate plea to world stage:
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| After twin cyclones leave thousands homeless, Vanuatu takes climate plea to world stage - Reuters |
Mar 24 · [1/2] A view of the damage in the aftermath of cyclone Kevin, in Port Vila, Vanuatu March 4, 2023, in this screen grab obtained from a social media video. DevMode/via REUTERS
March 24 (Reuters) - Vanuatu, still reeling from two cyclones that struck within a week, says it hopes the United Nations General Assembly will next week adopt its push for greater priority to be given to the human rights impact of climate change.
The Pacific island nation's Minister of Climate Change, Ralph Regenvanu, said 119 governments have co-sponsored Vanuatu's resolution, which seeks legal clarity on the obligation of states to take climate change action, and draws attention to the ... Read more ...
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America's dirty divide:
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| America's dirty divide - Guardian - Energy |
Mar 2 · The Georgia activist on why she is leaving campaign politics behind to focus on weaning Americans off fossil fuels
Stacey Abrams has been hailed as a masterly community organizer, after she helped turn out the voters that secured two Senate seats for Democrats in once solidly red Georgia. She has also run twice – unsuccessfully – for state governor. For her next move, she’s not focusing on electoral power so much as power itself.
Recently she left the world of campaign politics and took a job as senior counsel for the non-profit Rewiring America. Her role will focus on helping thousands of people across America wean their homes and businesses off fossil fuels and on to ... Read more ...
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An education in climate change:
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| An education in climate change - MIT - Energy |
Mar 22 · d="M12.132,61.991a5.519,5.519,0,0,1-5.866,5.753A5.554,5.554,0,0,1,.4,61.854a5.809,5.809,0,0,1,1.816-4.383,6.04,6.04,0,0,1,4.05-1.37C9.9,55.965,12.132,58.43,12.132,61.991Zm-8.939-.137c0,2.328,1.117,3.7,3.073,3.7s3.073-1.37,3.073-3.7-1.117-3.835-3.073-3.835C4.45,58.156,3.193,59.526,3.193,61.854Z" transform="translate(-0.4 -55.965)" fill="#333"/> d="M17.884,67.531l-3.352-5.753-1.257-2.191v7.944H10.9V56.3h2.793l3.212,5.616c.419.822.7,1.37,1.257,2.328V56.3h2.374V67.531Z" transform="translate(3.765 -55.889)" fill="#333"/> ... Read more ...
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Antarctic clouds could help improve climate change projections:
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| Antarctic clouds could help improve climate change projections - PHYS.ORG - Earth |
Mar 24 · A Cranfield University designed instrument capable of remotely analyzing molecules from the air in Antarctica will help scientists understand future changes in our climate. The iDirac is unique in that unlike commercial alternatives it can operate autonomously for long periods of time. In addition to saving up to £500,000 - the cost of a similar commercial device - the Cranfield designed device has the advantage of being able to run remotely on rugged terrain for months on end. The iDirac is currently being used as part of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) led Southern Ocean Clouds project which also involves the University of East Anglia, the University of Exeter, and the ... Read more ...
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Antarctic ice age survival story: Life seeking ice-free refuges imitates art in Ice Age, the movie:
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| Antarctic ice age survival story: Life seeking ice-free refuges imitates art in Ice Age, the movie - PHYS.ORG - Earth |
Mar 23 · We discounted previous research suggesting geothermal sites provided sufficient ice-free refuges on the coast. That's because these would have been short-lived - compared to an ice age lasting around 100,000 years - and too few in number to explain the survival of life on the continent today. We provide the first testable evidence-based hypothesis for the existence of life on continental Antarctica for millions of years. And we achieved this using the most well-known of all Antarctic invertebrates, a small creature that inhabits ice-free land year-round: springtails. Springtails are an important contributor to soil health globally. They were among the first animals collected during ... Read more ...
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As Australia faces a 'hydrogen tipping point’, the energy industry needs smart policies, not huge handouts:
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| As Australia faces a 'hydrogen tipping point’, the energy industry needs smart policies, not huge handouts - Guardian - Energy |
Mar 2 · The US pouring billions into new technology is a 'global gamechanger’ Australia must swiftly capitalise on, according to analysts
The deputy chief executive of Star Scientific, Matthew Hingerty, is back in Australia after recent visits to the US and Europe to scope out prospects for his firm’s novel technologies to produce heat from hydrogen, for a range of industries eager to ditch fossil fuels.
Hingerty is among those in Australia’s emerging green industries weighing up the opportunities – and threats – posed by the US government’s giant $US369bn ($A550bn) support package for the sector and copy-cat policies in Europe and elsewhere.
“This great wad of money has ... Read more ...
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At least 24 killed in tornado outbreak in Mississippi, Alabama:
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| At least 24 killed in tornado outbreak in Mississippi, Alabama - Yale Climate Connections - Weather |
Mar 25 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our newsletters.
Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Dozens of lives were lost in Mississippi on Friday night, March 24, from a compact, fast-evolving tornado outbreak that struck a highly vulnerable area after dark. The bulk of death and destruction resulted from a single supercell thunderstorm that plowed across the breadth of northern Mississippi and Alabama with one or more long-track tornadoes.
More severe weather is possible across the South on both Saturday and Sunday, March 24-25, although the conditions ... Read more ...
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Auroras shine unusually far south amid strongest solar storm since 2017:
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| Auroras shine unusually far south amid strongest solar storm since 2017 - Washington Post - Climate and Environment |
Mar 24 · As soon as the sun set Thursday, extreme weather photographer Peter Forister excitedly headed for the hills. Forecasts had suggested that recent storming on the surface of the sun could set off auroras - brilliant dancing streaks of light, also known as the northern lights - in the Lower 48 states. For the first hour or so into his night, his camera picked up pretty but rather demure purple hues in the sky, which appeared just as a white haze to the naked eye.
Then, within 30 seconds at around 11 p.m., the sky lit up with vibrant red and yellow streaks visible to the naked eye. Forister sprinted up a hill with his camera and pushed through bushes that scratched and tore up his ... Read more ...
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Autumn has been totally skewwhiff in Sydney this year, devoid of its customary cadence and meter:
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| Autumn has been totally skewwhiff in Sydney this year, devoid of its customary cadence and meter - Guardian - Climate Change |
Mar 2 · Is it too soon to be nostalgic for all those soft, gentle Marches? Here’s hoping not
In the southern Australian cities where I’ve spent most of my life my birthday on the second day of autumn has always been synonymous with gentle seasonal transition.
It’s no coincidence that the beginning of autumn in March is my favourite time of year. First comes the softer light. The mornings grow darker and slightly crisper.
In Sydney where I live now, March usually relieves us of the wicked humidity of January and February just as a soft russet dusts the canopies of the deciduous trees. The daybreak dog walk becomes a comforting joy, a soothing celebration of the dawn instead ... Read more ...
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Building Healthy Housing for the Planet:
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| Building Healthy Housing for the Planet - Facing Future |
Mar 25 · Buildings have a huge carbon footprint, both from the materials and energy used in construction and from emissions once the building is inhabited. Here, we present new methods of building that actually sequester carbon, use less damaging materials in construction and require less energy to heat and cool.\n\n#ChrisMagwood, architect and author of Building Beyond Zero: New Ideas for Carbon-Smart Architecture, #LloydAlter, architect, developer, and author of Living the 1.5 Degree Lifestyle: Why Individual Climate Action Matters More Than Ever, and our own Mike Coe, who designed and built two energy efficient houses, and now lives in one of them on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, take ... | By Facing Future Read more ...
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California ends some water limits after storms ease drought:
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| California ends some water limits after storms ease drought - PHYS.ORG - Earth |
Mar 24 · "This is a good news moment. Those storms have brought record amounts of water into our state in the form of rain and snow, and that means we are in much better condition with our water supply than we were in the fall," said Wade Crowfoot, secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency. Newsom did not declare an end to the drought on Friday, even though the U.S. Drought Monitor reported this week that much of the state - including the major population centers along the coast and farmland in the Central Valley - are not in drought. Water shortage concerns remain for some areas of the state, including a sizeable chunk of Southern California that relies on water from the Colorado ... Read more ...
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Canada's Plan To Clean Up The Oilsands - Below 2C:
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| Canada's Plan To Clean Up The Oilsands - Below 2C - bit.ly |
Mar 19 · The Breach has hit a bases-loaded home run with this satirical video about Alberta’s tailings ponds and their environmental impact on local communities, wildlife, water resources and ecological systems.
Canadian Government Ad™: Cleaning up the Oil Sands YouTube
“Since the government has difficulty being honest about their environmental policies, we decided to make a factual but satirical ad on their behalf - because when an idea is this bad, the best response is to laugh-cry.” - The Breach
It sounds like a joke: dumping 1.4 trillion litres of chemical sludge from Alberta’s tar sands’ tailings ponds into the province’s Athabasca River.
But ... Read more ...
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Carbonatitic liquid acts as medium for transferring carbon from slab to subarc mantle:
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| Carbonatitic liquid acts as medium for transferring carbon from slab to subarc mantle - PHYS.ORG - Earth |
Mar 24 · Deep carbon cycling at subduction zones affects the long-term habitability of Earth's surface by regulating atmospheric CO2 concentrations. How the carbon is transferred from the slab to the subarc mantle has thus far eluded researchers. Recently, a research team led by Prof. Zhang Guoliang from the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOCAS) has found that hydrous carbonatitic liquids act as a pervasive agent to transfer carbon from the slab to the subarc mantle. The study was published in Communications Earth & Environment on March 15. The researchers determined the phase relation of subducting carbonated pelites using high-pressure, high-temperature ... Read more ...
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Climate change and nutrient fluctuations disrupt networks in lakes:
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| Climate change and nutrient fluctuations disrupt networks in lakes - PHYS.ORG - Earth |
Mar 23 · The aquatic research institute Eawag has now succeeded for the first time in providing substantiated statements on this subject. The results were recently published in the journal Nature Climate Change. Ewa Merz, ecologist and first author of the study, summarizes, "We have found that the warming of lakes, as we have observed in recent decades, reduces interactions in the plankton network. There are fewer interactions and they are weaker. This decline is particularly pronounced when lakes simultaneously have high phosphate levels." If the nutrient content in a body of water like Lake Zurich increases even slightly, this could already have dramatic consequences for the entire network ... Read more ...
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Climate change could disrupt Maine’s coastal economy and culture:
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| Climate change could disrupt Maine’s coastal economy and culture - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans |
Mar 23 · Take the Yale Climate Connections audience survey today.
Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Maine has thousands of miles of coastline, and many small communities that rely heavily on fishing and tourism.
“Maine is a state that is deeply rooted in coastal culture. And it’s part of our traditions, part of our heritage, a huge part of our economy,” says Gayle Bowness of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute.
But she says climate change threatens to disrupt coastal life.
Rising seas and extreme storms will cause increased flooding, erosion, and land loss. And rapidly ... Read more ...
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Climate Change Is Destabilizing Insurance Industry:
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| Climate Change Is Destabilizing Insurance Industry - Scientific American - Climate |
Mar 23 · Insurers face a “crisis of confidence” as global warming makes weather events unpredictable and increases damage
CLIMATEWIRE | The president of one of the world’s largest insurance brokers warned Wednesday that climate change is destabilizing the insurance industry, driving up prices and pushing insurers out of high-risk markets.
Aon PLC President Eric Andersen told a Senate committee that climate change is injecting uncertainty into an industry built on risk prediction and has created “a crisis of confidence around the ability to predict loss.”
Reinsurance companies, which help insurers pay catastrophic losses, “have been ... Read more ...
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Climate change pioneer Claude Lorius dies at 91:
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| Climate change pioneer Claude Lorius dies at 91 - BBC |
Mar 23 · Claude Lorius, a leading glaciologist whose expeditions helped prove that humans were responsible for global warming, has died at the age of 91.
