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Yale Environment 360
How an Early Oil Industry Study Became Key in Climate Lawsuits
Carroll Muffett began wondering in 2008 when the world’s biggest oil companies had first understood the science of climate change and their product’s role in causing it. A lawyer then working as a consultant to environmental groups, he started researching the question at night and on weekends, ordering decades-old reports, books, and magazines off Amazon and eBay, or from academic libraries.
Lakes Growing Globally as Ice Melts and Reservoirs Swell
The area covered by lakes globally has grown by close to 18,000 square miles, an area nearly twice the size of Lake Erie, over the last four decades. Scientists used satellite imagery and artificial intelligence to map 3.4 million lakes around the world between 1984 and 2019, finding that lake area grew as reservoirs expanded and rising temperatures melted glaciers and permafrost, particularly in Greenland, the Rocky Mountains, and the Tibetan Plateau. Growth in these regions offset losses in central Asia, northern China, southern Australia, and the more arid parts of the U.S. West, where drought and water drawdowns sapped lakes. The findings were published in Nature Communications.
Covid Lockdowns Helped Fuel a Methane Surge, Study Finds
When pandemic-related lockdowns grounded planes and brought car traffic to a near standstill in early 2020, transport emissions plummeted, leading to a drop in levels of a short-lived gas that scrubs methane from the atmosphere. The slump in travel helped fuel a spike in methane, a new study finds. Nitrogen...
How Floating Wetlands Are Helping to Clean Up Urban Waters
Five small islands roughly the size of backyard swimming pools float next to the concrete riverbank of Bubbly Creek, a stretch of the Chicago River named for the gas that once rose to the surface after stockyards dumped animal waste and byproducts into the waterway. Clumps of short, native grasses and plants, including sedges, swamp milkweed, and queen of the prairie, rise from a gravel-like material spread across each artificial island’s surface. A few rectangles cut from their middles hold bottomless baskets, structures that will, project designers hope, provide an attachment surface for freshwater mussels that once flourished in the river.
Analysis: At UN Climate Talks, a Deal on Reparations, but Failure to Make Deeper Emissions Cuts
Brinkmanship worked at the UN climate conference. And for once, developing nations won. Faced with the prospect of a crashed UN climate conference, COP27, at the Egyptian resort of Sharm-el-Sheikh, the EU early on Friday conceded the creation of a new “loss and damage” fund to help poor countries hit by the impacts of climate change to rescue their people and rebuild. During a 40-hour conference overrun that finally ended early on Sunday morning, the U.S. and other rich nations fell into line. Deal done.
U.S. Climate Spending to Boost EV Adoption by 20 Percent, Analysis Finds
The U.S. EV fleet will be 20 percent larger in 2030 than previously forecasted thanks to new tax credits for electric vehicles, an analysis finds. The recently passed Inflation Reduction Act includes tax credits for new and used EVs, incentives for commercial EVs, and loans and grants to ramp up EV manufacturing. These measures are expected to significantly boost sales of battery-powered vehicles over the next decade, according to a report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
As Evidence Mounts, New Concerns About Fracking and Health
Almost 20 years after the adoption of hydraulic fracturing began to supercharge U.S. production of oil and gas, there’s growing evidence of a correlation between the industry’s activities and an array of health problems ranging from childhood cancer and the premature death of elderly people to respiratory issues and endocrine disruption.
Fenced In: How the Global Rise of Border Walls Is Stifling Wildlife
Pity the tiny band of lynx in the Polish half of Europe’s most ancient forest. In June, their home, the Białowieża Forest, was cut in half when the Polish government completed construction of a wall on its border with Belarus. The aim was to repel refugees from the Middle East and elsewhere being channeled to the border by the Belarus government. But the 115-mile wall — which towers 18 feet above the forest floor, stretching almost into the canopy above — has imprisoned migrating wildlife too.
Scientists Discover More Than 22,000 Endangered Manta Rays off Coast of Ecuador
Scientists have identified a population of endangered oceanic manta rays off the coast of Ecuador that is 10 times larger than any other known population. The discovery offers hope for the future of the species, experts say. “This is a rare story of ocean optimism,” Joshua Stewart, an ecologist at...
