Beyond Cayman

A Fifth of Food-Output Growth Has Been Lost to Climate Change

Bloomberg

1 Aril 2021

A farmer carries a bundle of cut wheat to a thresher during harvesting in a field in Pakistan. Photographer: Asim Hafeez/Bloomberg

Climate change has been holding back food production for decades, with a new study showing that about 21% of growth for agricultural output was lost since the 1960s.

That’s equal to losing the last seven years of productivity growth, according to research led by Cornell University and published in the journal Nature Climate Change. The study was funded by a unit of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The revelation comes as the United Nations’ World Food Programme warns of a “looming catastrophe” with about 34 million people globally on the brink of famine. The group has cited climate change as a major factor contributing to the sharp increase in hunger around the world. Food inflation is also on the rise as farmers deal with the impact of extreme weather at a time of robust demand.

This is the first study to look at how climate change has historically affected agricultural production on a global scale, using econometrics and climate models to figure out how much of the sector’s total productivity has been affected, across crops and livestock. Read the whole story here.

The Department of Defense is establishing a working group to focus on climate change

TechCrunch
10 March 2021

Image Credit: Glowimages / Getty Images

The U.S. Department of Defense is setting up a working group to focus on climate change.

The new group will be led by Joe Bryan, who was appointed as a special assistant to the Secretary of Defense focused on climate earlier this year.

The move is one of several steps that the Biden administration has taken to push an agenda that looks to address the dangers posed by global climate change...

...The Pentagon is already including security implications of climate change in its risk analyses, strategy development and planning guidance, according to the statement, and is including those risk analyses in its installation planning, modeling, simulation and war gaming, and the National Defense Strategy.

“Whether it is increasing platform efficiency to improve freedom of action in contested logistics environments, or deploying new energy solutions to strengthen resilience of key capabilities at installations, our mission objectives are well-aligned with our climate goals,” wrote Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in a statement. “The department will leverage that alignment to modernize the force, strengthen our supply chains, identify opportunities to work closely with allies and partners, and compete with China for the energy technologies that are essential to our future success.” Read the whole story here.

Blackouts In Texas And California Teach A Hard Lesson: Climate Change Is Costly

Forbes
16 February 2021

AUSTIN, TX - FEBRUARY 15: Winter storm Uri has brought historic cold weather to Texas, causing widespread power outages. (Photo by Montinique Monroe / Getty Images)

A record-setting polar vortex, which brought intense cold to a majority of the American heartland, has led to massive blackouts in Texas as significant amounts of generating capacity have been knocked offline. The Texas grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT for short), announced early Monday morning the need for short-duration rolling blackouts across the Texas grid to balance demand with available supply.

Within hours, those short duration blackouts had morphed in to massive outages impacting more than four million residents for hours on end. As of this writing, millions from Houston to Austin still do not have power restored and utilities are advising consumers to be prepared for further outages over the next 24 hours. ERCOT projections point to roughly 54 GW of generating capacity being available by end of day Tuesday (above the 48 GW currently available), far short of the 69 GW in demand the system saw Sunday evening and short of the projected demand tonight...

...Some have taken the chance to blame wind and renewables for the issues plaguing the state, but it is primarily a failure of supposedly resilient fossil-fired assets that is impacting the region. Compounding matters, Texas is the lone state in the lower 48 with its own power grid and has limited ability to import power from neighbors. The Southwest Power Pool, another grid operator in the central United States that had indicated earlier this week that it may begin blackouts of its own, avoided a similar disaster in part by leaning on neighbors. Read the whole story here.



William hails young people as ‘shining lights’ in mission to protect environment

Evening Standard UK
7 February 2021

Prince William speaks with members of the Young Champions of the
Earth initiative / PA

Prince William believes if young people should educate older relatives about the damage they cause to the environment it could really “change the tide” and create momentum for climate change.

The Duke of Cambridge spoke out during a 45 minutes chat to seven young people named 2020's Young Champions of the Earth by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

He told them that the campaign to improve the environment had grown hugely, offering a wealth of opportunity to anyone with even a “tiny bit of passion.”

William focused on the need to remain positive, which he explained was the thinking behind his Earthshot Prize, a global award designed to create significant change over the next ten years and which he suggested any one of them could be “in the mix for.”

The environmentalists were each recognised for their efforts to create a positive impact in their local communities. Read the whole story here.

Red and green: Research explores the Soviet Union's environmental legacy

Binghampton University Campus News
5 February 2021

The Krasnoyarsk Dam in Siberia (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Siberia swings between extremes: bitter winters and scorching summers. Vast landscapes virtually untouched by human hands, and others profoundly changed by the extraction of natural resources. Natural beauty that inspires poetry, and some of the worst air pollution in the world.

The Soviet Union focused its attention on the development of Siberia starting in the 1950s in an effort to bolster a lagging economy. Mariia Koskina, a doctoral candidate in history at Binghamton University, researches that tension between economic development and nature preservation, and how the Soviet legacy continues to shape the Eurasian and global environment to this day.

Koskina recently received a Stanford U.S.-Russia Forum (SURF) fellowship, joining a cohort of 51 scholars from 11 countries exploring issues of mutual interest to the United States and Russia. Due to the pandemic, in-person conferences will be replaced by virtual roundtables and seminars with leaders across business, government and academia from both countries. Read the whole story here.

New report outlines how ocean protections help marine life bounce back

EnvironmentAmerica.org
4 February 2021

Cayman Islands coral reef (Photo courtesy of Department of Environment)

BOSTON -- A new report highlighting six highly to fully protected ocean areas from around the world offers important examples of how protecting parts of the sea from destructive human activities can help restore and protect ocean wildlife. Entitled New Life for the Ocean: How Marine Protections Keep Our Waters Wild, the study from Environment America Research & Policy Center and Frontier Group comes on the heels of President Joe Biden’s Jan. 27 executive order that sets protecting 30 percent of U.S. lands and oceans by 2030 as a national goal. 

“The stories in this report all point to one crucial conclusion:  When we act to preserve key ocean habitats, marine wildlife can get a foothold on survival,” said Wendy Wendlandt, acting president of Environment America Research & Policy Center. “Sea turtles, coral reefs, endangered birds -- all of these increasingly scarce, wonderful creatures have a better chance of bouncing back if governments set aside critical ocean areas.”  

In reviewing a series of recent studies, the report finds that highly to fully protected marine areas -- those that are free from all or most destructive human activities -- protect and increase biodiversity, boosting overall ecosystem health. Well-designed and long-lasting protections also increase the abundance of marine life, while helping mitigate the impacts of climate change. Read the whole story here.

Biden signs 'existential' executive orders on climate and environment

BBC News
28 January 2021

Los Angeles refinery, California's largest producer of gasoline (Getty Images)

US President Joe Biden has signed a series of executive orders designed to address climate change, including a new ban on some energy drilling.

The orders aim to freeze new oil and gas leases on public lands and double offshore wind-produced energy by 2030.

They are expected to meet stiff resistance from the energy industry and come as a sea change from Donald Trump, who cut environmental protections.

"Today is climate day at the White House," said Mr Biden on Wednesday.
"We have already waited too long," Mr Biden told reporters at the White House. "And we can't wait any longer."

Mr Biden said the US "must lead" a global response to the climate change crisis. Read the whole story or watch the video here.

Biden’s First Climate Actions Include Rejoining Paris Agreement

Scientific American
20 January 2021

Joe Biden speaks the day after Americans voted in the presidential election Day on November 04, 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware. Credit: Drew Angerer Getty Images

Joe Biden will spend his first hours as president trying to obliterate much of the Trump administration’s deregulatory agenda, restore public land protections and reestablish the United States as a global leader on climate change policy.

Biden will sit in the Oval Office later today and sign a sweeping executive order to rejoin the Paris Agreement and undo President Trump’s rollback of greenhouse gas policies, said Gina McCarthy, Biden’s national climate adviser.

“We know rejoining [Paris] won’t be enough, but along with strong domestic action, which this executive order kicks off, it is going to be an important step for the United States to regain and strengthen its leadership opportunities,” McCarthy told reporters late yesterday. Read the whole story here.

Biden’s climate crusade: How his plan to cut carbon emissions, create jobs could impact U.S.

USA Today
18 January 2021

As he steps into office this week, President-elect Joe Biden brings an ambitious plan to address climate change, and with Democrats in control of Congress for the first time in a decade, he may have the opportunity to accomplish some of his loftiest goals.

“It’s enormous,” said Susan Glickman, Florida director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, one of many climate advocates, scientists and concerned citizens looking forward with optimism. 

Biden’s goals include carbon-free electricity by 2035, more wind and solar to get the nation to net-zero emissions and 100% clean energy by 2050. He also wants to upgrade millions of buildings and homes to be more energy efficient, plug abandoned oil and gas wells, reclaim mines and make environmental justice a key consideration. Read the whole story here.

In Trump’s last days, a spree of environmental rollbacks

The Washington Post
15 January 2021

A Northern Spotted Owl flies after an elusive mouse jumping off the end of a stick in the Deschutes National Forest near Camp Sherman, Ore. The Interior Department has cut 3.4 million acres in critical habitat for the northern spotted owl, which faces extinction. (Don Ryan/AP)

The Trump administration has gone on a spree of environmental rollbacks in its final days, loosening standards for equipment Americans use to heat their homes, reducing protected habitat for the northern spotted owl and opening conservation lands in California and Utah to development.

The flurry of new rules — several of which will help the fossil fuel, logging and mining industries — sets up a clash with the incoming Biden administration. As the president-elect gears up to cut greenhouse gas emissions and put more land off limits to development, his aides will have to spend months unwinding these policies unless congressional Democrats or federal judges overturn them.

Every president rushes to lock in his agenda before leaving office: Bill Clinton protected tens of millions of acres of national forest from logging just before stepping down, and Barack Obama finalized a slew of rules on everything from energy efficiency to the disposal of toxic waste by dental offices. Read the whole story here.

New technique could help scientists identify heat-stressed corals

UPI
4 January 2020

A new method of testing could help detect coral bleaching similar to that seen on the rice coral Montipora capitata in waters near the Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology on Moku o Lo'e in Kāne'ohe Bay, Hawaii. Photo by D. Bhattacharya

Scientists have developed a new technique for identifying heat-stressed corals, information that could help marine biologists diagnose the coral species most vulnerable to global warming.

The research, published this month in the journal Science Advances, promises to help conservationists craft more targeted marine protections.

"This is similar to a blood test to assess human health," senior author Debashish Bhattacharya said in a news release.

"We can assess coral health by measuring the metabolites -- chemicals created for metabolism -- they produce and, ultimately, identify the best interventions to ensure reef health," said Bhattacharya, a professor of biochemistry and microbiology at Rutgers University.

"Coral bleaching from warming waters is an ongoing worldwide ecological disaster," Bhattacharya said. "Therefore, we need to develop sensitive diagnostic indicators that can be used to monitor reef health before the visible onset of bleaching to allow time for preemptive conservation efforts."

Coral reefs anchor the food chains and ecosystems that support much of the ocean's biodiversity. They're vital to many of the world's most important fish stocks.

Additionally, coral reefs protect approximately 44,000 miles of coastline from flooding and storm surges, saving coastal communities billions of dollars every year.

Unfortunately, many of the world's reefs face a variety of growing threats, including rising ocean temperatures, ocean acidification, harmful invasive species, pollution and overfishing. Read the whole story here.

Hawaii’s Beaches Are Disappearing

ProPublica and Honolulu Star-Advertiser
29 December 2020

Hawaii’s beaches are owned by the public, and the government is required to preserve them. So years ago, officials adopted a “no tolerance” policy toward new seawalls, which scientists say are the primary cause of coastal erosion.

But over the past two decades, oceanfront property owners across the state have used an array of loopholes in state and county laws to get around that policy, armoring their own properties at the expense of the environment and public shoreline access.

Government officials have granted more than 230 environmental exemptions to owners of homes, hotels and condos, according to records compiled by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and ProPublica. Those exemptions have allowed property owners to keep old seawalls in place, build new ones and install mounds of emergency sandbags along the beaches.

Officials defend their actions, saying that forcing property owners to comply with anti-armoring laws would cause them too much hardship, particularly along coastlines that already have lots of seawalls.

Over time, though, waves hitting the barriers pull the sand away from the shore and carry it out to sea. As a result, the government approvals have fueled beach loss and perpetuated the redevelopment of private properties along treasured and environmentally sensitive coastlines — all at a time when scientists have been warning of the dire need to push development inland. Read the whole story here.

The Biggest Climate Change Stories of 2020

Bloomberg Green
28 December 2020

Illustration: Baptiste Virot for Bloomberg Green

2020 was a monumental year for just about every kind of news, and climate news was no exception. As the world reeled from the shocks of the coronavirus pandemic, racial tension, and economic collapse, it also dealt with deadly heat, hellacious wildfires, and the most active Atlantic hurricane season in recorded history.

We may also remember 2020, however, as the year the world started to reverse centuries of damage to the climate. Just before the start of the year, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a new Green Deal, which would go on to become the centerpiece of the European Union’s economic recovery plan. Several more of the largest global economies—including China, which is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than any other country—also came out with net-zero pledges. As oil and gas prices plunged due to the pandemic, NextEra Energy Inc., the world’s largest supplier of wind power, overtook Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. to become the world’s most valuable energy company, bar none. And in November, the U.S. voted to make Joe Biden, who adopted climate change as one of his signature campaign issues, its next president. Read the whole story here.

Electric Cars are Still Cars

Treehugger
by Lloyd Alter
23 November 2020

More dockless electric cars blocking sidewalk (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

There are few subjects that arouse more debate and disagreement than my position that electric cars won't save us. There are two main objections: The first is that some people really need cars and that "it requires work to make a car-optional society." The second, and for me, a more interesting one, is that "people reading this will think 'oh so electric vehicles aren’t good enough' and then just keep driving their internal combustion engine cars" – suggesting that Treehugger should be promoting getting off fossil fuels for everyone, including those who want or depend on cars.

