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Climate News 11.2022 This month, given the theme of gratitude, I have been thinking about how grateful I am to live in a place where the elected leaders and local citizens care about the environment and put in the effort to protect it. For example, recently the town of Telluride has announced that in 2024 there will be a ban on single use plastics. Back in 1993 the Colorado State Legislature passed a bill that banned municipalities from banning single use plastics. Last year the law was finally repealed, and a new law will go into effect next year banning single use plastic bags and polystyrene containers statewide with some exceptions. My hometown of Telluride has a history of being a leader in environmental action. In 2007 the town fought to protect the six hundred acres of river corridor land at the entrance to town from development. In 2010 Telluride became one of the first places in the country to ban single use plastic bags despite the 1993 law that was still on the books. Now, once again, the town council is planning to have a complete single use plastics ban in 2024. This will include plastic water bottles, plastic cutlery, straws, and single use food containers. Although I am incredibly grateful for this ban, it only addresses a tiny bit of the harm Telluride has done to the environment over time because of the mining industry and the running of the ski area. We consume a lot of fossil fuels because of the highly demanding tourist industry. These plastic bans are not designed to stop climate change, but they are a step in the right direction.

Climate Tip 12.22 Happy Holidays! This month I am going to write about how to be thoughtful about your impact on the Earth and reduce your waste these holidays. No matter what you celebrate you can be helping the environment the whole way through. Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s waste increases by 25% to 43%. Not only should we work to reduce this, but it is an opportunity to create good habits for the years ahead.  In my family, we celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas, and one big part of Christmas is presents. We try to reuse old newspapers and decorate paper bags to wrap with because wrapping paper can be extremely wasteful. Every year my family decorates a tree outside with fruits we have dried for the birds and critters in memory of my grandpa. You could also participate in the Christmas Bird Count which is a community science project put on annually by the National Audubon Society. Traditions like these can be meaningful without producing waste. The biggest contributor to holiday waste is food, so if you have a big feast or potluck, encourage people to bring containers to take home leftovers and freeze food for later. Reusing holiday decorations and lights and buying second-hand when you need replacements can cut down on waste.  When it comes to gift giving, there are many ways to keep the environment and your carbon footprint in mind. Making a contribution to an organization that helps animals, the environment, or people who need support can be just as thoughtful a gift as something purchased. Tickets to plays or musical performances can also be meaningful and less harmful to the environment. Buying locally reduces all the fossil fuels used for shipping. Another great gift is something environmentally friendly such as solar powered phone chargers or a reusable water bottle. No matter how you celebrate this season, try to make it a less wasteful season this year.

Climate News 03.2023: Biochar In February, the Colorado Legislature agreed to move forward with a study to determine whether biochar could effectively help to cap orphaned oil and gas wells. There are estimated to be over three million abandoned oil wells nationwide, many of which leak climate warming gasses into the atmosphere. The gasses can also have negative effects on the health of people and animals living near the wells.  Biochar is made through a process called pyrolysis in which wood and other organic materials are burned at very high temperatures while oxygen is removed from the chamber. Biochar can sequester and keep carbon inert for millenia. If successful, the biochar will not only cap the wells but sequester the carbon dioxide and methane, removing it from the carbon cycle. This is an important approach that goes hand in hand with efforts to release fewer harmful gasses into the atmosphere. Additionally, the trees that are being used to make biochar come from beetle kill and forest fires across Colorado. Using them to make this material prevents them from being burned and releasing more carbon dioxide.  Lawmakers hope that this new process will not only help Colorado, but could become a model for other states. If oil wells nationwide were largely capped experts estimate that it could keep millions to billions of tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere. I am excited about this approach because it is doubly good for the environment by both sequestering and limiting the release of carbon dioxide, and it has the potential to have a huge impact.

