NEW YORK — Activists geared up Friday for protests around the world to demand action on climate change just as a pair of major weeklong climate events were getting underway in New York City.
The planned actions in Berlin, Brussels, Rio de Janeiro, New Delhi and many other cities were being organized by the youth-led group Fridays for Future, and included the group’s New York chapter, which planned a march across the Brooklyn Bridge followed by a rally that organizers hoped would attract at least 1,000 people. More protests were planned Saturday and Sunday.
New York is hosting Climate Week NYC, an annual event that promotes climate action, at the same time the U.N. General Assembly takes up the issue on several fronts, including raising trillions of dollars to aid poorer countries suffering the most from climate change.
The New York protest was to take aim at “the pillars of fossil fuels” — companies that pollute, banks that fund them, and leaders who are failing on climate, said Helen Mancini, an organizer and a senior at the city’s Stuyvesant High School.
Youth climate protests started in August 2018 when Greta Thunberg, then an unknown 15-year-old, left school to stage a sit-down strike outside of the Swedish parliament to demand climate action and end fossil fuel use.
In the six years since Thunberg founded what became Fridays for Future, global carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels has increased by about 2.15%, according to Global Carbon Project, a group of scientists who monitor carbon pollution. The growth of emissions has slowed compared to previous decades and experts anticipate peaking soon, which is a far cry from the 43% reduction needed to keep temperature increases to an agreed-upon limit.
Since 2019, carbon dioxide emissions from coal have increased by nearly 1 billion tons (900 million metric tons), while natural gas emissions have increased slightly and oil pollution has dropped a tiny amount, according to the International Energy Agency. That growth has been driven by China, India and developing nations.
But emissions from advanced or industrialized economies have been falling and in 2023 were the lowest in more than 50 years, according to the IEA. Coal emissions in rich countries are down to levels seen around the year 1900 and the United Kingdom next month is set to shutter its last coal plant.
In the past five years, clean energy sources have grown twice as fast as fossil fuels, with both solar and wind individually growing faster than fossil fuel-based electricity, according to the IEA.
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Tyson Foods is misleading shoppers and investors by saying it would hit net-zero emissions by 2050 and marketing climate-friendly beef without having an actual strategy to do either, allege advocates suing the world’s second-biggest meat processor.
Tyson should have to curtail its climate claims or release a substantial plan to support its claims, according to a lawsuit filed on Wednesday by the Environmental Working Group. The complaint is part of an effort to “hold the biggest, most powerful contributors to the climate crisis — across industries — accountable for greenwashing,” EWG stated.
Tyson Foods has said since 2021 that it would hit net-zero emissions — the point at which the amount of greenhouse gases a company emits is offset by the emissions that are removed from the atmosphere — by 2050 by using more renewable energy and no longer contributing to deforestation.
The Arkansas-based meat company also sells a brand of “climate-friendly” beef that Tyson says is made with 10% fewer emissions than conventional meat.
A spokesperson said Tyson does not comment on litigation, but defended the company’s “long history of sustainable practices.”
The suit against Tyson was filed in Washington, D.C., which has a consumer protection law in place that lets consumer groups sue companies for false advertising.
The same claim of greenwashing — a term attributed to environmentalist Jay Westerveld that refers to making false or misleading statements about the environmental benefits of a product or service — was made in February in a suit filed by New York State Attorney General Letitia James against JBS, the world’s largest beef producer, over its claim it would reach net-zero emissions by 2040.
James’ suit against the Brazilian meat conglomerate came after Earthjustice successfully challenged JBS’ environmental messaging before an ad industry self-regulatory organization in 2023.
The Science-Based Targets Initiative, a UN-backed agency that reviews net-zero goals, is calling for the food and agricultural sector to reduce its emissions by 3% annually between 2020 and 2030.
Delta Air Lines last year dismissed as “without legal merit” a suit filed by a passenger that alleged the airline’s claim to be “the world’s first carbon-neutral airline” to be marketing spin. Coca-Cola is currently defending itself in a similar case in which the beverage maker is accused of overstating its recycling efforts.
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 19 (IPS) – In early September, Typhoon Yagi, a deadly tropical cyclone, hit Southeast Asia and Southern China, causing widespread destruction. According to the United Nations (UN), wind speeds, reaching 213 kilometers per hour, as well as heavy flooding and severe landslides, have devastated affected areas. Yagi is the strongest natural disaster to hit the South China Sea in three decades, leaving over 500 people killed, 38 missing, and 1,900 injured.
Officials estimate that 292 people have been killed in Vietnam and over 100 have been killed in Myanmar. A spokesperson for The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), stated that the death toll could be even higher than what was previously reported and that the typhoon has affected over 631,000 people.
The typhoon and subsequent flooding caused considerable damage to critical infrastructures, such as water purification systems, making way for a host of waterborne diseases and widespread water insecurity. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimates that approximately 400,000 households have been left without access to clean water.
Currently, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF are on the frontlines of affected areas distributing clean water and water-purification tablets. “Clean water is critical to help prevent food and waterborne disease, and for maintaining safe care and operations at health care facilities, whether it is for people injured in the typhoon and or those needing urgent routine health care”, stated Dr. Angela Pratt, WHO representative for Vietnam.
Additionally, Yagi has caused significant damage to thousands of homes across Southeast Asia. WHO estimates that approximately 130,000 houses have been destroyed as a result of severe flooding. Hundreds of healthcare facilities and schools have been damaged or destroyed as well, with approximately 2 million children in Vietnam alone facing elongated disruptions to their education.
Myanmar, particularly, has seen widespread displacement as a result of this. Myanma Alinn, the government-run newspaper of Myanmar, reports that 438 temporary relief camps have been opened to support the 240,000 people that have been internally displaced.
The Myanmar state disaster response agency informed reporters that extensive flooding has led to road blockages, compromised bridges, and fallen electricity lines, all of which have greatly impeded relief efforts and telecommunications between districts.
Yagi has also caused a great deal of damage to the agricultural systems of the affected regions. The latest reports from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development state that the typhoon had besieged over 97,735 hectares of rice fields. In addition, over 11,746 hectares of vegetables and 6,902 hectares of fruit trees have been damaged. This has overwhelmed Asian farmers, putting them in a state of critical financial jeopardy.
Experts predict that Southeast Asia’s pre-existing concerns of food insecurity are to be greatly exacerbated. Sheela Matthew, the World Food Programme’s (WFP) representative in Myanmar, described the typhoon’s impact on hunger and malnutrition in affected areas as “nothing less than devastating”.
Furthermore, the economy of affected areas have seen significant losses as a result of the typhoon. Strong winds and heavy floods tore into Vietnam’s highly arable Red River Delta, damaging critical manufacturing hubs. According to an initial government assessment, it is estimated that Vietnam has seen losses of up to 1.6 billion dollars.
Currently, the UN and their affiliated organizations are distributing food, drinking water, and hygiene supplies to families in areas that have been hit the hardest. They are also monitoring levels of waterborne diseases for the coming weeks and months. The UN predicts that approximately 994 million dollars will be needed for response efforts. As of now, only 252 million dollars have been raised.
Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog, Harvey Rosenfield, author of Prop. 103, Bruce Breslau and Gigi Bannister, whose policies were canceled and face large increases in insurance costs, listen to State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara present reforms designed to rescue California property owners from an exodus of insurance companies before an Assembly Committee on Insurance hearing on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024 at Los Angeles City Hall. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Bruce Breslau, whose HOA in Chatsworth had a 400 percent insurance increase confronts State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara after he spoke before state regulators outlining reforms designed to rescue California property owners from an exodus of insurance companies on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara leaves an Assembly Committee on Insurance hearing on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024 at Los Angeles City Hall. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Assembly members Avelino Valencia and David Alvarez listen to State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara present reforms designed to rescue California property owners from an exodus of insurance companies before an Assembly Committee on Insurance hearing on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024 at Los Angeles City Hall. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara reads a prepared speech outlining reforms designed to rescue California property owners from an exodus of insurance companies before an Assembly Committee on Insurance hearing on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024 at Los Angeles City Hall. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara reads a prepared speech outlining reforms designed to rescue California property owners from an exodus of insurance companies before an Assembly Committee on Insurance hearing on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024 at Los Angeles City Hall. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Bruce Breslau, whose HOA in Chatsworth had a 400 percent insurance increase and Gigi Bannister, who was forced into the FAIR plan for her Crestline home, confront State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara after he spoke before state regulators outlining reforms designed to rescue California property owners from an exodus of insurance companies on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
1 of 7
Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog, Harvey Rosenfield, author of Prop. 103, Bruce Breslau and Gigi Bannister, whose policies were canceled and face large increases in insurance costs, listen to State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara present reforms designed to rescue California property owners from an exodus of insurance companies before an Assembly Committee on Insurance hearing on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024 at Los Angeles City Hall. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Minutes before a top insurance regulator outlined reforms to stem an exodus of insurance companies from California, homeowners and consumer advocates assailed those plans as an attempt to undo the state’s landmark insurance law, Proposition 103.
Speaking on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall, two Southern California residents described how the state’s insurance crisis left them with reduced coverage and increased costs.
State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara “isn’t doing his job,” said Crestline homeowner Gigi Bannister, 64. “He needs to hold the insurance companies’ feet to the fire.”
Jamie Court, pres. of Consumer Watchdog, speaks to state assembly members during an insurance hearing on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024 at Los Angeles City Hall after State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara presented reforms designed to rescue California property owners from an exodus of insurance companies which Court sees as an attempt to undo the state’s landmark insurance measure, Prop. 103. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
In a city hall meeting room, Lara later defended those very reforms, saying that “by mid-2025 in California, we (will) have insurance companies running back in every corner of the state.”
In recent months, Lara has been crisscrossing the state advocating for what he called the state’s biggest insurance reform in three decades. Climate change and massive wildfires kindled an urgent need to bring the state’s rate-review system into the 21st century, he said.
“Massive wildfires are burning just miles from where we sit, fueled by record-breaking heat waves and continued dry winds,” Lara told committee members on the 10th floor of City Hall.
Before the hearing, however, consumer advocates argued that the proposed reforms will gut Prop. 103, the 1988 citizen reform designed to keep California insurance rates in check by forcing insurance companies to publicly justify rate-hike requests.
State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara reads a prepared speech outlining reforms designed to rescue California property owners from an exodus of insurance companies before an Assembly Committee on Insurance hearing on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024 at Los Angeles City Hall. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Consumer Watchdog founder Harvey Rosenfield said the insurance industry spent 36 years trying to undercut Prop. 103, “and they finally found an insurance commissioner willing to do the dirty work for them.”
Rosenfield and others from Consumer Watchdog argued the reforms would allow insurance companies to keep their proprietary catastrophe modeling algorithms private. Another provision allowing for rate hikes to take effect 60 days after they are filed eliminates the ability of public “intervenors” to review the increases.
“Over the last 36 years, one elected commissioner after another (has held) the line,” Rosenfield said. “And now suddenly the dam has burst, and (insurers) are getting everything they’ve asked for.”
Increased risk from fire, floods and hurricanes sparked devastating insurance rate hikes across the country and around the world, Lara countered during the Assembly hearing.
Company filings for homeowners’ insurance rate hikes in California jumped from an average of 120-150 per year prior to 2019 to about 450 in 2022, state officials said.
Bruce Breslau, whose HOA in Chatsworth had a 400 percent insurance increase confronts State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara after he spoke before state regulators outlining reforms designed to rescue California property owners from an exodus of insurance companies on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
During the past 2 ½ years, insurance providers including Allstate, Farmers, State Farm and Travelers announced plans to stop underwriting new policies in California and deny renewal to hundreds of thousands of policyholders in fire-prone areas of the state.
Residents started getting premium hikes as high as 1,000%. Others have been unable to get traditional coverage and have been forced to seek policies from the state’s FAIR plan, which provides higher-cost coverage for customers unable to get traditional policies from private providers.
Lara noted that homeowners aren’t the only ones affected. Condo associations have been struggling to replace fire and casualty coverage, as have homebuilders and affordable housing developers.
The insurance commissioner cited a recent California Association of Realtors survey showing that nearly 7% of home sales fell out of escrow because of insurance issues.
“Insurance touches absolutely every aspect of our life,” he said.
Lara’s proposed reforms would streamline the process for insurance rate reviews and allow insurance companies to take into account cost increases for purchasing “re-insurance” from back-up insurance providers.
The reforms also would allow insurance companies to base rate hikes in part on computer-generated risk projections known as “catastrophe modeling.”
Lara argued that California is the only U.S. state to not use catastrophe modeling in rate-setting decisions.
Insurance companies applauded the proposed reforms, vowing to expand coverage in California if they’re adopted by the end of the year, as planned.
“California’s outdated regulatory environment is in need of some fixing,” said Laura Curtis of the American Property and Casualty Insurance Association. “We support urgent action to streamline the rate-making process.”
Homeowners speaking before and during the hearing only know that they are suffering in today’s market.
Bruce Breslau, a resident of the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, said his 290-unit homeowners association faced a 400% insurance hike for reduced coverage after Farmers Insurance terminated its coverage. The association had to levy a $4,700 special assessment on every property owner to pay for the new $1.7 million policy from various providers.
“We’ve got a diverse community, old, young, all persuasions, and we’ve got many people who are on fixed incomes,” Breslau said. “ … We need a law bringing these regulated insurers back into our marketplace for premiums that are reasonable.”
In some areas, homes are such great a risk that they’re too expensive to insure — if private insurance is even available at all.
How much does the average person spend on home insurance?
Home insurance premiums are intended to be cheaper than what it would cost to rebuild your home after a disaster or major damage. That cost is based on numerous factors, including home size and claim history, but it’s also based on location — and as extreme weather events driven by climate change bring a greater risk of floods, severe storms, hurricanes and heat waves, among other things, that location matters more than ever.
Bankrate has found that the average cost of dwelling insurance, which covers the actual structure of your home should it need to be rebuilt, is $2,285 per year in the U.S. for a policy with a $300,000 limit. But that cost is still rising.
“From 2017 to 2022, homeowners insurance premiums rose 40% faster than inflation,” a June report by the Bipartisan Policy Center says. “…For millions of households already struggling to make their mortgage payments, these monthly insurance costs are a significant burden. They can also put homeownership out of reach for prospective first-time homebuyers.”
