In low-energy finish, oil and gas escape censure at Cop27
At dawn on Sunday, exhausted negotiators agreed a climate deal in Sharm el-Sheikh that paves the way to a fund for climate victims but falls short on mitigation
John Kerry’s offsets plan sets early test for UN net zero standards
The US special envoy wants to use carbon credits to speed up the clean energy transition - but experts are sceptical the scheme can meet best practice.
Lakes Growing Globally as Ice Melts and Reservoirs Expand
Over the last four decades, the area covered by lakes globally has grown by close to 18,000 square miles, an expanse nearly twice the size of Lake Erie.
Covid Lockdowns Helped Fuel a Methane Surge, Study Finds
When pandemic-related lockdowns grounded planes and brought car traffic to a near standstill in early 2020, transport emissions plummeted, leading to a drop in levels of a short-lived gas that scrubs methane from the atmosphere. The slump in travel helped fuel a spike in methane, a new study finds.
Hawaii's Coral Reefs Get $2 Million Insurance Policy
U.S.-based conservation group the Nature Conservancy has taken out a $2 million insurance policy for Hawaii's coral reefs. It is the first policy to cover a natural structure in the U.S., according to the group.
How Floating Wetlands Are Helping to Clean Up Urban Waters
As cities around the world look to rid their waterways of remaining pollution, researchers are installing artificial islands brimming with grasses and sedges. The islands’ surfaces attract wildlife, while the underwater plant roots absorb contaminants and support aquatic life.
As Evidence Mounts, New Concerns About Fracking and Health
Two decades after the advent of fracking, a growing number of studies are pointing to a link between gas wells and health problems, particularly among children and the elderly. Researchers are now calling for new regulations restricting where wells can be located.
Fenced In: How the Global Rise of Border Walls Is Stifling Wildlife
Amid a rising tide of nationalism, walls and fortified fences are proliferating around the world. These barriers pose a growing threat to wildlife — blocking animal migrations and threatening millions of species that will need to move to keep up with a changing climate.
Scientists Discover More Than 22,000 Endangered Manta Rays off Coast of Ecuador
Scientists have identified a population of endangered oceanic manta rays off the coast of Ecuador that is 10 times larger than any other known population. The discovery offers hope for the future of the species, experts say.
UN Launches Satellite-Based System to Pinpoint Global Methane Hot Spots
The UN is establishing a new system that uses satellite data to root out of sources of methane, a potent heat-trapping gas, and notify governments and businesses, it announced Friday.
EU Emissions Fall Amid Energy Crunch, but Gas Buildout Looms
European emissions of carbon dioxide from energy use over the past three months are down 5 percent from the previous year as the energy crisis drives up the price of fossil fuels. But Europe's efforts to shore up supplies of natural gas could lock in a new source of emissions, a new analysis finds.
With Lula Back, Can Brazil Turn the Tide on Amazon Destruction?
With his return as Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is promising to reverse the alarming rate of deforestation in the Amazon. But as he heads to key UN climate talks, his ambitious plans to achieve “zero deforestation” will need to find international support.
Austria Joins Germany, Denmark, and Other Rich Nations Pledging Millions for Climate Damages
Austria has joined a small but growing list of wealthy nations committing funds for loss and damages wrought by climate disasters in the developing world, pledging 50 million euros over the next four years.
Native Guardians: Canada’s First Nations Move to Protect Their Lands
Faced with mounting impacts from warming and a push for resource development, Indigenous communities in northern Canada are setting aside vast areas for protection. They are also partnering with scientists on research that can help conserve their lands and their way of life.
U.S. Communities of Color Breathing Higher Levels of Toxic Metal Pollution, Study Finds
Not only do U.S. communities of color breathe more fine particulate pollution, they also breathe a form of particulate pollution that is richer in toxic, cancer-causing metals, new research finds.
How Digital Technology Is Helping Decode the Sounds of Nature
Digital technology is enabling scientists to detect and interpret the sounds of species as diverse as honey bees, peacocks, and elephants. In an e360 interview, geographer Karen Bakker discusses the surprising and complex ways that animals and plants use sound to communicate.
