Stay Current with GSS

The GSS google group receives “Stay Current” weekly emails each containing several excerpts of articles with links to the source articles. To receive them, email gssmail@berkeley.edu with subject line “Join GSS” and in the body please give your name, city, state, country, and your school (if any).

See also “Stay Current” links in the Contents table in each book. If a news source limits the number of articles one person can read, perhaps “divide and conquer” with different students reading and reporting to the class on different articles.

See updates from January-October 2024 -|- 2023 -|- 2022 -|- 2021

RECENT UPDATES (since October 2024)

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2024-12-10. As Seas Rise, Marshes May Still Trap Carbon—and Cool the Planet. By Rambo Talabong, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Coastal wetlands have long been seen as one of the casualties of climate change, doomed by the rising seas that are steadily swallowing their ecosystems. …New research by Virginia Institute of Marine Science coastal geomorphologist Matthew Kirwan has revealed that some marshes, migrating as they adapt to changing conditions, may release carbon (primarily as carbon dioxide) but gain an enhanced capacity to store methane. Methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, and sequestering it may have an atmospheric cooling effect. As sea level rises, freshwater marshes get saltier and turn into salt marshes. Conventional wisdom has long held that as freshwater marshes shrink, they release carbon stored in their soil and biomass. But Kirwan pointed out that as freshwater marshes degrade and salinize, their microbial populations are affected in a way that causes the marshes to emit less methane. “Even degrading marshes can still sequester carbon effectively,” Kirwan said. He will present this research on 10 December at AGU’s Annual Meeting 2024 in Washington, D.C….. Full article at https://eos.org/articles/as-seas-rise-marshes-may-still-trap-carbon-and-cool-the-planet. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

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2024-12-10. Here’s How Much Cleaner Energy Could Save America, in Lives and Money. By Cara Buckley, The New York Times. Excerpt: Electric heat pumps, the most affordable and energy efficient way to heat and cool homes, continue to outsell gas furnaces nationwide. They can also reduce outdoor pollution and, as a result, save lives, according to a report issued on Tuesday. The study, by Rewiring America, a nonprofit group that promotes electrification, calculated that if every American household got rid of furnaces, hot water heaters and clothes dryers powered by oil or gas and replaced them with heat pumps and electric appliances, annual greenhouse gas emissions could drop by about 400 million metric tons. Fine airborne particulate matter and other air pollutants could decrease by 300,000 tons, the equivalent of taking 40 million cars off the road. Roughly two-thirds of the country’s households burn fossil fuels such as natural gas, propane and fuel oil for heat, hot water and drying clothes, releasing nitrogen oxides and other pollutants into the air. While a transition to electric appliances could shave $60 billion off people’s annual energy bills, it could also deliver important health rewards, researchers found. It could prevent 3,400 fewer premature deaths per year, 1,300 fewer hospital visits and 220,000 fewer asthma attacks, all of which amounted to about $40 billion in benefits, according to the study…. Full article at https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/10/climate/heat-pumps-savings.html. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

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2024-12-10. Arctic tundra now emits planet-warming pollution, federal report finds. By Barbara Moran, NPR. Excerpt: Arctic tundra, which has stored carbon for thousands of years, has now become a source of planet-warming pollution. As wildfires increase and hotter temperatures melt long-frozen ground, the region is releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The finding was reported in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s annual Arctic Report Card, released Tuesday. The new research, led by scientists from the Woodwell Climate Research Center in Falmouth, Massachusetts, signals a dramatic shift in this Arctic ecosystem, which could have widespread implications for the global climate. NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said …”This is yet one more sign, predicted by scientists, of the consequences of inadequately reducing fossil fuel pollution.” …Permafrost is full of carbon that has been locked away by plants over millennia. But last year’s permafrost temperatures were the second warmest on record, hastening melting of the frozen soil. Once the ground thaws, microbes in the soil become active and consume the newly available carbon, releasing it into the atmosphere as methane and carbon dioxide…. Full article at https://www.npr.org/2024/12/10/nx-s1-5215967/arctic-tundra-contributes-climate-warming-pollution-report-finds. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

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2024-12-03. The US government’s $5 trillion purchasing power has made companies greener, study finds. By Gary Thill & Laura Counts, UC Berkeley Has News. Excerpt: When the U.S. government flexes its $5 trillion annual purchasing power to encourage environmental progress, companies listen—and act. A new study from the UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business shows that firms have reduced toxic emissions, developed greener products, and taken concrete steps to address climate change in their pursuit of government contracts. The study, led by Haas professor Omri Even-Tov, analyzed ten years of data on about 2,700 companies headquartered across more than 350 U.S. counties. The companies seeking government contracts not only started talking more about climate disclosures, but they cut emissions by up to 10,000 pounds per year per county and were 5% more likely to develop green technology patents. “Our research shows that when the government sets expectations as part of procurement, it’s not just greenwashing,” says Even-Tov, an associate professor of accounting and co-faculty director for the Center for Social Sector Leadership. “Companies are actually getting greener and it’s making a big change in the world.” The paper, forthcoming in the Review of Accounting Studies and coauthored by Guoman She, Lynn Linghuan Wang, and Detian Yang of the University of Hong Kong, is among the first to empirically show how rules associated with government purchases of goods, supplies, equipment, services, and construction have nudged companies to take environmental action without requiring further regulations…. Full article at https://newsroom.haas.berkeley.edu/the-us-governments-5-trillion-purchasing-power-has-made-companies-greener-study-finds/. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

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2024-06-20. Researchers run high-performing large language model on the energy needed to power a lightbulb. By Emily Cerf, UC Santa Cruz News Center. Excerpt: Large language models such as ChaptGPT have proven to be able to produce remarkably intelligent results, but the energy and monetary costs associated with running these massive algorithms is sky high. It costs $700,000 per day in energy costs to run ChatGPT 3.5, according to recent estimates, and leaves behind a massive carbon footprint in the process. In a new preprint paper, researchers from UC Santa Cruz show that it is possible to eliminate the most computationally expensive element of running large language models, called matrix multiplication, while maintaining performance. In getting rid of matrix multiplication and running their algorithm on custom hardware, the researchers found that they could power a billion-parameter-scale language model on just 13 watts, about equal to the energy of powering a lightbulb and more than 50 times more efficient than typical hardware…. Full article at https://news.ucsc.edu/2024/06/matmul-free-llm.html. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

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2024-12-TEMPLATE. . By . Excerpt: . Full article at URL. For GSS chapter .

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2024-12-06. Notre Dame’s spectacular rebirth offers bounty of data for scientists. By Richard Stone, Science. Excerpt: Studies of materials salvaged from 2019 fire are providing insights into everything from construction techniques to climate conditions in medieval France. …After a devastating fire 5 years ago, a restored Notre Dame de Paris is set to reopen to the public this weekend. But while most visitors will be marveling at the cathedral’s rebuilt roof and radiant stonework, behind the scenes a sprawling scientific enterprise has yielded surprising insights into Notre Dame’s past. …Those efforts included an analysis of some of the 10,000 pieces of charred wood from Notre Dame’s massive oak frame…. Researchers also used these charred chunks of wood to open a window into local climate conditions during Europe’s Medieval Warm Period, which lasted from approximately 950 to 1250 C.E….. Full article at https://www.science.org/content/article/notre-dame-s-spectacular-rebirth-offers-bounty-data-scientists. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

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2024-12-06. Why thermal batteries could replace lithium-ion batteries for energy storage. By Lisa Setyon, CNBC. Excerpt: Thermal batteries could transform renewable energy storage and provide a cheaper and scalable alternative to lithium-ion technology. “Intermittent wind and solar power are becoming the cheapest forms of energy that humans have ever known, and all kinds of energy storage is now being used to harness that, to drive transportation, to drive the electricity grid,” said John O’Donnell, the founder and chief innovation officer of Rondo Energy. “Heat batteries are a fundamentally new way of storing energy at a small fraction of the cost.”  Heat batteries store excess electricity as heat in materials like bricks or graphite, which can reach temperatures over 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The stored heat can then be released when needed, making thermal batteries ideal for powering the manufacturing of steel, cement and chemicals. Rondo Energy …built its first commercial heat battery in California’s Central Valley at Calgren Renewable Fuels. …“We use unrefined raw materials, like bricks made from clay,” O’Donnell said. “A pound of brick stores more energy than a pound of lithium-ion battery, at less than 10% of the cost.” …Watch the video to learn more about this innovative technology…. Full article at https://www.cnbc.com/2024/12/06/why-thermal-batteries-could-replace-lithium-ion-batteries-.html. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

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2024-12-05. Climate change extinctions. By Mark C. Urban, Science. Abstract: Climate change is expected to cause irreversible changes to biodiversity, but predicting those risks remains uncertain. I synthesized 485 studies and more than 5 million projections to produce a quantitative global assessment of climate change extinctions. With increased certainty, this meta-analysis suggests that extinctions will accelerate rapidly if global temperatures exceed 1.5°C. The highest-emission scenario would threaten approximately one-third of species, globally. Amphibians; species from mountain, island, and freshwater ecosystems; and species inhabiting South America, Australia, and New Zealand face the greatest threats. In line with predictions, climate change has contributed to an increasing proportion of observed global extinctions since 1970. Besides limiting greenhouse gases, pinpointing which species to protect first will be critical for preserving biodiversity until anthropogenic climate change is halted and reversed. Full article at https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adp4461. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8 and Losing Biodiversity chapter 1.

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2024-12-02. In the Himalayas, expanding lakes signal growing flood risks. By Athar Parvaiz, Science. Excerpt: Climate-driven melting of snow and ice continues to swell many lakes in the Himalayas, increasing the risk of catastrophic flooding in downstream communities, new data show. Researchers examining 902 lakes across the snowy, mountainous region found that more than half have increased in area since 2011, some by more than 40%. Overall, the area covered by the lakes grew by 11% over the same period, India’s Central Water Commission reports. The findings highlight the need for “vigorous monitoring” of rapidly changing glacial lakes and water bodies, the researchers write. The lakes are often held in place by unstable ice dams and gravel bars that can fail with little warning, unleashing deadly torrents. Such “outburst floods” have killed thousands of people across the Himalayas over the past decade, and a warming climate has only increased the risks…. Full article at https://www.science.org/content/article/himalayas-expanding-lakes-signal-growing-flood-risks. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

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2024-12-01. How a rare animal was saved from the brink of extinction in Yosemite National Park. By Suzie Dundas, SFGATE. Excerpt: Yosemite National Park’s Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs were so abundant in the mid-1800s that “it would be difficult to avoid stepping on them,” according to researcher Roland Knapp of the Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory, or SNARL, in Mammoth Lakes. But the introduction of invasive trout, combined with a lethal fungus known as Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or Bd, decimated their populations. Now, they’re the rarest amphibian in the Sierra Nevada. But there’s hope now for the endangered frogs: Knapp’s team not only reintroduced Bd-resistant frogs into their former habitats but also reestablished entire breeding populations, which may save the species from extinction…. Full article at https://www.sfgate.com/california-parks/article/rare-species-yosemite-sierra-nevada-frog-19942139.php. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 1.

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2024-12-01. A surprise solar boom reveals a fatal flaw in our climate change projections. By Noah Gordon and Daevan Mangalmurti, Vox. Excerpt: …Catching their own government by surprise, Pakistanis have been installing a massive amount of solar power. …Pakistan has gone from an inconsequential solar market to the sixth-largest in the world. …In the last three years, Pakistanis have imported more than 25 gigawatts of solar panels from China. This disorganized, bottom-up boom has increased Pakistan’s power supply by 50 percent. …power plants burn lots of liquefied natural gas, which became costlier after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. That same year, Pakistan fell into a foreign exchange crisis …which made everything more expensive. All of this opened an opportunity for businesses and better-off Pakistanis to begin importing solar panels from China, which can pay for themselves in as little as two years and free their users from the expensive, unreliable grid. The middle class has started to do the same. …the particular outperformance of solar, whose growth the International Energy Agency (IEA), an intergovernmental organization that oversees the global energy sector, has drastically underestimated every year since 2006 — as have countries’ own renewable energy targets. The IEA’s Net Zero by 2050 report, a plan for how to eliminate net greenhouse gas emissions by the mid-21st century, was seen as ambitious when it came out in 2021. It called for the world to add 630 gigawatts of solar power annually by 2030. This is actually proving a very easy target: The world is already on track to add nearly 600 gigawatts in 2024 — 334 gigawatts in China, 53 gigawatts in the US, and, stunningly, at least 16 gigawatts in Pakistan…. Full article at https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/388506/solar-energy-power-projections-climate-change-pakistan. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

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2024-11-29. Revivable self-assembled supramolecular biomass fibrous framework for efficient microplastic removal. By Yang Wu et al, Science. Abstract: Microplastic remediation in aquatic bodies is essential for the entire ecosystem, but is challenging to achieve with a universal and efficient strategy. Here, we developed a sustainable and environmentally adaptable adsorbent through supramolecular self-assembly of chitin and cellulose. This biomass fibrous framework (Ct-Cel) showcases an excellent adsorption performance for polystyrene, polymethyl methacrylate, polypropylene, and polyethylene terephthalate. …Ct-Cel can remove 98.0 to 99.9% of microplastics in four types of real water and maintains a high removal efficiency of up to 95.1 to 98.1% after five adsorption cycles. This work may open up prospects for functional biomass materials for cost-efficient remediation of microplastics in complex aquatic environments. Full article at https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adn8662. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 7.

