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☆ 'We can save our planet faster': Robotics tech and software offer efficient reforestation solutions
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-23 | by ( Christine Macintyre | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Companies are using drones and special software to plant trees and overcome reforestation pain points. Robotics making reforestation more efficientThe tech-driven company Mast Reforestation uses drones and biotechnology to help landowners restore forestland after wildfires. Another company using robotics to plant trees is Flash Forest, which employs automated drones to restore burn sites and other damaged forest areas. To combat this issue, Mast Reforestation uses its custom-built software as a seed-inventory and seed-collection logistics platform. The software helped Mast Reforestation collect enough seeds last year to reforest about 2,100 acres on Sheep Creek Ranch in Montana.

Persons: Matthew Aghai, Aghai, Grant Canary, they're, Chris Ireland, Flash, Randy Johns, Jeff Renton, Forest's Organizations: Service, Global Forest Watch, Forest, Ireland, Business, Flash, Boreal, Keewatin Community Development Association, Flash Forest Locations: forestland, Technology, —, Canada, Ireland, Keewatin, Canadian, Saskatchewan, Montana, , Montana

☆ Camels evolved from a cold-weather ancestor. We could learn from their remarkable transformation
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-16 | by ( Bill Weir | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

“Gentoo penguins are big climate change winners in the Antarctic,” Heather Lynch told me. Conversely, the more flexible gentoo penguins keep moving farther and farther south, chasing new prey, and even abandoning nests to increase the odds of long-term survival. Julian Quinones/CNNThe gentoo population has exploded by as much as 30,000% in just a few years. Bill Weir/CNNHere lieth the lesson of the camel and the gentoo: Heat will move us, one way or another. I just know River won’t be satisfied without a magic plot twist that somehow saves all creatures great and small.

Persons: Bill Weir, —, “, ”, Bill, CNN's, Julian Quinones, Camels, CNN Bill, I’d, ” Heather Lynch, penguins, we’ve, it’s, Xiulin Ruan, CNN Julian Quinones, “ Don’t, Energy's Organizations: CNN, Brooklyn, Central Park Zoo, CNN Penguins, Stony Brook University, gentoo, Purdue, International Energy Agency, Global Locations: Canada, North America, dromedaries, Sudanese, Egypt, Southern Ocean, Antarctica, Manhattan, British Columbia, Yorkshire, England, Phoenix, Japan, Seville, Spain, Miami, Los Angeles, Angeles, Olivia, Colombia, CNN Seville, China, India, Maine

☆ Wolverines receive protections as threatened species
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-29 | by ( Rachel Ramirez | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —The North American wolverine has officially been listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act and will receive long-anticipated federal protections, US officials announced Wednesday, as the climate crisis melts away their snowy mountain habitats. “Based on the best available science, this listing determination will help to stem the long-term impact and enhance the viability of wolverines in the contiguous United States.”Adding wolverines to the list triggers legal protections for the threatened species under various environmental laws, preventing the population from further declining. The last time the species had been sighted in the region was between 2008 and 2018, according to scientists, though they have already been listed as threatened species under California’s Endangered Species Act. Conservationists and scientists have been calling for federal protections for years now, with some environmental groups like the Center for Biological Diversity even taking legal action. Despite the new science and growing calls for federal protections, initial proposals to protect the species were rejected in 2020 under former President Donald Trump.

Persons: wolverine, ”, Hugh Morrison, Donald Trump, Biden, “ I’m, ” Andrea Zaccardi, they’re Organizations: CNN, wolverines, Wildlife Service Pacific Regional, ”, Yosemite National, Forest, Federal, Center for Biological, and Wildlife Service, Center for Biological Diversity, Fish and Wildlife Service Locations: United States, North America, Rocky, Alaska, Canada, Sierra Nevada, Yosemite, Inyo

☆ Dire wolves, camels, and other extinct giant mammals that used to live in North America
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-14 | by ( Jenny Mcgrath | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +16 min

North America used to be crawling with giant mammals, from dire wolves to big cats. In North America, "you only get the woolly mammoths up in the north, starting around the Great Lakes," Lindsey said. AdvertisementOnce thought to be the cousins of gray wolves, dire wolves evolved separately over 5 million years ago in North America. AdvertisementThe ancient bison, Bison antiquus, was 25% larger than those living today. A recent study suggested modern bison — Bison biso — evolved from this species.

