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Dozens of small nations ramped up their commitments to cut carbon emissions at the United Nations Climate Action Summit. But the world’s largest greenhouse gas polluters offered only silence, met by a stinging rebuke from 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg that echoed throughout the day-long session. A total of 66 countries—together accounting for just 6.9 percent of global carbon emissions—announced that they would increase their climate efforts in the next round of commitments due under the Paris climate accord next year. Another major announcement came from the banking industry—more than 50 financial institutions worldwide, representing 2.9 trillion dollars in assets, have committed to assess and disclose the greenhouse gas emissions of their loans and investments. (Inside Climate News) Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

We are in the middle of a climate breakdown, and all they can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth. (Guardian)

Preemptive blackouts to reduce wildfire risks is adding a new element of uncertainty and controversy in scores of communities. There has been heightened concern about those with health issues who rely on medical equipment to stay alive. Some state and local officials have also complained that utilities don’t always give enough notice before turning off the power. And they have expressed concerns about communications and evacuations if the power is out, especially if traffic signals don’t work and cellphone service is affected. (LA Times) Photo: Josh Edelson / AFP/Getty Images

Can the city maintain the majestic canopy that arches high over houses in neighborhoods like East Sacramento and Land Park, or will it have to settle for smaller more sustainable trees that merely reach 30 or 40 feet high? Will new urban development adequately replace the trees they tear out for new apartments? Many in the city are planning for decades to come, acknowledging that the quality of life in Sacramento could hinge on how well it protects and replants the tree canopy. Sacramento researchers are testing trees from Australia, Texas, and Oklahoma to see if they can withstand hotter and drier days that could unleash a new rash of pests and diseases — both threats to urban trees. (SacBee)

In the North Yuba River watershed, the forest restoration effort has been kicked into high gear thanks to an innovative infusion of public and private sector dollars that fund forest projects with many benefits — including improved water supply. “There is a big opportunity to address climate resiliency using money that typically resides in bonds, funds and markets.” The Forest Resilience Bond uses private capital to finance forest restoration activities. Beneficiaries, including the Forest Service and CalFire, reimburse investors over time. The Yuba County Water Agency has pledged $1.5 million toward the project and the State of California has committed $2.6 million in grant funding, with additional funding from the Sierra Nevada Conservancy.(Water Education Forum)

 It would cost nearly $30 billion to rebuild the tens of thousands of homes that are most vulnerable to wildfires in the Sacramento metropolitan area, a projection that ranks California’s capital region fourth highest in the nation for wildfire risk. Nearly 650,000 California residences total are considered to be at “high” or “extreme” wildfire risk, with 68,000 of them located in the four-county Sacramento metropolitan area, according to data consultancy CoreLogic. While the capital city itself is not at high risk of burning, many of the most vulnerable single- and multi-family residences lie in the farther reaches of El Dorado, Placer and Yolo counties. (SacBee)

Wildfires in California leave behind acres of scorched land that make snowpack formation easier and more water runoff downstream from the Sierra Nevada to basins in the Central Valley, increasing the amount of water stored underground. That’s the finding from researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, who discovered that blazes in some parts of the state could result in more water availability. (SacBee)

California’s wildfires have found yet another way of doing serious harm to rural California — by hammering its housing market. The refusal of insurance companies to cover homes in fire-prone areas is prompting home buyers to cancel purchases and look elsewhere. Sales are down 15 percent in Nevada County, 10 percent in Placer county, 18 percent in Shasta County and 24 percent in Tuolumne County. In many cases, the disruption in the housing market is happening in the parts of California that can least afford it. (Sac Bee)

Following a century of suppressing fires in the Illilouette Basin, Yosemite National Park managers enacted a new management policy in the early 1970s that allows most lightning-sparked fires to burn out naturally. The results indicate that restoring a natural fire regime has reduced forest water stress and increased the availability of water downstream. (EOS) Photo: Gabrielle Boisramé

A landmark IPCC report on how the climate crisis is affecting the world’s oceans and ice caps concludes that many serious impacts are already inevitable, from more intense storms to melting permafrost and dwindling marine life. But far worse impacts will hit without urgent action to cut fossil fuel emissions, including eventual sea level rise of more than 13 feet in the worst case, an outcome that would redraw the map of the world and harm billions of people. Extreme El Niño events are projected to occur twice as often this century whether emissions are cut or not. Coral reefs will suffer major losses and local extinctions. Across the ocean, heat, acidification and lower oxygen is set to cut fisheries by a quarter and all marine life by 15% if emissions are not slashed. (Guardian, Nature, IPCC)