Read the full story from MPR News.
A huge wastewater treatment plant serving Duluth and surrounding communities has installed a new system to generate electricity from the gasses captured during the sewage treatment process, part of a growing trend to harness renewable energy from waste.
Read the full story from Grist.
As climate disasters strain state budgets, a growing number of lawmakers want fossil fuel companies to pay for damages caused by their greenhouse gas emissions.
Read the full story at Smart Cities Dive.
The Smart Surfaces Coalition launched a policy resource to help policymakers and community advocates shape plans for using trees to mitigate extreme heat and manage storm water.
The 16-page document, released April 24, includes policy options, ordinance language, resources and case studies of successful strategies that local officials can use to strengthen tree canopies in their communities.
Urban tree canopies may help mitigate urban heat island effects, according to researchers at the National League of Cities and the Smart Surfaces Coalition. These areas, which can experience daytime temperatures in cities up to 7 degrees hotter than outlying areas, can lead to heat-related illnesses and deaths.
Read the full story at Grist.
Rice feeds more than half of the world’s population. Climate change is loading the beloved grain with arsenic, creating a “scary” health burden.
Soeder, D. J. (2025). The Politics of Climate Denial. In D. J. Soeder, Energy Futures (pp. 71–96). Springer Nature Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-83603-9_4
Nearly all scientists not associated with the fossil fuel industry agree that the greenhouse gas anomaly in the Earth’s atmosphere was caused by the human burning of fossil fuels, trapping heat, warming the atmosphere, and causing climate change. Despite the preponderance of evidence supporting this phenomenon, including physical principles that have been well-understood since the nineteenth century, the fossil energy industry has steadfastly denied the reality of anthropogenic climate change. By claiming that climate data are “controversial” or “unsettled,” the industry has injected a note of uncertainty into whether or not climate action should be taken. Combined with their substantial financial support of climate-denying politicians, no action has in fact been undertaken in the ensuing 40 years since the issue was first raised, and our society is now more dependent on fossil fuels than ever. The Inflation Reduction Act passed in 2022 marks the first official attempt by the U.S. government to address climate change. The acceptance versus denial of climate change has evolved into a tribal issue that has become entrenched in blue versus red American politics.
by Jack Marley, The Conversation
Vicious cycles are accelerating climate change. One is happening at the north pole, where rising temperatures caused by record levels of fossil fuel combustion are melting more and more sea ice.
Indeed, the extent of Arctic winter sea ice in March 2025 was the lowest ever recorded. This decline in sea ice means the Earth reflects less of the Sun’s energy back into space. So, more climate change leads to less sea ice – and more climate change.
Human behaviour is not immune to this dynamic either, according to a recent report by the International Energy Agency (IEA). It identified another troubling feedback loop: demand for coal rose 1% globally in 2024 off the back of intense heatwaves in China and India, which spurred a frenzy for air-conditioners and excess fuel to power them.
The need to cool ourselves, and briefly escape the consequences of climate change, is driving more climate change. Thankfully, there are ways to break these cycles and form greener habits. Today, we’ll look at one in particular.
“As the climate crisis deepens, close to half of the world’s people have little defence against deadly heat,” says Radhika Khosla, an associate professor of urban sustainability at the University of Oxford.
“At the same time, energy demand from cooling – by those who can afford it – could more than double by 2050.”
If wealthy countries paid the enormous climate finance debt they owe the developing world, it could help finance the closing of this gap. And thankfully, advancements in renewable energy technology mean no one should need to contribute to a spike in fossil fuel use just to keep cool.
“The absurdity of resorting to coal to power air conditioners … is difficult to miss”, say a team of engineers and energy experts at Nottingham Trent University and Coventry University, led by Tom Rogers. They recommend rooftop solar panels instead, which can soak up sunshine during heatwaves and turn it into electricity for air-conditioning units.
“Rooftop solar can also reduce demand for cooling by keeping buildings in the shade,” the team say. “A study conducted by Arizona State University found that even a modest group of solar panels that shade about half a roof can lead to anything from 2% to 13% reduction in cooling demand, depending on factors such as location, roof type and insulation levels.”
