Climate Point: Picture a deadly hot world with no polar bears or waterfalls.
Janet WilsonWelcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate, energy and the environment. I'm Janet Wilson from Palm Springs, California. A programming note: I'll be on vacation in cooler, wetter climes for two weeks. Back in your inbox July 29.
Where to begin? It feels like the long, slow ride up the roller coaster is over, and we're now hurtling headlong into full-blown climate disasters after ignoring decades of warnings to slash greenhouse gas emissions from tailpipes and smokestacks.
First up, more than 800 deaths are being probed for links to last week's brutal heat in the Pacific Northwest, and another potentially record-shattering heat wave was due to spread across the interior West, with temperatures possibly soaring as much as 25 degrees above normal.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” David Markel, an emergency physician at a Seattle hospital, told the Washington Post's Sarah Kaplan. On an overnight shift last Monday, he treated 12 patients for heat illness. Some were so sick their kidneys and livers were failing, their muscles starting to break down.
“Climate change has loaded the weather dice against us,” said Katharine Hayhoe, a Texas Tech University climate scientist. “These extremes are something we knew were coming. The suffering that is here and now is because we have not heeded the warnings sufficiently.”
Be cool. Tips to stay safe in a heat wave.
Even the fittest can be felled by heat and lack of water.
Here are some other stories that may be of interest.
MUST-SEE STORIES
Picture this. It’s a challenge for us to see our own futures. Is it any wonder we have trouble seeing the planet's future? To help us understand the impacts of climate change, USA Today graphic designer James Sergent, with help from Outforia, produced digitally altered global landmarks that have experienced historic change or are on the brink of it. From Florida's Everglades and southern Africa's Victoria Falls to the North Pole's summer ice and California's redwoods and sequoia, the picture isn't pretty.
Beyond the limit. New Jersey, of all places, is one of the fastest-warming states in the nation. Its average temperature has climbed nearly 2 degrees Celsius since 1895 — double the average across the Lower 48 states. A Washington Post analysis of more than a century of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration temperature data found several major areas nearing or already across the 2-degree C. mark.
It might not be where you'd expect. Alaska is the fastest-warming state in the country, but Rhode Island is the first in the Lower 48; its average temperature rise has eclipsed 2 degrees C. Other parts of the Northeast — New Jersey, Connecticut, Maine and Massachusetts — trail close behind. Today, more than 1 in 10 Americans — 34 million people — are living in rapidly heating regions, including New York City and Los Angeles.
ENERGY CLEAN AND DIRTY
Firestorm. Mexico's national oil company, Pemex, says despite a massive July 2 ocean blaze from a broken underwater pipeline, "environmental damage was avoided due to quick action by its workers," per Reuters' David Alire Garcia. The fire occurred at the top-producing offshore oilfield operated by Pemex, which has a long track record of industrial accidents. Environmentalists are crying foul and want a detailed study.
Three strikes. The Gulf of Mexico blaze was actually the third ocean fire in 2021, reports Johnna Crider with CleanTechnica.
Days after its spill, Mexican officials awarded Pemex control of one of the country’s biggest oil discoveries, dealing a blow to private investment and raising the prospect of international litigation.
Deadlock. Oil prices hit a six-year high on Monday after the United Arab Emirates objected to plans by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia to bring 400,000 barrels a day back to market. Analysts say prices could soar or sink based on what comes next. A Middle East slowdown could encourage U.S. drillers to increase production. Patti Domm with CNBC fills us in.
Byhalia bust. The proposed Byhalia Connection crude pipeline through Black Memphis neighborhoods will not be built, its developer announced. Local activists and celebrities like Al Gore, Danny Glover and Jane Fonda opposed it — the former vice president called the project "a reckless, racist rip-off.” Opponents also worried about oil spills and threats to drinking water from wells deep underground. The Memphis Commercial Appeal's Daniel Connolly, Lucas Finton and Micaela Watts report.
POLITICAL CLIMATE
Red, green and blue. A new report from the Environmental Voter Project claims a hidden bloc of pro-environment but sporadic voters in nine Republican states holds the power to shift elections and turn red states blue. Sam Palca and James Bruggers with Inside Climate News explain.
Seeing red. Environmentalists and some members of Congress are furious over boasts by Exxon lobbyists to Greenpeace's undercover "Unearthed" arm that the company persuaded moderate senators to strip costly subsidies for electric vehicle and other climate change measures out of the Biden administration's proposed $2 trillion infrastructure bill.
But Biden is staying silent so far, and his climate adviser Gina McCarthy met twice this year with oil industry reps herself, including the American Petroleum Institute, which a senior Exxon lobbyist described as “whipping boys” the company uses to avoid scrutiny. And last week Biden endorsed an alternative plan that eliminates most climate change spending, after being forced to compromise by “moderate” Democratic senators like Joe Manchin of West Virginia), per Kate Aranoff with the New Republic.
Failing grade. Grassroots groups give Louisiana lawmakers an "F" on the environment.
AND ANOTHER THING
Lessons learned. Scientists are studying ancient Mayan water works, crop rotation and other archeological remnants for sustainability lessons. The civilization, centered in southern Mexico, Guatemala and Belize, supported cities as large as 120,000 people that had plazas and ball courts as well as palaces and massive reservoirs, says anthropologist Lisa Lucero with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The cities, surrounded by dense farmland, and were mosaics of shaded walkways and other greenery. Fast-growing bamboo was key to construction. The World's Marco Werman and Carole Hills produced the piece.
That's it for now. Be back here in two weeks. And for more climate, energy and environment news, follow me @janetwilson66. You can sign up to get Climate Point in your inbox for free here.