Reports Archive 2024
Find reports here that are archived from my Weekly(ish) at JustCreation.org. Reports here are from 2024, find reports archived from 2022 & 2023 here.
Archived from March 2024
Oil Promises Backtracked. Carbon Tracker’s reports are newsworthy, and news outlets added context for understanding the report, such as this article from The Guardian: World’s largest oil companies ‘way off track’ on emissions goals, report finds. Despite splashy climate pledges, firms including BP and Saudi Aramco have plans to expand fossil fuel production, says analysis
Petrochemicals & Health. Petrochemicals are related to, but different from PFAS. (Read more about PFAS). Petrochemicals are chemicals derived from petrol/oil and gas. Of those that have had rigorous study—only 5%—they are largely toxic, disrupt our bodies, cause cancer, and lower sperm counts. From Inside Climate News, Petrochemicals Are Killing Us, a New Report Warns in the New England Journal of Medicine. It’s well known that fossil fuels are the primary driver of climate change. A dirty secret is that they’re also the source of toxic chemicals linked to rising rates of chronic and deadly diseases. Read the study.
Plastic, Food Wrap, and PFAS. New research tells us more of what we already know, that Forever Chemicals are everywhere, including food wraps and packages. Add to that plastic packaging is everywhere and there is no actual clean-up or recycling plan. From EcoWatch, 68 PFAS ‘Forever Chemicals’ Found by Scientists in Food Packaging Worldwide: the research.
Plastic Waste. In addition to the toxicity of these plastic wrappers, they are simply discarded, burned, dumped… From Grist, Amazon says its plastic packaging can be recycled. An investigation finds it usually isn’t. Trackers placed in 93 bundles of Amazon packaging marked for "store drop-off" recycling showed many of them were buried or burned. The volume of waste is hard to conceive of. Recently researchers found additional mega-deposits in the Oceans. From Newsweek, 'Worrying' Remote Ocean Plastics Study Troubles Scientists From Phys.org, Study finds large accumulations of plastics in the ocean, even outside so-called garbage patch. Read the study.
Rising Heat & Millions of Deaths. A new study from Global Witness tells us millions of lives will be lost to rising heat. Their study focused on human lives, but we know plants and animals will die, too. Read about the study from The Guardian, Emissions connected to top oil and gas firms may cause millions of heat deaths by 2100, study finds. Global witness analysis suggests 11.5 million deaths could be caused by burning of fuel produced by 2050. Read from Global Witness, The supermajors’ plans could kill 11.5 million people. Read also from AP, a ‘red alert’ from the UN Weather agency.
How to make sense of all of this? Ten years ago it was hard to find any real news on the climate crisis. Today, that news is everywhere, including outside our own front doors. From Yale Climate Communications, The attitude-behavior gap on climate action: How can it be bridged? I appreciated this article, and also this one from Phys.org, which is a nudge to the nerds who know what’s at stake to, please, keep it simple for the rest of us: Climate change graphics are important—make them simple, say experts.
Methane—tracking leaks. Thank goodness for accountability mechanisms such as the Methane Tracker. The 2024 report was just released and the findings are…well literally damning. The good news is, with accountability in place, something can be done about it. Read about the report from The Guardian, US energy industry gas leaks are triple the official figures, study finds. Read the report.
Plastics Subsidies, Plastics Pollution and Taxpayers. A new report from the Environmental Integrity Project lays out the awful truth that the plastic plants that are causing tremendous health issues are getting billions in subsidies. Read about the report from the authors, Billions in Taxpayer Subsidies to U.S. Plastics Plants Support Illegal Air Pollution in Communities of Color. Read about the report from Inside Climate News, Gulf Coast Petrochemical Buildout Draws Billions in Tax Breaks Despite Pollution Violations. And from Grist, Your tax dollars may be funding the expansion of the plastics industry. Read the report.
Hitting Home. The latest Climate Risk Report from Realtor.com and First Street have an unhappy story to tell about how climate change is amplifying the risks for Americans in their own homes. Read about the report from CBS News, Nearly half of U.S. homes face severe threat from climate change, study finds. Read also from Realtor.com, Climate Risks Threaten Nearly Half of All Homes in the U.S.: What Buyers and Sellers Need To Know. Read the report.