He led 22 expeditions to Greenland and Antarctica during his lifetime.
It was during one trip to Antarctica in 1965 where an evening of whiskey with ice cubes led him to prove humankind's role in the heating of the Earth's surface.
Lorius died on Tuesday morning in the French region of Burgundy.
It was his love of adventure which set him on the path to identifying and predicting an impending catastrophe for the planet.
In 1956, just out of university, he joined an expedition to Antarctica. ... Read more ...
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Climate change threatens global fisheries:
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| Climate change threatens global fisheries - PHYS.ORG - Earth |
Mar 23 · Like blue whales, which eat krill, gelatinous salps and larvaceans eat prey millions of times smaller than themselves, which means unlike other larger zooplankton eaten by fish, they can directly access smaller phytoplankton for food. As a result, salps and larvaceans provide an effective shortcut for the transfer of energy from increasingly dominant small phytoplankton to fish. "This shortcut partially offsets the increase in the number of steps from phytoplankton to fish from shrinking phytoplankton and increases in carnivorous zooplankton," Dr. Heneghan said. "But, it comes at a cost: these groups are gelatinous, having about five% of the carbon contained in omnivorous ... Read more ...
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Climate science pioneer Claude Lorius, dies at 91:
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| Climate science pioneer Claude Lorius, dies at 91 - PHYS.ORG - Earth |
Mar 23 · In the 1970s, Lorius began to suspect human involvement in the planet's warming. But it wasn't until a 1984 expedition at the most remote Russian Antarctic base, Vostok, that Lorius was able to study ice cores drilled deep into the frozen polar landscape and confirm his suspicions. He is perhaps most internationally renowned for research, published in 1987, into air bubbles trapped in the ice, which allowed scientists to look back over 160,000 years' worth of glacial records. In 1965, an ice cube snatched from a sample core and submerged in his whiskey provided Lorius with a revelation: the ice contained air bubbles full of ancient air. "I remember looking at the blue colour of ... Read more ...
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Climate visas could give victims of natural disasters safe route to UK, says thinktank:
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| Climate visas could give victims of natural disasters safe route to UK, says thinktank - Guardian - Climate Change |
Mar 2 · Report also suggests migration could help ensure UK has necessary skills to meet government’s 2050 net zero target
New climate visas should be created to allow victims of natural disasters to come to the UK, and to bring in skilled workers needed for the transition to net zero, a Conservative thinktank has argued.
Onward, whose co-founder Will Tanner recently became Rishi Sunak’s deputy chief of staff, is urging the government to prepare for the likely increase in global migration as a result of the climate crisis.
The authors of the report call for the government to prioritise financial support for climate adaptation in developing countries, but also to open up ... Read more ...
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Coral can't escape climate change despite its natural adaptive capacity, says new paper:
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| Coral can't escape climate change despite its natural adaptive capacity, says new paper - PHYS.ORG - Biology |
Mar 23 · A new study shows that despite coral's natural adaptive capacity, even moderate global warming could see the destruction of our coral reefs. Dr. Christopher Cornwall from Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington's Te Kura Matauranga Koiora - School of Biological Sciences led the study, and says the results are concerning. "We found that corals' natural adaptive capacity would not be enough to save the reefs from eroding due to climate change. Not unless we stop emitting greenhouse gases immediately and start developing techniques to remove the gases from our atmosphere." Coral colonies are supported by a rigid skeleton of calcium carbonate, similar in structure to our ... Read more ...
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Could This Be New York City’s Least Snowy Winter in Recorded History?:
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| Could This Be New York City’s Least Snowy Winter in Recorded History? - New York Times - Climate Section |
Mar 24 · Just two inches so far, and a tie for the second-mildest winter.
New York City’s springlike winter is on track to set a record: the least snowy season on the books.
It’s likely, though by no means guaranteed, that the city will fall short of the lowest total snowfall accumulation since record-keeping began shortly after the Civil War.
The National Weather Service station at Central Park has so far measured just 2.3 inches of snowfall. The previous record, set in the winter of 1972-73, was 2.8 inches. On average, the city sees a little over two feet of snow.
New York City’s Record Winters
10 Least Snowy Winters
SEASON
INCHES OF ... | By Francesca Paris Read more ...
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Deep-sea mining for rare metals will destroy ecosystems, say scientists:
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| Deep-sea mining for rare metals will destroy ecosystems, say scientists - Guardian - Climate Change |
Mar 2 · Businesses want to trawl for nickel, manganese and cobalt to build electric cars and windfarms
An investigation by conservationists has found evidence that deep-seabed mining of rare minerals could cause “extensive and irreversible” damage to the planet.
The report, to be published on Monday by the international wildlife charity Fauna & Flora, adds to the growing controversy that surrounds proposals to sweep the ocean floor of rare minerals that include cobalt, manganese and nickel. Mining companies want to exploit these deposits – which are crucial to the alternative energy sector – because land supplies are running low, they say.
However, oceanographers, ... Read more ...
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Disabled team to take on glacier challenge:
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| Disabled team to take on glacier challenge - BBC |
Mar 26 · A former rugby player who suffered severe spinal injuries is to cross the largest ice cap in western Europe.
Ed Jackson, who was BBC's West's Unsung Hero in 2021, will join two others to become the first fully disabled team to traverse Iceland's Vatnajokull Glacier.
They hope to raise £155,000 - £1,000 for every kilometre of their journey.
The former Bath and England player said: "Normally I would say I'm just excited. But actually for this one I think I am a little bit nervous."
After an accident in 2017, Mr Jackson, who lives near Bath, was told by doctors he might never walk again.
But he defied his doctors' predictions by ... Read more ...
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Do Climate Change Cases Belong in Federal Court? The Biden Administration Weighs In.:
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| Do Climate Change Cases Belong in Federal Court? The Biden Administration Weighs In. - Legal Planet |
Mar 23 · The Biden Administration, at the Supreme Court’s invitation, has now filed a brief giving its views about current lawsuits against oil companies. The gist of the brief is that the cases belong in state court., and that the Court should let that happen rather than stepping into the litigation. The brief is right about that, and I’m sure the people suing the oil companies are glad to have the support. But the brief could have provided more full-throated support of the lawsuits. That raises a question: Why did the government take such a narrow stance rather than addressing the broader issues presented by the lawsuits?
The case before the Supreme Court is one of a number of ... Read more ...
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Drought killed 43000 people in Somalia last year:
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| Drought killed 43000 people in Somalia last year - Economist |
Mar 25 · First the rains in Somalia failed in 2021. Then they failed again and again and again and again. For five wet seasons in a row, Somalis looked anxiously to the skies while their crops withered, their cattle perished and many people died of hunger or disease. A new report, released by UN agencies and the Somali government, estimates that there were 43,000 “excess deaths” in the country last year, relative to the typical level. Half of the dead were children under the age of five.
This hunger is the deadliest in Somalia since the famine of 2010-11, which claimed 260,000 lives. And it will get worse before it gets better. Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical ... Read more ...
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Drought, heat waves found to worsen West Coast air pollution inequality:
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| Drought, heat waves found to worsen West Coast air pollution inequality - PHYS.ORG - Earth |
Mar 23 · These years simulated conditions that could occur based on historical wind, air, temperature and solar radiation values on the West Coast between 1953 and 2008. Then by using information about the location of power plants in California and how much electricity they would be generating under different weather conditions, they estimated air pollution within individual counties. They saw the worst air pollution in the hottest, driest years, which Kern said is due to the demand for more air conditioning during hot years. In addition, drought can impact the availability of hydropower. The excess electricity has to come from somewhere else, which is where fossil fuel plants come in. "One ... Read more ...
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Drought, Heat Waves Worsen West Coast Air Pollution Inequality:
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| Drought, Heat Waves Worsen West Coast Air Pollution Inequality - Science Daily - Earth and Climate |
Mar 23 · A new study led by North Carolina State University researchers found drought and heat waves could make air pollution worse for communities that already have a high pollution burden in California, and deepen pollution inequalities along racial and ethnic lines.
"We have known that air pollution disproportionally impacts communities of color, the poor and communities that are already more likely to be impacted by other sources of environmental pollution," said the study's lead author Jordan Kern, assistant professor of forestry and environmental resources at NC State. "What we know now is that drought and heat waves makes things worse."
For the study, researchers estimated ... Read more ...
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ENVIRONMENTAL:
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| ENVIRONMENTAL - dailyyonder |
Mar 23 · Get the latest stories from the Yonder directly in your email inbox.
The Daily Yonder
Rural News and Information
Terry Thies wasn’t worried about the rain that pounded on her roof last July.
She had received no flood warnings before going to sleep that night. Besides, her part of rural Perry County in Eastern Kentucky often gets heavy rain.
So early the next morning when her foot hit the water lapping the bottom of her wooden bed frame, Thies’ first thought was that the toilet had overflowed. But as she scanned her bedroom for the water’s source, she realized this was something else entirely.
“I came into the kitchen and opened the door and water ... Read more ...
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Environmental activism:
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| Environmental activism - Guardian - Climate Change |
Mar 2 · Six KCs among more than 120 mostly English lawyers to sign pledge not to act for fossil fuel interests
Leading barristers have defied bar rules by signing a declaration saying they will not prosecute peaceful climate protesters or act for companies pursuing fossil fuel projects.
They are among more than 120 mostly English lawyers who have signed a declaration vowing to “withhold [their] services in respect of supporting new fossil fuel projects and action against climate protesters exercising their right of peaceful protest”.
Noting that climate breakdown represents “a serious risk to the rule of law”, the so-called “declaration of conscience” calls on legal ... Read more ...
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Evolving Our Infrastructure Means the Wire and Cable Industry Must Prioritize Sustainability:
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| Evolving Our Infrastructure Means the Wire and Cable Industry Must Prioritize Sustainability - Sustainable Brands |
Mar 23 · To sustainably support the tremendous global demand for connectivity, collaboration is needed across the value chain to create solutions that enable more information to move faster, with greater protection and safety, using less energy.
For many years, a common complaint among people in the US has been the state of the country’s infrastructure. Now, as continuous connectivity has become increasingly critical - with people spending more time at home since the pandemic - market trends for power and telecommunication networks are accelerating demand for cable solutions.
The passing of President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021 will bring a greater focus on ... Read more ...
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Extreme heat waves in Europe may be linked to melting Arctic sea ice:
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| Extreme heat waves in Europe may be linked to melting Arctic sea ice - Yale Climate Connections - Weather |
Mar 24 · Take the Yale Climate Connections audience survey today.
Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Global warming is melting the Arctic ice cap, and that’s having unforeseen effects on the world’s weather - even thousands of miles away from the North Pole. Some climate scientists have begun to link increasingly common heat waves in Europe to what is called a “double jet pattern.”
In this weather pattern, the jet stream, which is typically a narrow band of fast-moving air in the upper atmosphere, splits into two branches with Europe in between. This phenomenon causes a “heat dome” effect ... Read more ...
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Facing floods, non-white homeowners prepare, protect property:
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| Facing floods, non-white homeowners prepare, protect property - PHYS.ORG - Earth |
Mar 24 · In flood-prone areas of New York state, non-white homeowners are more likely than white homeowners to take active, sometimes-costly measures - such as finding a way to protect a furnace, a water heater or installing a sump pump - to prepare for a possible deluge, according to a new Cornell study. White respondents to a survey, the researchers learned, were generally more confident of better outcomes from dire situations and saw the possibility of a flood threat differently. Thus, people who identified as white took more low-cost actions to protect their property from flooding - but tended to stop short of expensive measures. "Most of the time for people who live in flood-prone ... Read more ...
