https://futurism.com/the-byte/california-installing-huge-solar-panels-over-canals By Victor Tangerman, The Futurist.  Excerpt: Canal Shade California is spending $20 million on a pilot project that will involve 8,500 feet of solar panels being installed over sections of important water sources, including canals — a futuristic effort to fight a devastating drought hitting California this summer. The idea is simple. The massive panels, to be installed over the Turlock Irrigation District (TID) in central California by the end of next year, are intended to stop dwindling water reserves from evaporating too quickly and forming vegetative growth — while simultaneously providing renewable energy for the local grid. ...The TID is citing  a 2021 study  which found that shading 4,000 miles of public water delivery systems with solar panels could save approximately 63 billion gallons of water a year. That's enough to meet the demands of more than two million people, according to the organiza

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/30/business/economy/electric-cars-us-nickel-mine.html By Ana Swanson , The New York Times.  Excerpt: ...Talon Metals... is proposing to build an underground mine near Tamarack [Minnesota] that would produce nickel, a highly sought-after mineral that is used to power electric vehicles. ...But mines that extract metal from sulfide ore, as this one would, have a  poor environmental record  in the United States, and an even more  checkered footprint globally . ...it could spoil local lakes and streams that feed into the Mississippi River. There is also concern that it could endanger the livelihoods and culture of Ojibwe tribes whose members live just over a mile from Talon’s land and have gathered wild rice here for generations. ...current supply chains for electric vehicle batteries — and the batteries that would be needed for the electric grid that would charge that fleet of vehicles — rely on some adversarial and heavily polluting foreign nations. Much of

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/29/pakistan-floods-plea-for-help-amid-fears-monsoon-could-put-a-third-of-country-underwater By  Martin Farrer , The Guardian.  Excerpt: Pakistan’s government has appealed for international help to tackle a flooding emergency that has killed more than 1,000 people and threatens to leave a third of the country – an area roughly the size of Britain – underwater. ...Sherry Rehman, a Pakistan senator and federal minister for climate change, told AFP on Monday: “What we see now is an ocean of water submerging entire districts. This is very far from a normal monsoon - it is climate dystopia at our doorstep.” Rehman said on Sunday that the warming climate was causing glaciers in mountainous northern regions to melt faster than normal, exacerbating the impact of the heavy rain. Pakistan has more glaciers – 7,532 – than anywhere outside the polar regions.… See also  New York Times article

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/29/major-sea-level-rise-caused-by-melting-of-greenland-ice-cap-is-now-inevitable-27cm-climate By  Damian Carrington , The Guardian.  Excerpt: Major sea-level rise from the melting of the  Greenland  ice cap is now inevitable, scientists have found, even if the fossil fuel burning that is driving the climate crisis were to end overnight. The research shows the global heating to date will cause an absolute minimum sea-level rise of 27cm (10.6in) from Greenland alone as 110tn tonnes of ice melt. With continued carbon emissions, the melting of other ice caps and thermal expansion of the ocean, a multi-metre sea-level rise appears likely. Billions of people live in coastal regions, making flooding due to rising sea levels one of the greatest long-term impacts of the climate crisis. If Greenland’s record melt year of 2012 becomes a routine occurrence later this century, as is possible, then the ice cap will deliver a “staggering” 78cm of sea-l

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/26/usda-diet-guide-myplate-climate-crisis By  Marina Bolotnikova , The Guardian.  Excerpt: US government’s 2020-2025 guidance is meat- and dairy-heavy. Experts say that isn’t sustainable. ,...Every five years, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services jointly publish a new version of the  guidelines . They form the basis for the public-facing eating guide  MyPlate , formerly  MyPyramid , as well as many government-backed meal programs, such as National School Lunch. Historically, these guidelines have narrowly focused on human nutrition, but some are now saying they should be expanded to incorporate climate considerations as well. ...The current, 150-page edition for 2020-2025 doesn’t mention food’s role in the climate crisis at all. Climate groups say this is an abdication of responsibility, with Americans feeling the effects of a warming planet more than ever. ...A sustainability component would enco

