Stay Current 2023

The GSS email list (google group) receives “Stay Current” articles (excerpts and links to the source articles). To receive them email gssmail@berkeley.edu with subject line “Join GSS”. Please give your city, state, country, and your school (if you’re a teacher). See also “Stay Current” links in each book’s Contents table. Some news sources limit the number of articles one person can read. You can “divide and conquer” with different students to reading and reporting to the class on different articles.

See E-mail updates from 2022 -|- 2021

2023 EMAIL UPDATES

To see more recent updates, see the main GSS Stay Current page.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-12-21. Lost history of Antarctica revealed in octopus DNA. [https://www.science.org/content/article/lost-history-antarctica-revealed-octopus-dna] By ERIK STOKSTAD. Excerpt: Some 100,000 years ago, scientists believe Antarctica’s massive western ice sheet collapsed, temporarily opening waterways between a trio of seas surrounding the continent. New evidence for that scenario comes from a surprising source: octopus DNA. …About 129,000 to 116,000 years ago, a warm spell called the last interglacial gave our planet a brief break in between several million years of ice ages. The average temperature of the planet was about 0.5°C warmer than it is today—and climate projections predict it will be again within decades. The global sea level was also 5 meters to 10 meters higher than current levels. Many scientists believe the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and consequent melting could have been a primary reason. …The findings are consistent with growing geological evidence supporting the ice sheet collapse…. For GSS Life and Climate chapter 10.

-•-
2023-12-21. A landmark environmental law looks ahead. [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adn3245] By ROBERT L. FISCHMAN , J. B. RUHL, BRENNA R. FORESTER , TANYA M. LAMA, MARTY KARDOS, GRETHEL AGUILAR ROJAS, NICHOLAS A. ROBINSON , PATRICK D. SHIREY , GARY A. LAMBERTI, […], AND YING ZHAO, Science. Excerpt: Late in the winter of 1973, President Richard Nixon signed into law what the Supreme Court would later describe as “the most comprehensive legislation for the preservation of endangered species enacted by any nation.” In the decades that followed, The Endangered Species Act (ESA) granted conservationists the capacity to protect vulnerable animals, plants and habitats throughout the United States. Iconic species that once faced extinction, such as the humpback whale and the bald eagle, owe their continued existence in large part to this landmark piece of legislation. …If the ESA is to maintain its power in an increasingly complex world, it too must evolve. …Western science has finally begun to recognize the pivotal role that Indigenous stewardship plays in preserving biodiversity. Now, experts say, the time has come for Indigenous communities to receive the same level of funding and recognition that is currently afforded to state conservation agencies…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 8.

-•-
2023-12-20. Wildlife conservation using drones and artificial intelligence in Africa. [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.adm7008] By TINAO PETSO HTTPS://ORCID.ORG/0000-0002-7660-3639 AND RODRIGO S. JAMISOLA JR. , Science. Excerpt: The use of drones and artificial intelligence may offer more reliable methods of counting populations and monitoring wildlife. In recent years, several African countries have substantially increased their conservation efforts in the midst of climate change, illegal poaching, and biodiversity loss. These efforts are focused on the near-threatened, vulnerable, endangered, and critically endangered wildlife based on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. …The advancements in drone technology and deep learning algorithms offer potential solutions to accomplish precise wildlife monitoring in ever-changing environments and will ultimately help to return balance to ecosystems…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 8.

-•-
2023-12-19. Icelandic Fissure Finally Erupts. [https://eos.org/articles/icelandic-fissure-finally-erupts] By Kimberly M. S. Cartier, , Eos/AGU/AGU. Excerpt: At 10:17 p.m. local time on 18 December, a magma fissure erupted on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula between Sýlingarfell and Hagafell. An earthquake swarm north of Grindavík preceded the eruption by an hour. …The eruptive fissure is 4 kilometers long, and its southern tip is about 3 kilometers north of Grindavík, which was fully evacuated several weeks ago. …This is the fourth eruption of the Fagradalsfjall volcano complex in 3 years and is 3–4 times larger than previous ones, according to volcanologist Ármann Höskuldsson at the University of Iceland…. For GSS Energy Flow chapter 2.

-•-
2019-10-17. Plastic bags were created to save the planet, inventor’s son says. [https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/plastic-bags-pollution-paper-cotton-tote-bags-environment-a9159731.html] By Phoebe Weston, Independent. Excerpt: Plastic bags were invented to save the planet, according to the son of Swedish engineer Sten Gustaf Thulin who created them in 1959. The bags were developed as an alternative to paper bags, which were considered bad for the environment because they resulted in forests being chopped down. They were significantly stronger than paper bags, which meant – in theory – they could be used over and over again. However, single-use plastic took off and now our consumption of this polluting material is one of the biggest threats facing the world’s seas, with marine plastic set to outweigh fish by 2050…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 7.

-•-
2023-12-14. Solar-powered clothes, for the heat and cold. [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adl5650] By XINGYI HUANG AND PENGLI LI, Science. Excerpt: Clothing plays an indispensable role in maintaining the human body temperature within a comfort range in our daily life, especially when facing sudden temperature changes or in harsh environments (1). …Wang et al. (3) report a full-day, self-powered, and bidirectional thermoregulatory clothing that can quickly respond to fluctuating temperature. …Wang et al. …designed and fabricated a wearable thermal-management system by combining an organic photovoltaic unit and an electrocaloric unit into a single device with the required flexibility. The device also achieved bidirectional thermal management, providing 10.1 K of cooling to the skin during hot days but also keeping the human body 3.2 K warmer than bare skin in the dark or at night by using additional energy collected by the organic photovoltaic unit…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

~~~~~

2023-12-14. Pangolin-poaching hot spots revealed by DNA tests. [https://www.science.org/content/article/pangolin-poaching-hot-spots-revealed-dna-tests] By RIK STOKSTAD, Scioence. Excerpt: Using DNA tests, researchers have exposed smuggling routes and traced the remains of African pangolins back to specific forest populations. Since 2012, poaching of these endangered animals has shifted eastward from Sierra Leone to Cameroon, they report today in Science. The tests could help law enforcement agents more quickly identify the source of untold numbers of hunted pangolins, possibly millions of which are illegally shipped around the world each year. …Pangolins—also called scaly anteaters—are the only mammals with reptilelike scales, which grow from modified hair follicles. When threatened, the nocturnal animals will roll up into a ball, a ploy that provides no protection when humans hunt them for their meat. Their scales are also in demand, mainly in China, for use in traditional medicine, even though there’s no evidence that they provide effective remedies. As Asian pangolins have become scarce, hunting has increased elsewhere…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 4.

2023-12-14. Poison Gas Hints at Potential for Life on an Ocean Moon of Saturn. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/14/science/enceladus-moon-cyanide-life-saturn.html] By Kenneth Chang, The New York Times. Excerpt: Scientists have detected a poison among the spray of molecules emanating from a small moon of Saturn. That adds to existing intrigue about the possibility of life there. The poison is hydrogen cyanide, a colorless gas that is deadly to many Earth creatures. But it could have played a key role in chemical reactions that created the ingredients that set the stage for the advent of life. …Mr. Peter and his collaborators, Tom Nordheim and Kevin Hand of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, reported their findings in a paper published on Thursday in the journal Nature Astronomy…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

2023-12-13. In a First, Nations at Climate Summit Agree to Move Away From Fossil Fuels. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/13/climate/cop28-climate-agreement.html] By Brad Plumer and Max Bearak, The New York Times. Excerpt: For the first time since nations began meeting three decades ago to confront climate change, diplomats from nearly 200 countries approved a global pact that explicitly calls for “transitioning away from fossil fuels” like oil, gas and coal that are dangerously heating the planet. …that proposal faced intense pushback from major oil exporters like Saudi Arabia and Iraq, as well as fast-growing countries like India and Nigeria. In the end, negotiators struck a compromise: The new deal calls on countries to accelerate a global shift away from fossil fuels this decade in a “just, orderly and equitable manner,” and to quit adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere entirely by midcentury. It also calls on nations to triple the amount of renewable energy, like wind and solar power, installed around the world by 2030 and to slash emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas that is more potent than carbon dioxide in the short term…. See also In the End, an Oil Man Won a Climate Summit Deal on Moving Away From Oil. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

2023-12-12. A Transformative Carbon Sink in the Ocean? [https://eos.org/opinions/a-transformative-carbon-sink-in-the-ocean] By Doug Reusch, Kayleigh Brisard, Gil Hamilton and Carson Theriault, Eos/AGU/AGU. Excerpt: Effectively lowering atmospheric carbon levels will require a range of actions, from individuals making hard decisions about lifestyle changes to international cooperation to pursue solutions from a diverse menu of options. Among the options under consideration are methods for deliberate carbon dioxide removal (CDR) from the atmosphere…. …humanity may need to implement CDR on a vast scale to compensate for the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels over the past century. Ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE), in which the addition of ions like Mg²⁺ and Ca²⁺ (sourced from materials such as olivine or lime) to the ocean drives more dissolution of atmospheric CO₂ to form bicarbonate (HCO₃^–), holds considerable promise, because the ocean’s capacity for storing bicarbonate is ample on the relevant time frame [Renforth and Henderson, 2017]. …Earth’s mantle…is a vast reservoir of ultramafic (low-silica) rock. In concept, a small fraction of this rock—minimally about 600 cubic kilometers if completely converted to carbonate—could neutralize the entire slug of Industrial Age fossil carbon in the atmosphere. Oceanic transform faults and their fracture zone extensions present tectonic settings where such reactive mantle rocks, which are typically buried under kilometers of crust, are exposed at Earth’s surface. …Oceanic transform fault settings are known to host low-temperature hydrothermal systems that sequester dissolved CO₂ by precipitating mineral carbonate [Kelley et al., 2007]. …Geoengineering solutions can have unintended consequences, so a cautious approach is in order. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

2023-12-12. New class of ‘ozone-safe’ refrigerants may have unexpected downside. [https://www.science.org/content/article/new-class-ozone-safe-refrigerants-may-have-unexpected-downside] By ALIX SOLIMAN, Science. Excerpt: In 2013, a new class of chemical refrigerants—used to cool everything from homes to freezers—replaced the ones that were destroying the ozone layer. But a study published this week finds that some of the new compounds, known as hydrofluoroolefins, (HFOs) can create fluoroform, a gas that has a global warming potential 14,800 times worse than carbon dioxide. …The amount of fluoroform produced by HFOs is minute, he notes, so they still have a lower global warming potential than chemicals used in the past. …Refrigerants have come and gone…. First came ammonia and other toxic substances. Then supposedly safer chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in the 1930s. Four decades later, scientists realized that CFCs break down ozone, and the 1987 Montreal Protocol called for a ban. Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) were next. They’re easier on ozone, but they can linger in the atmosphere for up to 260 years, and they trap heat with infernal proficiency. The Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, passed in 2016, aims to phase out 80% of hydrofluorocarbons by the late 2040s…. Enter HFOs. …they break down in the atmosphere in a matter of days, giving them little chance to trap heat…earning them a low global warming potential from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. …the agency evaluates how much heat a substance traps and how long it lasts in the atmosphere compared with carbon dioxide…. For GSS Ozone chapter 9.

2023-12-11. Cheap electricity could recycle animal waste, recover valuable chemicals. [https://www.science.org/content/article/cheap-electricity-could-recycle-animal-waste-recover-valuable-chemicals] By ROBERT F. SERVICE, Science. Excerpt: Every year the world’s livestock farms generate more than 3 billion tons of animal waste, equivalent to more than 9000 Empire State Buildings. All that manure pollutes bodies of water and releases noxious fumes and greenhouse gases. But a new recycling technique could reduce those burdens while turning a profit. Researchers have shown that they can use electricity to break down organic nutrients in animal waste, all while recovering valuable chemicals. Initial projections—reported this month in Nature Sustainability—suggest that in most cases the value of these chemicals would be higher than the costs of the technique, making it profitable for farmers to pursue it. …renewable power is expected to lower electricity costs in some rural areas to about $0.03 per kWh by 2030. …Given how efficient the overall process is, she says, the electrochemical treatment could capture nearly 70% of the ammonia in manure and reduce farm emissions of the compound by a similar amount…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

2023-12-10. Saudi Arabia Is Trying to Block a Global Deal to End Fossil Fuels, Negotiators Say. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/10/climate/saudi-arabia-cop28-fossil-fuels.html] By Lisa Friedman, Brad Plumer and Vivian Nereim, The New York Times. Excerpt: Saudi Arabia, the world’s leading exporter of oil, has become the biggest obstacle to an agreement at the United Nations climate summit in Dubai, where countries are debating whether to call for a phaseout of fossil fuels in order to fight global warming…. The Saudi delegation has flatly opposed any language in a deal that would even mention fossil fuels…. Saudi negotiators have also objected to a provision, endorsed by at least 118 countries, aimed at tripling global renewable energy capacity by 2030. Saudi diplomats have been particularly skillful at blocking discussions and slowing the talks,…. Tactics include inserting words into draft agreements that are considered poison pills by other countries; slow-walking a provision meant to help vulnerable countries adapt to climate change; staging a walkout in a side meeting; and refusing to sit down with negotiators pressing for a phaseout of fossil fuels. …U.N. rules require that any agreement forged at the climate summit be unanimously endorsed. …Saudi Arabia isn’t the only country raising concerns about more ambitious global efforts to fight climate change. The United States has sought to inject caveats into the fossil fuel phaseout language. India and China have opposed language that would single out coal…. Iran and Russia have pushed for provisions to protect natural gas…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

2023-12-09. Tiny Electric Vehicles Pack a Bigger Climate Punch Than Cars. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/09/business/energy-environment/two-three-wheel-electric-vehicles.html] By Somini Sengupta, Abdi Latif Dahir, Alex Travelli and Clifford Krauss, The New York Times. Excerpt: Big Oil faces a tiny foe on the streets of Asia and Africa. The noisy, noxious vehicles that run on two and three wheels, carrying billions of people daily, are quietly going electric — in turn knocking down oil demand by one million barrels a day this year. In Kenya and Rwanda, dozens of start-ups are vying to replace oil-guzzling motorcycle taxis with battery-powered ones. In India, more than half of all new three-wheeled vehicles sold and registered this year were battery-operated. Indonesia and Thailand are also encouraging electrification of motorcycle taxis. China dominates the market. Its government began promoting electric vehicles decades ago in a bid to clean its smog-choked cities, which explains why a vast majority of the world’s electric two-wheelers are in China. The shift to electric mobility overall has reduced global oil demand by 1.8 million barrels every day…. Two- and three-wheelers account for 60 percent of that reduction, or 1.08 million barrels. …Electric vehicles also solve the more immediate problem of air pollution, which the World Health Organization links to an estimated seven million premature deaths annually. The big shift to tiny electric vehicles is underappreciated in the United States and Europe, where, despite the popularity of electric bicycles and scooters, the focus has been mainly on cars.…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 9.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-12-08. People Just Ran Entirely on Renewable Energy for 149 Hours. [https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/green-tech/a45900085/portugal-renewable-energy/] By DARREN ORF, Popular Mechanics. Excerpt: For 149 consecutive hours in November, Portugal provided a stunning example of what that could look like, as it used a mix of solar, wind, and hydropower to provide more clean energy than the entire country needed. …Producing 1,102 GWh (according to the national grid operator Redes Energéticas Nacionais) for both industrial and residential use, the country’s renewable energy sources—a mix of wind, solar, and hydropower—provided 262 GWh more than was needed. …This exceeds the country’s previous record—it ran for 131 hours on renewable energy back in 2019—and for 95 hours during this recent test, Portugal even exported its excess clean energy to Spain. Although the country’s gas plants were on standby, Portugal’s renewable infrastructure proved to be more than up for the task. …Portugal’s 149 hours of renewable bliss is a hopeful vision of the future for a fossil fuel-weary present. Humans can adapt to the climate challenges that face us—we just have to do it one renewable megawatt at a time…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

-•-
2023-12-08. F.D.A. Approves Sickle Cell Treatments, Including One That Uses CRISPR. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/08/health/fda-sickle-cell-crispr.html] By Gina Kolata, , The New York Times. Excerpt: On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first gene editing therapy ever to be used in humans, for sickle cell disease, a debilitating blood disorder caused by a single mutated gene. …For the 100,000 Americans with the disease, most of them Black, the approvals offer hope for finally living without an affliction that causes excruciating pain, organ damage and strokes. While patients, their families and their doctors welcome the F.D.A.’s approvals, getting either therapy will be difficult, and expensive. …Vertex says its price to edit a patient’s genes will be $2.2 million; for, Bluebird it will be $3.1 million. But living with the disease is also extremely costly: On average, $1.7 million for those with commercial insurance over a patient’s lifetime…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 4.

-•-
2023-12-08. How Much Can Forests Fight Climate Change? A Sensor in Space Has Answers. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/08/climate/forests-trees-climate-change.html] By Manuela Andreoni and Leanne Abraham, The New York Times. Excerpt: Over the last century, governments around the world have drawn boundaries to shield thousands of the world’s most valuable ecosystems from destruction…. These protected areas have offered lifelines to species threatened with extinction, supported the ways of life for many traditional communities and safeguarded the water supplies of cities. …Now, high in orbit, a new way of seeing forests is making it clear that…protected areas can still be a crucial buffer against climate change. …a study …which was published this year, showed that policies designed to protect nature can also be important for mitigating global warming, Dr. Duncanson said. She called the findings “a beautiful side benefit” of global forest conservation…. For GSS A New World View chapter 6.

-•-
2023-12-07. An Electrifying Approach to Carbon Capture. [https://eos.org/articles/an-electrifying-approach-to-carbon-capture] By Bill Morris, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: …a group of researchers at the University of Calgary is using electricity to enhance seawater’s ability to store carbon. The group is developing an instrument, dubbed PEACH (Practical Electrochemical Air Capture and Hydrogen), that uses an electrochemical cell, analogous to a lithium-ion battery, to capture alkaline sodium ions from salt water. …arrays could be lowered more than 500 meters into the ocean to gather ions, then raised to release them as sodium hydroxide at shallower depths, creating an “alkalinity pump” from deep water to the surface. …Alkaline surface waters draw carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere, eventually converting it to bicarbonate, which can securely store carbon in the ocean for more than 10,000 years. A by-product of the ion exchange is hydrogen, which could be stored as a fuel. The group will present their research at AGU’s Annual Meeting 2023 in San Francisco…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-12-07. Climate Change Makes East Africa’s Deadly Floods Worse, Study Finds. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/07/climate/climate-change-flooding-east-africa.html] By Delger Erdenesanaa, The New York Times. Excerpt: Heavy rain and floods in East Africa that started in October have killed at least 300 people and displaced millions more. …East Africa has an annual rainy season in fall, but this year’s disastrous rainfall is about double what it would have been without human-caused climate change, according to research made public on Thursday. A natural climate cycle called the Indian Ocean Dipole has also contributed to heavier rain than usual, but this phenomenon alone does not account for the extreme amount…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-12-05. Inside the Marshall Islands’ life-or-death plan to survive climate change. [https://grist.org/extreme-weather/marshall-islands-national-adaptation-plan-sea-level-rise-cop28/] By Jake Bittle, Grist. Excerpt: The Marshall Islands extend across a wide stretch of the Pacific Ocean, with dozens of coral atolls sitting just a few feet above sea level. …Over the past two years, government officials have fanned out across the country, visiting remote towns and villages as well as urban centers like its capital of Majuro to examine how Marshallese communities are experiencing and coping with climate change. They found that a combination of rapid sea-level rise and drought has already made life untenable for many of the country’s 42,000 residents, especially on outlying atolls where communities rely on rainwater and vanishing land for subsistence. The survey was part of a groundbreaking, five-year effort by the Marshall Islands to craft a sweeping adaptation strategy that charts the country’s response to the threat of climate change. The plan, shared with Grist ahead of its release at COP28 in Dubai, calls for tens of billions of dollars of new spending to fortify low-lying islands and secure water supplies…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-12-05. Will guilt-free long-haul flights ever be possible? Here’s what we know. [https://www.cnn.com/travel/the-long-road-to-guilt-free-flying-climate/index.html] By Jacopo Prisco, CNN. Excerpt: Aviation faces a steep climb towards a greener future. Although it has, like many other industries, committed to slashing its planet-warming pollution by 2050, it is not on track to reach its target… …the sector currently accounts for around 2.5% of global carbon emissions, its actual climate impact is actually higher, because of the emission of other greenhouse gases and the formation of heat-trapping condensation trails created by jet engines. Meanwhile, demand for air travel is projected to steadily rise, with the global fleet of commercial airplanes doubling in size by 2042 to keep up, according to Boeing. …Sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, is a type of alternative jet fuel that can curb carbon emissions by up to 80%. It …is usually made from plants that have absorbed carbon dioxide (CO₂) during their lifetime. When burned, that CO₂ is returned to the atmosphere, whereas burning traditional jet fuel kerosene made from fossil fuels releases CO₂ that had been previously locked away. …SAF…is …between 1.5 to 6 times pricier than regular jet fuel. …the most promising tech currently seems to be hydrogen …. [Gökçin Çınar, professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan] reckons that hybrid electric planes — powered by both traditional and electric engines — will be introduced as early as 2040, but that they will be limited to regional aircraft, with capacity for up to 100 passengers. “In the longer term, widebody aircraft could integrate mild electrification, but the bigger impact would come from hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuels,” she says. For GSS Energy Use chapter 9.

-•-
2023-12-05. Diverse Forests Store More Carbon Than Monocultures. [https://eos.org/articles/diverse-forests-store-more-carbon-than-monocultures] By Saima May Sidik, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: It pays to mix it up—planted forests containing more than one tree species can store several times as much carbon as monocultures, as shown in a meta-analysis published in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change. Researchers have long known that biodiversity increases forest productivity, ….Forestry companies often plant monocultures, so the study has the potential to affect industry practices. …Researchers sifted through more than 11,300 studies, including some from a worldwide network of tree diversity experiments called TreeDivNet, to find 18 that included the information necessary to compare carbon storage in monocultures with that in stands containing two or more species of trees. …Stands with two or more species contained at least 25% more aboveground carbon than the best-performing monocultures, …. When the researchers focused on forests containing four species, the effect became more striking. These mixed stands had more than 4 times as much carbon as the average monoculture and more than twice as much carbon as the best-performing monocultures…. For GSS A New World View chapter 6.

-•-
2023-12-05. Air-Conditioning Use Will Surge in a Warming World, U.N. Warns. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/05/climate/air-conditioning-electricity.html] By Hiroko Tabuchi, The New York Times. Excerpt: Sixty nations committed on Tuesday to improve the efficiency of new air-conditioners by 50 percent and reduce greenhouse gas emissions related to those cooling machines by almost 70 percent, the latest in a flurry of global promises that aim to tackle climate change. …a daunting future facing a warming planet: As global temperatures rise, more people will turn to air-conditioners to ward off the heat. But additional air-conditioning in buildings and other spaces, which is also driven by rising incomes, population growth and urbanization, means that the world could use more than double the electricity it does now to stay cool, leading to more planet-warming emissions, according to research released by the United Nations on Tuesday…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 8.

-•-
2023-12-04. Protecting Power Grids from Space Weather. [https://eos.org/research-spotlights/protecting-power-grids-from-space-weather] By Rachel Fritts, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Activity from the Sun, such as solar flares, can cause fluctuations in Earth’s geomagnetic field that send electrical currents flowing through power grids. These geomagnetically induced currents (GICs) can cause problems ranging from temporary voltage instability to widespread blackouts to reduced life spans for transformers. It is therefore important to develop effective mitigation strategies that protect against GIC-induced power disruptions while maintaining power to consumers. Suggested solutions have included installing equipment such as capacitors to block GICs and making changes to network configurations. Mac Manus et al. worked with the energy company Transpower New Zealand Ltd. to test four mitigation strategies that could be used throughout the North and South Islands of New Zealand. The team did this by …modeling potential mitigation responses. …Working with Transpower, the researchers found that the mitigation strategy that best balanced effectiveness and practicality reduced the effects of GICs by 16% with a targeted disconnection of just 24 lines. Transpower has adopted this as the new operational procedure to manage space weather events. …the group determined that installing capacitor blocking devices on 14 specific transformers could reduce GICs by another 16%. … (Space Weather, https://doi.org/10.1029/2023SW003533, 2023)…. For GSS Energy Flow chapter 4.

-•-
2023-12-04. Climate Summit Leader Tries to Calm Uproar Over a Remark on Fossil Fuels. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/04/climate/cop28-aljaber-fossil-fuels.html] By Lisa Friedman, The New York Times. Excerpt: Simmering tensions around the decision to hold a global climate summit in a petrostate burst into the open on Monday when Sultan Al Jaber, the Emirati oil executive who is leading the conference, launched into an angry public defense of his position on ending fossil fuel use. Mr. Al Jaber, who runs the state-owned oil company, Adnoc, was under fire for a video that surfaced in which he said there is “no science” behind the idea that fossil fuels must be phased out in order to keep average global temperatures from rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius over preindustrial levels. …“There is no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says the phaseout of fossil fuel is what’s going to achieve 1.5,” Mr. Al Jaber said during a panel discussion…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

-•-
2023-12-02. 2023 Hurricane Season Ends, Marked by Storms That ‘Really Rapidly Intensified’. [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/02/us/hurricane-season-2023-rapid-intensification.html] By William B. Davis and Judson Jones, The New York Times. Excerpt: The 2023 hurricane seasons in the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific came to an end this week, with both basins experiencing an above average number of storms, fueled by extremely warm ocean temperatures. The two basins had a combined 37 storms, 13 of which rapidly intensified, sometimes jumping multiple hurricane categories in less than a day. A high proportion of rapid-onset storms this year exceeded the standard definition of rapid intensification — an increase of at least 35 miles per hour in sustained winds, over 24 hours. Experts said that this emphasized the way hurricane seasons are changing and the need for more reliable forecast models. When storms intensify abruptly near land, it becomes more difficult to predict how severely places will be affected, and it leaves officials and residents with little time to prepare. Newer and more specific hurricane intensity models, like the Hurricane Analysis and Forecast System (HAFS), helped experts forecast some of this rapid strengthening, but some storms still caught meteorologists by surprise. In one major hurricane, at least 50 people died because conditions worsened precipitously in a matter of hours…. For GSS Energy Flow chapter 7.

-•-
2023-12-03. Al Gore’s climate watchdog spots rogue emissions. [https://www.science.org/content/article/al-gore-s-climate-watchdog-spots-rogue-emissions] By PAUL VOOSEN, Science. Excerpt: Backed by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, Climate Trace is a coalition of nonprofits and academics that made headlines 2 years ago with its first analysis of 72,000 of the world’s largest greenhouse gas sources. Its newest assessment looks at 352 million greenhouse gas sources. “It is really incredibly powerful,” Gore says. “This serves a purpose that is at the top of humanity’s priority list.” Long term, Gore hopes Climate Trace will be integrated into the U.N. process. And in the meantime, it is helping less developed regions keep track of their emissions…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 3.

-•-
2023-12-02. Biden Administration Announces Rule to Cut Millions of Tons of Methane Emissions. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/02/climate/biden-methane-climate-cop28.html] By Jim Tankersley and Lisa Friedman, The New York Times. Excerpt: Vice President Kamala Harris pledged at a United Nations climate summit on Saturday that the United States would spend billions more to help developing nations fight and adapt to climate change…. Her remarks followed an announcement by U.S. officials at the summit the same day that the federal government would, for the first time, require oil and gas producers to detect and fix leaks of methane. It was the most ambitious move to reduce fossil fuel emissions that President Biden’s administration was expected to unveil at the summit, known as COP28. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that wafts into the atmosphere from pipelines, drill sites and storage facilities, and dangerously speeds the rate of global warming. …Methane is …the second-most abundant greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. Methane only lingers in the atmosphere about a decade after it is released, but it is about 80 times more powerful in the short term at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, which remains in the air for centuries. Scientists say methane is responsible for more than a quarter of the warming that the planet has experienced since the preindustrial era…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

-•-
2023-12-01. Surging U.S. Oil Production Brings Down Prices and Raises Climate Fears. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/01/business/energy-environment/us-oil-production-record-climate.html] By Clifford Krauss, The New York Times. Excerpt: American oil fields are gushing again, helping to drive down fuel prices but also threatening to undercut efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Only three years after U.S. oil production collapsed during the pandemic, energy companies are cranking out a record 13.2 million barrels a day, more than Russia or Saudi Arabia. The flow of oil has grown by roughly 800,000 barrels a day since early 2022, and analysts expect the industry to add another 500,000 barrels a day next year. …The United States now exports roughly four million barrels a day, more than any member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries except Saudi Arabia…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 3.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-12-01. Ancient redwoods recover from fire by sprouting 1000-year-old buds. [https://www.science.org/content/article/ancient-redwoods-recover-fire-sprouting-1000-year-old-buds] By ERIK STOKSTAD, Science. Excerpt: When lightning ignited fires around California’s Big Basin Redwoods State Park north of Santa Cruz in August 2020, the blaze spread quickly. Redwoods naturally resist burning, but this time flames shot through the canopies of 100-meter-tall trees, incinerating the needles. …says Drew Peltier, a tree ecophysiologist at Northern Arizona University “It really seemed like most of the trees were going to die.” Yet many of them lived. In a paper published yesterday in Nature Plants, Peltier and his colleagues help explain why: The charred survivors, despite being defoliated, mobilized long-held energy reserves—sugars that had been made from sunlight decades earlier—and poured them into buds that had been lying dormant under the bark for centuries. “This is one of those papers that challenges our previous knowledge on tree growth,” says Adrian Rocha, an ecosystem ecologist at the University of Notre Dame. “It is amazing to learn that carbon taken up decades ago can be used to sustain its growth into the future.” The findings suggest redwoods have the tools to cope with catastrophic fires driven by climate change, Rocha says. Still, it’s unclear whether the trees could withstand the regular infernos that might occur under a warmer climate regime…. For GSS A New Wolrd View chapter 2.

-•-
2023-11-30. Climate Change Drives New Cases of Malaria, Complicating Efforts to Fight the Disease. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/health/malaria-climate-change.html] By Stephanie Nolen, The New York Times. Excerpt: There were an estimated 249 million cases of malaria around the globe last year, the World Health Organization said on Thursday, an increase of five million over 2021. Malaria remains a top killer of children. Those new cases were concentrated in just five countries: Pakistan, Nigeria, Uganda, Ethiopia and Papua-New Guinea. Climate change was a direct contributor in three of them, said Dr. Daniel Ngamije, who directs the W.H.O. malaria program. In July 2022, massive flooding left more than a third of Pakistan underwater and displaced 33 million people. An explosion of mosquitoes soon followed. The country reported 3.1 million confirmed cases of malaria that year, compared with 275,000 the year before, with a fivefold increase in the rate of transmission…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-11-29. Astronomers stunned by six-planet system frozen in time. [https://www.science.org/content/article/astronomers-stunned-six-planet-system-frozen-time] By DANIEL CLERY, Science. Excerpt: Astronomers have discovered a highly unusual planetary system …six planets, all bigger than Earth but smaller than Neptune, a variety that is absent in our Solar System but common across the Milky Way. Moreover, all of the planets orbit in rhythmic harmony, which suggests the system has remained undisturbed since its formation billions of years ago. The brightness of the star, its relative proximity to Earth, and its six orbiting oddities could make the system a perfect laboratory for studying the formation of these planets, known as sub-Neptunes. …the study, published today in Nature. The planets’ orbits are all tighter than Mercury’s. …a mysterious [size] gap persists: Planets between 1.5 and two Earth diameters seem almost entirely absent and astronomers are eager to know why. …The new system’s discovery involved two space telescopes, multiple ground-based ones, and more than 3 years of detective work by dozens of astronomers. The hunt began in 2020 …from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which looks for dips in a star’s brightness caused by planets passing in front. He noticed intriguing but inconclusive dips associated with HD 110067, a Sun-like star just 100 light-years from Earth. …Subsequent observations by the European Space Agency’s Characterising Exoplanet Satellite (CHEOPS) identified a third planet, with an orbital period of 20.5 days. …The orbits of the three known planets showed a 3/2 resonance between each neighboring pair: For every three times the inner planet orbits, the outer neighbor orbits twice. On a hunch that others could also be in resonance, Luque’s team looked for additional hypothetical planets with resonances of 2/1, 3/2, 4/3, and so on. A fourth planet, in a 3/2 resonance and with an orbital period of 30.8 days, perfectly matched two of the transits. …the researchers were able to show how the two remaining transits would fit well with planets orbiting every 41.1 days and 54.7 days. Each of those planets is in a 4/3 resonance with its inner neighbor…. See also articles in The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Sky & Telescope. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 8.

-•-
2023-11-28. An architect has found a way to build flood-proof homes. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/interactive/2023/flood-resistant-home-bamboo/] By Nick Aspinwall, The Washington Post. Excerpt: Yasmeen Lari spent a …career designing …structures out of concrete, glass and steel before stumbling into her ideal material. It was at a camp for refugees…. Residents there were struggling to secure bricks and wood to build communal kitchens — until she spotted a nearby bamboo grove. “Let’s use it,” recalls Lari…. The material worked so well that over the last decade, Heritage Foundation of Pakistan …has built some 85,000 structures for displaced Pakistanis, including victims of last year’s devastating monsoon rains. That disaster, the worst flooding in Pakistani history, left a third of the country underwater and destroyed more than 2.1 million homes. The thousands of bamboo structures Lari’s group had erected “all survived,” she said. …Many species of bamboo have been used as a building material in Asia for thousands of years and they are among the world’s fastest-growing plants. A type of grass, bamboo can be ready for harvest in as little as three years, a fraction of the time needed for timber wood to grow. Like manufactured timber, bamboo products can store carbon, and bamboo forests perform well as carbon sinks, meaning they absorb more carbon than they release. …A crew without much technical knowledge can manufacture and assemble the structures’ eight panels and the interior bamboo beams that support them on-site. Lari designed them so that homeowners can easily make repairs and even additions. “If bamboo is taken care of,” she said, “bamboo can last forever.” If a flood is coming, homeowners can dismantle the structure’s bamboo skeleton from its permanent foundation and move it to higher ground. Bigger buildings, such as community centers, stand on stilts several feet high…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-11-28. They Fled Climate Chaos. Asylum Law Made Decades Ago Might Not Help. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/28/us/climate-migrants-asylum.html] By Miriam Jordan, The New York Times. Excerpt: First came the hurricanes — two storms, two weeks apart in 2020 — that devastated Honduras and left the country’s most vulnerable in dire need. …homes were leveled and growing fields were ravaged. Then came the drug cartels, who stepped into the vacuum left by the Honduran government, ill-equipped to respond to the catastrophe. Violence soon followed. …Cosmi, who asked to be identified only by his first name out of concern for his family’s safety and that of relatives left behind, was staying at a squalid encampment on a spit of dirt along the river that separates Mexico and Texas. Hundreds of other Miskito were alongside him in tiny tents, all hoping to claim asylum. The story of the Miskito who have left their ancestral home to come 2,500 miles to the U.S.-Mexico border is in many ways familiar. Like others coming from Central and South America, they are fleeing failed states and street violence. But their lawyers also hope to test a novel idea: Extreme weather wrought by climate change can be grounds for asylum, a protection established more than seven decades ago in the aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-11-28. Americans Love Avocados. It’s Killing Mexico’s Forests. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/28/us/mexico-avocado-deforestation.html] By Simon Romero and Emiliano Rodríguez Mega, The New York Times. Excerpt: In western Mexico forests are being razed at a breakneck pace and while deforestation in places like the Amazon rainforest or Borneo is driven by cattle ranching, gold mining and palm oil farms, in this hot spot, it is fueled by the voracious appetite in the United States for avocados. …A combination of interests, including criminal gangs, landowners, corrupt local officials and community leaders, are involved in clearing forests for avocado orchards, in some cases illegally seizing privately owned land. Virtually all the deforestation for avocados in the last two decades may have violated Mexican law, which prohibits “land-use change” without government authorization. Since the United States started importing avocados from Mexico less than 40 years ago, consumption has skyrocketed, bolstered by marketing campaigns promoting the fruit as a heart-healthy food and year-round demand for dishes like avocado toast and California rolls. Americans eat three times as many avocados as they did two decades ago…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 6.

-•-
2023-11-24. Brought up in a creationist home, a scientist fights for evolution. [https://www.science.org/content/article/brought-creationist-home-scientist-fights-evolution] By JEFFREY MERVIS, Science. Excerpt: The National Center for Science Education (NCSE), known for fighting to defend evolution’s place in school curricula, has a new leader who knows how hard that work can be. Amanda (Glaze) Townley, who next month becomes executive director of the Oakland, California–based nonprofit, grew up in rural northeastern Alabama, where she learned firsthand how religion and culture can collide with one of the central tenets in biology. “I grew up in a young Earth creationism home, with a worldview that was based in evangelical Christianity and a literal translation of the Bible,” recalls the 42-year-old Townley. “And when I took honors biology in high school, my teacher said she’s not going to teach evolution because she doesn’t believe in it.” …NCSE is best known for monitoring state and local legislative and ballot initiatives affecting the teaching of evolution. It played a key role in a landmark 2005 case in which a federal judge ruled that intelligent design is not science and doesn’t belong in the classroom. In 2012 it added climate change to its portfolio. Threats to both subjects have increased in recent years as part of a broader campaign by conservatives to ban certain topics from classrooms…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 3.

-•-
2023-11-24. Relax, Electric Vehicles Really Are the Best Choice for the Climate. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/24/opinion/electric-vehicle-tesla-hybrid.html] By Stephen Porder, The New York Times, opinion piece. Excerpt: …I am familiar with trepidation about electric vehicles; …worry about running out of battery power far from a charging station; …the upfront costs… though the E.V. has a lower total cost over the life of the car. …Those concerns will likely diminish in 2024 as money from the Inflation Reduction Act flows into building more charging stations and making discounts for electric vehicles available right at the dealership. …while there are environmental concerns with [electric vehicles], they are dwarfed by the benefit they provide regarding climate change. …Cobalt, another key component of batteries, has been in the public eye because of its scarcity and the horrific working conditions for miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Those conditions need to be addressed, but it’s a mistake to view them in isolation. Oil extraction has its own horrific human and environmental costs, as does climate change. …Happily, an increasing number of E.V.s, including those of Tesla and the Chinese automaker BYD, no longer use cobalt in their batteries in most markets because the performance of cobalt-free alternatives is rapidly improving. Within a decade, many batteries may be built with sodium in place of lithium. …anyone who has already switched to an electric vehicle knows it is more fun to drive, and saves time. …And because electric vehicles have fewer parts — no gas tank, no exhaust system, no catalytic converter, no radiator, no fuel injector, no timing belt — downtime for repairs is practically eliminated…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 9.

-•-
2023-11-12. U.S. Bets on Small Nuclear Reactors to Help Fix a Huge Climate Problem. [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/11/12/climate/nuclear-reactors-clean-energy.html] By Brad Plumer and Ivan Penn, The New York Times. Excerpt: Towering over the Savannah River in Georgia, the first nuclear reactors built from scratch in the United States in more than 30 years illustrate the enormous promise of nuclear power — and its most glaring weakness. The two new reactors at the Vogtle nuclear power plant will join two older units to create enough electricity to power two million homes, 24 hours a day, without emitting any of the carbon dioxide that is dangerously heating the planet. But those colossal reactors cost $35 billion, more than double the original estimates, and arrived seven years behind schedule. That’s why no one else is planning to build large reactors in the United States. Instead, the great hope for the future of nuclear power is to go small. Nearly a dozen companies are developing reactors that are a fraction of the size of those at Vogtle, betting that they will be quicker and cheaper to build. …nuclear plants can run at all hours, in any season. To those looking to replace coal and gas with wind and solar energy, nuclear power can provide a vital backstop when the air is calm or the sky is cloudy…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 4.

-•-
2023-11-06. Avnos launches the World’s first Hybrid Direct Air Capture system in partnership with Southern California Gas Company. [https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231106857589/en/] By BusinessWire. Excerpt: LOS ANGELES …Avnos, Inc. (Avnos), the Los Angeles-based company developing the novel Hybrid Direct Air Capture (HDAC™) technology for carbon dioxide removal, today began its first operational commercial pilot project in Bakersfield, California. …the HDAC pilot delivers the world’s first water-positive Direct Air Capture (DAC) solution. In launching this system, Avnos has inverted the water paradigm in DAC – producing 5 tons of liquid distilled water per ton of CO₂ captured, as compared to 5-10 tons of water consumption per ton of CO₂ captured in other DAC approaches. As a result, Avnos opens the geographic and climatic operating range for DAC to many more regions around the globe. The Bakersfield pilot will capture approximately 30 tons of atmospheric carbon dioxide and produce 150 tons of water per year. …Capturing water from the atmosphere allows Avnos to leverage a first-of-a-kind moisture-swing CO₂ adsorbent material, which in turn eliminates the need for heat input and reduces energy consumption by more than 50% as compared to other DAC technologies. These enhancements reduce operating costs, boost resource efficiency, and make HDAC more robust in more geographies, all while generating an additional value stream – a first in the industry. …For more information, please visit www.avnos.com…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-11-21. Rude Awakening. [https://www.science.org/content/article/how-rains-pigs-and-waterbirds-fueled-shocking-disease-outbreak-australia] By MEREDITH WADMAN, Science. Excerpt: The appearance of a “tropical” mosquito-borne illness in southeastern Australia has unsettled researchers. …McCann was the fourth patient in as many weeks admitted to Albury with encephalitis. Like McCann, the three others had turned up feverish and confused. …among the possible causes were mosquito-borne viruses, in particular two encephalitis-causing viruses endemic to Australia: Kunjin, a strain of West Nile virus, and Murray Valley encephalitis virus (MVEV), named for the river valley where McCann has swum, water skied, fished, and boated since he was a boy. …As with other weather events, the record-breaking wetness of the 2021–22 season can’t be attributed with certainty to climate change. But as the globe warms, the atmosphere holds more water, enabling more intense rainfall and flooding; daily rainfall associated with thunderstorms increased between 13% and 24% in Australia between 1979 and 2016. …“El Niño and La Niña cycles are natural, but they are more extreme than they have ever been before,” says Eloise Skinner, an epidemiologist at Stanford University and Griffith University. Those extremes can create and remove water sources, changing the distribution of species, including those that bear disease, she says. “As someone that looks at animals, diseases, and movement, I think climate change is critically important.”… For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-11-16. Solid waste, a lever for decarbonization. [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adl0557] By MICHAEL E. WEBBER AND YAEL R. GLAZER, Science. Excerpt: On 20 December 2015, a mountain of urban refuse collapsed in Shenzhen, China, killing at least 69 people and destroying dozens of buildings (1). The disaster exposed the horrible yet real idea that society’s wastes could pile up uncontrollably, directly threatening our lives. But there is another looming threat from solid waste beyond its sheer volumes and mass: the destabilizing impacts of the greenhouse gases it emits. …Hoy et al. (2) report that rapid and large reductions of methane emissions from the world’s solid waste sector are needed to meet the global warming limit set by the Paris Agreement. The good news is that this can be achieved with existing technologies and modified behaviors. …Municipal solid waste—the garbage that ends up in landfills, recycling centers, compost sites, and ecosystems—is particularly relevant to global warming because solid waste is a major source of atmospheric methane [carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane, and nitrous oxide are the primary greenhouse gases]. Methane’s molecular structure also traps more heat than does CO₂ and is responsible for approximately one-third of global warming (3)…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 3.

-•-
2023-11-16. United Kingdom approves first-ever CRISPR treatment, a cure for sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia. [https://www.science.org/content/article/united-kingdom-approves-first-ever-crispr-treatment-cure-sickle-cell-disease-and-beta] By JOCELYN KAISER, Science. Excerpt: …In a world first, U.K. regulators yesterday approved a therapy that uses the gene-editing technique CRISPR. The approach treats two inherited blood disorders, including sickle cell disease, which afflicts mostly people of African ancestry, by modifying a patient’s blood stem cells in the lab and returning them. …The treatment “has the potential to significantly improve the quality of life for so many,” said an official from the United Kingdom’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in a press release today. The agency approved the therapy, which the companies have called Casgevy, for patients ages 12 or older with sickle cell disease or beta thalassemia. …Questions will arise about whether the U.K.’s National Health Service and U.S. insurance companies will pay for the CRISPR treatment, also expected to be millions of dollars. Also clouding Casgevy’s approval is that most people with sickle cell disease live in Africa, which has few medical facilities that can offer the complex care needed to deliver the treatment. Those steps include chemotherapy to wipe out a patient’s existing blood cells and make room for the edited ones…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 4.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-11-14. Cosmic blast seared Earth’s atmosphere from 2 billion light-years away. [https://www.science.org/content/article/cosmic-blast-seared-earth-s-atmosphere-2-billion-light-years-away] By DANIEL CLERY, Science. Excerpt: On 9 October 2022, for 7 minutes, high energy photons from a gigantic explosion 1.9 billion light-years away toasted one side of Earth as never before observed. The event, called a gamma ray burst (GRB), was 70 times brighter than the previous record holder. …It also ionized atoms across the ionosphere, which spans from 50 to 1000 kilometers in altitude, researchers say. The findings highlight the faint but real risk of a closer burst destroying Earth’s protective ozone layer…. See also New York Times article A Supernova ‘Destroyed’ Some of Earth’s Ozone for a Few Minutes in 2022. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 6.

-•-
2023-11-14. The Fifth National Climate Assessment. [https://nca2023.globalchange.gov] By U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP). Excerpt: The effects of human-caused climate change are already far-reaching and worsening across every region of the United States. Rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions can limit future warming and associated increases in many risks. Across the country, efforts to adapt to climate change and reduce emissions have expanded since 2018, and US emissions have fallen since peaking in 2007. However, without deeper cuts in global net greenhouse gas emissions and accelerated adaptation efforts, severe climate risks to the United States will continue to grow. …In addition to reducing risks to future generations, rapid emissions cuts are expected to have immediate health and economic benefits (Figure 1.1). At the national scale, the benefits of deep emissions cuts for current and future generations are expected to far outweigh the costs. {2.1, 2.3, 13.3, 14.5, 15.3, 32.4; Ch. 2, Introduction}…. See also Eos article, Deep Emissions Cuts Still Needed to Prevent the Worst Climate Change Impacts and New York Times article The Toll of Climate Disasters Is Rising. But a U.S. Report Has Good News, Too. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

-•-
2023-11-14. The Amazon’s record-setting drought: how bad will it be? [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03469-6?et_rid=40179168&et_cid=4985621] By Meghie Rodrigues, Nature. Excerpt: Last month, a portion of the Negro River in the Amazon rainforest near Manaus, Brazil, shrank to a depth of just 12.70 metres — its lowest level in 120 years, when measurements began. In Lake Tefé, about 500 kilometres west, more than 150 river dolphins were found dead, not because of low water levels, but probably because the lake had reached temperatures close to 40 °C. These are symptoms of the unprecedented drought gripping the Amazon rainforest this year. Climate change is involved. But researchers who study the rainforest say other factors have come together to exacerbate this crisis, …. The drought is the sum of three things, says Luciana Gatti, a climate-change researcher at Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) in São José dos Campos. The first is deforestation. …the second factor contributing to the drought: an El Niño climate pattern…. The third factor responsible for the Amazon’s severe drought is an unusual warming of the water in the northern Atlantic Ocean. Climate change is contributing to this anomaly…. For GSS A New World View chapter 5.

-•-
2023-11-13. Capturing wellhead gases for profit and a cleaner environment. [https://news.berkeley.edu/2023/11/13/capturing-wellhead-gases-for-profit-and-a-cleaner-environment] By Robert Sanders, UC Berkeley News. Excerpt: Burning of natural gas at oil and gas wells, called flaring, is a major waste of fossil fuels and a contributor to climate change. But to date, capturing the flared natural gas, estimated at some 140 billion cubic meters per year by the International Energy Agency, has not been economically feasible. University of California, Berkeley, chemists have now come up with a simple and green way to convert these gases — primarily methane and ethane — into economically valuable liquids, mostly alcohols like methanol and ethanol. The liquids are also easier to store. The alcohols can be used as feedstocks for production of numerous other petrochemical products, providing an additional revenue source for oil and gas companies but also lowering carbon dioxide emissions from flaring. Flaring is used to mitigate the more harmful effects of directly venting natural gas — methane is 34 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide — into the atmosphere. Details of the process were published Nov. 2 in the journal Science…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 3.

-•-
2023-11-13. Climate Tipping Points Could Be Triggered by “Committed Warming”. [https://eos.org/research-spotlights/climate-tipping-points-could-be-triggered-by-committed-warming] By Rebecca Owen, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Unless we rapidly reach net zero emissions, the climate will inch closer to a point of no return—even after greenhouse gas emissions are reduced. As the planet warms, climate tipping points, such as the melting of ice sheets or loss of the Amazon rainforest, become increasingly likely. …A new study by Abrams et al. examines committed global warming, or warming that continues after greenhouse gas emissions are held constant until a new thermal balance is achieved. It’s a bit like how turning a running faucet from hot to cold doesn’t immediately change the temperature of the water, because there is still hot water in the pipeline. The authors present three scenarios for how the global mean temperature could rise and trigger tipping point events. One represents an increased use of fossil fuels, another represents rapidly reaching net zero emissions, and a third closely matches the current trajectory…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-11-13. Exxon Mobil Plans to Produce Lithium in Arkansas. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/13/business/energy-environment/exxon-mobil-lithium-arkansas.html] By Clifford Krauss, The New York Times. Excerpt: Exxon Mobil said on Monday that it planned to set up a facility in Arkansas to produce lithium, a critical raw material for electric vehicles, which pose one of the biggest challenges to the company’s oil business. …the announcement signals that the large oil company intends to hedge its big bets on conventional fossil fuels with at least some investments in cleaner forms of energy that are needed to combat climate change. …The announcement does not represent a fundamental shift in corporate strategy, but it is an acknowledgment that battery-powered vehicles will increasingly compete with cars and trucks fueled by gasoline and diesel. It could also open the door for southern Arkansas to emerge as a major source of lithium. Most of the metal today comes from Australia and South America, and much of it is processed in China…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 9.

-•-
2023-11-13. Forests could suck up 226 gigatons of carbon if restored and protected, study argues. [https://www.science.org/content/article/forests-could-suck-226-gigatons-carbon-if-restored-and-protected-study-argues] By RIK STOKSTAD, Science. Excerpt: The restoration and protection of forests worldwide could help remove about 226 gigatons of carbon from the atmosphere, according to a study published today in Nature. That’s equivalent to roughly 20 years of emissions from burning fossil fuels and other sources at current rates. Some experts say the analysis provides a more reliable estimate of the carbon-capturing potential of forests than a previous, controversial study that analyzed only the potential benefit from restoring trees to degraded land. But critics are skeptical that the new number is even remotely achievable. …Humans have cut down a significant fraction—perhaps as much as half—of the forests that once existed. And every year, deforestation contributes 15% of all the greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans. So, scientists have been interested in finding out how much carbon trees could take out of the atmosphere if forests are allowed to regrow…. For GSS A New World View chapter 6.

-•-
2023-11-10. Low-intensity fires mitigate the risk of high-intensity wildfires in California’s forests. [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adi4123] By XIAO WU et al, Science. Excerpt: The increasing frequency of severe wildfires demands a shift in landscape management to mitigate their consequences. The role of managed, low-intensity fire as a driver of beneficial fuel treatment in fire-adapted ecosystems has drawn interest in both scientific and policy venues. Using a synthetic control approach to analyze 20 years of satellite-based fire activity data across 124,186 square kilometers of forests in California, we provide evidence that low-intensity fires substantially reduce the risk of future high-intensity fires. …These findings support a policy transition from fire suppression to restoration, through increased use of prescribed fire, cultural burning, and managed wildfire, of a presuppression and precolonial fire regime in California…. For GSS A New World View chapter 6.

-•-
2023-11-09. How Llama Poop Is Helping an Andean Community Adapt to Melting Glaciers. [https://eos.org/articles/how-llama-poop-is-helping-an-andean-community-adapt-to-melting-glaciers] By Sofia Moutinho, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Ecologist Anaïs Zimmer was walking in the Peruvian Andes one day, explaining to community members how hard it is for vegetation and soil to establish itself in deglacierized areas, or areas where glacier ice is retreating. That was when locals suggested an unconventional solution: bringing in llamas to fertilize the soil with their poop. Zimmer, then at the University of Texas at Austin, had been studying the consequences of glacier loss in the Andes for the past decade. Peru, which is home to 70% of the world’s tropical glaciers, has lost more than half of them in the past 50 years because of climate change, according to the country’s ministry of agriculture. When the ice disappears, it uncovers metallic, rocky soil that had been covered for millennia. …But an ancient practice might offer a solution to these problems. The introduction of llamas, a camelid traditionally herded by native Inca populations, can speed up soil and vegetation development in areas of glacier retreat, suggests new research published in Scientific Reports. …The locals helped Zimmer realize llamas could act as natural gardeners, not only fertilizing the soil with nutrient-rich poop but also spreading seeds. After the llamas eat plants from the mountains and lower grasslands, they can carry seeds in their stomachs, wool, and hooves up to the high altitudes of the glacier forelands…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-11-08. Future Supercontinent Will Be Inhospitable for Mammals. [https://eos.org/articles/future-supercontinent-will-be-inhospitable-for-mammals] By Rebecca Owen, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: It sounds like something from an apocalyptic sci-fi movie: Continents collide and trigger volcanic turmoil. Toxic gases fill the air. The planet becomes a hot desert devoid of life…in the future as the continents regroup into one, Pangea Ultima. A new study published in Nature Geoscience projects that as this new supercontinent forms in around 250 million years, a hotter Sun, an absence of ocean coastline, and increased volcanic carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions mean that temperatures, particularly in landlocked areas, will skyrocket. The study suggests that this distant future foretells a mass extinction for mammals. Alexander Farnsworth, a paleoclimatologist at the University of Bristol and one of the authors of the study, usually studies climates of the past (though he has also built models to assess the accuracy of the climate in fictional worlds, like Game of Thrones’ Westeros). During the pandemic, he began wondering if it was possible to predict climate conditions hundreds of millions of years from now on a supercontinent. …One thing is certain from the study’s models: Pangea Ultima is going to be very, very unpleasant for mammals. Most of the landmass will be far from an ocean, and the arid expanses in the supercontinent’s interior will be between 50°C and 65°C during an average summer—too hot even for most plants to grow. …Two Hundred Fifty Million Years Is a Long Way Off…Although Pangea Ultima sounds bleak, the timescales of such tectonic upheavals mean the future presented in this study is not exactly imminent…. For GSS Life and Climate chapter 7.

-•-
2023-11-08. Impact of Holocene environmental change on the evolutionary ecology of an Arctic top predator. [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adf3326] By MICHAEL V. WESTBURY et al, Science Advances. Excerpt: The Arctic is among the most climatically sensitive environments on Earth, and the disappearance of multiyear sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is predicted within decades. As apex predators, polar bears are sentinel species for addressing the impact of environmental variability on Arctic marine ecosystems. …we investigate how Holocene environmental changes affected polar bears around Greenland. We uncover reductions in effective population size coinciding with increases in annual mean sea surface temperature, reduction in sea ice cover, declines in suitable habitat, and shifts in suitable habitat northward. …[over the past 11,000 years…Whenever temperatures rise, polar bear populations crash. For example, about 4500 years ago, sea surface temperatures climbed by 0.2°C, sea ice cover shrank by about 3%, and polar bear populations dropped by about 20%. Several thousand years before that, when water temps rose 0.5°C, their populations plummeted about 40%. “We see a disturbing connection between population decline and environmental changes,” says study co-author Michael Westbury. “The relationship is not linear.” In the next century, sea surface temperatures are expected to rise as much as 2 to 5°C—an order of magnitude more of a temperature increase than the animals faced before. “It doesn’t look good for the polar bear,” says co-author Eline Lorenzen…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-11-08. LUCY MISSION FLIES BY ASTEROID DINKINESH, FINDS BINARY MOON. [https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/lucy-mission-flies-by-asteroid-dinkinesh-finds-a-little-surprise] By EMILY LAKDAWALLA, Sky & Telescope. Excerpt: On November 1st, the Lucy mission zipped past the tiny asteroid 152830 Dinkinesh and discovered that it was actually a binary. …While the probe caught a view of the Dinkinesh’s small satellite in the one of the first images of the flyby, the mission turned as it flew by and captured another view from a different angle. That new perspective revealed that the little asteroidal moon is actually a contact binary, meaning it’s made of two objects in contact with one another. This is the first contact binary asteroid moon discovered. Read more details on NASA’s website…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-11-09. Adapting to growing wildfire property risk. [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adk7118] By JUDSON BOOMHOWER, Science. Excerpt: Wildfire-threatened communities are on the front lines of climate change. From 2013 to 2022, the share of global disaster losses caused by wildfires more than doubled compared with losses in previous decades (1). …Radeloff et al. (2) draw on a 30-year time series of housing counts and vegetation to show how housing expansion, area burned, and vegetative fuels contribute to wildfire losses and the increasing number of homes at risk in the United States. With tens of millions of US homes now confronting a growing risk of destruction by wildfires, adaptation is an urgent policy and research challenge. Success will require scaling up cost-effective investments in physical protection to reduce wildfire losses, ensuring well-functioning insurance markets to absorb risk that cannot be cost-effectively mitigated away, and addressing disparities in protection and postfire recovery for socially vulnerable populations…. See also New York Times article America’s New Wildfire Risk Goes Beyond Forests. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-11-09. Staying stably cool in the sunlight. [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adk9614] By DONGLIANG ZHAO AND HUAJIE TANG, Science. Excerpt: Terrestrial surfaces exposed to sunlight absorb solar heat and shed heat back to outer space as infrared radiation. If the radiated heat is greater than the solar energy absorbed, then daytime radiative cooling is achieved passively, without any energy input. However, this approach requires materials that strongly reflect sunlight and simultaneously emit long-wavelength infrared light—the wavelength needed to escape Earth’s atmosphere and not be reflected back. Ceramics composed mainly of silica (SiO₂) and alumina (Al₂O₃), and that permit long-wavelength infrared emission, can meet these requirements. …Zhao et al. (1) and Lin et al. (2), respectively, describe microporous materials— a glass-based ceramic coating and a ceramic composite—that exhibit passive daytime radiative cooling and resistance to harsh environments. These advances may lead to more environmentally friendly ways for keeping buildings cool…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 8.

-•-
2023-11-08. Climate Change Is Causing Severe Drought in a Volatile Mideast Zone, Study Finds. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/08/climate/climate-change-drought-fertile-crescent.html] By Manuela Andreoni, The New York Times. Excerpt: Syria, Iraq and Iran were parched by high temperatures that would have been “virtually impossible” without the effects of global warming, scientists said…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-11-07. New space telescope embarks on biggest 3D map of the universe. [https://www.science.org/content/article/new-space-telescope-embarks-biggest-3d-map-universe] By DANIEL CLERY, Science. Excerpt: The European Space Agency (ESA) today released the first pictures of galaxies taken by its new space telescope, Euclid, which aims to help researchers understand the dark components that make up 95% of the universe. …the Perseus Cluster…, one of the most massive structures in the universe, shows 1000 of its galaxies 240 million light-years from Earth, as well as 100,000 more distant ones, some as far away as 10 billion light-years. Over its 6-year mission, Euclid, launched in July, is expected to take 30,000 such images, cataloging 1 billion galaxies across one-third of the sky. Researchers will use them to create the biggest 3D map of the universe, spanning three-quarters of its history…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 9.

-•-
2023-11-07. Rapid disintegration and weakening of ice shelves in North Greenland. [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-42198-2] By R. Millan et al, Nature Communications. Abstract: The glaciers of North Greenland are hosting enough ice to raise sea level by 2.1 m, and have long considered to be stable. …Here, we show that since 1978, ice shelves in North Greenland have lost more than 35% of their total volume, three of them collapsing completely. For the floating ice shelves that remain we observe a widespread increase in ice shelf mass losses, that are dominated by enhanced basal melting rates. Between 2000 and 2020, there was a widespread increase in basal melt rates that closely follows a rise in the ocean temperature. …These results suggest that, under future projections of ocean thermal forcing, basal melting rates will continue to rise or remain at high level, which may have dramatic consequences for the stability of Greenlandic glaciers…. See also Greenland-wide accelerated retreat of peripheral glaciers in the twenty-first century by L. J. Larocca et al in Nature Climate Change. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-11-06. Algal outbreaks around the world are crowding out corals. [https://www.science.org/content/article/algal-outbreaks-around-world-are-crowding-out-corals] By ELIZABETH PENNISI, Science. Excerpt: Edmunds and colleagues report today in Current Biology that these algae are spreading rapidly in the Caribbean Sea and elsewhere, killing existing corals and crowding out new ones. The authors don’t have a solid explanation for the algae expansion, although warming waters or another aspect of climate change may be a driver. But they and others worry this new menace will hasten the demise of ecosystems already decimated in many places by multiple bleaching events, many also linked to climate change. …These latest coral killers are a group of more than 140 hard to distinguish red algal species belonging to the Peyssonneliaceae family. Some scientists mistake them for coralline algae, which also form crusts on reefs but help promote growth of the living structures. Whereas coralline algae form thin, hard crusts that are pink or whitish, peyssonnelid algae make thicker, brown or dark red crusts that are often a little squishy above a hard base. Fish love to eat the former but tend to avoid the red algae, Edmunds says, allowing them to grow unchecked until they smother corals to death. Peyssonneliaceae also keep damaged coral from regenerating by preventing drifting coral larvae from settling and maturing into sedentary adult polyps…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 7.

-•-
2023-11-06. Gently Down the Stream: Carbon’s Journey from Land to Sea and Beyond. [https://eos.org/research-spotlights/gently-down-the-stream-carbons-journey-from-land-to-sea-and-beyond] By Nathaniel Scharping, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Movement of carbon from land to ocean and atmosphere plays an important, but understudied, role in the global carbon cycle. Rivers, streams, lakes, and reservoirs occupy just 1% of Earth’s surface, but they provide a route for large amounts of terrestrial carbon to reach the ocean. Along the journey, carbon dioxide is also released into the atmosphere in a process known as evasion. But much about the land-to-ocean carbon cycle is not yet understood. …Tian et al. present a global quantification of carbon export and carbon dioxide (CO₂) evasion from before the industrial era to the present. Their research indicates that inland waters move nearly half of the carbon absorbed by the land to the atmosphere and oceans. It also reveals significant anthropogenic perturbations to this land-to-ocean carbon cycle. Their work is the first global quantitative assessment of this process, addressing a knowledge gap identified in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 5.

-•-
2023-11-06. The Scottish wildcat has been wiped out by breeding with domestic cats. [https://www.science.org/content/article/scottish-wildcat-has-been-wiped-out-breeding-domestic-cats] By DAVID GRIMM, Science. Excerpt: …A study published today in Current Biology finds that even though European wildcats and domestic cats overlapped in Great Britain for more than 2000 years—including at sites such as Kilton—they appear to have almost never interbred. That changed suddenly about 70 years ago, when domestic cats began to mate with wildcats in Scotland. In the span of mere decades, the genome of the Scottish wildcat—the last remaining wildcat in Great Britain—has become so corrupted that the animal is now effectively extinct, a second study in the same issue finds. The findings could complicate ongoing efforts to save the most endangered mammalian carnivore in Great Britain…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 4.

-•-
2023-11-06. The Moon Is Even Older Than Scientists Thought. [https://eos.org/articles/the-moon-is-even-older-than-scientists-thought] By Matt Hrodey, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Thanks to one of the slowest-ticking clocks in the universe, scientists have determined the Moon is about 40 million years older than previously thought. That means the Earth was a young 100 million years old when an object about the size of Mars slammed into it, slinging magma out into Earth’s orbit. …As the Moon’s mantle cooled, it formed tiny zircon crystals, …sometimes contain other elements, such as uranium …can be used to date when the crystal originally formed, going back billions of years, if necessary. …the researchers obtained lunar dust collected by Apollo 17 in 1972 and analyzed the tiny zircon crystals and uranium contained inside. …Radioactive isotopes of uranium (such as Uranium-238) contain unstable combinations of protons and neutrons in their nuclei and will eventually break down into lead… Scientists determined the age of the Moon by counting the proportion of lead remaining in a lunar zircon; they sharpened parts of the crystal to fine points and evaporated atoms from the tip with ultraviolet lasers. Once released, the atoms passed through a mass spectrometer that could detect their mass and thus their identity. Based on the balance they found, the researchers estimated the Moon’s age at 4.46 billion years old…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

-•-
2023-11-02. Five Martian Mysteries That Have Scientists Scratching Their Heads. [https://eos.org/articles/five-martian-mysteries-that-have-scientists-scratching-their-heads] By Matthew R. Francis, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: .1. Why Is the Southern Hemisphere So Bulgy? 2. Where Has All the Water Gone? 3. Why Is Mars an Ice Ball? 4. Is There Methane? 5. How Much Does the Planet Wobble? …. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-11-00. . [] By . Excerpt: … For GSS chapter .

-•-
2023-11-03. Electric Planes, Once a Fantasy, Start to Take to the Skies. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/03/business/electric-planes-beta-technologies.html] By Niraj Chokshi, The New York Times. Excerpt: …Over …16 days, [Chris Caputo] and his colleagues flew the plane, a CX300 built by their employer, Beta Technologies, down the East Coast. They would make nearly two dozen stops to rest and recharge, flying through congested airspace in Boston, New York, Washington and other cities. When the journey came to an end in Florida, Beta handed the plane over to the Air Force, which will experiment with it over the next few months. The trip offered a vision of what aviation could look like years from now — one in which the skies are filled with aircraft that do not emit the greenhouse gases that are dangerously warming up the Earth. …the CX300, a sleek, futuristic plane with a 50-foot wingspan, large curved windows and a rear propeller …is designed to carry about 1,250 pounds of cargo and will be followed soon after by the A250, which shares about 80 percent of the CX300’s design and is outfitted with lift rotors to take off and land like a helicopter. Both aircraft, which Beta markets as the Alia, will eventually carry passengers, the company says. …Beta is one of many companies working on electric aviation. …Early on, electric aircraft are expected to compete mainly with helicopters and cars and trucks…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 9.

-•-
2023-11-02. AMAZON OBSERVATORY. [https://www.science.org/content/article/peru-20-year-study-charted-amazon-forests-revealed-warming-changed] By BARBARA FRASER, Science. Excerpt: PILLCOPATA, PERU—Twenty years ago, a dozen Peruvian biology undergraduates armed with machetes and tape measures laboriously cleared a trail down the steep eastern flank of the Andes Mountains near this sleepy Amazonian town. They staked out eight study plots along a 15-kilometer-long transect that stretched from the grasslands found near the relatively cool, treeless top of a 4020-meter-high mountain known as Apu Kañajhuay down the fog-shrouded Kosñipata Valley to the warmer forests below, which are soaked by as much as 5 meters of rain a year. Along the transect lies some of the world’s richest biodiversity. Now, those 1-hectare plots in and near Manu National Park and Biosphere Reserve are the centerpiece of one of the longest running field studies of how an Amazon forest is responding to climate change. The effort, known as the Andes Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research Group (ABERG), involves researchers from around the world. It has produced thousands of data points and scores of publications that have offered new insights into how warming and drying are reshuffling tropical ecosystems. …many of the students who helped hack out the original study plots went on to earn doctorates and academic posts and are now helping train a new generation of Peruvian scientists. The initiative became a “cradle of biologists,” says William Farfán-Ríos, a Peruvian ecologist at Wake Forest University (WFU) who was one of those machete-wielding students…. For GSS A New World View chapter 5.

-•-
2023-11-01. Offshore Wind Firm Cancels N.J. Projects, as Industry’s Prospects Dim. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/01/business/energy-environment/offshore-wind-farm-new-jersey.html] By Stanley Reed and Tracey Tully, The New York Times. Excerpt: Plans to build two wind farms off the coast of New Jersey were scrapped, the company behind them said on Wednesday, a blow to the state’s efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and the latest shakeout in the U.S. wind industry. …Offshore wind and other parts of the renewable industry have hit some snags in Europe, especially in Britain. But Mr. Nipper said the problems were more acute in the United States because early contracts lacked protection from inflation and developers incurred high costs because of delays in approvals during the Trump administration. …In its announcement, Orsted said it would move forward with a $4 billion project called Revolution Wind intended to supply power to consumers in Rhode Island. And other developers have projects under construction, like Vineyard Wind, which will eventually have 62 turbines in the waters off Martha’s Vineyard, Mass…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

-•-
2023-11-01. Drought Saps the Panama Canal, Disrupting Global Trade. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/01/business/economy/panama-canal-drought-shipping.html] By Peter Eavis, The New York Times. Excerpt: For over a century, the Panama Canal has provided a convenient way for ships to move between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, helping to speed up international trade. But a drought has left the canal without enough water, which is used to raise and lower ships, forcing officials to slash the number of vessels they allow through. That has created expensive headaches for shipping companies and raised difficult questions about water use in Panama. The passage of one ship is estimated to consume as much water as half a million Panamanians use in one day. …The problems at the Panama Canal, an engineering marvel that opened in 1914 and handles an estimated 5 percent of seaborne trade, is the latest example of how crucial parts of global supply chains can suddenly seize up…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-10-28. The World Is Becoming More African. [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/10/28/world/africa/africa-youth-population.html] By Declan Walsh, The New York Times. Excerpt: Astonishing change is underway in Africa, where the population is projected to nearly double to 2.5 billion over the next quarter-century. …The median age on the African continent is 19. In India, the world’s most populous country, it is 28. In China and the United States, it is 38. …Africa’s challenge is to manage unbridled growth. It has always been a young continent — only two decades ago the median age was 17 — but never on such a scale. Within the next decade, Africa will have the world’s largest work force, surpassing China and India. By the 2040s, it will account for two out of every five children born on the planet…. For GSS Population Growth chapter 8.

-•-
2023-10-24. Clean Energy, Cherished Waters and a Sacred California Rock Caught in the Middle. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/24/travel/chumash-marine-sanctuary-morro-bay-california.html] By Lauren Sloss, The New York Times. Excerpt: The proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary could create a new model for Native collaborative management of public lands. But the sanctuary faces headwinds with a last-minute boundary change to accommodate a wind farm…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

-•-
2023-10-27. Gene therapy restores hearing in children with rare form of deafness. [https://www.science.org/content/article/gene-therapy-restores-hearing-children-rare-form-deafness] By JOCELYN KAISER, Science. Excerpt: Several deaf children can hear after receiving gene therapy—a first for the approach—a team at Fudan University reported today at a meeting in Belgium. The children were born deaf because they inherited two defective copies of the gene for a protein called otoferlin that helps the inner ear’s hair cells transmit sound to the brain. …researchers injected harmless viruses carrying DNA for a working copy of the otoferlin gene into the children’s ears. Four of five patients treated now have some hearing, the MIT Technology Review reports. …The U.S. company Regeneron yesterday reported similar success for the first patient treated with its otoferlin gene therapy. Otoferlin-related deafness is very rare—it explains only 1% to 3% of cases of inherited deafness, the MIT Technology Review writes—but the results offer hope for treating other genetic forms of hearing loss…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 4.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-11-00. . [] By . Excerpt: … For GSS chapter .

-•-
2023-10-27. Critical Minerals for a Carbon-Neutral Future. [https://eos.org/features/critical-minerals-for-a-carbon-neutral-future] By Douglas C. Kreiner, Jane Hammarstrom and Warren Day, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Imagine driving an electric car past a solar farm …below a ridge of wind turbines. Or …changing a thermostat to cool or heat your home, …not …increasing greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere. Transitioning to carbon-neutral economies and lifestyles will require substantial sources of mineral commodities …including the cobalt, nickel, lithium, manganese, germanium, gallium, indium, and graphite needed for EV batteries, solar panels, wind turbines, and energy storage…. In some cases, supplier countries have histories of poor environmental, social, or governance practices…. In 2019, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in partnership with the Association of American State Geologists and other federal, state, and private-sector organizations, initiated the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI) to provide the high-quality data needed for evaluation of critical minerals. …In its first few years, the effort has already helped scientists better grasp the country’s critical minerals landscape…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

-•-
2023-10-26. Hurricane Otis smashed into Mexico and broke records. Why did no one see it coming?. [https://www.science.org/content/article/hurricane-otis-smashed-mexico-and-broke-records-why-did-no-one-see-it-coming] By PHIE JACOBS, Science. Excerpt: Early Wednesday morning, Hurricane Otis became the strongest storm in recorded history to strike the Pacific coast of Mexico. The Category 5 hurricane made landfall near Acapulco, where its heavy rain and 265-kilometer-per-hour (kph) winds unleashed massive landslides and knocked out power lines, killing at least 2 dozen people and causing widespread devastation. But just 2 days earlier, meteorologists doubted whether Otis—then a tropical storm—would even achieve hurricane status. Forecasters at the U.S. National Hurricane Center expected the storm to undergo “gradual strengthening,” with most computer models predicting maximum wind speeds of about 100 kph. Instead, as Otis careened toward Mexico’s coastline, its winds increased by 180 kph in 24 hours, a record amount of “rapid intensification.” …ocean waters have been “unusually warm” throughout this year’s hurricane season, with the El Niño climate pattern channeling even more heat into the tropical Pacific Ocean. As Otis neared shore, it crossed over a patch of water that reached 31°C—several degrees above the average expected for late October. …some scientists are concerned that rapidly intensifying hurricanes like Otis will become more frequent…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-10-25. Chasing Big Mergers, Oil Executives Dismiss Peak Oil Concerns. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/25/business/energy-environment/exxon-chevron-oil-mergers-peak.html] By Clifford Krauss, The New York Times. Excerpt: Exxon Mobil and Chevron, the two largest U.S. oil companies, this month committed to spending more than $50 billion each to buy smaller companies in deals that would let them produce more oil and natural gas for decades to come. But a day after Chevron announced its acquisition, the International Energy Agency released an exhaustive report concluding that demand for oil, gas and other fossil fuels would peak by 2030 as sales of electric cars and use of renewable energy surged. The disconnect between what oil companies and many energy experts think will happen in the coming years has never been quite this stark…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

-•-
2023-10-25. Mars has a surprise layer of molten rock inside. [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03271-4] By Alexandra Witze, Nature. Excerpt: A meteorite that slammed into Mars in September 2021 has rewritten what scientists know about the planet’s interior. By analysing the seismic energy that vibrated through the planet after the impact, researchers have discovered a layer of molten rock that envelops Mars’s liquid-metal core. The finding, reported today in two papers in Nature^1,2, means that the Martian core is smaller than previously thought. It also resolves some lingering questions about how the red planet formed and evolved over billions of years. The discovery comes from NASA’s InSight mission, which landed a craft with a seismometer on Mars’s surface. Between 2018 and 2022, that instrument detected hundreds of ‘marsquakes’ shaking the planet. Seismic waves produced by quakes or impacts can slow down or speed up depending on what types of material they are travelling through, so seismologists can measure the waves’ passage to deduce what the interior of a planet looks like. …the September 2021 meteorite impact “unlocked everything”, says Henri Samuel, a geophysicist at the Institute of Earth Physics of Paris and lead author of one of today’s papers¹. The meteorite struck the planet on the side opposite to where InSight was located. That’s much more distant than the marsquakes that InSight had previously studied, and allowed the probe to detect seismic energy travelling all the way through the Martian core⁴…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

-•-
2023-10-25. Can Indigenous knowledge and Western science work together? New center bets yes. [https://www.science.org/content/article/can-indigenous-knowledge-and-western-science-work-together-new-center-bets-yes] By JEFFREY MERVIS, Science. Excerpt: Last month, NSF [funded] a 5-year, $30 million grant designed to weave together traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and Western science. Based at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst, the Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science (CBIKS) aims to fundamentally change the way scholars from both traditions select and carry out joint research projects and manage data. The center will explore how climate change threatens food security and the preservation of cultural heritages through eight research hubs in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. …Each hub will also serve as a model for how to braid together different knowledge traditions, or what its senior investigators call “two-eyed seeing” through both Indigenous and Western lenses…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-10-25. Can We Save the Redwoods by Helping Them Move? [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/25/magazine/redwoods-assisted-migration.html] By Moises Velasquez-Manoff, The New York Times. Excerpt: “It’s highly likely that many of the giant sequoias in their current groves may not make it for the next century,” Park Williams, a climate scientist at the University of California …the soil is becoming drier in the southern Sierra Nevada, and snowpack is disappearing earlier in the year, ushering in a longer dry season. …in 2020, one of the trees …was killed by wildfire, after having survived climatic lashings for millenniums. …This problem — a species under increasing threat in the place it has long inhabited — isn’t limited to giant sequoias. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, more than 12,000 species are in similar situations. …what…can be done to prevent a raft of extinctions driven by our remaking of the earth’s climate. …“assisted migration”: moving species to more hospitable areas. …[but] unintended consequences could be irreversible and dire. Any biologist can cite a litany of disasters following the movement of plants and animals from the environments in which they evolved — from the constraints imposed there by competitors, predators and parasites — into new ecosystems. The cane toad, native to Central and South America, was released in Australia in 1935 ostensibly to control agricultural pests; it didn’t, reproduced exponentially and became a pest in its own right…. For GSS A New World View chapter 6.

-•-
2023-10-24. Arctic Warming Triggers Abrupt Ecosystem Shift in North America’s Deepest Lake. [https://eos.org/articles/arctic-warming-triggers-abrupt-ecosystem-shift-in-north-americas-deepest-lake] By Cheryl Katz, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Great Slave Lake looks like a giant goose winging across Canada’s Northwest Territories. Spanning an area the size of Belgium and reaching depths of up to 614 meters, it’s the 10th largest freshwater lake in the world and North America’s deepest. Its huge mass of cold water helped shield Great Slave Lake from the climate impacts that have upended the ecosystems of shallower lakes in high northern latitudes. But no longer, according to a new study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Spurred by accelerating Arctic warming, the microscopic algae, or phytoplankton, at the foundation of this massive lake’s food web have made a radical regime shift since the turn of the century. …Great Slave Lake’s abrupt transformation corresponds to accelerating Arctic climate change, said the study’s lead author, Queen’s University paleolimnologist Kathleen Rühland. The region is now warming several times faster than the global average…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-10-22. A Glimpse Into Spain’s Future, Where Water Comes by Truck, Not Tap. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/22/world/europe/spain-drought-water.html] By Rachel Chaundler, The New York Times. Excerpt: …Spain has been blighted by a long-running drought, caused by record-high temperatures in 2022, a string of heat waves in 2023, and almost three years of reduced rainfall. Throughout the country, reservoirs have been depleted; in the worst-affected areas, they are at less than 20 percent of their capacity. …Pozoblanco, a village of about 18,000 in southern Spain, where the daily struggle for drinkable water has become a glimpse of what may lie ahead for parts of Europe where drought and extreme heat have become increasingly common. …Pozoblanco and 22 other villages in this traditional pig- and cattle-farming area north of the city of Córdoba have needed deliveries of fresh water since April, when the Sierra Boyera reservoir, which supplies the area, completely dried up. …If precipitation levels remain low this winter, the southernmost region of Spain, Andalusia, could lose 7 percent of its gross domestic product, according to local officials. Deeper into the future, studies have shown that 74 percent of Spain risks encroachment by deserts this century…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-10-20. From green to red: Urban heat stress drives leaf color evolution. [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abq3542] By YUYA FUKANO et al, Science. Abstract: Prevalence of impervious surface and resulting higher temperatures in urban areas, known as urban heat islands, comprises prominent characteristics in global cities. However, it is not known whether and how urban plants adapt to such heat stress. This study …examined whether the leaf color variation is associated with urban heat stress. Field observations revealed that green-leaved plants were dominant in green habitats, and red-leaved individuals were dominant in urban habitats…. Growth and photosynthesis experiments demonstrated that red-leaved individuals performed better under heat stress, while green-leaved individuals performed better under nonstressful conditions. …the red leaf may have evolved multiple times from the ancestral green leaf. Overall, the results suggest that the red leaves of O. corniculata observed in cities worldwide are evidence of plant adaptive evolution due to urban heat islands…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-10-19. Scientists discover deepest known evidence of coral reef bleaching. [https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/news/scientists-discover-deepest-known-evidence-of-coral-reef-bleaching] By Alan Williams, University of Plymouth. Excerpt: Scientists have discovered the deepest known evidence of coral reef bleaching, more than 90 metres below the surface of the Indian Ocean. The damage – attributed to a 30% rise in sea temperatures caused by the Indian Ocean dipole – harmed up to 80% of the reefs in certain parts of the seabed, at depths previously thought to be resilient to ocean warming. …The findings, highlighted in a study published in Nature Communications, were discovered by researchers from the University of Plymouth…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 7.

-•-
2023-10-19. Agriculture and hot temperatures interactively erode the nest success of habitat generalist birds across the United States. [https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.add2915] By KATHERINE S. LAUCK et al, Science. Summary: For several weeks after hatching, baby birds that live in nests are largely immobile, unable to feed themselves or even regulate their body temperature, making them vulnerable to extreme heat. …agricultural landscapes are often 10°C hotter than neighboring forests, researchers …examined more than 150,000 nesting attempts spanning 23 years by 58 bird species in forests, grasslands, farms, and cities across the continental United States. They found that, during periods of extreme heat, the probability of a nest successfully fledging at least one young bird dropped a whopping 46% in agricultural settings. And birds already considered endangered, such as the oak titmouse, were particularly vulnerable. Surprisingly, extreme heat modestly increased the reproductive success of forest-dwelling birds—though the team says these results don’t indicate that climate change is good for these species, as it likely has detrimental effects on the survival of adult birds. The researchers hope their findings will grant insight into the decline of bird populations across North America and help guide efforts to conserve their natural habitats…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-10-19. Webb telescope discovers intense jet stream in Jupiter’s atmosphere. [https://news.berkeley.edu/2023/10/19/webb-telescope-discovers-intense-jet-stream-in-jupiters-atmosphere] By Robert Sanders, UC Berkeley News. Excerpt: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has discovered a fast-moving jet stream in Jupiter’s atmosphere that is blowing twice as fast as the visible cloud layers below it, creating wind shears that far exceed anything seen on Earth. The high-speed jet stream, which is traveling at 320 miles per hour (515 kilometers per hour) and is more than 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers) wide, sits over Jupiter’s equator, 15 to 30 miles (25 to 50 kilometers) above the main cloud deck familiar from optical photos. …winds in the visible cloud layer blow at about 180 mph (250 km/hour). This means that for every kilometer above these visible clouds, the wind speed increases by 7 to 10 kilometers per hour, according to Ricardo Hueso, lead author of a paper describing the findings published today in the journal Nature Astronomy…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

-•-
2023-10-19. AFTER THE FLOOD. [https://www.science.org/content/article/historic-dam-removal-poses-challenge-of-restoring-both-river-and-landscape] By WARREN CORNWALL, Science. Excerpt: Next year, [Joahua Chenowith will] be confronted with nearly 1000 hectares of bare ground stretching along 36 kilometers of the Klamath and its tributaries, after authorities remove Iron Gate and three other dams in California and Oregon. …with thousands of dams targeted for removal worldwide, more and larger efforts are likely to follow. …Chenoweth, who was hired by the Yurok, a local tribe taking the lead in the revegetation effort, has spent years preparing for the moment. His crews have scoured the surrounding area, diligently collecting seeds that will be used to immediately populate the barren ground. …THE KLAMATH WAS ONCE a fabled source of salmon, the third most productive in the western United States…. As many as 1 million of the fish journeyed each year up the 420-kilometer-long waterway, which flows from the dry plains of eastern Oregon to the Pacific Ocean. Near the river’s mouth…the yearly salmon runs were once the lifeblood of the Yurok, who erected temporary wooden dams to catch them. Farther upstream…salmon were an important source of sustenance for members of the Karuk, Klamath, and other tribes. Then, in 1918, an energy company erected a 36-meter-tall concrete dam in a narrow canyon 325 kilometers upriver. With no provision for fish to get past, it effectively walled off some 560 kilometers of habitat for migratory fish…. It was the first of the six dams that now choke the Klamath River. Those blockages…led to severe declines in salmon populations, which now number at less than 5% of predam levels. …In the early 2000s, however, the federal license for many of the dams was approaching its expiration date. Under pressure from tribes, environmentalists, and anglers, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission signaled that before the license could be renewed, the dams would need to be renovated to help fish get upstream. …the owner—PacifiCorp—agreed in 2010 to relinquish the dams and allow them to be torn down …, setting in motion what has become the world’s largest dam removal project, a $450 million to $500 million effort funded by the state of California and PacifiCorp…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 4.

-•-
2023-10-19. What is biochar? Why an ancient farming technique could help fight climate change. [https://www.fastcompany.com/90966491/what-is-biochar-why-an-ancient-farming-technique-could-help-fight-climate-change] By ADELE PETERS, Fast Company. Excerpt: On a site next to a sawmill in Waverly, Virginia, a startup takes sawdust and offcuts from the mill and heats it up to turn it into biochar, a material that can store carbon for hundreds or thousands of years. The project, which recently began operating, will capture a little more than 10,000 metric tons of CO2 each year. Microsoft will buy the carbon removal credits as part of its plan to become a carbon negative company. It’s one of a growing number of biochar production plants. The potential is big: A new study calculated that if biochar production scales up as much as possible globally, it could capture as much as 3 billion metric tons of CO2 a year, or 6% of global emissions. …When organic waste (like wheat stalks or manure from a farm, or sawdust from forestry) is heated up to extremely high temperatures without oxygen, it turns into a charcoal-like material known as biochar. The material has a long history—indigenous communities in South America used it at least 8,000 years ago in farming, because when it’s added to the soil, it helps plants grow. But it’s also increasingly becoming one tool to help tackle climate change. …Biochar is considered a relatively permanent form of carbon storage, unlike planting trees that face the risk of later being cut down or burning in a forest fire. It’s also cheaper than technology like direct air capture, massive machines that suck CO2 out of the air…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-10-19. Atlantic Hurricanes Are Getting More Dangerous, More Quickly. [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/atlantic-hurricanes-are-more-likely-to-power-up-quickly-180983104/] By Brian Handwerk, Smithsonian Magazine. Excerpt: …a new study, published Thursday in Scientific Reports, found that in recent decades Atlantic hurricanes were far more likely to dial up from weak Category 1 to major Category 3 or higher storms in only 24 hours. Storms from 2001 to 2020 did so at more than twice the rate as the same types of storms between 1970 and 1990. …While the study did not include an analysis that attempts to firmly identify the cause or causes of the more quickly intensifying storms, Garner interprets the results as a warning call on how climate change is raising sea surface temperatures. …Hurricanes are fueled by warm surface water. …since reliable global satellite data began to be collected in the 1980s, there has been a remarkably consistent average of about 80 tropical cyclones each year. Most current research suggests that Atlantic hurricanes …may actually become less frequent with climate change. That sounds like good news, but …Research also shows that the hurricanes we are experiencing are becoming more destructive, and that trend also seems likely to continue—because of climate change and human behavior. Climate change is causing hurricanes to produce more rainfall, according to reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. For every degree Celsius of warming, studies suggest, rainfall rates may rise by about 7 percent. So under a 2-degree Celsius warming scenario, hurricanes will be expected to saturate impacted communities with 14 percent more rainfall…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-10-19. The collapse of eastern Bering Sea snow crab. [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adf6035] By CODY S. SZUWALSKI et al, Science. Editor’s summary: Marine heatwaves, a component of our impact on the Earth’s climate, can bring both expected and unexpected environmental change. Between 2018 and 2021, after a period of historically high crab abundance and a series of marine heatwaves, the population of snow crab in the Bering Sea declined by 10 billion. Szuwalksi et al. used survey data to model the potential drivers of the decline in this ecologically and commercially important species. They found that the temperature of the water was not above the species’ thermal limits, but it did increase their caloric needs considerably (see the Perspective by Kruse). This increase, in conjunction with a restriction in range, led to an unexpected mass starvation event. —Sacha Vignieri. See also Are crabs in hot water? by GORDON H. KRUSE. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 7.

-•-
2023-10-17. Lack of ambition and attention risks making electricity grids the weak link in clean energy transitions. [https://www.iea.org/reports/electricity-grids-and-secure-energy-transitions] By International Energy Agency (IEA). Excerpt: First-of-its-kind global study finds the world must add or replace 80 million km of grids by 2040, equal to all grids globally today, to meet national climate targets and support energy security. …Achieving all national climate and energy goals will require adding or replacing 80 million kilometres of power lines by 2040 – an amount equal to the entire existing global grid – according to a detailed country-by-country analysis carried out for the report. Major changes to how grids operate and are regulated are also essential, while annual investment in grids, which has remained broadly stagnant, needs to double to more than USD 600 billion a year by 2030…. See also the Oct 19 article US invests $3.5 billion to bolster power grid, deploy clean energy by Timothy Gardner, Reuters. For GSS Energy Use chapter 5.

-•-
2023-10-16. Blood Memory–The American Buffalo. [https://www.pbs.org/video/american-buffalo-episode-1-blood-memory/] Documentary By Ken Burns. Description: For untold generations, America’s national mammal sustained the lives of Native people, whose cultures were intertwined with the animal. Newcomers to the continent bring a different view of the natural world, and the buffalo are driven to the brink of extinction…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 2.

-•-
2023-10-16. Amazon River falls to lowest in over a century amid Brazil drought. [https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/amazon-rainforest-port-records-lowest-water-level-121-years-amid-drought-2023-10-16/] By Bruno Kelly and Jake Spring, Reuters. Excerpt: Rapidly drying tributaries to the mighty Amazon have left boats stranded, cutting off food and water supplies to remote villages, while high water temperatures are suspected of killing more than 100 endangered river dolphins. …The port of Manaus …recorded 13.59 meters (44.6 ft) of water on Monday compared to 17.60 a year ago, according to its website. That is the lowest level since records began in 1902, passing a previous all-time low set in 2010. …Some areas of the Amazon have seen the least rain from July to September since 1980, according to the Brazilian government disaster alert center, Cemaden. …Brazil’s Science Ministry blames the drought on this year’s onset of the El Nino climate phenomenon, which is driving extreme weather patterns globally. In a statement earlier this month, the ministry said it expects the drought will last until at least December, when El Nino’s effects are forecast to peak…. For GSS A New World View chapter 5.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-10-00. . [] By . Excerpt: … For GSS chapter .

-•-
2023-10-14. ‘It was a plague’: Killarney becomes first Irish town to ban single-use coffee cups. [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/14/it-was-a-plague-killarney-becomes-first-irish-town-to-ban-single-use-coffee-cups] By Rory Carroll, The Guardian. Excerpt: Killarney used to accept it as a price of being a tourist town: ubiquitous disposable coffee cups spilling from bins, littering roads and blighting the area’s national park. The County Kerry town went through about 23,000 cups a week – more than a million a year – adding up to 18.5 tonnes of waste. Not any more. Three months ago, Killarney became the first town in Ireland to phase out single-use coffee cups. If you want a takeaway coffee from a cafe or hotel, you must bring your own cup or pay a €2 deposit for a reusable cup that is returned when the cup is given back. The results are evident in bins, which now seldom overflow, and on streets and forest trails where it is rare to see abandoned cups…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 7.

-•-
2023-10-13. NASA launches spacecraft to a mysterious metal-rich asteroid. [https://www.science.org/content/article/nasa-launches-spacecraft-mysterious-metal-rich-asteroid] By MICHAEL GRESHKO, Science. Excerpt: …a $1.2 billion NASA mission to Psyche launched today. …Psyche will be the first to rendezvous with an “M-type” asteroid: a group of unusually reflective and dense asteroids. For decades, scientists have wondered whether Psyche could be the denuded metal core of a larger protoplanet. …Once the spacecraft arrives at Psyche in 2029, it will spend more than 2 years in orbit…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

-•-
2023-10-13. Recycling is about to get much easier. [https://www.axios.com/2023/10/13/qr-codes-recycling-smartlabel-recycle-check] By Jennifer A. Kingson, AXIOS. Excerpt: QR codes with hyperlocal recycling instructions will soon show up on your milk cartons, ice cream tubs and more — meaning you’ll be able to scan an item, type in your ZIP code and see if it’s eligible to go in the blue bin. “Just because a product says it’s recyclable, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s recyclable where you live,” notes Rishi Banerjee, director of the Consumer Brands Association’s SmartLabel program. …60% of consumers are confused about what and how to recycle, according to The Recycling Partnership, a national nonprofit — depressing the already-low recycling law compliance rate. …Recycle Check, a new program run by The Recycling Partnership, launched earlier this year and is busy signing up consumer brands to add local recycling info to their packaging via QR codes. …Two early adopters are General Mills (maker of Yoplait, Pillsbury, Chex, Betty Crocker, etc.) and Horizon Organics, which makes dairy products…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 7.

-•-
2023-10-13. I Study Climate Change. The Data Is Telling Us Something New. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/13/opinion/climate-change-excessive-heat-2023.html] By Zeke Hausfather, The New York Times Opinion piece. Excerpt: Data from Berkeley Earth released on Wednesday shows that September was an astounding 0.5 degree Celsius (almost a full degree Fahrenheit) hotter than the prior record, …. …while many experts have been cautious about acknowledging it, there is increasing evidence that global warming has accelerated over the past 15 years rather than continued at a gradual, steady pace…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 4.

-•-
2023-10-13. U.S. hands out $7 billion for hydrogen hubs. [https://www.science.org/content/article/u-s-hands-out-7-billion-hydrogen-hubs] By KATHERINE BOURZAC, Science. Excerpt: President Joe Biden’s administration today announced $7 billion in funding for seven regional “hubs” to produce hydrogen, which produces water as exhaust when combusted. If made cleanly, hydrogen could help fight global warming by replacing fossil fuels in the fertilizer and steel industries, and in tricky-to-electrify vehicles such as long-haul trucks. …Hydrogen has had a “chicken and egg” problem, says Keith Wipke, program manager for fuel cell vehicles at DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. “Nobody will start large-scale production until there are customers,” he says. And customers are reluctant to switch to hydrogen without a steady and cheap supply of the gas. “It’s the same story as we’ve seen with solar and wind. The more you build, the cheaper it becomes,” says Anne-Sophie Corbeau, a researcher at the Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

-•-
2023-10-12. One million (paper) satellites. [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi4639] By ANDREW FALLE, EWAN WRIGHT, AARON BOLEY, AND MICHAEL BYERS, Science. Abstract: The occupation of Earth orbits by large constellations of satellites has received considerable attention in recent years. About 4500 Starlink and 630 OneWeb satellites are on orbit as of July 2023 (1), but this is only the beginning. Recent filings for radio spectrum with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) suggest that a dramatic increase in satellite numbers is possible, much more than the tens of thousands often reported. Constellations much larger than SpaceX’s Starlink have been filed, including a 337,320-satellite constellation named Cinnamon-937 that was filed in September 2021. By treating orbital space as an unlimited resource, humanity is creating serious safety and longterm sustainability challenges to the use of low Earth orbit (LEO), including science conducted from space and the ground. The ITU filings are the warning, and also part of the solution. There is urgent need for the ITU and its member states to adopt meaningful controls…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 2.

-•-
2023-10-06. Plants Worldwide Reach a Stomata Stalemate. [https://eos.org/articles/plants-worldwide-reach-a-stomata-stalemate] By Emily Shepherd, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: The underside of a leaf is equipped with many thousands of stomata—microscopic pores that act as pathways for carbon dioxide and water vapor. As climate change causes temperatures to rise, stomata are narrowing, reducing plants’ ability to take in carbon, according to a new study published in Science…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 5.

-•-
2023-10-04. Why China’s clean energy tech will determine our climate future. [https://www.newscientist.com/article/2395586-why-chinas-clean-energy-tech-will-determine-our-climate-future/] By James Dinneen, New Scientist. Excerpt: As the world’s biggest carbon emitter and the largest producer of clean energy tech, China is crucial to our climate future, …. In 2023, which will be a record year for global development of renewable energy, more than half of all new wind and solar capacity is set to be installed in China. It is also adding more new nuclear power and hydropower than anywhere else, and in August overtook Europe as the largest builder of offshore wind. In June, two years ahead of schedule, fossil fuels made up less than half of China’s electricity generating capacity, though coal remains a big and growing part of its energy mix. …China boasts record adoption of electric vehicles too, with these making up more than a fifth of all new vehicles sold in China in 2022, as well as the world’s largest high-speed train system. …All of this gives observers confidence that China will, at the very least, be able to meet its near-term target of reaching peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 or earlier. …One report from Norwegian research firm Rystad Energy has even projected that China’s emissions from burning fossil fuels could peak as soon as this year, and fall 10 per cent by 2030. …China now makes at least 80 per cent of the world’s solar panels…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-10-06. The American Buffalo. [https://www.pbs.org/show/the-american-buffalo] By PBS. Excerpt: The American Buffalo, a new two-part, four-hour series, takes viewers on a journey through more than 10,000 years of North American history and across some of the continent’s most iconic landscapes, tracing the animal’s evolution, significance to the Great Plains, near demise, and relationship to the Indigenous People of North America…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 2.

-•-
2023-10-05. How to build a heat-resilient city. [https://grist.org/project/cities/extreme-heat-resilient-city-design-urban-planning-climate/] By Jake Bittle & Naveena Sadasivam, Grist. Excerpt: As climate change fuels a succession of historic heat waves, the urban heat island effect in many American cities is pushing the limits of human survivability. That’s the case in desert cities like Phoenix, where temperatures crested 110 degrees F for 30 straight days this summer, and also in cooler climes like Chicago, which has seen a series of scalding triple-digit weeks over the past few months. Dealing with this type of heat requires more than isolated interventions — reflective roofs here or mist machines there. …Drawing on feedback from climate experts, architects, and urban planners, …Grist set out to design a city built from scratch to handle extreme heat, all while reducing carbon emissions. City Centers: SHADED STRUCTURES, TREES, MISTERS, COOL PAVEMENT, REFLECTIVE GLASS, GREEN WALLS. Residential Areas: WINDOW FILMS AND AWNINGS, COOLING TOWERS, REFLECTIVE SURFACES, COVERED PLAYGROUNDS. Commercial Zones: WASTE HEAT CAPTURE, BUFFER ZONES, PUBLIC TRANSIT, SOLAR PANELS ON PARKING, GREEN ROOFS AND WALLS, … For GSS Energy Use chapter 8.

-•-
2023-10-05. New technology uses good old-fashioned wind to power giant cargo vessels. [https://www.npr.org/2023/10/05/1200788439/wind-power-cargo-ships-carbon-emissions] By Scott Neuman, NPR. Excerpt: Well over a century after the Age of Sail gave way to coal- and oil-burning ships, climate change concerns are prompting a new look at an old technology that could once again harness wind to propel commercial cargo ships — this time with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Imagine what looks like Boeing 747 wings with movable flaps, set vertically on a ship’s deck. The vessel cruises under minimum power from its giant engine as computerized sensors adjust the fiberglass wings to take advantage of the wind’s speed and direction. This wind-assisted propulsion saves a substantial amount of fuel and reduces the carbon belching from the ship’s stack. Many experts think the idea has the potential to navigate the notoriously dirty shipping industry toward a greener future. …About 90% of the world’s goods — everything from soybeans to sneakers — are transported by sea. The tens of thousands of ships used to get these goods to global markets account for an estimated 3% of the world’s carbon emissions each year, a figure that exceeds Japan’s annual emissions. Left unchecked, the shipping industry’s greenhouse gas emissions are expected to grow 50% by 2050…. See also New York Times article In Shipping, a Push to Slash Emissions by Harnessing the Wind. For GSS Energy Use chapter 9.

-•-
2023-10-05. Preventing Heat-Related Illness among Outdoor Workers — Opportunities for Clinicians and Policymakers. [https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2307850] By Rosemary K. Sokas, M.D., M.O.H.,  and Emily Senay, M.D., M.P.H., New England Journal of Medicine. Excerpt: Efforts to implement heat-safety protections for workers are falling short. Given these gaps, clinicians can help support their patients who may be at risk for heat-related illness. [Hear 14 min interview with first author Rosemary Sokas] See also New York Times article Workers Exposed to Extreme Heat Have Few Protections. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-10-05. James Webb telescope makes ‘JuMBO’ discovery of planet-like objects in Orion. [https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66974738] By Jonathan Amos, The Guardian. Excerpt: Jupiter-sized “planets” free-floating in space, unconnected to any star, have been spotted by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). What’s intriguing about the discovery is that these objects appear to be moving in pairs. Astronomers are currently struggling to explain them. The telescope observed about 40 pairs in a fabulously detailed new survey of the famous Orion Nebula. They’ve been nicknamed Jupiter Mass Binary Objects, or “JuMBOs” for short. …”Gas physics suggests you shouldn’t be able to make objects with the mass of Jupiter on their own, and we know single planets can get kicked out from star systems. But how do you kick out pairs of these things together? Right now, we don’t have an answer. It’s one for the theoreticians,” the European Space Agency’s (Esa) senior science adviser told BBC News…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 8.

-•-
2023-10-05. Independent age estimates resolve the controversy of ancient human footprints at White Sands. [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adh5007] By JEFFREY S. PIGATI et al, Science. Excerpt: Traditionally, researchers believed that humans arrived in North America around 16,000 to 13,000 years ago. Recently, however, evidence has accumulated supporting a much earlier date. In 2021, fossilized footprints from White Sands National Park in New Mexico were dated to between 20,000 and 23,000 years ago, providing key evidence for earlier occupation, although this finding was controversial. Pigati et al. returned to the White Sands footprints and obtained new dates from multiple, highly reliable sources (see the Perspective by Philippsen). They, too, resolved dates of 20,000 to 23,000 years ago, reconfirming that humans were present far south of the ice sheets during the Last Glacial Maximum. —Sacha Vignieri…. For GSS Life and Climate chapter 10.

-•-
2023-10-04. Study of 17,000 years of fish fossils reveals rapid evolution. [https://www.science.org/content/article/study-17-000-years-fish-fossils-reveals-rapid-evolution] By ELIZABETH PENNISI, Science. Excerpt: When a new island or lake appears, the plants and animals that get there first have a leg up on later arrivals and are more likely to diversify into new species—or so evolutionary biologists have long assumed. But a study of fossils from East Africa’s Lake Victoria shows that it takes more than arriving early to win the speciation race. Although several kinds of fish colonized this lake around the same time, only cichlids took off, forming 500 species in less than 17,000 years, the team reports today in Nature. …The findings suggest opportunity and versatility matter more than primacy, adds George Turner, an evolutionary biologist and cichlid fish expert at Bangor University who was also not involved. Most cases of adaptive radiation, wherein one species gives rise to many more, took place over millions of years, making it nearly impossible for scientists to figure out why that one colonizing species became so successful. But the extreme diversity within a group of fish called cichlids began to arise a mere 17,000 years ago, when the modern version of Lake Victoria began to fill where today the borders of Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania meet. Now 500 species strong—each inhabiting a particular niche within the lake—this group’s evolution represents “the most rapid radiation event known among vertebrates,” says Nare Ngoepe, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Bern…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 3.

-•-
2023-10-03. Monarch butterfly is not endangered, conservation authority decides. [https://www.science.org/content/article/monarch-butterfly-not-endangered-conservation-authority-decides] By DENNIS NORMILE, Science. Excerpt: In an unusual reversal, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has decided North America’s monarch butterfly is not “endangered.” Instead, the insect is only “vulnerable” to extinction, the group said last week—adding that it could lower the alarm still further, changing the listing to “near threatened” if an upcoming census suggests the population is stable or growing. The 27 September decision followed a researcher’s challenge to population models an IUCN team used to justify the endangered designation, conferred just 14 months ago. The team committed a “scientific injustice” by ignoring data showing monarchs are “doing really well,” argued ecologist Andrew Davis of the University of Georgia. IUCN’s shift marks the latest twist in a scientific debate over the health of the showy black and orange insect. Monarchs are found worldwide, but the North American subspecies, called the migratory monarch (Danaus plexippus plexippus), has become “a poster child of species conservation because of its awesome ecology and migration,” says ecologist Anurag Agrawal of Cornell University, who was not involved in IUCN’s assessment or the challenge…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 1.

-•-
2023-10-03. Tree-planting schemes threaten tropical biodiversity, ecologists say. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/03/carbon-tree-planting-schemes-threaten-tropical-biodiversity-aoe] By Patrick Greenfield, The Guardian. Excerpt: Monoculture tree-planting schemes are threatening tropical biodiversity while only offering modest climate benefit, ecologists have said, warning that ecosystems like the Amazon and Congo basin are being reduced to their carbon value. Amid a boom in the planting of single-species plantations to capture carbon, scientists have urged governments to prioritise the conservation and restoration of native forests over commercial monocultures, and cautioned that planting swathes of non-native trees in tropical regions threatens important flora and fauna for a negligible climate impact. Writing in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution, ecologists said the increasing popularity of commercial pine, eucalyptus and teak plantations in the tropics for carbon offsetting is having unintended consequences, such as drying out native ecosystems, acidifying soils, crowding out native plants and turbocharging wildfires. “Despite the broad range of ecosystem functions and services provided by tropical ecosystems, society has reduced the value of these ecosystems to just one metric – carbon,” the paper reads. “It is broadly assumed that maximising standing carbon stocks also benefits biodiversity, ecosystem function and enhances socioeconomic co-benefits – yet this is often not the case.”… For GSS A New World View chapter 5.

-•-
2023-10-02. Arctic Ice Loss Could Shorten Winter Feeding Time for Zooplankton. [https://eos.org/articles/arctic-ice-loss-could-shorten-winter-feeding-time-for-zooplankton] By Veronika Meduna, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Hauke …Flores, a polar ecologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, Germany, has coauthored a study warning that ongoing ice loss in the Arctic could force copepods and other zooplankton to stay at depth for longer, cutting their winter feeding time by up to a month. The Arctic has been losing sea ice at a rate of almost 13% per decade since the start of satellite monitoring. As ice floes shrink and thin, more sunlight reaches deeper into the ocean. …“Any negative repercussions for the zooplankton will have impacts on the whole food web because the zooplankton is the switch that transmits the carbon to higher predators,” he explained…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-10-01. Maybe in Your Lifetime, People Will Live on the Moon and Then Mars. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/01/realestate/nasa-homes-moon-3-d-printing.html] By Debra Kamin, The New York Times. Excerpt: …NASA is going to build houses on the moon — ones that can be used not just by astronauts but ordinary civilians as well. They believe that by 2040, Americans will have their first subdivision in space. Living on Mars isn’t far behind. Some in the scientific community say NASA’s timeline is overly ambitious, particularly before a proven success with a new lunar landing. But seven NASA scientists interviewed for this article all said that a 2040 goal for lunar structures is attainable if the agency can continue to hit their benchmarks. The U.S. space agency will blast a 3-D printer up to the moon and then build structures, layer by additive layer, out of a specialized lunar concrete created from the rock chips, mineral fragments and dust that sits on the top layer of the moon’s cratered surface and billows in poisonous clouds whenever disturbed — a moonshot of a plan made possible through new technology and partnerships with universities and private companies…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 2.

-•-
2023-09-30. Where German Cars Falter, E-Bikes Gain in Power. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/30/world/europe/germany-ebikes-transportation.html] By Melissa Eddy, The New York Times. Excerpt: Germany’s automakers are facing steep challenges as they convert to battery-powered lineups and confront rising competition from China. But business is booming in another corner of the German transport industry: e-bikes. Sales of bicycles in Germany reached a record 7.36 billion euros, or $7.8 billion, in 2022, with e-bikes accounting for nearly half of sales, according to the German Bicycle Industry Association. The group is forecasting that this year, for the first time, Germans will buy more e-bikes than conventional models. Electric bicycles and scooters are the backbone of what’s known as micromobility, seen as crucial to cutting the carbon emissions of transportation and helping to ease pollution and congestion in European cities…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 9.

-•-
2023-09-28. Low-Tech, Energy-Free Tool Collects and Cleans Fog Water. [https://eos.org/articles/low-tech-energy-free-tool-collects-and-cleans-fog-water] By Kimberly M. S. Cartier, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Communities in some regions of the world lack easy access to clean fresh water, some due to their remote locations, some to insufficient or damaged infrastructure, and others to changing climate conditions. People in these regions often rely on alternate methods of gathering fresh water, such as harvesting rain, dew, vapor, and fog—but that water can be polluted and dangerous to use. Now, an innovative update to a tried-and-true method of harvesting fog water can purify it, too. Researchers developed and tested how well a polymer-based coating on a metal mesh collected water that had been contaminated with organic pollutants. They found that not only did the coated mesh outperform existing fog harvesters, but also the coating purified the water by 91%, producing nearly pure water without requiring any power…. See also NPR article Harvesting water from fog and air in Kenya with jerrycans and newfangled machines. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

-•-
2023-08-15. An ultra-light sustainable sponge for elimination of microplastics and nanoplastics. [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304389423009688] By Jianxin Fu et al, Journal of Hazardous Materials. Abstract: The currently established tools and materials for elimination of the emerging contaminants from environmental and food matrices, particularly micro- and nano-scale plastics, have been largely limited by complicated preparation/operation, high cost, and poor degradability. Here we show that, crosslinking naturally occurring corn starch and gelatin produces ultralight porous sponge upon freeze-drying that can be readily enzymatically decomposed to glucose; The sponge affords capture of micro- and nano-scale plastics into its pores by simple pressing in an efficiency up to 90% while preserving excellent mechanical strength. …Investigations into the performance of the sponge in complex matrices including tap water, sea water, soil surfactant, and take-out dish soup, further reveal a considerably high removal efficiency (60%∼70%) for the microplastics in the real samples. …With combined merits of sustainability, cost-effectiveness, and simple operation without the need for professional background for this approach, industrial and even household removal of tiny plastic contaminants from environmental and food samples are within reach…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 7.

-•-
2023-10-00. . [] By . Excerpt: … For GSS chapter .