But I still see electric cars parked on the sidewalk and in the bike lanes, I still hear about near misses of pedestrians crossing the street, and in defending myself in a recent post, concluded:

"In an urban (and suburban) world – where we are fighting for crumbs of space to make room for people who walk and bike, fighting to keep sidewalks from being used as parking, while watching our children and our parents being maimed and killed – they are just another driver wrapped in a big metal box." Read the whole story here.


This 2-Acre Vertical Farm Out-Produces 720 Acre ‘Flat Farms’

Forbes

20 November 2020

Farming is going vertical, thanks to startups like San Francisco-based Plenty. PHOTO BY ALEX WIGAN ON UNSPLASH

According to Nate Storey, the future of farms is vertical. It’s also indoors, can be placed anywhere on the planet, is heavily integrated with robots and AI, and produces better fruits and vegetables while using 95% less water and 99% less land.

But the future of farms is also personal, emotional, and deeply meaningful.

“The objective of all technology really should be to enable human joy, right?” Storey asked me on a recent episode of the TechFirst podcast. “For me, it’s the memory of being a child in the garden and eating a carrot that my grandfather gave me that still has the grit on it, and the snap and the crunch and the flavor and the aroma, or a tomato from my grandmother’s garden.”

Plenty is an agtech startup in San Francisco that is reinventing farms and farming. Storey is the co-founder and chief science officer in a time when farming is going high-tech.

Despite getting a bad rep in much of popular culture over the last few decades for lack of education, farmers have always been stealthily technical, fixing tractors, constructing buildings, and innovating new tools to making farming better or easier. Recently drones and robots are invading the world of “flat farming,” as Storey calls it, and the space is legitimately hot, with over 1,600 startups and tens of billions of dollars of investment. Read the whole story here.

McDonald's to debut plant-based meat alternatives from 2021

Sky News
10 November 2020

McDonald's have debuted their plant-based meat alternative option: the McPlant

McDonald's will debut its line of plant-based meat alternatives - the McPlant - in 2021.

The burger chain has teamed up with Beyond Meat to create a patty, the Los Angeles-based company has said.

"Beyond Meat and McDonald's co-created the plant-based patty which will be available as part of their McPlant platform," a Beyond Meat spokesperson said in an email.

Their shares dropped by 8% once McDonald's announced its latest venture - but picked up again by 4% after the plant-based meat company announced its role in co-creating the patty.

McDonald's - which earlier reported market-beating profit and revenue for the third quarter - has declined to comment on which supplier it is using for its faux meat products. Read the whole story here. 

Climate change: US formally withdraws from Paris agreement

BBC News
4 November 2020

President Trump announcing the US pull out from Paris in June 2017 (Getty Images)

President Trump announced the move in June 2017, but UN regulations meant that his decision only takes effect today, the day after the US election.

The US could re-join it in future, should a president choose to do so.

The Paris deal was drafted in 2015 to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change.

It aims to keep the global temperature rise this century well below 2C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5C. Read the whole story here.



Check Out Copenhill, the Snow-Free Ski Hill and Climbing Wall Atop a Copenhagen Power Plant

Colossal
2 November 2020

Copenhill (Image: Hufton + Crow)

A year since its opening, the snow-free ski hill and entertainment hub that sits above a waste-to-energy power plant in Copenhagen is fully open to outdoor enthusiasts. New aerial photographs from Hufton+Crow capture the rooftop complex Copenhill (previously) through a blanket of fog, revealing the now lush landscaping that lines hiking trails and visitors as they peer out over the surrounding water. The multi-use site, which is located at the Amager Resource Centre, even has the world’s tallest climbing wall, an 80-meter-high rock structure that scales the entirety of the building.

Copenhill is the project of Danish architectural firm BIG and is the highest outlook in the capital city. The new complex also boasts multi-faceted energy reuse, with the indoor plant converting waste into heat for residents’ homes, while the biodiverse hill outside absorbs heat, filters the air, and minimizes water runoff. Read the whole story here.

Why all human rights depend on a healthy environment

The Conversation
27 October 2020

Rising sea levels are threatening homes on Diamniadio Island, Saloum Delta in Senegal. A child stands outside a home’s former kitchen, surrounded by mangrove branches, in 2015. (AP Photo/Jane Hahn)

Recent revelations about the speed and scale of nature’s decline are hard to truly comprehend. Not since the dinosaurs disappeared 65 million years ago has the diversity and abundance of life on Earth plunged so precipitously.

For decades, governments have signed treaties and made pledges to halt the damage to our biosphere, notably the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity. In retrospect, it’s an embarrassing litany of bold rhetoric, timid action and broken promises.

The recent Global Biodiversity Outlook-5 reveals that none of the 2010 Aichi Biodiversity Targets, which provided nations with the targets for the protection of species and habitats, were achieved by 2020.

Yet all human rights ultimately depend on a healthy biosphere. Among the human rights being threatened and violated by the ecosystem degradation and the decline of biodiversity are the rights to life, health, food, a healthy environment, water, an adequate standard of living and culture. Read the whole story here.

Overwhelming majority believe Australia is already experiencing climate change

The Guardian
27 October 2020

A firefighter backburning in Mangrove Mountain during vast bushfires that raged for weeks during the crisis. Photograph: Jeremy Piper/AAP

Battling a global pandemic and the first recession in 30 years has not prompted Australians to worry less about the impacts of climate change, and a substantial majority of voters believe we are already experiencing the effects of warming, according to an authoritative snapshot of community attitudes.

The latest Climate of the Nation report, an annual national survey of almost 2,000 voters that has been running for 13 years, will be launched on Wednesday by the New South Wales environment and energy minister, Matt Kean.

The survey finds that 74% of the sample remains concerned about climate change, which is the same level as last year, and 80% of respondents think we are already experiencing climate change impacts.

Over the past five years, the number of Australians saying they believe climate change is already happening has increased by 15 points. The survey shows the number of Australians who think we are experiencing the impacts of climate change “a lot” has increased from 33% in 2016 to 48% in 2020.

The survey also suggests Australians are cool on the Morrison government’s “gas-led recovery”, with 59% of respondents saying the recovery should be powered by renewables compared to 12% who favour gas. 

But the results indicate that Australians think the gas industry is larger than it is. Survey respondents on average believe that gas mining and exploration makes up 8.2% of Australia’s total workforce, when the reality is the industry accounts for 0.2% of employed Australians.

People also think gas makes a more substantial contribution to economic growth that [sic] it does in reality. Read the whole story here.

'Massive' coral reef taller than the Empire State Building discovered in Australia

CNN Travel

27 October 2020

The newly discovered detached reef is one of several in the Great Barrier Reef, and the first to be discovered in 120 years (Image: Schmidt Ocean Institute)

A "massive" new reef measuring 500 meters (about 1,600 feet) has been discovered in Australia's Great Barrier Reef, making it taller than some of the world's highest skyscrapers.

Scientists found the detached reef, which is the first to be discovered in more than 120 years, in waters off North Queensland while on an expedition aboard research vessel Falkor, ocean research organization Schmidt Ocean Institute announced Monday.

The reef was first discovered on October 20, as scientists completed an underwater mapping of the seafloor of the northern Great Barrier Reef.

At 500 meters high, it is taller than the Empire State Building (381 meters to the top floor), the Sydney Tower (305 meters) and the Petronas Twin Towers (451.9 meters.)

Using an underwater robot named SuBastian, the team explored the reef on Sunday, and live streamed footage of the exploration. Read the whole story here.

PM Suga says Japan will attain zero-emissions, carbon neutral society by 2050

Reuters
26 October 2020

Tokyo skyline (Image: director.co.uk)

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Monday committed to cutting greenhouse gases to zero on a net basis by 2050 and achieving a carbon-neutral society, a major shift in its position on climate change.

Tokyo had previously said it would achieve carbon neutrality as soon as possible in the second half of the century, rather than set an explicit target, and its swing brings it into line with the European Union, which set a carbon neutrality target of 2050 last year.

“Responding to climate change is no longer a constraint on economic growth,” Suga said in a prepared speech, his first policy address to parliament since taking office last month.

“We need to change our thinking to the view that taking assertive measures against climate change will lead to changes in industrial structure and the economy that will bring about great growth.” Read the whole story here.

Climate change: 'Dangerous and dirty' used cars sold to Africa

BBC News
26 October 2020

Getty Images

Between 2015 and 2018, some 14 million older, poor quality vehicles were exported from Europe, Japan and the US.

Four out of five were sold to poorer countries, with more than half going to Africa.

Experts say that up to 80% failed to meet minimum safety and environmental standards in exporting countries.

As well as causing accidents, these cars make air pollution worse and contribute heavily to climate change.

Many of the vehicles have also been tampered with to remove valuable parts.

The report, published by the UN Environment Programme (Unep), says that both exporters and importers need to put tougher regulations in place to stem the flow of these cars. Read the whole story here.

EU leaders divided over new climate goals for 2030

Loop Cayman
16 October 2020

Portugal's Prime Minister Antonio Costa, left, is welcomed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen prior to a meeting at EU headquarters in Brussels, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2020. (Olivier Hoslet, Pool via AP)

European Union leaders remain divided about a more ambitious target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and will not reach an agreement at their summit starting Thursday.

According to a draft of the meeting's findings seen by The Associated Press, leaders will at this summit only start discussing the proposal to reduce emissions by at least 55 per cent by 2030, as put forward by the EU's executive Commission.

The goal is to reach an agreement in December ahead of the adoption of the first ever European climate law.

In proposing a reduction target of at least 55 per cent by 2030 compared with the current target of 40 per cent, EU commission President Ursula von der Leyen predicted in September that the new target would be "too much for some and not enough for others."

Supported by Germany, Von der Leyen's revised target needs to be endorsed by the 27 EU countrie [sic] to make it legally binding.

On Wednesday, a group of 11 countries including Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden embraced her ambition in a joint statement published ahead of the summit in Brussels. Read the whole story here.


When the U.S. and China Fight, It Is the Environment That Suffers

The New York Times
12 October 2020

As of June, China had more coal-fired capacity under construction or in planning than the existing capacity of either the United States or India. (Fred Dufour/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images)

President Xi Jinping of China recently pledged to the United Nations General Assembly that the country would become carbon neutral by 2060. It was an unexpected announcement from the world’s greatest emitter of carbon dioxide.

President Trump fired back: “Those who attack America’s exceptional environmental record while ignoring China’s rampant pollution are not interested in the environment. They only want to punish America, and I will not stand for it.”

Mr. Trump’s criticism is both self-serving and not entirely wrong. Despite China’s growing commitment to environmental protection and huge investments in renewable energy — more than 45 percent of the world’s total in 2017, according to the Global Commission on the Geopolitics of Energy Transformation — there is no clear evidence that the stricter and more centralized enforcement measures introduced by Mr. Xi have brought truly significant gains against pollution so far. Read the whole story here.

The way Americans are thinking about climate change is, well, changing

KOMU 8 NBC News
4 October 2020

Image credit: The Verge

The Earth’s climate had been slowly changing since the beginning of time. Then humans and their Industrial Revolution came along, starting in the mid-1700s, and we began to shoot tons of fossil fuel emissions into our atmosphere. Soon, in the 1900s, our atmosphere would have more CO2 than any historical marker for the past 800,000+ years and our climate would begin to change rapidly in response.

According to NASA, “Over the past 170 years, human activities have raised atmospheric concentrations of CO2 by 47% above pre-industrial levels found in 1850. This is more than what had happened naturally over a 20,000 year period (from the Last Glacial Maximum to 1850, from 185 ppm to 280 ppm).”

Carbon dioxide is a heat-trapping gas. More CO2 in the atmosphere means warmer air. This leads to a domino effect spanning our climate systems. Humans are the cause of this over-abundance and never-before-seen fossil energy in the atmosphere. Humans have caused our climate to change rapidly. Humans, therefore, are the only ones who can stop it.

So, while this is all fact with vast data showing and supporting our reality, “opinions” on the matter haven’t always agreed. Read the whole story here.

Cambridge University ending fossil fuel investments

Loop Cayman
1 October 2020

Photo: iStock

The University of Cambridge said Thursday that it will kick all fossil fuel investments out of its portfolio within the next decade as part of a plan to end the emissions of greenhouse gases it's responsible for by 2038.

The centuries-old English institution is joining a growing list of universities around the world giving in to pressure from environmental campaigners to act against climate change.

"The university is responding comprehensively to a pressing environmental and moral need for action with an historic announcement that demonstrates our determination to seek solutions to the climate crisis," Vice Chancellor Stephen Toope said in his annual university address. "We will approach with renewed confidence our collaborations with government, industry and research partners around the world as together we work for a zero carbon future."

Cambridge said its 3.5 billion pound ($4.5 billion) endowment fund will shift investment from fossil fuels toward renewable energy by 2030. Read the whole story here.

Trump was forced to talk about climate at the first presidential debate

Grist
29 September 2020

Morry Gash-Pool / Getty Images

“I’d like to talk about climate change,” Chris Wallace said in the last 10 minutes of the first presidential debate in Cleveland, Ohio, on Tuesday. “What do you believe about the science of climate change, sir?” he asked Trump. “Do you believe that human pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, contribute to climate change?”

The question was not on the list of six debate topics Wallace had released ahead of Tuesday night’s debate. By the time the debate hit the hour mark, no one expected climate to come up at all. The first two-thirds of the debate were less of a conversation and more of a hell pit of interruptions and crosstalk...

...But the roughly 10 minutes the candidates spent talking about climate change were not only surprisingly extensive, thoughtful, and civil, they represented one of the most substantive conversations President Trump has ever been forced to have about climate change on the fly and on such a big platform. Wallace did not hold back. Read the whole story here.

GE plans to stop making coal-fired power plants

Reuters
21 September 2020

FILE PHOTO: The logo of General Electric is pictured at the 26th World Gas Conference in Paris, France, June 2, 2015. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo

General Electric Co GE.N said on Monday it plans to stop making coal-fired power plants, as the U.S. industrial conglomerate focuses more on renewable sources of power generation.

The company said the exit from the business could include divestitures, site closings and job cuts, while it works with its customers to complete existing obligations.

GE has said in the past it would focus less on fossil fuels and more on renewable energy, reflecting a growing acceptance of clean power sources by utilities.