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2024-11-25. Large Igneous Provinces May Have Leaked Cryptic Carbon. By Skyler Ware, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Massive volcanic eruptions have reshaped Earth and its climate at several points in history. New research suggests that long after these surface eruptions ceased, carbon dioxide (CO₂) dissolved in underground magmas could have slowly escaped to the surface. This “cryptic carbon” may have contributed to prolonged periods of warming, slow climate recovery, and mass extinctions. …extensive volcanism has occurred in conjunction with periods of climate disruption throughout Earth’s history: Large igneous provinces emitted large volumes of greenhouse gases such as CO₂ into the atmosphere, raising temperatures. These events were also sometimes accompanied by major biological changes. The eruptions of the Siberian Traps 252 million years ago coincided with massive biodiversity loss, known as the end-Permian mass extinction, or the Great Dying. But during that event, temperatures and CO₂ levels remained high for about 5 million years after volcanic eruptions stopped. …In the new study, published in Nature Geoscience, Black and his colleagues proposed …that carbon continued to leak from the volcanoes after their eruptions ceased…. Full article at https://eos.org/articles/large-igneous-provinces-may-have-leaked-cryptic-carbon. For GSS Life and Climate chapter 8.

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2024-11-30. Solar Harvest Coming to a Field Near You. By John Dietz, SuccessfulFarming. Excerpt: Agrivoltaics, a relatively new term, unites cropping practices and solar panels on the same fields. …Well-established programs exist throughout Europe, as well as in Japan and China. “Agrivoltaics has emerged as a formal pillar of the energy plan for countries with scarce farmland, including France, Germany, and Italy,” Winter explains. It’s catch-up time in North America. …[Joshua] Pearce calls agrivoltaics in North America “a slam dunk” opportunity. “A few percent of agricultural land in the U.S. could power the entire country,” he asserts. …In his latest research paper, Pearce posits that as little as 1% of Canadian farmland could provide a quarter to a third of Canada’s electrical energy needs. …“You can increase the yield for your crop if you do it right ,” he said in an interview. “You do get more food, and you get the added revenue of the solar. [That’s] why agrivoltaics is growing like crazy in the whole world.” …Annual academic agrivoltaics conferences have begun in the United States (agrivoltaics-conference.org) and Canada (agrivoltaicscanada.ca)…. Full article at https://www.agriculture.com/expansion-of-large-scale-solar-power-generation-on-farmland-is-underway-8746100. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

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2024-11-26. Yes, It ‘Looks Like a Duck,’ but Carriers Like the New Mail Truck. By Michael Levenson, The New York Times. Excerpt: For 19 years, Richard Burton, a letter carrier in Athens, Ga., drove the classic boxy mail truck, with only a fan on the dashboard to keep the cabin cool in the sweltering summer months. …about two months ago, Mr. Burton, 46, became one of the first letter carriers in the United States to get a long-awaited upgrade: a new electric mail truck with air-conditioning, a 360-degree camera and a sliding cargo door on the side that allows the unloading of packages directly onto the sidewalk. …The new mail trucks — 10 years in the making — have started rolling into American neighborhoods, and the early reviews from letter carriers are positive. Many have complained for years that the mail trucks they have been driving, which were introduced in the 1980s, break down frequently and are stiflingly hot, as climate change pushes temperatures to greater extremes. The rear cargo space is so small, they say, that they have to crouch inside to grab packages. …The Next Generation Delivery Vehicle, as the new truck is called, promises some long-overdue relief. …“It is the goofiest thing in the world when you first look at it,” said Douglas Lape, a special assistant to the president of the National Association of Letter Carriers…. “But I will tell you, it grows on you.” …The Postal Service ordered 50,000 of the new trucks in March 2022, according to Oshkosh Defense, the Wisconsin company that won the contract to produce the vehicles at a plant in Spartanburg, S.C. …attorneys general from 16 states and the District of Columbia, along with five environmental groups and the United Auto Workers union, sued the Postal Service, complaining that most of the new vehicles would be gas-powered, undercutting the fight against climate change. In December 2022, the Postal Service …announced that 75 percent of the new mail trucks would be battery-powered. The trucks are designed to travel about 70 miles on a single charge, more than enough for the 12 to 15 miles of daily driving that city letter carriers generally do…. Full article at https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/26/us/usps-new-mail-trucks.html. For GSS Energy Use chapter 9.

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2024-11-26. California scientists accidentally find nuclear fever dream in Arctic snow. By Ariana Bindman, SFGate. Excerpt: A Cold War relic, Camp Century was supposed to be entombed in ice forever. NASA’s April 2024 expedition to the Greenland Ice Sheet…[was] “…looking for the bed of the ice and out pops Camp Century,” said Alex Gardner, a scientist at NASA’s California-based Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a Nov. 25 news release. …Part research facility, part war machine, the clandestine, underground military site once housed up to 200 soldiers and scientists who dutifully studied ice core samples during the height of the Cold War. The nuclear-powered operation, complete with an experimental subsurface railway ultimately designed to help launch 600 missiles and provide year-round accommodations for its personnel, was supposed to be entombed in snow for eternity after authorities decommissioned it in 1967. …But the bones of “Project Iceworm” may soon reemerge, as scientists worry that global warming will exhume its toxic waste, leading to grave environmental consequences. …U.S. officials didn’t exactly have permission to build the so-called “city under the ice.” …During Cold War tensions, the Danes only allowed the U.S. to construct military bases in designated areas in Greenland…. …during a cocktail party in August of 1959, Danish Minister for Foreign Affairs Jens Otto Krag was horrified to learn that the Americans were secretly digging tunnels deep in the Greenland Ice Sheet using thermal drills, according to a historical article on the era published in ScienceNordic magazine. …the site — along with its 200,000 liters of diesel fuel, 24,000,000 liters of biological waste, and 1.2 million units of radioactive waste — was left behind, forever buried in the snow. Full article at https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/california-researchers-abandoned-military-site-19944337.php…. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

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2024-11-25. Producing circuit boards from leaves would prevent millions of tons of e-waste. By Christie Wilcox, Science. Excerpt: In a literally green technological advance, a team of researchers has found a way to replace the conventional printed circuit board (PCB) in electronic devices with a biodegradable alternative made out of tree leaves. Reported earlier this month in Science Advances, such “leaftronics” could help reduce the tens of millions of tons of electronic waste, or e-waste, humanity produces every year. …In 2022, manufacturers produced 62 million tons of e-waste globally. And that figure is expected to increase by more than 30% by 2030, because modern electronics are designed to be disposable, says Rakesh Nair, a postdoctoral researcher and engineer with the Institute for Applied Physics at the Dresden University of Technology (TU Dresden). “We can easily make electronics that last for 10 or 20, 30 years, but we deliberately make them so that you buy the new model,” Nair says. …By mass, circuit boards …make up as much as 60% of e-waste. PCBs are typically made of extremely tough plastic or fiberglass infused with epoxy, an unrecyclable substrate that is “the core of the problem,” says Hans Kleemann, an experimental physicist at TU Dresden and Nair’s postdoctoral adviser. …Kleemann, Nair, and colleagues set out to find a greener alternative. Nair first thought of using paper for the boards but was dissuaded by the amount of water and pollutants needed to generate paper. One day, when looking at the large magnolia tree near his institute, “it just clicked”: He could use its leaves instead…. Full article at https://www.science.org/content/article/producing-circuit-boards-leaves-would-prevent-millions-tons-e-waste. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 7.

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2024-11-25. Is the COP29 climate deal a historic breakthrough or letdown? Researchers react. By Ehsan Masood, Nature. Excerpt: An eleventh-hour deal that rescued the COP29 climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan, is a “fragile consensus”, researchers who study climate finance have told Nature. Visibly relieved COP delegates representing rich countries applauded in the early hours of 24 November, following a last-minute pledge in which rich countries will ‘take the lead’ in increasing climate finance for poor countries to at least US$300 billion annually by 2035. Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), notably China, will also be expected to contribute to international climate funds, a first for a COP agreement. But delegates from some of the largest LMICs, including India, Indonesia and Nigeria, were furious. Some alleged that they had been pressured into a deal, so that the COP meeting did not end in failure. The delegates also did not agree on how much of the $300 billion will be in grants versus loans, nor how much will come from private or public-sector sources. Current climate finance from rich to poor countries is more than $100 billion and projected to reach nearly $200 billion by 2030 under a business-as-usual scenario, according to an analysis by ODI Global, a think tank in London…. Full article at https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-03875-4. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

[COPs are meetings convened under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) treaty adopted in 1992. COP stands for Conference of the Parties (governments). They assess global efforts to advance the key 2016 Paris Agreement aim of limiting global warming to as close as possible to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. Greenhouse gas emissions must peak before 2025 at the latest and decline 43% by 2030. (https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement and https://unfccc.int/)]

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2024-11-25. Vast Oceans of Water May Be Hiding Within Uranus and Neptune. By Jonathan O’Callaghan, The New York Times. Excerpt: We might finally understand what’s going on inside Uranus and Neptune, and the answer is pretty surprising: They may each contain an ocean of water. …The idea about the two ice giant planets — so-called because of the freezing conditions in which they formed — was put forward by Burkhard Militzer, a planetary scientist from the University of California, Berkeley, and was published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It could explain the strange magnetic fields of both worlds, which are unlike any other in the solar system…. Full article at https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/25/science/uranus-neptune-oceans.html. See also UC Berkeley News A clue to what lies beneath the bland surfaces of Uranus and Neptune, By Robert Sanders. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

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2024-11-22. Martian Meteorite Points to Ancient Hydrothermal Activity. By Katherine Kornei, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: In 2011, a striking black rock about the size of an apple was discovered in the Sahara desert. …that meteorite, which has come to be known as NWA 7034, or “Black Beauty,” is different from most other meteorites: It’s a chunk of Mars. …Tiny grains of zircon from NWA 7034 have now revealed that hydrothermal activity likely persisted in Mars’s crust 4.45 billion years ago. That’s the earliest indirect evidence of water on the Red Planet…. Full article at https://eos.org/articles/martian-meteorite-points-to-ancient-hydrothermal-activity. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

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2024-11-20. Creeping Faults May Have Simpler Geometries. By rin Martin-Jones, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: California’s San Andreas Fault is renowned for its large and destructive earthquakes. But some stretches of the fault slide in slow motion, with minimal or no earthquake activity. These “creeping” fault segments slip steadily, releasing stresses that would otherwise accumulate and trigger large earthquakes. Geologists generally think that creep happens on faults that slice through particularly slippery rocks. But a recent study reports that the overall structure of a fault network might also dictate why some faults creep rather than intermittently slip dramatically. “This has very important implications for where to expect earthquakes versus where to not expect earthquakes, as well as for predicting where the most damaging earthquakes will be,” Victor Tsai, a geophysicist at Brown University and study coauthor, said in a statement. Although the study focused on California’s faults, which include the San Andreas, the results could apply to other faults around world, according to the researchers. Their findings were published in Nature…. Full article at https://eos.org/articles/creeping-faults-may-have-simpler-geometries. For GSS Energy Flow chapter 2.

