Climate impacts
Earth Is Sneakily Getting Thicker and Our Days Are Getting Longer, Scientists Say (Popular Mechanics, July 18, 2024)
Barred Owls Blur Lines Between Invasive Species and Refugees (Atmos, July 1, 2024)
Climate change is already making your bills more expensive (Washington Post, June 24, 2024)
Extreme heat is wilting and burning forests, making it harder to curb climate change (Washington Post [gift link], July 26, 2024)
Summer in North America is always a firehose of climate impact news stories, but this was a gut-punch. First, Sunday, July 21, broke the record for hottest day ever on Earth. Then:
Monday breaks the record for the hottest day ever on Earth (AP News, July 24, 2024)
Heat is deadly. Why does our culture push us to ignore it? (Vox, July 11, 2024)
I made my partner go over the symptoms of heat related illness with me. I recommend we all get familiar with it!
Politics and Policy
We’re having another one of those election cycles where news is old news almost as soon as it hits the presses. I had saved some links to articles comparing Biden and Trump on climate, but now that we have a Harris campaign, the political landscape is a little different.
Where Harris and Her Potential Running Mates Stand on Climate Change (Bloomberg [gift link], July 22, 2024)
And in case anyone forgot…. here is a timeline of
Donald Trump’s First Term (New York Times [gift link], July 18, 2024)
At the same time, now we all have to hear about Project 2025, a 922-page plan organized by a conservative think tank which outlines right-wing policy proposals for the next Republican presidential administration. It is, as you might imagine, not great news for the environment! It’s not great news for anyone who cares about other people!
Everything You Need to Know About Project 2025’s Plan for the EPA (Drilled, July 22, 2024)
The MAGA Plan to End Free Weather Reports (The Atlantic, July 16, 2024)
Also, the US Supreme Court ruled on a decision that overturned a precedent known as the Chevron Deference, which allowed government agencies to interpret ambiguous legal language pertaining their work. This precedent is a double-edged sword; it is, after all, named after an oil company that received a favorable rule when the law was unclear. But now the power to decide what a law means is in the hands of federal judges, and given the current court of federal judges….. it’s not great news.
The Supreme Court Ends Chevron Deference—What Now? (NDRC, June 28, 2024)
The climate stakes of the election just got much higher (HEATED, July 2, 2024)
And in response:
Democratic senators seek to reverse Supreme Court ruling that restricts federal agency power (NBC News, July 23, 2024)
Meanwhile, as the Biden administration winds down:
Biden proposes first-ever nationwide worker protections from heat (The Hill, July 2, 2024)
Plastics Pollution Has Become a ‘Crisis,’ Biden Administration Acknowledges (Inside Climate News, July 19, 2024)
Biden puts $575 million toward making coastal communities more resilient to climate change (The Hill, July 26, 2024)
Not news, but useful:
Climate Change Actions Are Far More Popular Than People in U.S. Realize (Scientific American, August 23, 2022)
Trash
How to live without plastics for a month, according to the founder of a global movement (NPR, July 12, 2024)
Dismantling the propaganda of “advanced recycling”:
The plastic industry’s $30 million lie (HEATED, July 25, 2024)
AI, again
I attended a higher ed marketing conference at the beginning of the month. I’ve enjoyed this conference before, particularly because it divides its panels into tracks (leadership, enrollment, digital media, etc.) which makes it easy to learn what’s relevant to you. This year, there was a new track for artificial intelligence, and the only master class offered was about customizing GPTs. There was a keynote speech dedicated to creativity through AI, and another keynote speech that was purportedly about creating epic content but was also actually about AI.
I attended the master class and the keynote about epic content, and I was struck by how the keynote and workshop were almost identical in the points they raised. It was all about how cool the technology is, how cheap, how fast. Not one word about the environmental impacts. During a heat wave in Philadelphia.
What Do Google’s AI Answers Cost the Environment? (Scientific American, June 11, 2024)
AI is exhausting the power grid. Tech firms are seeking a miracle solution. (Washington Post, June 21, 2024, gift link)
Google falling short of important climate target, cites electricity needs of AI (AP News, July 2, 2024)
Science
Documents, Whistleblowers, and Public Comments Are Clear: Oil Companies Know Carbon Capture Is Not a Climate Solution (Drilled, July 29, 2024)
Study Finds Small Streams, Recently Stripped of Protections, Are a Big Deal (New York Times [gift link], June 27, 2024)
Montreal sponge parks soak up the storm (CTV News, July 12, 2024)
For something a little lighter…. I adore this little Wes Anderson-inspired reel showing Antarctic scientists at work; the bright colors and whimsical music are great, sure, but they are also drilling an ice core, which is a very cool thing to do. Ice cores are one of the ways we know about prehistoric climate; air bubbles trapped in the ice have a lot to say about the composition of the atmosphere millenia ago.
Sara Davis 