“GE’s exit from building new coal-fired power — after decades as a leader in this space — is an acknowledgement that growth in the energy sector will no longer be in coal,” said Kathy Hipple, a financial analyst at Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. “The market will ultimately reward GE for exiting new coal builds.” Read the whole story here.

The daring plan to save the Arctic ice with glass

BBC Future Planet
23 September 2020

One of the most important, yet underappreciated, features of the Arctic sea ice is the ability of its blindingly white surfaces to reflect sunlight. For at least as long as our species has existed, the frozen seas at the top of our world have acted as a massive parasol that helps keep the planet cool and its climate stable.

Yet now, much of that ice is rapidly vanishing. Rising temperatures have locked the Arctic in a self-destructive feedback loop: the warmer it gets, the reflective white ice dissolves into darker, blue water, which absorbs more of the Sun’s warmth rather than reflecting it back into space. Warmer water accelerates melting, which means yet more absorption of heat, which drives further melting – and so on in a vicious cycle that is part of the reason why the Arctic is warming around twice as fast as the rest of the planet. This July, ice cover was as low as it had ever been at that time of the year.

As planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, some have been driven to explore desperate measures. One proposal put forward by the California-based non-profit Arctic Ice Project appears as daring as it is bizarre: to scatter a thin layer of reflective glass powder over parts of the Arctic, in an effort to protect it from the Sun’s rays and help ice grow back. “We’re trying to break [that] feedback loop and start rebuilding,” says engineer Leslie Field, an adjunct lecturer at Stanford University and chief technical officer of the organisation. Read the whole story here.

As Concerns Over Climate Change Rise, More Developers Turn to Wood

The New York Times
22 September 2020

The Catalyst building, the first tall wood office building in Washington State, is home to Eastern Washington University. More companies are recognizing the benefits of mass timber construction. Rajah Bose for The New York Times

SPOKANE, Wash. — Although it was established in 1873 near some of North America’s most productive forests, Spokane has rarely focused on new timber products in construction. But that is starting to change.

In the city’s downtown, Eastern Washington University has moved into the Catalyst Building, a five-story, 150,000-square-foot structure, the first tall wood office building in Washington State. Sunshine pours through the $40 million building’s large windows and bathes the wood beams and laminated wood floor and ceiling panels...

...Developers are turning to wood for its versatility and sustainability. And prominent companies like Google, Microsoft and Walmart have expressed support for a renewable resource some experts believe could challenge steel and cement as favored materials for construction. Read the whole story here.

Despite Pandemic, Many Europeans Still See Climate Change as Greatest Threat to Their Countries

Pew Research Center

9 September 2020

An elderly woman walks through pairs of shoes laid out by climate change activists in Madrid on May 29, 2020. The shoes represent protesters unable to appear due to coronavirus restrictions. (Denis Doyle/Getty Images)

In a year when the COVID-19 pandemic has dominated news headlines around the world, it is perhaps unsurprising to discover that majorities in 14 countries surveyed this past summer see the spread of infectious disease as a major threat to their countries.

But across the European countries included in the study, climate change remains the top-most perceived threat, even as people there also express grave concern about the risks posed by infectious disease.

Overall, medians of roughly seven-in-ten across the 14 economically advanced countries surveyed say that global climate change and the spread of infectious diseases are both major threats. Medians of six-in-ten or more cite security concerns – such as terrorism, cyberattacks from other countries and the spread of nuclear weapons – as major threats.

In terms of relative rankings, climate change outpaces or ties infectious disease as the most frequently mentioned “major threat” in eight of 14 countries polled, including seven of the nine European countries surveyed. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, five countries, including the United States, name the spread of disease as the foremost threat. Read the whole story here.



Young activists take 33 countries to court in bid to step up climate change fight

NBC News / Associated Press

3 September 2020

Members of the emergency services try to extinguish a wildfire near Cardigos village in central Portugal in July 2019.Sergio Azenha / AP

LISBON, Portugal — Six young activists launched a European human rights case against 33 countries in the latest legal effort to force governments to step up their fight against climate change.

The group filed a claim Thursday asking the European Court of Human Rights to hold the countries accountable for their allegedly inadequate efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The Portuguese activists argue that failures to address climate change constitute a threat to their physical and mental well-being, violating their rights to life and respect for their families.

They are backed by the Global Legal Action Network, a international nonprofit organization that challenges human rights violations, and a team of five London lawyers. The countries named in the complaint include the 27 member nations of the European Union plus the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine. Read the whole story here.

Despite Politics, the Pentagon Launches New Effort on Climate and Environmental Security

The Center for Climate and Security
24 August 2020

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has been addressing climate change issues and examining how they impact national security for a long time – across multiple Administrations, both Democrat and Republican.  In recent years, the DoD has done so despite political pressures to the contrary, though prioritization of the issue declined significantly after the departure of Secretary of Defense James Mattis.

However, recent articles (here and here) highlight a new effort within the Pentagon called Recourse Competition, Environmental Security, and Stability (RECESS), led by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Stability and Humanitarian Affairs), that seeks to create a coherent internal network within the Pentagon to address climate and environmental security threats. 

According to recent news, the effort is intended to “corral the Pentagon’s top experts on climate and the environment to better prepare U.S. forces for future threats and conflicts” and has “already collected more than 60 people from across the military, including the intelligence community and combatant commands.” This initiative is new and exciting for a few reasons. Read the whole story here.

Loss of Greenland Ice Sheet Reached a Record Last Year

The New York Times
20 August 2020

An iceberg calving from the Apusiaajik Glacier in southeastern Greenland last August. (Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images)

Greenland lost a record amount of ice in 2019, researchers reported Thursday. Nearly half of it was lost in July, when the region roasted from an unusual heat wave.

The net ice loss of more than 530 billion metric tons was more than twice the annual average since 2003, the scientists said. In July, when warm air from Europe moved north, leading to temperatures that were well above normal and causing widespread surface melting of the ice sheet, the loss was roughly equal to the average loss in a full year.
Ingo Sasgen, a geoscientist at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, Germany, and the lead author of a paper describing the findings in the journal Communications and Environment, said with the warmth last summer, he and his colleagues suspected that 2019 would be a bad one for the ice sheet.

They analyzed data from a pair of satellites that precisely measure the gravitational pull, and thus the mass, of the area they are orbiting over.

“It took us some time to analyze it and quantify it robustly, but it turned out to be another record melt year,” Dr. Sasgen said. In the previous record year, 2012, the net loss was about 460 billion metric tons. Read the whole story here.


Millennials, Gen-Zers won’t date someone who doesn’t recycle: survey

New York Post
18 August 2020

Getty Images/iStockphoto

The only things they don’t want recycled are pickup lines.

When it comes to dating 20-somethings, there are few bigger turnoffs than putting refuse in the wrong receptacle, according to a new survey by Cluttr, which found that millennials and Gen-Zers prefer dating someone who regularly recycles.

The unwanted-item bazaar set out to determine tech-savvy young people’s “environmental concerns affect their buying and recycling decisions.”

But after surveying 1,332 young Americans, Cluttr found that a whopping 47% of 18- to 29-year-olds wouldn’t want to be romantically involved with someone who neglects to recycle. In addition, 45% would reject a person that uses an excessive amount of single-use plastic.

If that wasn’t eco-conscious enough, a whopping 69% of youths would boycott a brand for not adhering to green business practices, while 67% believed that global warming is a serious man-made threat. In fact, 71% even felt that the environment warranted more concern than the economy, which recently suffered its worst blow since the Great Depression amid the coronavirus pandemic. Read the whole story here.

More than half of world's oceans already being affected by climate change

Phys.org
17 August 2020

Photo Credit: CC0 Public Domain

More than 50% of the world's oceans could already be affected by climate change, with this figure rising as high as 80% over the coming decades, a new study has shown.

Scientists used climate models and observations in deeper areas of ocean worldwide to calculate for the first time the point at which changes to temperatures and salt levels—good indicators of the impact of human-induced climate change—would overpower natural variations.
The study, published in Nature Climate Change, estimates that 20-55% of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans now have noticeably different temperatures and salt levels, while this will rise to 40-60% by the middle of the century, and to 55-80% by 2080.

It also found the Southern Hemisphere oceans are being affected more rapidly by climate change than the Northern Hemisphere, with changes having been detectable there since as early as the 1980s.

Professor Eric Guilyardi, co-author at the University of Reading and LOCEAN-IPSL, Laboratory of Oceanography and Climate in Paris, said: "We have been detecting ocean temperatures change at the surface due to climate change for several decades now, but changes in vast areas of the ocean, particularly deeper parts, are much more challenging to detect." Read the whole story here.

Because of Climate Change, Canada’s Rocky Mountain Forests Are on the Move

Smithsonian

17 August 2020

A hilltop in the Crowsnest Forest Reserve, Alberta, Canada, taken in 2008 shows noticeably more trees than its counterpart image in 1931. (Mountain Legacy Project, CC BY-NC 4.0)

On an overcast day in 1927, surveyors Morrison Parsons Bridgland and Arthur Oliver Wheeler trekked up from the Owen Creek drainage in what is now Banff National Park to take a series of photos of the mountains along the North Saskatchewan River. They aimed to make the first accurate topographical maps of the region but in the process created something much bigger than they could have imagined.

Outwardly, the black-and-white photographs Bridgland and Wheeler took look like timeless shots of the Canadian Rockies. But new research using these old images is allowing a group of scientists with the Mountain Legacy Project to quantify a century of change in the landscape. Across the Canadian Rockies, forests are on the march.

The most recent results, published in the journal Scientific Reports, found tree lines extending higher and thicker than at the turn of the 20th century. These changes are helping scientists understand how ecosystems will continue to shift in a warming world. Read the whole story here.

How It Feels Living in a City That Will Soon Feel the Impacts of Climate Change 

Architectural Digest
by Gabriela Ulloa
13 August 2020

My beautiful city’s skyline. Courtesy of Gabriela Ulloa

What comes to mind when you think of Miami? South Beach, LIV, a sweaty party city that should be annexed from Florida and apparently doesn’t know how to handle COVID-19? I mean, same, but more importantly, I think of home: of Calle Ocho, pastelitos from Versailles, being immediately greeted in Spanish, and a childhood filled with questionable tankinis and salty hair. Sailing during phys ed was normal (private school normal), ecology class meant boating around Biscayne Bay, and drives home from school were drowned out by the mesmerizing limestone walls swallowing Coconut Grove.

It’s true: You never really know what you have until it’s gone. And while my eyes will probably get stuck from how hard I just rolled them, this sentiment resonates. I felt it when I went off to college in D.C. in 2014 and once again after my move to New York City two years ago. Now, after coming back home six months ago due to the virus, this bumper sticker of a saying felt louder—what was once an aw sort of moment quickly turned into an oh, shit reality. The city that raised me (and left my Spanglish impeccable) would soon be underwater. 

Here to help me take a hard look at the facts is journalist and author of Disposable City: Miami’s Future on the Shores of Climate Catastrophe, Mario Alejandro Ariza. He reminds me that “if the ocean rises three to four feet—which a lot of projections have it going even higher by the end of the century–200,000 people in Southeast Florida will be physically displaced.” Yep, two hundred thousand. And that number is excluding all of the other tragedies that will happen, like our drinking water and sewage plants being compromised and storms becoming a lot stronger, all due to global warming. Read the whole story here.

With the Biden-Harris Ticket, Environmental Justice Is a Focus

The New York Times
12 August 2020

The Climate Equity Act, a bill co-sponsored in the Senate last year by Kamala Harris, would require the government to rate the effects of environmental rules on low-income communities. Jordan Gale for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Just six days before Joseph R. Biden Jr. tapped Kamala Harris to be his running mate in the presidential election, the California senator released sweeping environmental justice legislation. The timing, climate activists said, was important if not prescient.

The Climate Equity Act, an expanded version of a bill Ms. Harris and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, introduced last year, puts the environmental health of low-income communities of color at the center of efforts to reduce planet-warming greenhouse gases.

Environmental leaders said the move sent an important signal: Not only would a Biden-Harris ticket prioritize addressing climate change, but it would focus on ensuring communities already burdened by pollution would benefit from a transition to clean energy.

“It says that environmental justice will be a priority, that focusing on our most vulnerable communities and comprehensive strategies will be a priority,” Mustafa Santiago Ali, who ran the Environmental Protection Agency’s environmental justice office in the Obama administration. Read the whole story here.

Are More Car-Free Streets in N.Y.C.’s Future?

The New York Times
New York Today
11 August 2020

Karsten Moran for The New York Times

New York City has a love-hate relationship with cars. If you’re a restaurant owner desperate for expanded outdoor seating, you might have a hate-hate relationship with cars these days.

At the start of the coronavirus crisis, traffic dried up, prompting the city to close more than 70 miles of roadway to cars and trucks for its Open Streets program. That made extra room for socially distant walking, biking and outdoor dining … for now.

There’s competition brewing for the city’s 6,000 miles of streets, and critics of car culture are pushing officials to redesign the grid to accommodate fewer vehicles and more pedestrians and cyclists...

Other cities are repurposing streets.

London plans to create new walking and biking routes by widening sidewalks and permanently limiting some traffic. Officials in Paris want to add more than 400 miles of bike lanes.

New York City hasn’t presented any plans to permanently redesign the streets, but the fight to reduce traffic is unlikely to go away after the health crisis ends. City officials say they’re waiting to see how traffic fluctuates as more people return to work. Read the whole story here.



Satellite images show oil spill disaster unfolding in Mauritius: "We will never be able to recover"

CBS News
8 August 2020

A satellite image shows the bulk carrier ship MV Wakashio and its oil spill after it ran aground off the southeast coast of Mauritius, August 7, 2020. (Image credit: MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES)

Anxious residents of the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius stuffed fabric sacks with sugar cane leaves Saturday to create makeshift oil spill barriers as tons of fuel leaking from a grounded ship put endangered wildlife in further peril. The government has declared an environmental emergency and France said it was sending help from its nearby Reunion island.

Satellite images showed a dark slick spreading in the turquoise waters near wetlands that the government called "very sensitive."

"When biodiversity is in peril, there is urgency to act," French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted Saturday.