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2024-11-22. How will China impact the future of climate change? You might be surprised. By Julia Simon, NPR. Excerpt: The U.S. is preparing for a second presidential term for Donald Trump, who has called climate change a hoax and federal investments in climate solutions a “green new scam“. In China, it’s a different story. China has made it clear it plans to be at the forefront of manufacturing climate solutions–and selling them around the globe. China is the world’s largest producer of renewable energy, now constructing almost two thirds of all large-scale wind and solar power, according to nonprofit Global Energy Monitor. And China is spreading climate solution technologies across the developing world. Walk into an electric vehicle showroom in Colombia, the Dominican Republic, or Kenya these days, and the car on offer is likely made in China. “They’ve set up a situation where it’s good for them to sell clean energy technologies to the world,” says Alex Wang, a professor of law at UCLA focused on Chinese climate policy. “It’s very good economically, and it’s good reputationally, and it’s good environmentally.” But while China is now the largest producer and distributor of climate solutions technologies — a key moneymaker for its troubled economy — the country still gets more than half its power from coal. “Which happens to also be the dirtiest fossil fuel,” says Li Shuo, director of the China climate hub at the Asia Society, a nonprofit…. Full article at https://www.opb.org/article/2024/11/22/why-china-is-a-climate-technology-leader-even-with-coal-plants/. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

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2024-11-20. Light-powered catalysts destroy ‘forever chemicals’. By Robert F. Service, Science. Excerpt: There may soon be a gentler—and cheaper—way to destroy persistent and dangerous “forever chemicals.” Per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) have been found to contaminate the global environment and have been implicated in a wide range of health problems. But the tough carbon-fluorine bonds in the compounds resist being torn apart, leading to expensive remediation schemes that rely on powerful chemicals and high temperatures and pressures. Today, two groups report in Nature [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08179-1 and https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08179-1] the discovery of catalysts that could offer a cheaper way to clean up the chemicals. When energized by light, the catalysts break down a wide range of PFAS compounds at low temperatures and ambient pressures…. Full article at https://www.science.org/content/article/light-powered-catalysts-destroy-forever-chemicals. For GSS Ecosystme Change chapter 7.

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2024-11-19. Where Glaciers Melt, the Rivers Run Red. By Mitra Taj, The New York Times. Excerpt: As the glaciers of South America retreat, the supply of freshwater is dwindling and its quality is getting worse. Dionisia Moreno, a 70-year-old Indigenous farmer, still remembers when Shallap River, nearly 13,000 feet up in the Cordillera Blanca, brought crystal clear water brimming with trout to her village, Jancu. “People and animals alike could drink the water without suffering,” she said. “Now the water is red. No one can drink it.”…. Full article at https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/19/science/peru-glaciers-water-pollution.html. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

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2024-11-18. Geological Net Zero and the need for disaggregated accounting for carbon sinks. By Myles R. Allen et al, Nature. Abstract: Achieving net zero global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂), with declining emissions of other greenhouse gases, is widely expected to halt global warming. CO₂ emissions will continue to drive warming until fully balanced by active anthropogenic CO₂ removals. For practical reasons, however, many greenhouse gas accounting systems allow some “passive” CO₂ uptake, such as enhanced vegetation growth due to CO₂ fertilisation, to be included as removals in the definition of net anthropogenic emissions. By including passive CO₂ uptake, nominal net zero emissions would not halt global warming, undermining the Paris Agreement. …targets should acknowledge the need for Geological Net Zero, meaning one tonne of CO₂ permanently restored to the solid Earth for every tonne still generated from fossil sources…. Full article at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08326-8.  [not free] For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

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2024-11-14. Breakthrough in capturing ‘hot’ CO2 from industrial exhaust. By Robert Sanders, UC Berkeley News. Excerpt: Industrial plants, such as those that make cement or steel, emit copious amounts of carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas, but the exhaust is too hot for state-of-the-art carbon removal technology. Lots of energy and water are needed to cool the exhaust streams, a requirement that has limited adoption of CO₂ capture in some of the most polluting industries. Now, chemists at the University of California, Berkeley, have discovered that a porous material can act like a sponge to capture CO₂ at temperatures close to those of many industrial exhaust streams. The material — a type of metal-organic framework, or MOF — will be described in a paper to be published in the Nov. 15 print edition of the journal Science. …“We need to start thinking about the CO₂ emissions from industries, like making steel and making cement, that are hard to decarbonize, because it’s likely that they’re still going to be emitting CO_2, even as our energy infrastructure shifts more toward renewables,” Rohde said…. Full article at https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/11/14/breakthrough-in-capturing-hot-co2-from-industrial-exhaust. For GSS Energy Use chapter 6.

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2024-11-14. Pathways to reduce global plastic waste mismanagement and greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. By A. Samuel Pottinger et al, Science. Abstract: Plastic production and plastic pollution negatively affect our environment, environmental justice, and climate change. Using detailed global and regional plastics datasets coupled with socio-economic data, we employ machine learning to predict that, without intervention, annual mismanaged plastic waste will nearly double to 121 Mt (100 – 139 Mt 95% CI) by 2050. Annual greenhouse gas emissions from the plastic system are projected to grow by 37% to 3.35 Gt CO₂ equivalent (3.09 – 3.54 CO₂e) over the same period. The United Nations plastic pollution treaty presents a unique opportunity to reshape these outcomes. We simulate eight candidate treaty policies and find that just four could together reduce mismanaged plastic waste by 91% (86% – 98%) and gross plastic-related greenhouse gas emissions by one third. Full article at https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adr3837. See also A world without plastic pollution? A new paper shows it’s possible.
For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 7.

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2024-01-09. Climate change boosts dengue. By Science. Excerpt: A global rise in cases of dengue, a mosquito-borne viral disease, is partly the result of climate change, according to a study presented last week at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Analyzing data from 21 countries in Asia and the Americas where dengue is endemic, a team found a relationship between dengue incidence and temperature, in part because rising mercury favors the disease-carrying mosquito in many parts of the world. Climate change has already caused dengue cases to rise by 19%, the study found, and if temperatures continue to increase as projected, the next 25 years could bring an additional 40% to 60% spike, with parts of Bolivia, Peru, Mexico, and Colombia at the highest risk. Some places could even see cases double. Between 100 million and 400 million dengue infections occur annually, the World Health Organization estimates. Many are asymptomatic or mild, but dengue can cause severe pain, fever, rashes, and nausea, and is sometimes fatal. In January, the research team posted a preprint describing their findings…. Full article at https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.08.24301015v1. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

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2024-11-15. The first people on Tasmania brought fire and forever changed the land. By Warren Cornwall, Science. Excerpt: More than 41,000 years ago, humans traversed a strip of land that once joined the mainland of Australia to what is today the island of Tasmania, called Lutruwita by its Indigenous inhabitants today. The first humans to reach this land brought a tool they used to transform the landscape and that left the first lasting marks of their presence: fire. Thanks to layers of sediment that formed year by year along the bottom of a lake on a small island off the northeastern tip of Lutruwita, scientists have for the first time chronicled the region’s history of vegetation spanning more than 50,000 years. They found a surge in fires starting about 41,600 years ago, the researchers report today in Science Advances, the same time as falling sea levels opened a dry corridor allowing humans to migrate to the island. …The findings come at a time of growing interest in reviving a traditional burning culture on Lutruwita. Aboriginal communities and scientists are concerned about devastating wildfires raging through forests deprived of that kind of burning since the arrival of European colonists in the 18th and 19th centuries…. Full article at https://www.science.org/content/article/first-people-tasmania-brought-fire-and-forever-changed-land. For GSS Life and Climate chapter 12.

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2024-11-15. A sample from the far side of the Moon. By Zexian Cui et al, Science. Summary: Between 1969 and 1976, the Apollo and Luna missions collected samples from the …near side of the Moon—the one that always faces Earth. Observations from lunar orbit have shown that the far side has very different geology from the near side, for unknown reasons. …In June 2024, the Chang’e-6 spacecraft landed within an impact basin on the far side of the Moon, collected samples, then brought them back to Earth. In a new Science paper, researchers present early results from analyses of a Chang’e-6 sample, which contains volcanic basalt…the volcanic eruption occurred 2.8 billion years ago…. Paper at https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adt1093. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

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2024-11-14. Meet Evo, the DNA-trained AI that creates genomes from scratch. By Mitch Leslie, Science. Excerpt: ChatGPT, the famous artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, can summarize Moby Dick, write computer code, and serve up a recipe for chicken à la king because it has much of the written information on the internet at its silicon fingertips. What if it could do the same for DNA? That’s the advance behind a new study published today in Science. Researchers describe an AI model, schooled on billions of lines of genetic sequences, that can deduce how bacterial and viral genomes operate and use that information to design new proteins and even whole microbial genomes. The model, known as Evo, could help scientists probe evolution, investigate diseases, develop new treatments, and potentially answer a host of other biomedical questions…. Full article at https://www.science.org/content/article/meet-evo-dna-trained-ai-creates-genomes-scratch. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 4.

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2024-11-14. A Big Climate Goal Is Getting Farther Out of Reach. By Brad Plumer and Mira Rojanasakul, The New York Times. Excerpt: Countries have made scant progress in curbing their greenhouse gas emissions over the past year, keeping the planet on track for dangerous levels of warming this century, according to a new report published Thursday. The report by the Climate Action Tracker, a research group, estimates that the climate and energy policies currently pursued by governments around the world would cause global temperatures to rise roughly 2.7 degrees Celsius, or 4.9 degrees Fahrenheit, above preindustrial levels by 2100. That estimate of future warming has barely budged for three years now, the group said. …The study was issued during the United Nations climate summit [COP29] in Baku, Azerbaijan…. Full article at https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/14/climate/climate-action-tracker-temperatures-emissions.html. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

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2024-11-13. Sweeter tomatoes are coming soon thanks to CRISPR gene editing. By Michael Le Page, New Scientist. Excerpt: …bigger tomato varieties could soon get a sweetness boost with the help of CRISPR gene editing. The bigger a tomato is, the lower its sugar content usually is, says Jinzhe Zhang at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing. …Zhang and colleagues compared different varieties to identify genetic variants that affect sweetness. They found that two closely related genes called SlCDPK27 and SlCDPK26 are more active in large varieties. These genes code for proteins that lower the levels of an enzyme that produces sugars. When the team used CRISPR gene editing to disable these genes in a variety called Moneymaker, the levels of glucose and fructose in the fruits increased by up to 30 per cent with no decrease in yield. The fruits were also rated as sweeter in a taste test. The only other effect was fewer and smaller seeds, …. Full article at https://www.newscientist.com/article/2456025-sweeter-tomatoes-are-coming-soon-thanks-to-crispr-gene-editing/. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 4.

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2024-11-13. Best evidence yet that “Snowball Earth” saw ice cover the entire globe. By Evrim Yazgin, COSMOS. Excerpt: More than 700 million years ago, the entire globe was covered in ice in a period called “Snowball Earth”. At least, that’s what scientists think. Now geologists believe they’ve found the best evidence that the “Snowball Earth” was really a global event. For reasons which remain unclear, a runaway chain of events caused a massive shift in Earth’s climate about 720 million years ago. Global temperatures plunged and ice sheets kilometres thick are believed to have covered the planet from the poles to the equator. Called the Sturtian glaciation, Snowball Earth lasted about 60 million years. This was quickly followed by another global ice age called the Marinoan glaciation. Together, these big freezes made up the geological period called the Cryogenian (720–635 million years ago). …A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences presents new evidence that these massive glaciers covered the entire globe. …After Snowball Earth thawed are the earliest examples of large organisms during the Ediacaran period (635–541 million years ago). Scientists still don’t understand the processes which led to this explosion in life, after which our planet was changed forever…. Full article at https://cosmosmagazine.com/earth/earth-sciences/snowball-earth-ice-globe/. For GSS Life and Climate chapter 6.

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2024-11-12. ‘Fossil Fuels Are Still Winning’: Global Emissions Head for a Record. By Brad Plumer, The New York Times. Excerpt: One year after world leaders made a splashy promise to shift away from fossil fuels, countries are burning more oil, natural gas and coal than ever before, researchers said this week. Global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels are on track to reach …a 0.8 percent increase over 2023 levels, according to new data from the Global Carbon Project. It’s a trend that puts countries farther from their goal of stopping global warming. …Emissions will most likely decline this year in the United States and Europe, and fossil fuel use in China slowed. Yet that was offset by a surge in carbon dioxide from India and the rest of the world. …The findings were made public early on Wednesday at the United Nations climate change summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, where diplomats and world leaders have gathered to discuss how to raise trillions of dollars to cope with rising global temperatures…. Full article at https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/12/climate/fossil-fuel-emissions-2024-record.html. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

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2024-11-11. How a single gopher restored a landscape devastated by a volcano. By James Dinneen, NewScientist. Excerpt: Two years after Mount St Helens erupted in 1980, a team of researchers helicoptered in a gopher to the ash-covered landscape. Decades later, the activity of that single gopher burrowing for a single day may have helped the decimated ecosystem regrow by boosting the diversity of soil fungi…. Full article at https://www.newscientist.com/article/2455790-how-a-single-gopher-restored-a-landscape-devastated-by-a-volcano/. For GSS Energy Flow chapter 2.

