In Science Magazine: Researchers in Puerto Rico struggle to adapt in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona -|- For scientists, Hurricane Ian is posing threats—and opportunities and in The New York Times: On Florida’s Islands, Scenes of Paradise Lost, Maybe for Good -|- Hurricane Ian Descends on South Carolina, Swamping Beachside Towns -|- For Once, the Hurricane Shark Was Real .

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/29/climate/gas-flaring-climate-methane.html By  Henry Fountain , The New York Times.  Excerpt: The oil industry practice of burning unwanted methane is less effective than previously assumed, scientists said Thursday, resulting in new estimates for releases of the greenhouse gas in the United States that are about five times as high as earlier ones. In a study of the three largest oil and gas basins in the United States, the researchers found that the practice, known as flaring, often doesn’t completely burn the methane, a potent heat-trapping gas that is often a byproduct of oil production. And in many cases, they discovered, flares are extinguished and not reignited, so all the methane escapes into the atmosphere. Improving efficiency and ensuring that all flares remain lit would result in annual emissions reductions in the United States equal to taking nearly 3 million cars off the road each year, the scientists said. ...said one of the resea...

https://news.berkeley.edu/2022/09/29/process-converts-polyethylene-bags-plastics-to-polymer-building-blocks/ By  Robert Sanders , UC Berkeley News.  Excerpt: Polyethylene plastics — in particular, the ubiquitous plastic bag that blights the landscape — are notoriously hard to recycle. They’re sturdy and difficult to break down, and if they’re recycled at all, they’re melted into a polymer stew useful mostly for decking and other low-value products. But a new process developed at the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) could change all that. The process uses catalysts to break the long polyethylene (PE) polymers into uniform chunks — the three-carbon molecule propylene — that are the feedstocks for making other types of high-value plastic, such as polypropylene. The process, admittedly in the early stages of development, would turn a waste product — not only plastic bags and packaging, but all types of PE plastic bot...

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/29/arctic-ocean-acidifying-up-to-four-times-as-fast-as-other-oceans-study-finds By Karen McVeigh , The Guardian.  Excerpt: Acidification of the western  Arctic  Ocean is happening three to four times faster than in other ocean basins, a new study has found. The ocean, which absorbs a third of all of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, has grown more acidic because of fossil fuel use. Rapid loss of sea ice in the Arctic region over the past three decades has accelerated the rate of long-term acidification, according to  the study , published in Science on Thursday. ...If sea ice  continues to vanish  in the western Arctic, the process could continue and intensify over the next few decades, the scientists predict. The research follows a separate study in August, which found that the Arctic has  warmed at about four times the global average  rate over the past 43 years. The faster warming, known as A...

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/28/nearly-half-worlds-bird-species-in-decline-as-destruction-of-avian-life-intensifies-aoe By  Phoebe Weston , The Guardian.  Excerpt: Nearly half of the planet’s bird species are in decline, according to a definitive report that paints the grimmest picture yet of the destruction of avian life. The  State of the World’s Birds report , which is released every four years by BirdLife International, shows that the expansion and intensification of agriculture is putting pressure on 73% of species. Logging, invasive species, exploitation of natural resources and climate breakdown are the other main threats. Globally, 49% of bird species are declining, one in eight are threatened with extinction and at least 187 species are confirmed or suspected to have gone extinct since 1500. Most of these have been endemic species living on islands, although there is an increase in birds now going extinct on larger land masses, particularly in...

https://eos.org/research-spotlights/satellites-can-accurately-take-earths-temperature By Rebecca Dzombak , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: Satellite-based measurements of land surface temperature may prove to be an essential pairing with near-surface air temperatures to understand global warming and cooling trends .…

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/26/business/china-electric-vehicles.html By  Daisuke Wakabayashi  and  Claire Fu , The New York Times.  Excerpt: ...This year, a quarter of all new cars purchased in China will be an all-electric vehicle or a plug-in hybrid. By some estimates, more than 300 Chinese companies are making E.V.s, ranging from discount offerings below $5,000 to high-end models that rival Tesla and German automakers. There are  roughly four million charging units  in the country, double the number from a year ago,  with more coming . While other E.V. markets are still heavily dependent on subsidies and financial incentives, China has entered a new phase: Consumers are weighing the features and prices of electric vehicles against gas-powered cars without much consideration of state support. The United States is far behind. This year, the country  passed a key threshold  of E.V.s accounting for 5 percent of new car sales. China passed ...