Wildlife workers and volunteers ferried dozens of baby tortoises and rare plants from an island near the spill, Ile aux Aigrettes, to the mainland as fears grew that worsening weather on Sunday could tear the Japanese-owned ship apart along its cracked hull.

A French statement from Reunion on Saturday said a military transport aircraft was carrying pollution control equipment to Mauritius and a navy vessel with additional material would set sail for the island nation.

Residents and environmentalists alike wondered why authorities didn't act more quickly after the ship ran aground July 25 on a reef. Mauritius says the ship, the MV Wakashio, was carrying nearly 4,000 tons of fuel. Read the whole story here.

PPE can be turned into a renewable liquid fuel

Environment Journal
4 August 2020

PPE is designed to be used once and then thrown away, but once these materials are disposed of they then end up in landfills or oceans where they will then take decades to decompose.

Therefore, researchers from the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies have suggested that turning the waste into a renewable fuel could be an effective way to mitigate the problem of dumped PPE.

The study outlines that PPE can be converted into fuel using pyrolysis. This is a chemical process for breaking down the plastic at high temperatures – between 300-400 degrees centigrade an hour – without oxygen.

Lead author of the study, Dr Sapna Jain said: ‘The transformation of PPE into biocrude, a type of synthetic fuel, will not just prevent the severe after-effects to humankind and the environment but also produce a source of energy.

‘Presently, the world is focusing to combat COVID-19, however, we can foresee the issues of economic crisis and ecological imbalance also.

‘We have to prepare ourselves to meet the challenges which are forcefully imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, so as to maintain sustainability.’ Read the whole story here.

Low fish catch along India’s western coast hints at impacts of climate change

Mongabay
3 August 2020

Fish catch from the western coast of India has declined, according to the Marine Fish Landings Report 2019 by the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI). Climate scientists attribute this drop to the increasing pollution, global warming and a decrease in phytoplankton population.

In 2019, Maharashtra, on India’s west coast, witnessed the lowest annual catch in 45 years, reveals an estimate from previous CMFRI reports, with a steep decline in all the fish species being caught.

The total estimated fish landings (fish catch that arrives at the ports) in the state stood at 201,000 (2.01 lakh) tonnes in 2019 against 295,000 (2.95 lakh) tonnes in 2018, marking a 32% decrease, the latest report, released last month, added...

...Global warming has given rise to a host of problems such as a decline in phytoplankton population and migration of fish, which affects the fishing industry, indicate experts. Read the whole story here.


In pictures: Iraqis try to stay cool in 51C heatwave

BBC News
30 July 2020

The temperature in the capital Baghdad reportedly approached 52C on Tuesday, one of the highest the city has ever seen.

The heat is said to have remained above 51C on Wednesday.

Many people stayed indoors, with some in central Baghdad seeking respite under an improvised shower.

But the extreme heat has put even greater pressure on the country's already strained public resources.

Electricity cuts have left many people in Baghdad reliant on generators to keep fans and air conditioners running.

The situation has led to widespread anger, with renewed protests taking place earlier this week.

Youths cooled off in the river Tigris in the city of Mosul (Reuters)

At least two demonstrators died on Monday, with the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights reporting that more than 20 people were killed by security forces. Read the whole story here.

In Tanzania, locals and officials band together to save mangroves

UN Enviornment Programme
22 July 2020

Curioso Photography/Unsplash

For many of the 30,000 people who live in the remote Rufiji Delta of northern Tanzania, life revolves around one thing: mangroves.

These trees and bushes, which thrive in the delta's brackish water, are sources of building materials, firewood and income, providing valuable timber that residents often sell to make ends meet.

But the mangroves, which are also home to many species, like ray fish, hongwe, migratory birds and sea turtles, are sometimes seen as obstacles to be cut down, occupying land that can be used to grow rice and graze livestock. Such over-dependence on mangroves in the Rufiji Delta, home to 50 per cent of Tanzania's mangroves, has led to a depletion of these forests, threatening residents’way of life.

A new project is aiming to reverse that trend and encourage the sustainable management of the delta’s mangroves. The initiative is being led by the Institute of Marine Sciences (IMS) of Tanzania in partnership with the Tanzania Forest Service, Wetlands International, the Kibiti District Council, and the Pakaya Culture and Environment Group. 

It will see officials and local communities work together to develop a plan to manage the mangrove forests, setting rules on where and when trees can be harvested. The models will also test approaches for restoring areas that have already been impacted by development, which will help delta residents enjoy the benefits of mangroves into the future. Their restoration efforts will be complemented by the Guidelines on Mangrove Ecosystem Restoration in the Western Indian Ocean Region, a new publication from the Nairobi Convention and partners that provides a step-by-step guide on how to build successful restoration projects and avoid common replanting pitfalls. Read the whole story here.

COVID-19 Pandemic Shows Telecommuting Can Help Fight Climate Change

Scientific American
22 July 2020

Image Credit: Alistair Berg Getty Images

As COVID-19 forced many workers across the U.S. to move from downtown office towers to spare rooms and kitchen tables, their commutes shrank from an average of almost 30 minutes (often in bumper-to-bumper traffic) to a few steps down the hall. A May survey of 2,500 Americans found that 42 percent were teleworking full-time—one of many dramatic changes wrought by the novel coronavirus. Though experts studying the pandemic’s economic and environmental consequences are clear that there is no silver lining to a disease that has killed more than half a million people and upended the lives of millions of others around the world, some believe the resulting lockdowns may offer lessons to apply to another, slower-moving crisis.

If remote work, for example, remains a permanent fixture for more people in a post-COVID-19 world, it could help put a dent in one of the U.S.’s largest sources of planet-warming emissions. “Transportation is a huge contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, as well as other [regulated air] pollutants, so anything we can do to reduce such emissions is good for all of us,” says Patricia Mokhtarian, an engineer at the Georgia Institute of Technology, who studies travel behavior and telecommuting. Read the whole story here.

Major Investors To Fed: Act On Climate Change Or Face ‘Disastrous’ Economic Consequences

Forbes
21 July 2020

Image credit: Ecomatcher.com

A bipartisan group of 72 “public and private sector leaders,” including 40 investors with nearly $1 trillion in assets, sent a letter to Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell Tuesday calling for the Fed to take action on climate change, noting that the climate crisis “poses a systemic threat to financial markets and the real economy,” with potential for “disastrous impacts the likes of which we haven’t seen before.”

The signatories say Powell has 'a responsibility to act on the climate crisis right now, and guide our transition to a net zero future.'
The letter particularly cites the vulnerability of the financial markets amid the Covid-19 crisis, and notes 'decisions that are being made right now in order to revitalize the economy could have impacts on climate change.'...

...'It has become painfully clear how vulnerable our economic system is to systemic threats. Climate risk presents significant risks to our financial system, with the potential to compound with other crises in ways that could spell catastrophe,” Maryland State Treasurer Nancy Kopp said in a statement about the letter. “These risks are manifesting right now, and we need regulatory action to manage them.'..." Read the whole story here.

Rivian raises $2.5 billion in aggressive plan to beat Tesla and Nikola with the first all-electric pickup

CNBC

10 July 2020

RJ Scaringe, founder and chief executive officer of Rivian Automotive Inc., unveils the R1T electric pickup truck, left, and R1S electric sports utility vehicle (SUV) during a reveal event at AutoMobility LA ahead of the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

As shares of electric truck maker Nikola Motor Co. surged at its IPO last month and cemented 38-year-old founder Trevor Milton as the industry’s newest billionaire, Robert “R.J.” Scaringe was quietly raising $2.5 billion in fresh financing for his electric truck company Rivian. 

The CEO and founder is used to other companies – from startup Nikola, Tesla and its Cybertruck, General Motors and Ford Motor – stealing the limelight with their plans for all-electric pickups. Rivian is expected to be among the first, if not the first, to bring an all-electric pickup to market early- to mid- next year – months, potentially years, ahead of its competitors. Read the whole story here.

Is the environment still a priority for China in the post-pandemic era?

China Dialogue
8 July 2020

Egrets in Xiangshan Forest Park, Jiangxi province (Image: Alamy)

China faces a turbulent economic and geopolitical landscape, with most of the world still battling Covid-19, relations with the US at a new low, and the global economy hard hit.

So is the environment still a priority in its political and economic agenda?

Immediately after the lockdown was partially lifted in March, China’s president, Xi Jinping, visited Anji County in east China’s Zhejiang province and Niubeiliang National Nature Reserve in Shanxi, two important locations where his idea of ecological conservation developed. The visits sent strong signals that the environment still mattered for the leadership. Premier Li Keqiang’s work report for 2020, delivered to the National People’s Congress at its post-lockdown Twin Sessions convention in late May, also highlighted environmental protection. Moreover, Huang Runqiu, the newly appointed minister of ecology and environment, stressed that ecological protection and green development shall remain priorities and acknowledged that work is still needed to achieve China’s 2020 environmental goals.

Beyond visits and statements from top leaders, China has been rolling out a series of policy and legislative items since March with far-reaching implications for its environmental governance system. We take stock of four major developments in this area to demonstrate how they will bear out the leadership’s vision for ecological civilisation in the post-pandemic era. Read the whole story here.

Climate change is fueling U.S. dust storms, with dire health consequences

The Japan Times
3 July 2020

A woman meditates as a vast cloud of Sahara dust blankets the city of San Juan, Puerto Rico, last month. | AFP-JIJI

The first national study on how the weather systems affect U.S. ICUs shows storms were associated with a 4.8 percent increase in local admissions on the day of the event. Respiratory admissions increased by 9.2 percent on the day of the storm and again by 7.5 percent five days later. This second increase could be due to several causes, the authors write, including a slowly worsening respiratory condition, a lack of access to care, or conditions with a longer incubation period such as meningitis or influenza.

“There is a statistically significant increase in ICU admissions on the day of these dust storms,” said Caitlin Rublee, an emergency medical physician and co-author of the study. “We cannot say this is causal, but there is a strong association.”

July and August saw the most dust storms, raising concerns that the systems could compound critical care resource issues resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, Rublee said.

A hypothetical severe dust storm could increase U.S. ICU admissions by nearly half on the first day, challenging providers’ capacities, according to a model in the new study. The prevalence of dust storms in the Southwest has increased dramatically over the past 30 years, and has been linked to changes in ocean temperature. Drought and increased heat, both of which climate change is making worse, can exacerbate conditions for the storms. Read the whole story here.

Most Americans say climate change affects their local community, including 70% living near coast

Pew Research Center
29 June 2020

A road in Flagler Beach, Florida, washed out by ocean waters stirred up by Hurricane Matthew in October 2016. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

More than six-in-ten Americans (63%) say climate change is currently affecting their local community either a great deal or some, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted April 29-May 5, 2020 – similar to the share who said this in surveys from 2019 and 2018.

As is the case on many climate-related issues, perceptions of whether and how much climate change is affecting local communities are closely tied with political party affiliation. More than eight-in-ten Democrats and independents who lean to the Democratic Party (83%) say climate change is affecting their local community at least some, compared with 37% of Republicans and Republican leaners.

But politics is not the only factor related to these perceptions. Americans who live close to a coastline are more likely than those who live farther away to say climate change is affecting their local community. Seven-in-ten Americans who live within 25 miles of a coastline say climate change is affecting their local community at least some, versus 57% of those who live 300 miles or more from a coast. 

Democrats are more likely than Republicans to live within 25 miles of a coastline (37% vs. 25%), but in both party coalitions, those who live closer to a coast are more likely to perceive greater impacts from climate change in their local area. Read the whole story here.

Siberia's record-breaking heat is a loud alarm bell on climate change

New Scientist
22 June 2020

Siberia is far warmer than usual (Modis/NEO/Nasa)

The extreme record-breaking heat that has baked Siberia for several months should serve as an “incredibly loud alarm bell” of the need to adapt to climate change, say researchers.

Thawing permafrost leading to the Norilsk oil spill – one of the worst in Russia’s history – “zombie fires” resurrected from blazes last year and dramatic levels of snowmelt are among the consequences.

The temperatures, while mostly still cold by the standards of someone living in London or New York, have been unprecedented. Read the whole story here.

Rising Seas Threaten an American Institution: The 30-Year Mortgage

The New York Times
19 June 2020

Homes in Nags Head, N.C., as Hurricane Florence approached in September 2018. Steve Helber/Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Up and down the coastline, rising seas and climate change are transforming a fixture of American homeownership that dates back generations: the classic 30-year mortgage.

Home buyers are increasingly using mortgages that make it easier for them to stop making their monthly payments and walk away from the loan if the home floods or becomes unsellable or unlivable. More banks are getting buyers in coastal areas to make bigger down payments — often as much as 40 percent of the purchase price, up from the traditional 20 percent — a sign that lenders have awakened to climate dangers and want to put less of their own money at risk.

And in one of the clearest signs that banks are worried about global warming, they are increasingly getting these mortgages off their own books by selling them to government-backed buyers like Fannie Mae, where taxpayers would be on the hook financially if any of the loans fail.

“Conventional mortgages have survived many financial crises, but they may not survive the climate crisis,” said Jesse Keenan, an associate professor at Tulane University. “This trend also reflects a systematic financial risk for banks and the U.S. taxpayers who ultimately foot the bill.”

The trends foreshadow a broader reckoning. The question that matters, according to researchers, isn’t whether the effects of climate change will start to ripple through the housing market. Rather, it’s how fast those effects will occur and what they will look like. Read the whole story here.

Florida youths’ climate change lawsuit dismissed, will appeal

Electrek
17 June 2020

A circuit judge in Leon County, Florida, dismissed a lawsuit earlier in June that was filed by eight young people against the state of Florida over burning fossil fuels and thus causing climate change.

Florida youth fight back

Judge Kevin Carroll said the young people made a “compelling argument,” but that it was a political problem to solve, so he dismissed the case. The group will take the case to Florida’s First District Court of Appeals.

Andrea Rodgers, senior litigation attorney with Our Children’s Trust, said:

"What we’re asking the court to do is to review the government’s conduct, determine whether it’s constitutional, and then ask the government or order the government to fix it and bring it into constitutional compliance."

