Holy Avocamolly 🥑
Your daily tidbit from the Environmental Digest
Hello from The Editor:
Welcome to the Environmental Digest
A publication dedicated to delivering the most recent Climate Change and Sustainability News in the most engaging and comprehensive way possible.
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The United States Suspended Avocado Imports
The Cause:
After a US inspector received threatening calls during his inspection in the Mexican Western state of Michoacan, the only region authorized to export avocados to the United States, the Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services decided to pause all further work in Mexico.
“The APEAM is actively participating in coordination with the authorities of both countries to resolve the problem in order to reinforce internal practices and processes that guarantee the traceability of the fruit. The facts mentioned here have already impacted the economy of the entire program, affecting the industry and the more than 300,000 jobs that depend on it. We encourage all those actors in this value chain to take extreme care and vigilance to preserve such an important export program,” the officials said in a statement on Saturday.
The Effect:
The main ingredient for guacamole and avocado toast is a part of a $3 billion industry and the supply chain delays and embargos are going to significantly affect the prices of the delicious fruit in the United States. In the past six weeks, Michoacan avocado producers have exported more than 135,000 tons of avocados.
On Another Note:
According to a new analysis by Zurich University of Applied Sciences, the traditional growing conditions for avocados, cashews, and coffee are projected to significantly shift in the next three decades.
The researchers took a dive into the soil data to see how climate change would affect the primary growing regions of these crops and determine their sustainability in 2050. While coffee is going to see the biggest decline due to the rising temperatures, the areas that historically have been perfect for growing avocados would shrink in suitability in the future.
Adapting to the new weather patterns would be a priority for farmers and producers, so researchers recommend mitigation strategies like moving to high altitudes and breeding new varieties to sustain these businesses.
Gaining a better understanding of future growing conditions for the crops is important as demand for all three continues to expand.
Politics & Environment
Biden Threatens to Kill A Major Gas Pipeline in Russia As Border Tensions Increase
The Cause:
“If Russia invades—that means tanks or troops crossing the border of Ukraine again—then there will no longer be a Nord Stream 2,” Biden said Monday. “We will bring an end to it.”
The Effect:
Although policy experts have little doubt that Biden is going to follow through on his threat to kill the new $11 billion natural gas pipeline to Europe, more than it is less likely to stop Putin from invading Ukraine, who already started aggressive military drills in Belarus.
On Another Note:
There is a chance that the looming war will cause a shift in the energy supply relationship between the European Union and Russia.
EU, who always viewed themselves as leaders in the transition to clean energy might want to break free from their dependence on Russian gas and the Nord Stream 2 would be the first ones to go.
Gazprom’s Nord Stream 2 is fully built, but its operation would involve a wide array of European firms in certification, insurance, maintenance, and gas sales. The companies that financed Nord Stream 2 include the energy giant Shell and the German energy generator Uniper, which has a large, Chicago-based North American commodities trading business.
All of these companies rely on the ability to do business in the United States, which Biden could restrict through the imposition of what is known as “secondary sanctions,” or penalties against third parties.
A pivotal question, from the standpoint of climate, is whether the EU will replace Russian gas imports with renewable energy, or just more natural gas from other sources—including the United States.
Environment & Justice
A New Definition For “Disadvantaged Communities”
The Cause:
In 2019, New York State passed a historic law to cut greenhouse gas emissions from every part of its economy. Titled the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, the law required that 35 to 40% of future benefits of state investments in clean energy, energy efficiency, housing, workforce development, transportation, and pollution reductions would have to serve “disadvantaged communities.”
However, New York cant is held accountable for the promise when the definition of the “disadvantaged community” and the metric by which the investments are going to be evaluated have not been decided.
The Effect:
After 18 months of discussions and deliberations, the Climate Justice Working Group, made up of leaders of environmental justice and community organizations from around the state determined the criteria.
While the identification has yet to see the wrath of public scrutiny, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority informed the group that agencies will keep track of any nonmonetary benefits from climate-related investments, they will only count direct investments — the actual dollar amounts of climate-related spending — toward compliance with the 35 to 40% goal.
