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:
Natalie Portman told an interviewer at Cannes about her sustainable lifestyle, and I gotta say, a lot of it is pretty doable stuff. Buying less stuff, repairing what you already own, eating less meat, going to the library. Man, celebs really are just like us! (Except much, much better looking)
GETTING DOWN TO CLIMATE BUSINESS:
🏭️ Time to get cautiously optimistic, because the EPA proposed new emissions limits for gas and coal-fired power plants. This new rule would limit emissions with carbon capture technology at the top of smokestacks. Fossil fuel power plants generate about 25% of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, so we have to get that under control. Of course, this whole system relies on technology that has never actually been proven, but hey! America’s done lots of things with unproven technology. The moon landing, the Hoover Dam, Mountain Dew Hot Sauce.
🌳️ New research confirms that urban trees are really, really good at absorbing carbon and preventing the urban heat island effect. They also prevent stormwater runoff and mitigate air pollution exposure. One city paying attention is Houston. Although they have a pretty low rate of tree cover now, they’ve set a goal to plant 4.6 million trees by 2030. Don’t mess with Texas – unless you’re planting some trees. In that case, mess away!
🇺🇸️ Now that we’re staring down the barrel of another presidential election, you might be worried about all the climate progress we’ve made in the past few years being set back under a new regime. But according to US climate envoy John Kerry, a Republican administration would not be able to reverse the IRA’s wins on climate and clean energy. Kerry attributes this largely to economic changes spurred by the Inflation Reduction Act, which incentivizes green energy and smart climate choices irrespective of who is in power, telling reporters, “The power of the marketplace is bigger than the presidency on (climate change) now.” Hate to disagree with Biggie on this one, but I guess sometimes Mo’ Money, Fewer Problems.
🛰️ Good news for winos: satellite technology is helping wine producers pick new climate-resilient sites. A combination of satellite data and artificial intelligence “compares current and historical satellite images, meteorological records and hydrometry to project trends into the future.” So your wines will be safe, and you don’t even have to drink any f***ing merlot.
💰 If you’ve been paying attention to politics recently, you know that people absolutely cannot stop talking about the debt ceiling. And like everything, climate change is taking its toll, because multiple recent climate disasters have slowed tax collection, pushing the government closer to default. With more than a dozen billion-dollar disasters in the past year, residents of many states have received extensions on filing their taxes. Significantly, two of those states are Florida and California, which account for more than 25% of federal revenue from taxes. I never thought I’d say this, but do we need the IRS to be… even meaner?
🦤 Restoring seabird populations can help repair the climate, whose nitrogen-rich guano supports ecosystems and organisms like coral reefs, plankton, and seagrass. New resesarch has tracked the success of over 850 seabird restoration projects, and restoration efforts are continuing. These efforts include “direct translocation of young birds to new sites free of invasive predators” and “social attraction methods, like using decoys.” Man, when I heard we were catfishing seabirds, I assumed it involved an actual fish.
SOME STATS:
5X: THE INCOMING NORTHWEST HEAT WAVE WAS MADE THIS MUCH MORE LIKELY BY CLIMATE CHANGE (THE NPR)
800: ADULTS INGEST THIS MANY PARTICLES OF MICROPLASTICS EVERY DAY (BOSTON GLOBE)
Let Invasive Species Invade Your Tummy
I love it when I can take sustainable actions that overlap with my favorite hobby: eating. If you want to help rewild the area you live, try eating some invasive plants. If they’re in your salad, they’re not in your pristine environment. A win-win!
