Yale e360 · Page 62

As efforts grow to store more CO2 emissions in forests, one sector has been overlooked — small, family-owned woodlands, which comprise 38 percent of U.S. forests. Now, a major conservation initiative is aiming to help these owners manage their lands for…

Mining sites across the globe have become hot spots for coronavirus infections, threatening thousands of workers and indigenous and rural communities, according to a new report by a coalition of environmental watchdog groups. Outbreaks of the virus have…

With a sharp drop in auto traffic due to the coronavirus, cities around the globe have closed streets to cars and expanded pedestrian thoroughfares and bike lanes. But as life edges back to normal, will these initiatives survive, especially if virus-wary…

Climate change is altering the age and structure of the world’s forests, driving an increase in younger and shorter trees over the last century, according to a new study published in the journal Science. Since 1900, the world has lost more than a third of…

New research finds that marshes in the Mississippi River Delta have hit a tipping point and will likely drown this century due to sea level rise. The study, which examined 8,500 years of marsh paleorecords, contradicts other research that suggests…

As locations for wind energy fill up onshore and near-shore, companies are deploying floating turbines that can be sited in deep waters, out of view from the coast. Proponents contend the new technology could boost the wind industry, but daunting challenges,…

Despite the global plunge in oil prices, a major pipeline that would carry oil 900 miles across East Africa is moving ahead. International experts warn that the $20 billion project will displace thousands of small farmers and put key wildlife habitat and…

Daily global greenhouse gas emissions declined 17 percent by early April compared to 2019 levels due to coronavirus-related shutdowns around the world, according to new research published in the journal Nature Climate Change. Daily emissions from cars and…

As forests in California and the Western U.S. are hit by rising numbers of fires and disease outbreaks related to climate change, some experts argue that using dead and diseased trees to produce biomass energy will help to restore forests and reduce CO2…

The human cost of the climate crisis will hit harder, wider, and sooner than previously believed, according to a study that shows a billion people will either be displaced or forced to endure insufferable heat for every additional 1 degree Celsius rise in the…

Canada announced that in order for businesses to receive COVID-19 economic aid, they will be required to disclose their climate impacts and commit to making environmentally sustainable decisions, E&E News reported. The condition is part of the country’s new…

Long before the virus, Americans had become socially isolated, retreating into sprawling suburbs and an online world of screens. When we emerge from our pandemic-mandated separation, can we reconnect with each other and reconsider how the way we live impacts…

The United States’ largest solar project to date received final approval from the Department of the Interior, clearing the way for the $1-billion, 690-megawatt array to break ground on federal land in the Mojave desert in Nevada, several news outlets…

The short-term prospects for wind and solar power look rocky amid the economic upheaval of the coronavirus. But long term, renewables could emerge stronger than ever, experts say, especially if governments integrate support for clean energy into COVID-19…

Loggers in Tunisia are taking advantage of the country’s coronavirus restrictions, increasingly entering forests after a national curfew to illegally fell thousands of trees in the darkness of night. In early April, loggers in the northwest region of Ain…

Scientist Sacoby Wilson has long focused on health issues related to environmental injustice. In an e360 interview, he discusses how social and environmental inequality have contributed to the outsized impact of COVID-19 on low-income neighborhoods and…

Scientists have discovered microplastic hotspots on the ocean floor, formed by deep-sea currents that act as conveyor belts moving tiny plastic fragments around. One such hotspot, in the Tyrrhenian Sea, part of the Mediterranean Sea, had 1.9 million…

Officials in Charleston, South Carolina have endorsed a $2 billion plan to wall off the historic downtown from rising seas and surging storms. It is the latest in a growing number of extravagantly expensive seawalls and barriers being proposed to defend U.S.…

Nations are expected to build nearly 15,000 miles of new roads through tiger habitat by mid-century, driven by major infrastructure projects such as China’s Belt and Road Initiative, according to a new analysis published in the journal Science Advances. The…

Long reliant on the vast oil reserves of its tar sands, Alberta is now facing a reckoning as its oil industry is clobbered by the coronavirus downturn. With tar sands operations shedding jobs, a movement is growing to retrain oil workers for the emerging…