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Tag: Climate change

  • Water levels in main reservoirs for Bogota, Colombia, hit critically low levels

    Water levels in main reservoirs for Bogota, Colombia, hit critically low levels

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    Water levels in main reservoirs for Bogota, Colombia, hit critically low levels – CBS News


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    Millions of people in Colombia’s capital were forced to start rationing water Thursday as Bogota’s main reservoirs hit critically low water levels. Aerial footage posted by the city’s mayor showed low levels in two reservoirs that supply 70% of the capital’s water.

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  • New Jersey officials urge caution as state enters peak wildfire season

    New Jersey officials urge caution as state enters peak wildfire season

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    What to Know

    • The NJDEP held a press conference on Tuesday morning to discuss updates and safety tips during the current wildfire season.
    • Last year was the most active fire year in more than a decade for N.J., with nearly 1,200 wildfires.
    • As of this January, almost 220 wildfires have occurred burning a total of about 170 acres.

    New Jersey authorities are warning residents of the potential risks and preparation steps as the state enters peak wildfire season this month.

    Last year was the most active fire year in more than a decade for the Garden State, with nearly 1,200 wildfires burning over 18,000 acres statewide, according to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP).

    Fourteen of the fires were considered major, with the most damaging one spanning over 3,400 acres in Ocean County — forcing 170 evacuations.

    The NJDEP held a press conference Tuesday morning to discuss updates on the 2024 wildfire season, as the forest fire service teams provided the latest statistics and new tracking tools.

    “New Jersey has some of the most volatile wildland fuels in the country,” said William Donnelly, New Jersey Forest Fire Service Chief, who continued to note the fires by the numbers.

    Since January 2024, almost 220 wildfires have occurred, burning a total of about 170 acres. In comparison, during the same time in 2023, the state had already reached over 350 fires with 970 acres burned.

    In 2021, from Jan. 1 to April 8, New Jersey had over 360 wildfires burning a total of 500 acres.

    This year, the state has executed more than 14,200 prescribed burns, or pre-planned and purposefully set fires to remove underbrush and organic material that could act as brush fire fuel.

    The team brought up wildfire prevention tips for residents to be mindful of during the season, such as properly discarding cigarettes and other smoking materials, as well as not leaving campfires unattended.

    “Protecting your home and other structures from wildland by creating defensible space, basically, space around your home that in the event of wildfire impinges on it, our folks [NJDEP] have room to work to get in between the fire and prevent any damage to improve the property,” Donnelly said.

    Low humidity, high winds and temperatures are perfect conditions for a brush fire to spread.

    Gregory McLaughlin is the administrator for NJDEP, Forests and Natural Lands, and announced a new online platform called the Wildfire Risk Assessment Portal where land managers, town officials and residents can check their exact location for fire risk.

    Later on Tuesday afternoon, firefighters responded to the scene of a brush fire burning in Elizabeth, New Jersey close to Newark Airport.

    The fire is not impacting flight operations at the airport, according to the Port Authority, and the cause of the fire was not immediately clear.

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    Linda Gaudino

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  • European court hands down mixed rulings on 3 cases seeking to force countries to meet climate goals

    European court hands down mixed rulings on 3 cases seeking to force countries to meet climate goals

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    STRASBOURG, France — Europe’s highest human rights court ruled Tuesday that its member nations have an obligation to protect their citizens from the ill effects of climate change, but still threw out a high-profile case brought by six Portuguese youngsters aimed at forcing countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

    The European Court of Human Rights sided with more than 2,000 Swiss members of Senior Women for Climate Protection, who also sought such measures in a mixed session of judgements in which a French mayor similarly seeking stronger government efforts to combat climate change was also defeated.

    Lawyers for all three had hoped the Strasbourg court would find that national governments have a legal duty to make sure global warming is held to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, in line with the goals of the Paris climate agreement.

    “I really hoped that we would win against all the countries, so obviously I’m disappointed that this didn’t happen,” said 19-year-od Sofia Oliveira, one of the Portuguese plaintiffs. “But the most important thing is that the Court has said in the Swiss women’s case that governments must cut their emissions more to protect human rights. So, their win is a win for us, too, and a win for everyone!”

    In a reference to its fundamental Convention of Human Rights, “the court found that Art. 8 of the Convention encompasses a right for individuals to effective protection by the state authorities from the serious adverse effects of climate change on their lives, health, well-being and quality of life.”

    Judgments from the European Court of Human Rights set a legal precedent against which future lawsuits would be judged in the Council of Europe’s 46 member states.

    Although activists have had successes with lawsuits in domestic proceedings, this was the first time an international court ruled on climate change.

    “This is a turning point,” said Corina Heri, an expert in climate change litigation at the University of Zurich. She said Tuesday’s decision confirms for the first time that countries have an obligation to protect people from the effects of climate change and will open the door to more legal challenges.

    Ahead of the ruling, a large crowd gathered in front of the court building to cheer and wave flags, including climate activist Greta Thunberg, who was coming off of multiple arrests during a demonstration in The Hague over the weekend.

    The decisions have “the potential to be a watershed moment in the global fight for a livable future. A victory for any of the three cases would be one of the most significant developments on climate change since the signing of the Paris Agreement” said Gerry Liston, a lawyer with the Global Legal Action Network, which is supporting the Portuguese students.

    The European Union, which doesn’t include Switzerland, currently has a target to be climate-neutral by 2050. Many governments have said that meeting a 2030 goal would be economically unattainable.

    The groups were confident that the 17 judges would rule in their favor, but the mixed decision could undermine a previous ruling in the Netherlands. In 2019, the Dutch Supreme Court ordered the government to cut emissions by at least 25% by the end of 2020 from benchmark 1990 levels.

    The Urgenda decision, referring to the climate group that brought the case, relied on the European Convention of Human Rights. It could be overturned if Tuesday’s decision concludes there is no legal obligation for countries to combat climate change.

    “A court ruling is binding on all countries,” said Dennis van Berkel, who represented Urgenda in the Netherlands.

    Together with five more young people, 16-year-old André dos Santos Oliveira took Portugal and 32 other nations to court, arguing the failure to stop emissions violated their fundamental rights. Their case was thrown out.

    “The extreme heat waves, the rainfalls, followed by heat waves, it is just choking us with greenhouse effects. And what worries me is the frequency in which they started happening more and more. That’s what really scared me. And, I thought to myself, well, what can I do?” she said.

    But judges ruled in favor of a group of Swiss retirees also demanding their government do more. Senior Women for Climate Protection, whose average age is 74, say older women’s rights are especially infringed on because they are most affected by the extreme heat that will become more frequent due to global warming.

    Earth shattered global annual heat records in 2023, flirted with the world’s agreed-upon warming threshold, and showed more signs of a feverish planet, Copernicus, a European climate agency, said in January.

    In all three cases, lawyers argued that the political and civil protections guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights are meaningless if the planet is uninhabitable.

    Switzerland is not alone in being affected by global warming, said Alain Chablais, representative of the country at last year’s hearings. “This problem cannot be solved by Switzerland alone.”

    Acknowledging the urgency of the climate crisis, the court fast-tracked all three cases, including a rare move allowing the Portuguese case to bypass domestic legal proceedings.

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  • Flooding across Russia’s west from melting mountain snow and ice forces mass evacuations

    Flooding across Russia’s west from melting mountain snow and ice forces mass evacuations

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    Moscow — Warm spring temperatures have unleashed torrents on parts of western Russia, where thawing ice and melting mountain snow are swelling some of Europe’s biggest rivers and inundating towns and cities along their paths. The southwest Russian city of Orenburg, near the Kazakh border, was bracing for its worst flooding in decades, while to the north, the entire region of Tyumen in western Siberia was put under a state of emergency as the flood risk mounted.

    Officials have evacuated thousands of residents from homes along fast-rising rivers in the Urals and western Siberia.

    Moscow declared a federal emergency Sunday amid the flooding in the Orenburg region, where the Ural river left much of the city of Orsk covered in water, forcing thousands to leave their homes. 

    TOPSHOT-RUSSIA-FLOOD-DAM
    Rescuers evacuate residents from the flooded part of the city of Orsk, in Russia’s Orenburg region, April 8, 2024.

    ANATOLIY ZHDANOV/Kommersant Photo/AFP/Getty


    The river was reaching dangerous levels Monday in the regional capital of Orenburg, a city of 550,000 people.

    The Kremlin spoke of a “critical” situation Monday, warning that the floods had “possibly not reached their peak.”

    Emergency services said Monday that more than 10,000 residential buildings had been flooded, mostly in the Urals, the Volga area and western Siberia. They warned of a “rise in air temperature, active snow melting and the overflow of rivers.”

    Governor Alexander Moor was quoted by state media as saying all of the Tyumen region would be under a state of emergency until the flooding risk passed.

    In the south, much of the city of Orsk was under water after torrential rain caused a nearby dam to burst. Orenburg region authorities said that while the Ural river “went down by nine centimeters (3.5 inches)” in Orsk, water levels in the city of Orenburg were still rising fast.

    Evacuation of residents continues after dam bursts in Orsk, Russia
    A screen grab from video provided by the Russian Ministry of Emergency shows residents and pets being evacuated from a flooded neighborhood after a dam burst in the city of Orsk, Russia, April 6, 2024.

    Russian Ministry of Emergency/Anadolu/Getty


    The mayor of Orenburg, Sergei Salmin, called on residents in flood-risk zones to leave immediately.

    “The water can come at night. Do not risk your lives,” he said on social media, warning that water levels would surpass danger marks. “Do not wait for that. Leave right now.”

    Salmin told Russian television that Orenburg had not “seen so much water” since the last high mark was registered in 1942. “Since then there have been no floods. This is unprecedented.”

    President Vladimir Putin ordered a government commission to be established on the floods. His spokesman said Putin did not plan on visiting the flood zone but that he was being briefed on “nature anomalies” in real time.  

