LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - A crew of scientists from Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory has been making its way through the Ozark Mountains, dodging snakes and poison ivy to study tree rings, to see how they're reacting to climate change.

In much of North America, research has shown climate warming is happening so quickly that trees can't adapt but that isn't the case in the south-central U.S., where temperatures haven't changed much yet.

Research professor Park Williams says some tree species will be more vulnerable than others.

"And if we can identify some species that do very well versus other species that do poorly in the warmth, then maybe we can understand how these tree species may respond in a future world where warming takes place," says Williams.

The team samples trees' yearly growth rings by hand-screwing a long, hollow drill bit into the trunk.

They then correlate the rings to the annual temperature and rainfall amounts in that area.

The project is in the early stages, and Williams says they're trying to secure funding to take it further.

He says it's important to know how trees are doing because when they die, they release large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere and that can warm the planet even further.

Williams calls the Ozarks "the perfect classroom."

"Anybody who's been on a walk in the Ozark Mountains or Smoky Mountains, there's well over 10 dominant tree species, and during summertime, every square inch of possible space is taken up by leaves," says Williams. "Every bit of sunlight is being utilized."

In the next phase of the study, Williams and his colleagues plan to sample hundreds of trees from central Kentucky to where the Great Plains begin.

Trees have started showing signs of the warming climate across the U.S.

Ponderosa pines in the Southwest, and aspens in Colorado, are being wiped out. In California, drought and wildfire could kill some 120 million trees. Williams says that's why this study is crucial.

"If you had one species that started doing really poorly, then very quickly you'd have another species benefit," he says. "And we're really interested in trying to learn who would be the 'winners' and who would be the 'losers' if we had a change in climate? Not just temperature, but if it got wetter because of increased rainfall, who would win and who would die?"


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A diverse coalition of groups is opposing an initiative in Washington that could upend the state's push to make buildings greener and more efficient. Initiative 2066 would stop the state's efforts to transition from natural gas and halt local efforts to do the same.

Kerry Meade, executive director of the Washington state-based organization Building Potential, said the initiative would also roll back back energy-efficiency programs that utility companies are running to help people save on energy costs and install efficient equipment.

"It would pull a lot of funding away from those sorts of programs that support people in being able to cost effectively do that, and a lot of that money actually goes to more low-income and moderate-income customers," Meade said.

Meade noted that equipment like electric heat pumps is less costly than equipment that runs on natural gas. Unions, environmental groups and health organizations are among those opposing the measure. Supporters of the initiative say it will ensure Washingtonians have a choice if they want to use natural gas.

Leah Missik, Washington deputy policy director with Climate Solutions, said it's concerning that the initiative would take away cities' ability to decide on this issue.

"It also is a direct attack on local control. It would prevent local communities, local governments from passing policies around their own communities' energy choice in a way that makes sense to them," she contended.

Missik added that there are many benefits to the state - and the climate - for moving away from natural gas.

"We are future proofing, we are making sure we are resilient as we move along the pathway to more clean energy and protecting folks from the climate crisis and its impact that it's having right now," she continued.

As Ohio continues to embrace clean energy solutions, the debate over its economic and environmental impact remains a focal point for residents.

With solar energy manufacturing on the rise and more jobs emerging in the sector, clean energy is reshaping Ohio's economy.

Tony Zartman, director of programs and operations for the Ohio Conservative Energy Forum, highlighted why the development is significant for the state.

"We are highly concerned with the development of clean energy," Zartman explained. "We want those jobs here in the U.S., we want those jobs here in Ohio and we want the ability to strengthen our grid so that we have national security."

While some critics question the costs, the shift is evident. Ohio's manufacturing sector, ranked third nationally, now employs 9,600 workers in clean energy. However, concerns about energy reliability and balancing new projects with the state's power needs persist.

As more solar manufacturing facilities come online and energy demand grows, ensuring a stable and self-sufficient energy grid has become a pressing concern. Ohio is already importing power from other states, a situation that may worsen without continued investment in local energy production, Zartman contended.

"Ohio uses more power, electrical power, than what we produce," Zartman stressed. "We are now importing power eventually, the new push for electric cars and doing away with gas stoves. We don't have enough now."

Ohio's clean energy growth not only brings economic benefits but also challenges in managing energy resources. As the state leads the Midwest in utility-scale solar power capacity, the future of energy in Ohio is at a crossroads. With more than $6 billion in capital investments and thousands of jobs at stake, the clean energy industry is poised to shape Ohio's economic landscape for years to come.

By Jennifer Oldham for Sierra.
Broadcast version by Eric Galatas for Colorado News Connection reporting for the Solutions Journalism Network-Public News Service Collaboration

Pumps hissed, a camera oscillated, and wind whistled through oil and gas wells at the Methane Emissions Technology Evaluation Center at Colorado State University. The mechanical symphony could be the soundtrack to a revolution in our ability to detect and measure methane, the invisible, odorless "super pollutant" responsible for a third of global greenhouse gas emissions.

