Planet Week: The Planet has a “narrow” pathway to net-zero
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, the world’s largest iceberg broke off Antarctica. A new report found that extreme weather displaced 40 million people last year. And President Joe Biden signed an executive order to measure the financial risks of climate change.
In case you missed it, here’s what else happened around the Planet:
Monday, May 17
Cyclone Tauktae strikes India
Tropical Cyclone Tauktae smashed into India’s western coast late Monday. The category 3 storm brought 137-mph winds, flash floods, and storm surges, leaving a trail of destruction that killed at least 26 people.
The cyclone was the strongest recorded storm to hit India’s west coast and the fifth-strongest Arabian Sea cyclone on record. This isn’t an anomaly, but rather a preview of what’s to come in a warmer world.
“The Arabian Sea used to be cyclone shy, but no more,” Roxy Kol, of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, told Climate Home News. “[R]apid warming in the Arabian Sea has… resulted in an increase in both the frequency and the intensity of cyclones in the basin.”
Big Oil wins Supreme Court case
The Supreme Court just delivered a small victory for Big Oil, sending Baltimore’s climate change case back to lower courts for review, reports Inside Climate News. Though the court’s decision doesn’t cut to the heart of the matter — Big Oil’s financial responsibility for climate damages — it did again delay ruling, which is exactly what Big Oil wanted.
But the war isn’t over. By focusing on procedural matters, the Supreme Court failed to outright dismiss lawsuits against oil companies, leaving the door open for future legislative battles, reports The New York Times. Either way, it’ll be an uphill battle for cities, as two Supreme Court justices — Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett — have deep ties to the oil industry, HEATED points out.
Tuesday, May 18
The Planet has a “narrow” pathway to net-zero
We have a pathway to net-zero but, boy, it will be tough. On Tuesday, the International Energy Agency released the world’s first comprehensive roadmap for reducing energy-related emissions to zero by 2050, the international target set to avoid a climate catastrophe.
The 227-page report provides a “narrow” pathway for countries to hit net zero, something that will take “unprecedented transformation.” To achieve this, the report lists more than 400 milestones, but below are some noteworthy marks.
To hit net-zero, the world must:
Quadruple the amount of solar and wind power added every year — the equivalent of installing the world’s current largest solar park every day between now and 2030
Triple the investment in clean energy by 2030 to around $4 trillion
Deploy all available clean and efficient energy technologies and accelerate innovation — to hit climate goals, half the cuts will come from tech that isn’t yet commercially viable
Stop selling new gas-powered passenger cars by 2035
Halt all investment in new fossil fuel plants, and phase out all unabated coal and oil power plants by 2040
That sounds like a lot because it is. But the shift would come with its own set of benefits, said Fatih Birol, IEA’s executive director, in a statement: “The IEA’s pathway to this brighter future brings a historic surge in clean energy investment that creates millions of new jobs and lifts global economic growth.”
The Washington Post and The New York Times both cover the report, and CarbonBrief dives deeper.
20 companies responsible for half the world’s single-use plastic
Half of the world’s 143 million tons of single-use plastics — such as face masks, plastic straws, and to-go bags — are produced by just 20 companies, according to a new report.
The main culprits are energy and chemical giants, with ExxonMobil leading the pack. Even worse is what we actually do with this plastic: 35% of the plastics are burned, 31% are buried in landfills, and 19% are dumped into the ocean or on land. CNBC has more.
Wednesday, May 19
Ford’s F-150 Lightning normalizes electric trucks
On Wednesday, Ford announced the F-150 Lightning, an all-electric version of America’s most popular car. The truck costs a relatively modest $39,974, has a range of 230 miles, and can power homes during outages. Even President Biden was giddy about the truck.
Most importantly, the Lightning sidesteps some questionable electric rollouts from competitors, like the Hummer EV or Tesla’s Cybertruck, and leans into its identity as America’s best-selling truck. That strategy normalizes electric vehicles for much of the nation and helps decarbonize the transportation sector, writes Earther.
“There are lots of flavors of soda, but there’s only one Coke, and there’ll be lots of electric pickup trucks, [but] there’s only one F-150,” Ford CEO Jim Farley told The Verge.
Zombie fires won’t die
What if forest fires never stopped burning? New research published in the journal Nature suggests that may one day be the case: Climate change is making zombie fires — those that survive wet winters deep in the Northern Hemisphere and continue to burn through the spring — more common.
Overwintering fires were responsible for under 1% of the total burned area between 2002 and 2018, so they’re still rare. But in one year, total burned area jumped to 38% because of an unusually warm and dry summer. The Guardian has the latest.
Thursday, May 20
Another active hurricane season
If you were looking for a reprieve from the record-breaking 2020 hurricane season, look elsewhere. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasts another active year in the Atlantic.
The agency predicts a busier-than-normal season, with anywhere from 13 to 20 named storms (since 1990, 14 named storms is average). Though we’re unlikely to see 30 named storms, like we did in 2020, still expect 3 to 5 major hurricanes. The Associated Press has more.
All these hurricanes are adding up, costing governments billions of dollars. New research puts a climate price tag on Hurricane Sandy, finding that climate change added $8 billion in damages to the 2012 storm, reports The Washington Post.
Bonus
That’s a lot of birds
Based on hundreds of millions of citizen science observations, a team of researchers at the University of New South Wales now estimates there are at least 50 billion birds in the world — about six times the number of humans on the planet. And many species are rare, making this count even more important for conservation efforts.
“We spend a great deal of time and effort counting humans, but we need to be sure we are keeping tabs on all the biodiversity we share planet earth with,” Corey Callaghan, one of the study’s authors, told National Geographic.
Have a good week,
Brandon and Sam