In Switzerland, highway noise barriers surrounding the Oberland Autobahn near Wangen-Brüttisellen will soon provide solar power.

Last year, Switzerland’s Federal Roads Office made the surfaces of highway noise barriers free and set out to cover 350 of them in solar panels. Swiss officials estimated that the arrays could generate 100 gigawatt hours of clean energy per year, CleanTechnica reported.

The project is now kicking off with the first two privately owned solar arrays for the A15 Oberland motorway, which will be completed over the first half of 2025. As TA Zurich reported, these photovoltaic installations are expected to provide about 500,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year.

The first solar arrays will be operated by Lima Solar AG, which has had to overcome several hurdles before starting the installation, including finding low-cost, low-glare panels that won’t distract drivers.

However, despite the hurdles, the company has now paved the way for other noise barrier solar projects to move forward at a faster pace.

One ongoing challenge involves connecting the private solar arrays to the electric grid, particularly in more rural areas, and establishing a marketplace for the generated power. As TA Zurich reported, covering the noise barriers alone would only provide a limited amount of clean energy for residents.

However, Switzerland passed a law in 2023 requiring new buildings with 3,300 square feet (300 meters) or more of roof space to install solar panels. In 2024, Zurich passed a law requiring solar panels on buildings, new or old, with roofs at least 3,300 square feet by 2040.

By installing more panels in already developed spaces that are otherwise unused, Switzerland is incorporating more efficient and affordable ways to install solar.

There has been promising research on the benefits of adding photovoltaic installations along highways to power local communities and support EV charging infrastructure.

A study published in November 2023 found that deploying solar panels on highway noise barriers along highways in the Netherlands could provide around 200 gigawatt hours per year of energy. Further, the study determined that solar energy along highways, both on noise barriers and on public lands around highways, could supply enough power for highway EV charging stations to charge more than 300 electric vehicles per day, which would meet about 80% of expected demand by 2030.

According to a study published in August 2024, installing solar panels overtop of highways could be an effective way to reduce both emissions and traffic accidents. The report found that installing highway solar panels globally could reduce carbon emissions by about 28%. By putting solar arrays over highways, the researchers of that study estimated a reduction in global traffic deaths by about 10.8%, because the solar panels would protect the highways from precipitation.

As the project along the Oberland Autobahn revealed, there are still challenges to low-glare solar panel costs and delayed governmental approval processes, but as more companies work to establish these types of systems, the cost and time to complete the projects is expected to decline.

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Using data from NASA Satellites, a research team of international scientists has observed a sudden drop in freshwater that started in 2014 and has persisted since then.

The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites revealed a drastic decline in global terrestrial water storage, or TWS, between May 2014 and March 2016. The scientists warned that those water levels have still not recovered as of 2023. They shared their findings in a study published in the journal Surveys in Geophysics.

From 2015 through 2023, surface and groundwater levels were about 290 cubic miles below the average stored freshwater levels from 2002 through 2014, NASA reported. According to Matthew Rodell, a co-author of the study and a hydrologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the amount of water lost from 2015 onward was about 2.5 times the volume of Lake Erie.

The freshwater depletion was driven by drought and exacerbated by the 2016 El Niño event and the increasing modern agricultural and municipal demand for water. The team behind the study also predicted that global warming is playing a part in the declining freshwater levels.

The start of the declining freshwater can be drawn to a record-setting drought in northeastern South America, and water levels struggled to recover as droughts continued to hit all over the world, with massive droughts affecting Australasia, South America, North America, Europe and Africa, the authors reported.

Then, in 2016, one of the strongest El Niño events on record further affected precipitation and affected freshwater recovery, which has remained stalled as more droughts take hold globally. As UNICEF reported, there continues to be a record-breaking drought in the Amazon region since 2023, even worse than the drought that kicked off the freshwater depletion in 2014. This ongoing drought and others around the world affect public health, food security, transportation and more essentials.

Scientists noted that global warming could be to blame for the declining freshwater levels, because the phenomenon can lead to more intense, frequent droughts and can amplify evapotranspiration, where more water from plants and soil moves back into the atmosphere. Further, when precipitation patterns change and lead to more rainfall, the freshwater levels cannot be properly restored.

