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.

The Biden Administration’s Scaled-Back Lease Proposal For Atlantic Offshore Wind Projects Prompts Questions, Criticism

By Aman Azhar — Sat, 16 Dec 2023 10:05:00 +0000

Environmental advocates and industry groups pointed out that any reduction in leasing area would make clean energy and emissions reduction targets more difficult to achieve.

By Aman Azhar

The Biden administration’s latest lease offering for offshore wind projects doesn’t allocate adequate acreage for Maryland and other mid-Atlantic states to achieve their legally binding emissions reduction and clean energy targets, industry groups and environmental advocates say. They believe the offering also further hobbles the offshore wind industry, which already faces supply constraints, a lack of new tax credits and high interest rates.

Q&A: The Sort of ‘Breakthrough’ Moment Came in Dubai When the Nations of the World Agreed to Transition Away From Fossil Fuels

Interview by Steve Curwood, "Living on Earth" — Sat, 16 Dec 2023 09:30:00 +0000

But, says climate advocate Alden Meyer, “the atmosphere only cares about one thing: emissions. It's a matter of physics. It doesn't care what ministers or leaders say in declarations or treaties or pledges or action announcements … So the acid test for this is going to come in the next couple of years.”

Interview by Steve Curwood, "Living on Earth"

From our collaborating partner “Living on Earth,” public radio’s environmental news magazine, an interview by host Steve Curwood with Alden Meyer, a climate advocate and senior consultant at E3G, an independent climate change think tank. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

White House Announces Historic Agreement to Study Dam Removal and Fund Fish Restoration

By Kristoffer Tigue, Wyatt Myskow — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 18:51:52 +0000

The settlement temporarily ends a protracted fight over 14 dams on the Columbia River basin. Tribes argued in a 2021 lawsuit that the dams caused the sharp decline in native fish.

By Kristoffer Tigue, Wyatt Myskow

The White House says it has reached a settlement in a longstanding legal battle with Native American tribes and conservation groups regarding 14 dams on the Columbia River basin. The historic agreement, which includes provisions geared toward the eventual removal of four of those dams, could end one of the nation’s most high-profile disputes over the future of hydropower and adds to a growing national debate over what should be considered clean energy.

As Financial Turmoil Threatens Plans for an Alabama Wood Pellet Plant, Advocates Question Its Climate and Community Benefits

By Lee Hedgepeth — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000

Enviva made big promises to the small Alabama town that would produce the fuel for “sustainable” energy in Europe. The company’s struggles have left politicians who supported it mum and activists who opposed it hopeful.

By Lee Hedgepeth

EPES, Ala.—Portia Shepherd said “it’s a God thing.”

Moving South, Black Americans Are Weathering Climate Change

By Adam Mahoney, Capital B — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 09:30:00 +0000

The desire for a better quality of life is pushing Black people toward the epicenter of climate disasters and racism.

By Adam Mahoney, Capital B

This story was originally published by Capital B. Please sign up for Capital B’s newsletter, which comes out each week, to follow similar stories.

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.

Q&A: Catherine Coleman Flowers Talks COP28, Rural Alabama, and the Path Toward a ‘Just Transition’

By Lee Hedgepeth — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 17:00:00 +0000

From the Deep South to Dubai and back, Flowers has brought rural issues to the global stage.

By Lee Hedgepeth

Catherine Coleman Flowers brings Alabama’s Black Belt with her everywhere she goes. She can’t help it.

What I Learned About Clean Energy in Denmark

By Dan Gearino — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 14:00:00 +0000

The country leads on climate policy, but grapples with disagreements over strategy and the pace of change.

By Dan Gearino

People in Denmark have got it good.

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.