https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/31/climate/climate-change-carbon-capture-ccs.html By David Gelles , The New York Times.  Excerpt: On a windswept Icelandic plateau, an international team of engineers and executives is powering up an innovative machine designed to alter the very composition of Earth’s atmosphere. If all goes as planned, the enormous vacuum will soon be sucking up vast quantities of air, stripping out carbon dioxide and then locking away those greenhouse gases deep underground in ancient stone — greenhouse gases that would otherwise continue heating up the globe. ...Global temperatures are now expected to rise as much as 4 degrees Celsius, or more than 7 degrees Fahrenheit, by the end of the century. That has given new weight to what some people call geoengineering, though that term has become so contentious its proponents now prefer the term “climate interventions.” ...Many of the projects are controversial. A plant similar to the one in Iceland, but far larger, is being

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ado8276 By ROSE M. MUTISO , Science.  Excerpt: When Buti Manamela  visited  Lengau, one of Africa’s fastest supercomputers, he had more prosaic technology in mind: electricity. South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology was at the Center for High Performance Computing in Cape Town for what should have been a showcase tour of a facility providing the country with the computing power needed to run and analyze the kinds of complex models and huge datasets that underpin artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). But Manamela was there to better understand the impact of South Africa’s  rolling power blackouts  on the center’s operations. Lengau, which means “cheetah” in Setswana, is one of the most important outposts in Africa’s AI infrastructure landscape; yet, it is struggling to operate at full capacity because of unreliable power. ...I’ve written before on the following connection:  no power, no int

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi7735 By DANIEL H. CUSWORTH   et al, Science.  Abstract: Methane emissions from solid waste may represent a substantial fraction of the global anthropogenic budget, but few comprehensive studies exist to assess inventory assumptions. We quantified emissions at hundreds of large landfills across 18 states in the United States between 2016 and 2022 using airborne imaging spectrometers. Spanning 20% of open United States landfills, this represents the most systematic measurement-based study of methane point sources of the waste sector. We detected significant point source emissions at a majority (52%) of these sites, many with emissions persisting over multiple revisits (weeks to years). We compared these against independent contemporaneous in situ airborne observations at 15 landfills and established good agreement. Our findings indicate a need for long-term, synoptic-scale monitoring of landfill emissions in the context of climate change mit

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/27032024/sea-level-rise-flooding-coastal-cities/ By Moriah McDonald , Inside Climate News.  Excerpt: In the affected cities, as many as 500,000 people and one in every 35 properties could be impacted by the flooding, and communities of color face disproportionate effects. Flooding could affect one out of every 50 residents in 24 coastal cities in the United States by the year 2050, a study led by Virginia Tech researchers suggests. The study, published this month in  Nature , shows how the combination of land subsidence—in this case, the sinking of shoreline terrain—and rising sea levels can lead to the flooding of coastal areas sooner than previously anticipated by research that had focused primarily on sea level rise scenarios. ...The study combines measurements of land subsidence obtained from satellites with sea level rise projections and tide charts, offering a more holistic projection of potential flooding risks in 32 cities located along the At

https://www.science.org/content/article/startups-aim-curb-climate-change-pulling-carbon-dioxide-ocean-not-air By ROBERT F. SERVICE , Science.  Excerpt: ...one long gray barge docked at the [Port of Los Angeles] is doing its part to combat climate change. On the barge, which belongs to Captura, a Los Angeles–based startup, is a system of pipes, pumps, and containers that ingests seawater and sucks out CO 2 , which can be used to make plastics and fuels or buried. The decarbonated seawater is returned to the ocean, where it absorbs more CO 2  from the atmosphere, in a small strike against the inexorable rise of the greenhouse gas. After a yearlong experiment with the barge, which is designed to capture 100 tons of CO 2  per year, Captura is planning to open a 1000-ton-per-year facility later this year in Norway that will bury the captured CO 2  in rock formations under the North Sea. Equatic, another Los Angeles–based startup, is launching an even larger 3650-ton-per-year ocean CO 2  cap