Persons: —, wasn't, Emily Lindsey, Markus Matzel, Lindsey, Mike Kemp, mastodons, Benji Paysnoe, Camelops, Spencer, scotti, Daniel Eskridge, Andrew Milligan, scimitars, Jeffrey Greenberg, priscus, Katherine Frey, it's Organizations: Service, National Park Service, National, South America, AP, Universal, Washington Locations: America, Asia, Australia, South America, Alaska, North America, Africa, Bering, Mexico, Costa Rica, Great, Canadian Yukon, of Panama, North, South, Eurasia, Americas, Spanish, Canada, Florida, Yukon, Gulf, Central, South Asia, China, California

☆ Climate tech startups Montinutra, Harvest Thermal, Bisly, and Twig recently raised a combined $13.6 million. We got a look at the pitch decks they used to raise the funds.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-07 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Climate tech startups Montinutra, Harvest Thermal, Bisly, and Twig have recently raised a collective $13.6 million between them as early-stage deals continue to dominate the venture capital industry. Biochemicals startup Montinutra, founded in 2018, raised 2 million euros, $2.1 million, in October to convert forestry sidestreams into sustainable alternatives to petrochemicals. Check out the 18-slide pitch deck below:MontinutraMontinutraMontinutraMontinutraMontinutraMontinutraMontinutraMontinutraMontinutraMontinutraMontinutraMontinutraMontinutraMontinutraMontinutraMontinutraMontinutraMontinutraHeat pump startup Harvest Thermal raised $4 millionCalifornia-based Harvest Thermal raised a $4 million round for its heat pump and thermal storage combination in October. It is riding political tailwinds amid the US' recent commitment to install 20 million heat pumps by 2030. Check out the redacted pitch deck that it used to raise the funds below:Harvest ThermalHarvest ThermalHarvest ThermalHarvest ThermalHarvest ThermalHarvest ThermalHarvest ThermalHarvest ThermalHarvest ThermalHarvest ThermalHarvest ThermalHarvest Thermal Harvest ThermalHarvest ThermalHarvest ThermalHarvest ThermalHarvest ThermalHarvest ThermalBuilding energy management startup Bisly secured $3.8 millionEstonian startup Bisly, which wants to make it cheaper to improve the energy efficiency of buildings, just raised 3.6 million euros, $3.8 million, in seed funding in October.

Persons: Twig, Pajunen, Portfolia, Russ Tucker Organizations: Metsä, Earth Foundry, Climate Partners, Starshot, National Science Foundation, California Energy Commission, International Energy Agency, Aconterra, Second Century Ventures, SmartCap, Fund, Pinorena, Innovation, Seed Fund Locations: California, London

☆ ‘It’s Like Our Country Exploded’: Canada’s Year of Fire
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-24 | by ( David Wallace-Wells | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

Instead, he emphasizes what might be called the power law of wildfire spread. Most fires are not hard to put out if you want to extinguish them and don’t spread very fast if you don’t. Globally, the fire story is less exponential, with declines in burned area in sub-Saharan Africa mostly offsetting rapid fire growth in the major midlatitude hot spots, with the global trend in fire emissions, as a result, mostly flat. If we manage the forest around my little town, well, maybe we can stop my little town from burning down,” she says. And if we don’t, it’s all a game.” She goes on: “It doesn’t matter what we do in the forest, things are going to burn.