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2024-11-11. California tightens clean transportation standards. By Julie Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle. Excerpt: California air quality regulators on Friday tightened a key environmental program credited with reducing the amount of pollution churned out by cars and trucks but criticized for raising the state’s already high gasoline prices. The California Air Resources Board voted 12-2 on Friday to strengthen the Low Carbon Fuels Standard, which creates financial incentives for oil and gas companies that slash emissions from transportation fuels and adds costs to companies that don’t. …The air board said the hallmark program, established in 2011, has doubled the volume of low carbon fuels such as renewable diesel on the market, slashed regular diesel consumption in half and generated $4 billion oil and gas industry investments in cleaner fuels and technology. …The standard works by rewarding oil and gas companies for lowering the carbon intensity of fuels, which encompasses the greenhouse gas emissions produced throughout their life cycle, from refining, transportation, gas stations and tail pipes…. Full article at https://www.sfchronicle.com/climate/article/california-fuel-standard-19894150.php. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

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2024-11-08. Centennial-Scale Jumps in CO₂ Driven by Earth’s Tilt. By Katherine Kornei, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Human activity is pumping carbon dioxide into Earth’s atmosphere at an unprecedented rate. But centennial-scale increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide—albeit significantly smaller—also persisted in the past. These so-called carbon dioxide jumps are tied to the tilt of Earth’s axis, new research suggests. …The concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide, [at a] level of 315 parts per million was measured in 1958, when modern records began. Today the value is 420 parts per million. On average, the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide has been increasing by roughly 1–3 parts per million per year since the late 1950s. … Etienne Legrain, a paleoclimatologist at the Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement in Grenoble, France, and his colleagues… analyzed 203 measurements of carbon dioxide concentration ranging in age from 260,000 to 190,000 years before present. …they spotted seven unusual events in which the carbon dioxide concentration increased by more than 5 parts per million from one data point to the next. …the researchers noted that 18 of the 22 known carbon dioxide jumps in the past 500,000 years occurred when the tilt of Earth’s axis of rotation—known as the planet’s obliquity—exceeded the average value of 23.3°. Earth’s tilt varies over a roughly 41,000-year timescale, primarily because of our planet’s gravitational interactions with the Sun and Jupiter. …During periods of higher-than-normal obliquity, higher latitudes receive more solar energy. That change allows more vegetation to grow at higher latitudes…. Full article at https://eos.org/articles/centennial-scale-jumps-in-co2-driven-by-earths-tilt. For GSS Life and Climate chapter 10.

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2024-11-07. A New View of Deep Earth’s Carbon Emissions. By Saima May Sidik, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: From time to time, when Earth’s tectonic plates shift, the planet emits a long, slow belch of carbon dioxide. In a new modeling study, Müller et al. show how this gas released from deep Earth may have affected climate over the past billion years. …Scientists have often estimated the volume of such carbon emissions solely on the basis of the gas released by plate tectonics. But plate tectonics can also capture carbon by incorporating it into new crust formed at mid-ocean ridges. In the new work, researchers drew on two recent studies about the past billion years of plate movement to more precisely model how much carbon dioxide this process has generated. …Tectonic activity is a major determinant of Earth’s atmospheric composition over geologic time, the researchers conclude. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GC011713, …. Full article at https://eos.org/research-spotlights/a-new-view-of-deEos/AGUearths-carbon-emissions. For GSS Life and Climate chapter 7.

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2024-11-06. How an Ocean-Sized Lake May Have Formed on Ancient Mars. By Saima May Sidik, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Geological evidence on Mars indicates that 3.6 billion years ago, an intense pulse of water carved rivers and lakes across the planet, an abrupt shift from the preceding 500-million-year era of much gentler fluvial activity. Researchers have long puzzled over the cause. A new study by Buhler shows, paradoxically, that the collapse of the Martian atmosphere and entry into a colder climate may have melted the polar ice cap and triggered global-scale flooding. …In total, about 4% to 40% of the water ice could have melted, an amount of water equivalent to between 20% and 200% of the water currently found near the surface on Mars…. Full article at https://eos.org/research-spotlights/how-an-ocean-sized-lake-may-have-formed-on-ancient-mars. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

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2024-11-06. South America Is Drying Up. By Meghie Rodrigues, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: In August and September, huge portions of South America were shrouded in intense smoke from wildfires raging in the Amazon and other parts of Brazil and Bolivia. The Brazilian Pantanal—the world’s largest tropical wetland—had an almost eightfold increase in wildfires this year compared to 2023. From Manaus to São Paulo and Buenos Aires, the smoke, visible from space, blurred sunlight for weeks and posed a threat to the health of millions. …South America, according to a new study published in Communications Earth and Environment, is becoming drier, warmer, and more flammable. These conditions favor not only natural wildfires but also the uncontrolled spread of human-caused fire. …The paper did not uncover the weight of climate change and land use change when it comes to wildfires. Up to what point can we attribute the findings to El Niño or to land use? It would be interesting to have a bit more detail of how anthropogenic factors influence what they found…. Full article at https://eos.org/articles/south-america-is-drying-up. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

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2024-11-06. Anthropogenic warming has ushered in an era of temperature-dominated droughts in the western United States. By Yizhou Zhuang et al, Science. Abstract: Historically, meteorological drought in the western United States (WUS) has been driven primarily by precipitation deficits. However, our observational analysis shows that, since around 2000, rising surface temperature and the resulting high evaporative demand have contributed more to drought severity (62%) and coverage (66%) over the WUS than precipitation deficit. This increase in evaporative demand during droughts, mostly attributable to anthropogenic warming according to analyses of both observations and climate model simulations, is the main cause of the increased drought severity and coverage. The unprecedented 2020–2022 WUS drought exemplifies this shift in drought drivers, with high evaporative demand accounting for 61% of its severity, compared to 39% from precipitation deficit. Climate model simulations corroborate this shift and project that, under the fossil-fueled development scenario (SSP5-8.5), droughts like the 2020–2022 event will transition from a one-in-more-than-a-thousand-year event in the pre-2022 period to a 1-in-60-year event by the mid-21st century and to a 1-in-6-year event by the late-21st century…. Full article at https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adn9389. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

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2024-11-08. Trump’s election win tanked renewable energy stocks — and short-sellers cashed in. By Rocio Fabbro, Quartz. Excerpt: Renewable energy stocks plunged following Donald Trump’s election victory Tuesday, as the sector braces for the real possibility that the president-elect actually does “drill, baby, drill.” That resulted in a roughly $1.3 billion windfall for investors betting against the stocks, according to calculations by Bloomberg. Among the most shorted clean energy stocks are Plug Power (PLUG), SolarEdge Technologies (SEDG), Bloom Energy (BE), First Solar (FSLR), and Enphase Energy (ENPH)…. A second Trump presidency is expected to give other areas of the energy sector a major boost — especially oil. The Republican has promised to expand oil drilling on his first day in office, and to do away with clean energy policies…. Full article at https://qz.com/renewable-energy-stocks-short-sellers-donald-trump-oil-1851692959. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

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2024-11-07. Africa’s Breaking Heart. By Paul Voosen, Science. Excerpt: Botswana—Nearly all rivers flow into the sea. Coursing through the middle of Africa is a curious exception: Botswana’s Okavango River. It flows hundreds of kilometers across the Kalahari Desert before dissipating as a delta in a swampy depression, an oasis for a dizzying array of wildlife. …Ever since plate tectonics was discovered in the 1960s, researchers have realized parts of Africa exist in such a state of separation. They have traced the seams left by the so-called East African Rift, which cuts from the Red Sea south through Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania, creating dramatic valleys and lakes along with numerous volcanoes and hot springs fed by magma intruding through the thinning crust. In Mozambique…, many researchers believe, the rift stops as suddenly as the river. But Folarin Kolawole, a structural geologist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, thinks …the rift may just be getting started. He and others have identified faults—surfaces along which blocks of crust slip—and other geological evidence that suggest the rift could extend south through Botswana’s heartland into South Africa, and …all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. If these fractures widen into wounds, with oceans eventually filling the gaps—a big if—Africa could be fated to turn into an archipelago tens of millions of years from now…. Full article at https://www.science.org/content/article/africa-geologist-hunts-rifts-are-tearing-continent-apart. For GSS Energy Flow chapter 2.

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2024-11-07. ‘Used like taxis’: Soaring private jet flights drive up climate-heating emissions. By Damian Carrington, The Guardian. Excerpt: Analysis of 19m flights between 2019 and 2023 reveals 50% rise in emissions, condemned as ‘gratuitous waste’. Private jet flights have soared in recent years, with the resulting climate-heating emissions rising by 50%, the most comprehensive global analysis to date has revealed. …Private flights, used by just 0.003% of the world’s population, are the most polluting form of transport. The researchers found that passengers in larger private jets caused more CO₂ emissions in an hour than the average person did in a year. The US dominated private jet travel, representing 69% of flights…. A private jet takes off every six minutes in the UK. …Industry expectations are that another 8,500 business jets will enter service by 2033, far outstripping efficiency gains and indicating that private flight emissions will rise even further. The researchers said their work highlighted the vast global inequality in emissions between wealthier and poorer people, and that tackling the emissions of the wealthy minoritywas critical to ending global heating. Prof Stefan Gössling at Linnaeus University in Sweden, … led the research, …published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, took data from the ADS-B Exchange platform, which records the signals sent once a minute by transponders on every plane, recording its position and altitude…. Full article at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/07/used-like-taxis-soaring-private-jet-flights-drive-up-climate-heating-emissions. For GSS Energy Use chapter 9.

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2024-11-07. Plastic pollution is changing entire Earth system, scientists find. By Sandra Laville, The Guardian. Excerpt: Pollution is affecting the climate, biodiversity, ecosystems, ocean acidification and human health, according to analysis. Plastic pollution is changing the processes of the entire Earth system, exacerbating climate change, biodiversity loss, ocean acidification, and the use of freshwater and land, according to scientific analysis. Plastic must not be treated as a waste problem alone, the authors said, but as a product that poses harm to ecosystems and human health. …Microplastics are now everywhere, from the top of Mount Everest to the Mariana Trench, the deepest point on earth. …“It’s necessary to consider the full life cycle of plastics, starting from the extraction of fossil fuel and the primary plastic polymer production” said the article’s lead author, Patricia Villarrubia-Gómez, at Stockholm Resilience Centre…. Full article at https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/07/plastic-pollution-is-changing-entire-earth-system-scientists-find. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 7.

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2024-11-06. When is it too hot to use a fan? By Warren Cornwall, Science. Excerpt: During a heat wave, many people seek relief by sitting in front of a fan. But public health agencies warn that if it’s too hot, the blowing air can actually make things worse by acting like a convection oven—and they differ on that threshold. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends not using a fan at temperatures above 32.2°C. Others, including the city of Phoenix, give higher thresholds, and the World Health Organization (WHO) puts the limit at 40°C. New research from two different groups of thermal physiologists favors the higher temperature limits, especially in humid weather. But the groups don’t agree on a single temperature threshold. One study, published on 6 November in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), reports that fans can relieve stress on the heart in elderly people in humid conditions at 38°C. The other, published on 17 October in JAMA, concluded there was little additional benefit from using a fan above 35°C…. Full article at https://www.science.org/content/article/when-is-it-too-hot-use-fan. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

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2024-11-05. Nearly all of US states are facing droughts, an unprecedented number. By Marina Dunbar, The Guardian. Excerpt: Every US state except Alaska and Kentucky is facing drought, an unprecedented number, according to the US Drought Monitor. A little more than 45% of the US and Puerto Rico is in drought this week, according to the tracker. About 54% of land in the 48 contiguous US states is affected by droughts. Even as the country experiences autumn and heads further away from a summer of record heat, the droughts continue to rise. More than 150 million people in the country – and 149.8 million in the 48 contiguous states – are in a drought this week. That is about a 34% increase since last week and an over 150% increase since last month. The drought is also affecting more than 318m acres of crops, a 57% increase since last month, according to the tracker. That reality is only the latest illustration of global warming and the climate crisis, spurred primarily by humans’ burning of fossil fuels. Last month, it was reported that world’s water cycle was out of balance “for the first time in human history”. Nearly 3 billion people face water scarcity…. Full article at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/05/states-drought-climate-crisis. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

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2024-11-04. Earth May Survive the Sun’s Demise. By Damond Benningfield, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Earth’s future is bleak. At best, our planet will become a burned-out cinder as the Sun expands at the end of its life. At worst, it will be engulfed by the Sun, leaving no trace that it ever existed. Astronomers have found a clue as to which path Earth might follow in a star system about 4,300 light-years away. There, a rocky planet orbits the remains of a once Sun-like star at a distance similar to where Earth could park if it survives our own star’s death throes. The system “may offer a glimpse into the possible survival of planet Earth in the distant future,” according to a new study published in Nature Astronomy. The system, KMT-2020-BLG-0414L, was discovered in 2020 by the Korea Microlensing Telescope Network, a set of three automated 1.6-meter telescopes in the Southern Hemisphere…. Full article at https://eos.org/articles/earth-may-survive-the-suns-demise. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 1.

