Our Neighborhood

Earth

Keeping It Green

Climate Change

Page Updated:
July 24, 2024

• • Could Geo-engineering, Help Save the Planet?

  Conspiracy Theories Swirl
  
  

  July 20, 2024 -If we can’t control rising global temperatures by drastically cutting carbon emissions, could something called geo-engineering be a way to cool the planet?

  In what is already a multi-billion-dollar industry, scientists around the world, including in the UK, are researching geo-engineering - ways of manipulating the climate to tackle global warming.

• • The Era of China’s Soaring
  Carbon Emissions Might Be Ending

  There Are Promising Signs From the World’s Biggest Emitter of Greenhouse Gases
  
  

  July 18, 2024 -China, the world’s biggest source of planet-warming greenhouse gases for most of the past two decades, is seemingly on the verge of bending its emissions curve from years of steep growth into a flat plateau.

  The implications for climate change could scarcely be greater. Since China’s emissions surpassed those of the United States in 2006, China’s global share has grown to almost a third — a huge number, even with population differences taken into account.

• • Amtrak Passengers Face Record
  Delays From Extreme Weather

  The Dated U.S. Rail Infrastructure Struggles to Stay Operational as Climate Change Accelerates...
  
  

  July 17, 2024 On June 20, after millions of Americans had suffered through a sweltering heat wave for three days, Amtrak sent an ominous warning over social media: Trains connecting the largest cities in Northeast could face up to an hour of delay from high temperatures.

  Click to read all about it.

• • Brutal Heat is Blasting the East Coast

  Here’s a City-By-City Forecast
  
  

  July 15, 2024 -After a 10-day siege of record high temperatures in the western United States, the core of extreme heat has shifted toward the East Coast. To start the new week, about 100 million people are under heat alerts from Florida to Maine, and relief is not expected for several days.

  Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and much of eastern North Carolina and Southeast Virginia are under excessive-heat warnings, the highest level alert. In these areas, highs are expected to rise to near 100 with heat indexes — a measure of how hot it feels factoring in humidity — reaching 105 to 110.

• • After Hurricane Beryl’s Destruction,
  Climate Scientists Fear for What’s Next
  

  Experts Say Devastating Hurricane So Early in Season is ‘Big Wake-Up Call’
  
  

  July 13, 2024 -The poignancy was unmistakable: prognosticators at Colorado State University amended their already miserable seasonal tropical cyclone forecast on Monday precisely as Hurricane Beryl was filling Houston’s streets with floodwater and knocking out power to more than 2m homes and businesses.

  “A likely harbinger of a hyperactive season” was how CSU researchers characterized Beryl, which set numerous records on the way to its Texas landfall, including the earliest category 5 hurricane, strongest ever June storm, and most powerful to strike the southern Windward Islands.

• • Tracking Dangerous Heat in the U.S.

  Dangerous Levels of Heat are Forecast Across Many Areas of the Contiguous United States
  
  

  July 11, 2024 -About 111.2 million people — 34 percent of the population of the contiguous United States — live in the areas expected to have dangerous levels of heat.

  Click now for the story and a graph.

• • Rescue Helicopters Struggle to Fly in the Extreme Heat

  These Extreme Temperatures Are Affecting How Rescue Choppers Carry Out Their Missions
  
  

  July 10, 2024 -The call came at 2 p.m. Sunday: A driver suffered a brain injury in a traffic accident and needed to be flown to a different hospital as soon as possible.

  Lead helicopter pilot Douglas Evans noted the 116.6-degree temperature in Redding, Calif., where he would need to land. The tarmac was probably even hotter...

• • Tourists Still Flock to Death Valley Amid Searing US Heat Wave

  Blamed for Several Deaths
  
  

  July 9, 2024 -Hundreds of Europeans touring the American West and adventurers from around the U.S. are still being drawn to Death Valley National Park, even though the desolate region known as one of the Earth’s hottest places is being punished by a dangerous heat wave blamed for a motorcyclist’s death over the weekend.

  Click for details.

• • A Week of Extreme Weather, Explained

  July has Brought a Record-Breaking Hurricane, Early-Season Wildfires and Triple-Digit Temperatures
  
  

  July 8, 2024 -On Friday, a wildfire broke out in Southern California. As of early Monday, the blaze had ravaged over 20,000 acres. Another fire last week in the northern part of the state prompted about 29,000 people to evacuate.