~~~~~

-•-
2023-09-28. Chemical cages could store hydrogen, expand use of clean-burning fuel. [https://www.science.org/content/article/chemical-cages-could-store-hydrogen-expand-use-clean-burning-fuel] By ROBERT F. SERVICE, Science. Excerpt: Cheap molecular “sponges” made with aluminum can be low-pressure gas tanks. Hydrogen seems like the perfect fuel. By weight it packs more punch than any other fuel. It can be made from water, meaning supply is almost limitless, in principle. And when burned or run through a fuel cell, it generates energy without any carbon pollution. But hydrogen takes up enormous volume, making it impractical to store. Compressing it helps, but is expensive and essentially turns hydrogen storage tanks into high-pressure explosives. Now, a molecular sponge made of organic compounds and cheap aluminum promises a practical solution, holding significant amounts of hydrogen at low pressures. Described in a paper accepted last week at the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), it is the latest in a series of promising metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), and it suggests that the materials could be close to a mass market application, serving as fuel depots for backup power sources at industrial operations…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

-•-
2023-09-28. HEAT-PROOFING INDIA. [https://www.science.org/content/article/ferociously-hot-weather-could-make-some-cities-unlivable-low-tech-solutions-can-help] By VAISHNAVI CHANDRASHEKHAR, Science. Excerpt: MUMBAI, INDIA …Before the monsoon rains arrive, temperatures can top 37°C, with humidity at a sweltering 95%. …Sometimes, Mumbai’s heat becomes deadly. In April, on a day the temperature reached 36°C, 11 people sitting through an hourslong outdoor ceremony died from heat stroke. At least 20 others were hospitalized. …It wasn’t until 2015 that officials designated heat waves as a natural disaster at the national level. …heat action plans, or HAPs, have been proliferating in India in the past few years. In general, an HAP spells out when and how officials should issue heat warnings and alert hospitals and other institutions. …IN THE LONG RUN, cooling India’s cities will mean changing the way they are built. One possibility is to look to the past, when structures were designed to insulate people from their local climates. …In Nagpur, Kotharkar likes to show her students—and visiting reporters—a one-story, 300-year-old mansion in Mahal. It is built of brick, stone, and wood, not the concrete and plastics that make nearby modern apartment blocks absorb and radiate heat. The walls are thick, delaying heat gain. …FOR MANY LOW-INCOME Indians living in cities, the possibility of moving to a newly constructed, climate-resilient residence is remote. That is why some groups are retrofitting existing homes. The most popular retrofit involves covering roofs with white reflective paint…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 8.

-•-
2023-09-26. AN UNHEALTHY CLIMATE. [https://www.science.org/content/article/heat-and-disease-will-exact-heavy-toll-climate-warms] Collection of articles in Science. Excerpt: …the stories in this special package will explore the threats, and how we can minimize them. Vector-borne diseases are a special worry. A warmer climate favors the mosquito that spreads dengue and may already be fueling a worldwide surge in the debilitating disease. Warming may also have enabled malaria-carrying mosquitoes to flourish in Africa’s cooler highlands and ticks that carry Lyme disease to advance northward. Migratory birds, which ferry cargoes of pathogens such as West Nile virus and influenza across continents, are changing the timing and routes of their journeys, with consequences that have yet to emerge. Then there are the direct effects of heat on the human body. The worsening toll of heat waves is unmistakable, with thousands dying every summer, but researchers are also discerning subtler impacts. Among the most vulnerable to extreme heat are pregnant people and their fetuses. Here are the articles (For GSS Climate Change chapter 8):

• FEELING THE HEAT (Warming is making many places more suitable for the dengue-carrying mosquito Aedes aegypti. By FERNANDO DA CUNHA)
• FLIGHT RISKS (Migratory birds efficiently ferry pathogens around the world. As a warming climate reshapes their journeys, infectious disease experts are on guard for new threats to humans)
• LURKING IN THE DEEP FREEZE? (Climate change may release dangerous pathogens frozen for centuries in Arctic permafrost, By JON COHEN)
• EXPECTING EXTREMES (Intense heat is a particular hazard in pregnancy. New studies are probing why. By MEREDITH WADMAN)

-•-
2023-09-26. If earthworms were a country, they’d be the world’s fourth largest producer of grain. [https://www.science.org/content/article/if-earthworms-were-country-they-d-be-world-s-fourth-largest-producer-grain] By ERIK STOKSTAD, Science. Excerpt: According to the first worldwide estimate of the invertebrates’ contribution to crop yields, earthworms add more than 140 million tons of food each year. For wheat harvests alone, that’s roughly equivalent to one slice in every loaf of bread. Earthworms do many things to make soil more fertile. By feeding on dead plant matter, they release nutrients much faster than soil microbes would by themselves. They also improve the physical structure of soil. As worms digest plant matter, they excrete tiny, stable clumps of particles. Together with the earthworm burrows, these aggregates make soil more porous. This allows rainwater to soak in and enables roots to grow more easily. …To calculate how much these silent soil engineers augment food production worldwide, Steven Fonte, a soil and agroecosystem ecologist at Colorado State University, and colleagues combined a global atlas of earthworm abundance with maps of agricultural harvests. They also factored in previous estimates of their enhancement of plant productivity. The team found that earthworms are responsible for nearly 7% of global grain harvests, such as rice, wheat, and corn. The contribution is smaller—about 2%—for legumes, including soybeans and lentils, because these crops can cooperate with microbes to produce their own nitrogen and are therefore less reliant on the worms to make that nutrient available…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 5.

-•-
2023-09-26. A new climate change report offers something unique: hope. [https://www.npr.org/2023/09/26/1201781387/climate-change-emissions-report-offers-hope] By Jeff Brady, NPR. Excerpt: Countries are setting records in deploying climate-friendly technologies, such as solar power and electric vehicles, according to a new International Energy Agency report. The agency, which represents countries that make up more than 80% of global energy consumption, projects demand for coal, oil and natural gas will peak before 2030. While greenhouse gas emissions keep rising, the IEA finds that there’s still a path to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 and limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s what’s needed to avoid the the worst effects of climate change, such as catastrophic flooding and deadly heatwaves. …overall message is more optimistic than the one issued in 2021, when the IEA released its first Net Zero Roadmap. In addition to optimism, the 2023 version shows that the transition from fossil fuels to cleaner forms of energy will have to speed up even more in the coming decade. For example, the world is on track to spend $1.8 trillion on clean energy this year. To meet the target outlined in the 2015 Paris climate agreement among the world’s nations, the IEA finds annual spending would have to more than double to $4.5 trillion by the early 2030s…. See also article in Axios. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-09-25. Oceans of Opportunity. [https://eos.org/agu-news/oceans-of-opportunity] By Caryl-Sue Micalizio, Eos/AGU. Our solar system’s ocean worlds—planets and moons covered in ice-crusted oceans—are weird, wonderful, and ripe for exploration. [Here are a series of articles] Uranus: A Time to Boldly Go by Kimberly Cartier; Marine Science Goes to Space by Damond Benningfield on how ocean worlds are redefining what constitutes a habitable zone and how missions in development, like JUICE and Europa Clipper, are relying on terrestrial deep-sea scientific advances to look for oceanic activity that’s out of this world. …older missions are still contributing to the discourse, as archival Cassini data helped scientists identify phosphorus—the rarest element necessary for life as we know it—on Enceladus. …Erik Klemetti explores Cryovolcanism’s Song of Ice and Fire…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

-•-
2023-09-25. Air Force eyes supply missions for its first electric air taxi. [https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2023/09/air-force-eyes-future-logistics-missions-its-first-electric-air-taxi/390614/] By BY AUDREY DECKER, Defense One. Excerpt: Joby Aviation delivered its battery-powered vertical takeoff and landing aircraft to Edwards AFB in California. The U.S. Air Force will soon begin testing how it will use battery-powered planes to transport people and cargo. …The aircraft holds one pilot and four passengers, can carry a payload of up to 1,000 pounds, and flies at speeds up to 200 miles per hour, said Greg Bowles, head of government affairs for Joby. It will primarily fly missions between 25 to 50 miles, “but the aircraft has the capability to do a lot more than that,” Bowles told Defense One on Friday. If the Air Force decides to use the aircraft in operations, it could be to fly cargo and personnel short distances in the Pacific. The Joby aircraft could be helpful within “some of the island clusters that don’t have those large ranges,” said Col. Tom Meagher, AFWERX Prime Division Chief. “Some of the possible long-time use cases are just-in-time parts, people to repair aircraft. Think of it kind of like a hub-and-spoke type of logistics scenario,” Meagher said…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 9.

-•-
2023-09-25. ‘Monster Fracks’ Are Getting Far Bigger. And Far Thirstier. [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/09/25/climate/fracking-oil-gas-wells-water.html] By Hiroko Tabuchi and Blacki Migliozzi, The New York Times. Excerpt: Giant new oil and gas wells that require astonishing volumes of water to fracture bedrock are threatening America’s fragile aquifers. …energy giants are drilling not just for oil, but for the water they need. …Along a parched stretch of La Salle County, Texas, workers last year dug some 700 feet deep into the ground, seeking freshwater. Millions of gallons of it. The water wouldn’t supply homes or irrigate farms. It was being used by the petroleum giant BP to frack for fossil fuels. The water would be mixed with sand and toxic chemicals and pumped right back underground — forcing oil and gas from the bedrock. …Fracking a single oil or gas well can now use as much as 40 million gallons of water or more. These mega fracking projects, called “monster fracks” by researchers, have become the industry norm. They barely existed a decade ago. Now they account for almost two out of every three fracking wells in Texas…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 3.

-•-
2023-09-25. Inside the Great British Seaweed Race to Save the Earth. [https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-the-great-british-seaweed-race-to-save-the-earth] By Charlotte Lytton, Daily Beast. Excerpt: …97 percent of seaweed farming currently happens in Asia, British companies are looking to muscle in on the $13.3 billion industry. …A 2021 study from the University of California, Davis found that mixing a small amount of seaweed into cow feed over five months reduced Earth-polluting methane emissions by 82 percent—making it a potential green goldmine…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-09-24. NASA delivers bounty of asteroid samples to Earth. [https://www.science.org/content/article/nasa-delivers-bounty-asteroid-samples-earth] By PAUL VOOSEN, Science. Excerpt: …today, after detaching from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, a capsule carrying asteroid samples descended gently by parachute before touching down in the Utah desert. The cupful of pebbles and grit it delivered—the culmination of 7 years of effort and $1 billion of expense—is only the third sample of an asteroid ever returned to Earth, and it’s the largest haul of extraterrestrial material NASA has collected since the Apollo Moon missions. …In 2020, Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft returned some 5 grams of material from Ryugu, another carbon-rich, near-Earth asteroid, which was thought to be relatively dry. Instead, it appears to have been fully altered by water. “We were all terribly wrong about Ryugu,” says Edward Young, a cosmochemist at the University of California, Los Angeles. …If they are wrong about Bennu, it will be the opposite mistake. Remote observations suggest some 10% of Bennu’s mass is made up of water locked in clays. …As it orbited Bennu, OSIRIS-REx glimpsed another sign of a watery past: meter-long veins of carbonate, a mineral that precipitates out of solution. The water may have flowed on Bennu’s parent body, which likely formed beyond Jupiter’s orbit, at the Solar System’s very beginning 4.56 billion years ago. See also NASA OSIRIS-Rex overview and science briefing videos…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

-•-
2023-09-22. For Many Big Food Companies, Emissions Head in the Wrong Direction. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/22/business/food-companies-emissions-climate-pledges.html] By Julie Creswell, The New York Times. Excerpt: Five years ago McDonald’s said it planned to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than a third in parts of its operations by 2030. A few years later, it pledged to be “net zero” — cutting emissions to as close to zero as possible — by 2050. But in its most recent report, McDonald’s disclosed that things were moving in the wrong direction: The company’s emissions in 2021 were 12 percent higher than its 2015 baseline. McDonald’s is hardly alone. An examination of various climate-related reports and filings for 20 of the world’s largest food and restaurant companies reveals that more than half have not made any progress on their emissions reduction goals or have reported rising emissions levels. The bulk of emissions — in many cases more than 90 percent — come from the companies’ supply chains. In other words, the cows and wheat used to make burgers and cereal…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-08-30. Hydrothermal enrichment of lithium in intracaldera illite-bearing claystones. [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adh8183] By THOMAS R. BENSON, MATTHEW A. COBLE, and JOHN H. DILLES, Science. Excerpt: Developing a sustainable supply chain for the global proliferation of lithium ion batteries in electric vehicles and grid storage necessitates the extraction of lithium resources that minimize local environmental impacts. Volcano sedimentary lithium resources have the potential to meet this requirement, as they tend to be shallow, high-tonnage deposits with low waste…. Illite-bearing Miocene lacustrine sediments within the southern portion of McDermitt caldera (USA) at Thacker Pass [Nevada] contain extremely high lithium grades (up to ~1 weight % of Li), more than double the whole-rock concentration of lithium in smectite-rich claystones in the caldera and other known claystone lithium resources globally (<0.4 weight % of Li). Illite concentrations measured in situ range from ~1.3 to 2.4 weight % of Li within fluorine-rich illitic claystones…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 9.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-09-00. . [] By . Excerpt: … For GSS chapter .

-•-
2023-09-21. White House directs agencies to consider climate costs in purchases, budgets. [https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4217336-white-house-directs-agencies-to-consider-climate-costs-in-purchases-budgets/] By  RACHEL FRAZIN, The Hill. Excerpt: The White House is directing agencies to account for climate costs in purchasing decisions and budget proposals. The White House said in a Thursday fact sheet that agencies should weigh the costs of potential climate damages as they make purchases and put together budget proposals. …A source briefed on the directive told The Hill that they expect it to also expand the use of climate accounting in environmental reviews for infrastructure projects. “It’s a way to balance climate effects against other economic effects,” said Max Sarinksy, senior attorney at the Institute for Policy Integrity at the New York University School of Law. For example, he said, the “social cost of carbon offers even stronger support for the purchase of electric vehicles because you would add the climate cost savings to the budgetary cost savings.” The White House’s decision specifically directs agencies to use what are known as the social costs of greenhouse gasses — which quantify in a dollar amount the climate costs of an action —  to make these decisions. These costs are already used in some federal decisions like rulemaking…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

-•-
2023-09-21. The distribution of CO₂ on Europa indicates an internal source of carbon. [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adg4155] By SAMANTHA K. TRUMBO AND MICHAEL E. BROWN, Science. Excerpt: [Editor’s summary:] Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter, has a subsurface ocean beneath a crust of water ice. Solid carbon dioxide (CO₂) has previously been observed on its surface, but the source was unknown. Two teams analyzed infrared spectroscopy of Europa from the James Webb Space Telescope to investigate the CO₂ source. Trumbo and Brown found that the CO₂ is concentrated in a region with geology that indicates transport of material to the surface from within the moon, and they discuss the implications for the composition of Europa’s internal ocean. Villanueva et al. also identified an internal origin of the CO₂ and measured its ¹²C/¹³C isotope ratio. They searched for plumes of volatile material breaching the surface but found a lower activity than earlier observations. Together, these studies demonstrate that there is a source of carbon within Europa, probably in its ocean. —Keith T. Smith…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

-•-
2023-09-20. How much stuff does it take to not be poor? About 6 tons per year. [https://www.science.org/content/article/how-much-stuff-does-it-take-not-be-poor-about-6-tons-year] By ERIK STOKSTAD, Science. Excerpt: How much stuff do people need to lead a decent life? It’s a hard, and subjective, question. But researchers have now estimated for the first time what it takes, quantitatively speaking, to keep one person out of abject poverty: about 6 tons per year of food, fuel, clothing, and other supplies, researchers report this month in Environmental Science & Technology. …The study comes as the United Nations wrestled this week with exactly that daunting challenge. The U.N. is trying to kick-start progress on its Sustainable Development Goals, a set of 17 grand ambitions that include ending poverty worldwide by 2030, while also preventing environmental degradation and fighting climate change. Fossil fuels get a lot of attention in this debate, but raw materials such as cement, metal, timber, and grain are also important because their production and refining contributes about 23% of carbon emissions and more than 90% of biodiversity loss…. For GSS Population Growth chapter 5.

-•-
2023-09-20. Worms with spider genes spin silk tougher than bulletproof Kevlar. [https://www.science.org/content/article/worms-spider-genes-spin-silk-tougher-bulletproof-kevlar] By KATHERINE BOURZAC, Science. Excerpt: …researchers have used gene editing to make silkworms that can spin spider fibers tougher than the Kevlar used in bulletproof vests. The material, described today in Matter, is “a really high-performance fiber,” says Justin Jones, a biologist who engineers spider silks at Utah State University but who was not involved with the research. It could be used to make lightweight but tough structural materials for fuel-efficient planes and cars, he says, wound dressings for faster healing, and superthin but tough sutures for eye surgeries. …researchers have tried for years to genetically engineer silkworms to make spider fibers. But spider silk proteins are large, and the correspondingly large genes have been difficult to insert in the genomes of other animals. So in the new study, Junpeng Mi, a biotechnologist at Donghua University, and colleagues chose to work with a relatively small spider silk protein. Called MiSp, it’s found in Araneus ventricosus, an orb-weaving spider found in East Asia. The scientists used CRISPR to insert MiSp in place of the gene in silkworms that codes for their primary silk protein. But the scientists retained some silkworm sequences in their MiSp gene construct, Mi says, in order to ensure the worm’s internal machinery could still work with the spider protein…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 4.

-•-
2023-09-19. Climate change exacerbates deadly floods in Libya and worldwide. [https://www.npr.org/2023/09/13/1199273629/climate-change-exacerbates-deadly-floods-worldwide] By Rebecca Hersher,  Lauren Sommer, NPR. Excerpt: Catastrophic floods in eastern Libya killed at least 3,958 people, according to the United Nations. The disaster comes after a string of deadly floods around the world this month, from China to Brazil to Greece. In every case, extremely heavy rain was to blame. The enormous loss of life on multiple continents reinforces the profound danger posed by climate-driven rain storms, and the need for better warning systems and infrastructure to protect the most vulnerable populations. Climate change makes heavy rain more common, even in arid places where the total amount of precipitation is small. That’s because a hotter atmosphere can hold more moisture. Everyday rainstorms, as well as bigger storms such as hurricanes, are increasingly dangerous as a result. Human-caused warming made the extreme rainfall in Libya 50 times more likely to happen, according to a rapid analysis done by World Weather Attribution, a team of international climate scientists. It was also up to 50 percent more intense, compared to a climate without the added greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels. The magnitude of the storm was outside the bounds of historical weather records, which means the study’s findings have more uncertainty about how strong a role climate change played…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-09-20. Hurricane Nigel, a Category 2 Storm, Is Expected to Weaken. [https://www.nytimes.com/article/tropical-storm-nigel-hurricane.html] By Judson Jones, The New York Times. Excerpt: …The Atlantic hurricane season started on June 1 and runs through Nov. 30. In late May, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted that there would be 12 to 17 named storms this year, a “near-normal” amount. On Aug. 10, NOAA officials revised their estimate upward, to 14 to 21 storms. …A record 30 named storms took place in 2020. This year features an El Niño pattern, which arrived in June. …it typically impedes the number of Atlantic hurricanes …increases the amount of wind shear, …. Hurricanes need a calm environment to form, and the instability caused by increased wind shear makes those conditions less likely. (El Niño has the opposite effect in the Pacific, reducing the amount of wind shear.) At the same time, this year’s heightened sea surface temperatures pose a number of threats, including the ability to supercharge storms. …There is solid consensus among scientists that hurricanes are becoming more powerful because of climate change. …Climate change is also affecting the amount of rain that storms can produce. In a warming world, the air can hold more moisture, which means a named storm can hold and produce more rainfall, like Hurricane Harvey did in Texas in 2017, when some areas received more than 40 inches of rain in less than 48 hours. …storms have slowed down, sitting over areas for longer, over the past few decades. …the amount of moisture the storm can absorb increases. …the amount of rain that falls over a single location increases; in 2019, for example, Hurricane Dorian slowed to a crawl over the northwestern Bahamas, resulting in a total rainfall of 22.84 inches in Hope Town during the storm…. For GSS Energy Flow chapter 8.

-•-
2023-09-19. Biden’s Green Energy Money Is Sugar on a Poison Pill. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/19/opinion/climate-summit-2023-un.html] By Lydia Millet, Opinion Piece in New York Times. Excerpt: …federal funding for clean technologies …[is] a crucial step but brutally inadequate: If we keep drilling, pumping and using oil and gas, green-energy money will remain a sprinkling of sugar on a poison pill. …The more difficult and more essential task is to remove incentives for oil and gas companies to continue their frantic pace of production, transport and profiteering. …U.S. crude oil exports have gone up almost 850 percent since an important export ban was lifted in 2015, and in 2023 domestic oil production will hit an all-time high. Cleaning up our domestic portfolio won’t mean much if we keep shipping out dirty fuels to be combusted abroad. …Fossils are currently subsidizing conflicts from Russia’s war against Ukraine to militias in Myanmar. …while the Paris Agreement doesn’t even make mention of fossil fuels, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres is now targeting them directly by welcoming only nations that will commit to no new fossil fuel development and to concrete transition and phaseout plans to speak at the climate summit. …Congress is deeply entangled with the fossil fuel industry, and in the short term will stay that way. …stop saying yes to all new oil and gas projects — including the planned Sea Port Oil Terminal off the Texas coast, intended to increase our exports — and more exploration and drilling sites in the Gulf of Mexico. …stop the billions of dollars in fossil fuel financing invested abroad, which locks in decades’ worth of extraction…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-09-17. California Governor to Sign Landmark Climate Disclosure Bill. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/17/climate/california-climate-disclosure-law.html] By Coral Davenport, The New York Times. Excerpt: Gov. Gavin Newsom of California said that he would sign a landmark climate bill that passed the state’s legislature last week requiring major companies to publicly disclose their greenhouse gas emissions, a move with national and global repercussions. The new law will require about 5,000 companies to report the amount of greenhouse gas pollution that is directly emitted by their operations and also the amount of indirect emissions like employee travel, waste disposal and supply chains. Climate policy advocates have long argued that such disclosures are an essential first step in efforts to harness financial markets to rein in planet-warming pollution. For example, when investors are made aware of the climate-warming impacts of a company, they may choose to steer their money elsewhere. The law would apply to public and private businesses that make more than $1 billion annually and operate in California. But because the state is the world’s fifth-largest economy, California often sets the trend for the nation, and many of the affected businesses are global corporations…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

-•-
2023-09-15. Exploring Just How Extreme Future Storms Could Get. [https://eos.org/research-spotlights/exploring-just-how-extreme-future-storms-could-get] By Sarah Stanley, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Storms that drop exceptionally high volumes of precipitation often cause flooding and otherwise imperil human safety, infrastructure, and ecosystems. As climate change progresses, such extreme events are likely to become even more intense and more frequent in many regions around the world. …Gessner et al. demonstrate a novel way to combine storm simulations with statistical approaches to better estimate how extreme future precipitation events could become. …analysis suggested that precipitation events much more intense than previously have been recorded will be possible in the near future in the region. …estimates indicating that near-future extreme events might result in precipitation volumes that are 30%–40% higher than those seen in past events. The researchers note that even higher precipitation magnitudes cannot be ruled out. …The researchers say the findings together suggest that the ensemble boosting and statistical approaches can complement each other well in efforts to estimate the intensity of future extreme events, providing a way to “stress test” the resilience of infrastructure and ecosystems in the face of such events. (Earth’s Future, https://doi.org/10.1029/2023EF003628, 2023)…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 7.

