There is a chart going around (virally) that purports to show that temperatures in the 30s, when the Dust Bowl happened, are considerably higher than now. The inference might be that the earth is not warming. Zeke Hausfather has done an amazing job of analyzing why this graph is correct in itself, but is not a guide to global temperatures. In summary: The viral chart is built from real measurements, and the heat it shows was real too. But it takes a regional catastrophe, fails to account for changes in instruments and observation times, and presents the result as a national climate verdict. Accounting for the thermometers and the geography, and the US looks a lot like the rest of the planet: the hottest days on record are increasingly the ones we are living through now. [In my mind, though, the real story is not this specific graph but the multiplicity of considerations the deep reasoning required to actually do climate science.]
GREENING
A new law in California will create a $3,500 discount for first-time EV buyers, so long as the car retails for less than $50,000. (KQED) Buyers of used EVs will receive $1,750 for cars sold for under $25,000.
New research shows that empowering women in sub-Saharan Africa through greater access to finance could “strengthen” households’ resilience to short-term “climate shocks”. As of 2024, the number of women in the region with bank accounts had risen to 52%, but many women remain dependent on male relatives for access to finance.
FERC creates a task force to examine how the agency can support grid-enhancing technologies, possibly with incentives. (Utility Dive) [These technologies can increase transmission up to 50% while using the same equipment.]
China just quietly upped its target for renewable energy consumption, ratcheting up the goal 53% by 2030, rising to 1.8 billion tons of coal equivalent from 1.18 billion tons last year. That’s according to the latest five-year plan for renewables the National Development and Reform Commission published on its website. Wind and solar, paired with energy storage, are expected to provide 20% of electricity during the summer and winter evening peak periods, up from 10% currently.
CLIMATE DESPOLIATION
– Why we are named 350 Humboldt. It is the safe level of CO2. Will we ever see it again?
The oil and gas industry has known for decades that its wells were releasing far more planet-warming methane than companies publicly reported, according to documents identified by the Center for Climate Integrity. (New York Times free)
As smoke from Canadian wildfires created a Code Red air quality alert around Washington, D.C. last week, a Northern Virginia data center switched onto its dirty backup diesel generators. The data center in question is the Vantage VA2 Campus, an “unusual” data center campus normally powered entirely by a set of off-grid gas generators, with diesel backup. Research showed that this data center alone could result in up to $495 million in health-related damages over a five-year period.
Texans are facing some of the highest climate-driven cost increases in the country: insurance premiums have risen 55.9% in Texas since 2020, and Lone Star homeowners pay, on average, $6,000 in premiums annually.
Earlier this year, Japan invented a new word to capture unprecedented extreme heat: kokushobi, which translates to “cruel heat day.”
These people are going to kill us: The U.S. Interior Department releases a report estimating that existing, active mines on federal lands contain 4.2 billion short tons of coal reserves and that unmined public lands contain an additional 356 billion tons of the fuel, saying that is enough to supply the nation for at least 600 years. (news release)
DARK AGE CLIMATE POLITICS
Amid a summer of dangerous heat, drought and floods, a majority of Americans are connecting increasingly severe weather to the climate crisis, new polling shows, despite efforts by Trump to dismiss global heating as a “con job” and a “hoax”.
California files another lawsuit seeking to overturn the Trump administration’s approval of Sable Offshore’s oil drilling operation along the Santa Barbara coast, saying the state’s coastline is “not for sale to enrich the president’s fossil fuel friends.” (Los Angeles Times)
Last month, the federal Bureau of Land Management opened more than 1 million acres of public land to new drilling (850,000 in the Central Valley and 680,000 along the Central Coast). That includes areas close to a high school, a public park, and a reservoir that serves 250,000 people with drinking water.
More specifically: Polling released Saturday by Data for Progress shows that 64 percent of U.S. voters—nearly two thirds—understand that wildfires are being worsened by climate change. The survey of 1,164 voters across the political spectrum showed that only 27 percent don’t think climate change is exacerbating wildfires, and 9 percent don’t know. Interestingly, Republican voters were split down the middle: 45 percent recognized the climate-wildfire connection, while 45 percent rejected it.
Last week climate scientist Zeke Hausfather explained here that the Canadian wild fires are in areas that have never been managed (or mismanaged). This is relevant because Republicans, bought by the fossil fuel industry, are trying to spread the notion that it is Canadian mismanagement not climate change that is to blame. For example, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) introduced legislation Friday to sanction Canada for failing to contain the wildfires, blaming only insufficient forest management. Moreno has received $445,823 in direct campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry since his election in 2024. He was the sixth-largest Senate recipient of oil and gas funding in the 2024 cycle.
A poll found “plenty of contradiction and hypocrisy in the divided minds of Californians,” who “strongly favor fighting climate change — at least in concept — until it adversely affects them directly.” On the other hand, most Californians (62%) favor California’s ambitious law requiring all electricity to come from renewable sources by 2045, per the poll. But fewer than 4 in 10 said they were willing to pay extra for clean energy.
Our friends at Humboldt Waterkeeper have this ask:
On Tuesday, July 28 at 4 pm, the Board of Supervisors will hold a Special Hearing to review the final version of the Coastal Outdoor Lighting Ordinance, which was approved by the Coastal Commission in February with additional requirements for warmer, less blue lights.
With this review comes an opportunity to advocate for a similar requirement to be incorporated into the Inland version of the ordinance. Please join us in submitting comments to the Board of Supervisors via email to [email protected]. Remember to share your personal reasons for wanting the County to protect the night sky, whether it’s stargazing, protecting migrating birds and marine life, or a better night’s sleep for all.
You can also comment in-person at the Board Chambers in Eureka or by telephone. See the agenda for more info.
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