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Flood risk will be ten times higher in many places within 30 years: Study:
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| Flood risk will be ten times higher in many places within 30 years: Study - PHYS.ORG - Earth |
Mar 23 · After the North Sea Flood of 1953, it took nearly 45 years to finalize the Delta Works. If we want to protect The Netherlands against sea-level rise, we shouldn't wait too long. But how much time do we have left? An international team of researchers from Utrecht University, Deltares, and NIOZ, among others, devised a new method to calculate when we can expect an increase in flood probability in a specific area. The calculations show that within 30 years, the estimated probability of flooding will be 10 times higher in more than a quarter of the places studied. The researchers published their results in Nature Climate Change. Sea-level rise is causing extremely high water levels to ... Read more ...
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Flooded coal mines could heat homes and businesses:
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| Flooded coal mines could heat homes and businesses - BBC |
Mar 24 · Flooded former coal mines could be used to heat thousands of homes in a new plan to cut carbon emissions.
The plan forms one part of a £10m boost to climate projects across the west of England.
Old coal mines naturally flood with water which is heated by geothermal processes, and the water can then be piped above ground for heating.
The plan was welcomed by West of England Metro Mayor Dan Norris and is funded by a green recovery fund.
In future, the flood water could be used to provide heat for Bristol's district heat network, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.
Swedish firm Vattenfall is planning to build a 12-mile (20km) pipe running from ... Read more ...
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Ford says EV unit losing billions, should be seen as startup:
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| Ford says EV unit losing billions, should be seen as startup - PHYS.ORG - Technology |
Mar 23 · Ford Motor Co.'s electric vehicle business has lost $3 billion before taxes during the past two years and will lose a similar amount this year as the company invests heavily in the new technology. The figures were released Thursday as Ford rolled out a new way of reporting financial results. The new business structure separates electric vehicles, the profitable internal combustion and commercial vehicle operations into three operating units. Company officials said the electric vehicle unit, called "Ford Model e," will be profitable before taxes by late 2026 with an 8% pretax profit margin. But they wouldn't say exactly when it's expected to start making money. Chief Financial ... Read more ...
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Forget geoengineering. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. Right now:
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| Forget geoengineering. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. Right now - Guardian - Climate Change |
Mar 2 · Pie-in-the-sky fantasies of carbon capture and geoengineering are a way for decision-makers to delay taking real action
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, one of which dropped yesterday, are formidably researched and profoundly important, but they mostly reinforce what we already know: human-produced greenhouse gases are rapidly and disastrously changing the planet, and unless we rapidly taper off burning fossil fuels, a dire future awaits.
The message is far from hopeless – “Mainstreaming effective and equitable climate action will not only reduce losses and damages for nature and people, it will also provide wider benefits,” said the IPCC ... Read more ...
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Framework helps local planners prepare for climate pressures on food, energy & water systems:
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| Framework helps local planners prepare for climate pressures on food, energy & water systems - PHYS.ORG - Earth |
Mar 24 · As the world faces increasingly extreme and frequent weather events brought on by climate change - such as droughts, floods, heatwaves, and wildfires - critical civic resources such as food, water, and energy will be impacted. Local and regional planners need to anticipate those impacts and evaluate what measures can be taken to prepare. Now, a multidisciplinary, multi-institutional team of researchers has built a detailed framework to provide guidance to these planners. After two years of in-depth consultation with stakeholders in various affected communities, the team prepared a set of analytical tools that can be used to forecast the kinds of strains on resources that may be ... Read more ...
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Gene-edited food now legal to be sold in England:
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| Gene-edited food now legal to be sold in England - BBC |
Mar 23 · Gene-edited food can now be developed commercially in England following a change in the law.
Supporters of the technology say it will speed up the development of hardier crops that will be needed because of climate change.
Critics say that the change could bring ''disaster'' to our food production and the environment.
Gene editing involves making precise changes to an organism's DNA to enhance certain characteristics.
The new law also opens the door to the development of gene-edited farm animals, but a further vote by MPs will be required before it is allowed, again only in England.
The Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish ... Read more ...
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Germany and E.U. Agree to Exception in Planned Ban on Combustion Engines:
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| Germany and E.U. Agree to Exception in Planned Ban on Combustion Engines - New York Times - Climate Section |
Mar 25 · Berlin has been pushing to allow the sale of vehicles running on synthetic fuels past 2035. Its dispute with the E.U. threatened the bloc’s climate goals.
The German government has reached an agreement with the European Union to allow the sale of vehicles that burn fuels made from renewable energy past 2035, resolving a dispute that threatened to upset a key element of the bloc’s path to climate neutrality.
Volker Wissing, Germany’s minister for transportation, said on Saturday that Berlin had won assurances from negotiators that the rules for new vehicles would be technology neutral, allowing carbon-neutral synthetic fuels, known as e-fuels, to be used. Germany had been ... | By Melissa Eddy Read more ...
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Global Experts Propose a Path Forward in Generating Clean Power from Waste Energy:
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| Global Experts Propose a Path Forward in Generating Clean Power from Waste Energy - Science Daily - Earth and Climate |
Mar 23 · Simon Fraser University professor Vincenzo Pecunia has led a team of more than 100 internationally-recognized scientists in creating a comprehensive "roadmap" to guide global efforts to convert waste energy into clean power.
"With the rising global energy demand and the challenges posed by climate change, it is more urgent than ever to generate green energy to preserve our planet and sustain human development," says Pecunia, from the School of Sustainable Energy Engineering, where he leads the Sustainable Optoelectronics Research Group.
"Energy harvesting materials present a promising opportunity to generate clean electricity, ultimately enhancing the energy efficiency ... Read more ...
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Global warming undermines greenhouse gas sink function of pristine wetlands, shows study:
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| Global warming undermines greenhouse gas sink function of pristine wetlands, shows study - PHYS.ORG - Earth |
Mar 23 · Wetlands occupy about 6% of the Earth's surface but store one-third of global soil organic carbon. Increasing evidence shows that climate warming is altering the function and service of wetland ecosystems. However, whether climate warming will stimulate wetlands to release more greenhouse gases (GHGs) is still under debate. A new study, published in Nature Climate Change on March 20 and led by researchers from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, shows that pristine wetlands are currently a greenhouse gas sink, however, the greenhouse gas sink will be reduced by more than half (about -57%) in response to an average temperature increase of 1.5–2 ... Read more ...
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Good News - and Bad - about Fossil Fuel Power Plants in 2023:
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| Good News - and Bad - about Fossil Fuel Power Plants in 2023 - Union of Concerned Scientists - Energy |
Mar 23 · With the clean energy transition already under way, the US electricity mix is set to continue changing this year. The general outlook includes some good news and some bad news. I’ll start off with the good.
Solar power is expected to make up about half of all additions of US electric generating capacity in 2023, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). The 25.5 gigawatts (GW) of planned solar projects expected to come online this year is almost double the previous 13.4 GW record from 2021. Further, this estimate doesn’t even include smaller-scale projects such as rooftop solar, additions of which are also expected to be significant.
The ... Read more ...
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Governments battle over carbon removal and renewables in IPCC report:
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| Governments battle over carbon removal and renewables in IPCC report - Climate Change News - Science |
Mar 23 · While the Saudis pushed carbon capture and storage technology, Europeans fought for wind and solar to be talked up in the report.
Negotiators from Saud Arabia and the US huddle with IPCC staff (Photo credit: IISD/ENB Anastasia Rodopoulou)
Governments fought over how their favoured green technologies are described in the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s scientists last week.
As governments met in Switzerland to approve the report, a group led by Saudi Arabia pushed for an emphasis on sucking carbon out of the atmosphere through carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.
But a group of ... | By Isabella Kaminski Read more ...
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Habitat will dictate whether ground beetles win or lose against climate change, finds study:
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| Habitat will dictate whether ground beetles win or lose against climate change, finds study - PHYS.ORG - Earth |
Mar 23 · The scientists entered the species and habitat data into an advanced statistical model and ran moderate to high greenhouse gas emission scenarios to study how the ground beetles respond to a changing climate. Among their results, they found that less mobile, non-flying beetle species could decline over time, but habitat conservation can mitigate the effects of climate change and reverse the trend in some areas. "We found that non-flying carnivores, which are critical pest control agents, are more likely to decline over time in a warmer, dryer climate," said Qiu, who is also an associate of Penn State's Institute for Computational and Data Sciences. "If you have fewer carnivores, ... Read more ...
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How afforestation by aerial sowing affects topsoil physicochemical properties in deserts:
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| How afforestation by aerial sowing affects topsoil physicochemical properties in deserts - PHYS.ORG - Biology |
Mar 24 · Large-scale afforestation in arid and semi-arid areas is one of the most effective approaches to combat desertification at present. Afforestation by aerial sowing is an effective measure that can promote vegetation restoration without subsequent artificial management, and can be widely employed in other ecosystems with similar vegetation degradation problems in the short term. However, the effects of aerial sowing afforestation on soil physicochemical properties and their interactions are more complex and poorly understood. Researchers from the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources (NIEER) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have assessed the variation of ... Read more ...
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How Antarctica's tiny non-ice-dwelling species survived the ice age:
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| How Antarctica's tiny non-ice-dwelling species survived the ice age - PHYS.ORG - Biology |
Mar 23 · Provided by Monash University Read more ...
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How to talk to your family and friends about the new IPCC report: Five tips from climate change communication research:
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| How to talk to your family and friends about the new IPCC report: Five tips from climate change communication research - PHYS.ORG - Earth |
Mar 23 · The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's latest report is a sobering read, which some describe as a "final warning" from scientists. The core message remains the same as prior IPCC reports: human-driven climate change is happening, it's bad, but we can act - though we now have even less time. On the positive side, there are growing indications that humanity will avert worst-case global warming scenarios - we already have the knowledge and tools needed, and progress is being made (but not quickly enough). It's important that people who already know about climate change and treat it seriously take proactive steps to speak with others about IPCC reports and climate change more ... Read more ...
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How Vietnam is trying to stop rice warming the planet:
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| How Vietnam is trying to stop rice warming the planet - PHYS.ORG - Biology |
Mar 24 · "And these bacteria eat organic matter and produce methane," he said. As well as straw management, IRRI says another scheme called Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD), which involves breaking up standing water to replenish oxygen and reduce methane-producing bacteria, could also help cut emissions. Practised on more than 200,000 hectares (494,210 acres) of rice-growing land in the Mekong delta's An Giang province, CGIAR says it has made a significant difference. For Mekong farmers that have taken the leap, there is pride in contributing to more sustainable farming while getting the most out of their crops. "We lived hard lives," said Canh. "But once we realised how to take advantage ... Read more ...
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Hundreds of homes set for energy improvements:
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| Hundreds of homes set for energy improvements - BBC |
Mar 24 · About 725 homes in Plymouth are set to receive energy-saving improvements.
Plymouth City Council is allocating £7m of government grant funding to spend on social housing.
It is part of a national scheme to improve energy performance and will include better insulation, double-glazing, solar panels and and air source heat pumps.
Two housing associations are also contributing a total of £10m to the scheme.
Plymouth Community Homes (PCH), the largest social housing association in the city will receive £5.6m in grant funding and contribute a further £8.6m to ensure 600 of its homes receive energy upgrades over the next two years.
LiveWest will retrofit 125 ... Read more ...
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In Montana, it's youth vs. the state in a landmark climate case:
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| In Montana, it's youth vs. the state in a landmark climate case - New York Times |
Mar 24 · Sixteen young Montanans have sued their state, arguing that its support of fossil fuels violates the state Constitution.
Mr. Gelles writes about business, policy and climate change.
KALISPELL, Mont. - Badge and Lander Busse tromped into the forest behind their house on a snowy Sunday in March, their three hunting dogs in tow. It was in these woods, just outside Glacier National Park, that the teenage boys learned to hunt, fish, dress a deer and pick birdshot from Hungarian partridges.
