Articles include: Major parties’ climate programs are miles apart; With seas rising, stalled research budgets must also rise; Cities’ notable efforts on climate change; Citrus farming and geothermal energy; Sea-level rise could submerge fiber optic cables, a key component of internet infrastructure; Air pollution from fossil fuels caused 8.7 million premature deaths in 2018, study finds [No study link]; Four electric cargo cycles deliver packages in Miami.
Tag: climate change policies
‘This is it. If we don’t amp up, we’re goners’: the last chance to confront the climate crisis?
The Guardian: ‘This is it. If we don’t amp up, we’re goners’: the last chance to confront the climate crisis? When it comes to addressing the climate emergency, there have been hopeful moments before that ultimately led to nothing. Now, hope rises again.
The Earth’s climate has always been a work in progress. In the 4.5bn years the planet has been spinning around the sun, ice ages have come and gone, interrupted by epochs of intense heat. The highest mountain range in Texas was once an underwater reef. Camels wandered in evergreen forests in the Arctic. Then a few million years later, 400 feet of ice formed over what is now New York City. But amid this geologic mayhem, humans have gotten lucky. For the past 10,000 years, virtually the entire stretch of human civilization, people have lived in what scientists call “a Goldilocks climate” – not too hot, not too cold, just right.
Now, our luck is running out. The industrialized nations of the world are dumping 34bn tons or so of carbon into the atmosphere every year, which is roughly 10 times faster than Mother Nature ever did on her own, even during past mass extinction events. As a result, global temperatures have risen 1.2C since we began burning coal, and the past seven years have been the warmest seven years on record. The Earth’s temperature is rising faster today than at any time since the end of the last ice age, 11,300 years ago. We are pushing ourselves out of a Goldilocks climate and into something entirely different.
Republicans, along with stalwart fossil-fuel allies like the Heritage Foundation, recently convened a private retreat in Utah to plot ways to “reclaim the narrative” on climate, while Republican senators like Tennessee’s Marsha Blackburn continue to recycle tired old rants about how the Paris agreement is destroying American jobs.
Now Is Our Last Best Chance to Confront the Climate Crisis
Rolling Stone: Now Is Our Last Best Chance to Confront the Climate Crisis. With Joe Biden in office, a serious plan to combat climate change is finally in our sights — but the clock is ticking, and there is no more room for error.
The Earth’s climate has always been a work in progress. In the 4.5 billion years the planet has been spinning around the sun, ice ages have come and gone, interrupted by epochs of intense heat. The highest mountain range in Texas was once an underwater reef. Camels wandered in evergreen forests in the Arctic. Then a few million years later, 400 feet of ice formed over what is now New York City. But amid this geologic mayhem, humans have gotten lucky. For the past 10,000 years, virtually the entire stretch of human civilization, people have lived in what scientists call “a Goldilocks climate” — not too hot, not too cold, just right.
Carbon Emissions Could Plummet. The Atmosphere Will Lag Behind
NPR: Carbon Emissions Could Plummet. The Atmosphere Will Lag Behind.
In the next several days, the Biden administration is expected to announce plans across the economy to reduce America’s greenhouse gas emissions dramatically by 2030.
The Biden administration’s goal is to speed the process to avoid a climate tipping point that scientists warn is quickly approaching. If global warming continues at its current pace, rising seas and heavy rain will flood cities around the world, wildfires and hurricanes will become even more destructive, and many more plant and animal species will go extinct.
But reducing emissions, even sharply, will not immediately fix the problems up in Earth’s atmosphere. It took decades for greenhouse gases to accumulate in the atmosphere and trap heat, and it will take centuries for those gases to dissipate once humans decide to stop pumping them into the air.
An Unlikely Alliance of Farm and Environmental Groups Takes on Climate Change
Inside Climate News discusses An Unlikely Alliance of Farm and Environmental Groups Takes on Climate Change. The new group will try to advance climate policies, even as some of its members are likely to clash. Critics say the group’s efforts won’t go far enough.
The American Farm Bureau Federation, the country’s largest and most powerful agricultural lobbying group, has long pushed against climate legislation and worked closely with the fossil fuel industry to defeat it.
But on Tuesday, the Farm Bureau announced it had joined an unlikely alliance of food, forest, farming and environment groups that intends to work with Congress and the incoming Biden administration to reduce the food system’s role in climate change and reward farmers when they lower their greenhouse gas emissions.
“To be honest, we didn’t know whether we would ultimately reach an agreement,” said Farm Bureau president Zippy Duvall in a call with reporters. “We’re proud to have broken through historical barriers to achieve an unique alliance.”
Report: Virginia particulate matter and transportation emissions
The Virginia Clinicians for Climate Action discuss their new report about Virginia particulate matter (PM2.5) and transportation emissions today.
The report is located on a page of other useful transportation and health-related resources – including a video series with several Virginia health professionals highlighting the impacts of transportation pollution on health and encouraging policy solutions.
NYT Climate Fwd: October 28, 2020
The New York Times discusses: voting to influence US policies towards climate change; calls this election a referendum on climate; points out trump’s attacks on climate science; alternatives to reduce atmospheric warming; how states make electricity; Japan and carbon neutrality; seismic testing in the Arctic; lightening and wildfires.
Study: EPA actions harm the public health
Tom Carper, US Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, released a staff report on how EPA Air Pollution Actions Taken Since March 1, 2020 Will Harm Public Health and Potentially Add To COVID-19 Risks.
Racism and ecological injustice combine in ‘reckless, racist’ Atlantic Coast Pipeline fight
This NBC News opinion piece discusses why racism and ecological injustice combine in ‘reckless, racist’ Atlantic Coast Pipeline fight. Although it is not new, under the current administration, powerful and wealthy corporations are given free rein to despoil and destroy our sacred and treasured lands. By The Rev. Dr. William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign.
Warren County, North Carolina, made national headlines in 1982 when the town of Afton was targeted for a toxic chemical landfill that threatened the health of the community. Afton, which had one of the highest concentrations of African Americans in the state, was among the poorest areas in Warren County. The nation watched as residents, activists and allies ignited a movement, mobilizing to defend one of the most vulnerable communities in North Carolina. Several hundred people were arrested in the fierce outcry that followed; it was one of the largest acts of civil disobedience since the heyday of the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
Podcast: The Meaning of Green: A New Podcast
This podcast is called the Meaning of Green, revealing why environmental policies succeed, fail, or fall in between failure and success. With help from others, podcast host Dr. Vivian Thomson analyzes why some environmental problems have been solved and others have not. At the end of the podcast, we will apply these lessons to the biggest environmental challenge of our time, climate change. The goal is to figure out which policies stand the best chance of being adopted and of working effectively. Topics include:
- Acid rain
- Leaded gasoline
- Environmental justice
- Trash
- Endangered species
- Renewable energy
- Lessons from other countries
- Climate change
- Partisanship
- Social movements
- Nuclear power