Please invest in Our Daily Planet today, by making a one time or monthly contribution.
We do not charge our readers a subscription fee for our content. We want to continue to grow our readership, particularly among millennials and public servants. Voluntary contributions from readers will help us employ interns and freelance journalists, expand our content, and reach a larger audience.
If you make a contribution of $150 or more, you will become an official “Friend of the Planet” and receive a Friend of the Planet T-shirt or water bottle.
Our Daily Planet is a daily morning email (M-F) to keep you informed of the stories shaping our environment. If these issues matter to you, we’d like to be the best ten minutes of your morning.
The Pentagon Photo: David B. Gleason, Wikimedia CC
One of the promises made by President-Elect Joe Biden during the campaign was that his administration would use the full powers of government to fight climate change. To get more bang for his buck (sorry the puns just keeping on rolling along), he need only look to the Department of Defense, with an annual budget of half a trillion dollars, it is the single largest buyer of energy in the world. Even small shifts in purchases of electricity, gas, vehicles, and even food could make a big difference in charting a new course for our country, as well as in reducing the Pentagon’s massive carbon bootprint.
In a piece for Time Magazine, former Navy Secretary (and Friend of the Planet) Ray Mabus made the case for DoD leading the fight against climate change in the Biden administration. He recounts the work begun in the Obama administration on expanding the use of renewable energy on installations and in creating a domestic biofuels capability as a substitute for jet fuel. Mabus concludes this way:
“As former Saudi Oil Minister Zaki Yamani famously said, ‘The Stone Age didn’t end because we ran out of stones. It ended because we invented something better.’ This is exactly where we are today with the Oil Age.”
By Dr. Julio Friedmann As Congress prepares major climate legislation and President Biden looks to take more executive action, net-zero emissions has become the science-based star of the show. That show features a climate solution that is often overlooked – undiscovered and waiting in the wings. Carbon dioxide removal (CDR), which pulls carbon dioxide (CO2) […]
by Amy Lupica, ODP Staff Writer UN Climate Change has published the Initial NDC Synthesis Report, which evaluated information from 75 parties to the Paris agreement representing 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The results: “governments are nowhere close to the level of ambition needed to limit climate change to 1.5 degrees and meet the […]
According to a report out on Tuesday from the International Energy Agency, while the pandemic allowed a brief reprieve from the uptick in global carbon dioxide emissions, global carbon pollution had returned to pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2020. Carbon emissions in Brazil, India, and China were all up over 2019 levels.
Why this Matters: Under the Paris Agreement, nations agreed to prevent the rise in global temperature from reaching two degrees Celsius and keeping the rise under 1.5 degrees celsius, but that won’t be possible if our emissions start going up again.
Subscribe to the email that top lawmakers, renowned scientists, and thousands of concerned citizens turn to each morning for the latest environmental news and analysis.
Want the lastest climate news summarized for you each morning?
Our Daily Planet is your daily dose of the stories shaping our world and the ways that you can take action. From the climate crisis to the protection of biodiversity, if these issues matter to you then please subscribe & stay informed!
Your privacy is Important! We promise never to use your email address to send you spam or advertisements.