Innholdsfortegnelse for Nov-15 i National Geographic Magazine

More than half the world’s population lives in urban areas. By 2050 cities will likely be bursting with two-thirds of the people on the planet. Since urban areas already account for an estimated 76 percent of CO2 emissions from energy use—and many are especially vulnerable to flooding and higher temperatures—it makes sense that city officials are taking on climate change. After all, doing so also gives them a shot at reducing pollution, improving aging infrastructure, and making their cities more attractive to residents and businesses. SMART STREETS Chicago has built what city officials call the “greenest street in America”—a two-mile stretch in the industrial neighborhood of Pilsen. Bike and parking lanes are paved with smog-eating concrete; sidewalks are made from recycled materials. Wind and sun power streetlights. Bioswales, thick with…

Hamburg knew the bombs were coming, and so the prisoners of war and forced laborers had just half a year to build the giant flak bunker. By July 1943 it was finished. A windowless cube of reinforced concrete, with seven-foot-thick walls and an even thicker roof, it towered like a medieval castle above a park near the Elbe River. The guns protruding from its four turrets would sweep Allied bombers from the sky, the Nazis promised, while tens of thousands of citizens sheltered safely behind its impenetrable walls. Coming in at night from the North Sea just weeks after the bunker was finished, British bombers steered for the spire of St. Nikolai in the center of the city. They dropped clouds of metallic foil strips to throw off German radar…

Explore how this blueprint would work in your state at nationalgeographic.com/energyblueprint. CALIFORNIA A Wealth of Resources OPPORTUNITIES: From rivers to ocean waves, the Golden State’s natural riches offer many clean-energy options. California has set ambitious goals for renewables and is reducing regulations and costs for solar and wind projects. This could create jobs, reduce the state’s severe air pollution, drive innovation, and jump-start a national movement. OBSTACLES: Land-use battles seem inevitable, whether over raptor deaths at wind farms or the risk that solar projects pose to endangered tortoises. California, already crowded, is still growing fast, but its progressive political bent has not resulted in a commitment that comes close to eliminating fossil fuels. AREA NEEDED Individual wind turbines take up little room but must be spaced far apart, so wind farms…

Whether it’s a liquid, solid, or gas, water is vital to our planet. We depend on it for drinking and for sustaining our crops and animals, and countless species rely on freshwater ecosystems to live. The oceans help modulate CO² levels and maintain global temperatures while transporting nutrients and supporting marine ecosystems. As the climate changes, so will the freshwater and saltwater resources that form the foundations of our communities and economies. And as the climate changes, so will—so must—our relationship to water. OCEAN Covering 71 percent of our blue-marbled planet, the seas now absorb so much human-generated CO² and energy from the sun that seawater chemistry and temperatures are endangering many organisms. Changes in the marine environment affect what thrives in the water and what we can harvest from…

It was the time called itingaaro, the dawn twilight, when the island was just waking up and the roosters were vying to out-crow each other and the angel terns were twittering their love talk in the breadfruit trees. People drifted sleepily into the lagoon to wash, splashing water on their faces, then tightening their sarongs and diving under. The tide was full and taut like the skin of a pregnant woman. Beyond the lagoon the ocean stretched to the horizon. Marawa, karawa, tarawa—sea, sky, land. These are the ancient trinity of the people of Kiribati (kee-ree-bahss), the I-Kiribati. But the trinity is tilting out of balance. Mother Ocean isn’t the heart of providence the people have always known. She is beginning to show a different face, a menacing one of…

When astronauts took the now famous photos, they saw a view like this: a foreground slice of moon to one side of Earth. When the photos were published, some were tipped so the moon formed a horizon below the “Earthrise.” Ultimately, the angle wasn’t what mattered. Once we beheld our home from space, our perspective was forever changed. Those early whole-Earth views—this one from 1969’s Apollo 11 mission—lent urgency and inspiration to a worldwide environmental movement. In the decades since, astronauts, satellites, and scientists have sharpened our view of the planet with revealing pictures and a vast library of observations. Every day we learn more about Earth’s atmosphere, water, land—and our impact upon it. The health of a tiny blue planet is at risk. What will we do with what…