Persons: Pyne, We’re, ”, Mike Flannigan, “, Flannigan, Rachel Holt, ” Holt Locations: Canada, British Columbia, United States, American, Saharan Africa, Russian Siberia, Australia

A German company is building a constellation of satellites to detect fires from space. “They’re trained very specifically to detect smoke or not, and we train them with images of smoke and images of not smoke,” CEO Sonia Kastner said. The cameras help detect fires quicker and get teams on the ground faster, shaving up to two hours off response times. German startup OroraTech analyzes satellite images with artificial intelligence. "There are algorithms on the satellite, very efficient ones to detect fires even faster," CEO Thomas Gruebler said.

Persons: Phillip SeLegue, SeLegue, It's, “ They’re, Sonia Kastner, ” Kastner, ”, Larry Bekkedahl, Bekkedahl, “, ” Bekkedahl, Juan Lavista Ferres, Ferres, “ It’s, OroraTech, Thomas Gruebler, Gruebler, Barbara Ortutay Organizations: Firefighters, Microsoft, California Department of Forestry, Portland General Electric, PGE, AP Technology Locations: Maui, San Diego, Francisco, Oregon, Canada, Munich, Chile, Alberta, San Francisco

☆ Guest view: Bank balance sheets hide climate risks
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-15 | by ( Natasha Landell-Mills | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

First, banks’ financial statements appear to be ignoring climate risks, which means financial institutions are probably also leaving those dangers out of their capital calculations. Second, a regulatory regime that understates the expected consequences of climate change is allowing the banks’ blind spot to persist. The few banks that refer to climate risks in their accounts tend to conclude that it is not material. Second, banks need to take a prudent view of climate risks in their financial statements. The sooner the banking sector internalises climate risks in its accounting, the better the chance of building a sustainable future.

Persons: Wells Fargo’s, Banks, Natasha Landell, Mills, Peter Thal Larsen, Oliver Taslic Organizations: Reuters, HSBC, HK, “ Management, prudential, The, Greening, Central, Institute, Faculty of Actuaries, University of Exeter, Institutional, Sarasin, Partners, Thomson

☆ ‘Extremely risky’: OPEC criticizes IEA forecast that fossil fuel demand will peak before 2030
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-14 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Oil producer group OPEC on Thursday sharply criticized the IEA's forecast that demand for fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas will peak before the end of the decade, describing such a narrative as "extremely risky," "impractical" and "ideologically driven." The IEA, the world's leading energy watchdog, said Tuesday that the world was now at the "beginning of the end" of the fossil fuel era. His assessment is based off of the IEA's World Energy Outlook, an influential report which is due out in October. OPEC, a multinational group of mainly Middle Eastern and African nations, published a statement Thursday to outline its objections to the IEA chief's forecast. OPEC said that previous predictions of peak fossil fuel demand had failed to materialize.

Persons: Biden, Fatih Birol, Birol, Haitham, Ghais Organizations: Trans, Trans Alaska Pipeline System, National Petroleum Reserve, Financial Times, Energy, OPEC, IEA Locations: Trans Alaska, Alaska, Delta Junction

Last month was the hottest August on record, topping off the hottest summer on record, according to climate scientists. June through August was the warmest summer on record globally by a “large margin,” according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. Well-above average temperatures also occurred in Australia, several South American countries and around much of Antarctica, according to the service. Climate change certainly left its mark on the summer, with one report finding that more than 80% of humanity – or 4 in 5 people – experienced a hotter July largely due to human-caused climate change. Cartoons on Climate Change View All 167 Images“The dog days of summer are not just barking, they are biting,” António Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations, said in a statement.

Persons: Samantha Burgess, –, António Guterres, El, Burgess Organizations: United Nations Locations: U.S, Europe, Asia, Australia, Antarctica

☆ Mom takes son to Churchill, Canada, for a week of education no school can match
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-26 | by ( Terry Ward | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +14 min

We were in Churchill, a town of roughly 900 people nicknamed the “Polar Bear Capital of the World,” in Canada’s Manitoba province. A male polar bear rests during a Tundra Buggy ride into the Churchill Wildlife Management Area in August. People have to learn to co-exist with polar bears in Churchill, where some of them stay waiting for sea ice to refreeze. Hudson Bay polar bears are among the most vulnerable on Earth because of loss of sea ice, with their numbers in sharp decline. They arrive as soon as the sea ice breaks up to feast on small fish called capelin that spawn here.

