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Climate

Phoenix Just Hit Another Grim Heat Record

On life at 100 degrees, the data center boom, and cow emissions

Phoenix Just Hit Another Grim Heat Record
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: Ruins of the sunken village of Kallio have emerged from a dried up lake in drought-stricken Greece • AccuWeather reduced its 2024 forecast for the number of named Atlantic storms • It will be hot, humid, and rainy in Beijing today where U.S. climate envoy John Podesta will meet for climate talks with his Chinese counterpart.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Harris campaign reportedly hires a ‘climate engagement director’

Climate activists are pushing Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris to be more vocal about climate change on the campaign trail. E&E News reported that Michael Greenberg, founder of Climate Defiance, had a virtual meeting yesterday with a senior Harris advisor. “We want her to oppose fossil-fuel subsidies,” Greenberg told E&E. “We need to rapidly phase out fossil-fuel infrastructure, fossil-fuel use, fossil-fuel exports.” Harris has so far been relatively quiet about the climate crisis, but that might change with the rumored hiring of Camila Thorndike as campaign “climate engagement director.” Thorndike comes from Rewiring America where she was senior director of public engagement, and she also worked on the Inflation Reduction Act as a legislative assistant to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

2. Phoenix hits 100 degrees for 100 days straight

Phoenix, Arizona, recorded its 100th straight day of temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit yesterday. The hot streak started in late May and is expected to go on for another two weeks. Temperatures this week are forecast to hit 113 by Thursday. At least 150 heat deaths have been recorded this year in the county that encompasses Phoenix, and 440 additional deaths are under investigation, The Washington Postreported. States up and down the West Coast are facing an intense heat wave, with some 26 million under heat warnings. In Oregon, where temperatures usually start to dip this time of year, temperature records could shatter as the mercury reaches 105 degrees in Portland.

Weather.gov

3. Competition from data centers causes trouble for Wyoming DAC project

In case you missed it: Project Bison, a large direct air capture facility proposed for Wyoming, has been put on pause because the company behind it can’t compete with data centers for renewable energy to power its operations. “We’ve seen growing competition for clean power amongst industries that are emerging much faster than anybody would have ever predicted,” CarbonCapture Inc.’s CEO Adrian Corless said in a statement posted on the company’s website. As a result, CarbonCapture is looking for a new home for Project Bison. The company was aiming to reach 5 million metric tons of carbon removal annually by 2030. Last year it was awarded $12.5 million from the Department of Energy to develop the Wyoming Regional DAC Hub. It is looking into whether the DOE will allow it to transfer its application to a new state.

Relatedly, Morgan Stanley released research yesterday that found the data center boom is expected to produce 2.5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions through 2030. Altogether, the pollution produced to power data centers will amount to about 40% of annual U.S. emissions. “This creates a large market for decarbonization solutions,” the report said.

4. Report: Drought in Sicily and Sardinia fueled by climate change

New analysis from the World Weather Attribution found human-caused climate change made the devastating droughts taking place across Sicily and Sardinia twice as likely. Both of the Italian islands are under a state of emergency after a year of low rainfall and persistent heat triggered some of the worst droughts on record. Due to water shortages, the region’s farmers have been forced to sell or slaughter their livestock, and harvests of wheat and olive crops are expected to fall by half. While the region is used to hot and dry conditions, the WWA said this drought is worsened by evapotranspiration, or the evaporation of water from soil and plants. “Sardinia and Sicily are becoming increasingly arid with climate change,” said Mariam Zachariah, a climate and environment researcher at Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute. “Searing, long lasting heat is hitting the islands more frequently, evaporating water from soils, plants, and reservoirs.” WWA has linked other recent extreme weather events to climate change, including Typhoon Gaemi, Mexico’s May-June heat wave, and Brazil’s historic floods.