The Earth has warmed 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit, on average, since the late 19th century. Most of the explain why the warming has happened unevenly and fitfully, but not the warming trend itself, warming has occurred since 1960, the period covered on this map. It reveals the regional variety which has overwhelmed the cooling effect of the ash from volcanoes. It has coincided over the past buried in the global average: A few areas, most near the Antarctic, actually have gotten colder since half century with a surge in carbon emissions from our rapidly industrializing world. Finding a way 1960, while some parts of the Arctic have warmed as much as 15 degrees. Natural climate cycles to stop those emissions—and climate change—is the challenge for the next half century. Temperature trend,…

In 2014 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned of “severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts” unless greenhouse gases are curtailed. More than 830 scientists, bringing the concerns of the 80-plus nations they call home, contributed to the report. Within their borders and on the world stage, nations wield influence that individuals, cities, and businesses cannot. Their policies can spur green innovation or stunt it, toughen pollution standards or weaken them. The fate of any accord on climate change lies in their hands. OFFSHORE ENERGY Solar is the “biggest tool in the toolbox” for cutting carbon, says Greg Wilson of the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The International Energy Agency says wind power will also play a big role and could increase up to tenfold by 2050. At their peak potential,…

Explosion of renewables The government has boosted renewables by paying producers for energy and guaranteeing prices. Decline in emissions Germany’s renewable-energy surge has contributed to a 27 percent reduction in its greenhouse gas emissions. *LATEST AVAILABLE DATA **REACTOR CLOSED PRIOR TO 2011 †OFFSHORE WIND FARM AREAS ALSO SHOWN JASON TREAT, NGM STAFF; EVAN APPLEGATE. SOURCES: FRAUNHOFER IWES, KASSEL; U.S. ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION; GERMAN FEDERAL MINISTRY FOR THE ENVIRONMENT; EUROSTAT…

Prashant Mandal flips on a candy-bar-size LED light in the hut he shares with his wife and four children. Instantly hues of canary yellow and ocean blue—reflecting off the plastic tarps that serve as the family’s roof and walls—fill the cramped space where they sleep. Mandal, a wiry 42-year-old with a thick black beard and a lazy eye, gestures with a long finger across his possessions: a torn page from a dated Hindu calendar, a set of tin plates, a wooden box used as a chair. He shuts down the solar unit that powers the light and unplugs it piece by piece, then carries it to a tent some 20 yards away, where he works as a chai wallah, selling sweet, milky tea to travelers on the desolate road in…

Climate change isn’t just bad for the planet’s health—it’s bad for people’s too. Effects will vary by age, gender, geography, and socioeconomic status—and so will remedies. A recent international study in the Lancet says that many more people will be exposed to extreme weather events over the next century than previously thought—“a potentially catastrophic risk to human health” that could undo 50 years of global health gains. Beyond the direct impact of extreme weather, climate change can affect a person’s well-being in other, less direct ways, by exposure to such things as air pollution, waterborne diseases, famine, and malnutrition. Solutions are in the works. In flood-prone Benin, the national health insurance policy has been expanded to cover malaria and intestinal infections—which are likely to increase as the world warms and…

Can one person in seven billion make a difference? Despite the furor over government reports and international conferences, climate change is a problem of personal consumption. Swiss scientists say humanity could limit the effects if each person used just 2,000 watts of power a year. The average American consumes 12,000. A Bangladeshi uses 300. The challenge is conscientious reduction in the West, writes Naomi Klein in This Changes Everything. Lifestyle choices, such as traveling less plus better regulation and technologies will help the numbers drop. TINY HOUSE FOOTPRINT Since 1973 the average U.S. home has ballooned by 60 percent to 2,657 square feet. A warmer world may favor a reverse trend. Jay Shafer (at left), the California pioneer of living in tiny houses, built a lifestyle in 89 square feet…