Climate News 05.2023: Latest News and Solutions There has been a lot of climate news in the past two months. In early April an important new report from the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that we are not doing enough to curb global warming to only 1.5 degrees Celsius, the goal set in the Paris Agreement in 2015. The report which was written by hundreds of leading scientists says that despite some efforts to curb emissions, greenhouse gas emissions did, in fact, increase globally from 2010 to 2019 and continue to rise. The IPCC report states that we need to reach net zero carbon dioxide emissions globally by the early 2050s or else the world will experience extreme climate chaos. They predict the loss of over one million plant and animal species as well as extreme weather including droughts, floods, and wildfires, and rising oceans if emissions have not peaked and started to decrease by 2025. But, there is hope. Big companies are rolling out new ideas for electric cars. For example Ford, General Motors, Hundia/Kia, Audi/Porsche/Volkswagen, Nissan, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz are all making electric cars. There are also many new small all electric companies starting up. Importantly, electric vehicles made up ten percent of market share last year, a significant global milestone.   Switching to low emission solutions is now more practical. One can now get many home appliances that have a very small or no carbon footprint. There are also new regulations in some cities that require these greener appliances be integrated in new buildings.  There are new ways to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of industry. More efficient and green production processes are coming online.  Entrepreneurs are finding ways to make going green profitable for investors. There are new innovative solutions for green energy such as floating wind turbines that can be placed up to forty miles offshore where the wind is more powerful and they do not take up valuable real estate on land. There are also progressions in harvesting geothermal energy from the Earth. There have been significant breakthroughs in battery technology. Although much of this news is not the good type, there is still hope that if we all work together we can hold off a catastrophic future.

Climate News 06.2023: Hotsat-1 This month I’ve been reading about how innovative satellite technologies are being used as important tools for scientists leaders in monitoring and addressing climate change. Recently, the British technology company, SatVu, built a satellite that can measure the heat radiating off buildings and determine whether or not they are energy efficient. This incredible satellite is named Hotsat-1 and was launched with a SpaceX rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California in June this year. The satellite can send information that it collects back to Earth in near real time. As well as seeing heat loss from buildings the satellite can also spot faults in solar farms. SatVu plans to launch 7 more similar satellites into orbit and hopefully will receive its first images from Hotsat-1 this month and the satellite should be in commercial operation in October. According to the World Green Building Council “buildings are currently responsible for 39% of global energy related carbon emissions: 28% from operational emissions, from energy needed to heat, cool and power them, and the remaining 11% from materials and construction.” Clearly, this is an important area to address and Hotsat-1 and its later generations of siblings can play a role in helping communities retrofit inefficient buildings.  Hotsat-1 will be useful to see parts of countries, particularly the UK at first, and determine whether or not they are energy efficient. Eventually, SatVu will be able to look at every building in the world. It will help leaders at every level address energy inefficiencies in buildings and make new plans to reduce climate change. Similar missions have been conducted by NASA but none of them quite like this. NASA has several programs using satellites to monitor Earth’s climate and changes to the climate. They are collecting a vast amount of important information and offering scientists and the public statistics about Earth’s vital signs as well as monitoring weather and tracking water cycles and ice melt. We are in the midst of an exciting era of space exploration, and these satellite technologies are at the intersection of space science and climate action.

Climate News 07.2023: Heat As some of you may know, July was Earth’s hottest month on record and many devastating effects of climate change started to show themselves such as huge wildfires in Hawaii and Canada as well as dying coral reefs in Florida and Australia. As I sit here on a high mesa in Southwest Colorado I can feel that this summer has been warmer than in the past and every year there is less snow on the mountains. But so far I have been relatively shielded from the biggest impacts. In order to save our dying planet we must all work as one which means that some people who are more protected from these climate horrors must work to fight for those who are suffering most, largely because of what we more protected people have done. Each of us has some responsibility to step out of our personal experience and fight for climate justice and the people and animals who are suffering.  While much of the planet was sweltering under a heat dome, for the first time in fifteen years leaders from the 8 different countries that encompass parts of the Amazon (Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela) met at a summit in Brazil. Although the countries have not yet finalized commitments for moving forward with reductions in deforestation, president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil has plans to end deforestation in his country’s part of the Amazon by 2030. This summit meeting was a critical first step in the cooperative efforts needed to stop the destruction of the rainforest. The importance of the Amazon in countering global warming and providing habitat for species cannot be overstated. Additionally, it is home to 2.7 million indigenous people whose understanding of environmental stewardship will be key to reversing the damage we have done. President da Silva has also said that in order to save the Amazon they will need significant funding and help from countries in the global north such as the U.S.  So, my challenge for each of you reading this is to think about what it would be like to be in the position of somebody who is suffering from these climate disasters and take a small action such as donating money to a non-profit organization that supports the world in a positive way, voting or writing a letter to an elected leader about supporting climate action, researching, or doing something else positive to help your community. Every small action is practice for the work of coming together to face these challenges.