-•-
2023-09-14. August 2023 was Earth’s hottest August on record. [https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2023/09/august-2023-was-earths-hottest-august-on-record/] By JEFF MASTERS, Yale Climate Connection. Excerpt: August 2023 smashed the record for hottest August in Earth’s history, spiking to a remarkable 1.25 degrees Celsius (2.25°F) above the 20th-century average, NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information reported September 14. NASA, Berkeley Earth, the Japan Meteorological Agency, and the European Copernicus Climate Change Service also rated August 2023 as the warmest August on record, crushing the previous August record by a huge margin. Global temperature analyses extend back to 1850 in the NOAA database. …The period June-August 2023 (summer in the Northern Hemisphere) was the hottest on record globally by a huge margin, according to NOAA. …According to an analysis by Climate Central, 3.9 billion people across the world suffered extreme temperatures made at least three times more likely by climate change for over 30 days during the June-August period; 1.5 billion people experienced extreme temperatures at this level for all 92 days of the June-August period. About 98% of the global population was exposed to extreme heat made at least two times more likely by human-caused global warming during this period…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 4.

-•-
2023-09-13. Eclipse Records Pin Dates of 12th and 13th Century Eruptions. [https://eos.org/articles/eclipse-records-pin-dates-of-12th-and-13th-century-eruptions] By Kate Evans, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: …ancient observations of rare dark lunar eclipses have recently taken on new importance after scientists used the records to date notable volcanic eruptions that occurred nearly a thousand years ago. The findings, published in Nature, could help answer some big questions about volcanism and climate change. …University of Geneva paleoclimatologist Sébastien Guillet …had been poring over hundreds of medieval manuscripts, searching for records of lunar eclipses that described the color of the Moon in totality. …The 12th and 13th centuries were among the most volcanically active of the past 2,500 years. Scientists know from telltale sulfate layers in Greenland and Antarctic ice cores that there were seven significant volcanic eruptions between 1108 and 1286. But only one of them—the eruption of Samalas on the island of Lombok in Indonesia in 1257—has been linked to a specific volcano or location. “These eruptions are very interesting because they happen at a quite critical moment,” Guillet said: the transition from the warm Medieval Climate Anomaly to the much colder Little Ice Age. “Did they contribute to this transition? And if so, to what extent? …The beauty of eclipses is that we know exactly when they occurred. And crucially, the color of the Moon during totality turns out to be a good proxy for whether there’s been a massive volcanic eruption lately. …Records of dark lunar eclipses showed up in 1110, 1172, 1229, 1258, and 1276, contemporaneous with five of the seven largest volcanic sulfate signals recorded in polar ice cores. …Medieval chroniclers recorded not just dark moons, but frosts, crop failures, and famines, she said. The eclipse records help to link these disruptions to large volcanic eruptions. If there is enough volcanic dust in the stratosphere to turn the eclipsing Moon black, there’s likely enough to cool the climate—something scientists can corroborate by checking tree rings for years of poor growth. …That knowledge may also help scientists to predict the effects of future volcanoes…. For GSS Life and Climate chapter 12.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-09-15. A Fireball Whacked Into Jupiter, and Astronomers Got It on Video. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/15/science/jupiter-comet-flashes.html] By Katrina Miller, The New York Times. Excerpt: Ko Arimatsu, an astronomer at Kyoto University in Japan, received an intriguing email… An amateur astronomer in his country had spotted a bright flash in Jupiter’s atmosphere. Dr. Arimatsu, who runs an observation program to study the outer solar system using backyard astronomy equipment, put out a call for more information. Six more reports of the Aug. 28 flash — which, according to Dr. Arimatsu, is one of the brightest ever recorded on the giant gas planet — came in from Japanese skywatchers. Flashes like these are caused by asteroids or comets from the edges of our solar system that impact Jupiter’s atmosphere. “Direct observation of these bodies is virtually impossible, …,” Dr. Arimatsu wrote…. But Jupiter’s gravity lures in these objects, which eventually slam into the planet, “making it a unique and invaluable tool for studying them directly,” he said. …In 1994, one comet whacked into Jupiter with so much force that it left a visible debris field. Astronomers saw another massive impact in 2009. Most collisions with Jupiter, the solar system’s fifth planet, are witnessed opportunistically by amateur astronomers. (Eight of the nine flashes seen on Jupiter since 2010 were reported by amateurs, according to Dr. Arimatsu.) Typically they use a technique called lucky imaging, which takes a video of a portion of the sky at a high frame rate. …the flash reported in August had an impact comparable to the 1908 Tunguska explosion in Siberia, which experts believe was an asteroid that ripped apart 800 square miles of forest. This is the second Jupiter event observed in the past decade with this much energy, said Dr. Arimatsu, who reported the last one in 2021, with an estimated energy equivalent to two megatons of TNT…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 1.

-•-
2023-09-15. Peak solar activity is arriving sooner than expected, reaching levels not seen in 20 years. [https://www.science.org/content/article/peak-solar-activity-arriving-sooner-expected-reaching-levels-not-seen-20-years] By ZACK SAVITSKY, Science. Excerpt: In 2019, as the Sun approached a minimum in its 11-year cycle of magnetic activity, a dozen scientists assembled for a traditional exercise: forecasting the next peak. Now, a few years into the Sun’s resurgence, it’s becoming clear that the official prediction from the panel, convened by NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the International Space Environment Service (ISES), missed the mark. The Sun’s activity has already surpassed the forecast, reaching levels not seen in 20 years, and solar maximum may arrive within the next year, months ahead of its presumed schedule…. For GSS Energy Flow chapter 4.

-•-
2023-09-14. New files shed light on ExxonMobil’s efforts to undermine climate science. [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/14/exxonmobil-documents-wall-street-journal-climate-science] By Dharna Noor, The Guardian. Excerpt: ExxonMobil executives privately sought to undermine climate science even after the oil and gas giant publicly acknowledged the link between fossil fuel emissions and climate change, according to previously unreported documents revealed by the Wall Street Journal. The new revelations are based on previously unreported documents subpoenaed by New York’s attorney general as part of an investigation into the company announced in 2015. They add to a slew of documents that record a decades-long misinformation campaign waged by Exxon, which are cited in a growing number of state and municipal lawsuits against big oil…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-09-14. Meet the Oil Man in Charge of Leading the World Away From Oil. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/14/climate/sultan-al-jaber-uae-cop28.html] By Max Bearak, The New York Teimos. Excerpt: The [United Arab] Emirates, made wealthy by decades of oil exports, wants to be seen as a climate-friendly renewable energy superpower, even as it helps lock developing nations around the world into decades more fossil fuel use. Straddling that split is one man: Sultan al-Jaber. He founded the renewable energy company, Masdar, which has invested billions of dollars in zero-emissions energy technologies like wind and solar power across 40 countries. Simultaneously, he directs Adnoc, the national oil company, a behemoth that makes Masdar look minuscule. Adnoc pumps millions of barrels of oil per day and aims to spend $150 billion over the next five years, mostly to ramp up its output. And this year, the United Nations has in effect vested Mr. al-Jaber with one of humanity’s most pressing tasks: steering its annual global climate negotiations [COP 2023; United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)], which are set to begin in November in Dubai. …Advocates for bold climate action have been outraged by his approach, which rests on bringing fossil fuel companies to the table, and which he claims will break that cycle of recrimination. A group of 133 U.S. Senators and European Union lawmakers signed a letter this year calling for him to be replaced. Multinational fossil fuel companies have a well-documented track record of countering climate science through misinformation and lobbying campaigns, even as now-public internal documents have revealed they were well aware of the effects of their products on the atmosphere…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

-•-
2023-09-13. Earth ‘well outside safe operating space for humanity’, scientists find. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/13/earth-well-outside-safe-operating-space-for-humanity-scientists-find] By Damian Carrington, The Guardian. Excerpt: …planetary boundaries are the limits of key global systems – such as climate, water and wildlife diversity – beyond which their ability to maintain a healthy planet is in danger of failing. …Six boundaries have been passed and two are judged to be close to being broken: air pollution and ocean acidification. The one boundary that is not threatened is atmospheric ozone, after action to phase out destructive chemicals in recent decades led to the ozone hole shrinking. …The planetary boundaries are not irreversible tipping points…. Instead, they are points after which the risks of fundamental changes in the Earth’s physical, biological and chemical life support systems rise significantly. …Prof Johan Rockström…said: “…But what worries us, even more, is the rising signs of dwindling planetary resilience.” …this failing resilience could make restricting global heating to the 1.5C climate goal impossible and could bring the world closer to real tipping points. Scientists said in September that the world was on the brink of multiple disastrous tipping points. …The assessment, which was published in the journal Science Advances and was based on 2,000 studies, indicated that several planetary boundaries were passed long ago. The boundary for biosphere integrity, which includes the healthy functioning of ecosystems, was broken in the late 19th century, …the boundary for land use was broken last century. …the safe boundary for climate change was surpassed in the late 1980s. For freshwater, this boundary was crossed in the early 20th century. …The boundary for synthetic pollution, such as pesticides, plastics and nuclear waste, was shown to have been passed by a 2022 study. …Ocean acidification is also assessed as getting worse and being close to exceeding the safe boundary. The scientists said: “…that six of the nine boundaries are transgressed, suggesting that Earth is now well outside of the safe operating space for humanity.”… See also September 18 article in Smithsonian Magazine by Tara Wu. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 4.

-•-
2023-09-12. New York University will divest from fossil fuels in win for student activists. [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/12/new-york-university-fossil-fuel-divestment] By Dharna Noor, The Guardian. Excerpt: New York University plans to divest from fossil fuels, the Guardian has learned, following years of pressure from student activists. The move from one of the US’s largest private universities, whose endowment totals over $5bn, represents a significant win for the climate movement, organizers said…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-09-11. Red fire ants, a dreaded pest, have invaded Europe. [https://www.science.org/content/article/red-fire-ants-dreaded-pest-have-invaded-europe] By Erik Stokstadt, Science. Excerpt: Last week, international experts warned that invasive species are costing the world economy almost half-a-trillion dollars annually. Today, researchers confirmed that one of the most fearsome invaders—the red fire ant (Solenopsis invicta), a pest native to South America that packs a painful sting and infests houses and crops—has taken hold in Italy. It is the first European detection of colonies, which are known to drive out native ants and other wildlife and damage electrical equipment. …A genetic analysis of the Italian ants suggests they likely came from either China or the United States. In the U.S., the species causes an estimated $6 billion in damage each year. The insects spread internationally via shipping, especially of plants and soil. …The scientists behind the new study are planning an eradication campaign in Sicily. …Only New Zealand has completely eradicated fire ants after an invasion. Australia has stopped six incursions at ports since 2001, including one with at least 370 colonies over 8300 hectares…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 6.

-•-
2023-09-08. Temperature Extremes Hit Lower- and Middle-Income Countries Hardest. [https://eos.org/articles/temperature-extremes-hit-lower-and-middle-income-countries-hardest] By Katherine Kornei, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: In an analysis of 13,000 cities around the globe, researchers furthermore found that smaller cities in lower- and middle-income countries were more likely to experience excessive heat and cold than larger urban areas in more affluent regions. …Using data spanning 2003–2019, the researchers estimated monthly averaged maximum and minimum thermal discomfort for each city. The 10 hottest cities were clustered across four countries: Bahrain, Pakistan, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. The 10 coldest cities, on the other hand, spanned just two countries: China and Russia. Manama, Bahrain (population: 1,250,000), and Yakutsk, Russia (population: 216,000), took the honors of being the world’s hottest and coldest cities, respectively. …But these results shouldn’t trigger a sense of hopelessness, Tuholske was quick to point out. Research has shown that people living in smaller cities, which can be conducive to tighter social networks and stronger familial ties, are sometimes well poised to enact positive change…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-09-07. Announcing $24.3M Investment Advancing Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal Research. [https://oceanacidification.noaa.gov/fy23-nopp-mcdr-awards/] By NOAA. Excerpt: The NOAA Ocean Acidification Program on behalf of the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP) announces $24.3M of funding aimed at bringing together academic researchers, federal scientists and industry to advance research in marine carbon dioxide removal. Funding supports research that expands understanding of various aspects of marine carbon dioxide removal approaches, risks and co-benefits including ocean acidification mitigation, and science needed to build regulatory frameworks for testing and scaling of marine carbon dioxide removal…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 7.

-•-
2023-09-04. 2,000 Southern White Rhino to be Released into the Wild Over Next 10 Years. [https://www.africanparks.org/2000-southern-white-rhino-be-released-wild-over-next-10-years] By African Parks. Excerpt: Johannesburg, South Africa, 04 September 2023 African Parks, a conservation NGO that manages 22 protected areas in partnership with 12 governments across Africa, announced that it will rewild over 2,000 southern white rhino over the next 10 years. African Parks has stepped in as the new owner of the world’s largest private captive rhino breeding operation, “Platinum Rhino”, a 7,800-hectare property in the North West province of South Africa, which currently holds 2,000 southern white rhino, representing up to 15% of the world’s remaining wild population…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 1.

-•-
2023-09-00. . [] By . Excerpt: … For GSS chapter .

~~~~~

-•-
2023-09-07. Off the Grid. [https://www.science.org/content/article/hidden-digital-roadblock-keeping-green-electricity-u-s-grid] By DAN CHARLES, Science. Excerpt: Computer models that forecast overloaded power lines are holding back U.S. solar and wind energy projects. …Southwest Power Pool (SPP) …and other U.S. grid operators are facing an unprecedented tsunami of requests from energy firms to connect thousands of proposed wind, solar, and power storage projects to their transmission lines. The projects are essential to meeting the U.S. goal of eliminating all planet-warming carbon emissions from the nation’s electricity supply by 2035, analysts say. Together, they could generate almost 2000 gigawatts of electricity—exceeding the total capacity of the country’s existing power plants. Most of these projects, however, have been stuck in limbo for years, waiting in what energy insiders call the “interconnection queue.” One contributor to the bottleneck: mathematical simulations that SPP and other operators use to predict how electricity from those new power generators will affect the grid’s stability and reliability. …grid operators require renewable power producers to pay up front for expensive transmission upgrades. But many can’t afford those improvements and must abandon their plans. …“Interconnection is becoming one of the leading barriers to bringing projects online,” says Joe Rand, a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who tracks projects in the interconnection queue. …Some researchers and renewable power advocates argue that the interconnection logjam is, in part, a product of flawed simulations based on assumptions that are too conservative and sometimes unreasonable…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 5.

-•-
2023-09-07. U.S. bets it can drill for climate-friendly hydrogen—just like oil. [https://www.science.org/content/article/u-s-bets-it-can-drill-climate-friendly-hydrogen-just-oil] By ERIC HAND, Science. Excerpt: …Today, the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), the high-risk, high-reward arm of the Department of Energy (DOE), announced it would fund $20 million in grants to advance technologies for extracting clean-burning hydrogen from deep rocks. …some researchers have concluded that, contrary to conventional wisdom, Earth harbors vast deposits of the gas that could be tapped like oil—and that reserves could be stimulated by pumping water and catalysts into the crust. …Most hydrogen today is manufactured by combining steam and methane in factories that emit carbon dioxide (CO₂) and add to global warming. Governments are supporting efforts to make hydrogen cleanly, either by capturing the emitted CO₂ and storing it underground (blue hydrogen) or by using renewable electricity to split water and harvesting the resulting hydrogen (green hydrogen). …For decades, few geologists believed Earth held significant hydrogen deposits, because the gas is so readily eaten up by microbes or chemically altered into other forms. But prospectors are now fanning out across the globe, spurred by the discovery of a massive hydrogen field underneath a village in Mali and records suggesting puzzling surges of nearly pure hydrogen in old boreholes. Whereas oil and gas companies tend to tap relatively youthful basins of sedimentary rock, hydrogen hunters are probing the crystalline, ancient hearts of continents for the iron-rich rocks thought to fuel hydrogen production. …The grant program will not support the hunt for existing deposits, because that is better left to USGS and industry, says ARPA-E Program Director Doug Wicks. Instead, it will focus on ways to artificially stimulate one of the main hydrogen producing reactions, called serpentinization, which occurs when water encounters iron-rich rocks at high temperatures and pressures. The reactions transform minerals such as olivine into serpentine, releasing hydrogen in the process…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

-•-
2023-09-02. A California Beach Town Is Desperate to Save Its Vanishing Sand. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/02/us/oceanside-california-sand.html] By Jill Cowan, The New York Times. Excerpt: In Oceanside …The sand is disappearing. …Visitors who could once sprawl on wide stretches of sand near the pier must now compete for space on a narrow stretch studded with rocks. …A recent study predicted that California could lose as much as 75 percent of its beaches by 2100, given projected sea level rise related to climate change…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-09-01. Can Plastic Recycling Ever Really Work? [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/01/headway/plastic-recycling-california-law.html] By Susan Shain, The New York Times. Excerpt: Jan Dell …collects what she calls “bad plastic containers.” …Her specimens include lids from oatmeal canisters, cups from fast-food joints, cleaners wrapped in shrink sleeves, and many, many Amazon mailers. Each carries the familiar “chasing arrows” recycling symbol; none, she believes, will ever be recycled. …Ms. Dell has run a one-woman nonprofit, the Last Beach Cleanup,…. Ms. Dell also headed an advisory committee that pushed for a landmark truth-in-labeling law in California. Starting in the fall of 2025, that law will prohibit companies from placing recycling symbols on products that are not widely recycled in the state. Yogurt tubs could be among them. So could baby food pouches. And takeout containers. And coffee cup lids…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 7.

-•-
2023-08-31. Arctic sea ice may melt faster in coming years due to shifting winds. [https://www.sciencenews.org/article/ice-melting-dipole-arctic-oscillation] By arolyn Gramling, Science. Excerpt: From 2007 to 2021, winds over North America and Eurasia were circulating in such a way that they reduced the influx of warmer Atlantic water into the Arctic, researchers report in the Sept. 1 Science. That helped slow the rate of sea ice loss during that time period — even as atmospheric warming ramped up (SN: 8/11/22). But that grace period may come to an end within just a few years. When the winds shift back, enhanced “Atlantification” of the Arctic may speed up sea ice loss, by giving an extra oomph of warming from below. “This phase has lasted about 15 years. We’re about at the end,” says physical oceanographer Igor Polyakov of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. …From 1979 to 2006, the Arctic Dipole was in a “negative” phase, with winds rotating counterclockwise over North America and clockwise over Eurasia. That brought more Atlantic water into the Arctic via the Fram Strait, a narrow strip of ocean between Greenland and Norway’s Svalbard archipelago. During that time period, summertime sea ice extent shrank rapidly from year to year, vanishing at a rate of about 1 million square kilometers per decade. …The year 2007, a record-breaking year for Arctic sea ice loss, marked the end of this “negative” phase of the Arctic Dipole (SN: 12/9/20). From then until 2021, the rate of sea ice loss across the entire Arctic slowed, shrinking by only about 70,000 square kilometers per decade…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-08-31. Greenland Was Much Greener 416,000 Years Ago. [https://eos.org/articles/greenland-was-much-greener-416000-years-ago] By Bill Morris, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: In 2019, a team of scientists glimpsed an ancient, shrubby landscape at the base of a long-forgotten ice core—rare evidence that Greenland wasn’t always completely covered in ice. Now, they have pinpointed the age of that ecosystem, and the implications are disturbing—Greenland’s ice sheet, the finds show, could melt at any time, contributing to catastrophic sea level rise. …The team reported the find in 2021 but at the time were unable to accurately date the deposits. Doing so, said coauthor Tammy Rittenour, a paleoclimatologist with Utah State University, is crucial for “understanding the conditions at which you can melt the Greenland ice sheet.” …Climate variability driven by the El Niño–Southern Oscillation, North Atlantic Oscillation, and other patterns, Cronin said, could have driven Earth’s climate, ocean circulation, and ice dynamics to tipping points not predicted by current CO₂ modeling. “I think this variability represents aspects of Earth’s climate system that we don’t fully understand or appreciate,” Cronin said. …Although it is not yet possible to say whether Greenland was completely ice free during this period, the scale of the loss was immense. At Camp Century, “nearly a mile of ice disappeared,” Bierman said. “It means that nature on its own, without fossil fuel emissions in the atmosphere, removed a significant portion of the ice sheet.” …At the very minimum, the melting detected at Camp Century would have added around 1.4 meters (5 feet) to sea level. If the entire Greenland ice sheet melted, it would have added 7 meters (23 feet). If that happened today, it would devastate most of the world’s coastal towns and cities…. For GSS Life and Climate chapter 10.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-08-31. Scorching Heat Is Contributing to Migrant Deaths. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/31/us/heat-migrant-deaths-texas-mexico.html] By Edgar Sandoval, The New York Times. Excerpt: …at 100 degrees or higher. The heat has been stifling for many Texans, but deadly for some of those making their way through the hot, barren shrub land where migrants travel to avoid detection from Border Patrol agents. …Fewer people are crossing from Mexico this year compared with last year, but already there have been more than 500 deaths in 2023…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-08-31. Human ancestors may have survived a brush with extinction 900,000 years ago. [https://www.science.org/content/article/human-ancestors-may-have-survived-brush-extinction-900-000-years-ago] By ELIZABETH PENNISI, Science. Excerpt: About 1 million years ago, our distant ancestors hunted in small bands and gathered their food with sophisticated stone tools. Then, about 900,000 years ago, something happened: The number of breeding individuals dwindled to only about 1300, according to a new study modeling ancient population sizes. Our ancestors came within a hair’s breadth of extinction, and populations remained that low for the next 100,000 years or more, researchers argue today in Science. …Janet Kelso, a computational biologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, is skeptical. She notes that the genetic signal for the bottleneck is strongest only in present-day African populations, and not in people who today live outside Africa…. The conclusions, “though intriguing, should probably be taken with some caution and explored further,” she says….. For GSS Life and Climate chapter 11.

-•-
2023-08-31. Gardens blooming with endangered plants could prove a boon to conservation. [https://www.science.org/content/article/gardens-blooming-endangered-plants-could-prove-boon-conservation] By GRETCHEN VOGEL, Science. Excerpt: …For years, conservationists have heralded the benefits of growing native species in yards and gardens. But the potential for gardeners to help slow biodiversity loss by planting threatened species has received less attention, says Ingmar Staude, a botanist at the University of Leipzig. He and his colleagues now report in Scientific Reports that if more gardeners opted for conservation-relevant species, the overall threat level for plants—defined as the ratio of at-risk plant species to all species—could fall by 25% across Germany. They suggest other countries could see similar benefits….. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 7.

-•-
2023-08-28. A New, Underground Atlas of Subduction Zones. [https://eos.org/articles/a-new-underground-atlas-of-subduction-zones] By J. Besl, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Subduction zones are complex. But mapping them is now as simple as cropping a family photo. That’s thanks to Submap, an online resource hosted by the University of Montpellier in France. The latest version was intentionally designed for a wide audience, suitable for students, teachers, and professional researchers. The fast, free service incorporates dozens of data sets and makes mapping available to anyone with an Internet connection…. For GSS Energy Flow chapter 2.

-•-
2023-08-28. There’s a Vast Source of Clean Energy Beneath Our Feet. And a Race to Tap It. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/28/climate/geothermal-energy-projects.html] By Brad Plumer, The New York Times. Excerpt: In a sagebrush valley full of wind turbines and solar panels in western Utah, Tim Latimer gazed up at a very different device he believes could be just as powerful for fighting climate change — …a drilling rig, of all things, transplanted from the oil fields of North Dakota …drilling for heat. Mr. Latimer’s company, Fervo Energy, is part of an ambitious effort to unlock vast amounts of geothermal energy from Earth’s hot interior, a source of renewable power that could help displace fossil fuels that are dangerously warming the planet. “There’s a virtually unlimited resource down there if we can get at it,” said Mr. Latimer. “Geothermal doesn’t use much land, it doesn’t produce emissions, it can complement wind and solar power….” …Traditional geothermal plants …work by tapping natural hot water reservoirs underground to power turbines that can generate electricity 24 hours a day. Few sites have the right conditions for this …so geothermal only produces 0.4 percent of America’s electricity currently. …But hot, dry rocks lie below the surface everywhere on the planet. And by using advanced drilling techniques developed by the oil and gas industry, some experts think it’s possible to tap that larger store of heat and create geothermal energy almost anywhere. …The Energy Department estimates there’s enough energy in those rocks to power the entire country five times over and has launched a major push to develop technologies to harvest that heat….. For GSS Energy Use chapter 4.

-•-
2023-08-28. America Is Using Up Its Groundwater Like There’s No Tomorrow. [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/08/28/climate/groundwater-drying-climate-change.html] By Mira Rojanasakul, Christopher Flavelle, Blacki Migliozzi and Eli Murray, The New York Times. Excerpt: …another climate crisis is unfolding, underfoot and out of view. Many of the aquifers that supply 90 percent of the nation’s water systems, and which have transformed vast stretches of America into some of the world’s most bountiful farmland, are being severely depleted. These declines are threatening irreversible harm to the American economy and society as a whole. The New York Times conducted a months-long examination of groundwater depletion, interviewing more than 100 experts, traveling the country and creating a comprehensive database using millions of readings from monitoring sites. The investigation reveals how America’s life-giving resource is being exhausted in much of the country, and in many cases it won’t come back. Huge industrial farms and sprawling cities are draining aquifers that could take centuries or millenniums to replenish themselves if they recover at all…. See also Five Takeaways From Our Investigation Into America’s Groundwater Crisis. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-08-28. Once rhabdomyosarcoma, now muscle. [https://www.cshl.edu/once-rhabdomyosarcoma-now-muscle/] By Luis Sandoval, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Excerpt: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Professor Christopher Vakoc …has been on a mission to transform sarcoma cells into regularly functioning tissue cells. Sarcomas are cancers that form in connective tissues like muscle. …A devastating and aggressive type of pediatric cancer, rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) resembles children’s muscle cells. …Vakoc and his team created a new genetic screening technique. Using genome-editing technology, they hunted down genes that, when disrupted, would force RMS cells to become muscle cells. That’s when a protein called NF-Y emerged. With NF-Y impaired, the scientists witnessed an astonishing transformation. Vakoc recounts: “The cells literally turn into muscle. The tumor loses all cancer attributes. They’re switching from a cell that just wants to make more of itself to cells devoted to contraction. Because all its energy and resources are now devoted to contraction, it can’t go back to this multiplying state.”…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 4.

-•-
2023-08-28. You’re doing it wrong: Recycling and other myths about tackling climate change. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2023/08/28/climate-action-poll/] By Kate Selig and Emily Guskin, The Washington Post. Excerpt: A slim majority of Americans think their individual actions can reduce the effects of climate change, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll. But do they know which actions are the most effective? Not quite. The poll finds most people believe recyclinghas a lot or some impact on climate change. About three-quarters say not eating meat or dairy would have a little or no effect on climate change. Climate experts say they’re wrong on those and other counts. …Among the 10 actions Americans were polled on, experts said flying less and cutting out meat and dairy are among the best steps people can take…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-08-27. How Indigenous Techniques Saved a Community From Wildfire. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/27/world/canada/canada-wildfires-kelowna-british-columbia.html] By Ian Austen, The New York Times. Excerpt: The fire advanced on the city of Kelowna [Canada] for 19 days — consuming 976 hectares, or about 2,400 acres — of forest. But at the suburban fringes, it encountered a fire prevention zone and sputtered, burning just a single house. The fire prevention zone — an area carefully cleared to remove fuel and minimize the spread of flames — was created by a logging company owned by a local Indigenous community. And as a new wildfire has stalked the suburb of West Kelowna this month, its history with the previous one — the Mount Law fire, in 2021 — offers a valuable lesson: A well-placed and well-constructed fire prevention zone can, under the right conditions, save homes and lives. It’s a lesson not only for Kelowna but also for a growing number of places in Canada and elsewhere threatened by increased wildfire amid climate change…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-08-25. A Lake Paves the Way for Defining the Anthropocene. [https://eos.org/articles/a-lake-paves-the-way-for-defining-the-anthropocene] By Katherine Kornei, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Just as chemists have their periodic table, Earth scientists can lay claim to their own brightly colored reference diagram: the International Chronostratigraphic Chart, which divides our planet’s 4.5-billion-year history into meaningful chunks of time. Last month, researchers laid the groundwork for defining the current epoch of geologic time—a new line on that chart—that would cap the Holocene. They voted that Crawford Lake, a small body of water in southern Canada, serve as the reference site of the new proposed geologic epoch: the Anthropocene. …deciding on one location that typifies humans’ influence on the planet was no small feat, said Waters. The proverbial fingerprints of our species—fallout from nuclear weapons testing, particulate matter from combustion, and nitrogen from fertilizer runoff, to name a few—are littered across the recent geologic record…. For GSS Life and Climate chapter 10.

-•-
2023-08-25. Will climate change amplify epidemics and give rise to pandemics?. [https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.adk4500] By TULIO DE OLIVEIRA AND HOURIIYAH TEGALLY, Science. Excerpt: While the world recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, another crisis continues to spiral at a much faster speed than was expected. Climate change is dominating our lives and causing a high level of distress. Countries all over the world are struggling to survive the damage caused by extreme events. …However, there is also a new threat that is being overlooked—the interaction between climate change and infectious diseases. A comprehensive meta-analysis revealed that climate change could aggravate more than 50% of known human pathogens. Unfortunately, this is happening now. …some people may think neither climate change nor epidemics are real or that both will pass. However, there is overwhelming evidence that climate change is fueling disease outbreaks and epidemics and that it is not a matter of if, but when, such events will precipitate another pandemic…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-08-25. Sweltering Temperatures Disrupt the New School Year. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/25/us/heat-wave-school-year.html] By Ernesto Londoño, Ann Hinga Klein and Colbi Edmonds, The New York Times. Excerpt: The late-summer heat wave that blanketed a large portion of the country this week prompted several schools to cancel classes or send students home early, underscoring how ill-prepared many districts are to cope with extreme weather events that have become more common. In Des Moines, school bus drivers received medical aid at the end of sweltering shifts. Chicago teachers were told to turn off overhead lights and draw shades to keep classrooms bearable. A marching band instructor outfitted students with water backpacks to prevent them from passing out from the heat — at 7:30 a.m…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-08-24. Forest carbon offsets are failing. [https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.adj6951] By JULIA P. G. JONES AND SIMON L. LEWIS, Science. Excerpt: Changes in land use, mostly deforestation in the tropics, emit 5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide annually—second only to fossil fuel use, which emits 35 billion tons (1). Reducing emissions to net zero is necessary to stabilize global temperatures (2). One controversial approach to tackle fossil-fuel emissions from private companies, individuals, and governments has been to “offset” them by investing in projects to either stop emissions that would have otherwise occurred, such as by reducing deforestation, or by investing in carbon uptake projects, such as forest restoration. …West et al. (3) show that offsetting through paying projects to reduce emissions by conserving tropical forests is not reducing deforestation as claimed and is worsening climate change…. For GSS A New World View chapter 6.

-•-
2023-08-00. . [] By . Excerpt: …. For GSS chapter .

~~~~~

-•-
Carl Sagan testifying before Congress in 1985 on climate change and the greenhouse effect. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp-WiNXH6hI] Youtube. For GSS Climate Change chapter 1.

-•-
2023-08-24. Emperor penguins abandon breeding grounds as ice melts around them. [https://www.science.org/content/article/emperor-penguins-abandon-breeding-grounds-ice-melts-around-them] By ERIK STOKSTAD, Science. Excerpt: Emperor penguins need stable sea ice to reproduce and raise their chicks. But with the ocean waters warming around Antarctica, the ice is breaking up earlier and earlier in the season, causing widespread abandonment of penguin breeding colonies. The finding, reported today in Communications Earth & Environment, “is bad news,” says Annie Schmidt, a seabird ecologist at Point Blue Conservation Science who was not involved in the work. Sea ice conditions vary from year to year, and colonies have failed to breed before. But if a whole region becomes unsuitable, penguins will find it difficult to locate an alternate spot, Schmidt says…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 4.

-•-
2023-08-23. Like hard-working farmers, corals cultivate and eat their resident algae. [https://www.science.org/content/article/hard-working-farmers-corals-cultivate-and-eat-their-resident-algae] By MOLLY RAINS, Science. Excerpt: …How do vibrant corals flourish in often-barren ocean landscapes? Known as the Darwin Paradox, this mystery has continued to puzzle generations of oceanographers. A new study published today in Nature offers a solution. According to its authors, corals make up for nutrient scarcity by harvesting and feeding on their resident algae, like hungry farmers…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 7.

-•-
2023-08-23. India makes history by landing spacecraft near Moon’s south pole. [https://www.science.org/content/article/india-makes-history-landing-spacecraft-near-moon-s-south-pole] By SANJAY KUMAR, Science. Excerpt: “India is on the Moon!” declared Sreedhara Somanath, chair of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), today to a packed mission control room. At 6:04 p.m. local time, the Chandrayaan-3 mission softly deposited the Vikram lander on the Moon’s surface, making India the fourth nation to succeed at the task after the United States, the Soviet Union, and China. India also becomes the first nation to land near the lunar south pole, an uncharted territory thought to contain frozen water that could support future human exploration…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 2.

-•-
2023-08-23. When will the next ocean heat wave strike? Scientists develop early warning systems. [https://www.science.org/content/article/when-will-next-ocean-heat-wave-strike-scientists-develop-early-warning-systems] By WARREN CORNWALL, Science. Excerpt: When heat waves began to sweep the world’s oceans in June, Alistair Hobday was not surprised. The biological oceanographer had foreseen the coming temperature spikes in forecasting models he’d helped develop. The massive pool of hot water in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, the coral-killing warmth in the Caribbean Sea, and the sweltering sea in the north Pacific Ocean had all appeared months earlier as orange and red patches on his computer screen at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). The forecasts, which weren’t widely disseminated beyond fisheries managers and those in the fishing and aquaculture industry, proved to be a prescient warning of what was to come. …As the global climate continues to warm, scientists around the world have been working to develop models that predict when and where marine heat waves are likely to hit. …Scientists hope that as the models are fine-tuned, their predictions will be robust enough to alert people 3 months in advance or more, informing decisions for fisheries, aquaculture, and marine conservation…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-08-22. More Than Half the World’s Ocean Surface Is Getting Greener. [https://eos.org/articles/more-than-half-the-worlds-ocean-surface-is-getting-greener] By Meghie Rodrigues, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Tropical oceans are changing color, according to new research. Over the past 2 decades, 56% of ocean surfaces have become greener, and that means microorganisms living close to the surface are changing as well. The study, recently published in Nature, points to climate change as a possible cause for the shift. The world’s oceans get their color from sunlight bouncing off water molecules and whatever else is floating near the surface. That includes tiny phytoplankton, which contain abundant chlorophyll—a pigment that reflects green light…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 4.

-•-
2023-08-20. One Neighborhood, 90 Trees and an 82-Year-Old Crusader. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/20/us/trees-heat-wave-new-haven-ct.html] By Colbi Edmonds, The New York Times. Excerpt: As the United States sweats through another unbearable summer of record-breaking heat, planting more trees has emerged as a practical solution to cooling cities, especially areas known as “heat islands” where concrete and congestion magnify already brutal temperatures. Yet filling a neighborhood with trees is not as simple as it seems. Funding and maintenance are issues for cities grappling with crime and housing. And not everyone, it turns out, wants a tree. …Mr. Rodriguez, who volunteers with the Urban Resources Initiative, a nonprofit partnered with Yale University, spends much of his time persuading his neighbors that trees are worth the trouble. Because the trees are planted by a volunteer organization, residents have to take some responsibility for making sure the trees survive and thrive. The city of New Haven pays for tree planting and maintenance through a contract with the Urban Resources Initiative. Residents are responsible for watering the trees for the first three years. …One neighbor whom Mr. Rodriguez talked to feared a shade tree would attract people who might see it as a spot for using drugs. Others wondered why the focus was on trees when their neighborhood had other issues. …Urban forests — the forests and green spaces in cities and towns — have, on average, temperatures that are 2.9 degrees Fahrenheit lower than unforested urban areas, according to the Environmental Protection Agency…. For GSS A New World View chapter 6.

-•-
2023-08-19. How gas station economics will change in the electric vehicle charging future. [https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/19/how-gas-station-economics-will-change-in-the-ev-charging-future.html] By Cheryl Winokur Munk, CNBC. Excerpt: …Gas station numbers have been decreasing at a sharp rate in the past three decades and the trend is expected to continue, with at least a quarter of service stations globally at risk of closure by 2035 without significant business model tweaks, according to consulting firm BCG. …Gas stations making the switch to electric vehicle charging will be investing in Level 3 chargers, which are the most powerful and generally charge in 20 to 30 minutes, but for multiple units can incur investment costs between $500,000 to $1 million. …Major oil companies are supporting franchise filling stations, including BP and Shell, and in the U.S. there are numerous federal, state and utility-based incentives for commercial businesses to purchase and install fast chargers. …Franchise car dealers are also increasingly getting on board, thanks to pushes from automakers like GM and Ford. As of late last year, 65% of Ford’s dealers had opted into the EV certification program (a little under 2,000, according to data shared by Ford), as it has started to make the role of car dealers central to the EV transition process. The National Automobile Dealers Association said in a May release that franchise owners will spend an estimated $5.5 billion on EV infrastructure across OEM brands, with per store costs ranging from $100,000 to over $1 million…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 9.

-•-
2023-08-19. With TikTok and Lawsuits, Gen Z Takes on Climate Change. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/19/climate/young-climate-activists.html] By David Gelles, The New York Times. Excerpt: As Kaliko Teruya was coming home from her hula lesson on August 8, her father called. The apartment in Lahaina was gone, he said, and he was running for his life. He was trying to escape the deadliest American wildfire in more than a century, …. But for Kaliko, 13, the destruction of the past week has reinforced her commitment to a cause that is coming to define her generation. “The fire was made so much worse due to climate change,” she said. “How many more natural disasters have to happen before grown-ups realize the urgency?” Like a growing number of young people, Kaliko is engaged in efforts to raise awareness about global warming and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, last year she and 13 other young people, age 9 to 18, sued their home state, Hawaii, over its use of fossil fuels. With active lawsuits in five states, TikTok videos that mix humor and outrage, and marches in the streets, it’s a movement that is seeking to shape policy, sway elections and shift a narrative that its proponents say too often emphasizes climate catastrophes instead of the need to make the planet healthier and cleaner. …Young people are helping organize a climate march in New York next month, during the United Nations General Assembly. And their force is being felt even in deep-red states like Montana, where a judge on Monday handed the movement its biggest victory to date, ruling in favor of 16 young people who had sued the state over its support for the fossil fuel industry…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-08-18. Why—and How to—Engage Artists in Science. [https://eos.org/opinions/why-and-how-to-engage-artists-in-science] By Kimberly Blaeser, Dwight Owens, Sarah Zhou Rosengard, Kathryn Semmens and Mika Tosca, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Breaking down the artificial barriers between science and art can lead to collaborations, broaden the understanding of problems facing communities, and grow engagement to explore solutions…. For GSS A New World View chapter 1.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-08-17. Uncovering Death by Fire. [https://www.science.org/content/article/raging-wildfires-may-doomed-californias-ancient-megamammals-tar-pit-fossils-reveal] By MICHAEL PRICE, Science. Excerpt: Paleontologists have long tried to understand why once-numerous populations of these and other megafauna vanished across North America toward the end of the last ice age. A study published in this issue of Science points to a new catalyst that ties together the two leading hypotheses: human activity and climate change. Each played a role, but fire was the key mediator, the authors argue. In their scenario, when the climate suddenly became warmer and drier toward the end of the last ice age, human-caused blazes grew out of control, permanently altering the landscape—and spelling the end for the animals…. For GSS Life and Climate chapter 10.

-•-
2023-08-17. Bacteria stretch and bend oil to feed their appetite. [https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.adj4430] By TERRY J. MCGENITY AND PIERRE PHILIPPE LAISSUE, Science. Excerpt: It is imperative to understand the fate of crude oil that escapes into the ocean to minimize its environmental, economic, and societal harm. Large amounts of crude oil enter the sea, as occurred this past month on a platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Oil does not easily mix with water, which can restrict oil degradation through microbes, a key pathway to remove hydrocarbons from the environment. However, turbulent seas and response measures, such as dispersant addition, generate smaller oil droplets that are attractive to voracious microbial activity. …Prasad et al report that bacteria attach to oil droplets, then grow as a film on the oil surface, sometimes reshaping spherical droplets into finger-like protrusions. This dynamic process increases the oil’s surface area and accelerates its biodegradation. The finding should improve predictions of spilled oil transport to ecologically sensitive sites…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 3.

-•-
2023-08-17. South Africa to ban fishing around African penguin colonies for 10 years. [https://www.science.org/content/article/south-africa-ban-fishing-around-african-penguin-colonies-10-years] By MUNYARADZI MAKONI, Science. Excerpt: South Africa will impose a decadelong ban on commercial fishing around six areas home to the endangered African penguin starting next year. The measure, announced by the government on 4 August, comes after an expert panel concluded that a full ban on fishing was vital for the recovery of Africa’s only penguin species…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 8.

-•-
2023-08-17. The global impact of EU forest protection policies. [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adj0728] By Gianluca Cerullo et al, Science. Excerpt: The European Union’s Biodiversity and Forest Strategies for 2030 mandate protecting all remaining old-growth forests across the EU, increasing the area of habitat patches set aside within forests harvested for timber, and limiting clear-felling in timber-producing landscapes. Although saving old-growth forests is critical, stand-alone policies can produce unintended consequences. Without simultaneously reducing demand for forest products or increasing supply from plantations and secondary forests, such measures can lead to increased harvesting elsewhere, often in tropical countries …with weaker legal protections…. For GSS A New World View chapter 6.

-•-
2023-08-14. Subsurface Oceans Could Boost Exoplanet Habitability. [https://eos.org/articles/subsurface-oceans-could-boost-exoplanet-habitability] By Javier Barbuzano, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: A group of researchers led by planetary scientist Lujendra Ojha of Rutgers University crunched the numbers to reveal that our galaxy is likely brimming with planets hosting subsurface oceans like those on Enceladus, Europa, and Ganymede. “Before we started to consider this subsurface water, it was estimated that around one rocky planet [orbiting] every 100 stars would have liquid water,” Ojha said. “The new model shows that if the conditions are right, this could approach one planet per star.”… For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 8.

-•-
2023-08-14. ‘Gamechanger’: judge rules in favor of young activists in US climate trial. [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/14/montana-climate-trial-young-activists-judge-order] By Dharna Noor, The Guardian. Excerpt: The judge who heard the US’s first constitutional climate trial earlier this year has ruled in favor of a group of young plaintiffs who had accused state officials in Montana of violating their right to a healthy environment. …In a case that made headlines around the US and internationally, 16 plaintiffs, aged five to 22, had alleged the state government’s pro-fossil fuel policies contributed to climate change. In trial hearings in June, they testified that these policies therefore violatedprovisions in the state constitution that guarantee a “clean and healthful environment”, among other constitutional protections. On Monday, Judge Kathy Seeley said that by prohibiting government agencies from considering climate impacts when deciding whether or not to permit energy projects, Montana is contributing to the climate crisis and stopping the state from addressing that crisis. The 103-page order came several weeks after the closely watched trial came to a close on 20 June…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

-•-
2023-08-13. How Invasive Plants Caused the Maui Fires to Rage. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/13/us/hawaii-wildfire-factors.html] By Simon Romero and Serge F. Kovaleski, The New York Times. Excerpt: When Hawaii’s last sugar cane plantation shut down in Maui in 2016,…the last harvest at the 36,000-acre plantation underscored another pivotal shift: the relentless spread of extremely flammable, nonnative grasses on idled lands where cash crops once flourished. Varieties like guinea grass, molasses grass and buffel grass — which originated in Africa and were introduced to Hawaii as livestock forage — now occupy nearly a quarter of Hawaii’s landmass. …After West Maui was hit in 2018 by an earlier round of fires …, Clay Trauernicht, one of Hawaii’s most prominent wildfire experts, warned in a letter then to the Maui News that the island was facing a hazard it had the potential to do something about. “The fuels — all that grass — is the one thing that we can directly change to reduce fire risk,” he wrote. …Fast forward to 2023, and Mr. Trauernicht, a specialist in wildland fire science and management at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, said the deadly Maui blaze has shown clearly how nonnative grasses — many of them on former plantation lands that have been left substantially unmanaged by large corporate landowners — can cause what might be an otherwise manageable fire to balloon in size. …Heavy rains that fall across the Hawaiian islands can cause nonnative grasses to grow in some cases as much as six inches in a day. Then the dry season arrives, and the grasses burn. Moreover, after fires ravage certain areas the nonnative grasses quickly sprout and spread, displacing native plants less adapted to wildfires, making the cycle more destructive…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 6.

-•-
2023-08-12. The Clean Energy Future Is Arriving Faster Than You Think. [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/08/12/climate/clean-energy-us-fossil-fuels.html] By David Gelles, Brad Plumer, Jim Tankersley, Jack Ewing, The New York Times. Excerpt: The United States is pivoting away from fossil fuels and toward wind, solar and other renewable energy, even in areas dominated by the oil and gas industries. …renewables are now expected to overtake coal by 2025 as the world’s largest source of electricity. …China, which already leads the world in the sheer amount of electricity produced by wind and solar power, is expected to double its capacity by 2025, five years ahead of schedule. In Britain, roughly one-third of electricity is generated by wind, solar and hydropower. And in the United States, 23 percent of electricity is expected to come from renewable sources this year, up 10 percentage points from a decade ago…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

-•-
2023-08-11. Herbivore Diversity Helps Maintain Arctic Tundra Diversity. [https://eos.org/articles/herbivore-diversity-helps-maintain-arctic-tundra-diversity] By Katherine Kornei, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: A long-term experiment in southwestern Greenland reveals that the presence of musk oxen and caribou helps stave off declines in Arctic tundra diversity brought on by climate change.… For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 1.

-•-
2023-08-11. U.S. unveils plans for large facilities to capture carbon directly from air. By Robert F. Service, Science. Excerpt: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced it will spend $1.2 billion for two pioneering facilities—one in Texas, the other in Louisiana—that will remove millions of tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) annually from the atmosphere using a technology known as direct air capture (DAC). Part of a controversial effort to combat global warming, the awards represent the first phase of $3.5 billion in funding for DAC hubs set aside in last year’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and mark the first major governmental backing in the world for the emerging carbon capture technology. …But critics of the strategy are plentiful as well. Benson’s Stanford colleague Mark Jacobson, an atmospheric scientist, calls the program “a boondoggle” and “a complete waste of money.” He argues that because DAC requires so much energy to capture CO₂, purify it, and pump it underground for permanent storage, it is one of the most expensive and inefficient ways to sequester carbon. A better climate strategy, Jacobson says, would be to simply spend the money on building out renewable energy faster, so that coal and natural gas electricity plants can be retired more quickly. But DAC proponents counter that even though the world is spending more than $1 trillion a year on clean energy technologies, that won’t be enough for countries to meet their carbon reduction goals…. See also New York Times article U.S. to Fund a $1.2 Billion Effort to Vacuum Greenhouse Gases From the Sky by Coral Davenport. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-08-11. Amendments to Indian biodiversity laws could open doors to exploitation. [https://www.science.org/content/article/amendments-indian-biodiversity-laws-could-open-doors-exploitation] By Tanvi Dutta Gupta, Science. Excerpt: Legal experts and environmental campaigners say a bill passed last week by India’s Parliament could magnify commercial exploitation of the country’s ecosystems and harm the communities that depend on them. The amendments to the landmark 2002 Biological Diversity Act streamline the approval processes for commercial use of India’s trees, plants, and other biological resources—as well as traditional knowledge based on those resources—making it easier for companies to patent and sell them as products. The legislation also decriminalizes violations of the act…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 8.

-•-
2023-08-11. The ‘Great Indian Desert’ could disappear within a century. [https://www.science.org/content/article/great-indian-desert-could-disappear-within-century] By Tanvi Dutta Gupta, Science. Excerpt: …Each year, the South Asian monsoon deluges the verdant east of India and leaves the west, where India and Pakistan share a border, bone-dry. That asymmetry, between the Himalayan rainforests and the “Great Indian Desert”—the most populated in the world—has shaped civilizations. But as climate change heats up, the monsoon is moving farther west into this region. Within a century, a new study suggests, the desert could disappear completely. “This is going to affect a billion people,” says Shang-Ping Xie, a climate scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography …the study’s findings portend an increased risk of floods in the Great Indian Desert, also known as the Thar Desert, similar to what happened in 2022, when a deluge in Pakistan displaced 8 million people and caused almost $15 billion in property damage….Most studies predict that Earth’s deserts will grow with global warming. The Sahara desert, for example, is expected to expand more than 6000 square kilometers per year by 2050. But the South Asian monsoon may have the opposite impact for the Thar, located in the dry northwest of the South Asian subcontinent. …To make the find, reported this month in Earth’s Future, researchers gathered weather data for South Asia over the past 50 years…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 4.

-•-
2023-08-10. Plastic waste recycling is gaining momentum. [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adj2807] By Kevin M. Van Germ, Science. Excerpt: …the public is dissatisfied with recycling rates, notably below 9% in the United States…. This makes governments respond by enforcing a minimum recycled plastic content, such as the 30% target in the European Union. Therefore, a plastics circular economy, in which new, high-quality plastics can be remanufactured from plastic waste, is becoming increasingly popular. Plastics should no longer be considered waste but rather valuable resources. …A recent study showed that it is possible, by 2050, to produce all plastics in a circular way, without requiring fossil resources…. …Reducing CO₂ emissions for plastic recycling technologies is also crucial. By electrifying the chemical process and using electricity from nonfossil sources, millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions can be avoided…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 7.

-•-
2023-08-10. Cultural water and Indigenous water science. [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi0658] By Erin O’Donnell et al, Science. Excerpt: Water management failings in [Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin] MDB, which is home to more than 40 First Nations who have lived sustainably with water for tens of thousands of years through the creation and application of Indigenous water science …, have drawn attention to the living legacies of colonial exploitation and the associated social and ecological impacts. We need to learn from Australia’s failures and change the way we know, value, and manage water, including learning from Indigenous scientists and Elders. The MDB, which supports a center of irrigated agriculture across more than 1 million km², is known for its multiyear “boom-bust” riverine cycles, but climate change is intensifying these extremes. …When the British invaded Australia, the legitimacy of their occupation was founded on the assumption of terra nullius, or land belonging to no one, despite the clear presence of First Nations with laws governing access to and use of land. This flawed beginning enabled the equally erroneous assumption of aqua nullius, or water belonging to no one, with no acknowledgment that First Nations had and continue to have laws governing the care and management of water…. These flawed assumptions became the foundation for more than two centuries of extractive, unsustainable water management…. Although Western science has recognized the importance of integrated water management, it gives far less weight to the cultural and spiritual well-being that is essential for First Nations. Water managers still categorize water into different uses that can be traded-off against each other, whereas Indigenous knowledge shows that cultural water economies are built on healthy Country and support healthy people…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 3.

-•-
2023-08-10. Using climate to model ancient human migration. [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adj4631] By Emily J. Beverly. Excerpt: …Although there is now consensus that all modern humans originated from a population in Africa, there is considerable disagreement as to how, when, and why they migrated to Europe and what happened once they arrived. Therefore, the focus of research has shifted to the identification of when humans could feasibly have migrated out of Africa. For example, a climate model was used to identify windows of time over the past 300,000 years in which humans could have migrated across difficult terrain in northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula…. Other researchers took a different approach, determining whether freshwater springs would persist through major climate swings in Africa related to long-term changes in Earth’s orbit around the Sun. This was combined with mapping the maximum distance that a human could travel from these perennial sources of water (∼3 days, 150 km) to determine potential migration pathways during different wet and dry scenarios from the Pleistocene (∼2.58 million to 11,700 years ago)…. …The model showed that around 1.1 million years ago, habitats in Europe would likely have been unsuitable for permanent hominin occupation. This is because glacial conditions were so strong that it would have been too cold for hominins to survive without adaptations such as fire or clothing, for which there is currently no evidence. This suggests that hominins might not have permanently settled in Europe at this time and may have instead repeatedly repopulated from Asia, but additional hominin sites with better age control are needed to further test this hypothesis…. For GSS Life and Climate chapter 11.

