Scientists sound alarm about phenomenon observed in trees across the Western US: 'A lot of value to humans'
According to a new study by Colorado State University published in Nature Climate Change, tree populations are declining because of these disturbances and are not regenerating fast enough in cooler climates.
The study examined 25,000 plots in the Western United States, not including coastal states. It also reviewed 30 years of disturbance data. And while trees were not expected to regenerate in the hottest areas, researchers didn't expect 15 species not to gain ground in cooler regions.
The shrinking ranges were similar in undisturbed areas as they were in areas disturbed by wildfires, insects, and disease.
Tree migration — the plants' gradual moving of territories away from environmental stressors — encounters obstacles, which include seed elimination from wildfires, insects, and disease. Cooler climates tend to be at higher elevations, and gravity makes it difficult for seeds to migrate uphill.
The paper suggested humans should assist the trees with migration because warming temperatures will likely outpace regeneration.
Katie Nigro, the lead author, said more local studies are needed to determine which species can survive in each location.
"Trees provide a lot of value to humans in terms of clean water, clean air, wildlife habitat and recreation," Nigro said.
Trees can even improve the value of your home. According to Money, "Numerous studies show that homes with trees have anywhere from 3.5% to 15% more value than those without."
Additionally, trees can reduce your electric bill by $10, even by providing just 17% shade, per Trees for Energy Conservation.
Do you think America does a good job of protecting its natural beauty?
Definitely
Only in some areas
No way
I'm not sure
Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.
The Nature Conservancy said trees also generate biodiversity. As Nigro noted, they offer habitat for wildlife, and that diversity is essential for humans. The Royal Society said that biodiversity is vital for the air humans breathe and the food they eat. For instance, pollinators help produce approximately one-third of the food humans eat.
Reforestation projects are vital for this cause, and major conservation efforts are under way. For example, a Minnesota forest restoration project restored a lost area to full glory.
Organizations working on these causes cannot do it alone, so donating to them can help them implement their work.
There is hope for the future, but people may have to accept change.
"Our future forests might look different and contain different trees than they do today," Nigro said.
Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Gizmodo
7 days ago
- Gizmodo
Hurricane Swarms Are a Thing We Have to Worry About Now
In early October 2024, hurricanes Milton, Kirk, and Leslie churned in the Atlantic Basin—the first time on record that three Atlantic hurricanes were simultaneously active after September, according to NOAA. New research warns that tropical cyclone 'clusters' are becoming more common in this part of the world, compounding the hazards of hurricane season. Tropical cyclone clusters occur when two or more hurricanes are active within the same basin at the same time. The western North Pacific has historically produced the most clusters, but climate change appears to have shifted this hotspot to the North Atlantic. The study, published July 31 in the journal Nature Climate Change, identified a tenfold increase in the likelihood of tropical cyclone cluster formation in the North Atlantic, from about 1.4% to 14.3% over the past 46 years. This rate now surpasses that of the western North Pacific, the researchers state. 'We tried to develop a probabilistic framework to understand this trend,' said Dazhi Xi, a climatologist at the University of Hong Kong who co-led the study and developed the methodology, in a Fudan University release. 'If tropical cyclone clusters are formed by chance, then only storm frequency, storm duration, and storm seasonality can impact the chance.' To rule this out, Xi and his colleagues simulated the formation of tropical cyclone clusters by probabilistic modeling, considering only those three mechanisms. This model was only partly successful—it significantly underestimated the chance of tropical cyclone clusters for some years. The researchers found that during those years, synoptic-scale waves—large, moving atmospheric disturbances that can create conditions conducive for storm formation—increase the odds of tropical cyclone clusters. Further analysis revealed that the observed changes in synoptic-scale wave intensity are responses to a 'La Niña-like' global warming pattern, according to the study. This trend is characterized by slower warming in the Eastern Pacific compared to the Western Pacific. 'The warming pattern not only modulates the frequency of tropical cyclones in the North Atlantic and northwestern Pacific basins, but also impacts the strength of the synoptic-scale waves, together causing the shift of tropical cyclone cluster hotspot from northwestern Pacific to North Atlantic basin,' explained Zheng-Hang Fu, a PhD student at Fudan University who co-led the study, in the release. It's unclear whether this warming pattern has resulted from natural variations within the climate system or external pressures, such as greenhouse gas emissions, according to the study. Previous research by Xi found that the future likelihood of multiple hurricanes impacting the same area within a short time period increased in both moderate and high greenhouse gas emissions scenarios, suggesting that human-driven global warming influences simultaneous storm formation. Though this new study did not look specifically at anthropogenic warming, it suggests that a dramatic shift in warming patterns over the last half century has transformed the North Atlantic into an emerging hotspot for tropical cyclone clusters. This may compound hazards for Atlantic coastal nations during hurricane season, including the U.S. When multiple hurricanes hit within a short time period, this drastically decreases recovery time between storms, overwhelming emergency response systems and further damaging compromised infrastructure. The researchers hope their findings will urge Atlantic coastal communities to develop proactive strategies to deal with the increasing risk of rapid-succession hurricanes.
