Summer is gradually cooling down here in North America, so that means a slightly less overwhelming current of disasters and climate impact news. I wish I could say we are shifting attention to climate politics with the upcoming U.S. election, but it remains a back burner issue.
Climate impacts
Experts Are Fighting Over Whether to Treat Heat Waves Like Hurricanes (Bloomberg [gift link], August 12, 2024)
The Most Personal Climate Case in the World (The Atlantic [gift link], September 6, 2024)
This Is How the World’s Favorite Scent Disappears (New York Times [gift link], August 4, 2024)
Will We Have to Pump the Great Lakes to California to Feed the Nation? (New York Times [gift link], August 5, 2024)
Politics
Tim Walz Knows How to Talk About Climate Change (Time, August 2, 2024)
Climate change deniers make up nearly a quarter of US Congress (Guardian, August 5, 2024)
A line-by-line fact check of the Musk-Trump interview (HEATED, August 13, 2024)
EPA solidifies plans for $27B in climate funds targeted by Republicans (The Hill, August 16, 2024)
HEATED wasn’t impressed by the climate talking points in the Harris-Trump debate:
Everyone’s heads are in the sand (HEATED, September 11, 2024)
Consumer culture
When Is “Recyclable” Not Really Recyclable? When the Plastics Industry Gets to Define What the Word Means. (ProPublica, August 15, 2024)
Cars Have Fucked Up This Country Bad (How Things Work, September 5, 2024)
Capitalism is killing the planet – but curtailing it is the discussion nobody wants to have (Irish Times, August 8, 2024)
AI, I guess
This is not a bad overview, but suffers from a common language problem: we tend to elide AI and generative AI, talking about them as one thing when there is a wide gulf between reactive machines (like Roombas, social media algorithms, and many tools that can do climate data tracking and predictive modeling) and large language models (like self-driving cars and ChatGPT). The latter use exponentially greater energy, water, and land resources.
Will A.I. Ruin the Planet or Save the Planet? (New York Times [gift link], August 26, 2024)
America Needs an Energy Policy for AI (Heatmap, September 12, 2024)
Environmental science
The Soul of Soil (New York Times [gift link]. August 4, 2024)
When a Glacier Melts, What Does It Leave Behind? (Inside Climate News, August 27, 2024)
Global carbon capture and storage potential way overblown, study finds (Mongabay, September 6. 2024)
Wood-based energy was not even on my radar after all this time scanning climate news. Burning wood seems… self-evidently not a green energy source? But unfortunately, some towns with wood pellet plants are in the “finding out” phase.
How ‘green’ electricity from wood harms the planet — and people (Nature, August 20, 2024)
Climate and culture
Netflix Wants to Shrink Your Favorite TV Show’s Carbon Footprint (Bloomberg [gift link], September 4, 2024)
I actually did not know Massive Attack was still making music, although I played their albums on repeat as a teen. I love how detailed this article gets.
Massive Attack’s science-led drive to lower music’s carbon footprint (Nature, September 4, 2024)
On windmills, wind turbines, and aesthetics:
Learning to love monsters (Aeon, July 2, 2024)
Ecological art can bring us closer to understanding nature. How does this look in the era of climate change? (The Conversation, August 22, 2024)
Americans love nature but don’t feel empowered to protect it, new research shows (The Conversation, August 28, 2024)
Good news
Polluted Lakes Are Being Cleansed Using Floating Wetlands Made of Trash (Wired, July 25, 2024)
This is a summary of recent research that suggests that the recent slight reduction in greenhouse gas emissions could lead to a slight reduction in the pace of global warming. This is good, but the takeaway should be that a major reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is still needed to make a major impact.
Global warming slowdown projected, with caveats (Axios, August 15, 2024)
Dubious whether this is good news but it sure was fun to read:
Neither Elon Musk Nor Anybody Else Will Ever Colonize Mars (Defector, September 11, 2024)
Sara Davis 