We are a civilization obsessed with expansion that has suddenly discovered, as it were, that it inhabits an island. Will we cling to our reckless old ideologies, or will we seek to learn a new, more intelligent way of being? –Jason Hickel, in Less is More.
Our Climate Crisis
This July 4th was the hottest day on record since climate scientists began using our present modeling system to estimate global daily average temperatures starting in 1979. Furthermore, evidence left in tree rings and ice cores indicates that it hasn’t been this warm since at least 125,000 years ago during the previous interglacial age.
Temperatures around the world in June were at their highest levels in decades for this time of year. The heat spike reflects two factors that could create a multiyear period of exceptional warmth for the planet: humans’ continued emissions of heat-trapping gases and the return of the natural climate pattern known as El Niño. This is setting the stage for more-severe hot spells, droughts, wildfires, and hurricanes.
Experts say that the oppressive heat wave roasting Texas and Mexico is an effect of rapid warming in the Arctic. Temperatures there are rising four times faster than the global average. This alters the jet stream, a fast-flowing air current that wraps around the Northern Hemisphere, causing it to dip and meander up and down as it zooms around the globe. A wavier jet stream can cause heat waves, storms and other weather systems to get stuck in place, dragging out for days or weeks on end.
The smoke that Canadian wildfires sent swirling over swaths of the East Coast blanketed cities including New York, Philadelphia and Toronto, shocked many Easterners, broke air quality records and threatened people’s health. Some climate experts say this has created an important opportunity for helping the public make the connection between these kinds of events and climate change. More recently this dangerous smoke pollution has been enveloping cities in the Midwest and may intermittently continue throughout the summer.
The climate crisis is fueling an insurance crisis in disaster-prone areas, leaving homeowners struggling to find affordable coverage. In California, State Farm and Allstate recently stopped selling new home insurance policies after years of catastrophic wildfires. In Louisiana, at least seven insurance companies have failed since Hurricane Ida. And in Florida, most big insurance companies have already pulled out of the storm-battered state.
Politics and Policy
The White House released a report last week on solar geoengineering as a way to slow rising global temperatures. The Biden administration indicated that it is open to studying the possibility that altering sunlight might quickly cool the planet. It, however, added a degree of skepticism by noting that Congress has ordered the review and said that it isn’t changing its climate policy.
About two-thirds of Americans support transformative climate policies like a carbon tax or Green New Deal. Most, however, do not realize that their views are so widely shared. This misperception matters, because when people feel alone in their views, they are less likely to take action.
Agrivoltaics—the double-duty climate solution that pairs solar panels (photovoltaics) with agriculture—enables farmland to host solar and stay in production. This has caught the attention of U.S. senators on both sides of the aisle who recently proposed two bills to boost agrivoltaics that benefit both farmers and ecosystems.
The debt ceiling bill agreed to by GOP house leader Kevin McCarthy and the White House approves all the remaining permits to complete the stalled Mountain Valley Pipeline. This delivered a big win for West Virginia Sens. Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito who have received campaign contributions totaling over $70,000 from political action committees for developers of the Mountain Valley Pipeline since the start of 2018.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued an order that the Mountain Valley Pipeline is “authorized to proceed with all remaining construction associated with the project.” The company building the pipeline said that, with this approval, the pipeline could carry natural gas as soon as this winter. It asked to have the two federal legal cases against it dismissed. The Southern Environmental Law Center filed a brief opposing motions to dismiss the cases.
Virginia’s Air Pollution Control Board voted 4-3 to remove the commonwealth from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a multi-state cohort aimed at reducing carbon emissions. Ultimately the board, with a majority of Gov. Glenn Youngkin appointees, voted to align with the administration’s wishes. This has looming consequences because the initiative generates hundreds of millions of dollars for energy efficiency for low income households as well as climate mitigation in flood prone areas of the state.
Energy
As India’s overburdened electrical grid strains, rural hospitals and health clinics are finding reliable power in rooftop solar. This enables them to provide constant electricity that keeps the lights on, patients and staff comfortable, and vaccines and medicines safely refrigerated. It also allows them to get rid of toxic, carbon-spewing diesel generators that provide emergency backup electricity.