Climate News 08.2023 Coral Reefs This month I’m going to write about one of nature’s greatest wonders; coral reefs. Corals are animals that attach themselves to the ocean floor and through symbiotic relationships grow large, intricate, structures called reefs. 25% of marine life depends on these reefs which make up structures that can be seen from space. Coral reefs can reduce 97% of coastal wave energy during a storm. Coral reefs provide benefits to the tune of 2.7 trillion U.S dollars every year. They also provide jobs for over 1 billion people around the world. But we have already lost HALF of the world’s coral reefs, and if we don’t act now that fraction is just going to get larger. Coral reefs, like many species, are disappearing quickly, mostly because of human action and climate change. As little as a 2 degree Fahrenheit change in water temperature can cause coral to bleach. Bleaching can also be caused by other factors such as extremely low tides, pollution, or too much sunlight. After the algae-like substance zooxanthellae (pronounced so-UH-zan-thuh-lay) leaves the coral it becomes bleached and then either dies or, with improved conditions, may recover after 9-12 years. Although warming temperatures are an obvious driver in coral bleaching and death, other human caused factors such as oil spills, improperly treated sewage, destructive fishing (using dynamite and cyanide), fertilizer runoff, sedimentation, and mining corals for building and aquariums are all hugely significant. While this is heavy news, it does mean there are more solutions to this massive problem. Scientists around the world are testing innovative ideas to address the coral die off. Some scientists are breeding coral that are more disease resistant. One rescue effort includes 3d printing coral out of calcium carbonate which can be made very similar to the chemical makeup, texture, and structure of real coral. NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Agency) and ESA (European Space Agency) are both collecting data about coral reefs by monitoring them from the sky. There are many things citizens can do to help save the coral reefs as well. For example, try to choose sustainable seafood and don’t put harmful chemicals into the water. Make sure that any sunscreen you use while in the ocean is safe for marine life and never buy coral that has been harvested from the wild for jewelry or other uses. Be aware of your actions and how they could affect corals and other species. Lastly, try to reduce your carbon footprint because climate change is a significant cause of dying coral reefs.

Climate News 11.2023 With the ski season coming up, many people in mountain towns are worried about how global warming will affect their snowpack. This month I looked into what mountains are doing to reduce snow loss and melting and stay open all winter long. I’m also going to look at some ways we are trapping carbon to reduce global warming. Research shows that cleaner snow does not melt as fast as dirtier snow. When air pollution particles settle and make the snow dirty it will absorb more sunlight and melt faster. Clean snow reflects 80-90% of sunlight, as it is one of the brightest natural surfaces on Earth. Some ways to reduce air pollution are to cut fossil fuel emissions, to have strong public transportation services as well as keeping forests healthy and banning wood burning stoves (like they did in my hometown of Telluride in the 1980s). So, to protect winter snowpack we just need to reduce particulate matter air pollution, right? No, global warming also has a large effect on snowmelt on a yearly basis. One significant driver of weather patterns that ties into global warming and snowpack is El Niño. El Niño is a climate pattern where heat radiates from warm water in the eastern Pacific Ocean causing hotter, drier weather in some areas and increased precipitation and flooding in others. El Niño has been supercharged by a warming climate causing weather chaos. So it’s clear that to stop melting snowpack we also need to limit global warming and carbon emissions. To limit global warming to the UN's goals we will need to start trapping carbon from the atmosphere and permanently store it underground. One way people are doing this is bringing in air through giant fans and then directing it into a solvent that bonds with and traps the carbon. Currently, this method, called direct air capture, is expensive and its capacity is limited. Scientists are also working on a way to mineralize carbon mimicking the natural process by which basalt bonds with carbon in the atmosphere. Once the carbon is trapped, it can be repurposed for many things including fuel, and clothing. Another innovative way to trap carbon is with three story tall carbon sucking imitation trees like they are experimenting with at Arizona State University. These fake trees are more efficient and, unlike real trees, do not release all their trapped CO2 at the end of their lifespans. To stop melting snow we need to use these methods and more to keep winter cold. Protect Our Winters (POW) is an organization that is working to keep winter cold. You can check out their work HERE . There are many new and emerging technologies to limit global warming, but scientists say we can't do too much to slow the climate crisis. Now you may be thinking why do I care, I don’t ski (which I do) but, 2 billion people worldwide depend on snow for a steady source of water. Unlike rain, which instantly flows into reservoirs, snow gradually melts into water throughout the spring and summer, supplying people with water all year round. There is still a lot we need to do to reduce global warming and preserve our snowpack. I believe that it is the responsibility of ski resorts, as large consumers of energy, to act with more urgency and protect the snowpack that so many people and animals depend on. Many people and organizations are coming out with innovative solutions but now we must implement them.

