climate emergency

President Joe Biden is considering declaring a national climate emergency after his climate agenda was frustrated when talks with West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin III collapsed last week, reported The Washington Post.

Climate protesters disrupted Shell’s annual general meeting in London Tuesday, interrupting it for around three hours. However, in the end a majority of shareholders backed the company’s climate plan over the more ambitious plan proposed by activist shareholder group Follow This.

Policies in place to reduce emissions as of December 2020 would lead the planet to 3.2 degrees Celsius of warming, more than double the 1.5 degrees limit that scientists say is essential for avoiding the worst impacts of the climate crisis. That’s the urgent warning from the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released Monday. 

In Spain, the historic train line that runs along the Maresme Coast ⁠has been plucking passengers from Barcelona and sweeping them down the shimmering coastline since 1848, according to The Guardian. The oldest train line in Spain, it runs so close to the water that, in places, it is being overtaken by the sea.

According to satellite data, the entire Conger ice shelf — an Antarctic ice shelf roughly the size of Rome — has collapsed, The Guardian reported. The collapse of the ice shelf occurred just before record high temperatures in the region reached more than 40 degrees Celsius above normal recently, the result of an “atmospheric river” of warm air over the continent.

In new research released Wednesday, February 23, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) reported that Facebook did not add content warning labels to over 50% of top posts from climate change-deniers. Now called Meta, Facebook has been in hot water regarding its role in spreading misinformation.

John Kerry, the first United States special presidential envoy for climate, said that the world is “not on a good track” in its goal of avoiding the worst effects of climate change, Reuters reported. Kerry said actions to move away from fossil fuels must be strengthened this decade. On Monday, Kerry addressed “Building Momentum to UN COP27,” an event hosted by officials from Egypt — who will host the next UN climate summit — and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

More than 450 scientists have signed a letter to PR and advertising agencies urging them to drop clients that profit from fossil fuels. The letter was released by Clean Creatives and the Union of Concerned Scientists on Wednesday, as PR Week reported, and emphasized the importance of spreading accurate information about the climate crisis.