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Happy Friday Readers: According to National Hurricane Center, there's potential for Tropical Depression Nine, which has formed over the central Caribbean Sea, to become tropical storm Hermine early next week. Both the American and European weather forecasting models show the weather system developing into a hurricane and entering the Gulf of Mexico within the next few days.
This week's flash report features a look at global climate targets, Florida's EV charging infrastructure plan, how crickets relate to ecosystem health, and more. Our data visualization presents a mapping tool to track mega-warehouse locations and related impacts as they pop up around Florida.
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Global Fossil Fuels Database shows U.S. Reserves Could Shatter Global Climate Targets Wildfires Along West Coast Cause Air Quality Warnings
A new database has launched recently by think tank Carbon Tracker that shows the U.S. holds enough oil, gas, and coal reserves to burn through the world’s remaining carbon budget and puts international climate targets out of reach. The Global Registry of Fossil Fuels is intended to be an ongoing public resource and incorporates data from 89 counties, covering over 50,000 oil and gas fields which represent 75% of the global production. The tracker includes reserve, production and emissions data by country relative to the carbon budget. Read more at Scientific American.
FHWA Approves Florida’s EV Charging Infrastructure Plan
The Federal Highway Administration announced that it has approved 35 State EV infrastructure deployment plans. Departments of transportation with approved plans can start receiving reimbursement for construction costs and gain more options to use their allocated funding through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure formula program for projects related to charging infrastructure. Florida is set to receive $29 million for FY 2022 and $42 million annually for FY 2023-26. Additionally, the FHWA proposed a Buy America waiver for manufacturing of EV charging. AASHTO.
Costco and Albertsons are Using Tech Startup to Reduce Waste and Lower Carbon Emissions
Costco and Albertson both spend considerable resources handling trash and other waste to follow regulations for safe and clean disposal. Further regulations and hassles exist with recycling so often these stores trash their recyclables to avoid such problems. However, a new startup, Smarter Sorting, offers an option to reduce regulatory costs by streamlining their sorting process with a large database of the contents of their waste. With this database companies can more efficiently sort their trash into where they need to go and how they need to be disposed of. This will help to lower their carbon footprint as well as their non-reusable waste. Read More.
Asian Coastal Cities at Greatest Risk for Sinking
According to a new study published this week in Nature Sustainability, land in coastal cities on “flat, low-elevation river deltas” is more susceptible to sinking. Using satellite imagery from 2014 to 2020, Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) analyzed sinking land across 48 of the most densely populated coastal cities. While Washington rated relatively low for land subsidence (the rate at which land is sinking), cities in Indonesia, Myanmar, and India had the highest rates of land subsidence. Median velocity of land subsidence was about 0.6 inches annually for the coastal cities studied. Read more at Washington Post.
Crickets as Indicators of Ecosystem Health
Scientists are regularly looking to improve how we identify changes in ecosystems – which could become increasingly important with changing climate risks. A recent study published in Biotropica found that different ecosystems had their own “cricket fingerprint.” Scientists developed a relationship that could identify the type of ecosystem (forest, grassland, shrubland…) just by the number of cricket species in the ecosystem. Acoustic monitoring of cricket species diversity is now being used as an indicator of ecosystem decline or improvement. Read more at Economist.com.
Data Visualization of the Week
A Mega-warehouse Near You
A data visualization from the Sierra Club identifies mega-warehouse (>100,000 sq.ft.) locations throughout the U.S. The tool also shows diesel particulate matter pollution and household incomes in areas near mega-warehouses. A time series of the number of warehouses built since 2000 shows how warehouses and distribution centers have changed over time with the boom of e-commerce. This series is useful to show the distributional impacts on disadvantaged communities in proximity to mega-warehouses that are associated with increased traffic noise and air pollution. Mega-warehouse Viewer.