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/26032024/permian-basin-methane-flaring/ By Martha Pskowski , Inside Climate News.  Excerpt: As the new federal methane rule enters the home stretch, stranded gas in the Permian Basin could contribute to more flaring this year. [Sharon] Wilson documented widespread flaring, venting and other methane releases during a week in the Texas Permian Basin this month. Natural gas prices in the Permian Basin fell below zero during March. When natural gas prices are low, companies are more likely to vent or flare methane. Pipeline capacity to transport the gas out of the Permian Basin is currently limited, which can also result in more flaring. That’s bad news for efforts to fight climate change. Natural gas is mostly made up of methane and the Permian Basin is the single-largest source of methane emissions in the U.S. oil and gas industry. As a greenhouse gas, methane is about 80 times more potent at warming the atmosphere than carbon dioxide over a 20-year per

https://climateworks.org/press-release/statement-on-the-historic-6-billion-for-industrial-decarbonization-in-the-u-s/ By ClimateWorks Foundation .  Excerpt: Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) took a huge step to accelerate  industrial decarbonization  and transform polluting heavy industries to clean production. The $6 billion investment is the largest ever made in industrial climate solutions. ...In the U.S., the industrial sector emits  30% of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions . This funding will accelerate emissions reductions in all of the most polluting industries: steel, cement, chemicals, aluminum, and food processing. The new technologies that come out of these investments will be used across the country and around the world. In addition, heavy industry is a leading cause of health-harming air and water pollution. Many of the projects receiving DOE funding will also dramatically reduce this pollution and improve the health of all Americans.... 

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/sustainable-finance-reporting/us-awards-record-6-bln-back-industrial-emissions-reduction-projects-2024-03-25/ By Andrea Shalal  and  David Shepardson , Reuters.  Excerpt: The U.S. Energy Department on Monday announced $6 billion in federal funding to subsidize 33 industrial projects in 20 states to cut carbon emissions, saying the investment would support well-paying union jobs and boost U.S. competitiveness. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm will unveil the awards during a visit to a Cleveland-Cliffs Steel Corp  (CLF.N), opens new tab  facility in Middletown, Ohio, which will receive up to $500 million to install two new electric arc furnaces and hydrogen-based technology to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1 million tons. ...Together, the projects are expected to eliminate 14 million metric tons of pollution each year, equivalent to taking some 3 million gas-powered vehicles off the road, she said. The Portland Cement Association, an industry

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/22/travel/texas-big-bend-rio-grande-boat.html Daniel Modlin , The New York Times.  Excerpt: The Rio Grande is in peril: Its  water is being depleted by farmers and cities , while a  climate-change-induced   megadrought  that has desiccated the American Southwest for more than two decades is threatening hopes of its recovery. In 2022, the river  ran dry in Albuquerque  for the first time in four decades. In the same year, the picturesque Santa Elena Canyon, one of the most popular sights in Big Bend, also  ran dry  for the first time in at least 15 years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. ...For the West Texan river guides, it’s simply another precarious reality of life in the Chihuahuan Desert. “In my lifetime, I expect river trips to no longer be feasible,” said Charlie Angell of  Angell Expeditions , a tour guide service based in Redford, Texas. ...“We think the river has changed, but really, we have changed the river,”

https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/03/19/the-heat-index-how-hot-it-feels-is-rising-faster-than-temperature By Robert Sanders , Berkeley News.  Excerpt: Texans have long endured scorching summer temperatures, so a global warming increase of about 3 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 Celsius) might not sound like much to worry about. But a new study concludes that the heat index — essentially how hot it really feels — has increased much faster in Texas than has the measured temperature: about three times faster. That means that on some extreme days, what the temperature feels like is between 8 and 11 F (5 to 6 C) hotter than it would without climate change. The study, using Texas data from June, July and August of 2023, highlights a problem with communicating the dangers of rising temperatures to the public. The temperature alone does not accurately reflect the heat stress people feel. Even the heat index itself, which takes into account the relative humidity and thus the capacity to cool off by sweati

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/19/world/asia/afghanistan-drought-photos-climate-change.html By Lynsey Addario  and  Victoria Kim , The New York Times.  Excerpt: In a country especially vulnerable to climate change, a drought has displaced entire villages and left millions of children malnourished.... 

https://nature.berkeley.edu/news/2024/03/not-my-backyard-wind-turbines-have-little-effect-us-property-values By Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research .  Excerpt: The values of houses in the United States within a wind turbine’s viewshed drop only slightly and temporarily due to the disrupted view, a new study published today in the  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences  (PNAS) shows. The effect is smaller the further away the recently installed turbines are and fades over time. ...“The impact of wind turbines on house prices is much smaller than generally feared: In the U.S., it’s about one percent for a house that has at least one wind turbine in a 10 km radius,” explains  Maximilian Auffhammer , a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ARE) at the University of California, Berkeley and co-author of the study. ...scientists from the German  Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research  (PIK), the  Italian Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Ca

