A weekly reckoning with life in a warming world—and the fight to save it |
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Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm | Christopher Furlong/Getty |
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As the U.N. climate change conference known as COP26 continued last Friday in Glasgow, Congress passed a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill containing significant climate spending, including $7.5 billion for expanding the network of electric vehicle chargers, as well as investments in public transit, electric grid updates, and severe weather response. The Biden administration promptly launched what Reuters called a “victory tour.” The reaction from climate activists has been decidedly more mixed. The bill that passed the House on Friday is smaller than the proposal championed by the White House since March. The climate spending falls well short of the estimated $1 trillion that the United States would need to spend annually to meet Paris Agreement targets, and some climate advocates worry the passage of the infrastructure bill will weaken negotiating positions on the Build Back Better reconciliation package, the House version of which contains $555 billion in renewable energy credits and investments. (Speaker Nancy Pelosi went to Glasgow to tout the bill, but it’s now headed to Joe Manchin’s Senate.) |
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{{#if }} Our writers and editors are bringing you vital reporting, explanation, and analysis to understand the current climate crisis—but they need your help. Here’s a special offer to subscribe to The New Republic. |
—Heather Souvaine Horn, deputy editor |
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{{/if}} The Biden administration has had a somewhat shambolic performance at COP26 so far. After getting publicly shanked by Manchin as the conference opened—the West Virginia senator demanded a reduction of spending in the administration’s proposed infrastructure and budget bills, which included climate proposals—Biden officials pivoted to conspicuously modest talking points, praising the power of private sector innovation and state and local action. At times, the quotes generated by this pivot have been bizarre. Kate Aronoff, who’s in Glasgow right now, has reported a few. “We do have to turn this challenge into a creative opportunity,” White House climate adviser Gina McCarthy said last week. “And all that will make money. And God bless America.” On Friday, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told an activist from a cancer-heavy segment of the Gulf Coast that halting gas exports wasn’t her “lane”—an odd comment given, as Kate pointed out, that authorizing companies to import or export gas is the exclusive purview of the Department of Energy. TNR will have more coverage of the climate summit soon, including the recently released draft of the COP26 Glasgow Agreement. In the meantime, check out this fascinating essay from TNR reporter-researcher Julian Epp about a teenage summer job many outside the Midwest are unfamiliar with—detasseling corn, which is a crucial link in generating next year’s crops—and how it’s changing as the climate warms. “As a child, I didn’t understand the purpose of the detasseling,” he writes. “I was taught how to do it and told that it had something to do with pollination, but its purpose was completely alien. Over the years, when someone would ask, ‘What is detasseling?’ I would simply reply, ‘Hell.’ Now, as the planet heats, it’s a hell that’s rapidly getting more erratic.” —Heather Souvaine Horn, deputy editor |
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That’s the estimated amount of plastic waste generated by countries during the pandemic, according to a new study. |
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The Great Barrier Reef might be able to survive if global warming is limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), according to a new study from Australia. |
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The reef is not in good shape currently. The same study found only 2 percent of its area has remained unbleached since 1998. |
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Elsewhere in the Ecosystem |
Countries around the world are dramatically underreporting their own emissions, according to a Washington Post report that exploded throughout the climate community Monday: |
At the low end, the gap is larger than the yearly emissions of the United States. At the high end, it approaches the emissions of China and comprises 23 percent of humanity’s total contribution to the planet’s warming, The Post found. As tens of thousands of people are convening in Glasgow for what may be the largest-ever meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), also known as COP26, the numbers they are using to help guide the world’s effort to curb greenhouse gases represent a flawed road map. That means the challenge is even larger than world leaders have acknowledged. |
Chris Mooney, Juliet Eilperin, Desmond Butler, John Muyskens, Anu Narayanswamy, and Naema Ahmed | The Washington Post |
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