Drought, Fire, Insects Destroyed Nearly a Third of Southern Sierra Nevada Forest in Last Decade
In just 10 years, fires, drought, and insect infestations have devastated close to a third of forests in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains, a new study finds.
World Headed in Wrong Direction on Five Key Climate Indicators, Report Finds
To halt warming at 1.5 degrees C, countries must slash emissions from power plants, heavy industry, cars, trucks, agriculture, and forest loss, among other sectors. But in some key areas, according to a new report, the world is seeing emissions continue to rise.
The U.S. Global Change Research Program will be well represented at the AGU Fall Meeting 2022 from December 12–16 in Chicago, IL. We hope you will join us for the following talks and sessions: All times local (Central Standard Time) Bold denotes session Monday [8:00–9:00 AM] NH11B: Climate and Natural Disaster Risk Management for Human-Natural...
On November 7, 2022, USGCRP released a draft version of the Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5) for public review and comment. To support this important phase of the report's development, USGCRP is hosting two webinars for people interested in learning more about NCA5, why public participation is vital to the process, and how to submit...
Through the efforts of USGCRP, authors, NOAA’s Technical Support Unit, and support staff, the Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5) has moved from the planning phase to putting pen to paper. Here is a look back at recent accomplishments: Gathering a diverse team of authors. In the spring and summer of 2021, the NCA5 Federal Steering Committee...
Work on the Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5) is underway. The Congressionally mandated report is the U.S. Government’s premier assessment of the science of climate change and its impacts on the Nation. It is written by hundreds of experts from around the country, who help ensure that the findings are accessible and useful to the widest...
The U.S. Global Change Research Program is pleased to announce that Allison Crimmins will serve as Director of the FIfth National Climate Assessment (NCA5). She is detailed to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Air and Radiation. As Director, Allison will oversee...
On May 19, 2021, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) announced that Dr. Mike Kuperberg is returning to USGCRP as Executive Director. This is his second stint in USGCRP leadership, having served previously as Executive Director from 2015 through November 2020. He is detailed from the Department of Energy’s Office of...
NASA, on behalf of USGCRP, issued a Federal Register Notice (FRN) seeking author nominations and scientific/technical inputs for the Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5). The FRN, which opened October 15, 2020 and closed the following month on November 14, also served as a notice of planned public engagement opportunities. Prospective authors...
Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, the latest in a series of spacecraft designed to monitor our oceans, launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in central California on Saturday, November 21, 2020. The satellite will be followed in 2025 by its twin, Sentinel-6B. Together, the pair is tasked with extending our nearly 30-year-long record of global sea...
The U.S. Global Change Research Program extends our condolences to the family and friends of Dr. Mike Freilich, a widely respected geoscientist and former director of NASA’s Earth Science Division, and shares the loss of a longtime member of the USGCRP family.
Dr. Anthony Janetos, a longstanding member of the USGCRP community and Director of Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, passed away on Tuesday, August 6, 2019. He was 64 years old. Dr. Janetos dedicated his career to interdisciplinary, policy-relevant global change science. Prior to the Pardee...
The October contiguous U.S. average temperature was 0.00 degress Fahrenheit, equal to the 20th century average. The precipitation total was 0.00 inches, equal to average.
The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for October was 0.89 degrees C (1.60 degress Fahrenheit) above the 20th century average of 15.5 degrees C (59.9 degress Fahrenheit).
During October, the Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent (SCE) was 18.66 million square km (7.20 million square miles), 2.66% below the 1991-2020 average. The global sea ice extent was 24.02 million square km (9.27 million square miles), 6.61% below the 1991-2020 average.
Fifteen named storms occurred across the globe in October. Five of those reached tropical cyclone strength (≥74 mph), and two reached major tropical cyclone strength (≥111 mph). The 15 named storms was the sixth most since 1981, but the numbers of tropical cyclones and major tropical cyclones were both below the 1991-2020 averages.
October Mid-troposphere temperature anomalies: 0.251 degrees C (NESDIS STAR). Lower Stratosphere temperature anomalies: -0.611 degrees C (NESDIS STAR).
According to preliminary data from NOAA's Storm Prediction Center, during October, there were 45 preliminary tornado reports. This was 73.7 percent of the 1991-2010 average of 61 tornadoes for the month of October. Of the tornadoes that did form during October, more than half (30) formed in southeastern Wisconsin and along the Gulf coast on October 12 and 29, respectively. Given the relatively quiet month, these two most active days are summarized below.