France Seeks to Mandate Solar Panels Over Large Parking Lots
The French Senate has passed legislation requiring parking lots with at least 80 spaces be covered in solar panels. The measure, which would apply to both new and existing parking lots, could generate as much power as 10 nuclear reactors, the government estimates. Owners of parking lots with more than 400 spaces would have three years to comply, while owners of lots with 80 to 400 spaces would have five years. The measure now heads to the National Assembly for final approval.
UN Launches Satellite-Based System to Pinpoint Global Methane Hot Spots
The UN is establishing a new system that uses satellite data to root out of sources of methane, a potent heat-trapping gas, and notify governments and businesses, it announced Friday. The new Methane Alert and Response System, part of the UN Environment Programme’s International Methane Emissions Observatory, will be the...
EU Emissions Fall Amid Energy Crunch, but Gas Buildout Looms
European emissions of carbon dioxide from energy use over the past three months are down 5 percent from the previous year as the energy crisis drives up the price of fossil fuels. But Europe’s efforts to shore up supplies of natural gas could lock in a new source of emissions, a new analysis finds.
With Lula Back, Can Brazil Turn the Tide on Amazon Destruction?
The month before Brazil’s October 30 presidential election was the most brutal of Jair Bolsonaro’s term as president. Landowners rushed to illegally clear forest while they could rely on the impunity that had been a characteristic of the Bolsonaro era. From my home in Altamira, I could see flames on the other side of the Xingu River from a blaze large enough to generate its own lightning. Most other days in September and October, my asthmatic lungs tightened and the horizon was shrouded in haze as a consequence of the rushed burn-off.
Austria Joins Germany, Denmark, and Other Rich Nations Pledging Millions for Climate Damages
Austria has joined a small but growing list of wealthy nations committing funds for loss and damages wrought by climate disasters in the developing world, pledging 50 million euros over the next four years. “The most vulnerable countries in the Global South are suffering particularly badly from the consequences of...
Blue Whales Swallowing 95 Pounds of Plastic Daily, Scientists Estimate
Blue whales, the largest creatures on Earth, are ingesting 10 million pieces of microplastic daily, scientists estimate. With plastic waste rapidly accumulating in the world’s oceans, researchers sought to gauge how much is consumed by humpback, fin, and blue whales off the U.S. Pacific Coast. All three feed by gulping up mouthfuls of krill and other tiny creatures and then pushing the seawater out through a bristle-like filter called a baleen. In the process, they are prone to swallowing large amounts of plastic.
Native Guardians: Canada’s First Nations Move to Protect Their Lands
On yet another unusually warm subarctic day last August, members of the Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́ First Nation in the Northwest Territories of Canada held a fire-feeding ceremony, drummed, raised their eagle-emblazoned flag, and prepared a celebratory feast for themselves and a group of scientists 30 miles south of where they live in Fort Simpson.
U.S. Communities of Color Breathing Higher Levels of Toxic Metal Pollution, Study Finds
Not only do U.S. communities of color breathe more fine particulate pollution, they also breathe a form of particulate pollution that is richer in toxic, cancer-causing metals, new research finds. Particulate pollution is comprised of many different components, not all of which are known to cause illness. The high levels...
How Digital Technology Is Helping Decode the Sounds of Nature
Karen Bakker is a geographer who studies digital innovation and environmental governance. Her latest book, The Sounds of Life, trawls through more than a thousand scientific papers and Indigenous knowledge to explore our emerging understanding of the planet’s soundscape. Microphones are now so cheap, tiny, portable, and wirelessly connected...
Drought, Fire, Insects Destroyed Nearly a Third of Southern Sierra Nevada Forest in Last Decade
In just 10 years, fires, drought, and insect infestations have devastated close to a third of forests in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains, a new study finds. The region, which extends from Lake Tahoe in the north to the Sequoia National Forest in the south, has been hit by persistent drought, made more severe by climate change, which has left pines more vulnerable to wildfires and bark beetle infestations. From 2011 to 2020, 30 percent of conifer forests in the southern Sierra Nevada succumbed to these threats, according to an analysis of U.S. Forest Service data on tree cover, tree height, and the extent of recent wildfires.
World Headed in Wrong Direction on Five Key Measures of Climate Progress, Report Finds
To halt warming at 1.5 degrees C, countries must slash emissions from power plants, heavy industry, cars, trucks, agriculture, and forest loss, among other sectors. But in some key areas, according to a new report, the world is seeing emissions continue to rise. The State of Climate Action 2022 report,...
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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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