Outrider Foundation

Hi All, a quick update from Outrider HQ: This week, The New York Times debuted “At the Brink,” a groundbreaking new multimedia series about nuclear weapons. Outrider Foundation and our partners at the Carnegie Corporation of New York and The Prospect Hill Foundation are supporting this limited series. Outrider’s fellow, W.J. Hennigan, is leading the project. You can read more here: https://lnkd.in/gMPq6M7C The public’s understanding of nuclear security and its impacts on the world stage is vital. The “At the Brink” series will provide essential analysis and perspectives at this critical moment in history. We want more people to read these pieces. If it makes sense, please share them in your networks. Thanks for looking!

Islands are eyeing ocean thermal energy conversion to power their future and combat #climatechange. 🔋🏝️ https://bit.ly/3LdrsYi Like many of the world’s 57 small island developing nations and territories — a list that includes Puerto Rico, Barbados, and Jamaica — the economically challenged African country of São Tomé and Príncipe has an #energy problem. The tiny archipelago nation to the west of Africa must produce electricity for the 200,000 residents who rely almost entirely on heavily polluting diesel fuel. “Our power generation is 95% from diesel — and we have to import it,” said Gabriel Lima Maquengo, Energy Director for Sao Tome and Prince’s Ministry of Infrastructure, Natural Resources, and #Environment. Interest in the long-neglected #carbon-free technology fueled by ocean water is rising, especially with new designs and Shell Oil’s Marine Renewable Program on board.

#Climatechange is one of the greatest challenges humans have ever faced. How did we get here? And what can you do to be part of the solution? Dive into our collection of stories, videos, and more to get started. ⬇️ https://bit.ly/4b9h7ah

The victims of U.S. #nuclear testing deserve more. https://bit.ly/4csgtpC They call themselves downwinders — a global community of people who lived near nuclear testing sites. In America, more than 100 nuclear devices were exploded in aboveground tests in New Mexico and Nevada from 1945 to 1962. For decades, members of the communities near those sites, as well as others involved in weapons production, have endured rare cancers, autoimmune disorders and other illnesses. But only some have been compensated by the federal government for what they’ve gone through. The men and women came to Capitol Hill in May 2024, bearing surgical scars, long medical histories and fading photographs of loved ones long dead. They came from across the country to walk the halls of Congress and show lawmakers the human cost of the U.S. nuclear weapons program. Read the The New York Times Opinion piece from WJ Hennigan.

Big infrastructure projects in America and around the world, from #solar farms in the Southwest to #fossilfuel pipelines in the Great Plains, have been hamstrung by a history of exploitation and distrust between corporations and local communities. A lack of community engagement and local resistance occurred in some 30% of #cleanenergy project failures in the U.S., according to a 2022 study in the journal Energy Policy. In Canada, an unlikely triumvirate of finance, government, and indigenous communities has found a better way—advancing Canada's green energy transition, potentially making big money for investors, and helping overcome centuries of economic and social exploitation of First Nations. The key? Indigenous ownership. Read the latest from Outrider fellow Justin Worland of TIME. https://bit.ly/3xxAfB7

With rivers across the West running low, utilities must get creative to meet demand without increasing #emissions. https://bit.ly/3xzJwIO In Washington, a dozen dams dot the Columbia River — that mighty waterway carved through the state by prehistoric superfloods. Between those dams and the hundreds of others that plug the rivers and tributaries that lace the region, including California and Nevada, the Western United States accounts for most of the country's hydroelectric energy from the waters flowing across its landscape. Washington alone captures more than a quarter of that; combined with Oregon and Idaho, the Pacific Northwest claims well over two-fifths of America’s dam-derived electricity. So when a #drought hits the region, the nation takes notice. That happened in 2023 when, according to a recent report, U.S. #hydroelectric power hit its lowest level in 22 years. While the atmospheric rivers that poured across California provided the state with abundant energy, the Pacific Northwest endured low summer flows after a late-spring heat wave caused snowpack to melt and river levels to peak earlier than usual. Though dam turbines kept spinning throughout the year — proving that even during a drought, the nation’s hydro system remains reliable — last year offered energy providers in the West a glimpse of the conditions they may need to adapt to as the world warms and seasonal weather patterns shift. While models predict #climatechange will plunge California and the Southwest deeper into drought, what awaits Washington and Oregon is less clear. The Pacific Northwest will get warmer. That much is certain. But in terms of the rain that places like Seattle and Portland are known for, things get fuzzier.

If the #Amazon rainforest were to have a department store, this is what it might look like. https://bit.ly/4cGOuSV Within the sprawling, 130-hectare “living seed bank” at Camino Verde, a project in the richly biodiverse region of Madre de Dios in Peru, there are over 400 species of native trees and plants with often incredible properties little-known to science. There are “dragon’s blood” trees with thick red sap that heal wounds quickly; there’s Flemingia (wild hops), a leafy shrub that has the rare ability to fix nitrogen in the #soil, making it more fertile; there are towering, thick trunks of ironwood, one of the strongest timbers in the world. Meanwhile, the bark of the tawari tree produces “killer T-cells” that fight cancer. All of these coexist in this great, Avatar-esque library of natural wonders. In one of the planet’s most ecologically rich regions, the fight to prevent native plants from being lost forever begins on the forest floor. 🌳

El Niño has been rough. Its departure could be even rougher. https://bit.ly/3VWWytc It’s not your imagination — summers keep getting hotter, and the consequences are impossible to miss. In the summer of 2023, the Northern Hemisphere experienced its hottest season in 2,000 years. Canada’s deadliest wildfires on record bathed skylines in smoke from Minnesota to New York. In Texas and Arizona, hundreds of people lost their lives to heat, and in Vermont, flash floods caused damages equivalent to those from a hurricane. Forecasts suggest that this year’s upcoming “danger season” has its own catastrophes in store. On May 23, NOAA: National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration scientists announced that the 2024 Atlantic #hurricane season could be the most prolific yet. “We’ve always had this pattern of #ElNiño, La Niña. Now it’s happening on top of a warmer world,” said Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at Berkeley Earth, an environmental data science nonprofit. “We need to be ready for the types of extremes that have not been tested in the past.” Keep reading from Grist’s Sachi Kitajima Mulkey to learn why this summer might bring the wildest #weather yet.

Climate change increases wildfire and flood risks, and sites with #radioactive material are more vulnerable. As Texas wildfires burned toward the nation’s primary #nuclear weapons facility, workers hurried to ensure nothing flammable was around buildings and storage areas. When the fires showed no sign of slowing, Pantex Plant officials urgently called on local contractors, who arrived within minutes with bulldozers to dig trenches and enlarge fire breaks for the sprawling complex where nuclear weapons are assembled and disassembled and dangerous plutonium pits — hollow spheres that trigger nuclear warheads and bombs — are stored. “We all know the #climate is changing. Everybody’s thinking about, what effect are we having on the climate? Now we need to flip that on its head and say, ‘OK ... but what do we think is going to happen as a result of climate on a particular site?’” Keep reading The Associated Press story: https://lnkd.in/gAPbPPXd

The Navajo Nation’s transition from producing fossil fuels to generating renewable energy is going through some growing pains. “From my perspective, we have one shot, and this is it.” Tribal and chapter government officials, energy companies, nonprofit organizations, and others attended a three-day conference last week to discuss the tribe’s history with energy production and the challenges of redefining that relationship. They also discussed how to best take advantage of financial incentives rolled out by the Biden administration for developing renewable energy sources. Keep reading the story from Outrider fellow Noel Lyn Smith of Inside Climate News. https://lnkd.in/gzugfz_8