https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/02/brazil-s-first-homemade-satellite-will-put-extra-eye-dwindling-amazon-forests Source:  Science Magazine.  Excerpt: The fate of Brazil’s satellite program—and the country’s capacity to monitor disappearing Amazon forest—will be decided in 17 minutes and 30 seconds on Sunday. That’s the time it will take to launch Amazonia-1, the first satellite entirely developed by the country. If the mission goes well, Brazil will join about 20 countries that have managed the whole chain of design, production, and operation of a satellite. Amazonia-1 will give researchers more frequent updates on deforestation and agricultural activity in the world’s largest tropical rainforest. But other challenges await, as Brazilian scientists deal with increasing cuts in research funding and a political split on the country’s space program.... 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2021/02/25/climate-curious-food-waste/ Source:  By Sarah Kaplan. The Washington Post.  Excerpt: The carbon footprint of U.S. food waste is greater than that of the airline industry. Globally, wasted food accounts for about  8 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions . The environmental consequences of producing food that no one eats are massive. ...Meanwhile, a staggering 26 million American adults told the Census Bureau last fall that they hadn’t had enough to eat in the previous week. The problem was even worse in households with children....  

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/02/25/atlantic-ocean-currents-weakening-amoc-gulf-stream/ Source:  By  Chris Mooney ,   Andrew Freedman , The Washington Post.  Excerpt: A growing body of evidence suggests that a massive change is underway in the sensitive circulation system of the Atlantic Ocean, a group of scientists  said Thursday . The  Atlantic meridional overturning circulation  (AMOC), a system of currents that includes the  Florida Current  and the Gulf Stream, is now “in its weakest state in over a millennium,” these experts say. This has implications for everything from the climate of Europe to the rates of sea-level rise along the U.S. East Coast. Although evidence of the system’s weakening has been published before, the new research cites 11 sources of “proxy” evidence of the circulation’s strength, including  clues hidden in seafloor mud  as well as  patterns of ocean temperatures . The enormous flow has been  directly measured only since 2004 , to

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2021/02/24/climate-solutions-electric-schoolbuses/ Source:  By  Steven Mufson  and  Sarah Kaplan , The Washington Pot.  Excerpt: Hundreds of electric school buses are about to hit the roads in Montgomery County in an effort to cut tailpipe emissions that warm the planet and can affect student health. The $1.3 million annual contract, which was approved by the county school board Tuesday, is the biggest single-district project in the country to swap combustion-engine school buses for electric vehicles. The county aims to gradually convert its entire fleet of 1,422 buses by 2035....  

https://eos.org/science-updates/assessing-social-equity-in-disasters Source:  By Eric Tate and Christopher Emrich, Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: Social vulnerability researchers seek to understand the impediments and capacities of people and communities to prepare for, respond to, and recover from extreme natural hazards. A major tool in this work is social vulnerability modeling, the use of which is expanding in large part because of   growing awareness   of the   social equity implications of disasters ....   See also   When Climate Adaptation Intervention Risks Further Marginalization   and   Building Resilience in Rural America .

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/18/science/laschamp-earth-magnetic-climate.html Source:  By Alanna Mitchell, The New York Times.  Excerpt: About 42,000 years ago, Earth was beset with oddness. Its magnetic field collapsed. Ice sheets surged across North America, Australasia and the Andes. Wind belts shifted across the Pacific and Southern Oceans. Prolonged drought hit Australia; that continent’s biggest mammals went extinct. Humans took to caves to make ochre-color art. Neanderthals died off for good. Through it all, one giant kauri tree stood tall — until, after nearly two millenniums, it died and fell in a swamp, where the chemical records embedded in its flesh were immaculately preserved. That tree, unearthed a few years ago near Ngawha Springs in northern New Zealand, finally allowed researchers to fit a tight timeline to what before had seemed like an intriguing but only vaguely correlated series of events. What if, the researchers posited, the crash of the magnetic field spawn

