| By Danielle Bochove Across Canada, more than 200 active fires are burning in what may turn out to be the second-worst season of blazes in 30 years. The effects of these increasingly frequent fires transcend local communities and even national borders. Choking smoke from Canada's record 2023 wildfire season was experienced by tens of millions of people, famously blanketing New York City in a dystopian haze. The health impacts of the bigger, hotter fires experienced in recent years in Canada, Australia, Brazil and the US — including Hawaii and Los Angeles — are only just beginning to be understood. Also, not well understood is how the black carbon contained in the smoke may contribute to global warming, especially when it finds its way to the polar regions. Commonly known as soot, scientists fear that black carbon may play an increasingly significant role in Arctic ice loss — and by extension sea level rise and global warming. More research is still needed to understand the full effects, as my story today launching our Heat Week series explains.  A wildfire in British Columbia, Canada. Photographer: BC Wildfire Service/Anadolu/Getty Images The way particles behave in clouds — reflecting or absorbing heat depending on their composition and altitude — is not well understood and nor are the full effects of black carbon deposited on ice sheets. But learning more matters. The Arctic remains one of the most important planetary defenses against global warming but it's changing so quickly scientists are struggling to keep up. Feedback loops are accelerating, raising fears about tipping points — the collapse of the Greenland ice sheet is just one example. Also, coating snow and ice with black carbon may create new cascading effects that threaten to raise sea levels and further accelerate warming by reducing the ability to reflect solar radiation. "The warmth in the Arctic, and the rate at which things are changing, is taking us beyond the boundaries of anything we've seen in thousands of years," said Drew Shindell, a professor of Earth science at Duke University. The record 2023 wildfires were a game changer in Canada: a grim harbinger of things to come. Bigger, hotter fires propel smoke higher into the atmosphere where it's carried far and wide by fierce winds. As such mega-blazes become the new normal, understanding the micro and macro impacts of black carbon — and ways to eliminate sources — is urgent. Read the full story on Bloomberg.com. The vast tract of land off Route 85 was meant to be a symbol of Made-in-America manufacturing. A billion-dollar battery factory was going to rise, bringing thousands of new jobs. The business announced, "Get Ready Arizona," the governor said the state was thrilled and even the US president gave the project a shoutout. But here, in the boomtown of Buckeye, less than an hour away from Phoenix, the 214-acre lot sits empty. Work on the site had started, said Shelby Lizarraga, who manages the gas station next door, " but then it went all quiet." Four years after the fanfare, battery maker Kore Power Inc. abandoned its plans for a plant in Buckeye. The company's chief executive officer stepped down and a promised $850 million federal loan was cancelled. Kore isn't alone in its dashed ambitions. In Massachusetts, a wind turbine cable factory set to be built on the site of a former coal power plant was scrapped. In Georgia, the construction of a facility that would have made parts for electric vehicle batteries was suspended more than halfway through. And in Colorado, a lithium-ion battery maker said it wouldn't go forward with its factory there, at least for now. They're among the dozens of planned green factories that have been cancelled, with more delayed or downsized, all hit by soaring costs, high interest rates and slow-growing EV demand. Read the full story on the US's green ghost factories on Bloomberg.com.  A plot of land for sale where Kore Power's project had previously been announced. Photographer: Caitlin O'Hara/Bloomberg When the UK handed the Labour party a parliamentary majority last July, it promised to build a new state owned energy company called Great British Energy. It's almost exactly one year since its creation, and GB Energy now has a budget of £5.8 billion to get the organization off the ground. It sounds like a lot of money, but is it? And what exactly will the organization do with all of it? On the latest episode of Zero, Akshat Rathi spoke to Dan McGrail, interim CEO of GB Energy, to find out the answers. Listen now, and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube to get new episodes of Zero every Thursday.  Dan McGrail at the Sustainable Business Summit in London. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe | 
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