    Putin, who has been a vocal skeptic of man-made climate change for much of his rule, has in recent years ordered his government to do more to prepare Russia for extreme weather events. The country has seen severe floods and fires in recent springs and summers.

    Salmin said authorities had evacuated 736 people in Orenburg as they expected the water to rise further.

    Over the weekend he warned of forced evacuations if people did not cooperate, saying: “There is no time for convincing.”

    Russia’s weather monitor Rosgidromet said it did not expect the flood in Orenburg to peak until Wednesday and warned that many districts of the city would be affected.

    The Ural river flows through Orenburg and into Kazakhstan, where President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said the floods were one of the worst natural disasters to affect the area in decades.

    More than 13 thousand evacuated due to flood in Kazakhstan
    An aerial view provided by a Kazakhstan Ministry of Emergency Situations helicopter shows inundated areas as melting snow causes flooding, blocking transportation in 49 villages in Kazakhstan, April 1, 2024.

    Kazakh Ministry of Emergency/Handout/Anadolu/Getty


    Aerial images of the city of Orsk showed just the top floors and colourful roofs of houses visible over brown water. In the city center, water reached the first floor of buildings.

    After evacuating more than 6,000 people across the Orenburg region, authorities also began relocating some residents of the Siberian city of Kurgan near northern Kazakhstan, home to around 300,000 people, where the Tobol river was expected to rise.

    Emergency services in Kurgan said 571 people were moved away from areas expected to be flooded.

    Authorities said around 100 rescuers had arrived as reinforcements in the western Siberian region from the Urals to prepare for the floods.

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  • Following Asian Countries’ Leads, Climate Action Opportunity for Developing Nations

    Following Asian Countries’ Leads, Climate Action Opportunity for Developing Nations

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    According to the UN, renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, emit little to no greenhouse gases, are readily available and in most cases cheaper than coal, oil or gas. Credit: UN
    • Opinion by Erik Solheim (oslo, norway)
    • Inter Press Service

    OSLO, Norway, Apr 06 (IPS) – In the deserts of Gujarat, something remarkable is happening. On my recent visit i saw hundreds of trucks moving under the warm Indian sun. Thousands of hardworking young people from all corners of Bharat, as Indians now often call their nation, are turning around the previously empty and harsh landscape.

    This is where the world’s largest combined solar and wind plant is coming up.

    When completed, it will produce 30 gigawatt of wonderful clean and green energy. That is as much as the total hydropower production of my home country Norway. We are 100% fueled by hydro in our net, a rich nation in a cold climate, consuming far too much energy.

    The Gujarat miracle is the work of the Adani Group. Gautam Adani told me his moving personal story. They were eight siblings living with parents in one room in Ahmedabad. There was no electricity so if he wished to study after dark he had to go outdoors, reading under the street lamps. At the age of 14, he left home and started business. Now he is one of the richest in India and very high on the global list also.

    Erik Solheim

    Gautam Adani made a lot of money in coal. Now he has enormous ambitions for renewables, supporting the policies of his friend prime minister Narendra Modi, turning the world’s largest nation – from grey to green. Adani is about delivery, not just talk.

    Move on to Indonesia.

    Last year, the second largest rain forest nation saw close to zero deforestation, an enormous service to Mother Earth. It happened because the Indonesian government put in place all the right policies for forest conservation and because Indonesian big business realized they can do fine without deforestation.

    Take for example, RGE (Royal Golden Eagle) Group, one of the world’s biggest paper and pulp companies. RGE has decided they will have no deforestation in their value chains. They can make their paper tissues, packaging materials, viscose clothes and the palm oil business without cutting virgin trees. RGE even protects a vast intact rain forest in the island of Sumatra. It does it well with fire brigades and helicopters on standby in case of any challenge.

    And of course – it’s China. China last year invested mindboggling 890 billion dollars in renewables. That’s as much as the total economy of Turkey or Switzerland. China last year added more solar energy in one year than the second biggest solar nation, the US, has done in its entire history.

    Chinese companies produced solar panels ten times the size of Norwegian hydropower and added well over half of all global wind or hydro energy. China accounts for 60% of the world’s metro lines, electric batteries and cars, 70 % of the high speed rail. More than 95% of all electric buses are running on Chinese roads. China is the indispensable nation for global climate action. No one can go green at an acceptable cost without China.

    What do India, Indonesia and China have in common?

    They are the three largest developing nations.

    At the climate talks in Glasgow and Dubai, and for sure also later this year in Baku, intellectually lazy negotiators and commentators speak as if the West is leading the world on the environment.

    They get it dead wrong. Europe was leading, ten years ago. Now it’s time the West starts learning. Asia is leading.

    India, Indonesia and China do not focus on climate only as a problem. Their leaders Modi, Xi and Prabowo see climate as an opportunity. Taking climate action make economic, not only ecological, sense. They can create jobs and prosperity, leave poverty behind, by going green.

    Ola, the Uber of India, captures this in a fun slogan “Tesla for the West, Ola for the rest”. They believe they can make high quality, low cost, electric scooters and later cars, capturing global markets.

    China had few stocks in the old automobile industry. When Western car makers were sleeping or even cheating on their emission records, China built the world’s dominant electric car ecosystem. BYD recently overtook Tesla as the largest electric car brand. CATL is the lead electric battery maker. Last year China passed Japan as the number one exporter of cars. Going electric makes perfect business as well as environment sense for China.

    For the first time in human history there is a green pathway to prosperity.

    The price for solar has fallen by 90% in a decade, mainly thanks to China. The price of wind energy nearly as much. For two hundred years after the Industrial revolution in the 1780s any nation which wanted to develop, could only do it through fossils. Now solar is cheaper than coal. Everywhere. A nation moving from coal to solar saves money. Going green is not a cost.

    In January, prime minister Modi launched an innovative program for ten million Indian homes installing roof top solar. The owner of the house register the interest digitally. The utility company, the state and the banks cover the risk, not the owner. The size is astonishing.

    The divide between these realities and the climate talks could hardly be wider. Last year in Dubai the focus was on loss and reparatioins. This is a completely fair demand, American emissions per capita up to today are 25 times Indian, 8 times the Chinese and the divide is even greater if we compare to Africa or small islands development states.

    No one should ever blame developing nations for the climate calamities.

    The weakness of this approach is however not that It’s not fair, but that it will not lead to the promised land. The money allotted by the West will be much below expectations, not even in the proximity of what is needed. Worse, the money distributed through global institutions will be slow, bureaucratic and often inadequate.

    There is much talk of reforms of the global financial institutions. There has been a lot of ideas about reform of the UN also. Not one meaningful reform has happened over the last decade. The world’s largest nation, soon to become the world’s third largest economy, India, is not even on the UN security council. Anyone looking for Indonesians in the UN or global institutions need to mobilize the CIA to find them !

    Reforms need support, but they will be slow, if at all they happen.

    I was minister of International Development of Norway for nearly seven years. We brought Norwegian aid to 1%, the highest in the world. But if development assistance was what created prosperity some African nations would be the most developed countries on earth. India, Indonesia and China, add Korea, Singapore or Vietnam, have received very limited aid. They have got access to markets and developed strong domestic states and industries. What would Korea be without Hyundai and Samsung? This is also how the green transformation will happen this century.

    The fast way to green developments run through private investment and the carbon markets, voluntary or not. This money is much larger and a lot more flexible and fast than aid. Any developing nation is best advised to build on domestic strengths and to tap into these capital flows.

    Admitted the Asian giants have a few advantages. They have strong states with development-oriented leaders dedicated to the green transformation. They have huge home markets. The populations of India, China and the African continent are largely the same.

    But India is one market from Tamil Nadu to Arunachal Pradesh and China one market from Guangdong to Heilongjiang. Africa comprises 54 separate states. When you succeed in the large and price conscious Indian or Chinese markets, the price is normally low and the quality high. That makes you globally competitive.

    Asia also has higher level of education and China a large highly educated working class.

    But still the green transformation is a huge opportunity more than a problem for developing nations. Going green now saves money. It makes it possible to leap frog into the renewable future without building the fossil infrastructure first. Even the poorest nations can develop a digital economy without putting up phone lines.

    The (limited) money which will flow from Western donors and from International institutions should resolutely be used to leverage private investment in solar, wind, hydropower and green industries. The anticipated risk investing in renewables in Congo is higher than in Vietnam. That difference must be covered by donor money.

    Only for climate adaptation purposes where there is no business model, we should turn to grants.

    I am looking forward to going to Baku. Maybe, it can be the watershed moment when the world realizes that in the 21st century Asian developing nations are providing the global green leadership? They have showed the world going green is an opportunity.

    Erik Solheim is a Norwegian diplomat and former politician. He served in the Norwegian government from 2005 to 2012 as Minister of International Development and Minister of the Environment, and as Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme from 2016 to 2018

    IPS UN Bureau


    Follow IPS News UN Bureau on Instagram

    © Inter Press Service (2024) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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  • Heat-trapping carbon dioxide and methane levels in the air last year spiked to record highs again

    Heat-trapping carbon dioxide and methane levels in the air last year spiked to record highs again

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    The levels of the crucial heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere reached historic highs last year, growing at near-record fast paces, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

    Carbon dioxide, the most important and abundant of the greenhouse gases caused by humans, rose in 2023 by the third highest amount in 65 years of record keeping, NOAA announced Friday. Scientists are also worried about the rapid rise in atmospheric levels of methane, a shorter-lived but more potent heat-trapping gas. Both jumped 5.5% over the past decade.

    The 2.8 parts per million increase in carbon dioxide airborne levels from January 2023 to December, wasn’t as high as the jumps were in 2014 and 2015, but they were larger than every other year since 1959, when precise records started. Carbon dioxide’s average level for 2023 was 419.3 parts per million, up 50% from pre-industrial times.

