Latest news with #ClimateChange
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Helping the BC Wine Industry Beat the Heat: Scientists Seek Genomic Solutions to Grapevine Heat Stress
VANCOUVER, BC, July 29, 2025 /CNW/ - Climate change is challenging BC wine producers. Extreme weather events such as rising temperatures, changing rainfall and frost patterns, and smoke from wildfires have caused recent catastrophic crop losses. This has left the BC wine industry — which annually contributes around $3.75 billion and employs over 14,000 workers in the province — struggling to cope and looking for answers. Genome British Columbia (Genome BC) funded researchers are using genomic techniques to explore the impacts on heat stress on grapevines and to find solutions for the industry. This is a partnership between Genome BC, the University of British Columbia's (UBC) Wine Research Centre, the Canadian Grapevine Certification Network, the BC Wine Grape Council and Andrew Peller Limited. "We know that these peaks in seasonal temperatures are occurring more often. Heatwaves are stressing grapevines and impacting both production volumes and quality. We need to equip grape growers and winemakers with better decision-making tools," said Ben Bryant, Vice-President, Western Canada Operations and National Distribution from Andrew Peller Limited. "Extreme heat can cause crop losses and affect the taste profile of the grapes. We need to know how to counter this and preserve plants, regardless of the climate conditions." A heatwave is generally defined as a period of three or more consecutive days with temperatures exceeding traditional norms. Lead researcher, Dr. Simone Castellarin from UBC's Wine Research Centre, says it's common in Okanagan Valley to see temperatures over 35°C for three days or more. "This is why we want to understand the physiological impact of heat stress on the vines." In tandem, the team is studying how biostimulants can affect plant defences. These are substances — including certain types of acids, seaweed and plant extracts, beneficial bacteria, fungi, microbes and more — that are applied to plants or soil to stimulate growth, development, nutrient uptake and stress tolerance. "We need to know more about how they actually work," Dr. Castellarin explains. He hopes the study will lead to better information on the use of biostimulant types, application timing and quantity. Collaborative, real-time research Andrew Peller Limited is BC's second largest wine producer, currently growing grapes in 700 acres across the province. They are providing the vineyards where genetics and winemaking experts will work together on experimental plots. Funding from Genome BC will allow research across two consecutive growing seasons. The process involves imposing heat stress onto plants in purpose-built greenhouses. These simulate real world heatwaves to explore several factors: how grapevines respond to heat stress alone or combined with stressors common to BC such as water deficits, and how biostimulants may protect vine tissues from heat stress. Measurements will be taken of plant leaves and berries at various points to understand their physiological and metabolic responses to heat stress. Tracking small changes within the chemical compositions will hopefully lead to clues about what to do with the end product. "When we move on to the winemaking process, we want to know the different qualities and flavours that change because of heat exposure," Bryant said. Dr. Federica Di Palma, Genome BC's Chief Scientific Officer and Vice-President, Research and Innovations states, "crop loss isn't just a problem for winemakers and growers. This ultimately affects the quality and reputation of BC's wine industry. Here, we clearly see the value of genomics not just to agriculture, but also to our economy." About Genome British Columbia: Genome BC is a not-for-profit organization that has advanced genomics research and innovation for 25 years, growing a world-class life sciences sector in BC and delivering sustainable benefits for British Columbia, Canada and beyond. Genome BC has attracted over $1.1 billion in direct co-investment to the province, which has contributed to funding more than 600 genomics research and innovation projects. These initiatives enhance healthcare and address environmental and natural resource challenges, improving the lives of British Columbians. Genome BC also integrates genomics into society by supporting responsible research and innovation and fostering an understanding and appreciation of the life sciences among educators, students and the public. SOURCE Genome British Columbia View original content to download multimedia: Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
CBS News
13 hours ago
- Climate
- CBS News
Extreme rain events are becoming more common in the Chicago area as the climate warms
Extreme rainfall events in Chicago, including two observed this summer, are becoming more common as the climate warms. Very small, localized thunderstorms brought intense rains to parts of Chicago on both July 8 and July 25. While data analysis of the more recent July rainfall event is ongoing, National Weather Service Senior Service Hydrologist Scott Lincoln tells CBS News Chicago that the 5 inches of rain that fell in less than three hours July 8 only has a 0.2% chance of happening in a given year. This would once have been referred to as a 1-in-500 year rainfall event, but the NWS now avoids that phrasing since there is no guarantee it will be another 500 years before it happens again. Late in the evening on July 8, a very localized, torrential thunderstorm sat over portions of central Cook County west of the Loop on the Eisenhower Expressway. Parts of the Near West Side, North Lawndale, the United Center, West Garfield Park and East Garfield Park experienced extreme rainfall, with one unofficial rain gauge tallying 5.39 inches in just two hours. "Comparing this event to our record of extreme rainfall events impacting the Chicago area since 1950 indicates that this is among the smallest recorded extreme rainfall events over that period, covering only an approximately three square mile area," Lincoln said. As global climate change warms Chicago area temperatures, it is leading to heavier rainfall events. For every one degree of warming, the atmosphere holds 4% more moisture. The heaviest rain events in the Great Lakes region have gotten 45% heavier since 1958, according to Climate Central. This is impacting Chicago's water infrastructure and flooding basements more often. "As of July 8, 2025, the 2020s decade has had four extreme rainfall events in central Cook County," Lincoln said. "Compared to the the 1950s, 2000s, and 2010s which each had two known extreme rainfall events within that same area." Lincoln noted rain gauge observations were not as widespread prior to the 1990s, potentially affecting historical data collection. "Multiple lines of evidence suggest that the threshold for 'extreme rainfall' in the Chicago area is changing," Lincoln said. "Analysis of daily rainfall in Chicago indicated that 'extreme' 1-day rainfall early in Chicago's history (1871-1930) was approximately 6 inches, while this value increased to just over 8 inches in more recent times (1961-2020)." More detailed studies of rainfall frequency indicate a heavy rain event that has a 1% chance of occurring in a given year — once called a 1-in-100 year event — has gotten heavier. A NOAA publication indicated a 100-year event was 5.6 inches of rain in the late 1950s. An Illinois State Water Survey publication shows it has increased to 8.6 inches as of the late 2010s.
