A mostly empty 110 freeway toward downtown Los Angeles, California on April 28, 2020. Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
The shelter in place orders that brought clean skies to some of the world's most polluted cities and saw greenhouse gas emissions plummet were just a temporary relief that provided an illusory benefit to the long-term consequences of the climate crisis. According to new research, the COVID-19 lockdowns will have a "neglible" impact on global warming, as Newshub in New Zealand reported.
<p>The severe measures that were taken on a global scale to stem the tide of the novel coronavirus pandemic did curb pollution in the atmosphere, but the researchers found the impact will cut global heating by just 0.01 degrees Celsius by 2030, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/07/covid-19-lockdown-will-have-negligible-impact-on-climate-crisis-study" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported.</p><p>"The direct effect of the pandemic-driven [lockdown] will be negligible," said the researchers, whose analysis was led by Piers Forster at the University of Leeds in the UK, as The Guardian reported. "In contrast, with an economic recovery tilted towards green stimulus and reductions in fossil fuel investments, it is possible to avoid future warming of 0.3C by 2050."</p>
<p>The study was published in <em><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0883-0" target="_blank">Nature Climate Change</a></em>. To figure out the impact of the lockdowns, the researchers looked at mobility data from Google and Apple in 123 countries that covers 99 percent of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels">fossil fuel</a> emissions. The information gives real-time information on travel and work patterns, which allows researchers to use advanced computations to estimate emissions levels, according to The Guardian.</p><p>Professor Keith Shine, at the University of Reading and not part of the study team, told The Guardian: "It is deeply impressive to get such a near-real-time analysis of the climate impact [of the lockdowns]."</p><p>What they found was that emissions from people using transportation was at its lowest in April, with nitrogen oxide levels falling by 30 percent and carbon dioxide levels dropping by 25 percent, according to Newshub.</p>
<p>Professor Dave Reay, chair of carbon management at the University of Edinburgh who was not involved in the study, told Newshub that the results are not surprising "given the long lifetime of carbon dioxide and the massive pool of fossil carbon already swilling around in our atmosphere."</p><p>The declines show that swift and decisive changes in how people behave have the potential to dramatically impact the environment in the short term. That was evident in the cleaner skies and the suddenly visible animals in Venice's canals and the streets of various cities. In Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the outbreak, air quality improved so much that NASA satellite imagery showed the average density of tropospheric nitrogen dioxide – a toxic chemical that reduces immunity – dropped significantly below normal levels, as Newshub reported.</p>
<p>Of course, those lockdowns came with a steep economic price as people were put out of work and supply chains and distribution were severely disrupted. In other words, lockdowns of that scale are so damaging that they are impossible to maintain. Furthermore, once the lockdowns lifted, emissions levels started to rise again. That phenomenon means the world needs to transition to a zero-emissions economy by investing in <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy/">renewable energy</a> and burying CO2, according to the researchers, as The Guardian reported.</p><p>"It is now make or break for the 1.5 Celsius target," said Forster, as The Guardian reported. "This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to really change the direction of society. We do not have to go back to where we were, because times of crisis are also the time to change."</p>
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Bystanders watch the MV Wakashio bulk carrier from which oil is leaking near Blue Bay Marine Park in southeast Mauritius, on August 6, 2020. Photo by Dev Ramkhelawon / L'Express Maurice / AFP / Getty Images
The Indian Ocean island of Mauritius, renowned for its coral reefs, is facing an unprecedented ecological catastrophe after a tanker ran aground offshore and began leaking oil.
<p>The 984-foot MV Wakashio ran aground on July 25 and began to break up due to rough waters, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/07/mauritius-facing-environmental-disaster-after-striken-bulk-carrier-leaks-oil?CMP=twt_a-environment_b-gdneco&fbclid=IwAR39uaSW-9_KYfuYZMv1Sqh66zFJLGtQqgCEv42JH6rs73MIOttQcD0iEds" target="_blank">The Guardian reported</a>. It contained about 220.5 tons of diesel fuel and 4,189 tons of bunker fuel.</p><p>"We are in an environmental crisis situation," Mauritius' environment minister Kavy Ramano said according to The Guardian.</p>
<div id="3bdfb" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6c8ea0ce2a9151f222fbc67584beda1e"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1291356236219387906" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">🇲🇺 The authorities in Mauritius have warned of a major oil spill after a Panama-flagged ship reported a "leakage".… https://t.co/C7irK1e9g8</div> — BBC News Africa (@BBC News Africa)<a href="https://twitter.com/BBCAfrica/statuses/1291356236219387906">1596718293.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The environment ministry announced the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oil-spill" target="_self">oil spill</a> on Thursday, according to an AFP story published <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/08/tourist-hotspot-mauritius-hit-oil-spill-ship-grounds-200807054651300.html" target="_blank">by Al Jazeera</a>. The ship ran aground at Pointe d'Esny off the southeast of Mauritius, which is considered a "wetland of international importance" by the <a href="https://www.environment.gov.au/water/wetlands/ramsar" target="_blank">Ramsar Convention</a>. Mauritius depends on its <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oceans" target="_self">oceans</a> for <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fish" target="_self">fish</a> and tourism. It is also a major exporter of tuna, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-africa-47639452?ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=twitter&ns_campaign=bbc_live&ns_linkname=5f2bf24953c3fb067a7286fd%26Mauritius%20coast%20hit%20by%20oil%20spill%262020-08-06T12:13:14.186Z&ns_fee=0&pinned_post_locator=urn:asset:b0a37ecf-3c2b-4848-a562-cb28e0403c11&pinned_post_asset_id=5f2bf24953c3fb067a7286fd&pinned_post_type=share" target="_blank">BBC News</a> reported.</p><p>"This is the first time that we are faced with a catastrophe of this kind, and we are insufficiently equipped to handle this problem," Fishing Minister Sudheer Maudhoo said, AFP reported.</p><p>Mauritius is currently receiving help from the French island of Reunion and has asked other international and regional organizations to assist, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-06/mauritius-bars-access-to-beach-as-oil-leaks-from-stranded-vessel" target="_blank">Bloomberg reported</a>.</p>
