https://www.science.org/content/article/venice-s-barrier-against-rising-seas-could-jeopardize-city-s-ecosystem By Erik Stokstad, Science Magazine.  Excerpt: To combat a growing flood risk, Venice, Italy, has spent billions of euros to build three barriers that can temporarily close off the lagoon surrounding the city from the Mediterranean Sea. Now, scientists are reporting that by blocking the stormwater that causes floods, the barriers also prevent salt marshes in the lagoon from receiving vital sediment, which ultimately may hinder their ability to stay above the rising sea level.…

https://www.science.org/content/article/how-one-society-rebounded-worst-year-be-alive By Michael Price, Science Magazine.  Excerpt: It was  the worst time to be alive , according to some scientists. From 536 C.E. to 541 C.E., a series of volcanic eruptions in North and Central America sent tons of ash into the atmosphere, blocking sunlight, chilling the globe, and destroying crops worldwide. Societies everywhere struggled to survive. But for the Ancestral Pueblo people living in what today is the U.S. Southwest, this climate catastrophe planted the seeds for a more cohesive, technologically sophisticated society, a new study suggests. ...Although there’s no way to perfectly reconstruct how the Ancestral Pueblo people’s social systems broke down and reformed, Sinensky thinks it may have happened something like this: As crops continued to fail, the small, disparate groups eventually had to band together to survive. They shared technology and growing techniques and built villages. Then, a

https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2021/11/28/roads-climate-change-flooding-infrastructure By  Ian Duncan , The Washington Post.  Excerpt: Responding to increasingly common extreme weather is a vast undertaking that many state transportation departments are only beginning to tackle….

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/26/world/middleeast/iran-protests-water-shortages.html By  Farnaz Fassihi , The New York Times.  Excerpt: ...Weather experts say 97 percent of the country is dealing with water scarcity issues....Experts on Iran’s water scarcity issues say climate change and reduced rainfall have exacerbated the drought caused by mismanagement.…

https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2021/11/rooftop-solar-parking-lot-canopy-smart-energy-policy/ By Richard Conniff, Mother Jones magazine.  Excerpt: It uses pre-cleared land, makes electricity where needed, and keeps parking lots cool. ...By 2050, in one  plausible scenario  from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), supplying solar power for all our electrical needs could require ground-based solar on 0.5 percent of the total land area of the United States. To put that number in perspective, NREL senior research Robert Margolis says it’s “less land than we already dedicate to growing corn ethanol for biofuels.” ...The appeal of parking lots and rooftops... is that they are abundant, close to customers, largely untapped for solar power generation, and on land that’s already been stripped of much of its biological value.…

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/25/climate/smithsonian-museum-flooding.html By  Christopher Flavelle , The New York Times.  Excerpt: Beneath the National Museum of American History, floodwaters are intruding into collection rooms, a consequence of a warming planet. A fix remains years away. ...Smithsonian ...buildings are extremely vulnerable to flooding, and some could eventually be underwater.…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/11/24/biden-offshore-wind-new-york/ By  Dino Grandoni , The Washington Post.  Excerpt: The approval of 12 turbines east of Long Island moves the Biden administration closer to its clean energy goals. But it still faces strong head winds before achieving them.…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/11/24/australia-great-barrier-reef-coral-spawning/ By  Ellen Francis , The Washington Post.  Excerpt: Divers and scientists recorded the birth of billions of coral babies in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef on Tuesday night in a colorful show of life that they hope is a signal that the world’s biggest coral reef ecosystem can recover from climate change.…

https://news.berkeley.edu/2021/11/23/microbes-provide-sustainable-hydrocarbons-for-petrochemical-industry By  Robert Sanders , UC Berkeley News. Excerpt: If the petrochemical industry is ever to wean itself off oil and gas, it has to find sustainably-sourced chemicals that slip effortlessly into existing processes for making products such as fuels, lubricants and plastics. Making those chemicals biologically is the obvious option, but microbial products are different from fossil fuel hydrocarbons in two key ways: They contain too much oxygen, and they have too many other atoms hanging off the carbons. ...they often have to be de-oxygenated — in chemical parlance, reduced — and stripped of extraneous chemical groups, all of which takes energy. A team of chemists from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Minnesota has now engineered microbes to make hydrocarbon chains that can be deoxygenated more easily and using less energy — basically just the sugar glucose th

https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2021/11/23/big-batteries-on-wheels-can-deliver-zero-emissions-rail-while-securing-the-grid/ By Kiran Julin , Berkeley Lab News.  Abstract:  Nearly all US locomotives are propelled by diesel-electric drives, which emit 35 million tonnes of CO 2  and produce air pollution causing about 1,000 premature deaths annually, accounting for approximately US$6.5 billion in annual health damage costs. Improved battery technology plus access to cheap renewable electricity open the possibility of  battery-electric rail . Here [ paper in Nature ] we show that a 241-km range can be achieved using a single standard boxcar equipped with a 14-MWh battery and inverter, while consuming half the energy consumed by diesel trains. ...Accounting for reduced criteria air pollutants and CO 2  emissions, switching to battery-electric propulsion would save the US freight rail sector US$94 billion over 20 years. [And from Berkeley Lab article:] ...With the rise of extreme weather events a

