Climate Point: From climate scientist to politician
Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate, energy and the environment. From verdant New Hampshire, I'm Janet Wilson.
There's big news in the climate world this week. Mexico's new president, Claudia Sheinbaum, is a Nobel Prize winning climate scientist who has vowed to amp up renewables. But some experts question whether she will rein in the nation's fossil fuel industry, enthusiastically backed by her predecessor and political mentor.
Sheinbaum, elected as Mexico's and North America's first woman and first Jewish president by a sweeping margin on Sunday, inherits a country grappling daily with climate change and environmental challenges: pervasive drought, a water crisis in the sprawling capital of Mexico City, and rampant deforestation, writes Reuters' Cassandra Garrison. But some experts say Sheinbaum could struggle to fulfill her environmental pledges after she partly sailed to victory on the popularity of her mentor, outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who spent billions propping up Mexico's fossil fuel-dependent state energy giants, oil firm Pemex and power utility CFE.
Sheinbaum — 61, who part of a panel of United Nations climate scientists that received a 2007 Nobel Peace Prize — campaigned on a pledge to boost renewable energy in the oil-producing country to as much as 50% by 2031. But her overwhelming victory is also a referendum on Lopez Obrador's policies, said Mariana Campero with the CSIS Americas Program, who said Sheinbaum could be hard-pressed to break with his style at the risk of losing support.
"She has said repeatedly that she will continue with his policies and that her government will be a continuation of his government," said Campero. "But she has always said that green energy is important.. So how will she square that circle?"
Research has shown evidence that countries with more female politicians pass more aggressive climate policies. The next few years, a critical juncture for slashing fossil fuel emissions, will show whether she intends to join those ranks.
Treat us fairly, please. U.S. officials are also hoping Sheinbaum will quickly resolve an impasse between the two countries over Mexico's required but delayed Rio Grande River water deliveries that Texas farmers and communities depend on. Mexico says an update to an 80-year-old treaty mandating the shared water use is long overdue, but has balked at signing one so far.
No retreat. To the north, oil and gas production and profits are way up in New Mexico, reports Adrian Hedden at the Carlsbad Current-Argus, netting the state $15 billion in the last fiscal year. In fact, fossil fuel income has quadrupled there since 2018, despite dire warnings on mounting climate change impacts due to oil and gas. Industry and local officials are also fighting state proposals for setback buffers between homes, schools, bodies of water and oil and gas drilling, which in addition to greenhouse gases, can emit dangerous local air pollutants.
No real prize. Which city is the dirtiest in the nation? If you guessed Houston as number one, you are correct, according to a new survey that ranked metropolitan areas on everything from air pollution to cockroach populations. Others that need to clean up their act include Newark, N.J., San Bernardino, Calif., Detroit, Mich., and several more, reports Paste BN Network's Brandi Addison.
Congested. One key piece of combatting climate change is to get drivers out of their polluting cars and onto efficient public transportation, including electric subways, buses and trolleys. And most Americans support public transit, but just 3% use it, according to Paste BN's Sara Chernikoff. Short-term politics often interfere with major policies on both fronts. The latest example? New York State Gov. Hoechel halted "congestion pricing" that would have required drivers to pay $15 to travel in midtown and lower Manhattan. That not only leaves more idling cars and trucks stewing in fumes, it also means billions in planned capital improvements to public transportation that would have been generated by the tolls has vanished, writes Thomas Zambito for Paste BN Network's New York team.
Okay, I'll bite. I'm not a fan of shark mania, shark movies or anything with jaws in the ocean. But Janet Loehrke's graphic story on the big predators, including safety tips for avoiding the rare but real chomp on your leg, is a winner. Who knew that in addition to the famed great whites, there are shark species named Wobbegong and Requiem that don't like us?
Read on for more, including how now melting glaciers grew in the world's largest desert. 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.