Levi Draheim of Brevard County (pictured center, wearing yellow and green) is one of the plaintiffs. He said after the decision:

"We should never have gotten to this point. We should have had climate change taken care of. The youth shouldn’t be having to take action like this to protect their future. We shouldn’t literally be fighting for our lives.

It was pretty upsetting yesterday. I didn’t sleep last night. I had so much going through my head. There shouldn’t be any question as to whether or not we have a right to a stable climate system."

Draheim’s mom is pregnant. He continued:

"Hurricanes are such a scary thing because you don’t know if once you evacuate your house, if you are even going to have a home to come back to. I don’t want my younger sibling to have to go through that."

Read the whole story here.



Climate Change Threatens Bordeaux Wines

Milford-Orange Times
13 June 2020

Vineyard Saint-Emilion, Bordeaux, France (Image credit: Sauternais & Graves)

The wines from the Bordeaux region of France have been sought after since Roman times. The French developed what has become known as the Bordeaux blend, which consists of Cabernet, Merlot, Cabernet Frank, Petite Verdot and Malbec. All these grape varieties are important in the classic Bordeaux blend.

The wines from the left side of the river have a greater degree of Cabernet than Merlot. On the right side of the river Merlot is more prevalent in the blend, so the wines are softer and not as tannic. They are also much cheaper. The white Bordeaux is grown on the right side of the river and that blend is Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Muscadelle.

There are small chateaux that make Bordeaux that have wines stored that go back 30 years. They are still tweaking them and using current grape varietals that have characteristics that would aid older wines.

However, there is a problem in the Bordeaux wine region that for hundreds of years no one anticipated: climate change.

If you are a climate change denier, just talk to the great old Bordeaux wine houses and they will tell that the climate is so different from what it was a few years ago that the great Bordeaux blend may have to be altered. It is becoming too hot for Cabernet. The cool nights are not so cool. The warm days are becoming too warm. Bordeaux’s climate is getting hotter overall. Read the whole story here.


Venice flooded by unusual high tide, 3rd highest for June

Loop Cayman
5 June 2020

A view of flooded St. Mark square in Venice, Italy, Thursday night, June 4, 2020. Venice has been submerged by a near-record high tide that is rare for this time of year. The water level in the lagoon city reached 116 centimeters late Thursday, the third-highest mark for June. That level indicates around a quarter of Venice has been flooded. (AP Photo/Luigi Costantini)

A quarter of Venice has been submerged by a near-record high tide for June, a time of year when such flooding is rare.

The water level in Italy's lagoon city reached 116 centimetres (3 feet, 9.7 inches) late Thursday, the third-highest mark for June. That level indicates that around a quarter of Venice has been flooded.

Venice's sea monitoring agency blamed the unusually high late spring tide on a storm in the Atlantic that brought heavy winds and rain to northern Italy. Another unseasonably high tide is expected on Friday night.

The highest June high tide was registered in 2002 when the watermark hit 121 centimetres, followed by 117 centimetres in June of 2016.

Venice authorities on Friday didn't put out pedestrian bridges, which are usually only used in the peak "acqua alta" season from September to April.

Venice and the rest of Italy are still closed to cruise ships but Italy relaxed travel restrictions for Italians and most Europeans on Wednesday.

Central banks must connect climate change and financial inclusion

Nikkei Asian Review
5 June 2020

A protective wall in Fiji, which cannot hold back the rising sea water, pictured in October 2017: those who have the least often suffer the most. © Picture -alliance/dpa/AP

In August 2019, Kerala in India faced a second straight summer of extended downpours and flooding. As rains inundated the region, a colleague working for a local government shared smartphone footage of rising waters moving fast enough to carry away cattle and deer.

While these images filled the screen, the colleague's words revealed a more worrying result of the rains: climate change was destroying assets and deepening poverty for many of the region's low-income people and small businesses. The unfortunate truth about Kerala and other parts of Asia is that those who have the least often suffer the most from a warmer climate.

This truth may nonetheless contain the seeds of a solution. Many of the same countries hit hard by climate change have also introduced programs to include the poor and small businesses in the financial system.

In fact, just as financial inclusion has lifted countless people out of poverty, climate risks have led central banks and financial regulators to update inclusion strategies and introduce policy tools to ensure climate stresses do not undermine efforts at alleviating poverty -- something worth recognizing today, World Environment Day.

Until last year, knowledge of how far banks were making the connections between climate change and financial inclusion was fragmented. The desire to get a more complete picture of this phenomenon led to a survey of how central banks and regulators were considering climate change in their financial inclusion strategies and policies, as part of a project led by the Alliance for Financial Inclusion, or AFI.

Interviews with central banks and financial regulators from 19 countries revealed connections being made in both broader strategies and narrower policies.

For the broader strategies, the survey showed that 12 of the 19 countries had connected climate change and financial inclusion in financial sector plans. For example, Fiji has adopted a National Financial Inclusion Strategy 2016-2020 that underlines its role in policies that build resilience to climate change. Read the whole story here.

How Small Family Forests Can Help Meet the Climate Challenge

Yale Environment 360
4 June 2020

Photo credit: Getty Images

Tim Leiby had wrapped up a fun but fruitless early-morning turkey hunt and was enjoying an old John Wayne flick when I arrived at Willow Lodge near Blain, Pennsylvania. A few flurries drifted down on this unseasonably cold May morning. After a quick scan of antlers mounted on virtually every wall of the cozy hunting lodge, we headed out for a socially distanced stroll through what Leiby calls “our little piece of heaven.”

This 95-acre woods in south-central Pennsylvania’s ridge-and-valley country is a hunting and hiking refuge co-owned by eight families. As much as he loves it, Leiby knows it could be even better. The forest is still recovering from heavy logging in the 1980s, and it’s full of invasive or unwanted plants — he points out striped maple, princess tree, and barberry — that do little for wildlife and keep desired hardwoods like oak and hickory from regenerating. “Barberry is a terrible invasive around here,” Leiby says. “It’s choking out the ground cover.”

Small family-owned forests like this one make up 38 percent of U.S. forests — together more than 1.5 times the area of Texas, and more than any other ownership type. While most owners want to do right by their land, they rarely have access to the needed expertise or resources. That, however, may be changing. In April, the environmental nonprofits The Nature Conservancy (TNC), American Forest Foundation (AFF), and Vermont Land Trust announced two new programs, powered by a $10-million rocket boost from the tech giant Amazon, to funnel funds from carbon emitters to small landowners like Leiby eager to grow larger, healthier forests. 

Program leaders estimate that if scaled up to 4 million acres of family-owned forest (slightly larger than Connecticut), the initiative could offset 18.5 million tons of carbon emissions by 2031. If the projects meet an ultimate goal of signing up 20 percent of U.S. forest landowners, forests could sequester up to 2 billion tons between 2030 and 2100. That’s not going to save the climate — in 2018 alone, the U.S. emitted 5.4 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide — but it could make a dent, roughly like taking 6 million cars off the road for seven decades. Read the whole story here.

Peatland drainage in Southeast Asia adds to climate change

MIT News
4 June 2020

In this photo, Alison Hoyt stands on top of a log during a research trip in a peat swamp forest in Borneo. Tropical peatlands are permanently flooded forest lands, where the debris of fallen leaves and branches is preserved by the wet environment and continues to accumulate for centuries, rather than continually decomposing as it does in dryland forests (Photo courtesy of Alison Hoyt)

In less than three decades, most of Southeast Asia’s peatlands have been wholly or partially deforested, drained, and dried out. This has released carbon that accumulated over thousands of years from dead plant matter, and has led to rampant wildfires that spew air pollution and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

The startling prevalence of such rapid destruction of the peatlands, and their resulting subsidence, is revealed in a new satellite-based study conducted by researchers at MIT and in Singapore and Oregon.

The research was published today in the journal Nature Geoscience, in a paper by Alison Hoyt PhD ’17, a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry; MIT professor of civil and environmental engineering Charles Harvey; and two others.

Tropical peatlands are permanently flooded forest lands, where the debris of fallen leaves and branches is preserved by the wet environment and continues to accumulate for centuries, rather than continually decomposing as it does in dryland forests. When drained and dried, either to create plantations or to build roads or canals to extract the timber, the peat becomes highly flammable. Even when unburned it rapidly decomposes, releasing its accumulated store of carbon. This loss of stored carbon leads to subsidence, the sinking of the ground surface, in vulnerable coastal areas.

Until now, measuring the progression of this draining and drying process has required arduous treks through dense forests and wet land, and help from local people who know their way through the remote trackless swampland. There, poles are dug into the ground to provide a reference to measure the subsidence of the land over time as the peat desiccates. The process is arduous and time-consuming, and thus limited in the areas it can cover.

Now, Hoyt explains, the team was able to use precise satellite elevation data gathered over a three-year period to get detailed measurements of the degree of subsidence over an area of 2.7 million hectares mostly in Malaysia and Indonesia — more than 10 percent of the total area covered by peatlands in the Southeast Asia region. Over 90 percent of the peatland area they studied was subsiding, at an average of almost an inch a year (over 1 foot every 15 years). This subsidence poses a threat to these ecosystems, as most coastal peatlands are at or just above sea level. Read the whole story here.

UK MPs call for extra £30bn to aid green recovery from Covid-19

The Guardian
27 May 2020

MPs recommend ending the UK’s policy of maximising the economic extraction of oil and gas in the North Sea. Photograph: Robert Perry/EPA

The UK needs to invest an additional £30bn a year in shovel-ready green projects to create jobs, energise the post-lockdown economy and put the country back on track to achieve its climate targets, a new cross-party commission recommends.

In the most detailed blueprint to date for a green recovery from Covid-19, it also advises the government to make an initial down payment of £5bn into a national “just transition fund” that would support the regions likely to be worst affected by the shift away from fossil fuels.

The 96-page dossier was unveiled on Wednesday by the environmental justice commission, which is composed of MPs, business executives, union leaders, climate activists and members of the Institute for Public Policy Research. Read the whole story here.


Why the indoor farming movement is taking off

Mother Nature Network

20 May 2020

No soil. No sun. No problem. (Photo: Yein Jeon/Shutterstock)

As the world emerges from a pandemic that has kept about one in five people in their homes for weeks, it's little surprise that the idea of indoor farming is gaining traction. After all, we've had a lot of time to think about what we can do indoors — and maybe even ponder what we may have done outdoors that contributed to this mess.

You wouldn't think farming, one of humanity's oldest and most crucial endeavors, would be on that list. But as the number of mouths that need to be fed has grown, so too has the need for arable land. To meet that demand, industrial farming, with its reliance on large-scale, intensive production of crops and chemical fertilizers, has dramatically transformed much of the Earth's surface. Along the way, it has erased vital wildlife habitats, addled our atmosphere with greenhouse gases and undermined the health of communities living near those lands.

Indoor farming, on the other hand, isn't as land intensive. In fact, new technologies and advancements in hydroponics are making it possible to grow crops without pesticides, soil or even natural light. And since indoor crops can be stacked vertically, there's no need for vast tracts of land. Imagine farms as downtown office towers, offering floor after floor of fresh produce. Read the whole story here.

Climate change: Planting trees in Pakistan during the lockdown

The Brussels Times
17 May 2020

Labour that was rendered jobless in Pakistan amid COVID-19 pandemic found employment in 'Green Stimulus' Initiative of Prime Minister Imran Khan. In picture, sowing plants while keeping social distance and wearing protective masks.

According to the latest figures from Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resources Center (15 May), Pakistan had 37,218 confirmed cases and 803 deaths. The fatality rate per 100,000 inhabitants is only around 0.36 %. But the lockdown restrictions that have been force since late March and only recently have started to be lifted have led to wide-spread unemployment.

A recent assessment by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics found that, due to the lockdown, up to 19 million people could be laid off, almost 70% of them in the Punjab province.

When construction worker Abdul Rahman lost his job because of the lockdown, his choices looked stark: resort to begging on the streets or let his family go hungry. But the government gave him a better option: Join tens of thousands of other out-of-work laborers in planting billions of trees across the country to deal with climate change threats.

Planting saplings is part of the country’s 10 Billion Tree Tsunami program and was launched in 2018 to counter the rising temperatures, flooding, droughts and other extreme weather in the country that scientists link to climate change. Read the whole story here.


Iceland uses coronavirus stimulus money to fight climate change

Fox News
9 May 2020

A girl holds a sign that reads 'pull the emergency brake' as she attends a ceremony in the area which once was the Okjokull glacier, in Iceland, Sunday, Aug. 18, 2019. With poetry, moments of silence and political speeches about the urgent need to fight climate change, Icelandic officials, activists and others bade goodbye to the first Icelandic glacier to disappear. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Last week, the Icelandic government rolled out several new environmental policies and proposals addressing climate change as part of the country's second COVID-19 economic stimulus package.

The plans included new funding for projects tackling climate change and a bid to ban certain single-use products.

In addition to the award of approximately $3.7 million to these projects, Icelandic Minister for the Environment Guðmundur Ingi Guðbrandsson also introduced a bill to ban “unnecessary waste."

The government's investment will be used to increase carbon sequestration, accelerate switches to sustainable energy sources, and fund further climate research with the aim of meeting the terms of the United Nations' Paris Climate Agreement. Read the wholes story here.



Face masks: How to minimize the waste during COVID-19

CBC What on Earth?
7 May 2020

More and more people are being asked to wear masks in an effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19...The idea is that wearing a mask will protect those around you by blocking some of the droplets from your mouth.

But an unfortunate side effect of widespread mask wearing has been a lot of litter that could be infected with the novel coronavirus...

..."Assuming that front-line workers and ordinary people combined will consume on the order of 100 billion masks, gloves, gowns, swabs, etc. this year, it amounts to a waste pile in the millions of tonnes,"...“This number can only increase.”

So, what is the best way to minimize the waste from masks? Here's a look at the options.

N95 masks

These are tight-fitting masks that block out most particles and are used primarily by health-care workers, especially those doing risky procedures such as inserting breathing tubes in COVID-19 patients. 

They're recyclable, according to manufacturer 3M. But hospitals in some provinces, such as Alberta, are asking workers not to put them in recycling bins anymore. Instead, they're being saved for cleaning and reuse. 

