Quaint

11/11/21

Hello everyone:

This week in curated Anthropocene news, I have updates on hydro power and COP26, an overview of natural solutions to mitigating climate change, and a fascinating article on the evolutionary impact of poaching on elephant tusks:

Dammed if we do: Voters in Maine handily rejected the Hydro-Quebec transmission line last week, despite Central Maine Power’s $48 million ethically-questionable advertising barrage. Now the fate of the line is up to the courts. Coincidentally enough, here’s a shiny new opinion piece from Yale e360 on whether hydroelectric power is as green and promising as we’ve been told. Beyond questions about emissions from reservoirs, habitat loss, and the drowning of indigenous land, there’s this: In a climate-addled world, the reliability of rainfall – which governs the design and efficiency of hydro dams – is up in the air.

COP26 updates: Check out Fred Pearce’s excellent reports from COP26. They offer all the key stories, concisely articulated, without the …