Climate Point: New eye in the sky tracks polluters

Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate, energy and the environment. From Palm Springs, I'm Janet Wilson.

A decade or so ago, a dedicated young doctoral student informed me about her effort to track invisible plumes of methane leaking skyward from landfills across Southern California. Methane, largely a natural gas, is a harmful greenhouse gas because it is fast-acting in its contribution to global atmospheric warming.

But if you can't see where it's leaking from, it's tough to stop it. That could change with the launch this week from a California air force base of a refrigerator-sized satellite to measure methane emissions. It was shot more than 300 miles above the Earth's surface Monday on the back of a SpaceX rocket.

Known as "MethaneSAT," the $88 million spacecraft was designed and built not for a government, but for the international nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund, writes USA TODAY's Trevor Hughes. The organization will use the data in part to "name and shame" big polluters, including oil-and-gas drilling companies, livestock operations and even landfills, along with governments that are supposed to regulate them.

Although other satellites can track overall emissions, and airplanes can measure small areas, MethaneSAT will provide a comprehensive overview of methane emissions globally ‒ including from countries typically unwilling to permit scientific observation, like Russia, Venezuela and Brazil.

Water wars. Lots happening with water in the West this week. Northern and southern states released dueling plans for how to keep the Colorado River stable for years to come, with each wanting the other to shoulder more cuts. They submitted the drafts to the Bureau of Reclamation a day after federal officials announced they'd finalized a weighty environmental assessment and a series of deals with water districts and tribes to shore up the river and its reservoirs through 2026.

But they glossed over a few key pieces, including no deal yet with the agency that holds rights to by far the largest amount of river water, California's Imperial Irrigation District, due to ongoing concerns about endangered wildlife.

At last. The Navajo Nation is nearing completion of a settlement of water rights claims in Arizona, ending decades of negotiations and giving hope for thousands of people who have long gone without running water. For the past 60 years, Navajo leaders have worked to settle water claims in Arizona and nearby states, and they're finally close. Arlyssa D. Becenti and Debra Utacia Krol with the Arizona Republic fill us in.

Sold! In scenes worthy of Wall Street traders, rights to water from two key rivers in Colorado are being sold to the highest bidder, writes Ignacio Calderon with the Fort Collins Coloradoan. And they're largely going from rural to urban areas. In recent years, 95% of shares that were transferred from one system went from farms to municipalities and water districts, a Coloradoan analysis found.

Southern crisis. Mexico City is is running out of water, and day zero could happen as soon as June, according to experts. The city, one of the world's largest, is facing a dire water crisis as climate change continues to bring severe droughts and high temperatures that are causing extra strain on the city's aging infrastructure and over-drained groundwater.

Some neighborhoods have been without water for weeks, while others get it once a week. Many people pay to have water delivered from private companies.

Warmest winter yet? Folks still digging out from ten feet of snow at Lake Tahoe may not believe it, but per preliminary data collected by AccuWeather, it was the warmest winter on record in the U.S., when temperatures are averaged out across the entire nation. For statistical purposes, climatologists and meteorologists define winter as the coldest three months of the year, so the season ended Feb. 29. Astronomical winter still has a couple of weeks to go, with the spring equinox on March 19. Doyle Rice with USA TODAY fills us in.

Warm winters can heighten risks of invasive pests attacking crops and gardens, with insects that would normally be felled by deep freeze emerging unscathed.

Busting out all over. If you're weary of winter, spring is unfurling in many places. California wildflower blooms are shaping up to be spectacular, writes Elizabeth Weise. After months of torrential rains, flooding and mudslides, now comes the rainbow: red, blue, purple and golden flowers covering miles of wildland.

It's too soon to say whether this year will yield what's locally known as a "super bloom," but in desert parks, broad swaths of verbena, rare lilies and other flowers are already appearing. “Things are pointing to a good bloom year,” said Dan McCamish, natural resources manager with the Colorado Desert District of the California State Parks.

Sandhill cranes are causing a racket above Indiana on their annual spring migration, delighting ornithologists and birders. The noisy high-flyers among the oldest and the largest bird species in North America, standing four feet tall and dating back 2.5 million years, “This means that sandhill crane flocks were seen amongst mammoths, mastodons and other prehistoric mammals that inhabited Indiana,” one expert told Sarah Bowman with the Indy Star.

It's also prime bald eagle watching time on the upper Mississippi River.

Inspiring. My favorite USA TODAY "Woman of the Year" may be Eva Lighthiser, 17, who along with fellow Montana teens successfully challenged their home state to protect them from climate change. She's already grappled with record floods and destruction in her community, but state officials have appealed the teen's legal victory. She keeps that and other daunting news about the planet's future in perspective.

"There’s only so much worrying you can do … While this world is a tumultuous place, don’t forget to laugh, smile, and spend time with good people."

And with wildflowers.

Read on for more, including tiny forests in a New England city. Some of the stories below may require a subscription. Sign up and get access to all eNewspapers in the USA TODAY Network. If someone forwarded you this email and you'd like to receive Climate Point in your inbox for free once a week, sign up here