Techniques to clean them have been successfully tested in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and Health Canada has approved a mask-sanitizing technology developed by Beamsville, Ont.-based Clean Works that is being sent to health-care facilities in Nova Scotia and Ontario. The technology was originally developed to sanitize fruits and vegetables.

Medical masks

These disposable, looser-fitting masks are widely used by health-care workers, other essential workers and the public. They're generally made of non-woven polypropylene and are not normally considered recyclable. Municipalities ask that they be put in the garbage.

Public health officials usually don't recommend these or N95 masks for the public, in order to ensure a supply for health-care workers. Instead, they ask that the public wear non-medical masks.

Non-medical masks

These are typically sewn from fabric and are washable and reusable — so definitely, the best low-waste option. To reduce your impact further, you can buy or make one from upcycled materials, such as T-shirts, pillowcases, pyjamas, tote bags, tea towels or scrap fabrics. 

A 2013 study found tea towels had the best filtration efficiency — but stressed that homemade masks should be considered only as a last resort. The same study suggested cotton works better than silk or linen. A more recent study found a layer of tightly woven cotton with two layers of polyester-based chiffon, cotton-polyester flannel or silk worked well.

The environmental group Greenpeace has posted material lists and instructions to make several different kinds of masks from upcycled materials, including a no-sew version. ("Bonus points if you don't buy anything new!" it said.) 

For ties, Greenpeace suggests hair ties, elastics, bias tape, string, twill cord, shoelaces or strips of fabric. You can also use a coffee bag twist tie as a nosepiece to give the mask a better fit, it said. 

Don't want to make your own? Doing a web search for "upcycled mask" turns up lots of options. Read the whole story here.

Billions Could Live in Extreme Heat Zones Within Decades, Study Finds

The New York Times

4 May 2020

A cow skull in Chile in January. By 2070, extreme heat could encompass larger parts of South America and other regions. Martin Bernetti/Agence France-Presse —
Getty Images

As the climate continues to warm over the next half-century, up to one-third of the world’s population is likely to live in areas that are considered unsuitably hot for humans, scientists said Monday.

Currently fewer than 25 million people live in the world’s hottest areas, which are mostly in the Sahara region in Africa with mean annual temperatures above about 84 degrees Fahrenheit, or 29 Celsius. But the researchers said that by 2070 such extreme heat could encompass a much larger part of Africa, as well as parts of India, the Middle East, South America, Southeast Asia and Australia.

With the global population projected to rise to about 10 billion by 2070, that means as many as 3.5 billion people could inhabit those areas. Some of them could migrate to cooler areas, but that would bring economic and societal disruption with it. 

The parts of the world that could become unsuitably hot “are precisely the areas that are growing the fastest,” said Timothy A. Kohler, an archaeologist at Washington State University and an author of the study, which was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Read the whole story here.

Jane Goodall: COVID-19 is a product of our unhealthy relationship with animals and the environment

Mongabay
by Jane Goodall
4 May 2020

Pangolin rescued from the wildlife trade in Cambodia. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

The world is facing unprecedented challenges. At the time of writing, the coronavirus COVID-19 has infected over 3.57 million people globally and as of the 4th of May  250,134 people have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.  At present, people in most countries around the world are self-isolating at home (either alone or with family), keeping social distance and reducing going outdoors to a minimum. Some businesses have totally closed down, some carry on with staff working from home, some people are temporarily laid off, and thousands of people around the world have lost their jobs. Already the economic cost of all this is catastrophic.

We all follow the news and pray that the lockdown will end in country after country as the peak infection and death rate is reached and then gradually drops. This has already happened in China, where the COVID-19 coronavirus originated, thanks to the stringent measures undertaken by the Chinese government. We hope that a vaccine will soon be developed and that we can gradually get back to normal. But we must never forget what we have been through and we must take the necessary steps to prevent another such pandemic in the future.

The tragedy is that a pandemic of this sort has long been predicted by those studying zoonotic diseases (those that, like COVID-19, spill over from animals into humans). It is almost certain that this pandemic started with such a spill over in China’s Wuhan seafood market that also sold terrestrial wildlife for food, along with chickens and fish. Read the whole story here.

In Milan, tall buildings covered in trees offer a glimpse of what urban living could look like in the future

CNBC
1 May 2020

Photo credit: worldgbc.org

The major financial center of Milan boasts a number of tall buildings, many of which function as office space for firms like UniCredit and Allianz. 

While the city may be the corporate hub of Italy, it is also home to the Bosco Verticale, or Vertical Forest, a residential development of two visually striking towers that stand 80 and 112 meters high.

Located in the Porta Nuova area of Milan, the clue to what makes the Bosco Verticale scheme unique is in the name: its exterior is covered in plants and trees..."

"...According to Boeri’s architecture practice, Stefano Boeri Architetti, the buildings’ “green curtain” can generate oxygen, regulate humidity and absorb carbon dioxide and microparticles.

The building has also attracted wildlife. “It is a very complex ecosystem of humans, plants, insects, birds,” Boeri said. “We have more than 20 species of birds that are nesting.”

While authorities in Milan recently announced a target of planting 3 million trees by the year 2030, the idea of greening cities with trees and plants is not new. From New York to London and Paris to Tokyo, parks have long been used to provide city dwellers with fresh air, space to exercise and a place to relax and unwind. Read the whole story here.

The virus and your energy bill

The New York Times
Climate Fwd: 
by Hendry Fountain
29 April 2020

Caitlin Ochs Reuters

Your energy bill is probably climbing. Here's why.

You’re doing your share to beat the virus: staying home if you are not an essential worker, venturing out only to shop or get a little exercise. As a result the lights are on all day, maybe you and your spouse are working by computer, perhaps the kids are attending classes that way, too. You’re cooking a lot more, streaming more movies on the TV.

All of that adds up to more energy use — quite a bit more, as I wrote today, citing researchers at Columbia University who measured electricity consumption in hundreds of New York City apartments. They found that, on weekdays, energy use was up by 7 percent overall, and by nearly 25 percent from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Read the whole story here.

Will Low Oil Prices Help or Hurt the Fight Against Climate Change? That Depends on Us.

TIME
23 April 2020

Lights illuminate a gas station on a dark and empty street in the Brooklyn borough

of New York, on March 26, 2020. Wong Maye-E—AP

There are countless ways the current coronavirus pandemic has reshaped efforts to tackle climate change and will continue to do so for years to come. One of the chief challenges and opportunities for politicians, policymakers and climate activists is the period of low oil prices that has come about as a result of COVID-19.

For the first time in history, oil prices entered negative territory this week with the U.S. benchmark price for oil reaching negative $40 per barrel on April 20 as the global economy slowed, and oil producers ran out of places to store the glut of crude oil being drilled in the U.S. Even a historic agreement to slash production reached by leading oil exporters earlier this month failed to stem the decline.

Oil prices are notoriously hard to predict, but at this point two things seem likely: First, oil prices will continue to trade at historically low prices so long as the world economy moves slowly as a result of the pandemic. Global oil demand in April was down by about a third from the year prior, a gap that’s difficult to fill. Second, in the longer term, oil prices will almost certainly rebound as the economy bounces back. But, when they do, the industry may look very different than it does today. Many small oil producers will have gone bankrupt and the big players will have endured an extended period of reduced cash flow. Read the whole story here.

Coronavirus & The Environment: Clear Skies & Cleaner Air

NBC25 Week

22 April 2020

(NBC News) -- Coronavirus stay-at-home orders and social distancing are having an unintended side effect: cleaner air.

Even in the world's most polluted capital city, New Delhi, monuments are visible against blue skies for the first time in generations.

At one moment last week Los Angeles, the U.S. smog capital and birthplace of car culture, had the cleanest air in the world.

NASA satellite pictures over China and the northeastern United States show dramatic drops in nitrogen dioxide pollution, but what you can see isn't the whole picture.

"It's important for people to understand that just because the particles are gone and the skies are nice and blue, that doesn't mean there aren't gases that are trapping heat and that's what's causing climate change," says NASA research meteorologist Dr. Lesley Ott.

Eliminating pollutants you can see doesn't necessarily mean the more crucial ones you cant see are also going away.

"Some of the pollutant problems that we have, ozone for example, do not seem to be changing and so this is an excellent opportunity to test hypotheses about why that is,” says University of California Riverside ozone researcher Kelley Barsanti.

How will Earth Day celebrate its 50th birthday? Not as planned.

Grist
19 April 2020

Picture the biggest protest you’ve ever seen. Crowds stretch on for miles between downtown skyscrapers on streets normally bustling with cars. From a birds-eye view, the moving bodies form a glittering mosaic. Zoom in, and the mass of chanting people brims with bright signs and unmistakable enthusiasm.

That scene can only happen in our imaginations for now. A march was part the original plan for Earth Day’s 50th anniversary this week, planned in tandem with the March for Science NYC, along with workshops, talks, live concerts, and more. But in the middle of a pandemic, few things are proceeding as planned. And so like everything else these days, the Earth Day happenings are going digital. The events are kicking off on Sunday with a livestream featuring Senator Elizabeth Warren, the actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and the climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, leading up to Earth Day on April 22.

So what would success look like for a movement that’s previously relied on taking to the streets to galvanize people? The answer is pretty much the same for a splashy in-person protest. For lasting political change, it’s what happens afterward that matters — whether people stay involved and committed to the cause.

“The goal of these virtual events is to not let this landmark anniversary pass us by,” said John Opperman, executive director of the Earth Day Initiative, the organization that plans the annual events. Opperman said recent years have brought new energy and new faces to the climate movement, with the rise of the Youth Climate Strikes and the talk of a Green New Deal. The important thing, Opperman says, is that this momentum around climate action doesn’t get eclipsed by coronavirus.

Moving online means different challenges. There’s the potential loss of the excitement of attending a live event, with music blaring and banners streaming. Protests are often judged by the crowds, but there won’t be any. To make matters more complicated, some environmentalists think the day has lost its edge over the decades, saying that it’s been taken over as a marketing opportunity by companies and puts the focus on personal habits like bringing tote bags to grocery stores. Read the whole story here.

"Buy Nothing Groups" create literal "free" market that helps the environment

6 ABC Action News
15 April 2020

Image credit: Shutterstock

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- Broken power tools, used cardboard boxes, and outdated furniture often find a new home in the trash. This piles up to hundreds if not thousands of years idling in a landfill.

In 2013, Liesl Clark and Rebecca Rockefeller thought these items deserved a second chance. They created the Buy Nothing Project group, which has hyperlocal internet communities in 18 countries as of 2015.

The goal is to make Facebook groups as small as possible to connect neighbors in the literal sense. They can freely give and receive goods and services in a "gift economy," one in which no currency is exchanged.

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, we zero in on a Buy Nothing Group consisting of more than 1,700 members, serving Passyunk Square/Italian Market/Pennsport in Philadelphia.

From drawer knobs to spare wood, some locals have furnished their whole houses with gifted goods. Artists prowl the groups in search of broken tiles and paper bags to sustainably create their next masterpiece. Not-so-new mothers hand down their baby products to nearby women with newborns. It is an all-out effort to find a new home for each item in lieu of polluting the Earth with trash.

One must follow the rules and guidelines in order to join one of these private groups based on their location. As the population grows, administrators "sprout" the community, or split them into even more refined hyperlocal groups. Eventually, they will connect neighbors within such proximity that it reduces the need to drive a vehicle, reducing everyone's carbon footprint.

These online communities bring out the best in people, allowing neighbors to help each other in times of need. Earlier this week, one woman requested to have a bottle of milk dropped off. She feared that her husband had COVID-19 symptoms and did not want to put anyone in danger by visiting the supermarket. According to group administrators, around two dozen people offered to help...

...To learn more about this project, or to find a Buy Nothing Group in your area, visit their website. Read the whole story here.


A pandemic is no excuse for rolling back environmental protections

Chicago Sun Times
12 April 2020

Photo credit EPA.gov

Special interests are setting the stage for another public health crisis once COVID-19 has passed. Let’s stop them while we can.

As the nation focuses on the coronavirus pandemic, polluters and their allies are quietly working overtime to ease the rules against fouling the environment. They want to allow cars to spew more contaminants. They want to give a new pass to factories that pollute our water and air.

Widespread and enduring health problems would be sure to follow. People would get sick and die, though nobody would call it a pandemic. It would just be a return to a day that our nation fought hard, standing up to corporate despoilers of the environment, to move beyond.

Many industries genuinely deserve help to get through the pandemic. But others have been exploiting it to take advantage of the Trump administration’s consistent willingness to weaken environmental protections. The administration itself is trying to take advantage as well.

“We have a pandemic that is a respiratory virus, and we are going to risk having more pollution get into the air that people are breathing,” said John Rumpler, clean water program director of Environment America. “That seems insane.” Read the whole story here.


'It's positively alpine!': Disbelief in big cities as air pollution falls

The Guardian
11 April 2020

New Delihi’s India Gate war memorial on 17 October 2019 and on 8 April 2020. Photograph: Anushree Fadnavis/Adnan Abidi/Reuters

The screenshots began to circulate on Delhi WhatsApp groups last week, captioned with varying expressions of disbelief. Having checked the air quality index, something of a sadistic morning ritual among residents of India’s capital, most could not believe their eyes.

Gone was the familiar menacing red banner, indicating how each intake of breath is really just a toxic blast on the lungs, replaced instead by a healthy, cheerful green. Could it really be that Delhi’s pollution levels now fell into the category of … “good”? “It’s positively alpine!” exclaimed one message.

A nationwide lockdown imposed across India on 24 March to stop the spread of the coronavirus – the largest lockdown of its kind attempted anywhere – has led to widespread chaos and suffering, especially among the country’s 300 million poor. Yet in Delhi, the world’s most polluted city, it has also resulted in some of the freshest air the capital has seen in decades. Read the whole story here.

Air pollution linked to far higher Covid-19 death rates, study finds

The Guardian
7 April 2020

Pollution over Milan in northern Italy, which has had higher coronavirus death rates than the rest of the country. Photograph: Claudio Furlan/LaPresse/Zuma Press/Rex/Shutterstock

Air pollution is linked to significantly higher rates of death in people with Covid-19, according to analysis.