https://eos.org/science-updates/the-imminent-calving-retreat-of-taku-glacier Source:    By Christopher McNeil, J. M. Amundson, S. O’Neel, R. J. Motyka, L. Sass, M. Truffer, J. M. Zechmann, and S. Campbell, Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: Long an anomaly among glaciers, advancing while most others shrank, Taku Glacier is starting to succumb to climate change, offering an unprecedented look at the onset of tidewater glacier retreat. ...Earth’s approximately 3,000  tidewater glaciers —those that interact directly with the ocean—represent 42% and 57% of the planet’s glacierized  area  and  volume , respectively, excluding the  Greenland  and  Antarctic  Ice Sheets (Figure 1). Tidewater glaciers differ from their land-terminating counterparts...  

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-56085733 Source: By Reality Check team, BBC News.  Excerpt: ..."So it was all working great until the day it got cold outside," Fox News's Tucker Carlson said. "The windmills failed like the silly fashion accessories they are, and people in Texas died." ...Wind turbines froze, as well as vital equipment at gas wells and in the nuclear industry. But because gas and other non-renewable energies contribute far more to the grid than wind power, particularly in winter, these shortages had a far greater impact on the system. So when critics pointed to a loss of nearly half of Texas's wind-energy capacity as a result of frozen turbines, they failed to point out double that amount was being lost from gas and other non-renewable supplies such as coal and nuclear....  

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/16/climate/texas-power-grid-failures.html Source:  By  Brad Plumer , The New York Times.  Excerpt: Huge winter storms plunged large parts of the central and southern United States into an energy crisis this week, with frigid blasts of Arctic weather crippling electric grids and  leaving millions of Americans without power  amid dangerously cold temperatures. The grid failures were most severe in Texas, where more than four million people woke up Tuesday morning to  rolling blackouts . Separate regional grids in the Southwest and Midwest also faced serious strain. As of Tuesday afternoon,  at least 23 people nationwide had died  in the storm or its aftermath. Analysts have begun to identify key factors behind the grid failures in Texas. Record-breaking cold weather spurred residents to crank up their electric heaters and pushed power demand beyond the worst-case scenarios that grid operators had planned for. At the same time, a large fraction of the sta

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/02/15/these-gases-your-grocerys-freezer-are-fueling-climate-change-biden-wants-fix-that/ Source:  By  Juliet Eilperin  and  Desmond Butler , The New York Times.  Excerpt: Some of the climate impacts of a grocery store trip are obvious, like the fuel it takes to get there and the electricity that keeps its lights glowing, conveyor belts moving and scanners beeping. But then there are the invisible gases seeping out into the atmosphere when you reach for your ice cream of choice. In nearly every supermarket in America, a network of pipes transports compressed refrigerants that keep perishable goods cold. Most of these chemicals are  hydrofluorocarbons  — greenhouse gases thousands of times more powerful than carbon dioxide — which often escape through cracks or systems that were not properly installed. Once they leak, they are destined to pollute the atmosphere. The Biden administration now sees eliminating these chemicals from th

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/14/us/winter-storm-snow-ice.html Source: By   Rick Rojas   and   Marie Fazio , The New York Times. Excerpt: A coast-to-coast winter storm swept from Oregon and Washington to the Southeast on Sunday, part of a frigid weather pattern that created record low temperatures in Minnesota and a 100-vehicle traffic pileup in Texas and that is now producing dangerous conditions across much of the country because of heavy snowfall, perilous ice and dangerously low temperatures. The National Weather Service   said early Monday   that at least 150 million Americans were under ice or winter weather advisories. Hundreds of thousands of people were without power. ...300,000 customers in Oregon and 150,000 in Virginia were also without electricity ...Temperatures in parts of Oklahoma were 40 degrees lower than usual for this time of year, the National Weather Service said. The duration of the cold conditions is also unusual: Oklahoma may experience nine consecutive da