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/18/science/renewable-energy-storage-climate.html By Amos Zeeberg , The New York Times.  Excerpt: Central Sardinia ...in Ottana, ..., a new technology is taking shape that might help the world slow climate change. ...Energy Dome, a start-up based in Milan, runs an energy-storage demonstration plant that helps to address a mismatch in the local electricity market. ...Energy Dome uses carbon dioxide held in a huge balloon... as a kind of battery. During the day, electricity from the local grid, some produced by nearby fields of solar cells, is used to compress the carbon dioxide into liquid. At night, the liquid carbon dioxide is expanded back into gas, which drives a turbine and produces electricity that is sent back to the grid....

https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/home-insurance-wildfire-risk-19021575.php   By Megan Fan Munce , San Francisco Chronicle.  Excerpt: A newly proposed regulation aims to draw  insurers  back to the state by allowing them to anticipate future  wildfire risks  when raising their rates. The proposed rule change...would allow companies to submit catastrophe models for  wildfires , floods and terrorism to the California Department of Insurance for approval. If approved, insurers could then use predictions from those models when requesting rate hikes for commercial or homeowners insurance.... 

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/15/climate/tax-breaks-oil-gas-us.html By Lisa Friedman , The New York Times.  Excerpt: As a candidate in 2020, Joseph R. Biden Jr. campaigned to end billions of dollars in annual tax breaks to oil and gas companies within his first year in office. It’s a pledge he has been unable to keep as president. ...Mr. Biden’s wish is opposed by the oil industry, Republicans in Congress and a handful of Democrats. ...The oil and gas industry enjoys nearly a dozen tax breaks, including incentives for domestic production and write-offs tied to foreign production. ...The Fossil Fuel Subsidy Tracker, run by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, calculated the total to be about $14 billion in 2022. ...The oldest, known as “intangible drilling costs,” was created by the Revenue Act of 1913 and was aimed at encouraging the development of U.S. resources. The deduction allows companies to write off as much as 80 percent of the costs of drilling, .... An

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/09/climate/amazon-rainforest-fires.html By Ana Ionova and  Manuela Andreoni , The New York Times.  Excerpt: By this time of the year, rain should be drenching large swaths of the Amazon rainforest. Instead, a punishing drought has kept the rains at bay, creating dry conditions for fires that have engulfed hundreds of square miles of the rainforest that do not usually burn. ...The fires in the Amazon, which reaches across nine South American nations, are the result of an extreme drought fueled by climate change, experts said. ...If deforestation,  fires and climate change continue to worsen , large stretches of the forest could transform into grasslands or weakened ecosystems in the coming decades. That, scientists say, would trigger a collapse that could send up to 20 years’ worth of global carbon emissions into the atmosphere, an enormous blow to the struggle to contain climate change.... 

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/07/australia/mass-coral-bleaching-event-great-barrier-reef-intl-hnk-scn/index.html By Helen Regan , CNN.  Excerpt: Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is suffering another  mass bleaching event , the reef’s managers confirmed Friday, the result of soaring ocean temperatures caused by the global climate crisis and amplified by  El Niño . This is the seventh mass bleaching event to hit the vast, ecologically important but fragile site and the fifth in only eight years.... 

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adj5763 By Erin Saupe, Cooper Malanoski, et al, Science.  Excerpt: A polar bear floating on a tiny piece of sea ice has become the iconic image of the extinction risks of climate change. But not all threats to species from our warming planet are so easy to see. That’s why paleobiologist Erin Saupe, Ph.D. student Cooper Malanoski, and their colleagues turned to the fossil record. By understanding which species fell victim to climactic fluctuations in the past, they aimed to get a better sense of which organisms might be most vulnerable now. “Despite the threat that climate change poses to biodiversity, we do not yet fully understand how it causes animals to go extinct,” Saupe and Malanoski  explain in an article for  The Conversation . So, the team examined data from nearly 300,000 marine invertebrate fossils from the last 485 million years, using statistics to examine how traits of the animals and their environment link to their likelihood o

