The New York Times reports that, by late July, over 50 fires were burning out of control in the U.S. (this was over 90 by early August). “A wet winter and spring, which allowed vegetation to grow quickly, followed by record-breaking heat across much of the West have led to textbook fire-burning conditions.” Around 4.4 million acres have burned in 2024, indicating 2024 could top the 10-year average of 7 million acres burned. The Park Fire in Northern California grew to be the fifth-largest fire in the state’s history in just a week, and could become its largest ever before the fire is extinguished (more than 6,000 people are working to contain the Park Fire). Major fires are also burning in Colorado, Washington, Russia, the Amazon, Greece and Canada.

The New York Times examines our new era of fire, with the frequency and intensity of wildfires more than doubling in the last twenty years. These changes are consistent with the effects of global warming, as hotter temperatures dry out forests and grasslands. Fire season is starting earlier and ending later, and fires are burning in areas such as southern Louisiana and the Amazon that used to be considered too wet to support major wildfires. Another article notes that fires are burning more than twice as much tree cover as they did 20 years ago, and this is changing forests, particularly the great northern (boreal) forests in Canada that store enormous amounts of carbon in soils. This material also burns in the fires, along with tree seedlings, making it impossible for the existing ecosystem to regenerate. As one analyst noted, “Fire is here to stay. We really have to learn to live with it rather than work against it.” Inside Climate News notes that a new study is expected to conclude that “wildfires could cost the U.S. economy nearly $90 billion this year.”

The Guardian reports on the vulnerability of vital infrastructure in coastal communities to sea level rise. A recent study from the Union of Concerned Scientists documents that a variety of assets, from housing to sewage-treatment plants, are located in places that will be inundated regularly in the coming decades. “California, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts and New Jersey have the most critical infrastructure that needs to be made more flood resilient — or be relocated to safer ground.” The study noted that “more than half the critical assets facing frequent flooding by 2050 are located in communities already disadvantaged by historic and current structural racism, discrimination and pollution.”

The Washington Post visits the site of a facility that will produce liquefied natural gas (LNG) in southern Louisiana. Located in a region experiencing accelerated sea level rise, the facility is being constructed with a 26-foot-high steel sea wall. The wall also descends 60 feet underground, and the facility is supported by hundreds of 200-foot-deep pilings. Shipping LNG to Europe is very profitable, and this has accelerated the construction of LNG terminals along the Gulf Coast. “Eight U.S. LNG export plants are already up and running, and federal regulators have approved seven others.” The Post notes the irony of having to armor these facilities, at considerable expense, to guard against extreme weather — to which their products are contributing.

The New York Times describes recent research on atolls and small ocean islands. These places have long been considered highly vulnerable to sea level rise because of their low elevation. The research notes that the actual processes, as with most things in environmental science, are more complex than one might have thought. Depending on the waves and ocean currents, some parts of islands are eroding, while others are growing.

Grist describes how a new executive order signed by President Biden will require FEMA to consider climate change as it decides where and how to repair and rebuild structures damaged by flooding. FEMA has long been criticized for rebuilding structures in places where flood risk is high and getting higher, thereby ensuring future losses when flood-insurance premiums cannot even cover existing damage. The agency will now be integrating sea level rise and increased erosion rates when it considers where and how to rebuild. In Houston, such changes made after the impact of Hurricane Harvey in 2017 are credited with preventing damage during the recent flooding triggered by Hurricane Beryl.

Widespread wind damage and flooding resulted from Hurricane Debby striking the southern and eastern U.S. The New York Times reviews how climate change is making hurricanes stronger and wetter. The Times visits farmers in Vermont who are trying to adapt as intense floods become more frequent in that state.

The New York Times reviews the sources of electrical power in different states of the U.S., and how this mix has changed over the last two decades. “Last year, coal was the top electricity fuel in 10 states, down from 32 states in 2001. Natural gas largely took over during that time, but wind also emerged as a leading power source across the Midwest.” Wind power is particularly plentiful in Iowa and Kansas.

The Guardian reports on recent measurements documenting a troubling rise in the emissions of methane worldwide. Sources include natural-gas production and use, animal agriculture and some natural emissions from flooded lands. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, but has a much shorter lifetime in the atmosphere. Consequently, efforts to curb methane emissions are an effective way of reducing global warming in the next few decades.

Climate scientist Zeke Hausfather has an excellent essay on Climate Brink that describes a vital reality of the climate crisis: our future climate is determined by the total amount of carbon we emit, not just current or future emissions. Unlike more conventional pollution problems where, when emissions are reduced, the impacts begin to recede quickly, much of the carbon we emit stays in the atmosphere for millennia. All that time it is capturing heat that is changing our climate. He suggests that we conceptualize the problem as our “carbon debt.” Even if we stop emissions tomorrow, we face a carbon debt we’ve already incurred, and the only way to reduce that debt (and thus the consequent climate impacts) is to permanently remove carbon from the atmosphere. This is why the global modeling scenarios that keep the Earth’s future temperature at 1.5°C or 2°C above the pre-industrial baseline have to include a major carbon-removal effort in the second half of this century. At present, this effort is one step removed from hand-waving, as nobody knows how we’ll accomplish carbon removal on the global scale required.

Yale e360 describes plans to repurpose oil fields in Kern County, CA, to store heat generated from solar energy in water that is pumped into underground reservoirs (created by oil extraction). That super-heated water is then brought to the surface and used to generate electricity when electrical demand rises in the evening. Over 68% of Kern County’s 28,000 oil and gas wells are no longer producing, and repurposing them in this manner could be a valuable new industry for the region (which is struggling with the energy transition, as reported by Grist). This could also provide an alternative energy-storage solution to batteries.

Anthropocene Magazine summarizes a Stanford University study that examined storing excess electricity as heat in firebricks, an inexpensive method for conserving heat that has been used in kilns, ovens and other applications for centuries. Unused energy from renewables, stored in the bricks, could then be recovered for use in industrial processes (17% of global carbon-dioxide emissions come from concrete and steel manufacturing). The study concluded that firebricks could significantly cut the cost of transitioning to clean energy.

< back to news+views