Overnight News Digest: ‘King Kong’ great apes extinction likely due to climate change

The Washington Post

Snow is piling up across much of the United States this week, but new research shows this is the exception rather than the rule: Seasonal snow levels in the Northern Hemisphere have dwindled over the past 40 years due to climate change.

Even so, snow responds to a warming planet in different ways.

“A warmer atmosphere is also an atmosphere that can hold more water,” said Alex Gottlieb, a graduate student at Dartmouth College and lead author on the new study in the journalNature. That can increase precipitation, spurring snow, or even extreme storms and blizzards that offset the effect of snowmelt amid warmer temperatures.

That has made it harder for scientists to calculate how snowpack has changed over time. But the new findings reveal that areas of the United States and Europe are nearing a tipping point where they could face a disastrous loss of snow for decades to come.

“Once you pass this threshold, which we refer to as the snow loss cliff ... with even modest amounts of warming you can get these really accelerating losses,” Gottlieb said.

The Threshold at Which Snow Starts Irreversibly Disappearing

The Atlantic

In January 2024, at long last, someone has figured out a formula of sorts for how snow reacts to climate change, and the answer is: It reacts nonlinearly. Which is to say, if we think snow is getting scarce now, we ought to buckle up.

Nonlinear relationships indicate accelerated change; shifts are small for a while but then, past a certain threshold, escalate quickly. In a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature, two Dartmouth researchers report finding a distinctly nonlinear relationship between increasing winter temperatures and declining snowpacks. And they identify a “snow loss cliff”—an average winter-temperature threshold below which snowpack is largely unaffected, but above which things begin to change fast.

That threshold is 17 degrees Fahrenheit. Remarkably, 80 percent of the Northern Hemisphere’s snowpack exists in far-northern, high-altitude places that, for now, on average, stay colder than that. There, the snowpack seems to be healthy and stable, or even increasing. But as a general rule, when the average winter temperature exceeds 17 degrees (–8 degrees Celsius), snowpack loss begins, and accelerates dramatically with each additional degree of warming.

Already, millions of people who rely on the snowpack for water live in places that have crossed that threshold and will only get hotter.

Oceans break heat records five years in a row

Nature

The world’s oceans absorbed more heat in 2023 than in any other year since records began, according to a paper released today…

The findings are the latest update of an annual study led by the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP) at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. The researchers say that the oceans have been warming at record-breaking rates every year since 2019. A total of 34 scientists from 19 research organizations in five countries participated in the research.

Cheng Lijing, an oceanographer at the IAP and the lead author of the paper says that the findings reflect the growing amount of human-generated greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. “The oceans store 90% of the excess heat in the Earth’s system. As long as the level of greenhouse gases remains relatively high in the atmosphere, the oceans will keep absorbing energy, leading to the increase of the heat in the oceans.”

U.S. cut climate pollution in 2023, but not fast enough to limit global warming

NPR News

The United States reduced emissions of climate-warming greenhouse gasses last year, after two years in which emissions rose. But the decline wasn't enough to meet climate targets set by the Biden administration. That would require much steeper cuts, most likely by significantly reducing the use of fossil fuels.

U.S. emissions declined 1.9% in 2023 despite a growing economy, according to new estimates from the research firm Rhodium Group. That continues a trend in which wealthy countries have managed to break the link between economic growth and climate pollution.

Under the 2015 international Paris Agreement, the U.S. has pledged to cut U.S. emissions 50 - 52% from their 2005 levels by the end of this decade. U.S. emissions are currently just 17.2% below 2005 levels, Rhodium finds. That means future annual reductions need to be much larger than last year's 1.9%.