During most of October, the North American circulation featured a broad ridge over the Western U.S. with a trough to the east. The ridge was associated with warm temperatures including a historic heatwave in the Pacific Northwest during the middle of October. It also inhibited precipitation across the country during October. The primary exceptions came early in the month with a surge of moisture into the Southwest with the remnants of Hurricane Orlene.
It was a slow start to the beginning of the 2022-23 snow season with less than one percent of snow cover across the contiguous U.S. (CONUS) until October 15, when a winter storm brought record-breaking snowfall totals to Michigan's Upper Peninsula and northern Wisconsin. According to NOAA's National Snow Analysis, snow cover peaked for the month at about 11.7 percent on October 25 prior to melting following a rebound in temperatures that typically occurs after a cold spell during October.
As of October 25th, 62.95% of the Contiguous U.S. was experiencing drought conditions, 36.06% was in severe drought, 14.62% extreme, and 2.85% exceptional.
When Trevor McDougall began studying the ocean in the 1970s he had no idea that his field would become a crucial part of climate science.
The University of New South Wales professor was on Monday awarded the top honour at the prime minister’s prizes for science for his contributions to the field of oceanography and research on the ocean’s role in regulating the climate.
Five crucial issues in fight to save planet – and what Cop27 did about them
This month’s environmental summit opened as our planet wilts under the impact of climate crisis. Here we examine five key areas and assess what success – if any – was achieved in Egypt
A key Cop27 goal was to strengthen emission pledges made at last year’s climate summit in Glasgow. These are needed to ensure global heating is limited to 1.5C. No such commitments have been made in Egypt and most observers now conclude the world is destined to heat beyond this limit.
Cop27: ‘All of you are war criminals’: activist disrupts Russia event at Cop27 – as it happened
Russian event at Cop27 interrupted by protesters repeatedly shouting ‘you are war criminals’. This live blog is closed
Three days before India’s environment minister boarded a flight to Egypt for this year’s UN climate summit, Cop27, the country’s finance minister was busy with a new announcement.
“India needs greater investment in coal production,” said Nirmala Sitharaman at the Delhi launch of India’s biggest ever coalmine auction, where 141 new sites for coalmines will be sold off to the highest bidder.
Sustainable food systems deliver food security and nutrition for all, without compromising the welfare of future generations through harmful economic, social and environmental practices. In the context of the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture, this means taking a particular focus on sustainable food production, nutrition and dietary shifts, as well as food loss and waste.
If food security and the livelihoods of farmers are truly to be at the heart of climate negotiations in the future, then food systems need to be recognised in the Koronivia Process and this process decisively taken forward at Cop27.
Part of the challenge is to ensure that the Koronivia Process addresses food systems as a whole -- from production, to nutrition, to diets. This would mean a stronger set of outcomes for the benefit of people, nature, and climate alike.
The Climate Book, created by Greta Thunberg review – an angry call for action
The environmental activist curates a supergroup of climate experts in a valuable set of essays, which at times risk overwhelming the reader
Being Greta Thunberg is no picnic. Still not yet 20, she has fame but not wealth and an army of obsessive detractors who cannot seem to decide whether she is a puritanical fanatic, a gullible puppet or an attention-seeking hypocrite and therefore call her all three. What they hate most, I think, is her effectiveness. A teenager from Sweden has succeeded in dramatically escalating the discourse around the climate emergency. Global heating is not a dire possibility but a present reality; reducing it is no longer just a question of looking after the planet but of preserving human civilisation in a recognisable form.
Thunberg is unusual (but should not be) in speaking and behaving in a manner appropriate to what the science tells us, ripping away the standard sticking plasters of reassurance and consolation to leave only raw urgency. She is often dismissed as a Cassandra but, of course, the whole point of the Cassandra story is that she was right. The Climate Book coincides with COP27, just as the UN environment agency has acknowledged that there is “no credible path” to keeping global heating below 1.5 degrees celsius above pre-industrial levels. The current figure is 1.1; at the present rate of carbon emissions, it could go as high as 3.2 by the end of the century. As Thunberg writes: “Hope is something you have to earn.”
