Western states under extreme drought made worse by climate change are a giant tinderbox - and one expert says it's time to minimize possible fire sources by burying power lines.

Above-ground transmission lines have been mostly an eyesore, but as climate change has worsened the risk and devastation from wildfires, Engineering Consultant with Resilient Analytics Paul Chinowsky said power lines should never be the possible source.

He said vegetation or heavy winds can cause lines to touch each other and create a spark.

"You've got equipment that really wasn't designed to handle the extreme temperatures and environmental conditions we have today," said Chinowsky.

Chinosky said the major hurdle is cost - estimated at $4 million or more for each mile of "undergrounding."

California's Pacific Gas & Electric utility recently agreed to pay more than $55 million dollars to avoid criminal prosecution for that state's 2021 Dixie wildfire sparked by aging power lines.

PG&E also has announced a multibillion-dollar effort to bury 10,000 miles of power lines.

Chinowsky said he believes the adversarial relationship that sometimes develops between local governments and their utility company needs to change. He said more cooperation is necessary to ease what would likely be higher rates for customers.

"Because this change is going to save homes," said Chinowsky. "It's going to save property. If we don't change it, we're never going to get it done and we're just going to keep reliving these very destructive wildfires."

Wildfires are now more frequent and intense and fire seasons last longer. That has led some building homes or structures near or within Western forests to use fire-resistant materials.

But Chinosky said the "new normal" is here to stay, and reducing risk is key.

"We'll always have some risk," said Chinowsky. "You can't eliminate all risk. You're not going to eliminate lightning strikes. But if we can eliminate risks that we have control over, it's going to save a lot of people a lot of unhappy times."

New Mexico's recent fire - the largest in the state's history - was not caused by above-ground power lines, but rather ignited by U.S. Forest Service workers using drip torches during a prescribed burn to thin dense woodlands.

A new report ranks Illinois first among 11 Midwestern states for the amount of clean power capacity under construction, and second for new clean power capacity.

The American Clean Energy Association said wind, solar, and energy storage plants currently provide almost 14% of the electricity produced in Illinois, potentially powering more than 3 million homes with clean energy.

Jeff Danielson vice president of advocacy for the Illinois Clean Grid Association, said some of the benefits of clean energy end up in consumers' pockets.

"There's both a climate benefit, but there's also an economic benefit," Danielson explained. "When you're adding low-cost energy to the grid, that eventually accrues to folks that are paying the utility bills."

Danielson pointed out clean energy is a leading source of job creation and investment, bringing nearly 17,000 good-paying jobs and $17 billion dollars in capital investments to Illinois. In terms of clean power operating capacity, the report showed Texas and California still lead the way nationally.

According to the report, Illinois added 485 megawatts of clean power to the grid in the first half of this year. Two years ago, Gov. JB Pritzker signed the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act.

Danielson stressed it establishes a statewide goal of 100% by 2050 and allows for more renewable energy projects to be built.

"Notably is what's in the pipeline, otherwise known as clean power capacity under construction," Danielson emphasized. "I think CEJA had a clear role in creating those greater incentives to bring projects online in Illinois."

Danielson said clean power also provides extra income to farmers, ranchers and other private landowners through $58 million a year in lease payments. He said groups like the Clean Grid Alliance work to match investors with green projects and facilitate renewable energy growth.

"Clean Grid Alliance is a nonprofit focused on utility-scale wind, solar, battery-storage projects, and all things to do with the grid, which ties it all together," Danielson added.

By Debra J. Rosenthal for The Conversation.
Broadcast version by Farah Siddiqi for Ohio News Connection for the Public News Service-Conversation collaboration..

Among the world's ever-expanding array of board games, a small but growing number deal with climate change. But are these games any good?

As a professor of English who specializes in environmental literature, I set out to learn how well these board games portray the perils that global warming poses to the planet. Are they an effective way for students to learn some of the science and stark realities behind the persistent heating of Earth?

I invited half a dozen climate activists and educators to try the games out to answer these questions and more. My thought was that if people learn best while they are active and joyful participants, then turning a serious topic like climate change into a board game might have value beyond the game.

No individual winners

Most board games - think of Monopoly or Catan - are zero-sum competitions: One player wins a clear victory over the others. But since climate change affects the whole world, climate change board games emphasize teamwork and group success. Either all players win together, or no one survives. These board games have a narrative arc that can spark discussion about values, perspective, conflict, emotions and decision-making.

And those are precisely the kinds of discussions my colleagues and I had while sharing pizza and salad over the course of the evening. Together, we evaluated the games for their ease to learn, their value for teaching about climate catastrophe, their ability to spark conversation and their suitability for high school and university students.

What follows is an account of the five climate change board games that we all tried.

1. Solutions

Solutions draws upon scientific solutions researched by Project Drawdown, which is a nonprofit that pushes for solutions to climate change. The game, played in rounds, requires players to draw two cards that each carefully describe a way to reduce global emissions.

Players discuss the two options and rank which one is better for the climate. Correct decisions reduce global temperatures, while incorrect guesses damage the planet. Players also roll the dice to determine further actions that could potentially make global temperatures rise.