American Carbon Emissions Are Down To 1991 Levels, No Thanks To Transportation

Jalopnik

Preliminary estimates for 2023 indicate that despite a 2.4 percent increase in United States gross domestic product, nationwide greenhouse gas emissions fell by 1.9 percent. Not only did U.S. emissions remain about six percent below pre-pandemic numbers, but are actually matching the numbers we saw back in 1991. The transportation sector— the number one factor in American greenhouse gas emissions — increased its emissions by 1.6 percent in 2023, largely due to increased plane travel and more miles driven. […]

Across 2023 transportation emissions increased 1.6 percent, as fuel consumption continues to inch closer to 2019 use levels. Traffic volumes increased 2.2 percent in the first three quarters of the year, as Americans hit the road in droves. Likewise, air travel was up significantly in 2023, with available seat miles on commercial flights rebounding not only to pre-pandemic levels, but beyond 2019 numbers. Overall, diesel demand is down almost 3 percent, while gasoline demand went up one percent, and jet fuel bumped five points over 2022 (which itself saw a 14 percent rise over 2021). […]

In order to meet Paris Agreement targets by 2030, the U.S. will need to reduce overall emissions by 6.9 percent every year between now and 2030.

Why Are American Drivers So Deadly?

The New York Times

[…] From 2020 to 2021, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has since calculated, the number of crashes in the United States soared 16 percent, to more than six million, or roughly 16,500 wrecks a day. The fatality figures were somehow even worse: In 2021, 42,939 Americans died in car crashes, the highest toll in a decade and a half. Of those deaths, a sizable portion involved intoxicated or unrestrained drivers or vehicles traveling well in excess of local speed limits. […]

The relationship between car size and injury rates is still being studied, but early research on the American appetite for horizon-blotting machinery points in precisely the direction you’d expect: The bigger the vehicle, the less visibility it affords, and the more destruction it can wreak. In a report published in November, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a nonprofit, concluded that S.U.V.s or vans with a hood height greater than 40 inches — standard-issue specs for an American truck in 2023 — are 45 percent more likely to kill pedestrians than smaller cars.

Forty-three percent of our 4.2 million miles of road, meanwhile, are in poor or mediocre condition, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. And they’re unlikely to be repaired soon, given the $786 billion construction backlog.

Above all, though, the problem seems to be us — the American public, the American driver. “It’s not an exaggeration to say behavior on the road today is the worst I’ve ever seen,” Capt. Michael Brown, a state police district commander in Michigan, told me.

How California’s New Pedestrian Signal Law Makes Biking Safer

Velo

…One of the easiest ways to make streets safer is with the Leading Pedestrian Interval, or an LPI. LPIs were one of the most important parts of California Bill A.B. 1909, which went into effect January 1st. According to the California Bicycle Coalition, people biking will now be able to cross intersections whenever pedestrians are allowed to go. As it turns out, the LPI is one of the easiest ways to make streets safer for people biking.

In California, signals and intersections that detect traffic (sometimes called a traffic-actuated signal) are required to give pedestrians a three to seven second head start before the signal turns green for road traffic. This is often called an LPI, or Leading Pedestrian Interval.

Allowing people on the sidewalk to begin crossing the street while cars are stopped in all directions offers several advantages. One study from the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) shows that leading pedestrian intervals can reduce pedestrian-vehicle collisions by as much as 46.2 percent simply by making them more visible to drivers.

US oil lobby launches eight-figure ad blitz amid record fossil fuel extraction

The Guardian

The American oil lobby has launched an eight-figure media campaign this week promoting the idea that fossil fuels are “vital” to global energy security, alarming climate experts.

“US natural gas and oil play a key role in supplying the world with cleaner, more reliable energy,” the new initiative’s website says. […]

Launched Tuesday by the nation’s top fossil fuel interest group, the Lights on Energy campaign will work to “dismantle policy threats” to the sector, the American Petroleum Institute (API) CEO, Mike Sommers, told CNN in an interview this week.

‘What Corruption Gets You’: How Utility Companies Bought Support in the Black South

Floodlight via Capital B News

Former Florida state representative Joe Gibbons sat in the library of the Faith Community church in Greensboro, North Carolina, trying to convince its pastor to quit promoting rooftop solar.