    Last year’s methane’s jump of 11.1 parts per billion was lower than record annual rises from 2020 to 2022. It averaged 1922.6 parts per billion last year. It has risen 3% in just the past five years and jumped 160% from pre-industrial levels showing faster rates of increase than carbon dioxide, said Xin “Linsday” Lan, the University of Colorado and NOAA atmospheric scientist who did the calculations.

    “Methane’s decadal spike should terrify us,” said Stanford University climate scientist Rob Jackson, who heads the Global Carbon Project that tracks worldwide emissions of carbon dioxide but wasn’t part of NOAA’s report. “Fossil fuel pollution is warming natural systems like wetlands and permafrost. Those ecosystems are releasing even more greenhouse gases as they heat up. We’re caught between a rock and a charred place.”

    Methane emissions in the atmosphere come from natural wetlands, agriculture, livestock, landfills and leaks and intentional flaring of natural gas in the oil and gas industry.

    Methane is responsible for about 30% of the current rise in global temperature, with carbon dioxide to blame for about twice as much, according to the International Energy Agency. Methane traps about 28 times the heat per molecule as carbon dioxide but lasts a decade or so in the atmosphere instead of centuries or thousands of years like carbon dioxide, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

    Carbon dioxide and methane levels have been higher in the far ancient past, but it was before humans existed.

    The third biggest human-caused greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide, jumped 1 part per billion last year to record levels, but the increases were not as high as those in 2020 and 2021. Nitrous oxide, which lasts about a century in the atmosphere, comes from agriculture, burning of fuels, manure and industrial processes, according to the EPA.

    “As these numbers show we still have a lot of work to do to make meaningful progress in reducing the amount of greenhouse gases accumulating in the atmosphere,” NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory Director Vanda Grubisic said in statement.

    Companies across the globe last year pledged massive — almost complete — cuts in methane emissions from the oil and gas industry in a new initiative that could trim future rises in temperature by a tenth of a degree Celsius. And the EPA issued a final rule to reduce oil and gas industry generated methane emissions.

    But the past five years, methane levels have risen faster than any time in NOAA record-keeping. And recent studies have shown that government efforts to track methane are vastly underestimating the pollution going into the air from the energy industry.

    Studies of the specific isotopes of methane in the air show much of the increased methane is from microbes, pointing to spiking emissions from wetlands and perhaps agriculture and landfills, but not as much the energy industry, Lan said.

    “I’m still mostly concerned about carbon dioxide emissions,” Lan said.

    Carbon dioxide emissions going into the air from burning fossil fuels and making cement hit an all time high last year of 36.8 billion metric tons, twice the amount spewed into the air 40 years ago, according to Global Carbon Project. But about half of what’s coming out of smokestacks and tailpipes are temporarily sucked up and stored by trees and oceans, keeping it out of the atmosphere, Lan said.

    Methane doesn’t have that temporary carbon storage that carbon dioxide has, Lan said.

    The shift last year from a three-year La Nina, the natural cooling of parts of the central Pacific that changes weather worldwide, to a warm El Nino, played a role in dampening methane’s increasing rate in the air and spiking carbon dioxide levels, Lan said.

    That’s because methane’s biggest emissions comes from wetlands, which during a La Nina is wetter in much of the tropics, creating more microbes in the lush growth to release methane, Lan said. The La Nina ended mid year last year, giving way to a strong El Nino.

    Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere tend to rise higher during hotter El Ninos, but the current one is starting to peter out, Lan said.

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    Read more of AP’s climate coverage at http://www.apnews.com/climate-and-environment

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    Follow Seth Borenstein on X at @borenbears

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    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.

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  • No Turning a Blind Eye to Protection Dominican Republic’s Natural Resources, Says Environment Minister

    No Turning a Blind Eye to Protection Dominican Republic’s Natural Resources, Says Environment Minister

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    The island state of the Dominican Republic is extremely vulnerable to hurricanes, tropical storms, and floods. Furthermore, it is currently experiencing threats from climate change and pollution. This picture of Wallhouse, Dominica, was taken a few days after Category 5 Hurricane Maria struck the island. Credit: Alison Kentish/IPS
    • by Jan Lundius (stockholm)
    • Inter Press Service

    STOCKHOLM, Apr 04 (IPS) – Ahead of the Dominican Republic’s elections, IPS spoke to Miguel Ceara Hatton, Dominican Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, about the challenges of protecting the environment as climate change and social change impact it.In 2020, general elections were held in the Dominican Republic. This took place while the COVID pandemic was becoming an increasingly serious threat, causing severe social and economic disruption. The elections were two months late as a result of the initial chaos COVID caused. The governing Dominican Liberation Party’s 16-year rule ended after the Modern Revolutionary Party’s candidate, Luis Abinader, received a majority of the votes. Elections are now scheduled for May 19 this year and IPS took the opportunity to ask Miguel Ceara Hatton, the country’s Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, how he perceived the past four years’ efforts to mitigate a global crisis that now threatens us all, namely climate change and environmental degradation.

    The island state of the Dominican Republic is extremely vulnerable to meteorological phenomena such as hurricanes, tropical storms, and floods. Furthermore, it is currently experiencing threatening effects from climate change and pollution. Increasing temperatures are causing drought, which reduces crop yields and negatively affects water supplies. However, in spite of this, the nation’s economy has, during the last ten years, experienced some of the fastest growth in Latin America and the Caribbean. The period saw a 24 percent upsurge in hotels, bars, and restaurants, while construction and the industrial sector were thriving. The middle class is increasing and poverty is declining. The country has transitioned from being an agricultural society to one dominated by vast metropolitan areas during the last 15 years; its urban population has doubled. Nevertheless, sectors such as agriculture, industry, construction, and tourism are highly dependent on increasingly scarce natural resources, such as water, timber, and land, while unsustainable practices continue to cause environmental degradation.

    To prevent pollution and further depletion of natural resources, the Ministry of Environment regulates all activities that present a potential risk to the environment, implementing policies that allow the Ministry to enforce an environmental management and adaptation plan to avoid further damage. One example of environment protecting laws is that, according to the Dominican Constitution, water is part of the nation’s heritage. Rivers, lakes, lagoons, beaches, and coasts are considered to be public property. A 60-meter coastal strip running parallel to the sea is also considered part of the nation’s public property, accessible to the public and cannot be exploited.

    At the beginning of IPS’ discussion with the Dominican Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Miguel Ceara, we asked him if environmental issues are a priority for the current government.

    Miguel-Ceara-Hatton
    Miguel Ceara Hatton

    Miguel Ceara: To a very high degree. The Ministry is rather new. It was created in 2000 as the result of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. We are currently trying to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which was adopted by all UN Member States in 2015. The goals of this agenda are all interconnected and safeguarding the environment is a transversal theme that concerns all levels of society, demanding coordination and collaboration of all ministries, particularly with the cabinets in charge of issues like education, water, construction, security, etc.

    Many challenges lay ahead of us. Most important is to foment a new, general culture that promotes environmental health management as well as economic growth to enable us to finance the transformation needed if our society will be able to confront such a formidable threat as the one posed by climate change.

    IPS: Before you accepted your current position, you served as Minister for Economy, Planification, and Development and have now been Minister of Environment for just two years. When you entered this office, what did you perceive as your main challenge?

    Miguel Ceara: Lack of respect for environmental laws and a high level of permisologia, i.e. an inclination to turn a blind eye to violations of rules and regulations, paired with a readiness to grant permits where they should not have been permitted. Furthermore, the wages have been far too low for technicians and other people involved in the protection of natural resources.

    IPS: Reforestation has long been a priority for Dominican governments, though it has often been stated that it has seldom been a particularly successful endeavor.

    Ceara: Quite right, but reforestation has now become urgent; in two years’ time, more than 200 000 km2 will be planted with 20 million seedlings.

    IPS: Are there any protected areas in the Dominican Republic?

    Ceara: Approximately one-fourth of the national territory is protected, as is an additional 11 percent of the marine waters.

    IPS: What does this protection imply?

    Ceara: The exploitation of protected areas is forbidden. Unharmful and protective practices are allowed to help the vegetation evolve in a healthy, sustainable manner, safeguarding flora and fauna. However, it is expensive and quite difficult to preserve and protect these areas. Only within Los Haitises National Park are more than 400 soldiers deployed to protect it and apart from foresters and game wardens, we are in great need of expertise in nature preservation. We need geologists, geographers, agronomists, hydrologists, forest scientists, and biologists. The country already has a sufficient supply of marketers, economists, architects, and engineers. The government is currently supporting a Masters’ programme for 60 environmental technicians and more are needed.

    IPS: You mentioned a culture of permisologia, how do you deal with that problem?

    Ceara: We are currently digitalizing all permits and are at the same time checking and revising them. Transgressors are brought to court. We are trying to implement harsh laws to stop abuse, for example, by increasing vigilance to protect forests and vegetation around water sources. Extracting sand for cement production from riverbeds is strictly forbidden, sand can now only be harvested in mines; and harmful agricultural methods are also being limited and even forbidden.

    IPS: Can you mention some environmental threats that are unique to the Dominican Republic?

    Ceara: There are several. For example, sudden, huge downpours that have hit the island in recent times, possibly a result of climate change. On November 4, 2022, a precipitation of 266 mm was measured in the capital, the highest level ever recorded. Nevertheless, on November 19, 2023, the Dominican Republic received 431 mm of rain. Extreme precipitation caused floods, tearing down bridges and dams, while inundating fields and neighbourhoods. In the capital, the collapse of an overpass claimed nine lives.