-•-
2023-08-09. Climate Education That Builds Hope and Agency, Not Fear. [https://eos.org/opinions/climate-education-that-builds-hope-and-agency-not-fear] By Jeffrey D. Corbin,  Meghan A. Duffy,  Jacquelyn L. Gill and  Carly Ziter, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Reframing climate change education around a message of “hopeful alarm” not only will underscore the threats we face but will also show students how they can act to shape the future. …The urgency of the climate crisis grows every year; meanwhile, disinformation and politicization have made communicating the science of climate change increasingly challenging. For the past 2 decades, such communication efforts have focused mainly on convincing people that climate change is real while also combating organized campaigns of denialism [Mann, 2012]. These efforts have largely succeeded: Polls show that the public now overwhelmingly accepts the reality of climate change. …So although challenging climate change denial may still be necessary in some contexts, scientists, educators, and others who communicate about climate science face a new challenge: the clear gap between the public’s concern over climate disruptions and its understanding of what can be done today to affect our tomorrow. We must better convey to audiences the needed changes—in energy sources and land use, for example—and that humanity can, indeed, influence the scale of disruptions that unfold [Marris, 2021; Mann, 2021]…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-08-00. . [] By . Excerpt: … For GSS chapter .

~~~~~

-•-
2023-08-11. Devastating Hawaii fires made ‘much more dangerous’ by climate change. [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/11/hawaii-fires-made-more-dangerous-by-climate-crisis] By Oliver Milan, The Guardian. Excerpt: Katharine Hayhoe, the chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy, said that global heating is causing vegetation to dry out, priming it as fuel for an outbreak of fire. “Climate change doesn’t usually start the fires; but it intensifies them, increasing the area they burn and making them much more dangerous,” Hayhoe tweeted. …Nearly a fifth of Maui, the Hawaiian island where the fires have occurred, is in severe drought, according to the US Drought Monitor. The island has experienced other serious fires in recent years, with blazes in 2018 and 2021 razing hundreds of homes and causing the evacuation of thousands of residents and tourists. Experts say that wildfires in Hawaii are now burning through four times the amount of area than in previous decades, in part due to the proliferation of more flammable non-native grasses but also rising global temperatures. …Hawaii is experiencing increasingly dry conditions, with scientists calculating that 90% of the state is getting less rainfall than it did a century ago, with the period since 2008 particularly dry…. See also New York Times article How Climate Change Turned Lush Hawaii Into a Tinderbox. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-08-10. Engineered bacteria detect tumor DNA. [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adf3974] By Robert M. Cooper et al, Science. Excerpt: Bacteria have been previously engineered to detect diseases by responding to specific metabolites or pathogens. Cooper et al. have now engineered a species of bacteria to detect specific mutations in human DNA. These bacteria, Acinetobacter baylyi, are normally nonpathogenic and naturally competent to take up DNA by horizontal gene transfer. The authors took advantage of this property, engineering these bacteria to become resistant to a specific drug only when they took up DNA containing a cancer-associated mutation in a specific oncogene, but not its wild-type counterpart. The bacteria detected their target both in culture and in mice bearing tumors with the relevant mutation after the bacteria were delivered by rectal enema, suggesting a potential clinical application…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 4.

-•-
2023-08-10. Wandering Seeds. [https://www.science.org/content/article/indigenous-people-shaped-australias-curious-geography-plants] By Elizabeth Pennisi, Science. Excerpt: On shady, densely wooded riverbanks in eastern Australia, the black bean tree is easily missed. It can reach 12 stories tall, but Castanospermum australe mostly blends in with its rainforest peers. …each seed weighs about as much as a mouse—too heavy to be carried off by the wind or easily dispersed by birds and most rodents. Therein lies a mystery: Black bean trees sprout not just along waterways and coastal areas, but also along ridges high above rivers, far from the water. A few years ago, Maurizio Rossetto, an evolutionary ecologist at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, began to wonder how they got there. …“Increasingly, there is an acceptance that it would make a lot of sense to consult the people who have lived here for tens of thousands of years” when trying to reconstruct Australia’s ecological evolution, says Tony Hughes-d’Aeth, a cultural historian at the University of Western Australia (UWA). …two groups are finding that the seemingly natural distributions of key food plants likely reflect the habits and travels of the first Australians. “We are increasingly aware that what we thought of as ‘wild’ ranges of species did not take into account traditional activities,” Rossetto says. …In Australia, the work has helped further undermine colonial-era assumptions that native people were aimless wanderers, as well as claims of terra nullius—that the land belonged to no one when the first British settlers arrived. …In a paper published in Genes in 2022, the researchers identified 15 species with nutritious, edible seeds too large to be easily dispersed by other means. Five of those species have known cultural significance, and Fahey is now working with Indigenous collaborators to decide which ones to study further…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 1.

-•-
2023-08-10. Federal officials promise renewed conservation efforts for endangered red wolves. [https://www.science.org/content/article/federal-officials-promise-renewed-conservation-efforts-endangered-red-wolves] By Erik Stokstad, Science. Excerpt: In a turning point for a long-running conservation dispute, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has agreed to continue to release captive-bred red wolves (Canis rufus) to boost the world’s only remaining wild population of this endangered species. The court settlement, announced yesterday, stems from a lawsuit from conservation groups that objected to FWS’s decision in 2015 to stop releasing red wolves into a 688,000-hectare recovery area in North Carolina. …Although the species once lived in most of the southeastern United States, hunting and habitat loss caused a massive decline. By 1972 only a handful of wolves remained in Texas and Louisiana. FWS trapped all of them and established an experimental recovery population in Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge on a North Carolina peninsula in 1987. Decades of captive breeding and release boosted the population to a peak of 100 to 120 animals in 2012. …But their numbers have since fallen. Hunting—which is illegal for federally protected species—and cars continue to be the largest sources of mortality. Meanwhile, local landowners and state officials complain that the wolves leave the refuge and kill game animals such as deer. In 2015, the North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission argued that the program wasn’t working and called on FWS to end it, remove the remaining wolves, and declare the species extinct in the wild…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 8.

-•-
2023-08-10. Heat Singes the Mind, Not Just the Body. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/10/health/heat-mental-health.html] By Apoorva Mandavilli, The New York Times. Excerpt: …Soaring temperatures can damage not just the body but also the mind. As heat waves become more intense, more frequent and longer, it has become increasingly important to address the impact on mental health, scientists say. “It’s really only been over the past five years that there’s been a real recognition of the impact,” said Dr. Joshua Wortzel, chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s committee on climate change and mental health, which was set up just two years ago. …High temperatures are strongly associated with an increase in suicides, researchers have found. Heat has been linked to a rise in violent crime and aggression, emergency room visits and hospitalizations for mental disorders, and deaths — especially among people with schizophrenia, dementia, psychosis and substance use. For every 1 degree Celsius (or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) increase in temperature, scientists have estimated that there is a nearly 5 percent increase in the risk of death among patients with psychosis, dementia or substance use. Researchers have reported a 0.7 percent increase in suicides linked to rising temperatures, and about a 4 percent to 6 percent increase in interpersonal violence, including homicides. Heat not only fuels feelings like irritability and anger, but also seems to exacerbate mental illnesses, such as anxiety, schizophrenia and depression. Older adults, adolescents and people with pre-existing mental illnesses are particularly vulnerable, as are people who do not have housing or are of lower socioeconomic status…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-08-09. Ancient mud cracks on Mars point to conditions favorable for life. [https://www.science.org/content/article/ancient-mud-cracks-mars-point-conditions-favorable-life] By Phil Jacobs, Science. Excerpt: …the discovery of distinctive mud cracks on the planet’s surface suggest ancient Mars cycled through sustained wet and dry seasons for millions of years. Not only would the climate have been habitable, scientists say, but the cycling might have also given the basic chemistry of life a boost. The discovery, reported today in Nature, is compelling evidence for an Earth-like climate on early Mars…. the Curiosity rover has discovered patterns of hexagon-shaped cracks in ancient rocks that add to the evidence for a sustained warm climate. They resemble patterns found on Earth in places like Death Valley, where they only form after years of wet-dry cycling…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

-•-
2023-08-08. Amazon Countries, Led by Brazil, Sign a Rainforest Pact. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/08/climate/amazon-rainforest-belem-protections.html] By Manuela Andreoni and Max Bearak, The New York Times. Excerpt: On Tuesday, the leaders of eight countries that are home to the Amazon River basin agreed to work together to conserve the world’s largest rainforest at a groundbreaking meeting convened by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil. The agreement, called the Belém Declaration, for the Brazilian city where the meeting was held, provides a road map to stave off the rampant deforestation, caused in large part by industrial agriculture and land-grabbing, that has severely damaged the rainforest and has major implications for Earth’s climate. The meeting was also expected to yield a separate agreement on Wednesday among other nations with major rainforests — including the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo and Indonesia — to more closely coordinate protecting the ecosystems globally. The Amazon rainforest is not only a haven of biodiversity but also plays an important role in the fight against climate change because it pulls huge amounts of planet-warming carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and stores it away. Over the past half-century, around 17 percent of the forest has been razed and an even bigger share is severely degraded…. For GSS A New World View chapter 5.

-•-
2023-08-07. What if Your Town Doubled as a Private Power Grid?. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/07/realestate/microgrid-solar-power-energy.html] By Kaya Laterman, The New York Times. Excerpt: …Heron’s Nest, a new cottage community in Shallotte, N.C., …calling itself an “environmental village,” …homes were reasonably priced, between $300,000 to $400,000. …each house came with a three-kilowatt rooftop solar system, which would reduce their carbon footprint and cut their utility bill by a third. …the 31-home community, …North Carolina’s first residential “microgrid” development. …A microgrid is a network of buildings that essentially acts as a miniature power grid. It can operate outside of the larger municipal electrical system by ensuring backup power for the entire development, which can be produced by a solar array system and stored in a battery. …The U.S. Energy Department estimated that there were more than 450 operational microgrids in the United States in 2022. …The California Public Utilities Commission…recently approved a $200 million program to bring community microgrids to disadvantaged and tribal communities that are vulnerable to power outages. Americans experienced an average of about seven hours of power interruptions in 2021. It was more in Louisiana, Oregon and Texas, where residents went without power anywhere between 20 and 80 hours during the year. Two-thirds of North Americans are at risk of energy shortfalls this summer, according to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, a nonprofit regulatory authority. …developers are finding that energy-resilient homes and communities are powerful marketing tools to lure buyers and renters…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 5.

-•-
2023-07-25. Alien-looking viruses discovered in Massachusetts forest. [https://www.science.org/content/article/alien-looking-viruses-discovered-massachusetts-forest] By Christie Wilcox, Science. Excerpt: Researchers have unearthed a trove of wonders in the soil of a Massachusetts forest: an assortment of giant viruses unlike anything scientists had ever seen. The find suggests this group of relatively massive parasites has an even greater ecological diversity and evolutionary importance than researchers knew. Giant viruses can exceed 2 micrometers in diameter, on par with some bacteria. They can also harbor immense genomes, which reach 2.5 megabases—larger than the genomes of far more complex organisms. …DNA sequencing has long indicated that giant viruses are diverse and abundant elsewhere, too—especially in sediments and soils, which are estimated to host some 97% of all the viral particles on Earth…. See also Science article An entire ecosystem lives beneath scorching hydrothermal vents (2023 August 9). For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 5.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-08-04. On the Afghanistan-Iran border, climate change fuels a fight over water. [https://www.science.org/content/article/afghanistan-iran-border-climate-change-fuels-fight-over-water] By Ruchi Kumar, Science. Excerpt: Fueled in part by a prolonged drought, tensions over water between Iran and Afghanistan have escalated this year, with Iran accusing Taliban leaders of violating a long-standing agreement to share water from the Helmand River that flows from Afghanistan into Iran. In late May, clashes near the river reportedly led to the deaths of at least two Iranian border guards and one Taliban fighter. Climate change could only worsen the conflict, researchers say. Although detailed data are scarce, a recent study concluded that average temperatures in Afghanistan have risen by between 0.6°C and 1.8°C since 1950. And, “If you look at the map [of Afghanistan], the area that has the highest change in temperatures [is] … where the conflict has occurred,” says water specialist Assem Mayar, a former lecturer at Kabul Polytechnic University…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-08-04. Voyager 2 Communications Pause [and resumes]. [https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-mission-update-voyager-2-communications-pause] By Calla Cofield, Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Excerpt: …Voyager 2 is located more than 12.3 billion miles (19.9 billion kilometers) from Earth…A series of planned commands sent to NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft July 21 inadvertently caused the antenna to point 2 degrees away from Earth. As a result, Voyager 2 [was] unable to receive commands or transmit data back to Earth. The agency’s Deep Space Network facility in Canberra, Australia, sent the equivalent of an interstellar “shout” more than 12.3 billion miles (19.9 billion kilometers) to Voyager 2, instructing the spacecraft to reorient itself and turn its antenna back to Earth. With a one-way light time of 18.5 hours for the command to reach Voyager, it took 37 hours for mission controllers to learn whether the command worked. At 12:29 a.m. EDT on Aug. 4, the spacecraft began returning science and telemetry data, indicating it is operating normally and that it remains on its expected trajectory.… For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 2.

-•-
2023-08-04. A Maverick in the genome. [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ade0705] By Sonya A. Widen, Israel Campo Bes, Alevtina Koreshova, Pinelopi Pliota, Daniel Krogull, Alejandro Burga, Science. Excerpt: It was long thought that the barriers to gene flow between animal species were impenetrable. Without reproduction, there was simply no way that DNA could move from one animal to another. Indeed, even after the discovery that bacteria can give and receive genes with reckless abandon, the notion that something similar could happen in insects or fish—let alone reptiles or mammals—seemed ridiculous on its face. …But, against all odds, cases of horizontal gene transfer kept cropping up. Now, it’s clear DNA can and has jumped between animals—the big question that remains is how. Lots of ideas have been proposed, but the evidence has been handwavy. That is, until a largely overlooked paper published in Science last month reported that virus-like segments of mobile DNA called Mavericks have been shuttling genes between different species of roundworms (nematodes) for millennia…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 3.

-•-
2023-08-02. ‘We’re changing the clouds.’ An unforeseen test of geoengineering is fueling record ocean warmth. [https://www.science.org/content/article/changing-clouds-unforeseen-test-geoengineering-fueling-record-ocean-warmth] By Paul Voosen, Science. Excerpt: …Regulations imposed in 2020 by the United Nations’s International Maritime Organization (IMO) have cut ships’ sulfur pollution by more than 80% and improved air quality worldwide. The reduction has also lessened the effect of sulfate particles in seeding and brightening the distinctive low-lying, reflective clouds that follow in the wake of ships and help cool the planet. The 2020 IMO rule “is a big natural experiment,” says Duncan Watson-Parris, an atmospheric physicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. “We’re changing the clouds.” By dramatically reducing the number of ship tracks, the planet has warmed up faster, several new studies have found. That trend is magnified in the Atlantic, where maritime traffic is particularly dense. In the shipping corridors, the increased light represents a 50% boost to the warming effect of human carbon emissions. …The natural experiment created by the IMO rules is providing a rare opportunity for climate scientists to study a geoengineering scheme in action—although it is one that is working in the wrong direction. Indeed, one such strategy to slow global warming, called marine cloud brightening, would see ships inject salt particles back into the air, to make clouds more reflective. In Diamond’s view, the dramatic decline in ship tracks is clear evidence that humanity could cool off the planet significantly by brightening the clouds. “It suggests pretty strongly that if you wanted to do it on purpose, you could,” he says…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 7.

-•-
2023-08-01. ‘Everyone is aghast.’ India’s move to weaken forest protections outrages conservationists. [https://www.science.org/content/article/everyone-aghast-india-s-move-weaken-forest-protections-outrages-conservationists] By Tanvi Dutta Gupta, Science. Excerpt: Conservation scientists fear more than one-quarter of forests in India could lose legal protection under controversial legislation that the nation’s Parliament could approve as early as this week. The legislation amends India’s flagship 1980 Forest Conservation Act. The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi says it will help India meet its commitments to combat climate change by planting trees, and “eliminate ambiguities” in rules that govern how officials legally define forests and regulate their use. But researchers and others worry the measure—which has triggered nationwide protests—will irrevocably transform India’s landscape. They say the amendments will open forests to development, harm biodiversity, and weaken the rights of Indigenous people…. For GSS A New World View chapter 6.

-•-
2023-07-31. Electrified cement could turn houses and roads into nearly limitless batteries. [https://www.science.org/content/article/electrified-cement-could-turn-houses-and-roads-nearly-limitless-batteries] By Robert F. Service, Science. Excerpt: …Researchers have come up with a new way to store electricity in cement, using cheap and abundant materials. If scaled up, the cement could hold enough energy in a home’s concrete foundation to fulfill its daily power needs. Scaled up further, electrified roadways could power electric cars as they drive. And if scientists can find a way to do this all cheaply the advance might offer a nearly limitless capacity for storing energy from intermittent renewable sources, such as solar and wind. So far, the cement devices are small, only big enough to power a few LED lightbulbs. But efforts are already underway to scale them up. …The cement devices are a kind of simplified battery called supercapacitors. They consist of two electrically conductive plates separated by an ion-conducting electrolyte and a thin membrane. As the device is charged, positively charged ions from the electrolyte accumulate on one plate, while negatively charged ions accumulate on the other. The amount of power storage depends on the total surface area of the supercapacitor’s conductive plates. For decades, researchers have tried to incorporate them into structural materials, such as the concrete used in roads and buildings, or the carbon composites used in automotive and aircraft bodies. Unlike today’s best batteries, supercapacitors typically use nonflammable electrolytes, making them safer…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 8.

-•-
2023-07-31. Displaced from Home and Sheltered in an Extreme Environment. [https://eos.org/articles/displaced-from-home-and-sheltered-in-an-extreme-environment] By Humberto Basilio, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Millions of people, displaced from their home countries, take refuge in areas that are highly vulnerable to extreme weather. …Kakuma refugee camp, …which includes refugees from more than 20 countries, often lacks access to services such as clean water and nutritious food. A common building material in the camp is wood-iron sheets, which are vulnerable to dust storms and hailstorms. The refugee community must also endure the latent threat posed by Kenya’s increasing heat, combined with unprecedented drought and a lack of trees. …In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, scientists analyzed refugees’ exposure to extreme weather events in Kakuma and 19 other large refugee settlements. The results confirmed that refugee camps are exposed to harsher conditions than those found in the rest of the host country…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-07-31. ‘Shocking levels of stress.’ A marine heat wave is devastating Florida’s corals. [https://www.science.org/content/article/shocking-levels-stress-marine-heat-wave-devastating-florida-s-corals] By Warren Cornwall, Science. Excerpt: Ocean water temperatures off southern Florida have spiked to record levels, with sea surface temperatures hovering at more than 2°C above typical seasonal peaks for the past few weeks. The heat wave threatens coral reef ecosystems already buffeted by years of ocean warming, disease, and pollution. Coral bleaching, in which heat-stressed coral polyps eject the symbiotic algae that live in their tissues and help nourish the coral, is already widespread this year off Florida’s coast. Corals are also shedding tissue and swiftly dying without going through bleaching…. [Interview with Ian Enochs, a coral reef ecologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, heads the coral program at the agency’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory] For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-07-27. Making Renewable, Infinitely Recyclable Plastics Using Bacteria [https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2023/07/27/making-renewable-infinitely-recyclable-plastics-using-bacteria/] By Lauren Biron, Berkeley Lab. Excerpt: Scientists engineered microbes to make the ingredients for recyclable plastics – replacing finite, polluting petrochemicals with sustainable alternatives. The new approach shows that renewable, recyclable plastics are not only possible, but also outperform those from petrochemicals. …Most plastics can’t be recycled, and many use finite, polluting petrochemicals as the basic ingredients. But that’s changing. In a study published today in Nature Sustainability, researchers successfully engineered microbes to make biological alternatives for the starting ingredients in an infinitely recyclable plastic known as poly(diketoenamine), or PDK. …PDKs can be used for a variety of products, including adhesives, flexible items like computer cables or watch bands, building materials, and “tough thermosets,” rigid plastics made through a curing process. Researchers were surprised to find that incorporating the bioTAL into the material expanded its working temperature range by up to 60 degrees Celsius compared to the petrochemical version. This opens the door to using PDKs in items that need specific working temperatures, including sports gear and automotive parts such as bumpers or dashboards…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 7.

-•-
2023-07-26. Meltwater from Antarctic Glaciers Is Slowing Deep-Ocean Currents. [https://eos.org/articles/meltwater-from-antarctic-glaciers-is-slowing-deep-ocean-currents] By Veronika Meduna, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Antarctic ice drives crucial deep-ocean currents that help regulate Earth’s climate. But the system is slowing down. …When the sea freezes around Antarctica’s fringes in winter, the ice expels salt into the water below. Trillions of metric tons of this briny, supercooled, heavy water cascade down Antarctica’s continental slope, dropping into the deep ocean in submarine waterfalls. As these waters sink from the Antarctic shelf, they spread north through the Southern Ocean, driving abyssal circulation—the lower limb of the global ocean overturning circulation. They are the densest water masses in the world’s oceans and the engine room of a current system that conveys heat, dissolved gases, and nutrients around the world. …But diminishing glaciers in West Antarctica—primarily the Amundsen Sea—are freshening the shelf waters in the Ross Sea and slowing the production of bottom water, according to research led by Kathy Gunn, a physical oceanographer at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Hobart, Tasmania…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-07-26. Webb Snaps Highly Detailed Infrared Image of Actively Forming Stars. [https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2023/webb-snaps-highly-detailed-infrared-image-of-actively-forming-stars ] By NASA, ESA, CSA. Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI). Excerpt: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured the “antics” of a pair of actively forming young stars, known as Herbig-Haro 46/47, in high-resolution near-infrared light. …They are buried deeply in a disk of gas and dust that feeds their growth as they continue to gain mass. The disk is not visible, but its shadow can be seen in the two dark, conical regions surrounding the central stars. The most striking details are the two-sided lobes that fan out from the actively forming central stars, represented in fiery orange. Much of this material was shot out from those stars as they repeatedly ingest and eject the gas and dust…over thousands of years. When material from more recent ejections runs into older material, it changes the shape of these lobes. …The stars’ more recent ejections appear in a thread-like blue. …Ejections regulate how much mass the stars ultimately gather…. See also https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasawebbtelescope/53072881464/in/album-72177720305127361/ and Sky & Telescope article. Find latest JWST images at https://webb.nasa.gov by tapping the accordion main navigation menu in the upper right corner and choosing “Webb 2023 – Flickr” or similar selection. Another type of collection is at https://webbtelescope.org/images. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 2.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-07-27. Shaky Ground. [https://www.science.org/content/article/farmers-paid-millions-trap-carbon-soils-will-it-actually-help-planet] By Gabriel Popkin, Science. Excerpt: Lance Unger …on his farm near the Wabash River in southwestern Indiana …rather than leaving his fields fallow, he sowed some of them with cover crops of oats and sorghum that grew until the winter cold killed them off. And before [spring] planting …, Unger drove a machine to shove aside yellowing stalks—last season’s “trash,” as he calls it—rather than tilling the soil and plowing the stalks under. For these efforts, a Boston-based company called Indigo paid Unger $26,232 in late 2021 and an even larger chunk late last year. That’s how much an emerging market values the hundreds of tons of carbon that, in theory at least, Unger yanked out of the atmosphere with his cover crops or left in the soil by not tilling. Slowing climate change isn’t a priority for him, he says, …[but] the money made it worthwhile. Indigo also made money in the deal. It took a 25% cut of the bundle of credits it then sold at about $40 per ton of captured carbon. Buyers were companies such as IBM, JPMorgan Chase, and Shopify, which were looking to offset greenhouse gas emissions from their operations and bolster their green bona fides. For advocates, the exchange represents a beautiful marriage of idealism and capitalism in the service of an urgently needed climate solution. …But as the industry heats up, so does the skepticism. Some researchers say the science of how soils store and release carbon is too uncertain to support an industry claiming to be cooling the planet. They accuse companies like Indigo of exaggerating the benefits of their programs…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-07-27. An American Energy Giant Sees Israel as a Springboard to Europe. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/27/business/energy-environment/israel-gas-europe.html] By Stanley Reed, The New York Times. Excerpt: Chevron finds itself with an abundance of natural gas on Europe’s doorstep. Amid competing regional interests, the question is how to develop it…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 3.

-•-
2023-07-26. View the Thin Crescent of Venus. [https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/spot-venuss-creeping-cusps-at-solar-conjunction] By Bob King, Sky & Telescope. Excerpt: With Venus approaching inferior conjunction in August, here’s a foolproof way to follow its thinning crescent as the planet transitions from Evening Star to Morning Star. …Venus currently shines about 25° east of the Sun and sets about 45 minutes after sundown. On August 13th the two bodies will be in conjunction and rise and set together. For about a week before and after that date, Venus will be difficult-to-impossible to see with the naked eye because of interference from solar glare but remain visible in a telescope if you know exactly where to look. The orbit of Venus is tipped 3.4° relative to the plane of the ecliptic [Earth’s orbit plane]. At inferior conjunction, when the two planets are closest, Venus can pass up to 8.4° north or south of the Sun. If Venus lies at or close to either one of its nodes — the two points where it intersects the plane of Earth’s orbit — we’ll see it transit across the Sun’s face. That last happened in June 2012 and will happen again in December 2117. During the present apparition, Venus will pass 7.7° south of the Sun’s center, close to its maximum distance, making it possible to safely follow the planet up to and beyond solar conjunction. This only happens occasionally. For instance, during the June 2020 conjunction, Venus sat just 0.5° north of the Sun — much too close to safely view. At its last conjunction in January 2022, the Sun and planet were less than 5° apart…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

-•-
2023-07-26. Ship noises prove a nuisance for arctic narwhals. [https://www.science.org/content/article/ship-noises-prove-nuisance-arctic-narwhals] By Tanvi Dutta Gupta, Science. Excerpt: The Arctic Ocean is a noisy place. Creatures of the deep have learned to live with the cacophony of creaking ice sheets and breaking icebergs, but humanmade sources of noise from ships and oil and gas infrastructure are altering that natural submarine soundscape. Now, a research team has found that even subtle underwater noise pollution can cause narwhals to make shallower dives and cut their hunts short. The research, published today in Science Advances, uncovers “some really great information on a species we know very little about,” says Ari Friedlaender, an ocean ecologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, not involved in the study. Knowing how the whales react to these noises could help conservationists “act proactively” to protect the animals in their Arctic home where warming waters already threaten their lifestyles. Narwhals…live in one of the most extreme environments in the world, explains Outi Tervo, an ecologist at the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources and the study’s first author. Each narwhal returns in summer to the same small fjord where it was born in order to feed on fish, squid, and shrimp. As humans increasingly encroach on Arctic waters, though, scientists, conservationists, and Inuit communities have worried about how development and ship traffic will affect the whales…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 1.

-•-
2023-07-26. Ancient people in China systematically mined and burned coal up to 3600 years ago. [https://www.science.org/content/article/ancient-people-china-systematically-mined-and-burned-coal-3600-years-ago] By Celina Zhao, Science. Excerpt: Long before coal fueled the Industrial Revolution, ancient societies around the world were already exploiting its power to smelt metal or heat water for toasty baths. Now, excavations at a Bronze Age site in northwestern China show people were burning coal on a large scale up to 3600 years ago, 1 millennium earlier than previously thought. The research, reported today in Science Advances, also traces where the coal came from and how a shortage of other fuel may have encouraged ancient people to turn to this new energy source…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 3.

-•-
2023-07-26. The death of supercontinents brings diamonds to the surface. [https://www.science.org/content/article/death-supercontinents-brings-diamonds-surface] By Paul Voosen, Science. Excerpt: Forged under extreme temperatures and pressures more than 150 kilometers down in the mantle, diamonds ride rockets to reach Earth’s surface: narrow pipes of magma called kimberlite that can erupt at the speed of sound. Strangely, most kimberlite pipes are found in the quiet, ancient interiors of continents. They are far from where most other eruptions occur: at the edges of tectonic plates and near mantle plumes, broad upwellings that form volcanic hot spots such as Hawaii or Yellowstone. “How on Earth did these get here?” asks Thomas Gernon, a geologist at the University of Southampton. “It was an elephant in the room that no one had a good explanation for.” Now, Gernon and his colleagues believe they do. They say the timing and location of these diamond-bearing eruptions suggest they are aftereffects of the breakup of supercontinents, which causes whirling turbulence in the viscous mantle rock below. Like slow-motion tidal waves of rock, the researchers say, these swells ripple beneath the continents, traveling hundreds of kilometers over the course of millions of years…. The finding, published today in Nature, is about more than diamonds and kimberlites, …It suggests that tectonic action near Earth’s surface can influence the behavior of the mantle on a broader scale than once thought. It also indicates that the underground waves keep the margins of newly divided continents volcanically active far longer than expected, possibly explaining other volcanic rocks that had previously been chalked up to mantle plumes…. For GSS Energy Flow chapter 3.

-•-
2023-07-25. Saguaro cacti collapsing in Arizona extreme heat, scientist says. [https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/saguaro-cacti-collapsing-arizona-extreme-heat-scientist-says-2023-07-25/] By Liliana Salgado, Reuters. Excerpt: Arizona’s saguaro cacti, a symbol of the U.S. West, are leaning, losing arms and in some cases falling over during the state’s record streak of extreme heat, a scientist said on Tuesday. Summer monsoon rains the cacti rely on have failed to arrive, testing the desert giants’ ability to survive in the wild as well as in cities after temperatures above 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 Celsius) for 25 days in Phoenix, said Tania Hernandez…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 3.

-•-
2023-07-25. July Heat Waves Nearly Impossible Without Climate Change, Study Says. [https://www.wsj.com/articles/july-heat-waves-nearly-impossible-without-climate-change-study-says-a6dad9e1] By Eric Niiler, The Wall Street Journal. Excerpt: Record temperatures have been fueled by decades of fossil-fuel emissions. …The extreme heat blanketing the southern regions of the U.S., Mexico, and Europe this month would have been nearly impossible without the warming effects of human-induced climate change, according to a study released Tuesday by a group of European scientists who carry out rapid assessments of extreme weather events. The study by World Weather Attribution, a group of researchers based in London and the Netherlands, found that three separate heat waves in July across the Northern Hemisphere were made much worse because of decades of fossil-fuel emissions that have raised the planet’s average temperature by 2 degrees Fahrenheit since the late 19th century…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-07-25. 101.1 degrees? Water temperatures off Florida Keys among hottest in the world. [https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/07/25/water-temperatures-in-florida/70463489007/] By Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA Today. Excerpt: Water temperatures in the bays between the mainland and the Florida Keys were so warm that meteorologists say they were among the hottest ocean temperatures ever recorded on Earth. Water temperature at a buoy in Manatee Bay south of Miami reached an incredible 101.1 degrees Monday evening. That’s higher than an unofficial 99.7 degrees once reported in Kuwait, but meteorologists say the Florida gauge’s location in shallower, darker water near land means the two measurements can’t be fairly compared. Heat has been building in South Florida for weeks as the region and much of the western United States sweltered in temperatures much warmer than normal. …Federal officials say more than 40% of the world’s oceans are experiencing marine heat waves, a figure that could reach 50% by September…. See also The Guardian article Florida ocean records ‘unprecedented’ temperatures similar to a hot tub, New York Times article Warming Could Push the Atlantic Past a ‘Tipping Point’ This Century, and Axios article As ocean temperatures hit 101°F, scientists rush to move corals. For GSS Climate Change chapter 4.

2023-07-24. Webb Detects Water Vapor in Rocky Planet-Forming Zone. [https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2023/webb-detects-water-vapor-in-rocky-planet-forming-zone] By NASA. Excerpt: Water is essential for life as we know it. However, scientists debate how it reached the Earth and whether the same processes could seed rocky exoplanets orbiting distant stars. New insights may come from the planetary system PDS 70, located 370 light-years away. The star hosts both an inner disk and outer disk of gas and dust, separated by a 5 billion-mile-wide (8 billion kilometer) gap, and within that gap are two known gas-giant planets. New measurements by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) have detected water vapor in the system’s inner disk, at distances of less than 100 million miles (160 million kilometers) from the star – the region where rocky, terrestrial planets may be forming. (The Earth orbits 93 million miles from our Sun.) This is the first detection of water in the terrestrial region of a disk already known to host two or more protoplanets. “We’ve seen water in other disks, but not so close in and in a system where planets are currently assembling. We couldn’t make this type of measurement before Webb,” said lead author Giulia Perotti of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Heidelberg, Germany…. See also Nature article, Water in the terrestrial planet-forming zone of the PDS 70 disk. For GSS Changing Cosmos chapter 8.

2023-07-21. The Inequality of Heat Stress. [https://eos.org/articles/the-inequality-of-heat-stress] By Rebecca Owen, Eos/AGU. When record-breaking temperatures and heat domes envelop swaths of the United States each summer, people across the country experience these extreme heat events differently. Those living in historically redlined neighborhoods, where discriminatory land use and housing policies caused segregation and racism to flourish, are still, even today, at higher risk for hotter temperatures and the health effects caused by heat stress. In a new study published in One Earth, researchers showed that heat stress disproportionately affects poor and non-white residents in 481 American cities.… For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

2023-07-20. Magnetic Tangles Drive Solar Wind. [https://eos.org/articles/magnetic-tangles-drive-solar-wind] By atthew R. Francis, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Though the effects of solar wind are well documented, what causes it has been a mystery for more than 50 years. Now, thanks to a solar close-up, some researchers think the energy behind the flow of particles comes from the Sun’s own magnetic fields snapping together. The process, known as reconnection, may illuminate not only solar wind but winds from other stars as well as the behavior of comets and planetary atmospheres. In part to solve the solar wind mystery—and perhaps learn ways to spot solar storms before they form—researchers developed NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, which launched in 2018 and has been flying in ever-closer orbits to the Sun. …Reconnection occurs in plasmas when magnetic fields pointing in opposite directions cancel out, rapidly dumping their energy into the surrounding electrons and ions. A simplified picture would be taking two bar magnets pointed in opposite directions and letting them snap together: The noise of their collision is analogous to reconnection energy release. In the solar corona, this process happens when the magnetic fields that turned back toward the Sun come into proximity with those stretching out into the solar system, and the energy released is dumped into the charged particles that make up the solar wind…. For GSS Energy Flow chapter 4.

-•-
2023-07-19. ‘We are damned fools’: scientist who sounded climate alarm in 80s warns of worse to come. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/19/climate-crisis-james-hansen-scientist-warning] By Oliver Milman, The Guardian. Excerpt: The world is shifting towards a superheated climate not seen in the past 1m years, prior to human existence, because “we are damned fools” for not acting upon warnings over the climate crisis, according to James Hansen, the US scientist who alerted the world to the greenhouse effect in the 1980s. Hansen, whose testimony to the US Senate in 1988 is cited as the first high-profile revelation of global heating, warned in a statement with two other scientists that the world was moving towards a “new climate frontier” with temperatures higher than at any point over the past million years, bringing impacts such as stronger storms, heatwaves and droughts. …The world has already warmed by about 1.2C since mass industrialization, causing a 20% chance of having the sort of extreme summer temperatures currently seen in many parts of the northern hemisphere, up from a 1% chance 50 years ago, Hansen said. “There’s a lot more in the pipeline, unless we reduce the greenhouse gas amounts,” Hansen, who is 82, told the Guardian. “These superstorms are a taste of the storms of my grandchildren. We are headed wittingly into the new reality – we knew it was coming.”… For GSS Climate Change chapter 4.

-•-
2023-07-19. Fervo heralds a revolution in geothermal power technology. [https://newatlas.com/energy/fervo-geothermal-test/] By Loz Blain, New Atlas. Excerpt: There’s a near-unlimited amount of clean energy under our feet, in the form of hot rocks. You can generate clean electricity 24/7 – not intermittently, like solar and wind – if you can get water down into that rock and back to the surface to drive steam turbines. A reliable source like this would make the clean energy transition much smoother. . . However . . . there are only limited places where geothermal power currently makes economic sense – places like Iceland and New Zealand, for example, where the heat is close to the surface, easily accessible, and the site is close enough to a grid connection to make it worth exploiting. Fervo’s solution is a bit more down-to-Earth, as it were, and draws on much more established, high-volume machinery and techniques from oil and gas production. Essentially, Fervo aims to do for geothermal what shale oil and fracking did for hydrocarbons, radically improving access to resources and unlocking energy where previously it was too expensive to get to…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 4.

-•-
[template] 2023-07-00. . [] By . Excerpt: … For GSS chapter .

~~~~~

-•-
2023-07-20. Warning signs detected hours ahead of big earthquakes. [https://www.science.org/content/article/warning-signs-detected-hours-ahead-big-earthquakes] By Paul Voosen, Science. Excerpt: Established earthquake warning systems provide at best just a minute or two of notice—and that’s only if the shaking doesn’t start under your feet. …Now, researchers say they have identified nearly imperceptible shifts along fault zones up to 2 hours before large earthquakes, according to a report today in Science. Although existing monitoring systems cannot yet pick up this signal in real time, the discovery points toward a future where residents could retreat to safe havens ahead of the most catastrophic quakes. …Bletery and Nocquet stacked the time series on top of each other. For the first 46 hours, they found the records to be basically featureless. But in the 2 hours before the earthquake, the duo found signs of increasing movement—as if the faults were starting to slip ahead of the main rupture, Bletery says…. For GSS Energy Flow chapter 2.

-•-
2023-07-19. U.S. and China on Climate: How the World’s Two Largest Polluters Stack Up. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/19/climate/us-china-climate-issues.html] By Lisa Friedman, The New York Times. Excerpt: …China, the world’s biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, produces 12.7 billion metric tons of emissions annually. That dwarfs U.S. emissions, currently about 5.9 billion tons annually. …Since 1850, China has emitted 284 billion tons of carbon dioxide. But the United States, which industrialized far earlier, has released almost twice that amount: 509 billion tons of emissions. …The average Chinese person uses far less energy than the average American, about 10.1 tons of carbon pollution annually compared to 17.6 tons in the U.S. …The United States consumes 20 percent of the world’s oil and China consumes about 14 percent. The United States is also a top oil exporter. China imports most of its oil. …Natural gas now accounts for about 30 percent of energy use in the United States. In China, natural gas, most of it imported, accounts for 9 percent of its energy mix…. The United States has not built a new coal plant since 2013. There has been a 40 percent decline in coal-fired power generation in America over the last decade…. China burns more coal than the rest of the world combined. A study last year found China permitted a total of 106 gigawatts of new coal power projects in 2022, the equivalent of two large coal power plants per week…. China manufactures more solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicle batteries than any other nation. In 2022 China invested $546 billion into clean energy. The United States invested $141 billion.… One in four cars sold in China last year was an electric vehicle. …In the United States, one in 17 new cars sold last year was electric…. See also Why Heat Waves Are Deepening China’s Addiction to Coal. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

-•-
2023-07-18. How Canada’s Record Wildfires Got So Bad, So Fast. [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/07/18/climate/canada-record-wildfires.html] By Nadja Popovich, The New York Times. Excerpt: Wildfires in Canada have burned a staggering 25 million acres so far this year, an area roughly the size of Kentucky. …“The recipe for a wildfire is simple,” said Mike Flannigan, a professor who studies wildland fires at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia. “You need three ingredients: First, vegetation. We call it fuel. Second: ignition, which in Canada is people and lightning. And, third: hot, dry, windy weather.” Those ingredients came together over and over again this year across much of the country, he said, resulting in a fire season that stands “head and shoulders above any other year.”… For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-07-18. Heat Waves Grip 3 Continents as Climate Change Warms Earth. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/18/world/extreme-heat-wave-us-europe-asia.html] By Alan Yuhas, The New York Times. Excerpt: Punishing heat waves gripped three continents on Tuesday, breaking records in cities around the Northern Hemisphere less than two weeks after the Earth recorded what scientists said were likely its hottest days in modern history. Firefighters in Greece scrambled to put out wildfires, as parched conditions raised the risk of more blazes throughout Europe. Beijing logged another day of 95-degree heat, and people in Hangzhou, another Chinese city, compared the choking conditions to a sauna. From the Middle East to the American Southwest, delivery drivers, airport workers and construction crews labored under blistering skies. …In the United States, Phoenix broke a nearly half-century-old record on Tuesday, with the city’s 19th consecutive day of temperatures above 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 Celsius)…. See also June Was Earth’s Hottest on Record. August May Bring More of the Same. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-07-17. Soil Fungi May Be a Carbon Pool. [https://eos.org/articles/soil-fungi-are-a-major-carbon-sink] By Caroline Hasler, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Mycorrhizal fungi—soil-dwelling fungi that exchange nutrients with plant roots—are important players in plant and soil health. A new study suggests they are also significant carbon pools. Researchers estimated that the fungi receive the equivalent of 13 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) annually from plants—equal to 36% of current annual fossil fuel emissions…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 5.

-•-
2023-07-16. As Climate Shocks Multiply, Designers Seek Holy Grail: Disaster-Proof Homes. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/16/climate/climate-geodesic-dome-house.html] By Christopher Flavelle, The New York Times. Excerpt: Jon duSaint, a retired software engineer, recently bought property near Bishop, Calif., in a rugged valley east of the Sierra Nevada. The area is at risk for wildfires, severe daytime heat and high winds — and also heavy winter snowfall. But Mr. duSaint isn’t worried. He’s planning to live in a dome. The 29-foot structure will be coated with aluminum shingles that reflect heat, and are also fire-resistant. Because the dome has less surface area than a rectangular house, it’s easier to insulate against heat or cold. And it can withstand high winds and heavy snowpack. …As weather grows more extreme, geodesic domes and other resilient home designs are gaining new attention from more climate-conscious home buyers, and the architects and builders who cater to them…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-07-16. A New Job for Electric Vehicles: Powering Homes During Blackouts. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/16/business/energy-environment/electric-vehicles-backup-power.html] By Ivan Penn, The New York Times. Excerpt: Some energy experts say battery-powered vehicles will increasingly help keep the lights on and support electric grids, rather than straining them…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 9.

-•-
2023-07-15. Why Sunscreen Is the Only Anti-Aging Product You Need. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/15/well/live/sunscreen-aging-skin-care.html] By Dana G. Smith, The New York Times. Excerpt: …Dr. Frey said that as much as 80 percent of the skin changes we associate with age are actually caused by the sun’s ultraviolet rays. The best way to avoid them, aside from staying indoors, in the shade or permanently covered up? Sunscreen. …Years of exposure to both UVA and UVB rays damages cells on the top layer of the skin, called keratinocytes. When that happens, the skin starts to look red, rough and scaly in patches — a condition called actinic keratosis. “It’s due to DNA mutations that occur specifically in the keratinocytes, and they then proliferate and become abnormal,” said Dr. Lena Von Schuckmann, a dermatologist and clinician researcher at the University of Queensland in Australia. In some cases, actinic keratosis can become cancerous. …Below the keratinocytes are the melanocytes — the cells that produce melanin and cause the skin to darken. UVA rays primarily activate these cells, resulting in a suntan. (Sunburn is different; it’s caused by UVB rays injuring the top layer of the skin.) With long-term UV exposure, the melanocytes become damaged, resulting in permanent hyperpigmentation. These brown spots are sometimes called sunspots, age spots, liver spots or their technical name, solar lentigines…. For GSS Ozone chapter 3.

-•-
2023-07-13. Marine Protection Does Not Affect Fish Catches in Mexico. [https://eos.org/articles/marine-protection-does-not-affect-fish-catches-in-mexico] By Katherine Kornei, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Catches of species such as tuna and swordfish did not decrease after a marine protected area the size of New York State was established off the coast of Mexico in 2017. Marine protected areas are the oceanic versions of national parks: In the most stringently protected regions, fishing and other extractive activities are banned. Some critics in the fishing industry have long argued that such restrictions negatively affect fishers by reducing catches and forcing mariners to travel longer distances to fish. However, researchers have now analyzed maritime data to show that’s not true, at least for North America’s largest marine protected area. Their results were published in Science Advances…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 7.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-07-14. Some Squirmy Stowaways Got to the Arctic. And They Like It There. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/14/climate/invasive-worms-arctic-environment.html] By Sofia Quaglia, The New York times. Excerpt: Worms are …taking over territory in the Far North that’s been wormless since the last ice age. Scientists say the expansion will inevitably change northern ecosystems, with implications for the whole planet, in ways we don’t fully understand and probably can’t undo. …In much of the temperate world, shoveling up a clump of ground full of common earthworms is a sign of healthy soil full of flora, fungi and good bacteria. Earthworms actively contribute to soil health by munching on decaying organic matter and pooping out nutrient-rich fertilizer. But that means worms also have the potential to upend the natural balance of ecosystems in Arctic and sub-Arctic zones. For example, by encouraging the growth of certain plants at the expense of others, altering entire food webs and squeezing out rare, native flora that is already threatened by climate change. …They can also trigger microbial activity that can help to unlock potent greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen that are stored in the soil. …Worms didn’t make it to the Far North on their own. Research shows that humans have been bringing them, intentionally and unintentionally, to remote places above the Arctic Circle and to sub-Arctic areas since at least the middle of the 1800s by importing soil for lawns and gardens and for use as fishing bait. Recent increases in travel to these areas can also contribute to the invasion. …Now, as human-caused climate change raises temperatures and thaws the permafrost, the worms are getting a foothold…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 5.

-•-
2023-07-13. Genetically edited wood could make paper more sustainable. [https://www.science.org/content/article/genetically-edited-wood-could-make-paper-more-sustainable] By Robert F. Service, Science. Excerpt: Paper products may seem like the ultimate green technology. They are recyclable, biodegradable, and renewable. Their main ingredient, cellulose fibers, literally grows on trees. But separating the cellulose from other substances in the plant, such as the stiff, woody material called lignin, comes with a heavy environmental toll. Every year, paper mills generate millions of tons of chemical waste and more than 150 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions. Today in Science, researchers report they have found a way to reduce that burden. By using CRISPR gene-editing tools, they grew engineered poplar trees with far less lignin than usual. Milling these trees, they argue, could lower papermaking pollution while saving the industry billions of dollars…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 4.

-•-
2023-07-13. Leaks Can Make Natural Gas as Bad for the Climate as Coal, a Study Says. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/13/climate/natural-gas-leaks-coal-climate-change.html] By Hiroko Tabuchi, The New York Times. Excerpt: Natural gas, long seen as a cleaner alternative to coal and an important tool in the fight to slow global warming, can be just as harmful to the climate, a new study has concluded, unless companies can all but eliminate the leaks that plague its use. It takes as little as 0.2 percent of gas to leak to make natural gas as big a driver of climate change as coal, the study found. That’s a tiny margin of error for a gas that is notorious for leaking from drill sites, processing plants and the pipes that transport it into power stations or homes and kitchens. …The peer-reviewed study, which also involved researchers from Harvard and Duke Universities and NASA and is set to be published next week in the journal Environmental Research Letters, adds to a substantial body of research that has poked holes in the idea that natural gas is a suitable transitional fuel to a future powered entirely by renewables, like solar and wind. The findings throw up difficult questions about how much more money the nations of the world should invest in gas infrastructure to ward off the worst of global warming. The $370 billion Inflation Reduction Act passed by the United States Congress last year, designed to move the country away from fossil fuels and toward renewables, includes credits that would apply to some forms of natural gas…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 3.

-•-
2023-07-13. Scientist Invents the ‘World’s Whitest Paint’ To Cool Down Your House. [https://www.entrepreneur.com/green-entrepreneur/scientist-invents-the-worlds-whitest-paint-to-cool-down/455739] By Jonathan Small, Entrepreneur. Excerpt: A scientist at Purdue University concocted a white paint that can cool down buildings and prevent global temperatures from rising. Xiulin Ruan, a professor of mechanical engineering, created white paint that reflects 98% of the sun’s rays away from the Earth’s surface. When applied to the roof of structures, the paint cools down surfaces as much as eight degrees during the day and up to 19 degrees cooler at night, according to a report in The New York Times. “If you were to use this paint to cover a roof area of about 1,000 square feet [93 m2], we estimate that you could get a cooling power up to 10 kilowatts. That’s more powerful than the air conditioners used by most houses,” Ruan said…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 8.

-•-
2023-07-12. Perseverance Finds Complex Organics (Not Life) On Mars. [https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/perseverance-finds-complex-organics-not-life-on-mars/] By Colin Stuart, Sky & Telescope Magazine. Excerpt: Planetary scientists analyzing data from NASA’s Perseverance rover have found signs of organic molecules on Mars, hinting that the planet had a more complex geochemical cycle in the past than previously thought. If true, it shows that the building blocks of life have been present on the Red Planet for around billions of years. These new findings, published in Nature, come from examining the floor of Jezero Crater, a 45-kilometer- (28-mile-) wide impact basin just north of the Martian equator. NASA picked it as Perseverance’s landing site due to geological signs that an ancient river flooded into the crater some 2.5 billion years ago…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

-•-
2023-07-12. Massive lava outburst may have led to Snowball Earth. [https://www.science.org/content/article/massive-lava-outburst-may-have-led-snowball-earth] By Maia Wei-Haas, Science. Excerpt: About 717 million years ago, a climate catastrophe struck the planet, as temperatures plunged and glaciers enveloped the globe. The cause of this “Snowball Earth” episode has been mysterious, but it took place around the same time as a massive outburst of volcanism. Many researchers thought there might be a connection. But the timing was uncertain. Now, more precise dates, reported last month in Earth and Planetary Science Letters (EPSL) and in November 2022 in Science Advances, show the eruptions preceded the Snowball Earth event by 1 million to 2 million years. The lag points to a particular way the fire could have triggered the ice: through a chemical alteration of the fresh volcanic rocks known as weathering, which sucks carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere, turning down the planetary thermostat. The studies highlight the power of weathering as a key driver behind shifts in Earth’s climate, and how components of the planet as disparate as rocks and the atmosphere are inextricably linked, says EPSL study co-author Galen Halverson, a sedimentary geologist at McGill University. …Geoscientists debating the cause of the so-called Sturtian glaciation, which lasted 57 million years, have pointed to a number of possibilities—meteorite strikes, biologic activity, shifts in Earth’s orbit, and more. But recent studies have zeroed in on one of the largest volcanic outbursts ever, preserved today across northern Canada in what’s called the Franklin large igneous province (LIP). The eruptions spewed lava across an area at least the size of Argentina—and perhaps bigger than China…. For GSS Life and Climate chapter 8.

-•-
2023-07-12. Aomawa Shields on Searching For Life in Space, and at Home. [https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101893676/aomawa-shields-on-searching-for-life-in-space-and-at-home] KQED podcast. Excerpt: Does it matter if life exists on another planet? To UC Irvine astrobiologist Aomawa Shields it matters in the same way that a mountain matters and screams to be climbed: not knowing is unbearable. Shields has devoted her career to studying the climate and habitability of exoplanets to further the search for extraterrestrial life. She’s also one of very few Black women in a field dominated by white men and a classically trained actor. We talk to her about her journey as a scientist and an artist and her new book “Life on Other Planets: A Memoir of Finding My Place in the Universe.”… See also TED Talk, How we’ll find life on other planets. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 8.

-•-
2023-07-12. Parts of Arizona have seen 110-degree temperatures every day this month. And it’s about to get hotter. [https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/12/us/arizona-southwest-heat-wave/index.html] By Christina Maxouris, CNN. Excerpt: Arizonans have endured scorching temperatures for more than two weeks and that hot streak is about to get even hotter, with a brutal heat wave starting to take shape ahead of the weekend. Temperatures in Phoenix have reached 110 degrees Fahrenheit every single day this month. On Wednesday, the city’s high was 111 degrees, making it the third longest streak in history during which Phoenix recorded continuous temperatures of at least 110 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. The longest streak, set in 1974, was 18 days. Meteorologists expect the weekend heat will be record-breaking, reaching a staggering 119 degrees in some parts. …CNN Meteorologist Taylor Ward said “Over the coming days many locations will experience some of the top 10 temperatures they have ever recorded. This type of heat has to be taken seriously as heat stress can occur very quickly for those out in the elements.” …Over the next week, nearly 70% of all Americans will see a high temperature at or above 90 degrees, while more than 55 million people will see temperatures at or above 100 degrees…. See also New York Times article In Phoenix, Heat Becomes a Brutal Test of Endurance. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-07-12. The Energy Transition Is Underway. Fossil Fuel Workers Could Be Left Behind. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/12/us/politics/coal-gas-workers-transition.html] By Madeleine Ngo, The New York Times. Excerpt: …The United States is undergoing a rapid shift away from fossil fuels as new battery factories, wind and solar projects, and other clean energy investments crop up across the country. An expansive climate law that Democrats passed last year could be even more effective than Biden administration officials had estimated at reducing fossil fuel emissions. While the transition is projected to create hundreds of thousands of clean energy jobs, it could be devastating for many workers and counties that have relied on coal, oil and gas for their economic stability. Estimates of the potential job losses in the coming years vary, but roughly 900,000 workers were directly employed by fossil fuel industries in 2022, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. …Beyond construction, wind and solar farms typically require few workers to operate, and new clean energy jobs might not necessarily offer comparable wages or align with the skills of laid-off workers. …U.S. coal-fired generation capacity is projected to decline sharply to about 50 percent of current levels by 2030, according to the Energy Information Administration. About 41,000 workers remain in the coal mining industry, down from about 177,000 in the mid-1980s…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

-•-
2023-07-11. Taking a Fine-Grained Approach to Investigating Climate’s Impact on Crops. [https://eos.org/articles/taking-a-fine-grained-approach-to-investigating-climates-impact-on-crops] By Jane Palmer, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Studying the effects of variable weather on all three aspects of production—planting, harvesting, and yield—can help farmers and policymakers build resilience to climate change. …To study climate change’s impacts on food and other crop systems, scientists have typically measured the change in crop yield in different weather scenarios. But when it comes to building a resilient food production system, it is valuable to look beyond this single metric, according to the authors of a new study published in Nature Sustainability…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-07-11. Heat Down Below Is Making the Ground Shift Under Chicago. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/11/climate/chicago-underground-heat.html] By Raymond Zhong, The New York Times. Excerpt: Underneath downtown Chicago’s soaring Art Deco towers, its multilevel roadways and its busy subway and rail lines, the land is sinking, and not only for the reasons you might expect. Since the mid-20th century, the ground between the city surface and the bedrock has warmed by 5.6 degrees Fahrenheit on average, according to a new study out of Northwestern University. All that heat, which comes mostly from basements and other underground structures, has caused the layers of sand, clay and rock beneath some buildings to subside or swell by several millimeters over the decades, enough to worsen cracks and defects in walls and foundations. …In big cities worldwide, humans’ burning of fossil fuels is raising the mercury at the surface. But heat is also pouring out of basements, parking garages, train tunnels, pipes, sewers and electrical cables and into the surrounding earth, a phenomenon that scientists have taken to calling “underground climate change.”… For GSS Energy Use chapter 8.

-•-
2023-07-10. Humans Adapted to Diverse Habitats as Climate and Landscapes Changed. [https://eos.org/articles/humans-adapted-to-diverse-habitats-as-climate-and-landscapes-changed] By Deepa Padmanaban, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Our genus, Homo, evolved over 3 million years by adapting to increasingly diverse environments. Now, a new study published in Science deeply explores how six species of Homo(H. ergaster, H. habilis, H. erectus, H. heidelbergensis, H. neanderthalensis, and early H. sapiens) adapted to habitats across Africa and Eurasia. In its analysis, the team of scientists from South Korea and Italy used data from more than 3,000 human fossil specimens and archaeological sites. They then combined those data with climate and vegetation models of the past 3 million years. …during the early to middle Pleistocene (about 2.6 million years ago to 0.5 million years ago), massive changes in Earth’s climate played a role in the distribution of vegetation, as well as the evolutionary development of the Homo species studied. …the climate has cooled considerably over the past 3 million years. Reasons for this pattern of climate change include a gradual decrease in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, glacial cycles brought on by long-term changes in Earth’s orbit and axis, and, after the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT) about 1 million years ago, a lengthening of glacial cycles from about 41,000 years to about 100,000 years. …“Because cold air holds less water, planetary cooling was accompanied by an overall drying.” This global cooling resulted in a shrinking of warm tropical forests in central Africa and southern Europe—habitats to which the early hominins H. ergaster and H. habilis were adapted. Forests were replaced by more open environments such as grassland and dry shrubland…. For GSS Life and Climate chapter 11.

-•-
2023-07-10. Florida in hot water as ocean temperatures rise along with the humidity. [https://apnews.com/article/florida-ocean-heat-climate-coral-record-bfc3010460eb077fc14d53a6f768931d] By Seth Borenstein and Mike Schneider, AP. Excerpt: ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Record global ocean heating has invaded Florida with a vengeance. Water temperatures in the mid-90s (mid-30s Celsius) are threatening delicate coral reefs, depriving swimmers of cooling dips and adding a bit more ick to the Sunshine State’s already oppressive summer weather. Forecasters are warning of temperatures that with humidity will feel like 110 degrees (43 degrees Celsius) by week’s end. If that’s not enough, Florida is about to get a dose of dust from Africa’s Saharan desert that’s likely to hurt air quality. …Water temperature near Johnson Key came close to 97 degrees (36.1 degrees Celsius) Monday evening, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration buoy. Another buoy had a reading close to 95 (35 Celsius) near Vaca Key a day earlier. These are about 5 degrees warmer than normal this time of year, meteorologists said…. See also New York Times article, How Hot Is the Sea Off Florida Right Now? Think 90s Fahrenheit. Researchers are recording ocean temperatures that pose severe risks to coral reefs and other marine life. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-07-07. Ambidextrous Microbes May Pump Out CO₂ as Temperatures Rise. [https://eos.org/articles/ambidextrous-microbes-may-pump-out-co2-as-temperatures-rise] By Katherine Kornei, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Some tiny forms of life double-dip to sustain themselves: They’re both photosynthetic and predatorial. But as the planet warms, such “mixotrophic microbes” are apt to shift away from being sunlight driven to being more predatory, researchers have found. And because photosynthesis consumes carbon dioxide (CO₂) and respiration expels the greenhouse gas, that transition has important implications for the climate. Furthermore, the early-warning signs that signal an impending shift from a carbon sink state to a carbon source state are muted in the presence of high levels of nutrients, the team reported in Functional Ecology….The collective amount of all the CO₂ that mixotrophic microbes are capable of sequestering or releasing is apt to be substantial, Wieczynski said. That’s because the combined biomass of Earth’s microbes, including bacteria and plantlike organisms known as protists, exceeds that of animals by roughly a factor of 40, according to recent estimates…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 4.

-•-
2023-07-06. Toxic algae a slimy mess for Florida’s Lake Okeechobee. [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-lake-okeechobee-toxic-algae-problem-2018-07-06/] By Manuel Bojorquez. Excerpt: PORT MAYACA, Fla. — Rain, heat and pollutants have caused an outbreak of toxic algae blooms, which can cause health problems. Now, lawmakers in Florida want the governor to declare a state of emergency over an algae problem at Lake Okeechobee, the aquatic lifeblood of South Florida. …It’s a recurring nightmare. This year’s early bloom, however, could signal one of the worst summers yet. The problem starts at Lake Okeechobee. After heavy rains, the Army Corps of Engineers released millions of gallons to relieve pressure on the lake’s old earthen dam. But the water is chock full of chemicals and nutrients — much of it runoff from commercial agriculture and sprawling development. When that mix bakes in the summer sun, the algae population explodes. …Once the algae starts to cover a waterway, it deprives it of oxygen, essentially sucking the life out of it. Wildlife like manatees can choke to death. Under water, the entire marine ecosystem is at risk. So are waterside businesses. Sebastian Lahara held a mock funeral for his kayak rental operation, and Wittman said he has lost $20,000 on canceled trips this summer. …The federal government and the state have approved a $1.6 billion plan to clean and store some of the lake water, but it still has not been funded. Even the private sector is stepping in, offering a $10 million reward for the best plan to fix the problem…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 7.

-•-
2023-07-06. Hand-held water harvester powered by sunlight could combat water scarcity. [https://data.berkeley.edu/news/hand-held-water-harvester-powered-sunlight-could-combat-water-scarcity] By Rachel Leven, UC Berkeley College of Computing, Data Science, and Society. Excerpt: UC Berkeley researchers have designed an extreme-weather proven, hand-held device that can extract and convert water molecules from the air into drinkable water using only ambient sunlight as its energy source, a study published in Nature Water today shows. This atmospheric water harvester used an ultra-porous material known as a metal-organic framework (MOF) to extract water repeatedly in the hottest and driest place in North America, Death Valley National Park. These tests showed the device could provide clean water anywhere, addressing an urgent problem, as climate change exacerbates drought conditions “Almost one-third of the world’s population lives in water-stressed regions. The UN projects in the year 2050 that almost 5 billion people on our planet will experience some kind of water stress for a significant part of the year,” said Omar Yaghi, the Berkeley chemistry professor who invented MOFs and is leading this study. “This is quite relevant to harnessing a new source for water.” …It is also extremely efficient at harvesting water, releasing as drinking water 85 to 90 percent of the water it captures as atmospheric vapor. It harvested up to 285 grams of water per kilogram of metal-organic framework in a day, the equivalent of a cup of water…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

-•-
2023-06-08. UC Berkeley Goes All-Electric As Part of Ambitious Clean Energy Campus Plan. [https://alumni.berkeley.edu/california-magazine/2023-spring-summer/berkeley-goes-all-electric-as-part-of-ambitious-clean-energy-campus-plan/] By Pat Joseph, California Magazine. Excerpt: Goodbye 36-year-old gas turbine, hello electric thermal plant. …In 2028, as part of Berkeley’s ambitious Clean Energy Campus plan, the 36-year-old gas-fired cogeneration plant will be replaced with a new electrified heating and cooling plant, to be located at North Field, the extramural playing field just north of Hearst Gym, and a utility-fed electrical system.  The current power plant provides about 90 percent of the electricity and 100 percent of the steam needs of campus. When it was first brought online in 1987, the cogen plant was state of the art, efficiently producing both electricity and steam, the latter used for heating and lab processes. But now, says Kira Stoll, chief sustainability and carbon solutions officer, it’s time to move on to a better, cleaner source of power—one that doesn’t emit 135,000 metric tons of CO₂ annually. “One really critical piece of this is the heightened awareness that we need to act on the climate and create solutions,” Stoll said. “If we’re investing in infrastructure that’s going to be around for 50 or more years, we really don’t want to invest in last-century technology. We really need to invest in the future.” Indeed, if all goes according to plan, Berkeley will become the first University of California campus to achieve zero-carbon energy goals…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-07-06. The Starwatcher. [https://www.science.org/content/article/amateur-astronomer-may-worlds-top-supernova-hunter] By Dennis Normile. Excerpt: Amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki is one of the most prolific supernova hunters of all time. …he drove to his private observatory in the hills above his home in Yamagata, Japan, 290 kilometers north of Tokyo. …SN 2023ixf is his 172nd supernova, a total topped only by U.S.-based Tim Puckett, whose private observatory in Georgia has bagged at least 360 supernovae with the help of a worldwide network of volunteers who manually examine his images. Itagaki, by contrast, works alone. He “is one of the most prolific supernova observers in the world,” says Andrew Howell, an astronomer at the University of California (UC), Santa Barbara…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 6.

-•-
2023-07-06. Why a sudden surge of broken heat records is scaring scientists. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/07/06/earth-record-heat-climate-extremes/] By Scott Dance, The Washington Post. Excerpt: New precedents have been set in recent weeks and months, surprising some scientists with their swift evolution: historically warm oceans, with North Atlantic temperatures already nearing their typical annual peak; unparalleled low sea ice levels around Antarctica, …and the planet experiencing its warmest June ever charted, according to new data. And then, on Monday, came Earth’s hottest day in at least 125,000 years. Tuesday was hotter. “We have never seen anything like this before,” said Carlo Buontempo, director of Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. He said any number of charts and graphs on Earth’s climate are showing, quite literally, that “we are in uncharted territory.” …Ocean heat is to be expected during El Niño — it is marked by unusually warm sea surface temperatures along the equatorial Pacific. But shocking warmth has developed far beyond that zone, including in the North Pacific, around New Zealand and across most of the Atlantic…. See also New York Times Heat Records Are Broken Around the Globe as Earth Warms, Fast. For GSS Climate Change chapter 4.

-•-
2023-07-05. Agriculture 3.0: Preparing for a Drier Future in the Colorado River Basin. [https://eos.org/features/agriculture-3-0-preparing-for-a-drier-future-in-the-colorado-river-basin] By Jane Palmer, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Years of drought and climate change are causing water resources to dwindle in the Colorado River Basin. But farmers and scientists are collaborating to learn how to grow crops with less water. …Colorado River flow has shrunk by nearly 20% in the past 2 decades. And in 2022, the nation’s largest reservoirs—Lake Mead (in Arizona and Nevada) and Lake Powell (in Arizona and Utah)—were at unprecedented low levels. If the water levels at Lake Powell were to drop much further, in the future, the dam would no longer be able to deliver hydropower or water to people, farmers, and businesses in Arizona, California, and Nevada. To prevent this doomsday scenario, in 2022, the Interior Department said that the seven states relying on the Colorado River need to reduce water usage by as much as 4 million acre-feet (493 cubic kilometers)—30% of what the states have historically used…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-07-04. Webb Finds Complex Molecules in a Galaxy Long Ago. [https://www.fraknoi.com/astronomy/pahs-found-in-distant-galaxy/] By Andrew Fraknoi. Excerpt: Astronomers working with the Webb Space Telescope have found a fortunate alignment in the sky that has enabled them to detect the faint signal of a complex building block of life just 1.5 billion years after the origin of the universe. The discovery of PAH’s (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) so soon after the Big Bang is another powerful demonstration that assembling the ingredients for the chemistry of life is a process that began in the vast clouds of raw material between the stars. And, it seems, it began quite quickly after the first generations of stars produced the required elements…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 2.

-•-
2023-07-04. Climate change: World’s hottest day since records began. [https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66104822] By Matt McGrath, BBC News. Excerpt: The world’s average temperature reached a new high on Monday 3 July, topping 17 degrees Celsius for the first time. Record spring heat in Spain and in many countries in Asia was followed by marine heatwaves in places that don’t normally see them, such as in the North Sea. This week China continued to experience an enduring heatwave with temperatures in some places above 35C, while the southern US has also been subject to stifling conditions.  Against this background, the global average temperature reached 17.01C on 3 July, according to the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction. This broke the previous record of 16.92C that had stood since August 2016. Monday’s high was also the warmest since satellite monitoring began in 1979…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 4.

-•-
2023-07-03. Canada Offers Lesson in the Economic Toll of Climate Change. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/03/business/economy/canada-wildfires-economy.html] By Lydia DePillis, The New York Times. Excerpt: Canada’s wildfires have burned 20 million acres, blanketed Canadian and U.S. cities with smoke and raised health concerns on both sides of the border, with no end in sight. The toll on the Canadian economy is only beginning to sink in. The fires have upended oil and gas operations, reduced available timber harvests, dampened the tourism industry and imposed uncounted costs on the national health system. …What long seemed a faraway concern has snapped into sharp relief in recent years, as billowing smoke has suffused vast areas of North America, floods have washed away neighborhoods and heat waves have strained power grids. That incurs billions of dollars in costs, and has longer-reverberating consequences, such as insurers withdrawing from markets prone to hurricanes and fires. In some early studies of the economic impact of rising temperatures, Canada appeared to be better positioned than countries closer to the Equator; warming could allow for longer farming seasons and make more places attractive to live in as winters grow less harsh. But it is becoming clear that increasing volatility — ice storms followed by fires followed by intense rains and now hurricanes on the Atlantic coast, uncommon so far north — wipes out any potential gains…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-07-02. A Climate Laggard in America’s Industrial Heartland Has a Plan to Change, Fast. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/02/climate/michigan-climate-change.html] By Coral Davenport, The New York Times. Excerpt: From toxic algal blooms in the Great Lakes to sewage pouring into Detroit basements to choking wildfire smoke that drifted south from Canada, Michigan has been contending with the fallout from climate change. Even the state’s famed cherry trees have been struggling against rising temperatures, forcing some farmers to abandon the crop. But this state at the center of the American auto industry has also been a laggard when it comes to climate action, resistant to environmental regulations that could harm the manufacturing that has underpinned its economy for generations. That may soon change. Michigan is one of three states where Democrats won a “blue trifecta” last year, taking control of the governor’s office and both legislative chambers, and they are seizing that opportunity to propose some of the most ambitious climate laws in the world. The centerpiece is based on a 58-page “MI Healthy Climate” plan offered by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. It would require Michigan to generate all of its electricity from solar, wind or other carbon-free sources by 2035, …. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

-•-
2023-06-29. Mosses Play Key Roles in Ecosystems from Tropics to Tundra. [https://eos.org/articles/mosses-play-key-roles-in-ecosystems-from-tropics-to-tundra] By Carolyn Wilke, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: A global survey of mosses growing on soil found that the somewhat underappreciated plants cover a vast area and perform tasks such as sequestering carbon.… For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 5.

-•-
2023-06-29. Volcanoes’ Future Climate Effects May Exceed Standard Estimates. [https://eos.org/research-spotlights/volcanoes-future-climate-effects-may-exceed-standard-estimates] By Sarah Stanley, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: When volcanoes erupt, they often spew large amounts of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. This toxic, foul-smelling gas may then form tiny sulfate particles that particularly in the stratosphere, can influence Earth’s climate for months to many decades. In modeling future climate change, scientists have therefore incorporated the effects of volcanic eruptions. However, Chim et al. now show that there is a 95% chance that volcanic eruptions between 2015 and 2100 will release more sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere than standard climate models currently assume…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 7.

2023-06-28. Sea Ice Is Going, but When Will It Be Gone?. [https://eos.org/articles/sea-ice-is-going-but-when-will-it-be-gone] By Saima May Sidik, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Every September since 1979, the U.S. government has measured the extent of sea ice in the Arctic. And the picture is not a pretty one—more than 2 million square kilometers have been lost in that time, leaving about 4.67 million square kilometers of sea ice intact. …climate models underestimate the melting that’s been observed in recent years, leaving scientists uncertain of whether they can use these models to make predictions. Two new publications have added to this discussion. The first, published in Nature Communications, provided evidence that the Arctic will become seasonally sea ice free in the next few decades even under low-emissions scenarios. The second, published in Nature Climate Change, proposed that the extent of Arctic sea ice will decline more slowly than previously thought because the effect of wind has not been adequately incorporated into models….

-•-
2023-06-22. Solar sprawl is tearing up the Mojave Desert. Is there a better way? [https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2023-06-27/solar-panels-could-save-california-but-they-hurt-the-desert] By Sammy Roth, LA Times. Excerpt: High above the Las Vegas Strip, solar panels blanketed the roof of Mandalay Bay Convention Center — 26,000 of them, rippling across an area larger than 20 football fields. …“This is really an ideal location,” said Michael Gulich, vice president of sustainability at MGM Resorts International. …There’s enormous opportunity to lower household utility bills and cut climate pollution — without damaging wildlife habitat or disrupting treasured landscapes. The same goes for the rest of Las Vegas and its sprawling suburbs. But that hasn’t stopped corporations from making plans to carpet the desert surrounding Las Vegas with dozens of giant solar fields — some of them designed to supply power to California. The Biden administration has fueled that growth, taking steps to encourage solar and wind energy development across vast stretches of public lands in Nevada and other Western states. Those energy generators could imperil rare plants and slow-footed tortoises already threatened by rising temperatures. …The key questions are: How many big solar farms are needed, and where should they be built? Can they be engineered to coexist with animals and plants?…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-06-30. Wildfire Smoke and High Heat Have Something in Common. Guess What. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/28/climate/heat-smoke-climate-change.html] By Raymond Zhong and Delger Erdenesanaa, The New York Times. Excerpt: Human-caused climate change is making high temperatures more common and intensifying the dryness that fuels catastrophic wildfires…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-06-28. Call of the Rewild: Restoring Ecological Health to the Emerald Isle. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/27/world/europe/ireland-rewilding-deforestation-ecology.html] By Ed O’Loughlin, The New York Times. Excerpt: Centuries of overgrazing and deforestation have eliminated most native flora in Ireland, creating what ecologists see as a man-made desert in places. A growing “rewilding” push aims to change that. …Rewilding, the practice of bringing ravaged landscapes back to their original states, is well established in Britain, where numerous projects are underway. For Ireland, this would mean the re-creation of temperate forests of oak, birch, hazel and yew that once covered 80 percent of the land but now — after centuries of timber extraction, overgrazing and intensive farming — have been reduced to only 1 percent…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 7.

-•-
2023-06-28. A Giant Wind Farm Is Taking Root Off Massachusetts. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/27/business/energy-environment/marthas-vineyard-wind-farm-massachusetts.html] By Stanley Reed and Ivan Penn, The New York Times. Excerpt: “This has been really hard,” said Rachel Pachter, the chief development officer of Vineyard Offshore, the American arm of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, a Danish renewable energy developer that is a co-owner of the wind farm. To bring a big energy project to this point near population centers requires clearing countless regulatory hurdles and heading off potential opposition and litigation. …Ms. Pachter, though, has helped orchestrate a campaign of community outreach, job creation and funding that has finally led to a point where, in industry parlance, steel is going into the water. …62 turbines, each up to 850 feet high (taller than any building in Boston) with blades about 350 feet long, will be planted on a sweep of seabed 15 miles off Martha’s Vineyard…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

-•-
2023-06-28. Long-sought hum of gravitational waves from giant black holes heard for first time. [https://www.science.org/content/article/long-sought-hum-of-gravitational-waves-from-giant-black-holes-heard-for-first-time] By Adam Mann, Science. Excerpt: By turning networks of dead stars into galaxy-size gravitational wave detectors, radio astronomers have tuned into the slowly undulating swells in spacetime thought to arise from pairs of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) that are about to collide. In a simultaneous announcement today, five separate international teams said that after nearly 20 years of effort they had found evidence for these gravitational waves. They are far longer than the waves first captured by ground-based detectors in 2015, which emanate from collisions of star-size objects. The findings not only open up a new window in gravitational wave astronomy, but will also help researchers answer questions about the origin and evolution of SMBHs, objects that sit at the center of galaxies and weigh as much as billions of Suns…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 6.

-•-
2023-06-27. Facing extinction, Tuvalu considers the digital clone of a country. [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/27/tuvalu-climate-crisis-rising-sea-levels-pacific-island-nation-country-digital-clone] By Kalolaine Fainu, The Guardian. Excerpt: Tuvalu is expected to be one of the first countries in the world to be completely lost to climate change. The three coral islands and six atolls that make up the country have a total land mass of less than 26 sq km. At current rates of sea level rise, some estimates suggest that half the land area of the capital, Funafuti, will be flooded by tidal waters within three decades. By 2100, 95% of land will be flooded by periodic king tides, making it essentially uninhabitable. …Facing potential extinction, Tuvalu has formulated the Future Now Project, a set of three major initiatives designed to preserve its nationhood, governance and culture in the event of a worst-case scenario. First, encouraging the international community to work together on implementing climate-change solutions, embodying the Tuvaluan cultural values of “olaga fakafenua” (communal living systems), “kaitasi” (shared responsibility) and “fale-pili” (being a good neighbour). Second, securing Tuvalu’s statehood and maritime boundaries under international law in the event their land ceases to exist. Third, the development of a digital nation…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-06-24. Energy Change Sweeps the North Sea. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/24/business/energy-environment/north-sea-green-energy-wind.html] By Stanley Reed, The New York Times. Excerpt: The North Sea has long been host to some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes and hundreds of rigs for producing oil and natural gas. Now, if European leaders have their way, this shallow and often turbulent stretch of water will, in the coming years, see what could amount to hundreds of billions of dollars worth of investment aimed at reducing carbon emissions and further shrinking imports of fossil fuels from Russia. …in Ostend, a Belgian port, in April, the leaders of nine European governments pledged to work together to roughly quadruple the already substantial amount of offshore wind generation capacity in the North Sea and nearby waters by 2030 and to increase it by about tenfold by 2050…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

-•-
2023-06-24. Tiny Bundles of Hope: Critically Endangered Turtles Hatch in Myanmar. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/24/climate/tiny-bundles-of-hope-critically-endangered-turtles-hatch-in-myanmar.html] By Delger Erdenesanaa, The New York Times. Excerpt: Small miracles are popping out of the mud around Myanmar’s largest lake: Burmese peacock softshell turtles, just hatched from their eggs. For what may be the first time, humans were there to witness the birth of these rare creatures. …“Nobody has done proper studies,” said U Zau Lunn, a program manager with Fauna & Flora in Myanmar. …He credits this early success to close collaboration with residents of the villages around Indawgyi Lake, a globally important ecosystem that provides habitat for threatened migratory birds as well. The lake and surrounding wetlands were designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 2017. Recently, Fauna & Flora gave money to people living on the lakeshore to form a team of “turtle guardians” and patrol the area to protect nesting sites…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 8.

-•-
2023-06-23. The Mysterious Case of Ireland’s Missing Earthquakes. [https://eos.org/articles/the-mysterious-case-of-irelands-missing-earthquakes] By Elise Cutts, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Ireland and Britain should be, seismologically speaking, equally boring. The two islands lie thousands of kilometers from the nearest plate boundary and are not volcanic hot spots. But though the ground rarely rumbles in Ireland, neighboring Britain experiences plenty of weak and moderate earthquakes. The lithosphere—Earth’s outermost rocky veneer, which includes the crust and the solid upper mantle—is thicker and cooler beneath Ireland than it is beneath Britain, new research has suggested. Cool, thick lithosphere is mechanically stronger than warm, thin lithosphere, which could explain the Emerald Isle’s puzzling paucity of earthquakes. The new results, published in Geophysical Journal International, hinted that lithosphere thickness could underpin patterns in seismic activity in other places far from plate boundaries…. For GSS Energy Flow chapter 2.

-•-
2023-06-22. Nearby Volcano Planet Likely Fueled by Tidal Heating. [https://eos.org/articles/nearby-volcano-planet-likely-fueled-by-tidal-heating] By Javier Barbuzano, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: An unusual planetary dance has produced an Earth-sized exoplanet brimming with volcanoes, likely furnished with an atmosphere, and maybe even containing water on its surface. Astronomers discovered this odd world orbiting a red dwarf star right in our galactic neighborhood—just 90 light-years away. The exoplanet, known as LP 791-18 d, orbits a red dwarf already known to host two other planets: LP 791-18 b, a scorched, rocky world orbiting extremely close to the star, and LP 791-18 c, a sub-Neptune 7 times more massive than Earth made of gas or icy material. The finding comes after a group of researchers led by astrophysicist Björn Benneke of the Université de Montréal in Canada used NASA’s recently retired Spitzer Space Telescope to take a closer look at the system…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 8.

-•-
2023-06-21. Fingerprinting Wood to Curb Illegal Deforestation. [https://eos.org/articles/fingerprinting-wood-to-curb-illegal-deforestation] By Rishika Pardikar, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: More than a quarter of global forest loss is driven by commodity production, which includes logging wood. Though illegal deforestation supplies some of the timber in products such as furniture and window frames, independently verifying origins of the wood in finished products is a daunting task. Scientists from Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands analyzed the makeup of wood samples from nearly 1,000 different trees in Cameroon, Congo, and Gabon in Central Africa, as well as the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo, and found that it’s possible to trace their origins to subnational scales. The researchers tout the analysis as a step toward a global timber-tracing tool…. For GSS A New World View chapter 6.

