Climate Point: Tree rings show global warming, your diet affects climate and Dems go nuclear
Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate change, energy and the environment. I'm Janet Wilson, writing to you from Palm Springs. Back in 1853, government engineers saw an oasis of fringy trees and came up with the city's modern-day moniker.
Trees have long helped humans identify wet and dry years too — the thinner the ring, the less rain had fallen. Scientists say tree rings are now showing human-caused global warming impacts on drought and rainfall as far back as 1900, as Doyle Rice reports for Paste BN. Lead researcher Kate Marvel, a climate modeler at NASA and Columbia University, said, “It’s mind-boggling. There is a really clear signal of the effects of human greenhouse gases.” It's also the first time researchers have identified effects on water supplies for crops and cities around the Earth.
Here are some other things you may want to know:
MUST READ STORIES
We are what we eat. And the planet is too. The New York Times' climate and food staffs have a great package this week on the links between what we eat and how it affects the Earth — the world's food system is responsible for about one-quarter of planet-warming gases. Nadja Popovicha has a handy-dandy quiz to check your own climate-changing caloric contribution. And there are recipes.
Out you go. Then there's take-out. Maine has become the first state to ban food containers made of Styrofoam, as N'dea Yancey-Bragg writes for Paste BN. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills signed a bill Tuesday that will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2021. “Polystyrene cannot be recycled like a lot of other products, so while that cup of coffee may be finished, the Styrofoam cup it was in is not,” Mills said. Companies like Dunkin' and McDonald's have phased it out too.
POLITICAL CLIMATE
Nuke it. Nuclear energy could be making a comeback thanks to ... Democrats? As Paste BN's Ledyard King tells us, several candidates vying for the party's 2020 presidential nomination are promoting expanding "next-generation" nuclear power to aggressively address climate change, including Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., Rep. John Delaney, D-Md., and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. Several others, including former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., have signaled they're open to the idea.
Throw the switch. A growing number of Republicans in Congress are also openly discussing climate change and proposing what they call "conservative" solutions, driven partly by polls showing voters in both parties — particularly younger ones — are concerned about the issue, as Lisa Friedman writes for The New York Times. They're not necessarily acknowledging we're the problem or that we should ditch fossil fuels, but they're willing to invest in R&D on renewables.
We'll always have Paris. The GOP-led Senate still isn't likely to join in, but as King tells us for Paste BN, House Democrats on Thursday passed legislation that would prevent the Trump administration from exiting the international Paris Agreement aimed at blunting global warming.
WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE
Arsenic and old lace. A new analysis finds that drinking California tap water over the course of a lifetime could increase the risk of cancer, as CNN reports. Environmental Working Group researchers estimated that the contaminants found in public water systems — mostly from 500 smaller water systems across the state — could contribute to more than 15,000 cancer cases there.
Mine, all mine. Half a dozen North Carolina companies — including one that illegally discharged highly corrosive hydrofluoric acid into a popular river — are seeking permits to keep disposing ore mining waste into the river, reports Karen Chávez with the Asheville Citizen-Times. State officials want public comment on the decades-long practice. They're already getting an earful from environmental groups. All the facilities have violated past requirements.
AND ANOTHER THING
How about them apples? It's not just kids these days. "Green" grannies and other retirees are fighting climate change, often after a life-changing experience, as Elizabeth Weise chronicles in Paste BN. Former denier Charlene Lange had to fly in low to see Canada's Northern Lights because melting tundra had caused train tracks to sink. Now, she lobbies governors to fight climate change. There are sewing circles too, with a twist. Recently, women from "100 Grannies" took fabric destined for landfills and made reusable bags, then handed them out to anyone who turned in a plastic bag.
Here's this week's 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