We all agreed the game could be a valuable learning tool since it was easy to learn and based on accurate scientific information. The need to evaluate different solutions easily sparked conversation, and the information was suitable for upper-level high school students and university students.

2. Kyoto

Another game that we ranked highly is Kyoto, which has players simulate a high-stakes climate negotiation summit. We each represented a country, and the cards we drew determined our secret national interests. To win the game, we had to bargain with each other, pay fees, bribe and try to persuade each other to reach climate goals.

Initially, I doubted the educational value of the game because, due to the draw of the cards, players who represented the U.S. could only win the game if they increased global carbon emissions, as determined by the coal-industry-friendly cards. Who wants a game where players try to raise global temperatures?

But through discussion, we all realized that the game provides insight into possible barriers to achieving emissions goals, and how nations have to juggle meeting emission-reduction goals with their own economic self-interests. While the game takes more time to learn than Solutions, we decided it could still be very useful for students.

3. Carbon City Zero

We tried playing a free downloadable and printable version of Carbon City Zero, but it proved too time-consuming to learn the rules. After 45 minutes of struggling with the cards to figure out how to play, we gave up and moved on.

4. Somewhere Everywhere Water Rising

Family Pastimes, the company that makes Somewhere Everywhere Water Rising, is known for developing only collaborative games, and we have purchased many children's games from them in the past. In Somewhere Everywhere Water Rising, players take on the role of consultants who have to make collective decisions about developing land projects in the face of sea-level rise.

We liked the discussion it sparked, but ultimately concurred that the game specifically focuses on devastating sea-level rise, rather than systemic climate change that causes such rising levels in the first place. The game is easy to learn and relies on conversation, but we felt it had a lower educational value because it does not teach about the human activity that creates and perpetuates increasing global temperatures. The game might be more suitable as an extra credit activity, rather than the focus of a classroom lesson.

5. Nunami

Finally, we played Nunami, a lovely game created by an Inuit family from Ivujivik, Canada, with instructions in Inuktitut, English and French.

The game aims to teach players about balancing life in fragile terrain. There are cards for humans, animals, sand and snow. Although we deeply appreciated how the game strives to sensitize players to Inuit life on the tundra so that they can see what is threatened by climate catastrophe, it does not teach about the drivers of climate change and thus was not suitable for our specific classroom needs.

Picking the best

By 10 p.m., we had conquered the pizza, energetically played five different board or card games, and had a lot of fun discussing critical issues and meeting new people.

To our group, the clear "winner" is the board game Solutions because it encourages collaborating to make decisions with fact-based science. The setup of the game allows for interesting team-building conversations.

As I incorporate games into my courses on climate-change literature and first-year writing, students play Solutions and complete a writing assignment based on their various decisions during the game.

At our next climate change board game evening, my group of educators and activists plans to play Tipping Point, Daybreak, Carboniq and Climate Call.

Anyone want to join us? We'll deal you in.


Debra J. Rosenthal wrote this article in a collaborative reporting initiative with The Conversation, supported by the Joyce Foundation..


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Researchers have found the amount of land affected by saltwater intrusion on the Delmarva Peninsula has dramatically increased in recent years.

Scientists from the University of Maryland, the University of Delaware and George Washington University used aerial and satellite imagery, and found between 2011 and 2017 visible salt patches almost doubled, and more than 20,000 acres of farmland had been converted to marsh. Researchers estimate the associated economic loss is between $39 million and $100 million.

Becky Epanchin-Niell, associate professor of agricultural and resource economics at the University of Maryland and the study's co-author, said farmers are responding to saltwater intrusion in different ways.

"Some farmers are continuing to crop and are going to just keep trying to farm for as long as they can. Others have tried switching to different crops," Epanchin-Niell outlined. "Certain crops are much more susceptible to the salinization and the inundation than others. Others have abandoned the cropland and others have actually engaged in different conservation programs."

The paper was published over the summer in the journal Nature Sustainability. Epanchin-Niell noted researchers are now using the study results to attempt to predict areas where saltwater intrusion will next occur.

While sea level rise hits low-lying coastal areas first, there are also impacts to groundwater as well as farmlands connected to the coast via drainage ditches. Epanchin-Niell pointed out the more northern portions of the Chesapeake Bay have lower salinity given the influence of rivers draining into the bay, so different areas will see differing levels of salinity even with a constant rise in sea level.

She added to prolong productivity of coastal farmlands, researchers are studying what kinds of crops are suitable.

"We also have a lot of work done looking at how different crops respond to saltwater intrusion and looking at how farmers have and can in the future adapt to saltwater intrusion," Epanchin-Niell emphasized.

Epanchin-Niell stressed researchers are also looking at developing methods to manage the transition with an eye toward the long term.

"If you abandon the farmland, and it became encroached with lots of invasive species, that's going to have fewer benefits than for example, if there's a more planned transition, where perhaps there's restoration with different wetland species that help with the inland migration of wetlands, which are also being impacted by sea level rise," Epanchin-Niell outlined.


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