Long-term planning requires climate projections beyond 2100
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 09 August 2024; doi:10.1038/s41558-024-02085-0
Long-term planning requires climate projections beyond 2100
Nature Climate Change…
Carbon credits are supposed to funnel money to poor countries. Do they?
Proponents of the voluntary carbon market say it’s a mechanism not only to advance sustainability goals, but also to funnel much-needed cash to some of the world’s poorest countries.
The idea is that companies seeking to “offset” their climate footprint will help pay for the development of projects that sequester or prevent greenhouse gas emissions — endeavors like planting trees to suck carbon out of the atmosphere, or protecting forests that were ostensibly in danger of being chopped down. These projects, which generate exchangeable “credits” representing 1 metric ton of greenhouse gas emissions each, come with the promise of jobs for local residents, and project developers often pledge to devote part of their revenue to public infrastructure like schools.
In Africa, the voluntary carbon market is “a powerful means to address climate change and uplift communities,” according to one …
Wildfires will put even more pressure on the country’s housing crisis
The Park Fire, a wildfire in Northern California spanning just over 400,000 acres, has rapidly become the fourth largest in the state’s history, prompting evacuations in four counties.
The fire, which officials say was started by arson, has grown in the past week as the western U.S. eyes what could be another potent wildfire season. A combination of strong vegetation growth due to heavy precipitation over the past few years, and high temperatures this summer could mean larger wildfires in the coming months.
These conditions all contributed to the magnitude of the Park Fire, which has already damaged more than 500 structures, and put at least 8,000 people under evacuation orders. For another sense of scale, the fire has grown so large that it’s visible from space and now covers more square footage than the entire city of …
Author Correction: Accelerated warming in the North Pacific since 2013
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 02 August 2024; doi:10.1038/s41558-024-02109-9
Author Correction: Accelerated warming in the North Pacific since 2013
Nature Climate Change…
Path to a New Farm Bill: Crop Insurance Access
Note: This post is part of a multi-part series exploring some of the key sustainable agriculture and food systems challenges that the farm bill can address. Through a series of posts comparing the House and Senate Agriculture Committees’ proposals, we provide an assessment of how each chamber’s bill would address a given challenge, and our recommended path forward. Our first post focused on local and regional market access.
It is imperative that the next farm bill strengthen the farm safety net by helping farmers to access crop insurance coverage, which is becoming increasingly important amidst worsening droughts, floods, frosts, and other storms or causes for loss. Unfortunately, there is a wide gap separating the House and the Senate in their approaches to this challenge. This post compares the proposals on the table and concludes with key components that must be …
Indigenous geography could change how we relate to the Earth
The vision
“Native people are still here regardless of what the settler colonial state might try and say. You can uplift and amplify that ongoing relationship with the land here and now.”
— Niiyokamigaabaw Deondre Smiles, PhD
The spotlight
Climate change is a world-ending problem: Flooding, fires, hurricanes, and heat are threatening life and land, and could render parts of the planet uninhabitable. But when Niiyokamigaabaw Deondre Smiles gives their students advice on what to do about it, one of the things they recommend is to simply go for a walk. Smiles is an assistant professor of geography at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, and a leader in the field of Indigenous geography. They are a citizen of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibewe, and they research how Indigenous people have cultivated relationships with the land that are ceremonial, …
Vulnerability of mineral-associated soil organic carbon to climate across global drylands
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 30 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41558-024-02087-y
Protection afforded by inorganic minerals is assumed to make mineral-associated organic carbon less susceptible to loss under climate change than particulate organic carbon. However, a global study of soil organic carbon from drylands suggests that this is not the case.
Nature Climate Change…
Prehistoric Sea Creatures With Pictures & Interesting Facts
A list of prehistoric sea creatures that inhabited the world’s oceans before, during, and after the age of the dinosaurs. Read on to discover amazing prehistoric ocean animals such as plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs, pliosaurs, mosasaurs and ammonites.
Index
You can see a list of books on prehistoric animals on this page: Prehistoric Animal Books
Introduction
Dinosaurs may be the best-known prehistoric animals, but despite dominating the land during the Mesozoic Era, they never adapted to life in the ocean.
Visit our main dinosaur page to discover everything you ever wanted to know about dinosaurs: Dinosaurs – The Complete Guide
So-called “sea-dinosaurs” such as plesiosaurs …