Reading Henry David Thoreau’s notes on when the blueberry bushes bloomed each year in Concord, Massachusetts, we see that spring there now comes weeks earlier than it did 150 years ago. Scientists attribute this in part to climate change. Thoreau, an advocate for living responsibly, might assign blame more pointedly. Since climate change is fueled by individuals, businesses, cities, and nations around the world, shouldn’t solutions to it come from them? In his 1863 essay “Life Without Principle,” Thoreau issues a challenge: “Let us consider the way in which we spend our lives.” A century and a half later, in a warming world, the challenge stands. CONTRIBUTORS Text: Jeremy Berlin, Marc Gunther, Christina Nunez, Rachel Hartigan Shea, Daniel Stone, and Catherine Zuckerman Graphics: Lawson Parker and Matthew Twombly…

Geoengineering is a catchall term for deliberate large-scale interventions in the planetary environment that are designed to counteract climate change. As global carbon emissions rise, advocates say more research into geoengineering is needed. But hacking the planet carries unknown risks, and the politics of planetwide climate intervention would likely be complex. For starters, governments might need to agree on whether to even try cooling an overheated Earth, an extreme measure that could harm some countries while helping others. NATIONAL PLEDGES When countries adopted the 1997 international treaty known as the Kyoto Protocol, they made binding pledges to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions over two decades. To monitor progress on those pledges and other climate-change efforts, a coalition of research organizations created a database called the Climate Action Tracker (CAT). This…

In just a few decades the United States could eliminate fossil fuels and rely 100 percent on clean, renewable energy. That’s the bold vision of Mark Jacobson, a Stanford engineering professor who has produced a state-by-state road map of how the country could wean itself from coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear power. By 2050, Jacobson envisions the nation’s transportation network—cars, ships, airplanes— running on batteries or hydrogen produced from electricity. He sees the breezes gusting across the Great Plains powering vast stretches of the country’s middle while the blazing sun helps electrify the Southwest. He pictures New England capturing its legendary offshore winds. “There’s no state that can’t do this,” Jacobson says. Today only 13 percent of U.S. electricity comes from renewables. Achieving Jacobson’s goal would be on par…

The world will feel different in 2100, when average temperatures will have risen by several degrees. Every kind of landscape that humans inhabit will be affected: urban, suburban, rural; mountains, plains, coasts. More of the developing world will acquire life-changing modern comforts. “You’ll have near-universal saturation of airconditioning” in warm climes by 2100, says economist Lucas Davis of the University of California, Berkeley. By powering those devices, though, we’ll be contributing to global warming. If we can’t find ways to turn down the heat, we’ll find ways to adapt to it. DEGREES OF SEPARATION The annual mean air temperature of a city can be 4° to 11°F warmer than surrounding rural areas during the day, and 4° to 9°F warmer at night. Vegetation-rich green roofs can mitigate this urban heat-island…

Late one quiet November night in the village of Niaqornat, 300 miles above the Arctic Circle on Greenland’s west coast, the sled dogs began to howl. No one knew for sure, but some of the villagers suspected the dogs had heard the exhalations of narwhals. The whales with the spiral unicorn tusks usually swim into Uummannaq Fjord this time of year as they migrate south. The next morning most of the community’s men set out in small boats to try to bag a narwhal, as the Inuit in Greenland have done for centuries—though in this area nowadays they throw harpoons from motorboats moving at 30 knots and finish off their quarry with high-powered rifles. That afternoon, beneath a lowering gray sky, the hunters return, dragging their boats ashore. A few…

WHAT THIS IS It’s a map of atmospheric carbon dioxide over land last June, made by NASA’s OCO-2 satellite. Red areas have a bit more CO², green areas a bit less, than the global average of 400 parts per million. WHAT THIS TELLS US Forests and oceans have slowed global warming by soaking up some of the CO² we emit. OCO-2 will shed light on where exactly it’s going—and on how fast the planet could warm in the future. The view out the window was bad enough. As his research plane flew over groves of California’s giant sequoias, some of the world’s tallest trees, Greg Asner could see the toll the state’s four-year drought had taken. “It looked wicked dry down there,” he said. But when he turned from the…