    Another concern, caused by climate change, is algal blooms. Increasing temperatures are changing sea currents, which, in combination with fertilizing components reaching the sea, are stimulating Sargassum, a brown macro-algae, to experience a catastrophic bloom, creating dense layers on the sea surface. Occasionally, such huge carpets of algae move onto the Dominican coastline, destroying beaches and disrupting ecosystems, while creating a decomposing and stinking mess containing concentrations of heavy metals and arsenic. Currently, a moving eight thousand km2 expanse of 30 million metric tons of Sargassum is approaching Caribbean waters.

    The Dominican Republic is a low emitter of greenhouse gases, accounting for approximately 0.08 of global emissions. The land use sector currently absorbs more CO2 than it emits. However, energy demand is steadily on the rise and emissions have, during a five-year period, increased by 20 percent. As soon as it came into power, this government committed itself to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 27 percent by 2030, compared to 2010 levels. 

    IPS: Are Dominicans in general aware of the lethal threats of environmental degradation and climate change?

    Ceara: Unfortunately, not! There are always uncertainties and unforeseen events that make planning difficult. Emergencies and rising investment costs are affected by forces we have no control over. Resources are limited. Consumption is increasing, and so are waste and pollution. Cars are becoming more common, as are air conditioners and other energy-consuming appliances. Plastic is suffocating water sources. Planning is constantly being made to meet needs and demands, as well as find alternative, sustainable energy sources, and not the least to support increased awareness about environmental threats to health and society. However, much more has to be done.

    To adapt an entire nation to the painful transition from fossil fuel dependency to a society based on renewable energy is a costly and painful endeavor, but it has to be done and can conceivably be achieved. For example, this nation’s economy was once highly dependent on the production of sugar, coffee, cacao, and tobacco. Foreign competition eventually destroyed these sources of income, but the nation proved to be capable of overcoming a painful transition and through the expansion of other sectors, the economy could be recuperated.

    I believe that people can be convinced to change their habits and concerns. Take as an example how smoking has diminished by efforts to make people aware of its dangers. A similar result can be reached if people become aware of the dangers involved with mindless pollution, inadequate waste treatment, and wasteful energy consumption. To take care of our natural environment, it has to be a collective endeavor. This is not primarily a law enforcement issue, we cannot have a policeman checking every Dominican citizen. Education and awareness campaigns have to be carried out to enable every citizen, every municipality, and every neighbourhood to participate in the care and protection of our natural environment.

    IPS: However, mitigation of the harmful effects of climate change and general pollution is not only a local, but also a global concern.

    Miguel Ceara: Of course, this is a serious concern for us. To be quite frank, the worst culprits are developed nations and they don’t care enough about the harm done to developing countries. Climate change is a global issue, with a vast array of components. It has to be addressed on a multilateral basis and in a synchronized manner. So far, this has not been done, at least not to the extent it should be done. Developing nations are always in the back seat while negotiating with nations that are better off.

    Take as an example the issue of COVID mitigation. The Dominican Republic had early on made an agreement with a pharmaceutical company for timely vaccine delivery, but when the vaccines were going to be delivered, they became unavailable after being sold to bigger, wealthier nations. We had to wait and when the vaccine finally appeared, we had to pay a price four times higher than we had originally agreed upon. We cannot sit and wait for wealthier nations to assist us in addressing urgent environmental issues, we have to begin by acting alone.

    Furthermore, we are sharing our eco system with Haiti, a nation that now has become a failed state, with criminal gangs running amok, turning into private armies, fomenting fear, chaos, and increasing poverty. The Dominican Republic cannot, on its own, mitigate a crisis that threatens not only peace and cooperation, but also the ecosystem of the entire island. We expect the international community to step in and help Haiti, first for the good of the Haitian people, who deserve to live with dignity and without fear, but also to safeguard the ecosystem of the entire island. Without a stable government and institutional counterparts, it is impossible for us to reach out to Haiti to coordinate environmental policies.

    IPS: At last, a personal question: the President urged you to become minister of environment after your predecessor had been murdered in this very office. I know you hesitated while being aware of the danger involved in accepting a post like this one, as well as the fact that you are an economist and not an environmental expert. Why do you think the President chose you and if the ruling party wins the upcoming elections, do you intend to stay in your post?

    Ceara: I am aware that my predecessor was killed for applying the strict laws related to granting, or denying, permits related to environmental issues and the protection of our ecosystem. I assume the President gave me the offer since he considered me to be a man of personal integrity and experienced in planning and coordination. After being confronted with the challenges connected with environmental management and safeguarding our eco system, I am fully committed to continuing, in any capacity, to environmental protection and efforts to counteract the harmful effects of climate change.

    This feature is published with the support of Open Society Foundations.

    IPS UN Bureau Report


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  • No, the Earth-sun distance isn’t the cause of global warming

    No, the Earth-sun distance isn’t the cause of global warming

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    The sun surely warms the Earth. But a widely shared social media post says the sun — not human-caused climate change — is why scientists are detecting changing global temperatures.

    “Finally the truth! … Climate change is cyclical and it’s because of our Sun,” the March 19 Facebook post claims. Not because of us,” said the post, which  includes a screenshot of a March 19 X post from Robin Monoti, an Italian architect and film producer who vocally opposed lockdowns related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

    “The idea that CO2 causes climate change is another laughable myth,” Monoti said. “The Sun is not static, the real reason of changing temperature is that the Sun-Earth distance varies due to what is known as solar-inertial motion.” He called global warming a “historical con by the oligarchic class” to increase taxes.

    The Facebook post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

    The distance between Earth and the sun can affect the Earth’s long-term climate. However, climate scientists agree that the sun does not significantly shift the planet’s modern trend toward ever-warming temperatures.

    “The warming we have seen over the last few decades is too rapid to be linked to changes in Earth’s orbit, and too large to be caused by solar activity,” according to NASA. The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which includes scientists from 195 countries, said “it is unequivocal that humans are causing the warming. Changes in the sun’s activity and volcanic eruptions are not the cause of the warming trend.”

    “Global warming” and “climate change” are sometimes used interchangeably, but global warming is a “symptom” of climate change. There is international consensus among climate scientists that human activity is leading to increased carbon emissions and carbon traps heat and warms the planet. Carbon dioxide emissions come from a range of industries, including energy, through power plants; agriculture; and transportation. 

    Carbon dioxide emissions, methane and other greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere and worsen global warming.

    “Methane is more than 28 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “Over the last two centuries, methane concentrations in the atmosphere have more than doubled, largely due to human-related activities.”

    Methane is responsible for about 30% of global warming according to the United Nations Environment Programme. Agriculture is the main, but not the only, source of methane emissions.

    These emissions have an everyday impact: the World Meteorological Organization said 2023 was the hottest year ever recorded.

    The idea of the Earth-sun distance causing global warming is not new and has gained recent prominence. 

    In 2020, the journal Scientific Reports retracted a 2019 paper that it published that gave credence to the Earth-sun distance idea. Withdrawing the study, the editors said “post-publication peer review has shown that this assumption is inaccurate. … As a result the Editors no longer have confidence in the conclusions presented.” The retraction notice said one of the original study’s four co-authors backed the decision to withdraw it.

    We rate the claim that the Earth-sun distance is the cause of global warming False.

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  • California storms deliver above-average snowpack, replenish reservoirs

    California storms deliver above-average snowpack, replenish reservoirs

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    California’s mountains are covered with snow, reservoirs are mostly filled and hills across the state are sprouting green grass and wildflowers after the latest round of soaking storms.

    The snowpack across the Sierra Nevada now stands at 105% of average for this time of year, and state officials will provide an update on conditions Tuesday when they conduct their April snow survey, which is typically when the snowpack reaches its peak.

    The state’s major reservoirs are at 116% of average levels, and are set to rise further as snowmelt streams in.

    After a second wet winter, the state is heading into spring and summer with boosted water supplies.

    “It puts us in very good shape,” said Felicia Marcus, a water researcher at Stanford University. “Any time you get to average, that’s a great thing.”

    Aggressive and impactful reporting on climate change, the environment, health and science.

    She said the ample snow and rain this year provide the state some breathing room, but shouldn’t diminish the urgency of planning for the next severe drought and the effects of climate change.

    “We’re on borrowed time,” Marcus said. “We need to save more water, even in the wet and the normal years, to get us through the increasingly frequent and drier dries that are inevitably going to come.”

    In the last decade, California endured two severe droughts, and then came the historic series of atmospheric rivers of 2023, which brought one of the biggest accumulations of snow on record and triggered damaging floods in parts of the state.

    This winter began with unusually dry conditions, but initial fears of a “snow drought” faded as storms in February and March pushed the snowpack to average levels.

    Precipitation has been slightly above average statewide so far this year. And no part of California is currently in drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor’s data.

    Water levels in the state’s largest reservoirs in Northern California are well above average levels for this time of year. Shasta Lake is now 92% full and continuing to rise with runoff from the latest rains, while Lake Oroville is at 88% of capacity.

    In Southern California, Diamond Valley Lake is also nearly full.

    Wetlands spread along the shoreline at Big Break in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta near Oakley.

    Wetlands spread along the shoreline at Big Break in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta near Oakley.

    (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

    Marcus, a former chair of the State Water Resources Control Board, said the reprieve this year buys the state a bit of time to advance conservation efforts in cities and farming areas, and to invest in projects to recycle wastewater, capture stormwater and recharge groundwater.

    “It doesn’t mean we take our foot off the gas pedal,” she said. “Because every year could be the first year of a 10-year drought.”

    Even with the state’s reservoirs at healthy levels, California continues to face complex water management problems, such as struggling fish populations and the depletion of groundwater in many farming areas.

    Chronic shortages of supplies from the Colorado River, a key source for Southern California, are also forcing water managers to make plans for scaling back water use.

    For Southern California’s cities, however, this year’s storms and the substantial amounts of water stored in reservoirs are expected to keep supplies flowing reliably — a dramatic change from 2022 and early 2023, when shortages led to mandatory drought restrictions for millions of residents.

