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Yale Environment 360
Collateral Damage: The Environmental Cost of the Ukraine War
What happens to the environment when a large, industrialized country is consumed by war? Ukraine is finding out. While concern about human lives remains paramount, Russia’s war on that country’s environment matters. The fate of Ukraine after the conflict is over is likely to depend on the survival of its natural resources as well as on its human-made infrastructure – on its forests, rivers, and wildlife, as well as its roads, power plants, and cities.
Industrial Revolution Reversed 7,000-Year Cooling Trend in Siberia, Bringing Temperatures to Unprecedented Highs
Siberia is today among the fastest-warming regions on Earth, but in the 7,000 years prior to the Industrial Revolution it saw summer temperatures steadily decline, according to a new study that underscores the profound impact of human-caused climate change on northern Russia. Scientists analyzed tree rings in partially fossilized wood...
Climate Change May Have Doubled the Number of Houston Homes Flooded by Hurricane Harvey
If not for climate change, 2017’s Hurricane Harvey might have flooded half as many homes in the Houston area, a new study finds. “We already know that climate change is increasing the severity and frequency of extreme weather events,” Kevin Smiley, a sociologist at Louisiana State University and lead author of the study, said in a statement. “But now researchers are able to pinpoint the extent of damage from a specific extreme weather event such as Hurricane Harvey and the resulting floods.”
Fires Consuming Nearly Twice as Much Forest as They Did 20 Years Ago
Wildfires are destroying nearly twice as much tree cover globally as they did in 2001, burning through an additional 7.4 million acres of forest annually, an area roughly the size of Belgium, a new analysis shows. Researchers at the World Resources Institute (WRI) found that fires account for a growing...
U.S. to More Than Triple Climate Spending, Analysis Shows
The U.S. government is set to spend nearly $80 billion annually on climate technology and clean energy, more than triple the amount spent yearly during the Obama administration, under three new laws, a new analysis finds.. Together, the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the recently passed CHIPS and...
In Indonesian Mining Region, the EV Boom Takes a Heavy Toll
Lithium-ion batteries are a key component of electric vehicles, and essential to EV battery production is nickel. But mining nickel is often a heavily polluting enterprise, and nowhere is that more evident than in Indonesia, which produces nearly a third of the world’s nickel. In “From Dreams to Dust,”...
Germany Sees Solar Power Soar as It Works to Wean Off Russian Gas
German solar power is hitting new records this summer, and is set for further growth as the government enacts new policies to spur the expansion of renewable energy. In May, German solar output hit a new high of 7.7 terawatt-hours, PV Magazine reported. That record was broken in June, when solar produced 8 terawatt-hours of power, and again in July, when it hit 8.2 terawatt-hours and supplied a fifth of Germany’s electricity. The July record is notable as solar output typically peaks in June, when the days are longest.
Two-Thirds of Alaska’s Kenai Fjords Glaciers In Retreat, Study Finds
Almost half of Kenai Fjords National Park, which sits on the southern coast of Alaska, is covered in glacial ice. As temperatures rise, almost two-thirds of the park’s glaciers are in retreat, a new study finds. Of the 19 glaciers dotting the park, 13 have shrunk substantially, according to...
The Three Cricketeers: Betting on Bug Food to Help the Planet
For Claire Simons and her husband, Chad, it all started when their son brought home a snickerdoodle made of cricket flour one Earth Day. The cookie was delicious, and the next day the Simons — long concerned about the American diet and the destructive impact of industrial farming — began building a cricket habitat in their basement. A year later, in 2016, they launched their cricket farm, and by 2018 they were cranking out cricket goodies at an urban farm in a Minneapolis warehouse.
Massive Pumped Hydro Facility to Open This Summer in the Swiss Alps
One of the world’s largest pumped hydropower projects, with an electricity storage capacity equivalent to 400,000 electric vehicles, is set to begin operations soon in the Swiss Alps. The Nant de Drance facility will funnel water from the Emosson Reservoir near the French border to a lower reservoir to...
