As rising seas increase saltwater intrusion and soaring temperatures cause greater evaporation, scientists say that the mounting levels of salt in waters and in soils pose a major climate-related danger and could become a leading cause of climate migration globally.
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Solutions
Panama’s Indigenous Groups Wage High-Tech Fight for Their Lands
With help from U.S. organizations, Panama’s Indigenous people are using satellite images and other technologies to identify illegal logging and incursions by ranchers on their territory. But spotting the violations is the easy part — getting the government to act is far harder.
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Pollution
In the Wake of Coup, Gold Mining Boom Is Ravaging Myanmar
With a military junta retaking power last year, a gold rush is increasingly despoiling rivers in the Myanmar state of Kachin, polluting water with mercury, destroying riverbanks and farmland, and disrupting the traditional way of life of the region’s ethnic groups.
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INTERVIEW
For Gen Z, Climate Change Is a Heavy Emotional Burden
Britt Wray is a leading researcher on the mental health impact of climate change. In an e360 interview, she talks about the rise of climate anxiety in young people, how social media exacerbates this trend, and why distress about the climate crisis can spur positive change.
Cities
A Quiet Revolution: Southwest Cities Learn to Thrive Amid Drought
Facing a changing climate, some southwestern U.S. cities such as San Diego, Phoenix, and Las Vegas have embraced innovative strategies for conserving and sourcing water, providing these metropolitan areas with sufficient water supplies to support their growing populations.
E360 Digest
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Recent European Drought Was the Most Intense in At Least 250 Years
The 2018 to 2020 European drought was the worst in more than two centuries, driven in part by uncommonly high temperatures that exacerbated dry conditions across large parts of the continent, new research finds. More about Recent European Drought Was the Most Intense in At Least 250 Years →
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Laser Imaging Reveals How Fire Renews Sierra Nevada Forests
Plane-mounted laser imaging has allowed scientists to map the size, shape, and density of trees in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California, revealing how low- and moderate-intensity burns make forests more resilient to larger blazes.
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Climate Change Will Limit How Much Carbon Forests Take Up, New Research Shows
Governments are increasingly looking to forests to draw down carbon pollution, but worsening droughts threaten to stunt tree growth, while larger wildfires and insect infestations risk decimating woodlands, two new studies show. More about Climate Change Will Limit How Much Carbon Forests Take Up, New Research Shows →
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Biodiversity
Bringing Back Fire: How Burning Can Help Restore Eastern Lands
For millennia, North American ecosystems benefited from fire, mostly set by Indigenous people. Now, a movement is growing, particularly in the eastern U.S., to reintroduce controlled burns to forests and grasslands and restore the role of fire in creating biodiverse landscapes.
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ANALYSIS
How U.S. Gas Exports to Europe Could Lock in Future Emissions
The U.S. plans to boost liquefied natural gas exports to Europe to help the EU reduce its dependence on Russian gas. This could spur an expansion of LNG terminals, which analysts say would lead to long-term increases in gas production and greenhouse gas emissions.
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CLIMATE
Why Are Nature-Based Solutions on Climate Being Overlooked?
Nature-based initiatives, such as planting mangroves and revitalizing wetlands, have proven effective in making communities more resilient to climate change. But international funding has shortchanged such solutions in favor of more costly and less efficient engineering projects.
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INDUSTRY
Amid Hopes and Fears, a Plastics Boom in Appalachia Is On Hold
The rise of fracking in Appalachia has fed visions of turning the Ohio River Valley into a petrochemical and plastics hub. But overproduction of plastic, opposition to natural gas pipelines, and public concern about rampant plastic waste are upending those plans.