Web Release
18 hours ago
- Business
- Web Release
Uptime's 15th Annual Global Data Center Survey Results Show Both Commitment and Hesitancy as Industry Plans for Wider AI Usage, Climate Change Reporting, and the NVIDIA Revolution to Come
Uptime's 15th Annual Global Data Center Survey Results Show Both Commitment and Hesitancy as Industry Plans for Wider AI Usage, Climate Change Reporting, and the NVIDIA Revolution to Come Uptime Institute today announced the release of its 15th Annual Global Data Center Survey 2025 revealing an innovative and resilient industry – one that is also facing rising costs, worsening power constraints, and challenges in meeting the demands for AI. As operators expand and modernize to meet power and density requirements, they must address availability, efficiency, staffing challenges, supply chain delays, and unpredictable technological advances. 'Our data shows operators are tasked with managing a lot of big strategic challenges at the same time. These include anticipating multiple technological changes, planning for expansion in spite of major constraints on power availability, and preparing for and supporting unpredictable AI workload demand,' said Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute. 'This is a time where senior level experience is critical. But for the first time, more operators are finding it harder to recruit and retain senior people than people at an earlier stage of their career. There is a management shortage, with many experienced leaders retiring just as another phase of dramatic growth gets underway.' Roughly one-third of data center owners and operators currently perform some AI training or inference, and a significantly greater proportion plan to do so in the future. But much of this is early stage and cautious. Uncertainty over the appropriate or likely venues for AI workloads, and apprehension over the power demands of projected NVIDIA GPU systems, is likely contributing to capacity concerns. Now in its 15th year, Uptime Institute's annual survey is the most comprehensive and longest-running study of its kind. The findings of this report highlight the practices and experiences of data center owners and operators in the areas of resiliency, sustainability, efficiency, staffing, cloud, and artificial intelligence. Key findings from the 2025 report include: Cost issues remain the top concern for digital infrastructure management teams in 2025 — but worries around forecasting future capacity requirements have grown significantly. Average PUE levels show little change for the sixth consecutive year, with improvements constrained by legacy infrastructure and some climate specific limitations to efficient cooling. Average server rack power densities continue to rise, with greater adoption of racks in the 10–30 kW range. Few facilities exceed 30 kW, and extreme densities are as yet rare. The collection and reporting of key sustainability metrics have not improved in 2025, which is likely due in part to commercial pressures to support AI, and easing regulatory pressure in some regions. Trust in AI for data center operations depends on the use case: most would allow its use for analyzing sensor data and predictive maintenance tasks, but not configuration changes, controlling equipment, or staffing issues. Impactful data center outages are gradually becoming less frequent — but one in ten still cause serious or severe disruption, underscoring the need for continued investment. Enterprises continue to adopt hybrid IT strategies, spanning cloud, colocation on-premises data centers. On-premises data centers remain foundational for those with large, mission critical processing needs, with 45% of IT workloads still residing in corporate facilities. Staffing challenges persist in 2025. Nearly two-thirds of operators report difficulty retaining staff, finding qualified candidates, or both. About the Survey: Uptime conducted this year's Annual Global Data Center Survey online and via email from April to May 2025 and collected responses from more than 800 data center owners and operators. For the third consecutive year, Uptime's survey asked data center operators to identify their management team's top concerns related to digital infrastructure. In 2025, new response options were added to reflect the evolving challenges surrounding power availability, supply chain disruptions, and demand for AI. The survey participants represent a wide range of industry verticals in multiple countries. Nearly half (43%) are located in North America and Europe. Approximately one in five respondents work for professional IT / data center service providers — that is, staff with operational or executive responsibilities for a third-party data center, such as those offering colocation, wholesale, software, or cloud computing services. Learn More:
CNN
a day ago
- CNN
5 things to know for July 30: Tsunami waves, NYC mass shooting, Emil Bove, Contraception, Climate summit
