Bits n’ pieces from east, west and beyond
East, west or beyond, sooner or later events elsewhere may have a local impact.
A recent sampling:
Under a new president in Brazil, rainforest deforestation dropped 35% in six months, The Lever said. The Amazon rainforest (60% is in Brazil) is one of the world’s largest carbon sinks; deforestation there is linked to drought, reduced rainfall and changes in global ocean currents.
It cost $22 million to craft the Project 2025 plan. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Will Bunch calls it “a blueprint for destroying the planet,” since the right-wing plan includes stopping the transition to clean energy and electric vehicles and letting the fossil fuel industry proceed with business-as-usual.
Climate change has fed exorbitant heat in many areas of the U.S. - the highest temps in recorded history - and that’s impacted business, The New York Times reported. High heat impairs work performance and can reduce hours worked. A study of 2021 found more than 2.5 billion hours of labor were lost due to high temps then.
Similar conditions in 2020 cost the economy $100 billion. The NY Times said when the mercury hits 90 degrees productivity drops 25%, then drops 70% at 100.
Climate change costs include dying crops, insurance rate hikes and mistakes people make under heat duress. Air conditioning doesn’t always help: some commercial kitchens with AC show 100 degree temps.
There are no national extreme heat regulations at this time. Some states have set their own standards.
Texas, a standout for heat-related loss of productivity, recently witnessed their governor eliminate municipally-established standards that included water breaks for construction workers. Some businesses are objecting to national heat standards, saying they are too expensive, according to The NY Times.
A former OSHA administrator says to avoid worker deaths, businesses will have to pay for better conditions; that cost will likely be passed on to consumers. Better conditions for employees could benefit customers: too high temps at meat- and food-processing plants can increase risk of food contamination.
The NY Times says Phoenix, Arizona, with the most 115-degree days in a calendar year, is experiencing heat stroke, burns from falling onto asphalt (which can be as hot as 180 degrees), heat-induced fatigue, heat cramps and deaths. Saguaro cactuses have collapsed and dessert plants have turned yellow.
Phoenix faces another two months of summer. Europe is also experiencing life-threatening heat waves.
Dogs being transported from Chicago to Indiana to a police dog training facility recently met a horrifying fate when their air conditioning failed. Some died in their crates, some convulsed and some were euthanized after transport to veterinary care, The NY Times said.
Smoke, from an unprecedented number of Canadian wildfires, is also triggering air quality alerts for a third of the U.S. population.
The Atlantic Ocean’s Meridional Overturning Current could collapse as early as 2025, the journal Nature reported. That could profoundly affect the way the Gulf Stream impacts weather events.
There were 18 climate-related disasters in 2022 at a cost of over $1 billion each, the National Centers for Environmental Information says. Those costs impact individuals, insurance companies and tax-payers. So far, no big oil company has been held accountable. But that same year oil and gas industry lobbyists spent $124.4 million blocking U.S. government climate action: OpenSecrets.org.
New charges against Donald Trump relating to accusations regarding retention of classified documents have been brought by special counsel Jack Smith. They allege that, after the Dept. of Justice subpoenaed Mar-A- Lago security camera footage, Trump plotted to delete video from the cameras.
Reuters: Trump’s $475 million defamation lawsuit against CNN has been dismissed.
U.S. corporate profits are up by 49%, according to Security and Exchange Commission filings.
After the validity of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was challenged in court, a Second Circuit Court unanimously ruled that the funding mechanism for the bureau is constitutional.
Bidenomics update: the second quarter gross domestic product report shows annual growth higher than projected, at 2.4%. Inflation rose at a slower rate of 2.6%. The economy is now 6% larger than before Covid,
according to economics analyst Steven Rattner. He notes that at the same time in the recovery from the 2011 Great Recession the economy was just 0.7% larger than it had been in 2007.
NBC: The Biden Administration announced a $100 million grant program for subsidizing carbon recycling purchases by state and local governments and by public utilities. Carbon recycling can embrace the production of car parts, sustainable aviation fuel, and plastic products like sunglasses.
The deal requires submission of technology to the Energy Dept. to verify that it will reduce carbon output.
Next Era, the company behind the contentious Mountain Valley Pipeline, made Democrat Sen. Chuck Schumer the largest recipient of their campaign fund donations, according to Open Secrets.
Blast from the past: “The one who plants trees, knowing they will never sit in their shade, has at least started to understand the meaning of life.” Rabindrinath Tagore, an influential Indian poet and philosopher, 1861-1941. He received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913.