Of course, solar panels are less helpful for powering air conditioners in the evening, when lots of people turn them on after work or school.
“Researchers in Australia have proposed a clever solution to address this imbalance, by programming air-conditioning units to work in tandem with solar systems to pre-cool buildings before people arrive home,” Rogers and his colleagues add.
There is huge untapped potential for generating electricity from rooftop solar – even in the dreary UK. It could ensure that future heatwaves are a boon for solar energy, not coal power.
“Consider the possibilities for Nottingham and Coventry, two cities in England’s Midlands where we work,” they say.
“If Nottingham were to maximise its rooftop potential, all those panels could generate nearly 500 megawatts (MW) of electricity, about the same as a medium-sized gas power plant. Coventry has greater potential, with 700MW.
“These capacities would equate to nearly one-third of Nottingham’s electricity demand and almost half of Coventry’s – from their rooftops alone.”
Installing solar panels on top of buildings worldwide will need massive investment in equipment and training. It will require new means of incentivising the uptake of this technology and, as mentioned earlier, the redistribution of wealth to allow low-emitting but highly vulnerable nations to make the switch.
But there are likely to be virtuous cycles as well as vicious ones. Once a certain threshold has been crossed, like the price and capacity of batteries or the number of homes with heat pumps installed, “a domino effect of rapid changes” takes effect such that green alternatives swiftly become the established norm.
However, the prospect of harmonising these efforts across borders butts against a trend moving in the opposite direction. As the world warms, relations between nations are becoming more fraught and war, trade tensions and internal strife are obscuring the universal threat of climate change.
Climate risk expert Laurie Laybourn and earth system scientist James Dyke, both at the University of Exeter, say that extreme weather in 2022 caused crop failures that made food more expensive and stoked headline inflation rates. Climate-sceptic Donald Trump made hay with these high prices in the 2024 US election.
“The risk is that this ‘doom loop’ runs faster and faster and ultimately derails our ability to phase out fossil fuels fast enough to avoid the worst climate consequences,” they say.
However, Laybourn and Dyke are not wholly pessimistic. History shows that periods of instability and crisis like the one we are living through also provide fertile ground for positive change, they argue, and the chance to accelerate virtuous circles.
“For example, out of the crises of the interwar period and the devastation of the second world war came legal protections for human rights, universal welfare systems and decolonisation.”
Jack Marley, Environment + Energy Editor, The Conversation
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Read the full story at Inside Climate News.
A new White House memo instructs federal agencies to disregard the economic impacts of climate change in their regulations and permitting decisions, unless explicitly required by law.
This metric is known as the “social cost of carbon,” and it has been used for decades as a way to guide policy so that it takes into account the economic realities of our changing climate.
Even in the first Trump administration, the White House used the metric, though they put it only around $5 a ton at the time, far lower than the Obama Administration estimate of $42 a ton. In the Biden White House, a recalculation factored in inflation and the worsening toll of climate change, bumping up the cost to nearly $200 per ton.
David Cash served under President Biden as the New England Administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Read the full story from Science Magazine.
There’s something in the air down in Antarctica. Is it love? Not exactly: It’s the pungent gas wafting off piles of penguin guano. Thanks to their diet of fish and krill, the millions of penguins that eat and breed here leave behind poop that’s chock-full of nitrogen waste, which breaks down into ammonia. And according to a study published today in Communications Earth & Environment, these foul-smelling fumes could help mitigate the impacts of climate change.
Read the full story at Smart Cities Dive.
As FEMA funding fades and disasters intensify, risk assessments, standing contracts and debris-management plans are crucial, one conservation director says.
Read the full story at ESG Dive.
Investors need information on corporate resilience strategies for climate-driven disasters to price investment risks accurately, says Impax Asset Management’s Julie Gorte.
Read the full story at Investigate Midwest.
Less than half of residents in farming-dependent counties say they are worried about climate change, well below the 63% national average.
