despite their enormous population in the potomac river, blue catfish are not native to the area. after their introduction to the chesapeake bay watershed in the 1970s, the “bluecats” took over the area, sharply decreasing the river’s biodiversity and harming the populations of native essential commercial fish species. so, when fishing charters like captain greg’s miss susie head out on the potomac, they’re encouraged to catch as many bluecats as possible. if the crew finds any other kind of fish on the end of a line, they throw it right back in the water.

join chris paul, a fisherman on miss susie’s, for a morning trip to find out what it’s like to catch bluecats and get a closer look at what’s going on in the potomac river.

candace clark is a ph.d. candidate at tuskegee university and an impressive voice in the environmental justice space. learn how she built climate-sustainable housing out of recycled trash, why her community-given name is kandeaux the farm plug, and why she cares about climate change in the first place.

sometimes, before a call to action, we need a call to inspiration. come get inspired!

learn more about candace’s mission by visiting her website.

full transcript:

krantz: hi there, i’m hannah krantz.

fayaz: and i’m aleena fayaz. we are two students at the george washington university who care about the environment. but we know how easy it can be to fall into a negative doom spiral when reading the news about climate change, trust me, i’ve been there.

krantz: when we think about our futures we worry about access to clean water, food, climate resilient homes, combating the excessive heat and extreme weather and so, so much more. so we wonder: what’s being done about this, what real changes are being made so that we can have a safe future? and most importantly, how can we solve these issues through the lens of environmental justice, acknowledging what groups are disproportionately affected by these disastrous effects of climate change?

fayaz: our generation needs a flood of innovative ideas and new mindsets for surviving and thriving in the climate crisis. we can ground ourselves and hope for the future by looking at young people who are not only making a difference in their communities right now, but also whose ideas truly have the potential to 2022年卡塔尔世界杯官网 .

krantz: in this episode, we bring you one outstanding voice in the climate space: candace clark. candace is going to teach us about the importance of black voices in climate solutions, how she learned to build climate sustainable housing out of recycled trash, and why she even cares about climate change in the first place. let’s get inspired.

fayaz: candace, thank you so much for coming to the show. if you wanna give us a brief intro just about who you are, what you do.

clark: for sure. so i’m candace clark, better known throughout the hood as kandeaux the farm plug. i am a beautiful black woman from the south side of chicago. i’m now currently a phd student at tuskegee university and my research specifically is anchored in agricultural policy, and even more specific than that, land use policy around the intersections of land use policy and sustainable, affordable and efficient housing.

krantz: that is outstanding! when were you first aware of the climate crisis, to get on the really specific path of education that you’re on?

clark: almost immediately i’m called to, you know, pay homage to my ancestors. there was also a really beautiful natural space, called the japanese garden, and it’s inspired by yoko ono. and it’s one of the places that makes chicago a sister city to osaka, japan, and it’s a place that you know, my father and my brother and i, we would ride our bikes and we would just spend a lot of time at this garden. and i know one year i came back and you know, of course i’m trying to walk around, i went to the garden and it was like totally flooded. you know, i’m saying like the little waterfall was damaged, algae blooms all over the place, the fish and aquatic life was not as vibrant. it was just a moment that was really shocking for me, because i’m like, oh my god, these are my real childhood memories. and i think about all the young people on the south side or the east side, who you know, may want to go to the beach or may want to relax or may find a sense of meditation and rejuvenation by going to the water, but what are they going to be seeing when they get there?

fayaz: so candace, you mentioned this term “farm plug,” and that you’ve been bestowed this name? what does that mean? what is the farm plug?

clark: so every time i try to say what it is, the next time i say that it changes a little bit. i’m not gonna lie. because it’s as real and true as i’m sitting here in front of you. it is a living thing and it’s dynamic. on a foundational standpoint, a farm plug is an intersectional advocate of the environment, of the community, and of earth, that sees agriculture and farming in like everything that you may do. it’s kind of wild right, but people call me farm plug because i will be outside and i would hear people talking about things and i would almost always connect it back to agriculture, right? so when i say outside, i mean in places like, for example, when trayvon martin happened, everyone’s protests and everyone’s marching, and i’m sitting here. i remember being outside, i remember feeling all of these feelings and looking around. i’m like, man, all these people are marching and we’ve been marching, and we’ve been doing this, and it’s not i’m not seeing the type of change that i would like to see. right. so i started doing more research and i’m like, well, every single form of discrimination in the history of discrimination was always connected to a natural resource, no matter what it always comes back down to the land. if we want to be free, right, if liberation is our end goal, then our liberation as humans is deeply deeply invested in the liberation of earth as an entity.