https://eos.org/articles/arctic-report-card-founder-discusses-the-fate-of-the-pole Source:  By  Jenessa Duncombe , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: ...just 15 years ago, the scientific outlook was rosier. There was even some hope that the drastic, catastrophic effects of climate change in the Arctic might be a century away. That optimism faded quickly as feedback loops accelerated warming at the poles. Feedback loops amplify the causes of climate change and contribute to many worrisome shifts across the Arctic ecosystem, like record-low sea ice  every year for the past 14 years . Not even the most  doomsday climate models  predicted that. ...the report card basically got its start roughly at the same time [that] you began to see this  accelerated rate of warming  in the Arctic. And that happened because you kind of reach this precipice on this albedo feedback. [The albedo feedback] is the idea that you’ve got all this white surface [in the Arctic]. You’ve got snow, you’ve got sea ice, you’ve got l

https://eos.org/features/community-forests-prepare-for-climate-change Source: By Courtney L. Peterson, Leslie A. Brandt, Emile H. Elias, and Sarah R. Hurteau, Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: ...many locales are feeling the heat as urban, or community, forests— defined  by the U.S. Forest Service as “the aggregate of all public and private vegetation and green space within a community that provide a myriad of environmental, health and economic benefits”—struggle against a multitude of stressors stemming from climate change. Forest pests and diseases are expanding their ranges, for example, and heat, megadroughts, and shifts in the amounts and timing of precipitation are changing water availability—all contributing to a looming urban tree crisis. ...The importance of urban trees is often overlooked. In the United States, community forests save an estimated $18.3 billion annually by providing ecosystem services like air and water pollution removal, carbon sequestration, carbon storage, energy savin

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/02/great-green-wall-could-save-africa-can-massive-forestry-effort-learn-past-mistakes Source: By  Rachel Cernansky , Science Magazine.  Excerpt: After returning home from college to northwest Cameroon in 2004, Tabi Joda felt a sense of profound loss. Trees that once bore fruit, provided medicine, and created shade had been cut down. Rich soils had turned to dust. “The land I used to know as a forest was no longer a forest,” he recalls. Joda, a business consultant, got to work, calling on what he’d learned in school and from local knowledge passed down over generations. He collected seeds, started a tree nursery, and launched an agroforestry initiative that enlisted local people in planting trees. They chose species that provided food and timber, supported livelihoods, and helped wildlife thrive. The effort soon spread to nearby communities. And Joda ultimately became a vocal advocate for an even bigger dream: the Great Green Wall, which aims to t

https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2021/02/how-the-fossil-fuel-industry-convinced-americans-to-love-gas-stoves/ Source:  By Rebecca Leber, Mother Jones magazine.  Excerpt: In early 2020, Wilson Truong posted on the Nextdoor social media platform...in a Culver City, California, ...  warned  the group members that their city leaders were considering stronger building codes that would discourage natural gas lines in newly built homes and businesses. ...Truong wasn’t their neighbor at all. He was writing in his role as account manager for the public relations firm Imprenta Communications Group. Imprenta’s client was Californians for Balanced Energy Solutions (C4BES), a  front group  for SoCalGas, the nation’s largest gas utility, working to fend off state initiatives to limit the future use of gas in buildings. ...In Santa Barbara, California, residents  have received robotexts  warning a gas ban would dramatically increase their bills. The Pacific Northwest group Partnership for E

https://eos.org/features/community-forests-prepare-for-climate-change Source: By  Courtney L. Peterson , Leslie A. Brandt, Emile H. Elias, and Sarah R. Hurteau, Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: The importance of urban trees is often overlooked. In the United States, community forests save an estimated $18.3 billion annually by providing ecosystem services like air and water pollution removal, carbon sequestration, carbon storage, energy savings for buildings, heat reduction, and avoided stormwater runoff [ Nowak and Greenfield , 2018]. But urban trees do more than provide these ecological necessities. Urban trees provide human  health benefits  by promoting increased physical activity, improved mental health, enhanced community walkability, and improved safety of  public transit  [ Nesbitt et al. , 2017]. For example, attractive trees and landscaping encourage increased social interaction among neighbors and create a sense of ownership and safety. ...However, many locales are feeling the heat as urb

