MIT Climate

Emery County in East Utah boomed when it welcomed two-coal fired power plants in the 1970s, and then saw a dramatic population drop as coal declined. Now, producers who are eager to develop cleaner forms of energy are rediscovering Emery County, tapping into lithium-rich groundwater to create rechargeable batteries and the sharp sunlight that warms the Utah desert for solar power. And in January 2023, Western Uranium & Vanadium Corp announced plans to build a new uranium mill near the city of Green River, reports Environmental Solutions Journalism Fellow Anastasia Hufham for The Salt Lake Tribune. The mill comes with a hefty price tag—$100 million—but the company claims that its separation technology will reduce costs and improve efficiency, making the plant more efficient than any other conventional uranium mill in the country. The mill is set to be a fraction of the size of the White Mesa Mill, the only other conventional uranium mill in the country, while still producing the same amount of uranium. Yet the opening continues to be delayed, leaving uncertainty in a region where energy jobs are critical to the economy. https://lnkd.in/eka6YJck

Among the climate initiatives at stake in today’s election? The “hydrogen hubs” the Biden administration has set up around the country to produce a clean-burning fuel for industry and heavy transportation. One of these hubs sits in Appalachia, at the junction of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, where our MIT Environmental Solutions Journalism Fellow Reid Frazier reports for The Allegheny Front. In a new piece, Frazier asks: what will happen to these hydrogen hubs after the election? If Kamala Harris wins, she will surely continue the clean energy funding passed in 2022. If Donald Trump wins, it’s an open question, Frazier reports. Trump has promised to rescind unspent money from this legislation, which he has called “The Green New Deal” or “The Green New Scam.” But business leaders and industry analysts suspect that much of the funding—a majority of which has gone to Republican congressional districts—will have too much bipartisan support to roll back. And the hydrogen hubs in particular have support from the oil and gas industry, which has been a big donor to Trump’s election campaign. https://lnkd.in/gt34AvS2 

Thank you to everyone who joined us last week for our webinar Climate Reporting in America, exploring the climate reporting projects of our newest cohorts of MIT Environmental Solutions Journalism Fellows! Our fellows discussed their work on major reported series for outlets across the United States, covering the transition to a clean energy economy in Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah and Oregon. Our conversation touched on bridging divides between climate specialists and rural communities; how to thoughtfully pursue honest reporting on the downsides and uncertainties of emerging climate solutions; the resources our fellows drew on to understand and explain complex climate science and technology; and the broader messages they hope readers will take with them as we all navigate the transition to a clean economy. If you missed it, check out the full recording of the webinar today: https://lnkd.in/ejsc9hm6 

The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Indian Reservation in northern Washington felt the costs of climate change during the 2015 wildfire season, when fires burned over 250,000 acres of the tribe’s land. It not only scarred the land—it was also a stark illustration of the perils of the “carbon market” in which the tribe had enrolled, accepting payments to steward the forests so they would store more climate-warming carbon and help offset some of humanity’s climate pollution. Today, at least eight Indigenous nations in the US generate carbon credits valued at hundreds of millions of dollars from their forests. MIT Environmental Solution Journalism Fellow Alex Baumhardt reports for the Oregon Capital Chronicle reports on her conversations with tribal leaders and the governments and private companies who participate in these carbon markets. Are they a way for corporations responsible for environmental degradation to reward and protect Indigenous forest management practices, while contributing to the restoration of our climate? Or a “license to pollute” made more fragile by wildfire and drought? Or some of all the above? https://lnkd.in/eP-jJcV7 

People around the world get more than half of their calories from only three crops: rice, corn, and wheat. But what will happen as climate change alters the weather and soil conditions we grow these staples in? Big cereal crops are relatively resilient to climate change and can shift northward as the world warms, but they’re still vulnerable to changing conditions, says David Des Marais, MIT Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering. In the future, climate change will impact crop yields in different locations, leading to big economic consequences for farmers, who must adapt by switching to new staple crops. Tropical countries, like those in sub-Saharan Africa and Central and South America, are especially vulnerable, already facing high temperatures and variable rainfall. As global temperatures rise, predicting the exact impact on crop yields becomes increasingly difficult. However, we can be confident that the faster we act to control climate pollution, the less agriculture will be disrupted. Without serious action to address climate change, we could see substantial increases in cereal crop prices, leading to food shortages. And not all crops are able to migrate to friendlier climates. Those requiring highly specific conditions to flourish, or “landrances,” are especially at risk. This includes tomato and potato varieties raised by the U.S. Native Nations, and stone fruits that are sensitive in both summer and winter. “It's the ones that are really relied on by local communities or small regions that we're probably going to see the biggest losses from,” says Des Marais. Reducing our planet-warming emissions is the most effective way to help these plants survive. But Des Marais believes other solutions, like seed banks and traditional farming practices, can also contribute.