Changes are happening fast. A couple of news stories that speak to the loss we are already experiencing from climate change, as well as the observations that climate effects are happening more rapidly than expected. From The Columbus Dispatch, Native plant update: Of Ohio's 1,800 native plants species, 271 are endangered, 93 are gone. And from Bangor Daily News, Effects of climate change progressing faster than expected in Maine, state planners find.
Chemical Dumping & Water Contamination. According to this week’s U.S. Waterways in Crisis: A Toxic Report, industry and agriculture are dumping millions of tons of chemicals into rivers, lakes, streams, wetlands… Quick number: the three worst states combined, Indiana, Texas, and Louisiana dumped 465 million lbs. of chemicals into their waterways between 2013 and 2022. Find your state. This information is from only what is reported each year to the EPA—the Toxics Release Inventory—and lists only what chemicals come under their regulations.
Water and Planetary Boundaries. From Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, a research group that studies the climate crisis and planetary boundaries. For these studies, ‘planetary boundaries’ means the lines we must not cross if we want to keep the stable climate God gifted us with thousands of years ago, and in which humans have flourished. The study shows we are pushing the planetary freshwater system over the line. Read about the study, Earth’s freshwater cycle out of stable state, then read the study, published in Nature.
PFAS and Petrochemicals. A couple of really helpful explainers from Earth Justice: How Big Oil is Using Toxic Chemicals as a Lifeline – and How We Can Stop It. Petrochemicals are an environmental and public health disaster. What you need to know. And also, Inside EPA’s Roadmap on Regulating PFAS Chemicals. I also want to add this excellent explainer from The Maine Monitor, Making the connection between PFAS and fossil fuels.
Petrochemicals and Health, Crisis. The warning lights don’t blink much brighter than this. New research is screaming from the hilltops that we must rein in petrochemical production and pollution. Read about the research in The Guardian, ‘Explosive growth’ in petrochemical production poses risks to human health. New report warns of deadly health risks from fossil fuel pollution, including alarming rise in neurodevelopmental issues. Read the study from the New England Journal of Medicine, Many fossil fuel–derived chemicals found in air, water, food, and manufactured products affect hormonal function. Exposure is associated with health risks, including cancers, cardiovascular disease, and infertility.
Coral Reef Restoration. There is some good news to be found in this study. A restoration technique that has proved effective is essentially a type of seeding, where pieces of healthy coral are put in a section of sand which is put into the dead area of the reef. These transplants thrived and in four years restored the damaged area. While this is fantastic, things that need to happen to make this stick is that we cannot continue to decimate coral reef, especially not without at least four years in between events. Read from NOAA, Researchers assess Florida Keys coral health following marine heat wave. Right now we have events every year. Also, this effort relies on using healthy coral taken away from other reef areas. Still. Restoration is possible!! Read about the study from Earth.com; Restored coral reefs can bounce back in just four years. Read the study.
Latest Heat Attribution Report. In climate-speak, ‘attribution’ means that some change or disaster in the natural world (heat, storm, drought) can be directly attributed to climate change. The latest report from Climate Central, then, tracked December - February heat and showed the temps were because of climate change. Read about the report from Axios, Earth had warmest February on record as this year trends hotter than 2023. Read the report. Read also about the rising heat in Phys.org, Carbon emissions and El Nino push oceans to record temperatures.
Emissions Report - IEA. Another report from the International Energy Association, reporting that emissions in 2023 were at at all time high, an increase of 1.1% (410 million tons) over the previous year. Ironically, climate change contributed to this high number as hydropower generation was negatively impacted by drought. A couple of bright bits of news in this: ‘advanced economies’ have reduced emissions and are now where they were 50 years ago. This drop is attributable to the increasing use of solar, wind and other clean energies, and clean energy in general limited what would have otherwise been a much larger increase of emissions overall—as in 2022 emissions increased by 490 million tons. Read an article about the report in E&E News, Global energy CO2 emissions hit all-time high — report. Read about the report in Energy Global, Growth of clean energy limited rise in global emissions in 2023, reports IEA. Read the report.
Clean Energy Market Monitor Report - IEA. This is a first of what will be ongoing reports looking at the Clean Energy market. This new report steps up in “providing a timely, concise and up-to-date overview of clean energy deployment.” There are some bright spots here to celebrate, such as a reported 50% increase in clean energy investment over the last 4 years. Read an article about this report in Solar Quarter, IEA’s Clean Energy Market Monitor Report 2024: Accelerating The Global Transition Towards Clean Energy. Read the report.
