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
Washington Post (April 7)
Numerous conflicts are “pitting the environment against, well, the environment. Solar plants and wind farms, transmission lines and carbon-capture projects face opposition from conservationists and other environmental groups asking courts to stop new infrastructure from encroaching on wetlands, forests and other ecosystems.” Trade-offs like these “generally lean against developers,” but they were “written in an era before those developers included promoters of the green power that humanity needs to stave off climate change.” Things need fixing. We should not “let environmentalism sabotage green energy.”
Tags: Carbon capture, Climate change, Conservationists, Ecosystems, Environmentalism, Forests, Green power, Opposition, Solar, Trade-offs, Transmission lines, Wetlands, Wind
Washington Post (February 20)
“As it stands today, even the most heralded investor activism has done next to nothing to move the needle…. Somehow activists missed that each share a green investor sells is purchased by somebody with lesser green credentials, less interest in climate change. This substitution could actually lead to more rather than fewer carbon emissions.”
Tags: Activists, Carbon emissions, Climate change, Green investor, Heralded, Investors, Sells, Share, Substitution
Reuters (January 8)
“The world is full of danger. The planet starts 2024 with war in Gaza and Ukraine, superpower rivalry, climate change and slow growth. The possible return of Donald Trump as U.S. president is another risk…. It’s easy to see how the world’s multiple overlapping crises – what some observers have labelled the ‘polycrisis’—could feed on one another, creating a doom loop.” But none of this is inevitable. “There are more optimistic scenarios, and some silver linings in the pessimistic ones.”
Tags: 2024, Climate change, Danger, Doom loop, Gaza, Growth, Optimistic scenarios, Polycrisis, Risk, Rivalry, Superpower, Trump, U.S., Ukraine, War, World
Washington Post (October 16)
“Climate change is the catastrophe to end all other catastrophes.” Every other issue pales in comparison. “Even our boldest notions of how to improve the status of women — expanding access to education, health care, housing and liberty — will be meaningless if women are swept away in mega floods, buried in landslides or suffocated by wildfires.”
Tags: Access, Boldest, Catastrophe, Climate change, Education, Floods, Health care, Housing, Landslides, Liberty, Meaningless, Status of women
New Yorker (August 28)
“Japan is the first nation to experience a demographic tipping point where more than twenty per cent of the population is over sixty-five years old.” This magnifies the effects of climate change. Hot summer weather in Tokyo now lasts “some fifty days longer in recent years as compared with the twentieth century.” The additional “heat has proven a silent killer of these older citizens. Thirteen hundred people die of heatstroke annually in the country, the majority of them elderly.”
Tags: Climate change, Demographic, Elderly, Heatstroke, Hot, Japan, Magnifies, Over sixty-five, Population, Silent killer, Summer weather, Tipping point, Tokyo
Council on Foreign Relations (August 25)
“American homeowners already coping with extreme weather now face a new risk: disappearing property insurance. Private companies have increasingly reduced coverage, concluding that the risks—and potential losses—threatened by climate change outweigh probable profits. As of now, this primarily affects a handful of coastal U.S. states, including California. In other states, insurers have substantially increased the price of property insurance.”
Tags: California, Climate change, Coastal, Coverage, Extreme weather, Homeowners, Potential losses, Private companies, Profits, Property insurance, Risks, U.S.
Institutional Investor (August 23)
“Proponents and critics of ESG claim it can change society. Both will be disappointed.” During the past five years, ESG investing has taken off. “By the end of 2022, global ESG funds had attracted more than $2.5 trillion in assets.” Regardless of this clout and “whether or not asset managers are ‘woke,’ ESG doesn’t hurt oil companies or provide capital for solutions to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.”
Tags: $2.5 trillion, Asset managers, Assets, Capital, Change, Climate change, Critics, Disappointed, ESG investing, Impacts, Oil companies, Proponents, Society, Woke