The range of homeowners’ insurance costs is widespread. In Vermont, Bankrate data shows that people pay an average of $67 a month for a $300,000 dwelling limit, while in Nebraska, the most expensive home insurance state, people pay an average of $471 per month — an annual policy that amounts to more than $3,300 above the national average.
Other parts of insurance coverage are not included in these amounts, such as other structures, personal property and loss of use, which are typically listed as coverage B, C and D, respectively, in coverage policies. And depending on your location, you may also need separate deductibles for wind or storm damage, will likely be determined based on a percentage of your dwelling coverage.
“While inflation has slowed down since its peak in June 2022, insurance rates are reactionary,” Bankrate said in its September report. “The cost of home insurance is still increasing due to the impact inflation has had on the previous losses experienced by the insurance company, the elevated cost of building materials and the high likelihood of future extreme weather-related losses.”
Home location matters for insurance costs
Across the U.S., people are dealing with risk of earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, wildfires and severe storms across the seasons. In California, which, as of Sept. 17, is battling six active wildfires, the growing risk of such events has left some areas “essentially ‘uninsurable‘,” according to researchers at First Street Foundation, a nonprofit that studies climate risks. The group found that about 35.6 million properties — a quarter of all U.S. real estate — are facing higher insurance costs and lower coverage because of climate risks.
That combination also devalues their properties.
San Bernardino County, which accounts for six out of the 10 worst ZIP codes in the state for insurance non-renewals, is also among the most at-risk of natural hazards and climate change, according to FEMA. The county in Southern California is currently combatting both the Bridge and Line Fires, which combined have burned more than 93,000 acres.
The fire risk in California — which has also been battling the historically large Park Fire for nearly two months — is now so high that both Allstate and State Farm have paused sales of property and casualty coverage to new customers in the state.
“The cost to insure new home customers in California is far higher than the price they would pay for policies due to wildfires, higher costs for repairing homes, and higher reinsurance premiums,” Allstate told CBS News.
AAA is also opting out of renewing some policies in Florida, a state that has seen increasingly devastating impacts of flooding and hurricanes. Without private insurance offers, it’s up to insurance policies made available by the government, such as the the National Flood Insurance Program, to assist.
It’s not just an issue for coastal areas and wildfire-prone states. In fact, the most impactful weather events are those that do not get categorized with names.
The Insurance Information Institute found in a May 2020 report that severe convective storms — thunderstorms — “are the most common and damaging natural catastrophes in the United States.” Tornadoes are often a product of those storms, and Nebraska, the most expensive home insurance state on average, was impacted by five of the top 10 costliest U.S. catastrophes involving tornadoes, according to the report.
There have already been 20 billion-dollar disasters nationwide so far this year, as of Sept. 10, with 14 of those involving severe weather or tornadoes.
This map shows the confirmed billion-dollar weather and climate disaster events that have already occurred in the U.S. in 2024.
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
But Bankrate has also found that more than a quarter of homeowners say they aren’t financially prepared to handle the costs that come with it.
And it’s not just homeowners. While last year was not the worst year for overall U.S. insured losses due to extreme weather, it was the worst year since at least 2014 for losses due to severe storms ($59.2 billion), according to data by AON.
Renters are feeling those impacts as well.
Between 2020 and 2023, multifamily housing development insurance rates increased by an average of 12.5% annually, according to a June report by the Bipartisan Policy Center.
“One affordable housing provider, National Church Residences, saw its property insurance premiums increase by over 400% in the six years leading up to 2023, along with higher deductibles and reduced coverage,” the report says. National Church Residences provides affordable housing and independent and assisted living to seniors.
Last fall, NDP Analytics surveyed 418 housing providers across the U.S. who operate a combined 2.7 million units, including 1.7 million affordable housing units. They found that nearly a third of them saw premium increases of 25% or more from 2022 to 2023. To handle those costs, over 93% of respondents said they’d have to increase their deductibles, decrease operating expenses and/or increase rent. More than half said they would need to limit or delay investments in housing stock and projects.
How to lower home insurance costs
The driver behind extreme weather events — rising global temperatures largely fueled by the burning of fossil fuels — is not going away anytime soon. The continued release of greenhouse gases that trap heat within the atmosphere will continue to heat up the planet for thousands of years to come, even if overuse of those gases stopped today, which means that there are still decades to come of worsening climate disasters putting lives and homes at risk.
But home insurance is a game of measuring risk, and there are things you can do to better protect your home that could help lessen the blow of future weather disasters.
According to Massachusetts insurance agency C&S Insurance, resilient home features can make an impact on premium pricing. Storm shutters, reinforced roofing and flood barriers can all help lower the risk of damage to your house, and therefore, your wallet.
NerdWallet says that elevating your home’s water heaters and electrical panels, developing wildfire-resilient landscaping and installing fortified roofing are among the things homeowners can do to reduce the impacts of flooding, fires and wind, respectively.
The Council on Foreign Relations, an independent nonpartisan organization, says that more government regulations on where and how homes can be built can also help reduce the costs. The group says that stopping taxpayer dollars for buildings in high-risk areas and more investment in natural infrastructure, such as wetlands and trees, can also help reduce impacts from storm surges and heat.
Li Cohen is a senior social media producer at CBS News. She previously wrote for amNewYork and The Seminole Tribune. She mainly covers climate, environmental and weather news.
Enormous floods have once again engulfed much of South Sudan, as record water levels in Lake Victoria flow downstream through the Nile. More than 700,000 people have been affected. Hundreds of thousands of people there were already forced from their homes by huge floods a few years ago and were yet to return before this new threat emerged.
Now, there are concerns that these displaced communities may never be able to return to their lands. While weather extremes regularly displace whole communities in other parts of the world, this could be the first permanent mass displacement due to climate change.
In the Sudd region of South Sudan, the Nile passes through a vast network of smaller rivers, swamps, and floodplains. It’s one of the world’s largest wetlands. Flood levels vary significantly from year to year, mostly caused by fluctuations in water levels in Lake Victoria and controlled releases from the dam in Uganda where the lake empties into the Nile.
The Sudd’s unique geography means that floods there are very different than elsewhere. Most floodwater cannot freely drain back into the main channel of the White Nile, and water struggles to infiltrate the floodplain’s clay and silt soil. This means flooding persists for a long time, often only receding as the water evaporates.
People Can No Longer Cope
The communities who live in the Sudd, including the Dinka, Nuer, Anyuak, and Shilluk, are well adapted to the usual ebb and flow of seasonal flooding. Herders move their cattle to higher ground as flood waters rise, while earthen walls made of compressed mud protect houses and infrastructure. During the flooding season, fishing sustains local communities. When floods subside, crops like groundnuts, okra, pumpkins, sorghum, and other vegetables are planted.
However, the record water levels and long duration of recent flooding have stretched these indigenous coping mechanisms. The protracted state of conflict in the country has further reduced their ability to cope. Community elders who spoke to our colleagues at the medical humanitarian aid charity Médecins Sans Frontières said that fear of conflict and violence inhibited them from moving to regions of safe ground they had found during a period of major flooding in the early 1960s.
Around 2.6 million people were displaced in South Sudan between 2020 and 2022 alone, a result of both conflict and violence (1 million) and flooding (1.5 million). In practice, the two are interlinked, as flooding has caused displaced herders to come into conflict with resident farmers over land.
