Green Lights July 28: Top stories this week
Don't miss a single story: The best from Callaway Climate Insights
. . . . Welcome to Green Lights, our weekly roundup of the best of Callaway Climate Insights. This week, the heat is still on, from fires spreading across Greece to historic high temperature records falling around the world. David Callaway looks at the climate heat, the political heat, and the market heat. Here are the highlights in a simple and convenient format that makes it easy for our readers. It’s also easy to subscribe.
. . . . The IMF and Chatham House are warning of the potential for material risks developing, such as food inflation, a real estate crisis or hot-weather pandemics. Does it sound like the subprime mortgage crisis of 2007?, asks David Callaway. But like global warming itself this summer, it isn’t some future crisis investors should be focusing on, it’s market conditions right now.
. . . . The lack of a robust charging network in the U.S. has long been seen as a barrier to the wider adoption of electric vehicles, writes Matthew Diebel. Now, seven big automakers have joined forces to step up the number dramatically. It can only be a good thing. . . .
. . . . Where are Americans moving to? Surprising new data show we’re actually migrating toward — instead of away from — climate-risk areas where it’s hotter, more humid, more dry and/or more susceptible to flooding. . . .
. . . . From Spain to the UK to Finland to Brussels, the backlash against the green transition is spreading, David Callaway writes in his Zeus column this week. And the election turmoil in Europe is threatening the climate agenda.
. . . . President Joe Biden’s signature piece of legislation in his first term, the Inflation Reduction Act, is turning one year old. History may ultimately judge the economic climate efforts made in the past year as too little too late, but this summer it feels like it came not a moment too soon.
. . . . To reach net-zero emissions, rapid transformation will be required across all global systems — from how we power our economies, to how we move people and goods, and feed a growing population, says the World Resources Institute. Here’s what that means.
More greenery . . . .
From the Good News file: The ozone layer is recovering, Scotland’s forests are just getting bigger, and the Saharan desert is fertilizing the Amazon rainforest
UN Secretary General António Guterres: Earth has passed from a warming phase into an “era of global boiling”
Who’s keeping track?: Scientific American has the stunning heat records set so far this summer
Everyone’s vulnerable as insurers pull out: Climate change and the home insurance meltdown
1,000 glaciers gone: In some places, the border between Switzerland and Italy is just melting away