Stay Current with GSS

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

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[template] 2023-05-00. . [] By . Excerpt: … For GSS chapter .

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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