Stagnant floodwater also leads to a rise in water-borne infections like cholera and hepatitis E, snakebites, and vector-borne diseases like malaria. As people become malnourished, these diseases become more dangerous. Malnutrition is already a big problem, especially for the 800,000 or so people who have fled into South Sudan from Sudan following the start of a separate conflict there in April 2023.
Lake Koronia, one of largest in Greece, is shrinking after a prolonged drought and a summer of record-breaking temperatures, leaving behind cracked earth, dead fish and a persistent stench.
Where once fishermen pulled trout and tench into their boats, youths on motorbikes now joyride in the dust.
Locals say they can see the 42-square-kilometre (16-square-mile) expanse of water near Thessaloniki retreating day by day — a fate shared by three other important natural lakes in Greece’s Central Macedonian breadbasket.
“The stench from the lake is getting very bad. If we don’t get enough snow and rain, the problem will get worse next year,” said local community leader Kostas Hadzivoulgaridis.
“We need (officials) to take immediate action to protect the lake,” the 50-year-old told AFP.
Water levels at three other natural lakes in the region — Doirani, Volvi and Pikrolimni — are also at their lowest in a decade, according to data last month from the Greek Biotope Wetland Centre.
Over the last two years, rainfall in the region has been “very low” and the temperatures recorded this year were the highest in the last decade, according to Irini Varsami, a local hydrologist.
As well as losing water directly through evaporation, the lake is being drained by the “increasing irrigation needs of (farmers in) the surrounding area”, one of the important food-producing plains in the country.
‘We hope for rain’
While the shores look like a lunar landscape bereft of life, flocks of migratory pink flamingos graze in the low water further in.
Anthi Vafiadou, a regional supervisor for the Greek state environmental protection agency, said it was “too early” to draw conclusions on the impact of the drought on the lake’s biodiversity.
“We must see how the winter season evolves. We hope there will be more rain,” she told AFP.
But what is certain, according to the Biotope Wetland Centre, is that climate change is putting huge pressure on the lakes.
According to the national observatory, Greece had the warmest winter and summer on record since reliable data collection began in 1960.
Greece’s environment ministry this week unveiled a multi-billion-euro plan to boost the water supply and limit rampant water loss through poor management.
‘Completely disappeared’
Less than an hour’s drive to the north is a bleak vision of what the future might hold.
Pikrolimni, or “Bitter Lake”, is the only salt lake in mainland Greece.
But Pikrolimni is a lake in name only now. All that remains are the patterns formed by the water that evaporated during the prolonged drought.
Hotels and a mud spa around its edge lie abandoned.
“This is the first summer that the lake has been in such a state. There has been no rain, the water has completely disappeared and the lake has literally dried up,” said Argyris Vergis, an 80-year-old local.
“This area used to be busy with tourists, but now you can see motorcyclists racing on the lake on the internet. It’s tragic,” the retired bank worker said.
Add tornadoes, wildfires and floods to the already lengthy list worries for U.S. homeowners.
More than a quarter of homeowners (26%) say they are not financially prepared to handle the costs if extreme weather damages their home, according to a new report from Bankrate. Among those polled, 14% reported they are somewhat unprepared and 12% say they are very unprepared, the personal finance site found. The findings come as hurricane seasonreaches its peak.
People who are “unprepared for that kind of climate risk intersecting with the amount of unknown risk that exists in the country is really alarming in a lot of ways,” Dr. Jeremy Porter, head of climate implications research at First Street, a firm that studies climate risk, told CBS MoneyWatch.
The Bankrate survey provides a snapshot of homeowners’ financial position in a climate landscape where summers are becoming hotter, hurricane season more active and wildfires more destructive. As billion-dollar climate disasters become more common, homeowners will have to absorb part of the cost via higher insurance rates, weather-proofing strategies and repairs.
In the Bankrate survey, 15% of homeowners said they would not be able to pay their insurance deductible without going into debt if their home was damaged in an extreme weather event.
Geographically, people in the the South (29%) and West (28%) reported the greatest degree of financial vulnerability to extreme weather, the survey found.
“People living in the South are more likely to have home policies, so they’re going to have to pay the biggest amount, and their earning potential is actually lower,” said Shannon Martin, an analyst at Bankrate.
Changing insurance market
It’s no secret that the insurance market is going through a rapid transformation. Insurers like Allstate and State Farm are withdrawing from states prone to fires and coastal flooding or opting to raise their premiums, making homeowners’ coverage less affordable.
Porter said rates are likely to rise in the future given that insurers hasn’t fully priced climate-related costs into the real estate market. “There are more increases to come in terms of additional costs of even homeownership,” he said.
According to Bankrate, 7% of those polled said they do not have homeowners insurance. That figures rises to 15% for people earning less than $50,000 annually. According to the Insurance Information Institute, 12% of homeowners went without insurance in 2022.
How to protect your property
Understanding your risk is important, experts say, especially given that dealing with extreme weather is unprecedented territory for most Americans.
“Homeowners may also face the risk of hazards they have not faced in the past,” said Andrew Kruczkiewicz, a senior staff associate at the National Center for Disaster Preparedness, part of Columbia University’s Climate School.
Of those polled by Bankrate, 43% said they had not taken any steps in the past five years to protect their home against property damage due to dangerous weather, while just 9% of homeowners had invested in weather-proofing measures.
By contrast, more homeowners are at least aware of the growing risks, Martin said. “What this survey told me is that more people are kind of paying attention to what’s happening in terms of extreme weather.”
According to Bankrate, 39% of homeowners said that they reviewed their auto or home insurance policy to ensure they have the proper level of coverage.
“It seems like such a simple and basic thing, but it’s honestly the first step that everyone should take,” Martin said.
Martin recommends calling your insurer or finding a time to meet with them in person to review your policy. Something like fire or flooding may be covered one year and not the next, she said.
Martin also said people should check out Risk Factor from First Street and Climate Check, tools that allow users to look up their property and view extreme weather risk. “
You can look there and understand the smaller, more affordable things you can do to your house to make sure that you’re protecting yourself against those types of damages,” Porter aid.
Getting out while there’s still time
In some cases, mitigation strategies simply won’t cut it. Over those polled in Bankrate’s survey, 7% said they ultimately moved to a lower risk area to reduce the risks of extreme weather.
The trend is relatively small at this point, said Porter. “I would expect in the near future, we won’t see any mass macro level migration.” Still, more and more people are taking risks into consideration and making climate informed decisions, he added.
Joe Printz, a New York-based wine shop owner and former restaurateur, is one of them. Printz closed on a home in Napeague Harbor, on the South Fork of Long Island, New York, in early 2021. Just three years later, he and his partner are already considering selling it for fear it might one day be underwater.
Made of six repurposed steel shipping containers fit together Tetris style, Printz ‘s home, nicknamed the “Beach Box,” is a formidable force against extreme weather. “I’m telling you, a tidal wave would probably only knock out the windows,” he said.
But even the sturdiest of materials may not stop it from getting pummeled by a flood. If past storms are any indication, water from the ocean, only two and a half blocks away in the case of Print’s property, will find its way.