  Both incidents underscore how wildfires are becoming larger and more severe.

• • Manawa Dam breached Amid Heavy Rainfall

  Wisconsin City Evacuated
  
  

  July 5, 2024 -Floodwaters burst through a levee in a Wisconsin city during severe thunderstorms on Friday, forcing evacuations and road closures, officials said.

  A small cluster of thunderstorms sat over Manawa and the surrounding area Friday morning, dumping more than 5½ inches over the course of about four hours, Kurt Kotenberg, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Green Bay, told The Washington Post.

• • Alaskan Ice Field Melting at an ‘Incredibly Worrying’ Pace
  

  Melting Has Doubled
  in Recent Decades
  
  

  July 2, 2024 -One of North America’s largest areas of interconnected glaciers is melting twice as quickly as it did before 2010, a team of scientists said Tuesday, in what they called an “incredibly worrying” sign that land ice in many places could disappear even sooner than previously thought.

  Click to read all about it.

• • Biden Announces New Heat Protections for Workers
  

  Calls Climate Denial ‘Dumb’
  
  

  July 2, 2024 -President Biden on Tuesday called denying the effects of climate change “really, really dumb” and said that extreme heat and other weather disasters fueled by rising global temperatures have cost billions of dollars and thousands of American lives.

  “Ignoring climate change is deadly and dangerous and irresponsible,” Mr. Biden said. He warned that temperatures have already shattered records this summer, and are expected to climb, as he proposed new protections for workers exposed to dangerous heat on the job.

• • Hurricane Beryl Tilts West
  

  Where It’s Headed Next
  
  

  July 2, 2024 -Hurricane Beryl, unprecedented for its rate of strengthening, intensity and location for this time of year, morphed into a Category 5 monster on Monday night as it became the strongest Atlantic storm ever observed during the month of July.

  After making landfall Monday on Grenada’s Carriacou Island, the storm was churning west in the Caribbean. Beryl weakened to a high-end Category 4 Tuesday afternoon as its maximum sustained winds decreased from a peak of 165 to 155 mph.

• • Caribbean Island of Carriacou ‘Flattened’
  

  Hurricane Beryl Makes Landfall
  
  

  July 1, 2024 -Hurricane Beryl made landfall on Grenada’s Carriacou Island on Monday as an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 hurricane, with winds that had increased to 150 mph. Grenada and the nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines were reeling from a storm that is likely to be the region’s most intense hurricane on record.

  Though there were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries, Grenadian Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell warned: “That may change quickly. … In half an hour, Carriacou was flattened.”

• • Midwest Floods, Widespread Heat Waves
  Are Undermining U.S. Transportation Systems
  

  Weather-Related Disruptions Can Have Catastrophic Consequences For Commuters and the Supply Chain
  
  

  June 28, 2024 -The severe floods sweeping through the Midwest are a potent example of how extreme weather damages the transportation arteries we all rely on.

  On Sunday, water levels rose so high in the Big Sioux River between South Dakota and Iowa that the current overtook a railroad bridge, severing a crucial connection between the two states.

• • Wildfires Have Doubled in 20 Years
  

  Fueled by Climate Change
  
  

  June 24, 2024 -The frequency and magnitude of extreme wildfires around the globe has doubled in the last two decades due to climate change, according to a study released Monday.

  The analysis, published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, focused on massive blazes that release vast amounts of energy from the volume of organic matter burned. Researchers pointed to the historic Australia fires of 2019 and 2020 as an example of blazes that were “unprecedented in their scale and intensity.” The six most extreme fire years have occurred since 2017, the study found.

• • Hawaii Settles With Young Plaintiffs in Climate Case
  

  It’s the Latest of Several Victories For Youth-Led Climate Lawsuits
  
  

  June 21, 2024 -June 21, 2024 - The government of Hawaii on Thursday settled a lawsuit with a group of young people who had sued the state’s Department of Transportation over its use of fossil fuels. It was the latest in a series of victories around the world in cases filed by young plaintiffs.

  Click now to read or listen to the article.