5. Study finds U.S. beef industry could cut emissions by 30% with mitigation practices

New research published in the journal Nature Food investigates how America’s beef producers can reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The study produced some interesting insights. For example:

  • The U.S. beef industry accounts for about 3.3% of the nation’s total emissions.
  • 64% of emissions from the sector are produced during the grazing stage.
  • About 30% of the industry’s emissions could be mitigated with the implementation of new practices such as adding trees to grazed lands, managing when and where animals graze to improve plant health, cover cropping, and using methane-reducing feed additives.

THE KICKER

The U.S. now has 192,611 public DC Fast and Level 2 EV charging ports, up from about 95,000 in 2021.

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Politics

AM Briefing: Climate United Sues the EPA

On the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, Canada’s new prime minister, and CERAWeek

The Battle Over Climate Grants Is Heating Up
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: Firefighters successfully controlled brush fires in Long Island that prompted New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to declare a state of emergency • Brisbane, Australia, recorded its wettest day in more than 50 years • Forecasters are keeping an eye on a storm system developing across the central U.S. that could pack a serious punch this week.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Nonprofit sues EPA, Citibank, over missing climate funds

The nonprofit Climate United filed a lawsuit over the weekend against the Environmental Protection Agency and Citibank for withholding $7 billion in climate funds awarded as part of the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act. The move escalates a dispute over some $20 billion in grants from the IRA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which was designed to help mobilize private capital toward clean energy and climate solutions. President Trump’s EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has been on a mission to claw back the funds, claiming their distribution was rushed and mismanaged. In its lawsuit, Climate United says it has been unable to access the $7 billion it was awarded, and that the EPA and Citibank have given no explanation for this. It wants a judge to order that the money be released. “We’re not trying to make a political statement here,” Beth Bafford, chief executive of Climate United, toldThe New York Times. “This is about math for homeowners, for truck drivers, for public schools — we know that accessing clean energy saves them money that they can use on far more important things.” The Trump administration has reportedly demanded that the eight organizations tapped to receive the money turn over records to the FBI and appear in federal court later this month.

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Climate Tech

AI Weather Forecasters Still Need NOAA

While they’re getting more accurate all the time, they still rely on data from traditional models — and possibly always will.

A robot forecaster.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has had a bruising few weeks. Deep staffing cuts at the hands of Elon Musk’s efficiency crusaders have led to concerns regarding the potential closure of facilities critical to data-gathering and weather-forecasting operations. Meteorologists have warned that this could put lives at risk, while industries that rely on trustworthy, publicly available weather data — from insurance to fishing, shipping, and agriculture — are bracing for impact. While reliable numbers are difficult to come by, the agency appears to have lost on the order of 7% to 10% of its workforce, or more than 1,000 employees. NOAA’s former deputy director, Andrew Rosenberg, wrote that Musk plans to lay off 50% of the agency, while slashing its budget by 30%.

Will that actually happen? Who the heck knows. But what we can look at are the small cracks that are already emerging, and who could step in to fill that void.

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Climate

AM Briefing: U.S. Abandons a Key Climate Financing Coalition

On energy transition funds, disappearing butterflies, and Tesla’s stock slump

America’s Shrinking Climate Financing Footprint
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: Australians have been told to prepare for the worst ahead of Cyclone Alfred, and 100,000 people are already without power • Argentina’s Buenos Aires province has been hit by deadly flooding • Critical fire conditions will persist across much of west Texas through Saturday.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Trump administration questions aid programs about their climate ambitions

Many foreign aid programs have reportedly received a questionnaire from the Trump administration that they must complete as part of a review, presumably to help the government decide whether or not the groups should receive any more federal funds. One of the questions on the list, according toThe New York Times, is: “Can you confirm this is not a climate or ‘environmental justice’ project or include such elements?” Another asks if the project will “directly impact efforts to strengthen U.S. supply chains or secure rare earth minerals?” President Trump issued an executive order freezing foreign aid on his first day back in office. The Supreme Court subsequently ruled that aid must be released. The Times notes that “many of the projects under scrutiny have already fired their staff and closed their doors, because they have received no federal funds since the review process ostensibly began. … Within some organizations, there are no staff members left to complete the survey.”

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