The Weekly Anthropocene, January 3 2024
Saiga antelopes rebound, the U.S. Southwest is acing water conservation, AI finds lithium deposits and beaver dams, wolves reintroduced to Colorado, and more!
Kazakhstan
In an “unprecedented conservation triumph,” the saiga antelope has been recategorized from “Critically Endangered” to the much less worrying “Near Threatened” on the IUCN Red List, thanks to its population rising from 39,000 in 2005 to nearly 2 million in 2023. Almost all wild saigas currently live on the steppes of Kazakhstan, which has invested heavily in anti-poaching measures and protected areas.
This is one heck of a victory! For context, the IUCN Red List scale measuring “endangeredness” goes Critically Endangered—Endangered—Vulnerable—Near Threatened. Critically Endangered species, like the Javan rhino, are in imminent danger of extinction, while Near Threatened species, like the plains zebra, are still relatively plentiful. Essentially, the saiga went from being categorized officially as “Almost All Dead” to “Doing Pretty OK” in one go. And that progress is even more impressive because the saiga suffered a major setback in the 2010s, with a rare nasal bacterium spreading into a deadly species-wide pandemic due to climate change-induced warm and humid conditions. Despite this, the future of the saiga now looks bright! One of many cases worldwide of bold conservation efforts building a new age of wildlife abundance. Great work!
Argentina
A new report reveals that a methane leak in an energy company’s systems in Argentina has been successfully plugged after it was spotted on satellite data. Scientists at the United Nations’ International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO) found it in March 2023 and warned the Argentinian government, who contacted the responsible company (not identified) which quickly repaired the ruptured tubes. IMEO has made 126 similar notifications since March and has observed methane reductions afterwards, although public details are scarce.
This is strong new evidence of success for the idea of rapid response to satellite warnings of methane leaks, a rapidly emerging solution to the global problem of leaked “fugitive” methane emissions. Methane leaks, thanks to nobody benefiting from them (check out our Deep Dive article), are gradually becoming an excellent showcase of how global response to environmental problems should work: rapid collaboration across borders, disciplines, and institutions to take action for the common good. Excellent work all around!
Thailand
Tiger populations appear to be growing in Thailand, with camera traps in the Thungyai-Huai Kha Khaeng wildlife sanctuaries recording 120 tigers, up from 100 in recent years and just 46 in 2007. One camera trap snapped a photo of a mother and her cubs in an area where tigers hadn’t previously been known to be breeding (pictured), a good sign that the species’ core habitat is expanding. Great news!
AI for Earth
A fascinating Norwegian startup called 7Analytics is using AI trained on geographical, weather, drainage, and building data to provide unprecedentedly detailed real-time flooding forecasts, a vital tool for climate resilience.
“We can tell you that in five days you will have 50cm of water at your entrance, and we can tell you when it will subside.”
-Jonas Torland, 7Analytics
A Bay Area startup called KoBold Metals is using AI analysis of the vast existing stockpile of research about Earth’s crust to discover overlooked deposits of critical battery mineral lithium, cobalt, copper, and nickel. They’ve already found new lithium deposits in South Korea, Australia, Namibia, Quebec and Nevada. AWESOME!
Researchers at Google have developed a neural network that identifies and tracks beaver dams from satellite imagery, named “Earth Engine Automated Geospatial Elements Recognition” or EEAGER. They plan to run the model across the entire state of California in 2024, hoping to log every single beaver dam in the Golden State to serve as a baseline for future measurements. Great work!
Pakistan
Two planes sent by the increasingly geopolitically influential United Arab Emirates have conducted artificial rain flights over Lahore, Pakistan, intended to help disperse the heavily polluted megacity’s thick and hazardous smog. This is the first use of artificial rain technology in Pakistan, though the technique used (burning silver iodide in clouds to encourage condensation of raindrops) has been common in other countries for decades. Al Jazeera reports that the Lahore government is hoping to conduct more artificial rain flights, as well as potentially installing “smog towers” (giant air purifiers), in the near future.