The 1.5C climate target is dead – to prevent total catastrophe, Cop27 must admit it | Bill McGuire
Acknowledging that climate breakdown is unavoidableis key to makingfossil-fuel companies and governments take action
In his Cop27 speech this week, our will-he-go, won’t-he-go prime minister said that stopping the planet dangerously overheating was still within our grasp, leaving many wondering just what planet he was on.
According to Rishi Sunak, last year’s Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow was all about keeping alive the possibility of preventing the global average temperature rise since the Industrial Revolution from climbing above 1.5C. That is “alive”, as in connected to a drip, in a coma and suffering cardiac arrest every few hours.
Climate carnage: whose job is it to save the planet? – documentary
In a crucial year for the climate, award-winning Guardian environment editor Fiona Harvey reflects on 30 years of Cops and meets the politicians, activists and scientists asking who is responsible for saving the planet.
In November last year, the world’s gaze focused on Glasgow at Cop26 as ‘a historic, collective achievement’ was forged between 200 countries – the Glasgow climate pact. Since then, unprecedented global events have threatened this commitment to limiting climate destruction, and the hopes of ‘keeping 1.5 alive’ have been dashed. We follow Fiona as she prepares for Cop27 in Egypt, asking presidents, global leaders, activists and scientists if global diplomacy is enough to save humanity from the brink of annihilation
Time for rich nations to face hard climate truths at Cop27 | Letters
There is little doubt that we have already pushed our climate system to the very edge, says ProfTim Atkinson.Plus letters from David Cottee and Adam Hart
George Monbiot is correct – the geological record shows a series of disastrous extinctions caused by the climate system being pushed beyond tipping points (Fossil fuel burning once caused a mass extinction – now we’re risking another, 3 November). Although such tipping points might soon be reached, it’s more persuasive to know exactly where the system is right now.
You report that temperatures in Europe are now rising by around 0.5C per decade, equivalent to 5C per century (Europe’s climate warming at twice rate of global average, says report, 2 November). Compare this rate with the end of the last ice age, when the system was entering its present relatively warm state. Evidence from fossil insects in Britain shows that by a conservative estimate, the average temperature rose by 1.7C to 2.6C per century, with maximum possible rates inferred from the same data up to 2.8C to 7.2C per century.
'Are you a climate denier?': Guardian journalist questions World Bank president
The Guardian's biodiversity and environment reporter, Patrick Greenfield, questioned the World Bank president, David Malpass, about his record of climate crisis denial at the end of an event at Cop27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
Malpass apologised in late September after saying he 'doesn't know' if he accepted climate science. He did not resign from his position. When asked several times if he was a climate denier, Malpass said: 'You know that I'm not, so don't misreport it.' He refused to answer any other questions
From the archive: The Anthropocene epoch: have we entered a new phase of planetary history? – podcast
We are raiding the Audio Long Read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors.
This week, from 2019: Human activity has transformed the Earth – but scientists are divided about whether this is really a turning point in geological history
Why scientists are using the word scary over the climate crisis
The former BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin has spent his career talking to scientists. Now they’re telling him they’re scared of what they’re seeing
Back in the 1980s, when climate research began to really take off, scientists were desperate to retain their credibility as they unravelled the potentially dire consequences of the “new” phenomenon of global warming. Most journalists tiptoed round this topic because no one wanted to lose their reputation by scaremongering. But as the science steadily became overwhelming researchers pushed their conclusions in the face of policymakers.
More and more scientists are now admitting publicly that they are scared by the recent climate extremes, such as the floods in Pakistan and west Africa, the droughts and heatwaves in Europe and east Africa, and the rampant ice melt at the poles.
‘It was like an apocalyptic movie’: 20 climate photographs that changed the world
They are the images that made us sit up and take notice. As world leaders gather for Cop27, these pictures prove that global heating isn’t a distant possibility – it’s already here
For a week in July 2018, a giant 100m-tall iceberg loomed over a tiny village on the west coast of Greenland. Villagers were evacuated, and the world watched in suspense: if a chunk of the 10m-tonne iceberg had broken apart or “calved”, it would have caused a tsunami and obliterated the settlement of Innaarsuit. Eventually, it drifted away from the shore – but as glaciers melt, we can expect to see more masses of ice breaking off and floating dangerously close to land.
