Climate Point: Scientists have news about the hottest year
Happy New Year, and welcome to 2025. The past week marked the end of a year of record heat globally, the end of a near record year for tornadoes in the U.S. and the passing of President Jimmy Carter, who left a conservation legacy.
Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to news about climate change, energy and the environment. I'm Dinah Voyles Pulver, a national correspondent on Paste BN's climate and environment team.
World weather organizations will release their final numbers on Jan. 10, but experts studying the data said it appears 2024 was the hottest year in the modern record. The warmth is thought to have contributed to some of the intensity and rainfall in the five landfalling hurricanes and the near record number of tornadoes across the nation over the past year.
Follow the devastation along Hurricane Helene's path in this infographic. And, see some of the amazing images captured this year by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s GOES-16 satellite in this graphic by Paste BN’s Janet Loehrke. Despite some who think Wisconsin may be “a climate haven,” the effects of climate change already are being felt there, wrote Caitlin Looby and Madeline Heim, at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The state endured record low ice on the Great Lakes last year and a soggy spring that became a deepening drought. Extremes in weather are expected to get more frequent, in Wisconsin and elsewhere.
Lawsuit challenges Duke on dangers of climate change
Many in the energy industry will be closely watching a lawsuit filed against Duke Energy in North Carolina. The town of Carrboro has charged Duke with deceiving the public about climate change and allowing its ongoing operations and investments in new fossil-fuel powered plants to help further warm the planet. The lawsuit asks Duke to compensate Carrboro and its residents for the extra costs imposed on them by the company’s actions, although it doesn't specify a dollar amount.
"Although Duke has understood the dangers of climate change for decades, the company actively participated in a far-reaching, decades-long campaign to deceive the public and decision-makers about these dangers," the suit stated.
The company responded that it was in the process of reviewing the complaint. "Duke Energy is committed to its customers and communities and will continue working with policymakers and regulators to deliver reliable and increasingly clean energy while keeping rates as low as possible."
President Carter's conservation work remembered
Among the many accolades shared about Carter over the past week, a number of tributes paid homage to his work on conservation and energy, including his installation of solar panels at the White House.
In an opinion piece for Paste BN, Stuart Eizenstat, a former domestic policy adviser to Carter in the White House, called Carter a "clean energy pioneer" and the "greatest environmental president since Theodore Roosevelt."
Manish Bapna, president and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said Carter was 40 years ahead of his time. "He championed the single largest conservation effort in history, protecting millions of acres of Alaskan lands to be experienced as national parks, monuments, wilderness areas and wildlife refuges," Bapna said.
The American Rivers conservation organization also remembered Carter, calling him "one of our nation's great river heroes."
“He had a personal love of rivers and was an avid angler and paddler, stated the organization's president and CEO, Tom Kiernan. His dedication to river conservation leaves a legacy of healthy, free-flowing rivers that will benefit our nation for generations to come.”
As Georgia governor, Carter was not only instrumental in protecting the Flint and Chattahoochee rivers, he also played "a key role in strengthening the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System" and "ensured a legacy of healthy, free-flowing rivers by vetoing construction of unnecessary, destructive dams across the country," Kiernan said.
Deb Haaland, the current Interior secretary said Carter's "love for and conservation of our shared public lands leaves a tremendous legacy."
Haaland prepares to depart Interior
Speaking of Haaland, her tenure at the department will end on Jan. 20. She sat down with Debra Utacia Krol from the Arizona Republic to discuss her four years with President Joe Biden's administration.
Haaland said she was proud of the work she and her staff have done to put tribes at the table and as partners in land and water management. She was particularly proud of her efforts to shine a light on the harm done to Indian Country children, families and communities by federal Indian boarding schools.
Endangered species news
In Indiana, a group has permanently protected the state's last remaining habitat for the rare Mitchell's satyr butterfly. Cliff Chapman, executive director of the Central Indiana Land Trust, said it was a humbling experience to be part of saving such a unique part of the state’s environment. Elsewhere in the state The Nature Conservancy is working to protect endangered bats.
In December, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service moved closer to providing more protection for the monarch butterfly and announced it was moving the red-cockaded woodpecker from endangered to threatened. Paste BN Network reporter Gareth McGrath took a closer look at the red-cockaded woodpeckers in North Carolina.
Read on for more, including an 8-year-old's triumph in capturing 93 invasive lizards in Florida and the supervolcano in Yellowstone National Park. Some of the stories below may require a subscription. Sign up and get access to all eNewspapers in the Paste BN Network. If someone forwarded you this email and you'd like to receive Climate Point in your inbox for free once a week, sign up here.