It was also here that the Busse boys grew attuned to the signals of a rapidly warming planet - torrential rains that eroded their hiking trails, wildfires that scarred the land, smoke ... | By David Gelles Read more ...
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In Montana, It’s Youth vs. the State in a Landmark Climate Case:
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| In Montana, It’s Youth vs. the State in a Landmark Climate Case - New York Times - Climate Section |
Mar 24 · Sixteen young Montanans have sued their state, arguing that its support of fossil fuels violates the state Constitution.
Mr. Gelles writes about business, policy and climate change.
KALISPELL, Mont. - Badge and Lander Busse tromped into the forest behind their house on a snowy Sunday in March, their three hunting dogs in tow. It was in these woods, just outside Glacier National Park, that the teenage boys learned to hunt, fish, dress a deer and pick birdshot from Hungarian partridges.
It was also here that the Busse boys grew attuned to the signals of a rapidly warming planet - torrential rains that eroded their hiking trails, wildfires that scarred the land, smoke ... | By David Gelles Read more ...
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IPCC Report Will Likely Shake Up U.N. Climate Talks:
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| IPCC Report Will Likely Shake Up U.N. Climate Talks - Scientific American - Climate |
Mar 24 · Scientists say countries need to cut emissions far deeper to prevent catastrophic warming. That fact will hang over delegates when they meet later this year at the annual U.N. climate talks
CLIMATEWIRE | When global leaders meet later this year to negotiate climate action, the urgency to cut planet-warming emissions will be starker than ever before.
The world now needs to cut emissions by 60 percent by 2035 — compared with 2019 levels — to avoid increasingly severe heat, flooding, drought and extreme weather that will make parts of the world unlivable. That's a key conclusion of the latest assessment from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate ... Read more ...
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Jackrabbits with higher variability in color genes may be better prepared for snow loss due to climate change:
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| Jackrabbits with higher variability in color genes may be better prepared for snow loss due to climate change - PHYS.ORG - Earth |
Mar 24 · A team of climate scientists and biologists from Universidade do Porto, in Portugal, working with colleagues from the University of Montana and the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, both in the U.S., has found that jackrabbits living in mountainous areas, such as the Rockies, that have higher variability in color genes may be better prepared for snow loss due to climate change. In their study, reported in the journal Science, the group compared coat color variability and genetic predisposition in white-tailed jackrabbits living at different elevations. White tailed jackrabbits, like many other animal species, undergo a change in coat color due to changes in the seasons. They are ... Read more ...
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Lawyers to refuse to prosecute climate campaigners:
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| Lawyers to refuse to prosecute climate campaigners - BBC |
Mar 24 · Leading lawyers say they will refuse to prosecute climate protesters or represent new fossil fuel projects.
More than 120 lawyers have vowed to not act against activists from groups such as Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil who are "exercising their democratic right of peaceful protest".
They have published a "Declaration of Conscience", and face the prospect of disciplinary action.
The chair of the Bar Council Nick Vineall KC said it was "disappointing".
Barrister Paul Powlesland, who signed the declaration, said: "We're refusing to advise fossil fuel companies on how to dig for new oil and gas, the same way we wouldn't advise a killer how to ... Read more ...
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Lithium Prices Crashing as Lithium Free Batteries Emerge:
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| Lithium Prices Crashing as Lithium Free Batteries Emerge - Climate Crocks |
Mar 23 · I posted the other day on falling Lithium prices. Here’s more on the reason why.
A year and a half ago, China’s CATL put on a flashy event to make an announcement significant enough that Zeng Yuqun, the founder and chairman of the world’s biggest battery maker, served as emcee.
Zeng, who had just passed up Alibaba’s Jack Ma in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, revealed that CATL was working on battery packs that would use lithium-ion and sodium-ion cells. While sodium is more abundant and offers potential safety benefits over lithium, the latter is dominant in EV batteries. Lithium-ion chemistries offer superior energy density, enabling drivers to travel further ... Read more ...
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Long-term study shows water fleas adapt to sunscreen ingredients:
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| Long-term study shows water fleas adapt to sunscreen ingredients - PHYS.ORG - Earth |
Mar 24 · A new study into how sunscreen affects freshwater ecosystems suggests the impact may be less alarming than first thought - and raises new questions about whether lab-based studies into environmental contaminants are accurately reflecting what happens in the wild. "There's a bit of a disconnect between how we try to study contaminants and environmental problems in the lab environment and what actually are the likely outcomes in the real world," says Aaron Boyd, lead author of the study and Ph.D. candidate in the University of Alberta's Department of Biological Sciences. "One of the main goals of this project was to see if our simple lab models are actually lining up with what we ... Read more ...
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Manx charity trekkers take on Arctic expedition:
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| Manx charity trekkers take on Arctic expedition - BBC |
Mar 25 · This video can not be played
A team from the Isle of Man will trek through the Arctic to raise money for charity
A team of fundraisers from the Isle of Man are set to trek through the Arctic to support a mental health charity.
The Expedition Limitless group will cover 68 miles (110km) over a week, camping along the way, in temperatures that could reach -30C.
They aim to raise funds for Manx charity Isle Listen, while testing their own resilience.
Karl Staniford, whose brother took his own life in 2019, said the organisation's work was "vital".
He said he was supporting the charity so it could continue to develop wellbeing education in ... Read more ...
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Manx trekkers take on Arctic charity challenge:
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| Manx trekkers take on Arctic charity challenge - BBC |
Mar 25 · This video can not be played
A team of charity trekkers from the Isle of Man are set to take on an Arctic expedition to support mental health services.
The Expedition Limitless group face sub-zero temperatures in their 68-mile (110km) challenge.
To prepare for the challenge, the team spent time taking part in winter survival training in Sweden.
Why not follow BBC Isle of Man on Facebook and Twitter? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk
Editor's recommendations
Manx trekkers take on Arctic charity challenge. Video, 00:01:17Manx trekkers take on Arctic charity challenge
Up Next. Drama in the courtroom as Gwyneth ... Read more ...
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Many Antarctic glaciers are never snow-free. See how remarkably different this year is.:
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| Many Antarctic glaciers are never snow-free. See how remarkably different this year is. - Washington Post - Climate and Environment |
Mar 24 · Many glaciers in Antarctica are never entirely free of snow, even after summers end in the southern hemisphere. Yet this season, abnormally warm temperatures have melted several snowy regions in the peninsula, the arm of Antarctica protruding toward South America, to their bare ground. It’s the second year in a row with an above-average melt season in the peninsula - an area heating up five times faster than the global average - and it’s fueling concern among researchers.
November 2022
February 2023
December 2022
January 2023
Temperature change in the recent melt
season compared with ... Read more ...
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Michael Howland gives wind energy a lift:
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| Michael Howland gives wind energy a lift - MIT - Energy |
Mar 24 · d="M12.132,61.991a5.519,5.519,0,0,1-5.866,5.753A5.554,5.554,0,0,1,.4,61.854a5.809,5.809,0,0,1,1.816-4.383,6.04,6.04,0,0,1,4.05-1.37C9.9,55.965,12.132,58.43,12.132,61.991Zm-8.939-.137c0,2.328,1.117,3.7,3.073,3.7s3.073-1.37,3.073-3.7-1.117-3.835-3.073-3.835C4.45,58.156,3.193,59.526,3.193,61.854Z" transform="translate(-0.4 -55.965)" fill="#333"/> d="M17.884,67.531l-3.352-5.753-1.257-2.191v7.944H10.9V56.3h2.793l3.212,5.616c.419.822.7,1.37,1.257,2.328V56.3h2.374V67.531Z" transform="translate(3.765 -55.889)" fill="#333"/> ... Read more ...
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Microplastics limit energy production in tiny freshwater species:
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| Microplastics limit energy production in tiny freshwater species - PHYS.ORG - Earth |
Mar 24 · Microplastic pollution reduces energy production in a microscopic creature found in freshwater worldwide, new research shows. Paramecium bursaria contain algae that live inside their cells and provide energy by photosynthesis. The new study, by the University of Exeter, tested whether severe microplastic contamination in the water affected this symbiotic relationship. The results showed a 50% decline in net photosynthesis - a major impact on the algae's ability to produce energy and release oxygen. "The relationship I examined - known as photosymbiosis - is commonly found both in freshwater and the oceans," said Dr. Ben Makin, lead author and associate researcher at the Environment ... Read more ...
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MIT Center for Real Estate advances climate and sustainable real estate research agenda:
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| MIT Center for Real Estate advances climate and sustainable real estate research agenda - MIT - Economics |
Mar 23 · d="M12.132,61.991a5.519,5.519,0,0,1-5.866,5.753A5.554,5.554,0,0,1,.4,61.854a5.809,5.809,0,0,1,1.816-4.383,6.04,6.04,0,0,1,4.05-1.37C9.9,55.965,12.132,58.43,12.132,61.991Zm-8.939-.137c0,2.328,1.117,3.7,3.073,3.7s3.073-1.37,3.073-3.7-1.117-3.835-3.073-3.835C4.45,58.156,3.193,59.526,3.193,61.854Z" transform="translate(-0.4 -55.965)" fill="#333"/> d="M17.884,67.531l-3.352-5.753-1.257-2.191v7.944H10.9V56.3h2.793l3.212,5.616c.419.822.7,1.37,1.257,2.328V56.3h2.374V67.531Z" transform="translate(3.765 -55.889)" fill="#333"/> ... Read more ...
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Modeling study shows how bark beetle infestations affect wildfires:
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| Modeling study shows how bark beetle infestations affect wildfires - PHYS.ORG - Earth |
Mar 24 · A recent modeling study shows that bark beetle outbreaks in forests won't necessarily cause bigger and more damaging wildfires - at least not for awhile. The research could someday help fire managers better decide on how to dedicate resources in fighting fires and removing fuel. In particular, the researchers hope that managers can better assess where, when, and how they should allocate resources when there is a beetle outbreak in a forest. "There's a common perception among the community that bark beetle infestations will most definitely increase fire," said Jennifer Adam, Berry Family Distinguished Professor in Washington State University's Department of Civil and Environmental ... Read more ...
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More predictable renewable energy could lower costs:
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| More predictable renewable energy could lower costs - PHYS.ORG - Technology |
Mar 24 · Lower electricity costs for consumers and more reliable clean energy could be some of the benefits of a new study by the University of Adelaide researchers who have examined how predictable solar or wind energy generation is and the impact of it on profits in the electricity market. Ph.D. candidate Sahand Karimi-Arpanahi and Dr. Ali Pourmousavi Kani, Senior Lecturer from the University's School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, have looked at different ways of achieving more predictable renewable energy with the aim of saving millions of dollars in operating costs, prevent clean energy spillage, and deliver lower-cost electricity. "One of the biggest challenges in the ... Read more ...
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Much Of West Coast Faces Salmon Fishing Ban As Population Plummets:
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| Much Of West Coast Faces Salmon Fishing Ban As Population Plummets - Huffington Post |
Mar 25 · SAN DIEGO (AP) - As drought dried up rivers that carry California’s newly hatched Chinook salmon to the ocean, state officials in recent years resorted to loading up the fish by the millions onto trucks and barges to take them to the Pacific.
The surreal and desperate scramble boosted the survival rate of the hatchery-raised fish, but still it was not enough to reverse the declining stocks in the face of added challenges. River water temperatures rose with warm weather, and a Trump-era rollback of federal protections for waterways allowed more water to be diverted to farms. Climate change, meanwhile, threatens food sources for the young Chinook maturing in the ... Read more ...
