 Climate Change
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Combatting Climate Change Will Grow Jobs and Prosperity Globally
The Global Commission on the Economy and Climate has crunched the numbers and concluded in a new report out yesterday that if the nations of the world act now to build a low carbon economy, they can by 2030:
- generate more than 65 million new low-carbon jobs,
- avoid more than 700,000 premature deaths from air pollution, and
- add $26 trillion to the global economy.
The report’s authors warn that policymakers must move quickly — they believe there is only a short window in the next two or three years to take decisive action. The urgency is created by the “changing climate and the unique window of unprecedented structural changes already underway.” They anticipate that across the globe, countries are expected to invest about US$90 trillion on infrastructure in the period up to 2030 and much of that funding will be programmed now.
The core of their plan is built around four key economic growth engines:
- liveable, compact cities that have an economic dynamism that can attract creative talent, companies, and capital while higher densities enable cheaper service delivery and avoid costly urban sprawl;
- affordable, clean, energy systems and can expand energy access to the more than a billion people that currently lack it, replicating and amplifying the impact of mobile telephony on equitable growth;
- agriculture and forests that deliver greater food security, more nutritious food, greater rural prosperity and more equitable growth, strengthened resilience, and valuable ecosystem services; and
- industrial sectors, now waking up to the potential of the circular economy, that cut the demand for energy-intensive primary materials, driving up both material productivity and cutting waste.
Why This Matters: This Report contains a hopeful vision of a future in which governments and businesses take on climate change, which most agree is the challenge of our time, and by doing so create global economic prosperity with more resilient economies and greater social inclusion. And its positive message also describes the opportunity to act that is imminent. We hope that leaders in governments and the private sector across the globe will rise to this occasion. The window comes at a time when the U.S. President has abdicated our leadership role, so others must now step up and seize this opportunity.
To Go Deeper: You can read the full report here.
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 People
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Extreme Heat Causes DC Area School Closures
Back to school time gets us thinking about crisp fall weather but for schools around DC this couldn’t be further from reality as soaring heat and humidity have forced schools in the area to close and dismiss classes early. According to the Baltimore Sun, in Baltimore City, the school system announced via Twitter that schools without air-conditioning would release three hours early Tuesday. More than 60 school buildings lack air conditioning or have “inadequate cooling,” according to the city schools website. Aside from early dismissals, an additional 10 schools closed altogether. The National Weather Service issued a hazardous weather outlook for the Baltimore-Washington region on Monday stating that “a combination of heat and humidity may result in heat index values of around 105 Tuesday through Thursday.”
Think Progress added that Baltimore is joined by other area schools. All public schools in Prince George’s County, Maryland will close early Wednesday due to heat concerns. Two schools in the area, which borders Washington, D.C., will shutter altogether for the day: Margaret Brent Regional in New Carrollton and Riverdale Elementary in Riverdale, both of which have air conditioning systems undergoing repairs. All schools in the county have access to air conditioning, but buildings range in their cooling capacity and the mass-school closure was decided based on transportation assessments. While Maryland governor Larry Hogan directed his outrage toward the Baltimore schools CEO, his opponent in November’s gubernatorial race, Democrat Ben Jealous, said that he wasn’t addressing the true problem which includes diminished school budgets and rising average global temperatures.
Why This Matters: According to the Capital Weather Gang, Tuesday’s low temperature in DC was only 79 degrees – that’s the highest low temperature so late in the calendar year on record. Additionally, recent research has shown that prolonged heat exposure appears to hinder “cognitive skill development,” something that can be mitigated by things like air conditioning in classrooms. The researchers from Harvard explained that the impacts are exacerbated for low-income students and those from minority groups. “For students living in zip codes in the lowest quintile of average income, a one degree Fahrenheit hotter prior school year is three times as damaging to academic achievement as it is for those living in the highest quintile of income,” the authors report. “Similarly, the impact of heat on achievement is three times as large for black and Hispanic students as for white students.”
Go Deeper: How much hotter is your hometown than the year you were born? The New York Times new tool will let you find out!
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 Oceans
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Monitoring Oyster Reefs with Microphones
Coastal states have a vested interest in rebuilding oyster reefs as the bivalves bring in millions of dollars each year to each state and are only growing in popularity. While in early America oyster reefs were so abundant that they posed a risk to ships, in modern times our love of them has largely depleted their reefs. Part of rebuilding reefs involves monitoring them to ensure that the oysters and other marine creatures are thriving. As NPR reported, North Carolina State University Ph.D. student Olivia Caretti is hoping to fill in some of those gaps by using a relatively new method for monitoring aquatic life with underwater microphones, known as hydrophones. She is using these hydrophones to document which animals, other than oysters, use these reefs. Life on an oyster reef sounds a lot different. It has plenty of low-frequency fish calls, but also a lot of high-frequency invertebrate activity.
“You can hear some grunts and knocking sounds. Those are certain types of fish,” Caretti says. “You can also hear a lot of snaps from the snapping shrimp.” Her tools detect sounds that human ears can’t hear and give scientists a better idea of the reef’s health.