Persons: we’re, I’d, Nico, Ursula, Jim Baldwin, Baldwin, Alex Cupeiro, “, Terry Ward, you’re, Terry Ward I’d, we’d, Barba, can’t, Jennifer Diment, “ Churchill, Ward, Chantal Maclean, ”, ” Maclean, ” Nico, Chantal, he’d, John Gunter, Fronters, velcroed, Indiana Jones, Joe, he’d maxed, Sandra Cook, Churchill Organizations: CNN, Polar Bears, Churchill Wildlife Management, Churchill Wildlife Management Area, Frontier North, Zodiac, Helicopters, Bear Holding, “, Churchill Locations: Churchill, Canada’s Manitoba, Florida, Hudson Bay, Hudson, Tampa, Winnipeg, Churchill’s, Svalbard, Norway, Stockholm, Oslo, Toronto, Denver, Vancouver, Washington, Ithaca, SS Ithaca

☆ I Lived Through Canada’s Summer Wildfire Smoke - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-23 | by ( Serge Schmemann | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Nothing like it had ever happened before — these wildfires began far earlier and spread far faster than usual, and they have burned far more boreal forest than any fire in Canada’s modern history. As of this writing, 5,881 wildfires have consumed 15.3 million hectares, about 59,000 square miles, dwarfing the 10-year average of 2.6 million hectares per summer. With the melting Arctic to their north and the immensity of their northern wilderness, Canadians are not strangers to climate anxiety. “Temperatures are rising at the rate we thought they would, but the effects are more severe, more frequent, more critical. China had its heaviest rains in 140 years; record wildfires devastated Greek islands, and the list goes on.

Persons: it’s, ”, Michael Flannigan Organizations: New, Globe, Mail, Thompson Rivers University, World Meteorological Organization Locations: infernos, New York, Canada, Kamloops , British Columbia, Maui, Hawaii, Lahaina, New England, Manatee Bay, South Florida, China

☆ A multitrillion-dollar carbon bubble? Climate chief warns world leaders over fossil fuel plans
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-16 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

The message from the world's leading climate scientists in April last year was that a substantial reduction in fossil fuel use will be necessary to curb global heating. The burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas is the chief driver of the crisis. Indeed, the IPCC said that current fossil fuel use was already more than the planet could handle and additional projects were destined to lock in even greater emissions with devastating consequences. The U.N. climate panel also estimated that fossil fuel investors could be at risk of losing between $1 trillion and $4 trillion if governments act to limit global temperature rise. Despite this, some of the world's richest nations, such as the U.S. and China, have cited energy security as a reason for investing in additional fossil fuel projects.

Persons: Jim Skea, Fabrice Coffrini, Skea, We've, Fethi Belaid, Hoesung Lee, Rishi Sunak's, Danny Lawson, Biden, Mario Tama Organizations: Afp, Getty, CNBC, South, Imperial College London, Greenpeace, United Arab, Social, Trans, Trans Alaska Pipeline System, National Petroleum Reserve Locations: Algeria, Europe, North Africa, East, Asia, staving, China, Ukraine, Paris, Richmond , North Yorkshire, United Arab Emirates, Trans Alaska, Alaska, Delta Junction

☆ Canadian wildfire emissions double previous record as flames rage on
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The estimated Canadian fires emissions account for over 25% of the global total for 2023 to date, and are well above the previous Canadian record of 138 million tonnes registered in 2014, Copernicus said on Thursday. This year's wildfire season is also the worst on record for area burned, with about 131,000 square kilometres (50,579 square miles) already scorched across eastern and western Canada. Wildfire smoke is linked to higher rates of heart attacks, strokes, and more visits to emergency rooms for respiratory conditions. It's estimated that Canada's northern boreal forest stores more than 200 billion tonnes of carbon — equivalent to several decades worth of global carbon emissions. The carbon released is roughly equivalent to Indonesia's annual carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.