<p>The MV Wakashio sails under a Panamanian flag but is owned by the Japanese company Nagashiki Shipping, The Guardian reported. All crew members were evacuated safely.</p><p>Nagashiki Shipping said that rough weather had caused the spill and made cleanup more difficult.</p><p>"Due to bad weather and constant pounding over the past few days, the starboard side bunker tanker has been breached and an amount of fuel oil has escaped into the sea," the company told Bloomberg by email. "In view of poor sea conditions salvage efforts are currently on hold."</p>
<p>A floating barrier has been placed around the ship to contain the oil.</p><p>Oceanographer Vassen Kauppaymuthoo said this was the first time Mauritius had seen such a devastating oil spill.</p><p>"It may have caused irreversible environmental damage to the southeastern coast of Mauritius," Kauppaymuthoo told Bloomberg. </p><p><a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/africa/en/" target="_blank">Greenpeace Africa</a>, meanwhile, said the incident demonstrated another example of the dangers of using and transporting <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuels</a>.</p>
<div id="7eb49" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="83819841e380a7072ec66d3186c160e8"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1291705003984510977" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">🚨RESPONSE to #Mauritius #OILSpill 🚨 “Once again we see the risks in oil: aggravating the #ClimateCrisis, as well as… https://t.co/PBLioZat6X</div> — Greenpeace Africa (@Greenpeace Africa)<a href="https://twitter.com/Greenpeaceafric/statuses/1291705003984510977">1596801446.0</a></blockquote></div><p>"There is no guaranteed safe way to extract, transport and store fossil fuel products. This oil leak is not a twist of fate, but the choice of our twisted addiction to fossil fuels. We must react by accelerating our withdrawal from fossil fuels," Greenpeace Africa Senior Climate and Energy Campaign Manager Happy Khambule said in a <a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/africa/en/press/11864/greenpeace-africa-response-to-mauritius-oil-spill/?utm_campaign=oil&utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=post&utm_content=single-image&utm_term=mauritius-oil-spill-reactive" target="_blank">statement Friday</a>. "Once again we see the risks in oil: aggravating the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis" target="_self">climate crisis</a>, as well as devastating oceans and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/biodiversity" target="_self">biodiversity</a> and threatening local livelihoods around some of Africa's most precious lagoons."</p>
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Hurricane Florence on Sept. 12, 2018. ESA / A.Gerst / CC BY-SA 2.0
Hurricane forecasters predict the 2020 hurricane season will be the second-most active in nearly four decades.
<p>Meteorologists at Colorado State University, a standard bearer for seasonal hurricane predictions, <a href="https://tropical.colostate.edu/Forecast/2020-08.pdf?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=2&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8zppZX1aY8kszJMl4pymaG2IVnBoxg_RsagLPapjJ8aGo2XQ968cLrBctxgq9xd2xxXARykY6pJeW2jeyJQXvoYQceuKtwcrqZPG5zx_5RuqYi30k" target="_blank">estimate</a> the 2020 season will see 24 named storms, including 12 total hurricanes and 5 major hurricanes. Each of those predictions are about double that for a normal season, and include storms that have already occurred. The 2020 season has already set numerous records for its early activity, with about 90% of the official season ahead. </p>
<p>Even if 2020 sees fewer storms than the new prediction — which is the most dire in CSU's 37-year history — officials may still run out of letters with which to name storms and be forced to use the Greek alphabet for overflow since the letters Q, U, X, Y and Z are not used. The only other time officials were forced to use the Greek alphabet was 2005 which included five hurricanes (Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan and Wilma) so destructive their names have been <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200206163321/https://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/tcp/documents/FINAL-REPORT-HC-28.pdf?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=2&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8zppZX1aY8kszJMl4pymaG2IVnBoxg_RsagLPapjJ8aGo2XQ968cLrBctxgq9xd2xxXARykY6pJeW2jeyJQXvoYQceuKtwcrqZPG5zx_5RuqYi30k" target="_blank">retired</a> from future use.</p>
<p><strong>For a deeper dive:</strong> <a href="https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/2020-08-05-2020-atlantic-hurricane-season-august-forecast?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=92748923&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9IeFic75USwIHEONdWfCYXQ8_7OUfGg935e2ZWAJ19r-S7PFFYnkEShxJuDADx--LfAWh9Re8qZUABmO28GxjuO6LAZQ&utm_content=92748923&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Weather Channel</a>, <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/news/510743-forecasters-predicting-extremely-active-hurricane-season?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=92748923&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--hsOZRdAx5CW0_AthIxD9BdjfNezoxng3dWCeggOgY1yRG8bNuG8vVBKT6Nj7gRdMdKIlp64NhEWe7lEG5AhMtAWbt0Q&utm_content=92748923&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">The Hill</a>, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hurricane-season-2020-forecast-extremely-active-24-named-storms/" target="_blank">CBS</a>, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/08/05/hurricane-season-2020-forecasters-new-prediction-storms/3300043001/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=92748923&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_Gv965dHJB2Gw4UflskHjum7HNV0oIQNQsmt6xf8c7UhOJWdzBmJg6KQG2Y2IUfwcf0SC_5breM_diZwqBsLGlIOCQ1Q&utm_content=92748923&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">USA Today</a>, <a href="https://www.news4jax.com/weather/2020/08/05/csu-now-predicts-24-named-storms-this-hurricane-season/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=92748923&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-98p9Sx1J9aCYELsYqAxq_NvnUKiuPGenlr8RhjE5Vl0BXqwwrTb3-rNVWnqlQ1p_S822-x3M1kH4bO6BQX77k6fXOBQQ&utm_content=92748923&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">News4JAX</a>, <a href="https://www.wyff4.com/article/new-hurricane-season-outlooks-issued-by-csu-following-record-start/33526545?