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Capital Region Climate News & Resources: April 22, 2020
Collaborative Update
Happy Earth Day! Even though so many planned events have been cancelled, we hope that you can find a joyful way to mark the 50th anniversary of Earth Day at home. Climate work has not stopped, and many Earth Day events have gone virtual (there’s a long list below). We know it’s difficult to see the silver lining in the midst of so much tragedy, but for the first time in history, the entire world (or very nearly) is united against a common challenge, and we’ve all agreed to drastic changes in our life for the public good. This is an enormous, unprecedented shift, and one can’t but hope that we’ll be able to sustain this transformation toward addressing our climate crisis. We’ve seen demonstrated firsthand the importance of global collaboration, science-informed decision making, the political will to make difficult decisions, and equity and environmental justice. We’re hopeful that we can draw on these lessons for sustained progress toward carbon zero and climate resilience – as soon as we can safely emerge from social distancing like this grizzly bear breaking out from hibernation. We can’t wait.
Additionally, CRC would like to give a huge thank you to our speakers, Yoon Kim, Michael McCormick, and Kate Gordon for taking time out of their busy schedules to join us and to CRC Chair, Meg Arnold, for moderating CRC’s first virtual workshop – Climate Change and the Economy in the Context of COVID-19! We appreciate folks taking the time to call in and hope you found the virtualshop valuable. You can find the presentation and recording below and on our website: Presentation Slides, Recording
News
Climate change won’t stop for the coronavirus pandemic
The flooding, hurricanes and wildfires that now regularly arrive in the U.S. each spring and summer are not on hold because we also face a health crisis. Changes in the climate have made the chance of a natural disaster striking during this pandemic significantly more likely, and its likely impact more severe. In California, firefighting training, brush reduction efforts, and prescribed burns have all been delayed this spring. Even in regions that don’t burn, air quality will decline, putting sensitive people at greater respiratory health risk. And if last year’s blackouts are repeated, the power may be shut off in some areas to avoid sparking wires. How can the sixth largest economy in the world recover from economic depression spurred by the pandemic when millions of people working from home lose power, grinding their work, as well as online schooling, to a standstill? ProPublica found little evidence that such scenarios were being planned for. A spokesperson for the California State Department of Public Health, which manages disaster response, replied to questions with an email stating simply that “we’re not speculating on the overlap of coronavirus and wildfires.” And a spokesperson for the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services did not respond to a detailed list of questions about how the state’s plans could address cascading crises. (Pro Publica)
‘Hope isn’t a strategy.’ How to prepare for a natural disaster during COVID-19
It’s a situation nobody wants to imagine: a major earthquake, flood, fire or other natural disaster strikes while the U.S. is grappling with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. 23 states from the Upper Plains to the Gulf Coast could see major to moderate flooding this spring. What’s more, much of the usual disaster strategies — evacuation shelters, food assistance, an influx of aid workers — may be dangerous or impractical. Here’s what disaster response during the pandemic might look like. (NPR)
Air pollution linked to higher coronavirus death rates
Coronavirus patients in areas that had high levels of air pollution before the pandemic are more likely to die from the infection than patients in cleaner parts of the country, according to a new study that offers the first clear link between long-term exposure to pollution and Covid-19 death rates. In an analysis of 3,080 US counties, researchers at the Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that higher levels of PM 2.5 were associated with higher death rates from the disease. “The results of this paper suggest that long-term exposure to air pollution increases vulnerability to experiencing the most severe Covid-19 outcomes.” The findings were particularly important for hospitals in poor neighborhoods and communities of color, which tend to be exposed to higher levels of air pollution than affluent, white communities. The paper found that if Manhattan had lowered its average particulate matter level by just a single unit, or one microgram per cubic meter, over the past 20 years, the borough would most likely have seen 248 fewer Covid-19 deaths by this point in the outbreak. As more is learned about Covid-19, the study also could have far-reaching implications for clean-air regulations, which the Trump administration has worked to roll back over the past three years. (NYT, Guardian)
Polluted US areas are among worst-hit by coronavirus – putting people of color even more at risk
The coronavirus pandemic is hitting hard in America’s most vulnerable communities already burdened by toxic industries and environmental pollution. Experts warn that this elevates the risk of developing complications from Covid-19. Polluted neighbourhoods in cities such as Los Angeles, Houston, Newark, and Detroit, as well as the Navajo Nation are among the country’s worst virus hotspots, a Guardian analysis found. As the virus sweeps across the US, major risk factors include poverty, pollution, pre-existing medical conditions, substandard housing and inadequate health care, running water and nutrition. These are issues that most commonly afflict poor people of color. The article takes a closer look at these communities. (Guardian)
How our responses to climate change and the coronavirus are linked
There are, to a certain degree, parallels that can be drawn between the current COVID-19 pandemic and some of the other contemporary crises our world is facing. All require a global-to-local response and long-term thinking; all need to be guided by science and need to protect the most vulnerable among us; and all require the political will to make fundamental changes when faced with existential risks. A first lesson we are drawing from the COVID-19 pandemic and how it relates to climate change is that well-resourced, equitable health systems with a strong and supported health workforce are essential to protect us from health security threats, including climate change. (World Economic Forum)
Coronavirus is a once in a lifetime chance to reshape how we travel
When the world finally emerges from the pandemic and travel restrictions are ended, a whole reservoir of pent up demand will be suddenly released as people seek to make up lost time. Yet by that point the sector could already look very different, and months of lockdown could have changed patterns of behavior forever. So what will the crisis mean for how we travel in the future? (Fast Company)
Study: Warming makes US West megadrought worst in modern age
A two-decade-long dry spell that has parched much of the western United States is turning into one of the deepest megadroughts in the region in more than 1,200 years, and about half of this historic drought can be blamed on man-made global warming. Scientists looked at a nine-state area from Oregon and Wyoming down through California and New Mexico. They used thousands of tree rings to compare a drought that started in 2000 and is still going — despite a wet 2019 — to four past megadroughts since the year 800. What’s happening now is “a drought bigger than what modern society has seen,” said study lead author A. Park Williams. (AP, NYT)
The 2020 census can help us fight climate change — if coronavirus doesn’t get in the way