clark: okay, well, what is the history of black people in agriculture? so when i started to uncover more and more research, it became clear to me that during the freedom rides in the south when people were going to try and register all these black people to vote, that these black people were not welcome in the south. they couldn’t stay in hotels. they didn’t have diamonds that they could go to. the green book, there were only specific places that they could stop and be safe. it was the farmers and the land owners, the black land owners who had the capacity to support the civil rights foot soldiers as they matriculated through the south. and so literally, if we did not have black people who own land, there would not be a civil rights movement. if there was no civil rights movement, there would be no environmental movement, which was deeply deeply based on the civil rights movement, the decade right before it. when i started to see what it really meant to be a black person, let alone a black woman in agriculture, it just became everything that i talked about, everywhere that i went, to the point where people are like, “alright, i farm plug we heard you.” 

fayaz: when you say farm plug, your primary role is connecting, then? what is that problem you’re trying to solve, or who are the people, moreso, that you’re trying to serve?

clark: farm plug has three main pillars, right? and those three main pillars are educate, thrive and connect. each one of those pillars is deeply inspired by a theory or a person. i’m really really really deeply invested in this idea of not settling for survival, because that’s something that we’re going to do anyway. we should be fighting and advocating for the opportunity to thrive as black people in this place.

krantz: that is a really important reframing.

clark: if you are committed to a thriving lifestyle, your next goal, the next thing you really got to do, your charge, is to go out and connect with other people to make these things a reality. we need to make science cool. we need people to care about the information that is going into the policy that are deciding the fate of everybody on the face of the planet. and what farm plug is doing, what i’m doing as a farm plug is, i’m really kind of just living my life really, really loud. and i am telling stories of other people who are earth cultivators, earth workers, who are in policy and all these things doing things that black people don’t typically see. my solution is: nothing is really cool without black people. so we need to get more of us in these spaces, telling these stories and bringing our culture into the solutions that people are vying for in the face of climate change.

fayaz: so, i saw that statistic from the food and agriculture organization that states by 2050 we’ll need to produce 60% more food to feed a world population of around 9.3 billion. that’s a lot of people. so how does your role as a farm plug help us reach that goal? what are your thoughts on at that point? i mean, it’s pretty stark.

clark: we educate, we drive and we connect shawty, that’s what we do! right? so another kind of scary and wild statistic to add on to that is that it’s been projected that the united states only has about 60 harvests left. so the state of our soil is so depleted that if we continue doing what we’re doing, we will only be able to quite literally grow food across the country for the next maybe 55 to 60 years. to combat all of these things— education is the key to everything. if a person does not know, they will not do right. you can’t inspire someone if you can’t connect with them, right? and so for me, when we think about regenerative agriculture or sustainable agriculture, my job is to first of all remind all of my white allies in the space that they’re not the first people who said these things, right? you have the whole indigenous native american population who were in the united states for hundreds of 1000s of years. we don’t know how long. but they managed, quite literally managed and stewarded in this place in a way that maintained a form of harmony and balance that we have totally obliterated. and not only just indigenous people here, but really indigenous people all over the world. for black and indigenous people to really see ourselves in that and to enter this space, unapologetically, by reclaiming our culture.

krantz: so you said science needs to become cooler. i am very blown away by the coolness of earthships.

fayaz: it sounds utopian, almost like it’s part of some alien jetson you know, futuristic model. so please tell us everything we need to know about an earthship and how your role in the earthship makes it possible.