• • Heat and Climate Extremes Are Hitting Billions
  

  World Eide, People Are Facing Severe Heat, Floods and Fire, Aggravated By the Use of Fossil Fuels
  
  

  June 20, 2024 -June 21, 2024 - Poll workers, pilgrims, tourists on a hike, have died in blistering heat in recent weeks around the world, a harrowing reminder of the global dangers of extreme weather as a heat wave bears down on nearly 100 million Americans this week.

  Click now for more details.

• • Massive 200-Mile Long Dust Storms Sweeps Over New Mexico
  

  The Dust Storm, or Kabob, Formed From the Outflow of Severe storms, Unleashing Flash Flooding, Damaging Winds and Hail
  
  

  June 20, 2024 -June 20, 2024 - A massive dust storm caused by severe thunderstorms carved a path more than 200 miles long through portions of New Mexico and northern Mexico on Wednesday, resulting in dangerously low visibility and multiple car crashes. Scientists were astonished by the size and strength of the storm as satellite imagery captured the giant wall of dust in stunning detail.

  Click now for more.

• • Forecasts for 11 Cities at Core of Heat Dome
  

  It Nears Peak Intensity
  
  

  June 20, 2024 -Much of the Great Lakes, Ohio Valley and New England have been sizzling under a potentially record-breaking heat dome. The intense heat will spread eastward into the Northeast and New England on Thursday, and southward into the Mid-Atlantic by the weekend. Heat alerts are in effect for about 80 million people in the affected regions as officials warn people, especially those without access to air conditioning, to take precautions against heat illness.

  Temperatures will soar into the mid-90s to near 100 in many locations, while heat indexes — a measure that also factors in the humidity — will rise to near 100 to 105.

• • A Futuristic Fabric Might Make Climate Heating More Bearable
  

  We Absolutely Need This
  on Those Hot Summer Days
  
  

  June 20, 2024 -It’s summer in the northern hemisphere, and we’re once again in record-breaking territory for temperatures. If you live in a city, it’s even worse. Cities are often 10-15 °C hotter than their rural surroundings, something called the “urban heat island” effect. With temperatures continuing to rise and 68% of all people predicted to live in cities by 2050, this heat island is a growing, deadly problem.

  This new fabric that reflects both visible and infrared light, won’t make all that go away. But it may just make it a bit more bearable.

• • Stonehenge Is Sprayed With Orange Powder in Climate Protest
  

  Two Climate Protesters Sprayed the Powder Onto the Ancient Stones, as the Summer Solstice was to be Celebrated
  
  

  June 20, 2024 -Two climate activists were arrested in England after they sprayed an orange powder on the monoliths at Stonehenge in what they said was an attempt to bring attention to the climate impact of fossil fuels. The attack on the prehistoric site came on Wednesday as the stones would draw the attention of people marking the arrival of the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere.

  The organization that oversees the Stonehenge prehistoric site in England said on Thursday that it had removed the bright orange powder ahead of preparations for the important day at the site.

• • Dilemma on Wall Street: Short-Term Gain or Climate Benefit?
  

  Portfolio Managers Have Conflicting
  Incentives as the Economic and Financial Risks
  from CC Become More Apparent
  
  

  June 20, 2024 -A team of economists recently analyzed 20 years of peer-reviewed research on the social cost of carbon, an estimate of the damage from climate change. They concluded that the average cost, adjusted for improved methods, is substantially higher than even the U.S. government’s most up-to-date figure.

  Click now to read the whole story.

• • Climate Change Threat Hangs Over Haj Pilgrimage
  

  Hundreds Perish in the heat
  
  

  June 20, 2024 -Nearly 2 million Muslims will reach the end of the haj pilgrimage this week, but extreme heat has proved fatal for hundreds who began the journey last Friday to the Kaaba at the Grand Mosque in Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

  At least 562 people have died during the haj, according to a Reuters tally based on foreign ministry statements and sources.

• • The Weatherman Who Tried to
  Bring Climate Science to a Red State
  

  He Was Hired
  to Talk About Global
  Warming in His Forecasts.
  That’s When Things Heated Up
  
  

  June 20, 2024 -In 2021, Chris Gloninger, a television weatherman in Boston with a passion for climate science, was approached with an intriguing prospect. Would he consider a job as chief meteorologist at a television station in Des Moines?