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/24/california-ban-sales-gas-powered-cars-2035 By  Dani Anguiano , The Guardian.  Excerpt: Thursday’s vote is among the first of its kind and will be an example to other states when setting zero-emission standards. ...In 2021, only 12% of new cars sold in California were zero-emission, according to Carb, though about 16% of cars sold in the first three months of this year were electric. The new rule would require the state reach 35% of sales by 2026, 68% by 2030 and 100% by 2035. It would not affect cars that are already on the road.…  See also  New York Times article  about the ban as well as  California E.V. Mandate Finds a Receptive Auto Industry . 

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/25/business/economy/economy-climate-change.html By Lydia DePillis , The New York Times.  Excerpt: Economists have been examining the impact of climate change for almost as long as it’s been known to science. In the 1970s, the Yale economist William Nordhaus began constructing a model meant to gauge the effect of warming on economic growth. The work, first  published  in 1992, gave rise to a field of scholarship assessing the cost to society of each ton of emitted carbon offset by the benefits of cheap power — and thus how much it was worth paying to avert it. Dr. Nordhaus became a  leading voice  for a nationwide carbon tax that would discourage the use of fossil fuels and propel a transition toward more sustainable forms of energy. It remained the preferred choice of economists and business interests for decades. And in 2018,  Dr. Nordhaus was honored with the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences . ...the  Inflation Reduction Act  with its $392 bi

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/24/world/asia/india-climate-change-milk-prices.html By   Mujib Mashal  and  Hari Kumar , The New York Times.  Excerpt: ...The scientists of the National Dairy Research Institute are quietly working to preserve India’s status as a dairy powerhouse in the face of the country’s acute threat from climate change, conducting studies on everything from developing new breeds of buffalo to testing new crops of shrubs for protein content. ...India, the world’s largest producer of milk, generates more than 200 million tons every year. The dairy industry, which relies on 80 million farmers across the country, most with small herds, has grown steadily and now accounts for nearly 5 percent of India’s economy. ...Stress on animals is just one way that extreme heat is challenging this crucial industry.… 

https://ambr-recyclers.org/2022/08/ambr-release-chasing-arrows-the-truth-about-recycling/ By Alliance of Mission-Based Recyclers ( AMBR ).  Excerpt: Reduce, reuse,  then  recycle: In the 1970s, this was the structure under which advocates built America’s recycling industry. Unfortunately, the petrochemical and packaging industries have exploited this fundamental premise and used recycling as a cover to increase plastic production exponentially.  AMBR’s new short film, “ Chasing Arrows: The Truth About Recycling ,” outlines how the plastics industry is trashing recycling with non-recyclable plastics. It exposes the recycling myths industry promotes, such as blaming the recycling system and consumers for plastic pollution. The real problem is one they created and are expanding: They are simply making  too much  plastic, most of which cannot be recycled. Recycling is not a strategy for making waste “go away.” It was designed to create feedstock for manufacturing new products so that virgi

https://www.science.org/content/article/135-u-s-tree-species-face-extinction-and-just-eight-enjoy-federal-protection By Gabriel Popkin, Science Magazine.  Excerpt: Top threats include invasive pests, climate change and habitat loss…

