Climate Point: Yes, we can put the brakes on climate change via EVs, trees, printed homes
Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate, energy and the environment. I'm Janet Wilson in Palm Springs, California.
Anyone who knows me knows I worry deeply about two things: unchecked climate change and devastating species extinction. My version of a hopeful future for the planet often relies on what a biologist explained to me years ago, when I first realized how truly, ah, stuck we are. He said humans may have evolved to be a destroyer species, like some ant breeds, and once we've wiped out the Earth we currently inhabit, new forms of life will incredibly and inevitably emerge. Definitely the long view, but it's given me strange comfort.
But I was struck by a piece last week by USA Today's Cady Stanton and Elizabeth Weise in the wake of the latest grim UN report. Headlined "Here's the thing about that dire climate report: We have the tools we need to fix things," it outlines how today, with wind power 72% cheaper and solar 90% cheaper than in 2009, we could save ourselves from the worst impacts. Strategies like renewables, smart buildings, electric vehicles and walkable cities have all gotten easier and cheaper to implement.
"We have the knowledge and the technology to get this done," says Inger Anderson, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme.
Addressing climate change is no longer a technological or scientific problem, agrees UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain — it’s a political one.
“We can solve this problem, we’re just choosing not to,” he says, comparing the situation to a train speeding down a hill with dangerous curves ahead. “The engineer has perfectly functional brakes that work fine — he’s just not choosing to apply them.”
So this week, I'm pumping the brakes a bit on my gloomy outlook, and sharing some attempts at solutions, ranging from 3-D printed homes to Sweden clearing out its methane-spewing landfills, along with less cheerful news and reality checks.
Electrifying. California regulators on Tuesday proposed ramping up sales of zero-emission cars to 35% in 2026, and a complete ban on new gasoline or diesel cars by 2035, per CalMatters' Rachel Becker. If enacted, the mandate — the first in the world — could spur national standards. At least 15 other states pledged to follow California’s lead on previous clean-car rules, and federal regulators often follow suit. While many praised the proposal, others, like the Center for Biological Diversity, said it doesn't go far enough fast enough to get the Golden State to its net-zero goals.
Access. Across the country, Massachusetts is spending $5 million to get electric vehicles, e-bikes and information to low-income populations, as Hadley Barndollar with the Patriot Ledger explains. For Uber, Lyft, food delivery drivers and others, climate change isn't always top of mind, but gas price spikes combined with education programs in immigrant communities are opening their eyes to the double win of saving on fuel costs while reducing pollution. Prices of EVs still need to come down, advocates say, but educating diverse consumers that they are not just a luxury option is also key.
Mighty mangroves. Facing disastrous floods in the Sundarbans, an ecological treasure straddling India and Bangladesh, local women are planting hundreds of thousands of additional mangrove trees to bolster protective barriers, reports Suhasini Raj for The New York Times.
“Our land and livelihoods have been battered many times over by raging cyclones and unpredictable, heavy rains,” said Aparna Dhara, 30, dressed in a bright green sari. “The rhythm of our lives is dependent on the ebb and flow of the water around us, making the mangroves our lifelines.”
Big Tech stripes. Google, Facebook owner Meta, Shopify and payment company Stripe announced Tuesday that an alliance they've formed will purchase $925 million in carbon removal credits over the next eight years. The purchases, to be made by a new Stripe-owned company called Frontier, dwarf any previous efforts of their type. The Atlantic's Robinson Meyer, who has tracked Stripe's efforts since 2020, offers a take-out on the pros, and yes, cons.
The company has contracted to buy carbon removal from 14 start-ups, including one trying to capture dangerous emissions in concrete, another seeking to accelerate natural rock weathering; and a third that wants to line beaches with a carbon-capturing mineral called olivine. Ultimately, the private investors want the federal government — aka taxpayers — to pony up to $1 trillion for proven technologies, but for now Stripe, and now Frontier, aims to be a “buyer of first resort,” sending a demand-side signal to entrepreneurs and investors that a large market for permanent carbon removal exists.