Cop27 is here and the climate crisis is daunting but here’s the key to tackling it – cheer up | Isabel Losada
We environmentalists must avoid sending the message that the situation is hopeless. Let’s focus on solutions
My dear fellow environmentalists,
With the Cop27 summit about to be begin, can we please think about how we talk about the climate crisis? The scale of it is there to see – it can’t be missed – but haven’t we read enough books and attended enough events where we are told, once again, about the historic causes of the problem, the intransigent complexity of the problem and the inevitable worsening of the problem? Given a little more time, I swear that most speakers would detail the length, depth and height of the problem. It is depressing. It doesn’t help. Please stop.
Fossil fuel burning once caused a mass extinction – now we’re risking another | George Monbiot
The Devoncoastline reveals that Earth was in a near-lifeless state for up to five million years after the last extinction event
Budleigh Salterton, on the south coast of Devon, sits above the most frightening cliffs on Earth. They are not particularly high. Though you don’t want to stand beneath them, they are not especially prone to collapse. The horror takes another form. It is contained in the story they tell. For they capture the moment at which life on Earth almost came to an end.
The sediments preserved in these cliffs were laid down in the early Triassic period, just after the greatest mass extinction in the history of multicellular life that brought the Permian period to an end 252m years ago. Around 90% of species died, and fish and four-footed animals were more or less exterminated between 30 degrees north of the equator and 40 degrees south.
Scientists zap clouds with electricity to make them rain
Experiment finds electrical charge can alter size of water droplets and cause them to ‘explode’
Gloomy foggy days are frequent in November, but there’s not a lot we can do about them. Or is there? A new experiment has shown that zapping clouds with electrical charge can alter droplet sizes in fog or, potentially, help a constipated cloud to rain.
Last year Giles Harrison, from the University of Reading, and colleagues from the University of Bath, spent many early mornings chasing fogs in the Somerset Levels, flying uncrewed aircraft into the gloop and releasing charge. Their findings, published in Geophysical Research Letters, showed that when either positive or negative charge was emitted, the fog formed more water droplets.
Cop27 climate summit: window for avoiding catastrophe is closing fast
The effects of global heating could soon reach a tipping point, but scientists fear that the meeting in Egypt will become bogged down in recriminations
It has been an alarming time for climate scientists. One by one, the grim scenarios they had outlined for the near future have been overtaken by events: extreme storms, droughts, floods and ice-sheet collapses whose sudden appearances have outstripped researchers’ worst predictions. Catastrophic climate change is happening more rapidly and with greater intensity than their grimmest warnings, it transpires.
Examples include this summer’s record high temperature of 40.3C in the UK, a massive jump of 1.6C on the previous hottest day; torrential rains that triggered the most severe flooding in Pakistan’s recent history; and last year’s Hurricane Ida, one of the most destructive storms to have struck the US.
Last week I was at a sustainable fashion event where I got caught in a conversation between two industry experts. They were discussing the recent downpour and whether anyone that lives in a city really needs rain gear made from synthetic fibres.
Although the issue is sometimes debated, synthetic fibres like polyester and nylon are considered bad for the environment because they are derived from fossil fuels, they shed microfibres during use and they don’t biodegrade. However, they remain prevalent in technical performance gear for the outdoors.
Australia’s leading science agency, the CSIRO, has unveiled a “significant” new working model to promote commercial deals, in a move towards reliance on external funding that one top scientist claims will be “crippling”.
Guardian Australia understands the focus shift has been done without informing the science minister, Ed Husic.
In the final episode of our three-part series, we speak to Pacific politicians fighting it out with much larger, wealthier and more heavily polluting countries on the world stage; Pacific leaders facing the gargantuan task of attempting to relocate entire villages, infrastructure and even burial grounds as communities are threatened; and legal experts about what options Pacific countries have for compensation, to find out what the future is for the Pacific in the face of the climate crisis
We travel across the Pacific to islands in Papua New Guinea where people are being forced to leave due to rising sea levels, and to the tiny nation of Tuvalu where people are fighting to remain. We speak to islanders who have been forced to make devastating decisions due to a climate crisis not of their making
In the first episode of this three-part series, we look at how families, communities and Pacific leaders are facing huge decisions about the future of their islands and trying to figure out if they can stay on their land – land that defines their identity, on which their ancestors are buried – or whether they’ll be forced to leave
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A study from Sweden summarizes the enormous role water plays in climate mitigation, from wetlands that take up carbon to untreated wastewater that emits methane.
