https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/interactive/2021/climate-change-military-emissions-security/ By  Michael Birnbaum , The Washington Post.  Excerpt: [Richard] Nugee was a three-star general at the peak of his career, after a long string of deployments in the world’s conflict zones, including Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan. ...in the final fight of his military life, he decided to take on one of the wiliest adversaries: climate change. Militaries are both enormous emitters and facing fearsome new conflicts sparked by global warming. Nugee resolved to fight a lonely battle to address both problems. ...Fighting a war burns prodigious quantities of fossil fuels. The Pentagon, by some counts, is the world’s largest institutional consumer of oil. ...He assembled a step-by-step plan to slash military emissions and prepare the armed forces for a hotter planet. Wars may be fought over access to water. Millions could be forced to migrate because of extreme weath

https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2021/12/27/greta-thunberg-state-climate-movement-roots-her-power-an-activist/ Interview by KK Ottesen, The Washington Post.  Excerpt: ... You called  COP26  a “ failure ” and a “PR event.” Well, in the final document, they succeeded in even watering down the blah, blah, blah. ... What do you mean when you say, “watering down the blah, blah, blah”? As we all know, or as we might know, the so-called “f-word” was included for the first time in this document: fossil fuel. Which makes you wonder what they have been doing these decades without even mentioning fossil fuels for a problem which, to a very, very large extent, is caused by fossil fuels. And instead of “phasing out” [coal, the document’s language became] “phasing down.” So, yeah, that is one very clear example.…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2021/mexico-fertilizer-nitrous-oxide-emissions/ By  Joshua Partlow  and  Chris Mooney , The Washington Post.  Excerpt: ...scientists who have studied this valley for decades know that ...when water mixes with nitrogen fertilizer, and when no crop is in the ground to absorb it — huge surges of nitrous oxide gas are released into the atmosphere.…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/12/18/nuclear-energy-climate-france-germany/ By  Rick Noack , The Washington Post.  Excerpt: The French government wants to build reactors. The German government wants to shut them down. ...“For the first time in decades,” Macron said in the televised speech, France “will relaunch the construction of nuclear reactors.” Fessenheim had just begun to come to terms with the closure of its nuclear plant last year, in what the government had said was a “ first step ” in a “rebalancing” of energy sources. But while Macron remains committed to increasing investments in wind and solar energy, and to putting an end to the burning of coal, his remarks in November confirmed that France isn’t giving up on nuclear technology, its primary source of energy. ...The new German economy and climate minister, Green party member Robert Habeck, was  among the politicians who signed  a statement celebrating the closure of the Fessenheim plant. The German government ha

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/interactive/2021/amsterdam-floating-houses-schoonschip/ By  Shira Rubin , The Washington Post.  Excerpt: ...the technology already exists to make floating urban development a solution for the world’s densely populated waterfront cities that are grappling with rising sea levels and the accelerating impacts of climate change. ...In the waterlogged Netherlands — a country that’s a third below sea level and two-thirds flood-prone — floating homes are the latest in a centuries-long experiment in contending with water.…

https://eos.org/articles/projection-110-billion-in-repairs-for-russian-pipelines-on-permafrost By  Jenessa Duncombe , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: One of the world’s biggest producers of oil and gas may face billions in upgrades as permafrost thaw destabilizes pipelines in the Arctic, according to new research. Russia produces 80% of its natural gas in the Arctic, where rising temperatures are thawing ground that has been frozen for tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands of years. “ ...Most Russian pipelines are underground, making them particularly vulnerable to shifting soil. ...The ground beneath gas pipelines may subside up to half a meter in places over the next 20 years, according to the group’s permafrost projections. A soil slump of even 10 centimeters can be enough to inflict damage on pipelines. ...The costs add up: If emissions stay the same, cumulative costs will reach US$110 billion (8.1 trillion rubles) by 2040. Repairs to natural gas pipelines during that time could riv

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/12/14/climate-change-arctic-antarctic-poles/ By  Sarah Kaplan , The Washington Post.  Excerpt: The ice shelf was cracking up. Surveys showed warm ocean water eroding its underbelly. Satellite imagery revealed long, parallel fissures in the frozen expanse, like scratches from some clawed monster. ...While other parts of the infamous Thwaites Glacier crumbled, this wedge of floating ice acted as a brace, slowing the melt. It was supposed to be boring, durable, safe. Now climate change has turned the ice shelf into a threat — to Pettit’s field work, and to the world. Planet-warming pollution from burning fossil fuels and other human activities has already raised global temperatures more than 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit). But the effects are particularly profound at the poles, where rising temperatures have seriously undermined regions once locked in ice. In research presented this week at the world’s biggest earth scien

https://eos.org/articles/indigenous-communities-outline-their-climate-data-priorities ] By  Jane Palmer , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: Climate change is hitting the American Southwest hard, bringing warmer temperatures, longer droughts, and dwindling water supplies. For Native American tribes in the region, these changes are threatening their ability to live on the land in the way that they have done for hundreds, or even thousands, of years. In response to these challenges, many of the tribes have developed their own climate change adaptation initiatives, and to see how Western science could help in these efforts, the U.S. Department of Agriculture funded the  Native Waters on Arid Lands  project in 2015. The goal of the project was to partner researchers with tribal communities in the Great Basin and American Southwest to collaboratively understand how climate change was affecting the region and to come up with possible paths to adaptation.…