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Nepal Country Climate and Development Report: Towards a Green, Resilient, and Inclusive Development:
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| Nepal Country Climate and Development Report: Towards a Green, Resilient, and Inclusive Development - Climate Change (World Bank - Playlist) |
Mar 23 · Nepal has achieved significant development progress in recent decades. To sustain the development gains, Nepal must adapt its development pathway to a changing climate. Nepal 's Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) identifies ways that Nepal can achieve its overall development objectives while fostering its strategic ambition to transition to a greener, more resilient, and inclusive development pathway. Learn more: http://wrld.bg/iSiz50Nqxsc\n\n💬 Subtitles (CC) available in English, Nepali\n\n0:00 Nepal’s development challenges\n1:00 The GRID Approach\n1:29 What is Nepal Country Climate and Development Report?\n3:16 Taking an integrated approach to water, agriculture and ... | By World Bank Read more ...
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Net-Zero Targets Are a Bare Minimum for the Private Sector:
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| Net-Zero Targets Are a Bare Minimum for the Private Sector - Sustainable Brands |
Mar 22 · In an ideal world, companies would be reaching net-zero emissions sooner than 2050 and actively working to eliminate emissions throughout their value chains and beyond to become climate positive.
This week, European Council leaders meet in Brussels for their regular council session. High on their agenda will be the Green Deal Industrial Plan - a raft of funding incentives and deregulation proposals designed to ensure that the bloc does not lose ground to the US or China in the cleantech race.
The plan was unveiled by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in her speech to the World Economic Forum in January. It followed hot on the heels of President Joe ... Read more ...
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New climate paper calls for charging big US oil firms with homicide:
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| New climate paper calls for charging big US oil firms with homicide - Guardian |
Mar 22 · Authors of paper accepted for publication in Harvard Environmental Law Review argue firms are 'killing members of the public at an accelerating rate’
Oil companies have come under increasing legal scrutiny and face allegations of defrauding investors, racketeering, and a wave of other lawsuits. But a new paper argues there’s another way to hold big oil accountable for climate damage: trying companies for homicide.
The striking and seemingly radical legal theory is laid out in a paper accepted for publication in the Harvard Environmental Law Review. In it, the authors argue fossil fuel companies “have not simply been lying to the public, they have been killing members of ... Read more ...
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New damage curves and multimodel analysis suggest lower optimal temperature:
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| New damage curves and multimodel analysis suggest lower optimal temperature - Nature Climate Change |
Mar 23 · Economic analyses of global climate change have been criticized for their poor representation of climate change damages. Here we develop and apply aggregate damage functions in three economic Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) with different degrees of complexity. The damage functions encompass a wide but still incomplete set of climate change impacts based on physical impact models. We show that with medium estimates for damage functions, global damages are in the range of 10% to 12% of GDP by 2100 in a baseline scenario with 3?°C temperature change, and about 2% in a well-below 2?°C scenario. These damages are much higher than previous estimates in benefit-cost studies, resulting ... Read more ...
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New reed beds set to attract wildlife to city docks:
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| New reed beds set to attract wildlife to city docks - BBC |
Mar 24 · Reed beds will be planted into a city's docks in a bid to attract more wildlife.
Volunteers from the Canal and River Trust will plant the floating eco-systems in Gloucester Docks.
The beds are fully recyclable, non-toxic and environmentally friendly.
Rob Williams, an ecologist from the charity, said: "Canals already bring wildlife into the heart of cities like Gloucester and this is a great way to enhance these nature superhighways."
"The floating reed beds make a huge difference to biodiversity," he added.
The aquatic plants will be going into the Victoria Basin section of Gloucester Docks, following a similar project in the Barge Arm in ... Read more ...
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New study explores the 'tsunami' in Venus's clouds:
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| New study explores the 'tsunami' in Venus's clouds - PHYS.ORG - Earth |
Mar 24 · A group of scientists from the University of Seville, in collaboration with experts from the University of the Basque Country, has led the first detailed study of the evolution of the discontinuity of Venus's clouds, a gigantic atmosphere wave with the appearance of a "tsunami" that is propagated in the planet's deepest clouds and which, it is believed, may be playing a very significant role in the acceleration of Venus's fast-moving atmosphere. The observations were carried out non-stop for more than 100 days. "This observational feat was possible thanks to the collaboration of amateur astronomers from various countries, who have been the leading lights in the worldwide campaign ... Read more ...
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New study uncovers unprecedented declines in iconic kelp forests along Monterey Peninsula:
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| New study uncovers unprecedented declines in iconic kelp forests along Monterey Peninsula - PHYS.ORG - Earth |
Mar 23 · A new study published in PLOS ONE provides novel documentation of kelp forest decline along the west coast of the U.S. and Mexico in response to the 2014–2016 record-breaking marine heatwave, along with evidence of regional recovery. Using Kelpwatch.org, an open-source web tool used to visualize and analyze nearly 40 years of kelp canopy dynamics data derived from satellite imagery, the study uncovers a north-to-south pattern in kelp decline and recovery from the marine heatwave, for both giant kelp and bull kelp canopies. The study, a collaboration between The Nature Conservancy, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the University of California Los Angeles, documents an ... Read more ...
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New Video: Europe Now a Global Warming Hot Spot:
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| New Video: Europe Now a Global Warming Hot Spot - Climate Crocks |
Mar 25 · This is my last video for Yale Climate Connections, I’ve already transitioned to more focus on helping site clean energy across the US Heartland. When I began producing a monthly series for Yale, in 2011, I was one of just a few journalists focusing on climate as an issue. Now there are comparative armies of journalists and videographers following the issue. Our most critical need now is not more information on the problem – it is to vastly accelerate deployment of solutions.
This week I’ve met with two groups of farmers who are under sustained attack by fossil fuel coordinated disinformation campaigns, designed to deprive farmers of the right to diversify ... Read more ...
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Northern lights spotted across Wales again:
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| Northern lights spotted across Wales again - BBC |
Mar 24 · Some parts of Wales were treated to a rare display of the spectacular northern lights on Thursday night.
The natural phenomenon is created by a solar flare erupting on the Sun, sending charged particles towards the Earth which interact with our atmosphere.
The display was captured by weather watchers in Conwy county, Anglesey and Denbighshire.
In February the lights were visible across the UK for two nights.
A physics expert said light displays were likely to become more common over the next two years.
Prof Huw Morgan said it related to a "busy period" for charged particles being able to reach the atmosphere.
With the sun's 12-year solar ... Read more ...
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Not a fringe issue: the hairdressers trained to talk to their clients about climate change – video:
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| Not a fringe issue: the hairdressers trained to talk to their clients about climate change – video - Guardian - Climate Change |
Mar 2 · The owner of Paloma salon in Paddington has organised seminars for hairdressers across Sydney to instruct them on how to talk to their clients about climate action. Owner Paloma Rose Garcia started the A Brush with Climate workshops – navigating how to discuss science and solutions with clients – after she 'really understood that there is a unique opportunity that hairdressers have to hold meaningful conversation and assist the community with understanding more about climate and what they can do in their everyday life'
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Bertin Huynh Yuji Shimada, Source: Guardian Australia Read more ...
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Not Quite a “Windfall Tax”:
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| Not Quite a “Windfall Tax” - Legal Planet |
Mar 23 · Now, a proposal is moving, and fast. But it isn’t a windfall tax by any stretch of the imagination.
SBX1-2 (Skinner) was introduced at the beginning of the special session in December 2022, but sat untouched until Monday, when it took significant amendments. Since then, the bill has been on a whirlwind tour of the State Senate, passing out of the Energy, Utilities, and Communications Committee yesterday and speeding through Appropriations and a Senate floor vote (30-8) this morning. Now it’s on to the Assembly in time to be considered before Spring Recess.
But what does the bill, which has been called a “first-of-its-kind” law, actually do? It would direct the California ... Read more ...
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Offshore wind leasing round set to raise £260m:
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| Offshore wind leasing round set to raise £260m - BBC |
Mar 24 · The Scottish government can expect a windfall of about £260m from a new phase of floating wind farm construction in the North Sea and around Shetland.
Thirteen projects have been given the green light to develop plans for more than five gigawatts of capacity.
That would be enough to supply power to more than three million homes.
But most of the new generation will be used to directly supply oil and gas platforms.
The fossil fuels used to extract hydrocarbons make the oil and gas industry among the UK's biggest polluting sectors, and the industry has committed to sharp reductions in that carbon footprint.
The successful bidders were announced by ... Read more ...
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Online misinformation is spreading from English to Spanish:
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| Online misinformation is spreading from English to Spanish - Yale Climate Connections - Policy |
Mar 24 · Take the Yale Climate Connections audience survey today.
Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
More than 40 million people in the U.S. speak Spanish at home. And as the climate warms, many of their communities are harmed by intensifying heat waves, storms, and wildfires.
So Spanish-speaking people need access to accurate information about the causes and consequences of global warming. But false and misleading content is pervasive online.
“You want to find out more about what information is getting targeted towards these communities,” says Cristina López of Graphika, a social ... Read more ...
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Opinion: Why bioplastics won't solve our plastic problems:
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| Opinion: Why bioplastics won't solve our plastic problems - PHYS.ORG - Earth |
Mar 23 · This isn't always the case. Producing plastics from plants has an environmental impact from the use of land, water and agricultural chemicals. Increased demand for agricultural land could lead to biodiversity loss and can compete with food production. Bioplastics often sub in for familiar single use items such as plastic bags, takeaway coffee cups and cutlery. Around 90% of the bioplastics sold in Australia are certified compostable. In most of these applications a reusable alternative would be the most sustainable option. Some applications have beneficial environmental outcomes: compostable bags for kitchen food waste caddies increase the rate of food waste collected, which means ... Read more ...
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Opposing wind farms morally unacceptable - expert:
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| Opposing wind farms morally unacceptable - expert - BBC |
Mar 23 · Communities opposed to wind turbines in their local area do not have an "acceptable moral position" according to a climate change expert.
Dozens of large-scale wind farm applications are being considered as Wales tries to reach net zero.
Campaigners say the ambition is putting the Welsh countryside at risk and south Wales already has several wind farms.
Lord Deben, the UK Climate Change Committee chairman, said the onus was on everyone to help reach the target.
"We can't all the time say we're in favour of things but somewhere else," he said.
"That isn't an acceptable moral position."
Across Wales communities are mobilising to ... Read more ...
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PaleoJump: High-quality data for the study of climate tipping points:
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| PaleoJump: High-quality data for the study of climate tipping points - PHYS.ORG - Earth |
Mar 24 · Earth's climate has undergone abrupt transitions in the past, which are often linked to the crossing of tipping points. Understanding how and why this has happened is urgent because anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gasses could potentially trigger similar tipping points in this century, causing irreversible changes in the climate and the environment. The PaleoJump database is designed to help achieve this understanding. The archive gives users access to high-quality data on past climates that are especially useful for studying tipping points. The construction of the database is led by Witold Bagniewski at the École Normale Supérieure, Paris, France, as part of the TiPES ... Read more ...
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Phytoplankton Blooms Offer Insight Into Impacts of Climate Change:
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| Phytoplankton Blooms Offer Insight Into Impacts of Climate Change - Science Daily - Earth and Climate |
Mar 23 · The first study into the biological response of the upper ocean in the wake of South Pacific cyclones could help predict the impact of warming ocean temperatures, New Zealand researchers believe.
Dr Pete Russell, of the University of Otago's Department of Marine Science, and Dr Christopher Horvat, of the University of Auckland's Department of Physics, have published a study on the oceanic biological effect of Cyclone Oma which passed near Vanuatu in 2019.
"While Oma was a relatively benign cyclone, it produced a massive phytoplankton bloom in its wake -- the single most abnormal event in the history of South Pacific chlorophyll measurements," Dr Russell says.
"Such ... Read more ...
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Plans for solar park to power over 3,500 homes:
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| Plans for solar park to power over 3,500 homes - BBC |
Mar 24 · Plans for a solar park that could generate enough energy to power over 3,500 have been submitted.
British Solar Renewables (BSR Energy) wants to create a solar park at Higher Wraxall near Dorchester, Dorset.
