| (Washington Post illustration; Copyright Tar River Trading Post; iStock) | | Welcome. This week, flash flood at Dollywood and firefighters in the smoke. But first, how to make your food scraps disappear. |  | | Composting is not for everyone. I realize this when I go home to visit my parents in Florida, or almost anywhere outside states, such as Vermont, that mandate it. Curbside pickup is rare. Many view it as a chore. Even for people like me who enjoy transforming leftovers into rocket fuel for their garden, composting can turn into a foul, stinking, sulfurous mess. So, I get it. But what if you could make food waste disappear by throwing it into a hole in the ground and walking away. No more fouled trash. Less climate pollution. While researching ways to compost, I discovered an easy method to turn virtually any organic waste from veggie scraps to chicken bones to pet waste back into nature: solar digesters. But what if you could make food waste disappear by throwing it into a hole in the ground and walking away. No more fouled trash. Less climate pollution. While researching ways to compost, I discovered an easy method to turn virtually any organic waste from veggie scraps to chicken bones to pet waste back into nature: solar digesters. Solar digesters remain little known. For now, standard compost piles, insulated "soil savers" ($52) and rotating "barrel composters" ($38), are popular. But solar digesters are poised to play a much larger role as organic waste bans spread. They don't produce compost, the rich, fluffy organic matter that turns back into soil. Instead, these digesters — typically little more than half-buried plastic cones within a small patch of dirt — harness microbial workhorses and the sun's heat to transform organic matter into its elemental components, mostly carbon, water, CO2 and micronutrients, says Yichao Rui, a soil scientist in the Department of Agronomy at Purdue University. "Nematodes, bacteria and fungi all work together to decompose all these organic materials," he says. "Soil organisms large and small primarily digest and eat them," transforming plant and animal matter back into the building blocks for soil and air. It's a simple, easy, no-mess solution to keep organic waste out of trash and landfills: 58 percent of all methane emissions from municipal landfills are emitted by rotting food, second only to oil and gas production and livestock. So this January, I ordered my own "Green Cone," buried it in the ground, and began filling it with lots of food waste every week to put it to the test. Read my column to find out what happened by clicking below. Send me your composting contraptions (and photos!) to climatecoach@washpost.com. I read all your emails. |  | Field Sample What can you learn from salmon's packaging? A lot in this explainer by Naema Ahmed and Allyson Chiu, who examined more than a dozen packages of salmon sold at major grocery stores. Sockeye, Atlantic, pink or coho? Farmed or wild? What do all those eco-labels mean? | Learning Curve Most of America's drinking water comes from forested areas. As climate-driven wildfires burn more of these these areas, an estimated 53.3 million U.S. residents are facing the risk of cancer-causing and toxic substances entering their water supplies The Washington Post's Daniel Wolfe and Aaron Steckelberg explore how the fallout from forest fires, including melted PVC water lines and ash washed away by flash floods, have compromised communities' drinking water. | | Sources: U.S. Forest Service Forests to Faucets, National Interagency Fire Center, National Weather Service, Natural Earth, CalFire | | "We're destabilizing [water] systems and we don't even know in what way and how," says Newsha Ajami, the chief strategic development officer for research in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Area at Lawrence Berkeley National Labs. Researchers are beginning to test ways to stop this contamination. Dive into a fascinating visual exploration of the challenges and solutions here. | Snapshot In just three days, the Park Fire has raced across 350,000 acres across California, now the seventh largest wildfire on record. After igniting last Wednesday, when authorities say a man pushed a burning car down a gully, the fire was consuming about 5,000 acres per hour. The fire is burning so hot thanks to a combination of sweltering heat — most of California is on track to see its warmest July on record — and abundant dry vegetation after wet winters. "This fire is right up there with the fastest growing fires in history," Neil Lareau, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Nevada at Reno. | | A firefighter works to control the Park Fire along Highway 32, in Mill Creek, California, U.S., July 28, 2024. REUTERS/Fred Greaves | | A firefighter amid the flame on the eastern front of the Park Fire (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images) | The Second Degree After my last column on foraging for food (and spiritual sustenance), many of you wrote back in with you own stories. Anne wrote in about her childhood in Sweden: "My family would bike to the nearest forest and bring home mushrooms," she writes. "We were taught how to recognize the good and bad ones (chanterelles were my favorite) and blueberries and lingonberries and wild strawberries! We lived in Stockholm and these are some of my favorite memories." Lyla of Rockville, MD was inspired by forager Green Deane at Eat the Weeds. "Service berries at the zoo, lambsquarter from our yard ('But isn't that a weed ?' said our neighbor with some horror), black walnuts from parks trees, among other things," writes Lyla. "We once made a black walnut ice cream that was truly extravagant. At some point I had an ambition to eat our weeds out of existence but I just don't like ground ivy that much." |  | On the Climate Front From the Post: The fight to make landlords turn down the thermostat 'I thought it was safe': Why lawsuits are mounting over this chemical linked to cancer Four hottest days ever observed raise fears of a planet nearing 'tipping points.' Flash flood at Dollywood forces fans to flee in high water. From elsewhere: The New York Times goes to Germany to see how people are tackling climate change from their balconies. Yellen says $3 trillion of fresh capital is needed to fight climate change annually: "The single greatest opportunity of the 21st century," says Politico. Trade publication Elektrek reports on the US's first vehicle-to-home power plant using customer-owned Ford F-150 Lightning electric trucks. Drought and wildfires mean the world's forests failed to curb 2023 climate emissions, Reuters reports. |  | | Rick McClurg captured this sunset panorama from his backyard in Shoreline, Washington. Is anyone capturing dawns in their neighborhood? Send me your photos 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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