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Yale Climate Connections

Teenagers at some Illinois high schools are now taking driver’s education classes in electric cars.

Mitchell: “EVs are the future. I mean, it’s something we can get these kids ready to use.”

Gregg Mitchell is the driver’s ed director at Lane Tech College Prep, a public high school in Chicago.

The school recently added an EV to its fleet of cars, using a grant from ComEd, the local electric utility.

The utility’s EVs for Education program has allowed more than a dozen schools to buy electric cars and chargers for their driver’s ed programs over the past few years.

Mitchell says driving an electric car is not that different than driving a gas-powered car, so the students generally learn the same basic skills.

But the electric cars do save him time on maintenance.

Mitchell: “On Fridays, I’m running back and forth ...

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Yale Climate Connections

Libraries lend out a lot more than books and DVDs. Some loan tools or museum passes. And at the public library in Santa Barbara, California, visitors can borrow a weeklong membership to the city’s electric bike share program.

Bilek: “The goal is to give people in the community a chance to try a form of alternative transportation, see if it might work for them.”

That’s senior librarian Ariana Bilek.

She says the library is partnering with BCycle, the city’s e-bike share program, and Bosch, an e-bike technology company, to introduce more residents to e-bikes. The goal is to encourage more people to use this low-carbon way to get around town.

Library patrons can check out one of 10 BCycle passes for a week at a time. During that week, they can use any of BCycle’s 250 e-bikes, which are docked throughout the city.

The program ...

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Three recent reports say the world is failing in its fight to slow climate change.

The medical publication The Lancet released its yearly report called The Countdown. The study measures human health in connection with climate change. The 2023 report says more people are dying due to heat waves than in the past. It says the numbers will rise sharply as temperatures continue to rise.

And the U.S. government recently produced a 2,200 page National Climate Assessment that looked at how warming is harming America.

The Lancet’s report noted that deaths due to heat among people 65 or older were 85 percent higher in the last 10 years than from 1991 to 2000. There were 23,200 heat deaths of older people in 2022, the report found.

A computer program showed that the numbers would be much lower if the Earth had not warmed to its current levels.

“We are already seeing climate change claiming lives and livelihoods in ...

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Three recent reports say the world is failing in its fight to slow climate change.

The medical publication The Lancet released its yearly report called The Countdown. The study measures human health in connection with climate change. The 2023 report says more people are dying due to heat waves than in the past. It says the numbers will rise sharply as temperatures continue to rise.

And the U.S. government recently produced a 2,200 page National Climate Assessment that looked at how warming is harming America.

The Lancet’s report noted that deaths due to heat among people 65 or older were 85 percent higher in the last 10 years than from 1991 to 2000. There were 23,200 heat deaths of older people in 2022, the report found.

A computer program showed that the numbers would be much lower if the Earth had not warmed to its current levels.

“We are already seeing climate change claiming lives and livelihoods in ...

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Yale Climate Connections

In late May, the volunteer fire department in Upper Tantallon, Nova Scotia, received reports of a brush fire in the heavily wooded Halifax suburb.

Station captain Cole Jean and his six-man crew took off for the scene.

Jean: “We could immediately see the large volume of smoke - heavy black and gray smoke … and as we kind of got a little closer, we could finally see the full extent of what we were walking into.”

The fire quickly expanded into a huge inferno that raged for more than a week, destroying more than 150 homes.

It was one of many severe wildfires in eastern Canada this year.

In Upper Tantallon, career firefighters arrived from across the region to battle the blaze.

But in the beginning, it was Jean and his small crew of volunteers, dealing with a fast-growing emergency that threatened their community and ...

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Yale Climate Connections

In recent decades, wildfires have scorched forests in the western U.S. and Canada. By contributing to climate change, the world’s biggest carbon polluters made those fires far more destructive - and new research shows by just how much.

Pablo Ortiz-Partida of the Union of Concerned Scientists says carbon pollution is making the region hotter and drier, which creates more fuel for fires.

Ortiz-Partida: “It’s these hot and dry conditions that enable wildfires to burn more forest area.”

His team found that nearly 40% of the area burned by forest fires in western North America over a 25-year period can be attributed to the amount of carbon pollution produced by 88 major fossil fuel producers and cement makers.

Ortiz-Partida: “So that amounts to nearly 20 million acres of area, which is roughly an area the size of the state of ...

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Yale Climate Connections

As a linguistics researcher, Ian Joo of South Korea is often asked to travel for research and conferences.

But when he learned that taking one flight could cause more carbon pollution than the average citizen of Uganda emits in a year, he was appalled.

Joo: “That was a big shock for me.”

He decided to reduce his air travel. While he was a visiting researcher in the Netherlands, he attended four conferences.

Joo: “For all those conferences, I took the train.”

