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Yale Environment 360
Beyond Emissions: Opening a New Path on Climate and the Future
Of the many climate struggles going on today, the great one, played out in hundreds of arenas around the world, is the struggle to rein in and then halt the buildup of greenhouse gases. Gaining ever-more attention is the struggle to adapt to the climate impacts already upon us. But there is a new struggle that needs to be joined now: the struggle to learn from our mistakes — the Big Mistake of climate catastrophe. What is it about our society, our economy, our politics, and our culture that has let this giant failing happen? What is it that has led us to this tragedy?
World Appears on Track to Triple Renewable Power by 2030
At the forthcoming UN climate talks, diplomats will push for a tripling of renewable power by 2030. A new analysis finds the world is likely already on track to hit this goal. Emissions must drop nearly in half by the end of this decade to have a shot at keeping warming to 1.5 degrees C. As part of that, analysts say, renewable capacity must roughly triple, growing from 3.4 terawatts last year to 11 terawatts in 2030. In recent weeks, diplomats from across the globe have called for setting this as a formal target at the upcoming UN climate negotiations, which begin Thursday in Dubai.
Severe Heat May Have Killed More Than 70,000 Europeans Last Year
Severe heat may have killed upwards of 70,000 people in Europe in the summer of 2022, according to a new study. For the study, researchers analyzed data on temperature and mortality, recorded daily across 16 countries, to determine the number of deaths due to severe heat. A previous study from the same team, using weekly data, estimated that heat killed 62,862 Europeans last summer. The more granular, daily data allowed scientists to revise their estimate, finding that heat took 70,066 lives. The study was published in The Lancet Regional Health – Europe.
After the Storm, Malawi’s Farmers Face a Precarious Future
It takes Ellen Sinoya, 43, two days to walk to work. She leaves her three children with their grandmother at home in Mwenye, a small village in southern Malawi’s Machinga District, then hikes across the border into Mozambique, stopping only to sleep by the side of the road. After working for a piece rate on a commercial farm for two or three days, she brings home 5,000 Malawian Kwacha ($3.00) — enough to feed her family on maize bran for two weeks. Then she makes the long walk again.
Climate Plans That Rely Too Much on Carbon Removal Could Breach International Law
Countries that rely too heavily on carbon removal in their climate plans could violate international law, warns a new paper. To keep warming to 1.5 degrees C, the world must cut emissions nearly in half by the end of this decade and zero out emissions by mid-century, but given the extraordinary challenge of overhauling the global energy system in such short order, experts say that it will be necessary to draw down emissions by planting trees, for instance, or deploying machines that soak up carbon dioxide.
Shifting Political Winds Threaten Progress on Europe’s Green Goals
In December 2019, Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the European Commission, presented with great fanfare the so-called “Green Deal.” The package consisted of new laws and directives, goals, and multi-billion-euro funding opportunities designed to transform the continent into a sustainability powerhouse and a model for the rest of the world. The initiative aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55 percent by 2030, compared to 1990 levels, and to net zero by 2050. Additional goals were added, like making farming more sustainable, rewilding large swaths of Europe’s natural areas, and halving pesticide use in agriculture, among others.
World Making Too Little Progress on Climate — Except on EV Sales
While the world is making some progress on climate change, work to transform the energy system and curb forest loss is happening too slowly to keep warming to 1.5 degrees C, according to a new report. On only one measure is the pace of change sufficient: electric vehicle sales. “The...
Uncounted Emissions: The Hidden Cost of Fossil Fuel Exports
When the world convenes in the United Arab Emirates later this month for the next round of the endless climate slog, much attention will be paid to the pledges of individual nations to cut their emissions. This has been the basic scorecard of climate talks almost since the start. But it’s a wildly incomplete scorecard, in ways that are becoming ever clearer as we enter the endgame of the energy transition. We’ve been measuring it wrong.
China Could See Peak Emissions This Year, Analysis Finds
Thanks to a record buildout of wind and solar power, China could see its emissions peak this year, according to a new analysis. Since the year 2000, Chinese emissions have roughly tripled as manufacturing and construction have boomed. Over the past two decades, wind and solar also grew, but never fast enough to keep up with rising power demand. But that is about to change, an analysis from CarbonBrief finds.