clark: so earthships are essentially, what i call a 21st century post apocalyptic dwelling that is made from upcycled tires, cans, and bottles. it is a house that is fully sustainable and self-sufficient on its own made from trash! this super cool dude, his name is michael reynolds, he saw an article that was talking about aluminum cans and how you know, as we enter the microwave age, more single use items, trash is gonna be a bigger issue. so he shifted his entire architecture model to figuring out, well, if this is going to be an issue in the future, how do i capitalize on this to make it not an issue? in april of 2021 with all of the uprisings and george floyd and black lives matter, they decided to roll out a bipoc scholarship, which was basically: if you’re a black indigenous person of color, if you could get to new mexico, and you’ve received the scholarship, you don’t have to pay for anything. typically it’s around like 2500 to $3,000 to participate in the academy. and so i had the privilege to be the first recipient of that scholarship.

clark: i was like, i shouldn’t have to pay rent. i shouldn’t have to struggle, nobody should have to struggle when we have this technology, right? they (earthships) are the embodiment of six key main points. it’s water, food, electricity, waste, comfort and garbage. the house catches water, so it catches rainwater, it has a greenhouse in the front of it where you can grow your own food. it does waste management. so every time you flush the toilet, it literally runs through the botanical beds and your boo boo is basically feeding your plants. 

fayaz: woah!

clark: yeah! it embodies it utilizes geothermal dynamic heat. it’s an earthship, it’s a home that’s basically in the ground. so you don’t have to worry about, you know, paying for an h-vac system because quite literally the warmth of the earth is what will support you. it also talks about solar energy. so we have solar panels on it. and again, with food, you can grow your own food in those in that greenhouse in the front and then garbage right garbage is a problem. but it’s a house made from garbage. so you’re turning that problem into a very, very real solution.

krantz: earthships are one of the coolest things i have ever heard of in my entire life. only 21 years of life so far, but i feel that few things will beat it. what did these look like? when you walked in there, what did you see?

clark: i mean, they are gorgeous, you know what i’m saying? so imagine, you know, you got different color bottles. if you got a don julior or a bombay bottle, you know, it’s that sapphire gives you that blue hue. well imagine that, in a wall at times, with the sun blasting behind the siding behind it into your living room. you know what i’m saying? like that’s what it looks like. that’s why i say 21st century post apocalyptic, because it can definitely go anywhere from super luxurious or to super super rookie. there is an earthship on every continent except antarctica. you can build it yourself, but if no one from earthship biotecture academy is present and guiding you through that build, you can’t legally call it an earthship. so my dissertation will be building one in tuskegee, but i will be doing the first all black cohort.

fayaz: well, how much does this cost? how long does it take? can you kind of dig into the timeline and the process of making an earthship?

clark: i mean you it’s either one of two things: you either got a bunch of friends and a bunch of time, or a bunch of money. and even if you got a bunch of money, it’s still gonna cost more because of the labor. earthships can be anywhere from as cheap as $2,000 and majority recycled, upcycled and reclaimed materials to anywhere from anywhere to a hundred thousand to a million dollars. it can be beautiful, and you can use brand new everything if you want to. so as we started to face more issues with feeding ourselves, getting water, having electricity, a home that already has a rainwater catchment as a greenhouse in it, and has solar panel electricity hooked up to it is wanting to do nothing but increase in value. that’s why i say post apocalyptic because they can truly withhold these challenges that we’re about to start seeing more and more.

krantz: so you’re building the first ever earthship with an all black cohort, and you’re doing it in tuskegee. so, what black specific issues do you hope to combat by creating this community?

clark: i mean, so many things. but basically by the time i finished the earthship academy, i understood how my house was built. i understood how my water worked, i understood my plumbing. i understood electric loads, how to calculate them. i understood so much about building a house and owning the house, that i’m like everybody needs to know about this. everyone needs to know these basic principles. and then when i learned about how much wealth can be generated from your bare hands, it’s almost like you know, black people, we can afford to not know this information, especially when you have gentrification, people being pushed out of their communities left and right. you know, it’s real out here. nobody’s saving us, so we need to be equipping ourselves with the skills to build whatever new community, whatever new society, whatever new utopia, you know, we want to actually see. we have to be the ones who know how to work the drills, work the hammers, use those nails to build it.

fayaz: i’m a young person, hannah’s young person, and you are a young person too, working in this field, really pioneering this solution that inspires us to carry it forward. why should young people care?