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=92748923&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_Es88-ppyd952aYUVMbtPBKFjm-SCwIgxKgtJa7ARuuYvj0KrpWAJu9weBR8Yj1UNjbNavxkpfTUEgYhXTJXRgWhcpvQ&utm_content=92748923&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">WYFF4</a>, <a href="https://www.wfla.com/weather/tracking-the-tropics/tracking-the-tropics-experts-update-hurricane-season-forecast-to-extremely-active-with-24-named-storms/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=92748923&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8gI_x82R_Ym-JpgNAe36TIeCmpYq_tL0h3E4Po56Is0VXZV7SER6dHcOd5VKF6toR3zyS6NNJt0-HVF9CGsg6Qo3m93A&utm_content=92748923&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">WFLA</a>, <a href="https://www.wmbfnews.com/2020/08/05/first-alert-colorado-state-researchers-now-forecasting-one-most-active-hurricane-seasons-ever/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=92748923&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8LSCUABuP8V2moEiiA_iXxA_lWNdOdQI-Va28nwthmTdB4jA580tIZqCSvXRZ0oxjkjn6TK5jKuXAXmTS8eRePWvdbhw&utm_content=92748923&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">WMBF</a>; Climate Signals background: <a href="https://newsletter.climatenexus.org/e2t/tc/VWK7-l2CwspQW29Q6_46m2pk6W805GfB4dqjyxN8Qx57B3p_9rV1-WJV7CgGrpW7Gz0R23XF3ZhVh2zck28rYDSW7P0DJ56yhFp5W6kXZM-2D0FtpW611m4m2B03y1W4Zr1DR3bx5ypW7Bq_zT3SJD_sW30xvBb6-p0wmV9XJxQ90-YR5N7dQDz7chFMZW1lNKnQ4lfvs6VC1DRX1CmQQ2W3_G0_V67fz6dN3Yts2wmJTDBN7fJpJb9NfShW4HfVvQ5bWCw_W5J8BKs5Fp9NPW1VfTt35YDYcvW5jPjbQ2hRlfxW5HFfBx4MSlm0W16YyZy4fBq5KW6qGJcf4FPc-wN1gdKHLpgq9FW5nsZgC70ZgGyW3S9Z7q1V2NGsW31pbsQ1130MN3mPW1" target="_blank">2020 Atlantic hurricane season</a><br/></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://climatenexus.org/" target="_blank">Climate Nexus</a>.</em></p><p><em><em>For more </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/" target="_blank"><em>climate change</em></a><em> and </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/business/renewables/" target="_blank"><em>clean energy</em></a><em> news, you can follow Climate Nexus on </em><a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateNexus" target="_blank"><em>Twitter</em></a><em> and </em><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ClimateNexus/" target="_blank"><em>Facebook</em></a><em>, and sign up for daily </em><a href="http://climatenexus.us4.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=7c84c08aaa" target="_blank"><em>Hot News</em></a><em>.</em></em></p><p><em><em><em>Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described the Colorado State University's updated hurricane forecast. The forecast predicts the highest number of named storms of any forecast CSU has published, but would result in fewer storms than the 2005 hurricane season. Additionally, the reference to the amount of the hurricane season still to come should have referenced the Accumulated Cyclone Energy index, not the official hurricane season. This story has been updated.</em></em></em></p>
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The Qamutik cargo ship on July 28, 2020 in Canada's Nunavut province, where two ice caps have disappeared completely. Fiona Paton / Flickr
Three years ago, scientists predicted it would happen. Now, new NASA satellite imagery confirms it's true: two ice caps in Canada's Nunavut province have disappeared completely, providing more visual evidence of the rapid warming happening near the poles, as CTV News in Canada reported.
<p>According to <a href="https://earther.gizmodo.com/a-pair-of-canadian-ice-caps-has-disappeared-completely-1844592208" target="_blank">Gizmodo</a>, scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) <a href="https://nsidc.org/news/newsroom/st-patrick-bay-ice-caps-canada-have-completely-disappeared" target="_blank">said</a> last week that the St. Patrick Bay ice caps in the northeastern Ellesmere Island are nowhere to be seen on satellite imagery. The revelation that the ice caps have disappeared came sooner than scientists had expected.</p><p>"I can't say I was terribly surprised because we knew they were going, but it has happened really fast," Mark Serreze, director of NSIDC in Colorado, told <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/05/weather/st-patrick-bay-ice-caps-climate-change-trnd-scn/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>. Serreze co-authored a <a href="https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/11/169/2017/" target="_blank">paper</a> in 2017 estimating the ice caps would be gone within five years.</p>
<p>"When I first visited those ice caps, they seemed like such a permanent fixture of the landscape," said Serreze, in a <a href="https://nsidc.org/news/newsroom/st-patrick-bay-ice-caps-canada-have-completely-disappeared" target="_blank">statement</a>. "To watch them die in less than 40 years just blows me away."<br></p><p>The very hot temperatures in the summer of 2015 reduced the longevity of the St. Patrick's Bay ice caps. "You could really see they got hit. But that heat has really just not stopped. It's just getting too warm," Serreze told CNN.</p>
<p>This year has been especially tough on the region. Recent months have been plagued by heatwaves and wildfires across the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/arctic">Arctic</a>, as Gizmodo reported. The extreme heat likely contributed to the melting of the ice caps. Research has found that summers in the region haven't been this warm in 115,000 years.</p><p>According to CNN, the nearby glaciers that sit at a higher elevation have been shrinking significantly as well.</p><p>"I'll make another prediction that they're gone in a decade," Serreze said to CNN.</p><p>Similar to scientists who <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/icelandic-glacier-monument-2639301498.html" target="_self">mourned a lost glacier in Iceland</a> and a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/swiss-alps-pizol-glacier-funeral-2640547054.html" target="_self">funeral in Switzerland</a> held for a glacier, Serreze has felt the impact of losing these two ice caps.</p><p>"We've long known that as climate change takes hold, the effects would be especially pronounced in the Arctic," Serreze explained, as CTV News reported. "But the death of those two little caps that I once knew so well has made climate change very personal. All that's left are some photographs and a lot of memories."</p><p>Serreze first visited the ice caps in 1982 and has been studying them ever since, according to Gizmodo.</p>
<p>The melted ice caps were one half of a group of small ice caps on the Hazen Plateau, which formed during the Little Ice Age several centuries ago, according to the NSIDC.<br></p><p>Serreze told CNN that the small ice caps in the Arctic are clear indicators of the effects of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis">climate crisis</a>.</p><p>"There's something called 'Arctic amplification,' which refers to the observation – not the theory – that the Arctic is warming up at a much faster rate than the rest of the globe, anywhere from two to four times faster," Serreze said.</p><p>Hotter heat waves and cold waves that are not as cold as they were in the past are contributing factors.</p><p>"We are starting to see all these things come together." Serreze told CNN, adding that the disappearance of the St. Patrick's Bay ice caps is "an exclamation point of what's happening in the Arctic."</p>
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A warning sign near the Dakota Access Pipeline endpoint in Patoka, Illinois on Nov. 11, 2016. Cyrene Krey / Flickr
The controversial Dakota Access Pipeline won a reprieve Wednesday when an appeals court canceled a lower court order mandating the pipeline be shut down and emptied of oil while a full environmental impact statement is completed.
