The Earth; It's the only one we have
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 03 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41558-024-02060-9
Urban areas are an important focus for effective climate action in the coming decade. This Perspective proposes transformational strategies to accelerate and upscale the impact of the planned Special Report on Climate Change and Cities in the IPCC seventh assessment cycle.
Nature Climate Change…
The government of Hawaiʻi and a group of young people have reached a historic settlement that requires the state to decarbonize its transportation network. The agreement is the first of its kind in the nation and comes two years after 13 Hawaiian youth sued the state Department of Transportation for failing to protect their “constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment.”
The settlement, announced last Thursday, requires the department to develop a plan and zero out greenhouse gas emissions from all transportation sectors by 2045. The agency is also required to create a new unit tasked with climate change mitigation, align budgetary investments with its clean energy goals, and plant at least 1,000 trees a year to increase carbon absorption from the atmosphere.
“It’s historic that the state government has come to the table and negotiated such a …
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 21 June 2024; doi:10.1038/s41558-024-02045-8
Effective climate action requires understanding of the contribution of individual actions, firms and industries to greenhouse gas emissions. Now a study illustrates widespread misestimations of emission impacts and reveals underlying psychological processes.
Nature Climate Change…
Last week, the leaders of the world’s seven biggest economies convened in Italy to discuss several pressing global issues during the annual gathering known as the G7 summit. They agreed to lend Russia’s frozen assets to Ukraine, pushed for a ceasefire in Gaza, and pledged to launch a migration coalition.
Those discussions, which concluded Saturday, came right on the heels of the annual Bonn Climate Change Conference, which sets the foundation for the United Nations’ yearly climate gathering. In Bonn, Germany, an enduring dispute over who should provide trillions of dollars in climate aid to poor nations once again ended with little progress toward a solution, dominating the agenda so much so that dialogues on other issues often reverted back to financial debates.
Government heads at both conferences barely addressed what may be one of the …
At an economic summit in Ireland last month, New York Governor Kathy Hochul bragged about her state’s decades-long quest to implement so-called congestion pricing in New York City. Within mere months, the extensive toll system was poised to take effect, charging cars and trucks a once-per-day fee between $ 15 and $ 36 to enter lower Manhattan — a move that, in addition to the quality-of-life benefits touted by Hochul, promised to both drastically reduce carbon emissions in one of the country’s most congested regions and also provide badly needed funding for its most extensive mass transit system.
“It took a long time because people feared backlash from drivers set in their ways,” she said in her speech. “We must get over that.”
Ultimately, however, Hochul herself couldn’t seem to get over this fear. On Wednesday, the governor announced an …
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 05 June 2024; doi:10.1038/s41558-024-02018-x
A comprehensive analysis of observations and model simulations finds that future global mean warming is likely to be larger than previously thought, and that limiting global warming to well below 2°C will be more difficult than previously anticipated.
Nature Climate Change…
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 29 May 2024; doi:10.1038/s41558-024-02026-x
Long-term monitoring is required to determine whether climate change is having an impact on shallow geohazard frequency and magnitude; however, these records rarely exist. An innovative approach, using tree damage as evidence, suggests climate change has shifted the seasonality of alpine rockfalls as well as increasing their frequency and volume.
Nature Climate Change…
South Florida suffered through brutal heat and humidity this week when the heat index (the “feels like” temperature) in Key West reached 115 degrees F — matching the record for any time of year. With rising temperatures, flooding on sunny days, and toxic algae blooms, Floridians recognize that something’s amiss. Ninety percent of residents accept that climate change is happening, according to a new survey from Florida Atlantic University, and two-thirds want their state government to do more to address the problem.
But Governor Ron DeSantis, the former Republican presidential hopeful, is moving in the opposite direction. On Wednesday, as heat records fell, he signed legislation deleting most references to the words “climate change” from the state’s laws and removing emissions reductions as a priority for energy policy. It also bans the construction of offshore wind turbines off Florida’s …