https://www.science.org/content/article/scientists-exposed-plants-yearlong-drought-result-worrying-climate-change By Elizabeth Pennisi, Science Magazine.  Excerpt: Europe and many other parts of the world are currently grappling with extreme drought—and that could be bad news for efforts to curb climate change, concludes a new global study of how shrubs and grasses respond to parched conditions. Grasslands and shrublands cover more than 40% of Earth’s terra firma, and they remove hefty amounts of carbon dioxide from the air. But by deliberately blocking precipitation from falling at 100 research sites around the world, researchers found that a single year of drought can reduce the growth of vegetation by more than 80%, greatly diminishing its ability to absorb carbon dioxide. Overall, plant growth in the artificially drought-stricken grassy patches fell by 36%, far more than earlier estimates. But the study, presented last week at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32412-y By  Gregg Sparkman ,  Nathan Geiger  &  Elke U. Weber ,  Nature Communications .  Excerpt: ...Systematic misperception of public opinion ...like a widespread underestimation of public support for climate action could inhibit willingness to talk about the problem with others..., and could lead people to falsely conclude that the vocal minority who dismiss climate change are representative of broader public opinion.... Further, given that most Americans report concern about climate change and support many policies to address the issue..., why has the US not yet enacted major climate policy to address the issue? If most Americans were unaware of the popularity of their pro-climate action views, this could encourage inaction through pressures to conform to the (mis)perceived political attitudes of others, a phenomenon robust across the political spectrum.... These concerning possibilities raise the question: Do Americans accurately per

https://eos.org/articles/climate-change-has-already-aggravated-58-of-infectious-diseases By  Jenessa Duncombe , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: In a sweeping analysis of more than 800 published studies, scientists from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (UHM) discovered climate change had exacerbated 58% of infectious diseases in certain documented instances. Although less common, climate warming also lessened 16% of infectious diseases. ...The illnesses aggravated by climate change include some of the deadliest, such as measles, malaria, and diarrheal diseases. Scientific literature has long supported the fact that climate change enhances certain diseases, such as  a study  earlier this year finding that bacteria-caused diarrhea could become more dominant as wetter and warmer conditions spread. However, “this is the first paper to really comprehensively try and put together the full picture,” said McKenzie. Warming temperatures, changes in precipitation, and floods worsened the highest numbers of

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/22/climate/epa-supreme-court-pollution.html By  Lisa Friedman , The New York Times.  Excerpt: When the Supreme Court restricted the ability of the Environmental Protection Agency to fight climate change this year, the reason it gave was that Congress had never granted the agency the broad authority to shift America away from burning fossil fuels. Now it has. Throughout the landmark climate law, passed this month, is language written specifically to address the Supreme Court’s justification for reining in the E.P.A., a ruling that was  one of the court’s most consequential of the term . The new law amends the Clean Air Act, the country’s bedrock air-quality legislation, to define the carbon dioxide produced by the burning of fossil fuels as an “air pollutant.” That language, according to legal experts as well as the Democrats who worked it into the legislation, explicitly gives the E.P.A. the authority to regulate greenhouse gases and to use its power to

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/22/business/china-power-shortage-drought.html By  Keith Bradsher , The New York Times.  Excerpt: ...Record-high temperatures and a severe drought in west-central China have crippled hydropower generation and prompted the shutdown of many factories there, in the latest blow to a Chinese economy that already has stagnant consumer spending and a deeply troubled real estate market. Sichuan Province in west-central China, one of China’s most populous and a fast-growing industrial base in recent years, normally generates more than three-quarters of its electricity from huge dams. The summer rainy season usually brings so much water that Sichuan sends much of its hydropower to cities and provinces as far away as Shanghai. But an almost complete failure of summer rains this year, coupled with daytime highs that have regularly approached or exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit, has left rivers and reservoirs with fractions of their former water. The large province’s m

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/22/opinion/energy-office-buildings-net-zero-climate.html By  Carlos Gamarra , The New York Times, guest essay.  Excerpt: ...by paying close attention to every aspect of our energy use, my co-workers and I have seen how even the smallest actions can have an impact on climate change. We now take pride in the fact that the office’s electricity bill is $0. What’s more, the local utility pays our organization, the Houston Advanced Research Center, over $1,000 a year in rebates for the energy our solar panels provide to the power grid. ...Some  40 percent  of annual global carbon dioxide emissions come from buildings and construction, and commercial buildings, which have an average life span of 50 to 60 years, account for  around 20 percent  of U.S. energy use. The Environmental Protection Agency reports that on average,  30 percent  of the energy used in these commercial buildings is wasted.… 

