[ https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2021/08/30/technology-advancement-and-value-of-wind-energy/ ] Source: By Berkeley Lab News Release  Media Relations . Excerpt: Wind energy continues to see strong growth, solid performance, and low prices in the U.S., according to a report released by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and prepared by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). With levelized costs of just over $30 per megawatt-hour (MWh) for newly built projects, the cost of wind is well below its grid-system, health, and climate benefits. “Wind energy prices ­– ­particularly in the central United States, and supported by federal tax incentives – remain low, with utilities and corporate buyers selecting wind as a low-cost option,” said Berkeley Lab Senior Scientist Ryan Wiser. “Considering the health and climate benefits of wind energy makes the economics even better.” Key findings from the DOE’s annual “Land-Based Wind Market Report” include: Wind comprises a growing share ...

[ https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/27/sunday-review/colorado-river-drying-up.html ] Source: By Abrahm Lustgarten , The New York Times.  Excerpt: Lake Mead, a reservoir formed by the construction of the Hoover Dam in the 1930s, is one of the most important pieces of infrastructure on the Colorado River, supplying fresh water to Nevada, California, Arizona and Mexico. The reservoir hasn’t been full since 1983. In 2000, it began a steady decline caused by epochal drought. ...Like the record-breaking heat waves and the ceaseless mega-fires, the decline of the Colorado River has been faster than expected. This year, even though rainfall and snowpack high up in the Rocky Mountains were at near-normal levels, the parched soils and plants stricken by intense heat absorbed much of the water, and inflows to Lake Powell were around one-fourth of their usual amount. The Colorado’s flow has already declined by nearly 20 percent, on average, from its flow throughout the 1900s, and if the current ...

https://eos.org/research-spotlights/amazon-deforestation-and-fires-are-a-hazard-to-public-health Source: By Elizabeth Thompson , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: Deforestation in the Amazon has dropped since the early 2000s, but it is slowly climbing again. A new study shows the impact of that climb on public health—and how much worse conditions could be.…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/08/23/tennessee-floods-show-pressing-climate-danger-across-america-wall-water Source: By Sarah Kaplan , The Washington Post.  Excerpt: ... More than 17 inches of rain  fell in a single day on Saturday, overtopping the region’s many rivers and submerging places not previously considered floodplains within a matter of hours. ...At least 21 people are dead, hundreds of homes are in shambles and the wreckage of people’s lives is strewn across the landscape. ... Tennessee’s flash floods  underscore the peril climate change poses even in inland areas, where people once thought themselves immune. A warmer atmosphere that holds more water, combined with rapid development and crumbling infrastructure, is turning once-rare disasters into common occurrences. Yet Americans, who often associate global warming with melting glaciers and intense heat, are not prepared for the coming deluge.…

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/20/climate/greenland-rain-ice-sheet.html Source: By Henry Fountain , The New York Times.  Excerpt: The showers are another troubling sign of a changing Arctic, which is warming faster than any other region on Earth.…

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/08/massive-volcanoes-could-cool-earth-more-warming-world By  Paul Voosen , Science Magazine.  Excerpt: ...Before humanity started in on its planet-altering course, volcanoes were one of the biggest climate players. Over the long term, they belched carbon dioxide from Earth’s interior, causing warming. But in the short term, their sulfur gases often react with water to form highly reflective particles called sulfates, triggering spells of global cooling. Dark smudges of ash littering ice cores—our best evidence of these early eruptions—are a dim reflection of the wild weather left in their wake. But the opposite is also true, it turns out: Climate can have a big impact on volcanoes. In the new study, Thomas Aubry, a geophysicist at the University of Cambridge, and colleagues combined computer simulations of idealized volcanic eruptions with a global climate model. They simulated the response to plumes released from midsize and large volcanoe...

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/17/science/lasers-fusion-power-watts-earth.html Source: By Kenneth Chang , The New York Times.  Excerpt: Scientists have come tantalizingly close to reproducing the power of the sun — albeit only in a speck of hydrogen for a fraction of a second. Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory reported on Tuesday that by using 192 gigantic lasers to annihilate a pellet of hydrogen, they were able to ignite a burst of more than 10 quadrillion watts of fusion power — energy released when hydrogen atoms are fused into helium, the same process that occurs within stars. ...And all of the fusion energy emanated from a hot spot about as wide as a human hair, he said. ...But the burst — essentially a miniature hydrogen bomb — lasted only 100 trillionths of a second. Still, that spurred a burst of optimism for fusion scientists who have long hoped that fusion could someday provide a boundless, clean energy source for humanity.…

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/08/scientists-map-urban-heat-islands-and-track-how-communities-are-affected By  Anil Oza , Science Magazine.  Excerpt: Scientists have known about urban heat islands since the 1880s, when they noted temperatures in London were higher than in surrounding areas. Cities are typically warmer than their suburban and rural counterparts because they lack green spaces, which mitigate the heat radiated by human-built structures made from asphalt, concrete, and brick. New York is one of 12 cities participating in this year’s mapping campaign, which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has run for the past four summers in dozens of cities. The teams record morning, afternoon, and evening temperatures on one of the hottest days of the year. The goal is to identify areas with the greatest need for measures—like installing green roofs, operating cooling centers, and planting trees or other vegetation—that are designed to mitigate t...