Printed houses? The U.S. Department of Energy will spend $5 million on a Tennessee project it hopes will become a model nationwide. Oak Ridge National Lab and the Knoxville Community Development Corporation will retrofit a dozen single-family public housing units to slash home heating costs by using 3D printing to create high-tech insulating shells that fit snugly around existing buildings. The technology trial run will also update the look of the buildings and should save residents lots of cash, writes Vincent Gabrielle with the Knoxville News Sentinel.
Take the trash out. Sweden sends just 1% of Its trash to landfills; the country incinerates nearly half its garbage to create energy that powers its homes and buildings. The programs are so successful that other countries are now shipping waste there to be burned. Critics note incinerators release greenhouse gases too, along with other dangerous compounds. But officials and backers say bulging landfills release extremely fast-acting methane, pumping up global atmospheric warming. Klaus Sieg reports for Reasons to be Cheerful (a site I've just discovered).
Water woes
50-50. Half a century after the Clean Water Act was enacted, about half of U.S. lakes and rivers are still too polluted for fishing, swimming or drinking water. Your lawn and toilet are partly to blame, as runoff from fertilizers, farms and old septic tanks drives harmful algae blooms. Climate change also means heavier rainstorms carry more pollution to warmer waters primed for algae spread. A USA Today team, led by Kyle Bagenstose, took a look at impacted areas across the country, from Lake George and Chesapeake Bay to the Des Moines and Los Angeles Rivers.
There are proposed solutions, including toughening up federal state and local regulation of everything from large farms to small septic systems.
Backed up. About 20% of U.S. households rely on septic systems, many in coastal areas, according to the EPA, and sea-level rise and heavier storms driven by climate change are wrecking tanks, backing up pipes and creating stinky yards, writes Jim Morrison for the Washington Post. Florida has 2.6 million septic systems, and of 120,000 in Miami-Dade County, more than half fail to work properly, helping fuel deadly algae blooms in the nation’s only underwater national park.
Solutions are expensive — $4 billion would be needed to convert Miami-Dade County to a central sewer plant. Permitting standards created when rain and tides were more constant have become inadequate, and disadvantaged people in areas with poor soils are most affected.
“The challenges are going to be immense,” said Scott Pippin with the University of Georgia’s Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems.
Western cuts. In what would be an unprecedented move, the U.S. Interior Department is considering a major midyear cutback in Colorado River water supplies to Arizona, California and Nevada, writes the Arizona Star's Tony Davis. The feds are asking affected state agencies for feedback within a week. As severe drought persists in California and Oregon, the Bureau of Reclamation already announced Monday that farmers and ranchers will be allocated a limited amount of water in the Klamath River Basin this summer, per the L.A. Times' Ian James.
Back east, 1.8 million people are enduring an extended dry spell in eastern North Carolina and coastal areas of South Carolina and Georgia, with rainfall as much as 75% below normal over the past 6 months. Gareth McGrath with the Star News reports.
Hot takes
Get the lead out. HGTV show "Good Bones" reaches settlement for alleged violations of federal lead paint law. Indianapolis Star
Corny. Biden wants to expand ethanol gas blend into summer to ease pump prices. USA Today
Help! Save our national parks from climate change, pleads a dying ranger. Arizona Republic
Logging out. Enviros are pleased with a court ruling protecting a drinking water reservoir in the Hoosier National Forest from logging, but disappointed with other aspects. Indianapolis Star
And another thing
Oh cluck. The U.S. is seeing its worst bird flu outbreak in seven years, sending chicken and egg prices skyrocketing ahead of Easter and Passover. Indiana is ground zero, reports Sarah Bowman with the Indianapolis Star. The first case of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian influenza detected in a commercial flock was reported at a Dubois County turkey farm on Feb. 8. Since then, the disease has spread to farms and backyards across more than half the country and killed nearly 25 million birds.
That's all for this week. For more climate, energy and environment news, follow me on Twitter @janetwilson66. You can sign up to get Climate Point in your inbox for free here.