Atlantic
11-08-2025
- Atlantic
Who's Afraid of Peak Mineral?
In 1956, the American geologist M. King Hubbert made a startling prediction: In a matter of decades, the supply of fuel on which so much of modern society depended would dwindle. Dubbed the 'peak oil' theory, the concept held sway for decades as U.S. production of crude topped out in 1970, then declined. By 2009, however, the numbers started to turn, thanks to offshore drilling and new fracking technology, until U.S. crude oil output surpassed not just the country's 1970 peak but that of every other crude-pumping nation throughout all of history. Now, as the emissions spewed by burning all that crude help roast the planet, a new anxiety has started to grip energy policy: the possibility of peak mineral. The technologies the world is banking on to wean us off fossil fuels all depend on minerals, in various quantities: the so-called white gold of lithium and the bluish metal cobalt needed for batteries; the brittle metalloid tellurium used in solar cells and microchips; the tin for the soldering that forms a grid of cells on a panel; the soft, silvery cadmium and indium that formulate special kinds of thin-film photovoltaic equipment. Because renewables now make up the fastest-growing source of power generation worldwide, investors have been trying to bolster supplies of these minerals. A new study published Thursday in Nature Climate Change tried to look more comprehensively than any previous effort at the world's mineral future, considering 557 energy-transition scenarios that might keep the world from warming beyond 2 degrees Celsius, the target set as the maximum amount of allowable warming by the Paris climate accords. The researchers, a team of Chinese scientists led by the Beijing Institute of Technology, found that, even given moderate emission-reduction, the world would face shortages of up to 12 minerals by 2100 in every energy-transition scenario. In some regions of the world, such as the Middle East, twice as many minerals could be in shortfall. But clean-energy technologies are advancing rapidly enough that trying to imagine the industry's needs 75 years from now is a very theoretical exercise. Just as fears of peak oil were eventually mooted by technology, fears of peak mineral very well could be too. It's true that the world cannot currently meet humanity's growing need for energy while phasing out fossil fuels. As Ashley Zumwalt-Forbes, a petroleum engineer who previously worked as the Department of Energy's deputy director for batteries and critical materials, put it to me bluntly: 'We need more mines.' Known mineral reserves are limited, but the financial gymnastics necessary to open a mine are also a major barrier to increasing supply. These projects take decades to go from conception to operational; investors want to mine minerals that are cheap enough to be widely available (and therefore used in mass-market products), but expensive enough to make the new venture profitable. If the price of a mineral remains too high, though, the market for it won't grow fast enough to make new mines worthwhile. That's what made the Trump administration's decision last month to buy a big stake in MP Materials, the only active rare-earths mining company in the United States, so notable. It's the first time since World War I, when the federal government nationalized the railroad system, that Washington has directly intervened in the private sector. The U.S. was certainly motivated by competition with China, which has gobbled up the world's market share for mining and processing minerals needed for batteries and microchips, and recently slapped trade restrictions on exports of key metals. But because the Department of Defense now sets the price at which it will buy MP Materials' minerals and is its largest shareholder, MP Materials is also insulated from the ups and downs of commodity trading. In this still-early stage of the world's clean-energy boom, though, mineral needs are shifting quickly and opening up opportunities for substitutes. Silver demand grew over the past two decades thanks to solar cells, which