Persons: Jesse Winter, Copernicus, Mark Parrington, Ismail Shakil, Aurora Ellis Organizations: REUTERS, OTTAWA, Atmospheric Monitoring Service, Canadian Interagency Forest Fire, New, Thomson Locations: Canada, U.S, Washington, Osoyoos, British Columbia, Greece, New York City, Toronto, Ottawa

☆ How Canada’s Record Wildfires Got So Bad, So Fast
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Nadja Popovich | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +5 min

How Canada’s Record Wildfires Got So Bad, So FastWildfires in Canada have burned a staggering 25 million acres so far this year, an area roughly the size of Kentucky. With more than a month of peak fire season left to go, 2023 has already eclipsed Canada’s previous annual record from 1989, when over 18 million acres were scorched. Hot, dry conditions have fueled widespread wildfires, mostly in Canada’s boreal forests, since the spring, with some of the largest blazes burning in Northwest Canada and Quebec. A heat wave baked British Columbia and Alberta in mid-May, exacerbating several early wildfires. More than 100 times over the past three months, Canadian wildfires have grown sufficiently large and powerful to produce their own weather, kicking up giant thunderclouds known as pyrocumulonibus, and injecting smoke high into the atmosphere.

Persons: ”, Jennifer Kamau, Kamau, “, González, Mike Flannigan, Yan Boulanger, Flanningan Organizations: Canadian Interagency Forest Fire, Madison Dong, Thompson Rivers University, Laurentian Forestry Centre, Times Locations: Canada, Kentucky, Northwest Canada, Quebec, North America, International, United States, Madison, Columbia, Alberta, Northern Canada, Thompson, Kamloops , British Columbia, California

☆ Smoke will keep pouring into the US as long as fires are burning in Canada
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-01 | by ( Alaa Elassar | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +17 min

Massive fires burning in remote areas – like some of those currently burning in northwestern Quebec – are often too out of control to do anything about. Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images Smoke from wildfires in Canada shrouds the view of the Statue of Liberty on Friday in New York. Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images Smoke and haze is seen from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, June 27. Matt McClain/The Washington Post/Getty Images Smoke from Canadian wildfires obscures the visibility in Pittsburgh on June 8. Another issue is the increase in the wildfires are caused by climate change, and are simultaneously making climate change worse.

Persons: ” Robert Gray, you’ve, they’re, “ There’s, don’t, ”, Daniel Perrakis, ” Gray, Shiraaz Mohamed, Gray, “, ” Perrakis, Ed Jones, David Dee Delgado, Gary Hershorn, Haze, Gene J, Jim Watson, Megan Smith, Kamil Krzaczynski, Cpl Marc, Andre Leclerc, Drew Angerer, Shannon Stapleton, Ronald Reagan, Saul Loeb, Matt McClain, Emmalee Reed, Hannah Beier, Mandel Ngan, New York City, Timothy A, Clary, Mike Segar, John Minchillo, Shanita Hancle, Seth Wenig, Matt Rourke, Ting Shen, Matt Slocum, Amr Alfiky, John Meore, Leah Millis, George Washington, Peter Carr, Yuki Iwamura, Kareem Elgazzar, Carlos Osorio, Frank Franklin II, Merrily Cassidy, Spencer Colby, Jason Rock, BJ Fuchs, Anne, Sophie Thill, we’ve, it’s Organizations: CNN, Canadian Forest Service, Firefighters, Getty, ” “, Nature Conservancy, Rockefeller Center, North, Corbis, PNC Park, Major League Baseball, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres, Traffic, Chesapeake, Lincoln Memorial, USA, People, Canadian Forces, Reuters, BC, Service, Xinhua, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Washington Post, Bloomberg, Capitol, Trade, AP Transit, T, Alberta Wildfire, New, New York City, Getty Images Workers, Citizens Bank, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Yankees, Empire, George Washington Bridge, New York State Thruway, Cincinnati Enquirer, Cape Cod Times, Anadolu Agency, Canadian Press, AP, Wildfire Service, Communications, Space, NASA, Reuters Firefighters, Kamloops Fire Rescue, Shining Bank Locations: Wisconsin, Vermont, North Carolina, Canada, Quebec, Canadian, British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Mexico, Costa Rica, Chile, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, South Korea, France, AFP, New Jersey, Manhattan, New York, North America, New, Pittsburgh, Stevensville , Maryland, Washington ,, Chicago, Lake Michigan, Mistissini, Ronald Reagan Washington, Arlington , Virginia, Washington, Philadelphia, Elmont , New York, Baltimore, Evansburg , Alberta, Brooklyn , New York, Piermont , New York, Fort Lee , New Jersey, George, West Nyack, New York's, New York City, Cincinnati, Rock Harbor, Massachusetts, Cape Cod, Ottawa, Fort Nelson, Shelburne County , Nova Scotia, Communications Nova Scotia, Shelburne , Nova Scotia, Fort St, John, Kamloops, Shining Bank , Alberta, Lytton