<p>The shutdown order, which would have gone into effect Wednesday, marked the first time a major oil pipeline was court ordered to cease operations for environmental reasons. But while its reversal is disappointing for pipeline opponents, Wednesday's decision was not wholly favorable for the pipeline, either. The court refused to halt the initial order for a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/dakota-access-pipeline-environmental-review-2645577384.html" target="_self">new environmental review</a> of the pipeline's crossing under the Missouri River, where the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe fears it will pollute its <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drinking-water" target="_self">drinking water</a> and sacred lands if it leaks.</p><p>"We've been in this legal battle for four years, and we aren't giving up this fight," Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairman Mike Faith said in an <a href="https://earthjustice.org/news/press/2020/dc-circuit-mixed-decision-dakota-access-shutdown-order?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social" target="_blank">Earthjustice press release</a>. "As the environmental review process gets underway in the months ahead, we look forward to showing why the Dakota Access Pipeline is too dangerous to operate."</p>
<div id="e3dbb" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f1c6bf3b1b2ec9c26be8e6fd6776c2be"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1291118408277397505" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">But the fight isn't over! DAPL's permit to cross underneath Lake Oahe is vacated, so it's effectively operating ill… https://t.co/EOPn59siC7</div> — Earthjustice (@Earthjustice)<a href="https://twitter.com/Earthjustice/statuses/1291118408277397505">1596661591.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>In its ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit put the question of whether the pipeline could continue to operate without a permit back to the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/trump-administration" target="_self">Trump administration</a>, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-05/dakota-access-pipeline-staves-off-shutdown-order-once-again" target="_blank">Bloomberg News reported</a>. It said it expected the Army Corps of Engineers to clarify the issue.</p><p>"It's interesting what the court did here," Earthjustice lawyer Jan Hasselman, who represents the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, told Bloomberg. "While the focus has been on this judicially imposed shutdown order, the bigger picture is the environmental impact statement and whether a permit will be reissued under the next administration."</p><p>Hasselman argued that the pipeline is now operating illegally, and, if the Army Corps of Engineers decides to let it keep running while a review is completed, the issue will return to court.</p><p>"[W]e are confident that it will be shut down eventually," he said in the press release.</p>
<p>The pipeline's owner Energy Transfer had immediately appealed the shutdown order, and the company's lawyer said it would continue with the legal process.</p><p>"We believe our legal positions are strong, and we are confident that the pipeline will continue to operate," General Counsel Tom Mason told Bloomberg.</p><p>The oil and gas industry more generally had a mixed response to Wednesday's ruling.</p><p>"The Court rightly stayed the decision to shut down and empty the Dakota Access Pipeline, which has been operating for over three years and provides millions of tax dollars to states, affordable energy to the entire region, and thousands of jobs along its route," American Petroleum Institute senior vice president and chief legal officer Paul Afonso said in a statement reported by <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/510748-court-cancels-shutdown-of-dakota-access-pipeline" target="_blank">The Hill</a>. "However, the failure to uphold the easement granted years ago by the federal government exemplifies the problems with our outdated permitting system, which allows protracted challenges to advance within the courts and ultimately take away jobs, tax dollars, and investments that pipelines bring to communities that sorely need them."</p>
<p>The Dakota Access Pipeline currently carries 570,000 barrels of oil a day 1,172-miles from North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa to a shipping point in Illinois. The fight against the pipeline garnered international attention through major <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/indigenous" target="_self">Indigenous</a>-led <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/what-standing-rock-gave-world-2549906333.html" target="_self">protests</a> in 2016 and 2017. The Obama administration <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/army-corps-permit-dakota-access-pipeline-2128363393.html" target="_self">denied</a> the river crossing permit in late 2016, but President <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump" target="_self">Donald Trump</a> <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-dakota-access-pipeline-2211697835.html" target="_self">pushed the project through</a> via executive order early after taking office. It has now been operating a little more than three years.</p>
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A British Petroleum petrol station on March 10, 2017, in Ciudad Satelite, Naucalpan de Juarez municipality, Mexico State. The company will reportedly start to offer electric vehicle recharging stations at its retail gasoline stations. RONALDO SCHEMIDT / AFP via Getty Images
BP, the energy giant that grew from oil and gas production, is taking its business in a new direction, announcing Tuesday that it will slash its oil and gas production by 40 percent and increase its annual investment in low-carbon technology to $5 billion, a ten-fold increase over its current level, according to CNN.