By Charlie Miller
The intersection of freshwater and climate is a frequently ignored but critical element of the climate problem, according to a new study from Sweden that explores the link and offers solutions that will help lower emissions.
Most Hopi grow corn with only the precipitation that falls on their fields, but two decades of drought have some of them testing the waters of irrigation and hoping they can preserve other customs with their harvests.
By David Wallace
Corn goes back to their very creation story. As the Hopi people emerged into this world, the Creator gave them three things: a gourd of water, a planting stick and a short ear of blue corn.
Coal’s share of the United States’ electricity mix has fallen from around half in 2005 to just 22 percent as the nation has turned to cheaper natural gas and, increasingly, renewable energy. Meanwhile, West Virginia generated 91 percent of its power from coal in 2021—with no other state even coming close to that proportion. The Appalachian state’s allegiance to coal power has led to skyrocketing utility bills, critics say. Some households have seen their electricity rates rise 180 percent in the past 15 years, five times the average increase for ratepayers in the United States. But West Virginia regulators and coal power’s supporters in the state’s business community maintain, despite evidence to the contrary, that coal power is the most affordable source of energy. Many of them argue the true villain in the story of the state’s rising electricity prices isn’t coal, but the climate change agenda.
Also this week, a new report shows the country’s worst climate polluters, including a coal-fired power plant in Alabama, a coal mine in Pennsylvania and a nylon plant in Florida. Each industrial facility emits massive amounts of climate-warming greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Emissions from such major industrial sources climbed by 4.1 percent in 2021, according to new data recently released by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Who Were the Worst Climate Polluters in the US in 2021? BY PHIL MCKENNA The worst of the worst included a coal-fired power plant in Alabama, a coal mine in Pennsylvania and a nylon plant in Florida, recent EPA data shows.
In Egypt, visitors encountered creative works about climate anxiety, sustainability and ecosystem loss.
By Kiley Bense
While the goal of effecting decisive global change proved largely elusive at the United Nations’ annual climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, the art at COP27 offered other road maps for moving forward.
Each vehicle beams data on greenhouse gases and toxins like benzene, carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide to servers in California to be analyzed by the air-quality monitoring company Aclima.
By Myriam Vidal
At first glance, Ramses Diaz’s car seems like any other driving through New York City. Then I spot the phrase, “I measure air quality,” on the left door. Inside, a tablet attached to the dashboard displays a map of New York City, and two big boxes in the trunk beam huge quantities of data back to servers in California. I step inside with Diaz and off we go to track air quality in Brooklyn.
The advocates say they are “appalled” by Maryland Energy Administration grants aimed at promoting and expanding natural gas infrastructure in the state.
By Aman Azhar
Contrary to Maryland’s climate and clean energy goals, the Maryland Energy Administration has announced $9.25 million in grants for expanding natural gas infrastructure in the state, angering environmentalists who have called the move a handout to the fossil fuel industry at ratepayer’s expense.
Amid fighting over croissants and climate, the UN’s COP27 mirrored a world that can’t come together to break free of fossil fuels and avoid a catastrophic future.
By Bob Berwyn
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt—The madness of COP27 started at the airport, where 50 diesel buses idled under the hot sun with doors wide open and air conditioners blasting until they headed out, often with just a handful of attendees aboard, delivering them to a far-flung network of hotels sprawled along the reef-fringed coast of the southern Sinai Peninsula.
The agreement didn’t consider the needs of Native Americans, Mexico or ecosystems. Since its signing, the river has dropped, demand has skyrocketed and states have failed to agree on how to share it.
By Luke Runyon, KUNC
On a chilly fall day, Eric Kuhn walked along a gravel path above the Colorado River in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. The former head of the Colorado River District, a water agency based on the state’s Western Slope, paused where one of its tributaries, the Roaring Fork, spilled into the river, creating a two-tone stream of beige and dark brown at the confluence.
