This Week on Earth: Apr 9-16
A robin perches on a branch in Evanston, Ill. (Ruby Grisin/ION)
United States
This week, the United States announced that it had surpassed its goal for permitted renewable energy on public lands, originally intended for 2025. More than 25 gigawatts of energy have been approved on public lands to date, providing enough energy to power more than six million American homes.
The achievement is an important milestone in the U.S.’s quest for complete dependence on renewable energy by 2035, utilizing the millions of acres in federal land as an integral part of this plan.
With solar and wind energy having high potential in Western states, the U.S. is hoping to create thousands of jobs when these permissions are actually executed.
Bogotá, Colombia
In another apparent consequence of the increasingly-drastic El Niño weather pattern, Bogotá, Colombia has seen its lowest reservoir levels this week in more than 40 years, prompting strict water rations to combat the ensuing drought.
As the capital has been split up into timed-zones to regulate water usage, the Colombian government announced work to better protect the city’s important water source in the future, notably through agricultural and construction regulations.
This severe drought is one of many occurring around the world: Morocco and Zimbabwe have similarly declared states of emergency, struggling with El Niño’s exacerbation of global warming temperatures.
Ruka, Finland
With rising temperatures and shorter winters, the ski industry is one of the most obviously at risk. Ten years ago, early-season snow was reliable enough to open before Christmas, but this is not the case anymore.
Reactively, ski resorts have been engineering unique solutions to conserve snow. This week in Ruka, Finland, the local mountain began gathering and covering much of its existing snowpack with a polystyrene blanket to save it over summer.
The resort can expect almost 90% of the covered snow to remain until winter despite hot summer temperatures–a necessary boost allowing trails to open up months earlier. In the coming years, such practices may become mainstay for mountains hoping to salvage their season, many of which are located in the Midwest and frequented by Northwestern ski and outdoors clubs.