clark: i think a lot of the time, we make it too much of an individual thing. this is collective. so if you care about your — even if you want to be selfish, and you want other people to care about you, you should care about climate. like in every regard. whatever you think is important, imagine it existing without clean water, food, or fresh air. if it can still exist, you’re in outer space and you are hella rich and i’m probably not talking to you.

krantz: sometimes before a call to action, people need a call to inspiration. you have just illustrated that so excellently. i want to go build an earthship.

fayaz: yeah, me too. we’re off!

this quote comes from bartlett durand, water quality partnership director of sand county foundation. he is talking about the agriculture system in the united states and the pressure that large-scale industrial farming puts on agriculture workers.

for decades, it has been the norm for farmers to use practices that can pollute our waterways. now, farmers are facing pressure from government officials to cut their polluting systems, but are under such financial strain that they can’t afford to change their land management practices.

this leaves many farmers stuck, all while officials continue to set more demanding standards and while water all over the country gets more polluted. durand’s job is to be a neutral ground between the city officials that set water quality standards and the farmers that must follow them. 

an excess of nutrients

the major environmental issue driving durand’s work is excessive algae growth, which can cause hypoxic zones, or areas in bodies of water that lack oxygen and are therefore susceptible to toxic algae blooms. all farming requires nutrients, whether through intensive soil management or added nutrients through manure or fertilizer. without careful management or buffering areas to contain the nutrients, rains can cause soil runoff and with that, the transportation of excessive amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus to local waterways.

just like nitrogen and phosphorus help crops grow on a large scale, they will also make the naturally occurring algae in ponds and lakes grow excessively. these overgrown algae can use up all of the oxygen in an area of water and leave none for the entire rest of the ecosystem, killing most living things in the area. the watershed becomes a dead zone.

this can happen small-scale, in local ponds, or large-scale, like in the gulf of mexico. the great lakes, which surround durand’s home state of wisconsin, also suffer from dead zones. in lake erie, for example, the hypoxic zone is sometimes as large as 3,800 square miles.

the nutrient pollution can also get into groundwater, which can be very harmful, even at low levels. nitrogen can percolate through layers of soil all the way down to aquifers. one third of all americans — and 95% of americans living in agricultural areas — get their drinking water from groundwater, so this poses a real threat if left unregulated. 

the role of regulators

officials want to set water quality standards that slow dead zone growth and keep our water clean. but behind the issue of nutrient runoff lies social tension between farmers and officials that must be smoothed over to create any progress.

“the clean water act gives authority to the epa to enforce (water quality standards,) and then the epa gives authority to each state,” durand says. “there are different state agencies, so it varies. the culture of each state is different, and the agriculture community is different.”

the clean water act can directly regulate pollution coming from point sources, meaning they can regulate pollution that comes from a single, identifiable source, like a wastewater pipe. the epa pushes the states to set limits on how much nitrogen and phosphorus pollution is allowed from point sources, and how much certain areas must cut their levels. most water treatment plants were built in the 70s and 80s — before we understood the harms of excess pesticides, says durand — and they aren’t advanced enough to filter out the nitrogen and phosphorus at the level the epa wants. it can be expensive if not impossible for some of these plants to meet the nutrient targets set.

but some states offer the option of partnering with farmers to “trade” nutrient reductions. the responsibility then falls on the farmers to cut their personal nutrient use, asking them to change their farming practices, or to implement ways to manage field runoff. 

“farming is a brutal profession,” durand says. “you’re running a small business with tiny margins, and you do not control your pricing. the pressure on farmers is intense. you can’t make a mistake, you have so much money invested in the equipment… to change a bunch of (equipment) at once is almost impossibly expensive. and then you have to change the management style. they say, ‘i have a rhythm. i know it. i grew up with it.’ so, it’s really a difficult thing (to change).”

farmers come to the table

clean water act administrators and farmers come to the issue of water quality with completely different backgrounds. the issue can get quite contentious, as durand explains.

