Planet Week: North America’s hottest June on record
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, Volkswagen and BMW were fined $1 billion for emissions cheating, climate change was linked to dragonflies’ fading colors, and Arctic melt set an early July record.
In case you missed it, here’s what else happened around the Planet:
Monday, July 5
Pump the brakes on natural gas
Natural gas is back. After the pandemic slowed demand, consumption of the fossil fuel is rebounding big, set to grow 3.6% this year, according to a new International Energy Agency report.
Though demand will slow in the coming years, it’s not enough to keep in line with international climate targets, warns the report. To avoid a climate catastrophe, we must find ways to increase efficiency, slash methane leaks, and transition to renewable sources.
“[S]tronger policies need to be implemented to put global gas demand on a path in line with reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 while still fostering economic prosperity,” Keisuke Sadamori, IEA’s Director of Energy Markets and Security, said in a statement. Reuters has the story.
Tuesday, July 6
Gas surge
Tensions are high in the Middle East. The United Arab Emirates wants to pump more oil, but its chief rival, Saudi Arabia, has other plans, explains The New York Times. The disagreement came to a head at last week’s OPEC Plus meeting: When talks stalled, oil prices surged to a six-year high, CNBC reports.
Meanwhile, gas demand in the U.S. is surging, hitting record numbers over the holiday weekend, reports Bloomberg. With more Americans vaccinated and itching to get on the road, we may see a gassed-up summer with high demand and high prices.
Pacific NW heatwave impossible without climate change
Last month, a record heatwave swept across the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia, potentially killing hundreds of people and cooking an estimated 1 billion sea creatures. As temperatures spiked, many places along the coast were 30 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit above average.
Now, scientists are saying such an event couldn’t have happened without climate change. In a rapid study, 27 researchers estimated that climate change made the heatwave 150 times more likely. And if the world keeps warming, heatwaves such as these could become common.
“Our climate experience doesn’t prepare us to understand the scale of what’s going on,” climate scientist Carl-Friedrich Schleussner told Inside Climate News. “People talk about loading the dice and throwing sixes. Global warming is loading the dice so we’re throwing sevens now, something impossible previously.”
Wednesday, July 7
North America’s hottest June on record
Last month was HOT: North America had its hottest June on record, and Europe had its second hottest, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).
Heatwaves linked to climate change swept across both continents, with heat in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia shattering records and Estonia, Belarus, Hungary, and Malta all hitting record temperatures. North America was 1.2 degrees Celsius (34.2 degrees Fahrenheit) above the previous 20-year average in June.
“These heatwaves are not happening in a vacuum. They are happening in a global climate environment that is warming and which makes them more likely to occur,” C3S climate scientist Julien Nicolas told Agence-France Presse. “These hot records are a powerful reminder of the impact climate change could have on our lives.”
Tropical Storm Elsa whips up coast
We’re a month into hurricane season, and though it’s not as bad as last year, it’s still no walk in the park. On Wednesday, Tropical Storm Elsa whipped across Florida and Georgia, bringing heavy winds and rains and killing at least one person.
The storm also brought several tornadoes, downing power lines and damaging buildings and vehicles. The storm has since hooked north, dousing the East Coast with rain. CNN has more.
Climate change accounts for 5 million deaths a year
A first-of-its kind study, aptly released just days after the record-breaking heat of June, now links climate change to 5 million deaths each year.
Previous studies have assessed the impact of extreme high and low temperatures, but the new paper strictly tracked trends between 2000 and 2019, a period with over half-a-degree Celsius of warming.
And as with every climate impact, the deaths are not spread evenly across the Planet. VICE has more.
Thursday, July 8
Global wind and solar hit record numbers last year
Big Oil was in a big slump last year. But wind and solar power capacity grew by a record 238 gigawatts, more than five times the total renewable energy capacity of the United Kingdom, according to a BP analysis.
China accounted for roughly half of the global increase, though there were significant increases across the board. BP’s chief economist Spencer Dale spoke to The Guardian and described this trend, coupled with the move away from fossil fuels, as “exactly what the world needs to see as it transitions to net zero.”
Bonus
Panda success story
After decades of conservation work, the giant panda is finally off the endangered species list in China, with more than 1,800 bears now in the wild. The species remains “vulnerable,” however, and the recovery effort is far from over.
“If we downgrade their conservation status, or neglect or relax our conservation work, the populations and habitats of giant pandas could still suffer irreversible loss and our achievements would be quickly lost,” China’s forestry administration said in a statement to The Associated Press. “Therefore, we’re not being alarmist by continuing to emphasize the panda species’ endangered status.”
Have a great week,
Brandon and Sam