https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2021/02/09/goat-poop-and-green-tech/ Source:  By Aliyah Kovner, Berkeley Lab News Center.  Excerpt: Microbes found in the goat gut microbiome could help humans convert plant material into valuable, eco-friendly commodities. Converting the tough fibers and complex sugars in plants into biofuels and other products could be humanity’s ticket to smarter materials, better medicines, and a petroleum-free, sustainable future. But harnessing the chemical commodities stored in these molecules is no simple task. ...Hoping to discover new and improved ways of processing plant material for industrial purposes, scientists like Michelle O’Malley at UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) and  the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI)  have been studying the gut microbiomes of the planet’s most prolific herbivores: ruminant animals such as goats. ...Berkeley lab scientists contributed to O’Malley’s latest study,  published in Nature Microbiology . The team generated reconstructions of the man

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/08/business/oil-companies-offshore-wind-britain.html Source:  By  Stanley Reed , The New York Times.  Excerpt: BP and Total plan to spend billions of dollars developing the wind farms in an effort to aid their shift to renewable energy. Two giant oil companies won the largest share of options to build new offshore wind farms awarded by Britain on Monday, investments that are expected to eventually total in the tens of billions of dollars. The options were a big move by major petroleum producers into an industry that has for years been dominated by smaller, specialized companies. The winning bidders, including BP and the French oil company Total, agreed to initially pay a total of 879 million pounds (about $1.2 billion) in deposits to develop offshore wind farms that will provide sufficient power to light up seven million homes....  

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/08/climate/climate-change-pollen-season.html Source:  By  John Schwartz , The New York Times.  Excerpt: New research suggests that climate change is responsible for longer pollen seasons in the United States and more pollen in the air, as well. ...Among the many disasters climate change is wreaking around the world, scientists have now identified a more personal one: It’s making allergy season worse. That is the message of  a new study in the journal  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published on Monday. ...According to the new paper, the combination of warming air and higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has caused North American pollen seasons since 1990 to start some 20 days earlier, on average, and to have 21 percent more pollen. ...The most pronounced effects were seen in Texas, the Midwest and the Southeast, said William Anderegg, an assistant professor of biology at the University of Utah and the lead author of the ne

https://apnews.com/article/mountains-floods-india-glaciers-asia-pacific-5c42b2adb9437d4120fdf9de344b198f Source:  By Biswajeet Banerjee and Rishabh R. Jain, AP.  Excerpt: RISHIKESH, India (AP) — Indian rescue crews struggled to reach trapped victims Sunday after part of a glacier in the Himalayas broke off and released a torrent of water and debris that slammed into two hydroelectric plants. At least nine people were killed and 140 were missing in a disaster experts said appeared to point to global warming. ...The flood was caused when a portion of Nanda Devi glacier snapped off in the morning, releasing water trapped behind it, authorities said. It rushed down the mountain and into other bodies of water, forcing the evacuation of many villages along the banks of the Alaknanda and Dhauliganga rivers. A hydroelectric plant on the Alaknanda was destroyed, and a plant under construction on the Dhauliganga was damaged.... ...at least 42 workers were trapped in two tunnels at the Dhauliga

https://eos.org/science-updates/geological-surveys-unite-to-improve-critical-mineral-security Source: By Poul Emsbo, Christopher Lawley, and Karol Czarnota, Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: A three-nation consortium is pooling geological expertise and resources to address vulnerabilities in supplies of these crucial natural resources. The global economy is unprepared to meet the exploding demand for critical minerals. These materials, many of which were of little economic interest until recently, are required to fuel a proliferation of technologies and industries that have become vital for social and economic well-being the world over. But supplies of critical minerals are at risk because of their natural scarcity and because of geopolitical issues and trade policies that complicate their distribution, among other factors. Critical minerals such as gallium, indium, and the rare earth elements (REEs) are indispensable in the operation of the electronics that run our computers and the devices that 