A local coastal resiliency report predicts there’s a 60% chance a 100-year coastal flood will hit that part of Long Island in the next 30 years and that sea level rise could transform East Hampton into a series of islands as early as 2070.
Printz doesn’t want to take any chances. “We are going to fix up our house. We’re going to live in it for three or four more years and probably sell it,” he said.
In a step forward for efforts to acquire the metals crucial to addressing climate change, on Monday a new plant that can extract nickel and cobalt from scrap material opens in Fairfield, Ohio. The resulting metals will be used in new batteries and other clean energy markets.
Extracting metals out of old material avoids the environmental damage of open pit mining and prevents the metals from ending up in the landfill. Many see this as the future, even if it takes decades to become reality.
Climate change is largely caused by burning dirty fuels for two broad purposes: to make electricity and to move vehicles. Batteries can substitute for both much of the time, but this changeover is still in its infancy and the need for more minerals is great.
The metals refining company Nth Cycle builds systems that yield nickel and cobalt from a form of shredded lithium ion batteries and nickel scrap from electric vehicles and consumer electronics. There are a growing number of companies, including Redwood Materials and Li-Cycle, that are expanding the young U.S. battery recycling industry.
Currently, even when battery materials are collected for recycling in the U.S., they’re mostly shipped overseas to be refined. Building a traditional metals refinery in the U.S. could cost upward of $1 billion, but Nth Cycle uses a modular design it says is ideal because it can be added onto existing manufacturing facilities.
“We have no refining capacity in the U.S. at all for these types of materials,” said Megan O’Connor, CEO of Nth Cycle. “We will be the first commercial cobalt nickel refinery in the U.S., which we’re very excited about.”
Some experts heralded the development.
“I think it’s very encouraging to hear the scaling has reached a stage where this is a possible revenue-making business,” said Shirley Meng, a professor at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering.
Craig Arnold, engineering professor and university innovation officer at Princeton University, said this type of advancement is “huge” for the industry. “If we had a stronger domestic supply of these critical materials, it would absolutely benefit the battery industry,” he said.
Right now the only U.S. source of nickel is the Eagle Mine in Michigan. Ore mined there is shipped internationally for refining.
The demand for critical minerals for battery usage is surging as the world becomes more electrified. The need for nickel for electric vehicles grew nearly 30% in 2023 over the year before, according to the International Energy Agency. EV battery demand for cobalt increased 15% in the same period.
Critical minerals are currently extracted from the Earth from mines in Australia, Indonesia, Congo and Brazil, among other countries. The supply chain is complex, involving an international matrix of labor rights concerns, tribal land conflicts and environmental damage. China is the dominant player in minerals crucial to the energy transition and also leads in battery recycling.
The supply chain can be shaken by geopolitical conflict and also emits carbon emissions as materials are transported from country to country. This puts U.S. battery ambitions at risk, which is why experts say carrying out more of these processes domestically will make it easier to reach sustainability goals.
The Inflation Reduction Act is incentivizing the expansion of the battery supply chain in the U.S. and Nth Cycle received $7.2 million under the law’s Advanced Energy Project Tax Credit (48C) program. The IRA also offers credits for EV’s containing battery materials and components from the U.S. or a country that has a free trade agreement with the U.S.
___
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
MINNEAPOLIS — Hundreds packed Lake Nokomis park land Saturday, for music, food and dance, to celebrate one of the most spectacular insect migrations in the world.
But amid the festivities, is an unsettling observation made among many monarch lovers.
“It seems like people are seeing fewer and fewer monarchs than they have in the past,” said Wendy Caldwell, Executive Director for Monarch Joint Venture.
Monarch Joint Venture is a national, St. Paul-based non-profit, focused on monarch and pollinator conservation.
“Everybody feels connected to them and I think that that’s what makes them really special,” said Katie Puffer, Education Manager for Monarch Joint Venture.
Every winter, the monarch population is calculated in Mexico. Early this year, a study by the World Wildlife Fund found that the monarch population dropped nearly 60 percent in just one year.
While the monarch decline can be traced back to the mid-1990s, Puffer said the low monarch count became alarming just over a decade ago.
“Even people who aren’t in the monarch conservation sphere are noticing that there are fewer monarchs than there were when they were kids or when their kids were kids,” said Puffer.
The two said climate change is a factor in the monarch decrease. Monarchs rely on well-timed resources, meaning they need the right plants and temperatures at the right time.
“As that becomes less consistent and less predictable, that has an ability to really effect the way the population can reproduce,” said Caldwell.
Caldwell and Puffer said you can help by planting milkweed, the only host plant of monarchs. Plantin nectar plants helps, as well.
The two say just spreading the word, can make a world of difference.
“Using your voice to share your knowledge, not just with your community, but also with your elected officials,” said Puffer.
This year’s International Day for Clean air and Blue Skies, celebrated annually on 7 September, is focused on the theme ‘Invest in #CleanAirNow’ and highlights the economic, environmental and health benefits of investing in clean air.
The Day was established in 2019 after the UN General Assembly noted how detrimental air pollutants are and recognised the importance of clean air for people’s lives.
Mr. Guterres highlighted how harmful pollution can be, noting that 99 per cent of humanity breathes polluted air which leads to millions of global premature deaths.
“Pollution is also choking economies and heating up our planet, adding fuel to the fire of the climate crisis,” the UN chief said. “And it disproportionally affects those most vulnerable in society, including women, children, and older persons.”
The Secretary-General said investing in clean air will take action from governments, businesses, development organizations and more at a regional and global level.
Mr. Guterres is encouraging the relevant stakeholders to decrease their use of fossil fuels, transition to clean cooking and increase air quality monitoring.
“Investing in clean air saves lives, combats climate change, strengthens economies, builds fairer societies, and advances the Sustainable Development Goals,” he said. “…let’s invest now so we can breathe easy knowing we are securing a healthier planet for all.”
Air quality and climate
Mr. Guterres’ message marking the international day highlights some of the challenges outlined in a new report from the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which details the impacts of climate change, wildfires and air pollution on human health.
The report noted that both the northern and southern hemispheres experienced “hyper-active wildfire seasons” in 2023 which caused numerous deaths and damaged livestock.
“The 2023 wildfire season set a multi-decade record in Canada in terms of total area burned, with seven times more hectares burned than the 1990–2013 average, according to the Canadian National Fire Database,” the report said.
The wildfires also worsened air quality in eastern Canada and the north-eastern United States.
For that reason, the WMO Deputy-Secretary-General Ko Barrett said climate change and air quality cannot be treated separately.
“They go hand-in-hand and must be tackled together,” Ms. Barrett said. “It would be a win-win situation for the health of our planet, its people and our economies, to recognise the inter-relationship and act accordingly.”
‘It knows no borders’
Also recognising the need for global change as the international day for clear air approaches is the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) which described air pollution as the “biggest environmental health risk of our time” noting that it worsens climate change, reduces agricultural productivity and causes economic loss.
Inger Andersen, UNEP’s Executive Director, said, “Every person on this planet has a right to breathe clean air, yet almost every person is having this right violated.”
Ms. Andersen echoed the UN chief’s call for there to be a global investment in clean air.
“We are asking nations and regions and cities to establish robust air quality standards,” she said.
“We are asking them to back renewable energy and sustainable transport to hold industry to account with strict emission standards, and to integrate air quality into climate action,” Ms. Andersen continued.