“right now, you have engineers and regulatory people and the government enforcing a checklist, and you have people who are regulated trying to complete that checklist. every five years they redo it and they all have to sit down and haggle over what those numbers are,” durand says. “i come in and provide a neutral ground to help negotiate. it’s a big deal because it starts breaking down that adversarial relationship.”

substantial progress has been made in madison, wisconsin. the state’s clean water act administrators and the epa allowed a pilot project for adaptive management. the project takes place in dane county, which is predominantly an agricultural landscape. farmland covers over 500,000 acres of the county, more than two-thirds of all the land.

“the concept was, we’re going to give you (the wastewater treatment plant) 20 years to clean up your water, and you, the municipality, are going to take responsibility for your entire watershed. so they (dane county farmers) are committing to stop the pollution that’s happening, with a partnership approach,” durand says. the municipality provides the goals and funding, and the farmers figure out what works best on their farm to help improve water quality overall. 

the partnership approach was a game changer.

“it was irritating farmers that there wasn’t a single farmer on the committee discussing (water pollution). so one farmer leader formed a group called the yahara pride farms, after the yahara chain of lakes,” durand says. “and that gave him the authority to get a seat at the table.”

jeff endres, the founder of yahara pride farms, brought farmers’ voices to the forefront and set the record straight on their practices in the community.

“he started talking, ‘we need to keep nutrients on our land. we’re not just willy-nilly spreading stuff. we’re already doing a lot of sustainable things you don’t think we’re doing. we can probably do better, but you need to understand our costs.’”

most importantly, durand says, farmers can be part of the solution for preventing nitrogen and phosphorus runoff, and shouldn’t be treated like the enemy in water quality conversations. the enemy, durand holds, is the system of large-scale industrial agriculture that puts farmers in this difficult position.

yahara pride farms has been doing incredible work in partnerships with other organizations to reduce their nutrient runoff. the farmers get to choose how to spend the money they’re given from the city for conservation practices together, and share the benefits.

“the first thing they did was hire their own agronomist to work with them. instead of having to rely on the government,” durand says. “it’s been wildly successful. you get a group of farmers together, and ‘why don’t we all buy our cover crop seed in bulk? why don’t we all buy one piece of equipment together that we can share to do our cover cropping?’ once you get the farmers together, it is a huge plus. people can be so inspired by these partnerships.”

durand’s work facilitating partnerships and open conversation is essential going forward in the struggle for clean water and healthy watersheds.

“water is the most immediate system that is dramatically not working and that we have to make changes on,” durand says. “there are ways we can rally around that system to change it. because water is so fundamental to life.”

but soon, i might not be able to.

each year, these beaches get smaller and smaller due to sea level rise. crane beach in ipswich, massachusetts, is the most popular beach on the north shore, with more than 350,000 annual visitors. tragically, crane also takes the lead in dramatic beach erosion and flooding. crane beach has already lost 112 acres of shoreline — the beach my mom ran around as a child isn’t the same as the one i did. nearly 1,500 feet of sand and dunes have been lost since i was born in 2001. the beach has a serious flooding problem, and water sometimes covers part of argilla road, the only road to the beach. a stretch of the road is surrounded by the great salt marsh, which regularly floods as a result of sea level rise and storm surge. in 10 years, argilla road could be flooded on a daily basis, and in 50 years, the beach could become completely inaccessible. will my kids even be able to get to the beach that i grew up on?

these fishing towns that feed my spirit — ipswich, gloucester, rockport — all financially depend on beach tourism and family seafood businesses. what’s more, crane beach is one of the world’s most essential nesting sites for piping plovers, a threatened bird that was nearly hunted to extinction in the 1800s. crane beach is an invaluable stretch of sand that holds incredible importance to the financial stability of the town, to piping plovers, and to the hearts of everyone who visits year after year.

climate change, and the extreme weather events it exacerbates, are expected to increasingly disrupt towns all over the country. high-tide flooding due to sea level rise is exponentially increasing, threatening the coastal property market and town infrastructure. on the atlantic coastline, all it takes is a local sea level rise of 1.0 to 2.3 feet for high tide to turn into a major destructive flood. massachusetts north store’s state of the coast report makes it clear: “an increase in the level of the world’s oceans is due to global warming,” and sea level rise poses a serious threat to coasts with intensified storm surges, flooding, and damage of coastal zones.

