Recent Podcasts
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A growing number of homeowners face repeat flooding - Mar 28, 2024 Yale Climate Connections - Policy |
| Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections As sea levels rise and storms become more extreme, a growing number of homeowners are struggling with flooding - not just once, but time and time again. Weber: “People are just faced over and over with damaging floods, and then having to put their lives back together each time.” Anna Weber is with the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council. An analysis by her group found that as of 2022, almost 45,000 U.S. properties are what the National Flood Insurance Program considers “severe repetitive loss properties,” which means they’ve experienced multiple severe floods. That’s about a 20% increase from just four years earlier. And many of these homes are likely to flood again. Weber: “Concerningly, the number of these properties that have had mitigation actions taken to reduce their risk - for example, homes can be ... |
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After a hurricane or wildfire, communities can be overwhelmed by debris - Mar 27, 2024 Yale Climate Connections - Weather |
| Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections After a hurricane, flood, or wildfire, communities face a long process of rebuilding. But in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, there’s a lot of debris lying around - sometimes more waste than a community would typically produce all year. Townsend: “You get buildings that are destroyed. You get lots and lots of earth and trees and other debris which now need to be cleaned up and moved somewhere.” Timothy Townsend is an environmental engineer at the University of Florida. He says some of this debris can be dangerous. For example, some of the ash from last year’s Maui fires has high levels of toxic arsenic - likely from volcanic soils, old building materials, and herbicides that were once commonly used on nearby farms. Townsend: “All of a sudden, you’re faced with not only is this just normal debris that would go ... |
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PODCAST: Do carbon offsets help with airplane emissions? - Mar 27, 2024 MIT - Global Change |
| If you frequently fly, then you might want to offset your carbon emissions. But what does that even mean, and how do you start? As a frequent flyer herself, Caleigh talks with Candice about the ways you can offset emissions in your personal life and through carbon offset projects. Latest >Get Involved Featured The best of what to see, hear, eat, do, and more. |
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The plastics industry’s carbon footprint has doubled in the past few decades - Mar 26, 2024 Yale Climate Connections - Economic |
| Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections Plastic is used in many products - from containers and bags to electronics and vehicles. And it’s a significant source of climate-warming pollution. Cabernard: “Plastics production at the moment, it contributes to 4.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions.” Livia Cabernard of the Technical University in Munich, Germany, explains that almost all plastics are made from oil, natural gas, or coal. Extracting and transporting those fuels emits carbon pollution. Then, more fossil fuels are burned to supply the heat and electricity used to refine those raw materials and manufacture the plastic products. So the entire process is very carbon-intensive. Cabernard’s research shows that in the past few decades, carbon pollution from making plastic has doubled because production has grown and shifted to parts of the world that burn a lot of ... |
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What is solar thermal? - Mar 25, 2024 Yale Climate Connections - Energy |
| Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections When people talk about solar panels, they’re usually referring to solar photovoltaic panels, which convert the sun’s energy to electricity. But solar PV is just one way to harness the power of the sun. Gasco: “Solar thermal is, I’d say, the simpler and kind of overshadowed little brother almost to solar PV. … I think it’s a really great technology in the simplicity and the efficiency of it.” Gwe Gasco is with Eighth Fire Solar, an Indigenous-led initiative in Northern Minnesota. The group manufactures and installs solar thermal panels, which absorb sunlight and convert it to heat. The heat is transferred to air that’s pumped from inside the home, through the panel, and then back into the home. Each glass-coated aluminum panel is about as big as a door and gets mounted to a home’s south-facing exterior wall. Gasco: ... |
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Wind farm radar system reduces nighttime light pollution in Iowa - Mar 22, 2024 Yale Climate Connections - Energy |
| Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections If you drive across Iowa at night, you might encounter a series of coordinated red lights flashing in the sky. Greenwood: “It looks like a whole bunch of fireflies lighting up at the same time.” Geoff Greenwood is with MidAmerican Energy, which operates 3,400 wind turbines across the state. Red lights are placed on top of the turbines to prevent pilots from crashing into the structures, which can be more than 200 feet tall. But that flashing lights up the night sky, which some people find annoying - so at three of its wind farms, MidAmerican Energy has installed a radar system that scans for nearby planes. When a low-flying plane is detected within a few miles of the turbines, the warning lights start to flash. But when the skies are clear, the lights stay off - and Greenwood says that since the system was installed, ... |
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'People were scared.’ How a maternal care nonprofit stepped up for families after Maui’s wildfires - Mar 21, 2024 Yale Climate Connections - Health |
| Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections Last summer, wildfires roared across part of Hawaii’s Maui Island. In the town of Lahaina, the fires destroyed more than 2,000 homes and buildings. Smith-Johnson: “People had to leave all of their belongings and leave literally with the clothes on their back. And as you’re thinking about someone who’s preparing for birth, who just had a child and in their immediate postpartum, or in the throes of postpartum, what does that look like?” Tanya Smith-Johnson is a certified midwife and the policy director for the Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition of Hawaii - a maternal care nonprofit. Her team sprang into action to help those who were dealing with the fires while also preparing to go into labor or caring for a newborn. Smith-Johnson: “Life continues to happen, even in a disaster.” The group shipped their ... |
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Do wind farms hurt home values? When they do, it’s usually temporary. - Mar 20, 2024 Yale Climate Connections - Energy |
| Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections Some homeowners wonder if having a wind farm nearby will affect their property values. A recent study finds that although wind farms can reduce nearby home prices, the drop is usually limited and only temporary. Hoen: “We hope that this allows people to have greater confidence into what are the likely effects from building a wind project in the future and when those effects are likely to occur.” That’s Ben Hoen of the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. He and his colleagues found that, on average, wind farms had no impact on property values in rural areas. They did find an effect in more populated areas. After a wind farm was announced, the average price of homes within two miles decreased. But they bounced back a few years after construction. Hoen: “Which seems to say that people are very sensitive to the presence of a wind ... |
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Which actions benefit the climate the most? This tool can show you. - Mar 15, 2024 Yale Climate Connections - Policy |
| Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections Setting clean energy goals. Pledging to plant billions of trees. Mandating energy efficiency improvements. Lots of policies can reduce global warming, and it can be hard to know which are the most effective. So Climate Interactive and the MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative created a free online simulation tool called En-ROADS. Overend: “To help people understand what policies are available and what kind of impact that they will have in terms of achieving desired climate goals.” Michael Overend, a volunteer with the nonprofit Citizens Climate Lobby, leads community workshops using En-ROADS. Users choose from a menu of climate policies, such as charging carbon polluters a fee or subsidizing EV purchases. And they can tweak variables, like the amount charged on a ton of carbon. The tool provides instant feedback on how ... |
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Arctic nightlife: Seabird colony bursts with sound at night - Mar 14, 2024 PHYS.ORG - Earth |
| Acoustic recordings of a colony of little auks reveal their nocturnal activities and offer valuable monitoring means for avian biology in the Arctic. A collaborative study conducted by researchers from the Arctic Research Center at Hokkaido University and the Department of Ecoscience at Aarhus University, Denmark, delves into the captivating activities of the most abundant seabird in the North Atlantic (little auk, Alle alle). The study sheds light on birds' daily rhythmic behavior under the endless daylight of the Arctic summer. Led by Associate Professor Evgeny A. Podolskiy, Hokkaido University, the findings are published in the journal Communications Biology. In the remote wilderness of Northwest Greenland, the research team employed passive acoustic and imaging technologies to uncover the hidden rhythms of little auk colonies. Every summer, approximately 60 million birds come to this region to breed and forage, and while their vocalization is a familiar summer ... |
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Archaeological sites in North Carolina under threat from sea level rise and storms - Mar 13, 2024 Yale Climate Connections - Arts |
| Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections In North Carolina, Hammocks Beach State Park includes areas that have been used by humans for more than 2,000 years. Artifacts remain from Indigenous hunting and fishing sites, colonial settlements, and the Civil War. But as seas rise and storms batter the shoreline, some of this history could be washed away. Ropp: “Particularly on Hammocks Beach, we’ve seen erosion. … And a lot of it seems to be a combination of that sea level rise and then wind-driven tides.” Allyson Ropp is a historic preservation archaeological specialist with the Office of State Archaeology in North Carolina. She says all along the North Carolina coast, climate change could damage or destroy archaeological sites - including prehistoric shell middens, shipwrecks, and cemeteries where enslaved people were buried. So her team is working to identify ... |
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Volcanoes emit carbon dioxide, but not nearly as much as humans - Mar 12, 2024 Yale Climate Connections - Science |
| Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections During an explosive eruption, volcanoes spew ash and gases into the stratosphere. Those gases can linger and affect the climate for several years. Rosaly Lopes of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory says generally, volcanic eruptions cause global cooling. Lopes: “The eruption of Tambora in 1815, that actually cooled the climate so significantly that in Europe, the year 1816 was called the year without a summer.” The cooling is driven by sulfur dioxide in the upper atmosphere, which combines with water molecules to produce sulfuric acid. When that condenses, it forms aerosols that reflect the sun’s rays back to space. Lopes says volcanoes also emit carbon dioxide, which increases global warming, but only a relatively small amount - especially compared to human activities. Lopes: “The 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens … ... |
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Why more CO2 could be bad news for crops - Mar 11, 2024 Yale Climate Connections - Science |
| Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections Burning fossil fuels releases a lot of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Plants use carbon dioxide to grow, so some people mistakenly assume that rising CO2 levels will be uniformly good for crops. But scientists warn that the reality is more complex. Kenneth Boote is a professor emeritus at the University of Florida. He says more CO2 can boost photosynthesis for crops, especially wheat and rice. Boote: “And that’s good news. It gives you increased production.” But he says if CO2 levels continue to rise, the rate at which crop yields increase levels off. And he warns that adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere fuels global warming. So in many regions, the benefits could be outweighed by the harmful effects of drought and heat. Models show that in mid- and low-latitude areas, where most of the world’s ... |
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Solar project at Fort Lauderdale park keeps basketball players cool - Mar 08, 2024 Yale Climate Connections - Energy |
| Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections At Reverend Samuel Delevoe Memorial Park in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, teens can practice jump shots under the shade of a new open-air pavilion covered with solar panels. Jennifer Jurado is chief resilience officer for Broward County, which includes Fort Lauderdale. She says the city is hot and getting hotter as the climate warms. So it’s important to help protect people from the scorching sun. Jurado: “So being able to provide a shaded area for play at a site that’s so heavily utilized and valued by the community, it really provides an incredible opportunity to make a smart and helpful investment.” And the solar panels will supply clean power to the nearby 60,000-square-foot African American Research Library and Cultural Center. She says Broward County is investing in multiple solar installations to help reduce its ... |
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Video game teaches teens to stay calm in a weather emergency - Mar 07, 2024 Yale Climate Connections - Weather |
| Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections By playing a new video game, teens are learning how to navigate various weather disasters and how to stay calm - even amid confusion and chaos. Lee: “The game is really all about, throughout the process, saying 'I can do this.’” Jane Lee is with I-Thrive Games. Her company partnered with FEMA to create “Disaster Mind,” a simulation video game that prepares teens for extreme events, which are becoming more common with climate change. In the game, Disaster Mind players choose to face down a blizzard, wildfire, or flood - either at home alone with their younger sister or while working at a community center with elderly people. As the disasters get worse, players have to make quick decisions and learn how to navigate challenges like evacuation orders and power outages. Lee hopes the game encourages teens to talk with their ... |