  It was a smaller market, and talk of global warming would be challenging in a politically conservative state. But research from 2020 showed that most Iowans were interested in news about climate change, and the state was a leader in wind energy. Mr. Gloninger’s weather forecasts could be a breakthrough.

• • An Early Blast of Heat Grips Much of the U.S.
  

  And It's Only Mid-June
  
  

  June 17, 2024 -While a Midwestern heat wave in mid-June is not unprecedented, this one is striking in its duration, said Jake Petr, the lead forecaster with National Weather Service Chicago, and may augur another brutal summer. Most of the country is expected to see temperatures higher than usual for the next three to four weeks, forecasters said.

  Click now for more.

• • India's Over-Exposure to the Climate Crisis
  

  President Modi Will Feel the Heat, and Not Just Politically
  
  

  June 4, 2024 -India, the world’s most populous country, is also among the most vulnerable to climate hazards. That’s not only because of the heat and floods that global warming has exacerbated, but also because so many of the country’s 1.4 billion people are vulnerable to begin with. Most people are poor, by global standards, and they have no safety net.

  Click now for the rest of the story.

• • Climate Change Threatens Low-Lying Caribbean Hospitals
  

  As Reported By the U.N.
  
  

  May 27, 2024 -Tens of millions of people living in coastal areas around the Caribbean and Latin America face imminent risks to healthcare and key infrastructure as climate change brings more severe weather events, according to a United Nations report on Tuesday.

  According to the report by the U.N. sexual and reproductive health agency (UNFPA), some 41 million people - 6% of all people living in the overall region - live in low-lying coastal areas at risk of storm surges, flooding and hurricanes.

• • Schools That Never Needed AC are Now Overheating
  

  Fixes Will Cost Billions
  
  

  May 25, 2024 -Nearly 40 percent of schools in the United States were built before the 1970s, when temperatures were cooler and fewer buildings needed air conditioning.

  That has changed. In recent decades, heat has crept northward, increasing the number of school days with temperatures above 80 degrees Fahrenheit.

• • This Hurricane Season Could Be Among the Worst in Decades
  

  A Dire Warning From NOAA
  
  

  May 23, 2024 -The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned Thursday that the United States could face one of its worst hurricane seasons in two decades as the agency issued its most aggressive outlook ever.

  Government meteorologists predicted 17 to 25 tropical storms and said eight to 13 of them are likely to become hurricanes, including four to seven “major” hurricanes. The forecast underscores how record-hot ocean temperatures have increased the risk of destructive weather.

• • Iowa Wind Farm Crumbles From a Twister Direct Hit
  

  Prescott Iowa Felt Much of the Impact
  
  

  May 23, 2024 -A wind farm in southwest Iowa suffered a direct hit from a powerful tornado that crumpled five of the massive, power-producing towers, including one that burst into flames. But experts say fortunately such incidents are rare.

  Video of the direct hit on the wind farm near Greenfield, Iowa, showed frightening images of the violent twister ripping through the countryside, uprooting trees, damaging buildings and sending dirt and debris high into the air.

• • More Trees Could Cut ER Visits During Heatwaves
  

  Much of a Difference Low-tech Solutions Like Trees and White Paint Could Make in an Overheating World
  
  

  May 22, 2024 -Talk of tackling climate change often seems to involve high-tech gadgets—electric cars, giant wind turbines, machines that suck carbon dioxide from the air, and futuristic air conditioners, among other things.

  But sometimes, basic things can make the difference between life and death or sickness and health. Things like trees and some white paint.

• • Brutal Heat in Mexico
  

  Causing Dead Monkeys
  to Fall From Trees
  
  

  May 22, 2024 -Gilberto Pozo, a biologist, was monitoring a small forest in the town of Cunduacán, in southern Mexico, in early May when two mantled howler monkeys fell from a tree in front of him with a thud.

  “They were dehydrated and received treatment,” he said. “But they didn’t survive.”

• • How It Feels to Watch My Home Town Disappear into the Sea
  

  Can Anything Be Done to Save What is Left?
  