John Christensen and his wife Julie are small forest owners in the small town of Corbett, Washington, just 30 miles outside of Portland. In 2023, they signed a contract with Forest Carbon Works, binding the future of their forest to a voluntary carbon crediting market in hopes of preserving it, and its vital services to the climate, for decades to come. Their forest is one of the smallest in the nation that is generating carbon credits today. But the Christensens are not the only aging small forest owners concerned about their legacy, reports MIT Environmental Solutions Journalism Fellow Alex Baumhardt for the Oregon Capital Chronicle. The average age of a small forest owner in the US is 65, and carbon crediting companies are beginning to appeal to these owners with a priceless offer: locking up their forest in carbon markets to generate revenue and keep it from being sold to developers and industrial timber companies. https://lnkd.in/gFtkcziU

Launched in 2021, the MIT Environmental Solutions Journalism Fellowship supports talented journalists as they bring deeply-reported climate stories to the news sources Americans trust the most: the local and regional outlets where reporters write about their own communities. This year, our fellows covered local implications of the transition to a clean energy economy in Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, and Oregon. Check out this short video to meet our 2024 summer cohort and learn about their projects: https://lnkd.in/gp3rCjd7 

The most effective carbon-storing forests in the world are the giant conifer forests of the U.S. Northwest. Acre for acre, forests like those in Oregon’s Coast Range absorb and store more planet-warming carbon than nearly any others in the world, including the Amazon Rainforest. These forests have been heavily logged for over a century, but now, companies behind a growing carbon crediting market are banking on the money-making potential of restoring them and helping them grow, reports our Environmental Solutions Journalism Fellow Alex Baumhardt for the Oregon Capital Chronicle. Her series on the promise and challenges of this climate solution is now reaching readers across Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. https://lnkd.in/gyUCcg95 

Today, the amount of carbon in the atmosphere is higher than it has ever been in human history, and temperatures are rising with it. This carbon can come from different places, but the large majority comes from humans burning massive amounts of fossil fuels—coal, oil and gas. But how can we prove it? Carbon from fossil fuels has a unique fingerprint, thanks to one atom: Carbon-14. Unless something is changing in our atmosphere, the percentage of Carbon-14 in the air should remain roughly the same, says Ed Boyle, MIT Professor of Ocean Geochemistry who studies the evolution of Earth’s climate. Carbon comes in several forms, called “isotopes,” the most common being Carbon-12, which doesn’t degrade over time. Carbon-14 is the rarest carbon isotope, and is unstable and radioactive, taking approximately 5,700 years to break down. This trait makes Carbon-14 an invaluable “tracer” molecule, which researchers can use to learn the age of objects that contain carbon—that’s almost every object on Earth, from wooden artifacts to rocks and fossils. Today, the air is gaining Carbon-12, rising by over 4.5 billion tons a year, with very little Carbon-14 in the mix. This changing carbon ratio makes it appear as if the air is “aging.” And this is a huge clue to where the carbon is coming from—a very old reserve of carbon that has already lost all its Carbon-14 to time. The only source that matches the evidence is fossil fuels, which have spent millions of years buried deep underground, any Carbon-14 they contained decaying long ago. “It’s basically just pouring more water into the pool, but the new water doesn’t have Carbon-14 in it. Now, if you were to stop burning fossil fuels entirely, the balance would get restored eventually, but it would take centuries for that to happen,” says Boyle.

Oregon leaders are dedicating a state forest to storing greenhouse gases to combat climate change, while generating revenue from selling carbon credits. The future of the Elliott State Forest has been under negotiations for years, until Tuesday morning, when the State Land Board unanimously voted in favor of the “precedent setting” climate plan, reports Environmental Solutions Journalism Fellow Alex Baumhardt for the Oregon Capital Chronicle. The decision makes Oregon the second U.S. state, after Michigan, to enroll an entire state forest in a plan focused on reducing harmful emissions in exchange for carbon credits. https://lnkd.in/g5ax5fdj