Planet Week: Historic heat cripples West
Welcome to Planet Week, where we highlight the last week of environmental news and what it means for our Planet.
Welcome to Planet Week, where we highlight the last week of environmental news and what it means for our Planet.
Last week, Norway was taken to court over Arctic drilling plans, researchers found forever chemicals in makeup, and infrastructure talks heated up in the Senate.
In case you missed it, here’s what else happened around the Planet:
Monday, June 14
Historic heat cripples West
The American West is facing unprecedented heat, with temperatures reaching triple digits and breaking records — and it’s not even summer. The heatwave, which is reinforcing a decades-long megadrought, is crippling water supplies, stressing power grids, and putting the region at risk of more wildfires.
So, what’s behind the record heat? Put simply, climate change. A warming Planet is fueling record temperatures, which suck up water and leaves the West bone dry — part of the reason Lake Mead, which provides water to 25 million people, is at record lows. Human-induced climate change is also driving more intense heat domes, high-pressure zones that trap heat and divert weather, like rain, around them.
For more, check out Planet Days’ recent posts on California’s droughts and wildfires, as well as our article on the new reality of hotter, drier summers.
Tuesday, June 15
Sour grapes
Climate change can show up in ways you’d least expect: A new study finds that France’s cold snap earlier this year, which devastated grapes across the country’s wine region, was made 60% more likely by climate change.
With warmer winters, growing seasons are shifting earlier. But that also means that fruits like grapes are more vulnerable when severe frost settles in, as happened in central France in early April. The study shows how a warmer Planet is prone to more radical temperature swings, threatening our champagne, as well as more vital crops. Axios has more.
Judge reverses Biden’s oil leasing ban
One of Joe Biden’s first moves as president was to suspend oil and gas leasing on public lands and waters. Now, that move is under threat. Last week, a federal judge in Louisiana ruled in favor of 13 red states and blocked the ban, E&E News reports.
Judge Terry Doughty, a Trump appointee, argued that Biden overstepped his authority and said the decision will immediately be applied nationwide. That means leasing will likely resume in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico, even if legal challenges remain ongoing.
The move is a warning for Biden and progressives. As we wrote this week in Planet Days, the legacy of Trump appointees and anti-environment politics may very well continue to haunt Biden’s agenda.
Hopped-up crayfish
Pharmaceutical pollution may be changing our waterways. One new report finds that citalopram, an antidepressant that often makes its way into the natural world, makes crayfish more bold and vulnerable to predators.
There are many different ways this drug and others end up in our waterways, including leaky septic systems and people dumping unused pills down the drain (don’t do it). Either way, the study showed that crayfish, when exposed to citalopram, were twice as likely as their unexposed counterparts to emerge from their hidden shelters. Read more in National Geographic.
Wednesday, June 16
It’s a (heat) trap!
The amount of heat absorbed by the Planet has doubled in the last 15 years, according to new research by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
To reach the conclusion, researchers looked at energy imbalance — the heat absorbed by the sun, compared to the heat sent back into space. About 90% of the excess heat goes into the ocean, causing a whole slew of problems.
“It’s excess energy that’s being taken up by the planet,” Norman Loeb, lead author of the study, told CNN. “So it’s going to mean further increases in temperatures and more melting of snow and sea ice, which will cause sea level rise — all things that society really cares about.”
Algae blooms are local
Algae blooms, which suffocate and poison waters, are caused by many things: warmer temperatures, nutrient pollution, acidification. But that’s only part of the puzzle, according to a new study.
The research finds that, despite warmer temperatures, algae blooms have not uniformly increased in the last 25 years. Instead, changes depended on region and type of bacteria.
The study throws another wrench in a complicated problem, encouraging more research to better understand algae blooms, so that we can forecast — and maybe even prevent — future outbreaks. Inside Climate News has more.
EU’s food under threat
Over a third of areas from which the European Union imports food will face more severe droughts by 2050. That puts nearly half of those imports at risk, reports Carbon Brief.
The paper, published in Nature Communications, also lays out adaptation measures for countries to lessen their vulnerability to drought, if they can afford it. Unfortunately, most E.U. agricultural imports come from areas with limited capacity to adapt to climate change — like cocoa from the Ivory Coast and soybeans from Brazil.
The findings put renewed pressure on wealthy countries to fund climate adaptation for countries most vulnerable to extreme weather.
Bonus
Party on, frog
Scientists have discovered a new species of terrestrial frog, and boy, does it like to rock. Pristimantis ledzeppelin, named in honor of the British rock band Led Zeppelin, lives in the Ecuadorian Andes.
Hopefully, this will get a few more eyes on them. As The Guardian reports, the species are under threat from logging, farming, disease, and climate change and are in desperate need of conservation.
Have a great week,
Brandon and Sam