The New Climate. New(s)letter #11
Recent reminders of just how global this crisis is.
We are all guilty of getting caught up in the here and now of domestic politics. Whether it’s the Biden-to-Harris relay handover, or Trump’s circus of hate, or even the long-awaited change of government in the UK (see Newsletter #10), what’s happening at home can seem all-consuming. And therefore all-important. But while some political decisions have a more global impact than others (the prospect of Trump pulling the US out of the Paris Agreement, for example), there is only one truly unifying global threat right now: climate change. And it requires a global, not just a domestic, response.
The global nature of the beast was certainly evident on The New Climate this month. We had the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) explained by Nima Raychaudhuri and Muhammad Ali, Ph.D. respectively. Country-specific pieces ranged from Arctic Iceland, to rare earth mining in Nigeria, Central Africa, and all the way down to the rapid melt observed in Antarctica (from, in order, Lsjaffee (Writer, Educator, Over-Thinker), Precious Awonge and Ricky Lanusse).
Avinash B also introduced us to a new country in The Biggest Federal State You’ve Never Heard Of. You may have heard of the Pacific Garbage Patch, as featured in the opening set-piece of the Netflix film ‘Under Paris’. But you may not know (or at least I didn’t) that the wider ‘Garbage Patch State’ covers an area of nearly 16,000,000 square km across five regions of the world. To draw attention to this all-too-human-created problem, writes Avinash, the Italian artist Maria Cristina Finucci has become “the self-proclaimed president of the second-largest federal state in the world by area”.
July also saw the start of the Paris Olympics, with an opening ceremony best described as Eurovision-on-Seine. Before a drag Queen Dionysus had begun to paint herself blue, or Serena Williams almost went night-swimming, Jaclyn Ha wrote the brilliant preview piece How Sustainable Are the Paris Olympics and Paralympics 2024? There is much to applaud the self-proclaimed ‘Greenest Games Ever’ for; but Jaclyn also finds much room for improvement, awarding it a Bronze medal at best.
The Paris Olympics also featured— for the third summer Games in succession — The IOC Refugee Olympic Team, which represents more than 100 million forcibly displaced people worldwide. Made up of 37 athletes, hosted by 15 National Olympic Committees and competing across 12 sports, the team “demonstrates to the world that refugees are an enrichment to society”. This is, surely, the true essence of the Olympic spirit.
My hope would be, of course, that the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics doesn’t need an IOC Refugee Olympic Team — but in all likelihood, its numbers will be greater. In researching this topic for my piece Climate Refugees: How The World Must Act, I found that there are now more climate refugees than war refugees by a factor of three to one (31 million climate refugees in 2020 compared to 10 million war refugees). And yet, no successful claims have been brought under the Refugee Convention for climate-displaced persons crossing international borders. Climate refugees are not be competing for the Paris team; while it would be bitter-sweet, I hope to see some compete in the Los Angeles team. Because at least that will mean recognition, and with legal recognition comes support.
Finally, July saw a couple of firsts for The New Climate. We had a story appear in the Medium.com Newsletter itself on July 19, which goes out to approximately a gazillion people (give or take). Congrats again to Kay Pierce for her excellent piece Even ‘Climate Havens’ Aren’t Safe from Climate Change, recounting her experience of the climate changing in pastoral Vermont. And, remember me getting excited about The New Climate passing the 1K followers mark in May, Newsletter #8? Well this month we shot past the 4K mark. The word has clearly gotten out. This thing you helped me build now has a beautiful life of its own.
Talking of which, I’ll be going on a summer holiday shortly — but rather than let the publication take a break at the same time, I’ve decided to take a different approach. For a fortnight in August, starting Friday 9th, Sílvia PM, PhD 🍂🥥will be Guest Editing The New Climate! Silvia has been one of our — nay, Medium’s — star Sci-com writers for a while now. She also edits her own fantastic publication Fossils et al, which you should immediately follow if you don’t already. So I know it’s in safe hands, and I’m genuinely excited to see what she’s done with the place when she hands me the keys back upon my return.
Enjoy the holidays — safe and sustainable travels to you all. (Oh, and if you’re still looking for somewhere to book last minute, then Samie Dorgham has a suggestion for you).
Tim Smedley, the Editor, The New Climate.
