Tag: Could

How Trump’s trade war could impact US electricity prices — and state climate plans

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On Tuesday, President Donald Trump initiated a trade war with Canada and Mexico, America’s two largest trading partners. Following through on weeks of threats, he imposed 25 percent tariffs on imported goods from Mexico and Canada and a lower 10 percent tariff on imports of Canadian energy resources. 

Canada and Mexico’s leaders quickly struck back. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveiled an immediate 25 percent tariff on $ 20.5 billion worth of goods from the United States and promised to extend the tax to another $ 85 billion in products in late March. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced she also planned to unveil retaliatory tariffs this coming Sunday. 

Trump’s tariffs, which are widely expected to raise prices for U.S. consumers, are also poised to upend the American electricity market. All U.S. power grids except for Texas’ have some level of …

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Methane leaks are a climate problem. These satellites could help find them.

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The vision

“It doesn’t matter how many thermographers we have, boots on the ground, satellites flying in the air, people with drones and airplanes and all the other technology, none of it matters if you don’t stop methane. None of it counts.”

— Sharon Wilson, “methane hunter” and director of Oilfield Witness

The spotlight

Back when I worked with satellites (my career before journalism), and I’d talk about my job with folks from outside the space industry, they often responded simply, “Oh, cool.” It always struck me that, though satellites in many ways enable modern life, many people still think about space tech in terms of astronauts and other worlds. But satellites are what make GPS, weather forecasting, long-distance communication, and even airplane Wi-Fi possible. And a growing fleet of precision satellites are now enabling climate solutions, too: helping us …

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Mexico City’s metro system is sinking fast. Yours could be next.

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This story was originally published by WIRED and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

With its expanse of buildings and concrete, Mexico City may not look squishy — but it is. Ever since the Spanish conquistadors drained Lake Texcoco to make way for more urbanization, the land has been gradually compacting under the weight. It’s a phenomenon known as subsidence, and the result is grim: Mexico City is sinking up to 20 inches a year, unleashing havoc on its infrastructure.

That includes the city’s metro system, the second-largest in North America after New York City’s. Now, satellites have allowed scientists to meticulously measure the rate of sinking across Mexico City, mapping where subsidence has the potential to damage railways. “When you’re here in the city, you get used to buildings being tilted a little,” says …

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How needs-based assessments could advance equity in the global stocktake and beyond

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Nature Climate Change, Published online: 28 September 2023; doi:10.1038/s41558-023-01826-x

The global stocktake (GST) could both enable and hamper the inclusion of equity. This Comment outlines why equity is central to the GST and the challenges faced in addressing it, as well as the utility of needs-based assessments for advancing equity within the GST and the climate action generally.
Nature Climate Change…

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How sunken basketball courts could protect New Yorkers from the next Superstorm Sandy

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Almost every time it rains in New York City, the grounds of the South Jamaica Houses start to flood. As the storm drain system overflows, water collects across the sprawling public housing development in southeast Queens. Before long, floodwater pools up on the basketball court and in the yard behind the senior center. If it rains for more than a few hours, the water starts to slosh over streets and courtyards. These aren’t the monumental floods that make national headlines, but they make basic mobility a challenge for the complex’s roughly 3,000 residents. Sometimes the water doesn’t drain for days or weeks.

“It happens all the time,” said William Biggs, 66, who has lived in the development for 35 years. He gestured at the basketball court, which is cracked and eroded in places. “It pools all the way through the …

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Even a small rise in temperatures could decimate North American forests

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From 2007 to 2017, land-based ecosystems like the vast boreal forests of Canada and the Amazon rainforest removed roughly a third of anthropogenic carbon emissions from the atmosphere. According to a slate of new scientific research published this week in Nature, however, the threats that climate change poses to these terrestrial carbon sinks are greater than previously understood.

A new study from a research team at the University of Michigan found that even a relatively small temperature increase of 1.6 degrees Celsius associated with climate change can have drastic effects on the dominant tree species in North American boreal forests, including reduced growth and increased mortality.

“Our results spell problems for the health and diversity of future regional forests,” University of Michigan forest ecologist Peter Reich, who led the study, told the University of Michigan news office.

This vast and …

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Resource and geospatial diversity could mitigate climate-induced risks in Africa’s power systems

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Nature Climate Change, Published online: 01 August 2022; doi:10.1038/s41558-022-01417-2

Hydropower will have an essential role in meeting the growing energy needs in Africa. Fully interconnecting the African power pools could reduce climate-induced changes in usable hydropower capacity and decrease variability in the electricity supply. Integrating renewables could further increase the adaptability of the power pools to climate change.
Nature Climate Change – Issue – nature.com science feed…

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