With a lobbyist’s charms Gibbons told the Rev Nelson Johnson that rooftop solar, which allows customers to generate their own renewable electricity, was bad for people of color. Gibbons argued that it created an imbalance in which those without solar panels end up subsidizing those who have them, Johnson recalled in an interview with Floodlight.

Johnson, a civil rights stalwart who was stabbed by a member of the Ku Klux Klan in 1979, had trouble believing him.

“It felt like he was an employee of Duke,” Johnson said of Gibbons, referencing his state’s power company.

Big Oil Is Weaponizing The First Amendment

The Lever News

For years, the fossil fuel industry has maintained that the First Amendment protects its right to mislead the public about the climate crisis, but that criticism and protest of its operations violates the law. Now, one of the industry’s preferred law firms — which has long been recognized for its defense of the First Amendment — is arguing both sides of this issue in court.

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher represents oil giant Chevron in lawsuits brought by dozens of state and local governments to hold the company accountable for deceiving consumers and the public about its products’ central role in climate change. (You may also recognize Gibson Dunn as the firm that accused U.S. attorney Steven Donziger and his Ecuadorian plaintiffs of racketeering after they defeated Chevron in Ecuador’s courts.)

As the evidence of Big Oil’s long-standing campaigns of climate denial piles up, and the cases inch closer to trial, the firm is deploying a defense that seeks to protect its clients’ ability to mislead the public.

Climate Change in the American Mind: Beliefs & Attitudes, Fall 2023

Yale Program on Climate Change Communication

Drawing on a nationally representative survey (n = 1,033) conducted from October 20 – 26, 2023, this report describes Americans’1 beliefs and attitudes about global warming. Among the key findings of this report:

• Americans who think global warming is happening outnumber those who think it is not happening by a ratio of nearly 5 to 1 (72% versus 15%). […]
• 58% of Americans understand that global warming is mostly human-caused. By contrast, 29% think it is caused mostly by natural changes in the environment. […]
• 65% of Americans say they are at least “somewhat worried” about global warming. This includes 29% who say they are “very worried.”
• About one in ten Americans report experiencing symptoms of anxiety or depression because of global warming for several or more days out of the last two weeks. […]
• 63% of Americans say they feel a personal sense of responsibility to help reduce global warming.
• 13% of Americans agree with the statement “it’s already too late to do anything about global warming,” while many more (60%) disagree.
• 47% of Americans agree with the statement “the actions of a single individual won’t make any difference in global warming,” while 53% disagree.

NPR News

Microscopic pieces of plastic are everywhere. Now, they've been found in bottled water in concentrations 10 to 100 times more than previously estimated.

Researchers from Columbia University and Rutgers University found roughly 240,000 detectable plastic fragments in a typical liter of bottled water. The study was published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

About 10% of the detected plastic particles were microplastics, and the other 90% were nanoplastics. Microplastics are between 5 millimeters to 1 micrometer; nanoplastics are particles less than 1 micrometer in size. For context, a human hair is about 70 micrometers thick.

Biden’s aides weigh climate test for natural gas exports

Politico

The Biden administration is launching a review that could tap the brakes on the booming U.S. natural gas export industry — a move that threatens to pit the president’s climate ambitions against his foreign policy agenda.

The outcome of the review could have big implications for the fossil fuel industry, U.S. clout as an energy superpower and the credibility of President Joe Biden’s climate pledges — and his reelection hopes in November.

The review being led by the Department of Energy will examine whether regulators should take climate change into account when deciding whether a proposed gas export project meets the national interest, according to two people familiar with the action who were granted anonymity to discuss deliberations that have not yet been publicly acknowledged.

Scientists outline a bold solution to climate change, biodiversity loss, social injustice

Oregon State University

An international team of scientists led by Oregon State University researchers has used a novel 500-year dataset to frame a “restorative” pathway through which humanity can avoid the worst ecological and social outcomes of climate change.

