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Category Archives: Climate Change

GriddingMachine: A new database and software for sharing global datasets

Climate Modeling Alliance (CliMA): “Researchers are spending way too much time finding, reading, and processing public data. The ever increasing amount of data, various data formats, and different data layouts are increasing the time spent on handling data—before getting ready for scientific analysis. While the intention of sharing data is to facilitate their broad use… Continue Reading

The Inflation Reduction Act Drives Significant Emissions Reductions and Positions America to Reach Our Climate Goals

U.S. Dept. of Energy Report: “The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 represents a historic, $369 billion investment in the modernization of the American energy system. The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) preliminary assessment finds that this law—in combination with other enacted policies and past actions—will help drive 2030 economy-wide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 40%… Continue Reading

The right kind of filter can keep microplastics out of drinking water

Popular Science – Slow sand and membrane filters can knock out nearly all of the tiny pollutants. “Out of all the plastic that has even been produced globally, less than 10 percent has been recycled. One of the biggest environmental dilemmas with this is that plastic does not decompose, it only breaks down into smaller… Continue Reading

The 6th National Risk Assessment on Hazardous Heat

“New research from First Street Foundation analyzes the the prevalence of increasing extreme temperatures and dangerous heat wave events throughout the contiguous United States, with a key finding being the incidence of heat that exceeds the threshold of the National Weather Service’s (NWS) highest category for heat, called “Extreme Danger” (Heat Index above 125°F) is… Continue Reading

Birds Online

“The BIRDS ONLINE project has been implemented by the Faculty of Environmental Sciences of the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague since 2014. The project has been through several phases – design and creation of the monitoring system, construction of a special nest box for built-in technical equipment, installing test nest boxes with the help… Continue Reading

How Many U.S. Households Don’t Have Air Conditioning?

Energy Institute at Haas: “With rising adoption, nearly 90% of American homes have air conditioning, but almost 30% in California are still without it. And, once again, the U.S. is gripped by sweltering heat and humidity. Higher-than-average summer temperatures are everywhere, even in places like Portland, Oregon, which topped 100 degrees last weekend and in… Continue Reading

The Carbon Cycle: Key Component of the Climate System, with Implications for Policy

CRS Report – The Carbon Cycle: Key Component of the Climate System, with Implications for Policy, August 10, 2022: “Large quantities of carbon are actively exchanged between the atmosphere and the other carbon storage pools, including the oceans, vegetation, and soils on the land surface. The exchange, or flux, of carbon among the atmosphere, oceans,… Continue Reading

Climate Liability Suits: Is There a Path to Federal Court?

CRS Legal Sidebar – Climate Liability Suits: Is There a Path to Federal Court? August 12, 2022: “Many of the most prominent court cases related to climate change in recent years have been decided by federal courts, including the Supreme Court, based on federal law. A growing number of cases,however, allege state-law claims against fossil… Continue Reading

More dangerous heat waves are on the way: See the impact by Zip code

Washington Post: “…Across much of the United States, millions of people are expected to experience extreme temperatures more frequently and for longer periods of time — a threat that will grow as climate change worsens. The new data, released Monday by the nonprofit First Street Foundation, calculates the heat risk facing each property in the… Continue Reading

Massachusetts just passed a massive climate and clean energy bill

Washington Post: “Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) on Thursday signed a major climate and clean-energy bill that contains sweeping policies targeting renewables, transportation and fossil fuels — a move that lawmakers and advocates say is critical to supporting the state’s goal to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Baker’s decision to sign the bill, which was… Continue Reading

The Arctic has warmed nearly four times faster than the globe since 1979

Rantanen, M., Karpechko, A.Y., Lipponen, A. et al. The Arctic has warmed nearly four times faster than the globe since 1979. Commun Earth Environ 3, 168 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-022-00498-3 “In recent decades, the warming in the Arctic has been much faster than in the rest of the world, a phenomenon known as Arctic amplification. Numerous studies… Continue Reading

Preliminary Report: The Climate and Energy Impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022

Suggested citation: Jenkins, J.D., Mayfield, E.N., Farbes, J., Jones, R., Patankar, N., Xu, Q., Schivley, G., “Preliminary Report: The Climate and Energy Impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022,” REPEAT Project, Princeton, NJ, August 2022 “This report describes the national-scale energy system and greenhouse gas emissions impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), as… Continue Reading