If it gets the go-ahead it will take up two fields, spanning 48 acres (19 hectares) which is currently used for arable farming.
The plans include extra space around a Bronze Age bowl barrow leaving "an offset of 20m", BSR Energy said.
Bowl barrows - inverted pudding bowl-shaped mounds - are burial monuments dating from the Late Neolithic period to the Late Bronze Age.
The panels will have an expected a lifespan of 40 years - BSR said the fields ... Read more ...
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Recycling of fruit waste into a solar absorber for water desalination:
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| Recycling of fruit waste into a solar absorber for water desalination - PHYS.ORG - Technology |
Mar 24 · Scientists from the National Institute of Education/Nanyang Technological University of Singapore developed a method for converting fruit wastes such as coconut husks, orange peels, and banana peels into a solar absorber made of MXene for efficient water desalination process. Singapore produces over 20,000 tons of fruit waste annually, the majority of which comes from the fruit juicing sector, which uses 50% of the fruit but discards the rest as trash, such as fruit peel. This gave Dr. Edison Ang inspiration. He sees wealth where others perceive waste since wastes are free resources that may be used to create valuable products, like MXene in this example. A type of material known ... Read more ...
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Research finds improved wastewater treatment could lead to significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions:
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| Research finds improved wastewater treatment could lead to significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions - PHYS.ORG - Earth |
Mar 23 · Provided by Saint Louis University Read more ...
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Research team supports isostatic pressing for solid-state battery manufacturing:
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| Research team supports isostatic pressing for solid-state battery manufacturing - PHYS.ORG - Technology |
Mar 23 · Following months of promising test results, battery researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are recommending that the solid-state battery industry focus on a technique known as isostatic pressing as it looks to commercialize next-generation batteries. Commercial-scale production of solid-state batteries is a goal for electric vehicle manufacturers because these batteries have the potential to charge faster, last longer and operate more safely than the lithium-ion batteries currently on the market. In a focus review paper for ACS Energy Letters, ORNL researchers recommend attention be given to the little-studied isostatic pressing approach. This ... Read more ...
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Researchers warn of 'urgent' need to understand impact of wind farms on precious peatlands:
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| Researchers warn of 'urgent' need to understand impact of wind farms on precious peatlands - PHYS.ORG - Earth |
Mar 23 · Environmental scientists at Nottingham Trent University have, for the first time, mapped the extent of known wind farm infrastructures, such as wind turbines and vehicle tracks, on recognized blanket bogs in Europe. Blanket bogs - a rare type of peatland commonly found in areas with lots of rain and low temperatures - are typically found on hill summits where wind energy potential is higher, making them attractive sites for wind farm developments. They have a range of beneficial ecosystem services, improving water quality and water storage and biodiversity. However, a large proportion of blanket bogs are already in an unfavorable condition, according to the EU Habitats Directive ... Read more ...
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Rising Seas, Rising Stakes: The Case for an International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion:
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| Rising Seas, Rising Stakes: The Case for an International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming |
Mar 24 · Heat-trapping emissions are continuing to rise while the gap between what is needed to keep Paris Agreement goals in reach and adapt to ongoing climate impacts is ever-widening. This dire state of affairs is just one of the reasons why the Republic of Vanuatu and more than 100 other nations have drafted a resolution asking the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to issue an advisory opinion on climate change.
The Vanuatu-led effort, which was initiated several years ago by law students at the University of the South Pacific, is now coming to fruition. On March 29, the UN General Assembly will vote on whether to support Vanuatu’s resolution. If successful, the vote will invite ... Read more ...
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Robotic System Offers Hidden Window Into Collective Bee Behavior:
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| Robotic System Offers Hidden Window Into Collective Bee Behavior - Science Daily - Earth and Climate |
Mar 23 · Honeybees are famously finicky when it comes to being studied. Research instruments and conditions and even unfamiliar smells can disrupt a colony's behavior. Now, a joint research team from the Mobile Robotic Systems Group in EPFL's School of Engineering and School of Computer and Communication Sciences and the Hiveopolis project at Austria's University of Graz have developed a robotic system that can be unobtrusively built into the frame of a standard honeybee hive.
Composed of an array of thermal sensors and actuators, the system measures and modulates honeybee behavior through localized temperature variations.
"Many rules of bee society -- from collective and ... Read more ...
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Rural utilities turn ‘disruptive' as they embrace renewables:
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| Rural utilities turn ‘disruptive' as they embrace renewables - E&E News |
Mar 23 · By Jason Plautz | 03/23/2023 07:01 AM EDT
Steam billows from a coal-fired power plant in Craig, Colo., in 2021. Rick Bowmer, File/AP Photo
Last year, Kit Carson Electric Cooperative Inc. hit a long-awaited milestone: It met 100 percent of its daytime energy demand with solar power.
The New Mexico utility’s achievement was the result of years of new solar construction and power purchase agreements - steps that the small, rural cooperative was only able to take after making a radical change to its management structure.
In 2016, Kit Carson left the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association Inc.
At the time, such moves were rare. G&Ts, as they’re ... Read more ...
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Saving Strangford Lough's 'carbon capture plant':
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| Saving Strangford Lough's 'carbon capture plant' - BBC |
Mar 24 · A pilot scheme on Strangford Lough is trying to stimulate the growth of seagrass on the seabed by testing alternative mooring systems.
Seagrass is a flowering plant able to live in seawater.
Its ability to absorb carbon is thought to be greater than that of trees.
According to Darren Rice of Newry, Mourne and Down District Council's geopark team, the traditional mooring system can scar the bottom of the seabed and get rid of the seagrass.
"We are currently surveying two new advanced mooring systems to see which ones are best for Strangford Lough," he said.
"So we are hoping these systems will lift the chain off the seabed and allow the seagrass to ... Read more ...
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Science meets politics – Climate Weekly:
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| Science meets politics – Climate Weekly - Climate Change News - Politics |
Mar 24 · The IPCC's latest report is discussed in last week's approval session in Switzerland (Photo credit: IISD's Earth Negotiations Bulletin)
After years of unpaid hard work and a week of sleepless negotiations, the IPCC’s scientists celebrated in the swish Swiss city of Interlaken as their latest report was approved on Sunday.
The report says a lot of things. But none particularly new. It’s a synthesis of the previous three reports, which themselves summarised a vast amount of scientific studies done before the end of 2021.
Most of its conclusions will be familiar to regular readers. It says we’re on course for more than 1.5C of warming, a scenario that will cause huge ... | By Joe Lo Read more ...
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Scientists are using machine learning to forecast bird migration and identify birds in flight by their calls:
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| Scientists are using machine learning to forecast bird migration and identify birds in flight by their calls - PHYS.ORG - Biology |
Mar 24 · Machine learning is also helping scientists engage the public in conservation. For example, forecasts produced by the BirdCast team are often used to inform Lights Out campaigns. These initiatives seek to reduce artificial light from cities, which attracts migrating birds and increases their chances of colliding with human-built structures, such as buildings and communication towers. Lights Out campaigns can mobilize people to help protect birds at the flip of a switch. As another example, the Merlin bird identification app seeks to create technology that makes birding easier for everyone. In 2021, the Merlin staff released a feature that automates song and call identification, ... Read more ...
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Scotland to earn £260m from floating windfarms powering North Sea rigs:
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| Scotland to earn £260m from floating windfarms powering North Sea rigs - Guardian - Energy |
Mar 2 · Crown estate leases seabed rights to new projects as oil firms look to replace gas and diesel generators
The Scottish government will earn more than £260m after agreeing to lease areas of its seabed to floating offshore wind projects that can power oil and gas rigs.
In a world first, Crown Estate Scotland gave the green light for companies to help trim the North Sea’s carbon emissions by developing floating windfarms that can directly supply oil and gas platforms with renewable electricity.
Eight companies, which include the UK-listed oil firm Harbour Energy and an investment unit of the oil company BP, will pay a total of almost £262m in “applicant fees” once the ... Read more ...
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Seemingly ambitious Defra hedgerow targets actually due to typo:
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| Seemingly ambitious Defra hedgerow targets actually due to typo - Guardian - Climate Change |
Mar 2 · Thérèse Coffey reveals proposals for England far less ambitious than those set out in first draft of environment document
The UK environment secretary, Thérèse Coffey, has disappointed campaigners after revealing that an ambitious hedgerow plan for England was in fact a typographical error.
At the end of January, environment groups were delighted when Coffey revealed the government’s Environmental Improvement Plan would include aims to plant 30,000 miles of new hedgerows a year by 2037 and 45,000 a year by 2050.
Unlike many of the other pledges, this significantly outstripped recommendations by the Climate Change Committee (CCC) and other experts.
However, ... Read more ...
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Senior Climate Activists Protest Big Banks, Cut Up Credit Cards, for Financing Fossil Fuel Industry:
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| Senior Climate Activists Protest Big Banks, Cut Up Credit Cards, for Financing Fossil Fuel Industry - Democracynow |
Mar 23 Read more ...
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Should The Government Pay for Your Bad Climate Decisions?:
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| Should The Government Pay for Your Bad Climate Decisions? - New York Times - Climate Section |
Mar 24 · Hosted by Michael Barbaro
Produced by Carlos Prieto and Michael Simon Johnson
With Rob Szypko
Original music by Dan Powell and Marion Lozano
Engineered by Chris Wood
A few days ago, the Biden administration released a report warning that a warming planet posed severe economic challenges for the United States, which would require the federal government to reassess its spending priorities and how it influences behavior.
White House reporter Jim Tankersley explains why getting the government to encourage the right decisions will be so difficult.
Jim Tankersley, a White House correspondent for The New York Times.
There are a lot of ways to ... Read more ...
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Spray-on polymer could cut food waste and increase incomes for Kenyan smallholders:
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| Spray-on polymer could cut food waste and increase incomes for Kenyan smallholders - PHYS.ORG - Biology |
Mar 23 · Spraying a safe and environmentally friendly polymer onto soil surfaces can reduce the "soiling" of fine beans by almost 65%, a new study from Cranfield University shows. Focusing on vegetables produced in Kenya, the reduced food waste could bring greater financial security for smallholder farmers as well as increasing the resilience of the U.K. food supply chain. The study was carried out by Cranfield University in partnership with AGS Ekology Ltd, Vegpro Kenya and Provenance Partners Ltd. It demonstrated that low-cost commercially available polymers can reduce soil splash by more than 90% and "soiling" of beans by more than 65%. Dr. Rob Simmons, a reader in sustainable soil ... Read more ...
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Strong climate action is worth it - Nature Climate Change:
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| Strong climate action is worth it - Nature Climate Change - Nature |
Mar 23 · Integrated assessment
An immediate and rapid reduction in global emissions is required for many reasons. Integrated research supports the economic case for strong near-term climate action, even before accounting for expected negative impacts on biodiversity, health and tipping points.
Their work calculates the relative benefits and costs of climate mitigation and climate impacts in three integrated assessment models. These models have traditionally focused on mitigation when simulating future climatic and economic trajectories but multi-model studies of the detailed economic impacts along these pathways remain limited. To bridge this gap, the researchers analyse these ... Read more ...
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The EPA's hydrogen push is a federal endorsement of greenwashing:
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| The EPA's hydrogen push is a federal endorsement of greenwashing - Utilitydive |
Mar 22 · Burning hydrogen in power plants is no silver bullet for meeting decarbonization goals, in part because leaks could lead to higher levels of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
Abbe Ramanan is a project director at Clean Energy Group.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan stated this month that the new draft carbon rules the agency will be rolling out in April for gas- and coal-fired power plants will include provisions for these plants to eventually transition to burning hydrogen. Regan’s remarks indicate that the plants will not be required to initially meet emissions standards for burning hydrogen, but that project developers will need to include ... Read more ...
