Planet Week: America’s deadly, drenched weekends
Welcome to Planet Week, where we highlight the last week of environmental news and what it means for our Planet.
Sam took the week off, but I have you covered on the latest climate and environmental stories: Last week, floods and landslides ravaged Venezuela, Denmark and Costa Rica teamed up to quit fossil fuels, and President Joe Biden opened the first oil and gas sales of his administration.
In case you missed it, here’s what else happened around the Planet:
Sunday, August 22
America’s deadly, drenched weekend
Last weekend, the United States saw two major disasters. Torrential downpours overtook Middle Tennessee, dumping 17 inches of rain that sent floodwaters surging through homes, buildings, and roads. At least 22 people were killed in the flood, with dozens more missing.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Henri slammed into the East Coast, causing storm surges and floods and downing powerlines. With nearly 2 inches of rain Saturday night, New York City saw its wettest hour in recorded history.
This explosive rain isn’t an anomaly, though. As Grist reports, it bears the familiar fingerprints of climate change.
Monday, August 23
Climate change made European floods way more likely
Speaking of floods, the heavy rains that swamped Western Europe last month were fueled by climate change, according to new research. Scientists from the World Weather Attribution group found that climate change made the floods up to nine times more likely and increased the intensity of rainfall by nearly 20%.
“The huge human and economic costs of these floods are a stark reminder that countries around the world need to prepare for more extreme weather events,” Maarten van Aalst, one of the authors of the research, told The Guardian. “It is a rare event, but a rare event we should increasingly be prepared for.”
Tuesday, August 24
House approves massive budget bill
Just weeks after the Senate passed the $1.2 bipartisan infrastructure bill, President Biden scored another climate win. After striking a deal with moderates, House Democratic leaders advanced a separate $3.5 trillion budget blueprint through a narrow party-line vote.
As it stands, the blueprint would incentivize clean energy, electric cars, and energy-efficient homes, while taxing carbon-heavy imports. According to a memo by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the blueprint, combined with the infrastructure bill, would also allow the U.S. to cut 45% of emissions by 2030, nearly on track to meet the country’s international climate target of 50%.
The House will now spend several weeks hashing out the details of the framework. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said both the infrastructure and budget bills will be voted on by September 27. The Washington Post has more.
Wednesday, August 25
“Building back badly”
Despite a rise in renewables, coal is making a comeback, according to numbers from the London think tank Ember. The report finds that global electricity demand climbed 5% above pre-pandemic levels in the first six months of this year, with coal powering a lot of this growth.
“Catapulting emissions in 2021 should send alarm bells across the world,” Dave Jones, global program lead at Ember, said in a statement. “We are not building back better, we are building back badly.” Read more in The Verge.
Thursday, August 26
The Planet gets an F
2020 was quite the year. And despite the COVID-19 driving down global emissions, the Planet continued to suffer, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s new “State of the Climate” report.
Though emissions dropped 6–7%, it had no lasting impact on global CO2 levels, the report found. In fact, last year’s CO2 concentrations were the highest they’ve been in 800,000 years. This helpful 11-page summary outlines other brutal milestones in 2020:
- Global temperatures rivaled the hottest on record
- Europe had its hottest year on record
- Arctic land temperatures were the highest on record
- 102 named tropical cyclones were observed, well above the 1981–2010 average of 85
- Oceans absorbed a record amount of CO2
- The U.S. saw a record 22 billion-dollar disasters
Friday, August 27
Wildfires lead to air crisis
If you’ve been following this newsletter, you know that wildfires are a major story of the summer. As these blazes rage around the world, they’re leveling towns, spewing emissions, and forcing thousands to evacuate. Now, they’re causing an air pollution crisis.
Across the American West, air pollution is reaching levels that are dangerous for lungs. In Nevada, counties saw their worst air quality on record. In Las Vegas, a smoke advisory was issued due to air pollutants drifting into the city. And California’s Lake Tahoe, a popular getaway spot, was shrouded in smoke.
The Guardian covered two studies that further unpack the effects of this wildfire smoke: A Stanford study found that breathing in wildfire smoke while pregnant could lead to preterm births, and a King’s College study linked wildfire smoke exposure to more severe mental illness.
Sunday, August 29
16 years after Katrina, Hurricane Ida slams into Louisiana
On the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina making landfall in the U.S., Hurricane Ida slammed into Louisiana late Sunday, killing at least one person and leaving 1 million residents without power, including the whole city of New Orleans.
With 150 mph sustained winds on touchdown, the category 4 storm tied for the strongest storm to ever hit Louisiana. Like other recent hurricanes, the Ida’s rapid intensification is what made it so hard to prepare for: In less than 24 hours, Ida strengthened from a category 1 storm to nearly a category 5. As The Atlantic points out, that gave cities too little time to issue mandatory evacuations.
That rapid intensification, combined with the accumulated heat of the Gulf’s water this time of the year, is made more likely by climate change. Now, the storm is moving north, bringing with it flash flood warnings across the South. CNN has live updates.
Bonus
Freed from fences
More than 600,000 miles of fences crisscross the American West. Unfortunately, these fences spell disaster for migrating animals, like deer and antelope, that can get caught or injured in barbed wire. This summer, dozens of volunteers took down miles of unused fences, making the journey for animals a little easier.
“From a human perspective, fences are for managing land and livestock, and they are barely visible from afar,” graduate student Wenjing Xu told National Geographic. “For animals that need to roam, however, every ‘invisible’ fence line could be an actual barrier that they have to figure out how to overcome.”
See you next week,
Brandon