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/27/huge-expansion-oil-pipelines-endangering-climate-says-report By  Damian Carrington , The Guardian.  Excerpt: More than 24,000km of new oil pipelines are under development around the world, a distance equivalent to almost twice the Earth’s diameter, a report has revealed. The projects, led by the US, Russia, China and India, are “dramatically at odds with plans to limit global warming to 1.5C or 2C”, the researchers said. ...The developers of the 10,000km of pipelines in construction stand to lose up to $75bn (£70bn) if action on the climate crisis prevents the new pipelines being fully used, according to the analysts at  Global Energy Monitor (GEM) who produced the report . ...“For governments endorsing these new pipelines, the report shows an almost deliberate failure to meet climate goals,” said Baird Langenbrunner at GEM. “Despite climate targets threatening to render fossil fuel infrastructure as stranded assets, the...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/22/world/europe/europe-rivers-reservoirs-drought.html By Derrick Bryson Taylor , The New York Times.  Excerpt: ...Across Europe, once-submerged villages, ships and bridges — some dating back thousands of years — have re-emerged this year as rivers and reservoirs have dried up. The steady stream of gripping photos has circulated while much of the continent faced  a string of extreme heat waves  and a  devastating drought , two phenomena that scientists say are made more likely and more severe by human-caused climate change. ...the  Spanish Stonehenge , rose from a drought-hit dam west of Madrid. ...In Prahovo, Serbia, water levels in the Danube River have fallen so low that more than a dozen sunken  Nazi Germany World War II boats are now exposed . And in Northern England, falling water levels at Baitings Reservoir have revealed an ancient packhorse bridge.…

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/21/climate/hydrofluorocarbons-hfcs-kigali-amendment.html By  Lisa Friedman  and  Coral Davenport , The New york Times.  Excerpt: WASHINGTON — The Senate voted on Wednesday to approve an international climate treaty for the first time in 30 years, agreeing in a rare bipartisan deal to phase out of the use of planet-warming industrial chemicals commonly found in refrigerators and air-conditioners. By a vote of 69 to 27 the United States joined the  2016 Kigali Amendment , along with  137 other nations  that have agreed to  sharply reduce the production and use of hydrofluorocarbons , or HFCs. The chemicals are potent greenhouse gases, warming the planet with 1,000 times the heat-trapping strength of carbon dioxide.… 

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/21/opinion/environment/solar-panels-virginia-climate-change.html New York Times opinion piece by  Gabriel Popkin .  Excerpt: CHARLOTTE COURT HOUSE, Va. — In Charlotte County, population 11,448, forests and farms slope gently toward pretty little streams. The Roanoke River, whose floodplain includes  one of the most ecologically valuable and intact forests  in the Mid-Atlantic, forms the county’s southwestern border. On a recent driving tour, a local conservationist, P.K. Pettus, told me she’s already grieving the eventual loss of much of this beautiful landscape. The Randolph Solar Project, a 4,500-acre project that will take out some 3,500 acres of forest during construction, was approved in July to join at least five other solar farms built or planned here thanks to several huge transmission lines that crisscross the county. When built, it will become one of the largest solar installations east of the Rocky Mountains. Although she is...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/20/business/electric-vehicles-lithium-quebec.html By   Jack Ewing , photographs by Brendan George Ko For The New York Times.  Excerpt: About 350 miles northwest of Montreal, amid a vast pine forest, is a deep mining pit with walls of mottled rock. The pit has changed hands repeatedly and been mired in bankruptcy, but now it could help determine the future of electric vehicles. The mine contains lithium, an indispensable ingredient in electric car batteries that is in short supply. If it opens on schedule early next year, it will be the second North American source of that metal, offering hope that badly needed raw materials can be extracted and refined close to Canadian, U.S. and Mexican auto factories, in line with Biden administration policies that aim to break China’s dominance of the battery supply chain. ...Dozens of  lithium mines  are in various stages of development in Canada and the United States. ...Most lithium is ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/19/climate/emissions-construction-buildings.html By  Peter Wilson , The New York Times.  Excerpt: ...Elephant Park, a three-acre plot of fountains, swings and slides and open space at the center of a large redevelopment [in London] which has seen the Brutalist architecture of a 1,200-home public housing estate replaced by a new neighborhood that by 2026 will hold about 2,924 apartments and townhouses. ...One resident walking her dog complained recently that her rent is becoming unaffordable, before quickly adding that she is delighted to have a supermarket and gym in the same building as her one-bedroom apartment, with rail and Underground stations right next door and shops, bars, a yoga studio, a library and medical facilities sprinkled through the development. ...“It is an absolutely exemplary example of what we need to be doing to make cities greener, and we need to be doing it quickly and all around the world,” said Kate Meyrick, a British-b...

