Climate change may mean more spring snowstorms in the future

Another week, another nor’easter — the fourth powerful coastal storm of March 2018 has the big Northeast cities in its crosshairs. The region is notorious for vicious winter tempests, but four bomb cyclones in one month seems a bit much, especially when one comes on the first day of spring. March roared in like a lion. What happened to the lamb? https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2018/03/21/climate-change-may-mean-more-spring-snowstorms-in-the-future/?utm_campaign=8b5e22cb41-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_source=EHN&utm_term=.cc6b7744708a
Article courtesy of The Washington Post by Jennifer Francis

Alaska spotlights its health risks from climate change

No state in the United States has experienced the domino effects of climate change quite as rapidly as Alaska has. Temperatures there have risen twice as fast as elsewhere in the country and have, in turn, altered the very fabric of Alaskan life, including how people navigate their landscape, access and store food, and maintain their health as ground thaws and frozen coastlines melt and morph.
https://eos.org/articles/alaska-spotlights-its-health-risks-from-climate-change
Article courtesy of GeoHealth New by Laura Poppick

We're cooling Earth by accident. Now we might try on purpose

Scientists presented a startling revelation in January about air pollution. It can cool the atmosphere and mask some of the warming felt by the Earth.
The effect is so strong that if all human-caused air pollution disappeared tomorrow, the Earth could rapidly warm by as much as a full degree Celsius (Climatewire, Jan. 22).  https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060076777
Article courtesy of E&E News by Chelsea Harvey

Please stop building houses exactly where wildfires start

Built well, a city should provide a bulwark against disaster. Fundamentally, all cities are fortresses.
Or at least they should be. If a city is a fortress, where’s the wall? The edges of North American cities today aren’t edge-like at all. Most of them, especially in the West, ooze outward in a gradient, urban to suburban to exurban to rural to wild. Some megacities cycle through suburban and exurban forms without ever manifesting anything that looks like a downtown, much less a high street. https://www.wired.com/story/please-stop-building-houses-exactly-where-wildfires-start/
Article courtesy of Wired by Adam Rogers

Small hydropower a big global issue overlooked by science and policy

Brazil recently announced an end to its mega-dam construction policy, a strategy other nations may embrace as understanding of the massive environmental and social impacts of big dams grows.
However, a trend long neglected by scientists and policymakers ¬ the rapid growth of small dams – has been spotlighted in a new study.  https://news.mongabay.com/2018/03/small-hydropower-a-big-global-issue-overlooked-by-science-and-policy/
Article courtesy of Mongabay News by Claire Salisbury

Larry Page’s Flying Taxis, Now Exiting Stealth Mode

Since October, a mysterious flying object has been seen moving through the skies over the South Island of New Zealand. It looks like a cross between a small plane and a drone, with a series of small rotor blades along each wing that allow it to take off like a helicopter and then fly like a plane. To those on the ground, it has always been unclear whether there was a pilot aboard.  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/12/business/dealbook/flying-taxis-larry-page.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Ftechnology&action=click&contentCollection=technology&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront
Article courtesy of The New York Times-Dealbook by Andrew Ross Sorken

Exciting new green technology of the future-Solar Roof Tiles

Elon Musk, the Tesla chief executive, isn't content with just churning out super-efficient electric cars, he recently unveiled some incredible new solar roof tiles. Unlike currently used solar technology, these glass tiles look almost indistinguishable from typical roof tiling, and come in a broad array of shapes and colours. http://www.sciencefocus.com/article/future/exciting-new-green-technology-future
Article courtesy of Science Focus by Gertie Goddard

A "New Ocean" Is Emerging at the Top of the World

As the planet warms, the Arctic is warming more than twice as fast. As ice cover is disappearing, average summer sea ice has declined by more than a third since 1979. That’s roughly equal to the entire area of the Western U.S.  https://www.kqed.org/science/1920922/arctic-sea-ice-ulmer
Article courtesy of KQED Science by Danielle Venton

Parts of San Francisco are sinking faster than the sea is rising

Rising seas aren’t the only problem facing low-lying coastal areas. Many of these areas are also sinking, vastly increasing the risk of flooding.

In the San Francisco Bay area, sea level rise alone could inundate an area of between 50 and 410 square kilometres by 2100, depending both on how much action is taken to limit further global warming and how fast the polar ice sheets melt. But when land subsidence is also taken into account, the area vulnerable to flooding during high tides and storm surges rises to between 130 and 430 square kilometres.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2163092-parts-of-san-francisco-are-sinking-faster-than-the-sea-is-rising/

Article courtesy of New  By Michael LePage

Exxon Thinks It Can Create Biofuel From Algae At Massive Scale

In the California desert near the Salton Sea and the tiny town of Calipatria, an acre-size rectangular pond is filled with saltwater and brightly colored algae. The pond is one of several at the site where Exxon Mobil and Synthetic Genomics are taking the next step toward a goal that has been elusive for other companies so far: the production of biofuel at scale.  https://www.fastcompany.com/40539606/exxon-thinks-it-can-create-biofuel-from-algae-at-massive-scale
Article courtesy of Fast Company by Adele Peters

Can we refreeze the Arctic? Scientists are beginning to ask

In a steadily warming world, using technology to protect the planet's glaciers may only prove useful for so long — curbing greenhouse gases and stopping the warming itself is the only true solution. But some scientists hope that stopgap measures could buy a little time for the world's ice.  https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060075503
Article courtesy of E&E News by Chelsea Harvey

FEMA has radically underestimated how vulnerable Americans are to flooding

New spatial analysis reveals that officials have wildly underestimated flooding risk

A team of researchers led by PhD student Oliver Wing of the University of Bristol in the UK set about to do the first high-resolution, national-level assessment of flood risk in the US.  https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/3/2/17070222/us-flood-risk

Article courtesy of VOX by David Roberts

Cities Emit 60% More Carbon Than Thought

The carbon footprint of some of the world’s biggest cities is 60 percent larger than previously estimated when all the products and services a city consumes is included, according to a new analysis.   https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/03/city-consumption-greenhouse-gases-carbon-c40-spd/
Article courtesy of National Geographic by Stephen Leahy

ELECTRIC VEHICLES BENEFIT MORE THAN JUST THEIR OWNERS

Recharging electric vehicles at off-peak hours could mean lower rates for all utility customers.  http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/18/03/01/electric-vehicles-benefit-more-than-just-their-owners/

Article courtesy of NJSpotlight by Tom Johnson