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2024-11-04. Once thought a fantasy, effort to sequence DNA of millions of species gains momentum. By Elizabeth Pennisi, Science. Excerpt: Six years ago this month, scientists launched a massively ambitious effort to sequence the genomes of some 1.67 million plants, animals, fungi, and other microbes—essentially all known eukaryotes, or species with complex cells. It would cost an estimated $4.7 billion and take 10 years, but its leaders argued that having so many full DNA sequences would clarify life’s evolution, help with conservation, improve agriculture, and even aid human health. Today, the so-called Earth BioGenome Project (EBP) …is no longer pure aspiration, as organizers made clear at a meeting that ended last week. Its partners around the world have sequenced 3000 genomes so far, spanning 1060 eukaryotic families, and say they are on track to reach 10,000 species—the goal for the project’s first phase—by 2026. …Project leaders now hope to meet the 1.67 million species goal by 2032, and for hundreds of millions of dollars less than once predicted thanks to the faster speeds, lower costs, and greater accuracy of today’s DNA sequencing…. Full article at https://www.science.org/content/article/once-thought-fantasy-effort-sequence-dna-millions-species-gains-momentum. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 4.

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2024-11-04. Population crash means African penguins are now critically endangered. By Mongabay.com. Excerpt: Africa’s only resident penguin species is now officially critically endangered, according to a recent assessment by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Over the past century, the African penguin (Spheniscus demersus) has suffered precipitous declines in its population. In the mid-1950s, there were an estimated 141,000 breeding pairs of African penguins, or 282,000 mature individuals, mostly on small islands off the coasts of Namibia and South Africa. By 2023, this number plummeted to around 9,900 pairs, or 19,800 individuals — a 93% population decline over some 70 years. According to the IUCN’s latest assessment, from July 2024, only about 1,200 penguin pairs are estimated to survive in Namibia, and 8,750 pairs in South Africa…. Full article at https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/population-crash-means-african-penguins-are-now-critically-endangered/. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 1.

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2024-11-04. Spraying rice with sunscreen particles during heatwaves boosts growth. By James Dinneen, New Scientist. Excerpt: A common sunscreen ingredient, zinc nanoparticles, may help protect rice from heat-related stress, an increasingly common problem under climate change. …Researchers have explored such nanoparticles as a way to deliver more nutrients to plants, helping maintain crop yields while reducing environmental damage from using too much fertiliser. Now Xiangang Hu at Nankai University in China and his colleagues have tested how zinc oxide nanoparticles affect crop performance under heatwave conditions…. Full article at https://www.newscientist.com/article/2454728-spraying-rice-with-sunscreen-particles-during-heatwaves-boosts-growth/. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

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2024-10-30. Saharan Dust Carries Iron That Feeds Life in the Distant Ocean. By Katherine Bourzac, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Windblown iron carried on dust particles from the Sahara travels long distances. The critical nutrient is ferried to plants in the Amazon and to phytoplankton in the Atlantic Ocean and elsewhere. But much of this iron is initially locked up in molecules that are not bioavailable—cells simply can’t use it. New research published in Frontiers in Marine Science shows that the farther this iron travels on windblown dust, the more bioavailable it becomes because of chemical reactions it undergoes while in the atmosphere. Iron is essential for some of life’s most basic processes, playing a key role in biomolecules responsible for photosynthesis, DNA repair, and more. It’s a key constraint on the growth of phytoplankton, the bedrock of ocean ecosystems and a major driver of the planet’s carbon cycle…. Full article at https://eos.org/articles/saharan-dust-carries-iron-that-feeds-life-in-the-distant-ocean. For GSS Energy Flow chapter 9.

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2024-10-31. At global biodiversity summit, AI starts to make a splash. By Andrew J. Wight, Science. Excerpt: CALI, COLOMBIA— In 1992, when more than 150 nations agreed to the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), a landmark global pact aimed at protecting the environment, the iPhone didn’t exist, the modern internet was in its infancy, and researchers trying to develop artificial intelligence (AI) were suffering through a period of scientific and financial setbacks that became known as the “AI winter.” …This week, as an estimated 15,000 people gather here in Colombia for the 16th meeting of the CBD’s parties (or COP16), iPhones and the internet are taken for granted—and AI has emerged as a potentially pivotal tool for achieving an ambitious goal of halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030. …One issue getting attention is how AI can help the 196 nations that ratified the CBD meet their commitment to survey and monitor their biodiversity. Traditionally, that could only be done through labor-intensive fieldwork aimed at finding and tallying species and identifying rare organisms or vulnerable habitats in need of protection. But researchers increasingly use automated digital tools, including audio recorders, camera traps, and satellite sensors, to monitor plants and animals. And AI tools can be much faster and more efficient than humans at sifting through hundreds of hours of sound or video recordings to identify species of interest. AI can reduce the time needed to complete such tasks “from years to minutes,” …. Full article at https://www.science.org/content/article/global-biodiversity-summit-ai-starts-make-splash. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 1.

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2024-10-30. Ordinary Policies Achieve Extraordinary Climate Adaptation. By Kimberly M. S. Cartier, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Consistently implementing zoning, permitting, and building regulations, all commonplace municipal tools, helped most New Jersey towns avoid floodplain development. New Jersey is one of the most flood-prone U.S. states, and climate change is increasing the hazard by raising sea levels and supercharging severe storms like Hurricane Sandy. The state also faces pressure to develop new housing and infrastructure, often in low-lying inland and coastal areas that are the most vulnerable to flooding. Despite this pressure, a recent analysis of new floodplain development found that 85% of New Jersey towns built relatively little in floodplains over the past 2 decades. Towns achieved this by applying routine land use management tools consistently over time, a slow but steady approach to climate adaptation. …The most effective way to avoid flood damage to homes and infrastructure is to avoid building in a floodplain. …Instead, recent research [A Nationwide Analysis of Community-Level Floodplain Development Outcomes and Key Influences, by Armen Agopian et al] has shown that most U.S. communities limit floodplain development more than expected given how much developable land they have in a floodplain. Even some communities that sit mostly or entirely within floodplains built most of their new structures on non-flood-prone land…. Full article at https://eos.org/articles/ordinary-policies-achieve-extraordinary-climate-adaptation. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

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2024-10-31. Shrub cover declined as Indigenous populations expanded across southeast Australia. By Michela Mariani et al, Science. Summary: Anthropogenic climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of wildfires in many regions of the world, with devastating consequences. Mariani et al. suggest that another human activity, colonization, has contributed to increasing high-intensity fires in Australia. The authors used multiple paleoecological proxy datasets to compare vegetation structure between time periods reaching back to the last interglacial (over 100,000 years ago). Shrub cover, which fuels fires and spreads them into the forest canopy, was lower during the Middle to Late Holocene, when indigenous Australians were managing the landscape with burning, than it was during other time periods. Shrub cover has increased substantially since British colonization and the forced removal of indigenous burning practices that came with it. Restoring cultural burning may thus help to prevent megafires. —Bianca Lopez. Full article at https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adn8668. For GSS Life and Climate chapter 12.

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2024-10-27. First Images of the Sun’s Flares Released From a New Space Telescope. By Katrina Miller, The New York Times. Excerpt: Before the northern lights fill the night sky on Earth with their eerie neon glow, a blast of electrified gas flares up from the sun’s surface. And scientists are now getting a powerful new view of how those ejections move through the corona, the sun’s tempestuous outer atmosphere. On Tuesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration unveiled the first imagery from its newest telescope in space. Meteorologists will use pictures from the device to help them better forecast space weather, including when you can expect to see auroras. The new instrument is called the Compact Coronagraph, or CCOR-1. It launched in June aboard GOES-19, the newest of NOAA’s fleet of weather satellites. The coronagraph can continuously monitor the sun, and it will send data to scientists on the ground every 15 minutes. …Earlier this month, NASA and NOAA announced that the sun had reached a peak in activity, which fluctuates in an 11-year cycle. A heightened number of solar storms could continue for the next year. That makes it ever important for space weather forecasters to stay prepared, lest a particularly powerful blast of solar material knock out systems across a large portion of the world…. Full article with movie of coronal mass ejection at https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/27/science/solar-flare-telescope-sun.html. For GSS Energy Flow chapter 4

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2024-10-24. The fastest-growing and most destructive fires in the US (2001 to 2020). By Jennifer K. Balch et al, Science. Abstract: The most destructive and deadly wildfires in US history were also fast. Using satellite data, we analyzed the daily growth rates of more than 60,000 fires from 2001 to 2020 across the contiguous US. Nearly half of the ecoregions experienced destructive fast fires that grew more than 1620 hectares in 1 day. These fires accounted for 78% of structures destroyed and 61% of suppression costs ($18.9 billion). From 2001 to 2020, the average peak daily growth rate for these fires more than doubled (+249% relative to 2001) in the Western US. Nearly 3 million structures were within 4 kilometers of a fast fire during this period across the US. Given recent devastating wildfires, understanding fast fires is crucial for improving firefighting strategies and community preparedness…. Full article at https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adk5737. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

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2024-10-07. Protection efforts have resulted in ~10% of existing fish biomass on coral reefs. By Iain R. Caldwell et al, PNAS. Abstract: The amount of ocean protected from fishing and other human impacts has often been used as a metric of conservation progress. However, protection efforts have highly variable outcomes that depend on local conditions, which makes it difficult to quantify what coral reef protection efforts to date have actually achieved at a global scale. Here, we develop a predictive model of how local conditions influence conservation outcomes on ~2,600 coral reef sites across 44 ecoregions, which we used to quantify how much more fish biomass there is on coral reefs compared to a modeled scenario with no protection. Under the assumptions of our model, our study reveals that without existing protection efforts there would be ~10% less fish biomass on coral reefs. Thus, we estimate that coral reef protection efforts have led to approximately 1 in every 10 kg of existing fish biomass…. Full article at https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2308605121. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 7.

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2024-10-24. The U.N.’s Verdict on Climate Progress Over the Past Year: There Was None. By Brad Plumer, The New York Times. Excerpt: One year after world leaders made a landmark promise to move away from fossil fuels, countries have essentially made no progress in cutting emissions and tackling global warming, according to a United Nations report issued on Thursday…. Full article at https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/24/climate/un-climate-change-global-emissions-report.html. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

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2024-10-23. Manufacturer finds innovative solution to solve major solar panel challenge: ‘It’s been a long time coming’. By Robert English, TCD—The Cool Down. Excerpt: Heliene, a solar panel manufacturer based in Ontario, is making big strides in the solar energy industry by using recycled solar panel materials in its new ones, according to Electrek. Partnering with solar panel recycling company Solarcycle, Heliene will use recycled solar glass in its solar panels manufactured in its two factories, in Ontario and Minnesota. Over the next four years, Solarcycle plans to deliver approximately 20 million square meters (about 215 million square feet) of recycled glass to Heliene for use in its products…. Full article at https://www.thecooldown.com/green-tech/recycled-solar-panel-materials-manufacturer-heliene/. See also Heliene will make solar panels using SOLARCYCLE’s recycled glass and it’s a big deal and New report finds one major energy source breaking records worldwide: ‘Growing faster than people expected’ For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

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2024-10-23. Tech companies want small nuclear reactors. Here’s how they’d work. By Emily Conover, Science News. Excerpt: Last week, both Google and Amazon announced agreements with companies that are developing small modular reactors. Last week, both Google and Amazon announced agreements with companies that are developing small modular reactors. …Commercial reactors in the United States typically produce around a billion watts of electrical power. Small modular reactors would produce less than a third of that. …Commercial reactors in the United States typically produce around a billion watts of electrical power. Small modular reactors would produce less than a third of that…. Full article at https://www.sciencenews.org/article/small-modular-nuclear-reactors-amazon. See also Youtube video The Canadian Reactors that can Burn Nuclear Waste and The Big Lie About Nuclear Waste. For GSS Energy Use chapter 4.

