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Yale Environment 360
It’s Not Just Climate Change. Three Other Factors Are Driving This Summer’s Extreme Heat
Climate change may be, by far, the leading driver of this summer’s stifling heat, but three other factors are helping push the mercury to new extremes. The first is the 2022 eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha-apai, an underwater volcano near Tonga, in the South Pacific. Typically, volcanic eruptions unleash sulfur-based aerosols, which block a measure of the sun’s light, cooling the planet, but the Hunga Tonga produced only a small amount of aerosols. At the same time, it vaporized a large volume of seawater. That water vapor, a heat-trapping gas, could raise global temperatures by 0.06 degrees F (more than 0.03 degrees C) over the next several years, according to a recent study.
Together, Extreme Heat and Pollution Double the Risk of a Fatal Heart Attack, Analysis Shows
Extreme heat and high levels of particulate pollution can double the risk of a deadly heart attack, a new study finds. Researchers combed through data on more than 202,000 fatal heart attacks in the Chinese province of Jiangsu from 2015 to 2020. They found that several days of freezing weather led to a slight uptick in the risk of a heart attack, but the risk was far greater during periods of extreme heat.
Banished to a Remote Idaho Valley, Beavers Created a Lush Wetland
Beavers relocated to a remote Idaho valley have transformed the landscape into a lush wetland and a haven against fire and drought, satellite imagery shows. In Idaho, beavers can be something of nuisance, chewing down trees and building dams that flood yards and fields. In the 1930s, officials began trapping beavers near cities and towns and dropping them — sometimes by parachute — into remote areas.
Tree Keepers: Where Sustaining the Forest Is a Tribal Tradition
Mike Lohrengel looks up in awe at trees he has known for 30 years. “This is one of the most beautiful places I know. This forest has it all: the most species, the most diversity. Many trees I know individually. Look at this one behind us. It’s got a split way up there. I’ll never forget that tree till I die.”
Vegan Diets Have One-Fourth the Climate Impact of Meat-Heavy Diets, Study Finds
A plant-based diet yields one-fourth as much heat-trapping gas as a diet rich in meat, according to an exhaustive new analysis. For the study, researchers analyzed the eating habits of more than 55,000 Britons, drawing on data from more than 38,000 farms in 119 countries to gauge the environmental impact of their diets. Richard Tiffin, an economist at the University of Reading who was not involved with the research, said the study “represents the most comprehensive attempt to link food consumption data to the data on the environmental impacts of food production.”
Steel Industry Pivoting to Coal-Free Furnaces, Report Shows
The steel industry is slowly embracing electric-arc furnaces, a cleaner alternative to the blast furnaces typically used to make steel, as detailed in a new report. Iron and steel production accounts for 7 percent of carbon emissions globally. Manufacturers burn heavily polluting coal when refining iron ore and when turning iron into steel. Electric-arc furnaces, which use electricity to generate heat, offer a low-carbon alternative to blast furnaces.
A Stagnant Jet Stream Is Fueling Intense Heat Worldwide. Could Climate Change Be to Blame?
A stagnant jet stream, the narrow band of westerly winds circling the northern hemisphere, is giving rise to severe heat across much of the globe, and climate change may be making it worse, a new study finds. “The jet stream is currently in a stationary position, which means that weather...
Paris When It Sizzles: The City of Light Aims to Get Smart on Heat
There’s a long tradition in France of taking August off for holiday. Paris virtually shuts down as the temperature drifts around in the seventies, and people go to the beach or the mountains to cool off and relax. Think of it as an old‑fashioned adaptation to heat. People who stick around during August are often older or have jobs that require them to stay and keep the city functioning.
Deep-Sea Mining Spurs Fish to Vacate Mining Sites, Study Finds
Deep-sea mining can spur fish to flee mining sites in large numbers, a new study shows. For a 2020 test, Japanese mining officials gathered cobalt, a key mineral in EV batteries, from the crust of an undersea mountain in the western Pacific Ocean. Researchers used a remote-controlled vehicle to video the site one month before the mining, one month after, and one year after.
