Weekly Climate Solutions Digest

Welcome

This week opens under a crisp winter sky. Orion holds steady in the evening, and in the warm channels off Hawaii humpback whales rise and breathe, a silver mist in the first light. Our selections turn on two simple threads: how we carry power, and how we live with water.

Australia sets 1,500 towers to stitch new transmission. California looks to plant sunlight on quiet fields. Rooftops join in as tens of thousands of home systems find patient finance. At the same time cities and scientists read the flow. Kigali restores wetlands that cradle birds and ease floods. Hawaii charts a path to cleaner movement across islands. Aircraft ride storm corridors so forecasts sharpen when the big Pacific rivers in the sky arrive.

Pieces click into place, from a single inverter on a wall to lines on a map. We move with the season. Here are the week’s most practical moves.

Top Climate Solutions Of The Week

• A California water district will convert fallowed Central Valley acreage into up to 21 GW of utility-scale solar, advancing permitting and site preparation under a plan to build a massive solar hub.
• All 1,500 steel towers are now up on the 900 km EnergyConnect interconnector, a key step toward energizing Australia's largest transmission project to move more renewable power between states.
• Sunrun and HASI created a $500 million JV to finance about 40,000 rooftop solar and battery systems, scaling residential clean capacity via a dedicated distributed energy finance platform.
• Kigali restored 1,200 acres of wetlands with reengineered channels and parks, cutting flood risk and enhancing carbon sinks through a citywide restoration program.
• Hawaii directed agencies to develop a statewide roadmap to reach zero-emission transportation by 2045, coordinating infrastructure, incentives, and rules under a new planning mandate.
• The Atmospheric River Recon program is expanding internationally with more aircraft and dropsondes to improve storm forecasts that guide reservoir operations and public warnings, as detailed in the global expansion effort.

Progress often arrives as quiet increments. If the headlines feel heavy or far away, it helps to pause and tend to what is human and close. The following note is for anyone who could use a gentler breath.

If You Are Struggling

To everyone who is tired, angry, anxious, hopeless, or frustrated by the state of the world: you are not alone. Your body is telling the truth about a heavy time. Nothing is wrong with you for feeling it.

Part of what hurts is the pressure to be smaller. Many of us have been taught a story that says pick a lane, prove your worth, stay legible. If that story has felt like a quiet self betrayal, you might resonate with this invitation to question the lie of the niche. You are allowed to be whole. You are allowed to carry many loves and still belong here.

If you feel paused and unsure, it might not be failure. It might be a season change. You are not behind. You are germinating. Roots are forming that no one can see. Give yourself water, rest, and simple care. A walk. A call to a friend. One small good thing within reach.

When the news swings between catastrophe and comfort, it is easy to bounce between shiny optimism and shutdown. There is another path. We can notice the false choice between hope and despair and practice staying with what is. Feel what is yours to feel. Do the next honest thing you can do. Let your care be local and real. Keep your heart soft and your boundaries kind. We will carry each other.

As we move through this season, we keep building what works and caring for what matters. Power finds its routes. Water finds its channels. We listen, then build.

For people and planet,
Bri Chapman
brichapman.com