“The problem when you have extreme precipitation is the water ends up running off,” explained Michael Bosilovich, co-author of the study and NASA Goddard meteorologist. “Warming temperatures increase both the evaporation of water from the surface to the atmosphere, and the water-holding capacity of the atmosphere, increasing the frequency and intensity of drought conditions.”

Scientists are unsure whether the lower freshwater levels will recover. There has also been concern that they could continue to decline, especially as European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) has predicted 2024 to be the hottest year ever recorded.

“We don’t think this is a coincidence, and it could be a harbinger of what’s to come,” Rodell said.

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A new report from Climate Trace identifies global cities with the highest emissions. The report was released on Friday at the 29th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29).

The report includes an inventory of monthly emissions for states, provinces, counties and more than 9,000 cities to provide more localized information on emissions to influence climate policies.

Climate Trace’s data found Shanghai topping the list with 275.28 million metric tons of greenhouse gases across all sectors. As HuffPost reported, other top emitters include Tokyo (250 million metric tons), New York City (160 million metric tons), Houston (150 million metric tons) and Seoul (142 million metric tons). 

According to Climate Trace, most cities don’t have detailed information on their greenhouse gas emissions, emissions which could total an equivalent of around 17 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide.

“Despite pledges and promises, global greenhouse gas emissions continue their steady rise, bringing with them the toxic air pollution that disproportionately impacts communities with fewer resources,” said Al Gore, co-founder of Climate Trace and former U.S. vice president. “But when climate leadership at the global and national levels has faltered, it is state and local leaders who have stepped in to fill the void. Now, with the help of breakthroughs in AI, Climate TRACE is filling an information void that has previously hindered local leaders from taking effective action to combat the global climate crisis and environmental injustice.” 

As HuffPost reported, the Climate Trace coalition used observational data, satellite data and artificial intelligence to measure greenhouse gas emissions at a subnational level.

The report provides insights to spur climate action at the subnational level, and the findings did show some promising results for greenhouse gas emission reductions at the state and province level. According to the report, 378 states in the 30 highest-emitting countries have experienced a decline in greenhouse gas emissions from 2021 to 2024, even if some of the countries’ emissions have continued to rise. 

Globally, the report showed that carbon dioxide and methane increased 0.7% in 2023 and is expected to grow about 0.48% for 2024.

In terms of emissions reductions, the report included “low-hanging fruit” actions that could be swiftly implemented, such as investing in wastewater treatment facility cleanups that prioritize the highest emitting facilities. This alone could reduce emissions per metric ton of waste by 114% compared to spending time and money on cleaning up the 10% lowest-emitting wastewater treatment facilities.

“The newest Climate TRACE inventory finds enormous untapped potential for emissions reductions by investing in these overburdened communities,” said Gavin McCormick, co-founder of Climate Trace and an executive director at WattTime. “Intriguingly, we find this often both reduces pollution inequality and reduces more emissions in total — without requiring any more resources.”

To better facilitate climate action, Climate Trace will begin producing monthly reports on emissions rather than annual reports beginning in 2025.

The report comes at a critical time as countries around the world meet at COP29 to discuss climate action to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels and as the U.S. prepares for the upcoming presidency of Donald Trump, who plans to repeal climate policies and push more domestic fossil fuel production. 

As it stands, the world is currently on track to reach 2.7 degrees Celsius of warming by the end of this century under current climate policies.

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As climate change worsens drought events, scientists are finding ways to make crops more resilient. Such is the case in a new study where biologists at Brown University explored tomato traits and growth cycles that are most durable against heat stress.

Crop yields are expected to decline between 2.5% to 16% for each degree Celsius of warming, the study warned. With global temperatures already surpassing 1.5 degrees Celsius warming for the calendar year compared to pre-industrial times and droughts continuing to worsen in terms of frequency, severity and length, crops are becoming more at risk to heat stress.

In response, scientists experimented with tomato plants to study their pollen tube growth phase, a part of plants’ growth cycles when the pollen tube grows through the pistil to bring the mature male germ cells to the mature female germ cells for fertilization, as explained in the Atlas of Sexual Reproduction in Flowering Plants.