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/22/business/energy-environment/biden-climate-bill-energy-loans.html By  Ivan Penn , The New York Times.  Excerpt: Tucked into the Inflation Reduction Act that President Biden signed last week is a major expansion of federal loan programs that could help the fight against climate change by channeling more money to clean energy and converting plants that run on fossil fuels to nuclear or renewable energy. The law authorizes as much as $350 billion in additional federal loans and loan guarantees for energy and automotive projects and businesses. The money, which will be disbursed by the Energy Department, is in addition to the better-known provisions of the law that offer incentives for the likes of electric cars, solar panels, batteries and heat pumps.… 

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/20/business/ups-postal-workers-heat-stroke-deaths.html By Livia Albeck-Ripka , The New York Times.  Excerpt: ...Mr. Gubell, 26, had delivered about 200 packages. Temperatures had soared into the high 80s, and it was even hotter inside the metal shell of the back of the truck, where, with each stop, he would spend up to a minute or so to retrieve his cargo, sweat beading on his skin. Now, pulled over on the side of the road, he was panting and barely able to speak, gripping his phone with his hand, which had cramped from dehydration. ...As blistering heat waves swept across the United States this summer,  breaking temperature records  and  placing millions under heat advisories and warnings , workers like Mr. Gubell have continued to deliver America’s packages for a variety of carriers, often in trucks that have no cooling mechanisms for drivers. Some UPS workers have  shared photographs  that show thermometer readings of up to 150 degrees in the backs o

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/20/world/europe/netherlands-farmers-protests.html By  Claire Moses , The New York Times.  Excerpt: Goals of cutting nitrogen emissions in half by 2030 have caused an uproar in the Netherlands. Climate activists say the cuts are necessary to preserve nature. ...Agriculture is responsible for the largest share of  nitrogen emissions  in the Netherlands, much of it from the waste produced by the estimated  1.6 million cows  that provide the milk used to make the country’s famed cheeses, like Gouda and Edam. ...To realize those planned cuts, thousands of farmers will be required to significantly reduce livestock numbers and the size of their farming operations. If they cannot meet the cuts the government demands of them, they may be forced to close their operations altogether. The Dutch government has set aside about 25 billion euros, about $26 billion, to carry out its plan, and some of that money will be used to help farmers build more sustainable operatio

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/20/ancient-crops-climate-crisis-amaranth-fonio-cowpeas-taro-kernza By  Cecilia Nowell , The Guardian.  Excerpt: Over the course of human history, scientists believe that humans have cultivated more than 6,000 different plant species. But over time, farmers gravitated toward planting those with the largest yields. Today, just three crops – rice, wheat and corn – provide nearly half of the world’s calories. That reliance on a small number of crops has made agriculture vulnerable to pests, plant-borne diseases and soil erosion, which thrive on monoculture – the practice of growing only one crop at a time. It has also meant losing out on the resilience other crops show in surviving drought and other natural disasters. As the impacts of the climate crisis become starker, farmers across the world are rediscovering ancient crops and developing new hybrids that might prove more hardy in the face of drought or epidemics, while also offering impor

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/spanish-stonehenge-emerges-drought-hit-dam-2022-08-18/ By  Silvio Castellanos  and  Marco Trujillo ,  Reuters .  Excerpt: CACERES, Spain, Aug 18 ...A brutal summer has caused havoc for many in rural Spain, but one unexpected side-effect of the country's worst drought in decades has delighted archaeologists - the emergence of a prehistoric stone circle in a dam whose waterline has receded. Officially known as the Dolmen of Guadalperal but dubbed the Spanish Stonehenge, the circle of dozens of megalithic stones is believed to date back to 5000 BC. It currently sits fully exposed in one corner of the Valdecanas reservoir, in the central province of Caceres, where authorities say the water level has dropped to 28% of capacity.… 

