A string of weather events has soaked southern Brazil since June 2023. This...

NASA Climate Change 2 years ago

A string of weather events has soaked southern Brazil since June 2023. This image pair, taken by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on #Landsat 8, highlights the recent flooding of agricultural fields along the Jacuí River near the town Agudo in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Conversely, northern parts of the country have been experiencing droughts and wildfires. According to Brazil’s National Institute of Meteorology, the increase in rainfall events in the south and dry weather in the north are mainly caused by El Niño. P.S. El Niño is when ocean temperatures along the equatorial Pacific are warmer than normal and the winds that travel from east to west (trade winds) are weaker. This causes changes in global weather patterns. Video Description: Two images flip back and forth to show the land before and after flooding occurred. In the before image, there are patches of green and brown. A wavy pattern of lighter brown patches starts at the top left and travels down to the middle of the image at the bottom. This is the land around the Jacuí River. The after image is the same as the before, except now that wavy pattern is a deeper, single colored brown as the land has flooded. #NASA #Climate #ElNino #EarthScience #EarthData #ClimateChange

layersDaily Sustainability Digest

Published about 49 minutes ago



The UK’s acceleration toward *sustainable construction* underscores a decisive shift from ambition to delivery. National Grid ESO’s reforms to the grid connection process remove zombie projects and prioritise actionable, low carbon design ready to unlock billions in clean energy infrastructure. This structural change supports *green infrastructure* essential to *decarbonising the built environment*, linking energy planning with *sustainable building practices* that address both whole life carbon and embodied carbon impacts through rigorous whole life carbon assessment.

Offshore wind’s expansion, now generating nearly one-fifth of Britain’s electricity, highlights how *environmental sustainability in construction* relies on scalable, *eco-friendly construction* solutions. The developing offshore supply chain demands *sustainable building design* that integrates *circular economy in construction* strategies and *resource efficiency in construction*, enabling the transition towards *net zero carbon buildings* and *net zero whole life carbon* performance.

While material innovation remains subdued, the rise of energy-efficiency retrofits reflects a shift towards life cycle cost optimisation and *building lifecycle performance* over short-term gain. Firms such as Mapei point to recovery driven by energy-efficient buildings and *low embodied carbon materials*, reinforcing the value of *eco-design for buildings* and *sustainable material specification* guided by *environmental product declarations (EPDs)*. These principles strengthen the circular economy ethos and advance *carbon footprint reduction* across every project stage, from design to *end-of-life reuse in construction*.

Africa’s emerging solar market signals global diversification of *green construction*, with the continent expected to become a testbed for *low carbon building* strategies suited to extreme climates. The transition invites adoption of *circular construction strategies*, *renewable building materials*, and *sustainable urban development* underpinned by *life cycle thinking in construction*.

The alignment of policy reform, financial investment, and technical capability confirms that *sustainable design* has become core to delivering *carbon neutral construction* and reducing the *carbon footprint of construction* worldwide. The era of incremental action is ending—the new metric of success is measurable whole life carbon performance and resilient, *green building materials* innovation delivering true *sustainability* in the built environment.

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