[ https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/08/16/colorado-river-water-cuts-drought/ ] Source: By By Karin Brulliard  and  Joshua Partlow , The Washington Post .  Excerpt: ...Low water in the Colorado River’s largest reservoir triggered the first-ever federal declaration of a shortage on Monday, a bleak marker of the effects of climate change in the  drought-stricken American West  and the imperiled future of a critical water source for 40 million people in seven states. Water in Lake Mead, the  mammoth reservoir  created by the Hoover Dam that supplies the lower Colorado basin, is projected to be 1,065.85 feet above sea level on Jan. 1, nearly 10 feet below a threshold that requires Arizona, Nevada and Mexico to reduce their consumption in 2022. On Monday, it was  just under 1,068 feet , or about 35 percent full, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which manages the water that states and Mexico have rights to use. “We are seeing the eff...

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/08/climate-change-drying-out-many-part-time-streams-united-states By  Erik Stokstad , Science Magazine.  Excerpt: Small streams that dry up for part of the year are easy to overlook. But these intermittent streams are everywhere, making up more than half of Earth’s waterways. They help purify surface water and provide crucial habitat for creatures such as the Sonoran Desert toad, fairy shrimp, and Wilson’s warbler. Now, a study has found that ephemeral streams across the continental United States have become less reliable over the past 40 years, likely as a result of climate change. Some are dry for 100 days longer per year than in the 1980s....

https://eos.org/science-updates/wildfires-are-threatening-municipal-water-supplies By  Alex Tat-Shing Chow , Tanju Karanfil, and Randy A. Dahlgren, Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: Climate change is driving an increase in catastrophic wildfires; consumers see, smell, and taste the effects in their water. Water utilities must prepare for worse times ahead.…

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/11/business/energy-environment/california-solar-mandates.html Source: By  Ivan Penn , The New York Times.  Excerpt: LOS ANGELES — California regulators voted Wednesday to require builders to include solar power and battery storage in many new commercial structures as well as high-rise residential projects. It is the latest initiative in the state’s vigorous efforts to hasten a transition from fossil fuels to alternative energy sources....

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/08/big-step-forward-energy-expert-analyzes-new-us-infrastructure-bill By  Robert F. Service , Science Magazine.  Excerpt: The U.S. Senate yesterday passed legislation that calls for spending $1 trillion—including $550 billion in new funds—on improving the nation’s infrastructure. Most of the funding will go to upgrading transportation, water, and power infrastructure, as well as expanding broadband internet access. But the bill also includes some money for R&D, primarily for advancing clean energy technologies, including electric vehicles and efforts to trap carbon dioxide produced by power plants before it enters the atmosphere....

https://eos.org/articles/specifically-tailored-action-plans-combat-heat-waves-in-india Source: By Deepa Padmanaban, Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: The frequencies of heat waves and heat-induced mortality have soared in India. Now government agencies and research organizations are developing city-specific action plans to mitigate heat impacts.…

https://eos.org/research-spotlights/is-your-home-at-risk-of-experiencing-a-natural-disaster By  Sarah Derouin , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: In the contiguous United States, 57% of structures are at risk of experiencing at least one natural hazard—and risk is driven by greater development in hazardous areas against a backdrop of climate change.…

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/08/climate-change-unequivocal-and-unprecedented-says-new-un-report By  Cathleen O’Grady , Science Magazine.  Excerpt: The report paints an alarming picture but emphasizes there is still time for swift action to mitigate the worst of the projected impacts of climate change. ...Too much focus on targets like 1.5°C can backfire if they are seen as precipices beyond which there is no redemption, Tebaldi says: “People feel this sense of disempowerment.” The reality, she says, is that these targets sit on a continuum where “every little bit of warming counts.” For the first time, the report elaborates on the details of how each increment of warming is expected to play out in regional impacts and extreme events such as flooding, heat waves, droughts, and fire.... See also Eos/AGU article,  What Five Graphs from the U.N. Climate Report Reveal About Our Path to Halting Climate Change   and Climate Change and Extreme Weather Linked in U....

https://eos.org/articles/what-five-graphs-from-the-u-n-climate-report-reveal-about-our-path-to-halting-climate-change By  Jenessa Duncombe , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s first assessment report since 2013 describes two illustrative scenarios that keep warming below 2°C—and several others that go wildly offtrack. …The world has warmed 1.1°C compared to preindustrial levels.... Keeping warming below 2°C, and perhaps 1.5°C, is still possible; it’ll take immediate and sustained emissions cuts. ...Net zero carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) [emissions] is a requirement for any long-term climate solution. ...The two scenarios in the report that limit warming below 2°C use carbon removal from the atmosphere during the latter part of the century....

