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A short walk beneath the dense Amazon canopy, the forest abruptly opens up. Fallen logs are rotting, the trees grow sparser, and the temperature rises in places sunlight hits the ground. This is what 24 years of severe drought looks like in the worlds largest rainforest. But this patch of degraded forest, about the size of a soccer field, is a scientific experiment. Launched in 2000 by Brazilian and British scientists, Esecaflorshort for Forest Drought Study Project in Portugueseset out to simulate a future in which the changing climate could deplete the Amazon of rainfall. It is the longest-running project of its kind in the world, and has become a source for dozens of academic articles in fields ranging from meteorology to ecology and physiology. Understanding how drought can affect the Amazon, an area twice the size of India that crosses into several South American nations, has implications far beyond the region. The rainforest stores a massive amount of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that is the main driver of climate change. According to one study, the Amazon stores the equivalent of two years of global carbon emissions, which mainly come from the burning of coal, oil, and gasoline. When trees are cut, or wither and die from drought, they release into the atmosphere the carbon they were storing, which accelerates global warming. Creating drought conditions and observing the results To mimic stress from drought, the project, located in the Caxiuan National Forest, assembled about 6,000 transparent plastic rectangular panels across one hectare (2.5 acres), diverting around 50% of the rainfall from the forest floor. They were set 1 meter (3.3 feet) above ground on the sides to 4 meters (13.1 feet) above ground in the center. The water was funneled into gutters and channeled through trenches dug around the plots perimeter. Next to it, an identical plot was left untouched to serve as a control. In both areas, instruments were attached to trees, placed on the ground and buried to measure soil moisture, air temperature, tree growth, sap flow, and root development, among other data. Two metal towers sit above each plot. In each tower, NASA radars measure how much water is in the plants, which helps researchers understand overall forest stress. The data is sent to the space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, where it is processed. The forest initially appeared to be resistant to the drought,” said Lucy Rowland, an ecology professor at the University of Exeter. That began to change about eight years in, however. “We saw a really big decline in biomass, big losses and mortality of the largest trees, said Rowland. This resulted in the loss of approximately 40% of the total weight of the vegetation and the carbon stored within it from the plot. The main findings were detailed in a study published in May in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution. It shows that during the years of vegetation loss, the rainforest shifted from a carbon sink, that is, a storer of carbon dioxide, to a carbon emitter, before eventually stabilizing. There was one piece of good news: The decades-long drought didnt turn the rainforest into a savanna, or large grassy plain, as earlier model-based studies had predicted. Next steps include measuring forest recovery In November, most of the 6,000 transparent plastic covers were removed, and now scientists are observing how the forest changes. There is currently no end date for the project. The forest has already adapted. Now we want to understand what happens next, said meteorologist Joo de Athaydes, vice coordinator of Esecaflor, a professor at the Federal University of Para and coauthor of the Nature study. The idea is to see whether the forest can regenerate and return to the baseline from when we started the project. During a visit in April, Athaydes guided Associated Press journalists through the site, which had many researchers. The area was so remote that most researchers had endured a full-day boat trip from the city of Belem, which will host the next annual U.N. climate talks later this year. During the days in the field, the scientists stayed at the Ferreira Penna Scientific Base of the Emilio Goeldi Museum, a few hundred yards (meters) from the plots. Four teams were at work. One collected soil samples to measure root growth in the top layer. Another gathered weather data and tracking soil temperature and moisture. A third measured vegetation moisture and sap flow. The fourth focused on plant physiology. “We know very little about how drought influences soil processes, said ecologist Rachel Selman, researcher at the University of Edinburgh and one of the co-authors of the Nature study, during a break. Esecaflor’s drought simulation draws some parallels with the past two years, when much of the Amazon rainforest, under the influence of El Nio and the impact of climate change, endured its most severe dry spells on record. The devastating consequences ranged from the death of dozens of river dolphins due to warming and receding waters to vast wildfires in old-growth areas. Rowland explained that the recent El Nio brought short-term, intense impacts to the Amazon, not just through reduced rainfall but also with spikes in temperature and vapor pressure deficit, a measure of how dry the air is. In contrast, the Esecaflor experiment focused only on manipulating soil moisture to study the effects of long-term shifts in rainfall. But in both cases, were seeing a loss of the forests ability to absorb carbon, she said. Instead, carbon is being released back into the atmosphere, along with the loss of forest cover. ___ The Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. By Fabiano Maisonnave, Associated Press
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Early in my career, I was a loan underwriter at a bank. I was responsible for training a new employee, one with very little banking experience. During the training, she caught something I had missed and asked about it. I was shocked because I considered myself a diligent underwriter. But I quickly realized something: She was better than I was. She had a knack for noticing little abnormalities and was confident enough to point them out. For a moment, I was nervous. We worked at a small bank, and I felt threatened by her skill. But I quickly realized that she was an asset. She could work on the detail-driven parts of underwriting, which freed me up for other work. So I encouraged her to keep learning. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/04\/workbetter-logo.png","headline":"Work Better","description":"Thoughts on the future of work, career pivots, and why work shouldn't suck, by Anna Burgess Yang. To learn more visit workbetter.media.","substackDomain":"https:\/\/www.workbetter.media","colorTheme":"green","redirectUrl":""}} Great leaders dont compete with their teams. Instead, they build teams that complement them and recognize that the entire team is stronger with high-performing people. “No room for ego” A good manager shouldn’t be the smartest person in the room. Strong teams are never built on ego, and when you hire smart people, you get a more innovative team and better outcomes. Keep in mind that smarter can mean different thingstechnical skills, creativity, or subject matter expertise. More than likely, youll hire someone who may be smarter in one area, which will allow you to shine with different skills. That was my experience with the new loan underwriter; I moved on to compliance work, which required some critical thinking skills I had. AI app-building startup Lovable is known for hiring top-tier talent. The company puts its principles right on its careers page, stating that there is no room for ego and that employees amplify each other. As one of the fastest-growing startups in Europe, Lovable has now reached $17 million in annual recurring revenuedue in part, no doubt, to hiring the best and its approach to teamwork. Ideally, you uncover someones potential during the hiring process. Ask questions that might help you determine that someone has the skills you dont have, or might be smarter than you in certain aspects of the job. Look for exceptional problem-solving skills or boundless curiositysigns that a person can take a project and run with it. Let others shine Once you hire them, you have to give your new employees room to do their best work and grow. You should set goals and offer resources, but not micromanage. It will be an ongoing process of giving the employees more responsibility to see how they handle the work. Smart employees will be up to the challenge, and youll gradually transition your own role to other work. Make sure your talented employees feel appreciated. Give them credit publicly and advocate for their growth. They should know that you know how smart and capable they are. You might fear that if you nurture a smart employee, they might eventually outgrow the role. Maybe theyll move to another team or leave the company altogether. Thats a legitimate concern and bound to happen at some point. But you cant hold people back. If employees reach a ceiling within your team, they should move on. Think of yourself as a talent developer, capable of finding and nurturing people in their careers. Thats a skill by itself. And when someone moves on, it creates opportunities for others to rise. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/04\/workbetter-logo.png","headline":"Work Better","description":"Thoughts on the future of work, career pivots, and why work shouldn't suck, by Anna Burgess Yang. To learn more visit workbetter.media.","substackDomain":"https:\/\/www.workbetter.media","colorTheme":"green","redirectUrl":""}}
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U.S. consumer demand for renewable energy continues to grow, with more solar panel capacity installed in 2024 than in 2023, which saw more than in 2022. But U.S. trade policy is in flux, and high tariffs have been imposed on imported solar panels, which may cause shortages. I am a scholar who studies the Sun, as well as an entrepreneur who is working to harness its power here on Earth by creating new designs for generating solar electricity. As part of that effort, Ive studied market trends and manufacturing capabilities in the U.S. and abroad. Right now, U.S. manufacturers do not produce enough solar panels to meet the nations demand, but industry investments and federal tax incentives have been making progress, though recent federal moves have created uncertainty. In 2024, U.S. installers put up enough solar panels to generate 50 gigawatts of electricityenough to power New York City for a year. U.S. manufacturers made only a small fraction of that4.2 GW of solar modules in the first half of 2024. That was a big boost, thougha 75% increase compared with the same period in 2023. And the prices were roughly three times the cost of imports. A look at recent imports In 2024, the U.S. imported far more panels than the country needed, suggesting developers may be stockpiling panels for future projects. Most of those imported panels were made in Asia, particularly Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand. In fact, nearly all of the U.S.-made panels used at least some components from overseas. China currently makes about 97% of the worlds supply of photovoltaic wafers, which are building blocks of solar panels. The effects of proposed U.S. trade policies on the solar industry remain unclear. Through 2024, manufacturing continued a yearslong ramp-up to take advantage of government policies favoring domestic manufacturing. And imported panels seem slated to suffer from ever-increasing tariffs, which drive up costs. Domestic production rises Since 2010, U.S. solar panel production has increased about eightfold. But U.S.-made panels are more expensive than imported alternatives. In 2024, U.S.-made panels typically cost 31 cents per watt, but imported panels, even including tariffs that existed before President Donald Trumps second term, cost about one-third of that: 11 cents per watt. But domestic manufacturers are bringing costs down by ramping up production while relying on the government to maintain or increase tariffs on imports, which may make U.S. panels more competitive domestically in the future. Reliance on overseas sources Despite that increase in domestic production, U.S. demand for solar panels has grown even faster. To meet demand, the U.S. imports a substantial portion of its solar photovoltaic modules. Tariffs, including a 30% tariff on solar cells and solar panels starting in 2018, aimed to boost domestic manufacturing. But those tariffs and falling global prices made solar installations more costly in the U.S. than in the rest of the world. The average global cost of installed solar systems dropped from $1.15 per watt in 2012 to $0.72 per watt in 2016, nearly half that of U.S. installations. The 2018 tariffs, as well as earlier rounds in 2012 and 2014, have shifted the source of U.S. imports of solar panelsfrom China and Taiwan to Malaysia and South Korea. Manufacturers are also building solar panels in Singapore and Germany to maintain access to the U.S. market. And Chinese companies are even investing in U.S. solar manufacturers to take advantage of federal incentives and avoid tariffs. New tariffs emerge Trumps proposal for new tariffs on foreign-made solar goods, including panels and components, particularly target Chinese-owned companies in Southeast Asia. They could include a potential 375% tariff on Thai productsnearly quadrupling prices and a 3,500% tariff on products from Cambodia. In contrast, U.S.-made solar panels will be cheaper. But a reduced supply of solar panels will raise prices even of domestic-made panels, at least until U.S. manufacturing can catch up with the demand. Some developers have begun to delay or cancel solar installations to address rising costs. Domestic investment Due in large part to the Biden administrations Inflation Reduction Act, enacted in 2022, the U.S. solar panel industry has seen significant investments. Since the laws enactment, more than 95 GW of manufacturing capability have been added across the solar supply chain in the U.S., including new facilites that in a year can construct enough solar panels to produce nearly 42 GW, beyond existing manufacturing levels. This growth in manufacturing capabilities is largely located in Texas and Georgia. Still, the new administrations shifting priorities and trade policies make the landscape uncertain. Before Trump began discussing various solar-related trade policies, the industry projected it would install an average of 45 GW of solar panels every year for the next decade. Mojtaba Akhavan-Tafti is an associate research scientist at the University of Michigan. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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