Welcome to summer, friends. Southeastern PA is experiencing drought conditions. It’s June and our local strawberry season is already over. Yale Climate Connections dedicated a week to climate humor, but… well…. it turned out to be more aspirational than inspirational, let’s say. The roundup this month is scattershot, rather like the brief rain that fell after extensive rumbling thunder last night, but I hope you find something informative or useful in it anyhow.
How we talk about climate
Two posts about the greenwashing of methane into “natural gas”:
Climate misinformation is becoming law (HEATED, May 11, 2023)
Why we’re not calling it “natural gas” anymore (HEATED, May 18, 2023)
A podcast of three smart women talking about climate. Transcript included.
Every story is a climate story – Ep. 09 (Climate Foresight, May 24, 2023)
Trash
Yet Another Problem With Recycling: It Spews Microplastics (Wired, May 5, 2023)
Global treaty on plastic pollution hits headwinds (Politico, June 1, 2023)
Older, but still relevant: A Plastic Bag’s 2,000-Mile Journey Shows the Messy Truth About Recycling (Bloomberg, March 29, 2022)
Climate feelings
Massive content note for suicide, but I found this piece really thoughtful and intentional about putting a face and a life to the man we might only know from a headline.
Last Earth Day, Wynn Bruce Set Himself on Fire Outside the Supreme Court. I Tried to Understand Why (Inside Climate News, April 23, 2023)
The Climate Burnout Report (Climate Critical Earth)
The built environment
The Ocean Is Missing Its Rivers (Nautilus, May 3, 2023)
Unspeakable Fermentations: Putrefaction and Social Revolt in Paris and Mexico City (Words Without Borders, June 1, 2023)
Older, but still relevant: Yes, Allergy Seasons Are Getting Worse. Blame Climate Change (National Institute of Food and Agriculture, May 23, 2022)
Local to me
Philadelphia residents have planted more than 1,000 trees in eight years in the Hunting Park neighborhood (Yale Climate Connections, April 27, 2023)
Consumers almost doubled reusable bag use since Philly’s plastic bag ban (Green Philly, April 27, 2023)
“Almost 200 million “disposable” plastic bags avoided landing in the city of brotherly love over the past year.”
Philly air is getting cleaner (Axios Philadelphia, May 9, 2023)
Single-Use Plastic Legislation for Philadelphia: A Policy Guide (Circular Philadelphia, May 16, 2023)
A non-exhaustive list of trash Penn students left on the streets of Philadelphia (Philadelphia Inquirer, May 24, 2023)
Philly will have more heat waves, and the Delaware projected to rise more than a foot over the next 25 years (Philadelphia Inquirer, May 25, 2023)
The decline of the oil industry along the lower Schuylkill River could offer tidal wetlands room for a comeback (Grid, June 2023 issue)
A little levity
Are dragons carbon-neutral? (Jack Waro Writes Bad Ecology, May 3, 2023)
How to Grow Rice on Mars (Modern Farmer, May 17, 2023)
Sara Davis 