climate

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

ENVIRONMENT, POLITICS

Is Washington Listening? – Young Farmers Can Help The US Meet Its Climate Goals

A new survey shows that 86% of US farmers under 40 practice regenerative agriculture. But many — especially farmers of color — struggle to access land and capital. At Sanctuary Farms on Detroit’s East Side, Jøn Kent and a team of volunteers use cardboard and paper bags to starve invasive weedy plants instead of herbicides; they plant marigolds and lavender amid squash, melons, and collards instead of pesticides; and turn food scraps into lush, clean compost. He and his business partner, Parker Jean, wanted to grow fresh produce for their working-class community, which Kent describes as a “food desert.” They also wanted to make sure their farming practices didn’t contribute to the area’s water pollution crisis. “In Michigan, we have been left with polluted waters in Black neighborhoods fr...

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

ENVIRONMENT, VIDEO REELS

Climate Change And The Pressure On Bees

The extreme weather that has battered much of the U.S. in 2022 doesn’t just affect humans. Heat waves, wildfires, droughts and storms also threaten many wild species – including some that already face other stresses. I’ve been researching bee health for over 10 years, with a focus on honey bees. In 2021, I began hearing for the first time from beekeepers about how extreme drought and rainfall were affecting bee colony health. Drought conditions in the western U.S. in 2021 dried up bee forage – the floral nectar and pollen that bees need to produce honey and stay healthy. And extreme rain in the Northeast limited the hours that bees could fly for forage. In both cases, managed colonies – hives that humans keep for honey production or commercial pollination – were starving. Beekeepers had...

A City’s Best Source Of Climate Change Data Are It’s Residents

5Oct

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

ENVIRONMENT

A City’s Best Source Of Climate Change Data Are It’s Residents

Cities across the U.S. are looking to citizen science for data on heat waves and other climate impacts. On very hot days, Victor Sanchez makes sure to leave his home in the afternoon. “The sun just pours in,” he said of his top-floor, west-facing apartment in Harlem, where he has two fans but no air conditioner. Sanchez usually finds a shaded bench in nearby Morningside Park, sees a film, or rides his bike to the beach, returning home after the relentless sun has begun to set. “It’s just dangerous to stay inside,” he said. In 2016, Sanchez, who is 67 and works in public media, helped scientists quantify just how dangerous it is to stay inside during a heat wave. That summer, he and 29 of his neighbors placed sensors in their apartments to collect temperature and humidity data as part o...

Biden Holds An Emergency Declaration In Reserve But Announces New Climate Change Actions

24Jul

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

POLITICS

Biden Holds An Emergency Declaration In Reserve But Announces New Climate Change Actions

On July 20, 2022, President Joe Biden traveled to a former coal-burning power plant in Massachusetts that is being converted into a manufacturing site for offshore wind power equipment. Biden announced millions of dollars in funding for climate change measures, including upgrading infrastructure, weatherizing buildings and installing cooling in homes. He also touted job growth from clean energy production and pledged to use all of his executive power to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. But Biden did not declare a national climate emergency – a step that some Democratic officials and activists have urged after Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin seemingly blocked legislative action and the Supreme Court limited the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. ...

How Not To Solve The Climate Change Problem

24Jul

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

ENVIRONMENT

How Not To Solve The Climate Change Problem

When politicians talk about reaching “net zero” emissions, they’re often counting on trees or technology that can pull carbon dioxide out of the air. What they don’t mention is just how much these proposals or geoengineering would cost to allow the world to continue burning fossil fuels. There are many proposals for removing carbon dioxide, but most make differences only at the edges, and carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere have continued to increase relentlessly, even through the pandemic. I’ve been working on climate change for over four decades. Let’s take a minute to come to grips with some of the rhetoric around climate change and clear the air, so to speak. What’s causing climate change? As has been well established now for several decades, the global climate is changin...