This year's wildfire season is the worst on record in Canada, with some 76,000 square kilometres (29,000 square miles) burning across eastern and western Canada. "The difference is eastern Canada fires driving this growth in the emissions more than just western Canada," said Copernicus senior scientist Mark Parrington. The carbon they have released is roughly equivalent to Indonesia's annual carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. It's estimated that Canada's northern boreal forest stores more than 200 billion tonnes of carbon — equivalent to several decades worth of global carbon emissions. Canada's wildfire season typically peaks in late July or August, with emissions continuing to climb throughout the summer.

Persons: Cpl Marc, Andre Leclerc, Copernicus, Mark Parrington, Parrington, there's, David Evans, Ed Osmond Organizations: Canadian Forces, REUTERS, Atmospheric Monitoring, Canadian Interagency Forest Fire, New, Thomson Locations: Mistissini, Quebec, Canada, Alberta, British Columbia, New York City, Toronto, Ontario, Europe

Despite a recent global pledge to reach zero deforestation by 2030, tropical forest loss last year exceeded 2021 levels. Global Forest Watch assessed 'primary forests', which includes mature forests that have not been cleared or regrown in recent history. The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Bolivia suffered the greatest losses of tropical forest after Brazil. The Global Forest Watch analysis found deforestation in 2022 was more than 10,000 sq km (3,900 sq miles) in excess of what would be needed to halt it by 2030. The world lost 10% less forest in 2022 than 2021, as fewer big fires burned in the Russian boreal forest, though the country still lost 43,000 sq km (16,600 sq miles) of tree cover last year.

Persons: Jair, Francis Seymour, Rod Taylor, Gloria Dickie, Clarence Fernandez Organizations: Global Forest Watch, World Resources Institute, University of Maryland, Watch, Democratic, Thomson Locations: Switzerland, Brazilian, Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, Democratic Republic of, Congo, Bolivia

☆ ‘The Fires Here Are Unstoppable’
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-17 | by ( Norimitsu Onishi | Renaud Philippe | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

An out-of-control fire was advancing rapidly toward a logging road on Tuesday afternoon, tearing through Canada’s immense — and highly flammable — boreal forest with a force and intensity bewildering to a team of French firefighters. Surrounded by thick smoke, a handful of them headed into the forest to search for water. A veteran knelt down and used his right finger to sketch a plan on the gravel road, pressing to attack the fire head-on. The fire, he said, was of an immensity unimaginable in France. Trying to douse this tiny patch would be “pointless.”

Locations: France

Fires are burning across the breadth of Canada, blanketing parts of the eastern United States with choking, orange-gray smoke. So much wildfire smoke pushed through the border that in Buffalo, schools canceled outdoor activities. The average global temperatures today are more than 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than in the preindustrial era. The trees and grasses of eastern Canada turned to tinder. “We should expect a stunning year of global extremes,” he wrote.