Global Waste Management Outlook Report, 2024. Also from UNEP and released prior to the UNEA-6, “In 2020, 38 per cent of all municipal solid waste (810 million tonnes) was uncontrolled: that is, it was dumped in the environment or openly burned. If waste management practices remain the same as today, by 2050 this figure will almost double …Since pollution from waste knows no borders, this is of international concern.” Read the report.
Plastics. Yet another study about plastics that horrifies. From The Guardian, Microplastics found in every human placenta tested in study Scientists express concern over health impacts, with another study finding particles in arteries. Read the Health Sciences News Room Press Release, Microplastics in Every Human Placenta, New UNM Health Sciences Research Discovers. Read the study.
From the UN Environment Programme - Three new reports. With the UN Environmental Assembly this last week in Nairobi, Kenya (more info below), The UNEP published a few reports, including the Global Resources Outlook Report, and the Global Waste Management Outlook Report, and including take-a-ways from the The Climate and Clean Air Conference 2024 also in Nairobi.
From the Global Resources Outlook Report. From UNEP, Rich countries use six times more resources, generate 10 times the climate impacts than low-income ones. “Extraction of the Earth’s natural resources tripled in the past five decades, related to the massive build-up of infrastructure in many parts of the world and the high levels of material consumption, especially in upper-middle and high-income countries.” Read the report.
Archived from January / February 2024
Support for Climate Action is overwhelming. As much as 89% of people globally included in a recent study wanted robust action at the political level. Read about the study in Carbon Brief, Interview: Why global support for climate action is ‘systematically underestimated.’ Read the study.
Air Pollution and Climate Effects. In 2018, a published report showed that air pollution had dampening effect, the pollution blocked heat and as a consequence had a cooling effect. That means that as air becomes cleaner—a necessary thing—the full warmth of carbon emissions will be felt. A new study now shows a similar effect is influencing rainfall. As the planet heats up, the atmosphere will hold more water vapor. Air pollution for now has been dampening this effect. Read about the study in Grist, How air pollution delayed a surge in extreme rain. Aerosol pollutants have masked the effects of global warming. Without them, the U.S. is about to get a lot wetter. Read about the study from Phys.org, Research shows how air pollution has offset expected increases in rainfall. Read the study.
AMOC - Climate Tipping Point. The AMOC, or Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current is like a pump circulating air and water around the globe. It has normal cycles, and has been gradually slowing. Very gradually. Left alone, the slow change would allow long term adaptability. But climate change has warmed glaciers and the AMOC pump is moving closer—far too close—to its tipping point. Read more from Inside Climate News, Extreme Climate Impacts From Collapse of a Key Atlantic Ocean Current Could be Worse Than Expected, a New Study Warns. Disruption of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current could freeze Europe, scorch the tropics and increase sea level rise in the North Atlantic. The tipping point may be closer than predicted in the IPCC’s latest assessment.
They knew, they lied. The Fraud of Plastic Recycling. Anyone paying attention has already noticed this, that plastic is absolutely everywhere, and not in a good way. From The Guardian, ‘They lied’: plastics producers deceived public about recycling, report reveals. Companies knew for decades recycling was not viable but promoted it regardless, Center for Climate Integrity study finds. Read the study.
More bad news reports—’Megaswarms,’ Alzheimers, and Smoke. A quick round up of other not-good reports include from the AP, Erratic weather fueled by climate change will worsen locust outbreaks, study finds. A. nd, from Washington Post, Air pollution tied to signs of Alzheimer’s in brain tissue, study finds. And we know that people of color experience ‘first and worst’ impacts, including this study on smoke effects from the AP, Extreme heat, wildfire smoke harm low-income and nonwhite communities the most, study finds.
So good news reports, too—kid’s health, food systems, reforestation. From Axios, Electric cars could boost kids' health, study finds. And from The Guardian, Move to sustainable food systems could bring $10tn benefits a year, study finds. And from Phys.org, A century of reforestation helped keep the eastern US cool, study finds.
Find reports here that are archived from my Weekly(ish) at JustCreation.org. Reports here are from 2024, find reports archived from 2022 & 2023 here.
Just a reminder, these links are mostly third-party. The goal here is to amplify the effort of many and learn more together. Links are not endorsements.