<p>Despite losing $16.8 billion in the second quarter of 2020, the ambitious plan to become a leading purveyor of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy/" target="_self">clean energy</a> sent the company's share price soaring 7 percent Tuesday, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/04/business/energy-environment/bp-renewable-investment.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported.</p><p>"This coming decade is critical for the world in the fight against climate change, and to drive the necessary change in global energy systems will require action from everyone," BP said in a statement, as CNN reported.</p><p>As part of its plan, the company will stop its oil and gas exploration in new countries and reduce its current production and carbon emissions by one-third, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/08/04/bp-built-its-business-oil-gas-now-climate-change-is-taking-it-apart/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> reported.</p>
<p>In a discussion with analysts on Tuesday, BP's Chief Executive Bernard Looney set his company apart from its European counterparts, which have made vague commitments to address the climate crisis. Looney's pledge to invest around $5 billion a year in renewable energy like wind, solar and hydrogen, a clean-burning gas, made it the first oil and gas giant to specify its investment goal, according to The New York Times.</p><p>"This makes the BP the first supermajor to spell out, in detail, what the energy transition will actually entail, in practical terms," said Pavel Molchanov, senior energy analyst for the investment firm Raymond James, to The Washington Post.</p>
<p>"BP today introduces a new strategy that will reshape its business as it pivots from being an international oil company focused on producing resources to an integrated energy company focused on delivering solutions for customers," the company said, as <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bp-outlook/bp-to-cut-fossil-fuels-output-by-40-by-2030-idUSKCN2500NH" target="_blank">Reuters</a> reported.</p><p>The company expects demand for <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuels</a> to fall by 75 percent by 2050, if the increase in global temperatures is limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius, or by 50 percent if warming is less than 2 degrees, BP head of strategy Giulia Chierchia told investors, as CNN reported.</p><p>BP said its will cut its oil and gas production by at least one million barrels a day by 2030, a 40 percent reduction from 2019 levels, as CNN reported.</p><p>While the company will dramatically expand its portfolio of clean energy technologies, the next five years will see BP continue to invest most of its money in oil and gas production, according to CNN.</p>
<p>"We believe our new strategy provides a comprehensive and coherent approach to turn our net zero ambition into action," Looney said in a statement Tuesday, as The Washington Post reported.</p><p>The investment in low-carbon initiatives is set to jump to more than $3 billion by 2025 and $5 billion by 2030, "en route to 50 gigawatts of renewable generation capacity by 2030 alongside scale-up of other clean tech businesses," Molchanov said, as The Washington Post reported.</p><p>The company sees a profitable future in providing clean energy to cities. According to The Washington Post, BP plans to advise cities on "power packages" with renewables, back-up batteries and financing. It also will also start to offer <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/electric-vehicles">electric vehicle</a> recharging stations at its retail gasoline stations.</p><p>Oswald Clint, an analyst at Bernstein, a market research firm, told The New York Times that BP's plans were "peer-leading" and that its potential to smoothly manage large projects in the renewables area was "underappreciated."</p><p>Environmental activists were lukewarm about the plans. Greenpeace UK described the announcement as a "necessary and encouraging start," but said BP must go further. "BP has woken up [to] the immediate need to cut carbon emissions this decade," senior climate campaigner Mel Evans said in a statement, as CNN reported.</p>
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Recycled paper at the Northern Adelaide Waste Management Authority's recycling site piles up in Edinburgh, Australia, on April 17, 2019. Brenton Edwards / AFP / Getty Images
By Alex Thornton
The Australian government has announced a A$190 million (US$130 million) investment in the nation's first Recycling Modernization Fund, with the aim of transforming the country's waste and recycling industry. The hope is that as many as 10,000 jobs can be created in what is being called a "once in a generation" opportunity to remodel the way Australia deals with its waste.
Waste Mountain
<p>The need for a dramatic increase in Australia's recycling capacity pre-dates the COVID-19 pandemic. <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-27/where-does-all-australias-waste-go/11755424" target="_blank">Australians create approximately 67 million tons of waste a year</a>, and like in many wealthy countries, much of that was sent overseas. That all changed when China announced it was <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/10/china-has-banned-foreign-waste-so-whats-the-future-of-world-recycling" target="_blank">banning the import of a huge range of foreign waste</a> and recyclables. Soon <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/05/malaysia-flooded-with-plastic-waste-to-send-back-some-scrap-to-source" target="_blank">other countries followed suit</a>, and Australia was forced to look for alternative solutions.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzUzNjY4Mi9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNDc4NjgwNH0.kcj4RYDc0cQERhMB5duEBzcdA9A0eJ5qad1OyIyIH98/img.png?width=980" id="37769" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2546d96e25cd54902ceb66a326743b4c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Biggest exporters of plastic. Statista
Waste Export Ban
<p>Australia has adopted a strategy of taking responsibility for its own waste. Starting in January 2021, it is phasing in <a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/protection/waste-resource-recovery/waste-export-ban" target="_blank">bans on the export of different forms of waste</a>. By mid 2024, Australia's home-grown recycling industry will have to deal with an extra 650,000 tons of waste plastic, paper, glass and tires.</p><p>"As we cease shipping our waste overseas, the waste and recycling transformation will reshape our domestic waste industry, driving job creation and putting valuable materials back into the economy," federal environment minister Sussan Ley said in a <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-australia-waste/australia-to-set-up-132-million-fund-to-boost-recycling-following-export-curbs-idUKKBN247060" target="_blank">statement to Reuters</a>.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzUzNjY4OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NDU2NzA0M30.5pHIN6g44hCE4tNeeiJebL9KkNEb8Awnr3mOzRYWUDE/img.jpg?width=980" id="0aad3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="927fc17a933d0287cf67f633a3e745b9" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Timeline for Australia's waste export ban. Australian Government
Trash Into Treasure
<p>The benefits to the environment of boosting recycling rates are well known – less landfill, less plastic in our ocean, reduced need for virgin materials, and lower carbon emissions. The Recycling Modernization Fund initiative aims to divert more than 10 million tons of waste from landfill, part of an <a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/protection/waste-resource-recovery/publications/national-waste-policy-action-plan" target="_blank">overall strategy to reduce the total waste generated per person by 10%</a>, and push <a href="https://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/resources/7381c1de-31d0-429b-912c-91a6dbc83af7/files/national-waste-report-2018.pdf" target="_blank">Australia's total resource recovery rate from 58% in 2017</a> to 80% by 2030.</p><p>But like many countries, Australia is focusing on the economic benefits of better waste management as well.</p><p>"This will mean Australia converts more waste into higher valued resources ready for reuse locally by manufacturers and brands in their packaging and products," Rose Read, CEO of the National Waste and Recycling Industry Council, <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-australia-waste/australia-to-set-up-132-million-fund-to-boost-recycling-following-export-curbs-idUKKBN247060" target="_blank">told Reuters</a>.</p>Green Jobs
<p>The great potential of the circular economy to create green jobs is being recognized across the world.</p><p>In the UK, the Waste and Resources Action Program has launched a <a href="https://wrap.org.uk/buildbackbetter" target="_blank">six-point plan which it claims could add $90 billion to the economy, and create 500,000 new jobs</a>. Investment in the circular economy forms a significant part of the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/us/politics/biden-climate-plan.html" target="_blank">$2 trillion climate plan that Democratic candidate Joe Biden</a> is taking into November's US presidential election. And the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_940" target="_blank">European Union has put its Green New Deal at the heart of its plans for recovery</a> from the economic shock of COVID-19.</p><p>The World Economic Forum's <a href="http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Future_Of_Nature_And_Business_2020.pdf" target="_blank">Future of Nature and Business</a> report identifies 15 systemic transitions with annual business opportunities worth $10 billion a year that could create 395 million jobs by 2030.</p><p>As is the case with Australia's Recycling Modernization Fund, a combination of private enterprise and government investment can offer ways to get people back to work by building a more environmentally sustainable economy.</p>From Your Site Articles
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The Wildlife from Space project uses satellite technology to identify, count and monitor species such as emperor penguins in Antarctica. British Antarctic Survey / YouTube
New satellite images have revealed 11 new throngs of emperor penguin colonies, lifting the number of known emperor penguin colonies by 20 percent and their total population by 5 to 10 percent, according to The Guardian.