UNEP says if air pollution is tackled proactively, transformative change and healthy air can be achieved.
The disease is spread by two types of mosquito. The first is a species called Culiseta melanura, or the black-tailed mosquito. This mosquito tends to live in hardwood bogs and feeds on birds like robins, herons, and wrens, spreading the virus among them. But the melanura mosquito doesn’t often bite mammals. A different mosquito species, Coquillettidia perturbans, is primarily responsible for most of the human cases of the disease reported in the US. The perturbans mosquito picks up the EEE virus when it feeds on birds and then infects the humans and horses that it bites. Toward the end of the summer, when mosquitoes have reached their peak numbers and start jostling for any available blood meal, human cases start cropping up.
A pest control employee checks a swamp for mosquitoes in Stratham, New Hampshire.
Photograph: Darren McCollester/Getty Images
Andreadis, who published a historical retrospective on the progression of triple E in the northeastern US in 2021, said climate change has emerged as a major driver of the disease.
“We’ve got milder winters, we’ve got warmer summers, and we’ve got extremes in both precipitation and drought,” he said. “The impact that this has on mosquito populations is probably quite profound.”
Warmer global average temperatures generally produce more mosquitoes, no matter the species.
Studies have shown that warmer air temperatures up to a certain threshold, around 90 degrees Fahrenheit, shorten the amount of time it takes for C. melanura eggs to hatch. Higher temperatures in the spring and fall extend the number of days mosquitoes have to breed and feed. And they’ll feed more times in a summer season if it’s warmer—mosquitoes are ectothermic, meaning their metabolism speeds up in higher temperatures.
Rainfall, too, plays a role in mosquito breeding and activity, since mosquito eggs need water to hatch. A warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, which means that even small rainfall events dump more water today than they would have last century. The more standing water there is in roadside ditches, abandoned car tires, ponds, bogs, and potholes, the more opportunities mosquitoes have to breed. And warmer water decreases the incubation period for C. melanura eggs, leading one study to conclude that warmer-than-average water temperatures “increase the probability for amplification of EEE.”
The Microsoft founder is ramping up his investments in nuclear power. Halil Sagirkaya/Anadolu via Getty Images
Despite the decades-long efforts of scientists around the world, the commercialization of nuclear fusion technology has not yet been achieved on Earth. However, Bill Gates, who has invested significantly in both nuclear fission and fusion startups, is betting on cutting-edge tech to provide a promising path toward green energy. “I’m a big believer that nuclear energy can help us solve the climate problem,” the Microsoft (MSFT) co-founder told The Verge in a wide-ranging interview published today (Sept. 5).
Gates has long been outspoken about his adventurous approach to climate technology. Such sentiments have become more pertinent in recent years as concerns about Big Tech’s energy use proliferate. The energy consumption of data centers that power A.I. computing, for example, is expected to potentially double to take up 9 percent of the nation’s electricity by 2030, according to the Electric Power Research Institute.
According to Gates, A.I. data centers will actually generate a less than 10 percent increase in energy use. Even so, Big Tech is exploring clean energy sources and will pioneer fission and fusion power “to help bootstrap that green energy generation,” he said. Microsoft, for example, last year signed a power purchase agreement with Helion Energy, a nuclear fusion company backed by Sam Altman, to buy electricity from the startup in 2028.
Lauded for its potential to provide mass amounts of affordable and clean energy, nuclear fusion is the same process that powers the sun and stars. It occurs when two light atoms combine to form a heavier one while releasing energy, a reaction that must take place in extremely high temperatures of around 10 million degrees Celsius, according to the International Atomic Energy.
Although the process has yet to be commercially harnessed, nuclear fusion technology has received an outburst of financial support in recent years. Of $7.1 billion in total funding since 1992, the sector received $900 million last year, according to a recent report from the Fusion Industry Association, which noted that 89 percent of private fusion companies believe the technology will be operational by the end of the 2030s.
The report identified 45 companies worldwide working to commercialize nuclear fusion. Of those startups, five are backed by Gates via Breakthrough Energy Ventures, his climate-focused investment fund. The billionaire has invested in the likes of Zap Energy, which is hoping to build a fusion power plant in the next few years, and Type One Energy, which uses magnets to help fuse atoms. Both Gates and Amazon (AMZN)’s Jeff Bezos have supported Commonwealth Fusion Systems, another startup aiming to make the commercialization of fusion power a possibility in the near future.
Despite skepticism over whether nuclear fusion—which doesn’t emit greenhouse gases or carbon dioxide—will actually come to fruition in the next few years or decades, Gates said he remains optimistic. “Although their timeframes are further out, I think the role of fusion over time will be very, very critical,” he told The Verge.
The billionaire has also invested in modern forms of nuclear fission energy, which produces energy when atoms are split apart. Gates is attempting to develop a cheaper form of fission via $1 billion worth of investments into TerraPower, a startup that recently broke ground on a nuclear power plant site in Kemmerer, Wyo. and aims to develop more affordable and safer forms of fission by using water to cool reactors instead of sodium. “People are appropriately skeptical because it’s never been done,” Gates told The Verge. “But they’ll get to see as we build that plant, and if so, it can make a contribution.”
Gates isn’t alone in his embrace of all things nuclear. Bezos, too, has become a prominent investor in fusion technology, having invested in Canadian startup General Fusion’s dreams of developing a pilot plant. OpenAI’s Altman has poured capital and time into the field as well, backing and chairing both Helion Energy and the nuclear energy startup Oklo.
The year’s first super typhoon erupted over the steamy waters of the western Pacific Ocean on Thursday as Yagi churned toward an eventual landfall in southern China.
Having formed as a tropical cyclone in the Philippine Sea on Sunday, the powerful storm peaked on Thursday afternoon local time with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph, which would be the equivalent of a high-end Category 4 hurricane. At least 13 people have been killed in the Philippines as a result of flooding and landslides.
Forecasters expect the storm to weaken somewhat before striking the Chinese island of Hainan by the end of the week, raking the popular tourist destination with dangerous winds and flooding rains. Yagi is expected to be the strongest storm to hit the region in a decade, with the southern Chinese provinces of Hainan and Guangdong shutting schools, closing bridges, and grounding flights in preparation.
But Super Typhoon Yagi’s ferocity isn’t as uncommon as one would think. The western Pacific Ocean is uniquely capable of supporting some of the strongest storms on Earth.
A satellite image of Yagi on September 4, 2024.Courtesy of NOAA
Typhoons are strong tropical cyclones, a catch-all term for low-pressure systems that develop through a special process compared to the “everyday” lows we contend with on a regular basis.
Powerful thunderstorms bubbling around the center of low pressure act like the engine that drives these systems. Warm ocean waters feed those thunderstorms the energy they need to survive and thrive as they swirl through the tropics. These storms can keep going for days or even weeks as long as they maintain access to sultry waters and favorable conditions in the surrounding atmosphere.
All tropical cyclones are the same around the world—the only difference is what we call them. A mature tropical cyclone in the Atlantic is called a hurricane, while the same storm in the western Pacific Ocean is dubbed a typhoon.
