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, Big Oil’s profits surged, Southern California restricted outdoor water use, and notorious climate-blocker Sen. Joe Manchin revisited (again?!) Biden’s signature climate bill.
In case you missed it, here’s what else happened around the Planet.
Monday, April 25
Elon Musk buys Twitter
Last week the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, bought Twitter for $44 billion. What happens next could make a big difference for the future of climate discourse.
As we wrote last week, social media companies have allowed climate denial to flourish online. And the climate science community is worried such misinformation could get worse with Musk, who has called himself a “free speech absolutist,” at the helm. Axios has more.
Tuesday, April 26
Disaster boom
The Planet is in for more disasters in the coming years, according to a new United Nations report. The study finds that by 2030, we’re in for 560 catastrophes/year, or 1.5 disasters/day. That’s five times higher than 50 years ago.
These disasters include heat waves, epidemics, food shortages, and economic meltdowns (all of which are made worse by climate change). There’s a common thread here: Human decisions — whether through burning fossil fuels, developing in harm’s way, or passing policy that exacerbates inequalities — drive the trend.
“The world needs to do more to incorporate disaster risk in how we live, build and invest, which is setting humanity on a spiral of self-destruction,” said Amina J. Mohammed, U.N. Deputy Secretary-General, in a statement. “We must turn our collective complacency to action.”
The Associated Press has the story.
Russia cuts off Poland, Bulgaria
The rift between Russia and the countries that rely on it for energy just got larger. On Tuesday, Russia cut off gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria, after the two countries failed to pay for fuel in rubles. Worry over what Russia will do next increased gas prices in Europe by 24%.
The move puts even more pressure on the European Commission, which has refused to prop up the ruble through such payments, to find alternative energy sources, like U.S. liquified natural gas or domestic clean energy.
Meanwhile, Russia continues to have the upper hand: A new report finds that Russia has made $66 billion in fossil fuel sales since it invaded Ukraine. Bloomberg has more.
Wednesday, April 27
We’re wrecking our land
Up to 40% of the Planet’s land is now degraded, spelling trouble for our species, a new U.N. report finds. Modern agriculture, which fuels deforestation and sucks up freshwater, is driving the trend.
As soils degrade, the Planet loses biodiversity, carbon sinks, and native trees and vegetation. And if the soil gets too bad, farmers can’t grow food. By rethinking how we use and manage land, however, we can preserve many of these resources.
In similar news, a separate report finds that the tropics lost 11.1 million hectares of tree cover in 2021, numbers that are stubbornly consistent with the last few years. Agriculture is once again a big driver of the loss, which led to 2.5 billion metric tons of CO2 emissions. The Guardian covers both stories.
Thursday, April 28
Sealife face mass extinction
But it’s not just what’s happening on land — the situation on water is just as dire. A new study finds that unchecked climate change could cause a mass extinction in the ocean, with roughly a third of all sealife going the way of the dinosaur.
Of course, unchecked climate change is only one option for the future. Should we quickly cut emissions and restore degraded environments, we can cut potential extinctions by 70%. National Geographic has more.
In other extinction news, one in five reptiles are threatened with extinction, with turtles and crocodiles most at risk, according to a new paper. The biggest threats to the survival of many species are agriculture, urban development, and logging. The Verge has more on that.
Heatwave sweeps through India
Record heat has been roasting India for months, threatening millions of lives and damaging the country’s spring wheat harvest.
The India Meteorological Department stated at the beginning of April that March's max temperatures were the highest in 122 years of records. And last week brought no relief: Temperatures reached highs of 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Read the full story from BBC News.
Warmer Planet = more pandemics
As if climate change wasn’t already bad enough. New research published in the journal Nature mapped how our warming Planet could bring humans into more contact with thousands more animal species and the viruses they carry.
Even if we keep warming under 2 degrees Celsius, we could see hundreds of thousands of “first encounters” between species in the next half-century — which would lead to more than 4,500 transmissions of viruses from one species to another. Most won’t survive the jump, but the ones that do could be deadly. E&E News breaks it down.
Bonus
Florida man hunts invasive species
Not your typical “Florida Man” story: Sid Pennington, a retired Florida man in St. Lucie County, spends his days protecting his community from four-foot-long invasive lizards. Since 2019, he’s captured over 100 Argentine black and white tegus, whose diet of buried eggs threatens native alligators, sea turtles, and birds.
Pennington was recently recruited by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission because of his efforts. USA Today has the story.
Have a great week,
Brandon and Sam