<p>"The [new colonies] are an exciting discovery," said Peter Fretwell, at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), who led the research, according to The Guardian. "Whilst this is good news, the colonies are small and so only take the overall population count up to just over half a million penguins."</p><p>While that may sound like great news for penguins, the truth is these penguins are just as threatened as the rest of their flightless feathered friends, according to <a href="https://earther.gizmodo.com/satellite-images-reveal-new-penguin-colonies-in-melting-1844609508" target="_blank">Gizmodo</a>.</p><p>The 11 new colonies bring the total number up to 61 colonies spread across the continent. Now, the newly discovered birds will act as "canaries in the coalmine" when it comes to studying the impact of global warming, experts have said, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/05/world/penguins-antarctica-satellite-scn-scli-intl/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported.</p>
<p>The study, which used satellite mapping technology, will "provide an important benchmark for monitoring the impact of environmental change on the population of this iconic bird," researchers said, according to CNN.</p><p>The study was published in <em><a href="https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/20563485/0/0" target="_blank">Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation</a></em> on Wednesday. The findings help shed light on just how threatened the emperor penguins really are. While the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis">climate crisis</a> is rapidly altering the surface of Earth, <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/antarctica">Antarctica</a> is running ahead of most of the world. It is warming three times faster than the most of the planet. With all that warmth comes the loss of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-ice">sea ice</a>, which is devastating to emperor penguins since they breed on the ice and need it to be stable, as Gizmodo reported.</p><p>"Emperor penguins are vulnerable to climate change, particularly the breakup of the sea ice on which they breed," said study author Peter Fretwell, a researcher with the British Antarctic Survey, in an email to Gizmodo. "Finding more penguins and studying their movements and distribution will be important if we are to understand their struggle to survive in the warming Antarctic environment."</p>
<p>As the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-53549299" target="_blank">BBC</a> noted, the emperors' whole life cycle is centered on the availability of sea ice, and if this is diminished in the decades ahead, as climate models project, then the animals' numbers will suffer. Some models predict that penguin colonies will drop by 90 percent, according to The Guardian.</p><p>The discoveries were made by spotting the distinctive red-brown guano patches the birds leave on the ice, according to The Guardian. The findings were made possible by higher-resolution images from a new satellite, as previous scans were unable to pick up smaller colonies.</p><p>The European Space Agency's Sentinel-2 satellite was launched in June 2015 and has a resolution of 10 meters. This enabled a search for the smaller penguin colonies. Emperor penguins were expected to be present at fairly regular intervals around the coast of Antarctica, so the search was targeted in areas where none were known. "In every gap where we thought there might be a colony, we found one," said Fretwell, as The Guardian reported.</p>
<p>The European Space Agency makes these images available online, so the team was able to analyze images from 2016, 2018 and 2019. By searching the images for "small areas of brown pixels," or clumps of penguin guano, and targeting their searches by looking at areas near known colonies and breeding habitat, the researchers were able to find these new communities, according to Gizmodo.</p><p>The next step is to direct satellites with very high, 30cm-resolution cameras over the colonies to enable the penguins to be counted. "It is dark at the moment in Antarctica, so we can't count them yet," said Fretwell, as The Guardian reported. "The sun will come up either later this month or next month in most of these locations, and then we will start."</p>
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Trending
Bicyclists pass a fallen tree in the Greenpoint area of Brooklyn, New York on Aug. 4, 2020 after Isaias left hundreds of thousands without power and prompted flood precautions in New York City. DIANE DESOBEAU / AFP via Getty Images
At least six people are dead after Isaias sped up the East Coast Tuesday, downing trees, spawning tornadoes, and flooding homes and roadways as it went.