Climate News 12.23: Letter to Joe Biden This month I wrote a letter to President Biden concerning the Willow oil drilling project in Alaska that his administration approved in March. This project would potentially produce 180,000 new barrels of oil a day, an astonishing 1.5% of the U.S.’s total oil production. I encourage you to do some research and write to him as well. Dear President Biden, My name is Forest Olson I am an 11 year old environmentalist from Telluride Colorado. I am writing to ask you to put a stop to the Willow oil drilling project in Alaska. Big oil companies like ConocoPhillips should not have the right to prioritize profit over a livable future. My generation is relying on leaders like you to drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions in order to limit global warming and climate chaos. The effects of climate change are being felt around the globe and I believe that it's largely the responsibility of the U.S. to make decisions to limit further suffering. Increased warming where you are supporting drilling in the arctic is already causing ice that has been frozen for miIlennia to melt, endangering many species as well as the ability of native people to live off the land. Please consider reversing course on this project before it is to late. Sincerely, Forest Olson

Climate News 03.2024: Sun Bear Solar Project This month I thought I would write about something more local than my last article so, I decided to write about the proposed Sun Bear solar farm on the Ute Mountain Ute reservation, near Towaoc, CO and how tribes may benefit from projects like this. Climate justice demands that any level of involvement that tribes choose to have in the production of renewable energy must be on the terms of the native communities and benefit them directly in the ways that they design and envision. The proposed solar farm would be 1 mile by 8 miles long, with 2.2 million solar panels. The renewable energy company Canigou Group partnered with tribal officials to plan the Sun Bear solar farm, which officials say will provide over 500 local jobs for electricians and laborers. Officials plan to break ground in late 2024, and start producing energy by 2026. Once completed, the Sun Bear solar farm will produce an estimated 756 megawatts (MW) of power annually. To put this in perspective a typical coal plant is 600 MW large, and 1 MW is enough energy to power roughly 750 homes at once. The project, costing 1 billion dollars, will provide electricity to the ​​Western Area Power Administration. The Canigou Group is not certain all of the energy will be able to be consumed within Colorado.  In the past, Indigenous groups have been taken advantage of and marginalized by the U.S government and the energy industry. Now that the federal government is supporting the rapid expansion of renewable energy, it gives indigenous groups a chance to be part of this industry. This will mean that more indigenous groups will have power, both electric and decision-making. Currently, 17,000 tribal homes in the United States have no power including 1 in 5 homes on the Navajo Reservation and roughly 1 in 3 homes on the Hopi Reservation. If tribes choose to be part of the renewable energy transition they must have decision making power through the whole process and benefit directly from building infrastructure on their land.