  

  May 21, 2024 -A decade ago, on my friend’s birthday, we took a huge tent and stayed the night at our local campsite. We laughed as we put the tent up where the grass met the shingle beach, the sunshine glistening on the water, the sound of the waves scraping the stones. I remember a night of ghost stories, teenage gossip and chasing each other with seaweed.

  But the land where we pitched our tent is no longer there. It’s somewhere in the North Sea.

• • Extreme Weather is Coming for Your House
  

  Passive Energy Retrofits
  Can Save Lives
  
  

  May 16, 2024 -Extreme weather is becoming an unfortunate reality because of climate change. The summer of 2023 was the northern hemisphere’s hottest in 2,000 years. Disasters such as heat waves and winter storms impact health and can take lives, and the worst effects are felt by impoverished communities.

  In a new study, researchers from the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory outline ways to retrofit residential buildings to make them more resilient to extreme heat and cold. The paper, which appears in Cell Reports Physical Science, focuses on passive routes that do not require energy.

• • DeSantis Signs Bill Scrubbing ‘Climate Change’ From Florida Law

  A GOP Governor Eager to Use Global Warming as a Culture War Issue
  
  

  May 15, 2024 -Florida will eliminate climate change as a priority in making energy policy decisions, despite the threats it faces from powerful hurricanes, extreme heat and worsening toxic algae blooms.

  On Wednesday, the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, signed the legislation, which is set to go into effect on July 1. The measure also removes most references to climate change in state law, bans offshore wind turbines in state waters and weakens regulations on natural gas pipelines.

• • Insurers Around the U.S. Bleed Cash From Climate Shocks

  Homeowners Are the Losers
  
  

  May 13 , 2024 -At first glance, Dave Langston’s predicament seems similar to headaches facing homeowners in coastal states vulnerable to catastrophic hurricanes: As disasters have become more frequent and severe, his insurance company has been losing money. Then, it canceled his coverage and left the state.

  But Mr. Langston lives in Iowa.

  Relatively consistent weather once made Iowa a good bet for insurance companies. But now, as a warming planet makes events like hail and wind storms worse, insurers are fleeing.

• • Climate Change Raises Risks of Another Pandemic

  Human Disruptions to Natural Ecosystems Raises Risks of Disease Spread
  
  

  May 8, 2024 -As humans degrade Earth’s environment, we have created a world in which diseases may be increasingly apt to fester and multiply.

  Infection-spreading creatures such as mosquitoes and ticks are thriving on a planet warmed by a blanket of fossil fuel emissions. When pollution, hunting or development push rare organisms to extinction, parasites proliferate because they have evolved to target the most abundant species.

• • At Least 3 Dead as Storms, Tornadoes Slam Eastern U.S.

  An Outbreak of Severe Storms Produced Damage from Missouri to the Carolinas
  
  

  May 8, 2024 Deadly tornadoes and severe thunderstorms erupted Wednesday across a wide swath of the eastern United States, causing damage in at least a dozen states from Missouri to the Carolinas. The most intense storms tore through the area from the Ozarks to Middle Tennessee on Wednesday evening, producing multiple strong tornadoes, large hail, damaging straight-line winds and flooding rain.

  Click now for the rest of the story.

• • U.S. Had 300 Tornadoes in April

  Second Most on Record
  
  

  May 3, 2024 -Following a chaotic swarm of twisting storms in its final week, April’s tornado count in the United States climbed to at least 300, the second-highest in the month on record.

  Although April is often a busy time for tornadoes, the 300-plus twisters this year dwarfed the average of 182 and trails only the unbelievable total of 757 in April 2011 in modern records, according to a preliminary analysis by the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center.

• • Parched Philippine Dam Reveals Centuries-Old Town

  So, Not All Droughts Are Bad?
  
  

  May 3, 2024 -Ruins of a centuries-old town have emerged at a dam parched by drought in northern Philippines, giving residents a rare spectacle and an extra source of income in a region dependent on rice-growing.

  Following a prolonged spell with little rain, the dried-up dam has revealed parts of a sunken church and foundations of old structures from the old town in Nueva Ecija province in recent weeks.