On Another Note:
The group is also working on a new mapping tool that would categorize the census data into areas burdened by pollution, areas with high concentrations of low-income residents or people from historically marginalized groups, areas most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
They settled on 45 different “indicators” or datasets that measure things like income, race, unemployment, homeownership, the prevalence of asthma, the presence of air pollutants like benzene, proximity to polluting facilities, and potential climate risks like flooding and extreme heat. Based on this data, each census tract is given a specific score for future investments.
Climate & Science
Study Finds Western Drought to Be The Worst in 12 Centuries
The Cause:
The megadrought in the American Southwest has become so severe that it’s now the driest two decades in the region in at least 1,200 years, scientists said Monday, and climate change is largely responsible.
The analysis also showed that human-caused warming played a major role in making the current drought so extreme. There would have been a drought regardless of climate change, Dr. Williams said. “But its severity would have been only about 60 percent of what it was.”
The Effect:
Although there is no uniform definition, a megadrought is generally considered to be one that is both severe and long, on the order of several decades. But even in a megadrought, there can be periods when wet conditions prevail. It’s just that there are not enough consecutive wet years to end the drought.
That has been the case in the current Western drought, during which there have been several wet years, most notably 2005. The study, which was published in the journal Nature Climate Change, determined that climate change was responsible for the continuation of the current drought after that year.
On Another Note:
Using that record, the researchers determined that last summer was the second driest in the last 300 years, with only 2002, in the early years of the current drought, being drier.
Monsoon rains in the desert Southwest last summer had offered hope that the drought might come to an end, as did heavy rain and snow in California from the fall into December.
But January produced record-dry conditions across much of the West, Dr. Williams said, and so far February has been dry as well. Reservoirs that a few months ago were at above-normal levels for the time of year are now below normal again, and the mountain snowpack is also suffering. Seasonal forecasts also suggest the dryness will continue.
Environment & Sports
The NFL tried to make this year’s Super Bowl its greenest yet. Inglewood residents aren’t impressed.
The Cause:
Officials in Los Angeles have cleared a homeless encampment near SoFi stadium, where the Super Bowl will take place in three weeks, drawing backlash from human rights groups and the unhoused residents who have been displaced. On Monday and Tuesday, the state transit agency Caltrans shut down the tent community, which visitors would probably have passed on their way to the big game, calling it a “safety issue”.
The Effect:
Due to forceable removal, numerous residents lost their belongings and were moved to more dangerous areas, pouring fire into an already critical humanitarian crisis.
In the South Los Angeles community dubbed the “City of Champions,” which is majority Black and Latino, residents are fighting back. Community members and activist groups have accused the city and the National Football League (NFL), of “greenwashing” — using deceptive marketing to convince the public that their policies are environmentally-friendly, sustainable, and community-oriented.
While some environmental and social programs, such as tree-planting initiatives and grants for small businesses, have been implemented because of the game, residents claim they’re being locked out of the small improvements the city is making.
The programs, opponents say, are either focused in entirely different communities than the one directly surrounding SoFi Stadium or have become unattainable in a city under siege by tourists due to weekly sporting events and concerts at SoFi and the neighboring Forum Arena.
On Another Note:
While the NFL tried to deal with the crisis by initiating a series of tree-planting campaigns, many activists were left unimpressed. While the increase of leafy greenery in communities has been linked to reduced air pollution, they believe that any gains from these improvements are being wiped away by the increased noise and air pollution caused by an influx of thousands of people into the city nearly every weekend for sporting events and concerts.
According to the NFL’s press office, just 60 trees have been planted in Inglewood parks. On average, 60 young trees can suck up roughly 800 pounds of carbon dioxide in a year, which dwarfs in comparison to the more than 3 million pounds of the greenhouse gas released on average during Super Bowl events — not to mention a full season of football games. The opening of SoFi Stadium has brought an estimated half a million more cars through the neighborhood every month, burdened the area’s public transit system, and been cited to justify a $1.7 billion expansion project at Los Angeles’ airport.
Even before the facility was constructed, the community living directly around SoFi Stadium was listed as being exposed to more environmental burdens than 96 percent of the state, according to the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment’s database.