This is the month-by-month, ‘Ecology news’ page on The Multiplural World.. Items with red headlines indicate they were published in full on the home page of the website and emailed to website subscribers. Comments and information in square brackets [ ] are by the website editors. Previous months are archived here (commencing March 2024).
Ecology newsroll headlines on The Multiplural World, September 2024
Related news of Hurricane Helene:
* How Hurricane Helene wrought so much havoc, so far from the coastlines it crossed, analysis in New York Times, Oct 1, 2024 (here in pdf format: How Hurricane Helene wrought so much havoc, so far from coastlines) Hurricanes typically weaken over land, but if the ground is already wet from earlier rains, storms can receive an extra jolt that keeps them churning. This appears to explain the rainfall wallop delivered inland by Helene.
* Why Helene’s floods caught North Carolina off guard, Washington Post, Sept 30, 2024 (here in pdf format: Why Helene’s floods caught North Carolina off guard)
* Asheville, North Carolina was considered a ‘climate haven’, then Hurricane Helene hit. Is anywhere safe?, Washington Post, Oct 30, 2024 Asheville seemed like an ideal place to escape the worst effects of global warming. The city was named a ‘climate haven’ because of its cooler-than-normal temperatures for the South and a location far inland from flood-pummeled coasts. City leaders began to say that Asheville would become overcrowded from climate-change migration. Then the flooding from Hurricane Helene came. In some areas of western North Carolina, four to five months of rain fell in less than three days. More than 40 people have died in Buncombe County, where Asheville is the county seat…
* Florida’s poor, isolated and underdeveloped Big Bend region bore the brunt of Hurricane Helene, Grist.org. Sept 30, 2024 …Helene’s circumference was a massive, 400 miles across, and this fueled a record-breaking storm surge along the Gulf Coast of Florida. Homes in the Florida Panhandle that had been touched by just a few inches of flooding during Hurricane Idalia in late August 2023 were hit by many feet of storm surge water…
‘Climate abandonment’ zones are coming to the American South; who will care for those left behind?, report by Pro-Publica (jointly published with the New York Times), Oct 2, 2024 …Americans’ faith in the safety of living in the South is quickly diminishing due to accelerating of extreme heat, storms and sea level rises. Helene was just the latest in a new generation of storms that are intensifying faster and dumping more rainfall as the climate warms. It is also precisely the kind of event that is expected to drive more Americans to relocate as global warming worsens and the costs of disaster recovery increases… All of this suggests a possible boom for inland and Northern cities, but it also will leave behind large swaths of coastal and other vulnerable land where seniors and the poor are very likely to disproportionately remain…
Millions of Americans have been moving into disaster-prone areas, interactive report in New York Times, Sept 30, 2024 Between 2000 and 2023, Florida added more than three million people through domestic migration. North and South Carolina added another 2.5 million. Many of these new residents have settled in coastal communities that are at high risk for hurricanes. A storm-prone stretch of the Carolina coast that includes Myrtle Beach, S.C., has been a particularly popular destination for many retirees, as has much of Florida.