A Latin American rural family. Credit: Santiago Billy / FAO
Opinion by Marco Knowles (rome)
Inter Press Service
Marco Knowles leads the FAO’s Social Protection Team
ROME, Sep 03 (IPS) – Urgent climate action is key to eradicating hunger and poverty, but climate mitigation policies can inadvertently exacerbate these issues in rural areas. Countries must design climate strategies that account for the impacts on the rural poor and that include social protection measures.
Last July, we were confronted with alarming statistics: 733 million people experienced hunger in 2023, equivalent to one in eleven people globally. In Africa it was even higher, with one in five people going hungry. Climate change is a significant driver of this crisis.
Gradual changes in temperatures and rainfall patterns reduce returns to farming, on which poor people largely depend, and sudden events like floods and droughts devastate their crops and livestock. According to the World Bank, climate change could push as many as 135 million more people into poverty by 2030. Urgent action to curb climate change is therefore essential to the fight against poverty and hunger.
However, if we are not careful, climate mitigation efforts can undermine progress on eradicating poverty and hunger. A recent example is the European Union´s Regulation on Deforestation-free products that was introduced in June 2023. This regulation is intended to ensure that products bought and consumed in Europe do not contribute to deforestation through the expansion of agricultural land for the production of cattle, wood, cocoa, soy, palm oil or coffee.
But on the other hand, the costs of these policies fall disproportionately on rural poor people that do not have the resources and capacities to comply, including those that currently rely on clearing new lands for their livelihoods – estimated to account for about a third of deforestation.
As governments of 17 countries across Latin America, Africa and Asia had forewarned, the EU’s Regulation is already having severe negative impacts among poorer people in poorer countries, in particular small-scale farmers.
Without support, they face huge challenges in complying with the complex, new procedures, and at the same time they often lack the capacities and resources to maintain or increase their agricultural production without expanding the land area under cultivation – this is even more true in a context of a changing climate change that reduces farming yields.
While progress on the climate agenda must continue at pace, the socio-economic trade-offs of climate policies for different population groups – especially the most vulnerable – need to be considered from the outset. Countries, especially those in which poverty and hunger are concentrated, need to be supported and encouraged to couple green policies with measures that enable smallholder farmers to meet new conditions or to transition to new and dignified livelihoods.
Social protection – which includes policies and programmes aimed at addressing poverty and vulnerability – can play a key role in easing these transitions. In the short-term, by providing regular cash income in compensation for any adverse social impacts of climate policies and, in the longer-term, by combining these payments with technical support, skills training and livelihood interventions that can help people to adjust to and thrive under new policy regimes.
This approach is already being implemented in several countries.
In China, a forest protection act affected approximately one million public forestry workers and 120 million rural households by reducing access to forest resources. To mitigate these impacts, public employees received assistance, such as job placement services, unemployment benefits and pension plans. As a result, two-thirds of the affected employees were either transferred to alternative jobs or retired, while 124 million households benefited from an income transfer.
In Brazil and Paraguay, social protection and complementary agricultural programmes are supporting rural households to adopt more sustainable and profitable farming practices. Paraguay’s Poverty, Reforestation, Energy and Climate Change (PROEZA) programme, provides households participating in the country’s flagship social protection scheme, Tekoporã, with technical support and additional cash. Thanks to this, small-scale farmers are adapting their agricultural practices to be more resilient to ever more frequent droughts while also increasing their production of native crops such as yerba mate.
Similarly, in Brazil, the Bolsa Verde programme provides cash payments to beneficiaries of the national social cash transfer programme, Bolsa Familia, in exchange for maintaining or restoring forests, protecting water sources, and promoting sustainable agriculture.
Governments should be encouraged and supported in introducing and scaling-up social protection measures to ensure the poorest and most vulnerable do not bear the burden of addressing the climate crisis and greening the consumption of people in wealthier parts of the world.
We must therefore prioritize an approach that pays close attention to the social as well as the environmental consequences of policies to address climate change. Social protection programmes have a critical role to play building a future that is mutually beneficial to People and Planet.
Marco Knowles leads the FAO´s Social Protection Team. His areas of expertise include increasing access to social protection in rural areas and in leveraging on social protection for climate action. He also has substantive experience in providing evidence-based food security policy assistance and capacity development support.
“We provide 100 percent snow security,” says Antti Lauslahti, Snow Secure’s CEO, proudly. “Any ski resort can start the season at a specific date.”
He adds that the system has performed well even when summer heat waves push temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). Beneath the blankets, temperatures do not exceed roughly 1 or 2 degrees Celsius. Snow Secure, and its clients, can check that their icy stockpiles remain cool thanks to real-time temperature sensors.
Some snow does, inevitably, melt and trickle away during the summer months, but Lauslahti says his firm aims to ensure that losses do not exceed 30 percent of the original pile. Mustonen has observed this level of performance at Levi. For now, the approach appears resilient even in the face of increasingly hot European summers. “We haven’t yet seen the temperature where it would totally melt,” says Lauslahti.
It’s not just ski resorts that can make use of stored snow. One of Snow Secure’s clients is a timber-processing plant. Staff there keep large pieces of wood under a thick layer of snow topped with the blankets. It keeps the timber from drying out too much in the summer, ensuring that it stays fresh and easy to cut, says Lauslahti.
Elizabeth Burakowski at the University of New Hampshire says that, in general, snow storage is “a great strategy to address the uncertainty that we have when living in a climate that’s warming rapidly.” She adds that ski resorts should consider using electric-powered snow-grooming machines, to reduce emissions and reliance on fossil fuels.
Snow Secure is keen to promote its blanket system. But there is another way of covering up a big ol’ heap of snow and insulating it for months on end. And it has been used for centuries. You can just spread sawdust or wood chips over the snow instead.
“It’s an elegant technology,” says Kjell Skogsberg, who works in the renewable energy industry. “It’s really reliable and simple.”
Back in 2001, Skogsberg and a colleague published a paper about a snow-storage system they had designed for a hospital in Sundsvall, in eastern Sweden. “It’s like a pit with a slightly sloping bottom where you dump the snow,” he explains. The snow is topped with a 200-millimeter-thick covering of wood chips to prevent it from melting too quickly. Then, over the summer, meltwater gently flows to an outlet at the bottom corner of the pit, passing through filters that remove any grit or dirt, and finally the chilly water heads to a heat exchanger. This helps to lower the temperature of a separate flow of water that gets pumped through the hospital’s cooling system.
“That is used for air conditioning and also process cooling—for instance, X-ray machines,” says Skogsberg. The system is still in use today, he adds, and it can completely cover the energy demand for summer cooling at the hospital, which, at 1 gigawatt hour for the May–August period, is significant. Skogsberg is currently in discussions with an energy company that might build a version of the technology for a district cooling system. Airports, which have a lot of outdoor space that could also be used to store snow, might similarly find this approach useful, suggests Skogsberg.
In Montgomery County, Maryland, two student-led groups — EcoMoco and Food to Flourish — are coming together to tackle climate change and nutrition.
Young people with EcoMoco, which works to fight climate change, pose for a picture outside during a clean-up event. (Courtesy Lumina Zhang, EcoMoco)
Young people with EcoMoco, which works to fight climate change, pose for a picture outside during a clean-up event. (Courtesy Lumina Zhang, EcoMoco)
Young people looking to make sure they’re growing up in a greener, more sustainable world aren’t waiting around for grown-ups to lead the way. In Montgomery County, Maryland, two student-led groups are coming together to tackle climate change and nutrition all on their own.
