News from a Changing Planet -- This Week on Earth #37
A crazy amount of news for paid subscribers, and a short preview for free subscribers! Ocean heat (very hot), greenhouse gas smugglers, endangered languages and climate change, and much more!
HOT HOT HEAT: The ongoing extreme ocean temperatures and why they matter (Bloomberg)
This is a helpful primer on how hot the oceans are, why they are so hot, why it matters that they are so hot, and what the rest of this year is likely to bring (slightly cooler temperatures, but a background of intense warming.)
“Since early May of last year, the average global sea surface temperature — excluding waters around the poles — has been at record seasonal highs every day, in data that goes back to 1979.”
Why it matters? Warmer ocean temperatures can mean more sea-ice melting and possibly (in the distant future) collapse of important global currents, weaker monsoon seasons in India, stronger hurricanes in the Atlantic, coral reef bleaching, species migration and ripple effects through food webs, ecosystems and human nutrition pathways.
CLEAN ENERGY RUNS UP AGAINST TRIBAL CONCERNS: Sacred land is still sacred land for these tribes/nations, no matter the kind of infrastructure. (Washington Post)
Late last week, a US Court of Appeals ruled that a copper mine in Arizona could go ahead, despite objections from the San Carlos Apache Tribe, which considers Oak Flat, the area that would be mined, sacred.
It was a huge loss for the Apache who have been fighting the development of this mine for years, and they called it a violation of their sovereignty and religious freedom, though the land does not technically belong to the tribe. As this article makes clear, it’s one example of conflicting priorities between tribal communities and the Biden administration, as it tries to prioritize the permitting and construction of clean energy (or -adjacent) infrastructure and tribes say they are not being heard.
“We do not disagree with renewable energy,” [Verlon] Jose (a leader of the Tohono O’odham Nation) said. “We are for renewable energy. You know what the fix to this issue is? They could have rerouted it. But they didn’t listen.”
A NFACP SALUTE: To Special Envoy John Kerry for his service. (Interview: The New Yorker with Bill McKibben. Article: The Washington Post)
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