today make up nearly 14 percent of global usage of the precious metal. While demand is growing as more panels are produced, improvements in the technology have slashed silver usage per unit by more than half in the past 15 years, Seaver Wang, the director of the climate and energy team at the Breakthrough Institute think tank in California, told me. Substitutes such as copper that has been electroplated are becoming more common. Alloys used in the control rods in nuclear reactors—such as indium and cadmium—are already substitutable too, he said: Boron-carbide rods are at no risk of shortages, and even available 'off the product catalog at Westinghouse.' (Wang served as a peer reviewer on the Nature Climate Change study.) Companies have rolled out alternatives to lithium too—most notably batteries that use the far more abundant sodium. And because cobalt, a key ingredient in batteries, is primarily extracted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where labor practices are difficult to trace and often include child workers and slaves, manufacturers have in recent years commercialized new chemistries that completely forgo that metal. Five years ago, the energy consultancy BloombergNEF forecast demand for cobalt to hit 300,000 metric tons a year by 2030, according to Kwasi Ampofo, the consultancy's head of metals and mining. 'Now it's 100,000,' he told me. 'Battery companies realized they don't need cobalt in large quantities anymore. They got smarter on the material composition of these technologies.' The speed of innovation occurring now only points to how hard it is to predict 'mineral requirements for global-warming scenarios out to 2100,' Cameron Perks, a director at the London-based battery-materials consultancy Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, told me. The Nature Climate Change study forecasts, for instance, that Africa will be a major source of lithium. 'While I don't claim to know what will happen in 75 years, I know this is not going to be true anytime soon,' Perks said. The study's authors recognize these limitations. 'These findings underscore the complex and interconnected nature of mineral demands in low-carbon transitions,' they wrote in an email. 'While shifting technologies may relieve certain resource pressures, they can intensify others.' One of the study's clear limits is that the researchers based their calculations on high future growth rates for thin-film solar panels, which depend heavily on indium, cadmium, tellurium, and tin. As a result, those minerals most frequently came up short in the findings. But thin-film panels are also outdated technology. They have the advantage of generating more power in the dawn or late evening than crystalline silicon panels, which also require more steps to manufacture. Still, silicon panels have benefited from the scale of the solar-panel industry in China, and require less complicated chemistry; they have dominated the market since the early 2000s. In the email, the researchers acknowledged that thin-film solar panels losing market share might ease some shortages, but noted that that shift increases demand for other metals, particularly tin. Their goal, they wrote, was to 'encourage systemic thinking in designing sustainable energy transitions.' Substitution is just part of that equation. Oil supplies went up in part because natural gas became a viable alternative once technology to super-chill the fuel into its liquid form became an option. Unconventional drilling technology entered the mix after oil prices surged to record highs in the 2000s, making new and more expensive up-front projects economically viable. If new types of traditional nuclear reactors take off in the 2030s, that could radically alter the world's forecasted mineral needs. If nuclear fusion finally becomes a reality, that could upend all the projections. Artificial intelligence could achieve breakthroughs in material science; mining asteroids may become a source of minerals. If the old adage proves true that change is the only certainty in an more unpredictable future, that bodes well for adaptation.