Despite Some Economists’ Best Attempts – The Cost Of Climate Change Can’t Be Boiled Down To One Right Number, Here’s Why

26May

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

ENVIRONMENT

Despite Some Economists’ Best Attempts – The Cost Of Climate Change Can’t Be Boiled Down To One Right Number, Here’s Why

A group of economists has issued a new estimate of the future cost of climate change that is grabbing headlines. The consultancy Deloitte estimates that unchecked climate change could cost the global economy US$178 trillion over the next 50 years. While climate change does harm economies, there are a lot of problems with long-term estimates like this. New technologies arrive and evolve. Human behaviors shift. For example, who would have thought before the COVID-19 pandemic that a large percentage of the population would stop driving to the office and work from home instead? I am a microeconomist who investigates the causes and consequences of climate change. When I think about the climate change challenge in 2040 and beyond, I anticipate many “known unknowns” about our future. Thus, I a...

Because of Climate Change Landfills Among Many Things Burning

22May

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

ENVIRONMENT

Because of Climate Change Landfills Among Many Things Burning

Extreme heat over 110°F in India and Pakistan continues to shatter records, threaten human health, cause landfills to combust, threaten power outages, and imperil Indian wheat crops struggling to make up for shortfalls caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Why is it exceptionally warm this year? The only reason is global warming,” Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, told Bloomberg. Meanwhile, in the southwestern U.S., wildfires are ripping across drought-dried landscapes, especially in New Mexico. A million acres across the U.S. have burned already this year as, “Climate change is taking a situation that would be bad for us normally,” University of Arizona climatologist Gregg Garffin told The Guardian, “and turning the dial up.” (India...

Why Aren’t More Companies Reducing Methane, It’s Crucial For Protecting Climate And Health, And It Can Pay For Itself

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

ENVIRONMENT, VIDEO REELS

Why Aren’t More Companies Reducing Methane, It’s Crucial For Protecting Climate And Health, And It Can Pay For Itself

Methane, the main ingredient in natural gas, is a larger climate problem than the world anticipates, and cutting its emissions will be crucial to slow global warming, a new United Nations report warns. The greenhouse gas is many times more powerful than carbon dioxide at warming the planet, and its concentration in the atmosphere is increasing faster than at any time since record keeping began in the 1980s. Methane is much more than a climate problem, though, and this is where the report gets interesting. As methane emissions are reduced, the world reaps several benefits quickly, for health as well as the climate. In most cases, the benefits of taking action far outweigh the cost – in fact many of them make money. The report’s lead author Drew Shindell, a climate scientist and physicist,...

Climate Disinformation In Ads Banned By Twitter

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IN OTHER NEWS

Climate Disinformation In Ads Banned By Twitter

Twitter will no longer allow “misleading advertisements” that “contradict the scientific consensus on climate change,” on its platform, the company announced Friday. Earlier this month, the Climate Disinformation Coalition called on Big Tech to confront climate denial, particularly Twitter, which performed the worst on its scorecard. Days later, Pinterest announced robust new community standards to protect users from climate misinformation, and former President Obama praised the company for doing so. That was perhaps the final push Twitter needed to announce, on Earth Day, that it has formalized rules prohibiting climate disinformation in advertising. While existing policies against misleading advertisements already prevent climate denial ads in theory, Axios reported, Twitter is followin...

How Youth Have Changed The Climate Movement

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Journalism

How Youth Have Changed The Climate Movement

“We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors. We borrow it from our children,” affirms the Oglala-Sioux version of a belief common to several indigenous cultures. To David Brower, the “archdruid” founder of Friends of the Earth, and other environmentalists, “stealing it from our children” better characterizes modern humans’ degradation of the earth. The only hope, Brower declared nearly 50 years ago, is “what young people can do before older people tell them it’s impossible.” The youth-led climate strikes in September that drew some 4 million marchers worldwide demand a far broader concept of democracy if the environmental goals they advocate are to be won. The climate-strike revolution represents a huge new step for human rights that expands hierarchical oppressions to include the dim...