https://eos.org/features/how-an-unlikely-friendship-upended-permafrost-myths By  Jenessa Duncombe , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: It’s not just the Arctic: Worldwide, methane emissions have been rising at an accelerating rate since 2007, and scientists  aren’t sure why . Last year, about 640 million metric tons of methane entered the atmosphere, and global concentrations hit the highest value recorded since data collection began in 1983. Although scientists believe that Arctic methane contributes only a tiny fraction of today’s rise in emissions, they worry that will change. Methane emissions from thawing permafrost could use up 25%–40% of the allowable emissions to keep climate increase below 2°C, according to  Susan Natali  at the Woodwell Climate Research Center in Falmouth, Mass. ...A seminal discovery by a Russian scientist and an American researcher investigating winter methane emissions in the 1990s revealed a source of methane emissions that was previously unaccounted for. In the years fo

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/17/california-power-cuts-heatwave-climate-crisis By The Guardian.  Excerpt: California has urged residents to cut power use as a searing heatwave settles over the state and stretches power supplies to a breaking point, in the latest sign of extreme weather conditions in the US west. Temperatures in the most populous state are forecast to climb to well above 100F (38C) during the afternoon. To prevent power outages, state officials asked residents and businesses to turn off lights and appliances and preset their thermostats to 78F (26C), especially during the critical hours between 4 and 9pm local time when demand typically peaks and solar power generation beings to ebb.… 

https://www.science.org/content/article/can-farmers-fight-climate-change-new-u-s-law-gives-them-billions-try By Erik Stokstad, Science Magazine.  Excerpt: Cutting emissions from fertilizer and livestock will be key, scientists say. ...all told, farming generates 10% of climate-affecting emissions from the United States each year. Now, Congress would like to turn back the clock and return some of that carbon to the soil. The Inflation Reduction Act, a broad bill signed into law today, has historic climate provisions, including massive  subsidies for clean power and electric vehicles . But lawmakers also included more than $25 billion to expand and safeguard forests and promote farming practices thought to be climate friendly. Those include no-till agriculture and “cover crops,” plants cultivated simply to protect the soil. Researchers, environmental groups, and the farm industry agree that paying and training farmers to adopt those measures will improve soil health and water and air qua

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/15/goats-and-sheep-deploy-their-appetites-to-save-barcelona-from-wildfires By  Ashifa Kassam , The Guardian.  Excerpt: ...Barcelona’s newest firefighting recruits began delicately picking past hikers and cyclists in the city’s largest public park earlier this year. The four-legged brigade – made up of 290 sheep and goats – had just one task: to munch on as much vegetation as possible. Their arrival turned Barcelona into one of the latest places to embrace an age-old strategy that’s being revived as officials around the world face off against a  rise in extreme wildfires . The idea is simple: wildfire-prone areas are handed over to grazing animals, who chomp and trample over dry vegetation that could otherwise accumulate as fuel for fires. Whether the animals are semi-wild or overseen by a shepherd who is usually compensated for their efforts, a job well done usually leaves behind a landscape dotted with open spaces that can act as firebreaks.…

