https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/27/science/arctic-plants-spring-global-warming.html Source:   By Steph Yin, The New York Times For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: Every spring, Arctic plants rely on direct and indirect cues from the environment — like warmer weather, longer days and shrinking sea ice cover — to tell them when they should awaken from winter’s slumber. But as the climate warms, these plants are getting mixed signals about when to rouse. In a new paper published in Biology Letters, researchers detail findings from a 12-year study of when plant species in the low Arctic region of Greenland first green up in the spring. Timing varied from plant to plant, but one speedy sedge species — a flowering, grasslike herb — stirred a full 26 days earlier than it did a decade ago. ...Shifting patterns of plant growth may affect the availability of nutritious food for herbivores, for example. Dr. Kerby and his colleagues found in 2013 that more caribou calves died early in years wh

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/24/business/energy-environment/deforestation-brazil-bolivia-south-america.html Source:   By Hiroko Tabuchi, Claire Rigby, and Jeremy White, The New York Times For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: COLONIA BERLIN, Bolivia ...A decade after the “Save the Rainforest” movement forced changes that dramatically slowed deforestation across the Amazon basin, activity is roaring back in some of the biggest expanses of forests in the world. That resurgence, driven by the world’s growing appetite for soy and other agricultural crops, is raising the specter of a backward slide in efforts to preserve biodiversity and fight climate change....

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/17/world/europe/london-smog-air-pollution.html Source:   By Kimiko de Freitas-Tamura, The New York Times For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: LONDON — Every winter, as if on cue, the coughing begins. ...Tara Carey... coughs at work. And she coughs while cycling to her office, on a road so toxic that for a brief period last month the air pollution there was greater than in infamously smoggy Beijing. ...In Ms. Carey’s view, she said the only reasonable explanation for her illness was the pollution to which she was exposed over the last six years cycling through thick traffic on Brixton Road, one of London’s busiest and most noxious routes. ...London is choking from record levels of pollution, much of it caused by diesel cars and trucks, as well as wood-burning fires in private homes, a growing trend. It has been bad enough to evoke comparisons to the Great Smog of December 1952, when fumes from factories and house chimneys are thought to have killed as

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/02/17/world/americas/mexico-city-sinking.html Source:   By Michael Kimmelman, The New York Times For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: ...Always short of water, Mexico City keeps drilling deeper for more, weakening the ancient clay lake beds on which the Aztecs first built much of the city, causing it to crumble even further. It is a cycle made worse by climate change. More heat and drought mean more evaporation and yet more demand for water, adding pressure to tap distant reservoirs at staggering costs or further drain underground aquifers and hasten the city’s collapse. ...One study predicts that 10 percent of Mexicans ages 15 to 65 could eventually try to emigrate north as a result of rising temperatures, drought and floods, potentially scattering millions of people and heightening already extreme political tensions over immigration. The effects of climate change are varied and opportunistic, but one thing is consistent: They are like spark

http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Tesla-plugs-big-batteries-into-PG-E-s-electric-10936052.php Source:   By David R. Baker, San Francisco Chronicle For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: A row of tall white boxes by the side of a Sierra foothills highway could represent a key piece of California’s future electric grid. Made by Tesla, the boxes contain thousands of battery cells — the same cells that power Tesla’s luxury cars. But at this installation, at a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. substation in Browns Valley (Yuba County), the batteries soak up electricity whenever it’s cheap and feed it back onto the grid when demand hits its daily peak. The project, operational since the start of the month, represents a collaboration between PG&E and Tesla on one of California’s biggest energy goals: storage. As part of the fight against climate change, California is adding solar power at a rapid clip, at times flooding the grid with more renewable power than it needs. That flood ebbs by

http://www.usnews.com/news/science/news/articles/2016-01-12/starvation-suspected-in-massive-die-off-of-alaska-seabirds Source:   By Dan Joling, Associated Press For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Seabird biologist David Irons drove recently to the Prince William Sound community of Whittier to check on a friend's boat and spotted white blobs along the tide line of the rocky Alaska beach. ...A closer look revealed that the white patches were emaciated common murres, one of North America's most abundant seabirds, washed ashore after apparently starving to death. ...Murre die-offs have occurred in previous winters but not in the numbers Alaska is seeing. Federal researchers won't estimate the number, and are trying to gauge the scope and cause of the die-off while acknowledging there's little they can do. Scientists say the die-offs could be a sign of ecosystem changes that have reduced the numbers of the forage fish that murres depend upon. Wa

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/feb/09/new-energy-europe-renewable-sources-2016 Source:   By Adam Vaughn, The Guardian For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: Renewable energy sources made up nearly 9/10 of new power added to Europe’s electricity grids last year, in a sign of the continent’s rapid shift away from fossil fuels. But industry leaders said they were worried about the lack of political support beyond 2020, when binding EU renewable energy targets end. Of the 24.5 GW of new capacity built across the EU in 2016, 21.1 GW – or 86% – was from wind, solar, biomass and hydro.  That eclipsed the previous high-water mark of 79% in 2014. For the first time, wind farms accounted for more than half of the capacity installed, the data from trade body WindEurope showed.  Wind power overtook coal, to become the EU’s 2nd largest form of power capacity after gas.  However, due to the technology’s intermittent nature, coal still meets more of the bloc’s electricity demand....

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/02/07/science/earth/antarctic-crack.html Source:   By Jugal K. Patel, The New York Times For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt:  A rapidly advancing crack in Antarctica’s fourth-largest ice shelf has scientists concerned that it is getting close to a full break. The rift has accelerated this year in an area already vulnerable to warming temperatures. Since December, the crack has grown by the length of about five football fields each day.  The crack in Larsen C now reaches over 100 miles in length, and some parts of it are as wide as two miles. The tip of the rift is currently only about 20 miles from reaching the other end of the ice shelf. Once the crack reaches all the way across the ice shelf, the break will create one of the largest icebergs ever recorded, according to Project Midas, a research team that has been monitoring the rift since 2014. Because of the amount of stress the crack is placing on the remaining 20 miles of the shelf, the

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/business/energy-environment/renewables-offshore-wind-green-power-dong.html Source:   By Stanley Reed, The New York Times For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: LIVERPOOL, England ...Off this venerable British port city, a Danish company, Dong Energy, is installing 32 turbines that stretch 600 feet high. ...It is precisely the size, both of the projects and the profits they can bring, that has grabbed the attention of financial institutions, money managers and private equity funds, .... As the technology has improved and demand for renewable energy has risen, costs have fallen. ...Offshore wind has several advantages over land-based renewable energy, whether wind or solar. Turbines can be deployed at sea with fewer complaints than on land, where they are often condemned as eyesores. But the technology had been expensive and heavily dependent on government subsidies, leaving investors wary. That is now changing. Turbines today are bigger, produce much