https://eos.org/features/ocean-terrain-and-the-engineering-challenges-for-offshore-wind-farms By  Katherine Kornei , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: Deep coastal seabeds, glacial erratics, and other geophysical hurdles stand in the way of offshore wind farm proliferation. Researchers, engineers, and organizations are adapting and inventing ways to harness the breeze. …Europe has long embraced offshore wind farms—the first one was built  off the coast of Denmark in 1991 . More than 5,400 grid-connected turbines in European waters generate around  25 gigawatts , which is  more than 70% of the offshore wind  power produced globally today. Offshore wind farms are now gaining traction in the United States, which is currently home to just seven offshore wind turbines and produces 42 megawatts—less than 0.1% of the world’s offshore wind energy. Several  commercial-scale facilities are in development  in U.S. waters. ...wind farms offshore presents a viable solution. Producing power near major population

2021-11-20. A Power Struggle Over Cobalt Rattles the Clean Energy Revolution . By  Dionne Searcey ,  Michael Forsythe  and  Eric Lipton , Photographs by Ashley Gilbertson, The New York Times. Excerpt: The quest for Congo’s cobalt, which is vital for electric vehicles and the worldwide push against climate change, is caught in an international cycle of exploitation, greed and gamesmanship. ...with more than  two-thirds  of the world’s cobalt production coming from Congo, the country is once again taking center stage as major automakers commit to battling climate change by transitioning from gasoline-burning vehicles to battery-powered ones.… [ https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/20/world/china-congo-cobalt.html ]

https://eos.org/articles/mammoths-lost-their-steppe-habitat-to-climate-change By  Elise Cutts , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: Ancient plant and animal DNA buried in Arctic sediments preserve a 50,000-year history of Arctic ecosystems, suggesting that climate change contributed to mammoth extinction. …

https://eos.org/articles/traditional-knowledge-is-essential-to-sustainability-in-the-amazon By  Meghie Rodrigues , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: At COP26, the Science Panel for the Amazon is emphasizing the need for Indigenous and Local Knowledge to inform scientific and policy recommendations. ...“Local peoples know a lot about ecosystem dynamics and are attentive to details that we as [outside] researchers might overlook at times,” said  Carolina Doria , a biologist at the Federal University of Rondônia in Brazil and a member of the  Science Panel for the Amazon . “Because of that, any attempt to impose top-down approaches to conservation can be counterproductive. The best [methodology] is to listen to the communities and find common ground for plausible actions from different perspectives,” she added.…

https://eos.org/features/the-benefits-of-better-ocean-weather-forecasting By  Charlotte DeMott ,   Ángel G. Muñoz ,   Christopher D. Roberts ,   Claire M. Spillman  and   F. Vitart , AGU, Eos.  Excerpt: Like atmospheric variability, variability in ocean conditions, such as sea surface temperature and salinity and sea ice cover and thickness, can have major effects on human activities and ecosystems both at sea and on land. For example, this variability, also called “ocean weather,” can influence the occurrence of fair-weather coastal flooding, which disrupts transportation and degrades coastal infrastructure around the world. Meanwhile, sea ice movement in an increasingly ice-free Arctic Ocean poses risks to high-latitude shipping. Elsewhere, changes in ocean upwelling can enhance coastal commercial fishing activity, whereas marine heat waves can disrupt fisheries and coral communities. As with atmospheric weather forecasts, knowing about ocean weather in advance can help minimize disr

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/12/realestate/disaster-proof-housing.html By  Candace Jackson , The New York Times.  Excerpt: When a  massive wildfire  swept through Paradise, Calif., three years ago this week, it killed 85 people and destroyed more than 13,000 homes. ...The Petersens are now rebuilding on the same site — but not the way Ms. Petersen’s grandparents built. They’re putting up a  Q Cabin , a 1,400-square-foot structure made from a half-circle of noncombustible steel. ...As much as a third of the housing stock in the United States — some 35 million houses — is at high risk from natural disasters related to climate change, according to information from CoreLogic, the real estate data analytics company. ...Others are looking further into the past than World War II for solutions — a lot further. Michele Barbato, a professor of structural engineering in the department of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California at Davis, is studying compressed earth