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The global economics of climate action:
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| The global economics of climate action - PHYS.ORG - Earth |
Mar 24 · Climate change has serious consequences for the environment and people and is a major threat to economic stability. A new assessment published in Nature Climate Change reviews innovative, integrated research that underpins the economic case for strong near-term climate action. Economic studies analyzing the costs and benefits of ambitious and rapid climate action have struggled to build a strong case due to methodological difficulties in trying to quantify all climate impacts. A new analysis looks at a pioneering approach to project economic impacts along climate mitigation pathways, finding that near-term emissions reductions are globally economically optimal, with central ... Read more ...
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The Great Southern Reef is in more trouble than the Great Barrier Reef, find researchers:
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| The Great Southern Reef is in more trouble than the Great Barrier Reef, find researchers - PHYS.ORG - Biology |
Mar 23 · A strong heat wave off southwestern Australia in 2011 also caused seaweed populations to drop rapidly. Most affected seaweeds remain at greatly reduced levels. Overall, cool-temperate species inhabiting the Great Southern Reef - the interconnected network of kelp-covered rocky reefs that extends from northern New South Wales to southwestern Australia - are generally declining in number more rapidly and are more threatened with extinction, than tropical species. This is perhaps not surprising given that Great Southern Reef species live in a climate change hotspot (where sea temperatures are rising more rapidly than elsewhere worldwide) along the most densely populated Australian ... Read more ...
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The Greens face one of the biggest decisions of their political lives as Labor’s climate policy hangs in the balance:
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| The Greens face one of the biggest decisions of their political lives as Labor’s climate policy hangs in the balance - Guardian - Climate Change |
Mar 2 · Some Greens want to pass the safeguard mechanism changes and keep fighting on fossil fuels while others want to attack it as a Coalition creation that can’t be redeemed
The future of one of Labor’s signature climate policies – updating the safeguard mechanism to deal with industrial greenhouse gas emissions – hangs in the balance. The government held off pushing it through parliament this week while negotiations continued with the Greens and key independent senator David Pocock over a potential deal to strengthen it.
The design of the policy is not the Greens’ responsibility, but what happens next is largely up to its party room – with the Coalition opposed, the ... Read more ...
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The Gulf of Mexico is very warm. That could mean a bad tornado season.:
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| The Gulf of Mexico is very warm. That could mean a bad tornado season. - Washington Post - Climate and Environment |
Mar 22 · Water temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico often enter the conversation during hurricane season, but they also play a role in tornado season each spring. Concern is growing for the potential impact that abnormally warm sea surface temperatures will have in the weeks and months ahead, with experts warily keeping tabs on what could be a busy tornado season. Currently, the waters are up to several degrees warmer than normal and as high as the upper 70s.
April, May and June are historically the most active for severe weather and tornadoes, with an average of 660 twisters spinning up within the three-month window. They materialize seemingly like clockwork, creeping north across the ... Read more ...
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The IPCC says we need to phase down fossil fuels, fast. Here’s how the US could do it.:
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| The IPCC says we need to phase down fossil fuels, fast. Here’s how the US could do it. - Grist Climate and Energy |
Mar 24 · On Monday, a panel of the world’s top climate scientists released a grave warning: Current policies are not enough to stave off the most devastating consequences of climate change. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, climate pollution from the world’s existing coal, oil, and gas projects is already enough to launch the planet past 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming, and world leaders must abandon up to $4 trillion in fossil fuels and related infrastructure by midcentury if they want to keep within safe temperature limits.
Instead, rich countries like the United States are going in the opposite direction. Just last week, ... Read more ...
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The science of sailing: inside the race across the world’s most remote ocean:
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| The science of sailing: inside the race across the world’s most remote ocean - Guardian - Climate Change |
Mar 2 · After a long hiatus, the epic Ocean Race is back – but this year, as well as dodging icebergs, cracking masts and suffering the occasional 'hull sandwich failure’, the teams are gathering crucial data from places even research vessels rarely reach
The Southern Ocean is not somewhere most people choose to spend an hour, let alone a month. Circling the icy continent of Antarctica, it is the planet’s wildest and most remote ocean. Point Nemo – just to the north in the South Pacific – is the farthest location from land on Earth, 1,670 miles (2,688km) away from the closest shore. The nearest humans are generally those in the International Space Station when it passes ... Read more ...
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The thermal energy startups that could benefit from new federal funds:
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| The thermal energy startups that could benefit from new federal funds - Greenbiz |
Mar 23 · Renewable thermal innovation is on the upswing.
The Department of Energy announced the target of its latest policy to spur forward decarbonization: industrial emissions.
Industrial processes, which include steel, cement and chemicals, account for about one-third of global emissions. They’re especially tricky to address because clean alternatives aren’t as mature (if they’re available) and the applications are varied and require bespoke solutions, requiring upfront capital and a shift in operations.
The new fund aims to accelerate development and deployment of technologies. The DOE is allocating $6 billion in incentives available for first-of-a-kind or early-stage ... | By Sarah Golden Read more ...
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The timing of decreasing coastal flood protection due to sea-level rise:
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| The timing of decreasing coastal flood protection due to sea-level rise - Nature Climate Change |
Mar 23 · Sea-level rise amplifies the frequency of extreme sea levels by raising their baseline height. Amplifications are often projected for arbitrary future years and benchmark frequencies. Consequently, such projections do not indicate when flood risk thresholds may be crossed given the current degree of local coastal protection. To better support adaptation planning and comparative vulnerability analyses, we project the timing of the frequency amplification of extreme sea levels relative to estimated local flood protection standards, using sea-level rise projections of IPCC AR6 until 2150. Our central estimates indicate that those degrees of protection will be exceeded ten times as ... Read more ...
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There Is Still Plenty We Can Do to Slow Climate Change:
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| There Is Still Plenty We Can Do to Slow Climate Change - Scientific American - Climate |
Mar 23 · While it may seem daunting, there are still many things we can do individually to slow climate change
After several years of agreements and plans to limit global warming, we are still way off track.
This is one of the basic conclusions of the recent report put out by the world’s most authoritative body on climate science: the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The report, formally called the Synthesis Report of the Sixth Assessment, shows that emissions over the past decade have reached their highest level in human history, causing more severe and widespread disruption and damage to our lives, infrastructure and ecosystems than ... Read more ...
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There’s no greater feminist cause than the climate fight – and saving each other:
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| There’s no greater feminist cause than the climate fight – and saving each other - Guardian - Climate Change |
Mar 2 · When my country, Pakistan, flooded last year, women faced particular suffering. That’s true around the world
Last summer, a third of Pakistan was underwater. My country, the fifth most populous in the world, was submerged. Two million homes were destroyed, thousands of acres of agricultural land were flooded and 90% of the crops in Sindh, a food belt, were damaged. Thousands of kilometres of roads were rendered unusable, a million livestock killed, hospitals and schools obliterated, and 30 to 50 million people – a number as large as the population of Canada or Spain – were displaced and dispossessed.
It was the climate crisis that brought this nightmare to Pakistan. ... Read more ...
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This Is CDR Ep. 64: CDR via Woody Biomass Burial with Kodama and Yale Carbon Containment Lab.:
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| This Is CDR Ep. 64: CDR via Woody Biomass Burial with Kodama and Yale Carbon Containment Lab. - Open Air (Carbon Capture) |
Mar 24 · In this episode of This Is CDR Toby and welcome Kodama Systems' Head of Biomass Utilization and Policy Jimmy Voorhis and Yale Carbon Containment Lab's Associate Director of Science Dr. Sinéad Crotty who will discuss their research collaboration on biomass burial of unmerchantable residues from fire thinning.\n\nLInks:\n- https://kodama.ai/\n- https://carboncontainmentlab.yale.edu/who-we-are\n\nAbout Jimmy:\n\nJimmy Voorhis leads biomass utilization and policy at Kodama Systems, where he develops solutions to create value from forestry residues based on their inherent carbon. Prior to Kodama, Jimmy was a consulting geochemist for international mining companies and built water mass ... | By OpenAir Read more ...
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This is Fine:
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| This is Fine - Climate Crocks |
Mar 25 · Can’t believe they filmed a real life “this is fine” meme for climate change. pic.twitter.com/A8qBO4uY3Y
It’s in Paris. I think it’s related to the recent protests about Macron raising the retirement age for blue-collar workers (not people who fly desks, but who are on their feet all day).
[Macron’s position is that France doesn’t have the demographics for a smaller younger generation to support the earlier retirement for the older generations. This wouldn’t be an issue where young immigrants can be used to back-fill the labor force.]
AIR CONDITIONING THE MOTHER EARTH ?? https://raveendrannarayanandotcom1.wordpress.com/ ???? ???? ???? ... Read more ...
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This is the last ever cartoon about climate change (of course it isn’t):
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| This is the last ever cartoon about climate change (of course it isn’t) - Guardian - Climate Change |
Mar 2 · If you feel despair it’s because you care, and if you care – you act! Read more ...
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To measure, verify and report is just one stop along the net-zero journey:
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| To measure, verify and report is just one stop along the net-zero journey - Greenbiz |
Mar 24 · Sponsored: The need for decarbonization has never been greater. This 6-step pathway can help your organization plan, implement and measure the goals needed to reach net zero.
The Colorado Mountain College/Holy Cross Energy project sit. Image courtesy of the Colorado Mountain College.
This article is sponsored by Ameresco.
Whether you are reading startling headlines about Earth’s future or watching a film as bold as Adam McKay’s "Don’t Look Up," the tides are turning on how the general public views the imminent threats of climate change. There’s a growing sentiment among those who are beginning to worry for the futures of their children and their children’s ... | By Bob Georgeoff Read more ...
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Toothpaste tablets and syrup on tap: US refill shops cut the container:
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| Toothpaste tablets and syrup on tap: US refill shops cut the container - PHYS.ORG - Earth |
Mar 25 · In the meantime, though, Rini Saha - the co-owner of the FullFillery, another Washington-area refill shop in the suburb of Takoma Park, Maryland - hopes to make a difference from the ground up. "We want you to reuse as much as we can, because recycling is still a huge carbon footprint," the 46-year-old told AFP. Saha and colleagues make a number of body care and cleaning products on-site, for refill or purchase in a returnable container. On a recent Wednesday morning, fellow co-owner Emoke Gaidosch, a chemist by training, poured liquid soap she had made into a large receptacle. Aside from the lack of packaging, Miller says bulk sales could yield even bigger environmental benefits by ... Read more ...
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UBS Is Buying Credit Suisse’s Emissions Burden, Too:
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| UBS Is Buying Credit Suisse’s Emissions Burden, Too - Bloomberg |
Mar 21 · To do so, Credit Suisse developed complicated structures involving multiple “special purpose vehicles” responsible for payments that stand alone from the bank after the deal is closed, according to a sustainable bond investor with close knowledge of debt-nature swaps who asked not to be named. Those SPVs will probably insulate borrowers and investors from any fallout from Credit Suisse’s sale, the person said.
The convoluted setup has drawn criticism from sovereign debt experts for its high cost and lack of transparency. And the opaque terms of the Belize and Barbados deals — the first of their kind — mean outside analysts will struggle to ... Read more ...
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UK planning to launch watered down net zero strategy in oil capital Aberdeen:
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| UK planning to launch watered down net zero strategy in oil capital Aberdeen - Guardian - Climate Change |
Mar 2 · Exclusive: Labour decries 'climate vandalism’ as launch plans signal intention to boost fossil fuel industry
The government is planning to launch its revamped net zero strategy from the UK’s oil and gas capital, Aberdeen, in a clear signal of its intention to boost the fossil fuel industry while cutting key green measures, the Guardian has learned.
Next week’s launch was originally called “green day” in Whitehall, but has been rebranded as “energy security day” and will focus on infrastructure. Campaigners have called the move a travesty.