<p>The <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tropical-storm-isaias-atlantic-2646825815.html" target="_self">earliest "I" storm</a> of an Atlantic <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/hurricanes" target="_self">hurricane</a> season on record began its path of destruction late Monday night when it made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane in Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina. It brought both flames and floods, causing at least five structures to catch fire, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/04/us/isaias-storm-updates.html#link-665175e7" target="_blank">The New York Times reported</a>.</p><p>"We didn't think it was going to get to this level," Morgan Strenk, who offered a family shelter from the flames in her vacation home even as its basement filled with three feet of water, told The New York Times.</p>
<div id="8db37" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9e605552627ca15c0e48ee50e3ac748e"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1290507775966154754" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">At approximately 11:40 p.m., there were reports of multiple structure fires in the area of Ocean Isle Beach, North… https://t.co/2gaphSIzf4</div> — Horry SC Fire Rescue (@Horry SC Fire Rescue)<a href="https://twitter.com/hcfirerescue/statuses/1290507775966154754">1596516004.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The hurricane also brought storm surge flooding to Oak Island, North Carolina and rose the Cape Fear River in Wilmington, North Carolina to a record high level, <a href="https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/2020-08-04-tropical-storm-isaias-forecast-northeast-flooding-damaging-winds" target="_blank">The Weather Channel reported</a>.</p><p>Isaias weakened to a tropical storm over Eastern North Carolina early Tuesday morning, <a href="https://twitter.com/NHC_Atlantic/status/1290543815502307329" target="_blank">according to the National Hurricane Center</a> (NHC). But it was still a deadly force as it moved up the East Coast.</p><p>One of the major hazards was falling trees, which killed at least three people in New York, Delaware and Maryland, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/04/weather/hurricane-isaias-carolinas-tuesday/index.html" target="_blank">according to CNN</a>. Trees fell from Virginia to New England, and more than three million homes and businesses lost power, The Weather Channel reported.</p>
<div id="1da84" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0ef51bac557980cd33dc801ec6d17598"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1290740659368996865" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Haven’t seen tree damage this extensive since Sandy in Woodbridge, NJ. You can actually smell the trees. No power.… https://t.co/U0zTqaSYtL</div> — Collin Gross (@Collin Gross)<a href="https://twitter.com/CollinGrossWx/statuses/1290740659368996865">1596571528.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Another major hazard was tornadoes. The National Weather Service received more than 20 reports of twisters between North Carolina and Pennsylvania.</p><p>In one tragic incident, 12 people were injured and at least two people were killed when a tornado hit a mobile home park in Windsor, North Carolina, CNN reported.</p><p>"We didn't have a lot of time to react once it finally hit. I mean, it hit all at once," resident Desaree Pike told <a href="https://www.wral.com/" target="_blank">CNN affiliate WRAL</a>. "For lack of a better word, it was hell. You don't really think about anything else but just holding the kids and hoping it doesn't tear the house up."</p>
<p>One of the reasons Isaias was so dangerous, and spawned so many tornadoes without warning, was the speed at which it moved. As of Tuesday evening, it was still moving 40 miles per hour and still had maximum sustained winds of 50 miles per hour.</p><p>In addition to wind, the storm also brought widespread flooding.</p>
<div id="c0467" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="adcda918a351bc1fbeca5f93b86eff8d"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1290770765009149952" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">As of 6PM Tuesday, we are forecasting flooding at 14 locations across the Mid-Atlantic region. Please follow the la… https://t.co/FcEKPBbIH2</div> — NWS MARFC (@NWS MARFC)<a href="https://twitter.com/NWSMARFC/statuses/1290770765009149952">1596578706.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Pennsylvania was especially inundated. One person died in the state when floodwaters swept away their vehicle, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/isaias-hurricane-tropical-storm-tornado-flooding-fires-outages/" target="_blank">CBS News reported</a>. Little Lehigh Creek and <a href="https://twitter.com/NWSMARFC/status/1290775238792241154" target="_blank">Perkiomen Creek </a>in Pennsylvania both crested at record levels and Darby Creek flooded a neighborhood in southwest Philadelphia, according to The Weather Channel.</p>
<div id="2ca46" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2c7ff0154aa438fdd332eb7644c0e29b"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1290747910422966277" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">**Breaking - Darby Creek floods its banks into Southwest Philadelphia neighborhood near 84th St and Lindberg Blvd.… https://t.co/N1ZpaWnaGB</div> — Dan Patrick (@Dan Patrick)<a href="https://twitter.com/6abcDan/statuses/1290747910422966277">1596573257.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>A man and woman also had to be rescued in In Charles County, Maryland after flood waters swept their cars off the road, CBS News reported.<br></p><p>However, the storm's speed provided one advantage: It did not linger, which reduced river flooding and allowed emergency workers to respond rapidly, The New York Times reported.</p><p>"All in all, this storm got in, got out pretty quickly," North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper told "Good Morning America" on Tuesday, as The New York Times reported.</p><p>He said this meant the damage was "not as great as it could have been."</p><p>The storm has now moved into Canada as a post-tropical cyclone, <a href="https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCPAT4+shtml/050837.shtml" target="_blank">according to a 5 a.m. EDT update from the NHC</a>. It is currently about 55 miles northwest of Quebec City and is expected to dissipate over southeastern Canada Thursday.</p>
<p>But as the storm fades, it leaves a sobering reminder of what a future shaped by the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a> could look like, The New York Times pointed out. Isaias struck the same week that the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/apple-fire-california-coronavirus-2646869340.html" target="_self">Apple Fire</a> forced thousands to evacuate in Southern California, and both disasters came as the nation still struggles to contain the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_self">coronavirus</a> pandemic, giving a foretaste of the overlapping crises we can expect if the climate continues to destabilize.</p><p>"State and local governments already stretched with Covid responses must now stretch even further," adaptation program director at the Georgetown Climate Center in Washington Lisa Anne Hamilton told The New York Times. She said better planning was needed to prepare for the disasters to come.</p>
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As Biden Embraces More Ambitious Climate Plan, Fossil Fuel Execs Donate to Trump 'With Greater Zeal' Than in 2016
04 August
Politics
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a White House Clean Energy Investment Summit on June 16, 2015 in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC. Alex Wong / Getty Images
By Jake Johnson
With presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden's climate platform becoming increasingly ambitious thanks to nonstop grassroots pressure, fossil fuel executives and lobbyists are pouring money into the coffers of President Donald Trump's reelection campaign in the hopes of keeping an outspoken and dedicated ally of dirty energy in the White House.
