The news this week is pretty bleak. There is no positives spin to put on this, we just need to turn things around and prepare for what’s to come.
Biden Sets Electric Vehicle Goal – President Biden announced a plan for EV’s to comprise at least 50% of new US auto sales by 2030. As of this year, EV’s make up barely 2% of all new vehicle sales. Biden’s announcement coincided with a number of major car dealers announcing plans to be fully electric between now and 2050.
Important Atlantic Currents on Verge of Collapse – The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) are a collection of ocean currents that transport warm water from the Tropics to the North Atlantic. This system is what keeps Europe warm (New York City is roughly the same latitude as Madrid, Spain) and also transfers heat away from the Tropics. A new study shows that this system is the weakest it has been in over 1,000 years and that a full collapse could happen at any time. The timeframe for such a system is pretty long and “any time” could mean sometime after 2100, but that’s not guaranteed. If we keep emitting greenhouse gases, the system will eventually collapse with catastrophic consequences for the weather.
New IPCC Report Warns of Dire Consequences – The first installment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report was released today, and the news is dire. The IPCC science assessment removes any doubt that humans are causing climate change, stating that some of this summers heat waves have a “near zero” probability of happening without human-induced climate change. It warns that the heat waves and other extreme weather seen this summer are only the beginning. It estimates that the climate would stabilize 20-30 years after we stop emitting emissions, that means that if we reach net zero in 2050, the climate wouldn’t stabilize until roughly my 90th birthday. Stabilize in this context does not mean “return to the climate of 1950” it means thing would stop getting worse, but we’d still have an additional 50-60 years of damage, on top of the damage we’ve already done.
The Mangrove 