Tag: Climate

  • Better Understanding Photosynthesis

    According to reports in multiple science publications, such as this one, “researchers from the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, together with collaborators from Uppsala University and Humboldt University and other institutions” have been able to shed more light on “how Photosystem II, a protein complex in plants, algae and cyanobacteria, harvests energy from sunlight and uses it to split water, producing the oxygen we breathe.” 

    As the report goes on to state:

    “Using SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) and the SPring-8 Angstrom Compact free electron LAser (SACLA) in Japan, they captured for the first time in atomic detail what happens in the final moments leading up to the release of breathable oxygen. The data reveal an intermediate reaction step that had not been observed before.

    The results, published today in Nature, shed light on how nature has optimized photosynthesis and are helping scientists develop artificial photosynthetic systems that mimic photosynthesis to harvest natural sunlight to convert carbon dioxide into hydrogen and carbon based-fuels.” 

    Read the full report here.

  • Flood Mitigation in New Zealand

    This report in Stuff, a news portal in New Zealand, covers local environmentalist Tom Kay’s presentation to government officials “about the importance of rethinking natural disaster mitigation” in light of “a series of devastating floods” over the past five years.

    It raises concerns about “the country’s preoccupation with draining” wetlands having a direct correlation to increased flooding as wetlands “act as buffer zones, or sponges.” 

    Straightening rivers and lining them with stopbanks are said to have “proven disastrous for wildlife and humans alike” as river straightening has destroyed “natural habitats for many fish species” and stopbanks “ultimately elevate water levels above the floodplain.”

    Deforestation, which causes “more water to flow off hillsides,” combined with all the above factors, “has created the perfect storm” resulting in more frequent and more devastating floods, the report argues.

    Read the full article here.

  • The Urgent Need to Significantly Reduce Carbon Dioxide Emissions

    In this article for Nature, climate scientist David Ho re-iterates his long-standing argument that while there is no denying “the need to develop CDR (carbon dioxide removal) methods over the longer term”, urgently cutting down emissions is important because currently available CDR methods will not remove enough carbon dioxide to be able to compensate for the levels of emissions. 

    Ho argues: “We must stop talking about deploying CDR as a solution today, when emissions remain high — as if it somehow replaces radical, immediate emission cuts.” 

    This is necessary because: 

    “Developing methods to verify that CDR works is a major challenge. It will be many years before we have the science to tell us which methods work and whether they harm or benefit the environment.”

    Read the full article here.

  • Exxon's Climate Change Predictions and Climate Change Denial

    This piece by Grist is a useful short introduction to the oft-quoted fact that oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil historically funded some of the most accurate climate change predictions long before most of the world was talking about climate change. And yet, they went on to fund and spread climate change denial in the public domain for decades, knowing full well that said climate change denial was not backed even by their own research.

    Watch the video version of the piece on Youtube here. Access the video and transcript on the Grist website here.

  • US Media's Coverage of the Latest IPCC Report and the Willow Project

    Media Matters has put out this piece condemning the coverage (or lack of it) in US corporate TV news on the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the controversial Willow project, an oil drilling project in Alaska. The report claims  “national TV news mostly failed to contextualize the Willow project’s recent approval within the framework of the IPCC report.”

    Talking of the expected role of the media in such matters, the report says:

    “National TV news has the potential to shape public opinion and drive action on climate change and therefore has a crucial role to play in holding the fossil fuel industry and politicians accountable for their role in exacerbating the crisis. Making these connections is one of the key actions climate correspondents can take whenever they are asked to discuss major climate news.”

    The main conclusion of the report is that “the overall lack of coverage of the IPCC report and the failure to connect it to the Willow project represents a missed opportunity to demand accountability from the fossil fuel industry and the Biden administration for its continued support for new fossil fuel infrastructure.”

    Read the full article here.

  • Rich Nations Trying to Control Sunlight?

    Climate journalist Sara Schonhardt penned an important report on concerns about how “[r]adical climate interventions — like blocking the sun’s rays — could alter the world’s weather patterns, potentially benefiting some regions of the world and harming others.” 

    The main concerns: 

    “Climate scientists are, by and large, wary of such intervention. While limiting the amount of sunlight that reaches the Earth could rapidly cool the planet, they say, such efforts wouldn’t address ocean acidification and other harms associated with burning fossil fuels, the primary cause of global warming. 

    It’s also unclear how solar radiation management, or SRM, would affect global weather patterns, such as the monsoon rains that are crucial in some regions of the Global South. While it could ease climate impacts in one area of the world, SRM might reduce crop yields or threaten water supplies in another area.” 

    Understandably then “any research on such methods must consider those risks and involve the countries that already bear the greatest impacts from a warming planet.” 

    A United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report “recommends a scientific review process based on models and observations that could guide potential research and future governance. If such an assessment determines that SRM deployment would lead to negative consequences, ‘consideration of deployment could be taken off the table,’ the report concludes.” 

    Read the full article here.