https://www.nature.org/en-us/magazine/magazine-articles/saving-the-maya-rainforest/ By Brendan Borrell , for The Nature Conservancy.  Excerpt: ...It is July and The Nature Conservancy and its partners recently closed a $76.5 million deal to protect 236,000 acres of rainforest here known as the Belize Maya Forest. Together with the neighboring Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area, which TNC helped establish in 1989, the forest will anchor an 11-million-acre network of protected land that spans an area roughly the size of Vermont and New Hampshire combined—amounting to almost a third of the entire Selva Maya. With the most recent deal, Belizeans have boosted their total protected land area to nearly 40%. Tropical forests serve as valuable carbon reserves, potentially representing up to a quarter of the climate mitigation needed globally by 2030 under the Paris Agreement. At a local level, this forest contains three major watersheds supplying the country with about a third of its dr

https://www.science.org/content/article/news-glance-carbon-emission-offsets-covid-19-vaccines-kids-and-scientists-plagiarism From Science Magazine news.  Excerpts: Less deforestation flattens still-alarming carbon emissions curve . A new report finds that carbon emissions from deforestation and other land use changes have decreased over the past decade, partly compensating for increases from burning fossil fuels. Based on updated estimates from satellite data, the report from the Global Carbon Project finds that emissions from sources such as fires, logging, and forest clearing, offset by some reforestation and regrowth of forests and abandoned farm lands,  have been decreasing by about 4% a year  over the past decade. But current emissions remain too high to appreciably curb warming.... Asia eyes switch to renewables . The Asian Development Bank last week announced a program to substantially cut carbon emissions from Southeast Asia by helping retire coal-fired power plants and replaci

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/10/opinion/climate-change-personal-actions.html By Genevieve Guenther and David Wallace-Wells, The New York Times.  Excerpt: Thousands of youth activists at the Glasgow climate talks this week demonstrated for action from world leaders whose words convey the seriousness of the emergency but whose actions against major carbon contributors are lacking. But, as host Jane Coaston says, “as fun as doomerism is, doomerism doesn’t do anything.” So what is an individual to do? Recycle? Compost? Give up meat or flying or plastic straws? Protest in the streets? To parse which personal actions matter and which don’t, Jane is joined by the climate activist and author Genevieve Guenther, who argues that for the wealthier citizens of the world, there are real steps that can be taken right away to help fight the current and impending climate catastrophes. Guenther lists them according to one’s ability, time and resources.…

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/11/nuclear-power-hot-moment/620665/ By  Robinson Meyer , The Atlantic.  Excerpt: The United States, Russia, and France now describe the once-neglected technology as a key part of their decarbonization plans.…

https://eos.org/features/windjamming-on-the-warming-gulf-of-maine By  Mary Caperton Morton , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: In the face of  rising sea levels , Maine’s rugged seaboard will likely fare better than most, but climate change is hitting harder offshore: The Gulf of Maine is  warming faster than the rest of the Atlantic Ocean, affecting the entire food web, from plankton to cod to right whales, along with the fishing industry. In the geologic future, the rocky coast of Maine may look more or less the same, but the gulf may become home to a very different array of fish.…

By Christina Poletto, The New York Times Excerpt: Painted rooftops reflect the heat instead of absorbing it, reducing the need for air-conditioning and cutting greenhouse gases.… [ https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/10/realestate/cool-roofs-climate-change-nyc.html ]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2021/11/09/renewable-energy-solar-wind-biden/ By  Tik Root , The Washington Post.  Excerpt: The proportion of electricity the United States gets from solar and wind nearly quadrupled between 2011 and 2020. While geothermal generation remained relatively flat, the three technologies combined for an annual increase of nearly 15 percent over that stretch.…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/interactive/2021/cop26-scotland-wave-energy-renewables/ By  William Booth , The Washington Post.  Excerpt: ...The tides turn. You can set your watch to them. The trick is how to generate cost-effective, renewable electricity from that limitless, ceaseless motion. They’re working on the problem here on Scotland’s Orkney Islands. When you first look at the ideas for ocean-energy devices, the whole thing does look a little …  sci-fi.  Underwater corkscrews. Oscillating hydrofoils. Tidal kites? In Scotland, they want to plug this ocean energy into shoreside electrolyzers, which separate water (good old H 2 0) into oxygen and green hydrogen, and use the gas bubbles to power …  whisky distilleries . And maybe someday to heat homes and schools — and power passenger ferries and planes that hop between islands.…

https://www.nrdc.org/stories/regenerative-agriculture-101 By Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).  Excerpt: NRDC interviewed more than 100 farmers and ranchers who are building healthy soil and growing climate-resilient communities across the country. ...the holistic principles behind the  dynamic system  of regenerative agriculture are meant to restore soil and ecosystem health, address inequity, and leave our land, waters, and climate in better shape for future generations. ...this is not a new idea.... In fact,  Indigenous communities  have farmed in nature’s image for millennia. “The regenerative agriculture movement is the dawning realization among more people that an Indigenous approach to agriculture can help restore ecologies, fight climate change, rebuild relationships, spark economic development, and bring joy,” says  Arohi Sharma , water and agriculture policy analyst at NRDC. ...“When we speak with farmers and ranchers focused on regenerative agriculture, they tell us