Chinese scientists develop a photovoltaic nuclear battery that could run for centuries, South China Morning Post, Sept 30, 2024 (here in pdf format: Chinese scientists develop a photovoltaic nuclear battery that could run for centuries Chinese scientists are reporting they have developed a nuclear-powered battery with a photovoltaic cell that could generate electricity for hundreds of years, at an overall efficiency thousands of times higher than its closest rivals. The battery’s in-built energy converter works like a solar panel to capture alpha rays and convert them first into light and then electricity…
Chinese scientists extract lithium from seawater, holding promise for new energy technology, South China Morning Post, Sept 29, 2024 Novel lithium extraction technique harnesses solar energy, offering an efficient alternative amid rising demand for the metal (here in pdf format: Chinese scientists extract lithium from seawater in promising new-energy technology)
The ancient grains grown in Africa are part of the world’s solution to global warming, essay by Marcus Samuelsson, in New York Times, Sept 25, 2024 (Marcus Samuelsson is a chef and restaurant owner in New York. Read his essay here in pdf format: The ancient grains grown in Africa are part of the world’s solution to global warming)
Amazon rainforest has lost an area about the size of Germany and France, spurring wildfire destruction, report by Agence France presse, in Phys.org, Sept 24, 2024 The Amazon rainforest has lost an area about the size of Germany and France combined to deforestation in four decades, fueling drought and record wildfires across South America says a new report by experts in the field. Deforestation has largely been caused by mining and agricultural industries and has led to the loss of 12.5 percent of the Amazon’s plant cover from 1985 to 2023, according to RAISG, a collective of researchers and NGOs. The world’s biggest jungle spans nine countries and is crucial to the fight against climate change due to its ability to absorb planet-warming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But researchers say a record spate of wildfires this year has instead released massive amounts of carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere…
Related: Deforestation in the Amazon is driven more by domestic demand than by the export market, finds study, report in Phys.org, Sept 20, 2024
Microplastics pollution levels rising alarmingly and could double by 2040, report in Al Mayadeen English, Sept 20, 2024
Artificial Intelligence is accelerating the climate crisis, expert warns, Agence France presse, Sept 15, 2024 Generative artificial intelligence uses 30 times more energy than a traditional search engine, warns researcher Sasha Luccioni, on a mission to raise awareness about the environmental impact of the hot new technology… The language models on which the programs are based require enormous computing capacities to train on billions of data points, necessitating powerful servers. Then there’s the energy used to respond to each individual user’s requests…
Related:
* Big Tech scrambles to address AI’s power squeeze, report by Forbes Magazine, Sept 13, 2024
* As use of artificial Intelligence soars, so does the energy and water it consumes, report by Yale E360, Feb 6, 2024
U.S. militarism is a lead driver of climate catastrophe, by Marjorie Cohn, columnist), in Truthout.org, Sept 10, 2024 [Marjorie Cohn is a columnist at the anti-Russia Truthout.org. True to form, this column (reprinted here in Consortium News on Sept 13), which purports to criticize U.S. military and foreign policy, says not one word about the U.S./NATO proxy war being waged in Ukraine. Thus does a pointed column intended to critique U.S. militarism for being a key factor in the global warming emergency voluntarily choose to blunt and compromise its key message for the sake of anti-Russia prejudice. What a shame.]
Global warming has pushed our oceans to the brink of catastrophe, feature report by Madeleine Cuff, in New Scientist (UK weekly), Aug 14, 2024 (print issue of Aug 17, 2024) (Read the report here in pdf format: Global warming has pushed our oceans to the brink of catastrophe)
Leak at first CO2 injection site in U.S. exposes dangerous folly of ‘carbon capture’, report in Common Dreams, Sept 13, 2024 … Jim Walsh, policy director for Food & Water Watch, criticized the EPA for its “lack of transparency” surrounding the leak, adding that “carbon dioxide injection wells are a dangerous endeavor…”
Brazil’s worst drought on record is worsened by deforestation; wildfires are raging and the Amazon River is at a record low, Associated Press, Sept 11, 2024 …Most of the wildfires are caused by the burning and clearing of forests for pastures and agricultural land. To date in 2024, an area the size of Italy has burned in Brazil…
How the forest industry in British Columbia destroyed the province’s forests. Investigative report by Zoe Yunker, in The Tyee, Sept 11, 2024 …”There’s a new normal that has emerged,” a forest company head recently told a meeting of trade commissioners in Washington DC. James Gorman explained that “in addition to pest infestations and a glut of too-young-to-harvest forests, Canada, and British Columbia in particular, are running low on trees to log.” The panel of commissioners seemed confused. Canada and B.C. pride themselves on what they call ‘sustainable forest management’, and they had sent glossy promotional materials to the panel saying as much. Something, it seemed, had gone very wrong…
