Amy Boyer

Klamath River dams come down: It's been a long time coming: 4 dams on the Klamath River are coming down in the largest US dam removal project ever. The obsolescent dams' sole use is hydroelectric power, and their operator is planning new renewable power that dwarfs the dams' capacity. The Yurok people, salmon keepers in Northern California, have been fighting for this for years, along with other tribes and allies. Dam removal opens the way for restoration of (nearly collapsed) salmon runs on the Klamath and the traditional salmon fishing ceremonies, along with the health of the river.

 Juliana Birnbaum

Restoring Brazilian pasturelands is a win-win: Years ago I lived for a period in Brazil, in the beautiful and vast tropical savannah known as the Cerrado, and I'm so happy to learn that ranchers in the region are being trained in sustainable pasture restoration. A recent study has shown that these techniques improve productivity on the ranches, mitigate carbon dioxide emissions, and ripple out to slow deforestation of the Amazon. With elections coming up in October, there are some signs that Brazil's climate politics are shifting toward action after years of the opposite under President Bolsonaro.

 Robert Denney

Miyawaki method on the rise: The Miyawaki method of afforestation was mentioned in Regeneration, and I did a bit more digging and saw how it is growing in popularity, particularly in urban areas. The method imitates the natural processes of forest development by relying on a large number of native species planted in close proximity. The technique has been deployed in a number of recent urban afforestation projects around the world, including in Delhi, Cambridge, and Hong Kong. Editor's note: For more on Miyawaki, check out Mini-Forest Revolution: Using the Miyawaki Method to Rapidly Rewild the World by Hannah Lewis.

 Paul Hawken

Getting carbon offsets right: In his instructive piece, Fred Pearce describes how the Hadza people and Carbon Tanzania have gotten carbon offsets right. This ancient hunter gatherer tribe and local people are protecting traditional lands in a way that could be a model for offsets around the world. Their youth are being paid to prevent encroachment and deforestation in an area of land larger than New York State. The total market value of publicly traded shares in the world is over $100 trillion. World real estate value is estimated to be $326 trillion. It would take .0002% of those combined assets to protect every forest system in the world and cut our emissions in half.

 Kavya Gopal

Animating Indigenous regeneration: In these stunning animated videos, storytellers from Uganda, Zimbabwe, and Kenya share how Indigenous communities are regenerating their lands, waters, and cultures. In Uganda, elders have been reclaiming land and organising seed exchanges. In Zimbabwe, farming communities are once again growing old varieties of millet. And in Kenya, communities are bringing back bees by reviving cultural traditions with honey, building Indigenous bee hives—tharakans—and pivoting to regenerative agriculture.

 Courtney White

Cryptocurrency grows in the carbon market: Digitized carbon credits have become big. A single credit sold recently as a NFT for $70,000 (they normally sell for less than $20). The seller promises to plant a billion trees. Last week, Adam Neumann, the co-founder of WeWork (which collapsed in 2019 amid charges of self-dealing) announced he had raised $70 million from Andreessen Horowitz to start Flowcarbon, a company that plans to tokenize carbon credits. It joins Toucan, Moss, KlimaDAO and others in the hunt. However, Toucan’s tokens were recently banned by Verra, an established carbon credit trader. Buyers beware!

 Emily Jensen

Protesters prompt fossil fuel insider’s resignation: Shell consultant Caroline Dennett made a gloriously loud exit from 11 years of work with the oil and gas giant, inspired by news footage of Extinction Rebellion climate protesters calling for insiders to walk away. In her resignation email to 1,400 Shell employees, Dennett wrote, “I want Shell Execs and Management to look in the mirror and ask themselves if they really believe their vision for more oil and gas extraction secures a safe future for humanity.”

 Tim Treuer

Big possibilities in biochar: MIT Technology Review had a really interesting piece about the start-up Charm, which sells carbon offsets based on their work turning agricultural 'wastes' into biochar and bio-oil — the latter of which they pump underground in geologic storage, but could possibly use to clean up the likes of the steel industry. If the company really can get their costs down to $50/ton CO2 while also improving crop yields with the biochar, they could be doing something with a lot more potential than the Direct Air Capture strategy that's currently having its turn in the sun. The article does an unusually good job interrogating the idea conceptually and numerically in a way that's all too rare in science journalism.

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