Climate

The paper is here

Jeffrey B. Clark oversaw the dismantlement of government restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions and water and air pollution. He had also faced a criminal probe in connection with the 2020 election.

Archived copy of the article

The paper is here

A new device extracts up to 1,000 liters of clean water a day from desert air, offering a potential backup supply when storms or drought disrupt central systems. The machine, developed by 2025 Nobel Prize winner in chemistry Omar Yaghi, is designed to operate in arid conditions with humidity as low as 20%. His company, Atoco, says the unit can function without connection to the power grid.

The system uses a branch of science known as reticular chemistry. Inside the container-sized unit are Metal-Organic Frameworks, synthetic porous materials engineered at the molecular level.

These materials have an extremely large internal surface area. Even a few grams can match the area of a football arena. That structure allows the material to capture moisture from the air and release it as liquid water.

If there is a readily accessible hydrocarbon to metabolize, life will evolve a way to metabolize it. Bacteria, fungi, and even some insects have already shown scientists they have figured out how to do this with certain types of plastic. Where does this lead?

One great thing this leads to is an eventual future where microplastics are cleaned up by the tiny organisms beneath our notice. Yay the pollution will clean itself up. Unfortunately, that also means that those hydrocarbons will be broken down, turned into CO2 or Methane, added to the atmosphere. Will this be a significant amount? I am unable to answer.

More startlingly, the other conclusion i draw is that all plastic in the world will someday be food for bacteria, mold, and grubs. Look around and note where you see plastic. It holds our food, it is the siding on some houses, it could be your building's insulation, it is the insulation on the wires in your house and outside. It holds your car together to varying degrees. It is the structure of many decks, benches, mobility aides etc.

Someday, these items will all be eaten slowly, or perhaps quickly. When will this begin in force? When will it affect our daily lives and health? Will we be able to prepare?

The Richmond Standard has little to say about the gas flares, haze, and smoke plumes that shape life in its California community.

The paper is here

The insurance industry is the climate crisis’s canary in the coal mine. As disasters become more frequent and intense, insurers have responded by increasing prices, dropping policies, and withdrawing from states and regions entirely. State-funded insurance programs have been created to cover the gap, but mounting losses threaten their viability as well. Insurance commissioner Dave Jones puts it bluntly:

Insurers in all states will be overrun by the increased risk and losses resulting from rising global temperatures. Unless we transition away from fossil fuels that continue to drive up global temperatures, we will continue to march - at an increasing pace - toward an uninsurable future.

In this post, we’ll be taking a look at insurance nonrenewals, or instances of insurers refusing to renew home insurance policies. This is a critical factor, as insurance is a requirement for a mortgage; when insurers withdraw, vulnerable regions may experience a mass exodus as homeowners sell or default on their loans.

In 2024, the Senate Budget Committee released a report titled Next to Fall: The Climate-Driven Insurance Crisis is Here – And Getting Worse. The report analyzed 249 million insurance policies from 2018 through 2023, and found that over 1.9 million homeowners have been dropped from their policies over that time period.

“The climate crisis is not just about polar bears, and it’s not just about green jobs,” Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said during a hearing on the investigation’s findings. “It actually is coming through your mail slot, in the form of insurance cancellations, insurance nonrenewals and dramatic increases in insurance costs.”

We’ve mapped that data so you can see which parts of America have been most affected.