Welcome to Planet Days, a five-minute roundup of the latest climate news and what it means for our Planet. If this was forwarded to you, smash that subscribe button:
Last week, electric vehicles hit another milestone, climate activists in England disrupted oil supplies, and California proposed to ban on gas-powered cars by 2035
In case you missed it, here’s what else happened around the Planet.
Monday, April 11
Climate change supercharges hurricanes
Three new studies published last week show how climate change is affecting hurricanes. The studies come after years of active hurricane seasons, including a record 30 named storms during the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season.
One new study finds that climate change is making Atlantic hurricanes wetter, causing up to 11% more rainfall during the 2020 hurricane season, writes The New York Times.
A separate study says extreme hurricane seasons — like 2020’s — are now twice as likely because of warmer oceans, reports Inside Climate News.
Finally, another study finds that climate change intensified rain during the South Indian Ocean’s tropical storm season. The study looked at the five storms that devastated Madagascar, Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe earlier this year. The Associated Press has more.
Together, the research highlights the importance of adapting to increasing climate change impacts, especially for coastal communities.
Tuesday, April 12
The COVID green bump
The COVID-19 pandemic triggered trillions of dollars in recovery spending. Now, fresh data shows how green that spending is.
The report from the International Energy Agency finds that recovery spending on clean energy has risen 50% since October, hitting $714 billion globally. These investments “keep the door open for the IEA’s global pathway to net zero emissions by 2050,” reads a press release.
But that’s only half the story: The funds account for only 4% of economic recovery measures. And they’re disproportionately from wealthy countries, highlighting the economic challenges, like mounting debt and dwindling resources, faced by the rest of the world. E&E News has more.
Big Tech’s big carbon-removal play
Some of the world’s largest tech companies just committed $925 million to remove carbon from the atmosphere between now and 2030. The new initiative, called Frontier, received funding from Stripe, Alphabet, Shopify, Meta, and McKinsey.
Every company in the world has to cut emissions first if we’re going to slow climate change. But climate scientists also agree that we won’t meet climate goals without removing some of the CO2 already in the atmosphere. That’s where initiatives like Frontier come in. Read the full story from The Verge.
Ethanol to ease gas prices
With gas prices and inflation soaring, the Biden administration is scrambling to lower costs. Last week, the White House announced that it would allow gasoline with higher amounts of ethanol mixed in, called E15 gasoline, to be used year-round.
The announcement is a double-edged sword, as is everything with gas prices:
On one hand, gas prices should go down slightly — as E15, which uses a 15% ethanol blend, can save drivers 10 cents/gallon.
On the other, the biofuel blend could also lead to more smog (E15 is limited in summer months because of air pollution) and contribute to rising global temperatures, depending on how much land is converted to cornfields to support E15.
The energy needed for the good life
But do we need all that gasoline in the first place? A new study says probably not. The study finds that benchmarks for a good life — electricity, food, healthcare, life expectancy, happiness, infant mortality — all get better with increased energy use. Though only up to a point.
Nearly all those benefits plateaued at around 75 gigajoules annually per person. The good news is that we have enough energy to provide up to 79 gigajoules per person, based on current global energy use. The bad news is that people don’t use energy equally. Americans, for example, on average use 284 gigajoules/year.
"That suggests to me that we could nudge energy use downwards in a bunch of hyper-consuming countries and not just make a more equitable world, but perhaps make ourselves healthier and happier," lead author Rob Jackson told NPR.
Wednesday, April 13
Record flooding in South Africa, the Philippines
Meanwhile, climate change is still ravaging through communities. Last week saw devastating flooding around the globe.
Heavy rains and flooding killed over 300 people in South Africa, after some areas saw months worth of rain in one day, reports CNN. And in the Philippines, Deutsche Welle reports another 100 people died after Tropical Storm Megi. Dozens remain missing.
2 degrees is within reach
Let’s end with some good news. A new study finds the world now has better than even odds of limiting warming to the Paris Agreement’s 2 degree Celsius target.
“Those very high emissions trajectories that people used to talk about don't look quite so likely today,” Christophe McGlade, coauthor of the new paper, told Wired. “It's a bit of good news because it shows that the world has made progress in terms of policy and technology over the past few years.”
Of course, this prediction hinges on countries meeting their current climate pledges, which many are not on track to do. Though even if that happens, the more ambitious 1.5 degree target still seems out of reach.
Bonus
A new way to bar crawl
The latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change outlines how we can limit warming to 2 degrees Celsius. And one big target is transportation. By making cities more compact — through sidewalks, bike lanes, and public transit — urban emissions can be cut by 25%.
To celebrate this concept (and Brandon’s 30th birthday), Brandon and his girlfriend, Sarah, organized a “Metro crawl” this weekend, hopping from bar to bar using only Washington, D.C.’s public railway system, the Metro. Fast Company reports on other ways cities can tackle climate change.
See you next week,
Brandon and Sam
I think many people would be down to have some drinks to support the environment. Hope this Metro crawl might inspire more such activities. Happy belated birthday! 🎉