• • A Streak of Record Global Heat Nears One-Year Mark

  April Marked an 11th Consecutive Month of Record Global Heat, the Latest Sign that Humans Are In Uncharted Climate Territory
  
  

  May 2, 2024 -But there is reason to predict planetary temperatures could moderate soon, though they would remain far above old normals because of human-caused global warming.

  “If 2024 continues to follow its expected trajectory, global temperatures will fall out of record territory in the next month or two,” Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist with the payments company Stripe, wrote in a newsletter.


• • Increasingly Frequent Ocean Heat
  Waves Trigger Mass Seal-Life Die-Offs
  

  Causing Grief Among
  Marine Scientists
  
  

  May 1, 2024 -Heat waves recently extended across nearly 30 percent of the world’s oceans, an expanse equivalent to the surface area of North America, Asia, Europe and Africa.

  Click no for the whole story.

• • Preparing For Hurricaine Season

  Initial Predictions by National Experts Foresee a Potentially Record Year in Terms of Named Storms

  (AARP), May 1, 2024, -Storm preparations are not merely a matter of convenience but a cornerstone of resilience. For years, longtimers have known to prepare both a "Stay Kit" and a "Go Kit" as hurricane season looms. These kits, stocked with essentials like alcohol-based sanitizing wipes, masks, bleach, and rubber gloves, serve as our lifelines in times of crisis. With a little foresight and planning, we empower ourselves to weather any storm that comes our way.

  But preparedness extends beyond the confines of our homes. It's about understanding our surroundings and knowing our vulnerabilities. Do you know if you reside in an evacuation zone or a flood-prone area? Tools like the "Know Your Zone, Know Your Home" site provide us with invaluable insights into our geographical risks, enabling us to take proactive measures to safeguard our homes and loved ones.

• • Flash Floods, Landslide Kill at Least 45 in Central Kenya

  The Floods Have Also
  Wreaked Havoc on Infrastructure
  
  

  Apr. 29, 2024 -Flash floods and a landslide in central Kenya killed at least 45 people and injured over 110 others on Monday as floodwaters swept away houses and cars in the town of Mai Mahiu, the government said.

  Police initially blamed the flooding on a burst dam, however the ministry of water later said it was caused by a river tunnel under a railway embankment becoming blocked with debris.

• • Where Seas Are Rising at Alarming Speed

  Read The Story and See the Map
  
  

  Apr. 29, 2024 -One of the most rapid sea level surges on Earth is besieging the American South, forcing a reckoning for coastal communities across eight U.S. states, a Washington Post analysis has found.

  At more than a dozen tide gauges spanning from Texas to North Carolina, sea levels are at least 6 inches higher than they were in 2010 — a change similar to what occurred over the previous five decades.

• • Can Corals Be Saved?

  As Record Ocean Heat Threatens Corals Off Florida and Many Others, Conservationists Shift Their Strategy
  
  

  Apr. 26, 2024 -With milk crates of corals in hand and scuba tanks strapped to their backs, Sam Burrell and his team disappeared under the water’s choppy surface. Heavy, breaking waves crashed against the charter boat anchored miles off the coast.

  With each breath they let out, they descended beneath the surface and felt a sense of relief: On this November morning, they were finally returning hundreds of corals pulled out of the water earlier in the year after one of the hottest marine heat waves on record threatened to wipe them out.

• • Climate Change's Risk to the World's Workers

  It Keeps On Increasing
  
  

  Apr. 22, 2024 -More than 70% of the global workforce is exposed to risks linked to climate change that cause hundreds of thousands of deaths each year, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said on Monday, adding governments would need to act as the numbers rise.

  Workers, especially the world's poorest, are more vulnerable than the general population to the dangers of climate extremes such as heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, and hurricanes because they are often the first exposed, or exposed for longer periods and at greater intensity.

• The National Climate Change Assessment
• 6 Things We Can Do About Climate Change
• Climate Change Positive Thoughts (free e-Book)
• Get the Climate Lab Book
• Interactive Climate Map 2050 (CC Consequences)
• The People's Dosier on Climate Change

• Global Warming Report from NOAA
• Another Good Global Warming Resource
• More Climate Change Resources
• NY Times Climate Forward: (Climate Change Q&A)
• Carbon Fee & Dividend Video
• Interactive Air Pollution Map 2100