Emissions of methane, one of the most potent greenhouse gases, are rising faster than ever, Washington Post, Sept 10, 2024 Methane emissions from fossil fuels, farms and landfills will make it impossible for the world to maintain a safe climate, scientists say. Since 2021, more than 150 countries have pledged to slash emissions of the gas by 30 percent by the end of this decade. But in a second, peer-reviewed study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, Global Carbon Project researchers find little evidence that the world is making good on those promises. (read teh report here in pdf format: Emissions of methane are rising faster than ever )
Cities are becoming more rainy, Washington Post, Sept 9, 2024 A new study finds that most cities in the world receive significantly more rain than nearby rural regions, an effect that has become more pronounced over the past two decades (here in pdf format: Cities are becoming more rainy)
Solar farms have a superpower beyond clean energy, New York Times, Sept 5, 2024 Solar energy sites fight climate change and can help with another global crisis: the collapse of nature. But so far, efforts in the United States to nurture wildlife habitat have been spotty. (read the report here in pdf format: Solar farms have a superpower beyond clean energy )
Related: Agrivoltaics boosts food and energy production in Asia, report by World Resources Institute, May 23, 2024 …China’s pioneering efforts since 2011 with more than 500 agrivoltaics projects, including crop cultivation, livestock grazing, aquafarming, greenhouses and tea plantations, provide significant insights for further expansion across the region according to a forthcoming World Resources Institute report… Solar panels can offer plants and animals protection from extreme heat and drought by providing partial shade. Studies also indicate agrivoltaics can reduce water evaporation by 30%. Accompanying upgrades to agricultural infrastructure, which can often contribute to the automation and mechanization of the farm, may also help to increase crop yields, especially in areas with excessive sunlight and high temperatures…
Troubling new research in U.S. links rising infant mortality to crashing bat populations, New York Times, Sept 5, 2024 (here in pdf format: Bat die-off in the United States leads to rising insecticide use and more infant deaths) … According to the research published on September 5 in the journal Science, farmers in affected U.S. counties increased their use of insecticides by 31 per cent when bat populations declined. In those places, infant mortality rose by an estimated 8 per cent…
Related: Bat population collapse in U.S. linked to increased pesticide use and more than 1,300 infant deaths, report in Phys.org, Sept 5, 2024
Something is poisoning agricultural land in the U.S.; farmers fear ‘forever’ chemicals, feature report in New York Times, Aug 31, 2024 (With extensive photos; read the report here in pdf format: Something has poisoned agricultural land across the U.S.; farmers fear ‘forever’ chemicals)
For decades, farmers across America have been encouraged by the federal government to spread municipal sewage on millions of acres of farmland as fertilizer. It was rich in nutrients, and it helped keep the sludge out of landfills. But a growing body of research shows that this black sludge, made from the sewage that flows from homes and factories, can contain heavy concentrations of chemicals thought to increase the risk of certain types of cancer and to cause birth defects and developmental delays in children. Known as ‘forever chemicals’ because of their longevity, these toxic contaminants are now being detected, sometimes at high levels, on farmland across the country, including in Texas, Maine, Michigan, New York and Tennessee. In some cases, the chemicals are suspected of sickening or killing livestock and are turning up in produce. Farmers are beginning to fear for their own health…
One company’s ‘carbon credits’ plan providing faulty cookstoves to African countries. Report in Washington Post, Sept 1, 2024 …C-Quest Capital claimed it could improve people’s lives in Africa with cleaner cookstoves. But an investigation by the Post shows it promised more than it could deliver and its project is now scrapped… The disclosures have ignited an ugly feud between C-Quest’s new and old management and have sent ripples through the multibillion-dollar world of carbon offsets, which has already been undermined by repeated scandals. This includes one recently exposed by the Post, involving forest preservation projects in the Brazilian Amazon…
Previously reported in The Multiplural World:
* The next big climate target: Ending carbon offset scams, editorial, Washington Post, Aug 27, 2024 (here in pdf format: Ending ‘carbon offset’ scams
* How ‘carbon cowboys’ are cashing in on protected Amazon forest, interactive, investigative, report by the Washington Post, July 24, 2024 A six-month investigation reveals that many carbon credit ventures reap profits from public lands they have no right to and fail to share revenue with those protecting the forest
The archive of ‘Ecology news’ headlines for August 2024 on The Multiplural World is here.
