The Clim8
08.01.21-08.07.21
The Climate Crisis Is In Your Kitchen: How extreme weather is causing food prices to escalate (The Guardian)
Severe effects of global climate change, droughts, heatwaves, flooding and more, are damaging fields and creating a devastating scenario for farmers. While farmers are struggling to raise their crops, food prices are rising. For example, wheat, which is an extremely common food, is now at its highest price in eight years due to warmer temperatures and droughts. And, during the past year, the future prices of coffee and sugar surged by over 50 percent. Groceries are expected to become more expensive, which is a pressing consequence of climate change that will affect the lives of every single person.
For four decades, one scientist has made it his mission to document the Arctic’s ‘invisible world’ (CNN)
Wayne Davidson has tracked the signs of the Arctic’s disastrous warming, from lighter evenings to drifting killer whales. Through recording atmospheric readings, wind, humidity, and temperatures on Cornwallis Island, Nunavut, Davidson has come to determine that the climate of the north Arctic is a guide to the planet’s past and a location from which future climates can be inspected.
United Nations experts argue for an urgent need to reduce emissions and decelerate global warming with the involvement of more nuclear power (UN News)
The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) believes that nuclear power can be beneficial to meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement. UNECE Executive Secretary Olga Algayerova said that nuclear power will help reduce climate change because it is a strong source of low-carbon electricity and heat, so it will work towards achieving carbon neutrality.
In a few weeks, global leaders will gather in Glasgow to discuss plans to slow the climate crisis.
How computer models can help with climate change initiatives (NPR)
It’s still possible to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis if dramatic change is made now. Under the Paris Agreement, world leaders have committed to limiting global warming to less than 2 degrees celsius. In order to meet this goal, greenhouse gas emissions will have to reach zero over the next 40 years. While it’s still unclear whether this goal is possible, Detlef van Vuuren, a researcher at the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, has turned to computer models in order to find different ways to reach this goal.
The relationship between climate change and fertility rates (CNBC)
As climate change continues to impact our world, many people have grown hesitant of having children. The climate crisis has already affected fertility rates as “UCLA researchers showed that the number of births in the U.S. fell in the nine months after an extreme heat event.” While some people fear bringing children into the world because of the environmental impact, others worry primarily about the futures of their children.
The UN’s IPCC has released a new report on the current and future states of our climate (Reuters)
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its part of its sixth assessment report, Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis, this past Sunday, August 8th, 2021. The long and thorough report is well over 3500 pages but it’s objectives are clear: to inform and warn the world about their contribution to climate change and the risk further warming poses on our lifetime. The report puts humans at fault for global warming and says that weather will become more extreme, ice will melt, and seas will rise more rapidly if we don’t reduce emissions immediately.
To read the official report summary for policymakers, click here.
July 2021 became one of the world’s hottest months on record (BBC)
Last month’s temperatures were record-breaking in Asia and much warmer than average across other continents. The land and ocean surface temperatures were almost 2 degrees above the previous century’s average, breaking the record for the hottest month recorded, achieved last year. The extreme heat this year has also been accompanied by unusually high tropical cyclone activity. These findings are just a fraction of the potentially irreversible and deadly consequences of climate change.
Green Banking? Climate conscious banking firms provide consumers an alternative option to fossil fuel funding banks (Scientific American)
The biggest investment banks in the US also have the largest ties to the fossil fuel industry. As people become more environmentally friendly and aware of the climate crisis, people are looking to associate themselves with companies that align with their environmental values. These up-and-coming green banks, like Amalgamated, promise to support renewable energy projects and avoid financing companies labeled major emitters. Other green banks give people the option to donate revenue to environmental NGO’s and help track the carbon footprint of the user’s purchases.