Li, Y.; Kalnay, E.; Motesharrei, S.; Rivas, J.; Kucharski, F.; Kirk-Davidoff, D. et al. (2018): Climate model shows large-scale wind and solar farms in the Sahara increase rain and vegetation. In: Science 361 (6406), S. 1019–1022. DOI: 10.1126/science.aar5629.

"In this study, we used a climate model with dynamic vegetation to show that large-scale installations of wind and solar farms covering the Sahara lead to a local temperature increase and more than a twofold precipitation increase, especially in the Sahel, through increased surface friction and reduced albedo. The resulting increase in vegetation further enhances precipitation, creating a positive albedo–precipitation–vegetation feedback that contributes ~80% of the precipitation increase for wind farms. This local enhancement is scale dependent and is particular to the Sahara, with small impacts in other deserts."

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Werner, C.; Schmidt, H-P; Gerten, D.; Lucht, W.; Kammann, C. (2018): Biogeochemical potential of biomass pyrolysis systems for limiting global warming to 1.5 °C. In: Environ. Res. Lett. 13 (4), S. 44036. DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/aabb0e.

"Our results show that meeting the 1.5 °C goal through mitigation strategies including large-scale NE with plantation-based PyCCS may require conversion of natural vegetation to biomass plantations in the order of 133–3280 Mha globally, depending on the applied technology and the NE demand. Advancing towards additional bio-oil sequestration reduces land demand considerably by potentially up to 60%, while the benefits from yield increases account for another 3%–38% reduction (equalling 82–362 Mha). However, when mitigation commitments are increased by high balancing claims, even the most advanced PyCCS technologies and biochar-mediated co-benefits cannot compensate for delayed action towards phasing-out fossil fuels."

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"That’s why Los Angeles is pushing a novel plan to cool down the city: Turn the streets a different color. The idea of “cool pavements” has been kicking around City Hall for years, but only recently has it resulted in action on the ground. Matt Peterson, Los Angeles’s chief sustainability officer, said test applications of a light gray coating known as CoolSeal had shown a 10-degree reduction in heat gain."

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Mengis, Nadine; Martin, T.; Keller, David P.; Oschlies, Andreas (2016): Assessing climate impacts and risks of ocean albedo modification in the Arctic. In J. Geophys. Res. Oceans. DOI 10.1002/2015JC011433.

"This study assesses climate impacts and risks of idealized Arctic Ocean albedo modification (AOAM), a proposed climate engineering method, during transient climate change simulations with varying representative concentration pathway (RCP) scenarios. We find no potential for reversing trends in all assessed Arctic climate metrics under increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations."

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