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/13/business/car-electric-engine-retrofitting.html By Christine Negroni , The New York Times.  Excerpt: Among the more than 1,000 vehicles at the  Specialty Equipment Market Association ’s display of automotive innovations in Las Vegas last month, a fuss was being made over a classic Ford 100 pickup truck that, at 43, was older than many of the show’s attendees. The buzz was not because of a stylish aesthetic or historical significance, but rather the contrast between the truck’s retro looks and its very modern electric motor. Anyone can buy the motor, known as the Eluminator e-Crate, for $3,900, but the pickup is a one-off. It was custom built to show enthusiasts they too can turn geriatric gas-guzzlers into efficient machines. Customers can buy it “to put in whatever car they want to build,” said Mark Rushbrook, global director of Ford performance motorsports. “Classic Mustangs or a Galaxy or F series truck — they can buy the motor and install it.” ...I

https://eos.org/articles/a-hotter-earth-means-stronger-tornadoes By  Saima Sidik , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: On 20 May 2013, at 2:56 p.m., a tornado touched down in central Oklahoma. Over the next 40 minutes, it ripped through the towns of Newcastle, Moore, and south Oklahoma City. The storm destroyed dozens of houses and cars, two farms, two elementary schools, a strip mall, and several other buildings as it killed 24 people and injured hundreds. Climate change is known to affect many types of  extreme weather , such as hurricanes, droughts, and floods. But until recently, few studies have addressed whether it will affect tornado outbreaks like the one that decimated central Oklahoma.  Matthew Woods , a recent graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, aimed to fill that gap with his recent research in atmospheric sciences and meteorology. “Climate change certainly raises the ceiling for future tornadoes, in terms of strength,” Woods said. Using a modeling framework called 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/12/13/fema-tornadoes-new-normal-climate-change/ By  Jessica Lipscomb , The Washington Post.  Excerpt: ...The deadly tornadoes that caused devastation in Kentucky and five other states came just a few months after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake rocked Haiti and Category 4 Hurricane Ida tore through the Eastern United States and Atlantic Canada. In an interview Sunday morning on CNN’s “State of the Union,” FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said the agency is preparing for severe weather events of similar magnitude. “This is going to be our new normal, and the effects that we’re seeing from climate change are the crisis of our generation,” she said. “We’ll continue to work on helping to reduce the impacts, but we’re also prepared to respond to any community that gets impacted by one of these severe events.”.…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/interactive/2021/native-americans-farming-practices-may-help-feed-warming-world/ By Samuel Gilbert, The Washington Post.  Excerpt: TUCSON — Indigenous peoples have known for millennia to plant under the shade of the mesquite and paloverde trees that mark the Sonoran Desert here, shielding their crops from the intense sun and reducing the amount of water needed. The modern-day version of this can be seen in the Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson, where a canopy of elevated solar panels helps to protect rows of squash, tomatoes and onions. Even on a November afternoon, with the temperature climbing into the 80s, the air under the panels stays comfortably cool. Such adaptation is central to the research underway at Biosphere 2, a  unique center  affiliated with the University of Arizona that’s part of a movement aimed at reimagining and remaking agriculture in a warming world. In the Southwest, projects are looking to plants and farmi

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2021/12/09/climate-change-forest-recovery-deforestation/ By  Tik Root , The Washington Post.  Excerpt: The study observed that soil fertility on previously deforested land can return in less than a decade. But that doesn’t give people a ‘license to kill,’ an author of the study said. ...Deforestation is a  global  and  accelerating  threat. But new research shows that tropical forests can recover naturally and remarkably quickly on abandoned lands. The study,  published Thursday in the journal Science , found that under low-intensity use, soil on previously deforested land can recover its fertility in less than a decade. Characteristics such as the layering of plants and trees in a forest, as well as species diversity, came back in about 25 to 60 years. …

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hydrogen-powered-ferry-to-debut-in-san-francisco/ By Ben Tracy, CBS News.  Excerpt: For more than a century, residents have traveled around San Francisco Bay with ferry boats powered mostly by diesel — a planet-warming fossil fuel. But now, the world's first hydrogen-powered passenger ferry, which produces zero emissions, is launching in the bay.  "Instead of a big diesel engine spinning things to make power ... [it] just happens here in the fuel cells," said Jeff Sokolik, who works for All American Marine, the Bellingham, Washington, company that built the 75-passenger catamaran. "When you actually use hydrogen to create electricity, the only byproduct is literally hot water, so it's zero emissions and completely clean," said Ron Willie, the president of the company. The marine-based shipping industry, mostly international shipping, is one of the dirty and not so little secrets of climate change. It causes about 3% of all globa