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/19/world-fossil-fuel-reserve-greenhouse-gas-emissions By  Oliver Milman , The Guardian.  Excerpt: Burning the world’s proven reserves of fossil fuels would emit more planet-heating emissions than have occurred since the industrial revolution, easily blowing the remaining carbon budget before societies are subjected to catastrophic global heating, a new analysis has found. An enormous 3.5tn tons of greenhouse gas emissions will be emitted if governments allow identified reserves of coal, oil and gas to be extracted and used, according to what has been described as the first public database of fossil fuel production. The database, which covers around three-quarters of global energy production, reveals that the US and  Russia  each have enough fossil fuel reserves to single-handedly eat up the world’s remaining carbon budget before the planet is tipped into 1.5C (2.7F) or more of heating compared to the pre-industrial era...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/19/opinion/environment/biden-gina-mccarthy-climate.html New York Times opinion piece by Gina McCarthy, departing national climate adviser and a former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.  Excerpt: This week, as the world’s leaders gather in New York for the U.N. General Assembly, the United States will deliver a message many thought was not possible: We are going to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, and zero them out by 2050. Over the past 20 months as America’s first-ever national climate adviser, I have witnessed a paradigm shift: The private sector no longer sees climate action as a source of job losses, but rather as an opportunity for job creation and economic revitalization. It’s a striking shift after four years of the Trump administration, which threw science out the window and backed out of the Paris climate agreement. In 2020 the future seemed grim. But today, states and companies are running toward a clean ene...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/16/climate/coal-mine-american-chestnut.html By Elena Shao , Photographs by Maddie McGarvey, The New York Times.  Excerpt: Billions of chestnuts once dominated Appalachia, with Americans over many generations relying on their hardy trunks for log cabins, floor panels and telephone poles. Families would store the trees’ small, brown nuts in attics to eat during the holiday season. ...Now, Mr. French and his colleagues at Green Forests Work, a nonprofit group, hope to aid the  decades-long effort  to revive the American chestnut by bringing the trees back onto Appalachia’s former coal mines. Decades of mining, which have contributed to global warming, also left behind dry, acidic and hardened earth that made it difficult to grow much beyond nonnative herbaceous plants and grasses. As  coal continues to decline  and many of the remaining mines shut down for good, foresters say that restoring mining sites is an opportunity to prov...

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/sep/15/ethereum-cryptocurrency-completes-move-to-cut-co2-output-by-99 By  Dan Milmo , The Guardian.  Excerpt: Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency, has completed a plan to reduce its carbon emissions by more than 99%. The software upgrade, known as “the merge”, will change how transactions are managed on the ethereum blockchain, a public and decentralised ledger that underpins the cryptocurrency and generates ether tokens, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency after bitcoin. ...The move means that ethereum will no longer be created by an energy intensive process known as “mining”, where banks of computers generate random numbers that validate transactions on the blockchain and generate new ether tokens as part of the process. The process, known as “proof of work” in the cryptocurrency world, will now move to a “proof of stake” system, where individuals and companies act as validators, pledging or “staking” their own ether as...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/15/climate/solar-energy-school-funding.html By  Cara Buckley , The New York Times.  Excerpt: One school district was able to give pay raises to its teachers as big as 30 percent. Another bought new heating and ventilation systems, all the better to help students and educators breathe easier in these times. The improvements didn’t cost taxpayers a cent, and were paid for by an endlessly renewable source — the sun. As solar energy gains traction across the country, one beneficiary have been schools, particularly those in cash-strapped districts contending with dwindling tax bases. From New Jersey to California, nearly one in 10 K-12 public and private schools across the country were using solar energy by early 2022, according to data  released Thursday by Generation180 , a nonprofit that promotes and tracks clean energy. That’s twice as many as existed in 2015. The savings in electric bills from schools with solar panels often topped millions...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/15/climate/pakistan-floods-global-warming.html By Raymond Zhong , The New York Times.  Excerpt: Pakistan began receiving abnormally heavy rain in mid-June, and, by late August, drenching downpours were declared a national emergency. The southern part of the  Indus River , which traverses the length of the country,   became a vast lake.  Villages have become islands , surrounded by putrid water that stretches to the horizon. More than 1,500 people have died. Floodwaters could take months to recede. The deluges were made worse by global warming caused by greenhouse-gas emissions, scientists said Thursday, drawing upon a fast-growing field of research that gauges the influence of climate change on specific extreme weather events soon after they occur — and while societies are still dealing with their shattering consequences. As climate scientists’ techniques improve, they can assess, with ever-greater confidence and specificity, how human...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/14/climate/oil-industry-documents-disinformation.html By  Hiroko Tabuchi , The New York Times.  Excerpt: Documents obtained by congressional investigators show that oil industry executives privately downplayed their companies’ own public messages about efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and weakened industry-wide commitments to push for climate policies. Internal Exxon documents show that the oil giant pressed an industry group, the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, to remove language from a 2019 policy statement that “could create a potential commitment to advocate on the Paris Agreement goals.” The Paris Agreement is the landmark 2015 pact among nations of the world to avert catastrophic global warming. The statement’s  final version  didn’t mention Paris. At Royal Dutch Shell, an October 2020 email sent by an employee, discussing talking points for Shell’s president for the United States, said that the company’s announcement o...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/14/climate/oil-gas-furnace-heat-pump.html By  Somini Sengupta , The New York Times.  Excerpt: ...In the United States, the Biden administration is trying to hasten that shift with billions of dollars in  tax rebates to electrify buildings  and make them more energy efficient. The global energy crisis, spurred by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, has also hastened that shift. In 2021, sales of heat pumps grew significantly in the United States and several other major markets, according to research published in  Nature . It’s important because emissions from buildings — primarily for heat and hot water — account for more than a quarter of the nation’s emissions. In  New York City,  it’s roughly 70 percent, and under a 2019  city law , most large buildings have to drastically reduce their numbers starting in 2024. If they exceed their emissions limits, they will be fined. Enter a new business opportunity. All summer, th...