-•-
2023-06-20. Hidden beneath the surface. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2023/anthropocene-geologic-time-crawford-lake/] By Sarah Kaplan, Simon Ducroquet, Bonnie Jo Mount, Frank Hulley-Jones and Emily Wright, The Washington Post. Excerpt: In just seven decades, the scientists say, humans have brought about greater changes than they did in more than seven millennia. …Every new phase of Earth’s history begins with a “golden spike” — a spot in the geologic record where proof of a global transformation is perfectly preserved. …An exposed Tunisian cliff face bearing traces of an ancient asteroid impact marks the transition from the age of the dinosaurs to the Cenozoic era. Hydrogen molecules uncovered in Greenland’s ice denote the start of the Holocene — the 11,700-year stretch of stable temperatures that encompasses all of human civilization, up to and including the present day. …In 2009, the International Commission on Stratigraphy — an obscure scientific body responsible for defining the phases of Earth’s past — created a new working group to investigate the evidence for the Anthropocene. The group’s mission: to identify a potential “golden spike” site that might convince fellow scientists of the new epoch’s validity…. See also article in Science Magazine. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-06-20. Colombian City Pioneers Path to “Early Warnings for All”. [https://eos.org/articles/colombian-city-pioneers-path-to-early-warnings-for-all] By Jane Palmer, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Countries with strong early-warning systems can reduce mortality from natural hazards by 8 times, and a 24-hour alert can reduce economic losses by 30%, said Nahuel Arenas, deputy chief for Americas and the Caribbean at the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). …the United Nations launched the Early Warnings for All initiative (EW4All) to ensure everyone on Earth is protected by early-warning systems by 2027. …the Early Warning System of Medellín and the Aburrá Valley (SIATA), …provides early warnings for floods, landslides, fires, lightning, and poor air quality to the Aburrá Valley as well as the 2.5 million residents of its largest city, Medellín. “Where we live, emergencies happen all the time, and we’ve had to be flexible and adaptable to solve whatever problem needs to be solved,” said meteorologist Lina Ceballos-Bonilla, the coordinator of SIATA’s risk management team…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-06-20. Protecting the Ozone Layer Is Delaying Arctic Melting. [https://eos.org/articles/protecting-the-ozone-layer-is-delaying-arctic-melting] By Sofia Moutinho, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Efforts to protect the ozone layer have unintentionally benefited Earth’s climate. The Montreal Protocol in particular has not only reduced the “ozone hole” but also slowed global warming. The treaty, a groundbreaking 1989 international commitment to phase out production of ozone-depleting substances, has also delayed the occurrence of the first ice-free summer in the Arctic by up to 15 years, according to a new analysis published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America…. For GSS Ozone chapter 9.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-06-20. How did snakes lose their limbs? Mass genome effort provides clues. [https://www.science.org/content/article/how-did-snakes-lose-their-limbs-mass-genome-effort-provides-clues] By Elizabeth Pennisi, Science. Excerpt: …an extensive effort to sequence the genomes of more than a dozen snake species has uncovered mutations that likely helped make these appendages vanish, as well as the DNA underlying other unusual traits. …Jia-Tang Li, a herpetologist at the Chengdu Institute of Biology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and colleagues sequenced the genomes of 14 species of snake in 12 families, a sample that spans 150 million years of snake evolution. …Li is most excited about finding DNA missing from three parts of a gene called PTCH1, which helps control limb development…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 4.

-•-
2023-06-20. In Montana lawsuit, a climate scientist takes the stand. [https://www.science.org/content/article/montana-lawsuit-climate-scientist-takes-stand] By Celina Zhou, Science. Excerpt: …Testimony ended today in a groundbreaking climate lawsuit being heard in a Montana state court. The suit, brought by 16 youth plaintiffs, argues that Montana’s energy policies contribute to climate change and therefore violate a right, enshrined in the state’s constitution, to “a clean and healthful environment.” It is the first youth-led climate lawsuit to be heard by a U.S. court. …testifying for the plaintiffs was paleoclimatologist Cathy Whitlock, a professor emeritus at Montana State University …lead author of the 2017 Montana Climate Assessment…. On 13 June, Whitlock testified to Montana’s declining snowpack, changing precipitation trends, and rapid rate of warming, which exceeds that of the United States as a whole. Together, she said, these shifts could lead to more drought and intense wildfire in the state…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

-•-
2023-06-19. Scores die in northern India as heat wave scorches region. [https://www.reuters.com/world/india/scores-die-northern-india-heat-wave-scorches-region-2023-06-19/] By Saurabh Sharma, Reuters. Excerpt: At least 54 people died in a district in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh over the last few days, the Times of India newspaper reported on Monday, …Another 45 people died in neighbouring Bihar state, …Temperatures have soared close to 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) in recent days in Ballia with a severe power crisis compounding the situation…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-06-16. There’s No Uber or Lyft. There Is a Communal Tesla. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/16/business/ev-ride-sharing-volunteers.html] By Patricia Leigh Brown, The New York Times. Excerpt: An innovative E.V. ride-sharing program is bringing low-cost clean transportation to an agricultural town in California’s Central Valley. Others are following suit…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 9.

-•-
2023-06-14. Battle Lines Harden Over Big Oil’s Role at Climate Talks in Dubai. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/14/climate/oil-fossil-fuel-climate-cop28.html] By Max Bearak, The New York Times. Excerpt: The hosts of the United Nations global climate summit later this year aim to give fossil fuel companies a bigger voice, despite loud objections…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-06-16. Humanity’s groundwater pumping has altered Earth’s tilt. [https://www.science.org/content/article/humanity-s-groundwater-pumping-has-altered-earth-s-tilt] By Warren Cornwall, Science. Excerpt: While spinning on its axis, Earth wobbles like an off-kilter top. Sloshing molten iron in Earth’s core, melting ice, ocean currents, and even hurricanes can all cause the poles to wander. Now, scientists have found that a significant amount of the polar drift results from human activity: pumping groundwater for drinking and irrigation. …scientists built a model of the polar wander, accounting for factors such as reservoirs filling because of new dams and ice sheets melting, to see how well they explained the polar movements observed between 1993 and 2010. During that time, satellite measurements were precise enough to detect a shift in the poles as small as a few millimeters. Dams and ice changes were not enough to match the observed polar motion. But when the researchers also put in 2150 gigatons of groundwater that hydrologic models estimate were pumped between 1993 and 2010, the predicted polar motion aligned much more closely with observations. Wilson and his colleagues conclude that the redistribution of that water weight to the world’s oceans has caused Earth’s poles to shift nearly 80 centimeters during that time. In fact, groundwater removal appears to have played a bigger role in that period than the release of meltwater from ice in either Greenland or Antarctica, the scientists reported Thursday in Geophysical Research Letters…. For GSS Life and Climate chapter 10.

-•-
2023-06-16. Eos Engage. [https://eos.org/engage] By Eos/AGU. ENGAGE is a resource designed for high school and undergraduate science teachers to improve science literacy and the use of science writing as narrative nonfiction resources. Here you’ll find a selection of our professionally reported articles, curated by Eos editors, best suited for engagement material for Earth and space science lessons. Learn more about ENGAGE with this video, and …explore articles by subject matter, language translation (Spanish and simplified Chinese), and location….

-•-
2023-06-14. Detection of phosphates originating from Enceladus’s ocean. [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05987-9] By Frank Postberg, Yasuhito Sekine, Fabian Klenner, Christopher R. Glein, Zenghui Zou, Bernd Abel, Kento Furuya, Jon K. Hillier, Nozair Khawaja, Sascha Kempf, Lenz Noelle, Takuya Saito, Juergen Schmidt, Takazo Shibuya, Ralf Srama & Shuya Tan, Nature. Excerpt: Saturn’s moon Enceladus harbours a global ice-covered water ocean^2,3. The Cassini spacecraft investigated the composition of the ocean by analysis of material ejected into space by the moon’s cryovolcanic plume^4,5,6,7,8,9. The analysis of salt-rich ice grains by Cassini’s Cosmic Dust Analyzer¹⁰ enabled inference of major solutes in the ocean water (Na⁺, K⁺, Cl^–, HCO₃^–, CO₃^2–)…. Here we present Cassini’s Cosmic Dust Analyzer mass spectra of ice grains emitted by Enceladus that show the presence of sodium phosphates. …of the six elements—C, H, N, O, P and S—that are generally considered to be critical ingredients for life …, phosphorus is cosmochemically the least abundant and has not previously been detected at any of the ocean-bearing moons in the Solar System. However, the results presented here demonstrate that Enceladus instead has a high availability of dissolved P, which is thus extremely unlikely to be a limiting factor in the survival of putative life on Enceladus—and perhaps also on other ocean worlds that reside beyond the CO₂ snowline in the Solar System (that is, the distance from the Sun beyond which CO₂ is in a solid (icy) state and is available as a planetary building material)…. See also articles in The Washington Post and The New York Times. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

-•-
2023-06-14. Dangerous fire weather conditions becoming more common across U.S. [https://www.axios.com/2023/06/14/fire-weather-expanding-across-us-west-southwest] By Andrew Freedman and Kavya Beheraj, Axios. Excerpt: Fire weather days — featuring a volatile mix of low humidity, strong winds and high temperatures — have increased in number across much of the Lower 48 states during the past 50 years, a new analysis shows. …An analysis from Climate Central, a nonprofit climate science research organization, found that wildfire seasons are getting longer and more intense, especially in the West. Many parts of the East have also seen increases in fire weather days. …The report uses weather data from 476 recording sites across the country during the years 1973-2022. It finds that Southern California, Texas and New Mexico have experienced some of the greatest increases in fire weather days each year, with some areas now seeing around two more months of fire weather compared with a half century ago. …The Climate Central analysis has not been peer reviewed, though the data and method it relies on are widely used in the scientific literature. It also matches findings from peer-reviewed research. …a study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that “nearly all” of the increase in burned area across California during the past half-century is tied to human-caused climate change…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-06-12. A Landmark Youth Climate Trial Begins in Montana. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/12/us/montana-youth-climate-trial.html] By Mike Baker, The New York Times. Excerpt: Sixteen young people argue that the state is robbing their future by embracing policies that contribute to climate change. A landmark climate change trial opened on Monday in Montana, where a group of young people are contending that the state’s embrace of fossil fuels is destroying pristine environments, upending cultural traditions and robbing young residents of a healthy future…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-06-12. Why the U.S. Electric Grid Isn’t Ready for the Energy Transition. [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/06/12/climate/us-electric-grid-energy-transition.html] By Nadja Popovich and Brad Plumer, The New York Times. Excerpt: …there is no single U.S. grid. There are three — one in the West, one in the East and one in Texas — that only connect at a few points and share little power between them. Those grids are further divided into a patchwork of operators with competing interests. That makes it hard to build the long-distance power lines needed to transport wind and solar nationwide. …Tapping into the nation’s vast supplies of wind and solar energy would be one of the cheapest ways to cut the emissions that are dangerously heating the planet, studies have found. That would mean building thousands of wind turbines across the gusty Great Plains and acres of solar arrays across the South, creating clean, low-cost electricity to power homes, vehicles and factories. …the nation would need thousands of miles of new high-voltage transmission lines — large power lines that would span multiple grid regions. …There is no single entity in charge of organizing the grid, the way the federal government oversaw the development of the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s and ‘60s. The electric system was cobbled together over a century by thousands of independent utilities building smaller-scale grids to carry power from large coal, nuclear or gas plants to nearby customers…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 5.

-•-
2023-06-11. Visitors warned away from Texas beach after thousands of dead fish wash up. [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/13/visitors-warned-away-from-texas-beach-after-thousands-of-dead-fish-wash-up] By AP and The Guardian Staff. Excerpt: Tens of thousands of dead fish washed up on the Gulf coast of Texas over the weekend, covering the shoreline with rotting carcasses and leading local officials to warn visitors to keep away. …Low levels of dissolved oxygen in the water made it difficult for the fish to breathe, Texas parks and wildlife department officials said. The phenomenon – known as a “fish kill” – is common as temperatures rise in the summer, the state department said. While no one has connected this specific incident to climate change, researchers have said such kills may become more prevalent as temperatures warm and oxygen levels in lakes across the United States and Europe drop…. See also Tens of Thousands of Dead Fish Wash Ashore on Gulf Coast in Texas.[https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/11/us/dead-fish-texas-climate-change.html] By Chris Cameron, The New York Times. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 7 (and Ecosystem Change).

-•-
2023-06-10. Arizona, Low on Water, Weighs Taking It From the Sea. In Mexico. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/10/climate/arizona-desalination-water-climate.html] By Christopher Flavelle, The New york Times. Excerpt: …As the state’s two major sources of water, groundwater and the Colorado River, dwindle from drought, climate change and overuse, officials are considering a hydrological Hail Mary: the construction of a plant in Mexico to suck salt out of seawater, then pipe that water hundreds of miles, much of it uphill, to Phoenix. The idea of building a desalination plant in Mexico has been discussed in Arizona for years. But now, a $5 billion project proposed by an Israeli company is under serious consideration, an indication of how worries about water shortages are rattling policymakers in Arizona and across the American West. On June 1, the state announced that the Phoenix area, the fastest-growing region in the country, doesn’t have enough groundwater to support all the future housing that has already been approved…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-06-10. Greta Thunberg Ends Her School Strikes After 251 Weeks. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/10/world/europe/greta-thunberg-graduates-activism.html] By Remy Tumin, The New York Times. Excerpt: For five years, Greta Thunberg has spent her Fridays in front of the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm instead of in class; after 251 weeks, she is hanging up her cardboard protest sign — as a student. …Ms. Thunberg, an activist who has inspired young people around the world to demand action against climate change, graduated from high school on Friday in Sweden, signifying what she said would be her final school strike. …In her five years on the world stage, Ms. Thunberg has rallied her peers; written three books; faced off against former President Donald J. Trump; and excoriated economic leaders in Davos, Switzerland, for the “climate chaos” they created, as well as world leaders at the United Nations for their “business as usual” approach toward global warming. Ms. Thunberg said she planned to continue protesting on Fridays but because of her graduation, it would no longer qualify as “school striking.”… For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-06-09. Saturn’s Shiny Rings May Be Pretty Young. [https://eos.org/articles/saturns-shiny-rings-may-be-pretty-young] By Kimberly M. S. Cartier, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: …Data from NASA’s Cassini mission showed how fast dust has been pelting the Saturnian system, revealing that for the rings to have remained as shiny and dust-free as they are, they can be only as much as 400 million years old, much younger than the planet itself. …The Sun and its planets formed around 4.5 billion years ago, and many of the planets’ moons, including ours, followed not long after. Astronomers initially thought that Saturn’s rings formed during that early dynamical period, when large collisions were common. …The rings’ orbits and compositions support the idea they are old. …Measurements of the rainfall rate and the total mass of the rings from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which orbited Saturn for 13 years, suggested that the rings must be far younger than the planet; otherwise, they would have disappeared already. Cassini also revealed that the rings are fairly shiny, having accumulated only a small amount of cosmic dust—tiny silicate particles that come from the far reaches of the solar system or beyond…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

-•-
2023-06-07. Flash Droughts Are Getting Flashier. [https://eos.org/articles/flash-droughts-are-getting-flashier] By Roberto González, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: In the summer of 2012, a severe drought unexpectedly struck the central United States. The event began in May and rapidly intensified until it peaked in mid-July, when precipitation hit record lows throughout the Midwest, affecting approximately 80% of U.S. agricultural land and causing $34.5 billion in losses. Flash droughts such as this are developing more quickly and happening more frequently because of climate change, according to a recent study published in Science. Unlike slow droughts, which develop over years, flash droughts arise in a matter of weeks and can last 30–45 days (or even years). Because these events are abrupt and relatively localized, they are more difficult to forecast…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-06-07. Parker Solar Probe flies into the fast solar wind and finds its source. [https://news.berkeley.edu/2023/06/07/parker-solar-probe-flies-into-the-fast-solar-wind-and-finds-its-source/] By Robert Sanders, UC Berkeley News. Excerpt: NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has flown close enough to the sun to detect the fine structure of the solar wind close to where it is generated at the sun’s surface, revealing details that are lost as the wind exits the corona as a uniform blast of charged particles. It’s like seeing jets of water emanating from a showerhead through the blast of water hitting you in the face. In a paper to be published this week in the journal Nature, a team of scientists led by Stuart D. Bale, a professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, and James Drake of the University of Maryland-College Park, report that the Parker Solar Probe has detected streams of high-energy particles that match the supergranulation flows within coronal holes, which suggests that these are the regions where the so-called “fast” solar wind originates. …The probe was launched in 2018 primarily to resolve two conflicting explanations for the origin of the high-energy particles that comprise the solar wind: magnetic reconnection or acceleration by plasma or Alfvén waves. …“The big conclusion is that it’s magnetic reconnection within these funnel structures that’s providing the energy source of the fast solar wind,” Bale said. …The Parker Solar Probe won’t be able to get any closer to the sun than about 8.8 solar radii above the surface — about 4 million miles — without frying its instruments. Bale expects to solidify the team’s conclusions with data from that altitude, …. See also New York Times article How Solar Wind Flows From the Sun Like Water From a Shower Head. For GSS Energy Flow chapter 4.

-•-
2023-06-06. A Heat Pump Might Be Right for Your Home. Here’s Everything to Know. [https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/guides/heat-pump-buying-guide/] By Thom Dunn, Wirecutter, New York Times. Excerpt: Heat pumps are good for your wallet—and the world. They’re the cheapest and most efficient way to handle both heating and cooling for your home, no matter where you live. They’re also better for the environment. In fact, most experts agree they’re one of the best ways for homeowners to reduce their carbon footprint and reap the benefits of a greener future without sacrificing comfort. In other words, they’re a win-win…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 8.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-06-09. Lava comes in two ‘flavors.’ Scientists may have finally figured out why. [https://www.science.org/content/article/lava-comes-two-flavors-scientists-may-have-finally-figured-out-why] By Maya Wei-Haas. Excerpt: …Jenny Suckale was rambling across an old Hawaiian lava flow when an abrupt change in the jet-black rocks caught her eye. On one side was the smooth, undulating lava type called pahoehoe (pronounced pah-hoy-hoy); on the other was the sharp, jagged kind known as aa (pronounced ah-ah). …What causes the dramatic transformation in texture, seen in lavas worldwide? …But no single factor has explained the shift. Now, by modeling the dynamics of lava flows, Suckale and her colleagues have offered up another explanation: The abrupt transition could be triggered by a chaotic churn within the flood of molten rock, the team reported last month in Geophysical Research Letters. …Understanding how pahoehoe morphs into aa is more than just scientific curiosity because the two lava types move at different speeds and pose distinct hazards…. For GSS Energy Flow chapter 2.

-•-
2023-06-08. Record Pollution and Heat Herald a Season of Climate Extremes. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/08/climate/canada-wildfires-smoke-extreme-weather.html] By Somini Sengupta, The New York Times. Excerpt: It’s not officially summer yet in the Northern Hemisphere. But the extremes are already here. Fires are burning across the breadth of Canada, blanketing parts of the eastern United States with choking, orange-gray smoke. Puerto Rico is under a severe heat alert as other parts of the world have been recently. Earth’s oceans have heated up at an alarming rate. …the science is unequivocal that global warming significantly increases the chances of severe wildfires and heat waves like the ones affecting major parts of North America today. Now comes a global weather pattern known as El Niño, which can drive up temperatures and set heat records. Thursday morning, scientists announced its arrival…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-06-08. Where Republican Presidential Candidates Stand on Climate Change. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/08/us/politics/wildfires-republicans-climate-change.html] By Maggie Astor and Lisa Friedman, The New York Times. Excerpt: While many of them acknowledge that climate change is real, they largely downplay the issue and reject policies that would slow rising temperatures…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

-•-
2023-06-07. Wildfire Smoke Blots Sun and Prompts Health Alerts in Much of U.S. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/06/us/canada-wildfires-us-smoke-air-quality.html] By Jesus Jiménez, Derrick Bryson Taylor and Judson Jones, The New York Times. Excerpt: An eye-watering and cough-inducing smoky haze from Canadian wildfires smothered a swath of the eastern and northern United States on Tuesday, with officials warning residents with health risks to stay indoors and keep their windows closed. Health alerts were issued from New York to the Carolinas, and as far west as Minnesota. In New York City, the smoke could be tasted as well as smelled, and it wrapped the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building and Manhattan’s other landmarks in a blanket of orange-gray haze. …The worst effects were in Canada, where more than 400 active wildfires were burning, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center, exacerbating an already active wildfire season that is expected only to worsen. More than 200 of the fires, many of them in Quebec, were burning out of control, the agency said. Toronto briefly ranked among the worst 10 cities in air quality on Tuesday…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-06-06. Satellite beams solar power down to Earth, in first-of-a-kind demonstration. [https://www.science.org/content/article/satellite-beams-solar-power-down-earth-first-kind-demonstration] By Daniel Clery, Science. Excerpt: …A satellite launched in January has steered power in a microwave beam onto targets in space, and even sent some of that power to a detector on Earth, the experiment’s builder, the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), announced on 1 June. …The transmitted power was small, just 200 milliwatts, less than that of a cellphone camera light. But the team was still able to steer the beam toward Earth and detect it with a receiver at Caltech. “It was a proof of concept,” says Caltech electrical engineer Ali Hajimiri…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

-•-
2023-06-05. Climate Change Is Drying Out Earth’s Soils. [https://eos.org/research-spotlights/climate-change-is-drying-out-earths-soils] By Rachel Fritts, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: …In a new study, Hsu et al. quantify how global warming affects soil moisture. Although climate change will dehydrate soil, they found, it is not clear how dry is too dry. …the models disagreed on the threshold at which Earth would become a more moisture-limited system—a value called critical soil moisture. …Critical soil moisture has wide-ranging impacts on the water cycle, climate, ecosystems, and society. Getting a solid grasp on that value would improve climate models and paint a fuller picture of Earth’s future. (Earth’s Future, https://doi.org/10.1029/2023EF003511, 2023)…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-06-02. Spain’s Seafaring Sports See Fewer Calm Days. [https://eos.org/articles/spains-seafaring-sports-see-fewer-calm-days] By Kimberly M. S. Cartier, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: …The changing seasonality of weather conditions will affect the local economy, which relies on tourism, and points to how climate change is affecting the region. …In 2022, Tarragona’s shores experienced roughly 8 more brave days, 3 more surf days, and 5 fewer calm days per month than in 1958, though the trends are still preliminary, Boqué Ciurana said. The peak period for snorkeling and other gentle recreation, typically July and August, has gotten shorter, whereas periods that are good for more active sports such as surfing and sailing have grown longer. Boqué Ciurana presented these results at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2023…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-06-01. The Science We Need to Assess Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal. [https://eos.org/opinions/the-science-we-need-to-assess-marine-carbon-dioxide-removal] By Jaime B. Palter,  Jessica Cross,  Matthew C. Long,  Patrick A. Rafter and  Clare E. Reimers, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: As companies begin selling credits for marine carbon dioxide removal in largely unregulated marketplaces, scientists must develop standards for assessing the effectiveness of removal methods. …Three categories of mCDR [marine CO₂ removal] approaches—ocean iron fertilization, artificial upwelling, and seaweed cultivation—aim to stimulate primary productivity at the ocean’s surface with the expectation that some of the additional biomass produced will sink into and remain in the deep ocean. In contrast, ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) involves intentionally dispersing alkaline materials such as lime on the ocean’s surface to shift the chemical equilibrium of the seawater carbon system and thereby increase uptake of atmospheric CO₂. Still another approach proposes to remove CO₂ directly from seawater through electrochemical reactions and then store it underground. …At least half a dozen companies involved in mCDR, and more that are rapidly entering the space, are starting to market CO₂ removal services to potential buyers interested in purchasing credits to offset carbon emissions. To support verification of these services, there is an urgent need for methods that rigorously quantify net carbon removal rates and storage durability of different mCDR approaches…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-05-31. Short-Lived Solutions for Tall Trees in Chile’s Megadrought. [https://eos.org/research-spotlights/short-lived-solutions-for-tall-trees-in-chiles-megadrought] By Rebecca Dzombak, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Some southern beeches in the Andes have plumbed deeper for moisture as the surface has dried up. But doing so may deplete resources and undermine the trees’ future health. For more than a decade, forests across much of Chile have been experiencing a megadrought, its effects overprinted on an already warming and drying climate. …Sourcing deeper water might be only a temporary fix, however. As droughts become longer, more frequent, and more severe, those reserves may run dry. In addition, trees relying on deeper water may receive fewer nutrients, stymieing their development even if they are getting enough water. So although some trees have successfully adapted to drought in the short term, it’s unclear how long they’ll be able to continue. (Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JG007293, 2023). For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-06-02. Climate Shocks Are Making Parts of America Uninsurable. It Just Got Worse. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/31/climate/climate-change-insurance-wildfires-california.html] By Christopher Flavelle, Jill Cowan and Ivan Penn, The New York Times. Excerpt: This month, the largest homeowner insurance company in California, State Farm, announced that it would stop selling coverage to homeowners. That’s not just in wildfire zones, but everywhere in the state. Insurance companies, tired of losing money, are raising rates, restricting coverage or pulling out of some areas altogether — making it more expensive for people to live in their homes. …In parts of eastern Kentucky ravaged by storms last summer, the price of flood insurance is set to quadruple. In Louisiana, the top insurance official says the market is in crisis, and is offering millions of dollars in subsidies to try to draw insurers to the state. …And in much of Florida, homeowners are increasingly struggling to buy storm coverage. Most big insurers have pulled out of the state already, sending homeowners to smaller private companies that are straining to stay in business — a possible glimpse into California’s future if more big insurers leave…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-06-01. Coral reefs are home to the greatest microbial diversity on Earth. [https://www.science.org/content/article/coral-reefs-are-home-greatest-microbial-diversity-earth] By Elizabeth Pennisi, Science. Excerpt: Findings may inform understanding of reefs’ resilience to environmental changes. …Coral reefs, bastions of marine biodiversity because of the abundant fish, invertebrates, and algae they support, are also home to Earth’s greatest microbial diversity, according to a new estimate. …an international team of researchers …sequenced DNA from more than 5000 samples of three coral species, two fish species, and plankton. The team identified a half-billion kinds of microbes, mostly bacteria. …the team reports today in Nature Communications. …When the researchers extrapolated those findings to estimate the total reef microbial diversity across the Pacific, it was equivalent to Earth’s total, previously estimated microbial diversity. …they expect this high microbial diversity can help the reefs be more resilient in the face of heat waves, pollution, turbidity, and other stressors, acting as ecological insurance. Some bacteria on coral provide benefits—such as supplying vitamin B to their hosts—and their diversity suggests that at least some helpful microbes are likely to survive a particular environmental insult and can continue to support the coral…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 7.

-•-
2023-06-01. Mussel poop may help clear oceans of microplastics. [https://www.science.org/content/article/mussel-poop-may-help-clear-oceans-microplastics] By Robin Donovan, Science. Excerpt: One of the most widespread pollutants in the ocean is also one of the hardest to see. Trillions of tiny particles of plastic—known as microplastics—can clog the intestines of fish, destroy the tissues of marine creatures, and cause entire populations to decline. Their small size also makes them almost impossible to clean up. Now, scientists have discovered a marine organism that’s not just invulnerable to microplastics, it may have a way to eliminate them—literally. The blue mussel (Mytilus edulis) …ingests microplastics and other pollutants alongside its typical fare, sequestering the contaminants in feces that are much easier to remove from the water than are the plastics themselves. …scientists confirmed that dense mussel feces, including those with microplastics, sink rapidly in seawater. That makes the pollutants easier to collect than free-floating particles. …“This is going to reduce [microplastics] slightly if it were applied on a large scale, but it certainly is not going to completely eliminate the problem.” …the true solution lies not in mussels, but in people. “We need to be stopping plastics at the source.”… For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 7.

-•-
2023-06-01. Treasure Hunt. [https://www.science.org/content/article/major-us-geological-survey-aims-uncover-minerals-critical-batteries-microchips] By Paul Voosen, Science. Excerpt: The first U.S. nationwide geological survey in a generation could reveal badly needed supplies of critical minerals. …Few topics draw more bipartisan support in Washington, D.C., than the need for the United States to find reliable sources of “critical minerals,” a collection of 50 mined substances that now come mostly from other countries, including some that are unfriendly or unstable. The list, created by USGS at the direction of Congress, contains not only the 17 rare earth elements produced mostly in China, but also less exotic materials such as zinc, used to produce steel, and cobalt, used in electric car batteries. …The last nationwide survey, a quest for uranium, ended in the 1980s. Ryker says the U.S. is “undermapped” compared with most developed countries, including Australia, Canada, and even Ireland. “We’re at an embarrassing point.” …To start filling in this knowledge void, USGS in 2019 began what it calls the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative, or Earth MRI. With a modest $10 million annual budget, the agency began working with state geological surveys. …Then, in 2021, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law directed $320 million into the program—nearly one-third of the entire USGS budget—to be spent over 5 years…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

-•-
2023-05-30. Plants Leave Chemical Fingerprints on an Ozone-Depleting Gas. [https://eos.org/research-spotlights/plants-leave-chemical-fingerprints-on-an-ozone-depleting-gas] By Sarah Stanley, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Methyl chloride (CH₃Cl) is one of the most common chlorine-based gases in Earth’s atmosphere. Along with related chemicals, it depletes the ozone layer, exposing life on the planet to more of the Sun’s ultraviolet radiation. …In a new study, Hartmann et al. discovered that plants called royal ferns (Osmunda regalis) emit methyl chloride with an isotopic composition different from that emitted by industrial sources. …Next, the researchers analyzed the isotopic composition of methyl chloride when it is broken down by club moss (Selaginella kraussiana). They discovered a unique isotopic pattern that differs from those produced by other methyl chloride–degrading plants, suggesting that club moss uses an unknown mechanism to process the gas. These chemical fingerprints, the researchers say, could be used in future research to clarify inputs and removals of methyl chloride in the atmosphere. (Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JG007256, 2023)… For GSS Ozone chapter 2.

-•-
2023-05-30. Giant plume spotted erupting from moon of Saturn might contain ingredients for life. [https://www.science.org/content/article/giant-plume-spotted-erupting-moon-saturn-might-contain-ingredients-life] By Ron Cowen, Science. Excerpt: NASA’s JWST space telescope has observed a 10,000-kilometer-long plume of water vapor jetting into space from Saturn’s moon Enceladus—the largest spray ever detected from the icy world, which is just one-seventh the diameter of Earth’s Moon. …Planetary scientists view Enceladus as a prime target in the search for extraterrestrial life because beneath its icy crust the moon houses a salty ocean—a good medium for the ingredients of life to mix. …Researchers describe the results today in a NASA press release and in a paper accepted at Nature Astronomy. …NASA’s Cassini mission, which in 2005 discovered the plumes on Enceladus  …flew through them seven times during its 13-year mission, discovering organic molecules such as methane and formaldehyde, and hydrogen, a potential energy source for microbes…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

-•-
2023-05-26. The Unequal Benefits of California’s Electric Vehicle Transition. [https://eos.org/articles/the-unequal-benefits-of-californias-electric-vehicle-transition] By Jenessa Duncombe, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: An uptick in clean vehicles has improved air quality in wealthier communities over marginalized communities in California, a new study finds. California has some of the most aggressive climate laws in the country, including its Clean Vehicle Rebate Project, which incentivizes the purchase of electric vehicles (EVs), plug-in hybrids, and fuel-cell vehicles. The state has issued more than half a million clean vehicle rebates since 2010. A new study shows that the program is having a mixed effect on air quality. …Furthermore, EVs increase the load on power plants, which are disproportionally located in marginalized communities…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 9.

-•-
2023-05-24. Tracking Marine Heat Waves. [https://eos.org/articles/tracking-marine-heat-waves] By Robin Donovan, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Heat waves have spiked in recent years. The United States is now scorched by about six per year, compared to just two annually in the 1960s. At sea, marine heat waves such as the Blob, which warmed waters off the U.S. West Coast from 2013 to 2016, are becoming hotter over time. Now, scientists have discovered that more intense, longer-lasting heat waves on continental shelves can strike the ocean bottom independently from the surface. Excess heat disrupts oceanic ecosystems and thwarts the ocean’s twin promises of cooling and carbon sequestration. …data revealed bottom marine heat waves that lasted up to 6 months and were 0.5°C–3°C warmer than average. These spikes are enough to stress or kill species that live on continental shelves: lobsters, Dungeness crab, Pacific cod, oysters, clams, and other bottom dwellers, Amaya said. The hot spells sometimes occurred concurrently at the surface, but not always…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-05-23. Penguin Poop May Flush Iron into the Southern Ocean. [https://eos.org/articles/penguin-poop-may-flush-iron-into-the-southern-ocean] By Carolyn Wilke, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: For Earth’s oceans to sequester carbon dioxide, they need iron. The element can waft in on dust or spew from hydrothermal vents. But there’s another source: animal poop. A new study has suggested that penguins may help fertilize the Southern Ocean with their iron-rich guano. …Phytoplankton living in the oceans take up carbon dioxide during photosynthesis. When those tiny free-floating organisms die, they sink to the deep sea, carrying that carbon with them. Iron is essential for the phytoplankton to photosynthesize, and their growth is limited by the element’s availability. …Compared with numbers from 4 decades ago, the population of chinstrap penguins, and the amount of iron they contribute to the ocean, has dropped by more than 50%. Scientists suspect that a warming climate and changing food webs have contributed to declines…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-05-28. A Star Blows Up in Nearby Galaxy. [https://www.fraknoi.com/astronomy/a-star-blows-up-in-nearby-galaxy/] By Andrew Fraknoi. Excerpt: In a galaxy not so “far, far away,” called the Pinwheel Galaxy (or by its catalog number, M101,) astronomers have seen a star explode. Some 21 million lightyears from us — which, believe it or not, is “close” as far as astronomers are concerned — a massive star ended its life by blowing most of itself into smithereens. We call such an explosion a supernova, a word that has entered popular culture as the name of at least five movies and a jazz album. This supernova was only discovered on May 19th, and is still getting brighter and brighter. Some of these explosions can become so bright that they outshine their entire galaxy. We’ll have to see how bright this one gets. …Our best estimates are that the star that blew up had enough material in it to make 15 of our Suns. …We estimate that one such supernova goes off in a galaxy like our Milky Way once every 50-75 years. But M101 is a bigger galaxy, containing some one trillion, or a thousand billion, stars. (Like the national debt, such numbers are hard to take in.) So M101 is a source of more supernovae. The last one we saw in that galaxy was in 2011, not that long ago. …any gold jewelry you happen to wearing, was made through the death of another massive star, many billions of years ago …and is now on your finger, neck, or wrist. Pretty cool!… For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 6.

-•-
2023-05-28. Wind energy has a massive waste problem. New technologies may be a step closer to solving it. [https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/28/world/wind-turbine-recycling-climate-intl/index.html] By Laura Paddison, CNN. Excerpt: Wind turbines are built to last. Their tall bodies are topped with long fiberglass blades, some more than half a football field in length, made to withstand the harshest, windiest conditions. But this sturdiness brings a big problem: What to do with these blades when they reach the end of their lives. While about 90% of turbines are easily recyclable, their blades are not. They are made from fiberglass bound together with epoxy resin, a material so strong it is incredibly difficult and expensive to break down. Most blades end their lives in landfill or are incinerated. …But in February, Danish wind company Vestas …announced a “breakthrough solution” that would allow wind turbine blades to be recycled without needing to change their design or materials. …the “newly discovered chemical technology” breaks down old blades in a liquid to produce high quality materials, which can eventually be used to make new blades, as well as components in other industries…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-05-22. A Breakthrough Deal to Keep the Colorado River From Going Dry, for Now. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/22/climate/colorado-river-deal.html] By Christopher Flavelle, The New York Times. Excerpt: Arizona, California and Nevada have agreed to take less water from the drought-strained Colorado River, a breakthrough agreement that, for now, keeps the river from falling so low that it would jeopardize water supplies for major Western cities like Phoenix and Los Angeles as well as for some of America’s most productive farmland. The agreement, announced Monday, calls for the federal government to pay about $1.2 billion to irrigation districts, cities and Native American tribes in the three states if they temporarily use less water…. See also New York Times article, The Colorado River Is Shrinking. See What’s Using All the Water. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

-•-
2023-05-20. Behind the Scenes, G7 Nations Wrangle Over Ambitious Climate Commitments. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/20/world/asia/climate-fossil-fuels-g7.html] By Motoko Rich, Lisa Friedman and Jim Tankersley, The New York Times. Excerpt: In theory, the world’s largest industrialized democracies have agreed to stop using fossil fuels within a little over a quarter-century and to switch to new sources of power such as solar and wind as fast as they can. But as leaders of the Group of 7 gathered in Hiroshima, Japan, this weekend for their annual meeting, some countries were wrangling over whether to loosen commitments to phase out the use of carbon-emitting fuels like gas and coal in time to avert the worst effects of global warming. …Jarred by the invasion of Ukraine, countries in Europe are seeking to quickly secure sources of natural gas to keep the lights on. At the same time, countries like Japan and even to some degree the United States are seeking to protect longstanding investments in the fossil fuel industry at home or abroad. …tensions have flared in the coalition over efforts by some countries to lock in their access to fossil fuels for decades to come…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

-•-
2023-05-20. In Flood-Stricken Area of Italy, Residents Fear This Won’t Be the Last of It. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/20/world/europe/italy-floods-emilia-romagna.html] By Gaia Pianigiani and Elisabetta Povoledo, The New York Times. Excerpt: When the floods hit in the northern Italian town of Lugo this past week, overflowing a local watercourse and sending water gushing into streets and the surrounding fields, Irinel Lungu, 45, retreated with his wife and toddler to the second floor of their home. …The floods have upended tens of thousands of lives in the region, Emilia-Romagna, as exceptional weather in some areas brought about half the typical annual rainfall in 36 hours. And experts say it may no longer be so exceptional. …Extreme weather events have become more commonplace in Europe, from the violent storms and raging floods that killed dozens in Germany two years ago to the scorching temperatures that set records in a normally temperate Britain last July. Italy has suffered its own fair share of extreme events, caught between bouts of extreme drought that parch towns, cripple agriculture and dry out the country’s breadbasket, and then torrential rains and floods like those of this past week…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-05-20. Rice Gets Reimagined, From the Mississippi to the Mekong. [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/05/20/climate/rice-farming-climate-change.html] By Somini Sengupta, reporting from Arkansas and Bangladesh, and Tran Le Thuy, from Vietnam, The New York Times. Excerpt: Rice is in trouble as the Earth heats up, threatening the food and livelihood of billions of people. Sometimes there’s not enough rain when seedlings need water, or too much when the plants need to keep their heads above water. As the sea intrudes, salt ruins the crop. As nights warm, yields go down. These hazards are forcing the world to find new ways to grow one of its most important crops. Rice farmers are shifting their planting calendars. Plant breeders are working on seeds to withstand high temperatures or salty soils. Hardy heirloom varieties are being resurrected…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-05-18. A Symbiosis Between Agriculture and Solar Power. [https://eos.org/research-spotlights/a-symbiosis-between-agriculture-and-solar-power] By Aaron Sidder, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Introduced in the 1980s, agrivoltaics, or AV, is the concept of pairing agriculture and solar energy production on the same plot of land. Practitioners grow crops under solar panels and can control the amounts and wavelengths of light that pass through for photosynthesis. Light that is not necessary for photosynthesis can power clean energy production. Meanwhile, as plants photosynthesize, they lose water through transpiration. That water loss cools the air and improves the efficiency of energy generation by the panels. It’s a win-win scenario—at least in theory. …In a previous study, scientists argued that successful AV setups could partition light into wavelengths that are efficient for either energy production or photosynthesis: red for crops and blue for solar panels, for example. …The study also considers how solar panels alter the microclimate and light availability beneath their cells. …The commentary highlights that candidate crops for AV are shade tolerant and have large leaf areas aboveground. Reduced air temperature and higher soil moisture below the photovoltaic system allow plants to allocate more carbon to aboveground biomass, resulting in greater leaf area. This trait is common in shade-tolerant plants and suggests that big leafy crops such as arugula, kale, and tomatoes may be more likely to succeed in an AV setup…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-05-17. Cleaning up ocean ‘garbage patches’ could destroy delicate ecosystems. [https://www.science.org/content/article/cleaning-ocean-garbage-patches-could-destroy-delicate-ecosystems] By Ashley Balzer Vigil, Science. Excerpt: The oceans are home to five major garbage patches …where strong currents swirl together, ferrying trash of all sizes. …The largest of these marine debris fields is known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Spanning 1.6 million square kilometers …it was first observed in 1997 by Charles Moore, an oceanographer… …a crew sailed through the patch for 80 days, collecting samples [that] revealed high concentrations of three species that hover at the ocean’s surface. …blue button jellies…, by-the-wind sailors …, and violet snails…. Blue button jellies and by-the-wind sailors feed on plankton and serve as food for violet snails. …ocean currents shepherd all of these floating objects—both life and trash—in the same way, the team reports this month in PLOS Biology. …presence of these creatures implies a complex ecosystem in which they serve as food for predators like sea turtles and seabirds. “The food web they’re a part of affects the whole ocean.” That could complicate efforts to clean up these patches. Some environmental organizations aim to remove the waste by skimming the surface with nets. But just as similar fishing methods lead to bycatch–creatures like dolphins caught accidentally while targeting commercial species such as shrimp–such cleanup efforts would likely scoop up surface-dwellers along with the debris…. …a modeling study published last month in Aquatic Biology found such efforts could potentially threaten the survival of species that have flourished for millions of years…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 7.

-•-
2023-05-16. Indonesia Plans on Building Nusantara, a New Capital City. [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/05/16/headway/indonesia-nusantara-jakarta.html] By Hannah Beech, The New York Times. Excerpt: Since Indonesia’s independence in 1945, Jakarta had expanded from less than a million people to roughly 30 million. It had grown tall with skyscrapers built with fortunes made from timber, palm oil, natural gas, gold, copper, tin. …Jakarta was sinking, as thirsty residents drained its marshy aquifers and rising sea waters lapped its shores. Forty percent of the Indonesian capital now lies below sea level. …Joko Widodo …the governor of a capital city that seemed to teeter on the brink of ruin …raised sea walls and improved public transport. He later talked up the construction of a constellation of artificial islands to break the waters hitting Jakarta. …All the Sisyphean dredging, the endless concrete inches slathered on sea walls, the duct tape solutions could not raise Jakarta above the sea’s reach. And so Mr. Joko has turned to a different solution: …forsake the capital on the slender island of Java and construct a new one on Borneo, the world’s third largest island, about 800 miles away. The new capital is to be called Nusantara, meaning “archipelago” in ancient Javanese and befitting an unlikely nation of more than 17,000 islands scattered between two oceans…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-05-15. Privacy concerns sparked by human DNA accidentally collected in studies of other species. [https://www.science.org/content/article/privacy-concerns-sparked-human-dna-accidentally-collected-studies-other-species] By Gretchen Vogel, Science. Excerpt: Everywhere they go, humans leave stray DNA. Police have used genetic sequences retrieved from cigarette butts and coffee cups to identify suspects; archaeologists have sifted DNA from cave dirt to identify ancient humans. But for scientists aiming to capture genetic information not about people, but about animals, plants, and microbes, the ubiquity of human DNA and the ability of even partial sequences to reveal information most people would want to keep private is a growing problem, researchers from two disparate fields warn this week. Both groups are calling for safeguards to prevent misuse of such human genomic “bycatch.” Genetic sequences recovered from water, soil, and even air can reveal plant and animal diversity, identify pathogens, and trace past environments, sparking a boom in studies of this environmental DNA (eDNA). But the samples can also contain significant amounts of human genes, researchers report today in Nature Ecology & Evolution. In some cases, the DNA traces were enough to determine the sex and likely ancestry of the people who shed them, raising ethical alarms. …enough [DNA] is present, according to an analysis published today in Nature Microbiology, to potentially identify the donor’s sex, likely ancestry, certain disease risks, and, when linked to other databases, even their full identity…. See also New York Times article, Your DNA Can Now Be Pulled From Thin Air. Privacy Experts Are Worried. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/15/science/environmental-dna-ethics-privacy.html] For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 4.

-•-
2023-05-12. Solar Panels Nurse Desert Soil Back to Life. [https://eos.org/articles/solar-panels-nurse-desert-soil-back-to-life] By Jenessa Duncombe, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Cultivating delicate soil crust in the shade of solar panels might boost the recovery of arid land. Biological soil crusts go by many names. A living ecosystem of cyanobacteria, lichen, moss, and algae, the crusts grow on arid soils on all continents, even Antarctica. Biocrust coats 12% of the planet’s surface and contains most of a desert’s ecological diversity in just the first few centimeters of soil. But the crust is easily broken (even a footstep can crush it), and operations such as ranching and farming have destroyed crust around the world. …In a new study, the researchers claimed that solar farms within the Phoenix metro area could serve as biocrust nurseries for little cost; a large-scale effort could supply enough biocrust to cover most of the fallow farmland in surrounding Maricopa County within 5 years…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 5.

-•-
2023-05-11. Coral Chemistry Reflects Southeast Asia’s Economic Expansion. [https://eos.org/research-spotlights/coral-chemistry-reflects-southeast-asias-economic-expansion] By Rebecca Dzombak, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Soil erosion from economic development sent sediments into the South China Sea—and into coral skeletons. Economic expansion leaves indelible marks on coral chemistry, according to a new study. By analyzing barium levels in coral cores, scientists can access decades-old records of regional development and erosion rates. …Li et al. present a new multidecadal record of erosion based on barium concentrations and isotopes from coral cores. The cores came from the South China Sea near southern Taiwan and central Vietnam. Each one provided about 2 decades of data recorded at a monthly resolution…. For GSS Population Growth chapter 5.

-•-
2023-05-06. Four of Uranus’s Moons Might Contain Briny Oceans. [https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/four-of-uranuss-moons-might-contain-briny-oceans/] By Emily Lakdawala, Sky & Telescope. Excerpt: A new paper re-analyzing Voyager observations suggests that four of Uranus’ five icy satellites also host oceans: Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon. (Only small Miranda, intermediate in size between Saturn’s Mimas and Enceladus, appears not to.) The oceans are desperately thin: less than 30 kilometers (20 miles) thick inside Ariel and Umbriel (both of which are about 1,000 kilometers across, similar in size to Saturn’s Tethys and Dione), and less than 50 kilometers thick within Titania and Oberon (which are larger at about 1,500 kilometers, similar to Saturn’s Rhea and Iapetus). If the oceans exist, they would be left over from much larger liquid layers that formed when the moons first formed. …They’d be extremely briny, hyper-concentrated with whatever dissolved materials helped to lower the temperature at which water would otherwise freeze. There are two candidate materials: salt and ammonia…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-05-13. Danish Wind Pioneer Keeps Battling Climate Change. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/03/business/energy-environment/denmark-wind-power-stiesdal.html] By Stanley Reed, The New York Times. Excerpt: The contemporary wind power industry, which has spawned hundreds of thousands of spinning rotors generating electricity without putting greenhouse gases into the air, was to a great extent born in a notoriously windy region of Denmark called Jutland. …perhaps no one has had more influence than a Jutlander named Henrik Stiesdal. As a young man of 21, he built a rudimentary machine to generate electricity for his parents’ farm. He was later co-designer of an innovative three-bladed turbine that set the stage for what has become a multibillion-dollar global industry. His inventions have led to about a thousand patents, and Mr. Stiesdal is widely seen as a pioneer in this very Danish field. At age 66, he is not done. After decades working for what became some of the giant companies in wind energy, Mr. Stiesdal is putting his ideas into a start-up that bears his name, pursuing innovative ways to offer clean and affordable energy and tackle climate change. …massive tetrahedral structures, designed by Mr. Stiesdal, that will serve as bases for floating wind turbines …partly submerged, covering an area of roughly two American football fields. …a new design for an electrolyzer — a device that takes water and, from it, derives hydrogen gas, which is drawing increasing attention as a replacement for fossil fuels…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

-•-
2023-05-12. With 62 Newly Discovered Moons, Saturn Knocks Jupiter Off Its Pedestal. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/12/science/saturn-moons-jupiter.html] By Jonathan O’Callaghan, The New York Times. Excerpt: This month, the International Astronomical Union is set to recognize 62 additional moons of Saturn based on a batch of objects discovered by astronomers. The small objects will give Saturn 145 moons — eclipsing Jupiter’s total of 95. …The growing number of moons also highlights potential debates over what constitutes a moon. “The simple definition of a moon is that it’s an object that orbits a planet,” Dr. Sheppard said. An object’s size, for the moment, doesn’t matter. …In March, Dr. Sheppard was also responsible for finding 12 new moons of Jupiter, which took it temporarily above Saturn in the scuffle to be the biggest hoarder of moons. That record was short-lived, it seems…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

-•-
2023-05-11. E.P.A. Proposes First Limits on Climate Pollution From Existing Power Plants. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/11/climate/epa-power-plants-pollution.html] By Coral Davenport, The New York Times. Excerpt: The Biden administration on Thursday announced the first regulations to limit greenhouse pollution from existing power plants, capping an unparalleled string of climate policies that, taken together, could substantially reduce the nation’s contribution to global warming. The proposals are designed to effectively eliminate carbon dioxide emissions from the nation’s electricity sector by 2040. …The nation’s 3,400 coal- and gas-fired power plants currently generate about 25 percent of greenhouse gases produced by the United States…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 4.

-•-
2023-05-09. Eavesdropping on the Vibrations of Earth’s Magnetic Bubble. [https://eos.org/articles/eavesdropping-on-the-vibrations-of-earths-magnetic-bubble] By Erin Martin-Jones, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: A NASA-funded crowdsourced science project has converted the unheard sounds resonating inside Earth’s magnetic shield into audible tracks, revealing an orchestra of whistles, wooshes, and chirps. …charged particles expelled from the Sun and lofted along by solar winds…can send ultralow-frequency waves quivering along the magnetic field lines that surround our planet—just like a harp string when plucked. This haunting melody is too low in pitch for us to hear, but researchers have turned these sounds into something audible and are now asking the public to help listen to the din of space…. For GSS Energy Flow chapter 5.

-•-
2023-05-08. The Greenhouse Gas Burden of Inland Waters. [https://eos.org/research-spotlights/the-greenhouse-gas-burden-of-inland-waters] By Aaron Sidder, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: In a new pair of studies, a global team of scientists reassessed greenhouse gas emissions stemming from rivers, streams, lakes, and reservoirs. …The study authors found that inland waters contribute 5.5 petagrams of CO₂ per year, of which one third emanates from South American rivers. Meanwhile, inland waters emit 82–135 teragrams of CH₄ annually, one third of which comes from North American and Russian lakes. N₂O emissions were comparatively small at 248–590 gigagrams N₂O per year, and a quarter of N₂O emissions stem from North American inland waters. …Inland waters could represent approximately 20% of the total global CH₄ emissions, the authors found. In contrast, the contributions of inland waters to the global CO₂ and N₂O budgets are relatively minor…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 7.

-•-
2023-05-08. Webb Looks for Fomalhaut’s Asteroid Belt and Finds Much More. [https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2023/webb-looks-for-fomalhaut-s-asteroid-belt-and-finds-much-more] By NASA. Excerpt: Astronomers used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to image the warm dust around a nearby young star, Fomalhaut, in order to study the first asteroid belt ever seen outside of our solar system in infrared light. But to their surprise, the dusty structures are much more complex than the asteroid and Kuiper dust belts of our solar system. Overall, there are three nested belts extending out to 14 billion miles (23 billion kilometers) from the star; that’s 150 times the distance of Earth from the Sun. The scale of the outermost belt is roughly twice the scale of our solar system’s Kuiper Belt of small bodies and cold dust beyond Neptune. The inner belts – which had never been seen before – were revealed by Webb for the first time. …The team’s results are being published in the journal Nature Astronomy. See also New York Times article…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 8.

-•-
2023-05-08. Brazil’s invasion of voracious lionfish has reached a worrisome phase. [https://www.science.org/content/article/brazil-s-invasion-voracious-lionfish-has-reached-worrisome-phase] By Herton Escobar, Science. Excerpt: Lionfish are native to the Indian and Pacific oceans, but were introduced to the Atlantic decades ago. First spotted off Florida in the 1980s, they later spread across the Caribbean, reshuffling coral reefs and other ecosystems by feasting on fish unfamiliar with the voracious predator. Ocean currents that flow north—including the South Equatorial Current—and the freshwater plume created by the Amazon River slowed the fish’s spread, but scientists predicted it was just a matter of time before it moved into Brazilian waters. Still, they’ve been alarmed by just how quickly the invasion has progressed (see map, …). As of March, lionfish have been spotted along about half of Brazil’s coastline, from the northern state of Amapá to Pernambuco, just south of the nation’s eastern tip Now, researchers say the invasion is entering a worrying new phase. The fish have reached areas where the Brazil current flows south, speeding the spread of drifting larvae and putting vast new swaths of ecologically rich waters at risk. “I’ll be very surprised if they don’t reach [Brazil’s] southern states by the end of this year,” says Luiz Rocha, a Brazilian ichthyologist at the California Academy of Sciences…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 7.

-•-
2023-05-08. In Norway, the Electric Vehicle Future Has Already Arrived. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/08/business/energy-environment/norway-electric-vehicles.html] By Jack Ewing, The New York Times. Excerpt: Last year, 80 percent of new-car sales in Norway were electric, putting the country at the vanguard of the shift to battery-powered mobility. …The country will end the sales of internal combustion engine cars in 2025. …There are problems, of course, including unreliable chargers and long waits during periods of high demand. …But the air in Oslo, Norway’s capital, is measurably cleaner. The city is also quieter as noisier gasoline and diesel vehicles are scrapped. Oslo’s greenhouse gas emissions have fallen 30 percent since 2009, yet there has not been mass unemployment among gas station workers and the electrical grid has not collapsed. …Levels of nitrogen oxides, byproducts of burning gasoline and diesel that cause smog, asthma and other ailments, have fallen sharply as electric vehicle ownership has risen. …Oslo’s air has unhealthy levels of microscopic particles generated partly by the abrasion of tires and asphalt. Electric vehicles, which account for about one-third of the registered vehicles in the city but a higher proportion of traffic, may even aggravate that problem. …Oslo is also targeting construction, the source of more than a quarter of its greenhouse gas emissions. …At a park in a working-class Oslo neighborhood last month, an excavator scooped out earth for a decorative pond. A thick cable connected the excavator to a power source, driving its electric motor. Later, an electric dump truck hauled away the soil…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 9.

-•-
2023-05-05. Groundwater Pumping Is Causing Mexico City to Sink. [https://eos.org/articles/groundwater-pumping-is-causing-mexico-city-to-sink] By Humberto Basilio, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: …Mexico City is sinking. …Scientists agree that groundwater extraction is a contributing factor to this subsidence, although estimates of the extraction rate vary. Authors of a new study published inGeophysical Research Letters used satellite data to narrow these estimates. They found that between 1 and 13 cubic kilometers (0.2 and 3 cubic mile) of groundwater have been pumped each year since 2014 to serve the 22 million residents of the Mexico City Basin. (For reference, that’s enough water to fill up to 5 million Olympic-sized swimming pools.) …Mexico City’s urban growth also blocks precipitation from reaching the spongy sediments by increasing the amount of land covered by impervious surfaces like roads and parking lots. …some researchers argue that the main trigger is long-term compaction of an ancient lake bed. The city was built on Lake Texcoco, which filled with silt in the 17th century after Spanish conquistadores began draining the lake. Since then, the weight of the city’s development has caused the silt to steadily pack more tightly, making the ground shrink and sink…. For GSS Population Growth chapter 5.

-•-
2023-04-28. Climate Change, Megafires Crush Forest Regeneration. [https://eos.org/articles/climate-change-megafires-crush-forest-regeneration] By Nancy Averett, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: High-intensity fires in western states kill mature trees and their seeds while warmer, drier conditions stress seedlings. But forest managers can still intervene to change this trajectory.… For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-05-05. Climate Change Powered the Mediterranean’s Unusual Heat Wave. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/05/climate/heat-wave-spain-morocco.html] By Raymond Zhong, The New York Times. Excerpt: The early-season heat wave that broiled parts of Algeria, Morocco, Portugal and Spain last week almost certainly would not have occurred without human-induced climate change, an international team of scientists said in an analysis issued Friday. A mass of hot, dry air from the Sahara parked itself above the western Mediterranean for several days in late April, unleashing temperatures that are more typical of July or August in the region. Mainland Spain set an April record of 101.8 degrees Fahrenheit, or 38.8 Celsius, in the southern city of Córdoba. In Morocco, the mercury climbed to more than 106 degrees Fahrenheit in Marrakesh, according to provisional data, very likely smashing that nation’s April record as well…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-05-04. Carmakers are pushing electric SUVs, but smaller is better when it comes to EVs. [https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/may/04/electric-vehicles-suvs-us-vehicle-fleet] By Oliver Milman, The Guardian. Excerpt: In a sign of how the US’s fixation upon large SUVs and pickup trucks is now infiltrating the nascent EV market, General Motors…said that the Michigan plant currently churning out Bolts will switch to new electric models of the Silverado and the GMC Sierra – hulking, and more expensive, alternatives that will probably provide the auto company a greater financial return than the modest Bolt. …Experts warn that the supersized nature of new EV models is also worse for the environment than smaller options, requiring large amounts of mined rare minerals such as lithium and cobalt for their huge batteries and using more energy to move their enormous frames around US streets. …While electric vehicles are always a better option for the climate than an exact equivalent powered by gasoline or diesel, rankings by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) show that the largest EVs are actually worse than more compact gas cars due to the emissions embedded in their creation…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 9.

-•-
2023-05-03. Star Caught Swallowing a Planet. [https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/star-caught-swallowing-a-planet/] By Camille M. Carlisle, Sky & Telescope. Excerpt: For the first time, astronomers have witnessed a star eat an exoplanet. The dinner bell has struck for a star in the constellation Aquila, the Eagle. Reporting in the May 4th Nature, Kishalay De (MIT) and a team of astronomers watched the star belch and brighten in a way that suggests it swallowed a closely orbiting planet. The star in question is a nondescript Sun-like star about 12,000 light-years away. Pre-outburst observations indicate it was slightly bloated, perhaps twice as wide as the Sun, and entering its golden years. This time in a star’s life can be a dangerous one for planets. As the star finishes fusing the hydrogen in its core, it brightens and swells. Eventually, it can swell enough to engulf the closest worlds, destroying them in a fiery furnace….. See also Science article A dying star consumes a planet, foreshadowing Earth’s fate [https://www.science.org/content/article/dying-star-consumes-planet-foreshadowing-earth-s-fate] and The New York Times article, It’s the End of a World as We Know It. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/03/science/star-eating-planet.html] For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 1.

-•-
2023-05-02. In the Pacific Northwest, 2021 Was the Hottest Year in a Millennium. [https://eos.org/articles/in-the-pacific-northwest-2021-was-the-hottest-year-in-a-millennium] By Sarah Derouin, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: A 1,000-year temperature record shows unprecedented warming in the Pacific Northwest, and new modeling predicts the likelihood of future heat waves in the decades to come.… For GSS Climate Change chapter 4.

-•-
2023-05-02. Is It a Lake, or a Battery? A New Kind of Hydropower Is Spreading Fast. [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/05/02/climate/hydroelectric-power-energy.html] By Mira Rojanasakul and Max Bearak, The New York Times. Excerpt: New research released Tuesday by Global Energy Monitor reveals a transformation underway in hydroelectric projects — using the same gravitational qualities of water, but typically without building large, traditional dams like the Hoover in the American West or Three Gorges in China. Instead, a technology called pumped storage is rapidly expanding. These systems involve two reservoirs: one on top of a hill and another at the bottom. When electricity generated from nearby power plants exceeds demand, it’s used to pump water uphill, essentially filling the upper reservoir as a battery. Later, when electricity demand spikes, water is released to the lower reservoir through a turbine, generating power. Pumped storage isn’t a new idea. But it is undergoing a renaissance in countries where wind and solar power are also growing, helping allay concerns about weather-related dips in renewable energy output. …In recent years, China has accounted for about half of global growth in renewable energy. According to official documents, China will roll out more wind and solar capacity each year between now and 2030 than Germany currently has in total. … China has stopped financing coal projects abroad, but at home last year it approved the building of more coal plants than ever before. And it is already by far the world’s biggest user of coal, a particularly dirty fuel. But even as China doubles down on coal, it is reducing the overall proportion of power it derives from it. China now leads the world in wind, solar and hydroelectric power capacity…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

-•-
2023-04-28. Exoplanets May Support Life in the Terminator Zone. [https://eos.org/articles/exoplanets-may-support-life-in-the-terminator-zone] By lakananda Dasgupta, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: A new study finds that the intersection between a searing dayside and a freezing nightside could be habitable. The results were presented at AGU’s Fall Meeting 2022 and were published recently in The Astrophysical Journal. The finding could widen the search for habitable planets in the universe…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 8.

-•-
2023-04-27. Carbon In, Carbon Out: Balancing the Ocean’s Books. [https://eos.org/science-updates/carbon-in-carbon-out-balancing-the-oceans-books] By Ryan Vandermeulen, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Plants, algae, and some kinds of bacteria—collectively known as primary producers—absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to produce the energy and cell structures they need to live. Animals and microbes feed on these primary producers, converting the ingested carbon and nutrients for their own use. When organisms then die, the carbon they contain is returned to the soil, air, or water, and the cycle begins again. Sounds straightforward, right? Yes—and no. It turns out that getting an accurate and precise accounting of carbon flows in the fundamental process of primary productivity is tricky, to say the least, especially in the ocean. …Researchers have recently attempted to resolve some of this complexity about oceanic carbon measurements by seeking international consensus on how various measurements should be made. The outcome was a detailed document of methods and best practices published by NASA and the International Ocean Colour Coordinating Group (IOCCG). The document represents an important step in reducing measurement uncertainties. When these uncertainties are not fully understood or accounted for, the result is ambiguity in the interpretation and comparability of ocean carbon data, which limits their usefulness for developing global carbon cycle models that we need to understand our planet and project future conditions…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 5.

-•-
2023-04-26. Hunting for Methane Hot Spots at the Top of the World. [https://eos.org/features/hunting-for-methane-hot-spots-at-the-top-of-the-world] By Jenessa Duncombe, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: A visit to an Alaskan wetland with some of the world’s highest lake marsh methane emissions brings scientists one step closer to understanding the phenomenon. I was joining a day of fieldwork with a group of Arctic scientists hunting an invisible gas that has been increasing in our atmosphere at an accelerating ratesince 2007. Our destination, a lake a mere 15-minute drive from campus, has the highest rates of ecological methane emissions ever recorded from Arctic lake marshes…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 3.

-•-
2023-04-26. Do Volcanoes Add More Carbon Than They Take Away?. [https://eos.org/research-spotlights/do-volcanoes-add-more-carbon-than-they-take-away] By Saima May Sidik, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: In a new study, Zhong et al. discovered that a volcano in northeast China emits a small net amount of carbon each year. Over geological timescales, that could have a significant impact on our planet’s carbon cycle. Volcanic areas continue to emit carbon dioxide long after eruptions are over. Conversely, atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) is constantly locked away into minerals on Earth’s surface through a process called silicate weathering. Whether volcanoes release more CO₂ through degassing or capture more CO₂ through silicate weathering is an open question. The authors of the new study investigated whether the Changbaishan volcanic area in northeast China is a net source or sink of atmospheric carbon. The region has been active for at least 2.7 million years, but it has not erupted since 1903, making the area a prime spot for analyzing long-term carbon leakage…. For GSS Life and Climate chapter 9.

-•-
2023-04-25. The Smallest Moon of Mars May Not Be What It Seemed. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/25/science/mars-deimos-moon-photos.html] By Jonathan O’Callaghan, The New York Times. Excerpt: Deimos, the smaller of the two moons of Mars, might be a chip off the old block — quite literally. That’s the conclusion drawn by scientists in the United Arab Emirates, whose Hope orbiter — also called the Emirates Mars Mission and the country’s first interplanetary spacecraft — just snapped the best views of Deimos ever taken by human spacecraft. …Mars has two irregularly shaped moons, and neither is mighty. Phobos, the larger of the two, is about 17 miles in diameter at its widest, and orbits closer to the red planet at an altitude of about 3,700 miles. Deimos is just nine miles across on its longest side, and completes an orbit of Mars every 30 hours at an altitude of 15,000 miles. The moons’ small size and quirky dimensions led to suggestions that they may be asteroids captured by Mars long ago. Not so, say researchers analyzing data recorded by Hope, which entered orbit around Mars in February 2021. The mission, primarily intended to study the Martian atmosphere, has spent 2023 in an extended phase performing multiple flybys of Deimos. …Hope’s three scientific instruments were able to probe the composition of Deimos. They found it was more similar to Mars, namely in the amount of carbon and organics present, than to D-type asteroids, the class of asteroids previously suggested as its origin…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-04-28. Ocean El Niño monitor gets an upgrade. [https://www.science.org/content/article/ocean-el-nino-monitor-gets-upgrade] By Paul Voosen, Science. Excerpt: For 3 years in a row, cool La Niña conditions have reigned in the tropical Pacific Ocean, suppressing the steady march of global warming. But warm waters are now rolling east and gathering off the west coast of South America, signaling the likely arrival of El Niño later this year and, next year, a surge in heat that could push the planet past 1.5°C of warming. These fluctuations in the Pacific—the greatest short-term control on global climate—once caught the world off guard. But they are now predictable months in advance, largely because of the Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) array, a series of 55 U.S. buoys, moored to the sea floor, that stretch some 13,000 kilometers along the equator. Now, the TAO array is getting a $23 million overhaul, the first since it was set up in the mid-1990s, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says. The revamped buoys, the first of which was deployed on 13 April, will be more robust and able to monitor the ocean below in more detail, potentially allowing earlier and more accurate El Niño forecasts. Some will be moved into locations north of the equator, to enable better forecasts of cyclones and atmospheric rivers, the parades of storms that can inundate coastal regions such as California…. For GSS Energy Flow chapter 8.

-•-
2023-04-27. ‘Endless record heat’ in Asia as highest April temperatures recorded. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/apr/27/endless-record-heat-asia-highest-april-temperatures] By Rebecca Ratcliffe, The Guardian. Excerpt: Asia is experiencing weeks of “endless record heat”, with sweltering temperatures causing school closures and surges in energy use. Record April temperatures have been recorded at monitoring stations across Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, as well as in China and South Asia. On Tuesday, four weather stations in Myanmar hit or matched record monthly temperatures, with Theinzayet, in eastern Mon state, reaching the highest, at 43C (109.4F). On Wednesday, Bago, north-east of Yangon, reached 42.2C, matching an all-time record previously recorded in May 2020 and April 2019, according to Maximiliano Herrera, a climatologist and weather historian. …weeks of records falling every day,” said Herrera. In Thailand last weekend the authorities advised people in Bangkok and other areas of the country to stay home to avoid becoming ill. Temperatures hit 42C in the capital on Saturday, and the heat index – meaning what the temperature feels like combined with humidity – reached 54C…. See also New York Times article, Spain Bakes in Summer-Like Heat, and Worries About What Comes Next. For GSS Climate Change chapter 4.

