Methane Madness, Dark Oxygen, Bad Fashion Brands, 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 Our Culture:

We’ve been working hard on a rebrand for Gen E, and I’m so excited to share it with you all – in a few days! This image is just a teaser, and all will be revealed later this week. Stay tuned…

Getting down to climate business:

🥵 The Olympics are hotter because of human-caused climate change. Yeah, that’s obvious because the world is hotter and the Olympics are happening now in this world, so duh. But two points on this: the chart above shows how temperatures have risen in Paris between now and the last time they hosted the Olympics. And a study by World Weather Attribution found that this past month’s Euro heatwave, creating dangerous conditions for athletes, would’ve been “virtually impossible” sans climate change.

🌞 In the EU more energy was produced with solar and wind than with fossil fuels for the first six months of this year!

🌲 Up to 65% of our country’s drinking water comes from forested areas. The increase in wildfires threatens these water supplies as they can become contaminated with toxic substances from the fires. Think about what’s happening out West. Here’s an interactive article that digs into this issue.

🛰 Environmental Defense Fund, a Gen E platform nonprofit, has emerged as a methane-tracking watchdog, with their space monitoring technology. They’ve just published findings from aerial surveys of U.S. oil & gas sites. Turns out, the EPA has been sorely underestimating how much of this supercharged planet warming gas is being leaked from fossil fuel basins – it’s 4 times more than we thought.

🤓 A new discovery in the deep sea may help stall the green light for deep sea miners foaming at the mouth to raze the bottom of the ocean floor for ‘nodules’, which are small rocks made of metals. The deep sea floor is covered in these things, and it turns out they’re not just down there laying low, they’re working hard to split seawater into hydrogen and oxygen, potentially making them essential to oxygen-dependent life in the deep sea. Before this discovery, it was only known for oxygen to be made through photosynthesis via plantlife, which can’t happen in the dark ocean devoid of sunlight.

👎 A new analysis of climate action plans from the world’s 250 largest fashion brands finds that nearly a quarter of them have no plan to decarbonize at all. The bad-list includes Reebok, Tom Ford, DKNY, Urban Outfitters, and Dolce & Gabbana. I’d use a different finger-up emoji if it were available.

Growing Shade

Summer in the city is brutal. You’ve heard it here before. My personal affinity to a neighborhood has a lot to do with its tree cover situation, because there’s nothing less appealing than walking in 80°F+ weather on long expanses of baking concrete without trees or tall buildings for shade (certain parts of Brooklyn, I’m looking at you). It’s an urban fact we need tree-lined sidewalks everywhere, hard stop. But as this pleasantly written article points out, even if cities get off their asses and plant the trees that everyone is in agreement about, it’ll be years if not decades before the desired shade benefits are achieved. Trees gotta grow, yo. Another solution is to mass install shade structures, but as the author notes, there aren’t lobbying groups to help push this instantly beneficial solution forward. Shade can make a person feel 36-72°F cooler…! Those are life-saving numbers, and as temperatures continue to rise, and remain risen, we need all the shade we can get.