https://news.berkeley.edu/2022/09/12/mega-eruptions-linked-to-most-mass-extinctions-over-past-500-million-years/ By  Robert Sanders , UC Berkeley News.  Excerpt: Mass extinctions litter the history of life on Earth, with about a dozen known in addition to the five largest ones — the last of which, at the end of the Cretaceous Period 66 million years ago, killed off the dinosaurs and 70% of all life on Earth. A new study, led by scientists at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, concludes that most of these mass extinctions had one thing in common: They occurred after mega-eruptions that spewed volcanic lava and toxic gases for hundreds of thousands of years, and some for as long as a million years. The analysis linking mass extinctions throughout Earth’s history with major eruptions, characterized by lava and gas spilling from perhaps dozens of volcanoes and long fissure vents, confirms what many geologists have suspected for years. The most well-known mass extinction, referred...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/10/business/olive-oil-spain.html By  David Segal  and José Bautista , The New York Times.  Excerpt: ...Drought has ravaged dozens of crops throughout Europe — corn in Romania, rice in Italy, beans in Belgium, and beets and garlic in France. Among the hardest hit is the olive crop of Spain, which produces one half of the world’s olive oil. Nearly half of Spain’s output comes from Jaén — pronounced hi-EN — a landlocked southern province of 5,200 square miles, about the size of Connecticut, that yields far more olive oil annually than all of Italy, according to the International Olive Council. It is often called the olive oil capital of the world. ...What happens to a one-crop economy when that crop is scorched by record-breaking temperatures? ...Since the Romans began planting this forest centuries ago, olive trees have sustained thousands of farmers and itinerant workers here.… 

https://eos.org/articles/major-investment-in-air-conditioning-needed-to-address-future-heat-waves By Jennifer Schmidt , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: During Europe’s mid-July heat wave—when temperatures topped 40°C—countries such as Spain and Germany recorded thousands of excess deaths as people succumbed to heat-related injuries and illnesses. Earlier this year, India and Pakistan experienced their hottest March on record, with an unusually early heat wave that killed at least 90 people. By the 2050s, large swaths of the world will need some form of air-conditioning (AC) to ride out these extreme heat waves or face deadly consequences, according to  new research  published in  Energy and Buildings . But few countries have anywhere near enough cooling capacity to protect residents. ...When calculating energy demand, the researchers assumed that increased air-conditioning usage will come in the form of  ductless mini split units —wall-mounted air conditioners designed to co...