Persons: It’s, El Niño, Justin Trudeau, ”, Alexandra Paige Fischer, Park Williams, Wiliams, Brendan Rogers, haven’t, La, Jeff Berardelli, El, Ada Monzón Organizations: Northern, University of Michigan, Stanford, University of California, Climate Research, El, Twitter Locations: Canada, United States, Puerto Rico, North America, El, Buffalo, Detroit, Los Angeles, Alberta, Vietnam, China, Siberia, WFLA, Tampa Bay, Fla, WAPA

☆ Alberta heads to the polls with Canada's green agenda in balance
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Nia Williams | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/2] Alberta Premier Danielle Smith speaks during the Canada Strong and Free Networking Conference in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada March 23, 2023. The battle between populist Premier Danielle Smith's United Conservative Party (UCP), which is seeking a second consecutive term, and Rachel Notley's left-leaning New Democratic Party (NDP) is expected to be extremely close, pollsters say, even though Alberta is traditionally a conservative bastion. Alberta is Canada's highest-emitting province, largely due to vast oil sands operations in the northern boreal forest and produces 80% of the country's 4.9 million barrels per day of crude oil. She held another major rally in NDP stronghold and Alberta capital Edmonton on Sunday. Polls are open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. local time and the result is expected to be called late Monday night.

CALGARY, Alberta — Judy Greenwood did not want to leave. In much of the western province of Alberta, this time of year has long been wildfire season. As of Tuesday after, about 24,000 people were out of their homes in the sparsely populated, largely northern areas of the province as 88 active wildfires were burning across nearly one million acres. There have already been 412 fires this season — which typically runs from March 1 to Oct. 31 — an unusually high number. And for residents of vulnerable areas, that has evoked uneasy memories of 2016, when raging flames moved from the forest into the oil sands capital of Fort McMurray, Alberta.

☆ World could face record temperatures in 2023 as El Nino returns
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Kate Abnett | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Issei KatoBRUSSELS, April 20 (Reuters) - The world could breach a new average temperature record in 2023 or 2024, fuelled by climate change and the anticipated return of the El Nino weather phenomenon, climate scientists say. During El Nino, winds blowing west along the equator slow down, and warm water is pushed east, creating warmer surface ocean temperatures. "El Nino is normally associated with record breaking temperatures at the global level. Climate models suggest a return to El Nino conditions in the late boreal summer, and the possibility of a strong El Nino developing towards the end of the year, Buontempo said. The world's hottest year on record so far was 2016, coinciding with a strong El Nino - although climate change has fuelled extreme temperatures even in years without the phenomenon.

☆ Exclusive: Huge chunk of plants, animals in U.S. at risk of extinction
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Brad Brooks | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

REUTERS/Luisa GonzalezFeb 6 (Reuters) - A leading conservation research group found that 40% of animals and 34% of plants in the United States are at risk of extinction, while 41% of ecosystems are facing collapse. Importantly, the report pinpoints the areas in the United States where land is unprotected and where animals and plants are facing the most threats. Nearly half of all cacti species are at risk of extinction, while 200 species of trees, including a maple-leaf oak found in Arkansas, are also at risk of disappearing. The threats against plants, animals and ecosystems are varied, the report found, but include "habitat degradation and land conversion, invasive species, damming and polluting of rivers, and climate change." California, Texas and the southeastern United States are where the highest percentages of plants, animals and ecosystems are at risk, the report found.

☆ Photos from space show 11,000 beavers are wreaking havoc on the Alaskan tundra as savagely as wildfire
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Beavers are invading Alaska's Arctic tundra as it warms, transforming the landscape like wildfire. As the Arctic tundra warms, woody plants are growing along its rivers and streams, creating perfect habitats for beavers. The beaver ponds create lush oases that could increase biodiversity, but they also play a role in accelerating the climate crisis. All in all, satellites reveal more than 11,000 beaver ponds have appeared across the tundra. Environmental Research Letters/Imagery © DigitalGlobe"All of western Alaska is now really densely populated with beaver ponds," Tape said.

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