Anthropocene Magazine

The governments of wealthy countries are at odds with their citizens in decision-making about climate action, a new analysis suggests. The disconnect leaves an open goal for right-wing populists who oppose climate action to exploit, says Heinz Welsch, an environmental economist at the University of Oldenburg in Germany, who carried out the research. https://lnkd.in/g3MZq4Nw

Researchers have come up with a wide variety of strategies to get people to adopt more climate-friendly behaviors. But studies evaluating their effectiveness have generally been piecemeal, looking at the effect of individual strategies on individual climate-friendly behaviors. And differences in experimental design make it difficult to compare results across studies. https://lnkd.in/ggEaukA3

Urban farmers markets epitomize an environmentally-conscious lifestyle—home-grown vegetables, paper bags, the occasional beetle in your organic raspberries. Surely nothing could be better for the climate than buying food grown literally just around the corner? But conventional agriculture is now immensely efficient, and operates at a scale that makes pea-patch spuds look like very small potatoes. https://lnkd.in/gxPBunNp

When the laptop company Compaq popularized the term “cloud computing” in the 1990s, it did the tech industry a cumulonimbus-sized favor. Clouds are nebulous and ethereal, mere wisps in an infinite sky. Data centers are anything but. The global cloud comprises 100 million or more individual computer servers, running continuously in over 10,000 factory-sized data centers. https://lnkd.in/gGPpwzfA

The finding of a new paper in PNAS may ruffle the feathers of some consumers and those in the cattle industry who believe that grass-fed beef is less carbon intensive than industrial-farmed cows. https://lnkd.in/gqvtxkCw

With a new solar-powered method that converts sewage sludge into green hydrogen fuel and protein-rich animal feed, researchers have literally turned trash into treasure. The method recovers more than 90% of the organic carbon in the solid waste and completely removes harmful heavy metals. https://lnkd.in/gCGCsu-s

Herbicides have become a key agricultural ingredient for our globalized food systems, but they also create a catch-22. While on the one hand they tackle weeds, they simultaneously weaken the soil quality and organic material that crops need to thrive. Ironically, like the weeds themselves, this threatens yields. https://lnkd.in/gM7_AqxS

Chopping up a forest into smaller bits seems like a bad idea for biodiversity. It risks isolating animals, making it difficult for them to sustain large enough numbers to find a mate, preserve genetic diversity, or withstand a catastrophe such as a drought. But for years, some scientists have argued that breaking a landscape into smaller pieces can be a boon for biodiversity. https://lnkd.in/g2dmAKC4

Hope and worry are the emotions most consistently linked to support for controversial approaches to dealing with greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new study. The findings add to a growing body of research about climate emotions and their relationship to climate change perceptions, behaviors, and support for policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. https://lnkd.in/gtPwzpQa

The world is making slow strides in cutting greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector and transportation. But some industries are stubbornly difficult to decarbonize. Researchers from the University of Leeds now show that 85 percent of these industrial emissions could be cut using available and relatively mature technologies. https://lnkd.in/gsjmj8gS