In addition to charting a possible new course for society, the researchers say their “paradigm shifting” plan can support climate modeling and discussion by providing a set of actions that strongly emphasize social and economic justice as well as environmental sustainability.

Oregon State’s William Ripple, former OSU postdoctoral researcher Christopher Wolf and collaborators argue their scenario should be included in climate models along with the five “shared socioeconomic pathways,” or SSPs, that are used by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. […]

Ripple and co-authors from the United States, the Netherlands and Australia present their restorative pathway in a paper published today in Environmental Research Letters. They say the pathway is inspired by a unique compilation of Earth system variables that vividly illustrate how humanity’s resource demands have exploded since 1850, indicating ecological overshoot.

Building a Sustainable Future: Can Earth Support Eleven Billion People?

Transformatise

[…] While population growth is slowing down, the UN estimates the human population will hit eleven billion by 2100. We’re having trouble creating sustainable societies as it is, so is it possible for eleven billion people to live sustainably on Earth? […]

That really isn’t the question. The question behind the question is — what do the living standards of those eleven billion people look like? Or, to put it another way, can eleven billion people live sustainably on Earth while maintaining high living standards as enjoyed in the West? Those statistics wrapped up in never-ending increases in income reveal the answer is a categorical no.

Creating sustainable societies involves dramatically reducing our collective impacts on the natural world. And the finger of responsibility lies with the richest. Since 1990, the richest 10 per cent of the world’s population has been responsible for 52 per cent of carbon emissions, while consuming 20 times as much energy as the poorest 10 per cent. It all comes down to consumption habits that can’t be sustained. There is simply no getting around it. But, there’s also simply no way anyone is going to sacrifice their living standards for the common good.

In a society defined by have’s and have-nots, the aim of the game for the have’s is to remain have’s. And for the have-nots, it’s to join the haves. But the good life can only be sustained for the haves — for now, anyway — if the have-nots remain have-nots. That’s a morally outrageous state of affairs, but it’s one high-income countries feel entirely comfortable with.

Climate change could be impacting babies’ birth weights, new study reveals

EuroNews

Climate change could be impacting babies’ birth weights, a new study reveals.

Exposure to cold or heat stress, particularly in the latter stages of pregnancy, could lead to children being born too large or too small for their gestational age.

Birth weight can impact a child’s development and chances of survival. It can also indicate their vulnerability to illness and disease in adulthood.

The study, carried out by researchers from the Curtin School of Population Health in Perth, examined more than 385,000 pregnancies in Western Australia between 2000 and 2015.

Norway’s parliament gives green light for controversial deep-sea mining

Euractiv

In a vote in the national parliament on Tuesday, MPs gave the green light for deep-sea mining exploration in an area of 281,200 square kilometres around the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard.

The aim is to pave the way for the commercial exploitation of minerals that are abundant on the North Atlantic shelf. […]

Opponents of deep-sea mining point to the ‘irreversible’ impact it could have on one of the last ecosystems untouched by human activity.

India’s plans to double coal production, ignore climate threat

Bloomberg via Mining Weekly

[…] “To meet growing demand,” the Indian government said on December 11 it expects to roughly double coal production, reaching 1.5-billion tons by 2030. Later, the Power Minister Raj Kumar Singh set out plans on December 22 to add 88 GW of thermal power plants by 2032. The vast majority of which will burn coal.

The move to invest more in the world’s dirtiest fuel – one of the biggest contributors to global warming – may seem counterintuitive for the South Asian country, which is highly vulnerable to climate impacts. Yet, as the country heads into elections during April and May, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keen to avoid any risks of power shortages. Along with record heat waves India has seen big spikes in peak demand for electricity over two successive years.

“India’s policy is to build everything. Push for renewables, but also push for coal and other fossil fuels,” said Sandeep Pai, director of the climate-focused organization Swaniti Global. “The justification is an increase in power demand.”

