
Guest post: What the tiny remaining 1.5C carbon budget means for climate policy
The latest estimates from the Global Carbon Project (GCP) show that total worldwide CO2 emissions in 2022 have reached near-record levels.
The GCP’s estimates put the remaining carbon budget for 1.5C – specifically, the amount of CO2 that can still be emitted for a 50% chance of staying below 1.5C of warming – at 380bn tonnes of CO2 (GtCO2). At the current rate of emissions, this budget would be blown in just nine years.
While that is a disconcertingly short amount of time, the budget for 1.5C may actually be even tighter.

Communicating the human causes of global warming increases public engagement
Importantly, there were no backlash effects among Republicans, and in fact understanding increased among Republicans more than among Democrats, on average. This suggests that when informed about climate change causes, impacts, and solutions, most Americans will update their own climate change beliefs, risk perceptions, and policy support….

Three-quarters of Montana farmers, ranchers anxious about climate change, survey finds
Paul Lachapelle of Montana State University says the growing risks and uncertainty are taking a toll on farmers’ and ranchers’ mental health.
He and co-researchers surveyed about 120 Montana farmers and ranchers.
“Nearly three quarters noted they were experiencing moderate to high levels of anxiety when thinking about climate change and its effects on their agricultural business,” Lachapelle says.

Person to follow: Mara Hoplamazian
Mara Hoplamazian reports on climate change, energy, and the environment for NHPR, part of our By Degrees initiative. They joined the station in 2021 as a Couch Fellow. Originally from Chicago, Mara earned their undergraduate degree in American Studies from Yale University. Mara uses the pronouns they/them/theirs. You can email them at mhoplamazian@nhpr.org, or get in touch through Twitter @/mara_hop.

Our solution to climate change? Democracy.
We empower everyday people to work together on climate solutions…

Ensuring that NbS support thriving human and ecological communities
Their mission is to enhance understanding of the value of nature-based solutions to societal challenges and to help ensure they support thriving human societies and ecosystems without compromising efforts to keep fossil fuels in the ground…

Americans beginning to correlate extreme weather with a climate crisis, but purse strings are still tight
Broader socioeconomic factors are also affecting those who are experiencing weather events, and more importantly, how these parties can financially respond to these events — and thus how willing they are to pay even more.
For instance, only 29% of households that experienced extreme events had 100% of their damages covered by insurance. Renters though had it worse — with those who have experienced extreme events being uninsured 70% of the time…

A review of invasive species reporting apps for citizen science and opportunities for innovation
While more reporting apps are developed each year, innovation across diverse functionalities and data management in this field are occurring separately and simultaneously amongst numerous research groups with little attention to trends, priorities, and opportunities for improvement.
This creates the risk of duplication of effort and missed opportunities for implementing new and existing functionalities that would directly benefit IAS research and management…

Estimated % of adults who think global warming is happening
These maps show how Americans’ climate change beliefs, risk perceptions, and policy support vary at the state, congressional district, metro area, and county levels. NOTE: The Congressional District data are based on the 116th Congress. Recent and ongoing redistricting means that some of these data are not current (e.g. North Carolina) for the Congressional District level.

Person to know: Katharine Hayhoe
Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist and Christian, is working to bring hope to the climate change debate.