    The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which delivers supplies to cities and local agencies that serve 19 million people, now has a record amount of water stored. That 3.4 million acre-feet of water, banked in various reservoirs and underground storage areas, equates to nearly three years’ worth of imported water, and a large portion of it accumulated thanks to conservation efforts, said Adel Hagekhalil, the MWD’s general manager.

    “We in Southern California have done a great job in managing our water and reducing our water use,” Hagekhalil said.

    While two wet years are helping the region’s water outlook for now, he said, the district’s officials are continuing to focus on long-term plans to ensure supplies during more severe droughts supercharged by climate change.

    “We may be out of drought for the time being, but we’re not out of drought for the future,” Hagekhalil said. “This is the future climate, and we need to prepare for it.”

    Last month, California increased the water allocations that suppliers will be able to receive this year from the State Water Project to 30% of their full allotments. That level of water deliveries “puts us in balance” with current water demand, Hagekhalil said, enabling the MWD to not draw down its stored supplies this year, and instead keep those reserves for when they’re needed.

    Hopefully, he said, the latest storms will bring another increase in the state’s water allocations.

    “That puts us in a place where we are storing water everywhere we can,” Hagekhalil said.

    “Every drop that we can now store is a drop that we have available for the future,” he said. “This is the climate whiplash. We’re going to see hotter and drier days, and probably a number of years of drought coming to us, so this is the time to capture the water and store it.”

    In the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the center of the state’s water system, a recent increase in the deaths of fish at pumping facilities has prompted criticism from environmental groups and led to limitations on pumping.

    “Overall, our pumping has been low throughout the year,” said Lenny Grimaldo, environmental director for the State Water Project. “We’ve seen a lot of protections triggered for species.”

    The powerful pumps at state and federal pumping facilities reverse the flow of water in parts of the south delta, and fish can be sucked into the pumps or eaten by predators. Some fish are regularly captured at the facilities and released.

    State officials said the estimated losses of endangered winter-run Chinook salmon and threatened steelhead trout at the state and federal pumping facilities surpassed annual take limits on March 21, which prompted discussions among multiple government agencies about additional measures to protect fish.

    As a result, Grimaldo said, state and federal officials have kept pumping to levels that they deemed are “protective of minimizing additional losses of fish but also protective of water supply.”

    The pumps that supply the aqueducts of the State Water Project and the federally managed Central Valley Project have been operating at a little more than one-third of combined capacity.

    The state’s water withdrawals have been reduced since February to protect migrating fish, and in the last week, pumping was slightly increased based on data suggesting that this level of pumping “is not drawing additional steelhead into the zone of influence of the pumps,” said Mary Fahey, a spokesperson for the state Department of Water Resources.

    State officials believe “protections for steelhead have been suitable for winter-run salmon as well,” Fahey said. She said the uptick in pumping will be short-lived because rules to protect another fish species, longfin smelt, take effect this month.

    Meanwhile, other debates over long-term water management are continuing.

    Gov. Gavin Newsom and his administration are supporting plans to build Sites Reservoir, the state’s first new large reservoir in decades, as well as the proposed Delta Conveyance Project, a 45-mile tunnel that would transport water beneath the delta.

    Newsom’s current plan for adapting to a hotter, drier climate predicts that California could lose 10% of its water supply by 2040.

    Bidwell Bar Bridge at Lake Oroville

    Bidwell Bar Bridge spans Lake Oroville in February.

    (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

    State water regulators are considering alternatives for new water quality standards that will determine how much water may be drawn from the delta.

    In farming areas in the Central Valley, local water agencies are starting to plan for mandatory reductions in agricultural water use to comply with the state’s groundwater law, which calls for curbing overpumping by 2040.

    And for urban areas, the state water board is considering new conservation rules that will require each city or local supplier to meet a locally tailored water-use budget. After an initial proposal encountered criticism from water agencies, the board’s staff issued a revised proposal that includes less stringent water-saving standards and would reduce the number of suppliers that need to make large cutbacks.

    The changes were supported by water agencies. But environmental groups and conservation advocates have objected to the weakened plan and urged the state to adopt strong water-efficiency standards to help the state prepare for more severe droughts and hotter temperatures.

    Marcus said she agrees with the conservation camp and thinks it’s short-sighted to roll back the requirements to the extent state officials are proposing.

    “We’re in a climate emergency and a water emergency that’s decadal at minimum,” Marcus said.

    “The red alert is on for this, and conservation is the most cost-effective in the long run for communities,” she said. “We’ve got to definitely do a much better job of cutting back on our water use in the most creative ways we can come up with.”

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    Ian James

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  • One Couple’s Quest to Ditch Natural Gas

    One Couple’s Quest to Ditch Natural Gas

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    Two climate journalists decided to decarbonize their home. Here’s what happened.

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  • ‘Education is the climate solution’

    ‘Education is the climate solution’

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    MIAMI — Shiva Rajbhandari doesn’t want you to think there’s anything impressive about the fact that he ran for a school board seat at age 17.

    He doesn’t want you to consider it remotely awe-worthy that he campaigned on a platform to turn his Idaho district into a leader on climate change, or that he won, against an incumbent, in the highest-turnout school board election in Boise history.  

    Shiva Rajbhandari says education is “the” climate solution. Credit: Image provided by Shiva Rajbhandari

    What’s impressive, he says, are his Boise public school teachers, who educated him on climate change beginning in seventh grade, not because of any state science guidance but because they recognized its importance. They also “told me every single day that your voice is powerful, that you can make a difference,” he said. 

    “This is something that should be accessible to every student,” Rajbhandari, now 19, told an audience at the Aspen Institute’s annual climate event earlier this month. But “not every student has that.”

    Rajbhandari, like many of those I spoke with at the Miami event, sees education as fundamental to reducing the harms of a warming planet. By giving young people the skills and resilience to fight climate change, and by harnessing school systems – often among the largest employers and landowners in communities – to reduce their carbon footprint, education can unleash positive changes for a less-apocalyptic future.

    “We must recognize that education is the climate solution,” said Rajbhandari, who spoke on a panel organized by This is Planet Ed, an Aspen project that has pushed to get education on the climate agenda and vice versa.

    Here are some of my takeaways from the conference, both in terms of how climate change is affecting students and learning, at all education levels, and how education systems can tackle the problem.

    Early education:

    • Danger lurks for the youngest kids: Kids ages zero to 8 are especially vulnerable to climate change and its harms, such as heat waves; it’s also when kids’ brains are developing most rapidly and laying the foundation for climate resilience is especially critical, said Michelle Kang, chief executive officer for the National Association for the Education of Young Children.
    • No need to wait until kindergarten: Kids can be introduced to activities like composting and recycling,and values around a healthy planet, at very early ages, Kang said.
    • It’s about access, too: Kang mentioned visiting a child care program in Texas that had lost its shade structure in a storm and no longer had a way to take kids outside safely in the heat of the day.

    K-12:

    • Money, money, money: The Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal and the Inflation Reduction Act contain hefty financial incentives and support for schools to reduce their carbon footprint through solar rooftops, electric buses and building efficiencies. Many don’t know of those opportunities, speakers said. 
    • Confront the topic differently so it’s not just “the polar bears are dying, the seas are warming and the coral reefs are bleaching, and people in sub-Saharan Africa may not in 50 years have enough to eat,” Rajhbandari said. The issue is urgent, immediate and personal, he noted, but students also need to know they can have a positive impact: “The key there is talking about solutions and talking about agency.” 
    • Silence won’t help: Laura Schifter, an Aspen senior fellow who leads This is Planet Ed, recalled hearing from a student who’d become alarmed by a U.N. report about climate change and was shocked that no adults in her school were talking about it. “She started to think, am I the crazy one, that I’m so worried and no one else is worried?” Schifter said. 
    • A perfect storm: Climate threats are sharpening the focus on other threats to public schools, like expanded school choice and vouchers. Luisa Santos, a Miami Dade school board member, noted public schools in the city serve as hurricane shelters. School privatization could complicate that role if fewer school buildings are district run and are instead led by many different private operators, she noted.

    Higher education:

    • New world, new needs: Climate change is starting to reshape the workforce, with new opportunities in renewable energy, sustainability and other sectors, speakers said. Higher ed needs to identify these new needs and help prepare students to fill them, said Madeline Pumariega, president of Miami Dade College.
    • For example: She noted that her college started a program for automotive technicians focused on electric vehicles: “We can have the workforce so we don’t find ourselves saying, well sorry, we were trying to do this but we didn’t have the workforce to be able to.”
    • Changing existing programs: Colleges are increasingly infusing climate studies into an array of fields – culinary students need to learn about reducing food waste, while future nurses need to know about mitigating the health effects of climate change, speakers said.
    • Change begins on campus: There’s also a push to incorporate campus sustainability efforts into coursework. At University of Washington at Bothell, for example, students in several majors worked to restore campus wetlands. At Weber State University, in Ogden, Utah, students in engineering and other fields helped make buildings more efficient. And SUNY Binghamton offers a class called “Planning the Sustainable University” in which students have developed dorm composting, improved furniture reuse rates, and more. 

    It’s sobering to contemplate climate change, especially from Miami, where sea level rise threatens to swamp much of the city in the coming decades. But I was reminded of messaging I heard at last year’s Aspen conference, from Yale University senior research scientist Anthony Leiserowitz: “Scientists agree, it’s real, it’s us, it’s bad, but there’s hope.”

    Important sources of that hope are students, educators and school systems.      

    This story about climate change solutions was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletters.

    The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.

