Researchers using satellite imaging have found much greater than expected deforestation since 2000 in the highlands of Southeast Asia, a critically important world ecosystem. The findings are important because they raise questions about key assumptions made in projections of global climate change as well as concerns about environmental conditions in Southeast Asia in the future.
Zhenzhong Zeng, a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University and the lead author of a July 2 article describing the findings in Nature Geoscience, said the researchers used a combination of satellite data and computational algorithms to reach their conclusions. The report shows a loss of 29.3 million hectares of forest (roughly 113,000 square miles or about twice the size of New York State) between 2000 and 2014. Zeng said that represents 57 percent more loss than current estimations of deforestation made by the International Panel on Climate Change. He said most of the forest has been cleared for crops.
Because forests absorb atmospheric carbon, and burning forests contribute carbon to the atmosphere, loss of forests could be devastating. An accurate estimation of forest cover also is critical for assessments of climate change. Zeng also said transformation of mountainous regions from old forest to cropland can have widespread environmental impacts from soil retention to water quality in the region.
Read more at Southeast Asian Forest Loss Greater than Expected, with Negative Climate Implications
In a special edition of the journal Public Library of Science (PLOS) Medicine dedicated to climate change, a team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison makes some dire predictions. They forecast that air conditioning used to cool our buildings will further add to air pollution, causing as many as a thousand additional deaths annually in the Eastern United States alone.
“What we found is that air pollution will get worse,” explains David Abel, the lead author of the new report and a UW-Madison graduate student in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies’ Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment. “There are consequences for adapting to future climate change.”
It’s a good example of a feedback loop: greenhouse gas emissions cause summer temperatures to get hotter and hotter. People want to cool themselves, so they turn on the AC, which uses more energy and causes more emissions.
Read more at In a Warming World Air Conditioning Only Makes Things Worse
Along with education to the public that demystifies electric cars and EV charging, we must dispel many misleading myths. As clean air advocates, we need to work for change in our local communities and states.
Plug In America and the Sierra Club have made that a bit easier to actualize. They released the AchiEVe: Model State & Local Policies to Accelerate Electric Vehicle Adoption toolkit. This policy guide details the most effective policies for growing the electric vehicle (EV) market at the state, city, and local levels.
“The EV market is growing rapidly, but we need a strong policy to support the market’s transition from the early adopter phase into the mass market stage. This toolkit will help policymakers, utilities, and clean transportation advocates implement policies in their local communities that will expand electric vehicle adoption in ways that are both effective and equitable,” says Mary Lunetta, Campaign Representative for Sierra Club’s Electric Vehicles Initiative and one of the main authors of the report.
Read more at Plug In America & Sierra Club Release the AchiEVe: Model State & Local Policies to Accelerate Electric Vehicle Adoption
Forests, one of the most dominate ecosystems on Earth, harbor significant biodiversity. Scientists have become increasingly interested in how this diversity is enhanced by the sheltering microclimates produced by trees.
A recent University of Montana study suggests that a warming climate in the Pacific Northwest would lessen the capacity of many forest microclimates to moderate climate extremes in the future.
The study was published in Ecography: A Journal of Space and Time in Ecology.
"Forest canopies produce microclimates that are less variable and more stable than similar settings without forest cover," said Kimberley Davis, a UM postdoctoral research associate and the lead author of the study. "Our work shows that the ability of forests to buffer climate extremes is dependent on canopy cover and local moisture availability -- both of which are expected to change as the Earth warms."
She said many plants and animals that live in the understory of forests rely on the stable climate conditions found there. The study suggests some forests will lose their capacity to buffer climate extremes as water becomes limited at many sites.
"Changes in water balance, combined with accelerating canopy losses due to increases in the frequency and severity of disturbance, will create many changes in the microclimate conditions of western U.S. forests," Davis said.
Read more at Forests May Lose Ability to Protect Against Extremes of Climate Change, Study Finds
