TICK TOCK THE CLIMATE CLOCK – PART THIRTY-ONE

It’s been exactly one month since I last posted about the climate.  So it seemed about time to do a climate round-up to see what’s been going on in plain sight while we were focused on the coronavirus.   Spoiler alert:  The climate disaster never sleeps.

Kolkata Got Klobbered.  As reported in The New York Times on May 21:

More than 80 people were killed by the powerful cyclone that slammed into India and Bangladesh on Wednesday, wiping out thousands of homes and drenching low-lying areas in torrential rain….

Many of the dead were crushed by falling trees, electrocuted by downed wires or buried inside collapsing buildings as Cyclone Amphan pummeled the region, leaving a wide swath of devastation and grief.

The worst damage was reported in the Indian state of West Bengal, which includes the metropolis of Kolkata and many small, coastal villages where people live in shacks made from mud and sticks.

More than 2.4 million were evacuated from Bangladesh and around 600,000 from India.  Think evacuees were able to socially distance in the shelters?  Think many of these poor souls had protective masks?

Don’t Count on FEMA.  The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association released its annual major storm predictions last week.  Mother Nature is expected to be a busy little bee this hurricane season.  NOAA forecasts a 70% chance of 13 to 19 named storms, six to 10 of which will become hurricanes, 3 to 6 of which could be Category 3 or greater.  Seems like NOAA is all over it; Tropical Storm Bertha slammed into South Carolina and Florida this week, dumping 7.27 inches of rain on Miami.  But help might not be on the way this season.  Per The New York Times:

The acting deputy administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said the coronavirus pandemic could add to the challenges of the season.

In a document issued on Wednesday, FEMA said it would “minimize the number of personnel deploying to disaster-impacted areas” this hurricane season, relying instead on what the agency called virtual forms of assistance.

What the heck is a "virtual form of assistance" and why would you want one when you need the real thing?  Would you want a virtual house, a virtual car, or virtual money?  No, I didn't think so.

Dam That Was Close! A 500-year rainfall event in Michigan breached two dams, sending floodwaters into a sprawling, century-old Dow chemical complex with a small, on-site nuclear reactor used in product research, raising concerns of wider environmental fallout (no pun intended).  Among other things, the Dow plant made Styrofoam, Saran Wrap (not to be confused with the poisonous gas--but wait!), Agent Orange and mustard gas.  Dow filed an “unusual event” report with the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.  (I bet they did!)  Fortunately, the reactor had already been shut down because of the coronavirus crisis.  But Michiganders might not be so lucky next time.  Per The New York Times:

The threat to the Dow complex highlights the risks to Superfund and other toxic cleanup sites posed by the effects of climate change, which include more frequent and severe flooding. A federal report published last year found that 60 percent of Superfund sites overseen by the E.P.A., or more than 900 toxic sites countrywide, are in areas that may be affected by flooding or wildfires, both hazards that may be exacerbated by climate change.

The Trump administration rejected the report’s recommendation that the federal government provide more clarity on how it intends to incorporate climate research into readying these sites to withstand a changing climate.

April is the Cruelest Month and Also the Warmest.  April 2020 clocked in at the warmest April on record.  NOAA, using its own temperature monitoring data, reported that there is a 75 percent chance that 2020 will become the planet’s warmest year since instrument records began in 1880.  And it gets even better.  Per The Washington Post:

Assuming NOAA ranks April as having global average temperatures above the 20th-century average, it would be the 424th straight month to have that distinction.

In other words, those who are 35 years old and younger have never experienced a cooler-than-average month on Earth.

Climate Change? “It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”  Great Britain, scheduled to hold the U.N.’s annual global climate talks in Glasgow this November, has proposed putting the talks off until November 2021 because of the coronavirus.  Per The New York Times:

Delaying the talks by a full year could have other repercussions, some diplomats say. It could encourage countries and international financial institutions to enact economic recovery plans without paying much heed to their climate implications. 

Ya think?!

 Excuse Me, But That’s My Habitat You’re Trespassing.  The coronavirus is a zoonotic disease, and like environmental destruction, it has a clear connection to the climate crisis.  Per The New York Times:

The destruction of forests into fragmented patches is increasing the likelihood that viruses and other pathogens will jump from wild animals to humans, according to a study from Stanford University published this month.

The research, which focused on contact between humans and primates in western Uganda, holds lessons for a world reeling from the coronavirus outbreak and searching for strategies to prevent the next global pandemic.

Eric Lambin, a professor of Earth system science at Stanford and one of the study’s co-authors, said that the United States has its own example of an animal-borne disease linked to patchwork woodlands close to suburban and rural communities: Lyme disease, which spreads from wildlife to humans by ticks.

“We see the animals as infecting us, but the picture that’s coming from the study and other studies is we really go to the animals,” said Dr. Lambin. “We intrude on their habitats.”

“I Really Don’t CARES.  Do EU?”  While the U.S. clearly does not, the EU appears to--at least its leadership (above) wears masks.  Their motto is, "This is Europe's moment" and to prove it, the EU Commission proposed a coronavirus recovery plan that will pour €750B into green technologies and create one million green jobs, while funneling €40B to coal producing countries to aid their transition to clean energy.  The plan is not without its critics.  As reported yesterday in The Guardian:

The EU’s plan seeks to pour money into emissions-busting sectors: €91bn a year for home energy efficiency and green heating, €25bn of renewable energy, and €20bn for clean cars over two years, plus 2m charging points in five years. Up to €60bn will go to zero-emissions trains and the production of 1m tonnes of clean hydrogen is planned.

But despite the European commission saying “public investments in the recovery should respect the green oath to ‘do no harm’”, critics worry there are no hard guarantees against the money seeping into dirty projects. The Covid-19 crisis has seen polluters lobbying hard for bailouts.

That has a familiar American ring to it--Boeing, Boeing, gone.  

In addition to the recovery funds, the EU’s proposed €1.1T budget for 2021-2027 reserves 25% of its expenditures for climate projects, which critics say is inadequate.  Again per The Guardian:

Worse, say critics, climate conditions on large parts of the main EU budget have been lifted for three years because of the pandemic. The proportion of the budget reserved for climate projects remains stuck at 25%, despite demands by the European parliament and many others to raise it.

The commission rejects these criticisms, saying the “objective of the green economy is present throughout the whole management of the funds”. Whether this oversight proves effective will be the critical test.

No doubt.

 

While the Trump Administration continues to shred environmental regulations like Oliver North hiding the Iran-Contra Affair, and China begins to relax restrictions in an effort to restart its virus-damaged economy, the EU is at least putting its euros where its mouth is.  Time will tell, however, if the talk is cheap.  Oversight will be critically important in ensuring that EU recovery funds and designated budget amounts find their way into green projects.  But I like the direction reported in The Guardian: 

Frans Timmermans, the European commission vice-president who oversees the European green deal, said the EU needed to ensure it was not putting money into the industries of the past. 

“For many regions and companies including those relying on coal production and carbon-intensive industrial processes, this economic crisis has raised an existential question,” he told journalists. “Do we rebuild what we ha[d] before or do we seize the opportunity to restructure and create different and new jobs?

“In all the actions we are going to take, we apply the ‘do no harm’ principle so you can’t have investment that takes us in a different direction.”

Timmermanns’ sentiment was echoed by EU commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, above, who said:

“Sooner or later we will find a vaccine for the coronavirus. But there is no vaccine for climate change. Therefore [we] need a recovery plan designed for the future.”

Keep it real!  Wear your mask!

Marilyn