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:
This week, climate protestors blocked Paris Hilton’s entrance to the Met Gala in New York City. She eventually made it inside, but it was still a good way to bring attention to the issue. And it’s fitting that they picked Paris Hilton, because if we don’t act to stop climate change, we’ll all be saying “That’s hot.”
GETTING DOWN TO CLIMATE BUSINESS:
💰️ Great news! The Inflation Reduction Act, a climate bill by another name, appears to be powering a new wave of domestic manufacturing and clean energy jobs. Companies are REALLY eager to take advantage of the tax breaks in the bill, and there’s been a boom in “new battery factories, wind and solar farms, electric vehicle plants and other investments.” If it keeps going, the impact of the IRA is going to be even bigger than lawmakers anticipated when it passed. One tricky thing: these incentives are actually SO popular that it’s going to cost more than initially budgeted, by about 46%. Personally, I’m not worried. If America really needs the money, we can sell off one of the less important states. We’re not even using North Dakota, Canada can have it.
🏜️ Whenever the fossil fuel industry is scared, you know something good is about to happen, which is why you should pay attention to what’s going on in Texas. El Paso is voting on Proposition K, an enormous climate bill for a small town with a lot of oil infrastructure. It would eliminate the city’s mandatory monthly fee for rooftop solar users (El Paso is in the sunny Chihuahuan Desert and a prime location for rooftop solar), ban the use of municipal water for fracking, “enshrine a goal of sourcing 80 percent of electricity from renewables by 2030,” and open the conversation to putting the city’s energy utility back in municipal hands. By the time this newsletter goes out, the votes should have rolled in. You’re reading this in the future, so now YOU get to tell ME what happened!
₿️ The government plans to tax the energy used to mine crypto, a notoriously energy-sucking process. The 30% excise tax would phase in over several years and would require crypto firms to disclose the type of energy they’re using to produce their coins. Famously, crypto guys love paying taxes, so I’m sure this will go smoothly.
🛰️ Speed cameras have been foiling dangerous drivers for years, and now, they’re about to be a thorn in the side of fossil fuel companies. Satellites are now able to accurately capture methane emissions, which is going to make it much harder for oil and gas companies to lie about how much they’re polluting. Apparently, “The satellite missions include public and private efforts and are poised to deliver climate transparency on a scale never before seen.” This is important data both for the government agencies responsible for regulating emissions and also the activist investors willing to pull money from companies who don’t hold up their end of the divestment bargain. Plus, we can use the images to bully the companies online – the true American pastime.
🇵🇹 Student protestors have occupied 22 schools and universities across Europe, part of a month-long youth campaign to bring attention to climate issues. In Lisbon, particularly effective protestors forced a high school to shut down for three days in a row, and elsewhere, students barricaded themselves into the Dean’s office at a university. Organizers hope these protests will grow to resemble the famous Paris protests of 1968. Sounds pretty exciting, and maybe it’ll give Wes Anderson another shot at making a good movie about it.
🚶 This newsletter has talked a lot about climate migration, and now, the people at 538 have interviewed author Jake Bittle about where all those climate migrants will go. (spoiler: they’ll probably move away from low-lying coastal areas and places with water shortages, likely to the Upper Midwest). This one’s in podcast form, so you don’t even have to read anything!
SOME STATS:
100X: THE HUGE MEDITERRANEAN HEAT WAVE WAS MADE THIS MUCH MORE LIKELY BY CLIMATE CHANGE (THE GUARDIAN)
$10T: A COALITION THAT OVERSEES THIS MUCH IN ASSETS HAS CALLED ON COMPANIES TO DRASTICALLY REDUCE PLASTICS (SCIENCE ALERT)
The Opposite Of A Pink Slip? A Green… Slip
Looking for a new job? According to LinkedIn, “demand for executives with sustainability skills is continuing to outstrip supply.” So if you’re looking to advance your career, learning a little more about climate might be a good idea! That technically makes this newsletter “professional development.”
