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Elk In The Mountains
Reuters, Jim Yurquhart

Wildlife diseases poised to spread northwards as climate changes: study

As the world’s climate warms, parasite-carried wildlife diseases will move north, with animals in cold far-north and high-altitude regions expected to suffer the most dramatic increases, warns a study to be published…in the journal Science.

The study projects increasing spread over the next five decades of wildlife diseases caused by bacteria, fungi, viruses, and infectious worms. There are serious implications for humans, said co-author Jason Rohr of the University of Notre Dame, Indiana…

If warming is slowed, however, there will be “much, much smaller increases in infectious disease in wildlife,” Rohr said…

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Candy Cane Lane
Marcin Kilarski, Getty Images

Ninety percent of U.S. cars must be electric by 2050 to meet climate goals

The United States is not expected to electrify passenger cars fast enough to stay on track with the Paris climate accord’s goal of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, according to a new study.

Published in the journal Nature Climate Change yesterday, the study by engineers at the University of Toronto concludes that 90% of light-duty cars on American roads would need to be electric by 2050 to keep the transportation sector in line with climate mitigation targets…

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Smoke Stack
Creative Commons

Sources of greenhouse gas emissions

Greenhouse gases trap heat and make the planet warmer. Human activities are responsible for almost all of the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere over the last 150 years. The largest source of greenhouse gas emissions from human activities in the United States is from burning fossil fuels for electricity, heat, and transportation…

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Ev Charging Station
Desmog

Climate deniers are claiming EVs are bad for the environment—again. Here’s why they’re wrong.

new paper published Tuesday, November 17, by the conservative think tank the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), raises environmental concerns with electric vehicles in what appears to be the latest attempt by organizations associated with fossil fuel funding to pump the brakes on the transportation sector’s transition away from petroleum and towards cleaner electricity.

In the U.S., the transportation sector is the largest contributor to planet-warming emissions. Climate and energy policy experts say electrifying vehicles is necessary to mitigate these emissions.

In fact, scientists recently warned that if the country has any hope of reaching the Paris climate targets of limiting warming to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), 90 percent of all light-duty cars on the road must be electric by 2050.

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Cows On Savanna
Mastodon Valley Farm video

Wisconsin farmer mimics ecosystem where mastodons and ground sloths once roamed

Peter Allen is taking inspiration from the oak savannas that were once widespread in the Midwest.

He says conventional agriculture depletes the soil, but this approach to raising livestock can help build topsoil and store carbon.

“We’ve grown about three inches of topsoil in six years,” Allen says. “So that’s really inspiring.” By learning from the past, Allen hopes to produce food while also preserving savanna ecosystems for the future.

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Beer And Crisps
Getty Images

Beer and crisps used to help tackle climate change

The much-loved combination of beer and crisps is being harnessed for the first time to tackle climate change.

Crisps firm Walkers has adopted a technique it says will slash CO2 emissions from its manufacturing process by 70%.

The technology will use CO2 captured from beer fermentation in a brewery, which is then mixed with potato waste and turned into fertilizer…

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Tree Magic In The Forest
Screenshot from CODY COBB video

Why old-growth trees are crucial to fighting climate change

Nature is already socking away a lot of carbon for us. It could soak up a lot more—if we help. This story dives into the science behind forests and carbon sequestration.

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World On A Dollar
Yale Climate Connections

Fighting climate change: Cheaper than ‘business as usual’ and better for the economy

The often-repeated and seldom-challenged view that climate change solutions are expensive and uneconomical has long dampened public support in the U.S. for even common-sense measures.

Seldom do proponents of those views enumerate the costs or mention the alternative costs of continuing to extract and burn fossil fuels to meet society’s energy needs. But in this era of costly hurricanes, wildfires, and floods, melting polar ice and rising sea levels, it should be obvious that the price of the status quo is already high and increasing. Failing to curb global warming has started bringing more frequent climate catastrophes with crushing economic and humanitarian costs. And prices of green technology solutions are falling rapidly; many are already cheaper than fossil fuel alternatives and will more than pay for themselves over time…

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Ferns
Judy Anderson

Carbon Offsets in Conservation Easements: The Essentials for Land Trusts

With the New Year approaching, it’s the perfect time (in January) to contemplate what you and your local land trust can do to help slow down climate change.

This 2020 publication offers practical guidance to land trust practitioners on drafting conservation easements to (1) allow the development of carbon offset projects; and (2) convey or clarify the ownership of the carbon offsets generated by such a project. For a more holistic overview of carbon offset projects, see the Alliance’s Carbon Markets: Are They Right for Your Land Trust? publication.

Price for dowload:
Alliance Member: free
Non-Member: $18

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Land
Brad Kreps

Conservation group plots solar potential for retired Appalachian coal mine land

In 2016, Wells [the regional director of community and economic development for Appalachian Voices] spearheaded the formation of the Solar Workgroup of Southwest Virginia to figure out how to incorporate renewable energy into an economic transition in the state’s seven coalfield counties.

It’s a coalition of nonprofits, community action agencies, colleges, state agencies, and planning district commissions. Workgroup members are in the midst of jump-starting more than a dozen rooftop solar projects stalled by a number of obstacles.

“The notion of solar farms being part of a reclamation plan has been flirted with for years and years,” said Wells, a Wise County native…

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