https://www.science.org/content/article/great-salt-lake-record-salinity-and-low-water-imperils-millions-birds By Eli Kintisch, Science Magazine.  Excerpt: Utah’s Great Salt Lake is smaller and saltier than at any time in recorded history. In July, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reported that the world’s third-largest saline lake had dropped to the lowest level ever documented. And last week researchers measured the highest salt concentrations ever seen in the lake’s southern arm, a key bird habitat. Salinity has climbed to 18%, exceeding a threshold at which essential microorganisms begin to die.The trends, driven by drought and water diversion, have scientists warning that a critical feeding ground for millions of migrating birds is at risk of collapse. “We’re into uncharted waters,” says biochemist Bonnie Baxter of Westminster College, who has been documenting the lake’s alarming changes. “One week the birds are gone from a spot we usually see them. The next week we see dead f...

https://eos.org/articles/neighborhood-strategies-inform-bostons-first-urban-forest-plan By Iris Crawford , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: Mattapan, a neighborhood in southwestern Boston, is heating up. Although some areas of the residential neighborhood benefit from the cooling effects of nearby green spaces, others are vulnerable to increasing heat stress, largely because of dark roofs, unshaded parking lots and pavements, and wide streets with limited numbers of trees. Mattapan is one of five Boston neighborhoods identified as being at particular risk for heat stress. (The other neighborhoods are Chinatown, Dorchester, East Boston, and Roxbury.) The five neighborhoods, all  environmental justice  communities, are at the focus of Boston’s  heat resilience  strategies, which include increasing the amount of light-colored surfaces and shade. A big reason for the risk is the simple fact that there are fewer trees in these neighborhoods. For example, less than  25% of the...

https://www.science.org/content/article/just-small-rise-earth-s-temperature-could-cause-irreversible-ecosystem-and-weather By Cathleen O'Grady, Science Magazine.  Excerpt: From melting ice sheets to stressed coral reefs, global warming is changing our world in unmistakable ways. But identifying “tipping points,” thresholds past which such transformations become irreversible or self-sustaining, has been more difficult—and controversial. An  expansive study of climate tipping points  in this week’s issue Science [ Exceeding 1.5°C global warming could trigger multiple climate tipping points ] is likely to fuel that discussion. It synthesizes the most current evidence on how much warming would risk passing 16 tipping points, triggering polar ice collapses, permafrost thawing, monsoon disruptions, and forest and coral reef diebacks. Many of these systems are already stressed by rising temperatures, and the study finds the world might already be within the warmin...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/07/world/middleeast/israel-negev-desert-wine.html By Isabel Kershner , The New York Times.  Excerpt: ...While these Negev [desert] vineyards are new, making wine here is not. The area was famed for its locally produced wines in ancient times. But the climate then was probably more forgiving than it is now, and the area’s wineries are developing farming techniques that might soon need to be replicated around the globe, as the effects of climate change worsen. “To succeed in the Negev, you have to be bold and experiment,” said David Pinto, a vintner who planted his family plot with vines about three years ago. ...With some 325 days of sunshine and little annual rainfall, the desert vines depend on drip irrigation, an innovation developed by another Negev collective in the 1960s that allows the farmer to tightly control the amount of water. ...in a global wine industry that must adapt to climate change, Israel could be a role model, said Aaron Fait, an ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/07/business/energy-environment/clean-energy-climate-bill.html By  Jack Ewing  and  Ivan Penn , The New York Times.  Excerpt: In the weeks since President Biden  signed a comprehensive climate bill  devised to spur investment in electric cars and clean energy, corporations have announced a series of big-ticket projects to produce the kind of technology the legislation aims to promote.  Toyota  said it would invest an additional $2.5 billion in a factory in North Carolina to produce batteries for electric cars and hybrids. Honda and LG Energy Solution announced a joint venture to build a $4.4 billion battery factory at a location to be named. ...At a time of economic uncertainty, the legislation gives companies more confidence that they can earn a return on their bets. The investments serve as affirmation of political leaders’ intent: to further accelerate America’s transition away from fossil fuels and to reduce depe...

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/sep/08/the-southern-ocean-absorbs-more-heat-than-any-other-ocean-on-earth-and-the-impacts-will-be-felt-for-generations By Maurice Huguenin, Matthew England and Ryan Holmes, The Guardian.  Excerpt: Over the last 50 years, the oceans have been working in overdrive to slow global warming, absorbing about  40% of our carbon dioxide emissions , and more than  90% of the excess heat  trapped in the atmosphere. But as  our research  published today in Nature Communications has found, some oceans work harder than others. We used a computational global ocean circulation model to examine exactly how ocean warming has played out over the last 50 years. And we found the Southern Ocean has dominated the global absorption of heat. In fact, Southern Ocean heat uptake accounts for almost all the planet’s ocean warming, thereby controlling the rate of climate change. This Southern Ocean warming and its associated impacts are ...