Once Feared Extinct, a Rare Hummingbird Is Rediscovered In Colombia
A rare hummingbird, not seen since 2010, has been rediscovered in Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains. Yurgen Vega, a local birdwatcher, told The Guardian that he felt “overcome with emotion” when he spotted a singing Santa Marta sabrewing, a male with characteristic emerald plumage, a blue throat, and black bill. Vega managed to photograph the bird, which was only been documented twice before, once in 1946 and once in 2010, when the species was first captured on film.
River Cleanups Move to the Next Level Using Grasses and Oysters
On a recent summer morning near Camden, New Jersey, two divers from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency hovered over a patch of sediment 10 feet below the surface of the Delaware River. With less than two feet of visibility in the churning estuary, they were transplanting a species crucial to the ecosystem: Vallisneria americana, or wild celery grass. One diver held a GoPro camera and a flashlight, capturing a shaky clip of the thin, ribbon-like blades bending with the current.
A Summer of Arctic Melting Hits Norway’s Svalbard Archipelago
Elevated temperatures in the Arctic, which caused massive melting of the Greenland ice sheet during a three-day period in July, also have touched off rapid glacial melting in Norway’s Svalbard Archipelago. The island chain — which stretches between 74 and 81 degrees north latitude — experienced glacial melting that...
Lack of Data May Be Hiding True Extent of Biodiversity Loss
The number of species facing extinction may be much higher than previously thought, according to a new study. While scientists have surveyed the risks facing more than 147,000 plants and animals to determine which belong on the list of threatened or endangered species maintained by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, thousands more species are not assessed at all because of a lack of data on threats they might be facing. In some cases, scientists have yet to track these species in the field, but in others the lack of data may reflect their already precipitous decline, the new study suggests.
A Thai Community Treasures — and Defends — Its Woodlands
“We and the Woods,” the Second Runner-Up in the 2022 Yale Environment 360 Film Contest, tells the story of an ascetic community in western Thailand whose residents have a deep connection to the forest and have banded together to protect their woodlands from logging, tourism projects, and other development.
Parts of Great Barrier Reef See Most Extensive Coral Cover In 36 Years
In the northern and central stretches of the Great Barrier Reef, scientists have recorded the most extensive coral cover seen in 36 years of study, according to a new report from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS). Researchers tracked hard coral across 87 reefs along the coast of Queensland...
Typically Rainy Parts of Europe Facing Deepening Drought, Water Restrictions
The UK, Germany, and the Netherlands, three countries accustomed to regular rainfall, are seeing intense drought this summer, with unusually dry conditions expected to persist through September. Last month was the driest July since 1935 across the UK and the driest July on record in the south of England, according...
European Heat Waves Force Closure of Classic Climbing Routes in Alps
European mountain guides are cancelling climbs up some of the most iconic peaks in the Alps, including Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn, as a series of heat waves and rapidly melting glaciers have made the routes too dangerous. Alpine guides in Switzerland, France, and Italy say that a series of...
In Nebraska, Bighorn Sheep Reclaim Their Former High Plains Home
A century ago, bighorn sheep, which once flourished on Nebraska’s high plains, had been wiped out there by overhunting, human encroachment, and disease. Yet over the last 40 years, scientists have reintroduced the sheep to western Nebraska’s Wildcat Hills and Pine Ridge region, an effort that has led to a population of 320 bighorn in the state today.
Pathogens Able to Travel on Floating Plastic Waste, Study Finds
The plastics had only been submerged in the ocean off Falmouth, England for a week, but in that time a thin layer of biofilm, a slimy mix of mucus and microbes, had already developed on their surfaces. Michiel Vos, a microbiologist at the University of Exeter in England, had sunk five different types of plastic as a test. He and his colleagues wanted to know which of the myriad microbes living in the ocean would glom on to these introduced materials.
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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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