BBC Future: “Our modern world is dependent upon natural resources extracted from the ground, but there could be another source of rare and valuable metals by giving our houses a spring clean. With so many of us now stuck in our homes during the pandemic, long-postponed jobs such as clearing out the loft or attic… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Climate Change
They’re Among the World’s Oldest Living Things. The Climate Crisis Is Killing Them
The New York Times – California’s epic wildfires in 2020 took deadly aim at the state’s most beloved trees. “In a relative instant, countless ancient redwoods, hundreds of giant sequoias and more than one million Joshua trees perished. The blackened wreckage sends a clear message. These trees are in the fight of their lives. “It’ll… Continue Reading
The UN released a stark new climate report
Mashable: “The UN released a stark climate report on Wednesday [December 9, 2020]. The Emissions Gap Report 2020 is an assessment of a wide chasm: the gap between where human-created carbon emissions are expected to be in 2030 versus the cuts actually needed to substantially limit global warming. The latest report underscores that the coronavirus… Continue Reading
A Political Obituary for Donald Trump
The Atlantic – The effects of his reign will linger. But democracy survived. “To assess the legacy of Donald Trump’s presidency, start by quantifying it. Since last February, more than a quarter of a million Americans have died from COVID-19—a fifth of the world’s deaths from the disease, the highest number of any country. In… Continue Reading
Human ‘stuff’ now outweighs all life on Earth
Science Magazine – “It’s not just your storage unit that’s packed to the gills. According to a new study, the mass of all our stuff—buildings, roads, cars, and everything else we manufacture—now exceeds the weight of all living things on the planet. And the amount of new material added every week equals the total weight… Continue Reading
25 wildlife photos that show nature at its most beautiful, weird, and brutal
Mashable: “The Wildlife Photography Awards really is the gift that keeps on giving. A couple of months back we had the contest’s highly commended entries, then we had the overall winners, and now it’s time for the People’s Choice category. On Tuesday, London’s Natural History Museum — the organisation behind the competition — released a… Continue Reading
Air Pollution: Opportunities to Better Sustain and Modernize the National Air Quality Monitoring System
Opportunities to Better Sustain and Modernize the National Air Quality Monitoring System GAO-21-38: Published: Nov 12, 2020. Publicly Released: Dec 7, 2020. “The national ambient air quality monitoring system measures air pollution levels at fixed locations across the country. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, state, and local agencies cooperatively manage this system’s aging infrastructure. Our… Continue Reading
Here’s how the U.S. can lead the world on climate change innovation
Bill Gate – It’s time to create the National Institutes of Energy Innovation. “…There is a better way. To reduce duplication, focus the government’s efforts, and get the most innovation out of every dollar of funding, we should create a new organization: the National Institutes of Energy Innovation. This the most important thing the U.S.… Continue Reading
The Social Life of Forests
The New York Times Magazine – Trees appear to communicate and cooperate through subterranean networks of fungi. What are they sharing with one another? “…Now a professor of forest ecology at the University of British Columbia, Suzanne Simard, who is 60, has studied webs of root and fungi in the Arctic, temperate and coastal forests… Continue Reading
WMO Provisional Report on the State of the Global Climate 2020
World Meteorological Organization (WMO) – “Climate change continued its relentless march in 2020, which is on track to be one of the three warmest years on record. 2011-2020 will be the warmest decade on record, with the warmest six years all being since 2015, according to the World Meteorological Organization. Ocean heat is at record… Continue Reading
Science and Scientists Held in High Esteem Across Global Publics
Pew Report – “Yet there is ambivalence in many publics over developments in AI, workplace automation, food science – As publics around the world look to scientists and the research and development process to bring new treatments and preventive strategies for the novel coronavirus, a new international survey finds scientists and their research are widely… Continue Reading
FSB examines financial stability implications of climate change
“The Financial Stability Board (FSB) today published a report that examines the potential implications of climate change for financial stability. The report analyses how climate-related risks might be transmitted across, and might be amplified by, the financial system, including across borders. It also sets out next steps for the FSB’s work in this area. Current… Continue Reading