Last Month Was the Hottest June Ever
Last month was the hottest June ever recorded globally, according to multiple independent analyses. Surface temperatures were 1.89 degrees F (1.05 degrees C) above average, according to NOAA, which said that last month outstripped the previous record-holder, June 2020, by a wide margin, measuring 0.23 degrees F (0.13 degrees C) warmer. Analyses from NASA and the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service also found that June 2023 was the hottest June ever.
The Biden Administration Bets Big on ‘Climate Smart’ Agriculture
A new kind of food may soon be arriving on grocery store shelves: climate smart. Under the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, a nascent U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) program, this amalgam of farming methods aims to keep the American agricultural juggernaut steaming ahead while slashing the sector’s immense greenhouse gas footprint.
Back from the Dead: New Hope for Resurrecting Extinct Plants
In January 1769, botanists Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander found a daisy in Tierra del Fuego, at the southern tip of South America. Later named Chiliotrichum amelloides, it is one of a thousand plant species unknown to European scientists that the two men collected during Captain Cook’s first voyage on the HMS Endeavor, braving treacherous seas and inhospitable landscapes to document every plant they encountered as they circumnavigated the globe. The plant was dried and pressed for future study. Today, the 254-year-old specimen is among the almost 8 million preserved plants in New York Botanical Garden’s William & Lynda Steere Herbarium.
Scientists Select Canadian Lake to Mark the Onset of the Anthropocene
Scientists have selected Crawford Lake in Canada to mark the start of the Anthropocene, our new human-dominated epoch. By scattering nitrogen from fertilizers, ash from coal, and plutonium isotopes from nuclear weapons, humans have made a lasting imprint on the geologic record. But before declaring a new age, the Anthropocene, has begun, the International Union of Geological Sciences has to name a single site that will exemplify humanity’s profound impact on the Earth.
World’s Protected Lands Are Safeguarding More Carbon Than the U.S. Emits in a Year
If left unguarded, many of the world’s protected lands would have likely been burned, logged, or otherwise degraded, unleashing huge sums of heat-trapping gas. Over the last two decades, these assaults would have yielded 9.65 billion tons of carbon, more than double U.S. fossil fuel emissions last year. That is the finding of a new study highlighting “the critical importance of protected areas to help mitigate climate change.”
Will Tech Breakthroughs Bring Fusion Energy Closer to Reality?
Frank Laukien, a U.S.-German physicist and billionaire entrepreneur, typically exudes the calm rationality of a CEO who runs a large, multinational company. In his long career, he has turned his Bruker Corporation, based outside of Boston, into one of the world’s leading manufacturers of scientific instruments. But when Laukien...
Native Bees Yield Hardier Flowers Than Honey Bees, Research Finds
Flowers pollinated by native bees produce fitter offspring than flowers pollinated by honey bees, according to a new study carried out in San Diego, California. Compared with native bees, honey bees visit twice as many flowers on each plant before moving on to the next plant, with the result that honey bees tend to deposit pollen on the same plant they gathered it from, while native bees spread their pollen to other plants. When pollinated by native bees, plants produce more diverse offspring.
Experts See Signs of Hope for the Pacific’s Gray Whales
The North Pacific’s long-beleaguered gray whales may finally be headed for recovery, officials say. In 2019, a spike in strandings spurred NOAA to declare an Unusual Mortality Event for gray whales. Ocean warming has been driving prey to new areas, experts say, leaving whales in search of food, while entanglements in fishing nets and vessel strikes have posed an ongoing threat.
U.S. Wind and Solar Overtake Coal for the First Time
In a first for the U.S. power sector, wind and solar have generated more electricity than coal so far this year. In the first five months of 2023, wind and solar produced 252 terawatt-hours, while coal produced 249 terawatt-hours, according to preliminary government figures reviewed by E&E News. This shift...
Indonesia, Malaysia Have Cut Deforestation in Half in Last Half-Decade
Indonesia and Malaysia have cut deforestation by more than half over the last five years, a new report shows. “Indonesia and Malaysia have managed to keep rates of primary forest loss near record-low levels,” according to an analysis from the World Resources Institute. Across both countries, average yearly forest loss fell dramatically in the last half-decade, with Indonesia seeing a 64 percent decline and Malaysia a 57 percent decline.
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Yale Environment 360 is an online magazine offering opinion, analysis, reporting, and debate on global environmental issues.
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