EU Gives Up on Goals -Most Important Climate News 6.27.24

Facebook Tweet LinkedIn

Climate Central has issued a report titled “Sleepless Nights.” Its primary conclusion is that “Hot nights make it harder for people to recover from the heat of the day, with wide-reaching and severe consequences. There is growing evidence that as nighttime temperatures rise, human sleep is being eroded around the world.” This phenomenon makes it difficult for people to function normally during the day and has health consequences, particularly for vulnerable populations, including older adults. Climatecrisis247 believes that almost all research about the effects of heat on humans has been focused on daytime temperatures, partially those of over 100 degrees F. The new study proves that extreme heat harms humans 24 hours a day.

Paris Olympics –Heat Danger To Athletes?

More Climate News –Americans Don’t Think There Are Problems

The huge Canadian wildfires that burned most of last summer affected the environment more than was previously assumed. The fires put 3.28 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the air. According to The Washinton Post, “The fire spewed nearly four times the carbon emissions as airplanes do in a year, study authors said. It’s about the same amount of carbon dioxide that 647 million cars put in the air in a year, based on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data.” Climatecrisis247 believes that Canadian wildfires of this magnitude could burn most years and send smoke as far south as Washinton, DC, and as far west as Minneapolis, causing unprecedented air pollution across the northern tier of states in the US most summers. Like extreme heat, this will be a regular part of the climate in these cities going forward.

EU Give Up Climate Goals

The EU has adopted a new plan for global warming; according to Politico, in an article titled “EU leaders ditch call to prepare for ‘new realities’ of a warmer planet,” The authors of the article wrote the European Environment Agency decided that “If decisive action is not taken now, most climate risks identified [in the assessment] could reach critical or catastrophic levels by the end of this century,” the agency said, adding that hundreds of thousands of people could die from heat waves. Climatecrisis247 believes that this may be the first time a large government body has admitted that it may not act to address climate change and that, therefore, the public should be prepared for the worst.

Suits Against Fossil Fuels Grows

Government lawsuits against fossil fuel companies are rising quickly. Most suits cite the damage caused but also that these organizations knew years ago of the risk of their actions on the climate. According to The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, in new research titled “Global trends in climate change litigation: 2024 snapshot” report found, “Strategic climate cases continued to be filed against companies, with about 230 such cases now identified from 2015 to the present.” Most suits have several things in common. These include “climate washing,” demands that polluters pay penalties for their actions, pressure to get companies to keep obligations that they and their industries made when speaking publicly about their climate change mitigation goals, and suits against corporate management and the board of these companies. Climatecrisis247 believes that the results of these suits may not be similar to those in Big Tobacco cases decades ago. The tobacco industry was forced to pay out tens of billions of dollars in penalties. However, in those cases, courts could point to individuals who had their health directly harmed by smoking. The link between the actions of fossil fuel companies and direct damage to people and businesses may be harder to prove.