The work shows that even a tiny, single-unit increase in particle pollution levels in the years before the pandemic is associated with a 15% increase in the death rate. The research, done in the US, calculates that slightly cleaner air in Manhattan in the past could have saved hundreds of lives.

Given the large differences in toxic air levels across countries, the research suggests people in polluted areas are far more likely to die from the coronavirus than those living in cleaner areas. The scientists said dirty air was already known to increase the risk of acute respiratory distress syndrome, which is extremely deadly and a cause of Covid-19-related deaths, as well as other respiratory and heart problems.

A separate report from scientists in Italy notes that the high death rates seen in the north of the country correlate with the highest levels of air pollution.

The scientists said their findings could be used to ensure that areas with high levels of air pollution take extra precautions to slow the spread of the virus and deploy extra resources to deal with the outbreak. Air pollution has already fallen because of widespread lockdowns, but the scientists said ensuring cleaner air in the future would help reduce Covid-19 deaths. Read the whole story here.


Making the most of the quiet

The New York Times
Climate Fwd:
1 April 2020

Illustration by The New York Times

As cities worldwide shut down in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the streets have gotten quieter. And many readers have likely noticed that it’s become easier to hear birds chirping in their neighborhoods — a rare bright spot in an otherwise grim time.

At a moment when everyone’s in lockdown, bird watchers say it’s a good opportunity to pay closer attention to the rich avian wildlife in our cities. For one thing, the lull in traffic makes it easier to detect birds that often get drowned out. Also, it’s spring, when birds start filling the air with songs for mating season and many migratory species head north, making stops in North American and European cities... 

...The best times to watch are early morning, when migratory birds land to stock up on food after traveling all night, as well as in the afternoon, when birds of prey hitch a ride on updrafts of warm air rising from the city.

“You can see a lot just looking out your window,” Mr. Lindo [David Lindo, British birding expert] says. “You might start to notice, over there is where the white-throated sparrow hangs out, and over there is where the blue jay hangs out. Every day is different. It can be a calming activity during a stressful time.” Read the whole story here.



Endangered sea turtles hatch on Brazil's deserted beaches

The Guardian

29 March 2020

Hawksbill turtles lay their eggs in the sands along Brazil’s north-east coast. Photograph: Paulista City Hall

Nearly 100 critically endangered sea turtles have hatched on a deserted beach in Brazil, their first steps going almost unnoticed because of coronavirus restrictions that prohibit people from gathering on the region’s sands.

The 97 hawksbill sea turtles, or tartarugas-de-pente as they are known in Brazil, hatched last Sunday in Paulista, a town in the north-eastern state of Pernambuco.

Photographs taken by government workers, the only people to witness the event, showed the tiny creatures making their way down the beach and into the Atlantic waves.

Locals have been forbidden from gathering on Pernambuco’s spectacular shoreline since last weekend, when the state governor, Paulo Câmara, ordered a partial shutdown and urged residents to stay indoors to slow the spread of coronavirus. Read the whole story here.



'Tip of the iceberg': is our destruction of nature responsible for Covid-19?

The Guardian
18 March 2020

A dead monkey sold as bushmeat hangs outside a villager’s house in north-east Gabon. Photograph: Christine Nesbitt/AP

Mayibout 2 is not a healthy place. The 150 or so people who live in the village, which sits on the south bank of the Ivindo River, deep in the great Minkebe Forest in northern Gabon, are used to occasional bouts of diseases such as malaria, dengue, yellow fever and sleeping sickness. Mostly they shrug them off.

But in January 1996, Ebola, a deadly virus then barely known to humans, unexpectedly spilled out of the forest in a wave of small epidemics. The disease killed 21 of 37 villagers who were reported to have been infected, including a number who had carried, skinned, chopped or eaten a chimpanzee from the nearby forest..."

"...Kate Jones, chair of ecology and biodiversity at UCL, calls emerging animal-borne infectious diseases an 'increasing and very significant threat to global health, security and economies'.

In 2008, Jones and a team of researchers identified 335 diseases that emerged between 1960 and 2004, at least 60% of which came from animals.

Increasingly, says Jones, these zoonotic diseases are linked to environmental change and human behaviour. The disruption of pristine forests driven by logging, mining, road building through remote places, rapid urbanisation and population growth is bringing people into closer contact with animal species they may never have been near before, she says.

The resulting transmission of disease from wildlife to humans, she says, is now 'a hidden cost of human economic development. There are just so many more of us, in every environment. We are going into largely undisturbed places and being exposed more and more. We are creating habitats where viruses are transmitted more easily, and then we are surprised that we have new ones.'..." Read the whole story here.

5 Women Environmental Leaders You Should Know

EcoWatch
6 March 2020

Photo courtesy of Quora

Women have long been at the forefront of the effort to protect the earth and its creatures. Some of them, like Greta Thunberg and Jane Goodall, are household names.

Others, like around 55 percent of the people who hit the streets for 2014's People's Climate March, are anonymous (s)heroes. In between these extremes are many women who have made a significant individual difference as scientists, inventors or activists and who deserve more recognition for their inspiring efforts.

Here are five women using their unique talents to protect the planet that we at EcoWatch think you should know about.

1. Miranda Wang, Inventor and Entreprenteur, Canada and U.S.

2. Dr. Paula Kahumbu, Conservationist, Kenya

3. Artemisa Xakriabá, Indigenous Activist, Brazil

4. Dr. Maria Caffrey, Scientist and Whistleblower, U.S.

5. Nirupabai, Activist, India

Read the whole story here.

What Rising Seas Mean for San Francisco

The New York Times
by Jill Cowan
19 February 2020

The house of Cathy Abel, before the second floor house, at Pacifica that is protected by seawall. Credit: Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

Recently, my colleagues Somini Sengupta and Chang W. Lee traveled to two very different cities, Manila and San Francisco, with one big thing in common: They’ve been forced to adapt to rising seas. They explored how in this expansive, beautiful and unsettling project.

We asked Somini to write about how the piece came together. Here’s her dispatch:

We’ve all read dire projections of how rising global temperatures are raising sea levels.

I wanted to better understand what that means for people in coastal cities right now. Not in the distant future, but right now. I chose sprawling, fast-growing Metropolitan Manila and the San Francisco Bay Area.

I grew up in California, though very far from the ocean, in the flat, inland suburb of Covina. Like many Californians, I thought living by the ocean would be dreamy, and until recently I had not really given much thought to the risks we have inherited by building right up to the water’s edge. Houses, highways, sewer mains: They’re now at risk. Saving them means building costly walls and barriers — or moving people and property out of harm’s way. Those are hard choices.

Reporting this story sharpened three lessons for me. First, the hazards of the present are shaped by decisions of the past. According to the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, more than 20,000 households and 13 miles of highway are at risk of permanent inundation with two feet of sea level rise. Read the whole story here.



Austalia's bushfires show drastic effects of climate change

CBS News
16 February 2020

Two bushfires approach a home located on the outskirts of the town of Bargo on December 21, 2019 in Sydney, Australia.  DAVID GRAY / GETTY IMAGES

It's summer in Australia and it's been a season from hell. Raging fires have devastated the continent, scorching a reported 27 million acres and killing 33 people. Bushfires are a part of life in Australia and they're often deadly. But the scale of these fires is unprecedented. Areas across multiple states have ignited. Australian cities have suffocated in smoke, on some days giving residents the worst air quality in the world. And according to one estimate, a billion animals have been killed. Scientists say climate change is transforming Australia's environment, making it hotter and drier, and exposing it to longer, more intense fire seasons. The fires started unusually early in September and when we visited the continent this month, we found that Australia is still burning. Read the whole story here.

Antarctica just registered its hottest temperature ever

CNN

7 February 2020

Melting ice in Antarctica
(Photo credit: National Geographic)

The hottest temperature ever recorded in Antartica was measured on Thursday at a remote station on the continent's Northern tip, scientists said.

The temperature was nearly 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18.3 Celsius) at Argentina's Esperanza research station, scientists from the country's meteorological agency said.
That surpassed the previous record of 63.5 degrees Fahrenheit (17.5 Celsius) set on March 24, 2015 at the same location. Temperature records from Esperanza date back to 1961.

This means that the temperature at Esperanza was practically identical to what was felt Thursday afternoon in San Diego, California.To be fair, it is summer in the Southern Hemisphere. But it's not typical that the temperatures in Antarctica -- one of the coldest places on Earth -- are nearly the same as those in Southern California. Read the whole story here.



‘Wave Season’ 2020 Brings More Questions From Cruisers on Environment

Skift
29 January 2020

MS Roald Amundsen in Antarctica (Photo credit: Dan Avila)

For many travel advisors, January through March is not just winter, it’s wave season. It’s a frenetic time when cruise lines roll out tempting early-booking incentives — everything from fare discounts to free Wi-Fi and spa treatments — in order to fill staterooms for the upcoming year.
While wave season is no less busy for travel agencies this year, in some ways it’s not business as usual. Travel advisors are reporting that more cruisers, whether experienced or first-timers, are looking at remote, less-visited destinations. They also want more immersive experiences in port. Some are also asking more questions about cruise lines’ records on sustainability and making choices based on what they find. Read the whole story here.

Tribune Editorial: Time is a wasting on climate change, Utah

The Salt Lake Tribune
19 January 2020
By The Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Board

(Al Hartmann | The Salt Lake Tribune) In this Sept. 8, 2015 photo, a natural gas rig pumps away in the foreground of the coal-fired Huntington Power Plant west of Huntington, Utah.

It’s been 10 years — and about a half degree Fahrenheit — since the Utah Legislature passed HJR12, “Climate Change Joint Resolution.”

The resolution, a reaction to the Obama administration’s call to regulate carbon, carried no power of law, but it was intended as a clear signal of where Utah stood.

It also was complete bunk.

Industry lobbyists delivered the smoke and mirrors, and Republican legislators — many of whom are still in office — bought it eagerly and unquestioningly. The vote was along party lines. Gary Herbert — in his first legislative session as governor — signed it.

Call it the lost decade. Everything mocked by HJR12 has been substantiated in the intervening years. The deniers have gone quieter, but there has been no state government effort to address carbon production. In fact, efforts more often have gone the other way, like looking for ways to extend our footprint by exporting coal or building railways to oil country.

And now it’s not even about being able to stop climate change. That window has closed. It’s about limiting the devastation, devastation that is already visible across the planet on a daily basis.

Now comes the University of Utah’s Gardner Institute with its climate-change-dominated “road map” for legislators. Ready or not, Utah’s leaders are being told in no uncertain terms that climate change is real and human fossil fuel consumption is mainly responsible.

The road map sets the goal of cutting Utah’s carbon footprint by a quarter in five years, half in 10 years and 80 percent in 30 years.

Aggressive, but even those are political numbers. In reality, if in 30 years the entire planet is still burning even 20 percent of the carbon it is now, we’ll be living in a Mad Max world of firestorms, mass migrations and species die-offs.

What’s the real target? California law is already at 100 percent reduction (no energy from fossil fuels) by 2045, and now it’s looking at moving that to 2030.

And Gardner makes it clear: Because of our coal-fired power plants and urban sprawl, we’re among the fatter footprints in a country that is the carbon-per-capita leader among major nations. We’re 0.04% of the world’s population, but we’re 0.2% of its carbon production.

That means Utahns — more than most people on earth — are causing the oceans to rise and the forests to burn.

We also are — more than most — in a better position to change. We have abundant wind, sun and geothermal assets, and we have enough resilience in the economy to get there without financial collapse. Read the whole story here.

Big fashion companies finally join consumers to stop the massive clothing waste problem

Mother Nature Network
20 January 2020

Secondhand fashion means clothes can be bought and sold quickly and easily, allowing for wardrobe turnover for those who want to change up their look without resorting to fast fashion. (Photo: Cookie Studio/Shutterstock)

You were probably outraged when you heard that Burberry burned $37.8 million worth of unsold clothing and accessories in 2018. Amazon and other companies have been accused of the same kind of waste — it's common among online clothes sellers in particular who often destroy returned items. (Why? "The brands do not want to deal with those returns. So they'd rather just dump them," Laura Lynch told the CBC.)

If it's not the waste that gets to you, maybe it's the huge carbon footprint of the fashion industry (more than flights and maritime shipping combined) — or the fact that almost none of us need any more clothes. We have so many items we don't know what to do with them all, and an entire movement to deal with crowded closets has arisen. (Perhaps you've heard of Marie Kondo?)

The perfect storm of fashion waste and negative impact has led consumers to heed the oft-said ethical fashion expert's line about secondhand clothing being the most sustainable: The used apparel market is growing in leaps and bounds, and it's expected to comprise fully one-third of the market by 2030.

It started with young people: "Millennials and Gen Z [are] adopting secondhand 2.5x faster than other age groups," according to this ThredUp report. But it's extended to all age groups, with sites like Poshmark, The RealReal, eBay, Vinted, Tradesy and ThredUp making it easy to buy and sell everything from vintage to designer pieces. Importantly, being able to buy and sell secondhand online means that young people who want to have "new" clothing and outfits regularly are able to indulge that idea — without participating in throwaway fast fashion. Interestingly, there's as much interest in resale at the bargain level as there is at the mid-priced (think J.Crew and Gap) and luxury levels. Read the whole story here.

Trump Admits Climate Change Is ‘Not a Hoax’ After Proposing Rollback of Environmental Law

Daily Beast
9 January 2020

President Donald Trump (Photo credit deadline.com)

President Trump said during a White House briefing on Thursday that he is a “big believer” in climate change and that it is “not a hoax” soon after his administration announced a plan to overhaul an environmental policy act. When asked by a White House pool reporter if he believes climate change is a hoax, the president said, “No, no. Not at all. Nothing’s a hoax. Nothing’s a hoax about that. It’s a very serious subject. I want clean air. I want clean water.” He then claimed, “The environment is very important to me. Somebody wrote a book that I’m an environmentalist called The Environmentalist… I’ll bring it to my next news conference, perhaps. I’m sure you’ll report all about it.” His comments come on the same day that the White House announced a major overhaul to the 50-year-old National Environmental Policy Act, which received backlash from environmentalists. The administration’s plan would effectively roll back regulations that require federal agencies to consider climate change when approving infrastructure projects, such as highways or oil and gas pipelines. Read the whole story here.


