Harnessing power to combat climate change – underground and in the courts
In a first, a utility company flipped the switch on a neighborhoodwide geothermal network
While costly for individual property owners to build, the underground system is being piloted to test how an energy delivery company can be instrumental in the transition away from fossil fuels. The $14 million project by Eversource in Framingham, Massachusetts, links 135 customers on one network.
The system circulates water and antifreeze through a mile of pipes and 88 boreholes. Once underground, the mixture is heated or cooled, depending on the season, by the Earth’s temperature. It then flows back to buildings to heat pumps. Eversource says customers’ monthly bills could fall by about 20%, and carbon emissions by 60%.
Why We Wrote This
In our progress roundup, we found pioneers west of Boston, where a community became the first in the U.S. to pilot an underground system to replace gas furnaces. And in Switzerland, older women fought in court for protection against climate change.
Massachusetts and 12 other states are working on regulatory measures that would assist companies in putting more resources into geothermal and fewer into gas infrastructure.
Sources: Canary Media, Inside Climate News
A weekly car-free event reduces air and noise pollution in Bogotá
Born out of a 1974 protest against automobiles in Colombia’s capital, Ciclovía (meaning “bikeway”) allows Bogotá residents, from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sundays and holidays, to take the streets back from cars.
On 79 miles of roads and cycle paths every week, people walk, bike, and skate among aerobics classes and down streets filled with the sound of salsa. According to studies, 58% of Ciclovía participants say the event has motivated them to use bikes more. Particulate matter levels are 13 times lower during Ciclovía than on a typical day.
Residents also point to an improved feeling of community and an expanded sense of the purpose of urban space. “One thing that allows people to feel Bogotano is the Ciclovía,” said César Rojas. “No matter how rich you are, and whether you are from the south or the north, the west or the east, you can go down any road and you will not be excluded.”
Source: The Guardian
Court rules that Switzerland violated women’s rights by not sufficiently combating climate change
An organization of over 2,000 women ages 64 and older argued that the country’s failure to meet its carbon goals left its members, on account of their age and sex, uniquely vulnerable. In summer 2022, at least 61,000 mostly older adults in Europe, 60% of them women, died of heat-related causes.
A panel of 17 judges of the European Court of Human Rights found that the Swiss government failed to protect the women from “the serious adverse effects of climate change on lives, health, well-being and quality of life.” The legally binding decision cannot be appealed, and it marks the first time the court has ruled on climate change.
Similarly, in 2023, a judge in Montana ruled in favor of a group of young people that sued the state for not considering climate change while approving new fuel projects. And in June, a lawsuit brought by Hawaiian youths was settled when the state government agreed to eliminate emissions from its transportation sector by 2045.
Sources: Foreign Policy, The Washington Post
Africa’s reduction of tobacco use is on track to meet goals by 2025
Between 2020 and 2022, tobacco consumption in Africa fell 18% for adolescents and 46% for adults, according to the World Health Organization. Africa is expected to lower tobacco use by 30% during the 2010-2025 period – the global target WHO adopted in 2014.
Only 4% of African countries have not ratified WHO’s convention on tobacco control, and 37 African countries ban smoking in public spaces. Stricter controls on the marketing and sale of tobacco and nicotine products, particularly those aimed at young people, are credited with some of the reductions in use. In Mauritania, tobacco use was down 8 percentage points to 10% for people ages 16 to 64 by 2021.
Amid surging population growth and an expected increase in the number of male smokers, WHO says reducing tobacco use among young people is key. The median age in Africa is about 19.
Sources: World Health Organization, The Wilson Center, Fix The News
A new system for predicting landslides may help Nepalese communities save lives
Owing to its mountainous terrain and monsoon rains, Nepal is one of the most landslide-prone countries in the world. During the 2015 Gorkha earthquake that killed about 9,000 people, thousands of landslides destroyed parts of the capital and wiped out villages.
An artificial intelligence tool invented by scientists in Australia uses satellite imagery from space exploration agencies in the United States, Europe, and Japan. By combining rainfall and ground motion data with the imagery, the new model takes large amounts of data to make accurate landslide predictions days or weeks in advance.
Researchers are set to roll out the new system in two high-risk regions in partnership with Nepal’s government.
Sources: The Kathmandu Post, Asian News Network
