‘Breaking Bad’ Habits, 3.1°C, Scout Concept EVs, and More!

Hey climate heroes! Welcome to The Climate Roundup, where we round up the change, er the news about climate and the environment. As part of the Gen E community, we thank you for making climate action part of everyday life. (Reading this newsletter counts!)

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In Pop Culture:

🚮 Bryan Cranston has reprised his role as Walter White from “Breaking Bad” for an anti-litter campaign in New Mexico, where the show took place. Titled “Breaking Bad Habits”, the PSA aims to grab people’s attention and alert them to the waste problem and their individual responsibility to respect their home state and keep it clean. Judging by the YouTube comments, I’m not so sure the message is getting through. It’s mostly people reminiscing about “Breaking Bad” by recreating scenes and quotes using the words “litter” and “cleaning”, so…

In Enviro News:

🤬 Under current policies, the world is on track to warm 3.1°C above preindustrial levels by 2100, according to the UN’s annual Emissions Gap Report, released last week. That is more than double the 1.5°C of warming agreed upon as the targeted limit per the Paris Agreement – a target that is now likely out of reach. We are currently living in a 1.3°C world that is already feeling the pain and strain of what that excess heat can do. A 3.1°C world is unimaginable, and there are people alive today who will be around for it in 2100, a not so distant future. Scientists warn we are getting dangerously close to breaching several devastating planetary tipping points, such as a shutdown of the Atlantic currents, the collapse of Greenland’s ice sheets, mass death of coral reefs, and the sudden thawing of permafrost, to name a few. Humans did this. We could have stopped it. We can still do everything possible to limit the warming and the suffering. And right now that means voting for candidates who stand for urgent climate action, for expansion of clean, renewable energy, and most importantly, in any and all forms, for ending the fossil fuel era.

🌗 Grist offers a comparative look at the ‘climate stakes’ of a Harris vs. Trump administration, and how each is likely to handle topics like our air, water, land, transportation, home insurance, health… nearly everything because climate and the environment impact everything.

✋ Cargill is the largest private company in the US and the largest agricultural business in the world. They’ve also been linked to mass deforestation. Last year the company committed to ending deforestation in its supply chains in South America by 2025. In an effort to build awareness, a huge mural was painted in São Paulo, Brazil by a local street artist using ash from rainforest fires around the country. The mural is part of a campaign from Stand.earth to draw attention to Cargill’s destructive business practices and get them to change them. You can support Stand.earth with Gen E!

🥳 The largest dam removal in US history was completed this August, freeing the water in the Klamath River that runs through Oregon and California to flow once again as nature intended. And now the salmon are back after more than a century of denial to their important migration basin upstream. Nature is bouncing back, largely in thanks to the local tribes who fought for decades to remove the dams that decimated the spring-run Chinook salmon populations which are so important to their culture. The Klamath dam removal is being studied closely by scientists and universities, as it serves as an example to the world for how nature might respond to this type of project.

New EV Alert

⚡️ Scout Motors is an American car company that stalled out in 1980, but has been brought back to life by Volkswagen Group, now as an EV company. Scout EVs will be built in South Carolina and have a range of 350 miles or 500 miles for a hybrid version with a backup gas generator (boo) to soothe range anxiety. The design looks very Rivian to me, so ok, interest piqued. They’re expected to hit the road in 2027.