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This is not a drill!
Shit is unravelling, and Donald Trump is holding the thread.
Tarryn Giebelmann
May 23, 2024
Hi friend,
It’s been, what? Nearly three weeks since my last newsletter?
That’s the longest gap since I started this thing in November 2022.
Truth is, curating climate change and sustainability news is depressing as fuck. It’s bad out there. It’s worse than we thought. And writing this newsletter, trying to tell people how bad it is, feels like farting against thunder, especially when Donald Trump opens his trap and promises oil industry leaders substantial regulatory rollbacks if they fund his election campaign.
You can guarantee that if Trump becomes president of the US again, he will reverse many of the environmental policies enacted by Joe Biden and replace them with policies that benefit the oil industry.
Trump will literally be in the oil industry’s back pocket after asking them for a billion bucks towards his campaign. "You all are wealthy enough; you should raise US$1 billion to return me to the White House."
A billion dollars is SMALL CHANGE for the oil industry. The world’s largest oil companies have made US$281 billion profit since the Ukraine war began.
His words hadn’t turned cold yet before the oil industry started drawing up ready-to-sign executive orders aimed at pushing natural gas exports, cutting drilling costs, and increasing offshore oil leases. All good to go the moment Trump takes office again.
I cannot stress the danger of the oil industry's direct involvement in drafting executive orders and policies.
This should alarm everyone.
Gif by cbsnews on Giphy
Meanwhile, Trump’s fellow Republican, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, has deleted climate change from state policy, despite his state being among the most vulnerable to, and hardest hit by, the impacts of climate change
From July, the government won’t need to consider climate change when crafting energy policy. The law also bans the construction of offshore wind turbines in state waters and will cancel state grant programmes that encourage energy conservation and renewable energy.
He’s so delusional that he honestly believes this move will “restore sanity in our approach to energy and reject the agenda of the radical green zealots”.
I suppose it makes sense if you’re the kind of person who believes that balloons are a bigger threat to biodiversity than climate change.
That’s right. DeSantis has also banned the intentional release of balloons outdoors in an attempt to reduce microplastic pollution.
Gif by latelateshow on Giphy
Yes, balloons are a problem. They often end up in oceans and waterways, where they’re 32 times more likely to kill seabirds than other types of plastic debris. But are they a bigger problem than climate change? Not even close.
Here’s what Trump and DeSantis ignored this week:
🚨 Researchers have recorded the largest ever leap in carbon emissions in the atmosphere. They warn that we’re not just breaking records in CO2 concentrations but also records for how fast they are rising.
🚨 Venezuela may be the first nation in history to lose all its glaciers after climate scientists downgraded its last one to an ice field.
🚨 Heat stress is hitting the Caribbean earlier than it did in 2023, which was already a record year for the region.
🚨 Hundreds of the world’s leading climate scientists expect global temperatures to rise to at least 2.5°C above preindustrial levels this century, blasting past internationally agreed targets and causing catastrophic consequences for humanity and the planet.
Everybody needs to read this:
It’s hard to stay optimistic when the world’s most powerful people are so driven by greed and their need for power.
It’s hard to keep telling people to stay positive, to do what they can, and not to lose hope.
Because I lost hope this week. And it’s a sucky feeling knowing the people who can make the biggest difference would rather watch the world burn from their ivory towers.
I’m not optimistic, positive, or hopeful this week. And that’s ok.
Maybe next week will be different.
— Tarryn ✌️
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The good news
👏 Joe Biden has introduced a bunch of environmental rules targeting climate change, toxins, and wildlife protection. Regulations include a ban on asbestos, stringent vehicle and power plant emissions standards, and the first-ever regulations on "forever" chemicals in drinking water. The Biden Administration is rushing to approve as many environmental laws as possible in case Trump becomes US president again and undoes all the progress we’ve made since he left office.
👌 Lawmakers in Vermont passed a bill designed to make big fossil fuel companies and others with high emissions pay for damage from weather disasters fuelled by climate change. The legislation, the Climate Superfund Act, is the first of its kind in the US. The money will go towards modernising infrastructure, weatherproofing schools and public buildings, cleaning up after storms, and addressing the public health costs of climate change.
☁️ California has stopped a cloud brightening experiment because of potential health concerns and environmental impacts.
🇪🇺 The European Union's greenhouse gas emissions fell by 5% last year, according to official data.
🐧 BirdLife South Africa and the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds are taking the South African government to court for failing to adequately protect African penguins, whose population is declining by 8% a year.
👏 The Biden administration will end new coal leasing in the Powder River Basin, the largest coal-producing region in the US.
🇩🇪 A Berlin court has ordered the German government to overhaul its 2023 climate programme to meet sector-specific targets for 2030.
The bad news
🇬🇧 The High Court in the UK has ruled that the government’s climate action plan is unlawful. It says it overlies on ‘risky technologies’ and it’s not clear how the government will meet its net-zero emissions targets by 2050. This is the second time the court has ruled that the UK’s climate plan is unlawful.
⚡️ New research has revealed that a five-year delay to the global energy transition away from fossil fuels could result in the global average temperature rising to 3°C above pre-industrial levels.
🧊 Two concerning studies about sea ice: The Antarctic lost sea ice the size an area bigger than Alaska; and another found that strong tides pushed seawater surprisingly far beneath the tongue of the Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica, reinforcing concerns about the glacier speeding up and adding to sea level rise.
🌀 Wild weather:
🌊 Floods and landslides kill at least 62 people in Indonesia.
🌊 Brazil continues to battle floods, with experts saying it will take weeks for the water to subside.
⛈️ Violent thunderstorm rips through Houston, Texas, killing at least seven people and wiping out power for thousands.
Business news
💸 The world’s biggest banks collectively provided more than US$705 billion to fossil fuel companies and projects in 2023, with almost half of them increasing their finance provisions for the sector year-on-year.
👏 The LEGO Group will begin tying a portion of bonuses for all salaried employees to emissions reduction goals starting this year, as part of the company’s strategy to meet its climate targets.
👩🏻⚖️ An environmental non-profit is taking Tesla to court for allegedly violating the federal Clean Air Act hundreds of times by letting its Fremont, California, plant emit harmful pollutants.
One small thing you can do
Hold on to your balloons.
I’m not a party pooper. I’m not anti-balloons at parties. Just don’t let them go.
Gif by youtube on Giphy
Because lots of little actions combined can add up to something remarkable.
I'll leave you on this happy note...
The way I’m feeling, I need one of these.
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