| | | | | Illustration by Hannah Good/The Washington Post | | Welcome. This week, pawpaws and marmots. But first, my colleague Hannah Good shares how she learned to be vegan in a meat-loving family. Write me with your questions at climatecoach@washpost.com. I read all your emails. |  | | Hello, I'm Hannah Good filling in for Michael Coren: Growing up in the 2000s, I was aware of the threat climate change could pose in my lifetime and it terrified me. Everyone from political pundits to Disney Channel stars were encouraging everyday Americans to "go green," and I was desperate to help. I pestered my parents to recycle, avoid plastic straws and opt for paper bags at the grocery store. But like most Americans, I was misinformed about what climate choices would actually make a difference. As my climate knowledge deepened, I realized most emissions are generated by corporations and governments — not regular people. I felt powerless. Going vegan seemed to be the rare instance in which a personal action could have a big effect. But it wasn't easy, especially since I was eating differently from all my family and friends. | | Illustration by Hannah Good/The Washington Post | | Click below to see how I was able to stick with it. | Field Sample Meet the pawpaw, an American fruit that could outcompete apples and peaches on a hotter planet. North America's largest native fruit is still rare, growing mainly in the wild across 26 states or in small orchards in Appalachia. But the custard-like fruit, which tastes like a cross between a mango and banana, is attracting a growing number of farmers as peach and apple crops fail in an increasingly volatile climate. | | The inside of a pawpaw. (Lauren Petracca for The Washington Post) | | Although difficult to ship, the pawpaw's adaptability is proving a big draw. "Their popularity is really exploding," said Blake Cothron, owner of Peaceful Heritage Nursery in Stanford, Kentucky, which sells pawpaw trees. Read more here. | Learning Curve Everyone loves rooftop solar panels, writes The Post's Shannon Osaka. But home solar may be dissuading utilities from investing in large, efficient solar farms. "I call it a 'solar-shaped hole' in the electricity grid," said Jesse Jenkins, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University. "The more rooftop solar you have, the less valuable utility-scale solar is." Nearly a third of solar installed in the United States is on the rooftops of homes and businesses. The chart below shows the oversupply of solar in California during the day. People's homes are partly competing with large solar farms run by utilities, writes Osaka. |  | | Since installing utility-scale solar in the United States is cheaper than panels on your roof, some argue it's inefficient to subsidize home solar, shifting the cost to those who can't easily afford it. Others argue we need both, and more homes now have batteries alleviating the problem of solar daytime peaks. Read more here. | Snapshot African penguins are among the world's most endangered seabird species. Facing extinction in the wild, scientists have been scrambling to design artificial nests to increase their breeding success. In a study published last week in the British Ecological Society journal, the new nests increased chick survival by 16.5 percent compared with natural nests. | | A suite of artificial African penguin nests have been deployed in various colonies in South Africa over the past decades. (Lorien Pichegru) | | The catch? Each colony is different. Cement, wood and fiberglass nests all worked best — depending on the threats the birds faced in their local environment. "The conclusions were colony specific," said lead researcher Lorien Pichegru, from South Africa's Nelson Mandela University. "Every colony manager must now find the right nests for their colony." Read more here. |  | The Second Degree After my last column on where climate change poses the most and least risk to American homeowners, many of you shared stories about your real estate decisions. "We sold our beautiful, custom-built Cape Coral home six months before Hurricane Ian," wrote Nancy, who moved back to Virginia. "Never in a million years did I think my street would ever have flooding. Hurricane Ian brought flood waters to my street." Others asked why tornadoes were not included in the risk assessment. It's true Florida was ravaged by tornadoes during Hurricane Milton and scientists say "ample evidence" exists of increasing tornado risks, especially outside of the Midwest's "tornado alley." But tornadoes are not yet part of most climate risk models. Several readers also took issue with the risk ratings for some counties: low fire risk in Boulder County, Colorado, or moderate risk from rising seas in Florida's Miami-Dade County. At first glance, these may look wrong. But the overall county scores reflect the average over large areas where homeowners may face different risks. The most local data is always best. More is becoming available: Redfin, Realtor.com and ClimateCheck are now disclosing climate risk in newly listed homes and Zillow will soon follow. You should run any risk ratings by potential neighbors who know how their area fares during extreme weather — with a caveat that future conditions will probably be far more volatile than anything experienced so far. |  | On the Climate Front From The Post: This 4-year-old boy is one of millions harmed by lead paint. The EPA hopes he will be among the last. How Asheville residents survive without running water, weeks after Helene. A man arrested for threatening FEMA workers speaks out. U.S. approved a mega geothermal energy project in Utah From elsewhere:
The University of California at San Diego has a new requirement to graduate: a climate change course, reports the Guardian. GM's chief executive Mary Barra is still betting on EVs, writes the New York Times. Federal buyouts are on offer after Hurricane Helene. Politico looks into why most North Carolinians probably won't take them. Forever chemicals may lead to poorer sleep. Yale Environment 360 explains why. |  | | When Sydney Williams was hiking the highest summit in Rocky Mountain National Park, she spotted an animal in a massive boulder field near a stream. "Just a friendly marmot I met with while stopping to rest near the top of Longs Peak," she says. The small animals live and graze there amid the Rocky Mountains' "fourteeners," peaks above 14,000 feet that serve as high-altitude redoubts for wildlife. Send me your photos and stories at climatecoach@washpost.com | | Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here to get The Climate Coach in your inbox every Tuesday. See you next Tuesday, Michael Coren, Climate Coach | | | | | |
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