Posts

Threads of Earth’s Underground Fungal Networks Are Long Enough to Reach Beyond the Solar System

By -
By Wyatt Myskow , Inside Climate News.  Excerpt: For the first time ever, researchers have quantified the length and mass of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal networks globally and mapped the ecosystems where they are densest. Hidden underground around the world lie 110 quadrillion kilometers of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal networks—webs of ultra-thin threads that, if connected in a single line, would stretch almost a billion times the distance between the Earth and the sun, according to new research published in Science on Thursday. These fungal communities form intimate relationships with the roots of plants, which they provide with nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen in exchange for carbon, 1 billion tons of which the networks sequester underground annually, previous research has found. If the fungal network wasn’t storing it, that carbon would be warming the atmosphere. But those networks have never been mapped globally until now. The new study led by Society for the Protectio...
Read more

An Old Well Gushed Waste, Not Oil, in a Small West Texas Town

By -
By Martha Pskowski , Inside Climate News.  Excerpt: The Railroad Commission of Texas shut down injection wells to control a leak in a church parking lot. But 1.5 million gallons of toxic wastewater still spilled to the surface. ...The state regulator, the Railroad Commission, spent $1.49 million plugging the leak and another $1.16 million disposing of the wastewater back underground. By early June, crews had stopped the flow and plugged the wellbore....  Full article at https://insideclimatenews.org/news/11062026/texas-oil-well-leaks-million-of-gallons-of-toxic-wastewater/ . 
Read more

The ocean current that warms Europe may be more resilient than feared

By -
By Paul Voosen, Science.  Excerpt: After decades of warnings, new data suggest the Atlantic’s vital circulation may withstand climate warming better than feared. ...Climate models have long warned that global warming could weaken “deep-water formation”—the density-driven sinking that is the engine of the AMOC [Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation]. The logic is straightforward: As Greenland’s ice sheets melt and sea ice formation declines, North Atlantic waters will freshen. Combined with warmer sea temperatures, the freshening makes surface waters more buoyant. The AMOC was thought to have shut down abruptly during past climate warmings, and a handful of researchers now argue such a tipping point could occur this century. ...Yet for all the alarming headlines, most climate researchers think the AMOC is more resilient than these worst case scenarios make it seem. Emerging evidence suggests the AMOC may not have actually collapsed in the warm climates following ice ages. More...
Read more

Human-caused sea level rise drives 21st-century worldwide water level extremes

By -
By Daniel M. Gilford , et al, Science.  Abstract: The rate and impacts of sea level rise vary considerably around the world, but the contribution of human-caused climate change to increases in local and regional flood risks has not yet been systematically explored. ...we quantify human-caused climate change’s contributions to sea level rise at worldwide locations using budget-based and semiempirical model methods. Results show that human-caused sea level rise is quantifiable at 97% of 519 tide gauge sites and is responsible for 58% (44 to 65%) of the observed daily extreme water level exceedances over 2000–2018. On average, human-caused sea level rise has caused a near-tripling in the number of days with attributable exceedances since the 1970s....  Full article at https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adz3595 .   See also Nature article, Human-driven sea-level rise has quadrupled the frequency of coastal sea-level extremes since 1900 . 
Read more

Driven by Steel Production, China’s Belt and Road Construction Carries a Heavy Climate Cost

By -
By Phil McKenna , Inside Climate News.  Excerpt: China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the world’s largest ongoing infrastructure program, has a substantial climate impact. More than half its emissions stem from steel, the majority of which was produced in China. ...More than 130 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions are tied to the construction of transportation, energy, building and water projects that were part of China’s Belt and Road international development initiative from 2008 to 2024, according to a study published Monday in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. ...The Belt and Road Initiative is China’s trillion-dollar development effort designed to help expand Beijing’s global influence. ...Carbon-intensive steel accounted for 53 percent of the projects’ total emissions, according to the study. ...China produces more than half of all steel worldwide, and its manufacturing accounts for approximately 15 percent of the country’s total carbon dioxide...
Read more

Laboring Under Delhi’s Harsh Heat, Workers Must Choose Health or Wages

By -
By Pragati K.B. and Anupreeta Das , The New York Times.  Excerpt: Severe heat waves have been hitting India since April, forcing many of the country’s essential workers to make tough decisions. ...For millions of workers like Mr. Rastogi — wage laborers, construction workers, street vendors, delivery drivers — the scorching summer in New Delhi often forces them into a bitter trade-off between health and income. They keep the machinery of this city running, and they are among the most susceptible to its harshest conditions. ...On the hottest days, the surface temperature of the ground can reach 140 degrees, according to the Center for Science and Environment, a New Delhi-based think tank. That is when tarmac starts to soften and barefoot workers risk blistering their feet....  Full article at https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/06/world/asia/india-heat-workers-health-income.html . 
Read more

Trump invokes Defense Production Act to keep U.S. coal plants running

By -
By Dan Vergano , Scientific American.  Excerpt: At a White House briefing on Thursday, President Donald Trump invoked a national defense law to steer nearly $700 million to support coal power plants and exports. Trump aims to use the 1950 Defense Production Act to refurbish 13 coal plants , build two new ones and establish a West Coast coal export facility in the U.S.—even as many coal plants around the country are retiring and the fossil fuel is in long-term decline....  Full article at https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trump-invokes-defense-production-act-to-keep-u-s-coal-plants-running/ .  See also WIRED article, China Opens World’s First Wind-Powered Underwater Data Center , and Gizmodo article, America's Solar Just Hit a Critical Milestone That Won't Make Trump Happy ...solar overtook coal power generation in the U.S. electricity mix for the first month on record in May, according to an analysis published Wednesday by the energy think tank Ember.... 
Read more