https://singularityhub.com/2022/01/03/h2-clipper-will-resurrect-hydrogen-airships-to-haul-green-fuel-across-the-planet/ By Edd Gent , SingularityHub.  Excerpt: ...Hydrogen is increasingly being seen as a promising alternative for ... hard to decarbonize sectors. It has a higher energy density than natural gas and can either be burned in internal combustion engines or combined with oxygen in a fuel cell to create electricity. ...much of today’s hydrogen is derived from natural gas and  therefore not much better than fossil fuels , in theory you can also make it by using renewable electricity to power electrolyzers that split water into hydrogen and oxygen.  Producing green hydrogen economically  is still a huge challenge,.... But transporting hydrogen remains a sticking point: Areas that are abundant in renewable energy such as sun and wind are not always close to where the hydrogen is needed. ...a start-up called H2 Clipper has an ingenious workaround. ...build airsh...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/02/climate/coal-mines-solar-climate.html By  Cara Buckley , The New York Times.  Excerpt: MARTIN COUNTY, Ky. — In Martin County, Ky., where coal production has flatlined, entrepreneurs are promising that a new solar farm atop a shuttered mine will bring green energy jobs. ...For a mountain that’s had its top blown off, the old Martiki coal mine is looking especially winsome these days. With its vast stretches of emerald grass dotted with hay bales and ringed with blue-tinged peaks, and the wild horses and cattle that roam there, it looks less like a shuttered strip mine and more like an ad for organic milk. The mountain is poised for another transformation. Hundreds of acres are set to be blanketed with solar panels in the coming year, installed by locals, many of them former miners. The $231 million project, which recently cleared its last regulatory hurdle, may well be the biggest utility-scale coal to solar project in the country.…

https://alumni.berkeley.edu/california-magazine/winter-2021/water-runs-low-san-joaquin-valley-adapts-drier-future By Glen Martin, California Magazine.  Excerpt: As the drought has deepened in the state, growers have turned to groundwater, resulting in severe overdraft in many areas—particularly the San Joaquin Valley. That led to the passage of the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), which required the identification of the state’s overdrawn and at-risk basins, quantification of their yields, and the development of pumping plans that achieve sustainability within 20 years of being implemented. ...Almond trees are only commercially productive for about 20 years, and his groundwater plan means replacement trees won’t be planted in many areas. Instead, Woolf will concentrate on growing tomatoes for processing, as well as pistachios, which are longer-lived and less thirsty than almonds. ...Woolf is also experimenting with alternative crops—specifically, drough...

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 extr...

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 G...