-•-
2023-04-27. What the geological past can tell us about the future of the ocean’s twilight zone. [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-37781-6] By Katherine A. Crichton, Jamie D. Wilson, Andy Ridgwell, Flavia Boscolo-Galazzo, Eleanor H. John, Bridget S. Wade & Paul N. Pearson, Nature Communications. Abstract: Paleontological reconstructions of plankton community structure during warm periods of the Cenozoic (last 66 million years) reveal that deep-dwelling ‘twilight zone’ (200–1000 m) plankton were less abundant and diverse, and lived much closer to the surface, than in colder, more recent climates. We suggest that this is a consequence of temperature’s role in controlling the rate that sinking organic matter is broken down and metabolized by bacteria, a process that occurs faster at warmer temperatures. In a warmer ocean, a smaller fraction of organic matter reaches the ocean interior, affecting food supply and dissolved oxygen availability at depth. Using an Earth system model that has been evaluated against paleo observations, we illustrate how anthropogenic warming may impact future carbon cycling and twilight zone ecology. Our findings suggest that significant changes are already underway, and without strong emissions mitigation, widespread ecological disruption in the twilight zone is likely by 2100, with effects spanning millennia thereafter…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 7.

-•-
2023-04-27. Climate Change Made East Africa’s Drought 100 Times as Likely, Study Says. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/27/climate/horn-of-africa-somalia-drought.html] By Raymond Zhong, The New York Times. Excerpt: Two and a half years of meager rain have shriveled crops, killed livestock and brought the Horn of Africa, one of the world’s poorest regions, to famine’s brink. Millions of people have faced food and water shortages. Hundreds of thousands have fled their homes, seeking relief. A below-normal forecast for the current rainy season means the suffering could continue. Human-caused climate change has made droughts of such severity at least 100 times as likely in this part of Africa as they were in the preindustrial era, an international team of scientists said in a study released Thursday. The findings starkly illustrate the misery that the burning of fossil fuels, mostly by wealthy countries, inflicts on societies that emit almost nothing by comparison. In parts of the nations hit hardest by the drought — Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia — climate hazards have piled on top of political and economic vulnerabilities. The region’s string of weak rainy seasons is now the longest in around 70 years of reliable rainfall records. But according to the study, what has made this drought exceptional isn’t just the poor rain, but the high temperatures that have parched the land…. See also Guardian article, Human-driven climate crisis fuelling Horn of Africa drought – study. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-04-26. New molecular membranes could slash costs for storing green energy. [https://www.science.org/content/article/new-molecular-membranes-could-slash-costs-storing-green-energy] By Robert F. Service, Science. Excerpt: Ability to let certain ions pass with near-zero friction could vastly improve batteries, fuel cells, and other electrochemical devices. New technology promises to dramatically improve the performance of batteries, fuel cells, and the electrolyzers that make green hydrogen and other fuels from electricity. The advance—used in a type of “flow battery” that’s becoming common for storing renewable energy—boosted the speed at which the battery could provide power fivefold. That jump in performance could sharply reduce the cost of storing green energy for use on the grid, making it easier for societies to completely shift from fossil fuels to renewables…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

-•-
2023-04-26. Update April 2023: See article How much U.S. forest is old growth? It depends who you ask. [https://www.science.org/content/article/how-much-u-s-forest-old-growth-it-depends-who-you-ask] by Gabriel Popkin, Science Magazine. See update to Investigation AN3.1: How much old growth forest was lost? …in GSS A New World View chapter 3.

-•-
2023-04-26. Record ocean temperatures put Earth in ‘uncharted territory’, say scientists. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/apr/26/accelerating-ocean-warming-earth-temperatures-climate-crisis] By Fiona Harvey, The Guardian. Excerpt: Temperatures in the world’s oceans have broken fresh records, … in an “unprecedented” run that has led to scientists stating the Earth has reached “uncharted territory” in the climate crisis. …Data collated by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), known as the Optimum Interpolation Sea Surface Temperature (OISST) series, gathered by satellites and buoys, has shown temperatures higher than in any previous year, in a series stretching back to 1981, continuously over the past 42 days. …Warming oceans are a concern for many reasons. Seawater takes up more space at higher temperatures, accelerating sea level rise, and warmer water at the poles accelerates the melting of the ice caps. Hotter temperatures can also be dire for marine ecosystems, as it can be difficult or impossible for species to adapt. …Some scientists fear that the rapid warming could be a sign of the climate crisis progressing at a faster rate than predicted. The oceans have acted as a kind of global buffer to the climate crisis over recent decades, both by absorbing vast amounts of the carbon dioxide that we have poured into the atmosphere, and by storing about 90% of the excess energy and heat this has created, dampening some of the impacts of global heating on land…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-04-26. New Rules for Power Plants Could Give Carbon Capture a Boost. Here’s How. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/26/climate/carbon-capture-power-plants.html] By Brad Plumer, The New York Times. Excerpt: The Biden administration’s plan to limit, for the first time, greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants could hinge on the ability of plant operators to capture carbon dioxide before it is pumped into the atmosphere. Yet none of the nation’s 3,400 coal- and gas-fired power plants are currently using carbon capture technology in a significant way, raising questions about the viability of that approach. In the coming weeks, the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to propose strict new limits on emissions from coal- and natural gas-burning power plants, which are responsible for about 25 percent of the country’s greenhouse gases.  Under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, Congress increased existing tax credits that are now worth up to $85 for every ton of carbon dioxide that polluters capture and bury underground, up from a maximum of $50 previously. That has led to growing interest. The owners of at least six coal plants and 14 large gas plants are conducting detailed engineering studies to gauge the economic feasibility of carbon capture and storage…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 4.

-•-
2023-04-25. ‘Like a dam breaking’: experts hail decision to let US climate lawsuits advance. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/apr/25/experts-hail-decision-us-climate-lawsuits-advance] By Hilary Beaumont, The Guardian. Excerpt: Without weighing in on the merits of the cases, the supreme court on Monday rebuffed an appeal by major oil companies that want to face the litigation in federal courts, rather than in state courts, which are seen as more favorable to plaintiffs. …The cases have been compared to tobacco lawsuits in the 1990s that resulted in a settlement of more than $200bn and changed how cigarettes are advertised and sold in the US…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

-•-
2023-04-25. Hong Kong: some schools face closure as birthrate and exodus take toll. [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/25/hong-kong-some-schools-face-closure-as-birthrate-and-exodus-take-toll] By Helen Davidson, The Guardian. Excerpt: Hong Kong schools are being forced to merge or prepare for closure as a decade-long decline in the birthrate and a recent exodus of residents from the city has led to a plunge in student numbers. …Hong Kong’s birthrate is one of the lowest in the world, and like several countries across east Asia is facing the demographic crisis of an ageing population. Apart from an increase measured from 2003 to 2011, the live birthrate has steadily fallen from 35 per 1,000 population in 1961 down to 5.2 per 1,000 population in 2021. Government efforts, including financial inducements and tax relief, have failed to turn the rate around…. For GSS Population Growth chapter 6.

-•-
2023-04-24. Redefining “Glacial Pace”. [https://eos.org/features/redefining-glacial-pace] By Damond Benningfield, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Glaciers and ice sheets are moving much faster now than they were just a couple of decades ago. The vast majority of them are retreating, thinning, cracking, or shrinking at unprecedented speeds. Heated by Earth’s warming atmosphere and oceans, Greenland’s massive ice sheet is melting more rapidly and running into the sea. Weakened by changing currents in the Southern Ocean, the floating extensions of Antarctica’s even bigger ice sheet are cracking off like slivers of peanut brittle. And smaller mountain glaciers from Alaska to New Zealand are vanishing, setting up potentially major consequences for people and ecosystems that depend on their water. “Every region that has glaciers is out of balance,” said Alex Gardner, a research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “None are in equilibrium with the climate. None are healthy. And the problem has been accelerating.” …All of that is contributing to one more speedup: the rise in global sea level. “The most dominant reason we study the speed of ice is to understand the current and future contributions of ice to sea level rise,” said Richard Forster, a geologist and associate dean at the University of Utah…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-04-24. The Mental Toll of Climate Change. [https://eos.org/features/the-mental-toll-of-climate-change] By Katherine Kornei, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: …Megan Irving, a mental health therapist in Oregon …and mental health professionals like her are seeing more clients suffering from a …pervasive, form of stress: unease brought on by the effects of our changing climate. A growing body of research links the impacts of climate change to adverse mental health outcomes, such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and substance abuse. But individuals and communities can take steps to bolster their emotional resilience to climate-related stressors, researchers have suggested. …mental health impacts in three broad categories …The first category is brought on by acute events such as devastating storms, wildfires, and floods. Sudden-onset events can cause trauma, which often manifests as PTSD and has been linked to anxiety, major depressive disorder, and substance abuse… Events that evolve more slowly—and are almost chronic in nature—are responsible for the second category of impacts. Gradual shifts …linked to climate change include prolonged droughts, desertification, and persistent heat waves. Changes in temperature and weather patterns can trigger a sense of uncertainty, …. The third broad category of climate change–induced mental health impacts is often characterized as lingering and unshakable concern, worry, or anger. Those feelings—sometimes referred to collectively as climate anxiety—are brought on by an awareness that the environment is, perhaps indelibly, changing. And a person doesn’t need to have experienced trauma personally to be affected…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-04-23. Leonardo’s Ferry Left High and Dry by Global Warming and Red Tape. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/23/world/europe/italy-climate-drought-da-vinci-ferry-imbersago.html] By Jason Horowitz, The New York Times. Excerpt: Since at least 500 years ago, when the opposing banks of the Adda belonged to the Duchy of Milan and the Republic of Venice, ferries have run on water currents and a taut rope above a narrow stretch of the river. Leonardo spent a lot of time in the area and sketched the motorless ferry around 1513. …But a year after Italy’s worst drought in seven decades — when much of Europe gasped for precipitation — a winter without much rain or snow has turned into a dry spring across the country’s north. …the scarcity of rainfall, which has also hit the Adda, where swans glide on water so low that islands have emerged, rowboats are beached and the last of what the town calls “Leonardesque” ferries has become a stationary landmark…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-04-22. Eureka! After California’s Heavy Rains, Gold Seekers Are Giddy. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/22/us/california-gold-prospectors.html] By Thomas Fuller, The New York Times. Excerpt: There’s a fever in California’s gold country these days, the kind that comes with the realization that nature is unlocking another stash of precious metal. California’s prodigious winter rainfall blasted torrents of water through mountain streams and rivers. And as the warmer weather melts the massive banks of snow — one research station in the Sierra recorded 60 feet for the season — the rushing waters are detaching and carrying gold deposits along the way. The immense wildfires of recent years also loosened the soil, helping to push downstream what some here are calling flood gold…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-04-21. Climate Change Knocks It Out of the Park. [https://eos.org/articles/climate-change-knocks-it-out-of-the-park] By Kimberly M. S. Cartier, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Home runs in baseball have been getting steadily more common for decades, and a recent spike in home runs might be driven by anthropogenic climate change. A new analysis combined decades of baseball statistics and ballistics data with predictive climate modeling. The study showed that more than 500 home runs since 2010 can be attributed to climate-driven, unseasonably hot temperatures. …Jim Albert, a statistician at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, noted that although these results are statistically significant, the number of home runs attributable to climate change is small relative to other ball and player effects. …Callahan speculated that there will likely come a point when team owners decide that the increase in home runs isn’t worth the heat-related health risks to players and fans. “I don’t know that we’ve seen a baseball game canceled for heat yet, but I think it’s coming,” he said. Teams might opt to shift from day games to night games, invest in a domed stadium, or even relocate to a cooler city—mitigation strategies that could have profound economic impacts on a region….. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-04-21. California researchers attempt ocean climate solution. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/2023/04/20/carbon-removal-ocean-climate-change-global-warming/5714197e-df8d-11ed-a78e-9a7c2418b00c_story.html] By Julie Watson, AP. Excerpt: LONG BEACH, Calif. — Atop a 100-foot barge tied up at the Port of Los Angeles, engineers have built a kind of floating laboratory to answer a simple question: Is there a way to cleanse seawater of carbon dioxide and then return it to the ocean so it can suck more of the greenhouse gas out of the atmosphere to slow global warming? Called the lungs of the planet, the ocean, whose plants and currents take in carbon dioxide, has already helped the Earth tremendously by absorbing 30 percent of carbon dioxide emissions since the Industrial Revolution and capturing 90 percent of the excess heat from those emissions. Acting as a giant carbon sink, it has been a crucial buffer in protecting people from even worse effects of early climate change. Seawater can store 150 times more carbon dioxide per unit volume than air, roughly. But absorbing the greenhouse gas has come at a cost, causing oceans to become more acidic, destroying coral reefs and harming marine species, including impeding shellfish from building their skeletons…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-04-14. Biden approves Alaska gas exports as critics condemn another ‘carbon bomb’. [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/14/biden-alaska-lng-liquefied-natural-gas-exports] By The Guardian. Excerpt: The Biden administration on Thursday approved exports of liquefied natural gas from the Alaska liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, a document showed, prompting criticism from environmental groups over the approval of another “carbon bomb”. …The project, for which exports were first approved by the administration of Donald Trump, has been strongly opposed by environmental groups. …The Biden administration last month approved the ConocoPhillips $7bn Willow oil and gas drilling project on Alaska’s North Slope, prompting criticism of Biden’s record on the climate crisis…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-04-19. “It’s just mind boggling.” More than 19,000 undersea volcanoes discovered. [https://www.science.org/content/article/it-s-just-mind-boggling-more-19-000-undersea-volcanoes-discovered] By Paul Voosen, Science. Excerpt: …In 2005, the nuclear-powered USS San Francisco collided with an underwater volcano, or seamount, at top speed, killing a crew member and injuring most aboard. It happened again in 2021 when the USS Connecticut struck a seamount in the South China Sea, damaging its sonar array. With only one-quarter of the sea floor mapped with sonar, it is impossible to know how many seamounts exist. But radar satellites that measure ocean height can also find them, by looking for subtle signs of seawater mounding above a hidden seamount, tugged by its gravity. A 2011 census using the method found more than 24,000. High-resolution radar data have now added more than 19,000 new ones. The vast majority—more than 27,000—remain uncharted by sonar. “It’s just mind boggling,” says David Sandwell, a marine geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, who helped lead the work. Published this month in Earth and Space Science, the new seamount catalog is “a great step forward,” says Larry Mayer, director of the University of New Hampshire’s Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping. Besides posing navigational hazards, the mountains harbor rare-earth minerals that make them commercial targets for deep-sea miners. Their size and distribution hold clues to plate tectonics and magmatism. They are crucial oases for marine life…. For GSS Energy Flow chapter 2.

-•-
2023-04-19. Scientists plan a comeback for Ukraine’s war-ravaged forests. [https://www.science.org/content/article/scientists-plan-comeback-ukraine-s-war-ravaged-forests] By April Reese, Science. Excerpt: In addition to its horrific human toll, the war in Ukraine has inflicted widespread damage on the nation’s forests. Bombs and missiles have sparked thousands of fires, and “artillery breaks trees in half—it basically mows the forest,” says Brian Milakovsky, a U.S.-born forest ecologist who lived in eastern Ukraine before fleeing the country. Ironically, some forestry experts say the destruction could lead to a major overhaul of how Ukraine manages its forests, changes they say will help ensure these landscapes can better cope with climate change, support biodiversity, and protect water quality. Optimistic that Ukraine will prevail in the war, the researchers are already planning for this greener postwar future. Milakovsky and Sergiy Zibtsev, a forest scientist at the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, shared their vision during a webinar held last week by the Yale School of the Environment…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 3.

-•-
2023-04-19. Those Seaweed Blobs Headed for Florida? See How Big They Are. [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/04/19/climate/seaweed-florida-sargassum.html] By lena Shao, The New York Times. Excerpt: Scientists say they spotted more than 13 million tons of Sargassum, a yellowish-brown seaweed, drifting in the Atlantic Ocean last month — a record for the month of March. Here’s what the so-called belt of Sargassum, which can stretch thousands of miles from the western coast of Africa to the Gulf of Mexico, usually looks like in March: [see graphic in article] …Floating mats of seaweed accumulate in the central Atlantic Ocean for much of the year. But during the spring and summer, patches of it are carried by ocean currents toward the Caribbean, eastern Florida and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast. …Mats of Sargassum, which is technically algae, have been observed for centuries, but researchers started noticing abnormally large accumulations in 2011. The immense blooms have continued to grow almost every year, in large part because of excessive, nutrient-rich runoff from the Congo, Amazon and Mississippi rivers…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 4.

-•-
2023-04-19. Volcanic microbe eats CO₂ ‘astonishingly quickly’, say scientists. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/apr/19/volcanic-microbe-eats-co2-astonishingly-quickly-say-scientists] By Damian Carrington, The Guardian. Excerpt: Discovery of carbon-capturing organism in hot springs could lead to efficient way of absorbing climate-heating gas. …The new microbe, a cyanobacterium, was discovered in September in volcanic seeps near the Italian island of Vulcano, where the water contains high levels of CO₂. The researchers said the bug turned CO₂ into biomass faster than any other known cyanobacteria. …Dr Braden Tierney…said: …“The project takes advantage of 3.6bn years of microbial evolution,” he said. “The nice thing about microbes is that they are self-assembling machines. You don’t have that with a lot of the chemical approaches….” The new microbe had another unusual property, Tierney said: it sinks in water, which could help collect the CO₂ it absorbs. But the microbe was not a silver bullet, Tierney said. “There really isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution to climate change and carbon capture. There will be circumstances where the tree is going to outperform microbes or fungi. But there will also be circumstances where you really want a fast-growing aquatic microbe that sinks,” he said. That might include large, carbon-capturing ponds, he said. The microbe might also be able to produce a useful bioplastic. The project was funded by the biotechnology company Seed Health, which has also employed Tierney as a consultant. The company already sells probiotics for human health, has developed a probiotic for bees and is researching the use of microbial enzymes to break down plastics…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-04-18. Scientists discover pristine deep-sea Galápagos reef ‘teeming with life’. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/apr/18/scientists-discover-pristine-deep-sea-galapagos-reef-teeming-with-life] By Dan Collyns, The Guardian. Excerpt: Scientists operating a submersible have discovered deep-sea coral reefs in pristine condition in a previously unexplored part of the Galápagos marine reserve. Diving to depths of 600 metres (1,970ft), to the summit of a previously unmapped seamount in the central part of the archipelago, the scientists witnessed a breathtaking mix of deep marine life. This has raised hopes that healthy reefs can still thrive at a time when coral is in crisis due to record sea surface temperatures and ocean acidification. It also showed the effectiveness of conservation actions and effective management, they said. …[Ecuador] is collaborating with its northern neighbours Panama, Costa Rica and Colombia on a regional marine corridor initiative, which aims to protect and responsibly manage the ocean…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 7.

-•-
2023-04-18. Colorado River snaking through Grand Canyon most endangered US waterway – report. [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/17/colorado-river-grand-canyon-climate-crisis-endangered] By Nina Lakhani. The Guardian. Excerpt: A 277-mile stretch of the Colorado River that snakes through the iconic Grand Canyon is America’s most endangered waterway, a new report has found. The unique ecosystem and cultural heritage of the Grand Canyon is on the brink of collapse due to prolonged drought, rising temperatures and outdated river management, according to American Rivers, the conservation group that compiles the annual endangered list. …The 2023 list includes rivers that traverse 17 states and scores of sovereign tribal nations, and supply drinking water, food, recreation and spiritual nourishment to millions of people. The waterways are under threat from mining, the climate breakdown, dams, industrial pollution and outdated river management practices that for too long have rebuffed traditional knowledge and sustainable techniques tried and tested by Indigenous Americans. …The climate crisis has led to prolonged drought across the entire river basin and reduced snowfall on the Rockies, which, along with chronic overuse, has left the reservoirs with historically low water levels…. See also article in Eos/AGU: Ten Rivers Facing Pollution, Development, and Climate Change—And Policies That Can Help. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-04-17. ‘From bad to worse’: drought puts Kenya’s hospitals under pressure. [https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/apr/17/from-bad-to-worse-drought-puts-kenyas-hospitals-under-pressure] By Caroline Kimeu, The Guardian. Excerpt: The morning rounds at Modogashe hospital in Lagdera do not take long. …According to a local official, patient numbers in Lagdera – a district in Garissa County, in the east of Kenya – have dropped from nearly 12,000 in 2019 to just over 8,000 last year, as people move away in search of water. …Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia are experiencing their worst drought in 40 years, with their sixth consecutive failed rainy season. The number of people in Kenya facing severe hunger is expected to rise to 5.4 million this year, particularly in the north of the country, where about 95% of surface water sources have dried up…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-04-14. As the Arctic Warms, These Rivers Are Slowing Down. [https://eos.org/articles/as-the-arctic-warms-these-rivers-are-slowing-down] By Danielle Beurteaux, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Permafrost is the understructure of the Arctic, but it’s thawing at a drastic pace, putting infrastructure and landscape in peril. Researchers wanted to ascertain how rising temperatures and thawing permafrost are affecting the movement of the Arctic’s large rivers. A new study published in Nature Climate Change found that such rivers’ channel migration is actually decreasing. Rivers across Alaska and Canada’s Yukon and Northwest Territories migrated 20% less between 1972 and 2020, a period when the region’s temperatures spiked. …researchers evaluated Landsat imagery of 10 rivers that were more than 100 meters wide in Alaska, the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories. These rivers, including the Yukon and Mackenzie, are in areas with varying amounts of permafrost, from continuous to sporadic. …The rivers that slowed down the most were in the areas with the most increased shrubification…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-04-12. Wildfire Smoke Destroys Ozone. [https://eos.org/articles/wildfire-smoke-destroys-ozone] By Elise Cutts, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: n the middle of the 20th century, humanity unleashed chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) into the atmosphere. By the 1980s, CFCs had gnawed away at the planet’s ozone shield, endangering safety and health on Earth. Worldwide restrictions and bans have begun to heal the damage, but new results have suggested that increasingly severe wildfires could be stalling progress. Liquid droplets containing wildfire smoke act like tiny reaction chambers for chlorine in the stratosphere, producing reactive forms of the element that degrade ozone over the midlatitudes, researchers reported in Nature. This chemical mechanism had “never been seen before,” said study coauthor and atmospheric scientist Kane Stone of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “This is a completely new chemistry that we’re looking at.” Large wildfires are expected to happen more often as the planet warms, so the new finding has raised concerns that intensifying fires could stall the recovery of the stratospheric ozone layer, which protects Earth’s surface and its inhabitants from harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation…. For GSS Ozone chapter 9.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-04-14. How electrification became a major tool for fighting climate change. [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/04/14/climate/electric-car-heater-everything.html] By Nadja Popovich and Brad Plumer, The New York Times. Excerpt: The United States still gets most of its energy by setting millions of tiny fires everywhere. Cars, trucks, homes and factories all burn fossil fuels in countless engines, furnaces and boilers, creating pollution that heats the planet. To tackle climate change, those machines will need to stop polluting. And the best way to do that, experts increasingly say, is to replace them with electric versions — cars, heating systems and factories that run on clean sources of electricity like wind, solar or nuclear power. But electrifying almost everything is a formidable task…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

-•-
2023-04-12. Why China Could Dominate the Next Big Advance in Batteries. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/12/business/china-sodium-batteries.html] By Keith Bradsher, The New York Times. Excerpt: …batteries, mostly made of lithium, have powered the rise of cellphones and other consumer electronics. They are transforming the auto industry and could soon start doing the same for solar panels and wind turbines crucial in the fight against climate change. China dominates their chemical refining and production. Now China is positioning itself to command the next big innovation in rechargeable batteries: replacing lithium with sodium, a far cheaper and more abundant material. Sodium, found all over the world as part of salt, sells for 1 to 3 percent of the price of lithium and is chemically very similar…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 9.

-•-
2023-04-11. Climate models warn of possible ‘super El Niño’ before end of year. [https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/apr/12/climate-models-warn-of-possible-super-el-nino-before-end-of-year] By Graham Readfearn, The Guardian. Excerpt: Some models are raising the possibility later this year of an extreme, or “super El Niño”, that is marked by very high temperatures in a central region of the Pacific around the equator. The last extreme El Niño in 2016 helped push global temperatures to the highest on record, underpinned by human-caused global heating that sparked floods, droughts and disease outbreaks. Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said in a Tuesday update that all seven models it had surveyed – including those from weather agencies in the UK, Japan and the US – showed sea surface temperatures passing the El Niño threshold by August…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 7.

-•-
2023-04-11. Dwindling sea ice may speed melting of Antarctic glaciers. [https://www.science.org/content/article/dwindling-sea-ice-may-speed-melting-antarctic-glaciers] By Paul Voosen, Science. Excerpt: In February, on an icebreaker off the coast of West Antarctica, Robert Larter, a marine geophysicist with the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), came on deck to a startling sight: open gray water as far as the eye could see. There was no ice at all for the ship to break. The next day, satellite surveys would find sea ice around the continent hitting a record low. Unlike fast-shrinking Arctic sea ice, the sea ice ringing Antarctica seemed more resistant to climate change—until recently. But now a long-term decline may have set in, and it could have unexpected and ominous domino effects, according to several recent studies. Dwindling sea ice could strengthen a whirling current called the Ross Gyre, bringing warm waters closer to land and hastening the collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet, which locks up enough water to raise global sea levels by 3.3 meters. The warmer water and glacial melt expected from a stronger gyre already show hints of slowing part of the global ocean’s overturning circulation, a critical “conveyor belt” of currents that distributes heat and removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-04-10. Hydrogen May Push Some Exoplanets off a Cliff. [https://eos.org/articles/hydrogen-may-push-some-exoplanets-off-a-cliff] By Julie Nováková, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: With the discovery of more than 5,000 confirmed exoplanets, astronomers understand more and more about what kinds of planets exist and why. But the data deluge has also thrown into relief the kinds of planets that don’t seem to exist. In particular, there is a steep decrease in the abundance of planets larger than approximately 3 Earth radii, a pattern nicknamed the “radius cliff.” …new research published in the Planetary Science Journal has shown how high-pressure, high-temperature chemical reactions might put a cap on planet growth. …Missions like NASA’s Kepler and Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite have revealed a curious mystery: Planets 3 times Earth’s size are about 10 times more abundant than planets that are only slightly larger. …In a first-of-its-kind experiment, researchers placed a thin foil of pressed metal oxides into tiny presses called diamond anvil cells …to study what happens under the high-temperature, high-pressure conditions expected at the atmosphere–rocky core interface on sub-Neptunes. …hydrogen not only freed iron from its oxides but also reacted with it, forming an alloy. …That ability to sequester hydrogen, mostly as the iron-hydrogen alloy sinking into the metallic part of the core, could limit growth of an exoplanet’s atmosphere, resulting in the observed radius cliff…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 8.

-•-
2023-04-10. A jail for wayward polar bears? You must be in Churchill, Canada…. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/apr/10/a-jail-for-wayward-polar-bears-you-must-be-in-churchill-canada] By Zed Nelson, The Guardian. Excerpt: Perched on the southern edge of the Arctic on the shores of Hudson Bay, residents of the Canadian town of Churchill share their streets with the world’s largest land carnivore. Their regular encounters with polar bears have earned Churchill the nickname “Polar bear capital of the world”. …The 900 or so residents are used to looking cautiously around corners and not walking after dark. But it’s the bears that could claim to have a grievance: the town was built on their annual migratory route. …Living side by side with apex predators certainly poses challenges for the town’s residents, but it is the spectre of climate change that looms large over Churchill. The number of polar bears in western Hudson Bay has fallen by 27% in the past five years, according to a recent government survey that counted bears from the air. Polar bears need an enormous amount of body fat to sustain themselves on land in the ice-free summer months. While waiting for sea ice to form, they lose about 1kg (2.2lb) a day. Female bears and cubs have an especially hard time. Warmer summers mean longer stretches without sea ice, and less time to hunt seals…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-04-09. The Real-World Costs of the Digital Race for Bitcoin. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/09/business/bitcoin-mining-electricity-pollution.html] By Gabriel J.X. Dance, The New York Times. Excerpt: Texas was gasping for electricity. Winter Storm Uri had knocked out power plants across the state, leaving tens of thousands of homes in icy darkness. By the end of Feb. 14, 2021, nearly 40 people had died, some from the freezing cold. Meanwhile, in the husk of a onetime aluminum smelting plant an hour outside of Austin, row upon row of computers were using enough electricity to power about 6,500 homes as they raced to earn Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency. …The New York Times has identified 34 such large-scale operations, known as Bitcoin mines, in the United States, all putting immense pressure on the power grid and most finding novel ways to profit from doing so. Their operations can create costs — including higher electricity bills and enormous carbon pollution — for everyone around them, most of whom have nothing to do with Bitcoin. …Each of the 34 operations The Times identified uses at least 30,000 times as much power as the average U.S. home. Altogether, they consume more than 3,900 megawatts of electricity. That is nearly the same amount of electricity as the three million households that surround them…. For Energy Use chapter 10.

-•-
2023-04-07. ‘Headed off the charts’: world’s ocean surface temperature hits record high. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/apr/08/headed-off-the-charts-worlds-ocean-surface-temperature-hits-record-high] By Graham Readfearn, The Guardian. Excerpt: The temperature of the world’s ocean surface has hit an all-time high since satellite records began, leading to marine heatwaves around the globe, according to US government data. Climate scientists said preliminary data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) showed the average temperature at the ocean’s surface has been at 21.1C since the start of April – beating the previous high of 21C set in 2016. …Three years of La Niña conditions across the vast tropical Pacific have helped suppress temperatures and dampened the effect of rising greenhouse gas emissions. But scientists said heat was now rising to the ocean surface, pointing to a potential El Niño pattern in the tropical Pacific later this year that can increase the risk of extreme weather conditions and further challenge global heat records…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 4.

-•-
2023-04-06. Wisconsin Stalagmite Records North American Warming. [https://eos.org/articles/wisconsin-stalagmite-records-north-american-warming] By Stacy Kish, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: A new record, obtained from a tiny stalagmite in North America, has revealed eight abrupt periods of warming, likely greater than 10°C, that punctuated the last glacial episode. The new research was published last month in Nature Geoscience. The last glacial period began 115,000 years ago and ended at the start of the Holocene, 11,700 years ago. Ice core data from Greenland previously revealed 25 rapid episodes of warming, called Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) events, largely attributed to changes in deepwater circulation in the North Atlantic. …Paleoclimate studies from central North America rely heavily on lake records, which range from 15,000 to 20,000 years old. The stalagmite extends that time back another 40,000 years, making it one of the longest and oldest records in this part of the world. The new record also illustrates how quickly DO warming telescoped across the Northern Hemisphere and the implications of this warming for the environment and ice sheet dynamics that could take place during a human lifetime…. For GSS Life and Climate chapter 10.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-04-07. Does Earth Have a New Quasi-moon? [https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/does-earth-have-new-quasi-moon/] By David Chandler, Sky & Telescope Magazine. Excerpt: Recently discovered asteroid 2023 FW₁₃ has created a bit of a stir among asteroid watchers. It turns out to be on an orbit that is not only in a 1:1 resonance with the Earth, but follows a path that actually circles Earth — albeit on an orbit that is so eccentric that it sweeps out halfway to Mars and in halfway to Venus. There’s no formal definition for objects such as this, which are sometimes called quasi-moons or quasi-satellites. They follow a path around Earth, but usually for no more than a few decades. Perhaps the best known of these objects, known as Kamoʻoalewa, was found in 2016, and is considered the smallest, closest, and most stable known quasi-satellite. It has an orbit that has been in a stable resonance with Earth for almost a century, and will remain so for centuries to come, according to calculations by Paul Chodas (Jet Propulsion Laboratory). But this newfound asteroid, if preliminary orbital calculations are correct, will handily eclipse that record. Some estimates say it has circled Earth since at least 100 BC and will likely continue to do so until around AD 3700. If that’s correct, 2023 FW₁₃ would be the most stable quasi-satellite of Earth ever found…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

-•-
2023-04-07. Baseball’s sluggers hit more home runs thanks to global warming. [https://www.science.org/content/article/baseball-s-sluggers-hit-more-home-runs-thanks-global-warming] By Christian Elliott, Science. Excerpt: Climate change will affect essentially every aspect of our lives, climate researchers say, even America’s unofficial pastime, baseball. Because warmer air is less dense and exerts less drag on a batted ball, the number of home runs should in theory climb as global temperatures increase. And, sure enough, a new study shows that about 0.8% of the homers hit in Major League Baseball (MLB) since 2010 made it over the fence thanks to the extra distance global warming lent their flight. Other factors, however, from the explicit effort of players to hit more home runs to the design of the ball itself, play bigger roles in explaining why home run numbers have skyrocketed in recent decades. “From a purely baseball point of view, this is primarily an academic result, not a result that Major League Baseball should really worry about,” says Alan Nathan, a physicist at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, who was not involved in the work…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-04-05. Spacecraft will explore habitability of Jupiter’s ocean moons. [https://www.science.org/content/article/spacecraft-explore-habitability-jupiter-s-ocean-moons] By Paul Voosen, Science. Excerpt: Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon, is practically a planet. Larger than Mercury, it is the only moon with its own magnetic field, produced by churning molten iron in its core. Its icy crust, more than 100 kilometers thick, …And beneath the crust, many researchers believe, is a salty ocean, kept warm by the moon’s inner heat and Jupiter’s gravitational kneading. …Ganymede is one of three jovian moons that may hold hidden oceans, all potential habitats for life. They are the targets of the $1.6 billion Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice), a European Space Agency (ESA) mission set for a 13 April launch on an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana. …Juice will take 8 years to reach Jupiter. It will spend another 3 years promenading among the moons, eventually ending up in a tight orbit around Ganymede—the first time a spacecraft will orbit a moon other than Earth’s. Ganymede’s sister moon, Europa, has long gotten more attention as a possible home for life and is the target of another spacecraft, NASA’s Europa Clipper, to launch in October 2024. Europa’s icy shell is much thinner than Ganymede’s, perhaps just 15 kilometers thick, and its ocean may sometimes breach the surface—perhaps even sending plumes of water erupting into space. But Europa orbits closer to Jupiter’s intense radiation field, which would disrupt the electronics of any spacecraft lingering nearby. The Clipper, which will arrive a year ahead of Juice thanks to a more powerful rocket, will inspect Europa by swooping past it 50 times…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

-•-
2023-04-05. Ice sheets can collapse at 600 metres a day, far faster than feared, study finds. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/apr/05/ice-sheets-collapse-far-faster-than-feared-study-climate-crisis] By Damian Carrington, The Guardian. Excerpt: Ice sheets can collapse into the ocean in spurts of up to 600 metres (2,000 feet) a day, a study has found, far faster than recorded before. …the finding, based on sea floor sediment formations from the last ice age, was a “warning from the past” for today’s world in which the climate crisis is eroding ice sheets. …The research, published in the journal Nature, used high-resolution mapping of the sea bed off Norway, where large ice sheets collapsed into the sea at the end of the last ice age 20,000 years ago. The scientists focused on sets of small ridges parallel to the coast, which formed at the line where the base of the ice sheet met the oceans, called the grounding line. …Measuring the distance between the ridges enabled the scientists to calculate the speed of the Norwegian ice sheet collapse. They found speeds of between 50 metres a day and 600 metres a day. That is up to 20 times faster than the speediest retreat recorded previously by satellites, of 30 metres a day at the Pope Glacier in West Antarctica…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-04-04. Life may have survived far north of equator during ‘Snowball Earth’. [https://www.science.org/content/article/life-may-have-survived-far-north-equator-during-snowball-earth] By Adam Mann, Science. Excerpt: More than 600 million years ago, the planet was frozen from pole to pole, covered in half-kilometer-thick ice sheets that darkened every ocean. How sea life clung on during Snowball Earth, as this inhospitable period is known, has long been a mystery. A new study bolsters the idea that the global glaciation wasn’t all encompassing. Geochemical evidence from ancient rocks suggests zones of open ocean may have been present north of the Tropic of Cancer, a region that was previously considered too cold to host life during this period. “There’s a habitable zone,” says Shuhai Xiao, a geobiologist at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityand co-author of the new work. And it’s “perhaps wider than previously thought.” …Climate models since the 1960s have shown how planetary deep freezes can arise from a simple feedback loop. When temperatures drop, Earth’s ice caps expand, reflecting sunlight and creating further cooling. If the ice manages to creep to roughly 30° to 40° latitude—about where North Africa and the continental United States are today—the global climate enters a runaway freezing cycle and glaciers end up covering the entire planet within a few hundred years. The geological record indicates Earth has experienced at least two such periods. The most recent one is known as the Marinoan Ice Age, between 654 million and 635 million years ago. Life was limited to the oceans and large creatures had yet to evolve, but fossils show that microscopic eukaryotes such as algae lived before and after the episode…. For GSS Life and Climate chapter 8.