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2024-10-23. Capturing Carbon From the Air Just Got Easier. By Robert Sanders, UC Berkeley Research News. Excerpt: …direct air capture, or DAC, is being counted on to reverse the rise of CO₂ levels, which have reached 426 parts per million (ppm), 50% higher than levels before the Industrial Revolution. Without it, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we won’t reach humanity’s goal of limiting warming to 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) above preexisting global averages. A new type of absorbing material developed by chemists at the University of California, Berkeley, could help get the world to negative emissions. The porous material — a covalent organic framework (COF) — captures CO₂ from ambient air without degradation by water or other contaminants, one of the limitations of existing DAC technologies. “We took a powder of this material, put it in a tube, and we passed Berkeley air — just outdoor air — into the material to see how it would perform, and it was beautiful. It cleaned the air entirely of CO₂. Everything,” said Omar Yaghi, the James and Neeltje Tretter Professor of Chemistry at UC Berkeley and senior author of a paper that will appear online Oct. 23 in the journal Nature.… Full article at https://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/news/capturing-carbon-air-just-got-easier. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

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2024-10-22. A Radical Approach to Flooding in England: Give Land Back to the Sea. By Rory Smith, The New York Times. Excerpt: In September, a month’s rain fell in a single day in some parts of England. The 18 months to March 2024 were England’s wettest in recorded history. Even on an island that has built at least part of its identity around tolerating inclement weather, it has been impossible to ignore the deluge. Flooding has submerged fields, ruined homes, and at times, cut off whole villages. As sea levels rise and extreme weather becomes more common, experts say that Britain’s traditional defenses — sea walls, tidal barriers and sandbanks — will be insufficient to meet the threat. It is not alone: in September, deadly floods in Central Europe led to the deaths of at least 23 people. …But on a tendril of land curling out from the coast of Somerset, in southwestern England, a team of scientists, engineers and conservationists have embraced a radical solution. …In a project costing 20 million pounds (around $26 million), tidal waters were allowed to flood the Steart Peninsula in 2014 for the first time in centuries. Rather than attempting to resist the sea, the land was given back to it. It was, in the words of Alys Laver, the conservationist who oversees the site, a “giant science experiment.” A decade on, its results might offer a blueprint for how some parts of Britain — and the rest of the world — might adapt to the reality of climate change…. Full article at https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/22/world/europe/uk-steart-marshes-carbon-climate-change-flooding.html. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

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2024-10-21. An Ancient Asteroid Impact Both Harmed and Helped Life. By Douglas Fox, SciAm. Excerpt: Sixty-six million years ago a 10-kilometer-wide space rock fell out of the sky over what is now the Yucatán Peninsula in the Gulf of Mexico. …Yet the event’s infamous impactor was nothing compared with the asteroid that struck Earth 3.26 billion years ago, amid what scientists call the Archean eon of our planet’s 4.5-billion-year history. The Archean space rock in that impact, dubbed “S2,” was 50 to 200 times larger—big enough to blast at least 10,000 cubic kilometers of vaporized rock into the skies that then recondensed into molten droplets and rained back to Earth. Unsurprisingly, those circumstances would have been “really disastrous for early life,” says Nadja Drabon, a geologist at Harvard University. But her latest research suggests that—much like the more celebrated dino-killing space-rock impact—this vastly greater and more ancient collision also had an upside, giving Earth’s early biosphere a powerful boost. …her scrutiny of rock layers in South Africa showed that besides generating world-burning volumes of vaporized rock, the S2 impact triggered massive tsunamis and boiled away the ocean’s uppermost layer. But it also pumped phosphorus and other bioessential elements into the world’s nutrient-starved seas—triggering a bloom of life…. Full article at https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-earths-early-life-thrived-amid-catastrophic-asteroid-impacts. For GSS Life and Climate chapter 6.

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2024-10-18. Years in the Making, New Satellite Offers Breakthrough in Global Methane Emissions Tracking. By Gwyneth K. Shaw and Judith Katz, Berkeley Law News. Excerpt: A satellite launched in August by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has close ties to Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment (CLEE) from the project’s origin to groundbreaking methane emissions research for years to come. The Tanager-1 satellite is part of the broader Carbon Mapper initiative, which aims to detect and quantify methane emissions with unprecedented accuracy. In tandem with MethaneSAT, launched by the Environmental Defense Fund, it can detect both large area methane emissions and leaks within a few meters of their source. …Methane — a powerful greenhouse gas responsible for about a third of global warming — has been difficult to track. …Importantly, Carbon Mapper and the Environmental Defense Fund will make the methane data publicly available, allowing nongovernmental organizations, governments, and the general public to access the information — ideally enhancing accountability and encouraging action from companies and jurisdictions to reduce their emissions…. Full article at https://www.law.berkeley.edu/article/center-for-law-energy-and-the-environment-tanager-1-satellite-global-methane-emission-tracking/. For GSS Climate Change chapter 9.

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2024-10-18. Global rise in forest fire emissions linked to climate change in the extratropics. By Matthew W. Jones et al, Science. Editor’s Summary: Anthropogenic climate change has made wildfires bigger, hotter, and more common. Jones et al. used a machine learning approach to break down the “why” and “where” of the observed increases. The authors identified different forest ecoregions, grouped them into 12 global forest pyromes, and described their differing sensitivities to climate, humans, and vegetation. Their analysis shows how forest fire carbon emissions have increased in extratropical pyromes [global regions of fire with similar fire characteristics], where climate is the major control, overtaking emissions from the tropical pyromes, where human influence is most important. It also illustrates the increasing vulnerability of forests to fire disturbance under climate change. —Jesse Smith. Full article at https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adl5889. For GSS A New World View chapter 6.

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2024-10-17. Are diamonds Earth’s best friend? Gem dust could cool the planet. By Hannah Richter, Science. Excerpt: …proposals to cool the planet through “geoengineering” tend to be controversial. …In a modeling study published this month in Geophysical Research Letters, scientists report that shooting 5 million tons of diamond dust into the stratosphere each year could cool the planet by 1.6ºC—enough to stave off the worst consequences of global warming. The scheme wouldn’t be cheap, however: experts estimate it would cost nearly $200 trillion over the remainder of this century—far more than traditional proposals to use sulfur particles…. Full article at https://www.science.org/content/article/are-diamonds-earth-s-best-friend-gem-dust-could-cool-planet-and-cost-trillions. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

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2024-10-17. Consumer biodiversity increases organic nutrient availability across aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. By J. Ryan Shipley, et al, Science. Editor’s Summary: Across many ecosystems, declining biodiversity leads to lower biomass and loss of other ecosystem functions. Much of the research in this area has focused on plant communities, with less attention paid to consumers, who play the important role of accumulating and synthesizing organic nutrients. Shipley et al. investigated how the diversity of insects and spiders affects community-level concentrations of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), one type of essential nutrient. They found higher biomass and higher PUFA mass in more diverse communities in both terrestrial and aquatic systems and in different land uses. In human-dominated systems, both predator biomass and PUFA biomass were lower at a given level of species richness than in natural systems, suggesting a negative shift in function. —Bianca Lopez. Full article at https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adp6198. See also this Science article – Countries in the Global South have more biodiversity than countries in the North. Databases used to study species don’t always reflect that. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 1.

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2024-10-17. Parachutes Made of Mucus Change How Some Scientists See the Ocean. By Veronique Greenwood, The New York Times. Excerpt: The ocean is filled with microscopic creatures that thrive in the sunshine. These bacteria and plankton periodically clump up with detritus, like waste produced by fish, and then drift softly downward, transforming into what scientists call marine snow. In the inky depths of the ocean that the sun can’t reach, other creatures depend on the relentless fall of marine snow for food. Those of us living on land depend on it, too: Marine snow is thought to store vast amounts of carbon in the ocean rather than letting it heat Earth’s atmosphere. Once those particles of marine snow arrive at the ocean bottom, their carbon stays down there for untold eons. …Researchers …found that gooey, transparent parachutes considerably slow the snow’s descent…. These findings are described in a paper published last week in the journal Science. …The bigger the mucus gob, the scientists found, the slower the particle’s fall. …“We already know that our representation of marine snow in climate models needs revising,” Dr. Cael said. “This study elucidates a way to making one of those necessary revisions. That should improve the accuracy of projected changes in Earth’s carbon cycle.”… Full article at https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/17/science/mucus-parachutes-ocean-marine-snow.html. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 5.

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2024-10-15. Microbe Preferences Drive Ocean Carbon Pump. By Grace van Deelen, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Just a spoonful of ocean water is home to millions of microbes—tiny, single-celled organisms that play crucial roles in the ocean’s biogeochemical processes. A new study in Science illuminates which organic particles these microbes prefer to munch on, aiding scientists’ understanding of how carbon moves through the ocean on a larger scale. …The movement of carbon from the surface of the ocean to depth, known as the biological carbon pump, helps control the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. Microbes are key to this system, as they degrade organic particles as they consume them. That process releases carbon. …The study investigated how microbes break down lipids—carbon-containing molecules that make up around 20% of organic particles in the ocean. Scientists know that some lipids reach the deep ocean, whereas others are degraded along the way. The team wanted to learn what factors might influence lipids’ fate. …The team also found that bacteria’s lipid preferences affected how quickly a lipid was degraded, which determines how deep the particles can sink into the ocean. A particle that is quickly degraded doesn’t sink very far, whereas a particle that is slowly degraded, or not degraded at all, sinks farther…. Full article at https://eos.org/articles/microbe-preferences-drive-ocean-carbon-pump. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 5.

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2024-10-11. Mega El Niño May Have Led to Major Mass Extinction 252 Million Years Ago. By Rebecca Owen, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Every few years, the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), a seasonal climate phenomenon, disrupts global weather for periods of 9–12 months at a time. During an ENSO event, trade winds die down, allowing warmer water to circulate through the Pacific Ocean and creating unpredictable, extreme weather patterns around the world. While some locations experience heavy rainfall, others experience extreme drought and heat waves. …About 252 million years ago, however, El Niño–like conditions may have persisted for decades at a time, a new study suggests. The volatile climate and extended ocean warming associated with this climate pattern may be pieces of the puzzle of what caused the largest mass extinction in Earth’s history, the Permian-Triassic extinction event, also known as the “Great Dying.” During this period, it would have been impossible for plants and animals to endure decades-long swings in climate conditions. Most life on land and sea was wiped out within tens of thousands of years…. Full article at https://eos.org/articles/mega-el-nino-may-have-led-to-major-mass-extinction-252-million-years-ago. For GSS Life and Climate chapter 8.

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2024-10-11. Environmental and societal consequences of winter ice loss from lakes. By Stephanie E. Hampton, et al, Science. Editor’s Summary: More than half a billion people live near lakes that freeze over in the winter. However, lakes are rapidly losing winter ice cover in response to warming, and the rate of loss has accelerated over the past 25 years. Hampton et al. reviewed the state of seasonal ice cover on lakes and discuss some of the consequences of its disappearance. Ice loss will affect culture, economy, water quality, fisheries, and biodiversity, as well as weather and climate. —Jesse Smith. Full article at https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adl3211. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

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2024-10-11. Clipper Sets Sail for an Ocean Millions of Miles Away. By Kimberly M. S. Cartier, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Europa Clipper launched at 12:06 pm EDT on 14 October from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Clipper successfully deployed its solar panels and communicated with mission control once in space. …NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft…will head to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa and determine whether it’s a hospitable place for life. …There will be 49 flybys of Europa to study the moon from pole to pole …The craft is set to arrive at Jupiter in April 2030. …Europa is one of Jupiter’s four Galilean moons. Past missions to the Jovian system discovered that Europa, along with fellow icy moons Ganymede and Callisto, have vast liquid water oceans sloshing around beneath icy shells. “Ocean worlds have been considered potentially habitable environments for a while,” said Monica Vidaurri, a doctoral student in planetary modeling at Stanford University in California. “This is the first time we’re really dedicating a spacecraft to [exploring] it.” Europa Clipper aims to measure the thickness of the ice shell, analyze the composition of the surface and any outgassed material, and characterize the geology. The craft is equipped with nine scientific instruments that will work together to answer these questions…. Full article at https://eos.org/articles/setting-sail-to-explore-an-ocean-world. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 2.

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2024-10-10. Unexpected westward range shifts in European forest plants link to nitrogen deposition. By Pieter Sanczuk, et al, Science. Abstract: Climate change is commonly assumed to induce species’ range shifts toward the poles. Yet, other environmental changes may affect the geographical distribution of species in unexpected ways. Here, we quantify multidecadal shifts in the distribution of European forest plants and link these shifts to key drivers of forest biodiversity change: climate change, atmospheric deposition (nitrogen and sulfur), and forest canopy dynamics. Surprisingly, westward distribution shifts were 2.6 times more likely than northward ones. Not climate change, but nitrogen-mediated colonization events, possibly facilitated by the recovery from past acidifying deposition, best explain westward movements. Biodiversity redistribution patterns appear complex and are more likely driven by the interplay among several environmental changes than due to the exclusive effects of climate change alone. Full article at https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ado0878. For GSS Ecosystem Change chapter 4.

