2023 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #8
A chronological listing of news and opinion articles posted on the
Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Feb 19, 2023 thru Sat, Feb 25, 2023.
Story of the Week
Podcast: Goodbye to blue skies? The trouble with engineered solutions
- Humanity has created a lot of ecological problems, and many of the proposed solutions come with giant price tags — or the things lost can even be priceless, like the sight of a blue sky — with no guarantee of solving the situation in the long term.
- Many such solutions — like Australia’s deliberate introduction of the toxic cane toad, which has wreaked havoc on the country’s wildlife — create new problems.
- Solar geoengineering to slow climate change would have the most visible effect to all, likely making the sky appear white: No more blue skies—but how would this affect the global plant community’s ability to photosynthesize, would it harm agriculture?
- Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Kolbert joins the Mongabay Newscast to talk about her latest book, “Under a White Sky,” which examines these interventions, the problems they come with and humanity’s seeming inability to stop turning to them.
From pumping aerosols into the atmosphere to combat climate change to gene-editing invasive species, human beings continue to conjure up technological or “miracle” fixes to ecological ills, many of which stem from previous things society has done. Whether it’s electrifying rivers to prevent Asian carp from entering the U.S. Great Lakes or $14.5 billion levees to keep the city of New Orleans from sinking, temporarily, humanity continually creates mega solutions that often fail, while harming biodiversity.
“We seem incapable of stopping ourselves,” argues journalist Elizabeth Kolbert. Her latest book, “Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future,” explores many of these projects, chapter by chapter, in what she describes as “sort of a dark comedy.”
She joins the Mongabay Newscast this week to talk about what she found while writing the book and why she urges readers to be skeptical of these machinations.
Click here to access the entire article as originally posted on the Mongabay website.
Podcast: Goodbye to blue skies? The trouble with engineered solutions by Mike DiGirolamo, Mongabay, Feb 21, 2023
Also see:
Exclusive: Inside a Controversial Startup's Risky Attempt to Control Our Climate by Alejandro de la Garza, Climate Adaptation, Time Magazine, Feb 21, 2023
Why Billionaires are Obsessed With Blocking Out the Sun by Alejandro de la Garza, Climate Adaptation, Time Magazine, Feb 24, 2023
Links posted on Facebook
Sun, Feb 19, 2023
- Will global warming make temperature less deadly? by Harry Stevens, Climate Environment, Washington Post, Feb 16, 2023
- Whale deaths exploited in 'cynical disinformation' campaign against offshore wind power, advocates say by Elizabeth Weise & Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA Today, Feb 11, 2023
- Just How Good for the Planet Is That Big Electric Pickup Truck? by Elena Shao, Climate, New York Times, Feb 18, 2023
- How Climate Change Is Making Tampons (and Lots of Other Stuff) More Expensive by Coral Davenport, Climate, New York Times, Feb 18, 2023
Mon, Feb 20, 2023
- Discovery could improve the lifespan of next-generation solar cells by E&T Editorial Staff, E&T (Engineering & Technology) Magazine, Feb 16, 2023
- An activist group is spreading misinformation to stop solar projects in rural America by Miranda Green & Michael Copley, KEDM Public Radio/NPR National News, Feb 18, 2023
- Public Lands in the US Have Long Been Disposed to Fossil Fuel Companies. Now, the Lands Are Being Offered to Solar Companies by Wyatt Myskow, Clean Energy, Inside Climate News, Feb 19, 2023
- South American drought in 2022 partly driven by ‘triple-dip’ La Niña by Ayesha Tandon, Exttrreme Weather, Carboln Brief, Feb 16, 2023
Tue, Feb 21, 2023
- Guest post: How quickly does the world need to ‘phase down’ all fossil fuels? by Greg Muttitt, Dr James Price, Dr Steve Pye & Dr Daniel Welsby, Carbon Brief, Feb 16, 2023
- Renewables will be world’s top electricity source within three years, IEA data reveals by Simon Evans, Renewables, Carbon Brief, Feb 8, 2023
- At a glance - What were climate scientists predicting in the 1970s? by John Mason & BaerbelW, Skeptical Science, Feb 21, 2023
- Corporations push “insetting” as new offsetting but report claims it is even worse by Matteo Civillini, Finance, Climate Home News, Feb 20, 2023
Wed, Feb 22, 2023
- Venice canals run dry amid fears Italy faces another drought by Reuters, CNN, Feb 21, 2023
- Why Is the Amazon So Important for Climate Change? by Emma Bryjce, Environment, Scientific American, Feb 20, 2023
- A historic three-day storm will bring snow, ice and extreme cold across the US by Aya Elamroussi, CNN, Feb 22, 2023
- Stronger El Niño events may speed up irreversible melting of Antarctic ice, research finds by Adam Morton, Environment, The Guardian, Feb 21, 2023
Thu, Feb 23, 2023
- Podcast: Goodbye to blue skies? The trouble with engineered solutions by Mike DiGirolamo, Mongabay, Feb 21, 2023
- More than 850,000 power outages reported in cross-country winter storms, with more snow, icing and blizzard conditions ahead by Elizabeth Wolfe, Rob ShackelfordJoe Sutton, CNN, Feb 23, 2023
- Biden administration announces first-ever wind energy lease sale in Gulf of Mexico by Ella Nilsen, CNN, Feb 22, 2023
- How the U.S. Is Planning to Boost Floating Wind Power by David Iaconangelo, E&E News/Scientific American, Feb 23, 2023
Fri, Feb 24, 2023
- China provinces and Florida rank among the world’s most climate-vulnerable areas by Emma Newburger & Gabriel Cortés, CNBC, Feb 22, 2023
- In New England, climate change is imperiling a winter tradition by, Joanna Slater, Postcards from America, Washington Post, Feb 20, 2023
- Climate change is increasing the risk of infectious diseases worldwide by Neha Pathak, Yale Climate Connections, Feb 22, 2023
- Exclusive: Inside a Controversial Startup's Risky Attempt to Control Our Climate by Alejandro de la Garza, Climate Adaptation, Time Magazine, Feb 21, 2023
Sat, Feb 25, 20234
- Why Billionaires are Obsessed With Blocking Out the Sun by Alejandro de la Garza, Climate Adaptation, Time Magazine, Feb 24, 2023
- Climate Misinformation Is Now Our Main Competitor by Harriet Kingaby, Common Dreams, Feb 22, 2023
- Skeptical Science New Research for Week #8 2023 byDoug Bostrom & Marc Kodack, Skeptical Science, Feb 23, 2023
- Filling an editorial policy hole by SkS Team, Skeptical Science, Feb 24, 2023
Posted by John Hartz on Saturday, 25 February, 2023