But he says sometimes flying is the only option and travel is critical for his research - for example when he must go where a specific language is spoken.

In those situations, he looks for a direct flight.

Dan Rutherford of the International Council on Clean Transportation says direct flights tend to emit less carbon pollution - and not only because they ...

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Yale Climate Connections

As the climate warms, hotter temperatures will make it harder to grow certain crops. But this Thanksgiving, you can give thanks for one holiday tradition that’s evolved to withstand the heat.

Harvey: “Sweet potatoes are a tropical crop, so they’re well acclimated to that heat. They prefer heat.”

Lorin Harvey is a sweet potato specialist at Mississippi State University Extension. His state grows almost 500 million pounds of sweet potatoes a year, topped only by North Carolina and California.

He says because of their heat tolerance, sweet potatoes hold promise as a climate-resilient crop. So he and other researchers are trying to breed new high-yielding varieties that can tolerate even more heat and less water.

Harvey says he’s confident sweet potatoes will thrive in a warming world and could provide calorie-dense food in ...

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Yale Climate Connections

After a holiday feast of turkey and cranberries, some people enjoy a small glass of ice cider.

Léger: “It is a sweet dessert wine style of alcoholic cider … and it’s the perfect ending for all the Thanksgiving things.”

Eleanor Léger is co-founder of Vermont-based Eden Ciders. She says the beverage is made possible by cold northern winters.

In late fall, her team presses apples into juice, and they leave it outside in large barrels. As temperatures drop, the water in the juice freezes.

Léger: “And all the heavier molecules - sugars, acids, everything that gives you flavor - those molecules are trickling down. … And we just open the tap at the bottom of the container and let that flow out.”

She says the process requires several weeks of very cold temperatures to draw off the concentrate little by little. The ...

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Yale Climate Connections

Even when it’s cold and snowy, Dave Robertson hops on his bike to get around town.

Robertson: “There’s no special equipment. It’s whatever clothes you’re wearing … put on a jacket, put on a pair of mitts and a hat, and get on your bike and go.”

Robertson is the vice president of Bike Ottawa, a nonprofit group that advocates for bike-friendly infrastructure in Canada’s capital city.

He says many cyclists want to keep riding in winter. It’s less expensive than driving a car and better for the climate. So he says it’s critical that cities keep bike lanes and bike paths plowed.

Robertson: “If you’ve got a snow-covered road or pathway, or it’s very icy, then you see a huge drop in the number of people just because they can’t get through.”

To help cyclists navigate in winter, Bike Ottawa has created a crowdsourced map that shows ...

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Yale Climate Connections

Wesley Johnson is an Uber driver in San Francisco. For years, he picked up passengers in his Mercedes. And he spent a lot on fuel.

Johnson: “I was spending like $1,600, nothing less, a month, for gas.”

Plus, he had to deal with the wear and tear on his car, which can be pricey.

So when he heard that Uber and Hertz had partnered on a program to rent out electric vehicles to Uber drivers, Johnson was eager to give it a try.

He’s one of about 50,000 U.S. drivers who have rented a Tesla through the program since it launched two years ago.

He says he pays less to rent the Tesla than he did on gas. He’s saving on the cost of repairs and maintenance. And as an Uber driver, he gets a discount at some charging stations.

Johnson: “The money part, it was just, it was a no-brainer for me”

But the benefits of the program go ...

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Yale Climate Connections

In the Flint Hills of Kansas, Pete Ferrell owns the 7,000-acre ranch that his great-grandfather established 135 years ago.

He says income from oil production on the land helped save the family’s ranch during a drought in the 1950s.

Now wind energy is helping Ferrell sustain the business when times are tough.

Ferrell: “I always say that wind farming is my best cash crop because the wind blows even during a drought.”

Ferrell was first approached by a wind developer in the 1990s. He was initially skeptical.

Ferrell: “Quite frankly, my first response was, 'No, we’re not doing that at all.’”

But after talking to other ranchers who had successfully integrated the turbines with their businesses, he felt confident moving forward.

He leased land to the Elk River Wind Farm, which opened in 2005.

He says the 50 ...

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Yale Climate Connections

Riley Neugebauer is a solar panel installer in Boulder, Colorado. And she knows what it can feel like to be a woman getting started in the predominantly male career.

She says in the beginning, she faced a steeper learning curve than some of her male colleagues. For example, even though she did lots of labor on her family’s land growing up, nobody ever put power tools in her hands.

Neugebauer: “I think it’s what happens to a lot of women and girls, and so we get socialized in a different way or we don’t even think to ask about it.”

Later, employers pushed her toward office work or sales, instead of supporting her desire to do physical or technical work.

But Neugebauer loves her career and wants to support other women who are getting started.

So she founded Solar for Women, a community of women in the industry ...