Lumina Zhang, co-founder and co-president of Eco MoCo, is a senior at Winston Churchill High School. The 17-year-old said the idea of creating a nonprofit to tackle climate change came about two years ago.
The key was making sure it was made up of — and led by — young people. It’s not about getting mad or guilt-tripping older generations, Zhang said.
“I think what’s more important right now is taking action,” she added.
And that’s been a guiding principle among members.
Zhang said education is also important, and the young members of Eco MoCo work with students in middle and elementary schools as well.
“This is really about creating a long-term impact, so that even in future generations, we can still continue this momentum toward a greener future,” Zhang said.
The students in Eco MoCo aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty either. They have done numerous trash pickups and other activities. This year, said Zhang, the hope is to hold a cleanup once a week in communities across Montgomery County and elsewhere in the region.
Eco MoCo’s latest project includes a focus on nutrition and environmentalism.
Zhang told WTOP that Eco MoCo has teamed up with another student-led organization, Food to Flourish, to create a cookbook that looks at the connection between the environment and nutrition.
The book will be a combination of recipes and activity pages, said Zhang.
“It’s going to feature a bunch of recipes that are sustainable. And so there’s an opportunity for students to create a recipe or coloring page and interactive activity and have it published in the book,” she said.
Zhang said she became aware of just how much of an impact Eco MoCo was making at an event in Wheaton Regional Park.
“We basically set up a bunch of tables. We taught the kids there how to repurpose trash to create art,” she said. “I just remember there was this parent that came up to me and they told me that this was the first time that they had ever seen environmental education in their community.”
Zhang said the grown-ups were “so, so surprised that it was students who were leading it all.”
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
If you stood on the banks of the Cache la Poudre River in Colorado after the 2020 Cameron Peak Fire, the rumbling water may have appeared black. This slurry of ash and charred soil cascaded toward the reservoirs that supply drinking water for the downstream city of Fort Collins, home to around 170,000 people. Although the water looked clear again several weeks later, Charles Rhoades, a research biogeochemist at the US Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, says he is still seeing contaminants from the fire in the watershed.
Recent studies have found that while some watersheds begin to recover within five years of a fire, others may be fundamentally altered, never fully returning to their pre-fire conditions. And with wildfires becoming more common, much larger, and burning for longer as the world warms, hydrologists, ecologists, and water-management officials are scrambling to understand and mitigate the consequences fire-contaminated water can have on humans and ecosystems.
In a healthy forest, there’s a lot of “litter” on the ground—pine needles, dead leaves, debris. “It acts like a sponge,” says Rhoades. “As rainfall comes in, it moves through that layer slowly and can trickle into the soil.” When fires scorch the land, they burn that vegetation and organic matter, leaving behind a bare landscape that’s highly susceptible to erosion. Instead of filtering into the ground, rain will slide right off the surface, moving quickly, picking up soil, and carrying it into streams and rivers. Not only does this cause sediment build-up, but it can disrupt the water chemistry. Rhoades found elevated levels of nutrients, like nitrogen, in rivers almost 15 years after a high-severity fire. These nutrients can lead to harmful algal blooms, although they don’t directly impact drinking water quality. But other sites show increased levels of heavy metals like manganese, iron, and even lead after a major fire, which can complicate water-treatment processes.
Other regions across the western US, like Taos, New Mexico, and Santa Cruz, California, have faced similar issues, as wildfires increase in frequency and duration due to climate change and decades of fire-suppression practices. For much of the 20th century, the US Forest Service and other land management agencies aimed to keep all fires from burning, believing it was the best way to protect forests. But naturally occuring, low-severity fires improve forest health, preventing the accumulation of dense underbrush and dead trees that act as fuel.
“We have this huge buildup of fuel on the landscape from 140 years of fire suppression, and we know that the consequences of that—combined with increases in severe weather—make the likelihood of really intense fire behavior much higher than it used to be,” says Alissa Cordner, an environmental sociologist and professor at Whitman College in Washington state and volunteer wildland firefighter. “We also have more and more people living next to forests and migrating to places in the wildland-urban interface.” Any municipality is at risk of water contamination if a wildfire burns through its watershed.
“Consumers rarely know about all this stuff that’s going on under the hood,” says Rhoades. After a wildfire, water providers work tirelessly to ensure residents don’t experience the effects in their taps, which requires collaboration between land agencies, like the Forest Service, USGS, and local governing bodies. They perform regular water testing, install sediment-control structures, and sometimes, alter water treatment protocols to deal with the increased load of contaminants.
SALEM — New tree plantings are coming to Salem State University to help provide shade to Harrington Campus, after recent efforts to plant trees have been celebrated at other parts of SSU.
The Healey-Driscoll Administration announced recently that it’s investing more than $1 million in grants to support tree plantings and expand urban tree canopies in gateway cities, such as Salem and Lynn. The two neighboring cities combined for a $310,931 from the Greening the Gateway Cities (GGCP) implementation grant program.
Salem State’s share of the grant, worth $31,950, will bring 36 new trees to the Harrington Campus, while $120,000 goes to the city of Salem to plant 100 trees along entry routes, $123,981 to Lynn to plant 110 new public trees and prepare 80 new tree pits, and $35,000 to local nonprofit Salem Sound Coastwatch to help recruit residential properties into the program and find other high-priority planting spots in the area.
Salem State recently partnered with the Department of Conservation and Recreation through the GGCP to plant 50 trees of diverse species on North Campus, at the O’Keefe Complex, Stanley Building, and along the bike path, with more trees to come this fall. The new grant funding allows the university to plant trees on the Harrington Campus, where students have specifically requested more trees. The Harrington Campus was previously ineligible for the GGCP, as it’s not within an environmental justice area.
Bringing trees to campus “is transforming the landscape of Salem State for the future and is an important part of Salem State’s climate resiliency strategy,” said Tara Gallagher, sustainability coordinator in the university’s facilities department. “They say the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, and the second-best time is today. So, it’s never too late.”
The program strives not just to plant trees, but to make sure those that are planted receive initial watering and treatment support, and that species planted are also diverse. Plantings last year brought Honeylocusts, Basswoods, Red Maples, and others in the areas around the Canal Street parking lots and the multi-use path that runs through the area.
“Planting trees in urban areas helps neighborhoods that lack tree canopy and suffer from the urban heat island effect of being hotter than surrounding areas in the summer,” Gallagher said. “Tree planting also brings stormwater management, wildlife habitat and other benefits, as well as beautifying our campus.”
Rebecca Tepper, secretary to the state’s Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, said expanding the state’s forest canopy “is one piece of the larger puzzle to combatting climate change in Massachusetts.”
“With continuous heat waves leading to higher energy bills and greater greenhouse gas emissions, our Greening the Gateway Cities Program leverages our state resources and engages residents to help plant trees and enhance public health,” Tepper said. “Reducing the urban heat island effect is a top priority, and our non-profit partnerships through the GGCP will help cool our neighborhoods, towns and cities.”
As part of its efforts to advance and educate on sustainability, Salem State also held three events earlier this month to talk about low mow zones, the importance of trees in urban areas, and learn about pollinator habitats.