<p><br/></p>
<p>The Houston Chronicle <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Oil-donors-flock-to-Trump-as-Biden-hardens-15453270.php" target="_blank">reported</a> Monday that oil and gas executives "are writing checks to President Donald Trump with greater zeal than they did four years ago, as Biden campaigns on a climate plan that seeks to eliminate carbon emissions by mid-century."</p><p><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/recips.php?ind=E01&cycle=2020&recipdetail=P&mem=N&sortorder=U" target="_blank">According to</a> the Center for Responsive Politics, Trump's reelection campaign has thus far raised over $936,000 from the oil and gas industry — more than three times the $265,000 the industry has donated to Biden as of July 21. By contrast, the Chronicle noted, Trump only narrowly led Hillary Clinton in <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuel</a> industry donations during the 2016 campaign cycle.</p>
<p>"As the incumbent, Trump might seem a surer bet for companies than he was as a political outsider four years ago," the Chronicle reported. "At the same time, Biden's recent climate stance is very different from Clinton's, who as secretary of state had promoted the U.S. fracking industry overseas — Biden has sworn off donations from the oil and gas sector, though through loopholes executives are still giving."</p><p>Trump, for his part, is openly courting the oil and gas industry by warning that a Biden presidency would spell disaster for the fossil fuel sector, which has been <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/09/game-report-says-asset-sales-and-debt-driven-dividends-show-fossil-fuel-industry" target="_blank">hammered</a> by the coronavirus pandemic.</p><p>"If these far-left politicians ever get into power, they will demolish not only your industry but the entire U.S. economy," Trump <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-restoring-energy-dominance-permian-basin-midland-tx/" target="_blank">said</a> at the site of an active oil rig in Midland, Texas last week. The president went on to falsely claim that Biden supports a total ban on fracking. (Biden <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2020/07/31/us/ap-us-trump-biden-fact-check.html" target="_blank">only supports</a> banning fracking on public lands.)</p><p>"No fracking, no drilling, no oil," Trump said of the former vice president's position.</p><p>While Biden's refusal to commit to the Green New Deal and a complete fracking ban has drawn the ire of environmentalists and advocacy groups, the former vice president's release last month of a <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/14/more-work-do-major-step-forward-progressives-welcome-bidens-2-trillion-green-energy" target="_blank">$2 trillion green energy plan</a> was celebrated as an encouraging step in the right direction.</p>
<p>Biden's plan, as Common Dreams <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/14/more-work-do-major-step-forward-progressives-welcome-bidens-2-trillion-green-energy" target="_blank">reported</a>, calls for 100% clean electricity by 2035 and sweeping infrastructure upgrades that would create millions of new jobs.</p><p>"We've seen a pretty huge transformation in Biden's climate plan," Varshini Prakash, co-founder and executive director of the Sunrise Movement, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/how-joe-bidens-surprisingly-ambitious-climate-plan-came-together/2020/07/31/b73e78d0-cd11-11ea-91f1-28aca4d833a0_story.html" target="_blank">told</a> The Washington Post on Sunday. "What I've seen in the last six to eight weeks is a pretty big transition in upping his ambition and centering environmental justice."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/03/biden-embraces-more-ambitious-climate-plan-fossil-fuel-execs-donating-trump-greater" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Rising Temperatures to Be More Deadly Than Infectious Diseases, New Study Says
04 August
Health + Wellness
A girl sits under a temporary shade made by joining two bed in Churu, Rajasthan on June 4, 2019. Temperatures in the Indian desert city hit 50 degrees C (122 F) for the second time in three days, sending residents scrambling for shade. MONEY SHARMA / AFP via Getty Images
Current efforts to curb an infectious disease show the potential we have for collective action. That action and more will be needed if we want to stem the coming wave of heat-related deaths that will surpass the number of people who die from all infectious diseases, according to a new study, as The Guardian reported.
<p>By the end of this century, extreme heat spells could kill roughly as many people as all infectious diseases combined, including HIV, malaria and yellow fever, according to <a href="http://impactlab.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/CIL_NBER_MortalityPaper_3Aug2020.pdf" target="_blank">a new study</a> from the Climate Impact Lab, a group of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis" target="_self">climate</a> economists and researchers at several U.S. universities. Specifically, the study projects that climate change's effect on temperatures could raise global mortality rates by 73 deaths per 100,000 people in 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions stay where they are, according to <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/08/03/1005965/climate-change-fueled-heatwaves-could-kill-millions/" target="_blank">MIT Technology Review</a>. Under a scenario of continued high emissions, the researchers estimate that climate change's impact on mortality will cost the world roughly 3.2 percent of global economic output in 2100, according to the <a href="http://www.impactlab.org/news-insights/global-death-rate-from-rising-temperatures/" target="_blank">Climate Impact Lab</a>.</p><p>"The global cost to human health from warming is likely to be profound," said Solomon Hsiang, a climate policy researcher at UC Berkeley and an author of the study, in a UC Berkeley <a href="https://news.berkeley.edu/story_jump/without-action-climate-deaths-could-soar-by-centurys-end-says-new-study/" target="_blank">press release</a>. "We are studying the risk of death faced by our own children. Today's 10-year-old fifth-grader will turn 65 in 2075, facing mortality risks from climate change every year of their retirement. Failing to address climate change is not that different from driving your kids around without a seat belt: you are putting their lives at risk."</p>
<p>To conduct the study, the authors analyzed the historic links between temperature records and mortality data in dozens of nations, and projecting future deaths using highly regional climate projections. They sifted through the information in an enormous global dataset of 399 million death records across 41 countries, accounting for 55 percent of the global population. They also looked at temperature records to see how the two are related. That methodology allowed them to pinpoint both direct causes such as heat stroke and less obvious links such as a spike heart attacks during a heat wave, as The Guardian reported.</p><p>The researchers accounted for the mitigations that wealthy countries make, like air conditioning and cooling centers, leading them to the conclusion that poorer countries will bear the brunt of the suffering from extreme heat.</p>
<p>"A lot of older people die due to indirect heat [effects]," said Amir Jina, an environmental economist at the University of Chicago and a co-author of the study, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, as The Guardian reported. "It's eerily similar to Covid – vulnerable people are those who have pre-existing or underlying conditions. If you have a heart problem and are hammered for days by the heat, you are going to be pushed towards collapse."</p><p>In the worst-hit countries, including Ghana, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sudan, climate change could be responsible for an additional 200 or more deaths per 100,000 by the end of the century, the research shows, according to the Climate Impact Lab. By contrast, places like Canada and Norway will see fewer weather-related deaths and fewer people will die from freezing temperatures as they become less frequent.</p><p>"You see the really bad impacts at the tropics," added Jina. "There's not one single worldwide condition, there's a lot of different changes with poorer people much more affected with limited ability to adapt. The richer countries, even if they have increases in mortality, can pay more to adapt to it. It's really the people who have done the least to cause climate change who are suffering from it."</p>
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