https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2021/08/09/latest-ipcc-report-points-to-urgent-need-to-cut-emissions/ Source: By  Julie Chao , Berkeley Lab News Center.  Excerpt: Our planet’s oceans, forests, and soils perform a valuable service, absorbing half of our carbon dioxide emissions. But the more that our planet warms, the more that these so-called “carbon sinks” weaken in their ability to perform this service. If we continue on our current trajectory of high emissions of greenhouse gases, by the next century not only will oceans and forests absorb less carbon dioxide, they could even reverse their role and become carbon sources. This is one of the key messages from Working Group I of the  Sixth Assessment Report  of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), released today. ...Reports from Working Groups II and III, which focus on adaptation and mitigation, respectively, will be out next spring. ...Another potent short-lived climate forcer is hydrofluorocarbons, or ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/08/05/change-ocean-collapse-atlantic-meridional/ Source: By  Sarah Kaplan , The Washington Post  Excerpt: Human-caused warming has led to an “almost complete loss of stability” in the system that drives Atlantic Ocean currents, a new study has found — raising the worrying prospect that this critical aquatic “conveyor belt” could be close to collapse. In recent years,  scientists have warned  about a weakening of the  Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation  (AMOC), which transports warm, salty water from the tropgulics to northern Europe and then sends colder water back south along the ocean floor. Researchers who study ancient climate change have also uncovered evidence that the AMOC can turn off abruptly, causing wild temperature swings and other dramatic shifts in global weather systems. ...But  the new analysis , published Thursday in the journal Nature Climate Change, draws on more than a...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/08/05/greenland-melt-event-season-2021/ Source: By  Kasha Patel , The Washington Post. [article has satellite images]  Excerpt: Last week, a heat wave spurred Greenland’s biggest melting event of the 2021 season so far. The Polar Portal, run by Danish research institutions,  stated  that enough water melted to cover all of Florida with two inches of water. ...Stendel noted that the amount of ice melted from this event contributed to global sea-level rise by roughly 0.1 millimeter and that it could also impact sea-level rise further down the line. “When ice from the ice sheet melts, the remaining ice is at lower altitudes and can therefore melt easier. Even if we stopped all emission of greenhouse gases today, the sea level would continue to rise for the next several hundreds of years,” Stendel wrote. “In other words, what happens now has a relevance for the future.”  

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03695-w.epdf Source: By  B Tellman ,  J A Sullivan ,  C Kuhn ,  A J Kettner ,  C S Doyle ,  G R Brakenridge ,  T A Erickson ,  D A Slayback , Nature Magazine.  Excerpt: [from Abstract] Flooding affects more people than any other environmental hazard and hinders sustainable development. ...Where and how floods occur and who is exposed are changing as a result of rapid urbanization, flood mitigation infrastructure and increasing settlements in floodplains. Previous estimates of the global flood-exposed population have been limited by a lack of observational data, relying instead on models, which have high uncertainty. Here we use daily satellite imagery at 250-metre resolution to estimate flood extent and population exposure for 913 large flood events from 2000 to 2018. We determine a total inundation area of 2.23 million square kilometres, with 255-290 million people directly affected by floods. We es...

Source: By  Lisa Friedman , The New York Times.  Excerpt: Under a draft plan Democrats are circulating, the Treasury Department would tax a handful of the biggest emitters of planet-warming pollution to pay for climate change....  [ https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/04/climate/tax-polluting-companies-climate.html ]  

Source: By  Christopher Flavelle , The New York Times.  Excerpt: For the first time, both parties have acknowledged — by their actions, if not their words — that the United States is unprepared for global warming and will need huge amounts of cash to cope....  [ https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/03/climate/infrastructure-bill-climate-preparation.html ]  

Source: By  Jack Ewing , The New York Times.  Excerpt: An electrified highway is theoretically the most efficient way to eliminate truck emissions. But the political obstacles are daunting. [photo] Overhead wires providing electricity to this truck cover three miles of highway south of Frankfurt. The idea is to test the system through everyday use by real trucking companies....  [ https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/03/business/electric-trucks-catenary-wire.html ] 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/08/02/climate-change-heat-wave-unleashes-methane-from-prehistoric-siberian-rock/ Source: By  Steven Mufson , The Washington Post.  Excerpt: A 2020 heat wave unleashed methane emissions from prehistoric limestone in two regions stretching 375 miles, study says. ...Scientists have long been worried about what many call “the methane bomb” — the potentially catastrophic release of methane from thawing wetlands in Siberia’s permafrost. But now a study by three geologists says that a heat wave in 2020 has revealed a surge in methane emissions “potentially in much higher amounts” from a different source: thawing rock formations in the Arctic permafrost. The difference is that thawing wetlands releases “microbial” methane from the decay of soil and organic matter, while thawing limestone — or carbonate rock — releases hydrocarbons and gas hydrates from reservoirs both below and within the permafrost, making it “much more dangerou...