Green Lights June 5: 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 says that if things hold the way they are in California’s as-yet undecided gubernatorial primary, there will be no climate interests in the governor’s mansion come November. Plus, Michael Molinski looks at what Bayer is doing while it waits for the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on its Roundup weedkiller. Have a good weekend and please subscribe to support our climate finance reporting.
. . . . This week’s California primary for governor was about as bad as it could be for those hoping for a new leader to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom in fighting climate change, writes David Callaway. With the Democratic vote split between a political insider and a progressive outsider, Republican Steve Hilton was running second with millions of mail-in votes still to be counted. If things hold the way they are there will be no climate interests in the governor’s mansion come November. Just more environmental inaction from America’s most populous — and one of its most vulnerable — states.
. . . . To nobody’s surprise, the SEC this week formally proposed repealing a rule five years in the making that required companies to tell investors about their climate risks. David Callaway says the idea that the top enforcer of financial markets activity would advocate for less information for investors is crazy enough. The fact that it wants to do it to save money for companies it regulates in the face of a growing risk defies rational explanation.
. . . . The cancer controversy over Roundup isn’t going anywhere as its market expands, writes Michael Molinkski. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule as early as this month on a landmark case against Bayer’s weedkiller. But in the meantime, Bayer and rival Chinese-owned Syngenta have found a more lucrative region of the world to market glyphosate, where it doesn’t face as many judicial or government obstacles — Latin America.
. . . . Americans are increasingly pessimistic about avoiding the worst effects of climate change, and Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to perceive harms from climate change. So says a new study from Pew Research Center. About six in 10 Americans say countries around the world, including the U.S., will not do enough to avoid the worst effects of climate change.
. . . . Next week, we’ll likely see the first trillion-dollar IPO when Elon Musk’s SpaceX (SPCX) goes off at an estimated valuation of $1.75 trillion. Later this year, AI giants Anthropic and OpenAI will go public to much hype as well. Clean energy IPOs and merger activity will also cause spikes in value as the AI giants demand more and more electricity to power their data centers, writes David Callaway. But once valuations get too high, and we may be nearing a peak with this AI frenzy, there will be a reckoning of sorts. Despite the common bull market refrain, it’s not different this time.
More greenery . . . .
The heat is on: High temps could hurt performance at almost every World Cup match (Climate Central)
Samurai horses!: Japan keeps traditional summer festival alive by adapting to heat (France 24)
Mysterious ‘cold blob’: Cooling patch of ocean may signal the conveyor belt in the Atlantic is slowing (New Scientist)
Power on: How Nuclear Science Is Helping Build a More Sustainable Future (IAEA.org)
Weather outlook: The swirling Central American Gyre spawns storms (Yale Climate Connection)