Thursday, May 2

Tag: climate

Protecting half of the planet is the best way to fight climate change and biodiversity loss – we’ve mapped the key places to do it
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VIDEO REELS

Protecting half of the planet is the best way to fight climate change and biodiversity loss – we’ve mapped the key places to do it

Humans are dismantling and disrupting natural ecosystems around the globe and changing Earth’s climate. Over the past 50 years, actions like farming, logging, hunting, development and global commerce have caused record losses of species on land and at sea. Animals, birds and reptiles are disappearing tens to hundreds of times faster than the natural rate of extinction over the past 10 million years. Now the world is also contending with a global pandemic. In geographically remote regions such as the Brazilian Amazon, COVID-19 is devastating Indigenous populations, with tragic consequences for both Indigenous peoples and the lands they steward. My research focuses on ecosystems and climate change from regional to global scales. In 2019, I worked with conservation biologist and strategist ...
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An effective climate change solution may lie in rocks beneath our feet
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ENVIRONMENT, VIDEO REELS

An effective climate change solution may lie in rocks beneath our feet

Why has Earth’s climate remained so stable over geological time? The answer just might rock you. Rocks, particularly the types created by volcanic activity, play a critical role in keeping Earth’s long-term climate stable and cycling carbon dioxide between land, oceans and the atmosphere. Weathering of rocks like these basalt formations in Idaho triggers chemical processes that remove carbon dioxide from the air. Matthew Dillon/Flickr, CC BY Scientists have known for decades that rock weathering – the chemical breakdown of minerals in mountains and soils – removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and transforms it into stable minerals on the planet’s surface and in ocean sediments. But because this process operates over millions of years, it is too weak to offset modern global warming f...
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‘Renewable’ natural gas may sound green, but it’s not an antidote for climate change
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IN OTHER NEWS, VIDEO REELS

‘Renewable’ natural gas may sound green, but it’s not an antidote for climate change

Natural gas is a versatile fossil fuel that accounts for about a third of U.S. energy use. Although it produces fewer greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants than coal or oil, natural gas is a major contributor to climate change, an urgent global problem. Reducing emissions from the natural gas system is especially challenging because natural gas is used roughly equally for electricity, heating, and industrial applications. There’s an emerging argument that maybe there could be a direct substitute for fossil natural gas in the form of renewable natural gas (RNG) – a renewable fuel designed to be nearly indistinguishable from fossil natural gas. RNG could be made from biomass or from captured carbon dioxide and electricity. Based on what’s known about these systems, however, I belie...
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Seattle Protesters Climate Wish List
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LIFESTYLE

Seattle Protesters Climate Wish List

The protesters were relatively chipper, if subdued, on this Monday morning—a fitting time of day for a meeting of the Sunrise Movement. This national youth-led effort is pushing the Green New Deal and has been championed by U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. About 30 participants gathered in Seattle’s Occidental Square to demand that Washington U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell support the Green New Deal. Participants rehearsed songs about building a better future and passed lighters—not to smoke, but rather to burn their “objects of personal import” (as the protest’s media advisory described them) for dramatic effect. They singed a few fingers, stomped out the flames on the brick pavers, and stashed the smoldering items in their backpacks. Before the millennial protesters ...
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A Climate Action for Every Type of Activist
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CULTURE

A Climate Action for Every Type of Activist

No matter your age, gender, race, or political ideology, there are ways to fight climate change that fit your life and values. Most of us have heard about U.N. researchers warning that we need to make dramatic changes in the next 12 years to limit our risk of extreme heat, drought, floods, and poverty caused by climate change. Report after report about a bleak climate future can leave people in despair.   But another option is good for you and the planet. Susan Clayton, a professor of psychology and environmental studies at the College of Wooster, says getting involved with a group can help lift your climate-related anxiety and depression in three ways. Working with like-minded folks can validate your concerns, give you needed social support, and help...
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Why Students of Color Are Stepping Up to Lead Climate Strikes
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Journalism

Why Students of Color Are Stepping Up to Lead Climate Strikes

The youth-led movement builds on the momentum of the increasingly Black and Brown leadership behind the Green New Deal. Kawika Ke Koa Pegram has lived his entire life in island communities and is all too familiar with what sea level rise looks like firsthand. Pegram, a 17-year-old junior in high school, recently moved back to Hawaii—where he was born—from the Philippines. Two years later, Hurricane Walaka hit the state. “It was one of the worst storms the island has seen in modern history,” he remembers. “It had floods that went up to your knees and legs.” Pegram says he had seen that degree of flooding before, but this storm was different: It actually sunk an entire Hawaiian island. Pegram is one of more than 60 student leaders who have stepped up to lead climate st...
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