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Yale Climate Connections

Kerry Vadasz was sent to prison when she was 20. For years behind bars, she struggled to find direction.

But she says her life changed when she got involved with an environmental literacy and green job training program called Roots of Success.

Vadasz: “It offers opportunity for men and women to actually find a path forward in their life and not have to go back to their old lives.”

Roots of Success is offered at prisons, schools, and job training centers. It exposes participants to career paths in renewable energy, green building, clean transportation, and other environmental fields.

People also learn job-readiness skills such as writing a resume or preparing for an interview.

According to outside research, the vast majority of graduates say they are more informed about green career paths and more prepared to pursue ...

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Yale Climate Connections

More than 200,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with lung cancer every year. And smoking is not always to blame.

Gomez: “Approximately 10-20% of patients who have lung cancer are never-smokers.”

Jorge Gomez is an oncologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.

He says that several environmental risk factors contribute to lung cancer in nonsmokers.

Some of the biggest are secondhand smoke and radon. But air pollution - caused in part by burning fossil fuels - has also been linked to the disease.

Gomez: “There are many studies that have looked at areas that clearly have a higher level of particulate matter and ozone, and there is a clear increase in the incidence of lung cancer.”

Scientists are still trying to understand exactly how air pollution particles increase the risk of lung ...

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Yale Climate Connections

Flight delays and missed connections can turn a joyful holiday trip into a stressful fiasco. And these headaches may become more common as floods, heat waves, and storms grow more extreme.

Paul Williams is a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Reading in the UK.

Williams: “Climate change has many potential consequences for the future of flying.”

For example, in September 2023, heavy rain caused hundreds of delays and cancellations at New York City airports. At La Guardia, a terminal flooded, forcing travelers to wade through inches of water.

And extreme heat can make it harder for planes to take off, because hotter air is less dense, which reduces the aircraft’s lift.

Todd Smith, a former commercial pilot, says that to compensate, planes sometimes need to shed weight before taking off.

Smith: ...

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Yale Climate Connections

When dangerous wildfire smoke fills the air, public health agencies issue warnings to keep people safe.

Kasdin: “The first thing we hear is for people to go inside, close their windows. And those are simply things that are not a possibility for people living on the streets.”

Lucy Kasdin directs Alameda County Health Care for the Homeless in California’s Bay Area.

She says unhoused people have a hard time escaping the smoke.

They’re also more likely to suffer from health conditions - such as asthma and COPD - that increase the danger of breathing smoky air.

And without easy access to internet and TV, they often lack up-to-date information about air quality conditions.

Kasdin: “So the first thing that’s important in terms of a response has to be information.”

When wildfire smoke poses a risk, Kasdin’s ...

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Yale Climate Connections

This past summer, Texas suffered through a long, brutal heat wave.

As people cranked up their air conditioners, electricity demand in the state hit record highs.

Michael Webber, an engineering professor at the University of Texas at Austin, says the state’s electricity grid was able to handle the demands placed upon it - partly because of battery storage.

Webber: “They really fill in the gap when there’s a mismatch in supply from traditional power plants and demand from air conditioning. … At one point we even had like two and a half gigawatts worth of battery output to prop up the grid. That’s like two nuclear power plants worth of batteries. And that really saved us from going into rolling blackouts or having a bigger failure.”

Batteries are particularly advantageous when paired with solar and wind power because ...

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Yale Climate Connections

The Federal Inflation Reduction Act - or IRA - commits hundreds of billions of dollars to the clean energy transition. A recent report finds that those investments are already helping launch new projects and put people to work.

Bob Keefe is executive director of E2 (Environmental Entrepreneurs). The nonpartisan business group issued a report about the IRA’s impact on the economy and jobs.

Keefe: “In the year since the IRA was passed, we’ve seen more than 200 major clean energy announcements, … more than $86 billion in private investments, nearly 75,000 new jobs announced already.”

He says much of the growth comes from the EV and battery industries, which are building or expanding facilities in more than 20 states.

Other projects include large solar and wind farms, and solar panel manufacturing facilities.

Keefe says ...

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Yale Climate Connections

When booking holiday travel, you may notice that some sites such as Google Flights now provide an estimate of the carbon emissions caused by each flight.

Rutherford: “So this is something I’m really excited about.”

Dan Rutherford directs the Aviation and Marine programs at the International Council on Clean Transportation.

He says the climate impact of various flights can vary dramatically, depending on if a flight is direct, how new the plane is, the business model of the airline, and other factors.

Rutherford: “In our research, we found that on average, a traveler in the U.S. could reduce their CO2 per trip by somewhere between 22% and 63% by choosing the least emitting carrier, rather than either the average or the highest emitting carrier over a U.S. domestic route.”

And because fuel is such a high cost for ...