Cop29 host Azerbaijan to hike gas output by a third over next decade

The Guardian

Azerbaijan, which is hosting this year’s UN climate talks, plans to increase its fossil fuel production by a third over the next decade, according to an analysis shared exclusively with the Guardian.

The forecast indicates the Cop29 host will grow its annual gas production by about 12bn cubic metres (bcm) over the next 10 years, which is considered a crucial period in which global leaders must cut fossil fuel production if they hope to limit global heating.

Azerbaijan owns one of the world’s largest gasfields, Shah Deniz in the Caspian Sea, and the country is expected to extract 411bcm of gas over the next 10 years, according to data sourced by the campaign group Global Witness from analysts at Rystad Energy. This would emit 781m tonnes of carbon dioxide – more than two times the annual carbon emissions of the UK.

Humans now kill 80 million sharks per year, 25 million of which are threatened species

Live Science

An estimated 80 million sharks are dying in fisheries each year despite global regulations aimed at protecting them from finning, scientists have discovered.

In a study published Jan. 11 in the journal Science, researchers used data from 2012 to 2019 — when legislation to protect sharks from finning increased tenfold — and found that annual shark mortality rose from 76 million in 2012 to over 80 million in 2017. Of those shark deaths, 25 million, or over 30%, represented threatened species.

The researchers reviewed fisheries data from 150 countries and in the high seas, as well as using computer modeling and interviews with experts — including scientists, governments, environmental advocates and fisheries workers — to check their estimates.

Over 40% of Tree Species Are Heading for Extinction

The Messenger

The world's trees may also be one of its most threatened organisms, according to a new study published Thursday in the journal Science.

It finds that many more tropical tree species are in danger of going extinct far sooner than previously thought. The results add to the evidence for a growing, global biodiversity crisis as the climate warms and human activity pushes more and more plants and animals to the brink.

"Reversing this crisis is a pressing challenge," write study authors led by Renato A.F. de Lima of the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in the Netherlands, in Science.

Amazon basin experiences worst drought in 40 years: EU study

Brazil Reports

A study carried out by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) revealed that in 2023 the nine countries located in the Amazon basin recorded the lowest rainfall levels in 40 years. The extreme drought threatens plant and animal life as well as Indigenous communities in countries within the basin.

Data released by the research centre show that in the Brazilian portion of the Amazon, between August and November 2023, during the winter-spring season, temperatures reached a record 105.8 °F – about 35.6°F to 41°F above the historical average for the season.

The heat and extremely dry weather, as well as the lack of rain, have left a devastating scenario. The soil has dried up. There have been historic drops in river levels and, in some places, rivers have dried up completely, killing hundreds of river dolphins. In addition to meteorological factors, the availability of flammable materials, such as wood and dry garbage, has made it easier for forest fires to spread, spreading smoke and compromising air quality.

They Lost Their Land to the Park Service. Now They’re Losing It to Climate Change.

The New Republic

The Timbisha Shoshone are legally permitted to live in Death Valley National Park. But the vegetation vital to their traditions and livelihoods is dying.

[…] in 2000 … the Timbisha Shoshone Homeland Act… made Death Valley the first and only U.S. national park to legally allow its Indigenous inhabitants to remain where they have long lived, by returning land that was taken when the park was established.

Today, the village of 25 households is still fighting for survival, but no longer against the park service. Now their enemy is extreme heat. And the legal right to live inside the park, once the most important thing to the Timbisha, is no longer enough to protect their way of life. […]

Not only can the Timbisha live in the village forever, but they can continue their seasonal movements around the park, to cope with dramatic changes in climate. Most importantly, they can spend summer—when the village is too hot—in the Panamint Mountains, during the annual piñon harvest. Moving between the valley and the mountains has made it possible for people to live in this extreme and variable climate for thousands of years. The right to live permanently in the village was just as important to survival as the annual migration into the mountains. What the film does not tell visitors is that there has been no piñon harvest for the past three years.