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2024-10-10. Ecological speciation in Darwin’s finches: Ghosts of finches future. By Jeffrey Podos and Katie M. Schroeder. Science. Editor’s summary: When we think of a species adapting to environmental change, we mostly think about one trait. However, changes in one trait will likely affect others. In Galápagos finches, it has been shown that drought can lead to a change in bill size and shape in response to shifts in seed resources. However, birds do not just eat with their bills, they also sing with them. Podos and Schroeder predicted how bill size would change in response to a series of droughts and forecasted the songs that they would produce. They found that, after a series of simulated droughts, the songs differed enough that territorial male birds no longer recognized them. —Sacha Vignieri. Full article at https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adj4478. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 3.

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2024-10-09. Fifteen Years Later, Scientists Locate a Lunar Impact Site. By Nathaniel Scharping, agu. Excerpt: In 2009, NASA intentionally crashed a spacecraft into the Moon …The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) was designed to search for frozen lunar water and other volatiles in the lunar regolith by knocking them off the Moon. …The LCROSS impact kicked up a cloud of regolith containing plenty of water (5.6% by mass), …But it did so in a permanently shadowed area of the Moon, leaving scientists unable to directly observe the crater after its formation. …Fassett et al. …researchers …see the LCROSS crater directly…. The LCROSS impact crater is about 22 meters across, the researchers report, slightly smaller than the LCROSS team originally estimated. …the volatiles themselves are young and came from outside the Moon—perhaps from comets, asteroids, or the solar wind—rather than from volcanic eruptions early in the Moon’s history. …These data could be complemented by future missions, such as the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER). (Geophysical Research Letters, https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL110355, 2024). Full article at https://eos.org/research-spotlights/fifteen-years-later-scientists-locate-a-lunar-impact-site. For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 7.

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2024-10-09. The Ocean Has Massive Energy Reserves. Scientists Just Learned How to Take Advantage of Them. By Darren Orf, Popular Mechanics. Excerpt: …a new electrode produced by the U.S. company Equatic can safely extract oxygen and hydrogen from seawater while leaving the salt, which usually produces deadly chlorine gas. As a bonus, this method uses direct air capture to remove carbon from the atmosphere. And the anodes are recyclable—they only need a recoating of catalysts (made from abundant materials) every three years. …Producing hydrogen via seawater electrolysis has the nasty habit of also producing toxic chlorine gas, so current hydrogen production relies on pure water—a resource that’s becoming more and more precious as the world warms. Now, the carbon removal company Equatic—thanks to funding support from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E)—has successfully developed “oxygen-selective anodes” (OSAs) that will hopefully help scale up hydrogen production via seawater electrolysis. …The process does produce acidic and alkaline streams. According to New Scientist, Equatic raises the pH of the acidic stream by flowing the material over silica-rich rocks, and the alkaline stream simply reacts with carbon dioxide to form stable minerals. This is two-birds-one-stone innovation, as the process uses direct air capture technology to trap atmospheric CO₂ into solid minerals…. Full article at https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a62501592/seawater-electrode/. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

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2024-10-11. Dramatic images show the first floods in the Sahara in half a century. By Eromo Egbejule and agencies, The Guardian. Excerpt: More than year’s worth of rain fell in two days in south-east Morocco, filling up lake that had been dry for decades. Dramatic pictures have emerged of the first floods in the Sahara in half a century. …flooding in Morocco killed 18 people last month…. Full article at https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/11/dramatic-images-show-the-first-floods-in-the-sahara-in-half-a-century. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

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2024-10-11. New Hampshire’s low-income community solar program is finally nearing the starting line. By Sarah Shemkus, Energy News Network. Excerpt: More than seven years after New Hampshire regulators first approved the idea of using community solar to create savings for low-income households, electric bill discounts are finally on the horizon for the first batch of participants. …Community solar is widely considered an important strategy for extending the benefits of renewable energy to people unable to take advantage of rooftop solar. Nationally, some two-thirds of households can’t install solar panels, generally because they don’t own their home, don’t have a suitable roof, or can’t afford the cost of the array, said Kate Daniel, Northeast regional director for the Coalition for Community Solar Access…. Full article at https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2024/10/11/new-hampshires-low-income-community-solar-program-is-finally-nearing-the-starting-line/. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

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2024-10-10. El Niño fingered as likely culprit in record 2023 temperatures. By Paul Voosen, Science. Excerpt: For the past year, alarm bells have been going off in climate science: Last year’s average global temperature was so high, shooting up nearly 0.3°C above the previous year to set a new record, that human-driven global warming and natural short-term climate swings seemingly couldn’t explain it. …Now, a new series of studies suggests most of the 2023 jump can be explained instead by a familiar climate driver: the shifting waters of the tropical Pacific Ocean. The combination of a 3-year-long La Niña, which suppressed global temperatures from 2020 to 2022, followed by a strong El Niño could account for the unexpected temperature jump, the work suggests…. Full article at https://www.science.org/content/article/el-ni%C3%B1o-fingered-likely-culprit-record-2023-temperatures. For GSS Energy Flow chapter 8.

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2024-10-10. ‘Alarming’ decline of seed-dispersing animals threatens Europe’s plants. By Erik Stokstad, Science. Excerpt: Without birds to spread their seeds, the diversity of fruit-producing plants declined, illuminating the critical importance of seed dispersal for ecosystem health. …Today in Science, a team reports that at least one-third of European plant species could be in trouble because most of the animals that move their seeds are threatened or declining. …The decline in seed dispersers—not just birds, but also mammals, reptiles, and ants—could jeopardize the ability of plants to expand their range to cope with climate change or recover after wildfire, he adds, especially in Europe’s highly fragmented landscape…. Full article at https://www.science.org/content/article/alarming-decline-seed-dispersing-animals-threatens-europe-s-plants. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 6.

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2024-10-10. This may be one of Germany’s most sustainable cities. So what is Freiburg doing right? By Alisha McDarris, Adventure.com. Excerpt: …transforming Freiburg into the sustainable beacon it is—with its passive homes (homes designed to make the most of natural light and heat), solar plants, and emphasis on public transportation—has been very intentional…. it’s been a destination driven toward innovation, from championing renewable energies like solar and wind, to reducing vehicular traffic with functional public transit and encouraging cycling—Radstation near the central transit station houses hundreds of bikes in an automated storage center—all of which has earned it the nickname, ‘Green City’. …In Freiburg, the public transit system, consisting of trams and buses, is designed so that no residence is more than 400 meters from any public transport stop—it makes the car I drove into town feel utterly irrelevant. Indeed, I didn’t use it again until it was time to leave the city and return home. And that’s the point. …there are incentives which encourage citizens to make more sustainable choices, for example encouraging parents to use cloth diapers instead of disposables, and offering discounts for residents who compost their green waste—which is often sent to wood-fueled heat and power stations where it’s fermented and converted into electricity…. Full article at https://adventure.com/freiburg-germany-blueprint-sustainable-city/. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

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2024-10-10. The Staggering Price You’re Paying for America’s Nuclear Makeover. By W.J. Hennigan, The New York Times. Excerpt: The U.S. Navy has put in an order for General Dynamics to produce 12 nuclear ballistic missile submarines by 2042 — a job that’s projected to cost $130 billion. …Along with the subs, the military is paying for a new fleet of bomber jets, land-based missiles and thermonuclear warheads. Tally all that spending, and the bill comes to almost $57 billion a year, or $108,000 per minute for three decades…. Full article at https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/10/10/opinion/nuclear-weapons-us-price.html. For GSS Energy Use chapter 4.

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2024-10-09. Some Floridians choose to stay despite warnings of life risk: ‘We have faith in the Lord’. By Richard Luscombe, The Guardian. Excerpt: Most left when they were told to. But some chose to stay, even though officials warned Hurricane Milton would turn their homes into coffins. …most people were heeding the warning. This time around people noticed the intensity and started taking it seriously when they saw 180mph winds being talked about. It opened their eyes.”…. Full article at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/09/hurricane-milton-florida-stay-evacuate. [GSS note: this reminds us of the song, The Preacher & The Flood by Joel Mabus.] See also the Guardian article Trump continues to deny climate crisis as he visits hurricane-ravaged Georgia. For GSS Climate Change chapter 10.

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2024-10-09. What causes the windless doldrums that strand sailors? Find upends previous thinking. By Hannah Richter, Science. Excerpt: Water, water, every where, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink. …Although Samuel Taylor Coleridge encapsulated the phenomenon [doldrums] in the poem quoted above, 1834’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” scientifically, doldrums have largely been ignored and the textbook explanation for them taken at face value. …Julia Windmiller, an atmospheric physicist …mapped the tropical wind speeds and rainfall recorded by the buoys and analyzed how doldrum events evolved over hours, days, and weeks. The result, published recently in Geophysical Research Letters, revealed a big flaw in the conventional explanation: Averaged over long timescales of days or weeks, the doldrums appear to coincide with big rainstorms. But in reality, over short, hourlong timescales, the rain and windless episodes occur separately. It turned out a clue had been hiding in Coleridge’s poem all along. Stranded sailors were usually dry, not wet: That means the standing theory for the doldrums is backward, Windmiller says. Although rainfall generally depends on rising parcels of moist air, she explains, the doldrums are better described by sinking masses of air…. Full article at https://www.science.org/content/article/what-causes-windless-doldrums-strand-sailors-find-upends-previous-thinking. For GSS Energy Flow chapter 7.

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2024-10-06. A Changing Climate Is Scorching the World’s Biggest River. By Ana Ionova, The New York Times. Excerpt: The world’s largest river is parched. The Amazon River, battered by back-to-back droughts fueled by climate change, is drying up, with some stretches of the mighty waterway dwindling to shallow pools only a few feet deep. Water levels along several sections of the Amazon River, which winds nearly 4,000 miles across South America, fell last month to their lowest level on record, according to figures from the Brazilian Geological Service. In one stretch in the Brazilian state of Amazonas, the river was 25 feet below the average for this time of year, according to the agency, which began collecting data in 1967. …Starting this month, the country plans to begin dredging sections of the river with the aim of ensuring that, even in times of drought, people and goods can keep moving through the rainforest. …The remarkable drop in water levels has left boats struggling to shuttle children to school, rush the sick to hospitals or deliver medicine and drinking water to distant villages…. Full article at https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/06/world/americas/amazon-river-climate-change-brazil.html. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

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2024-10-06. Cement Is a Big Polluter. A Plant in Norway Hopes to Clean It Up. By Stanley Reed, The New York Times. Excerpt: As Mr. Houg toured the site, workers were fine-tuning equipment that held chemicals designed to absorb vast quantities of the carbon dioxide emitted through cement production. More than half a ton of the gas arises from every ton of cement that a plant like this turns out. …Early next year, carbon dioxide from the facility will be chilled to a liquid, loaded onto ships and carried to a terminal near the city of Bergen, farther up the Norwegian coast. From there, it will be pumped about 70 miles offshore into rocks a mile and a half below the bottom of the North Sea. …It helps that the Norwegian government is underwriting 85 percent of the up to 400-million-euro cost of what will be the first large, commercial-scale effort to strip carbon dioxide from cement and bury it. …Cement production, which accounts for nearly 7 percent of energy-related emissions, presents one of the knottiest problems for emissions reduction…. Full article at https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/06/business/cement-pollution-carbon-capture-norway.html. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

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2024-10-04. Exported gas produces far worse emissions than coal, major study finds. By Oliver Milman, The Guardian. Excerpt: Exported gas emits far more greenhouse gas emissions than coal, despite fossil-fuel industry claims it is a cleaner alternative, according to a major new research paper that challenges the controversial yet rapid expansion of gas exports from the US to Europe and Asia. …amid a glut of new liquefied natural gas (or LNG) terminals, primarily in the US. …the research, which itself has become enmeshed in a political argument in the US, has concluded that LNG is 33% worse in terms of planet-heating emissions over a 20-year period compared with coal. …Howarth’s paper finds that as much as 3.5% of the gas delivered to customers leaks to the atmosphere unburned, much more than previously assumed. Methane is about 80 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, even though it persists for less time in the atmosphere, and scientists have warned that rising global methane emissions risk blowing apart agreed-upon climate goals…. Full article at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/04/exported-liquefied-natural-gas-coal-study. For GSS Climate Change chapter 3.