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/15/us/west-virginia-flash-floods.html By  Christine Chung , The New York Times.  Excerpt: Residents of two West Virginia counties were recovering from significant flash flooding that prompted dozens of water rescues early on Monday and destroyed at least two bridges, officials said. Overnight, brown water rose swiftly in Kanawha and Fayette Counties, uprooting trees, engulfing cars and roads, washing out culverts and damaging at least 100 homes in Kanawha County, just east of Charleston, W.Wa., officials said. The rain began around 3 a.m. on Monday and two to five inches fell, said Megan Kiebler, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Charleston.… 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/15/extreme-heat-risk-temperatures-2053-study By  Richard Luscombe , The Guardian.  Excerpt: As many as 100 million Americans will be living in ‘extreme’ zones that will see heat index exceed 125F, according to new study… Almost two-thirds of Americans, who live in mostly southern and central states, will be at risk from the critical temperature increases, according to a  Washington Post analysis  of data from the non-profit First Street Foundation, which used current trends to  predict the number of extreme heat days  30 years into the future. 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/13/europes-rivers-run-dry-as-scientists-warn-drought-could-be-worst-in-500-years By Jon Henley , The Guardian.  Excerpt: In places, the Loire can now be crossed on foot; France’s longest river has never flowed so slowly. The Rhine is fast becoming  impassable to barge traffic . In Italy, the  Po is 2 metres lower than normal , crippling crops. Serbia is dredging the Danube. Across  Europe , drought is reducing once-mighty rivers to trickles, with potentially dramatic consequences for industry, freight, energy and food production – just as supply shortages and price rises due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine bite. Driven by climate breakdown, an unusually dry winter and spring followed by record-breaking summer temperatures and repeated heatwaves have left Europe’s essential waterways under-replenished and, increasingly, overheated. With no significant rainfall recorded for almost two months across western, central and southern Europe and

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/12/climate/biden-climate-bill-young-activists.html By  Lisa Friedman  and  Coral Davenport , The New York Times.  Excerpt: WASHINGTON — For the septuagenarian lawmakers who wrote the historic climate bill that Congress passed on Friday, and the 79-year-old president who is about to sign it into law, the measure represents a “once in a generation” victory. But younger Democrats and climate activists crave more. They look at the bill as a down payment, and they worry a complacent electorate will believe Washington has at last solved climate change — when in fact scientists warn it has only taken the first necessary steps. “This bill is not the bill that my generation deserves and needs to fully avert climate catastrophe, but it is the one that we can pass, given how much power we have at this moment,” said Varshini Prakash, 29, who co-founded the Sunrise Movement, a youth-led climate activism group. Christina Tzintzun Ramirez, 40, president of  NextGen Ame

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/11/america-summer-floods-rainfall-climate-crisis By Oliver Milman , The Guardian.  Excerpt: An entire building and roads washed away by raging waters in Yellowstone. People desperately swimming from their homes in St Louis. Dozens dead after torrential downpours in Kentucky. The summer of 2022 has been one of extreme floods in the US, with scientists warning the climate crisis is worsening the devastation. The deadliest of the recent barrage of floods, in Kentucky, was described as “heartbreaking” by Joe Biden as he  surveyed  ruined houses and inundated cars on Monday. At least 37 people died after five days of pounding record rain washed down mountainsides and drowned entire towns, an event that scientists say is a once in 1,000 year occurrence. Such extremes are no longer such outliers, however, with St Louis breaking its one-day rainfall record by  8am on 26 July , swamping city streets and houses, a disaster  quickly followed by a simi

https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-022-00498-3 By  Mika Rantanen ,  Alexey Yu. Karpechko ,  Antti Lipponen ,  Kalle Nordling ,  Otto Hyvärinen ,  Kimmo Ruosteenoja ,  Timo Vihma  &  Ari Laaksonen , Nature.  Excerpt: In recent decades, the warming in the Arctic has been much faster than in the rest of the world, a phenomenon known as Arctic amplification. Numerous studies report that the Arctic is warming either twice, more than twice, or even three times as fast as the globe on average. Here we show, by using several observational datasets which cover the Arctic region, that during the last 43 years the Arctic has been warming nearly four times faster than the globe, which is a higher ratio than generally reported in literature. ...we caution that referring to Arctic warming as to being twice as fast as the global warming, as frequently stated in literature, is a clear underestimation of the situation during the last 43 years since the start of the satellite observations. At a

