Weekly Climate News

Feb. 4, 2021

  • New Zealand climate advisers are encouraging steep cuts in carbon emissions to align with the 1.5 C global warming limit. 

  • Exxon Mobil, one of the world's largest international oil and gas companies, invested $3 billion in carbon capture.  

  • General Motors announced a phase-out of petroleum-powered cars and trucks, promising to sell only zero-emission vehicles by 2035. The company has also set goals for carbon neutrality by 2040.

  • Due to long-standing environmental injustices, Chicago’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout plan put polluted communities last, which left poorer communities of color among the last to receive the vaccine. 

  • U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order that strongly encourages the federal government to exclusively purchase zero-emission vehicles. 

  • A U.S. research institution that studies the impact of climate change in the Arctic has announced that it will be significantly enhancing efforts to connect the science it funds with the communities that live in the region.

  • Greenland’s glacier retreat is accelerating as a result of warming seas in response to climate change. 

  • Human pollution has been found deep in the world’s oceans. Read about it here.

Climate Change Will Shift Tropical Rain Belt

Climate Change Will Shift Tropical Rain Belt

The tropical rain belt, also known as the Intertropical Convergence Zone, contains equatorial areas considered the warmest in the world. The belt is a meeting point for trade winds from the planet’s Northern and Southern hemispheres, which bring in humidity and precipitation. The rain belt oscillates annually from the Northern Hemisphere to the Southern Hemisphere tropics in movement with the sun.

Racism in the Built Environment: Implications of Redlining

Throughout the U.S., the old practice of redlining in cities has been shown to have negative environmental effects on the majority-Black neighborhoods once marked off on maps. With global temperatures on the rise, the effects of this practice are becoming more and more noticeable.

Environmental Protections Restored in the Bering Sea

Environmental Protections Restored in the Bering Sea

The Biden administration recently delivered a major victory for environmental protection by reinstating the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area. The protected area off the coast of Alaska was originally designated in a 2016 executive order issued by the Obama administration. The designation was then revoked in the early weeks of Trump’s presidency. The NBSCRA was restored as part of Biden’s first executive order, the Executive Order on Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis.

Researchers Make Headway in Understanding Impacts of COVID-19

Several reports on how COVID-19 affects the immune system have emerged since the beginning of 2020, exploring topics ranging from the molecular mechanism of how the virus binds to our cells to the additional effects on those who have other medical concerns.

Biden Administration Acknowledges Climate Crisis in New Executive Orders

Biden Administration Acknowledges Climate Crisis in New Executive Orders

President Joe Biden took action this week to fulfill one of his campaign promises when he signed multiple executive orders on Jan. 27. His executive orders focused on three main themes: job creation, environmental justice, and taking a whole-of-government approach to the climate crisis. In his remarks prior to the signing, Biden stated that climate change should be seen as “an essential element of U.S. foreign policy and national security.”

Weekly Climate News

Jan. 28, 2021

  • An earthquake hit Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, causing buildings to collapse and leaving 42 people dead.

  • One-third of American rivers have turned green as a result of human activity since 1984. Only 5 percent are now considered blue.  

  • Newly inaugurated U.S. President Joe Biden rolled out a slew of environmental policies and climate change goals, including canceling the Keystone Pipeline and rejoining the Paris Agreement. 

  • America’s greenhouse gas emissions plummeted more than 10 percent in 2020.  

  • Earth is reaching serious climate tipping points.

  • European Union foreign ministers called for an end to financing fossil fuels. 

  • 2020 is tied with 2016 for the hottest year on record, and Earth is now committed to a 2-degree hotter future. 

  • As a result of our changing climate, land ecosystems have been found to become less absorbent of carbon dioxide. Furthermore, recent research suggests that trees may become carbon sources rather than carbon sinks.

  • Women in Kenya are claiming more land rights, a significant step forward, as women’s involvement in decisions about land use and resource allocation is essential to slow down climate change.  

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