Why This Matters: Caretti’s research gives state officials and fisherman valuable insight about the oysters and what measures they can take to improve the quality of the reefs. As she has been tracking the change in biodiversity in these habitats over time she has found that shell reefs attract more aquatic life than reefs made out of granite marl or concrete. This research is very timely as The North Carolina Coastal Federation announced in August that it wants to grow the state’s oyster industry by more than 10 times by 2030, from $2.4 million to $30 million.
Go Deeper: This book is an entertaining history lesson about how the tiny oyster played a big part in the growth of Manhattan. Reading it is guaranteed to make you want to go to an oysterfest!
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 Animals
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87 Elephants Found Slaughtered Near Botswana Wildlife Refuge
Elephants Without Borders, an elephant conservation group that is conducting a population survey in Botswana recently discovered near the Okavango Delta Wildlife Sanctuary the carcasses of dozens of animals that had been recently killed, many of which bore brutal injuries consistent with their being killed for their tusks. According to a news report by the BBC, elephant populations in Botswana had grown as the animals migrated away from violence and poaching in nearby Angola, Namibia, and Zambia and into Botswana where incidents of poaching had been rare.
The director of Elephants Without Borders, Mike Chase, told National Geographic that it “came as a complete shock that we were discovering elephants that were poached deep within Botswana, within some world-renowned tourist concessions. It was completely unexpected.” The Botswana wildlife agency disputed the Elephants Without Borders account — claiming that there were only 53 dead elephants and that many had died of natural causes, according to National Geographic. Chase went on to express grave concern about the future of elephants in Botswana, telling the BBC “[t]he poachers are now turning their guns to Botswana. We have the world’s largest elephant population, and it’s open season for poachers.” A whopping 37 percent of the African continent’s endangered elephant population live in Botswana. Poaching has been devastating; elephant populations in Africa have declined by 30 percent — by around 144,000 elephants — from 2007 to 2014.
Why This Matters: The timing of this slaughter seems to point toward the disbandment of the government’s anti-poaching unit one month after Botswana’s new President Mokgweetsi Masisi took office in May of this year. According to The Washington Post, the country used to have a take no prisoners approach — their wildlife enforcers had both big guns and a shoot-to-kill policy against poachers. The BBC reported that a “senior official in the president’s office, Carter Morupisi, told journalists in Botswana at the time that the ‘government has decided to withdraw military weapons and equipment from the Department of Wildlife and National Parks’, but he did not explain why.” This is both an economic and environmental tragedy — since much of Botswana’s tourism is dependent upon seeing iconic elephants in the wild.
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 Food
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Chipotle Launches Accelerator for Sustainable Food Production
Chipotle led the fast-casual food movement by offering customers healthful means from wholesome ingredients, in sustainable packing too. In 2011 it launched the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation which is dedicated to providing resources and promoting good stewardship for farmers; promoting better livestock husbandry; encouraging regenerative agriculture practices; and fostering food literacy, cooking education, and nutritious eating. Now, Chipotle is going further and has announced the launch of a new accelerator program to promote sustainable food production. Green Matters explained the Chipotle Aluminaries Project will provide budding companies with coaching, bootcamp lessons, and plenty of burritos to help them scale their businesses for a wider audience. While this new project will be sponsored by the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation, its nonprofit partner Uncharted will actually host and run it.
Uncharted and Chipotle Cultivate will select eight applicants to join the seven-month-long project, focusing on companies in the fields of alternative farming, farming and agriculture technology, food waste and recovery, and plant and alternative products. Both non- and for-profit ventures are welcome to apply, but they’ll have to wait until September 12, when the submission process begins.
Why This Matters: Sustainability is a good business decision as well: as Forbes reported 54% of millennials and 45% of Gen X members consider environmental factors before making a purchase, according to a Natural Marketing Institute report. Additionally, about 86% of people surveyed by Cone Communications last year said they would buy a product from a company that advocated for issues that mattered to them, three-quarters said they would avoid companies that supported a cause they didn’t believe in and 63% said they hoped businesses would take the lead in driving environmental and social change. Plus the more innovators that think about sustainable food production, the better it is for our planet.
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Resistance
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Image: America Rising Blue
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We’ll Take a Leak!
The op/ed the New York Times published late yesterday from an anonymous source inside the White House who claimed to be part of the “Resistance Inside the Trump Administration” got us thinking about how many people (career and political appointees) in environmental agencies like the EPA, Interior Department, NOAA, and the Department of Energy, might want a chance to do the same thing. We are here for you!
If you or someone you know has a story to tell about being part of the conservation and environment resistance within the Trump Administration, EMAIL IT TO US! Send it to: Info@ourdailyplanet.com We will publish it and keep your identity anonymous. YOU HAVE OUR WORD ON IT!
We at Our Daily Planet may not be the Times, but we are read by many journalists, influencers and opinion leaders on environment and conservation. We think by telling your stories you will help us all keep up our efforts to resist the Administration’s corruption and lack of fidelity to democratic principles. Our readers would be glad to know that you are working from within the Trump Administration as a Friend of the Planet to keep things from being worse than they already are! We mean it. Send us your stories! We want to help you have an impact and minimize the damage of the Trump Presidency.
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