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2024-10-04. Marine Heat Waves Make Tropical Storm Intensification More Likely. By Roberto González, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Rapid intensification of hurricanes is 50% more likely to occur during marine heat waves in the Gulf of Mexico and northwestern Caribbean Sea …according to a study published in August in Communications Earth and Environment. These types of hurricanes are more dangerous as they make landfall because their intensity is harder to predict…. Full article at https://eos.org/articles/marine-heat-waves-make-tropical-storm-intensification-more-likely. See also other Eos articles on heat waves – https://eos.org/tag/heat-waves. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

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2024-10-04. These Are Boom Times for ‘Degrowth’. By Ephrat Livni, The New York Times. Excerpt: There’s long been one mantra in mainstream economics: Growth is good. Gross domestic product — the monetary value of a country’s goods and services — is used to measure the economic health of a country or region, and a line that slants upward and to the right is typically what national leaders want to see. But recently, an alternative term has begun taking root in popular culture and policy: “degrowth.” Degrowth challenges the capitalist pursuit of growth at all costs and “focuses on what is necessary to fulfill everyone’s basic needs,” said Kohei Saito, an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Tokyo and author of “Slow Down: The Degrowth Manifesto.” …Societies should be striving to create “a different kind of abundance,” he says, offering free education, medical care and transportation instead of continuously making more goods for consumption. …Mr. Saito believes part of the reason degrowth has had increasing appeal is because “younger generations are not enjoying the fruits of economic growth” and are suffering from stagnating wages, unstable employment, rising rents and climate change. The idea is not entirely new. The first documented use of degrowth in the economic and ecological context was in 1972, when the French social philosopher André Gorz asked whether production should be scaled back for environmental balance. He used the French term, “décroissance.”…. Full article at https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/04/business/degrowth-climate-gdp.html. For GSS Population Growth chapter 8.

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2024-10-04. First sighting of salmon in 100 years marks key milestone for California dam removal. By Kurtis Alexander, San Francisco Chronicle. Excerpt: In an early victory for the nation’s largest dam-removal project, the first salmon in more than a century is believed to have pushed up the Klamath River this past week into waters formerly blocked by dams. Scientists with the nonprofit California Trout told the Chronicle that their sonar camera captured what was almost certainly a chinook salmon migrating upstream Thursday past the site where Iron Gate Dam once stood, just south of the California-Oregon border. The roughly 2½-foot-long fish is thought to be part of the Klamath River’s fall run, the first and largest run of salmon expected to benefit from the recent removal of four hydroelectric dams on the 250-mile waterway…. Full article at https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/first-salmon-century-spotted-waters-blocked-19816572.php. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 7.

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2024-10-03. We’re one step closer to finding out why Siberia is riddled with exploding craters. By Sascha Pare, LiveScience. Excerpt: A new physical model suggests meltwater from thawing permafrost on Russia’s Yamal Peninsula can unlock methane sources at depth, triggering explosions that open enormous craters at the surface. …craters measure 160 feet (50 meters) deep and up to 230 feet (70 m) across, and first appeared on Russia’s northern Yamal and Gydan peninsulas in 2014. Chunks of rock and ice strewn across the landscape around the craters indicated they were caused by giant explosions. These strange craters have never been found elsewhere in the Arctic. …the explosions could trigger a climate feedback loop leading to huge releases of the powerful greenhouse gas methane…. Full article at https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/geology/we-re-one-step-closer-to-finding-out-why-siberia-is-riddled-with-exploding-craters. For GSS Climate Change chapter 3.

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2024-10-03. U.S. clean energy careers are booming—but you wouldn’t know it if you look at the monthly jobs report. By George Sakellaris, Fortune. Excerpt: Clean energy currently employs 3.3 million Americans, or one in 50 workers nationwide, according to a report from E2. That’s more than the total number of nurses, cashiers, elementary and middle school teachers, and waiters or waitresses. Jobs in the renewable energy industry also grew by 10% from 2021 to 2023, faster than the growth rate for overall U.S. employment. However, if you’ve taken a look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) latest jobs report, you would be excused for not knowing about the massive opportunity and growth the clean energy sector represents. While we’ve seen a host of renewable energy and climate-friendly legislation come out of Washington over the last two years, including the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), which have been widely and rightfully applauded, the monthly jobs report is one area of the federal government’s output that seems to be lagging. Although monthly jobs reports include some tangentially related industries, such as mining and logging, construction, and utilities, failing to highlight renewable energy as a standalone category is a missed opportunity, due to the outsized impact the field is having on our economy, as well as on the present and future of our everyday lives…. Full article at https://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-clean-energy-careers-booming-152850334.html. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

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2024-10-03. Adani Group to supply clean energy for Google’s India cloud operations. By Reuters. Excerpt: India’s Adani Group will supply clean energy to power Google’s  cloud services and operations in India, the ports-to- power conglomerate said on Thursday. The group, owned by billionaire Gautam Adani, will supply energy from a new solar-wind hybrid project located at its 30 gigawatt (GW) Khavda renewable energy park in the western state of Gujarat…. The solar-wind hybrid project will start commercial operations in the third quarter of 2025. Google powers most of its cloud operations and services with electricity from the grid and plans to run them entirely through clean energy by 2030…. Full article at https://www.reuters.com/world/india/adani-group-supply-clean-energy-googles-india-cloud-operations-2024-10-03/. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

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2024-10-02. Georgia program gets $156M from feds to increase access to solar power. By Riley Bunch, The Atlantic Journal-Constitution. Excerpt: Tens of thousands of Atlantans lost power last week when Hurricane Helene swept through the south, causing heavy flooding in parts of the city and devastation throughout other areas of the state. …Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens…announced a massive chunk of federal money, $156 million, coming to Georgia to help increase access to solar power for Atlanta’s low-income residents. Atlanta is one of three cities in the state that will benefit from the funds doled out through a renewable energy initiative tucked within the Inflation Reduction Act passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022. In total, the Environmental Protection Division announced $7 billion in “Solar for All” grants to 60 applications across the country, as part of a $27 billion pot aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions…. Full article at https://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta-news/georgia-program-gets-156m-from-feds-to-increase-access-to-solar-power/YDACUOHYSRBGXNXBFBO73MRY2I/. For GSS Energy Use chapter 10.

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2024-10-02. Hurricanes Kill People for Years after the Initial Disaster. By Andrea Thompson, Scientific American. Excerpt: More than 160 people have lost their lives to the ferocious winds and catastrophic flooding wrought by Hurricane Helene. But the true death toll will take years—likely more than a decade—to unfold. A new study published on Wednesday in Nature found that the average tropical cyclone in the U.S. ultimately causes about 7,000 to 11,000 excess deaths (those beyond what would typically be expected), compared with the average of 24 direct deaths reported in official statistics. The study’s authors estimated that, between 1950 and 2015, tropical storms and hurricanes caused between 3.6 million and 5.2 million excess deaths—more than those caused by traffic deaths or infectious diseases. And such storm-related deaths involve people from some groups more than others, marking an “important and understudied contributor to health in the United States, particularly for young or Black populations,” the authors wrote. …The biggest risk was found to be for infants under the age of one, with almost all of these deaths occurring within less than two years after a storm. Young says that this effect could be influenced by people’s inability to afford prenatal care in a storm’s wake, as well as stress or other factors. The risk of death was also higher among Black people than it was among white people, even though the white population that was exposed to storms was much larger than the exposed Black population…. Full article at https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/hurricanes-kill-people-for-years-after-the-initial-disaster/. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

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See Stay Current articles January-October 2024
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2024-07-25. Can scientists help corals by killing starfish? By SOFIA QUAGLIA, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: The problem began in the 1960s, when biologists who study Australia’s Great Barrier Reef began to notice an uptick in crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci), a spiny, voracious eater of the live polyps of hard corals that can decimate entire reefs. Four successive 10- to 15-year outbreaks of the starfish have since swept through the sprawling reef system, leaving authorities perplexed about how to stop the carnage and save coral that’s also struggling to cope with climate change. In 2012, scientists stepped in with a radical solution: a yearslong program to systematically cull starfish across hundreds of the Great Barrier’s reefs. The action wasn’t without critics. But research published earlier this year in PLOS ONE indicates it was effective, allowing an expansion in coral cover—even on reefs where culling didn’t directly occur. …A 2012 study looking at the 27-year decline of coral populations on the Great Barrier Reef blamed crown-of-thorns for about 40% of coral mortality…. Full article at https://www.science.org/content/article/can-scientists-help-corals-killing-starfish. For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 7.

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2024-07-24. The Sahara Desert helps keep hurricanes in check—for now. About research by LAIYIN ZHU et al, Science. In the Atlantic, …Warm air from an ordinary thunderstorm has absorbed heat from tepid seawater and begun churning—the birth of a hurricane. But, whether the storm will be a sprinkle or deluge when it makes landfall depends largely on how dusty it is, according to a new study. Wind strips dust from the Sahara Desert, bringing it westward across the Atlantic. These plumes of dirt-laden air provide marine life with nutrients and can affect air quality half a world away. And they’re known to be a wet blanket for growing hurricanes—or, more accurately, a dry one . The lack of moisture, shearing winds, and even the dust itself—by reflecting warming solar rays—can squelch a would-be storm. But it turns out that’s only true if there’s enough dust. When there’s too little, the particles act as nucleation seeds for clouds, boosting the storm’s deluge and the damage it causes when it comes ashore, researchers reported this week in Science Advances. “Surprisingly, the leading factor controlling hurricane precipitation is not, as traditionally thought, sea surface temperature or humidity in the atmosphere. Instead, it’s Sahara dust,” said study co-author Yuan Wang in a statement…. Paper at https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adn6106. For GSS Energy Flow chapter 7.

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2024-07-23. ‘This is not a blip’: A quiet movement grows on San Francisco’s streets. By David Curran, SFGATE. Excerpt: “They love it,” my neighbor Ali Schneider tells me of her two sons, ages 3 and 7. “And we do, too. They don’t mind cars, but they love the bike. Pretty much all the kids on the block really like it.” At least three other families on our block also use electric cargo bikes to transport their kids. …In terms of competing with a car, the electric assist has allowed the cargo bike — first introduced in the U.S. by Xtracycle in 1998, Allen explains — to become a more mainstream product. And while the early years presented numerous challenges, a huge breakthrough came in 2015, when the German manufacturing giant Bosch produced a breakthrough battery for these bikes. …“with this motor you could put two kids on a bike and climb any hill in San Francisco.” And that has made all the difference. In their first year with the Bosch-powered bikes, the number of e-cargo bikes the New Wheel sold jumped to 61, then to 221 in 2018. Last year, they sold 479. And, just as important to Wiener, after the pandemic when the overall bike market tanked, sales of e-cargo bikes stayed strong…. Full article at https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/transportation-changing-families-lives-san-19532740.php. For GSS Energy Use chapter 9.

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2024-07-23. New record daily global average temperature reached in July 2024. By Copernicus Climate Change Service. Excerpt: The Earth has just experienced its warmest day in recent history, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) data. On 22 July 2024, the daily global average temperature reached a new record high in the ERA5 dataset*, at 17.16°C. This exceeds the previous records of 17.09°C, set just one day before on 21 July 2024, and 17.08°C, set a year earlier on 6 July 2023.… Full article at https://climate.copernicus.eu/new-record-daily-global-average-temperature-reached-july-2024. For GSS Climate Change chapter 8.

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2024-07-23. Scientists Find Clues to Atlantic Current’s Future in Ancient Iceberg Debris. By Elise Cutts, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: New research shows that present-day iceberg loss from Greenland stacks up to some of the most dramatic iceberg-slinging episodes in recent geological history. Such events involved the disintegration of an ice sheet over North America and coincided with the weakening or failure of vital ocean currents in the North Atlantic—as well as severe climate swings. Despite this concerning parallel, there’s reason to think that modern iceberg loss from Greenland won’t disrupt ocean circulation within the next few decades, according to authors of the study, published in Science. …The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, flows northward along the east coast of North America before veering east toward Scandinavia. Along the way, evaporation leaves behind water that’s increasingly cool and salty and therefore dense. In the Arctic, this dense, cold water sinks to join deepwater currents headed south to the Antarctic. Shutting down the AMOC would wreak climate chaos. …The AMOC has shut down multiple times, most recently during a period called the Younger Dryas that began some 13,000 years ago. This cold snap came right at the tail end of the last glacial period. For 1,300 years, it returned the defrosting world to a climate echoing that of the Last Glacial Maximum. …“If a sufficient amount of fresh water is added to the northern Atlantic, the AMOC could collapse,” said climate physicist Peter Ditlevsen of the University of Copenhagen. “The big research question for the present climate situation is, How much fresh water is needed for a shutdown?”…. Full article at https://eos.org/articles/scientists-find-clues-to-atlantic-currents-future-in-ancient-iceberg-debris. For GSS Life and Climate chapter 10.

See updates from January-October 2024.

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2024-07-TEMPLATE. . By . Excerpt: . Full article at URL. For GSS chapter .

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