The Sea Port Oil Terminal, 30 miles off the Texas coast, is the first of four proposed offshore terminals designed to dramatically expand the U.S. oil export capacity.
By Dylan Baddour
The Biden administration has approved plans to build the nation’s largest oil export terminal off the Gulf Coast of Texas, which would add 2 million barrels per day to the U.S. oil export capacity.
Taking water samples along the way, just as Hugh de Laussat Willoughby did in 1897, a team hopes to enlarge understanding of modern-day pollutants in a watershed that millions of Floridians now rely upon.
By Amy Green
In 1897, the explorer and amateur scientist Hugh de Laussat Willoughby climbed into a canoe and embarked on a coast-to-coast expedition of the Florida Everglades, a wilderness then nearly as vast as the peninsula itself and as unknown, he wrote, as the “heart of Africa.”
Today's Climate - Bold Climate Protests Are Triggering Even Bolder Anti-Protest Laws
Today's Climate - Bold Climate Protests Are Triggering Even Bolder Anti-Protest Laws
A twice-weekly digest of the most pressing climate-related news, released every Tuesday and Friday, written by Kristoffer Tigue.
Bold Climate Protests Are Triggering Even Bolder Anti-Protest Laws
Increasingly bold climate protests are triggering a wave of harsh new laws in Western nations that aim to prevent the type of disruptive demonstrations experts say have long played an important role in healthy democracies.
From Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violent resistance to British rule in India to Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous civil rights marches in Jim Crow America, many of the freedoms people enjoy around the world today are owed in large part to social protest movements and civil disobedience. In recent demonstrations that have caught international attention—including climate activists splattering food onto the glass covers of famous artwork, letting the air out of SUV tires en masse and even shutting down airports in several different countries on the same day—protesters have pointed to those historical moments as both their motivation and justification for their actions.
Last week, climate activists dumped baking flour on a sports car painted by the famous U.S. pop artist Andy Warhol that is on display in Italy’s financial capital.
But as climate protesters adopt more radical tactics to highlight what they say is a world moving far too slowly to prevent catastrophic global warming in the coming decades, they’re being met with a slew of new anti-protest laws from policymakers who say the demonstrations are going too far.
In Britain, climate protests that have jammed highways and disrupted places of commerce have emboldened lawmakers to pass new legislation that gives police broad new powers to regulate demonstrations. That includes being able to dictate when a protest can take place and how loud it gets. The new law also threatens protesters who block highways with harsh new penalties, including up to six months in prison and unlimited fines. And lawmakers are also considering new legislation, known as The Public Order bill, which could extend those penalties to protesters who lock themselves onto construction sites or other places of business, as well as give police new powers to stop and search someone for a “protest-related” offense.
In Australia, lawmakers passed a new law in April that similarly increased penalties on protesters who disrupt economic activities, turning what was once a $400 maximum fine into a $15,000 one, with the possibility of serving up to two years in jail.
In the United States, too, protests that have been broadly tied to environmental, social and climate justice issues, such as demonstrations attempting to halt construction of major international oil and gas pipelines, have triggered new laws in more than a dozen states. In some of those cases, trespassing and “impeding” the operation of pipelines, power plants and other “critical infrastructure” can now lead to a felony conviction.
“Protest is a fundamental right, not a gift from the state,” Martha Spurrier, director of U.K.-based civil rights organization Liberty, said at a recent press event in reaction to the new anti-protest laws in Britain. “Our right to protest continues to be attacked by a government intent on making it harder for people to stand up for the causes they believe in.”
Proponents of the new laws say they’re necessary to prevent a “small minority of protesters” from causing significant disruptions to daily life, which they say can inflict serious economic losses on businesses and taxpayers and even put lives at risk. Last month, for example, German officials blamed at least one death in Berlin on activists after a climate protest delayed emergency responders trying to reach a traffic accident. Developers for Britain’s HS2 high-speed railway line have also claimed that protests against the project have increased its costs by about $145 million.
But human and civil rights groups say the laws pose a serious threat to free speech, which they call “an integral part of democracy.” And many of those laws now face legal challenges, including at least one lawsuit over Australia’s new anti-protest law that will be heard in front of the nation’s supreme court.