Climate News 05.2024 On Tuesday April 2nd, researchers at the University of Washington used a decommissioned aircraft carrier in the San Francisco Bay to launch microscopic salt particles into the air in an effort to reflect sunlight away from the Earth. This is part of a new area of research called solar radiation modification. In this specific experiment the researchers aimed to increase the density, and therefore the reflectiveness, of the clouds. This experiment was kept very secretive to avoid public backlash prior to the start of the experiment. The experiment follows the termination of a Harvard University experiment in March which planned to launch small sun-blocking aerosols into part of the sky near Sweden. SCoPEx (stratospheric controlled perturbation experiment) was canceled after encountering opposition from Indigenous groups. If done consistently and widely enough, experts say that solar radiation modification could cool Earth’s climate but that there are many risks that come with the potentially rewarding technology. If this technology becomes more widespread, the aerosols, which do not last very long in the atmosphere, will have to be consistently sprayed in order to continually  reflect sunlight and keep the planet cool. If the spraying, a very difficult and precise task, suddenly stopped and we had not reduced fossil fuel use enough, it would cause a dramatic spike in heat, potentially meaning the end of life on Earth. This is known as a “termination shock” and is a very real threat when it comes to solar radiation. When an NRC (U.S Nuclear Regulatory Commision) committee was questioned about solar radiation by several U.S. government science and intelligence agencies in 2015 they deemed it “irrational and irresponsible” with too many risks to be worth it. They also stated that, in contrast to this risky proposed solution, capturing and trapping carbon from the atmosphere, another type of geoengineering, was worthy and “almost inevitable”. Many scientists also insist that geoengineering Earth’s atmosphere is not a permanent solution to the climate crisis, we will still need to work very hard to change our energy system in order to keep our planet cool. Despite criticism and many risks there are several small startups around the globe aiming to use this technology to cool the planet. As there are currently few laws around geoengineering, these companies are free to launch whatever they want into Earth’s atmosphere. One company has been launching giant balloons filled with a mix of helium and sulfur dioxide which pop in the atmosphere, releasing their contents. This method was developed in 1991 after 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide was launched into the atmosphere during the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines, which resulted in Earth’s temperature dropping by 1˚ Fahrenheit.  All in all, many believe that solar radiation modification’s risks outweigh its benefits and it is therefore not a solution for the climate crisis. Scientists believe humans' priority should be to shift to a new energy system that does not rely on fossil fuels and for us to shift away from a consumer mindset more generally. They also say that other types of geoengineering in different ways such as removing and trapping carbon from the atmosphere may help us undo some of the damage we have done to our atmosphere and is worth continued exploration hand in hand with other solutions.

Climate News 07.2024: Youth-Led Lawsuits  This month, I have written about three climate-related, youth-led lawsuits against various governments. These lawsuits, among others, are examples of youth holding their governments accountable for providing them with a livable future. We should all be inspired by these young people and the work they are doing through the legal system.  I.  Hawaii  Just a couple weeks ago, on June 20th, the government of Hawaii settled a lawsuit with young people who had sued the Department of Transportation over its use of fossil fuels. The constitution of Hawaii guarantees the “right to a clean and healthful environment.” The youth’s argument was that by depending on environmentally-harmful fossil fuels, the Department of Transportation was violating the state’s constitution. The case organized by Our Children’s Trust, a non-profit organization that has brought similar cases to state and federal courts, was first brought in 2022 and settled shortly before it was supposed to have gone to trial. The settlement will require the state to make changes to reduce their planet-warming emissions. This is a significant win for climate activists. II. Montana Last year, a groundbreaking decision came down in a youth-led case in Montana that was very similar to the one in Hawaii. The State of Montana’s constitution also allows all people the right to a “clean and healthful environment.” The youth’s argument was that by embracing fossil fuels, the state is polluting the environment, driving climate change, and therefore, violating their own constitution. Similar to the case in Hawaii, these youth were represented by Our Children’s Trust. Judge Kathy Seeley agreed with the youth although the state vowed to appeal the ruling. Despite this historic victory, it is unclear at this point whether the state will allow the case to move forward and require significant action on climate. III. Canada In Canada a group of plaintiffs, representing seven provinces and one territory, argue that Canada, by promoting fossil fuels, is harming the environment. The plaintiffs aim to hold the Federal Government accountable under the Canadian Public Trust Doctrine as well as the charter. After the Federal Court of Canada granted the motion to strike the claim of youth who made a presentation over a two-day public hearing in Vancouver, the plaintiffs' legal counsel appealed a month later (2020). Following pandemic delays the plaintiffs’ attorneys made their case via a virtual hearing before a panel of Federal Court Appeal judges. Almost a year later the plaintiffs won, clearing the way for them to go to court. The trial will likely take place in 2025. This case is a Canadian-led endeavour to protect the charter rights of Canadian youth who are already feeling the drastic effects of climate change. Among the many important supporters of this case is again Our Children’s Trust. If the case is successful, the government of Canada will be forced to develop a science-based recovery plan focused on using what scientists say is needed to stabilize Canada’s climate system. All of these lawsuits are efforts to hold governments accountable for their actions that are denying our upcoming generations the right to a clean and healthful environment. It is important that we fight to guarantee that future generations will inherit an Earth that is sustainable and can be a home for all life. These lawsuits, among others, could be extremely important steps to reach this goal.