The team’s goal was to find which tomato varieties are best suited to withstanding drought and heat and use their genetics to determine how to make other varieties more durable to these conditions.

“We’re trying to figure out thermoregulation at a molecular and cellular level, and identify what and where we need to improve so that we can target those in commercial plant cultivars and conserve everything about them except for this one aspect that makes them vulnerable to extreme heat,” Sorel V. Yimga Ouonkap, an author of the study and a research associate at Brown University, said in a statement. “Over time, you can start accumulating different resistance mechanisms as the growing conditions continue to change.”

The researchers selected tomato plants native to the Philippines, Russia and Mexico and noted changes in gene expressions when the plants were exposed to heat. The research team and its partners at the University of Arizona found significant differences in heat-tolerant tomatoes and the varieties that were more sensitive to heat. Heat-tolerant tomatoes experienced more growth, while heat-sensitive varieties experienced limitations to fruit and seed production during the pollen tube growth phase. 

From there, the scientists were able to look deeper into the biology of the plants to identify what characteristics make this heat- and drought-tolerance possible, paving the way for more drought-resilient crops in the future. The authors published their findings in the journal Current Biology.

With more research, the findings could help inspire a type of molecule product that could be applied to more heat-sensitive tomatoes ahead of a pollen tube growth phase.

“When the weather forecast showed two weeks of high temperatures during the pollen tube growth phase, the farmer would apply a product to plants that would change the gene expression so that the pollen would be resilient to heat,” explained Mark Johnson, an author of the study and a professor of biology at Brown University.

This would allow farmers to continue to grow desirable tomato varieties, even if they are naturally more vulnerable to heat and drought.

“Imagine if you could just make a Heinz tomato more resilient to temperature stress without affecting the flavor profile or the way people experience the tomato,” Johnson said. “That would be a great advantage.”

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In a new study, scientists tested soil samples from residential and play areas in the Greater Fifth Ward, a neighborhood of Houston, Texas and found high concentrations of lead.

The researchers tested for heavy metals and metalloids, such as lead, arsenic and mercury. While the levels for most of the heavy metals and metalloids appeared in line or lower than usual for urban locations, the average amount of lead was higher than the typical amount of lead present in soil in Texas. The team published their findings in Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology.

The scientists found a median of 400 milligrams of lead per kilogram of soil in seven samples from play areas and 1,200 milligrams per kilogram in three residential soil samples. But the actual amount of lead could be even higher, as the team did not account for lead-based paint or vehicle fuel.

“Heavy metals and metalloids have been extensively studied and regulated over the past 50 years, but evidence is growing that contact is more prevalent than previously thought, especially in so-called cancer clusters like the Greater Fifth Ward, where most residents are socioeconomically disadvantaged racial and ethnic minorities,” Dr. Garett Sansom, an author of the study and research assistant professor at the Texas A&M School of Public Health, said in a statement.

Downtown Houston and the Greater Fifth Ward seen on Feb. 24, 2019. Adam Reeder / Flickr

For the study, researchers partnered with Coalition of Community Organizations and IMPACT GFW and worked with local residents to conduct the testing. They collected 193 soil samples and tested them for lead, barium, chromium, arsenic, cadmium, selenium, mercury and silver. Lead, barium and chromium had the highest concentrations, but only lead was at a higher level than expected for a city.

As reported by Houston Landing, the Greater Fifth Ward neighborhood is part of a “cancer cluster” area with contaminated soil and groundwater that has exposed residents to higher risks of cancer and other diseases for decades.

In 2023, Houston officials passed a $5 million plan to offer money to residents in the area to voluntarily relocate, because of 110 houses near the former Union Pacific Railroad site. But as Houston Landing reported, development in the Greater Fifth Ward has still pushed forward, and many residents are moving to the area with no warning of the contamination.

Researchers and community members worked together to create mailers that were sent to residents to inform them of the study results, and a town hall also notified residents and provided more information. 

In concluding the study, researchers warned that the high concentrations of lead discovered in the samples require a deeper investigation, and they highlighted the importance of working with the community to do this work.

“This study provided a baseline that could aid the development of environmental protection programs,” Sansom said. “In addition, the involvement of community partners was critical to its success and should be used as a model for future research with vulnerable populations and other direct stakeholders.”

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