Planet Week: What a Democrat-controlled Congress means for climate action
Welcome to Planet Week, where we highlight the last week of environmental news and what it means for our Planet.
Happy New Year! And welcome to Planet Week, where we highlight the last week of environmental news and what it means for our Planet.
We’re returning to your inboxes after a one-week hiatus — we hope everyone had an enjoyable, relaxing, and safe holiday. Barely a week into 2021 and, boy, is there a lot happening.
Last week, a pro-Trump mob staged an insurrection against the United States (and believe it or not, we have a climate take on it). Political risk consultancy Eurasia Group ranked climate change as the third highest risk of 2021 — behind COVID-19 and the perceived illegitimacy of a Biden presidency. And a record 500,000 people committed to Veganuary.
In case you missed it, here’s what else happened around the Planet:
Monday, January 4
Warming is already baked in
The warming already baked into the Planet will push us past international climate goals, according to a new study published in Nature Climate Change. The study examines the carbon dioxide that’s been released into the atmosphere, sometimes called “committed warming,” which can take years to increase temperatures.
Climate scientists have known about this trend, but they pegged this warming at about 1.1 degrees Celsius. The new study finds it’s more like 2.7 degrees Celsius. That doesn’t mean we should call it quits, though — instead, we should find ways to delay this warming, says study co-author Andrew Dessler.
“It’s really the rate of warming that makes climate change so terrible,” Dressler told The Associated Press. “If we got a few degrees over 100,000 years, that would not be that big a deal. We can deal with that. But a few degrees over 100 years is really bad.”
Tuesday, January 5
The climate problem of grasslands
Need another reason to cut meat out of your life? A new study finds that grasslands, which are typically huge carbon sinks, are now emitting as much carbon as they’re storing. And a big reason is animal agriculture.
Cattle need open spaces to graze, so many ranchers convert grasslands to pastures to raise beef, milk, and eggs. All these cows release methane (in burps and farts) when they eat and nitrous oxide when they poop. Add the nitrous oxide from fertilizer and you have a recipe for disaster.
So, what can you do? Start by cutting animal products (that means organic meat, too) from your diet, which will lower the demand for all these cows in the first place. Read the full story in Earther.
EPA straps public health researchers
Even in its waning days of power, the Trump administration continues to make life harder for those seeking to protect the Planet and its people. On Tuesday, the Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule that requires public health researchers to disclose all the raw data involved in their studies.
EPA head Andrew Wheeler said it promotes transparency, but in reality, the rule could keep crucial studies from getting published. The problem is that some of these researchers’ most important data is on human subjects and, therefore, often confidential.
“It sounds good on the surface,” Chris Zarba, a former director of the EPA’s Science Advisory Board, told The Washington Post. “But this is a bold attempt to get science out of the way so special interests can do what they want.”
Wednesday, January 6
With Georgia, Democrats control the Senate
When Democrats underperformed in November Senate races, Biden’s climate plans seemed dead on arrival. But upset wins in last week’s runoff elections offer renewed hope, Grist reports.
Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff are both likely to back the president-elect’s green initiatives and have signaled support for rejoining the Paris Agreement, increasing funds for green jobs, and transitioning to clean energy. However, as we wrote this week, their victories don’t guarantee we’ll get the climate action we desperately need.
Interior opens Arctic refuge — but big oil skips out
Well, he did it. President Trump opened Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas bidding, a move that’s been years in the making.
Spooked by public perception, though, all major oil companies sat this one out, reports HuffPost. Instead, a few smaller entities spent $14.4 million on leases, much lower than previous estimates by the administration. Half of the land wasn’t even bid on.
Still, the active leases will be hard for the incoming Biden administration to reverse. The move once again shows how Trump’s last days in office are threatening not only democracy — but the Planet, too.
Thursday, January 7
Climate disasters totaled $210 billion in 2020
COVID-19 crippled the global economy last year, and climate change kicked us while we were down: Hurricanes, wildfires, and floods cost the world $210 billion in 2020, according to a new report.
The six most expensive weather events hit the U.S., totaling $95 billion (double the figure from 2019). But the most concerning trend is a lack of insurance coverage for disasters in developing countries. Read the full story by CNBC.
Friday, January 8
Last year tied for the hottest on record
And 2020 wasn’t just an expensive year — it was also tied with 2016 for the hottest year on record.
Average global temperatures hovered around 1.25 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, with the biggest increases felt in Siberia and the Arctic. This unprecedented warming contributed to the disasters we saw last year. It also showed that to avoid a full-out climate crisis, we can’t just return to business as usual.
“Since CO2 accumulates in the atmosphere like water in a bathtub, if we turn down the tap by 7%, the CO2 level just rises a bit more slowly,” Stefan Rahmstorf, head of Earth system analysis at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, told Deutsch Welle. “We need to shut off the tap to get a stable climate again.”
Bonus
The Forrest Gump of climate change
Well, without the beard. Hannah Bacon, a 27-year-old woman from California, is walking over 2,000 miles to Virginia Beach to raise money to combat climate change. As of Sunday evening, her GoFundMe had raised $12,500 for youth climate organization Sunrise Movement.
“I am walking across the United States because I believe in a sustainable future,” Bacon wrote on her donation page. “Protecting our future and our Earth will take all of us, doing everything we can.” Read her full story by People.
Have a great week.
— Brandon and Sam