Plans to extend offshore drilling for oil and gas will be cited as necessary to keep the lights on, and justified by investment ... Read more ...
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UN conference hears litany of water disasters linked to climate crisis:
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| UN conference hears litany of water disasters linked to climate crisis - Guardian - Climate Change |
Mar 2 · Accounts of global impact of floods, droughts and storms at New York meeting add to pressure to make water central to Cop28
Water is at the heart of the climate crisis, with an increasingly dire carousel of droughts, floods and sea level rise felt “making our planet uninhabitable” the secretary-general of the United Nations, António Guterres, has warned.
On the second day of the first UN water conference in almost half a century, countries lined up to describe how they are suffering from water disasters linked to human-made global heating. “We seem to either have too much water, or too little,” said Senzo Mchunu, South Africa’s water minister. “We will fail on climate ... Read more ...
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UN's global disaster alert systems goal faces uphill climb:
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| UN's global disaster alert systems goal faces uphill climb - PHYS.ORG - Earth |
Mar 24 · How can anyone seek shelter from a natural disaster they don't even know is coming? Last year the United Nations called for every person on the planet to be covered by early warning systems by 2027 - but months into the effort it is becoming clear that the project will require more data and expertise. With a relatively low price tag of $3.1 billion, the UN's plan hopes to implement the simple principle of early warning systems: assess risks using meteorological data, forecast impending problems using modelling, prepare populations ahead of time, and send out alerts to those expected to be impacted. But building out those steps poses unique issues at each turn, according to those ... Read more ...
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Using high-precision quantum chemistry to study super-efficient energy transfer in photosynthesis:
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| Using high-precision quantum chemistry to study super-efficient energy transfer in photosynthesis - PHYS.ORG - Earth |
Mar 24 · Photosynthesis drives all life on Earth. Complex processes are required for the sunlight-powered conversion of carbon dioxide and water to energy-rich sugar and oxygen. These processes are driven by two protein complexes, photosystems I and II. In photosystem I, sunlight is used with an efficiency of almost 100%. Here a complex network of 288 chlorophylls plays the decisive role. A team led by LMU chemist Regina de Vivie-Riedle has now characterized these chlorophylls with the help of high-precision quantum chemical calculations - an important milestone toward a comprehensive understanding of energy transfer in this system. This discovery may help exploit its efficiency in ... Read more ...
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Want an easy $400 a year? Ditch the gas heater in your home for an electric split system, says researcher:
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| Want an easy $400 a year? Ditch the gas heater in your home for an electric split system, says researcher - PHYS.ORG - Technology |
Mar 24 · Earlier this month, regulators flagged power price rises in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. Like many people, you're probably wondering how you can minimize the financial pain. Getting rid of gas and electrifying everything in your home can save you money. Modeling by not-for-profit organization Renew showed annual bills last year for a seven-star all-electric home with solar power were between 69% (Western Sydney) and 83% (Hobart) cheaper than bills for a three-star home with gas appliances and no solar. There are other reasons to kick the gas habit, too. As renewables form an ever-growing part of Australia's energy mix, electrifying the home ... Read more ...
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Warm Gulf Could Mean Heavy Tornado Season:
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| Warm Gulf Could Mean Heavy Tornado Season - Washington Post |
Mar 22 · Water temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico often enter the conversation during hurricane season, but they also play a role in tornado season each spring. Concern is growing for the potential impact that abnormally warm sea surface temperatures will have in the weeks and months ahead, with experts warily keeping tabs on what could be a busy tornado season. Currently, the waters are up to several degrees warmer than normal and as high as the upper 70s.
April, May and June are historically the most active for severe weather and tornadoes, with an average of 660 twisters spinning up within the three-month window. They materialize seemingly like clockwork, creeping north across the ... Read more ...
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Warm winter threatens beloved Canadian tradition: The hair-freezing contest:
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| Warm winter threatens beloved Canadian tradition: The hair-freezing contest - Washington Post - Climate and Environment |
Mar 24 · This year, candy canes and beads hung from a guest’s frosty hairdo at a hot spring pool in Canada. The woman’s hair - usually flowy and straight - now stood up into the air, hardened and styled into the shape of a Christmas tree.
Hers was one of the approximately 85 entries that Eclipse Nordic Hot Springs received this year in its annual hair-freezing competition - one that has won a Guinness World Record, become a question in a German game show and turned into a wintertime tradition in the Yukon region of northwestern Canada.
Come winter, scores of guests at the hot spring pool and spa facility defy gravity, turning their hair into upward-facing icicles. But climate ... Read more ...
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Wash, blow dry and 1.5 degrees please: hairdressers trained to talk about climate action:
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| Wash, blow dry and 1.5 degrees please: hairdressers trained to talk about climate action - Guardian - Climate Change |
Mar 2 · A salon in Sydney is spearheading workshops for hairdressers on how to steer small talk about the weather into conversations about global heating
Inside this chic Sydney hair salon, the chat between stylists and clients could be much the same as in any other hairdressers around the world. Some small talk. The ubiquitous and occasionally mundane chat about holidays and traffic. For regulars, the conversation can move to the deeply personal before you can say semi-tint or shag cut.
In fact, there is only one easily missable clue in the front window that conversations inside Paloma might, when the occasion arises, be a bit different. A poster reads: “This salon chats about ... Read more ...
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Weakened EU greenwashing rules under attack:
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| Weakened EU greenwashing rules under attack - Financial Times |
Mar 22 · (Financial Times - Subsription required) Read more ...
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What causes subsurface thermohaline biases in southern tropical Pacific in latest climate models?:
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| What causes subsurface thermohaline biases in southern tropical Pacific in latest climate models? - PHYS.ORG - Earth |
Mar 23 · Realistic ocean subsurface simulations of thermohaline structure and variation are critically important to success in climate prediction and projection. Currently, substantial systematic subsurface biases still exist in the latest climate models. However, the characteristics and causes of these subsurface biases are still poorly understood. Recently, a research team led by Prof. Zhang Ronghua from the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOCAS) has investigated the characteristics and causes of subsurface thermohaline biases in the southern tropical Pacific. The study was published in Journal of Climate on March 10. The researchers analyzed simulations from ... Read more ...
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What if climate change meant not doom — but abundance?:
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| What if climate change meant not doom — but abundance? - Washington Post |
Mar 15 · Rebecca Solnit, a writer and historian, is the author of more than 20 books and co-editor of the anthology “Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story From Despair to Possibility,” publishing in April.
A monastic once told me renunciation can be great if it means giving up things that make you miserable.
This vision, I think, is what has been missing when we talk about the climate crisis - and how we should respond to it.
Much of the reluctance to do what climate change requires comes from the assumption that it means trading abundance for austerity, and trading all our stuff and conveniences for less stuff, less convenience. But what if it meant giving up things ... Read more ...
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What to read about the Sunshine State:
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| What to read about the Sunshine State - Economist |
Mar 24 · ONCE AGAIN, Florida is booming. Home to just 250,000 people at the end of Reconstruction in 1877, it now has over 22m - more than any other American state except California and Texas. Hurricanes and other disasters have proved to be mere temporary setbacks. In 2010-20 the population expanded by 15%, twice the national rate. Miami has a vibrant tech cluster, art scene and finance hub. “We’re growing in Florida left and right,” Jamie Dimon, the boss of JPMorgan Chase, a big bank, said recently. The state is home to the two leading Republican contenders for the presidency in 2024: Donald Trump, the former president, based in Palm Beach, and Ron DeSantis, the governor, who wants to ... Read more ...
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When Amazon leaders blessed Scotland's rainforest:
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| When Amazon leaders blessed Scotland's rainforest - BBC |
Mar 23 · A film about a group of indigenous people from the Amazon and a visit they made to Scotland's rainforest will be given its Scottish premiere on Saturday.
The Ghost Rainforest is being screened as part of the Glasgow Short Film Festival, external.
The group visited an area of surviving temperate rainforest on the Argyll coast
The film follows five leaders and activists on their trip to Scotland in 2021 to attend Glasgow's COP26 climate conference.
They also visited Cormonachan Community Woodlands, an area of temperate rainforest near Lochgoilhead in Argyll.
The group carried out a spiritual blessing. This was done to connect distant communities ... Read more ...
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Why climate 'doomers’ are replacing climate 'deniers’:
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| Why climate 'doomers’ are replacing climate 'deniers’ - Washington Post - Climate and Environment |
Mar 24 · When Sean Youra was 26 years old and working as an engineer, he started watching documentaries about climate change. Youra, who was struggling with depression and the loss of a family member, was horrified by what he learned about melting ice and rising extreme weather. He started spending hours on YouTube, watching videos made by fringe scientists who warned that the world was teetering on the edge of societal collapse - or even near-term human extinction. Youra started telling his friends and family that he was convinced that climate change couldn’t be stopped, and humanity was doomed.
In short, he says, he became a climate “doomer.”
“It all compounded and just led me ... Read more ...
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Why I’m joining more than 100 lawyers in refusing to prosecute climate protesters:
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| Why I’m joining more than 100 lawyers in refusing to prosecute climate protesters - Guardian - Climate Change |
Mar 2 · I cannot support laws that defend those who destroy the planet, and criminalise those who try to protect it. This is a principle I will stand by.
The cab rank rule expresses a beautiful idea: that access to the law – society’s great leveller – is for everyone, whoever they are and whatever they are said to have done. The rule remembers that for a lawyer to say “I will not act” appropriates a role the system gives to judges or juries. And it recognises that if lawyers are tainted by association, the criminal justice system is jeopardised. It risks, or even ensures, miscarriages of justice.
What it says is that we barristers act for whoever seeks our services – in the same ... Read more ...
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Yes, the grid can handle EV charging, even when demand spikes:
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| Yes, the grid can handle EV charging, even when demand spikes - Yale Climate Connections - Energy |
Mar 23 · Take the Yale Climate Connections audience survey today.
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Yale Climate Connections
You may have wondered if places like California can support electric cars because the state’s electricity grid seems to already be overloaded. In recent years, spikes in electricity demand during heat waves have contributed to rolling blackouts.
But EV charging doesn’t have to overload the grid, and the reason is the peaks and valleys in energy use.
This sequence of graphs steps through a recent example of record-breaking electricity use in California to illustrate why EV charging ... Read more ...
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Yes, there was just a tornado near Los Angeles. Is climate change to blame?:
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| Yes, there was just a tornado near Los Angeles. Is climate change to blame? - VOX - Science |
Mar 23 · The tornado adds to the latest bout of extreme weather California is experiencing.
In a rare turn of events, a town southeast of Los Angeles was hit by a tornado on Wednesday, marking the latest extreme weather the region has fielded in recent months.
Tornadoes aren’t unheard of in California, but they are less common compared to other parts of the country, with fewer than 10 typically observed in the state per year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Wednesday’s tornado - which affected the town of Montebello and damaged 17 buildings - was also especially strong, and is the most severe to affect the region in 40 years, per the National ... Read more ...
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Zeke Hausfather Healthy Planet Action Coalition 23 March 2023:
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| Zeke Hausfather Healthy Planet Action Coalition 23 March 2023 - Climate Engineering (Lockley - Playlist) |
Mar 24 · Conversation about climate policy with Zeke Hausfather and the Healthy Planet Action Coalition. The main theme is whether net zero emissions could be enough to stabilise the climate. The meeting began with comments from Zeke, followed by Q\u0026A and discussion. The main theme is whether net zero emissions could be enough to stabilise the climate.\n\nZeke was described by the New York Times as “ a seemingly timeless chronicler, charter, and commentator on all things Climate.†He is Climate Research Lead at Stripe and Breakthrough Senior Fellow. Stripe is a global technology company recently valued at $50 billion that builds economic infrastructure for the Internet. As their ... | By Robbie Tulip Read more ...
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