U.S. billion-dollar weather disasters set an all-time record in 2023, with 28

Yale Climate Connections

Led by a record-costly swarm of severe weather episodes, the contiguous United States suffered 28 billion-dollar weather disasters in 2023,  the highest number in inflation-adjusted data going back to 1980, according to NOAA. The former record was 22, set in 2020.

“For millions of Americans impacted by a seemingly endless onslaught of weather and climate disasters, 2023 has hit a new record for many extremes,” said NOAA Chief Scientist Sarah Kapnick. “Record warm U.S. temperatures in December, a record-setting number of U.S. billion-dollar disasters in 2023, and potentially the warmest year on record for the planet are just the latest examples of the extremes we now face that will continue to worsen due to climate change.”

The total cost of 2023’s billion-dollar weather disasters, $92.9 billion, was the ninth-highest on record. NOAA’s 2023 billion-dollar weather disaster list included 19 severe storm events, two tropical cyclones, four floods, one winter weather event, one drought, and one wildfire event.

Thousands of U.S. homes have flooded over and over again. Here’s where.

The Washington Post

The number of U.S. properties that have flooded numerous times continues to rise, according to newly released federal data, in the latest sign of the nation’s mounting flood risk.

Figures show that the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which covers millions of homeowners across the nation, now has on its books at least  44,000 structures where damage has been covered again and again by taxpayers, in some cases with cumulative payouts that exceed a property’s worth. […]

“Essentially, what we are seeing is flooding is increasing faster than we are mitigating our risk,” said Anna Weber, an [Natural Resources Defense Council] senior policy analyst.

Buying Home and Auto Insurance Is Becoming Impossible

The Wall Street Journal

[…] For many Americans, getting insurance for both their cars and homes has gone from a routine, generally manageable expense to a do-or-die ordeal that can strain household budgets.

Insurers are coming off some of their worst years in history. Catastrophic damage from storms and wildfires is one big reason. The past decade of global natural catastrophes has been the costliest ever. Warmer temperatures have made storms worse and contributed to droughts that have elevated wildfire risk. Too many new homes were built in areas at risk of fire. […]

Climate change also has made it harder for insurers to measure their risks, pushing some to demand even higher premiums to cushion against future losses. […]

Insurance agents and analysts said many insurers are “quiet quitting” high-risk areas rather than face the public relations or regulatory fallout from an official exit.

As weather-related disasters mount, some Canadian homeowners can't get insurance coverage

CBC News

… insurance claims from extreme weather in 2023 to the fourth-highest total on record, according to a new report by the Insurance Bureau of Canada.

In total, insured losses from extreme weather events exceeded $3 billion in Canada for the second straight year.

The report underscores concerns about the growing economic cost of weather-related disasters made more frequent and severe by climate change — and the rising cost of insurance coverage for homeowners.

In some cases, homeowners are struggling to get coverage at all.

Persistent Wildfire Smoke Is Eroding Rural America’s Mental Health

Daily Yonder

[…] Wildfire smoke is a frequent source of stress for many people living in rural communities. The smoke harms farms and recreation-based businesses, can be psychologically triggering for wildfire survivors, frequently drives residents indoors, and recent research showed it’s associated with increases in rural suicides.

Wildfire smoke has become a pervasive form of air pollution released from intensifying fires due to the warming effects of heat-trapping pollution and a litany of other environmental changes.

Southwestern Oregon experienced unhealthy air from wildfire smoke nearly 13 days each year on average from 2013 through the end of 2022 — up from one to two days on average from 1985 through 2012, according to a report by Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality that used data from the town of Medford…

The New Space Race Is Causing New Pollution Problems

The New York Times

[…] In the past few years, the number of rocket launches has spiked as commercial companies — especially SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk — and government agencies have lofted thousands of satellites into low-Earth orbit. And it is only the beginning. Satellites could eventually total one million, requiring an even greater number of space launches that could yield escalating levels of emissions. […]

Experts say they do not want to limit the booming space economy. But they fear that the steady march of science will move slower than the new space race — meaning we may understand the consequences of pollution from rockets and spacecraft only when it is too late. Already, studies show that the higher reaches of the atmosphere are laced with metals from spacecraft that disintegrate as they fall back to Earth.