Newsweek
25-07-2025
- Newsweek
Map Shows Where 100-Year Floods Have Hit Across the US Over Past Year
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The term "100-year flood" implies that the event is a rare occurrence; however, dozens of such storms have inundated the United States over the past year alone, prompting concern that they are occurring more frequently as the Earth's climate continues to warm. Why It Matters Flooding is the second-deadliest weather hazard in the U.S., next to extreme heat. Devastating flood events have made headlines numerous times this year, including a 1,000-year atmospheric river event that hit the Midwest and South in April and the deadly floods that inundated Central Texas over the July 4th weekend. The frequency of such flooding rainstorms, which often go hand-in-hand with death and destruction, is alarming. What's even more concerning is that AccuWeather meteorologist Alex DaSilva told Newsweek that these events are happening more frequently. What To Know In 2024, dozens of 100-year rainstorms struck the U.S. Each point is marked on the map below, created by Colorado State University. The points marking each event are widespread, with only a few states escaping unscathed. Last year wasn't a one-time occurrence, either. This year is also "shaping up to be one of the most flood-impacted summers on record in the United States," AccuWeather reported. A map from Colorado State University shows where 100-year rainstorm events were documented in 2024. A map from Colorado State University shows where 100-year rainstorm events were documented in 2024. Colorado State University What Is a 100-Year Flood? The United States Geological Service (USGS) describes the term "100-year flood" as an attempt "to simplify the definition of a flood that statistically has a 1-percent chance of occurring in any given year." Where Did 100-Year Rainstorms Hit in 2024? On the CSU map, countless points pepper the Eastern Seaboard around North Carolina and South Carolina after Hurricane Helene struck in September. Others show the devastating impact of the summer monsoon season in New Mexico, which caused deserts to flood and cars to become stranded as water washed over a highway. Vermont faced catastrophic floods in late July. Central Texas, known as Flash Flood Alley, experienced several 100-year rainstorms last year, as did Florida, with a scattershot of points dated as occurring during the Atlantic hurricane season. There was also an onslaught of precipitation that hit South Dakota in June 2024, as well as a similar storm that measured as a 100-year event at several locations in Missouri in November, among others. Only a few states emerged unscathed, including Iowa, Wisconsin, Oregon, Washington, and Massachusetts, but most of the U.S. experienced some form of severe flooding precipitation last year. Why Are 100-Year Floods Occurring More Frequently? The map's creator, Russ Schumacher, a professor of atmospheric sciences at CSU and a CSU climatologist, told Newsweek that improved technology, such as radar, provides better access to data, which can make it seem as if the flood events are happening more frequently. However, he also stressed the impact of climate change. "The physics of climate change tells us that we should see these extreme events more frequently," he said. As the atmosphere grows warmer through global warming, its ability to hold moisture increases, DaSilva told Newsweek. "This is why in the wintertime, we typically don't see too much flash flooding in the wintertime," DaSilva said. "It's too cold, and there's snow, of course, but it's hard to get the moisture content you need for heavy rain events in the wintertime because it's cooler out. In the summertime obviously the temperature is above freezing, but the atmosphere can hold more water content. There's more moisture to squeeze out." Which States Have Increased Flood Risk? As the atmosphere's ability to hold moisture increases, DaSilva told Newsweek that states in the Ohio and Tennessee valleys are becoming wetter, while areas like California are becoming drier. What People Are Saying AccuWeather meteorologist Alex DaSilva told Newsweek: "When the atmosphere is getting warmer as a what it's doing is making summer warmer and the shoulder seasons warmer as well. What's happening is those seasons, especially in the summertime, the [atmosphere's] ability to hold more moisture is going up as well." DaSilva added: "It doesn't guarantee we will see more rain over a certain area, it rains, it's going to rain heavier." The USGS in a webpage about 100-year flood events: "In other words, over the course of 1 million years, these events would be expected to occur 10,000 times. But, just because it rained 10 inches in one day last year doesn't mean it can't rain 10 inches in one day again this year." What Happens Next As the probability of heavy rain events increases, people are advised to have a flood plan in place before such an event occurs in their area. People should also never drive on a flooded roadway, as most flood-related deaths occur in vehicles.