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  • Ahead of UN Summit of the Future, Mobilizing Youth for Change

    Ahead of UN Summit of the Future, Mobilizing Youth for Change

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    A panel discussion with Kaoru Nemoto, director of the United Nations Information Center, and other youth representatives including Yuki Tokuda, co-founder of GeNuine(Extreme right) delved into nuclear weapons and climate change.
    • Opinion by Katsuhiro Asagiri (tokyo, japan)
    • Inter Press Service

    TOKYO, Japan, Mar 27 (IPS) – In a significant precursor to the United Nations Summit of the Future slated for September, the “Future Action Festival” convened at Tokyo’s National Stadium on March 24, drawing a crowd of approximately 66,000 attendees and reaching over half a million viewers via live streaming. The event, a collaborative effort by youth and citizen groups, aimed to foster a deeper understanding and proactive stance among young people on nuclear disarmament and climate change solutions.

    The festival featured interactive quizzes displayed on large screens, offering attendees a collective learning experience about the complex global crises currently challenging the international community. Additionally, a panel discussion with Kaoru Nemoto, director of the United Nations Information Center, and other youth representatives delved into nuclear weapons and climate change, facilitating a deeper exploration of these pressing issues. Adding to the event’s poignancy, performances included one by the “A-bombed Piano,” a relic from Hiroshima that endured the atomic bombing, and others that highlighted the value of peace through music and dances, reinforcing the call for action and solidarity as agents of change.

    A panel discussion with Kaoru Nemoto, director of the United Nations Information Center, and other youth representatives including Yuki Tokuda, co-founder of GeNuine(Extreme right) delved into nuclear weapons and climate change.

    Central to the festival’s impact were the insights shared by a participant of the panel discussion like Yuki Tokuda, co-founder of GeNuine, who shared her insights from a “youth awareness survey” conducted before the event. “The survey revealed that over 80% of young respondents felt their voices were not being heard,” she explained. “This suggests a systemic issue, not merely a matter of personal perception, which is discouraging the younger generation from engaging with vital issues.”

    Despite this, the massive turnout at the festival offered a glimmer of hope. “The presence of 66,000 like-minded individuals here today signals that change is possible. Together, we can reshape the system and forge a future that aligns with our aspirations,” Tokuda remarked, emphasizing the power of collective action and the importance of carrying forward the momentum generated by the festival.

    Equally compelling was the narrative shared by Yuki Tominaga, who captivated the audience with her dance performance at the event. “I have always been deeply inspired by my late grandmother’s life as a storyteller sharing her experiences of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima.” Tominaga shared. “My grandmother would begin her account with her own experiences of the bombing but then expand her narrative to include her visits to places like India and Pakistan, countries with nuclear arsenals, and regions afflicted by poverty and conflict where landmines remain a deadly legacy. She emphasized that the tragedy of Hiroshima is an ongoing story, urging us to spread the message of peace to future generations.”

    Yuki Tominaga, a third generation Hibakusha from Hiroshima, continues her grandmothers legacy while using her passin for dance as a medium to communicate about peace and Hiroshima bombing. Credit: Yukie Asagiri, INPS Japan

    Reflecting on her grandmother’s profound impact, Tominaga continued, “I once doubted my ability to continue her legacy; her words seemed irreplaceable. But she encouraged me, saying, ‘Do what you’re able to spread peace.’ That inspired me to use my passion for dance as a medium to communicate about peace and the Hiroshima bombing. I aim to serve as a conduit between the survivors of the atomic bomb and today’s youth, making peace discussions engaging and accessible through dance.”

    The “Youth Attitude Survey,” which garnered responses from 119,925 individuals across Japan, revealed a striking consensus: over 90% of young people expressed a desire to contribute to a better society. Yet, they also acknowledged feeling marginalized from the decision-making processes. The survey illuminated young people’s readiness to transform their awareness into action, despite prevailing sentiments of exclusion.

    This enthusiasm and potential for change have not gone unnoticed by the international community. High-profile supporters, including Felipe Paullier, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Youth Affairs, Orlando Bloom, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, and Melissa Park, Executive Director of ICAN, have all voiced their encouragement, recognizing young people’s crucial role in driving global advancements in sustainability and peace.

    The upcoming UN Summit of the Future offers a pivotal platform for youth engagement, with the “Joint Statement” released by the festival’s Organizing Committee—encompassing key areas like climate crisis resolution, nuclear disarmament, youth participation in decision-making, and UN reform—serving as a testament to the collective will to influence global policies. Tshilidzi Marwala, the Rector of the United Nations University and UN Under-Secretary-General acknowledged the vital importance of young voices in shaping the summit’s agenda, urging them to be “a beacon of hope and a driving force for change.”

    As the world gears up for the UN Summit of the Future, the Future Action Festival stands as a powerful reminder of the impact of youth-led initiatives and collective action in addressing the world’s most pressing challenges. Through education, advocacy, and direct engagement, the festival not only spotlighted the urgent need for action on nuclear disarmament and the climate crisis but also showcased the potential of an informed, engaged, and motivated youth to effect meaningful global change.

    IPS UN Bureau


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  • To make water last year-round, Kenyans in dry regions are building sand dams on seasonal rivers

    To make water last year-round, Kenyans in dry regions are building sand dams on seasonal rivers

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    MAKUENI, Kenya — On a dry riverbed one recent sunny morning, residents of Kasengela village toiled away mixing cement and sand to make concrete. The sound of their shovels resonated through the valley while other residents, working in pairs, carried rocks to the site in wooden frames.

    They were building a sand dam, a structure for harvesting water from seasonal rivers. The barrier, typically made of concrete, impedes water flow and coarse grains of sand settle behind it, creating an artificial aquifer that fills up during rainy seasons.

    Seasonal rivers flow a few times a year here, and with little piped water and few reliable alternatives, many people here depend on them for water. Building sand dams on these rivers, where people can scoop the sand to fetch the water or use hand pumps, helps minimize water loss through evaporation and recharges groundwater. This is increasingly important as human-caused climate change is leading to prolonged seasons of drought, scientists say, and the simple sand dam solution has gained traction across dry regions of Kenya and some other parts of Africa looking for reliable water sources. But experts also warn that finding the right sites for structures is key to making them work.

    Kasengela village is in Machakos County, which, alongside other counties of Makueni and Kitui in southeastern Kenya, is classified as arid and semi-arid. For many communities here, sand dams built on seasonal rivers have grown in popularity.

    That’s true for Kyalika village in Makueni County, where Rhoda Peter and her welfare group have built three sand dams along a nearby river. When The Associated Press met her, she was fetching water from one of the dams to clean utensils and wash clothes.

    Peter put a yellow container on the shallow well platform and walked to the pump, pulling it up and pushing it down until it was full. Nearby, a donkey stood with two containers hanging on its back.

    “When I think about sand dams, I feel happy,” said Peter, a farmer. “Our shallow well does not dry. It goes all through the dry seasons.”

    Before the sand dams were built, she and her children would walk many miles to fetch water in springs in the faraway Mbooni Hills. It took them three hours, and many times they’d fall because of the rocky terrain.

    Many people in Kenya’s dry southeastern region rely on boreholes and rivers for water, but many boreholes produce saline water and permanent rivers are few and far for most people. Earth dams are another source, but they’re also few and require regular desilting.

    At the site in Kasengela, Mwanzia Mutua, the leader of the group constructing the dam, said that he used to trek seven kilometers (4.3 miles) from his home to Athi River to fetch water for his household and livestock, spending an entire day on the road. Later, a borehole was constructed, shortening the distance, but it was still far. The sand dam will reduce the walk to get water to 10 minutes, he said.

    “When water is far, you spend all your time looking for it and are unable to do any other work,” said the farmer. “Cattle die because the water is far.”

    The sand dam in Kasengela was completed on March 14 after two and a half months of construction, and should be ready to use by December 2025, after it fills with sand.

    Only 5% of Makueni’s nearly 245,000 households had access to clean piped water by 2022. The county produces about 30,000 cubic meters per day against a demand of 60,000 cubic meters.

    “The water situation in Makueni is dire,” said Mutula Kilonzo Junior, the county’s governor. “We have a huge deficit that we are not supplying.”

    Shortages of water lead to problems for agriculture and health implications as people are forced to use unclean sources, taking the time and energy of children to fetch water, affecting their education, he said.

    The Makueni County government has been building sand dams with partner organizations and residents, and by 2022, it had built 71, according to county government data.

    “Seasonal rivers run dry barely after a week of raining. So for us, we have to store their water, and this is the best way for us to do it,” said Sonnia Musyoka, county minister for environment and climate change. “With such dams, we will enable children to stay at school, and parents to concentrate on other economic activities.”

    The construction of sand dams in the region is community-driven. Africa Sand Dam Foundation — which helped build the dams in Kyalika and Kasengela — is one nonprofit supporting communities in Makueni, Machakos and Kitui to build sand dams. Residents approach the nonprofit with a request to build a dam and provide sand, rocks and other locally available material plus labor. Meanwhile, the nonprofit, through partners, provides hardware material such as cement and skilled expertise. After construction, the community manages the sand dam.

    Since it started in 2010, the nonprofit has constructed 680 sand dams in the three counties.

    “We’ve used this model for years, and we’ve seen its success,” said Andrew Musila, development director at Africa Sand Dam Foundation, at the Kasengela site. “To us, sand dams are the best solution for water provision in arid regions and the best solution for providing communities with water throughout the year.”

    The usefulness of the structures has gained the attention of governments of other local counties, as well as other countries. ASDF has worked with governments and nonprofits in Malawi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Madagascar, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Somalia and India to site, design and build sand dams as well as train people in the processes.

    Scientists warn that proper siting of sand dams is key to making them work. A study carried out in Kitui County found that about half of 116 sand dams surveyed were not functional because they were built in locations with unfavorable factors for enabling sand dams to supply water. Factors to consider, the study says, include the rainfall amount, the percentage of clay in the soil and the presence of visible rock formations.

    “You cannot put a sand dam anywhere,” said Keziah Ngugi, lead author of the study and a hydrologist with interest in dryland areas. “The most important thing to observe is the siting.”