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/02/warming-world-its-better-be-small-mammal-bird Source:  By  Elizabeth Pennisi , Science Magazine.  Excerpt: In the early 1900s, Joseph Grinnell traversed the wilds of California in his Ford Model T truck, meticulously surveying its fauna. Along the Californian coast, he trapped pocket mice and watched condors soar; in the Mojave Desert, his team chronicled American kestrels swooping for insects and caught cactus mice hiding among rocks. Now, by comparing Grinnell’s data with modern surveys, ecologists have shown that climate change has not been an equal opportunity stressor. As the Mojave warmed by about 2°C over the past century, bird numbers and diversity declined dramatically, but small mammals like little pocket mice are holding their own. The  survivors’ secret seems to be a nocturnal lifestyle and an ability to escape the heat by burrowing , the team reports today in Science. Until now, researchers have often assumed climate change challe

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2021/02/03/climate-empire-state-wind Source:  By  Sarah Kaplan , The Washington Post.  Excerpt: The world got a little bit greener when the lights of the Empire State Building flickered to life this year: For the first time, the beloved skyscraper and 13 other office buildings owned by the same company were powered solely by wind. Empire State Realty Trust will announce Wednesday a major purchase of wind power from Green Mountain Energy and Direct Energy, making it the nation’s biggest real estate user of entirely renewable energy. The three-year contracts, which started Jan. 1, will provide an estimated 300 million kilowatt hours of electricity for ESRT’s more than 10 million-square-foot portfolio. ...The real estate trust has already established a reputation for sustainability: A decade-long “deep carbon” retrofit enabled the Empire State Building to cut its planet-warming emissions by about 40 percent. The skyscraper itself has run

https://eos.org/articles/finding-glocal-solutions-to-flooding-problems URL Source:  By Alka Tripathy-Lang, Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: Scientists call for joint efforts to combine real-time global rainfall data with high-resolution local hydrology to better forecast floods. Type “flooding today” into your search engine. You will likely find at least one place battling rising waters somewhere in the world—Mozambique today, Yorkshire yesterday, Hawaii tomorrow. Floods occur when water encroaches on dry land, which can happen during  hurricane-induced storm surges  or when heavy precipitation (or  snowmelt ) has nowhere to go. ...“Weather patterns, which cause flooding, are happening at the global scale,” said  Guy Schumann , a flood hydrologist with the University of Colorado Boulder’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, “but impacts of floods are very localized.” Local effects include costs to the economy, displacement of populations, and loss of life. Schumann and a team of scientists l

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/02/climate/automakers-climate-change.html Source:  By  Coral Davenport , The New York Times.  Excerpt: Toyota, Fiat Chrysler and several other major automakers said Tuesday they would no longer try to block California from setting its own strict fuel-economy standards, signaling that the auto industry is ready to work with President Biden on his largest effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The decision by the companies was widely expected, coming after  General Motors dropped its support for the Trump-era effort just weeks after the presidential election . But the shift may help the Biden administration move quickly to reinstate national fuel-efficiency standards that would control planet-warming auto pollution, this time with support from industry giants that fought such regulations for years. “After four years of putting us in reverse, it is time to restart and build a sustainable future, grow domestic manufacturing, and deliver clean cars for

https://eos.org/articles/simultaneous-drought-and-heat-wave-events-are-becoming-more-common Source:  By  Sarah Derouin , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: As the world heats up, the number and duration of combined stress events are increasing, causing harmful environmental and human impacts....