Greenland’s Glaciers Melting Twice as Fast as They Were 20 Years Ago
Greenland’s coastal glaciers are melting twice as rapidly as they were two decades ago, according to a study warning the glaciers have entered a new phase of rapid retreat. While Greenland’s sprawling ice sheet has been the subject of much research, for the new study scientists sought to study the impact of warming on the hundreds of glaciers dotting Greenland’s coastline. Researchers analyzed satellite imagery and historical photos, tracking changes in more than 1,000 glaciers over more than a century. Many of the historical photos came from a collection that had, until a few years ago, been gathering dust in a castle near Copenhagen.
Giant Sequoias Are in Big Trouble. How Best to Save Them?
In 2015 a lightning strike started what became known as the Rough Fire, which eventually burned more than 150,000 acres of forest east of Fresno and just west of Kings Canyon National Park. The blaze burned into seven different sequoia groves in Sequoia National Forest, as well as a grove...
Deforestation in Colombia Down 70 Percent So Far This Year
Deforestation in the Colombian Amazon is down 70 percent, year on year, through the first nine months of 2023, the government estimates. Since taking power last year, leftist President Gustavo Petro has enacted a slate of new policies aimed at protecting Colombian forests, including paying locals to conserve woodland. These policies are having an effect, environment minister Susana Muhamad said in a statement.
Ecosystems as Infrastructure: A New Way of Looking at Climate Resilience
When people think of landscape architecture, small-scale recreational spaces like urban parks, gardens, and golf courses may come to mind. MacArthur “Genius Award” winner Kate Orff has a grander and more ecologically ambitious vision. Orff, director of Columbia University’s Urban Design Program, believes that architects should do more...
After Salmon Kills, EPA Takes Aim at Toxic Chemical Found in Tires
The Environmental Protection Agency will review a chemical found in tires that has been linked with the deaths of salmon on the U.S. West Coast. Spurred by a petition from West Coast tribes, the EPA will study the impact of the rubber preservative 6PPD with an eye to potentially banning its use. Through normal wear and tear, tires shed tiny bits of rubber rich in 6PPD. This preservative reacts with ozone pollution to form 6PPD-q, which is toxic to fish. Rainfall washes the chemical from streets and parking lots into streams and rivers. In the Pacific Northwest, 6PPD-q has proved deadly to coho salmon.
Humans Have Increased Atmospheric Mercury Sevenfold, Study Finds
Humans have raised the level of mercury in the atmosphere sevenfold, largely by burning coal, a new study finds. The largest natural source of mercury is volcanoes. To conduct their study, researchers at Harvard University determined how much mercury volcanoes disgorge annually into the atmosphere, then used that finding to estimate mercury levels before humans began burning large volumes of coal.
As Climate Talks Near, Calls Mount for a ‘Phaseout’ of Fossil Fuels
It is boom time in the deserts of New Mexico and West Texas, where vast oil reserves buried in the Permian geological basin are getting a second life, thanks to fracking. Though tapped for more than a century, the basin still contains the largest oil reserve in the United States, and one of the largest in the world. Output has tripled in a decade. And big oil appears determined to tap every last drop.
Europe’s Liquefied Natural Gas Buildout Collides With Waning Demand
As part of its efforts to wean itself off Russian energy, Europe has sought to import more natural gas from overseas, erecting new terminals for processing deliveries of liquefied natural gas. But this new capacity is set to exceed demand, an analysis finds. With war roiling energy markets, Europe has...
Without Warning: A Lack of Weather Stations Is Costing African Lives
In early May, heavy rainfall led to severe flooding and hundreds of landslides around Lake Kivu, on the border between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), killing at least 600 people. The floods, which caught many as they slept, also displaced thousands of people, destroyed water infrastructure, and damaged productive farm fields.
As Oceans Warm, Coral Bleaching Seen at Greater Depths
Researchers have discovered coral bleaching hundreds of feet underwater, at a depth where corals were once well-insulated from dangerous heating at the ocean’s surface. When ocean waters grow too warm, corals eject the colorful algae that inhabit their tissues, turning white. If waters cool, algae can regain their color, but stubbornly high temperatures can prove deadly. With climate change, coral bleaching has become routine in shallow reefs, from Australia to the Caribbean.
As Bird Kills from Buildings Mount, Cities Look for Solutions
Most early mornings in the spring and fall, as he has done for more than four decades, David Willard goes out to gather the dead. A retired curator of birds at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History, Willard walks the mile from his office, in the dark, to pick up the thrushes, warblers, sparrows, and other migrating birds that have met their end against the glass walls of McCormick Place, a giant modernist rectangle on the Lake Michigan shore. The dead birds go into a plastic grocery bag. Those that are stunned but still alive he slips into a paper sandwich bag, to be released later in the brush on a nearby hill.
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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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