https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04629-w By Florian Humpenöder ,  Benjamin Leon Bodirsky ,  Isabelle Weindl ,  Hermann Lotze-Campen ,  Tomas Linder  &  Alexander Popp ,  Nature   volume 605 , pages 90–96 (2022).  Abstract: Ruminant meat provides valuable protein to humans, but livestock production has many negative environmental impacts, especially in terms of deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions, water use and eutrophication 1 . In addition to a dietary shift towards plant-based diets 2 , imitation products, including plant-based meat, cultured meat and fermentation-derived microbial protein (MP), have been proposed as means to reduce the externalities of livestock production 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 . Life cycle assessment (LCA) studies have estimated substantial environmental benefits of MP, produced in bioreactors using sugar as feedstock, especially compared to ruminant meat 3 , 7 . Here we present an analysis of...

https://www.science.org/content/article/use-too-hot-climate-models-exaggerates-impacts-global-warming By Paul Voosen, Science Magazine.  Excerpt: One study suggests Arctic rainfall will become dominant in the 2060s, decades earlier than expected. Another claims air pollution from forest fires in the western United States could triple by 2100. A third says a mass ocean extinction could arrive in just a few centuries. All three studies, published in the past year, rely on projections of the future produced by some of the world’s next-generation climate models. But even the modelmakers acknowledge that many of these models have a glaring problem: predicting a future that gets  too hot too fast . Although modelmakers are adapting to this reality, researchers who use the model projections to gauge the impacts of climate change have yet to follow suit. That has resulted in a parade of “faster than expected” results that threatens to undermine the credibility of climate science, some...

https://eos.org/articles/the-ocean-is-still-sucking-up-carbon-maybe-more-than-we-think By Nancy Averett , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: Recent studies looking at carbon-sequestering microbes suggest we still have a lot to learn about the ocean’s biological carbon pump. The ocean plays a critical role in carbon sequestration. Phytoplankton, which live on the warm, light-filled surface, suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere for food. They also need nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen from colder, heavier, saltier water that  upwells  into warmer layers. When phytoplankton die, they sink, bringing some of the carbon and other nutrients they consumed with them back to the ocean depths. Key to this circular process, known as the ocean’s  biological carbon pump , is the vertical mixing of the surface and deeper water layers, which occurs through such mechanisms as currents, winds, and tides. ...traditional scientific models have long predicted that as the planet warms...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/02/pakistan-india-heatwaves-water-electricity-shortages By Hannah Ellis-Petersen  in Delhi and  Shah Meer Baloch  in Islamabad . The Guardian.  Excerpt: For the past few weeks, Nazeer Ahmed has been living in one of the hottest places on Earth. As a brutal heatwave has swept across India and  Pakistan , his home in Turbat, in Pakistan’s Balochistan region, has been suffering through weeks of temperatures that have repeatedly hit almost 50C (122F), unprecedented for this time of year. Locals have been driven into their homes, unable to work except during the cooler night hours, and are facing critical shortages of water and power. Ahmed fears that things are only about to get worse. It was here, in 2021, that the world’s highest temperature for May was recorded, a staggering 54C. ...As the heatwave has exacerbated massive energy shortages across  India  and Pakistan, Turbat, a city of about 200,000 residents, n...

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/may/02/west-energy-depencency-russia-green-ukraine-war By Jeffrey Frankel , The Guardian.  Excerpt: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has amplified the importance of national-security considerations in western countries’ energy policies. At the same time, governments must continue to focus on reducing environmental damage – in particular, on cutting greenhouse-gas emissions. Both goals, geopolitical and environmental, are urgent and should be  evaluated  together.  These two objectives are not necessarily in conflict, as some believe. There are plenty of energy measures the west can adopt that would benefit the environment and further its geopolitical aims. The most obvious steps, especially for the  European Union , are  sanctions  that reduce demand for  imports  of  fossil fuels  from  Russia . ...governments should not prolong the life of coal and should withdraw coal subsidies. The Inte...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/01/us-new-mexico-drought-wildfire-southwest By Gabrielle Canon , The Guardian.  Excerpt: A million acres have already burned across the country already, with La Niña bringing more severe dry climate. ...“Climate change is taking a situation that would be bad for us normally,” says Gregg Garffin, a climatologist at the University of Arizona, “and turning the dial up.” Once confined to specific times of year, wildfire conditions are stretching across more months, and will likely continue until the region gets additional rain.…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2022/amazon-beef-deforestation-brazil/ By Terrence McCoy  and  Júlia Ledur , The Washington Post.  Excerpt: The pattern is clear: First, the forest is razed. Then the cattle are moved in. If the Amazon is to die, it will be beef that kills it. And America will be an accomplice. Cattle ranching, responsible for the great majority of  deforestation in the Amazon , is pushing the forest to the edge of what scientists warn could be a vast and irreversible dieback that claims much of the biome. Despite agreement that change is necessary   to avert disaster, despite attempts at reform, despite the resources of Brazil’s federal government and powerful beef companies, the destruction   continues. ...the United States has grown to become its second-biggest buyer. The country  bought more than 320 million pounds  of Brazilian beef last year — and is on pace to purchase  nearly twice as much  th...