Climate Point: Not your grandfather's summer, and remembering a glacier
Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate change, energy and the environment. Due to technical difficulties, we're getting this to you on Monday.Thanks for your patience. I'm Janet Wilson, writing to you from Palm Springs, land of triple digits.
If it feels like this is the summer when the blazing hot reality of global warming is settling in, you're right. July "has re-written climate history books" with record heat waves "across the globe," the World Meteorological Organization says. U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres clanged alarm bells last week: "We have always lived through hot summers...This is not your grandfather's summer."
He had stern words for world leaders headed to New York for September's General Assembly, per Pamela Falk with CBS News: "Don't come to the Summit with beautiful speeches. Come with concrete plans," such as bigger cuts to harmful carbon emissions.
"Preventing irreversible climate disruption is the race of our lives and for our lives," the U.N. chief said.
Here are some other stories that may be of interest:
Not OK. One day people may wonder why we responded as we did to human-caused climate change. That's the thinking behind the first plaque to commemorate the loss of a glacier due to climate change, the "OK" glacier in Iceland, as Doyle Rice reports for Paste BN. The plaque reads: “This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it.”
UK and Greenland too. Britain was the latest to smash heat records, and as the heat wave spreads north and west, Greenland and all the Arctic have begun to melt at record levels, per Rice and Elinor Aspegren. Greenland lost a staggering 11 billion tons of ice in one day. That in turn is raising sea levels, as has long been predicted. Chelsea Harvey with E&E News explains.
Cut your engines. If we cut greenhouse gas emissions, including carbon pouring out of smokestacks and tailpipes, Arctic sea ice would almost immediately stabilize, according to researcher Dirk Notz. “If we could halve our emission rates magically next year,” Notz told National Geographic in 2017, “then we would have twice as long until the ice is gone.”
POLITICAL CLIMATE
Auctioneer? William Perry Pendley, a right-wing land rights attorney who has said the Founding Fathers would favor selling off all government lands, has been named acting director of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management - the largest steward of public lands. Steven Mufson with the Washington Post fills us in.
Native American leaders and environmentalists are concerned because Pendley has represented an oil and gas developer in a dispute over pristine national forest lands, reports Karl Plunkett with the Great Falls Tribune. But the Montana Petroleum Association said Pendley’s vast knowledge of the West will be valuable in Washington, D.C.
A house united. Democratic presidential hopefuls showed remarkable unity on fighting climate change at the debates in Detroit. Unlike more contentious issues such as healthcare, writes Marianne Lavelle with Inside Climate News. they all see growing risks to security, economy and health from climate change that the next president can't ignore.
Nope. A federal judge has blocked a new Arizona copper mine that would imperil endangered jaguars and other species, as Ian James chronicles for the Arizona Republic.
ALL ABOUT ENERGY
A new crop. More California farmers are planting solar panels as water supplies dry up, Solar energy projects could replace jobs and revenues that may be lost as constrained water supplies force the agriculture industry to scale back. In the San Joaquin Valley alone, farmers may need to take more than half a million acres out of production to comply with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. Sammy Roth with the Los Angeles Times explains.
On the rise. Hydrogen, often overlooked or criticized in the search for renewable energy, is getting a big lift in Germany, writes Vanessa Dazem with Bloomberg. From government officials to utilities and power grid operators, it's being touted as a cleaner way to break Germany’s dependence on coal. In the past three weeks, the Economy Ministry unveiled 20 labs to research the fuel, and natural gas pipeline owners asked for rules that allowing them to carry more of the lightest element.
WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE
Never can say good-bye. California has enacted the nation's first law requiring public notice if any of 5,000 "forever" PFAS chemicals are found in water supplies. The substances, used by DuPont, 3M and Chemours in military firefighting foams, nonstick frying pans, rain gear and other products, do not degrade easily and have been linked to cancers and developmental problems, as I report for The Desert Sun.
Cry me a river. EPA has proposed a partial clean-up for the Passaic River, one of the nation's most polluted waterways. As Scott Fallon with the N. Jersey Record writes, some activists say it only addresses part of the problem, but others say it's time to get something done. https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/environment/2019/07/29/epa-targets-bergen-passaic-counties-massive-passaic-river-cleanup-dioxin-occidental-ypf/1836670001/
Thwack. A top-ranked golf course has removed a plug urging players to hit a ball or two into nearby Lake Michigan, thanks to a story by the Detroit Free Press' Keith Matheny.
AND ANOTHER THING
The kids are all right. After seeing his track team running with inhalers and doubled over gasping, a south Phoenix coach told them about diesel pollution in their largely Latino neighborhood, tucked near industry. The students fought for and won a new, electric school bus. Priscilla Totiyapungprasert with the Arizona Republic writes that for Monica Aceves, it's not just a bus. “I just want them to have a healthy life,” she said of her young siblings. “I think about all the things that could happen to them.”
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.