Green Lights June 12: Top stories
Don't miss a single story from the best of Callaway Climate Insights.
. . . . Welcome back to Green Lights. Here’s our roundup of the best of Callaway Climate Insights. This week, David Callaway writes that climate change is threatening to permanently alter the beautiful game. Plus, Mark Hulbert explains why investors should beware the climate polluters who brag the most about their emission reduction. Have a good weekend and please subscribe to support our climate finance reporting.
. . . . Elon Musk-led SpaceX (SPCX) opened trading Friday at $150 after the biggest initial public offering ever. Just after shares opened, the stock topped $160, pushing the company above a $2 trillion market cap. David Callaway spotlights the red flags on this deal for investors, including the lack of transparency around how the company’s AI and space data centers mission will play out to the unprecedented amount of voting control Musk will retain over shareholders. If SpaceX launches successfully, investors will then turn to AI giants Anthropic and OpenAI later this year for more excitement when they go public.
. . . . The heat is on. Climate change is threatening to permanently alter the beautiful game, as concerns for the health of players has forced these hydro breaks over the past few years despite the objections of purists who disdain any sort of breaks in the two 45-minute halves. Like the fake snow at the Winter Olympics, changing climate conditions are forcing themselves on the world’s great sporting events.
. . . . Beware the climate polluters who brag about their emission reductions the most, writes Mark Hulbert. The companies that boast the most about their climate programs actually do the least, according to a study of the earnings calls and regulatory filings of the largest polluters. The results set up the theory, which Hulbert wrote about last month, that the real climate adaptation and emission reduction work is being done by those who have their heads down and stay out of the political crossfire. Those who are bragging about their progress in many cases are just blowing more hot air.
. . . . Does it feel like AI has sucked all the oxygen out of the room on Wall Street this summer? Still, writes David Callaway, the demand from big tech companies for power to fuel their AI ambitions has left room for even more speculation. FOMO for the next big tech revolution has investors buying whatever they can that’s attached to the AI story. Energy companies of all sorts, including wind, solar, and gas have seen investors flock to their shares as the need for more power to drive AI becomes clear. And don’t forget fusion.
. . . . The popular Watch Duty wildfire app has added flood warnings to its fire alert system. David Callaway writes that in addition to developing an efficient public service that goes beyond traditional police and fire department online warnings, founder John Clarke Mills has created a new form of media; climate disaster media if you will. It’s a refreshing evolution in media at a time when much of the traditional media is in tatters.
. . . . On World Ocean Day, the $32 trillion blue economy needs reframing, writes our guest columnist Douglas Woodring, founder and managing director of Ocean Recovery Alliance. Woodring explains how the insurance industry must become a bridge between ecology and capital markets.
More greenery . . . .
We knew that: Wild animals officially recognized as solutions to climate change (Oceanographic Magazine)
What, again? Yes.: NOAA issues yet another El Niño advisory, today (New York Times)
Not your imagination: Climate Change is Making Your Life More Expensive (Time Magazine)
Billion$ at stake: The campaign to discredit a key climate science report (Politico)
Move back: Once-rare coastal flooding is becoming more likely (The Associated Press)