Month: September 2019

Study: The Best Place for Harvesting Solar Energy? Farmland

This Mother Jones article discusses where solar panels can be placed – farm land. And the same land can produce loads of food and electricity simultaneously.

Two of the paper’s authors, Oregon State University researchers Elnaz Adeh and Chad Higgins, co-authored a 2018 PLOS One study looking at grass production on a solar installation on a pasture near Corvallis, Oregon. Their finding: Areas covered by the panels generated 90 percent more grass than before, using a fraction of the water. Similar projects are showing promising results in  Germany and Massachusetts.

Studies: Is global warming causing hurricanes to stall? (Yes)

This Inside Climate News article discusses whether global warming is causing hurricanes like Dorian to stall. Hurricanes Harvey and Florence also stalled, leading to extreme rainfall. Research shows it’s a global trend. Recent research shows that more North Atlantic hurricanes have been stalling as Dorian did, leading to more extreme rainfall. Their average forward speed has also decreased by 17 percent—from 11.5 mph, to 9.6 mph—from 1944 to 2017, according to a study published in June by federal scientists at NASA and NOAA.

This PBS article discusses whether climate change is making hurricanes stall. Over the last seven decades, hurricane stalling, which causes a storm to release massive amounts of rain on small areas, has become more common, research published in June in the journal Nature shows. But it is currently unclear if the trend is due to climate change or natural variation.

This  and  article in The Guardian discusses the linkage between global warming and intensifying hurricanes. As oceans warm up, hurricanes get more intense. A recent study has shown that this is getting more common because of climate change, and indeed the past few years have seen many similar examples of this effect in action. Dorian was the fourth category 5 storm in just the last four years.

Study: Trees and Climate change

This article discusses whether we are overestimating how much trees will help fight Climate Change? By using imaging scans to measure internal decay, researchers find forests may store far less carbon than we think. His research, published in Environmental Research Letters late last year and funded by the National Science Foundation, focused on a technique to see inside trees — a kind of scan known as tomography (the “T” in CAT scan.) This particular tomography was developed for use by arborists to detect decay in urban and suburban trees, mainly for safety purposes. Marra, however, may be the first to deploy it for measuring carbon content and loss associated with internal decay. Where there is decay there is less carbon, he explains, and where there is a cavity, there is no carbon at all.

This National Geographic article discusses why forests on Utah’s public lands may soon be torn out. The U.S. is moving forward with a plan to create new cattle pasture and prevent fires despite what scientists say is meager environmental review.

The Era of Cheap and Abundant Clean Energy Is Just Around the Corner

This Truthdig article discusses what may help us avoid out climate crisis. The Era of Cheap and Abundant Clean Energy Is Just Around the Corner.

US and European researchers have shown the way to an era of cheap and plentiful renewable energy on a massive scale.

Canadian scientists have worked out how to extract pure, non-polluting fuel from spent or unexploited oil wells at a fraction of the cost of gasoline.

Retreat from Rising Seas? It May Be Controversial, but It’s the World’s New Reality.

This Mother Jones article discusses why it is inevitable that we move away from the shores. Retreat from Rising Seas? It May Be Controversial, but It’s the World’s New Reality. “These changes will happen whether we like it or not.”

Indonesia just found itself a new capital. The country’s president, Joko Widodo, announced last Monday that the new seat of government will be on the island of Borneo, hundreds of miles to the northeast of the current capital, Jakarta. The crowded city’s aquifers have been drained and the ground is caving in, making it one of the fastest sinking cities in the world. The Java Sea threatens to swallow 95 percent of the city over the next 30 years.

The Deadly Mistake Corporate Media Keep Repeating

This Truthdig article discusses The Deadly Mistake Corporate Media Keep Repeating.

Rich and poor countries see the challenge of the growing crisis quite differently: for the wealthy it revolves around climate denial, while for those in poverty it’s a matter of life and death.

In the developing world, climate news is presented by the media as an international problem. In the rich world newspapers, broadcasters and websites tend to see it as a political issue, according to researchers at the University of Kansas.

Trump to Miners, Loggers and Drillers: This Land Is Your Land

This NY Times opinion piece discusses the climate change denier in chief. Trump to Miners, Loggers and Drillers: This Land Is Your Land. From Alaska’s Tongass National Forest to Minnesota’s Boundary Waters, the Trump administration wants to despoil, not preserve, America’s resources.

The tug-of-war over America’s public lands between those who would protect them for future generations and those who would exploit them for immediate commercial gain has a long history. The two Roosevelts, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were mostly sympathetic to the cause of conservation, Ronald Reagan and the second George Bush decidedly less so. But for sheer hostility to environmental values, Donald Trump has no equal.

The Group Raising An NRA-Style ‘Army Of Environmental Super Voters’ Is Expanding

This Huffington Post article discusses the Group Raising An NRA-Style ‘Army Of Environmental Super Voters’ Is Expanding. The nonpartisan Environmental Voter Project is doubling in size ahead of the 2020 election.

A year before the 2018 elections, Nathaniel Stinnett vowed to raise an “army of environmental super voters” to rival the National Rifle Association.

His nonpartisan Environmental Voter Project ultimately persuaded 58,961 eco-conscious voters in six states  ― Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Nevada and Pennsylvania ― to cast ballots for the first time last year.