However, in Costilla County in south-central Colorado, more than 70% of residents said they are either somewhat or very worried about climate change, according to the 2024 Climate Opinion survey from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.
Download the summary and full report.
The Economic and Social Research Council-funded ACCESS network drew together an independent task force of experts to consider the role of social science in UK net zero policy. The task force, which ran for one year between 2023-2024, reviewed a range of social science perspectives, analysed examples of government net zero plans and built understanding from case studies of societal change.
We now call upon government to make more consistent and effective use of social science in delivering UK net zero ambitions. Our work shows the huge opportunities, and wide range of benefits, that can be delivered through sustained action to reduce demand for energy. To achieve net zero we need actors from across society to be engaged. Actors that work at the mid-level, between scales, silos and sectors, are especially important. Engaging citizens in meaningful debate about change and generating positive visions of a net zero future will also be essential.
We recommend that government establish a Net Zero Social Science Advisory Committee in the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero.
Report highlights
Concern about the climate is widespread among the UK public and a slim majority are supportive of net zero targets. The public recognise the scale of challenges surrounding net zero and there is some scepticism about the likelihood of achieving targets. There is also division about the timing of climate action in relation to economic conditions.
Knowledge, research and expertise have a key role to play in creating effective climate policy. The public particularly value the involvement of independent and governmental experts, alongside national and local political leaders, and representatives of affected communities. They support the use of diverse research evidence from natural, engineering and social sciences to build understanding of how the UK can reduce emissions.
Public engagement and building on public momentum are essential. At the individual level, members of the public do not feel they have a lot of say in developing climate policy. Yet, many are making changes to their own daily lives, helping reduce demand for high carbon activities, products and services. A public engagement campaign and supportive policies are essential to sustain and increase this momentum, and to address public concerns and impediments to change.
Read the full story at Grist.
When the Marshall Fire swept through the grassy plains and foothills outside Boulder, Colorado, in late December 2021, it burned down more than 1,000 homes — and left many young people shaken. “It can just be pure anxiety — you’re literally watching a fire march its way across, and it’s really, really close,” said David Thesenga, an 8th grade science teacher. Some of his students at Alexander Dawson School in the small town of Lafayette lost their homes to the fire.
As more students come to school traumatized by living through fires, floods, and other extreme weather, teachers are being asked to do more than educate — they’re also acting as untrained therapists. While Thesenga’s private school has psychologists on staff, they don’t provide mental health resources dedicated to helping students work through distress related to the changing climate, whether it’s trauma from a real event or more general anxiety about an overheated future. “Sometimes you don’t need a generic [tool],” he said. “What you need is something very specific to the trauma or to the thing that is causing you stress, and that is climate change.”
by Karen Bickerstaff, University of Exeter; Alice Moseley, University of Exeter, and Patrick Devine-Wright, University of Exeter
The current UK government and its recent predecessors have shown a reluctance to encourage and enable lifestyle changes that reduce our collective demand for energy.
Fearing a backlash from voters, many UK politicians neglect key weapons in the fight to mitigate climate change. These include directing investment away from building roads to public transport, establishing reliable infrastructure for the charging and repair of electric vehicles, and making reduction of car travel a key priority for urban planners.
As researchers focusing on how to accelerate climate action, we argue that shying away from changing the way we live is counterproductive. Conflict and disagreement are part of social change, but there are positive ways forward.
The problems and, critically, the solutions have overwhelmingly been presented by UK governments as technological. But many of these technologies are still only in development.
Practical use of nuclear fusion (the energy-generating mechanism that powers the sun), for example, has long been spoken of as “30 years away”. The efficacy of direct air capture (a set of technologies that extract CO₂ directly from the atmosphere) remains a matter of conjecture.
Meanwhile, demand reduction and lifestyle changes – solutions we know make a difference – are being left in the background.
In the run-up to the 2024 UK general election, we conducted a survey of almost 3,000 UK citizens – of which just over half (51%) expressed support for a net zero carbon emissions target. Given the apparent indifference or outright opposition of a substantial proportion of voters, it is not surprising that politicians seek to minimise objections to net zero policy by downplaying any suggestion of personal disruption.