“We are changing the system faster than we can understand those changes,” said Aaron Boley, an astronomer at the University of British Columbia and co-director of the Outer Space Institute. “We never really appreciate our ability to affect the environment. And we do this time and time again.”

U.S. Supreme Court decision puts Minnesota's climate change lawsuit closer to its day in court

Minneapolis Star Tribune

A major hurdle was removed [this week] to a lawsuit seeking to hold fossil fuel firms responsible for climate change.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up a challenge to a lawsuit brought by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison against six companies connected to oil production. The companies had sought to have the lawsuit moved to federal court, and the court's decision to deny their petition keeps the case at the state level.

"[T]he defendants' behavior has delayed the transition to alternative energy sources and a lower carbon economy, resulting in dire impacts on Minnesota's environment and enormous costs to Minnesotans and the world," Ellison wrote in an emailed statement.

With the Supreme Court's decision, he added, "We can begin to hold these companies accountable for their wrongful conduct."

Delaware judge limits scope of sweeping climate change lawsuit against fossil fuel companies

AP News via ABC News

A judge has rejected several claims lodged by Delaware’s attorney general in a lawsuit alleging that the fossil fuel industry has downplayed the risks of climate change. Tuesday’s ruling significantly narrows the scope of the suit seeking to hold the industry liable for the effects of air pollution in the state.

Democratic Attorney General Kathleen Jennings filed the lawsuit in 2020, joining forces with a California law firm that has sued the oil industry on behalf of other state and local governments.

While refusing to dismiss come claims, Superior Court Judge Mary Johnston ruled, for example, that the federal Clean Air Act preempts the state’s claims seeking damages for injuries resulting from out-of-state or global greenhouse emissions and interstate pollution.

World's tallest wooden wind turbine starts turning

BBC News

[…] According to Modvion, the Swedish start-up that has just built the world's tallest wooden turbine tower, using wood for wind power is the future.

"It's got great potential," Otto Lundman, the company's chief executive, says as we gaze upwards at the firm's brand new turbine, a short drive outside Gothenburg.

It's 150m (492ft) to the tip of the highest blade and we are the first journalists to be invited to have a look inside. The 2 megawatt generator on top has just started supplying electricity to the Swedish grid, providing power for about 400 homes.

The dream of Lundman and Modvion is to take the wood and wind much higher. […]

Modvion says using wood instead of steel eliminates the wind turbines' carbon footprint entirely, making them carbon negative.

A single-celled-microbe is helping corals survive climate change, study finds

Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science

Researchers discovered for the first time a single-celled microbe that can help corals survive ocean-warming events like bleaching. The new study, led by scientists at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science and the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE: CSIC-UPF) in Barcelona, offers new information on the role microbes might play in helping corals withstand end-of-century warming projections.

They found that the abundance of certain protists within the coral microbiome — the diverse microorganisms that live within corals — can inform scientists as to whether a coral will survive heat stress. These findings have important implications for corals across the globe as they face more frequent ocean warming events especially those without zooxanthellae, the symbiotic algae that is expelled from a coral during warm water-induced bleaching.

“This is the first time that a non-algae microbe has been shown to influence the ability of corals to survive a heat-stress event,” said the study’s senior author Javier del Campo, an adjunct assistant professor at the Rosenstiel School and principal investigator of the IBE, a joint center of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and University Pompeu Fabra (UPF). “As corals face more and more heat-stress events due to climate change, a better understanding of all the microbes that may influence survivability can inform conservation practitioners as to which corals they should prioritize for intervention.”