    And as climate change makes drought more likely, scientists say the structures minimize water loss through evaporation because they store water within sand, and that helps with water supply during dry seasons. Additionally, they say the structures rejuvenate surrounding vegetation and recharge groundwater, raising the water table.

    “There are good things that happen when the water table is raised,” said Dorcas Benard, an environmental and biosystems engineer. She gave examples of the emergence of alternative water sources or resources like springs and boreholes. “These are very important sources, especially within the arid and semi-arid lands.”

    And for residents like Mutua, the builder in Kasengela, they offer hope for improved livelihoods. Spending weeks building the dam with fellow residents may be arduous work, but the reward of having reliable water near his home will be fulfilling in immeasurable ways.

    “Water is life,” he said.

    __

    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.

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  • The US Is About to Drown in a Sea of Kittens

    The US Is About to Drown in a Sea of Kittens

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    Scientists, conservationists, and cat advocates all agree that unchecked outdoor cat populations are a problem, but they remain deeply divided on solutions. While some conservationists propose the targeted killing of cats, known as culling, cat populations have been observed to bounce back quickly, and a single female cat and her offspring can produce at least 100 descendants, if not thousands, in just seven years.

    Although sterilization protocols such as “trap, neuter, and release” are favored by many cat rescue organizations, Lepczyk said it’s almost impossible to do it effectively, in part because of how freely the animals roam and how quickly they procreate. Without homes or sanctuaries after sterilization, returning cats outside means they may have a low quality of life, spread disease, and continue to harm wildlife. “No matter what technique you use, if you don’t stop the flow of new cats into the landscape, it’s not gonna matter,” said Lepczyk.

    Rescue shelters, already under strain from resource and veterinary shortages, are scrambling to confront their new reality. While some release materials to help the community identify when outdoor kittens need intervention, others focus on recruiting for foster volunteer programs, which become essential caring for kittens who need around-the-clock care.

    “As the population continues to explode, how do we address all these little lives that need our help?” Dunn said. “We’re giving this everything we have.”

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    Sachi Mulkey

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  • Al Gore Fast Facts | CNN Politics

    Al Gore Fast Facts | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Here is a look at the life of Al Gore, 45th vice president of the United States and environmental activist.

    Birth date: March 31, 1948

    Birth place: Washington, DC

    Birth name: Albert Arnold Gore Jr.

    Father: Albert Gore Sr., former US senator from Tennessee

    Mother: Pauline (La Fon) Gore

    Marriage: Mary Elizabeth “Tipper” (Aitcheson) Gore (May 19, 1970-present, separated June 2010)

    Children: Albert III, Sarah, Kristin, Karenna

    Education: Harvard University, B.A., 1969; Vanderbilt University, Graduate School of Religion 1971-1972; Vanderbilt University, J.D., 1976

    Military service: US Army, 1969-1971, served in Vietnam as a reporter with the 20th Engineering Battalion.

    Religion: Baptist

    Wrote his 1969 Harvard thesis on how television would impact the conduct of the American presidency.

    In 2009, former President Bill Clinton flew to North Korea to negotiate the release of two journalists working for Gore’s Current TV.

    1971-1976 – Is an investigative reporter and editorial writer for the Nashville Tennessean.

    1977-1985 – US Representative in the 95th-98th Congresses, representing first the 4th and then the 6th District of Tennessee. Elected to the House in 1976, 1978, 1980 and 1982.

    1985-1992 – US Senator from Tennessee.

    1988 – Runs for the Democratic Party nomination for president in the 1988 election. Later drops out of the race.

    July 9, 1992 – Bill Clinton chooses Gore to be his running mate in the 1992 presidential election.

    1992 – Publishes “Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit.”

    January 20, 1993 – Inaugurated as vice president.

    January 20, 1997 – Second term as vice president begins.

    March 9, 1999 – Gore states in an interview on CNN with Wolf Blitzer, “During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country’s economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system.” This quote creates a large amount of rhetoric with his opponents.

    June 16, 1999 – Announces his intention to run for president in the 2000 election.

    August 16, 2000 – Wins the Democratic Party nomination.

    November 7, 2000 – Election Day.

    November 8, 2000 – Concedes in the early morning to George W. Bush but later retracts his concession. Florida is too close to call for either Bush or Gore.

    November 9, 2000 – Requests a recount in Florida.

    December 13, 2000 – Concedes the election to Bush after the US Supreme Court rules that another recount in Florida would be unconstitutional, 36 days after the election.

    2002 – “Joined at the Heart: The Transformation of the American Family,” co-written with Tipper Gore, is published.

    March 19, 2003 – Joins the board of directors for Apple Computers Inc.

    May 4, 2004 – Announces intention to purchase Newsworld International from Vivendi Universal SA for an undisclosed price and plans to transform it into a network aimed at viewers ages 18-35.

    August 1, 2005 – Gore’s cable television channel, Current TV, debuts.

    2006 – His crusade against global warming is featured in the book “An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do about It “ and documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.”

    May 2007 – His book, “The Assault on Reason,” is published.

    February 9, 2007 – Joins Sir Richard Branson at a press conference announcing the $25 million Virgin Earth Challenge, a prize for a design to safely remove man-made greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Gore and Branson are among the judges.

    February 15, 2007 – Announces a series of concerts called Live Earth to be held on all seven continents on July 7, 2007. The 24-hour music event is the kickoff of a campaign to “Save Our Selves (SOS).”

    February 25, 2007 – “An Inconvenient Truth” wins an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

    March 21, 2007 – Testifies at separate House and Senate events, urging legislation to curb climate change.

    October 12, 2007 – Is co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for work on global warming. The prize is shared with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

    October 26, 2007 – Receives the Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation.

    November 12, 2007 – Announces he is joining the venture capital firm of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers. He will help the company invest in start-up “green” companies. Gore will also donate his salary to the Alliance for Climate Protection.

    November 2007 – Receives the International Emmy Founders Award at the 35th International Emmy Awards.

    December 10, 2007 – Accepts the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway.

    February 12, 2009 – Receives the NAACP Chairman’s Award during the annual Image Award ceremony. The honor is given in recognition of special achievement and distinguished public service. This year’s award is shared with Dr. Wangari Muta Maathai.

    June 1, 2010 – Gore and wife Tipper, announce they are to separate after 40 years of marriage.

    January 2, 2013 – Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera purchases Current TV for a reported $500 million, personally netting Gore an estimated $70 million.

    December 5, 2016 – Meets with President-elect Donald Trump to speak about climate change issues.

    January 19, 2017 – “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power,” premieres at the Sundance Film Festival. Paramount Pictures releases the film worldwide in July.

    2017 – Publishes “The Assault on Reason: 2017 Edition” with a new preface and conclusion: “Post-Truth: On Donald Trump and the 2016 Election.”

    November 4, 2019 – Releases a statement expressing his disappointment over failing to persuade Trump to keep the US in the Paris climate agreement. “I thought that he would come to his senses on it, but he didn’t,” Gore said.

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  • Warmer Winters Could Bring Mosquitoes Sooner Than Expected ! Get Ready NY ! – Southwest Journal

    Warmer Winters Could Bring Mosquitoes Sooner Than Expected ! Get Ready NY ! – Southwest Journal

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    In recent weeks, Rochester residents have enjoyed unusually warm weather, leading to an earlier appearance of mosquitoes.

    According to Kaitlin Stack Whitney, an assistant professor and leader of the Stack/Whitney Collaborative of Entomology, Environment, and Technology at RIT, the dormancy period of mosquitoes, known as diapause, and their subsequent emergence is influenced by factors such as the duration of daylight rather than temperature alone.

    The Impact of Climate Change on Mosquitoes

    Asian tiger mosquito laying eggs

    The study of these insects, particularly in the context of climate change, remains underfunded despite its growing importance as the habitats and range of mosquito species shift, potentially bringing diseases typically confined to warmer regions closer to home.

    Climate changes, including milder winters with less snowfall but increased rain, create ideal conditions for mosquito breeding, with species like the invasive Asian tiger mosquito capable of laying eggs in minimal amounts of water.

    Warming Winters and Mosquito Activity

    The Northeast is experiencing a rapid warming of winters, contributing to a rise in the number of days suitable for mosquito activity in Rochester since 1970.

    This warming trend poses a challenge, as it could extend the geographical spread and overwintering capabilities of pest insects, including mosquitoes.

    Mosquito-Borne Illnesses in Upstate New York

    West Nile virus in humansWest Nile virus in humans

    New York is home to around 70 mosquito species, with about a third of them known to carry diseases. The majority of disease-carrying mosquitoes are located in the southern parts of the state, with upstate New York primarily at risk from West Nile virus and eastern equine encephalitis.

    Surveillance and Disease Spread

    In 2023, Monroe County reported a single case of West Nile virus in humans, despite no positive mosquito detections, partly due to a lack of testing by the state Department of Health. Conversely, no cases were reported in the counties surrounding Monroe, but New York State recorded a total of 32 cases outside of the New York City area.

    Eastern equine encephalitis remained absent in Western New York but was present in counties along the eastern shores of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River.

    Common disease vectors in the state include mosquitoes from the Ades, Culex, and Anopheles genera. The Culex pipiens, or Northern house mosquito, is prevalent in New York, thriving in stagnant water and capable of spreading West Nile virus and eastern equine encephalitis.

    The Ecological Role of Mosquitoes

    Mosquitoes play positive roles in pollination of orchidsMosquitoes play positive roles in pollination of orchids

    Despite their notoriety, mosquitoes also play positive roles in ecosystems, such as pollination, with certain species contributing to the pollination of orchids in New Jersey and the Adirondacks.

    Stack Whitney emphasizes the complexity of categorizing insects as purely beneficial or harmful, advocating for balanced discussions on the ecological roles of mosquitoes and strategies for mitigating disease risks.