the town of ipswich recently completed the first two phases of their project to raise argilla road by 18 inches, and to create natural banks on the sides of the road to protect the new elevation from erosion. the town is also working to restore the marsh that argilla road runs through. workers are performing “ditch remediation,” filling in the centuries-old unnatural ditches with natural salt marsh hay. these efforts will restore the natural flow of water in the marsh, hopefully reducing flooding from sea level rise and storm surge, and keeping argilla road dry. the trustees of crane beach work hard to organize around this issue, from partnering with environmental organizations to holding educational community events to creating a podcast to spread the message. this gives me hope for the town, and for the future of my beloved beach.

crane beach is a beautiful stretch of dunes and choppy new england waves that will freeze your toes off. people stood on that beach thousands and thousands of years ago. a seagull swooped down and snatched an entire sandwich out of my father’s hand on that beach six years ago. beyond its financial importance, crane beach is a gorgeous, invaluable spot in the universe. the waves can be relentless, but i will always choose to get back in the water. 

for now, it looks like crane’s next generation of baby plover birds will have a chance to spend their babyhood on the beach their mothers chose. but will my children have the same opportunity? it depends on the continued commitment of the town of ipswich to combat the effects of climate change.

i spoke to jessica lovitt, a ranch technician, and mark kossler, vice president of ranch operations, about the soil management routine they use at mcginley. in this short video, they explain the difference between unhealthy industrial agriculture practices that have polluted our earth for decades, and the regenerative practices they use on their ranch. learn how ranchers heal their pastures by creating positive interactions between their bison herds, the plants they graze on, and the soil that supports the whole ecosystem.

this might seem like something out of a climate scientist’s dream, an unattainable magical contraption. but chemists have already begun building the foundation of knowledge for this machine to become a reality. most recently, one study made a breakthrough: for the first time, researchers have mapped the molecular details of how the solar-powered reaction occurs.

“co2 is a very stable molecule,” said dr. tonü pullerits, professor of chemical physics at lund university and an author of the study. pullerits said that the first step to turning carbon dioxide into a more reactive, malleable substance, is transforming it to carbon monoxide.

“it will always cost you energy to go uphill from co2 to co. so, where can that energy come from?” said j. houston miller, a researcher not affiliated with the study and professor of chemistry at george washington university. “the best answer is the sun.”

the study, published last month in nature, comes from a large multi-national scientific collaboration of researchers from denmark, sweden, china and germany.

“what makes our work special is that we explain how this reaction goes on… in quite a detailed way,” pullerits said. “it was an exciting day when we realized that we can actually explain this.”

the researchers used two materials to drive the solar-powered reaction. the first is a covalent organic framework, or cof, that absorbs light, and serves as a structure where the conversion takes place. pullerits described cof as a “micro porous material.” the shape of the material gives it a large surface area, allowing it to efficiently absorb light, for example from the sun. as a light source, pullerits and colleagues shone laser pulses onto the cof. the second material is a catalytic complex containing the element rhenium, one of the rarest elements on earth. the complex is embedded in the cof, harnessing the light the cof absorbed to drive the reaction. pullerits said knowledge of the catalytic complex is not new, but the addition of the cof is.

the study found its answers through spectrometry, a method of analyzing a material using waves of light. this work determined precisely how the catalytic complex and cof work together to capture light and harness it to convert carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide, a feat no study had yet reached.

“we were using short laser pulses to follow the process. we triggered the reaction with one pulse of a laser, and with a second pulse slightly later, we could figure out what happened.” pullerits said.

in the study, light passed through the cof, and researchers observed what colors of light were absorbed and which weren’t. what colors a molecule will absorb reveal a lot about the molecule’s structure, miller said. 

the conversion from carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide requires adding electrons. the cof captures the light, and the light particles excite electrons, creating carbon monoxide. then, researchers studied the way the light particles triggered the electrons to join the reaction.

however, researchers were puzzled by some of their observations at first. they knew one light pulse generated only half the electrons necessary for the conversion, but the reaction was occurring nonetheless. where did the other half of the electrons come from?

then, the team had a breakthrough.