5 Things Gun violence Climate change Women's healthFacebookTweetLink Follow The soft glow of moonlight usually guides newly hatched loggerhead sea turtles from the beaches of Georgia's Little St. Simons Island to the ocean. But massive interstate lights are putting the baby turtles in harm's way. Here's what else you need to know to get up to speed and on with your day. A massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck off Russia's far eastern coast on Wednesday local time triggered tsunami waves that coursed across the Pacific. Tsunami advisories and warnings urging millions to move away from coastal zones and seek higher ground were issued in Russia, Japan, the Philippines, Chile, Peru, Indonesia and Ecuador, as well as in Hawaii, Alaska and the US West Coast. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, tsunami waves began reaching Hawaii's coast in the early evening local time. One wave, reported in Kahului on the north-central shore of Maui island, was over 5 feet high. Smaller waves arrived along the Washington, Oregon and California coastline early this morning; however, dangerous currents and additional surges are possible for hours after the initial waves. So far, minimal damage has been reported. The New York Police Department is sending investigators to Las Vegas to learn more about a possible motive for Monday's deadly mass shooting in midtown Manhattan. Shane Devon Tamura, 27, left Las Vegas, where he lived, on Saturday and drove to New York City. On Monday evening, he used an assault-style rifle to shoot five people, killing four of them, inside a Park Avenue skyscraper that housed numerous corporate offices, including the NFL. Tamura was later found in a stairwell on the 33rd floor, dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot. A suicide note in his pocket expressed grievances with the NFL and alleged that he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a brain disease linked to head trauma. According to sources, Tamura was a competitive football player in his youth. NYC Mayor Eric Adams said investigators believe Tamura was headed for the NFL offices, but took the wrong elevator. The medical examiner's office said it plans to examine Tamura's brain for CTE during the autopsy. Senate Republicans confirmed Emil Bove, who defended President Donald Trump in his criminal indictments, to a lifetime appointment as a federal appellate judge. Bove's nomination to the bench for the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals was highly contentious. Several whistleblowers came forward to accuse him of improperly overseeing cases for the Trump administration. Democrats protested by walking out of a vote on his nomination. And more than 75 former federal and state judges, both conservative and liberal, called for his nomination to be rejected, saying his 'egregious record of mistreating law enforcement officers, abusing power, and disregarding the law itself disqualifies him for this position.' Bove repeatedly rebuffed such claims and a Justice Department spokesman previously told CNN that he 'will make an excellent judge.' The Trump administration plans to destroy nearly $10 million worth of contraceptives that were procured by USAID rather than deliver the supplies to women in need overseas. The contraceptives, which are mostly long-lasting types of birth control such as IUDs and injectables, are currently stored in a warehouse in Belgium. The 'preliminary decision' to destroy the family-planning supplies was confirmed by a State Department spokesperson. Doing so will cost $167,000. 'They have to double incinerate the products because they contain high levels of hormones and they don't want to risk leaking the byproducts out in the environment, which likely adds to the cost,' a congressional aide told CNN. 'The Trump administration is quite literally burning taxpayer money.' When COP30, the annual UN climate summit, opens in Brazil this November, the US doesn't plan to have an official presence. The Trump administration has fired all of its climate negotiators and eliminated the State Department's Office of Global Change. Without the department's climate staff in place, even Capitol Hill lawmakers who usually attend the summits have been unable to get accredited, a source told CNN. COP30 is expected to be a landmark summit, one that will set the global climate agenda for the next 10 years. While some experts fear the US' absence from the talks may derail other nations' climate ambitions, it could also hand a geopolitical advantage to China. 'It is likely that China's voice will be heard more loudly (at COP30), as they have identified growth in green technologies as a key pillar of their economic strategy,' said Joeri Rogelj, a climate scientist at Imperial College London. GET '5 THINGS' IN YOUR INBOX If your day doesn't start until you're up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to your new favorite morning fix. Sign up here for the '5 Things' newsletter. The strapped budget carrier expects to enact major staffing changes to match its downsized schedule. The country's government has decided to include the world's largest video platform in its social media ban for children under 16. Ozzy Osbourne's last rideThe 'Crazy Train' singer's funeral procession will travel through Birmingham — his hometown in England — today. The 76-year-old singer has been in a few car accidents, but not for the reason many people believe. The fourth installment of the 'Meet the Parents' film franchise just announced its catchy new title, cast and release date. $1 billionThat's how much of a hit Procter & Gamble says its profits will take due to President Trump's tariffs. As a result, the maker of several household staples, including Tide detergent and Charmin toilet paper, plans to increase prices on about 25% of its products, starting next month. 'We're putting people who really do want to help themselves in a terrible position.' — Kendra Davenport, president and CEO of Easterseals, on the thousands of low-income seniors who could soon be unemployed because funding hasn't come through for a decades-old federal job training and placement program. 🌤️ Check your local forecast to see what you can expect. Videos about this lifestyle have become popular with younger generations. Today's edition of 5 Things AM was edited and produced by CNN's Andrew Torgan.
ABC News
2 days ago
- Business
- ABC News
CSIRO report shows renewables still cheapest form of energy
Chris Bowen is the Minister for Climate Change and Energy and he speaks to Sarah Ferguson about the increased government support for clean energy projects.
