The Week (February 9)
“Climate change has led to a marked decrease in salaries across the country, including in places that haven’t experienced significant temperature changes. The problem is likely not limited to the U.S. and is expected to worsen without intervention.” With risks “expected to increase. The global economy could also be significantly altered and likely already has.”
Tags: Climate change, Decrease, Global economy, Intervention, Risks, Salaries, Temperature changes, U.S., Worsen
The Week (January 20)
“Lizards, crocodiles and turtles have some rocky times ahead.” Their offspring’s sex springs from Temperature-Dependent Sex Determination (TSD). Warming temperatures accompanying “worsening climate change plus habitat degradation, pollution and other human influences” mean “maintaining populations is likely going to be an uphill battle.” By 2100, according to some predictions, “there could be only one sex of alligators.”
Tags: Alligators, Climate change, Crocodiles, Habitat degradation, Lizards, Pollution, Rocky times, Temperature-Dependent Sex Determination, Turtles
Time (February 10)
Losses, estimated at $52 to $57 billion, from the LA fires are accelerating “an uninsurable future.” Many affected homeowners had already been dropped by private insurers because distorted risks from climate change made the policies unviable. Many were essentially “forced to obtain coverage from the state’s insurer of last resort, the California Fair Access to Insurance Requirements (CA FAIR) Plan,” but that plan’s exposure far outstrips its assets, placing all of the state’s insurance policyholders on the hook for additional levies. This situation is not unique to California and action is required. “What won’t work, experts say, is continuing with the same system and hoping that climate risk just goes away.”
Tags: $57 billion, CA FAIR, California, Climate, Climate change, Coverage, Homeowners, LA fires, Last resort, Levies, Losses, Private insurers, Risks, Uninsurable future
Financial Times (January 10)
“BlackRock has become the latest financial firm to bail out of a big climate change industry group in the wake of Donald Trump’s election as US president and heightened regulatory scrutiny. The world’s largest money manager told institutional clients in a letter on Thursday that it had quit Net Zero Asset Managers,” which seeks “the goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner.”
Tags: 2050, BlackRock, Climate change, Election, Financial firm, GHG emissions, Money manager, Net Zero Asset Managers, Regulatory scrutiny, Trump, U.S.
Washington Post (October 12)
“A second catastrophic hurricane in as many weeks has forced the U.S. government to grapple with a harsh reality: Climate calamities are becoming more frequent, deadly and costly in a country already facing massive fiscal challenges.” With the ballooning U.S. national debt already exceeding $35 trillion, “budget experts agree that climate change threatens to add to these woes, harming economic output while forcing the government to spend more, and generate less, as it grapples with the consequences of dangerous emissions.”
Tags: $35 trillion, Calamities, Catastrophic, Climate change, Costly, Deadly, Economic output, Fiscal challenges, Frequent, Government, Grapple, Harsh, Hurricane, National debt, U.S.
Washington Post (August 29)
“The United States and the entire planet are poised to clinch their most humid summer on record, scientists say. The sweltering conditions, which have pushed this year’s heat close to the limits of survivability in some areas and fueled flooding downpours, are part of a long-term increase in humid heat driven by human-caused climate change.”
Tags: Climate change, Downpours, Flooding, Heat, Human-caused, Humid, Limits, Planet, Record, Summer, Survivability, Sweltering, U.S.
Hartford Courant (August 12)
“Why aren’t we taking climate change more seriously” even though the consequences are all around. “The good folks living in the small town of Fairbourne, Wales have a problem. Those who want to sell their homes to buyers looking for 30-year mortgages can’t” because local banks “have determined that the town of Fairbourne will not exist in 30 years. It will be underwater.” Before it is too late, “we need to take climate change more seriously.”
Tags: 30-year mortgages, Banks, Buyers, Climate change, Consequences, Fairbourne, Homes, Sell, Underwater, Wales
Reuters (June 20)
“At least 562 people have died during the haj.” As bad as that is, “climate scientists say such deaths offer a glimpse of what is to come for the tens of millions of Muslims expected in coming decades to undertake the haj,” especially from the 2040s, when the Haj will again “coincide with the peak of summer in Saudi Arabia.” Given impact of climate change, “the situation will get much worse as the world warms.”
Tags: 2040s, 562 deaths, Climate change, Climate scientists, Haj, Impact, Muslims, Peak of summer, Saudi Arabia, Worse
Washington Post (June 13)
“The cause of the environment is losing the public debate. Whether the goal is to reduce air pollution, keep pesticides and nitrogen out of waterways, enforce water conservation” or avoiding catastrophic climate change, “the agenda to preserve the globe’s natural ecosystems has been set on its heels.”
Tags: Air pollution, Catastrophic, Climate change, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Losing, Nitrogen, Pesticides, Public debate, Waterways
The Economist (April 13)
Extreme weather incidents are increasing in frequency due to climate change. “In the decade from 2000 to 2009 only three thunderstorms cost the industry more than $1bn at current prices. From 2010 to 2019 there were ten. Since 2020 there have already been six. Such storms now account for more than a quarter of the costs to the insurance industry from natural disasters.”
Tags: $1bn, 2010, 2019, 2020, Climate change, Costs, Extreme weather, Frequency, Incidents, Industry, Insurance, Natural disasters, Storms, Thunderstorms