https://eos.org/features/can-the-belt-and-road-go-green ]  By Mark Betancourt , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: China’s global infrastructure investments could tip the scales on climate change, but its relationship with partner countries is complicated. ...The  Cauchari Solar Plant , which came online in 2019, can generate up to 300 megawatts of power at a time, making it the largest solar park in South America. ...China has emerged as a dominant force behind Argentina’s engineering infrastructure, partly because Western banks have been hesitant to support the country, .... China, on the other hand, has poured more than  $26 billion  into Argentina’s infrastructure since 2005. ...the  Belt and Road Initiative  (BRI) ...Xi announced that  China would no longer build new coal power plants abroad , signaling a major shift to green infrastructure that could bend billions of dollars toward slowing climate change. ...It remains to be seen how aggressively China will pursue renewable power, but  more tha

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/06/climate/sea-level-rise-east-coast-sinking-land-flooding.html By Mira Rojanasakul , The New York Times.  Excerpt: A new study of sea-level rise using detailed data on changes to land elevation found that current scientific models may not accurately capture vulnerabilities in 32 coastal cities in the United States. The analysis , published Wednesday in Nature, uses satellite imagery to detect sinking and rising land to help paint a more precise picture of exposure to flooding both today and in the future. Nearly 40 percent of Americans live along the coasts, where subsidence, or sinking land, can add significantly to the threat of sea-level rise. While the Gulf Coast experiences many of the most severe cases of subsidence — parts of Galveston, Texas, and Grand Isle, La., are slumping into the ocean faster than global average sea levels are rising — the trend can be found all along the United States shoreline.... 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/06/increase-fossil-fuel-pollution-health-risk-report By Carey Gillam , The Guardian.  Excerpt: Chemical pollution tied to fossil fuel operations poses serious risks to human health, warns a new analysis  published  in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday. Citing data from dozens of studies, the report points to an alarming rise in neurodevelopmental issues, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, and certain cancers in young people taking place amid what the paper’s author calls “explosive growth” in the petrochemical industry. Between 1990 and 2019, rates of certain cancers in people under 50  increased dramatically . Meanwhile, fossil fuel use and petrochemical production have increased fifteen-fold since the 1950s, according to the report.... 

https://www.science.org/content/article/anthropocene-dead-long-live-anthropocene By PAUL VOOSEN , Science.  Excerpt: ...a panel of two dozen geologists has voted down a proposal to end the Holocene—our current span of geologic time, which began 11,700 years ago at the end of the last ice age—and inaugurate a new epoch, the Anthropocene. ...Few opponents of the Anthropocene proposal doubted the enormous impact that human influence, including climate change, is having on the planet. But some felt the proposed marker of the epoch—some 10 centimeters of mud from  Canada’s Crawford Lake  that captures the global surge in fossil fuel burning, fertilizer use, and atomic bomb fallout that began in the 1950s—isn’t definitive enough. ...The Anthropocene backers will now have to wait for a decade before their proposal can be considered again. ICS has long instituted this mandatory cooling-off period, given how furious debates can turn, for example, over the boundary between the Pliocene and Pleis

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/03/travel/chamonix-france-glaciers-climate-change.html   By Paige McClanahan , The New York Times.  Excerpt: ...The term last-chance tourism, which  has gained traction  in the past two decades, describes the impulse to visit threatened places before they disappear.  Studies   have   found  that the appeal of the disappearing can be a powerful motivator. But in many cases, the presence of tourists at a fragile site can accelerate the place’s demise.... 

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/02/climate/heat-pumps-maine-electrification.html By Cara Buckley , The New York Times.  Excerpt: Unlike a space heater, a heat pump extracts heat from outside air, even in subzero temperatures, and then runs it through a compressor, which makes it even hotter, before pumping it indoors. In the summer, it can operate in reverse, pulling heat from inside a building and pumping it outside, cooling the indoor spaces. In 2023 heat pumps  outsold gas furnaces  in the United States for the second year running, a climate win. Electrical heat pumps are the  cheapest and most energy efficient  ways to heat and cool homes, and they do not emit the carbon pollution that is overheating the planet. No state has adopted them faster than Maine. That northeastern place of hardy types and snowbound winters is quickly going electric, installing electric heat pumps three times faster than the national average, according to Rewiring America , a nonprofit that promotes widesp