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How Efforts To Save Hawaii's Forests Are Preventing A 'Freshwater Crisis'

Claire Caulfield

September 06, 2020 |

Honolulu Civil Beat |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Hawaii

Landowners, state employees, environmental groups, and local hunters are working together to protect Hawaii’s forests and drinking water by eradicating invasive plants from the state’s protected forests. By allowing native plants to flourish, these forests could help combat climate change by sequestering carbon and allowing freshwater quivers to recharge with rainfall. Since 2013, the state has built 132 miles of fence to keep grazers away from forests to prevent the spread of seeds of invasive plants. However, this method can be expensive; a 1,400-acre fence cost over a million dollars.

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Can we harness the Arctic's methane for energy?

Amy Yee

September 01, 2020 |

Arctic Today |

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Under 800 Words

Response Location: Rwanda

Alternative energy systems in Africa could help inform how to trap methane in the Arctic. Due to permafrost thawing and glaciers melting, methane, a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change, is leaking into the atmosphere. In Rwanda, a lake-based methane power plant extracts methane from the water and turns it into electricity. But questions remain about how similar systems and infrastructure could work in the Arctic landscape.

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They Know How to Prevent Megafires. Why Won't Anybody Listen?

Elizabeth Weil

August 28, 2020 |

ProPublica |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, California

California’s wildfires historically were contained through periodic but limited burning. But “misguided fire police” over many decades, focused on overzealous fire suppression, has accumulated more dry fuel, resulting in wildfires that have grown progressively larger and more dangerous. Climate change only increases the likelihood of more fires. And the inventory of unburned acreage that has accumulated is now so great that it makes it increasingly difficult to ever catch up.

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Green teen memes: how TikTok could save the planet

Yasemin Craggs Mersinoglu

August 28, 2020 |

The Guardian |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

Many young TikTok users are sharing videos about environmental issues, like climate change and biodiversity, and it is leading to resource sharing, personal connections, and people reaching out to learn more about environmental topics like gardening, soil restoration, renewable energy, and environmental racism. Some believe the Covid-19 lockdown has increased engagement even further. A subculture called “grass TikTok” emerged to share information about plant species and has nearly 380 million views. The potential ban of TikTok in the US could lead to declining biodiversity engagement online.

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Creative programs help dairy farmers transition to plant-based milks

Jodi Helmer

August 28, 2020 |

Ensia |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Hoosick, New York

Some food producers are helping dairy farmers transition away from animal agriculture and into growing crops for plant milk. For example, Hälsa Foods, makers of plant-based milk products, contracted with an organic farm in New York State where he grows 20 acres of oats for them. While plant milks have their own environmental impacts, these partnerships can offer farmers a guaranteed market for their new crops.

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Why California spends billions but can't control its wildfires. ‘No simple or cheap solution'

Dale Kasler Ryan Sabalow

August 27, 2020 |

Sacramento Bee |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, California

After 2017's devastating wildfires, the state of California and businesses committed billions of dollars to thinning forests and other fire-prone areas to contain the spread and intensity of wildfires. But the state's "fire deficit," a legacy of more than a century of policies to suppress fires rather than let them periodically consume the fuel on the ground, has been too great to solve the problem quickly. Experts say wildfires like the record-setting conflagrations of 2020, worsened by climate change, will continue without even greater efforts by California and the federal government.

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Dengue breakthrough after mosquitoes laced with natural bacteria

Rebecca Ratcliffe

August 27, 2020 |

The Guardian |

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Under 800 Words

Response Location: Indonesia, Yogyakarta

Injecting mosquito eggs with Wolbachia, a naturally occurring bacteria, is showing promise for reducing the cases of dengue in parts of Indonesia. Although dengue cases have been increasing, in areas of Indonesia where mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia were released, "their capacity to transmit the virus that causes dengue was vastly reduced," as compared to areas with untreated mosquito populations.

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In India, an ancient grain is revived for the modern era

Anne Pinto-Rodrigues

August 25, 2020 |

The Christian Science Monitor |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: India, Thottampatti, Tamil Nadu

The Women’s Collective is a nonprofit that works with more than 10,000 subsistence farmers in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu to promote food security using millets, a crop resilient to drought and climate change. For Pavitra, one of those farmers, she began cultivating the ancient grains in 2015 and now has more than enough food to feed her family year-round. However, there’s a lack of public investment in millet production and machinery. And there’s no unified effort to create demand for millets: Some state governments lead the charge and in other states, it’s led by grassroots organizations.

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To Manage Wildfire, California Looks To What Tribes Have Known All Along

Lauren Sommer

August 24, 2020 |

NPR |

Multi-Media |

3-5 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Mariposa, California

To combat wildfires in California, Native American tribal leaders and government officials are coming together to facilitate “cultural burnings” or controlled burns. Regularly burning the landscape prevents thick, dried out vegetation from catching fire and causing massive wildfires. Tribal groups used to perform this ritual in the 1800s, but as settlers moved West, many of them prevented Native Americans from doing these cultural burnings. While controlled burns can be challenging in places where there’s too much underbrush, these partnerships can bring together indigenous knowledge and wildfire management.

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Mexico Is Saving Its Coral Reef From Hurricanes With A One-Of-A-Kind Plan

Alexandra Kirkman

August 24, 2020 |

The Huffington Post |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Mexico, Puerto Morelos, Quintana Roo

To protect the Mesoamerican Reef from the effects of climate change, key stakeholders in Mexico created the world’s first insurance policy to protect a natural asset. The policy provides an immediate infusion of cash in the event of a damaging storm, allowing hotel owners and local governments to quickly repair the reef and prevent further degradation. A volunteer corps of people called the Guardians of the Reef make those repairs. While the insurance policy doesn’t cover pollution or overfishing, this mechanism could work for reefs in other countries to restore and protect threatened ecosystems.

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