Australia Will Lose to Climate Change

The Atlantic
4 January 2020

Bushfires approach homes near Sydney, Australia. DAVID GRAY / GETTY

Australia is caught in a climate spiral. For the past few decades, the arid and affluent country of 25 million has padded out its economy—otherwise dominated by sandy beaches and a bustling service sector—by selling coal to the world. As the East Asian economies have grown, Australia has been all too happy to keep their lights on. Exporting food, fiber, and minerals to Asia has helped Australia achieve three decades of nearly relentless growth: Oz has not had a technical recession, defined as two successive quarters of economic contraction, since July 1991.

But now Australia is buckling under the conditions that its fossil fuels have helped bring about. Perhaps the two biggest kinds of climate calamity happening today have begun to afflict the continent.

The first kind of disaster is, of course, the wildfire crisis. In the past three months, bushfires in Australia’s southeast have burned millions of acres, poisoned the air in Sydney and Melbourne, and forced 4,000 tourists and residents in a small beach town, Mallacoota, to congregate on the beach and get evacuated by the navy. A salvo of fires seems to have caught the world’s attention in recent years. But the current Australian season has outdone them all: Over the past six months, Australian fires have burned more than twice the area than was consumed, combined, by California’s 2018 fires and the Amazon’s 2019 fires.

The second is the irreversible scouring of the Earth’s most distinctive ecosystems. In Australia, this phenomenon has come for the country’s natural wonder, the Great Barrier Reef. From 2016 to 2018, half of all coral in the reef died, killed by oceanic heat waves that bleached and then essentially starved the symbiotic animals. Because tropical coral reefs take about a decade to recover from such a die-off, and because the relentless pace of climate change means that more heat waves are virtually guaranteed in the 2020s, the reef’s only hope of long-term survival is for humans to virtually halt global warming in the next several decades and then begin to reverse it. Read the whole story here.

Colombia to host 2020 World Environment Day on biodiversity

UN Environment
11 December 2019

Image Credit: Pacific Standard/Getty Images

On the eve of a critical year for environmental decision-making, Colombia, Germany and UN Environment Programme (UNEP) today announced that Colombia will host World Environment Day 2020 in partnership with Germany and that it will focus on biodiversity.

World Environment Day takes place every year on 5 June. It is the United Nations’ flagship day for promoting worldwide awareness and action for the environment. Over the years, it has grown to be the largest global platform for environmental public outreach and is celebrated by millions of people in more than 100 countries.

Making the announcement on the margins of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP25) in Madrid, Spain, Ricardo Lozano, Colombia’s Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Jochen Flasbarth, Germany’s State Secretary for Environment, and Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme, stressed that with one million plant and animal species facing extinction, there has never been a more important time to focus on the issue of biodiversity. Read the whole story here.



Hawaii’s Most Populated Island Passes Sweeping Single-Use Plastic Ban

Huff Post
8 December 2019

Image Credit: Hawaiilife.com

Lawmakers in Hawaii’s largest city just passed what could be one of the strictest bans on single-use plastics in the country.

The Honolulu City Council this week voted 7-2 to pass Bill 40, which bans businesses and restaurants in Honolulu County from serving food and beverages with plastic straws and utensils and containers made of polystyrene foam. The legislation will take effect in phases, with polystyrene foam being banned first in 2021 and disposable plastic being banned in 2022.

The measure will cover Honolulu County, which the council oversees and includes the entirety of Oahu, Hawaii’s most populated island.

Lawmakers on the Big Island and Maui County, which includes the islands of Maui and Molokai, have previously banned foam containers but those measures do not cover plastic utensils. Honolulu County followed suit in 2015 and banned plastic bags in grocery stores, making Hawaii the only state at the time to completely ban most plastic bags. Read the whole story and watch the video here.


Seven Caribbean countries will ban the use of plastics in the year 2020

Yucatan Times
4 December 2019

Starting January 1st, 2020, single-use plastics and polystyrene will be banned in seven Caribbean countries, with the main objective of preventing ocean pollution which directly affects different marine species.

Unfortunately, the Caribbean has been highlighted as one of the most polluted regions in the world, so this measure is intended to prevent the degradation of their marine habitat that would cause a health and food security  risk for some 40 million people living in coastal areas.

Which Countries Will Ban The Use Of Plastic?

Jamaica, Belize, Barbados, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago and the Bahamas are the countries that will ban the import and use of single-use plastics and polystyrene starting on January 1st, 2020.

Importance

An average of 5 billion plastic bags made from petroleum products are consumed each year, most of these items could take hundreds of years to degrade.

Facts

Of the world’s thirty largest per capita polluters of this type of plastic, ten are of the Caribbean region. Read the whole story here.

People of Venice protest over floods and cruise ships

The Guardian
25 November 2019

Boots worn by a protester from Venice’s ‘No Big Ships’ committee. Photograph: Miguel Medina/AFP via Getty Images

Thousands of Venetians have taken to the streets to protest over frequent flooding and the impact of giant cruise ships.

In heavy rain between 2,000 and 3,000 people answered the call of environmental groups and a collective opposed to the ships. Critics say the waves cruise ships create are eroding Venice’s foundations.

Chanting “Venice resist” and calling for the resignation of the mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, the marchers also appealed for a massive project, Mose, to be mothballed.

The multi-billion euro infrastructure project has been under way since 2003 to protect the city from flooding but has been plagued by cost overruns, corruption scandals and delays.

The protest follows unprecedented flooding that devastated the city, submerging homes, businesses and cultural treasures. “Venetians have just endured a deep wound. The flooding … brought this city to its knees and revealed its extreme fragility to the world,” said activist Enrico Palazzi. Read the whole story here.



China says stopping climate change needs everybody to get involved

Bloomberg News
21 November 2019

Shanxi, China. Photographer: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

Facing down the challenges of climate change requires multilateral cooperation and global carbon emission reduction goals, according to China’s special representative for climate change affairs.

China has always sought a “multilateral system” on climate change negotiations, and is willing to work with the U.S. to help reign in global warming, Xie Zhenhua, told a session of the New Economy Forum in Beijing on Thursday.

The comments contrast with the decision by U.S. President Donald Trump to pull the world’s biggest economy out of the main multinational attempt to stave off global warming, the Paris climate accords.

Xie, who’s also president of the Institute of Climate Change & Sustainable Development at Tsinghua University, said China has an advantage when pursuing climate goals, as it’s central control of the economy provides levers to implement cleaner policies. Read the whole story here.

A Roadmap for Combatting Climate Change

Conservation Law Foundation
29 October 2019

Image credit: pnglot.com

This post was co-written by Alyssa Rayman-Read, Vice President and Director of CLF Massachusetts, and Joan Meschino, state representative for the Third Plymouth District and lead sponsor of the 2050 Roadmap Bill. It originally appeared in Commonwealth.

Living on the Massachusetts coastline means we both get a front-row seat to some of the most dramatic impacts of climate change. We can see what rising seas and pounding storms are doing to our beaches, businesses, and storied seaside communities. However, the effects of the climate crisis will not only be felt on the coast. Whether you live in Worcester, the Pioneer Valley, or on Cape Cod, none of us is immune to the public health, economic, and environmental impacts. The science is clear: Climate change threatens everything we know and depend on. And we have a responsibility to act now.

Massachusetts has been a leader in the fight against climate change. Yet, several alarming reports by top climate scientists have made it clear that this fight is just beginning. If we are serious about safeguarding the character and nature of our communities, we must take action now. We need a bold commitment to addressing the climate crisis that includes concrete steps for reaching net-zero carbon emissions while promoting a just transition to a clean energy economy.

That is why 59 legislators in the Massachusetts House and Senate, on both sides of the aisle, have signed onto the 2050 Roadmap Bill (H.3983). Developed with input from a diverse group of stakeholders, including labor and business leaders, local officials, environmentalists, and our utilities, the 2050 Roadmap Bill is a bold response to the crisis currently at our doorstep. The bill gives us a plan for steadily reducing our carbon pollution, while ensuring that the opportunities and benefits of a cleaner, healthier, more just economy are enjoyed by everyone in Massachusetts.

Achieving carbon neutrality and a just transition by 2050 seems a daunting challenge. Still, it is one that we are confident that we can accomplish by updating and strengthening our existing legislative framework for climate action — the landmark Global Warming Solutions Act of 2008. Since it was implemented a decade ago, the GWSA has helped to drive our emissions down and our economy up, with the addition of more than 100,000 clean energy jobs in Massachusetts and over $13 billion annually to our economy.

The 2050 Roadmap Bill will ensure that these nation-leading successes continue as we work to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. How will this happen? By combining the best-available science with a healthy measure of common sense. Like any business or family building for the future, the Commonwealth’s long-term climate goals will be best achieved by making a plan and then sticking to it. As its name signals, this wisdom lies at the heart of the 2050 Roadmap Bill.

After re-calibrating our Global Warming Solutions Act goal to net-zero, the 2050 Roadmap Bill directs our state agencies to accelerate, broaden, and integrate their efforts to combat climate change, so that the Commonwealth will have a new, comprehensive strategy in place in record time. Shortly thereafter, the 2050 Roadmap Bill requires that the Commonwealth create new programs and regulations – whatever is needed to implement the plan. And not just once. The bill requires that we keep at it, updating our research, planning, and framework for action every three years so we can learn from our experience and continue to take advantage of new technologies, markets, and opportunities.

As we accelerate these efforts, however, we need to ensure that we are moving forward together, building a new, clean energy economy that benefits us all. That is why the 2050 Roadmap Bill will, for the first time, place people-centered protections at the heart of our climate efforts. By requiring that the new plan and policies be designed to assess and minimize whenever possible any adverse economic, environmental, or public health impacts, this new legislation will ensure that low- and moderate-income people and those living in environmental justice neighborhoods thrive as we decarbonize.

We do not need another study to tell us that the impacts of climate change are here. Storms are growing more intense each year, and we continue to break heat records every summer. We must reach net-zero emissions in the coming decades to ensure these conditions do not get worse, and the 2050 Roadmap Bill provides the plan to get us there. Read the whole story here.

Ocean Cleanup mission takes aim at rivers

Mother Nature Network

28 October 2019

The group behind the mission to rid our oceans of plastic has opened a second front in the war by pulling plastic from the world's most polluted waterways before it gets to the ocean.

The Ocean Cleanup team unveiled a group of Interceptors, which are currently in operation on two rivers in Malaysia and Indonesia. By their estimate, roughly 80% of the world's plastic reaches the ocean through 1,000 rivers. The goal is to clean up those rivers by 2025, pulling in roughly 50,000 kilograms of plastic a day with each river Interceptor.

"To truly rid the oceans of plastic, we need to both clean up the legacy and close the tap, preventing more plastic from reaching the oceans in the first place," said founder Boyan Slat.

The river element was unveiled less than a month after the team successfully collected plastic in the ocean after a rocky few months. Read the whole story here.


Johnson’s Brexit Deal Could Water Down Environmental Standards

Forbes
22 October 2019

Anti-Brexit protesters take part in 'Together for the Final Say' rally on October 19th, 2019, in London, UK. NURPHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES

The British Parliament is today fiercely debating whether to approve a new Brexit deal negotiated by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and its approval will depend on getting enough support from opposition Labour Party MEPs.

But as they learn more about what this version of Brexit would have in store for British environmental protection, they less the Labour MEPs like it.

Like in the United States, environmental law in the EU is an area mostly legislated at ‘federal’ level – that is, in Brussels. That’s because standards need to be consistent across the EU’s single market.

If the U.K. secedes from the European Union, it will be free to make its own environmental law. Given that Johnson’s governing Conservative Party has cited EU environmental regulations as the kind of “red tape” they want to do away with, there are concerns that environment and climate law is about to be uprooted to make the U.K. a more attractive place for industry. Read the whole story here.



Budget 2020: Styrofoam is out, water coolers are in

Loop TT
7 October 2019

(TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO) Government will ban the use of Styrofoam food containers within the local business industry from January 1, 2020.

The measure was announced by Finance Minister Colm Imbert in the national 2020 budget presentation in Parliament on October 7, 2019.

The measure had been previously stated by the Planning Ministry in 2018, who was arranging the final stages of legislation for launch this year. 

Imbert said the ban means local Styrofoam manufacturers will be required to include additives to make their products biodegradable.

"In our pursuit to attain our stated goal of placing the environment at the centre of national development, I propose to eliminate the use of Styrofoam and single-use plastics within the national economy.

"As an initial step, I propose to ban the importation of Styrofoam for use in the food service industry and to require manufacturers of food containers to introduce additives to make their products biodegradable."

Additionally, Imbert said government offices will switch out their plastic water bottles for water coolers, to reduce plastic usage. 

"In order to encourage behavioural change, I propose to terminate the use of plastic water bottles in Government offices and substitute them with coolers with filters. This measure will take effect on January 1, 2020," he said. 

Government has a mandate to ensure 10 percent of its energy output comes from renewable sources by 2021, as part of its Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs). Read the whole story here.

Ocean cleanup device successfully collects plastic for first time

The Guardian
3 October 2019

The boom skims up waste ranging in size from a discarded net and a car wheel to tiny chips of plastic. Photograph: AP

A huge floating device designed by Dutch scientists to clean up an island of rubbish in the Pacific Ocean that is three times the size of France has successfully picked up plastic from the high seas for the first time.

Boyan Slat, the creator of the Ocean Cleanup project, tweeted that the 600 metre-long (2,000ft) free-floating boom had captured and retained debris from what is known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Alongside a picture of the collected rubbish, which includes a car wheel, Slat wrote: “Our ocean cleanup system is now finally catching plastic, from one-ton ghost nets to tiny microplastics! Also, anyone missing a wheel?”...

...During a previous four-month trial the boom broke apart and no plastic was collected. Since then, changes have been made to the design including the addition of a “parachute anchor” to slow down the device’s movement in the ocean, allowing for faster-moving plastic debris to float into the system.

The latest trial began in June when the system was launched into the sea from Vancouver. The project was started in 2013 and its design has undergone several major revisions. It is hoped the final design will be able to clean up half of the debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Read the whole story here.

A Fifth of Food-Output Growth Has Been Lost to Climate Change