Planet Week: IPCC: Climate change is here, and we’re responsible
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, tropical storms Fred and Grace formed off the Gulf of Mexico, Shell agreed to pay $111 million for a decades-old oil spill in Nigeria, and deadly wildfires scorched through Algeria.
In case you missed it, here’s what else happened around the Planet:
Monday, August 9
IPCC: Climate change is here, and we’re responsible
Last week started off hot. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its sixth assessment report on the state of climate science, and it’s nearly 4,000 terrifying pages.
In those pages, 234 authors detail how human actions are unequivocally linked to extreme weather. They also have no doubt that the Planet will surpass 1.5 degrees of global warming before the end of the century, meaning the heat waves, droughts, and floods we’ve recently seen will only grow worse.
“Today’s IPCC Working Group 1 report is a code red for humanity,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in a press release. “The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable: greenhouse‑gas emissions from fossil-fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk.”
The findings come only months before this fall’s crucial United Nations climate talks, COP26. The Washington Post has a handy five-point breakdown of the landmark report.
But there’s still hope
There are several reasons to hope, however. For one, scientists believe we still have time to slash emissions and meet Paris Agreement targets. In fact, if countries immediately and permanently cut emissions, the Planet could begin cooling. Read more in NPR.
Another bright spot is how confident scientists have become in linking current extreme weather to climate change — confidence that is already shifting the climate narrative and bringing more rapid action. TIME has that story.
Wednesday, August 11
Senate passes bipartisan infrastructure bill, Democrat budget bill
After months of negotiating, the Senate passed a landmark $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, with 19 Republicans on board. The bill includes climate provisions, including increased spending for carbon-cutting tech, clean transportation, and resiliency (we wrote about what’s in the bill in last week’s newsletter).
But the Senate wasn’t done. As part of their two-pronged approach, Democratic Senators passed a separate $3.5 trillion spending bill, on a 50–49 party-line vote. That bill expands the social safety net, increases spending for climate research, clean energy, and resiliency, and launches the Civilian Climate Corps.
But the battle is far from over. The bills now go to the House, where rifts between progressive and moderate Democrats could spell trouble for the party, The New York Times has more on what’s next.
Siberia’s on fire, again
One of our very first Planet Days posts was on Siberia’s record heat and fires. A year later, little has changed. Currently, Siberia’s wildfires are larger than all of the Planet’s fires combined, reports The Washington Post.
They’re so big that for the first time, smoke from the blazes reached the North Pole. And with a lack of funds and urgency, the Russian government seems content to just let them burn. Read more in The Guardian.
As those in the U.S. know, this is hardly just a Russian problem. Higher temperatures are fueling fires across the West, with Montana the latest state to see hundreds of evacuations, reports CNN. With 25 active fires, Montana currently has the most fires of any state. Some good news? The bipartisan infrastructure bill includes big raises for some wildland firefighters.
Thursday, August 12
In Europe, climate impacts pile up
Europe is up against compounding climate crises. In Turkey, flash floods destroyed buildings, swept away cars, and killed at least 57 people. In Hungary, a drought is drying up Lake Velence, a tourist and ecological hotspot.
Meanwhile, the temperature in Sicily, Italy, hit nearly 120 degrees Fahrenheit — though unconfirmed, that reading could be the hottest recorded temperature in Europe, the BBC reports. The reading follows weeks of wildfires throughout Italy, Turkey, and Greece.
Biden vs. OPEC
In an attempt to lower gas prices, U.S. President Biden and his administration are asking some of the world’s biggest oil producers to… produce more oil.
The reasons behind the move are a little confusing. The White House seemingly views the high prices as a political threat, but with spending surging above pre-pandemic levels and confidence at an all-time high, experts are puzzled.
Despite this, peak oil production (set for 10–20 years from now) could inch earlier, as countries cut emissions and a focus on renewables. Reuters analyzed what this means.
Friday, August 13
Last month was the hottest on record
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed Friday that July was the hottest month on Earth since record-keeping began centuries ago.
And no part of the world was safe: Wildfires broke out in Siberia and worsened in several western U.S. states. The U.S., Europe, and Asia saw brutal heat waves, including temperature records for Northern Ireland and Japan.
As Axios writes, researchers don’t usually pay much attention to individual months, but July adds to a dangerous, 30-year trend with a clear message: The world will continue to get warmer until countries reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
Bonus
There’s no place like home
A herd of 14 Asian elephants took a yearlong, 300-mile-trek through urbanized southwest China, plundering farms and even a retirement home along the way. But after a year on the road, they’re finally heading back to their nature reserve (and away from populated areas). The Associated Press has the story.
Have a great week,
Brandon and Sam