Our survey also asked about people’s willingness to make specific lifestyle changes (to home energy, diet and travel) for climate reasons. On average, 43% were already acting or firmly planning to do so. Another 28% said they might be prepared to make such changes in the future.
Willingness to make climate-related lifestyle changes:
This ties in with other research which indicates that people are open to significant changes in their lifestyle to support net zero, if the conditions are right. So, how can this potential for change be realised?
The answer, we argue, lies in the recent past. Over the last year, as part of a social science taskforce on net zero, we looked back at a diverse range of case studies of societal change to draw lessons for future policy. We now propose that five key steps are needed for effective net zero action.
When seeking to build support for contentious change, it is vital to identify issues that can galvanise people. These will often relate to other (non-net zero) benefits. For instance, “school streets” projects have been successful, where other traffic reduction policies have failed, because they emphasise the benefits to the health and wellbeing of children.
Similarly, the rapid switch from coal heating to gas central heating in the 1960s and ’70s was partly connected to a popular movement for cleaner, “decent” homes.
In our survey, just 37% of people saw a fairer society as a likely outcome of net zero actions, while 63% identified individual finances as a major challenge to achieving net zero. Regulation needs to establish a close connection between net zero measures and equity, so that no groups are unfairly burdened or advantaged. This requires an honest discussion about downsides and trade-offs.
Measures that focus on cheaper bills, affordable devices, accessible transport and the alleviation of fuel poverty will build optimism. In the successful Danish transition to district heating from the mid-1970s, ensuring affordable and reliable energy was vital in gaining support, as was giving residents a say in decision-making.
We noticed that survey participants expressed a lot of cynicism and uncertainty about government action on net zero. Nearly half (46%) doubted that the net zero target was achievable, while most people (62%) had serious concerns about vested interests, under-resourced local authorities (59%), and a lack of government investment in infrastructure (59%).
People also feel disconnected from decision-making. Many said they had little or no influence on climate policy (59%), and felt there was a lack of power in communities (51%).
Local authorities, businesses, community groups and other third-sector organisations can help bridge these gaps between national government and everyday life. They should play a key role delivering net zero policies that fit with local needs and issues.
When Denmark switched to district heating, the delegation of powers to municipal authorities was crucial in supporting community ownership models and empowering residents and community groups. Properly resourced local climate commissions – town- and city-wide groups that bring together local organisations and businesses – can provide an independent, trusted voice to help drive climate action at a local level.
People need the chance to listen to and engage with each other. If they doubt their opinions and concerns are recognised, or if their worries are viewed as nothing more than obstacles, conflict becomes more likely.
Proper dialogue through collaborations like climate citizens’ assemblies can improve understanding of different positions, aspirations and capabilities. Once legitimate concerns and unintended consequences have been identified, potential solutions can be explored.
There is certainly support for this more interactive approach: 40% of people in our survey felt that affected communities should have a considerable influence on climate policies, alongside local authorities (40%) and elected MPs (42%).
Without these ongoing conversations, projects can fail. A Dutch carbon capture and storage project, using a depleted gas field under the town of Barendrecht to store CO₂ from a nearby refinery, was cancelled in 2010 following intense local opposition. The government and industry had failed to get public engagement right from the start.
Change to net zero is going to be difficult, and no step the UK government takes will completely eliminate the possibility of disruption and conflict. In our survey, nearly a quarter of respondents were opposed to the UK net zero target. So, politicians need to be more robust and interventionist in making a positive case for net zero, recognising that not everyone is going to agree.
However, there are grounds to be optimistic that action itself may help unlock support for net zero. Research that has followed school streets projects, for example, shows that once schemes are in place, support among residents and parents increases when anticipated problems (such as traffic displacement) do not materialise – and when the benefits, in terms of children walking and cycling more, become clear.
Karen Bickerstaff, Professor in Human Geography, University of Exeter; Alice Moseley, Associate Professor, Politics, University of Exeter, and Patrick Devine-Wright, Professor in Human Geography, University of Exeter
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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