“we all of a sudden realized… we can store the extra electrons needed in the porous cof material. the previous pulses made a few additional electrons which are stored. the cof is charged,” pullerits said.

finally, the team understood how the reaction occurs. the cof was not only absorbing light, but also absorbing electric charge by way of storing electrons. the new porous material they introduced was the key to the reaction. and through their use of light spectrometry, they knew the exact mechanism of how it all worked. this detailed knowledge allows researchers to recreate the reaction and find ways to make it more efficient, moving closer to the dream device.

pullerits is modest about the implications of his work.

“my general picture of how science works and how it can hopefully help mankind… it’s like building a house. everybody brings in their brick and at the end somewhere there is going to be something that is very important, solving some practical question,” pullerits said. “i don’t dare to claim that our work is more than a brick in a wall, but it was important that we covered this area.”

pullerits envisions a future with a fully built house, or “a device that lets the sun shine on it and starts converting co2 to something more stable or usable.”

now, researchers can draft next steps.

pullerits continued: “now that we understand what is going on, we can start asking the question, ‘what could be done to make it better?’”

“this is an evolutionary field. people need to keep doing it because somebody’s going to make it work,” said miller. “we could have solar powered fans that essentially scrub the air all the time, but we need to do it soon.”

• what is the cop26 draft text — and what does it mean? this article explains how this starting document was drafted by the uk presidency and reflects what has been shared in glasgow over cop26. next, each delegation consulted with their country’s leadership and proposed revisions. 

• the new draft of the cop26 agreement was released early friday. will all 197 parties sign it, following these revisions? this cnn analysis says it includes “unprecedented language” around fossil fuels, despite pressure from the coal, oil, and gas industries, but it essentially defers more action on emissions until cop27. 

• together, china and u.s. say they’ll “enhance” climate action. the countries, the two largest climate polluters, vowed to do more to cut greenhouse gases in a joint “glasgow declaration” that commits beijing to addressing its methane emissions. 

• how can we measure success at cop? why can’t the cop swoop in and save us? so how do we critically reflect on what the conference can do for us while acknowledging its shortcomings — and not giving up hope?

thanks for following us during this series! you can see planet forward’s other cop26-related coverage in the road to cop26 and climate hits home. 

• most buildings were designed for an earlier climate – here’s what will happen as global warming accelerates. climate change is drastically altering the environmental conditions in which our buildings were designed to function. but how exactly does climate change affect our building materials? 

• 5 ways to make buildings climate change resilient. building for resilience against heatwave, cyclones, coastal flooding, and extreme cold — what does the future of infrastructure look like?

• an architect with an eye on the environment. increasingly, architects, and builders are thinking about how their creations affect the health of the planet. meet kunlé adeyemi, a nigerian architect who has built his career around that question.

check back tomorrow for more info on what is being explored on the final day of cop26 — and more good reads to keep you informed!

• here’s what happened so far at cop26, and what lies ahead. tune in to this 4-minute listen from npr’s dan charles to check in with the conference’s progress, published at the halfway mark of cop26.

• the cheap and easy climate fix that can cool the planet fast. at cop26, more than 100 countries signed the new global methane pledge with the goal of cutting 30% of their methane emissions by 2030. but why are methane emissions so harmful, and how big is the problem? what fixes could be done to reduce their effects? this article answers all your questions with easy scientific explanations and interactive graphs.

• 16 companies that are rethinking packaging. today at cop26, unilever is holding a panel on sustainable business practices, from biodegradable material in packaging to responsible business practices that respect natural ecosystems and reduce waste. food tank highlights 16 food and beverage companies to exhibit the industry’s various approaches to sustainable packaging.

check back tomorrow for more info on what is being explored at cop26 — and good reads to keep you informed!

• can cop26 become a turning point for gender responsive climate action? several authors team up in this opinion piece to argue that any meaningful international effort to address climate change must have women and girls at its center.

• advancing gender equality through climate action. women and girls are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change and pay a higher price. why? what needs to be fixed?

• 4 black women leaders on climate, justice, the green ‘promised land.’ it’s well documented that black neighborhoods and other communities of color are disproportionately affected by a changing climate, amplifying existing disparities related to race, gender, and class. read this q&a with four leading black women activists and scholars in the environmental movement about what this moment means for their communities.

check back tomorrow for more info on what is being explored at cop26 — and good reads to keep you informed!