It took 22 years for global solar power capacity to grow from one gigawatt to one terawatt. New projections indicate the second and the third terawatts will arrive within five years. Another bit of news on the rapid deployment of renewable energy is that 50.9% of installed electricity capacity in China is now renewables and nuclear, meeting a 2025 target two years early.
Nearly everything we do contributes to our carbon footprint. But a two-wheeled solution is zipping through the world at 20 miles an hour. U.S. sales of e-bikes nearly doubled in just one year as commuters looked for accessible and affordable modes of transportation. In 2021, more than 880,000 e-bikes were sold in the U.S., compared with 608,000 electric cars and trucks. That’s up from 450,000 e-bike sales in 2020.
Climate Justice
War, poverty and climate change have created a perfect storm for children around the world, according to a recent United Nations report. This has driven the number of children currently displaced from their homes to an unprecedented 42 million, and it has left those young people vulnerable to criminal violence and exploitation.
The US is racing to produce more biofuels, which use much more land than solar and wind while displacing much less fossil fuel. It’s fairly well-known that biofuels accelerate food inflation and global hunger, but they’re also a disaster for the climate and the environment. It takes about 100 acres worth of biofuels to generate as much energy as a single acre of solar panels.
Coastal land loss has upended life in South Louisiana for the half-dozen Indigenous tribes that rely on the abundance of its wetlands. Some 11,000 Native Americans live in the four most vulnerable coastal parishes (counties). They have been fighting to get the attention of the federal government as they push for coastal restoration efforts that would at least slow the degradation enough for them to plan an orderly retreat.
A pastor in Java, Indonesia recounts how ocean floodwaters exasperated by global warming breached an embankment and flooded their community last year. His church joined others in providing food and relief supplies across religious and ethnic boundaries. He reflects, “As I contemplate the natural disaster, I can see that the ministry of love invites us to bring about justice toward others. But I also know that the breach of the embankment shows that nature and our environment are not doing well.”
With no public transit available, an innovative E.V. ride-sharing program is bringing low-cost, clean transportation to an agricultural town in California’s Central Valley. The service shuttles low-income residents, many of them elderly, to medical appointments for free. Similar programs are following suit in other parts of California, New York, and Washington, DC.
Climate Action
Dominion Energy is seeking households for its Income and Age Qualifying Solar Program which is no-cost for its customers in Virginia. A two person household qualifies at a yearly income of $46,544 or $93,088 if someone 60 or older lives in the home. You can find out more and see if you qualify by contacting Dominion Energy here . You can also contact Community Housing Partners here to find out more about this program in relation to other no-cost home weatherization and energy efficiency programs.
Pope Francis, in a fresh plea over climate change, called on people to repent for their “ecological sins.” The world must rapidly ditch fossil fuels and end “the senseless war against creation.” Francis has made the protection of the environment a cornerstone of his pontificate. He said that the upcoming U.N. climate summit meeting in Dubai “must listen to science and institute a rapid and equitable transition to end the era of fossil fuel.”
Americans generate more than 12% of the planet’s trash, though we represent only 4% of the global population. Our throw-away culture started about a hundred years ago with the rise of mass manufacturing. Now, aided by on-line how-to videos, consumers are showing an increased interest in prolonging the life of the things they own, rather than getting rid of them. Additionally, so-called “Right to Repair” legislation seeks to make manufacturers provide consumers and independent repair companies access to their parts, tools and service information.
Richmond is joining other cities in scrapping decades-old mandatory parking space requirements. It’s expected to curb emissions of heat-trapping gases in an evolving capital city that prizes walking, bicycling and ready access to public transit. It could also reduce sprawl and free up space for affordable and additional housing.
Outside of catastrophic wildfire events, the leading sources of unhealthy air in the United States are fossil-fuel-powered transportation and electricity generation. A recent report from the American Lung Association indicates how much the most common pollutants would be reduced if the country were to speed up the transition to EVs and a clean energy grid.
The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocated billions of dollars for EV buses but the program can’t keep up with demand. The Department of Energy recently allocated $1.7B in clean-bus grants but saw $8.7B in applications.
You should consider an electric grill when you replace your current gas or charcoal grill. They exist and, according to some advocates, they’re just as good at producing delicious food. They’re less expensive to use and give you one more option to unhook from fossil fuels.
Earl Zimmerman
CAAV Steering Committee
Climate Action Alliance of the Valley 