Science Archives - Inside Climate News

Longleaf Pine Restoration—a Major Climate Effort in the South—Curbs Its Ambitions to Meet Harsh Realities

By Marianne Lavelle, and Sarah Whites-Koditschek and Dennis Pillion of AL.com — Sun, 17 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000

A Public-Private Partnership Confronts the Challenges of Nature-Based Solutions, Including Urban Growth, Logging Pressures and a Warming Planet

By Marianne Lavelle, and Sarah Whites-Koditschek and Dennis Pillion of AL.com

TUSKEGEE, Ala.—On a fall walk through Tuskegee National Forest, ecologist John Kush kept his eyes on the ground, looking for sprouts of hope.

Nature Got a More Prominent Place at the Table at COP28

By Bob Berwyn — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 18:55:10 +0000

Animals’ roles in the carbon cycle have long been overlooked. At the climate conference in Dubai, scientists showed how rewilding ecosystems can have big climate benefits.

By Bob Berwyn

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates— As COP28 ended with just a faint glimmer of hope that the world will take seriously the need to decarbonize by 2050, leading scientists at the conference said it’s time to “put the protection and restoration of wild ecosystems at the heart of global climate policy” as a viable option for cutting carbon dioxide pollution.

Will the American Geophysical Union Cut All Ties With the Fossil Fuel Industry?

By Liza Gross — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000

Scientist-activists ask the world’s biggest society of earth and space scientists to revoke the fossil fuel industry’s social license.

By Liza Gross

SAN FRANCISCO—Scientists who have risked their careers, freedom and livelihoods led a town hall meeting here on Tuesday at the world’s largest annual gathering of earth and space scientists to ask their colleagues to consider what their professional society’s stance should be in relation to the fossil fuel industry.

A New UN ‘Roadmap’ Lays Out a Global Vision for Food Security and Emissions Reductions

By Georgina Gustin — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000

Critics applaud food-related ambitions at COP28, but say they don’t address livestock emissions and rely too much on bioenergy.

By Georgina Gustin

As the United Nations’ annual climate summit wraps up in Dubai this week, farm and food groups are applauding the conference leadership for its intensified focus on agriculture, a major source of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions that has been overlooked in previous years.

Scientists to COP28: ‘We’re Clearly in The Danger Zone’

By Bob Berwyn — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 21:00:00 +0000

As this year’s climate talks head into their final days, a new report also highlights positive social tipping points that can drive “the odds in our favor.”

By Bob Berwyn

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates—As negotiators at COP28 debate which verbs in the final documents would indicate the correct level of urgency, scientists at the global talks delivered a simple, dire message: Act now, or trigger climate tipping points with serious risks to the lives and livelihoods of billions of people.

With $25 Million and Community Collaboration, Baltimore Is Becoming a Living Climate Lab

By Aman Azhar — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000

A Johns Hopkins climate scientist named Ben Zaitchik came to the city to study the heat island effect. Now, with millions in federal funding, he’s putting neighborhood concerns at the heart of the five-year project on urban heat, flooding, air pollution and decarbonization.

By Aman Azhar

Harm City: Fifth in a series about environmental justice and climate adaptation in Baltimore’s neighborhoods.

At COP28, a Growing Sense of Alarm Over the Harms of Air Pollution

By Victoria St. Martin — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 19:30:00 +0000

A study released on the eve of the conference found that 8 million people around the world die annually from air pollution. And experts say the crisis is worsening.

By Victoria St. Martin

In one home video, Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah bops to a choreographed Beyoncé dance. In another, she looks at the camera, and her mom and plants a big kiss on her lips. Then there is a photo of her mid-laugh when she told her mom she could not climb any more steps at a monument. And in some of the final images taken of Ella as she neared the end of her all-too-brief life, the 9-year-old lies in a London hospital room struggling to breathe, an oxygen mask covering nearly all of her tiny, oval face.

New Mexico Looks to Address Increasing Aridity With Brackish and Produced Water. Experts Are ‘Skeptical’

By Wyatt Myskow — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 10:30:00 +0000

The Southwestern state announced Tuesday that it would spend $500 million on salty water from deep underground and wastewater from oil and gas production as a solution to its shortage.

By Wyatt Myskow

New Mexico will invest $500 million into purchasing water from controversial sources, including treated oilfield wastewater, as a means to bolster the state’s water portfolio. The purchases are the latest in a long-running series of deals dipping into untapped waters to shore up dwindling supplies as climate change and decades of overconsumption drive aridification of the Southwest.

New Forecasting Tools May Help Predict Impact of Marine Heatwaves on Ocean Life up to a Year in Advance

By Kiley Price — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 21:43:18 +0000

These forecasts could help fisheries avoid whale entanglements and unexpected supply chain disruptions.

By Kiley Price

In 2014, an unprecedented marine heat wave engulfed the west coast of North America, pushing ocean temperatures up to 7 degrees Fahrenheit higher than usual in some areas. Dubbed “The Blob,” this stretch of unusually warm water cooked marine species across the Northeast Pacific, especially hammering populations of sardines and small crustaceans known as krill.

Government, Corporate and Philanthropic Interests Coalesce On Curbing Methane Emissions as Calls at COP28 for Binding Global Methane Agreement Intensify

By Phil McKenna — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

New U.S. and EU regulations on methane emissions strengthen calls for a binding international agreement to curb the climate pollution.

By Phil McKenna

The Environmental Protection Agency announced new regulations at the COP28 global climate summit in Dubai on Saturday that will reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas industry by nearly 80 percent. The move followed new rules from the European Union that will limit methane emissions on natural gas imports starting in 2030.