United States
Renewables continue their epochal, civilization-transforming progress, with clean energy (renewables plus nuclear) providing around 40% of U.S. electricity! For contrast, in the period from January through October 2023, ultra-dirty coal power produced just 16.2% of America’s electricity, down from nearly 20% in Jan-Oct 2022 and a whopping 51% (!) as recently as 2001. As the EIA chart above shows, renewables are absolutely dominating the new capacity being added to the grid, while fossil fuels continue to retire. Clean electrons rock!
The Inflation Reduction Act-created federal EV tax credit switched to an “instant rebate” at the start of 2024, meaning that EV-buyers can get up to $7,500 immediately subtracted from the price of a new EV instead of waiting until tax filing season. It’s taking a while to suss out exactly what dealerships have signed up and what EV models are eligible, but this Energy Department page will provide regular updates!
The Biden Administration has filed a Notice of Intent for a landmark new federal rule-making decision: ending commercial logging of old-growth trees in U.S. National Forests. This unprecedented step will help sequester carbon while preserving ecosystems! Another spectacular example of the regularly arriving and woefully underrated wins under President Biden.
America’s desert Southwest is adapting spectacularly well to the ongoing climate change-worsened megadrought, all things considered. It helps that decades of heavily subsidized and highly wasteful irrigation-dependent agriculture in the region have resulted in a lot of ways we can cut water usage substantially while still ensuring enough for residents to drink and bathe with. Southwestern states and cities are already slashing water use allowances for water-gobbling alfalfa and hay farms, halting building permits in areas where groundwater is scarce, building treatment plants to recycle wastewater into drinking water, charging more for summer water use to disincentivize lawns, and much more. A wide range of speculative works, for example Paolo Bacigalupi’s climate fiction classic The Water Knife, have posited that the U.S. Southwest may soon become a dystopian landscape of critical water scarcity and abandoned cities. That now looks vanishingly unlikely: we’re just going to shape up on water conservation and stewardship! Great news.
“Because of a reduction in farmland acreage and better household conservation, Arizona now uses 3 percent less water than it did in 1957, despite having a population that’s mushroomed more than 555 percent since then.”
-An excellent recent guest essay in The New York Times
Louisiana has issued its first-ever state-level offshore wind leases.
Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have invented a wind turbine blade held together with plant-based resin, and tests found that it outperforms traditional plastic-based epoxy resins.
The first EV charging station funded by the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program has opened near Columbus, Ohio. Many more are on the way!
Indian solar manufacturer Waaree is investing $1 billion to build a new IRA-boosted American solar factory in Brookshire, Texas. The project is set to create 1,500 jobs and manufacture a massive 5 gigawatts of solar panels annually by 2027. Great!
Following through on a pro-wolf referendum result in 20201, wolves have been reintroduced to Colorado, with three males and two females, all from Oregon, released on public land on December 18, 2023. All the wolves were vaccinated and given GPS satellite collars before release, in another example of innovative, proactive, and interventionist “Anthropocene conservation.” In the event that the wolves attack livestock (a much overhyped but politically turbulent issue), the state will pay ranchers up to $15,000 per animal. All in all, this looks like a well-executed and very professional wildlife reintroduction effort, with strong prospects for long-term success. The re-wolfing of North America continues apace! Excellent news.
“For the first time since the 1940s, the howl of wolves will officially return to western Colorado…The shared efforts to reintroduce wolves are just getting started and wolves will rejoin a diverse ecosystem of Colorado wildlife.”
-Governor Jared Polis of Colorado
Check out our in-depth interview with Senior Wolf Advocate Amaroq Weiss for more background on this, plus an overview of the State of Wolves in North America generally!
Yay Colorado wolves! I wish them well on their journey. 🩶🐺
good encouraging news . Thanks .