Eco update

The Messenger - Forests in the western United States are struggling in the face of rising temperatures and extended drought, a study published on Monday finds. The results are bad news for trees and for us — the forests act as a carbon sink, but the trees may be losing their ability to store greenhouse gases. It's a paradox that more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere can, in some cases, juice plant and tree growth, but the negative effects of the climate change that comes with more greenhouse gases outweigh the benefits of extra plant fuel. The researchers, led by Aaron Hogan of the University of Florida, used data from the U.S. Forest Service to examine trends in forest health between 1999 and 2020. In total, they analyzed more than 113,000 measurements across the country's forests.  They found that in the eastern part of the country, where warming has been relatively mild and precipitation has increased, forests have shown slightly accelerated growth over the past two decades. But in the West, the opposite was true, with a marked slowdown in forest productivity.

 A new publication from Bank of America Institute noted the number of new EV model launches over 2024-27 may exceed that of new internal combustion engine vehicles.