Observations from the Little Bunker
A systematic observation of climate change, extreme weather events, and their cascading effects on society
🌍 Latest Environmental Observations
California Pays Farms to Make Biogas from Hog Waste in North Carolina, Where Locals Say It’s Fueling Pollution
Last year, six farms were the first in the Tar Heel State to get funding from California’s program offsetting its transportation emissions. Their permits to...
Tinsel to tidewall: discarded Christmas trees reused to protect Lancashire coastline
The trees morph into sand dunes to protect homes on the seafront against rising sea levels and serve as habitat for rare speciesBritain’s fight against...
Michigan Tries a New Legal Tactic Against Big Oil, Alleging Antitrust Violations Aimed at Hobbling EVs and Renewable Energy
The suit comes as the industry and its political allies escalate efforts to shut down liability laws and lawsuits. Republicans in Congress are currently crafting...
Texas to Study ‘Batch Zero’ of Data Centers by Late Summer
As ERCOT plans to reform how it evaluates data centers seeking grid connection, unknowns remain.By Arcelia MartinA month after the state’s grid operator said it...
Climate Action in the Hands of the State
Go behind the scenes with executive editor Vernon Loeb and reporter Kiley Bense as they discuss the push and pull of climate action in Pennsylvania.By...
Physics‐Based Versus AI Weather Prediction Models: A Comparative Performance Assessment of Atmospheric River Prediction
Abstract Machine learning (ML) poses a potential paradigm shift in weather forecasting, but critical questions arise regarding its ability to predict high‐impact weather events. This...
Tropical TCV as a Process Diagnostic: Connecting Probability to Processes in km–Scale Models Via Moisture Budget Statistics
Abstract Observations show a bimodal frequency distribution in total column vapor (TCV) over tropical oceans, with convective rainfall predominantly produced on the moist side of...
Sediment Legacy Organic Matter Amplifies Nutrient‐Driven Coastal Hypoxia: A Coupled Benthic‐Pelagic Modeling Study
Abstract Coastal hypoxia is profoundly affected by sediment depletion of oxygen and recycling of nutrients—processes sustained by long‐term accumulation of sediment organic matter. While sediment‐water...
Lithospheric Mantle Heterogeneity Drives Delayed Magmatism and Wide Continent‐Ocean Transitions in Rifted Margins
Abstract The formation of wide, magma‐starved continent–ocean transition (COT) zones remains incompletely understood. We use 2‐D thermo‐mechanical numerical experiments, coupling hydrous mantle melting with parameterized...
Vertical Land Motion and Human Exposure Across India's Coastal Regions
Abstract In India, over 200 million people live within 100 km of the coastline, and many reside in low‐lying areas exposed to increasing flood risks...
Investigating the Periphery Region in Warm Cumulus Clouds
Abstract Warm cumulus clouds are key components of Earth’s weather and climate systems, yet mixing processes within them and their interaction with their environment remain...
New Insights Into the Cooling of the Oceanic Lithosphere From Surface‐Wave Tomographic Inferences
Abstract How oceanic plates cool and thicken with age remains a subject to debate, with several thermal models supported by apparently contradictory data. Combining a...
Atmospheric and Deposition Responses of 10Be to Volcanic Eruptions Inferred From the Aerosol‐Climate Model ECHAM6.3‐HAM2.3‐SALSA2.0: 10Be
Abstract 10Be deposition in ice cores is widely used for solar reconstructions, but its interpretation is complicated by volcanic influences. Using the state‐of‐the‐art aerosol‐climate model...
‘What do we want gardens to sound like?’ It began with a frog pond – then suburban rewilding became an obsession
Wild gardening is about shedding obsessions with tidiness, embracing a looser aesthetic and providing a home for ‘the most important creatures on the planet’On a...
‘What’s more important, the electricity or food?’: extreme heat is driving up power bills in central Australia
Vanessa Napaltjari Davis puts $70 a week on her prepaid electricity card – but as Alice Springs swelters through ever-hotter summers, that credit lasts less...
Democratic senators launch inquiry into EPA’s repeal of key air pollution enforcement measure
Senators said repeal was ‘particularly troubling’ and was counter to EPA’s mandate to protect human healthMore than three dozen Democratic senators have begun an independent...
Offshore wind showed up big during the East Coast’s brutal cold
Bone-chilling cold and Arctic winds gripped the northeastern U.S. over the past few weeks, straining electricity systems and raising power prices as people cranked up their...
For Maine’s Lakes, Shorter Ice Seasons Mean Loss of Water Quality, Winter Traditions
One lifelong resident remembers driving out onto lakes with his family as a boy without worrying about the thickness of the ice. Now, Maine’s lakes...
Mamdani’s New Chief Climate Officer Wants to Make New York a ‘Better Place to Live’
Louise Yeung hopes to bolster NYC’s response to climate change to better address safety, health and the city’s affordability crisis.By Lauren DalbanIn Louise Yeung’s decade...
China Is Leaving America in the Dust on Clean Energy
There are enormous geopolitical, economic and climate ramifications to the U.S. abandoning leadership on the energy transition. If you live in America, basically none of...
‘Seasons have become confused’: the people struggling in UK’s relentless rain
A thatcher, gardener and others on keeping their business afloat in the bad weather – and their fears for the futureWith 76 flood warnings still...
Modulation of the Mid‐Latitude Ionospheric Sporadic E Layer by the Northern Polar Vortex
Abstract The sporadic E (Es) layer is a prominent ionospheric irregularity mainly driven by vertical wind shear at mid‐latitudes. Hereby we statistically investigate for the...
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