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Heat pumps are keeping homes warm in Maine - Mar 06, 2024 Yale Climate Connections - Energy |
| Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections Manufactured - or mobile - homes make up about 8% of the housing in Maine. Most of them are heated with oil, kerosene, or propane. Mistro: “And all of these are relatively expensive heating fuels.” Dan Mistro is with Efficiency Maine, an agency that runs the state’s energy efficiency programs. He says electric air source heat pumps can provide a cheaper - and cleaner - alternative. So his group has been running a pilot program to show that heat pumps can heat homes even during Maine’s cold winters. Casagranda: “We had two days last year where it was 15 below … but we were fine. You know, I was very comfortable, so it worked well.” Marianna Casagranda of Freeport was one of 10 mobile homeowners who received a heat pump system in the first year of the program. She’s used it as her sole source of heat since January ... |
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As seas rise, task force recommends new bridges for Outer Banks island - Mar 04, 2024 Yale Climate Connections - Weather |
| Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections North Carolina’s Highway 12 is the only road to the beach towns on Hatteras Island, part of the state’s Outer Banks. But in recent years, storms have repeatedly pushed seawater and sand across the road - blocking some parts and isolating these communities. Outten: “Everything that goes on or off Hatteras Island has to go down Highway 12.” Bobby Outten is the county manager for Dare County, North Carolina. In 2011, Hurricane Irene cut the highway in two spots, forcing Hatteras residents to depend on a ferry to reach the mainland for nearly two months. Subsequent storms have also blocked parts of the road for days. As the climate changes, stronger storms and rising seas will increase the risk of flooding and erosion. So two years ago, the state opened a bridge to divert the highway around an area prone to storm ... |
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Is marijuana bad for the climate? - Mar 01, 2024 Yale Climate Connections - Energy |
| Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections As a growing number of states legalize marijuana, cannabis businesses are ramping up. But cannabis is often grown in indoor farms under intense grow lights. And this setup can have a large carbon footprint. Quinn: “Indoor-grown cannabis is using just a ton of electricity.” Jason Quinn of Colorado State University co-authored a study on how much energy it would take to grow cannabis indoors at various locations in each state and the carbon pollution that would cause. In the worst case, growing just one kilogram could emit as much carbon pollution as burning more than 500 gallons of gasoline. But in Long Beach, California, it would emit less than half that. Quinn: “One of the challenges with it being federally regulated is that you can’t transport cannabis across state lines.” But the study suggests that one way to ... |
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Climate change could shorten the life span of U.S. bridges - Feb 29, 2024 Yale Climate Connections - Weather |
| Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections The U.S. has more than 600,000 bridges, and they’re not made to last forever. Mahmoud: “They’re designed for a specific amount of time, usually 75 years. That’s a typical design service life for bridges.” Hussam Mahmoud is a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Colorado State University. He says elements of a bridge - from footings and foundations to beams and girders - are expected to deteriorate over time. And he says climate change can accelerate that process. Rising seas and heavy precipitation can cause corrosion. Extreme heat can cause materials to expand beyond what they’re designed for - contributing to buckling or cracking. Increasing carbon pollution can even alter the pH of concrete, causing it to degrade faster. Mahmoud says in most cases, these risks ... |
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High schoolers helped develop Tuscon’s climate action plan - Feb 28, 2024 Yale Climate Connections - Policy |
| Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections In the past few years, young people have made headlines with their fight against climate change. The Arizona Youth Climate Coalition was created in 2019 during a global wave of school strikes. The group still organizes protests, but members also work with local leaders to enact climate policies. Emilia Kim is a high school student in Tucson and the group’s policy director. Kim: “I’ve talked with a couple of different legislators at the state level. … On the local level, we do a lot of things like lobbying school boards.” The coalition recently helped the city of Tucson develop its new climate action and adaptation plan, and Kim says members are now pushing the city to achieve those goals. Kim: “The biggest thing for us is actually getting people to implement the actions that they’re saying they’re going to ... |
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