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/12/08/biden-government-purchasing-climate-change/ By  Anna Phillips , The Washington Post.  Excerpt: The Biden administration announced Wednesday it aims to buy its way to a cleaner, cooler planet, spending billions to create   a  federal fleet of electric vehicles , upgrade federal buildings and change how the government buys electricity. The  executive order  President Biden signed leveragesWashington’s buying power to cut the government’s carbon emissions 65 percent by the end of the decade. It lays out goals that would put the federal government on a path to  net-zero emissions by 2050  and would add at least 10 gigawatts worth of clean electricity to the grid.… See also New York Times article .

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/07/business/airports-solar-farms.html By Amy Zipkin , The New York Times.  Excerpt: Airports around the nation are installing solar arrays on unused land, roofs and parking garages, helping them achieve self-sufficiency while also providing power to their communities. When city commissioners in Tallahassee, Fla., passed a resolution in early 2019 to rely exclusively on renewable energy by 2050, one cornerstone was already in place: a 120-acre, 20-megawatt solar farm at Tallahassee International Airport.…

https://www.science.org/content/article/melting-glaciers-may-produce-thousands-kilometers-new-salmon-habitat By Robert F. Service, Science Magazine.  Excerpt: Climate change is wreaking havoc on Pacific Ocean salmon populations: overheating spawning streams, triggering storms that scour stream beds and droughts that dry them up, and upending food webs in the Pacific. But a warming world could bring one silver lining, at least for a while. A new computer model shows retreating glaciers in British Columbia and Alaska could open up thousands of kilometers of new river habitat by 2100. ...Today in Nature Communications, they report that  Pacific salmon river habitat will likely expand by 6150 kilometers , nearly the length of the Mississippi River. This habitat consists primarily of streams with an incline of less than 10%, which makes it possible for fish to traverse; 2000 kilometers of the new river habitat is expected to be suitable for spawning and rearing young. In the Gulf of Alaska

https://eos.org/opinions/geoscientists-can-help-reduce-the-threat-of-nuclear-weapons By  Alan Robock  and   Stewart C. Prager , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: While we all recognize that global warming threatens humanity, the effects of nuclear war pose an even graver threat to the global population. ...Currently, there are  more than 9,000 nuclear warheads  in the active military stockpiles of nine nations, with more than 90% of those in Russia and the United States. Nearly 2,000 warheads  are on alert status , ready to launch within minutes of an order. ...The nuclear arms control regime has been weakened in recent years with the termination of the  Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty  and the  Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty  between Russia and the United States, ... and the withdrawal of the United States from the  Iran nuclear deal . ...a nuclear conflict  would cause rapid changes  in Earth’s climate. Smoke from firestorms ignited by attacks on cities and industrial areas would rise into

https://www.science.org/content/article/germany-s-trees-are-dying-fierce-debate-has-broken-out-over-how-respond By Gabriel Popkin, Science Magazine.  Excerpt: ...During January 2018, ...a powerful storm felled many of the trees. Then, over the next 3 years, a record drought hit Germany and much of Central Europe, stressing the spruces that still stood. The back-to-back disasters enabled bark-boring beetles that had been munching on dead trees to jump to drought-weakened ones. Beetle populations exploded. In just 3 weeks, towering spruces that had seemed healthy were dead. ...All sides agree the recent die-off highlights the climate change threat. “It’s kind of an early warning, … a signal of what may still come,” says forest researcher Gert-Jan Nabuurs of Wageningen University & Research. ...Most also agree that existing monocultures, so important to European forestry’s past, cannot ensure its future. “It’s a clear signal to the wood industry that you have to change the utilization

https://eos.org/research-spotlights/the-far-reaching-consequences-of-wildfire-smoke-plumes By  Kate Wheeling , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: Smoke from wildfires burning in the western United States carries harmful pollutants across the country. ... O’Dell et al.  looked at smoke exposure across seasons and regions in the United States between 2006 and 2018. The team combined observation-based estimates of smoke-related PM 2.5  and gas phase hazardous air pollutants, or HAPs, with data on asthma hospital admissions and emergency department visits to determine the impacts of both acute and chronic smoke exposure. The authors found that smoke caused between 1,300 and 5,900 asthma-related emergency department visits per year, and these were more likely to occur in the spring and summer. Chronic exposure to PM 2.5  from smoke was linked to as many as 6,300 deaths per year, the study found. Although most large wildfires originated in the western United States, nearly 75% of the emergency department v