The United States is the world's largest producer of oil and gas and its biggest emitter of methane-much of it leaks from oil and gas operations. A raft of new federal and state laws require energy companies to monitor and fix emission leaks. That's why companies are lining up to test methane-detection devices at the Fort Collins facility.

"Things are moving quickly-people have realized legislators aren't messing around," said Ryan Brouwer, facility manager at the testing center. "We have 12 different companies testing now. I am booked until the fall, and we have a waiting list."

Brouwer showed off high-pressure tanks that feed gas into wells, other tanks, and separators. Their valves, pipe joints, and other fittings leak the methane-the main component of "natural gas"-into the air. Then finely tuned handheld sensors, softball-size devices mounted on hefty tripods, and equipment attached to drones and aircraft go to work. These sensors report their readings of the rate, location, and duration of leaks to center scientists, who then compare them with data on the known releases.

Why all the fuss? Because methane is an enormously powerful greenhouse gas, 80 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat. As an article from the Rocky Mountain Institute put it, "If CO2 pollution wraps one blanket around the earth, methane pollution is like wrapping the earth in over 80 blankets." Studies show that eliminating these emissions would lead to immediate benefits for the climate and public health.

The concentration of methane in the atmosphere today is two-and-a-half times preindustrial levels, and accelerating. Agriculture is the largest anthropogenic source (all those belching cows, mostly), followed by oil, coal, gas, and bioenergy, which account for 46 percent of emissions. Rotting organic material in landfills is another major contributor.

Of these offenders, the emissions from fossil fuels are perhaps the easiest to deal with, as it's largely a matter of plugging leaks. According to the International Energy Agency, methane emissions from fossil fuels must drop by three-quarters this decade to meet the Paris Agreement climate goals. Hence the race at the Colorado State center to develop and improve methane-detecting sensors on the ground and in the air. As these technologies improve, scientific studies are finding that earlier calculations widely underestimated the actual amount of the gas in the atmosphere.

"We saw so much variability in methane emissions across the regions," said Evan Sherwin, who led research at Stanford University for a paper published in Nature in March. "If we compare our numbers to the Environmental Protection Agency's numbers, ours were three times higher."

Sherwin worked with a team from Stanford, Kairos Aerospace (now Insight M), and other labs to conduct aerial surveys over six hydrocarbon-producing regions, taking a million measurements over Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania. They estimated that the operations emitted 6.2 million tons of methane a year-equivalent to all the CO2 emissions from fossil fuel use in Mexico.

"We found [that] as low as .05 percent of oil and gas production facilities are responsible for half or more of emissions," said Sherwin, who is now at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. "We really do now have the tools to find the bulk of the emissions that matter pretty rapidly."

In addition to worsening the climate crisis, methane emissions represent an annual loss of $1 billion to the gas companies. The prospect of recovering that leaking gas is incentivizing energy companies worldwide to fix methane leaks discovered by satellites. Six years ago, energy companies in the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative invested in the satellite company GHGSat; they've used the satellites to help detect and quantify leaks in Iraq, Algeria, Egypt, and Kazakhstan. After the results were confirmed with on-the-ground testing, local operators fixed the leaks, said Bjørn Otto Sverdrup, chair of OGCI's executive committee.

"Three problems we discovered were approximately equal to a million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent," he said. "It's like taking away close to 250,000 cars." Methane detection and measurement, he concluded, "is now at a point where we may be able to start moving the needle at scale." Indeed, data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows that the methane increase in the atmosphere in 2023 slowed from the record growth earlier this decade. Even so, the year marked the fifth-highest increase since 2007.

More than a dozen satellites now orbit the planet scanning for methane plumes. Some are privately owned; others are operated by governments and nonprofits. Data from select satellites are available on the International Methane Emissions Observatory's online data portal.

Mark Brownstein is a senior vice president at the Environmental Defense Fund, which developed its own methane-detecting satellite, MethaneSat. "This is data that will provide the most comprehensive amount of emissions and the rate at which they are being emitted," he said. "We see this data as being incredibly important to hold countries and companies accountable to commitments they've made."

Satellites have limitations though. They can't see past cloud cover or over water, and they have time constraints on how much data they can collect from any one location. Consequently, said Dan Zimmerle, the director of Colorado State's methane center, all types of sensors are needed to make progress in fixing leaky oil and gas equipment and spotting flares that fail to fully combust all the gas being vented.

Zimmerle's operation is set to receive $25 million from the Department of Energy and industry partners to modernize equipment, standardize testing solutions, and support field trials of methane-sensing satellites. The team is searching for locations to test how the satellites are performing.

"We will put up a test release," Zimmerle said. "They will task on it, we will get a report from them that says what they saw, and we will compare it to the real thing."


Jennifer Oldham wrote this article for Sierra.


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