Climate Point: The big heat and how to cool down the next 30 years
Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate change, energy and the environment. Just in time for a brutal summer swelter across most of the USA, a new report shows heat waves will skyrocket in US cities as the globe warms, "breaking" the index that combines temperatures and humidity. And nights will stay hotter too, Doyle Rice reports for Paste BN. One example? Phoenix will feel like Baghdad, per The Arizona Republic's Priscilla Totiyapungprasert.
Here's the good news: We can fix it. If carbon emissions from power plants and other sources are slashed, temperatures will stay lower.
As always, I'm Janet Wilson, writing to you from Palm Springs, where we've cooled down to 104 degrees after toastier days last week. Here are some other things that might be of interest:
MUST READ STORIES
The talk. Have you talked to your doctor about climate change? The health risks of high heat, longer ragweed and pollen seasons and other global warming impacts are many. A growing number of doctors are now discussing the connections with patients. Mental health is a concern too, as NPR's Martha Bebinger reports. "It's a difficult conversation to have," says a Rhode Island doctor. "Many people still think it's something they're not going to be affected by, but it's really not true."
Rounding down. A federal judge has slashed to $25 million a damages award to a California man who blames Roundup weed killer for his cancer. But he rejected the company’s bid for a new trial, as Jonathan Stempel reports for Reuters, saying Monsanto “deserves to be punished” but a higher award was legally impermissible.
POLITICAL CLIMATE
Sour grapes. EPA declined to ban a pesticide linked to brain damage in children, per Ellen Knickmeyer with the Associated Press. The agency’s defense of the widely used bug-killer chlorpyrifos could set the stage for a pivotal federal court trial on whether to force the agency to ban it.
Energy star dims. Energy Secretary Rick Perry approved a petition from the Competitive Enterprise Institute to create a new class of less efficient dishwashers, and also weakened rules on light bulbs, furnaces and other appliances. Josh Siegel with the Washington Examiner reports the action is expected to bring legal challenges that the agency is ignoring a legally required energy conservation program.
ENERGY CLEAN AND DIRTY
Oily business. California Gov. Gavin Newsom fired the state's top oil and gas regulator after learning from my reports in the Desert Sun that fracking has doubled since he took office, and that supervisors hold investments in the oil companies they regulate.
A day later, Ted Goldberg with KQED broke the news that 800,000 gallons of crude oil and wastewater flowed for two months from a massive seep in a Chevron oil field in Kern County.
Back in southern California, which shares the title for nation's smoggiest air with Kern County, Newsom appointed a former Exxon engineer to a key post on the region's air pollution control board.
Gas lighting? Los Angeles is ditching coal as a power source — but as Sammy Roth reports for the Los Angeles Times, the city is replacing it with another polluting fuel by building a natural gas-fired power plant in a rural Utah town. Residents there are thrilled they'll still have good energy producing jobs, but experts say wind and solar would work better by truly cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
AND ANOTHER THING
Flake news. Could artificial snow save the world? Piling billions of tons of man-made snow on the West Antarctic ice sheet could prevent it from collapsing into the sea, a new study suggests. Such a "hail-Mary" effort could stop an eventual global sea-level rise of 10 feet, which would flood coastal cities around the world, as Rice writes for Paste BN. One critic said using nearby ocean water could result in salty slush that would actually worsen the melt. At least 7.4 trillion tons of snow, the equivalent of about 500 billion tractor-trailers, would be needed.
Here are the latest carbon dioxide numbers. Scientists say to keep a livable planet, we need to cut the amount to 350 parts per million. We're well above that and rising.
That's all for this week. For more climate, energy and environment news, follow me on Twitter @janetwilson66 You can sign up to get Climate Point in your inbox for free here.