Category: Studies Reports Tools

Scientific studies and reports are referenced in the articles, most of which have links to the studies and reports.

Report: Carbon Dioxide in Atmosphere Hits Record High Despite Pandemic Dip

New York Times: Carbon Dioxide in Atmosphere Hits Record High Despite Pandemic Dip. Global emissions dropped last year, but the decline wasn’t nearly enough to halt the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

The amount of carbon dioxide piling up in Earth’s atmosphere set a record last month, once again reaching the highest levels in human history despite a temporary dip in the burning of fossil fuels worldwide caused by the coronavirus pandemic, scientists said Monday.

Scientific instruments atop the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii showed that levels of carbon dioxide in the air averaged 419 parts per million in May, the annual peak, according to two separate analyses from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Those readings are about half a percent higher than the previous high of 417 parts per million, set in May 2020. Carbon dioxide is the most important greenhouse gas driving global warming and researchers have estimated that there hasn’t been this much of it in the atmosphere for millions of years.

Yale Climate Connection, June 4, 2021

Articles include: A climate-change-inspired video road-trip across the U.S.; Key readings on IEA’s ‘Net Zero by 2050’ report; Tips: How to weatherize your home; Talking climate with those holding different worldviews; New Mexico imposes strict rule to prevent venting, flaring of natural gas; Can fossil-fuel-dependent Wyoming build a more diverse economy?; Swiss utilities used a simple tactic to get customers to buy renewable energy; Foresters use fire and goats to care for Missouri’s Mark Twain National Forest; Youth-led Sunrise Movement calls for national job guarantee

Yale Climate Connection, May 28, 2021

Articles include: Marine photographer captures haunting images of California’s beautiful, but vanishing, kelp forests; Ambitious action on climate change could be Biden’s ‘moon shot’; It’s been a record-long time since the last EF5 tornado. What does that mean?; 12 reports on what the U.S. may make possible on climate; To help address the climate problem, universities must rethink the tenure and promotion system; Dominican Catholic sisters help create climate-friendly investment funds; Ninety-five percent of bull kelp forests have vanished from 200-mile stretch of California coast; Denmark plans to build a massive wind-energy hub on artificial island in the North Sea; Installing solar panels over California’s canals could save 65 billion gallons of water a year; Outer Banks communities see beach renourishment projects as a lifeline.

Yale Climate Connection, May 14, 2021

Articles include: Silent calamity: The health impacts of wildfire smoke; White House adviser and environmental justice advocate Catherine Coleman Flowers; Climate change increases renters’ risks; Why are there so many Atlantic named storms? Five possible explanations; Heavier downpours strain septic systems in some rural areas; Devastating disease in dolphins linked to extreme downpours, researcher says; Santa Fe women built homemade air purifiers to help protect people from wildfire smoke; Hundreds of coastal airports at risk from flooding, sea-level rise, study finds; Historic Portsmouth Village under threat from hurricanes and rising seas.

Study: Air pollution from farms leads to 17,900 U.S. deaths per year

Washington Post: Air pollution from farms leads to 17,900 U.S. deaths per year, study finds. A first-of-its-kind study shows that lung-irritating particles from fertilizer, feed lots and manure cause thousands of premature deaths — even more than coal power plants. But using more sustainable farming practices and eating less meat could save lives.

“The odor is so offensive that we start gagging, we start coughing,” she told a congressional committee in November 2019. Herring, who died last week, said she and other residents developed headaches, breathing problems and heart conditions from the fumes.

Now, a first-of-its-kind study shows that air pollution from Duplin County farms is linked to roughly 98 premature deaths per year, 89 of which are linked to emissions directly caused by hogs. Those losses are among more than 17,000 annual deaths attributable to pollution from farms across the United States, according to research published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Study: NYTimes Climate Fwd June 2, 2021

Articles include: Making way for wildlife; Biden suspends drilling in the Arctic Refuge; imagining life after highways; methane emitters; where solar & wind power are needed; Study: heat deaths & climate change; Trump denial; airlines & GHGs; Norwegian environmental base.

Study: A 20-Foot Sea Wall? Miami Faces the Hard Choices of Climate Change.

New York Times: A 20-Foot Sea Wall? Miami Faces the Hard Choices of Climate Change. A proposal to construct barriers for storm surge protection has forced South Floridians to reckon with the many environmental challenges they face.

Three years ago, not long after Hurricane Irma left parts of Miami underwater, the federal government embarked on a study to find a way to protect the vulnerable South Florida coast from deadly and destructive storm surge.

Already, no one likes the answer.

Build a wall, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed in its first draft of the study, now under review. Six miles of it, in fact, mostly inland, running parallel to the coast through neighborhoods — except for a one-mile stretch right on Biscayne Bay, past the gleaming sky-rises of Brickell, the city’s financial district.

Study: A Million Years of Data Confirms: Monsoons Are Likely to Get Worse

New York Times: A Million Years of Data Confirms: Monsoons Are Likely to Get Worse. The annual summer monsoon in South Asia begins this month. A new study points to more destructive storms.

Global warming is likely to make India’s monsoon season wetter and more dangerous, new research suggests.

Scientists have known for years that climate change is disrupting monsoon season. Past research based on computer models has suggested that the global heating caused by greenhouse gases, and the increased moisture in the warmed atmosphere, will result in rainier summer monsoon seasons and unpredictable, extreme rainfall events.

The new paper, published Friday in the journal Science Advances, adds evidence for the theory by looking back over the past million years to give a sense of monsoons to come.