-•-
2023-04-04. The evidence is clear: the time for action is now. We can halve emissions by 2030. [https://www.ipcc.ch/2022/04/04/ipcc-ar6-wgiii-pressrelease/] By IPCC. Excerpt: Since 2010, there have been sustained decreases of up to 85% in the costs of solar and wind energy, and batteries. An increasing range of policies and laws have enhanced energy efficiency, reduced rates of deforestation and accelerated the deployment of renewable energy. …We have options in all sectors to at least halve emissions by 2030. …“Having the right policies, infrastructure and technology in place to enable changes to our lifestyles and behaviour can result in a 40-70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This offers significant untapped potential,” said IPCC Working Group III Co-Chair Priyadarshi Shukla. “The evidence also shows that these lifestyle changes can improve our health and wellbeing.” …“Climate change is the result of more than a century of unsustainable energy and land use, lifestyles and patterns of consumption and production,” said Skea. “This report shows how taking action now can move us towards a fairer, more sustainable world.”…. See also Chart of Mitigation Options. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-04-04. ‘Tornado alley’ is shifting farther into the US east, climate scientists warn. [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/04/us-tornadoes-global-heating-climate-science] By Oliver Milman, The Guardian. Excerpt: A spate of devastating tornadoes that have recently ripped through parts of the eastern and southern US states could portend the sort of damage that will become more commonplace due to changes wrought by global heating, scientists have warned…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-04-03. California Salmon Stocks Are Crashing. A Fishing Ban Looks Certain. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/03/climate/salmon-fishery-closed-california.html] By Catrin Einhorn, The New York Times. Excerpt: This week, officials are expected to shut down all commercial and recreational salmon fishing off California for 2023. Much will be canceled off neighboring Oregon, too. The reason: An alarming decline of fish stocks linked to the one-two punch of heavily engineered waterways and the supercharged heat and drought that come with climate change. There are new threats in the ocean, too, that are less understood but may be tied to global warming, according to researchers…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-03-31. Godzilla Gets a Forever Home on the Ocean Floor. [https://eos.org/articles/godzilla-gets-a-forever-home-on-the-ocean-floor] By Tim Hornyak, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: The world’s largest oceanic core complex is named after the reptilian monster from Japanese science fiction. Parts of the seabed feature were recently christened with the beast’s anatomy.… This is not particularly related to any GSS book, but it’s certainly a fun article!

~~~~~

-•-
2023-03-29. China is cracking down on its wildlife trade. Is it enough? [https://www.science.org/content/article/china-cracking-down-its-wildlife-trade-it-enough] By Dennis Normile. Excerpt: For years, scientists and conservationists have urged China’s government to crack down on a thriving trade in wild animals that they say both threatens the nation’s rich biodiversity and increases the risk that a dangerous disease will jump from wildlife to humans. Now, some of those pleas are being answered: On 1 May, officials will begin to enforce a strengthened Wildlife Protection Law that, together with other recent rules, expands China’s list of protected species and criminalizes the sale or consumption of meat from certain animals—including raccoon dogs—known to harbor viruses that can infect humans. …in February 2020, shortly after COVID-19 was linked to the Huanan market, officials permanently banned the consumption of meat from wild species to “eradicate the bad habit of indiscriminate consumption of wildlife, [and] effectively prevent major public health risks,” Xinhua, the official state news agency, said at the time. …In May 2020, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs clarified the extent of the ban, issuing a list of species that farmers can legally raise for meat, eggs, and milk. In addition to traditional livestock such as pigs and chickens, it identifies 16 “special” animals deemed to pose low human health risks. These include several species of deer, as well as animals not native to China, such as ostrich and emu…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 1.

-•-
2023-03-29. NASA lays out vision for robotic Mars exploration. [https://www.science.org/content/article/nasa-lays-out-vision-robotic-mars-exploration] By Paul Voosen, Science. Excerpt: Rover by rover, NASA’s exploration of Mars is building to an expensive climax: a multibillion-dollar mission later this decade to collect the rock samples currently being gathered by the Perseverance rover and return them to Earth. But then what? NASA …envisions a series of lower cost Mars missions, costing up to $300 million, at every 2-year launch window. The program could begin as soon as 2030, said Eric Ianson, director of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, in a presentation today to the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. …planetary scientists have been investigating what cheaper missions to Mars might look like. In 2018, Mars Cube One, a pair of small spacecraft, flew along with the InSight lander, successfully relaying its signal to Earth as they flew past the planet. And the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars, which landed with Perseverance, is about to take off on its 49th flight—44 more flights than planned. …Scientific payloads could also be added to non-NASA spacecraft going to the planet, Ianson said. …A model for that concept is NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services, which is paying commercial providers to carry payloads to the Moon’s surface…. See also New York Times article A Big Rover Aims to Be Like ‘U.P.S. for the Moon’. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 2.

-•-
2023-03-29. ‘A win of epic proportions’: World’s highest court can set out countries’ climate obligations after Vanuatu secures historic UN vote. [https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/29/world/un-advisory-opinion-vanuatu-climate-change/index.html] By Rachel Ramirez, CNN. Excerpt: Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu on Wednesday won a historic vote at the United Nations that calls on the world’s highest court to establish for the first time the obligations countries have to address the climate crisis — and the consequences if they don’t. Vanuatu has long faced the disproportionate impacts of rising seas and intensifying storms. And in 2021, it launched its call for the UN International Court of Justice to provide an “advisory opinion” on the legal responsibility of governments to fight the climate crisis, arguing that climate change has become a human rights issue for Pacific Islanders. Although the advisory opinion will be non-binding, it will carry significant weight and authority and could inform climate negotiations as well as future climate lawsuits around the world. It could also strengthen the position of climate-vulnerable countries in international negotiations…. See also article in The Guardian. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

-•-
2023-03-29. Melting Antarctic ice predicted to cause rapid slowdown of deep ocean current by 2050. [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/30/melting-antarctic-ice-predicted-to-cause-rapid-slowdown-of-deep-ocean-current-by-2050] By Graham Readfearn, The Guardian. Excerpt: Melting ice around Antarctica will cause a rapid slowdown of a major global deep ocean current by 2050 that could alter the world’s climate for centuries and accelerate sea level rise, according to scientists behind new research. The research suggests if greenhouse gas emissions continue at today’s levels, the current in the deepest parts of the ocean could slow down by 40% in only three decades. This, the scientists said, could generate a cascade of impacts that could push up sea levels, alter weather patterns and starve marine life of a vital source of nutrients. …Prof Matt England, of the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales and a co-author of the research published in Nature, said the whole deep ocean current was heading for collapse on its current trajectory. “In the past, these circulations have taken more than 1,000 years or so to change, but this is happening over just a few decades. It’s way faster than we thought these circulations could slow down…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-03-29. What is carbon capture, usage and storage? [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/30/what-is-carbon-capture-usage-and-storage] By Jillian Ambroseand Fiona Harvey, The Guardian. Excerpt: The components of CCS [carbon capture and storage] have been around for decades now: it’s a group of technologies that can capture the carbon dioxide produced by major factories and power plants – preventing them from reaching the atmosphere and contributing to global heating – then transport them, bury them or reuse them. The key aim is to stop the CO₂ escaping into the atmosphere and exacerbating the climate crisis. In most versions, the preliminary step involves fitting factory chimneys with solvent filters, which trap carbon emissions before they escape. The gas can then be piped to locations where it can be used or stored. Most carbon dioxide will be injected deep underground – where fossil fuel gas comes from in the first place – to be stored where it cannot contribute to the climate crisis. …But some of the CO₂ could be used to help make plastics, grow greenhouse plants or even carbonate fizzy drinks. Why do we need carbon capture? According to the IEA, CCS projects could reduce global carbon dioxide emissions by almost a fifth and reduce the cost of tackling the climate crisis by 70%. One of the key reasons CCS is necessary is because heavy industry – fertiliser producers, steel mills and cement makers – would be difficult and expensive to adapt to run on cleaner energy. …The early forerunners are in the US, Canada, Norway (which aims to be an international leader in the field) and China…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-03-28. Plastics cause wide-ranging health issues from cancer to birth defects, landmark study finds. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/29/plastics-cause-wide-ranging-health-issues-from-cancer-to-birth-defects-landmark-study-finds] By Melissa Davey, The Guardian. Excerpt: Led by the Boston College Global Observatory on Planetary Health in partnership with Australia’s Minderoo Foundation and the Centre Scientifique de Monaco, the review found “current patterns of plastic production, use, and disposal are not sustainable and are responsible for significant harms to human health … as well as for deep societal injustices”. “The main driver of these worsening harms is an almost exponential and still accelerating increase in global plastic production,” the analysis, published in the medical journal Annals of Global Health, found. “Plastics’ harms are further magnified by low rates of recovery and recycling and by the long persistence of plastic waste in the environment. Coalminers, oil workers and gas field workers who extract fossil carbon feedstocks for plastic production, along with plastic production workers, were at particular risk of harm, the report found…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 7.

-•-
2023-03-24. Supercharged El Niño Could Speed Up Southern Ocean Warming. [https://eos.org/articles/supercharged-el-nino-could-speed-up-southern-ocean-warming] By Erin Martin-Jones, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: When easterly winds weaken over the tropical Pacific Ocean, a string of weather extremes unfolds all over the globe, with impacts ranging from flooding in South American deserts to reduced monsoon rains in Indonesia and India. This shift in wind and water currents, known as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), will become more intense if global temperatures continue to rise. Research now has revealed that projected changes to this global weather maker will also influence the remote Southern Ocean. Using the latest climate models, scientists have shown that enhanced El Niño events will likely speed the heating of deep-ocean waters around Antarctica, with the potential for accelerated melting of the continent’s land-held ice. Scientists are concerned about how stronger El Niño events could affect the Antarctic because of the potential for sea level rise. The Antarctic Ice Sheet holds about 60% of the world’s freshwater—enough to raise global sea levels by around 70 meters. …In a study published in Nature Climate Change, Cai and his colleagues used climate models to make the first assessments of how ENSO intensification could affect Antarctic climate…. For GSS Energy Flow chapter 8.

-•-
2023-03-20. Biden will let California lead on electric trucks, despite industry protest. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2023/03/20/epa-california-waiver-electric-trucks/] By Anna Phillips, The Washington Post. Excerpt: The Biden administration will approve new California rules to cut tailpipe pollution and phase out sales of diesel-burning trucks, according to three people briefed on the plans, a move that could jump-start the nation’s transition to electric-powered trucks and help communities harmed by diesel pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency intends to grant California “waivers” to enforce environmental rules that are significantly tougher than federal requirements and that state regulators have already approved, said these individuals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the announcement was not yet public. The new policies could have a profound effect on the air Californians breathe. Heavy-duty trucks account for nearly a third of the state’s smog-forming nitrogen oxide and more than a quarter of its fine particle pollution from diesel fuel. Both of these harmful pollutants are linked to asthma, other respiratory illnesses and premature death. Environmental advocates on behalf of Black and Latino Californians, who are more likely to live near ports, huge warehouse complexes and major highways, have long pleaded with the state’s regulators to strengthen pollution limits on the trucks whose fumes waft through their neighborhoods…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 9.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-03-23. Cargo ships powered by wind could help tackle climate crisis. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/23/cargo-ships-powered-by-wind-could-help-tackle-climate-crisis] By Jeremy Plester, The Guardian. Excerpt: Cars, trucks and planes get plenty of blame for helping drive the climate crisis, but shipping produces a large portion of the world’s greenhouse gases, as well as nitrogen oxides and sulphur pollution because ships largely use cheap heavy fuel oil. …one solution is to use wind-powered ships. …new hi-tech wind-propulsion can be fitted to existing ships to cut fuel use, supplying between 10% and 90% of a ship’s power needs…. Wind is free, blows harder at sea than on land and weather-routing software uses sophisticated algorithms to plot the fastest and most fuel-efficient voyage. A wide range of wind-powered devices for ships have been designed, using sails, kites or rotors that look like vertical cylinders. …Already more than 20 commercial cargo ships use wind power to cut their fuel use…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 9.

-•-
2023-03-22. Beijing’s population falls for first time since 2003 as China battles low birthrate. [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/22/beijings-population-falls-for-first-time-since-2003-as-china-battles-low-birthrate] By Helen Davidson, The Guardian. Excerpt: In 2022 there were more deaths than births in the Chinese capital, home to more than 21 million people, resulting in a natural population growth of minus 0.05 per 1,000 people. It is the first time the population has gone backwards since 2003….“Given the high living and education cost and education levels in Beijing, it is very normal that the birthrate of permanent residents is low,” said Xiujian Peng, senior research fellow at the Centre of Policy Studies at Victoria University in Australia. China’s Communist party government is striving to reverse the trend and stave off the economic impacts of an ageing population. …Last year official data showed China’s birthrate had fallen to 6.77 births per 1,000 people, the lowest on record. …“It is too difficult to marry and have children to live a stable life,” said one 42-year-old Beijing resident who came to the city from a rural family. …It is impossible to buy a house in Beijing.”…. For GSS Population Growth chapter 6.

-•-
2023-03-21. Eight things the world must do to avoid the worst of climate change. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/21/methane-to-food-waste-eight-ways-to-attempt-to-stay-within-15c] By Fiona Harvey, The Guardian. Excerpt: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published the “synthesis report” of its sixth assessment report (AR6) on Monday. Eight years in preparation, this mammoth report encompasses the entire range of human knowledge of the climate system, compiled by hundreds of scientists from thousands of academic papers, and published in four parts, in August 2021, February and April 2022, and March 2023. …key measures that governments and countries must take immediately if we are to avoid climate catastrophe: Reduce methane …Stop deforestation …Restore other degraded land, and stop it being turned to agriculture …Change agriculture, and change the way we eat …Solar and wind power …Energy efficiency …Stop burning coal …Put climate at the heart of all decision-making…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-03-21. ‘A living pantry’: how an urban food forest in Arizona became a model for climate action. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/21/urban-food-forest-dunbar-spring-tucson-arizona-climate-crisis-drought] By Samuel Gilbert, The Guardian. Excerpt: Near downtown Tucson, Arizona, is Dunbar Spring, a neighborhood unlike any other in the city. The unpaved sidewalks are lined with native, food-bearing trees and shrubs fed by rainwater diverted from city streets. One single block has over 100 plant species, including native goji berries, desert ironwood with edamame-like seeds and chuparosa bushes with cucumber-flavored flowers. This urban food forest – which began almost 30 years ago – provides food for residents and roughage for livestock, and the tree canopy also provides relief to residents in the third-fastest warming city in the nation. It has made Dunbar Spring a model for other areas grappling with increased heat, drought and food insecurity caused by the climate crisis. “We’re creating a living pantry,” said Brad Lancaster, a resident and co-founder of the Dunbar/Spring Neighborhood Foresters organization, which planted the urban food forest. …Dunbar Spring’s urban food forest began on an early morning in September 1996, when residents gathered for the first-ever community-wide tree-planting event. Like many lower-income areas in Tucson, Dunbar Spring was unusually hot, lacking the street tree cover to provide shade during the city’s brutal summers. Temperatures today are 4.5F warmer than in the 1970s. …Almost 30 years later, neighborhood foresters have planted more than 1,700 trees and thousands more understory plants, transforming Dunbar Spring into an urban food forest fed by rainwater. …The work in Dunbar Spring, along with Lancaster’s books and website, have inspired people worldwide to take up water harvesting to irrigate native food-bearing street trees. “In almost every neighborhood in Tucson, you can now find at least one property doing this,” he said. …The work of Dunbar Spring neighborhood foresters has also informed Tucson’s climate action plan, including legalizing citywide rainwater harvesting and planting arid-adapted trees…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 7.

-•-
2023-03-20. Earth at higher risk of big asteroid strike, satellite data suggest. [https://www.science.org/content/article/earth-higher-risk-big-asteroid-strike-satellite-data-suggest] By Paul Voosen, Science. Excerpt: At a basic level, humanity’s survival odds come down to one thing: the chances of a giant space rock slamming into the planet and sending us the way of the dinosaurs. One way to calibrate that hazard is to look at the size of Earth’s recent large impact craters. And a provocative new study suggests they are bigger than previously thought—meaning Earth is more at risk of getting hit hard, says James Garvin, chief scientist of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, who presented the work last week at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. …Using a new catalog of high-resolution satellite imagery, Garvin and his colleagues identified large rings around three impact craters and one probable one that are 1 million years old or younger. To Garvin, the rings imply the craters are tens of kilometers wider, and record far more violent events, than researchers had thought. If Garvin is right—no sure bet—each impact resulted in an explosion some 10 times more violent than the largest nuclear bomb in history, enough to blow part of the planet’s atmosphere into space. Although not as destructive as the impact that killed off the dinosaurs, the strikes would have perturbed the global climate and caused local extinctions…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 1.

-•-
2023-03-20. A Different Kind of Pipeline Project Scrambles Midwest Politics. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/20/us/carbon-dioxide-ethanol-underground-midwest.html] By Mitch Smith, The New York Times. Excerpt: For more than a decade, the Midwest was the site of bitter clashes over plans for thousand-mile pipelines meant to carry crude oil beneath cornfields and cattle ranches. Now high-dollar pipeline fights are happening again, but with a twist. Instead of oil, these projects would carry millions of tons of carbon dioxide from ethanol plants to be injected into underground rock formations rather than dispersed as pollutants in the air. What is playing out is a very different kind of environmental battle, a huge test not just for farmers and landowners but for emerging technologies promoted as ways to safely store planet-warming carbon. …Supporters… say the pipelines… would lower carbon emissions while aiding the agricultural economy through continued ethanol production. …opponents are concerned about property rights and safety, and are not convinced of the projects’ claimed environmental benefits…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-03-19. What Lit the Lamps That Let Humanity Measure the Universe. [https://www.wired.com/story/what-lit-the-lamps-that-let-humanity-measure-the-universe/] By Ruediger Pakmor. Excerpt: Every year around 1,000 Type Ia supernovas erupt in the sky. These stellar explosions brighten and then fade away in a pattern so repeatable that they’re used as “standard candles”—objects so uniformly bright that astronomers can deduce the distance to one of them by its appearance. Our understanding of the cosmos is based on these standard candles. Consider two of the biggest mysteries in cosmology: What is the expansion rate of the universe? And why is that expansion rate accelerating? Efforts to understand both of these issues rely critically on distance measurements made using Type Ia supernovas. …In 1993, the astronomer Mark Phillips plotted how the luminosity of Type Ia supernovas changes over time. Crucially, nearly all Type Ia supernovas follow this curve, known as the Phillips relationship. This consistency—along with the extreme luminosity of these explosions, which are visible billions of light-years away—makes them the most powerful standard candles that astronomers have. But what’s the reason for their consistency? …published simulations in 2021 that played out the aftermath of a D6 detonation. The radioactive nickel-56 nuclei should disintegrate into additional particles, which will then spend months decaying and interacting in the region around the supernova. (Most of our earthly manganese, nickel and cobalt, and a large fraction of our iron, probably originated in reactions such as these.) …Shen and company simplified the math: They assumed the supernova is perfectly spherical and then simulated the physics along a single line radiating outward from the center. …Strikingly, this “one-dimensional” simulation yielded the correct luminosity curve…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 6.

-•-
2023-03-19. IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) . [https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/] By Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The Summary for Policy Makers (draft) [https://templatelab.com/ipcc-summary-for-policymakers/] is marked as “Approved” but “Do Not Cite, Quote or Distribute”. That said, there are many many aspects of interest. E.g.:
“A.4.2 Several mitigation options, notably solar energy, wind energy, electrification of urban systems, urban green infrastructure, energy efficiency, demand-side management, improved forest- and crop/grassland management, and reduced food waste and loss, are technically viable, are becoming increasingly cost effective and are generally supported by the public. From 2010– 2019 there have been sustained decreases in the unit costs of solar energy (85%), wind energy (55%), and lithium ion batteries (85%), and large increases in their deployment, e.g., >10x for solar and >100x for electric vehicles (EVs), varying widely across regions. The mix of policy instruments that reduced costs and stimulated adoption includes public R&D, funding for demonstration and pilot projects, and demand pull instruments such as deployment subsidies to attain scale. Maintaining emission-intensive systems may, in some regions and sectors, be more expensive than transitioning to low emission systems. (high confidence)….” There are interesting variations of how this report is portrayed in news media. For example, compare the headlines in The New York Times, “Climate Change Is Speeding Toward Catastrophe. The Next Decade Is Crucial, U.N. Panel Says“, with The Guardian, “World can still avoid worst of climate collapse with genuine change, IPCC says.” For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

-•-
2023-03-19. How Does Carbon Capture Work? [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/03/19/us/carbon-capture.html] By Eden Weingart, The New York Times. Excerpt: …Carbon capture is an umbrella term for technologies, some of them first proposed in the 1980s, that aim to take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere or catch emissions and store them before they are released into the air. …Encouraged by tax incentives included in the Inflation Reduction Act, some companies have proposed projects in the United States to capture CO₂ and either use it or store it deep underground. Those proposals have been met with skepticism, though, by some environmentalists who say carbon capture could distract from efforts to reduce emissions in the first place. …Efforts to plant trees and other small-scale experiments are happening around the country. And two larger-scale methods are being developed: post-combustion capture and direct air capture…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-03-19. Colleges Showcase Mass Timber, in Research and on Display. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/14/business/mass-timber-universities.html] By Lisa Prevost, The New York Times. Excerpt: Mass timber, an engineered wood product that offers durability and sustainability benefits, has become increasingly prominent at colleges across the country, where it is included not only as a concept in the curriculum but also as a material in campus buildings. Experts say universities are helping to increase awareness of mass timber — layers of wood bonded with glue or nails — by demonstrating its potential as a low-carbon alternative to steel and concrete. …Long used in Europe, cross-laminated panels are so strong they are suitable for walls, roofs and flooring. And they have a number of other benefits: They capture carbon, keeping it out of the atmosphere; they are more sustainable than other construction materials, like steel and concrete; and they are exposed, adding aesthetic appeal…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 8.

-•-
2023-03-17. Ice Cores Record Long-Ago Seasons in Antarctica. [https://eos.org/articles/ice-cores-record-long-ago-seasons-in-antarctica] By Caroline Hasler, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Researchers used ice core data to reconstruct seasonal temperatures throughout the Holocene. The results link especially hot summers with patterns in Earth’s orbit. …In January, a team of scientists presented a seasonal temperature record dating back 11,000 years. The ice revealed a connection between intense solar radiation and hot summers in Antarctica. …“[This] is the first record of its kind,” said Tyler Jones, a polar climatologist at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) and lead author of the study. Seasonal temperature data help researchers understand Antarctica’s natural rhythm, which is critical for anticipating the polar regions’ responses to warming. …The data showed that summer temperatures in West Antarctica were higher when the region received a more intense dose of sunlight. This deceptively simple observation is connected to Milankovitch cycles, a major tenet of climate science. According to Milankovitch theory, the amount of sunlight reaching Earth’s surface—which depends on Earth’s rotation and orbit around the Sun—drives long-term climate change. The study validated the link between sunlight and climate on a seasonal scale: Intensely sunny summers lead to warm temperatures that can potentially trigger large-scale melting of ice…. For GSS Life and Climate chapter 10.

-•-
2023-03-16. Global fresh water demand will outstrip supply by 40% by 2030, say experts. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/17/global-fresh-water-demand-outstrip-supply-by-2030] By Fiona Harvey, The Guardian. Excerpt: The world is facing an imminent water crisis, with demand expected to outstrip the supply of fresh water by 40% by the end of this decade, experts have said on the eve of a crucial UN water summit. Governments must urgently stop subsidising the extraction and overuse of water through misdirected agricultural subsidies, and industries from mining to manufacturing must be made to overhaul their wasteful practices, according to a landmark report on the economics of water. …Many governments still do not realise how interdependent they are when it comes to water, according to Rockstrom. Most countries depend for about half of their water supply on the evaporation of water from neighbouring countries – known as “green” water because it is held in soils and delivered from transpiration in forests and other ecosystems, when plants take up water from the soil and release vapour into the air from their leaves. The report sets out seven key recommendations, including reshaping the global governance of water resources, scaling up investment in water management through public-private partnerships, pricing water properly and establishing “just water partnerships” to raise finance for water projects in developing and middle-income countries…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-03-16. Tonga Eruption May Temporarily Push Earth Closer to 1.5°C of Warming. [https://eos.org/articles/tonga-eruption-may-temporarily-push-earth-closer-to-1-5c-of-warming] By J. Besl, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: The underwater eruption of Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha‘apai sent megatons of water vapor into the stratosphere, contributing to an increase in global warming over the next 5 years. When Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha‘apai (HTHH) erupted in January 2022, it shot the standard volcanic cocktail of ash, gas, and pulverized rock into the sky. But the eruption included one extra ingredient that’s now causing climate concerns: a significant splash of ocean water. The underwater caldera shot 146 metric megatons of water into the stratosphere like a geyser, potentially contributing to atmospheric warming over the next 5 years, according to a new study published in Nature Climate Change…. For GSS Life and Climate chapter 13.

-•-
2023-03-15. The Brilliant Inventor Who Made Two of History’s Biggest Mistakes. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/15/magazine/cfcs-inventor.html] By Steven Johnson, The New York Times. Excerpt: While The Times praised him as “one of the nation’s outstanding chemists” in its obituary, today [Thomas Midgley Jr.] is best known for the terrible consequences of that chemistry, thanks to the stretch of his career from 1922 to 1928, during which he managed to invent leaded gasoline and also develop the first commercial use of the chlorofluorocarbons that would create a hole in the ozone layer…. For GSS Ozone chapter 4.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-03-15. Active volcano on Venus shows it’s a living planet. [https://www.science.org/content/article/active-volcano-shows-venus-living-planet] By Paul Voosen, Science. Excerpt: Choked by a smog of sulfuric acid and scorched by temperatures hot enough to melt lead, the surface of Venus is sure to be lifeless. For decades, researchers also thought the planet itself was dead, capped by a thick, stagnant lid of crust and unaltered by active rifts or volcanoes. But hints of volcanism have mounted recently, and now comes the best one yet: direct evidence for an eruption. Geologically, at least, Venus is alive. The discovery comes from NASA’s Magellan spacecraft, which orbited Venus some 30 years ago and used radar to peer through the thick clouds. Images made 8 months apart show a volcano’s circular mouth, or caldera, growing dramatically in a sudden collapse. On Earth, such collapses occur when magma that had supported the caldera vents or drains away, as happened during a 2018 eruption at Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano. …The discovery, published today in Science and presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, makes Venus only the third planetary body in the Solar System with active magma volcanoes, joining Earth and Io, Jupiter’s fiery moon…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

-•-
2023-03-15. Splitting seawater could provide an endless source of green hydrogen. [https://www.science.org/content/article/splitting-seawater-provide-endless-source-green-hydrogen] By Robert F. Service, Science. Excerpt: …“Green” hydrogen, made by using renewable energy to split water molecules, could power heavy vehicles and decarbonize industries such as steelmaking without spewing a whiff of carbon dioxide. But because the water-splitting machines, or electrolyzers, are designed to work with pure water, scaling up green hydrogen could exacerbate global freshwater shortages. Now, several research teams are reporting advances in producing hydrogen directly from seawater, which could become an inexhaustible source of green hydrogen. …Md Kibria, a materials chemist at the University of Calgary, says for now there’s a cheaper solution: feeding seawater into desalination setups that can remove the salt before the water flows to conventional electrolyzers. …Today, nearly all hydrogen is made by breaking apart methane, burning fossil fuels to generate the needed heat and pressure. Both steps release carbon dioxide. Green hydrogen could replace this dirty hydrogen, but at the moment it costs more than twice as much, roughly $5 per kilogram. That’s partly due to the high cost of electrolyzers, which rely on catalysts made from precious metals. The U.S. Department of Energy recently launched a decadelong effort to improve electrolyzers and bring the cost of green hydrogen down to $1 per kilogram…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

-•-
2023-03-14. Geneticists should rethink how they use race and ethnicity, panel urges. [https://www.science.org/content/article/geneticists-should-rethink-how-they-use-race-and-ethnicity-panel-urges] By Jocelyn Kaiser, Science. Excerpt: The once widely held notion that humans fall into discrete races has led to geneticists drawing erroneous conclusions about the role of genes in shaping health and traits, and in some cases, to harmful discrimination against some groups. An expert committee is now urging an overhaul of this practice. Most notably, the committee’s report calls for researchers to scrap the term “race” itself in most studies, use caution with other labels such as ethnicity and geography, and determine ancestry by quantifying how closely a group’s members are related to reference genomes drawn from certain populations. …Many human geneticists have already dropped the term “race” from their studies. But other recommendations in the report will be new to researchers using genomic data and challenging to put into practice, says clinical and molecular geneticist Wendy Chung of Columbia University, a report reviewer…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 4.

-•-
2023-03-15. Schizophrenia pinpointed as a key factor in heat deaths. [https://www.science.org/content/article/schizophrenia-pinpointed-key-factor-heat-deaths] By Warren Cornwall, Science. Excerpt: …more than 600 people died from the heat in British Columbia, as temperatures topped 40°C for days, shattering records in a region better known for temperatures usually half as high. Now, new research has zeroed in on one of the hardest hit groups: people with schizophrenia. Epidemiologists combing through provincial health records found that, overall, those with mental health conditions seemed to have an elevated risk of a heat-related death. That was most severe for people with schizophrenia—a 200% increase compared with typical summers. …schizophrenia can affect the brain’s hypothalamus, which helps regulate temperature through sweating and shivering. Some antipsychotic medications can raise body temperature, which can have deadly effects when coupled with extreme heat. The disease affects people’s ability to make reasoned decisions or sense when they are ill. People with schizophrenia tend to have other conditions tied to heat-related illness, such as diabetes. Finally, schizophrenia is associated with isolation and homelessness, which puts people at risk when temperatures rise…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-03-14. An Oil Rush Threatens Natural Splendors Across East Africa. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/14/world/africa/oil-pipeline-uganda-tanzania.html] By Abdi Latif Dahir, The New York times. Excerpt: An oil rush is now underway in Uganda, a verdant, landlocked country in East Africa which has signed onto a multibillion-dollar joint venture with French and Chinese oil companies, arguing that the revenues will fund schools, roads and other development. …Land is being acquired and cleared to build a pipeline to carry the oil from the lush west of landlocked Uganda, through forests and game reserves in Tanzania, to a port on the Indian Ocean coast. …Environmentalists are alarmed that oil spills could threaten Lake Victoria, a vital source of freshwater for 40 million people, and ravage the park that protects Murchison Falls, one of the world’s most powerful waterfalls, where the Nile River roars through a narrow gorge. …Fishing communities as well as farmers are being displaced. …Babihemaiso Dismas, a village leader, said China National tells fishermen to stay off the lake for days on end because of the drilling — depriving them of food and income. Residents say they have seen little of the development the company promised. It paved only the roads leading to its drilling sites and offices, and hired few locals, bringing in outside laborers instead. “They are digging millions of dollars in our land but they don’t want to share it,” he said. “They are milking the cow without feeding it.”…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 3.

-•-
2023-03-14. Pythons, Invasive and Hungry, Are Making Their Way North in Florida. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/14/us/pythons-florida-invasive-species.html] By Patricia Mazzei, The New York Times. Excerpt: A study from the U.S. Geological Survey called the state’s python problem “one of the most intractable invasive-species management issues across the globe.” So much for all the efforts to slow the proliferation of Burmese pythons in the Florida Everglades over the last two decades, including with paid contractors, trained volunteers and an annual hunt that has drawn participants from as far as Latvia: The giant snakes have been making their way north, reaching West Palm Beach and Fort Myers and threatening ever-larger stretches of the ecosystem. That was one of the few definitive conclusions in a comprehensive review of python science published last month by the U.S. Geological Survey, which underscored the difficulty of containing the giant snakes since they were first documented as an established population in the state in 2000. …“One python transited continuously for 58.5 hours and traveled 2.43 kilometers in a single day,” the review said of a snake followed with radio tracking…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 6.

-•-
2023-03-14. Volkswagen Will Invest $193 Billion in Electric Cars and Software. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/14/business/volkswagen-electric-vehicles-batteries-investment.html] By Melissa Eddy, The New York Times. Excerpt: Volkswagen said on Tuesday that it would spend $193 billion on software, battery factories and other investments as it aimed to make every fifth vehicle it sold electric by 2025. The automaker, the world’s second biggest after Toyota, will also focus on expanding its presence in North America, where it has struggled for years, and becoming more competitive in China, one of its most important markets, said Oliver Blume, Volkswagen’s chief executive…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 9.

-•-
2023-03-13. Rivers in the Sky Are Hindering Winter Arctic Sea Ice Recovery. [https://eos.org/articles/rivers-in-the-sky-are-hindering-winter-arctic-sea-ice-recovery] By Rachel Fritts, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Atmospheric rivers are reaching farther north with greater frequency than they were 4 decades ago, according to new research. These lofted highways of water vapor are dumping rain on recovering Arctic sea ice during the winter, when ice should be at its peak. At any given time, multiple atmospheric rivers are moving more than a Mississippi River’s worth of water from the equator to higher latitudes. When researchers first described the phenomenon several decades ago, it was seen as a midlatitude event, associated with flooding in California and snowmelt in the Pacific Northwest. But recently, atmospheric rivers have been snaking their way to the poles as well. A new study definitively links these extreme weather events with broader trends in Arctic sea ice loss…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-03-12. Silicon Valley Bank Collapse Threatens Climate Start-Ups. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/12/climate/silicon-valley-bank-climate.html] By David Gelles, The New York Times. Excerpt: As the fallout of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank continued to spread over the weekend, it became clear that some of the worst casualties were companies developing solutions for the climate crisis. The bank, the largest to fail since 2008, worked with more than 1,550 technology firms that are creating solar, hydrogen and battery storage projects. According to its website, the bank issued them billions in loans. …Community solar projects appear to be especially hard hit. Silicon Valley Bank said that it led or participated in 62 percent of financing deals for community solar projects, which are smaller-scale solar projects that often serve lower-income residential areas. …There are signs that, when the dust settles, the climate tech industry will have a new lender of choice…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-03-11. Inside the Global Race to Turn Water Into Fuel. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/11/climate/green-hydrogen-energy.html] By By Max Bearak, The New York Times. Excerpt: this remote parcel of the Australian Outback for an imminent transformation. A consortium of energy companies led by BP plans to cover an expanse of land eight times as large as New York City with as many as 1,743 wind turbines, each nearly as tall as the Empire State Building, along with 10 million or so solar panels and more than a thousand miles of access roads to connect them all. But none of the 26 gigawatts of energy the site expects to produce, equivalent to a third of what Australia’s grid currently requires, will go toward public use. Instead, it will be used to manufacture a novel kind of industrial fuel: green hydrogen. …the biggest problem that green hydrogen could help solve: vast iron ore mines that are full of machines powered by immense amounts of dirty fossil fuels. Three of the world’s four biggest ore miners operate dozens of mines here…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

-•-
2023-03-10. Biden Administration Expected to Move Ahead on a Major Oil Project in Alaska. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/10/climate/biden-willow-oil-alaska.html] By Lisa Friedman, The New York Times. Excerpt: …the Biden administration is planning to greenlight an enormous $8 billion oil drilling project in the North Slope of Alaska…. …Willow would be the largest new oil development in the United States, expected to pump out 600 million barrels of crude over 30 years. Burning all that oil could release nearly 280 million metric tons of carbon emissions into the atmosphere. On an annual basis, that would translate into 9.2 million metric tons of carbon pollution, equal to adding nearly two million cars to the roads each year. The United States, the second biggest polluter on the planet after China, emits about 5.6 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide annually. Environmental activists, who have labeled the project a “carbon bomb” have argued that the project would deepen America’s dependence on oil and gas at a time when the International Energy Agency said nations must stop permitting such projects to avert the most catastrophic impacts of climate change…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

-•-
2023-03-07. Watch the Milky Way’s Black Hole Spaghettify a Cloud. [https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/watch-the-milky-ways-black-hole-spaghettify-a-cloud/] By Monica Young, Sky & Telescope. Excerpt: If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to fall into a black hole, a dusty gas cloud in the galactic center can give you an idea. Observations of the cloud dating back to 2002 show it’s coming apart in the presence of the supermassive behemoth residing there. That black hole, called Sgr A*, exerts tidal forces on any objects nearby, pulling harder on the nearer side than on the farther side, and stretching — or spaghettifying — them in the process. The extent of the black hole’s effects depends on the density of the object itself: A cloud will stretch like taffy while a star is less easily torn apart. …Anna Ciurlo (University of California, Los Angeles) and colleagues show in the February 20th Astrophysical Journal that X7 is on its way toward the black hole. It will pass within some 3,200 astronomical units (a.u.; 18 light-days) of Sgr A* in 2036. Already, the cloud is stretching out: it’s now nine times as long as it is wide. …The fact that X7 won’t survive its upcoming pass puts a limit on its age. Its orbit is only 170 years long, so the cloud can’t be more than that many years old. Ciurlo’s team therefore suggests that the gas was ejected recently when a pair of stars collided…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 6.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-03-10. One of North America’s most dangerous invasive species is hitchhiking on fish. [https://www.science.org/content/article/one-north-america-s-most-dangerous-invasive-species-hitchhiking-fish] By Richard Pallardy, Science. Excerpt: Zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) are one of the most catastrophic aquatic invasive species in North America. Native to Russia and Ukraine, these fingernail-size mollusks have spread around the world, often carried in ballast water—used to stabilize boats—as larvae, where they’ve caused billions of dollars of damage to fisheries, water treatment facilities, and other aquatic industries by clogging intake pipes and robbing nutrients from ecosystems. Now, researchers have discovered a new way they invade—by hitchhiking on fish. …The discovery is particularly concerning because fish are highly mobile organisms that don’t have a means of removing these parasites. And lake chub and similar species are often used as bait by anglers, which means they’re frequently carried from one body of water to another…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 6.

-•-
2023-03-10. A Huge City Polluter? Buildings. Here’s a Surprising Fix. [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/03/10/climate/buildings-carbon-dioxide-emissions-climate.html] By Brad Plumer, The New York Times. Excerpt: On cold mornings in New York City, boilers in the basements of thousands of buildings kick on, burning natural gas or oil to provide heat for the people upstairs. Carbon dioxide from these boilers wafts up chimneys and into the air, one of the city’s biggest sources of global warming emissions. …At the Grand Tier, a 30-story apartment tower on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, the carbon dioxide from its two giant gas boilers is captured, cooled to a liquid and then trucked to a concrete factory in Brooklyn. There, the carbon is mixed with cement and sealed into concrete blocks, where it can’t heat the atmosphere. “This is the first carbon capture system on a building that we’re aware of anywhere in the world,” said Brian Asparro, the chief operating officer of CarbonQuest, the company behind the system. “And we expect that it won’t be the last.” …A sweeping new climate law in New York City aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions from large buildings 40 percent by 2030 and 80 percent by 2050. Starting next year, buildings that exceed emissions limits will face steadily escalating fines. …that has turned New York City into a laboratory of sorts, forcing change and innovation as property owners scramble to avoid huge penalties. …New York State is currently funding a round of novel electric heat pump and efficiency projects that could serve as models for other buildings…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 8.

-•-
2023-03-08. China battles alien marsh grass at unprecedented scale. [https://www.science.org/content/article/china-battles-alien-marsh-grass-unprecedented-scale] By Erik Stokstad. Excerpt: Along its 18,000 kilometers of coastline, China has been taken over by a green invader. Smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) grows tall and thick across tidal mudflats, depriving endangered migratory birds of habitat, clogging shipping channels, and ruining clam farms. Now, China aims to beat back 90% of the weed by 2025. …The nationwide effort, launched last month, “is by far the largest action plan for wetland invasive species control in China and even in the world,” says Bo Li, an invasion ecologist at Fudan and Yunnan universities who was not involved in creating the plan. It won’t be simple or cheap, costing hundreds of millions of dollars, Li estimates. And schemes to dig up, drown, or poison the weed all have side effects. …Spartina, native to eastern North America, was brought to China starting in 1979 to stabilize tidal mudflats and turn them into land for agriculture or development. The plan worked, but the Spartina kept spreading and now covers about 68,000 hectares, about the area of New York City. The government has realized, says Yihui Zhang, a wetland ecologist at Xiamen University, that “the harm of Spartina alterniflora outweighs its benefits.” It dominates native salt marshes, outcompeting native plants that provide food for indigenous species such as the reed parrotbill, which has declined as a result…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 6.

-•-
2023-03-08. In Zimbabwe, drought is driving a hydropower crisis—and a search for alternatives. [https://www.science.org/content/article/zimbabwe-drought-driving-hydropower-crisis-and-search-alternatives] By Andrew Mambondyani, Science. Excerpt: …a prolonged drought has plunged Zimbabwe into a severe energy crisis. Water levels behind Zimbabwe’s main hydropower dam, which produces nearly 70% of the nation’s electricity, have dropped too low to reliably generate power, forcing utility managers to impose rolling blackouts that last for up to 20 hours per day. …The crisis, researchers say, has highlighted the growing threat that an increasingly dry and erratic climate poses to African nations that rely on hydropower. In Zimbabwe, it is prompting the government and researchers to step up the search for more dependable energy supplies for the nation’s 16 million people. …by 2030 “new hydropower dams will no longer be an attractive option across most of Africa.” …the nation’s government is moving to expand coal-fired power plants. But it is also examining sources of energy that won’t add to greenhouse gas emissions, including solar power and biogas made by fermenting organic wastes. “The costs of these technologies have been rapidly dropping; hence they have become more attractive investment options,” Sterl says. …researchers concluded that biogas has the potential to play a bigger role in Zimbabwe’s energy mix. A second recent study, from a team based at Shanghai University, notes that Zimbabwe, which receives some 3000 hours of sunlight per year, also has yet to fully tap the potential of solar power. By building solar panel arrays that are linked to battery storage systems, power producers could reduce their reliance on imported electricity and ensure more reliable power supplies, they reported in the Journal of Renewable Energy and Environmentin August 2022…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

-•-
2023-03-07. Historic treaty could open the way to protecting 30% of the oceans. [https://www.science.org/content/article/historic-treaty-could-open-way-protecting-30-oceans] By Erik Stokstad, Science. Excerpt: After 2 weeks of intense negotiations, countries agreed this week on a historic treaty to protect biodiversity in international waters. The agreement, announced on 4 March at the United Nations, sets up a legal process for establishing marine protected areas (MPAs), a key tool for protecting at least 30% of the ocean, which an intergovernmental convention recently set as a target for 2030. The treaty also gives poorer countries a stake in conservation by strengthening their research capacity and creating a framework for sharing financial rewards from the DNA of marine organisms. …The treaty, which will enter into force once 60 nations have ratified it, would require a three-quarters vote of member countries to establish an MPA….. [See also article by Catrin Einhorn, The New York Times, Nations Agree on Language for Historic Treaty to Protect Ocean Life.] For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 7.

-•-
2023-03-06. Bee and butterfly numbers are falling, even in undisturbed forests. [https://www.science.org/content/article/bee-butterfly-numbers-are-falling-even-undisturbed-forests] By Elizabeth Pennisi, Science. Excerpt: Habitat destruction, pesticide use, and other human impacts are often blamed for the well-documented decline of insects in recent decades. But even in forests where few humans tread, some bees and butterflies are declining, researchers have found. Over the past 15 years, populations of bees shrank 62.5% and those of butterflies dropped 57.6% in a forest in the U.S. southeast. In addition, the number of bee species there fell by 39%, the team reports this month in Current Biology. Five times between 2007 and 2022, researchers surveyed the insects in three forested areas in the Oconee National Forest in northern Georgia. The sites were relatively undisturbed by humans and didn’t have common invasive plants such as Chinese privet. The team suspects climate change may be warming the region and affecting bee and possibly butterfly survival. Invasive insects may also be to blame…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 1.

-•-
2023-03-06. 1,000 super-emitting methane leaks risk triggering climate tipping points. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/06/revealed-1000-super-emitting-methane-leaks-risk-triggering-climate-tipping-points] By Damian Carrington, The Guardian. Excerpt: More than 1,000 “super-emitter” sites gushed the potent greenhouse gas methane into the global atmosphere in 2022, the Guardian can reveal, mostly from oil and gas facilities. The worst single leak spewed the pollution at a rate equivalent to 67m running cars. Separate data also reveals 55 “methane bombs” around the world – fossil fuel extraction sites where gas leaks alone from future production would release levels of methane equivalent to 30 years of all US greenhouse gas emissions. Methane emissions cause 25% of global heating today and there has been a “scary” surge since 2007, according to scientists. This acceleration may be the biggest threat to keeping below 1.5C of global heating and seriously risks triggering catastrophic climate tipping points, researchers say…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 3.

-•-
2023-03-06. Meat, dairy and rice production will bust 1.5C climate target, shows study. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/06/meat-dairy-rice-high-methane-food-production-bust-climate-target-study] By Damian Carrington, The Guardian. Excerpt: …Climate-heating emissions from food production, dominated by meat, dairy and rice, will by themselves break the key international target of 1.5C if left unchecked, a detailed study has shown. …the scientists said the temperature rise could be cut by 55% by cutting meat consumption in rich countries to medically recommended levels, reducing emissions from livestock and their manure, and using renewable energy in the food system. …The research, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, treated each greenhouse gas separately for 94 key types of food, enabling their impact on climate over time to be better understood. Feeding this emissions data into a widely used climate model showed that the continuation of today’s food production would lead to a rise of 0.7C by 2100 if global population growth was low, and a 0.9C rise if population growth was high…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-03-21. ‘A living pantry’: how an urban food forest in Arizona became a model for climate action. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/21/urban-food-forest-dunbar-spring-tucson-arizona-climate-crisis-drought] By Samuel Gilbert, The Guardian. Excerpt: Near downtown Tucson, Arizona, is Dunbar Spring, a neighborhood unlike any other in the city. The unpaved sidewalks are lined with native, food-bearing trees and shrubs fed by rainwater diverted from city streets. One single block has over 100 plant species, including native goji berries, desert ironwood with edamame-like seeds and chuparosa bushes with cucumber-flavored flowers. This urban food forest – which began almost 30 years ago – provides food for residents and roughage for livestock, and the tree canopy also provides relief to residents in the third-fastest warming city in the nation. It has made Dunbar Spring a model for other areas grappling with increased heat, drought and food insecurity caused by the climate crisis. “We’re creating a living pantry,” said Brad Lancaster, a resident and co-founder of the Dunbar/Spring Neighborhood Foresters organization, which planted the urban food forest. …Dunbar Spring’s urban food forest began on an early morning in September 1996, when residents gathered for the first-ever community-wide tree-planting event. Like many lower-income areas in Tucson, Dunbar Spring was unusually hot, lacking the street tree cover to provide shade during the city’s brutal summers. Temperatures today are 4.5F warmer than in the 1970s. …Almost 30 years later, neighborhood foresters have planted more than 1,700 trees and thousands more understory plants, transforming Dunbar Spring into an urban food forest fed by rainwater. …The work in Dunbar Spring, along with Lancaster’s books and website, have inspired people worldwide to take up water harvesting to irrigate native food-bearing street trees. “In almost every neighborhood in Tucson, you can now find at least one property doing this,” he said. …The work of Dunbar Spring neighborhood foresters has also informed Tucson’s climate action plan, including legalizing citywide rainwater harvesting and planting arid-adapted trees…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 7.

-•-
2023-03-20. A Different Kind of Pipeline Project Scrambles Midwest Politics. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/20/us/carbon-dioxide-ethanol-underground-midwest.html] By Mitch Smith, The New York Times. Excerpt: For more than a decade, the Midwest was the site of bitter clashes over plans for thousand-mile pipelines meant to carry crude oil beneath cornfields and cattle ranches. Now high-dollar pipeline fights are happening again, but with a twist. Instead of oil, these projects would carry millions of tons of carbon dioxide from ethanol plants to be injected into underground rock formations rather than dispersed as pollutants in the air. What is playing out is a very different kind of environmental battle, a huge test not just for farmers and landowners but for emerging technologies promoted as ways to safely store planet-warming carbon. …Supporters… say the pipelines… would lower carbon emissions while aiding the agricultural economy through continued ethanol production. …opponents are concerned about property rights and safety, and are not convinced of the projects’ claimed environmental benefits…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-03-19. IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) . [https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/] By Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The Summary for Policy Makers (draft) [https://report.ipcc.ch/ar6syr/pdf/IPCC_AR6_SYR_SPM.pdf] is marked as “Approved” but “Do Not Cite, Quote or Distribute”. That said, there are many many aspects of interest. E.g.:
“A.4.2 Several mitigation options, notably solar energy, wind energy, electrification of urban systems, urban green infrastructure, energy efficiency, demand-side management, improved forest- and crop/grassland management, and reduced food waste and loss, are technically viable, are becoming increasingly cost effective and are generally supported by the public. From 2010– 2019 there have been sustained decreases in the unit costs of solar energy (85%), wind energy (55%), and lithium ion batteries (85%), and large increases in their deployment, e.g., >10x for solar and >100x for electric vehicles (EVs), varying widely across regions. The mix of policy instruments that reduced costs and stimulated adoption includes public R&D, funding for demonstration and pilot projects, and demand pull instruments such as deployment subsidies to attain scale. Maintaining emission-intensive systems may, in some regions and sectors, be more expensive than transitioning to low emission systems. (high confidence)….” There are interesting variations of how this report is portrayed in news media. For example, compare the headlines in The New York Times, “Climate Change Is Speeding Toward Catastrophe. The Next Decade Is Crucial, U.N. Panel Says“, with The Guardian, “World can still avoid worst of climate collapse with genuine change, IPCC says.” For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

-•-
2023-03-19. How Does Carbon Capture Work? [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/03/19/us/carbon-capture.html] By Eden Weingart, The New York Times. Excerpt: …Carbon capture is an umbrella term for technologies, some of them first proposed in the 1980s, that aim to take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere or catch emissions and store them before they are released into the air. …Encouraged by tax incentives included in the Inflation Reduction Act, some companies have proposed projects in the United States to capture CO₂ and either use it or store it deep underground. Those proposals have been met with skepticism, though, by some environmentalists who say carbon capture could distract from efforts to reduce emissions in the first place. …Efforts to plant trees and other small-scale experiments are happening around the country. And two larger-scale methods are being developed: post-combustion capture and direct air capture…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-03-19. Colleges Showcase Mass Timber, in Research and on Display. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/14/business/mass-timber-universities.html] By Lisa Prevost, The New York Times. Excerpt: Mass timber, an engineered wood product that offers durability and sustainability benefits, has become increasingly prominent at colleges across the country, where it is included not only as a concept in the curriculum but also as a material in campus buildings. Experts say universities are helping to increase awareness of mass timber — layers of wood bonded with glue or nails — by demonstrating its potential as a low-carbon alternative to steel and concrete. …Long used in Europe, cross-laminated panels are so strong they are suitable for walls, roofs and flooring. And they have a number of other benefits: They capture carbon, keeping it out of the atmosphere; they are more sustainable than other construction materials, like steel and concrete; and they are exposed, adding aesthetic appeal…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 8.

-•-
2023-03-15. The Brilliant Inventor Who Made Two of History’s Biggest Mistakes. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/15/magazine/cfcs-inventor.html] By Steven Johnson, The New York Times. Excerpt: While The Times praised him as “one of the nation’s outstanding chemists” in its obituary, today [Thomas Midgley Jr.] is best known for the terrible consequences of that chemistry, thanks to the stretch of his career from 1922 to 1928, during which he managed to invent leaded gasoline and also develop the first commercial use of the chlorofluorocarbons that would create a hole in the ozone layer…. For GSS Ozone chapter 4.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-03-15. Active volcano on Venus shows it’s a living planet. [https://www.science.org/content/article/active-volcano-shows-venus-living-planet] By Paul Voosen, Science. Excerpt: Choked by a smog of sulfuric acid and scorched by temperatures hot enough to melt lead, the surface of Venus is sure to be lifeless. For decades, researchers also thought the planet itself was dead, capped by a thick, stagnant lid of crust and unaltered by active rifts or volcanoes. But hints of volcanism have mounted recently, and now comes the best one yet: direct evidence for an eruption. Geologically, at least, Venus is alive. The discovery comes from NASA’s Magellan spacecraft, which orbited Venus some 30 years ago and used radar to peer through the thick clouds. Images made 8 months apart show a volcano’s circular mouth, or caldera, growing dramatically in a sudden collapse. On Earth, such collapses occur when magma that had supported the caldera vents or drains away, as happened during a 2018 eruption at Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano. …The discovery, published today in Science and presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, makes Venus only the third planetary body in the Solar System with active magma volcanoes, joining Earth and Io, Jupiter’s fiery moon…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

-•-
2023-03-15. Splitting seawater could provide an endless source of green hydrogen. [https://www.science.org/content/article/splitting-seawater-provide-endless-source-green-hydrogen] By Robert F. Service, Science. Excerpt: …“Green” hydrogen, made by using renewable energy to split water molecules, could power heavy vehicles and decarbonize industries such as steelmaking without spewing a whiff of carbon dioxide. But because the water-splitting machines, or electrolyzers, are designed to work with pure water, scaling up green hydrogen could exacerbate global freshwater shortages. Now, several research teams are reporting advances in producing hydrogen directly from seawater, which could become an inexhaustible source of green hydrogen. …Md Kibria, a materials chemist at the University of Calgary, says for now there’s a cheaper solution: feeding seawater into desalination setups that can remove the salt before the water flows to conventional electrolyzers. …Today, nearly all hydrogen is made by breaking apart methane, burning fossil fuels to generate the needed heat and pressure. Both steps release carbon dioxide. Green hydrogen could replace this dirty hydrogen, but at the moment it costs more than twice as much, roughly $5 per kilogram. That’s partly due to the high cost of electrolyzers, which rely on catalysts made from precious metals. The U.S. Department of Energy recently launched a decadelong effort to improve electrolyzers and bring the cost of green hydrogen down to $1 per kilogram…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

-•-
2023-03-14. Geneticists should rethink how they use race and ethnicity, panel urges. [https://www.science.org/content/article/geneticists-should-rethink-how-they-use-race-and-ethnicity-panel-urges] By Jocelyn Kaiser, Science. Excerpt: The once widely held notion that humans fall into discrete races has led to geneticists drawing erroneous conclusions about the role of genes in shaping health and traits, and in some cases, to harmful discrimination against some groups. An expert committee is now urging an overhaul of this practice. Most notably, the committee’s report calls for researchers to scrap the term “race” itself in most studies, use caution with other labels such as ethnicity and geography, and determine ancestry by quantifying how closely a group’s members are related to reference genomes drawn from certain populations. …Many human geneticists have already dropped the term “race” from their studies. But other recommendations in the report will be new to researchers using genomic data and challenging to put into practice, says clinical and molecular geneticist Wendy Chung of Columbia University, a report reviewer…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 4.

-•-
2023-03-15. Schizophrenia pinpointed as a key factor in heat deaths. [https://www.science.org/content/article/schizophrenia-pinpointed-key-factor-heat-deaths] By Warren Cornwall, Science. Excerpt: …more than 600 people died from the heat in British Columbia, as temperatures topped 40°C for days, shattering records in a region better known for temperatures usually half as high. Now, new research has zeroed in on one of the hardest hit groups: people with schizophrenia. Epidemiologists combing through provincial health records found that, overall, those with mental health conditions seemed to have an elevated risk of a heat-related death. That was most severe for people with schizophrenia—a 200% increase compared with typical summers. …schizophrenia can affect the brain’s hypothalamus, which helps regulate temperature through sweating and shivering. Some antipsychotic medications can raise body temperature, which can have deadly effects when coupled with extreme heat. The disease affects people’s ability to make reasoned decisions or sense when they are ill. People with schizophrenia tend to have other conditions tied to heat-related illness, such as diabetes. Finally, schizophrenia is associated with isolation and homelessness, which puts people at risk when temperatures rise…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-03-14. An Oil Rush Threatens Natural Splendors Across East Africa. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/14/world/africa/oil-pipeline-uganda-tanzania.html] By Abdi Latif Dahir, The New York times. Excerpt: An oil rush is now underway in Uganda, a verdant, landlocked country in East Africa which has signed onto a multibillion-dollar joint venture with French and Chinese oil companies, arguing that the revenues will fund schools, roads and other development. …Land is being acquired and cleared to build a pipeline to carry the oil from the lush west of landlocked Uganda, through forests and game reserves in Tanzania, to a port on the Indian Ocean coast. …Environmentalists are alarmed that oil spills could threaten Lake Victoria, a vital source of freshwater for 40 million people, and ravage the park that protects Murchison Falls, one of the world’s most powerful waterfalls, where the Nile River roars through a narrow gorge. …Fishing communities as well as farmers are being displaced. …Babihemaiso Dismas, a village leader, said China National tells fishermen to stay off the lake for days on end because of the drilling — depriving them of food and income. Residents say they have seen little of the development the company promised. It paved only the roads leading to its drilling sites and offices, and hired few locals, bringing in outside laborers instead. “They are digging millions of dollars in our land but they don’t want to share it,” he said. “They are milking the cow without feeding it.”…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 3.

-•-
2023-03-14. Pythons, Invasive and Hungry, Are Making Their Way North in Florida. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/14/us/pythons-florida-invasive-species.html] By Patricia Mazzei, The New York Times. Excerpt: A study from the U.S. Geological Survey called the state’s python problem “one of the most intractable invasive-species management issues across the globe.” So much for all the efforts to slow the proliferation of Burmese pythons in the Florida Everglades over the last two decades, including with paid contractors, trained volunteers and an annual hunt that has drawn participants from as far as Latvia: The giant snakes have been making their way north, reaching West Palm Beach and Fort Myers and threatening ever-larger stretches of the ecosystem. That was one of the few definitive conclusions in a comprehensive review of python science published last month by the U.S. Geological Survey, which underscored the difficulty of containing the giant snakes since they were first documented as an established population in the state in 2000. …“One python transited continuously for 58.5 hours and traveled 2.43 kilometers in a single day,” the review said of a snake followed with radio tracking…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 6.

-•-
2023-03-14. Volkswagen Will Invest $193 Billion in Electric Cars and Software. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/14/business/volkswagen-electric-vehicles-batteries-investment.html] By Melissa Eddy, The New York Times. Excerpt: Volkswagen said on Tuesday that it would spend $193 billion on software, battery factories and other investments as it aimed to make every fifth vehicle it sold electric by 2025. The automaker, the world’s second biggest after Toyota, will also focus on expanding its presence in North America, where it has struggled for years, and becoming more competitive in China, one of its most important markets, said Oliver Blume, Volkswagen’s chief executive…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 9.

-•-
2023-03-13. Rivers in the Sky Are Hindering Winter Arctic Sea Ice Recovery. [https://eos.org/articles/rivers-in-the-sky-are-hindering-winter-arctic-sea-ice-recovery] By Rachel Fritts, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Atmospheric rivers are reaching farther north with greater frequency than they were 4 decades ago, according to new research. These lofted highways of water vapor are dumping rain on recovering Arctic sea ice during the winter, when ice should be at its peak. At any given time, multiple atmospheric rivers are moving more than a Mississippi River’s worth of water from the equator to higher latitudes. When researchers first described the phenomenon several decades ago, it was seen as a midlatitude event, associated with flooding in California and snowmelt in the Pacific Northwest. But recently, atmospheric rivers have been snaking their way to the poles as well. A new study definitively links these extreme weather events with broader trends in Arctic sea ice loss…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-03-12. Silicon Valley Bank Collapse Threatens Climate Start-Ups. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/12/climate/silicon-valley-bank-climate.html] By David Gelles, The New York Times. Excerpt: As the fallout of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank continued to spread over the weekend, it became clear that some of the worst casualties were companies developing solutions for the climate crisis. The bank, the largest to fail since 2008, worked with more than 1,550 technology firms that are creating solar, hydrogen and battery storage projects. According to its website, the bank issued them billions in loans. …Community solar projects appear to be especially hard hit. Silicon Valley Bank said that it led or participated in 62 percent of financing deals for community solar projects, which are smaller-scale solar projects that often serve lower-income residential areas. …There are signs that, when the dust settles, the climate tech industry will have a new lender of choice…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-03-11. Inside the Global Race to Turn Water Into Fuel. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/11/climate/green-hydrogen-energy.html] By By Max Bearak, The New York Times. Excerpt: this remote parcel of the Australian Outback for an imminent transformation. A consortium of energy companies led by BP plans to cover an expanse of land eight times as large as New York City with as many as 1,743 wind turbines, each nearly as tall as the Empire State Building, along with 10 million or so solar panels and more than a thousand miles of access roads to connect them all. But none of the 26 gigawatts of energy the site expects to produce, equivalent to a third of what Australia’s grid currently requires, will go toward public use. Instead, it will be used to manufacture a novel kind of industrial fuel: green hydrogen. …the biggest problem that green hydrogen could help solve: vast iron ore mines that are full of machines powered by immense amounts of dirty fossil fuels. Three of the world’s four biggest ore miners operate dozens of mines here…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

-•-
2023-03-10. Biden Administration Expected to Move Ahead on a Major Oil Project in Alaska. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/10/climate/biden-willow-oil-alaska.html] By Lisa Friedman, The New York Times. Excerpt: …the Biden administration is planning to greenlight an enormous $8 billion oil drilling project in the North Slope of Alaska…. …Willow would be the largest new oil development in the United States, expected to pump out 600 million barrels of crude over 30 years. Burning all that oil could release nearly 280 million metric tons of carbon emissions into the atmosphere. On an annual basis, that would translate into 9.2 million metric tons of carbon pollution, equal to adding nearly two million cars to the roads each year. The United States, the second biggest polluter on the planet after China, emits about 5.6 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide annually. Environmental activists, who have labeled the project a “carbon bomb” have argued that the project would deepen America’s dependence on oil and gas at a time when the International Energy Agency said nations must stop permitting such projects to avert the most catastrophic impacts of climate change…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

-•-
2023-03-07. Watch the Milky Way’s Black Hole Spaghettify a Cloud. [https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/watch-the-milky-ways-black-hole-spaghettify-a-cloud/] By Monica Young, Sky & Telescope. Excerpt: If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to fall into a black hole, a dusty gas cloud in the galactic center can give you an idea. Observations of the cloud dating back to 2002 show it’s coming apart in the presence of the supermassive behemoth residing there. That black hole, called Sgr A*, exerts tidal forces on any objects nearby, pulling harder on the nearer side than on the farther side, and stretching — or spaghettifying — them in the process. The extent of the black hole’s effects depends on the density of the object itself: A cloud will stretch like taffy while a star is less easily torn apart. …Anna Ciurlo (University of California, Los Angeles) and colleagues show in the February 20th Astrophysical Journal that X7 is on its way toward the black hole. It will pass within some 3,200 astronomical units (a.u.; 18 light-days) of Sgr A* in 2036. Already, the cloud is stretching out: it’s now nine times as long as it is wide. …The fact that X7 won’t survive its upcoming pass puts a limit on its age. Its orbit is only 170 years long, so the cloud can’t be more than that many years old. Ciurlo’s team therefore suggests that the gas was ejected recently when a pair of stars collided…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 6.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-03-10. One of North America’s most dangerous invasive species is hitchhiking on fish. [https://www.science.org/content/article/one-north-america-s-most-dangerous-invasive-species-hitchhiking-fish] By Richard Pallardy, Science. Excerpt: Zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) are one of the most catastrophic aquatic invasive species in North America. Native to Russia and Ukraine, these fingernail-size mollusks have spread around the world, often carried in ballast water—used to stabilize boats—as larvae, where they’ve caused billions of dollars of damage to fisheries, water treatment facilities, and other aquatic industries by clogging intake pipes and robbing nutrients from ecosystems. Now, researchers have discovered a new way they invade—by hitchhiking on fish. …The discovery is particularly concerning because fish are highly mobile organisms that don’t have a means of removing these parasites. And lake chub and similar species are often used as bait by anglers, which means they’re frequently carried from one body of water to another…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 6.

-•-
2023-03-10. A Huge City Polluter? Buildings. Here’s a Surprising Fix. [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/03/10/climate/buildings-carbon-dioxide-emissions-climate.html] By Brad Plumer, The New York Times. Excerpt: On cold mornings in New York City, boilers in the basements of thousands of buildings kick on, burning natural gas or oil to provide heat for the people upstairs. Carbon dioxide from these boilers wafts up chimneys and into the air, one of the city’s biggest sources of global warming emissions. …At the Grand Tier, a 30-story apartment tower on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, the carbon dioxide from its two giant gas boilers is captured, cooled to a liquid and then trucked to a concrete factory in Brooklyn. There, the carbon is mixed with cement and sealed into concrete blocks, where it can’t heat the atmosphere. “This is the first carbon capture system on a building that we’re aware of anywhere in the world,” said Brian Asparro, the chief operating officer of CarbonQuest, the company behind the system. “And we expect that it won’t be the last.” …A sweeping new climate law in New York City aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions from large buildings 40 percent by 2030 and 80 percent by 2050. Starting next year, buildings that exceed emissions limits will face steadily escalating fines. …that has turned New York City into a laboratory of sorts, forcing change and innovation as property owners scramble to avoid huge penalties. …New York State is currently funding a round of novel electric heat pump and efficiency projects that could serve as models for other buildings…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 8.

-•-
2023-03-08. China battles alien marsh grass at unprecedented scale. [https://www.science.org/content/article/china-battles-alien-marsh-grass-unprecedented-scale] By Erik Stokstad. Excerpt: Along its 18,000 kilometers of coastline, China has been taken over by a green invader. Smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) grows tall and thick across tidal mudflats, depriving endangered migratory birds of habitat, clogging shipping channels, and ruining clam farms. Now, China aims to beat back 90% of the weed by 2025. …The nationwide effort, launched last month, “is by far the largest action plan for wetland invasive species control in China and even in the world,” says Bo Li, an invasion ecologist at Fudan and Yunnan universities who was not involved in creating the plan. It won’t be simple or cheap, costing hundreds of millions of dollars, Li estimates. And schemes to dig up, drown, or poison the weed all have side effects. …Spartina, native to eastern North America, was brought to China starting in 1979 to stabilize tidal mudflats and turn them into land for agriculture or development. The plan worked, but the Spartina kept spreading and now covers about 68,000 hectares, about the area of New York City. The government has realized, says Yihui Zhang, a wetland ecologist at Xiamen University, that “the harm of Spartina alterniflora outweighs its benefits.” It dominates native salt marshes, outcompeting native plants that provide food for indigenous species such as the reed parrotbill, which has declined as a result…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 6.

-•-
2023-03-08. In Zimbabwe, drought is driving a hydropower crisis—and a search for alternatives. [https://www.science.org/content/article/zimbabwe-drought-driving-hydropower-crisis-and-search-alternatives] By Andrew Mambondyani, Science. Excerpt: …a prolonged drought has plunged Zimbabwe into a severe energy crisis. Water levels behind Zimbabwe’s main hydropower dam, which produces nearly 70% of the nation’s electricity, have dropped too low to reliably generate power, forcing utility managers to impose rolling blackouts that last for up to 20 hours per day. …The crisis, researchers say, has highlighted the growing threat that an increasingly dry and erratic climate poses to African nations that rely on hydropower. In Zimbabwe, it is prompting the government and researchers to step up the search for more dependable energy supplies for the nation’s 16 million people. …by 2030 “new hydropower dams will no longer be an attractive option across most of Africa.” …the nation’s government is moving to expand coal-fired power plants. But it is also examining sources of energy that won’t add to greenhouse gas emissions, including solar power and biogas made by fermenting organic wastes. “The costs of these technologies have been rapidly dropping; hence they have become more attractive investment options,” Sterl says. …researchers concluded that biogas has the potential to play a bigger role in Zimbabwe’s energy mix. A second recent study, from a team based at Shanghai University, notes that Zimbabwe, which receives some 3000 hours of sunlight per year, also has yet to fully tap the potential of solar power. By building solar panel arrays that are linked to battery storage systems, power producers could reduce their reliance on imported electricity and ensure more reliable power supplies, they reported in the Journal of Renewable Energy and Environmentin August 2022…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

-•-
2023-03-07. Historic treaty could open the way to protecting 30% of the oceans. [https://www.science.org/content/article/historic-treaty-could-open-way-protecting-30-oceans] By Erik Stokstad, Science. Excerpt: After 2 weeks of intense negotiations, countries agreed this week on a historic treaty to protect biodiversity in international waters. The agreement, announced on 4 March at the United Nations, sets up a legal process for establishing marine protected areas (MPAs), a key tool for protecting at least 30% of the ocean, which an intergovernmental convention recently set as a target for 2030. The treaty also gives poorer countries a stake in conservation by strengthening their research capacity and creating a framework for sharing financial rewards from the DNA of marine organisms. …The treaty, which will enter into force once 60 nations have ratified it, would require a three-quarters vote of member countries to establish an MPA….. [See also article by Catrin Einhorn, The New York Times, Nations Agree on Language for Historic Treaty to Protect Ocean Life.] For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 7.

-•-
2023-03-06. Bee and butterfly numbers are falling, even in undisturbed forests. [https://www.science.org/content/article/bee-butterfly-numbers-are-falling-even-undisturbed-forests] By Elizabeth Pennisi, Science. Excerpt: Habitat destruction, pesticide use, and other human impacts are often blamed for the well-documented decline of insects in recent decades. But even in forests where few humans tread, some bees and butterflies are declining, researchers have found. Over the past 15 years, populations of bees shrank 62.5% and those of butterflies dropped 57.6% in a forest in the U.S. southeast. In addition, the number of bee species there fell by 39%, the team reports this month in Current Biology. Five times between 2007 and 2022, researchers surveyed the insects in three forested areas in the Oconee National Forest in northern Georgia. The sites were relatively undisturbed by humans and didn’t have common invasive plants such as Chinese privet. The team suspects climate change may be warming the region and affecting bee and possibly butterfly survival. Invasive insects may also be to blame…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 1.

-•-
2023-03-06. 1,000 super-emitting methane leaks risk triggering climate tipping points. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/06/revealed-1000-super-emitting-methane-leaks-risk-triggering-climate-tipping-points] By Damian Carrington, The Guardian. Excerpt: More than 1,000 “super-emitter” sites gushed the potent greenhouse gas methane into the global atmosphere in 2022, the Guardian can reveal, mostly from oil and gas facilities. The worst single leak spewed the pollution at a rate equivalent to 67m running cars. Separate data also reveals 55 “methane bombs” around the world – fossil fuel extraction sites where gas leaks alone from future production would release levels of methane equivalent to 30 years of all US greenhouse gas emissions. Methane emissions cause 25% of global heating today and there has been a “scary” surge since 2007, according to scientists. This acceleration may be the biggest threat to keeping below 1.5C of global heating and seriously risks triggering catastrophic climate tipping points, researchers say…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 3.

-•-
2023-03-06. Meat, dairy and rice production will bust 1.5C climate target, shows study. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/06/meat-dairy-rice-high-methane-food-production-bust-climate-target-study] By Damian Carrington, The Guardian. Excerpt: …Climate-heating emissions from food production, dominated by meat, dairy and rice, will by themselves break the key international target of 1.5C if left unchecked, a detailed study has shown. …the scientists said the temperature rise could be cut by 55% by cutting meat consumption in rich countries to medically recommended levels, reducing emissions from livestock and their manure, and using renewable energy in the food system. …The research, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, treated each greenhouse gas separately for 94 key types of food, enabling their impact on climate over time to be better understood. Feeding this emissions data into a widely used climate model showed that the continuation of today’s food production would lead to a rise of 0.7C by 2100 if global population growth was low, and a 0.9C rise if population growth was high…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-03-04. ‘Everyone should be concerned’: Antarctic sea ice reaches lowest levels ever recorded. [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/04/everyone-should-be-concerned-antarctic-sea-ice-reaches-lowest-levels-ever-recorded] By Graham Readfearn, The Guardian. Excerpt: For 44 years, satellites have helped scientists track how much ice is floating on the ocean around Antarctica’s 18,000km coastline. The continent’s fringing waters witness a massive shift each year, with sea ice peaking at about 18m sq km each September before dropping to just above 2m sq km by February. But across those four decades of satellite observations, there has never been less ice around the continent than there was last week. …Hobbs and other scientists said the new record – the third time it’s been broken in six years – has started a scramble for answers among polar scientists. The fate of Antarctica – especially the ice on land – is important because the continent holds enough ice to raise sea levels by many metres if it was to melt. While melting sea ice does not directly raise sea levels because it is already floating on water, several scientists told the Guardian of knock-on effects that can. …Sea ice helps to buffer the effect of storms on ice attached to the coast. If it starts to disappear for longer, the increased wave action can weaken those floating ice shelves that themselves stabilise the massive ice sheets and glaciers behind them on the land…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-02-27. Who rules Earth? Wild mammals far outweighed by humans and domestic animals. [https://www.science.org/content/article/who-rules-earth-wild-mammals-far-outweighed-humans-and-domestic-animals] By Elizabeth Pennisi, Science. Excerpt: …The study…“is the first that provides quite convincing values for mammals,” says Patrick Schultheiss, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Würzburg. Published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, it concludes that wild land mammals alive now have a total biomass of 22 million tons, and marine mammals account for another 40 million tons. Those numbers are relatively puny: Ants alone amount to 80 million tons, …humans, who weigh in at 390 million tons, with their livestock and other hangers-on such as urban rats adding another 630 million tons. It is stark evidence of how the natural world is being overrun, researchers say. …lead author Ron Milo, a quantitative biologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science …and his colleagues …In 2018, …grabbed headlines by estimating the global weight of all life; 2 years later, they added the global weight of all humanmade objects and infrastructure, …. They also made a rough estimate of 50 million tons for wild mammals—“a shockingly tiny fraction of the mass of life on Earth,” …On land, much of the wild mammalian biomass is concentrated in a few large-bodied species, including boar, elephants, kangaroos, and several kinds of deer. The top 10 species account for 8.8 million tons—40% of the estimated global wild land mammal biomass…. Rodents—not counting human-associated rats and mice—make up 16% and carnivores account for 3% of that biomass. …In contrast, on the domesticated front, cows collectively weigh 420 million tons and dogs about as much as all wild land mammals, the new study reports. The biomass of housecats is about double that of African elephants and four times that of moose…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 7.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-02-27. How Hail Hazards Are Changing Around the Mediterranean. [https://eos.org/science-updates/how-hail-hazards-are-changing-around-the-mediterranean] By Sante Laviola,  Giulio Monte,  Elsa Cattani and  Vincenzo Levizzani, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: A new method for studying hailstorms from space offers more consistent and more complete views of how and where hail forms, and how climate change might influence hail’s impacts in the future. The Mediterranean Basin is one of the most vulnerable areas on Earth to the effects of rapid climate change. Observed rates of temperature rise indicate that the region is warming 20% faster compared with the global average, inducing a trend toward drier conditions and changing precipitation regimes. The steep temperature rise increases the vulnerability of the Mediterranean Basin to several hazards that affect ecosystems and human health and security, such as heat waves, droughts, and fires. Along with such events, the frequency and intensity of storm-related hazards also may be amplified around the Mediterranean in a warming climate. Hail is one hazard of interest because of its dangerous and destructive nature, especially when hail particles grow to large sizes. …Our analysis of the 22-year data set demonstrates, despite high interannual variability, that there are statistically significant (significance > 90%) increasing trends in the numbers of large hail and super hail events across the entire Mediterranean Basin …there has been a roughly 30% increase in the incidence of the phenomena in the past decade (2010–2021) with respect to the preceding 1999–2010 period…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-02-27. Mercury Isn’t Alone in Orbit, and Scientists Don’t Know Why. [https://eos.org/articles/mercury-isnt-alone-in-orbit-and-scientists-dont-know-why] By Jure Japelj, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: A cloud of dust traces the innermost planet’s orbital path. By all accounts, it shouldn’t be there. …In a new study published in the Planetary Science Journal, scientists tried to trace the genesis of Mercury’s dust. And although they still don’t know how this improbable cloud formed, they do know that it probably has a different origin story than the one escorting our own planet. …Earth’s dust ring formed from the immense cloud of dust, called a zodiacal or interplanetary dust cloud, that pervades the space between planets. …Earth and Venus are massive enough to stall migrating dust, but Mercury is not. That close to the Sun, phenomena including solar winds, solar light, and strong magnetic fields should, quite literally, kick the dust up, and Mercury isn’t large enough to trap the celestial debris in its gravitational pull. …Using data from NASA’s MESSENGER (Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging) spacecraft, the team identified two craters larger than 40 kilometers in diameter on Mercury’s surface that might be younger than 50 million years. Perhaps collateral debris from these strikes billowed out into space…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

-•-
2023-02-27. As Oil Companies Stay Lean, Workers Move to Renewable Energy. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/27/business/energy-environment/oil-gas-renewable-energy-jobs.html] By Clifford Krauss, The New York Times. Excerpt: …Oil and gas companies laid off roughly 160,000 workers in 2020, and they maintained tight budgets and hired cautiously over the last two years. But many renewable businesses expanded rapidly after the early shock of the pandemic faded, snapping up geologists, engineers and other workers from the likes of Exxon and Chevron. …Executives and workers in energy hubs in Houston, Dallas and other places say steady streams of people are moving from fossil fuel to renewable energy jobs…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

-•-
2023-02-27. ‘Big irony’ as winter sports sponsored by climate polluters, report finds. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/27/big-irony-as-winter-sports-sponsored-by-climate-polluters-report-finds] By Damian Carrington, The Guardian. Excerpt: Winter sports are being sponsored by high-carbon companies despite their pollution helping to melt the snow the sports require to exist, according to a new report. The report found that more than 100 events, organisations and athletes were sponsored by fossil fuel companies, carmakers and airlines. The sponsorships were like “winter sport nailing the lid on its own coffin”, said one Olympic champion. The report, by campaign group Badvertising and thinktank New Weather Sweden, found 83 sponsorship deals from car manufacturers. The largest governing body in winter sports, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS), is itself sponsored by Audi. Almost 90% of the vehicles produced by Audi in 2021 were petrol or diesel driven. The report also found sponsorship deals from 12 fossil fuel companies, including Gazprom and Equinor, and five airlines, including British Airways and SAS. …The European Alps suffered a poor winter for snow in 2023 and recent research found the duration of snow cover there is now 36 days shorter than the long-term average, as CO₂ emissions drive up global heating…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-02-26. Desperate for Babies, China Races to Undo an Era of Birth Limits. Is It Too Late?. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/26/world/asia/china-birth-rate.html] By Nicole Hong and Zixu Wang, The New York Times. Excerpt: In China, a country that limits most couples to three children, one province is making a bold pitch to try to get its citizens to procreate: have as many babies as you want, even if you are unmarried. The initiative, which came into effect this month, points to the renewed urgency of China’s efforts to spark a baby boom after its population shrank last year for the first time since a national famine in the 1960s. …there are plans to expand national insurance coverage for fertility treatments, including I.V.F. But the measures have been met with a wave of public skepticism, ridicule and debate, highlighting the challenges China faces as it seeks to stave off a shrinking work force that could imperil economic growth. Many young Chinese adults, who themselves were born during China’s draconian one-child policy, are pushing back on the government’s inducements to have babies in a country that is among the most expensive in the world to raise a child. To them, such incentives do little to address anxieties about supporting their aging parents and managing the rising costs of education, housing and health care…. For GSS Population Growth chapter 6.

-•-
2023-02-22. Finding Climate History in the Rafters of New York City Buildings. [https://eos.org/features/finding-climate-history-in-the-rafters-of-new-york-city-buildings] By Jenessa Duncombe, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: When renovating in the Big Apple, you might acquire a several-hundred-year-old climate database along with your new kitchen and bath. …Hidden in wooden joists and beams in New York City’s oldest buildings is the largest repository of old-growth timber in the eastern United States, said Rao. These timbers can hold valuable information about past climates—but it can be uncovered only if scientists can get their hands on the timbers before they go to a landfill. …Scientists and engineers estimate that 14,000 cubic meters of old-growth wood are removed from buildings in New York City (NYC) each year during demolitions or renovations; the city is continuously being remade. …Dendrochronology emerged as a tool for studying past events in the late 1800s, when an astronomer, Andrew E. Douglass, recorded the patterns of wide and narrow rings on ponderosa pine stumps near the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz. …Since then, tree rings have become a popular proxy to estimate past meteorological conditions. Ice cores, speleothems, and even bat guano have all revealed Earth’s ancient and historical secrets, but tree rings are unique because trees are so widespread. …The International Tree-Ring Data Bank at NOAA has more than 5,000 tree ring measurements from six continents. …Scientific findings from tree rings can advance climate science and inform regional policies. In 2004, an influential paper in Science suggested that the U.S. Southwest was in the midst of a long-term drought on the basis of tree ring records from the West spanning 600 years. Today, knowledge of this 22-year-long “megadrought” has prompted the widespread adoption of sustainable water practices…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 7.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-02-25. The Salton Sea, an Accident of History, Faces a New Water Crisis. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/25/climate/salton-sea-colorado-river-drought-crisis.html] By Henry Fountain, The New York Times. Excerpt: The vast California lake relies on runoff from cropland to avoid disappearing. But as farmers face water cuts due to drought and an ever drier Colorado River, the Salton Sea stands to lose again. …As the sea has shrunk it’s become so salty — it’s currently nearly twice as salty as seawater — that only a handful of fish species, including tilapia and the endangered desert pupfish, remain. With fewer fish, bird populations along what is an important migratory flyway have declined. …Human health has been affected, too. The retreating water has exposed huge expanses of lake bed, and with wind stirring up dust from them, air quality in the Imperial Valley is among the worst in the state. That’s led to a high incidence of childhood asthma and other respiratory illnesses among the valley’s 180,000 residents…. For GSS chapter Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-02-23. What’s Inside Earth’s Inner Core? Seismic Waves Reveal an Innermost Core. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/23/science/earth-core-seismic-waves.html] By Kenneth Chang, The New York Times. Excerpt: Geology textbooks almost inevitably include a cutaway diagram of the Earth showing four neatly delineated layers: a thin outer shell of rock that we live on known as the crust; the mantle, where rocks flow like an extremely viscous liquid, driving the movement of continents and the lifting of mountains; a liquid outer core of iron and nickel that generates the planet’s magnetic field; and a solid inner core. Analyzing the crisscrossing of seismic waves from large earthquakes, two Australian scientists say there is a distinctly different layer at the very center of the Earth. “We have now confirmed the existence of the innermost inner core,” said one of the scientists, Hrvoje Tkalcić, a professor of geophysics at the Australian National University in Canberra. Dr. Tkalcic and Thanh-Son Pham …estimate that the innermost inner core is about 800 miles wide; the entire inner core is about 1,500 miles wide. Their findings were published on Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications. While the cutaway diagram appears to depict clear-cut divisions, knowledge about the deep interior of Earth is unavoidably fuzzy. …Most of what is known about what lies beneath comes from seismic waves — the vibrations of earthquakes traveling through and around the planet. Think of them as a giant sonogram of Earth…. For GSS Energy Flow chapter 3.

-•-
2023-02-22. James Webb telescope detects evidence of ancient ‘universe breaker’ galaxies. [https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/feb/22/universe-breakers-james-webb-telescope-detects-six-ancient-galaxies] By Hannah Devlin, The Guardian. Excerpt: The James Webb space telescope has detected what appear to be six massive ancient galaxies, which astronomers are calling “universe breakers” because their existence could upend current theories of cosmology. The objects date to a time when the universe was just 3% of its current age and are far larger than was presumed possible for galaxies so early after the big bang. If confirmed, the findings would call into question scientists’ understanding of how the earliest galaxies formed…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 9.

-•-
2023-02-21. In Search for Sustainable Materials, Developers Turn to Hemp. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/21/business/hemp-construction-buildings.html] By Kevin Williams, The New York Times. Excerpt: …Interest in hemp as a viable substitute for construction material is growing as developers seek greener building options. Hemp can be used in block form, as it was in the building of the sports center, or poured like traditional concrete using hempcrete, a combination of lime, hemp fibers and a chemical binder. Hemp panels can also be used. …Hemp is already used in a variety of industrial products, including rope, textiles and biofuel. But hemp construction is hampered by high costs and a supply chain that is not fully formed. And proponents must overcome resistance to a product that is often mistakenly tied to recreational drug use. …A building constructed from ready-to-use hemp blocks can chop 20 to 30 percent off the typical production schedule, with no need for cement joints or the drying time required with traditional concrete blocks…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 8.

-•-
2023-02-16. How a Record-Breaking Copper Catalyst Converts CO2 Into Liquid Fuels. [https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2023/02/16/copper-catalyst-converts-co2-into-liquid-fuels/] By Theresa Duque, Berkeley Lab. Excerpt: …new insights could help advance the next generation of solar fuels. …a research team led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has gained new insight by capturing real-time movies of copper nanoparticles (copper particles engineered at the scale of a billionth of a meter) as they convert CO₂ and water into renewable fuels and chemicals: ethylene, ethanol, and propanol, among others. The work was reported in the journal Nature last week. …Peidong Yang, a senior faculty scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences and Chemical Sciences Divisions who led the study …is also a professor of chemistry and materials science and engineering at UC Berkeley. “Knowing how copper is such an excellent electrocatalyst brings us steps closer to turning CO₂ into new, renewable solar fuels through artificial photosynthesis.”… For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

-•-
2023-02-16. Will global warming make temperature less deadly? [https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2023/hot-cold-extreme-temperature-deaths/] By Harry Stevens, The Washington Post. Excerpt: Both heat and cold can kill. But cold is far more deadly. For every death linked to heat, nine are tied to cold. The scientific paper published in the June 2021 issue of the journal Nature Climate Change was alarming. Between 1991 and 2018, the peer-reviewed study reported, more than one-third of deaths from heat exposure were linked to global warming. …A month later, the same research group, which is based out of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine but includes scientists from dozens of countries, released another peer-reviewed study that told a fuller, more complex story about the link between climate change, temperature and human mortality. …the second paper reported that between 2000 and 2019, annual deaths from heat exposure increased. But deaths from cold exposure, which were far more common, fell by an even larger amount. All told, during those two decades the world warmed by about 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit, and some 650,000 fewer people died from temperature exposure…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-02-14. The Global Health Benefits of Going Net Zero. [https://eos.org/research-spotlights/the-global-health-benefits-of-going-net-zero] By Kirsten Steinke, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Fossil fuel combustion produces greenhouse gases that heat the planet, but it also emits air pollutants that harm human health. Fine particulate matter and ozone, for example, have been linked to fatal lung and heart issues. And a recent study published in GeoHealth adds to the growing body of research that shows that when countries reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, the associated improvements in air quality could save countless lives. …The team concluded that particulate matter and ozone caused more than 2.2 million premature deaths each year in G20 countries. Reducing emissions in these countries from power plants alone could reduce that death toll by nearly 300,000 lives by 2040…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-02-17. Why Did a Turkish City Withstand the Quake When Others Crumbled? [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/17/world/middleeast/erzin-turkey-earthquake.html] By Cora Engelbrecht and Nimet Kirac, The New York Times. Excerpt: For miles around the small Turkish city of Erzin, the earth is shattered and buildings are razed, towns and cities turned into tombs of concrete by last week’s 7.8-magnitude earthquake. But Erzin still stands, an oasis of stability near the Mediterranean, where the question of why the city weathered the quake and a powerful aftershock — and so many others did not, leaving more than 40,000 dead in Turkey and Syria — is consuming the population. In Erzin, the mayor said, no one died and not a single building fell. …engineers and scientists credited …factors combining to save the city, like better construction that followed the latest seismic codes, and Erzin’s lucky location on very solid ground. …soft, water-laden sediments make cities and villages uniquely vulnerable to earthquakes,” …When one strikes… “this land, it moves like a wave.” …In contrast, Erzin stands higher above sea level, and is built on hard ground comprising “bedrock and coarser grains than sand,” said Tamer Duman, a geographer. …The hard soil acts as a shock absorber between structures and a quake’s waves, reducing buildings’ sway…. For GSS Energy Flow chapter 2.

-•-
2023-02-16. Scientists Wondered if Warming Caused Argentina’s Drought. The Answer: No. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/16/climate/argentina-drought.html] By Henry Fountain, The New York Times. Excerpt: Lack of rainfall that caused severe drought in Argentina and Uruguay last year was not made more likely by climate change, scientists said Thursday. But global warming was a factor in extreme heat experienced in both countries that made the drought worse, they said. The researchers, part of a loose-knit group called World Weather Attribution that studies recent extreme weather for signs of the influence of climate change, said that the rainfall shortage was a result of natural climate variability. Specifically, they said, the presence of La Niña, a climate pattern linked to below-normal sea-surface temperatures in the Pacific that influences weather around the world, most likely affected precipitation. La Niña usually occurs once every three to five years, often alternating with El Niño, which is linked to above-normal sea temperatures. But La Niña conditions have persisted for most of the past three years, and central South America has been drier than normal for most of that time…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 7 and Energy Flow chapter 8.

-•-
2023-02-16. New Auroras Found Glowing in the Skies of Jupiter’s Moons. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/16/science/auroras-jupiter-moons.html] By Robin George Andrews, The New York Times. Excerpt: New research shows auroras can also be seen on the Galilean moons of Jupiter: hypervolcanic Io, icy Europa, quirky Callisto and gigantic Ganymede. …other than Ganymede, the big moons of Jupiter lack magnetic bubbles. Instead, their auroras owe their existence to Io. Its noxious atmosphere — partly supplied by the moon’s epic volcanic eruptions — regularly sheds into space. The castoffs mingle with sunlight and become electrically excited. Plenty gets captured by Jupiter’s colossal magnetic bubble, but some of it slams back into Io’s atmosphere, or into the other three moons’ gassy sheaths. Those impacts are what ignite the moons’ auroral lights…. For GSS Energy Flow chapter 5.

-•-
2023-02-16. Hidden Hydrogen. [https://www.science.org/content/article/hidden-hydrogen-earth-may-hold-vast-stores-renewable-carbon-free-fuel] By Eric Hand. Excerpt: IN THE SHADE of a mango tree, Mamadou Ngulo Konaré recounted the legendary event of his childhood. In 1987, well diggers had come to his village of Bourakébougou, Mali, to drill for water, but had given up on one dry borehole at a depth of 108 meters. “Meanwhile, wind was coming out of the hole,” Konaré told Denis Brière, a petrophysicist and vice president at Chapman Petroleum Engineering, in 2012. When one driller peered into the hole while smoking a cigarette, the wind exploded in his face. …The color of the fire in daytime was like blue sparkling water and did not have black smoke pollution. The color of the fire at night was like shining gold, and all over the fields we could see each other in the light. …It took the crew weeks to snuff out the fire and cap the well. …In 2012, …Chapman Petroleum …discovered that the gas was 98% hydrogen. That was extraordinary: Hydrogen almost never turns up in oil operations, and it wasn’t thought to exist within the Earth much at all. …Contrary to conventional wisdom, large stores of natural hydrogen may exist all over the world, like oil and gas—but not in the same places. These researchers say water-rock reactions deep within the Earth continuously generate hydrogen, which percolates up through the crust and sometimes accumulates in underground traps. There might be enough natural hydrogen to meet burgeoning global demand for thousands of years, according to a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) model that was presented in October 2022 at a meeting of the Geological Society of America…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

-•-
2023-02-14. Could solar geoengineering cool the planet? U.S. gets serious about finding out. [https://www.science.org/content/article/could-solar-geoengineering-cool-planet-u-s-gets-serious-about-finding-out] By Paul Voosen, Science. Excerpt: Any work on solar geoengineering—the notion of artificially making the atmosphere more reflective to cool an overheated planet—is fraught with controversy. …The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is venturing …to understand the types, amounts, and behavior of particles naturally present in the stratosphere. …Research on solar geoengineering—also called solar radiation management—has long been anathema to some climate scientists and activists. They fear it could distract from emissions cuts, could have unforeseen risks, and would not address some impacts of rising carbon dioxide, including ocean acidification. Federal agencies have largely steered clear of the work, even after a report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) in 2021 recommended a $200 million research program. …They want to study how such ­sulfur interacts with organic particles such as soot and the dust of meteorites. Rosenlof says they will also study how soot absorbs the Sun’s heat, causing air parcels to rise and prolonging particle lifetimes in the stratosphere.Hidden Hydr… For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-02-12. Electric vehicle batteries require precious minerals. That old cellphone may be the solution. [https://abcnews.go.com/Business/electric-vehicle-batteries-require-precious-minerals-cellphone-solution/story?id=96977978] By Morgan Korn, ABC News. Excerpt: That old laptop, cellphone and TV remote may have a newfound purpose: powering the next generation of electric vehicles. Luxury brand Audi recently partnered with Redwood Materials, a battery recycling startup, to collect rechargeable batteries found in everyday consumer devices — phones, hearing aides, electric toothbrushes and video game controllers. …Devices dropped off at dealerships are shipped to Redwood’s Nevada facilities for the sorting, recycling and remanufacturing of cobalt and lithium — two minerals required for EV battery production. …Growing interest in EVs has accelerated the push for valuable minerals like cobalt, nickel and lithium that are extracted from overseas mines at heavy environmental and humanitarian costs. Recycling of consumer batteries can reduce the forced extraction of precious minerals and create a domestic supply that meets the government’s and automakers’ EV goals, according to Alexis Georgeson, Redwood’s vice president of government relations and communications. …Redwood also recycles “end-of-life” battery packs from automakers like Toyota, Ford, Volvo, Volkswagen and Audi. Lithium, nickel and cobalt are extracted and remanufactured into cathode — a core component of an EV battery…. See also New York Times article Energy Dept. Will Lend $2 Billion to a Battery Component Maker. For GSS Energy Use chapter 9.

-•-
2023-02-10. Cacti replacing snow on Swiss mountainsides due to global heating. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/10/cacti-replacing-snow-on-swiss-mountainsides-due-to-global-heating] By Alessio Perrone, The Guardian. Excerpt: The residents of the Swiss canton of Valais are used to seeing their mountainsides covered with snow in winter and edelweiss flowers in summer. But as global heating intensifies, they are increasingly finding an invasive species colonising the slopes: cacti…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-02-09. Wind Could Power Future Settlements on Mars. [https://eos.org/articles/wind-could-power-future-settlements-on-mars] By Alakananda Dasgupta, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Using a sophisticated global climate model adapted to Mars, space scientists explore the hidden potential of wind energy on the Red Planet. …there’s the question of where to find a viable and steady source of energy that would be required for any human mission to Mars. The answer to that question may be blowing in the Martian wind, according to a new study. …with the atmospheric density of Mars being 1% that of Earth, much larger turbine blades would be needed to generate sufficient energy. …Now, a study published in Nature Astronomy has suggested that wind energy could, indeed, be harnessed to power human settlements on Mars. “We were excited to find that there are many locations across the planet where winds are strong enough to provide a really stable power resource” and compensate for a shortfall in solar power using wind turbines, said Victoria Hartwick, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral fellow at NASA Ames Research Center. The team tailored a climate model designed for Earth to simulate Martian climatic conditions and assess winds on the Red Planet…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

-•-
2023-02-06. Battling Lava and Snowstorms, 2.5 Miles Above the Pacific. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/06/climate/mauna-loa-carbon-dioxide-eruption.html] By Raymond Zhong, The New York Times. Excerpt: Two and a half miles above the Pacific, with the combined exhalations of a vast swath of humankind and its cars and factories blowing toward him, Aidan Colton looked out over the volcano’s snow-streaked summit and lifted up a glass flask the size of a coconut. He held his breath — even the carbon dioxide from his lungs might corrupt the sample. After a moment, he opened the valve. The air he is collecting at Mauna Kea is feeding the world’s longest-running record of direct readings of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere. …in November, Mauna Loa erupted for the first time in almost 40 years. No one was hurt, but lava flows up to 30 feet deep toppled the observatory’s power lines and buried a mile of the main road up the mountain. The facility was paralyzed. It took a transoceanic scramble, and a dose of luck, for scientists with the Mauna Loa observatory to restart their readings — by taking them, for the first time, on Mauna Kea, the next volcano over…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 5.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-02-10. As Federal Cash Flows to Unions, Democrats Hope to Reap the Rewards. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/10/us/politics/democrats-biden-unions.html] By Jonathan Weisman, New York Times. Excerpt: In places like West Virginia, money from three major laws passed by Congress is pouring into the alternative energy industry and other projects. “I think it’s a renaissance for the labor movement,” said one union official. …Money is just starting to flow from the last Congress’s three huge legislative victories — a $1 trillion infrastructure bill, a $280 billion measure to rekindle a domestic semiconductor industry and the Inflation Reduction Act, which included $370 billion for clean energy to combat climate change…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

-•-
2023-02-10. Electric Vehicles Could Match Gasoline Cars on Price This Year. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/10/business/electric-vehicles-price-cost.html] By Jack Ewing, The New York Times. Excerpt: Competition, government incentives and falling raw material prices are making battery-powered cars more affordable sooner than expected…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 9.

-•-
2023-02-09. Oceans Away. [https://www.science.org/content/article/oceans-away-raising-salmon-land-next-big-thing-farming-fish] By Erik Stokstad, Science. Excerpt: Hundreds of meter-long fish [salmon] swam vigorously in each house-size tank, while an overhead crane delivered a 1-ton sack of feed into an automated dispenser. Rumbling pumps and tanks filled with sand, separated from the fish tanks by a soundproof wall, treated wastewater that had been stripped of fish poop. Nitrogen and phosphorus were diverted to the vast greenhouse while cleansed water recirculated to the salmon. “Sometimes the water is so clean it looks like the fish are swimming in air,” says Summerfelt, an engineer who is head of R&D at the company, called Superior Fresh. …investors have pumped money into what many see as the next big thing in farmed fish. Over the past decade, global sales of pink-fleshed farmed salmon have nearly doubled to $12 billion, and demand is expected to keep growing. Traditionally, that bounty has been raised in large floating cages, called net pens, located in coastal waters. But environmental concerns and limited room for expansion have prompted companies to explore moving operations ashore…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 7.

-•-
2023-02-09. ‘Monster profits’ for energy giants reveal a self-destructive fossil fuel resurgence. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/09/profits-energy-fossil-fuel-resurgence-climate-crisis-shell-exxon-bp-chevron-totalenergies] By Oliver Milman, The Guardian. Excerpt: Last year’s combined $200bn profit for the ‘big five’ oil and gas companies brings little hope of driving down emissions. …Exxon, the Texas-based oil giant, led the way with a record $55.7bn in annual profit, taking home about $6.3m every hour last year. California’s Chevron had a record $36.5bn profit, while Shell announced the best results of its 115-year history, a $39.9bn surplus, and BP, another London-based firm, notcheda $27.7bn profit. The French company TotalEnergies also had a record, at $36.2bn…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 3.

-•-
2023-02-09. Can China Reverse Its Population Decline? Just Ask Sweden. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/09/upshot/china-population-decline.html] By Andrew Jacobs and Francesca Paris, The New York Times. Excerpt: China’s population has begun to decline, a demographic turning point for the country that has global implications. …China joined an expanding set of nations with shrinking populations caused by years of falling fertility and often little or even negative net migration, a group that includes Italy, Greece and Russia, along with swaths of Eastern and Southern Europe and several Asian nations like South Korea and Japan. …History suggests that once a country crosses the threshold of negative population growth, there is little that its government can do to reverse it. …Two decades ago, Australia tried a “baby bonus” program that paid the equivalent of nearly 6,000 U.S. dollars a child at its peak. At the time the campaign started in 2004, the country’s fertility rate was around 1.8 children per woman. (For most developed nations, a fertility rate of 2.1 is the minimum needed for the population to remain steady without immigration.) …by 2020, six years after the program had ended, it was at 1.6 — lower than when the cash payments were first introduced…. For GSS Population Growth chapter 6.

-•-
2023-02-08. ‘They get the big picture’: the Swedish tech startup helping cities go green. [https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/feb/08/they-get-the-big-picture-the-swedish-tech-startup-helping-cities-go-green] By Jon Henley ,The Guardian. Excerpt: Online tool …used in eight countries by a rapidly lengthening list of cities – now more than 50 – including Helsingborg and Malmö in Sweden, Madrid in Spain, Kiel and Mannheim in Germany, Cincinnati in the US, and Bristol and Nottingham in the UK. … “Cities account for more than 70% of global CO₂ emissions,” Shalit said. “They are clearly critical to climate action, but they are also complex and highly interconnected systems – and they really lacked the tools to plan and manage their transition.” ClimateOS, the integrated platform developed by Shalit’s Stockholm-based startup, ClimateView, aims to help cities plan and manage their transition to zero carbon by breaking it down into distinct but interconnected “building blocks”…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-02-08. There’s a Ring Around This Dwarf Planet. It Shouldn’t Be There. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/08/science/quaoar-rings-roche-limit.html] By Kenneth Chang, The New York Times. Excerpt: Quaoar, which orbits the sun in the distant Kuiper belt, is the latest small object shown to have a ring like the ones around Saturn. …Quaoar (pronounced KWA-wahr …is a little less than half the diameter of Pluto and about a third of the diameter of Earth’s moon. It is likely to be big enough to qualify as a dwarf planet, pulled by its gravity into a round shape. …The ring is not visible in telescope images. Rather, astronomers found it indirectly, when distant stars happened to pass behind Quaoar, blocking the starlight. From 2018 through 2021, Quaoar passed in front of four stars, and astronomers on Earth were able to observe the shadow of the eclipses, also known as stellar occultations. However, they also observed some dimming of the starlight before and after the star blinked out. That pointed to a ring obscuring part of the light, an international team of astronomers concluded in Wednesday’s Nature paper…. See also Sky & Telescope article. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

-•-
2023-02-03. Centuries-Old Archive Reveals Far-Flung Impacts of Major Eruptions. [https://eos.org/articles/centuries-old-archive-reveals-far-flung-impacts-of-major-eruptions] By Shannon Banks, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: In 1815, an Earth-shattering explosion sent roughly 130 cubic kilometers of gaseous fumes, ash, and rocks high into the atmosphere above the Indonesian island of Sumbawa. Mount Tambora had blown its top. Temperatures tanked worldwide as sooty debris circulated in the skies of the Northern Hemisphere, blocking the Sun’s rays. The chilling effects lasted through 1816—later dubbed the “Year Without a Summer.” …Alice Bradley and her team of undergraduate researchers at Williams College are studying how Tambora and other major volcanic eruptions affected the climate in New England. Their source material is a weather data set that dates back more than 2 centuries to the Tambora eruption. It has been updated daily by Williams staff and students ever since. …According to the team’s analysis, daily low temperatures after the Tambora and Pinatubo eruptions were often more than 5°C below baseline…. For GSS Life and Climate chapter 11.

-•-
2023-02-03. They Outlasted the Dinosaurs. Can They Survive Us?. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/02/magazine/they-outlasted-the-dinosaurs-can-they-survive-us.html] By Andrew S. Lewis, The New York Times. Excerpt: The American caviar rush began on the lower Delaware estuary, a landscape today crowded with chemical plants, container ports and the sprawl of Philadelphia. But this was the 1870s, when nature edged up to the city’s limits, when probably nowhere else in the country was home to more Atlantic sturgeon: During the spring spawn, an estimated 360,000 adults thronged the reach that marked the brackish threshold between bay and river. …During the fishery’s peak, in 1888, 16,500 Atlantic sturgeon — they can live 60 years and grow to 14 feet and 800 pounds — were “harvested,” or killed. Most were female, and the millions of eggs that each could produce during a spawn never made it into the water within which they were meant to hatch. …For an estimated 10 to 15 million years, Atlantic sturgeon, or Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus, have spawned in as many as 38 rivers throughout eastern North America. An anadromous fish, it is born in fresh water, spends its adulthood in salt water and returns to its natal rivers to spawn. …today breeding populations remain in only 22 of its 38 natal rivers. In 2012, the species became protected under the Endangered Species Act. At the time, researchers estimated that the Delaware population consisted of 300 or fewer spawning adults per year. While the Delaware Atlantic sturgeon is just one branch of the species, its decline epitomizes the global biodiversity crisis…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 7.

-•-
2023-02-01. The Role of Insurance in Climate Adaptation. [https://eos.org/articles/the-role-of-insurance-in-climate-adaption] By Jenessa Duncombe, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: A new study highlights a way to stave off economic effects by promoting a widespread public insurance plan for Americans. The research supports the growing movement to use insurance­­—a key tool for managing society’s risk—as a form of climate adaptation. …The hypothetical insurance scheme used in the model is a mandatory nonprofit government-offered policy that is available everywhere at a flat fee. The scheme uses the average rate of insured losses from U.S. hurricanes over the past several decades (50%) tallied by the natural disaster database NatCatSERVICE from the German-based insurance company Munich Re. …a close analog is the National Flood Insurance Program from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). But the program isn’t compulsory and isn’t available to everyone…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-02-03. Global alarm system watches for methane superemitters. [https://www.science.org/content/article/global-alarm-system-watches-methane-superemitters] By Paul Voosen, Science. Excerpt: Methane is a stealthy greenhouse gas, erupting unpredictably from sources such as pipelines and gas fields. Scientists have wanted to catch these emitters in the act. In the past, watchdogs had to monitor likely sites from the ground or by airplane. Now, massive, short-lived leaks can be detected automatically, from space, anywhere in the world—a first step toward plugging them and slowing climate change. …Although so far the technique only captures the largest blowouts, there’s no better place to begin, says Ilse Aben, an atmospheric scientist at the Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON) and co-author of the new work. …SRON’s automatic methane spotter relies on the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) aboard the Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite, launched in 2017 as part of Europe’s Copernicus program of Earth observation…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 3.

-•-
2023-02-03. The man in charge of how the US spends $400bn to shift away from fossil fuels. [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/03/us-clean-energy-transition-jigar-shah-interview] By Oliver Milman, The Guardian. Excerpt: Deep in the confines of the hulking, brutalist headquarters of the US Department of Energy, down one of its long, starkly lit corridors, sits a small, unheralded office that is poised to play a pivotal role in America’s shift away from fossil fuels and help the world stave off disastrous global heating. The department’s loan programs office (LPO) was “essentially dormant” under Donald Trump, according to its head, Jigar Shah, but has now come roaring back with a huge war chest to bankroll emerging clean energy projects and technology. Last year’s vast Inflation Reduction Act grew the previously moribund office’s loan authority to $140bn, while adding a new program worth another $250bn in loan guarantees to retool projects that help cut planet-heating emissions. Which means that Shah, a debonair former clean energy entrepreneur and podcast host who matches his suits with pristine Stan Smiths, oversees resources comparable to the GDP of Norway: all to help turbocharge solar, wind, batteries and a host of other climate technologies in the US…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

-•-
2023-02-02. Swallowed fishing gear and plastic most likely cause of Hawaii whale’s death. [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/02/whale-hawaii-swallowed-fishing-gear-plastic] By Associated Press. Excerpt: A sperm whale that washed ashore in Hawaii over the weekend probably died in part because it ate large volumes of fishing traps, fishing nets, plastic bags and other marine debris, scientists said on Thursday, highlighting the threat to wildlife from the millions of tons of plastic that ends up in oceans every year…. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 7.

-•-
2023-02-02. Calls for bigger windfall tax after Shell makes ‘obscene’ $40bn profit. [https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/feb/02/shell-profits-2022-surging-oil-prices-gas-ukraine] By Alex Lawson, The Guardian. Excerpt: The government is under pressure to rethink its windfall tax on energy companies after Shell reported one of the largest profits in UK corporate history, with the surge in energy prices sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine pushing the oil company’s annual takings to $40bn (£32bn)…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

-•-
2023-02-01. Rinse and Repeat: An Easy New Way to Recycle Batteries is Here. [https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2023/02/01/an-easy-new-way-to-recycle-batteries-is-here/] By Aliyah Kovner, UC Berkeley News. Excerpt: Lithium-ion batteries have revolutionized electronics and enabled an accelerating shift toward clean energy. These batteries have become an integral part of 21^st century life, but we’re at risk of running out before 2050. The main elements used in each battery – lithium, nickel, and cobalt metals as well as graphite – are increasingly scarce and expensive, and there is little environmental or fair-labor oversight of some of the remaining international supply chains. There is a pressing need to start reusing the materials we’ve already dug up and to make the battery production process safer and more equitable for all. A team of scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has invented an award-winning new battery material that can check both boxes. Their product, called the Quick-Release Binder, makes it simple and affordable to separate the valuable materials in Li-ion batteries from the other components and recover them for reuse in a new battery…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 9.

-•-
2023-02-01. Dangerous Fungi Are Spreading Across U.S. as Temperatures Rise. [https://www.wsj.com/articles/fungi-spread-last-of-us-valley-fever-climate-11675260773] By Dominique Mosbergen, Wall Street Journal. Excerpt: Dangerous fungal infections are on the rise, and a growing body of research suggests warmer temperatures might be a culprit. …Climate change might also be creating conditions for some disease-causing fungi to expand their geographical range, research shows. …Deaths from fungal infections are increasing, due in part to growing populations of people with weakened immune systems who are more vulnerable to severe fungal disease, public-health experts said. At least 7,000 people died in the U.S. from fungal infections in 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, up from hundreds of people each year around 1970. …A January study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that higher temperatures may prompt some disease-causing fungi to evolve faster to survive…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-01-31. With rapidly increasing heat and drought, can plants adapt?. [https://news.berkeley.edu/2023/01/31/with-rapidly-increasing-heat-and-drought-can-plants-adapt/] By Robert Sanders, UC Berkeley News. Excerpt: At a time when climate change is making many areas of the planet hotter and drier, it’s sobering to think that deserts are relatively new biomes that have grown considerably over the past 30 million years. Widespread arid regions, like the deserts that today cover much of western North America, began to emerge only within the past 5 to 7 million years. Understanding how plants that invaded these harsh deserts biomes were able to survive could help predict how ecosystems will fare in a drier future. An intensive study of a group of plants that first invaded emerging deserts millions of years ago concludes that these pioneers — rock daisies — did not come unequipped to deal with heat, scorching sun and lack of water. They had developed adaptations to such stresses while living on dry, exposed rock outcroppings within older, more moist areas and even tropical forests, all of which made it easier for them to invade expanding arid areas. The study by University of California, Berkeley, researcher Isaac Lichter-Marck is the first to provide evidence to resolve a long-standing evolutionary debate: Did iconic desert plants, like the stately saguaro cacti, the flaming ocotillos and the Seussian agaves, adapt to arid conditions only after they invaded deserts? Or did they come preadapted to the stresses of desert living? …Lichter-Marck and Bruce Baldwin, UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology, curator of the Jepson Herbarium and chief editor of The Jepson Desert Manual: Vascular Plants of Southeastern California(2002), published their study about the evolution of rock daisies in North American deserts this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-01-31. “Hot Jupiter” Is in a Possible Death Spiral. [https://eos.org/articles/hot-jupiter-is-in-a-possible-death-spiral] By Damond Benningfield, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Kepler’s first exoplanet is migrating toward its star, an evolved subgiant that is much bigger than first thought. …Kepler-1658b is the first inspiraling planet discovered around an “evolved” star—one that has moved out of its prime life. The star—Kepler-1658—is about 1.5 times the mass of our Sun and has expanded to almost 3 times the Sun’s diameter in its late stages of life, earning it the designation of subgiant. Should Kepler-1658b maintain its current path, it will meet its fate in about 2.5 million years. …Early in its mission, Kepler recorded such dips from Kepler-1658. However, astronomers had initially cataloged the star as belonging to the main sequence—stars like the Sun that are still burning the hydrogen in their cores. …Kepler-1658b was discarded as a false positive and forgotten about. …That is, until Chontos began looking at vibrations on the surfaces of stars in the Kepler catalog…—a technique known as asteroseismology—revealed details about the stars’ interiors. …they showed that the star was much farther along in life than expected and hence about 3 times bigger. That meant the transiting planet was 3 times larger as well, making it big enough and bright enough to contribute to the system’s overall brightness when it wasn’t eclipsed by the star. “Suddenly, a close-in hot Jupiter made sense,” Chontos said. “That discovery was completely accidental.”… For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 8.

-•-
2023-01-31. Astronomers Find a Dozen More Moons for Jupiter. [https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/astronomers-find-a-dozen-more-moons-for-jupiter/] By Jeff Hecht, Sky & Telescope. Excerpt: The biggest planet in the solar system now has the largest family of moons. Since December 20th, the Minor Planet Center (MPC) has published orbits for 12 previously unreported moons of Jupiter. More publications are expected, says Scott Sheppard (Carnegie Institute for Science), who recently submitted observations of the Jovian system taken between 2021 and 2022. The discoveries bring the list of Jovian moons to 92, a hefty 15% increase from the previous tally of 80. …The new finds put Jupiter’s lunar family count well ahead of Saturn’s 83 confirmed moons. However, while Jupiter may have the most moons for now, Saturn might catch up. A search for objects with sizes down to about 3 kilometers across that are moving along with the gas giantsfound three times more near Saturn than near Jupiter…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

-•-
2023-01-31. Emissions divide now greater within countries than between them – study. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/31/emissions-divide-now-greater-within-countries-than-between-them-study] By Fiona Harvey, The Guardian. Excerpt: The difference between the carbon emissions of the rich and the poor within a country is now greater than the differences in emissions between countries, data shows. The finding is further evidence of the growing divide between the “polluting elite” of rich people around the world, and the relatively low responsibility for emissions among the rest of the population. It also shows there is plenty of room for the poorest in the world to increase their greenhouse gas emissions if needed to reach prosperity, if rich people globally – including some in developing countries – reduce theirs, the analysis has found. …a growing body of work suggests that a “polluting elite” of those on the highest incomes globally are vastly outweighing the emissions of the poor. …rich people in developing countries have much bigger carbon footprints than was previously acknowledged. In a report entitled Climate Inequality Report 2023, economists from the World Inequality Lab dissect where carbon emissions are currently coming from. The World Inequality Lab is co-directed by the influential economist Thomas Piketty, the author of Capital in the Twenty-first Century, whose work following the financial crisis more than a decade ago helped to popularise the idea of “the 1%”, a global high-income group whose interests are favoured by current economic systems…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-01-30. The Double Whammy Making Italy the West’s Fastest-Shrinking Nation. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/30/world/europe/italy-birthrate.html] By Jason Horowitz, The New York Times. Excerpt: …Italy’s population is aging and shrinking at the fastest rate in the West, forcing the country to adapt to a booming population of elderly that puts it at the forefront of a global demographic trend that experts call the “silver tsunami.” But it faces a demographic double whammy, with a drastically sinking birthrate that is among the lowest in Europe. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said Italy is “destined to disappear” unless it changes…. For GSS Population Growth chapter 8.

-•-
2023-01-30. The Alternative, Optimistic Story of Population Decline. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/30/opinion/china-world-population-decline.html] By Wang Feng, New York Times opinion piece. Excerpt: China, the most populous country on the planet for centuries, this month reported its first population decline in six decades, …. By the end of the century China may have only around half of the 1.41 billion people it has now, according to U.N. projections, and may already have been overtaken by India. The news has been met with gloom and doom, often framed as the start of China’s inexorable decline and, more broadly, the harbinger of a demographic and economic “time bomb” that will strain the world’s capacity to support aging populations. …China is only the latest and largest major country to join a club that already includes Japan, South Korea, Russia, Italy and others. …But the alarmist warnings are often simplistic and premature. …Shrinking populations are usually part of a natural, inevitable process, and rather than focus excessively on concerns like labor shortages and pension support, we need to look at the brighter spots for our world. …The number of people on the planet more than tripled in seven decades, from 2.5 billion in 1950 to around eight billion in 2022. Turns out, that was a transitory phase when mortality rates fell faster than fertility rates because of improved nutrition and public health, and relative peace. …The population declines seen today in some countries have come about largely as a happy story of greater longevity and freedom. Fertility rates worldwide dropped from more than five births per woman in the early 1960s to 2.3 in 2020. Credit greater investment in child and maternal health everywhere: A mother who successfully brings her child to term and an infant who survives to childhood lower birthrates because parents often don’t feel the need to try again. Greater availability of free or affordable contraception has also reduced unwanted births. …Compared with a half-century ago, people in many countries are richer, healthier and better educated and women are more empowered. China’s population, for example, is shrinking and aging, but its people are more educated and have a longer life expectancy than at any time in the country’s history. Expanded educational opportunities guarantee a spot in a university for almost every person born today in China, including more women than men. Average world life expectancy has increased from 51 years in 1960 to 73 in 2019, and even more so in China, from 51 in 1962 to 78 in 2019. …Global population will inevitably decline. Rather than trying to reverse that, we need to embrace it and adapt…. For GSS Population Growth chapter 8.

-•-
2023-01-22. A New Way to Hand-Me-Down. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/22/style/hand-me-downs.html] By Anna Grace Lee, The New York Times. Excerpt: In a San Antonio garage, two millennial mothers …Kara Livingston, 36, and Nicole Boynton, 35, …founders of Hand Me Up, a small business aimed at helping parents shop more responsibly to cut down on children’s clothing waste. …There is little data available about how much children’s clothing is discarded, said Amanda Forster, a materials research engineer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and an author of a 2022 report that looked at how to extend the life of textiles. The report said that a circular approach focused on reuse and repair is key, and Dr. Forster said that the principle applies to children’s wear as well. …“You want to try and keep things circulating back through the economy in their original form as much as possible,” Dr. Forster said. …More children’s wear brands have embraced responsible fashion in recent years, said Sandra Capponi, one of the founders of Good on You, a website and app that rates fashion brands for their impact on people, animals and the planet. …Some major brands have their own reuse or resale initiatives, like Patagonia’s Worn Wear, and North Face’s Clothes the Loop. In 2021, Carter’s teamed with TerraCycle to start a program that allows parents to send unwearable clothes to be recycled into raw materials…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 7.

-•-
2022-12-19. California approves roadmap for carbon neutrality by 2045. [https://apnews.com/article/california-agriculture-climate-and-environment-2591f7c60f1a143e08b599610dc49fce] By Sophie Austin, Associated Press. Excerpt: California air regulators voted unanimously Thursday to approve an ambitious plan to drastically cut reliance on fossil fuels by changing practices in the energy, transportation and agriculture sectors, but critics say it doesn’t go far enough to combat climate change. …It aims to do so in part by reducing fossil fuel demand by 86% within that time frame. …It calls for the state to cut liquid petroleum fuel demand by 94% by 2045, and quadruple solar and wind capacity along that same timeframe. …residential and commercial buildings will be powered by electric appliances before the next decade. …The board has already passed a policy to ban the sale of new cars powered solely by gasoline in the state starting in 2035. …It calls for the state to capture 100 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent and store it underground by 2045. …One of the goals is to achieve a 66% reduction in methane emissions from the agriculture sector by 2045…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-01-26. Human activity and drought ‘degrading more than a third of Amazon rainforest’. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/26/human-activity-and-drought-degrading-more-than-a-third-of-amazon-rainforest] By Jonathan Watts, The Guardian. Excerpt: Human activity and drought may have degraded more than a third of the Amazon rainforest, double the previous estimate, according to a study that heightens concerns that the globally important ecosystem is slipping towards a point of no return. Fires, land conversion, logging and water shortages, have weakened the resilience of up to 2.5m sq km of the forest, …. This area is now drier, more flammable and more vulnerable than before, prompting the authors to warn of “megafires” in the future. Between 5.5% and 38% of what is left of the world’s biggest tropical forest is also less able to regulate the climate, generate rainfall, store carbon, provide a habitat to other species, offer a livelihood to local people, and sustain itself as a viable ecosystem, the paper observes. …The findings, published in Science on Thursday, are based on a review of existing studies, recent satellite data, and a new assessment of drought impacts by an international team of 35 scientists and researchers, from institutions including Brazil’s University of Campinas (Unicamp), the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), and the UK’s Lancaster University. …Deforestation is the total clearance of forest and conversion of the land to other uses, which can be easily identified by satellites. Degradation, on the other hand, is the partial loss of vegetation due to human behaviour, which is often hidden because it takes place under the canopy of bigger trees. To the naked eye, the distinction is as great as that between having your hair shaved off completely and thinned. …The paper says the quantities of carbon released from degradation could even be higher than those from deforestation…. For GSS A New World View chapter 5.

-•-
2023-01-24. Despite opposition, Japan may soon dump Fukushima wastewater into the Pacific. [https://www.science.org/content/article/despite-opposition-japan-may-soon-dump-fukushima-wastewater-pacific] By Dennis Normile, Science. Excerpt: Government says the release poses no risk to marine or human life, but some scientists disagree. The Japanese government is pushing ahead with its plan to release 1.3 million tons of radioactive water from the defunct Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean. …The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which owns the power station, says it is running out of space to store the water on land. Radioactivity levels in the discharged water will be too low to pose a risk to marine life or humans, TEPCO says, and its plan has the blessing of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). …But critics say the risks haven’t been studied in enough detail. TEPCO’s assurances are “not supported by the quantity and quality of the data,” says oceanographer Ken Buesseler of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. …says Robert Richmond, a marine biologist at the University of Hawaii, Manoa: “There is a strong consensus internationally that continued use of the ocean for dumping waste is simply not sustainable.”…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 4.

-•-
2023-01-24. Revealed: how US transition to electric cars threatens environmental havoc. [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/24/us-electric-vehicles-lithium-consequences-research] By Nina Lakhani, The Guardian. Excerpt: By 2050 electric vehicles could require huge amounts of lithium for their batteries, causing damaging expansions of mining….The global demand for lithium, also known as white gold, is predicted to rise over 40 times by 2040, driven predominantly by the shift to electric vehicles. …by 2050 the US alone would need triple the amount of lithium currently produced for the entire global market, which would have dire consequences for water and food supplies, biodiversity, and Indigenous rights. …In the best-case scenario – comparing the status quo in which EV battery size grows and US car dependency remains stable – with ambitious public transit, city density and recycling policies, the lithium demand would be 92% lower…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 9.

-•-
2023-01-23. Selectively Logged Forests Are Not Broken. [https://eos.org/articles/selectively-logged-forests-are-not-broken] By Erin Martin-Jones, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: …selectively logged forests—where timber is not clear-cut, but instead selectively harvested—now make up about a third of rain forests worldwide. …“The ecological value of logged forests has been underestimated; they are not as broken as they look,” said Yadvinder Malhi, an ecosystem ecologist from the University of Oxford who was involved in a large-scale biodiversity survey of forests and agricultural land in the state of Sabah, Malaysia, on the island of Borneo. The results, which were published in December in the journal Nature, showed that logged forests can be buzzing with life and ecological functions and therefore have an important role to play in conservation…. For GSS A New World View chapter 6.

2023-01-23. Earth’s Inner Core: A Shifting, Spinning Mystery’s Latest Twist. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/23/science/earth-core-reversing-spin.html] By Robin George Andrews, The New York Times. Excerpt: Imagine Earth’s inner core — the dense center of our planet — as a heavy, metal ballerina. This iron-rich dancer is capable of pirouetting at ever-changing speeds. …Seismologists reported Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience that after brief but peculiar pauses, the inner core changes how it spins — relative to the motion of Earth’s surface — perhaps once every few decades. And, right now, one such reversal may be underway. …fret not: Precisely nothing apocalyptic will result from this planetary spin cycle, which may have been happening for eons…. For GSS Energy Flow chapter 3.

-•-
2023-01-23. ‘No miracles needed’: Prof Mark Jacobson on how wind, sun and water can power the world. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/23/no-miracles-needed-prof-mark-jacobson-on-how-wind-sun-and-water-can-power-the-world] By Damian Carrington, The Guardian. Excerpt: Wind, water and solar can provide plentiful and cheap power, he argues, ending the carbon emissions driving the climate crisis, slashing deadly air pollution and ensuring energy security. Carbon capture and storage, biofuels, new nuclear and other technologies are expensive wastes of time, he argues. …We have wind, solar, geothermal, hydro, electric cars. We have batteries, heat pumps, energy efficiency. We have 95% of the technologies right now that we need to solve the problem.” The missing 5% is for long-distance aircraft and ships, he says, for which hydrogen-powered fuel cells can be developed…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

-•-
2023-01-23. I tried lab-grown meat made from animals without killing them – is this the future of ethical eating?. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/23/lab-grown-meat-animals-climate] By Oliver Milman, The Guardian. Excerpt: The meat … came from a named pig, an affable-looking swine called Dawn. …a clump of her cells were grown in a lab to create what’s known as “cultivated meat”, a product touted as far better for the climate – as well as the mortal concerns of pigs and cows – and is set for takeoff in the US. …“A harmless sample from one pig can produce many millions of tons of product without requiring us to raise and slaughter an animal each time,” said Eitan Fischer, founder of Mission Barns, a maker of cultivated meat that invited the Guardian to a taste test in an upscale Manhattan hotel. …Mission Barns is one of about 80 startup companies based around San Francisco’s Bay Area now jostling for position after one of their number, Upside Foods, became the first in the country to be granted approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in November, a key step in allowing the sale of cultivated meat in the US. On Monday, Upside said it aims to start selling its cultivated chicken in restaurants this year, and in grocery stores by 2028. …In December, a company called Believer Meats broke ground on a $123m facility in North Carolina it claims will be the largest cultivated meat plant in the world, set to churn out 10,000 tons of product once operational. …the “world is experiencing a food revolution”, as the FDA put it, with the rise of cultivated meat holding the promise of slashing the meat industry’s ruinous planet-heating emissions and shrinking its voracious appetite for land, as well as sparing livestock the barbarity of factory farming. …The raising and slaughter of livestock is responsible for more than half of the greenhouse gas pollution of the entire food sector, which in itself is estimated to contribute around a third of total global emissions…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-01-19. Could Air Someday Power Your Flight? Airlines Are Betting on It. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/19/travel/airlines-climate-change-fuel.html] By Paige McClanahan, The New York Times. Excerpt: By the middle of this century, most cars and buses should be powered by renewable energy, while bikes, electric trains and your own two feet will continue to have little impact on the climate. And if global aviation achieves the goal it adopted last year, then your 2050 flight from New York to Hong Kong will result in “net zero” carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. …new technologies are in the works, including hydrogen-powered aircraft, fully electric planes and synthetic jet fuel made from carbon extracted from the atmosphere…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 9.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-01-20. ‘Super-tipping points’ could trigger cascade of climate action. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/20/super-tipping-points-climate-electric-cars-meat-emissions] By Damian Carrington, The Guardian. Excerpt: …Three “super-tipping points” for climate action could trigger a cascade of decarbonisation across the global economy, according to a report. Relatively small policy interventions on electric cars, plant-based alternatives to meat and green fertilisers would lead to unstoppable growth in those sectors, the experts said. But the boost this would give to battery and hydrogen production would mean crucial knock-on benefits for other sectors including energy storage and aviation. …The tipping points occur when a zero-carbon solution becomes more competitive than the existing high-carbon option. More sales lead to cheaper products, creating feedback loops that drive exponential growth and a rapid takeover. The report, launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, said the three super-tipping points would cut emissions in sectors covering 70% of global greenhouse gas emissions…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-01-20. White House Aims to Reflect the Environment in Economic Data. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/20/business/economy/economic-statistics-climate-nature.html] By Lydia DePillis, The New York Times. Excerpt: Forests that keep hillsides from eroding and clean the air. Wetlands that protect coastal real estate from storm surges. Rivers and deep snows that attract tourists and create jobs in rural areas. All of those are natural assets of perhaps obvious value — but none are accounted for by traditional measurements of economic activity. On Thursday, the Biden administration unveiled an effort to change that by creating a system for assessing the worth of healthy ecosystems to humanity. The results could inform governmental decisions like which industries to support, which natural resources to preserve and which regulations to pass…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

-•-
2023-01-18. Revealed: more than 90% of rainforest carbon offsets by biggest provider are worthless, analysis shows. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/18/revealed-forest-carbon-offsets-biggest-provider-worthless-verra-aoe] By Patrick Greenfield, The Guardian. Excerpt: The forest carbon offsets approved by the world’s leading provider and used by Disney, Shell, Gucci and other big corporations are largely worthless and could make global heating worse, according to a new investigation. The research into Verra, the world’s leading carbon standard for the rapidly growing $2bn (£1.6bn) voluntary offsets market, has found that, based on analysis of a significant percentage of the projects, more than 90% of their rainforest offset credits – among the most commonly used by companies – are likely to be “phantom credits” and do not represent genuine carbon reductions…. For GSS A New World View chapter 5.

-•-
2023-01-17. Banks still investing heavily in fossil fuels despite net zero pledges – study. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/17/banks-still-investing-heavily-in-fossil-fuels-despite-net-zero-pledges-study] By Fiona Harvey, The Guardian. Excerpt: Banks and finance institutions that have signed up to net zero pledges are still investing heavily in fossil fuels, research has shown, …. The Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) initiative was launched by the former Bank of England governor Mark Carney, as one of the main UK achievements in hosting the Cop26 UN climate summit at Glasgow in 2021. The UK boasted at Cop26 that 450 organisations in 45 countries with assets of more than $130tn had signed up to GFANZ, to align their investments with the goal of limiting global temperature rises to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. But its members have poured hundreds of billions into fossil fuels since then, according to data compiled by the pressure group Reclaim Finance…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-01-16. Skipped Showers, Paper Plates: An Arizona Suburb’s Water Is Cut Off. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/16/us/arizona-water-rio-verde-scottsdale.html] By Jack Healy, The New York Times. Excerpt: RIO VERDE, Ariz. — Joe McCue thought he had found a desert paradise when he bought one of the new stucco houses sprouting in the granite foothills of Rio Verde, Ariz. There were good schools, mountain views and cactus-spangled hiking trails out the back door. Then the water got cut off. Earlier this month, the community’s longtime water supplier, the neighboring city of Scottsdale, turned off the tap for Rio Verde Foothills, blaming a grinding drought that is threatening the future of the West. Scottsdale said it had to focus on conserving water for its own residents, and could no longer sell water to roughly 500 to 700 homes — or around 1,000 people. …Almost overnight, the Rio Verde Foothills turned into a worst-case scenario of a hotter, drier climate, showing what happens when unregulated growth collides with shrinking water supplies…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-01-16. China’s Population Falls, Heralding a Demographic Crisis. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/16/business/china-birth-rate.html] By Alexandra Stevenson and Zixu Wang, The New York Times. Excerpt: …The world’s most populous country has reached a pivotal moment: China’s population has begun to shrink, after a steady, yearslong decline in its birthrate that experts say is irreversible. The government said on Tuesday that 9.56 million people were born in China last year, while 10.41 million people died. It was the first time deaths had outnumbered births in China since the Great Leap Forward, Mao Zedong’s failed economic experiment that led to widespread famine and death in the 1960s. Chinese officials have tried for years to slow down the arrival of this moment, loosening a one-child policy and offering incentives to encourage families to have children. None of those policies worked. …Government handouts like cash for babies and tax cuts, have failed to change the underlying fact that many young Chinese people simply do not want children…. See also article in The Guardian. For GSS Population Growth chapter 6.

-•-
2023-01-15. Dwindling Snow Leaves Swiss Alpine Villages Staring at an Identity Crisis. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/15/world/europe/switzerland-skiiing-alpine-villages-no-snow.html] By Erika Solomon, The New York Times. Excerpt: …As the planet warms, Europe has faced a bruising year of climate crises. In the summer, many regions suffered severe drought and record heat. Already this year, some areas have seen the highest-recorded winter temperatures — so warm that many ski resorts could not even make snow. For Switzerland, whose glaciers and snowpack form a crucial storehouse for European water supplies, the effect has been especially alarming. The country is warming at more than double the rate of the global mean and its glaciers lost 6 percent of their volume in the last year alone, according to Swiss federal authorities and a glacier monitoring group. The changes pose a risk to some parts of a Swiss ski industry that by some estimates generates around $5.5 billion a year. But in a country where nearly everyone skis, the loss of snow is more than an economic or environmental danger. It is a threat to national identity…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-01-15. Webb Telescope Confirms Earth-size Exoplanet, Tries to Sniff Its Air. [https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/webb-telescope-confirms-earth-size-exoplanet-tries-to-sniff-air] By Monica Young, Sky & Telescope. Excerpt: The James Webb Space Telescope has confirmed its first exoplanet, a rocky Earth-size planet, and attempted to take the measure of its atmosphere. …Although roughly Earth-like in size, this world is nevertheless completely uninhabitable, roasting in its four-day orbit around its middle-aged red dwarf star. …while they can match the data with an atmosphere dominated by carbon dioxide, those data are also consistent with a completely airless world. Zero atmosphere for a planet several hundred degrees warmer than Earth wouldn’t be a great surprise, especially around the type of star known for its atmosphere-stripping flares…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 8.

-•-
2023-01-14. 850-year-old Supernova Left “Zombie Star” Behind. [https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/amateur-astronomer-discovers-a-weird-supernovas-fireworks] By Govert Schilling, Sky & Telescope. Excerpt: A supernova explosion that skywatchers in the Far East observed almost 850 years ago has produced the most unusual remnant astronomers have ever found. …a paper has been submitted to Astrophysical Journal Letters (preprint available here). In other work presented at the AAS meeting and submitted to Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (preprint here), his coauthor Bradley Schaefer (Louisiana State University) argues that the supernova resulted when two white dwarf stars collided, leaving an extremely energetic “zombie” star behind. …the measured expansion velocity of the nebula — some 1,100 kilometers per second — puts its age at 850 years old. …astronomers are now confident about its relation with SN1181, a zero-magnitude supernova that appeared in northern Cassiopeia on August 6th of 1181 AD. Chinese and Japanese observers recorded this “guest star” slowly fading over a period of six months…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 6.

-•-
2023-01-14. Ecuador Tried to Curb Drilling and Protect the Amazon. The Opposite Happened.. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/14/climate/ecuador-drilling-oil-amazon.html] By Catrin Einhorn and Manuela Andreoni, The New york Times. Excerpt: YASUNÍ NATIONAL PARK, Ecuador — In a swath of lush Amazon rainforest here, near some of the last Indigenous people on Earth living in isolation, workers recently finished building a new oil platform carved out of the wilderness. Teams are drilling in one of the most environmentally important ecosystems on the planet, one that stores vast amounts of planet-warming carbon. …some of the country’s largest oil reserves are found here, too. Ecuador is cash-strapped and struggling with debt. The government sees drilling as its best way out. The story of this place, Yasuní National Park, offers a case study on how global financial forces continue to trap developing countries into depleting some of the most biodiverse places on the planet…. For GSS A New World View chapter 5.

-•-
2023-01-14. A Deal to Help South Africa Is a Breakthrough for the World. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/14/opinion/climate-change-south-africa.html] By The Editorial Board, The New york Times. Excerpt: South Africa generates 80 percent of its electricity by burning coal, more than any other industrialized nation. Some 200,000 people are directly employed by the coal mines, coal transports and coal-fired power plants that dot the flatlands east of Johannesburg, but the prosperity of the rest of the nation also rests on a foundation of black rock. Now, the South African government, with the help of the United States and European nations, is embarking on an audacious plan to quit coal without undermining economic growth. If it works, the proposed transition to solar and wind power could fuel faster growth and create a template for coal-dependent nations to confront climate change. This is a significant opportunity, and it deserves support and attention. The United States has committed more than $1 billion as part of an $8.5 billion international aid package to catalyze South Africa’s shift to renewable energy, and, after two years of talks about the details, the government in Pretoria is to deliver a plan in February for carrying it out. The proposed aid package is part of a broader shift in the international response to climate change. Windy talk about the necessity for wealthy countries to help less wealthy countries is finally turning tangible. In November, a group of nations, including the United States, committed $20 billion for a similar partnership with Indonesia, then made a $15.5 million commitment to Vietnam in December. Talks are underway with other nations, including Senegal and India…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

-•-
2023-01-13. Sweden Says It Has Uncovered a Rare Earth Bonanza. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/13/business/sweden-rare-earth-minerals.html] By Stanley Reed, The New York Times. Excerpt: A Swedish mining company said this week that it had found Europe’s largest known deposit of coveted rare earth metals, critical to many green technologies including electric vehicles, in a far northern part of the country within the Arctic Circle. The world’s production of rare earths is dominated by China. The discovery by LKAB, a state-owned company, creates the prospect that Europe could over time develop a domestic source of these minerals. “This is good news, not only for LKAB, the region and the Swedish people, but also for Europe and the climate,” Jan Mostrom, the company’s chief executive, said in a statement…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 9.

-•-
2023-01-13. Space Dodgers. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/interactive/2023/space-debris-game/] By Shikha Subramaniam, Rekha Tenjarla and Christian Davenport, The Washington Post. Excerpt: …the space above Earth has been flooded with thousands of satellites, spent rocket stages and the debris from several catastrophic events. As a result, Earth’s lower orbit has been littered with an increasing amount of junk that is careening through space at intense speeds, threatening satellites and even the International Space Station. Last year, the problem became serious enough to prompt the Biden administration to call for the abolishment of tests that destroy satellites in orbit. The announcement came after Russia blew up a dead satellite in 2021, creating a massive debris field that threatened the ISS astronauts along with other satellites. …Every year there are dozens of near-collisions between active satellites or pieces of debris. …There are more than 6,000 active satellites rotating around Earth as of Jan. 9, according to LeoLabs, a company that tracks satellites and debris in Earth’s lower orbit. …The United States and private companies like LeoLabs track tens of thousands of pieces of space debris, including operational and non-operational satellites, rocket stages and unknown objects. But there are many more pieces too small to see. NASA estimates that there are roughly 500,000 objects between 1 and 10 centimeters in diameter orbiting Earth, and that there are more than 100 million particles larger than 1 millimeter. (The agency said that as of January last year, the amount of material in orbit was more than 9,000 metric tons.)… For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

-•-
2023-01-11. Deep-Sea Pressure Crushes Carbon Cycling. [https://eos.org/articles/deep-sea-pressure-crushes-carbon-cycling] By Elise Cutts, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: When the research submarine Alvin sank off the coast of Massachusetts in 1968, it took the crew’s lunch with it. …to the shock of the scientists who later returned to recover the wreck, there they remained—practically unspoiled despite sitting more than a kilometer below the surface for nearly a year. A sandwich left out on your countertop or casually thrown into the sea would be lucky to last more than a day or two before going bad or getting gobbled up. So why didn’t something eat the Alvin crew’s lunch? New evidence suggests that the extreme pressures of the deep sea slow down microbial carbon degradation, the process responsible for spoiling sandwiches and recycling organic carbon into carbon dioxide, a critical step in the carbon cycle. The research team behind the new study says that their findings could have important implications for carbon budgets, which are used in climate models, and future geoengineering strategies that propose storing excess carbon on the seafloor. The results were published in Nature Geoscience.… For GSS Life and Climate chapter 8.

-•-
2023-01-09. Relentless rain, record heat: study finds climate crisis worsened extreme weather. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/09/climate-crisis-extreme-weather-heat-rainfall-drought] By Oliver Milman, The Guardian. Excerpt: …some of the most severe weather events that have occurred around the world in the past few years were made far more likely due to the climate crisis, new research has found. …The fingerprint of climate change is being identified across the planet. The risk of extreme drought across California and Nevada was made six times worse by the climate crisis and a strong periodical La Niña climate event from October 2020 to September 2021, while, conversely, extreme rainfall that deluged parts of the UK in May 2021 was 1.5 times more likely due to global heating. A severe hot spell in China in February 2021 was made between four and 20 times more likely because of human-caused climate change, while acute drought in Iran, which it experienced in 2021, is now 50% more likely because of the greenhouse gases humanity has pumped into the atmosphere. …The compendium of research, presented by Noaa at a conference on Monday, draws together some of the latest examples of climate attribution, where scientists have managed to pinpoint the influence of human-induced climate change upon individual weather events and disasters…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 7.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-01-13. Private jet emissions quadrupled during Davos 2022. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/13/private-jet-emissions-quadrupled-davos-2022] By Helena Horton, The Guardian. Excerpt: Private jet emissions quadrupled as 1,040 planes flew in and out of airports serving Davos during the 2022 World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting. Climate campaigners accused the rich and powerful of hypocrisy in flying in on private jets to a conference discussing climate breakdown…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 9.

-•-
2023-01-12. Extended producer responsibility for fossil fuels. [https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aca4e8] By Stuart Jenkins, et al, Environmental Research Letters. Excerpt: …an opportunity: to open a conversation about applying the principle of extended producer responsibility (EPR) to fossil fuels. …Implementing EPR through a combination of geological CO₂ storage and nature-based solutions can deliver net zero at comparable or lower costs than conventional scenarios driven with a global carbon price and subject to constraints on CO₂ storage deployment. It would also mean that the principal beneficiary of high fossil fuel prices, the fossil fuel industry itself, plays its part in addressing the climate challenge while reducing the risk of asset stranding. …Under EPR as implemented in France, for example, a ‘producer’, meaning ‘any natural or legal person who develops, manufactures, handles, treats, sells or imports waste-generating products’, ‘may be required […] to provide or contribute to the prevention and management of the resulting waste’. This law already applies to household chemicals, but not hydrocarbon fuels, despite the fact that almost 100% of the carbon contained in fossil fuels ending up as waste CO₂ dumped into the atmosphere. If the principle of EPR were applied across OECD countries without this exemption, anyone extracting or importing fossil fuels into the OECD would become responsible for permanent disposal of the waste CO₂ that those fuels generate…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

-•-
2023-01-12. Exxon Scientists Predicted Global Warming, Even as Company Cast Doubts, Study Finds. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/12/climate/exxon-mobil-global-warming-climate-change.html] By Hiroko Tabuchi, The New York Times. Excerpt: In the late 1970s, scientists at Exxon fitted one of the company’s supertankers with state-of-the-art equipment to measure carbon dioxide in the ocean and in the air, an early example of substantial research the oil giant conducted into the science of climate change. A new study published Thursday in the journal Science found that over the next decades, Exxon’s scientists made remarkably accurate projections of just how much burning fossil fuels would warm the planet. Their projections were as accurate, and sometimes even more so, as those of independent academic and government models. …Yet for years, the oil giant publicly cast doubt on climate science, and cautioned against any drastic move away from burning fossil fuels, the main driver of climate change. Exxon also ran a public relations program — including ads that ran in The New York Times— emphasizing uncertainties in the scientific research on global warming…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-01-12. Cougars Are Heading East. We Should Welcome Them. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/12/opinion/cougars-migrating-east.html] By Mark Elbroch, New York Times Opinion/Guest Essay. Excerpt: Numerous cougar sightings were reported east of the Mississippi River last fall, encounters that have become more frequent in recent years. …Cougars once had the run of the continent, ranging far and wide. But they were virtually eliminated in the Eastern United States by the early 1900s (except for a small population that survives in Florida), victims of bounty hunting and habitat loss. …Newly published research by me and 12 colleagues has pinpointed over a dozen landscapes large enough to sustain cougars indefinitely in states that border or are east of the Mississippi…. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 6.

-•-
2023-01-11. Oceans were the hottest ever recorded in 2022, analysis shows. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/11/oceans-were-the-hottest-ever-recorded-in-2022-analysis-shows] By Damian Carrington, The Guardian. Excerpt: The world’s oceans were the hottest ever recorded in 2022, demonstrating the profound and pervasive changes that human-caused emissions have made to the planet’s climate. More than 90% of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gas emissions is absorbed in the oceans. The records, starting in 1958, show an inexorable rise in ocean temperature, with an acceleration in warming after 1990. Sea surface temperatures are a major influence on the world’s weather. Hotter oceans help supercharge extreme weather, leading to more intense hurricanes and typhoons and more moisture in the air, which brings more intense rains and flooding. Warmer water also expands, pushing up sea levels and endangering coastal cities…. See also New York Times article The Last 8 Years Were the Hottest on Record. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-01-11. The New Soldiers in Propane’s Fight Against Climate Action: Television Stars. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/11/climate/climate-propane-influence-campaign.html] By Hiroko Tabuchi, The New York Times. Excerpt: An industry group is spending millions of dollars to push back against efforts to move heating away from oil and gas. …The Propane Education and Research Council, or PERC, which is funded by propane providers across the country, has spent millions of dollars on “provocative anti-electrification messaging” for TV, print and social media, …. …“The movement to electrify everything is rapidly gaining momentum, and poses a substantial threat to the sustainability of our industry,” he said, according to meeting minutes…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-01-11. As Storms Hammer California, Homeless Campers Try to Survive Outside. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/11/us/california-storms-homeless.html] By Shawn Hubler, Livia Albeck-Ripka and Corina Knoll, The New York Times. Excerpt: From rural Sonoma County to the celebrity enclave of Montecito, a brutal parade of atmospheric rivers has tested California’s infrastructure and endurance. Streets have flooded, levees have failed, mudslides have closed highways and wind gusts have knocked out electricity for days. At least 17 people have died since late December. But few have faced as stark a challenge as the more than 170,000 people who are homeless in California. The state not only has the nation’s largest population of homeless residents, but unlike in colder locales, nearly 70 percent of them sleep in tents, vehicles or public open spaces. …The extreme weather driven by climate change has intensified the need for efforts to protect homeless people across the country, where about 230,000 people are living unsheltered, according to an annual estimate coordinated by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. In the Phoenix region, heat-related deaths among unhoused people nearly doubled between 2013 and 2021. In Salt Lake City last month, plunging temperatures claimed the lives of five unsheltered people in a week…. See also Soaked and Battered by Repeating Rainstorms, California Girds for More. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

-•-
2023-01-09. Earth’s ozone layer on course to be healed within decades, UN report finds. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/09/ozone-layer-healed-within-decades-un-report] By Oliver Milman, The Guardian. Excerpt: The hole in the Earth’s ozone layer, once the most feared environmental peril facing humanity, is set to be completely healed over most of the world within two decades following decisive action by governments to phase out ozone-depleting substances, a new UN assessment has found. The loss of the ozone layer, which risked exposing people to harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun, is on track to be completely recovered by 2040 across the world, aside from the polar regions, according to the report. The poles will take a little longer – the ozone layer will fully bounce back by 2045 over the Arctic and by 2066 over the Antarctic.… See also New York Times article, Restoration of the Ozone Layer Is Back on Track, Scientists Say. For GSS Ozone chapter 9.

-•-
2023-01-10. Where the Bison Could Roam. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/10/science/bison-prairie-grassland.html] By Jim Robbins, The New York Times. Excerpt: MALTA, Mont. — Around 200 chocolate-brown bison raise their heads, following the low growl of a pickup truck slowly motoring across the sagebrush-studded prairie. …This knot of bison — colloquially referred to as buffalo, though they are not the same species — is part of a project to rebuild a vast shortgrass prairie not only to return large numbers of bison here, but also to eventually restore the complex and productive grassland ecosystem the animals once engineered with their churning hooves, waste, grazing and even carcasses. …Between 30 million and 60 million bison once roamed parts of the United States, primarily in the Great Plains. They were a “keystone” species in a complex ecological web, creating a cascade of environmental conditions that benefited countless other species. Intact grasslands are very productive for biodiversity. In part because of the loss of bison and other megafauna, intact grassland biomes are now among the most endangered in the world, and the numbers of many species that depend on them have collapsed. …The primary task here now, researchers and managers say, is to increase the number of bison and acres. In 2008, more than two dozen ecologists and experts, in a paper known as the Vermejo Statement, estimated that to foster a functioning prairie ecosystem at least 5,000 bison would need to be able to migrate freely on some 450,000 contiguous, fenceless acres. “In virtually every ecosystem currently grazed by bison, all of the grassland songbirds are lining their nest with bison hair,” said Mr. Olson, the co-author of the book “The Ecological Buffalo,” which details the many ways bison are connected to grassland ecosystems. “It insulates and increases chick survival and egg survival by up to 60 percent.”… For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 2.

-•-
2023-01-04. Has the Amazon Reached Its ‘Tipping Point’? [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/04/magazine/amazon-tipping-point.html] By Alex Cuadros, The New York Times. Excerpt: …In a healthy rainforest, the concentration of carbon should decline as you approach the canopy from above, because trees are drawing the element out of the atmosphere and turning it into wood through photosynthesis. In 2010, when Gatti started running two flights a month at each of four different spots in the Brazilian Amazon, she expected to confirm this. But her samples showed the opposite: At lower altitudes, the ratio of carbon increased. This suggested that emissions from the slashing and burning of trees — the preferred method for clearing fields in the Amazon — were actually exceeding the forest’s capacity to absorb carbon. At first Gatti was sure it was an anomaly caused by a passing drought. But the trend not only persisted into wetter years; it intensified. …When Gatti published her findings in Nature in 2021, it sparked panicked headlines across the world: The lungs of the earth are exhaling greenhouse gases. But her discovery was actually much more alarming than that. Because burning trees release a high proportion of carbon monoxide, she could separate these emissions from the total. And in the southeastern Amazon, air samples still showed net emissions, suggesting that the ecosystem itself could be releasing more carbon than it absorbed, thanks in part to decomposing plant matter — or in Gatti’s words, “effectively dying more than growing.” …Across the Amazon, more forests ultimately burned than in the largest California wildfires in history, putting half a billion tons of carbon back into the atmosphere — the equivalent of more than one year of emissions by Mexico. …the ecosystem is losing its natural resilience, entering an alternate feedback loop. In Gatti’s samples, the 2015-16 drought also marked the moment when, as she put it to me, “the southeastern Amazon went to pot,” and the forest itself started consistently releasing more carbon than it absorbed. Fire does more than destroy trees. It also accelerates the transformations predicted by Nobre’s tipping-​point theory…. For GSS A New World View chapter 5.

-•-
2023-01-04. Marine Science Goes to Space. [https://eos.org/features/marine-science-goes-to-space] By Damond Benningfield, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Cassini discoveries added Enceladus to a growing list of possible ocean worlds in our own solar system—bodies with large amounts of liquid water hidden from view. Some of them could contain more water than all of Earth’s oceans combined. And in addition to Enceladus, planetary scientists have counted at least one other member of the list, Jupiter’s moon Europa, among the ranks of the “possibly habitable.” “There could be life in our own solar system, and we may already have flown past it,” said Christopher German, a senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institutionand a coleader of Network for Ocean Worlds (NOW), a NASA-funded effort to advance research on these intriguing bodies. “Instead of just a sci-fi thing, suddenly we have grounds for wondering if there’s life on these nearby worlds—places we have the technology to reach.” …German said scientists have identified five “confirmed” ocean worlds beyond Earth: Jupiter’s moons Callisto, Europa, and Ganymede and Saturn’s moons Enceladus and Titan. That list could be just the tip of the planetary iceberg, however. “There are probably 20 candidates from places that haven’t been studied closely since the Voyagermissions of the 1980s,” German said…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

