Climate Point: Cities plan climate change action in 2024
Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate, energy and the environment, and hello 2024! From Palm Springs, I'm Janet Wilson.
Environmental issues, particularly climate change, often seem hopeless. Many parts of the country are experiencing what I did visiting family in New Hampshire for Christmas: snow droughts and unseasonably warm temperatures. And yes, 2023 was absolutely the hottest year ever recorded. Rochester, New York is seeing temps 20 degrees above normal - at night. The Great Lakes were at their lowest ice cover ever on New Year's Day. In California, huge waves amped up by climate change will continue to batter the eroding coast this month.
When all seems lost, though, I read stories across the Paste BN Network and elsewhere, and I'm immediately drawn in. Cuban tree frogs the size of your hand wreaking havoc in Georgia? What else have I missed?
The big thing that struck me this week was how many cities, towns and states plan more action on the climate crisis in the New Year.
The mayors of Paterson, New Jersey, seaside Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and the "hellscape" seasoned mayor of Phoenix know their constituents are feeling the impacts, from coastal erosion to dwindling drinking water, and like others are opening city coffers for electric cars and implementing measures to combat deadly heat, conserve water, eliminate plastics and more. Mesa, Arizona has bought the nation's first all-electric fire truck. Activists in York, Maine and in Rhode Island are pressing forward on other action. Native American knowledge of climate processes is getting overdue attention in Minneapolis.
Local land purchases of smaller acreage are also helping preserve wildlife in Florida and "a place of peacefulness" along Lake Michigan.
Meanwhile, we don't all agree all the time. One coastal Georgia Republican congressman who attended the recent U.N. climate conference offers his thoughts in a recent interview.
But what can we do as individuals? Pressing major polluters and public officials to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is critical, experts say. And our own actions can make a difference. One group says there's a straightforward way to make big progress in the fight against climate change: Everyone should stop eating meat, and all animal products, as Paste BN's Doyle Rice reports. Food production systems, including burping and pooping cows, contribute a third of the greenhouse gases piling up in the atmosphere and causing climate change.
The "Plant-Based Treaty," first proposed in 2021, is gaining a bit of traction. New York City Mayor Eric Adams has made vegan the default in hospital menus and introduced "Meat Free Mondays" and "Plant-Powered Fridays" in schools. And the treaty has been signed by several cities — including Los Angeles — and tens of thousands of people.
Ultimately it's the action or inaction of major energy and food producers that will matter most. But consumers play a role, and by taking action could help others. As Erica Van Buren writes for the Augusta (Georgia) Chronicle about how becoming a climate reporter has changed her, she went from occasionally forgoing a plastic straw to full knowledge of what "reduce, reuse and recycle" each mean, and the high stakes.
"Why does any of this matter, you might ask. As the climate changes, increased instabilities in U.S. and global food production and distribution systems are projected to make food less available and more expensive," and "families that struggle to afford energy bills − such as rural, low-income, households and communities of color − are especially vulnerable to extreme heat events. For example, Black Americans are more likely to live in older, less energy efficient homes and face disproportionate heat-related health risks."
She quotes the indomitable, lyrical Maya Angelou on why we should each act, rather feeling overwhelmed: “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
Read on for more, including the Endangered Species Act half a century later, and offshore wind supplying the U.S. for the first time. 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