Many activists have also argued that they’ve had no choice but to adopt bolder tactics after their governments have failed for decades to adequately respond to the climate crisis, which scientists say is exacerbating natural disasters and food insecurity in many parts of the world and driving the extinction of plants and animals to levels not seen in the last 10 million years. Meanwhile, the world’s governments and financial institutions continue to fund new fossil fuel development at record levels.
In fact, as the pivotal COP27 global climate talks came to a close last week, some delegates expressed immense frustration that more wasn’t being done to reduce the world’s dependence on fossil fuels. Without further intervention, climate experts say, the world will quickly overshoot the Paris Agreement target of limiting average global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. Instead, they say, the planet remains on track to warm between 2 and 3 degrees Celsius by that time—a scenario that would bring about devastating ecological consequences in the coming decades, including far more deadly natural disasters and an accelerating mass extinction crisis.
Yet the most recent climate protests, especially ones including famous artwork, have sparked heated debate within the climate movement over what’s the “right” and “wrong” way to protest. While there’s plenty of research that suggests civil disobedience and confrontational protests are quite effective at spreading awareness of social movement causes, blocking specific projects and even normalizing social movements in the eyes of the public—a phenomenon sociologists call the “radical flank effect”—more recent research also suggests that disruptive protesting can be counterproductive.
A 2020 study found extreme protest actions can reduce the overall popularity of a social movement. A study released earlier this month that surveyed more than 1,300 people in Germany, where several of the climate protests targeting artwork have taken place, found that 83 percent of the respondents thought the demonstrations had gone too far. And another study published this month, conducted by renowned climatologist Michael Mann and University of Pennsylvania political scientist Shawn Patterson Jr., found that 46 percent of the public said they became less sympathetic to the aims of climate protesters after witnessing demonstrations involving famous artwork.
“I have devoted much of my time and effort over the past several decades to the cause of meaningful climate action” and “worried that events like this could harm the cause to which I (and so many) have devoted my life,” Mann wrote in a recent opinion essay for TIME Magazine, referencing the protest where two activists threw tomato soup on a Vincent van Gogh painting. “From a communications standpoint, the protest seemed like an even bigger mess than the soup-splattered painting.”
Still, many climate activists have said they’ll continue participating in confrontational and disruptive protests until their governments do more to address the climate crisis, and urge their leaders to ban new development of fossil fuels. More than 2,000 activists have been arrested in the U.K. due to disruptive climate demonstrations, activists said, and as the COP27 climate talks wrapped up over the weekend, more than 30 protesters remained in jail for demonstrations that took place during the summit.
“Until they put the death sentence as the repercussions for what we’re doing, it won’t deter us,” Cameron Ford, a spokesperson for Just Stop Oil, one of the core groups coordinating the recent protests, told the Guardian last month. “Because the alternative to us not getting the change that we’re demanding is death.”
That’s it this week for Today’s Climate, thanks for reading. I’ll take a break from the newsletter this Friday to observe Thanksgiving and continue my ongoing search for the perfect pie. Look for me in your inbox next week—but before you go:
Hot Gossip
Record snowfall in upstate New York led to a surge of climate disinformation online, recirculating a long-debunked myth that global warming can’t be real if we’re getting more snow. This BBC journalist took the time to debunk the myth again.
That’s how many metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions are expected to be released from coal-fired power plants worldwide this year, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency, putting 2022 on track to break the previous all-time record for coal emissions.
The final deal struck by COP27 delegates on Sunday will do little to advance the United Nations’ next global conference focused on biodiversity loss, which is being held in two weeks in Montreal, observers said. The final deal repeated much of the same language on nature loss as last year’s agreement.
A Bloomberg Green analysis of more than 215,000 carbon offset credits over the past decade reveals for the first time that dozens of the biggest global companies have made bold climate claims justified by cheap renewable-energy offsets that don’t counteract global warming.
In terms of its climate law, New York remains one of the most ambitious states in its efforts to slash planet-warming emissions. But to actually achieve its aims, analysts say the state will need to build renewables 10 times faster for the rest of this decade than it did in the previous one.
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