The Earth; It's the only one we have
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 25 October 2024; doi:10.1038/s41558-024-02195-9
Author Correction: Attributing human mortality from fire PM2.5 to climate change
Nature Climate Change…
Hello everyone, and welcome back to State of Emergency. I’m Jake, and today we’re going to be talking about how a politician’s disaster response can influence voter attitudes and election outcomes.
In July 2022, a storm dropped more than 14 inches of rain on Kentucky, sending flash floods rolling through the mountainous counties in the eastern part of the state. The waters killed more than 40 people, sweeping some away on powerful currents, and dangerous landslides destroyed almost 9,000 homes. The region’s rural counties bore the brunt of the damage, adding to their already roiling housing crisis and high poverty rates.
The state’s Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, spent weeks touring hard-hit areas and comforting flood victims, earning him the title “consoler in chief.” He also pulled out all the stops to ensure the recovery was as fast …
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 12 September 2024; doi:10.1038/s41558-024-02131-x
The energy used to heat or cool buildings does not only contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, but also to other direct forms of heat exchange between buildings and their environment. A study now quantifies the feedback between buildings and their surrounding temperatures, yielding more reliable estimates of the contribution of heating and cooling to local and global warming and better estimates of regional energy demands.
Nature Climate Change…
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 13 August 2024; doi:10.1038/s41558-024-02084-1
Food choices greatly affect global GHG emissions, but the contributions of different groups, across or within countries, are highly unequal. Adopting the global planetary health diet could yield co-benefits by reducing both emissions and inequality among populations.
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 …
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 15 April 2024; doi:10.1038/s41558-024-01975-7
As climate change redirects migration patterns of marine species towards the extremes of their geographic range, sharks find themselves stunned by rising cold upwelling currents.
Nature Climate Change…
Susan Graff is a Principal and Vice President of Global Corporate Sustainability for RRS. Susan Graff was the 2023 Georgia Tech’s School of Public Policy’s Distinguished Alumni Award recipient!
For over 30 years, Susan has provided individual and collaborative sustainability and materials management solutions to both industrial and government clients focused on reducing material and energy consumption while increasing recycling value capture. She led the development of The Sustainability Scorecard®, an RRS analytic tool used by manufacturers to re-imagine business strategy, metrics, and employee training to achieve better sustainability profiles.
Below, explore Susan Graff’s feature from Georgia Tech’s School of Public Policy featured people gallery.
I lead interdisciplinary teams on sustainability projects, including engineers, scientists, communications, economists, and sales/marketing people. I typically work shoulder-to-shoulder with …
In Florida, the effects of climate change are hard to ignore, no matter your politics. It’s the hottest state — Miami spent a record 46 days above a heat index of 100 degrees last summer — and many homes and businesses are clustered along beachfront areas threatened by rising seas and hurricanes. The Republican-led legislature has responded with more than $ 640 million for resilience projects to adapt to coastal threats.
But the same politicians don’t seem ready to acknowledge the root cause of these problems. A bill awaiting signature from Governor Ron DeSantis, who dropped out of the Republican presidential race in January, would ban offshore wind energy, relax regulations on natural gas pipelines, and delete the majority of mentions of climate change from existing state laws.
“Florida is on the front lines of the warming climate crisis, and …