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    Srdjan Ilic

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  • Protecting the Planet: How renewable energy advances power the 21st century

    Protecting the Planet: How renewable energy advances power the 21st century

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    Protecting the Planet: How renewable energy advances power the 21st century – CBS News


    Watch CBS News



    In this episode of “Protecting the Planet,” CBS News senior environmental correspondent Ben Tracy explores the challenges, innovations and partnerships making renewable clean energy more widespread.

    Be the first to know

    Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.


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  • The Global Danger of Boring Buildings

    The Global Danger of Boring Buildings

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    We need to make the exterior parts of buildings that people focus on more interesting, so that people want to protect rather than replace them. But most people aren’t architects or city planners—they can’t change the designs of what’s being made.

    Indeed, we have a public who feel utterly powerless, and a construction industry that talks to itself but not the public. That needs to change. We have public conversations about whether we should fly on holiday and use the carbon to go to Malaga or wherever, but there’s no national conversation about the buildings that surround us.

    I spoke with the former chief medical officer of Great Britain, Dame Sally Davies, about hospitals and care homes in the UK. I asked her: Why are the health environments I’ve been in so bad? She said that there’s no one in charge; separate health trusts run the buildings. The only way you’ll make change, she said, is with “patient pull.”

    When patients say: “Oh, you’re building a new cancer center, have you seen the one in Dundee? Have you seen the one in Leeds? It’s really good because they put plants in, it’s made from wood,” a half-decent leader will think: We should probably have a look there.

    This made me realize there’s no equivalent to patient pull in architecture. So that’s the purpose of the Humanized campaign—to start this public conversation.

    Making buildings more engaging, and so more long-lasting, has obvious environmental benefits. But does this benefit individual people directly?

    We’ve done some polling. In the UK, we found that 76 percent of people we asked believe buildings affect their mental health. And yet building design is seen very much as an art—not something to do with health.

    But buildings are different from art. With a piece of music you can take the headphones off. With a painting you can walk away to another gallery. Buildings are the backdrops to all of our lives.

    So the Humanized movement we’ve started also focuses on the need to look at the impact of the outside of buildings with more scientific eyes. While people say buildings affect their mental health, there’s virtually no analysis of this, so the construction industry isn’t equipped with useful information that it can use to make better designs.

    What evidence is there that changing the outsides of buildings really could improve people’s health?

    We know that exposure to nature can de-stress you: This is the attention restoration theory, developed by Rachel and Stephen Kaplan in the 1980s and ’90s. And we know that visual exposure to greenery helps people recover quicker in hospital.

    On the other side of it, a scientist called Colin Ellard has researched the impact of flat, straight, monotonous, plain, shiny buildings on groups of people. He’s found that levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, rise when we’re next to buildings that are straight, smooth, and serious compared to buildings that have texture, shadow, and difference.

    And in my experience, often the places people really love have dirty lines, surprises, and unexpected things. I think that science will start showing us more that our minds need to be nourished with interestingness, emotion.

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    Rob Reddick

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  • The Designer Who’s Trying to Transform Your City Into a Sponge

    The Designer Who’s Trying to Transform Your City Into a Sponge

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    Your city isn’t prepared for what’s coming. The classical method for dealing with stormwater is to get it out of town as quickly as possible, with gutters and sewers and canals. But more and more, that strategy is breaking down: As the atmosphere warms, it can hold more moisture, spawning ever-wetter storms that overwhelm this creaky infrastructure. Your city was built for a climate of 100, 200, 300 years ago, but that climate no longer exists.

    The hot new strategy in urban design, which was pioneered in China, is to slow everything down. Since 2013, China has embarked on a national policy to turn its growing metropolises into sponge cities, which capture stormwater instead of disposing of it all. If engineers can slow the flow of that water and allow it to soak into the Earth instead of running away—using rain gardens, spreading grounds, permeable pavers, and urban wetlands—that simultaneously reduces flooding and refills underlying aquifers. That’ll be increasingly critical as the planet warms and droughts intensify: Sponge cities aim to bank water for a rainy day, or more accurately, a parched one.

    “Whenever rain falls, we retain as much as possible,” says Kongjian Yu, champion of the concept and founder of the Beijing design firm Turenscape. “We slow down the flow and let the earth take in the water. A sponge city will become an adaptive city, a resilient water system, a porous landscape.” A recent study found that, all told, cities across the United States could be soaking up billions of gallons of water a day in part by following China’s lead and accelerating sponge projects. “The sponge city is the urgent, immediate solution that can adapt cities to climate change, to heat, to floods, to drought,” says Yu.

    This is what Benjakitti Forest Park, in Bangkok, Thailand, looked like before and after its sponge conversion. (Move the slider to see the full transformation.)

    Following Yu’s recent award of the Oberlander Prize by the Cultural Landscape Foundation for his work on sponge cities, WIRED sat down with the landscape architect to talk about how to make urban areas as spongy as possible, how that can solve a whole lot of problems all at once, and what metropolises can do now to prepare for the increasingly chaotic climate of tomorrow. This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity

    WIRED: One thing that makes this concept so powerful is that you can do it on such different scales. In Los Angeles, they have spreading grounds—open areas hundreds of feet across where water is allowed to soak into the aquifer—but they’re also tearing up thin strips of roadside and putting in greenery.

    Kongjian Yu: A sponge city can be on any scale. Water is precious. If you retain water in your backyard, you don’t have to water your trees, you don’t have to water your garden, because water is underneath—your treasure is here. It’s at a personal, individual, community scale.

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    Matt Simon

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  • The United States has its first large offshore wind farm, with more to come

    The United States has its first large offshore wind farm, with more to come

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    America’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm is officially open, a long-awaited moment that helps pave the way for a succession of large wind farms.

    Danish wind energy developer Ørsted and the utility Eversource built a 12-turbine wind farm called South Fork Wind 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of Montauk Point, New York. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul went to Long Island Thursday to announce that the turbines are delivering clean power to the local electric grid, flipping a massive light switch to “turn on the future.” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland was also on hand.

    Achieving commercial scale is a turning point for the industry, but what’s next? Experts say the nation needs a major buildout of this type of clean electricity to address climate change.

    Offshore wind is central to both national and state plans to transition to a carbon-free electricity system. The Biden administration has approved six commercial-scale offshore wind energy projects, and auctioned lease areas for offshore wind for the first time off the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico coasts. New York picked two more projects last month to power more than 1 million homes.

    This is just the beginning, Hochul said. She said the completion of South Fork shows that New York will aggressively pursue climate change solutions to save future generations from a world that otherwise could be dangerous. South Fork can generate 132 megawatts of offshore wind energy to power more than 70,000 homes.

    “It’s great to be first, we want to make sure we’re not the last. That’s why we’re showing other states how it can be done, why we’re moving forward, on to other projects,” Hochul told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview before the announcement.

    “This is the date and the time that people will look back in the history of our nation and say, ‘This is when it changed,’” Hochul added.

    South Fork will generate more than four times the power of a five-turbine pilot project developed earlier off the coast of Rhode Island, and unlike that subsidized test project, was developed after Orsted and Eversource were chosen in a competitive bidding process to supply power to Long Island. The Long Island Power Authority first approved this project in 2017. The blades for the 12 Siemens Gamesa turbines reach speeds of more than 200 miles per hour (350 kilometers per hour).

    Ørsted CEO Mads Nipper called the opening a major milestone that proves large offshore wind farms can be built, both in the United States and in other countries with little or no offshore wind energy currently.

    With South Fork finished, Ørsted and Eversource are turning their attention to the work they will do offshore beginning this spring for a wind farm more than five times its size. Revolution Wind will be Rhode Island and Connecticut’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm, capable of powering more than 350,000 homes next year. The site where the cable will connect in Rhode Island is already under construction.

    In New York, the state said last month it would negotiate a contract with Ørsted and Eversource for an even larger wind farm, Sunrise Wind, to power 600,000 homes. The Norwegian company Equinor was picked for its Empire Wind 1 project to power more than 500,000 New York homes. Both aim to start providing power in 2026.

    After years of planning and development, 2024 is a year of action— building projects that will deliver sizeable amounts of clean power to the grid, said David Hardy, group executive vice president and CEO Americas at Ørsted.

    Ørsted, formerly DONG Energy, for Danish Oil and Natural Gas, started aggressively building wind farms off the coast of Denmark, the U.K. and Germany in 2008. The company sold off the North Sea oil and gas assets on which it had built its identity to focus on clean energy, becoming Ørsted. It’s now one of the biggest wind power developers.

    The first U.S. offshore wind farm was supposed to be a project off the coast of Massachusetts known as Cape Wind. A Massachusetts developer proposed the project in 2001. It failed after years of local opposition and litigation.

    Turbines began spinning off Rhode Island’s Block Island as a pilot project in 2016. But with just five of them, it’s not a commercial-scale wind farm.

    Last year brought challenges for the nascent U.S. offshore wind industry, as Ørsted and other developers canceled projects in the Northeast that they said were no longer financially feasible. High inflation, supply chain disruptions and the rising cost of capital and building materials were making projects more expensive as developers were trying to get the first large U.S. offshore wind farms opened.

    Industry leaders expect 2024 to be a better year, as interest rates come down and states ask for more offshore wind to meet their climate goals.

    The nation’s second large offshore wind farm, Vineyard Wind, is expected to open later this year off the coast of Massachusetts, too. The first five turbines are providing power for about 30,000 homes and businesses in Massachusetts. When all 62 turbines are spinning, they’ll generate enough electricity for 400,000 homes and businesses. Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners are the joint owners of that project.

    The Biden administration wants enough offshore wind energy to power 10 million homes by 2030. Interior Secretary Haaland said that “America’s clean energy transition is not a dream for a distant future— it’s happening right here and right now.”

    ___

    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.

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