~~~~~

-•-
2023-01-07. Federal rebates are expected to create a surge in electric vehicle buyers. Key things to know before you make the leap. [https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/federal-rebates-expected-create-surge-090505897.html] By Karl Ebert, USA Today. Excerpt: At the start of 2022, just 5% of vehicles sold in the U.S. were battery-powered electric cars and trucks or plug-in hybrids. That’s expected to rise to 9% by the end of the year and near 50% by 2030 thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act‘s consumer and manufacturer incentives. …There’s a phenomenon known as “range anxiety,” and it remains a real concern for electric vehicle drivers taking longer trips. …This year, the number of vehicles that can go 300 or more miles on a full charge nearly tripled, from five to 14, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. …According to McKinsey and Co., the average person drives 30 miles a day. …it’s very common in a two-car household to have one car that you use to get around town and another car that you use for road trips …In that case, you can get an EV that’s going to be an around-town car…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 9.

-•-
2023-01-07. Look for Saturn-Venus Conjunction in Southwest January 22-23. [https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/sky-tour-podcast-january-2023/] By Sky & Telescope. Excerpt: As January opens, you can see four bright planets in the sky after sunset, …. Make note of where the Sun goes down, and then look…about 30 to 45 minutes after sunset. …pick out Venus very low above the horizon …the planet Saturn will pop into view to the upper left of Venus.  Night by night, Saturn drops deeper into the twilight, and Venus rises a little higher. On the evening of January 22nd, these two planets will pass each other just ½° apart — about the apparent diameter of the Moon. And one evening later, a very thin crescent Moon will perch to the upper left of these paired planets…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 2.

-•-
2023-01-06. A Forest, for the Trees. [https://eos.org/agu-news/a-forest-for-the-trees] By Caryl-Sue Micalizio, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: [January 2023 edition of Eos has articles on forests:]  “For Western Wildfires, the Immediate Past Is Prologue,” “Last Tree Standing”, “A Lidar’s-Eye View of How Forests Are Faring,” Free-Air CO₂Enrichment technology in the Amazon and the Internet of Things in Germany’s Black Forest…. For GSS A New World View chapter 6.

-•-
2023-01-06. Scientists may have found magic ingredient behind ancient Rome’s self-healing concrete. [https://www.science.org/content/article/scientists-may-have-found-magic-ingredient-behind-ancient-romes-self-healing-concrete] By Jacklin Kwan, Science. Excerpt: …when the researchers tried to make their own Roman concrete in the lab with quicklime, they ended up with material that was “identical” to the samples they gathered from Privernum, Masic says. When the team created small cracks in the concrete—as would happen as the material aged—and then added water (as would happen with rainwater in the real world), the lime lumps dissolved and recrystallized, effectively filling in the cracks and keeping the concrete strong, the researchers report today in Science Advances. …Modern concrete typically doesn’t heal cracks larger than 0.2 or 0.3 millimeters across. The team’s Roman-inspired concrete, in contrast, healed cracks up to 0.6 millimeters across. Masic hopes the work will inspire today’s engineers to improve their own concrete, perhaps with quicklime or a related compound. …The material wouldn’t just be less expensive than current self-healing concrete, Masic says, it could also help fight climate change: Cement production accounts for 8% of greenhouse gas emissions…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 6.

-•-
2023-01-05. The Nuclear Dump That Created a Generation of Indigenous Activists. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/05/world/asia/lanyu-taiwan-nuclear-waste.html] By Amy Qin and Amy Chang Chien, The New York Times. Excerpt: …in 1980, when a local pastor saw an article buried in the back of a newspaper, …the islanders found out what the site actually was: a massive nuclear waste dump. …Following the revelation that the site was a nuclear waste facility, the Tao fought vigorously to persuade the government to remove it. For years they staged mass protests on the island and in front of government offices in Taipei, Taiwan’s capital. They became self-taught experts in nuclear waste. …But despite the government’s repeated promises to relocate the site, the dump remains. …efforts to relocate the waste fell short. In 1993, a group of countries voted to permanently ban the practice of dumping all nuclear waste in the ocean. Other potential options, including a plan to export the waste to North Korea, were scuttled. …the authorities agreed to pay the Tao $83 million in compensation, with an additional $7 million to be disbursed every three years…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 4.

-•-
2023-01-04. Sun-powered water splitter produces unprecedented levels of green energy. [https://www.science.org/content/article/sun-powered-water-splitter-produces-unprecedented-levels-green-energy] By Robert F. Service, Science. Excerpt: …The latest iteration of their device uses not only the visible and ultraviolet photons able to split water, but also the less energetic infrared photons. The combined changes enabled the scientists to convert 9.2% of the Sun’s energy into hydrogen fuel, roughly three times more than previous photocatalytic setups, they report today in Nature. …In addition, …the new setup also works well, though somewhat less efficiently, with seawater, a cheap and inexhaustible resource. Being able to convert seawater cheaply into carbon-free fuel would truly be the ultimate in green energy. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

-•-
2023-01-04. US government approves use of world’s first vaccine for honeybees. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/04/honeybee-vaccine-first-approved] By Oliver Milman, The Guardian. Excerpt: The world’s first vaccine for honeybees has been approved for use by the US government, raising hopes of a new weapon against diseases that routinely ravage colonies that are relied upon for food pollination. …a vaccine created by Dalan Animal Health, a US biotech company, …. …The vaccine, which will initially be available to commercial beekeepers, aims to curb foulbrood, a serious disease caused by the bacterium Paenibacillus larvae that can weaken and kill hives. There is currently no cure for the disease, which in parts of the US has been found in a quarter of hives, requiring beekeepers to destroy and burn any infected colonies and administer antibiotics to prevent further spread. …The US is unusually dependent upon managed honeybee colonies to prop up its food pollination, with hives routinely trucked across the country to propagate everything from almonds to blueberries. This is because many wild bee species are in alarming decline, due to habitat loss, pesticide use and the climate crisis, fueling concerns around a global crisis in insect numbers that threatens ecosystems and human food security and health.… For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 8.

-•-
2023-01-03. Is a Dam in Rural Portugal a Key to Our Alternative Energy Future?. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/03/business/energy-environment/portugal-hydroelectric-power-renewable-energy.html] By Stanley Reed, The New York Times. Excerpt: When Portugal’s electrical system needs a boost, a signal activates a power plant buried deep in a hillside in the country’s scrubby, pine-covered north. Inside the man-made cavern, valves, nine feet in diameter, suddenly open, allowing water draining from a reservoir four miles away to begin streaming through four massive turbines. …the 1.5 billion euro ($1.6 billion) complex of concrete, tunnels and water is not just massive. It is also providing an answer to one of the most vexing questions facing renewable energy. Hundreds of billions of dollars are being spent across the globe on solar energy and wind power. But when the sun goes down, or the breezes become still, where will the electricity come from? Iberdrola’s giant project — which uses water and gravity to generate power on demand, and then pumps the water back to the upper reservoir when rates drop — is part of the solution…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 4.

-•-
2023-01-03. Space Missions to Watch in 2023. [https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-blogs/space-missions-to-watch-in-2023/] By Sky & Telescope. Excerpts: …SpaceX’s Starship …Axiom Space’s AX2 … to the International Space Station …ESA’s Euclid space telescope …an infrared instrument, aimed at studying dark matter and dark energy …Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) …X-ray Polarimeter Satellite, …and the Aditya L1 solar mission, headed to the Earth-Sun L₁ point. …China’s Xuntian Space Telescope, a sky survey telescope …China also plans to launch two X-ray telescopes in 2023 …The Moon will be bustling in 2023. Three missions [to the Moon] are at least partially NASA-funded through its Commercial Lunar Payload Services. …The Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment (PRIME 1) is set to launch in June, carrying with it The Regolith and Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain. The TRIDENT drill will delve three feet deep to bring lunar regolith up to the surface. …[Russian] Roscosmos’ Luna 25 lander …India …Chandrayaan 3 …German-based Rocket Factory Augsburg might also send up a small lunar orbiter, named Harmony …A Google Xprize alumnus, ALINA will land near the Apollo 17 landing site. …Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon (SLIM) …ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) will …arrive at Jupiter in October 2029. …NASA’s Psyche will depart…for the enigmatic “metal asteroid” 16 Psyche. …Rocket Lab may launch MIT’s ambitious Venus mission in May …drop a small probe into the Venusian atmosphere…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

-•-
2023-01-02. Astronomy Modeling with Exoplanets course. [https://www.modelinginstruction.org/pd/upcoming-workshops-2/2023-spring-distance-learning-courses/] By the American Modeling Teachers Association. Excerpt: This course gives teacher participants a 45-hour distance learning experience that will ground them in the use of the Modeling Method of Instruction. This course follows AMTA’s initial face-to-face Astronomy Modeling Workshop in 2019 and utilizes newly updated curriculum resources that focus on the modern-day scientific pursuit of discovering and exploring planets around other star systems: exoplanets. …participants …develop models of space and time that enable them to locate objects and map space from the perspective of Earth …examine motion and forces in order to develop a generalizable model of orbital motion. …construct both particle and wave models of light as a mode of energy transfer (and information transfer) via radiation. …develop a model of cosmic evolution, to better understand the history and fate of our universe …consider the probability of life elsewhere in the universe, on exoplanets. …develop skills and knowledge in observational astronomy, image acquisition, stellar photometry, data and image analysis, and how telescopes work …access remote telescopes and collaborate with professional exoplanet astronomers in their own exoplanet observations…. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 8.

-•-
2023-01-02. Hitting Record, Electric Cars Sales in Norway Near 80% in 2022. [https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2023-01-02/hitting-record-electric-cars-sales-in-norway-near-80-in-2022] By Reuters. Excerpt: OSLO (Reuters) -Almost four out of five new cars sold in Norway last year were battery-powered, with Tesla the top-selling brand for the second year in a row, registration data showed on Monday. Seeking to become the first nation to end the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2025, oil-producing Norway has until now exempted battery-powered fully electric vehicles (BEV) from taxes imposed on rivals using internal combustion engines (ICE). The share of new electric vehicles rose to 79.3% in 2022 from 65% in 2021 and from a mere 2.9% a decade ago, the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV) said…. For GSS Energy Use chapter 9.

-•-
2023-01-01. Extinction Rebellion announces move away from disruptive tactics. [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/01/extinction-rebellion-announces-move-away-from-disruptive-tactics] By Robert Booth, The Guardian. Excerpt: The climate protest group Extinction Rebellion is shifting tactics from disruptions such as smashing windows and glueing themselves to public places in 2023, it has announced. A new year resolution to “prioritise attendance over arrest and relationships over roadblocks”, was spelled out in a 1 January statement titled “We quit”, which said “constantly evolving tactics is a necessary approach”. …XR is calling for 100,000 people to “leave the locks, glue and paint behind” and surround the Houses of Parliament on 21 April…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

-•-
2023-12-31. Greta Thunberg ends year with one of the greatest tweets in history. [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/31/greta-thunberg-andrew-tate-tweet] By Rebecca Solnit, The Guardian. Excerpt: On 27 December, former kickboxer, professional misogynist and online entrepreneur Andrew Tate, 36, sent a boastfully hostile tweet to climate activist Greta Thunberg, 19, about his sports car collection. “Please provide your email address so I can send a complete list of my car collection and their respective enormous emissions,” he wrote. He was probably hoping to enhance his status by mocking her climate commitment. Instead, she burned the macho guy to a crisp in nine words. Cars are routinely tokens of virility and status for men, and the image accompanying his tweet of him pumping gas into one of his vehicles, coupled with his claims about their “enormous emissions”, had unsolicited dick pic energy. Thunberg seemed aware of that when she replied: “yes, please do enlighten me. email me at smalldickenergy@getalife.com.” Her reply gained traction to quickly become one of the top 10 tweets of all time; as I write, it’s been liked 3.5 million times and shared directly 650,000 or so…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

~~~~~

See Email updates from 2022 -|- 2021

[Template:]

~~~~~

-•-
2023-02-00. . [] By . Excerpt: … For GSS chapter .