https://eos.org/research-spotlights/how-wildfires-affect-snow-in-the-american-west By  Saima May Sidik , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: Fresh powder does more than support  winter sports . Snowmelt flows into streams, where it helps sustain  agriculture , supports natural ecosystems, and provides drinking water. But wildfires are threatening snowpacks, and research on wildfire’s impact on  snow water equivalent  generally focuses on localized areas, with varying methods and conflicting results. Now,  Giovando and Niemann   set about rectifying this situation with data from the  Snow Telemetry system, or SNOTEL , which uses automated sensors to measure snow depth and other aspects of weather at hundreds of sites around the western United States. The researchers compared 45 burned SNOTEL sites to similar unburned sites. They found that when burned regions were at their snowiest, they obtained, on average, 13% less water from snow than their unburned counterparts. Snow melted completely 9 days earlie

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/10/climate/climate-protesters-paid-activists.html By Cara Buckley , The New York Times.  Excerpt: They’ve taken hammers to gas pumps and  glued themselves  to museum masterpieces and busy roadways. They’ve chained themselves to banks, rushed onto a  Grand Prix   racetrack and tethered themselves to goal posts as tens of thousands of British soccer fans jeered. The activists who undertook these worldwide acts of disruption during the last year said that they were desperate to convey the urgency of the climate crisis and that the most effective way to do so was in public, blockading oil terminals and upsetting normal activities. They also share a surprising financial lifeline: heirs to two American families that became fabulously rich from oil. ...Aileen Getty, whose grandfather created Getty Oil, helped found the Climate Emergency Fund and has given it $1 million so far. The Equation Campaign started in 2020 with a $30 million pledge, to be distributed o

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/10/red-tide-citizen-scientists-toxic-algal-blooms By Lena Beck , The Guardian.  Excerpt: ‘Red tides’ are an annual hazard in Florida and other coastal areas but a monitoring project can help limit harm to humans. ...As climate change brings warming ocean waters,  predictions  of a dangerous phenomenon known as “red tide” are on the rise. ...Red tides occur when warming waters and other factors spur the growth of a type of rust-colored alga known as  Karenia brevis . The alga produces toxic compounds that  are harmful  to humans as well as dolphins, manatees, shellfish and other sea life. Exposure to the organism can cause respiratory illnesses and other problems for people who are exposed, and, in rare occasions, be  debilitating or even fatal . ...In an effort to address the threat, last year the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) launched the  Red Tide Respiratory Forecast , an online map that shows the presence and se

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/10/world/americas/colombia-big-oil-united-nations.html By  Sarah Hurtes  and  Julie Turkewitz , The New York Times.  Excerpt: RESGUARDO BUENAVISTA, Colombia — At the edge of the Colombian Amazon, in an Indigenous village surrounded by oil rigs, the Siona people faced a dilemma. The United Nations Development Program, or U.N.D.P., had just announced a $1.9 million regional aid package. In a village with no running water, intermittent electricity and persistent poverty, any money would mean food and opportunity. But the aid program was part of a partnership between the United Nations agency and GeoPark, the multinational petroleum company. The company holds contracts to drill near the Siona reservation, including one with the government that would expand operations onto what the Siona consider their ancestral land. To the Siona people on the Buenavista reservation, oil drilling is an assault, akin to draining blood from the earth. This collaboration is one

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2022/08/chips-act-climate-bill-biden/671095/ By Robinson Meyer , The Atlantic.  Excerpt: No, I’m not talking about the Inflation Reduction Act, the landmark Democratic climate and taxes bill that  passed the Senate  on Sunday along party lines. I’m talking about a  different  piece of legislation:  The CHIPS and Science Act . Since it sailed through Congress last month, the CHIPS Act has mostly been touted as a $280 billion effort to revitalize the American semiconductor industry. What has attracted far less attention is that the law also invests tens of billions of dollars in technologies and new research that matter in the fight against climate change. Over the next five years, the CHIPS Act could direct an estimated $67 billion, or roughly a quarter of its total funding, toward accelerating the growth of zero-carbon industries and conducting climate-relevant research, according to an analysis from RMI, a nonpartisan energy think tank base