Sunny climate, stormy climate | News Digest #20
In this edition, we talk about Tallinn's year as the European Green capital, why climate activists are criticising the FIFA 2030 world cup and the new records the Earth set in September!
First, apologies for the break in the newsletter last couple of weeks. Sticking to the weekly frequency has been difficult with a few other things I have been up to (more on that, later). Also, I want to try a few other kind of posts, besides the news round up. So, going forward, I will be moving the news digest to a fortnightly frequency and do a few other kind of posts in the interim. Let me know what you think!
In every digest, I will continue to bring to you 5 stories about the changing climate and its impact on us!
3 stormy ones - concerning stories that are a source of alarm
2 sunny ones - green shoots that tell you that all is not yet lost
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Sunny news
Tallinn was the ‘European Green Capital’ for 2023. What did it do this last year to live up to the title?
What does the title ‘European Green Capital’ mean?
Run by the European Commission, the European Green Capital (EGC) title is awarded to cities with over 100,000 residents that are actively transitioning towards a more sustainable future.
Tallinn was awarded the environmental prize in 2021, giving it 2 years to prepare for its time in the limelight plus a €600,000 cheque to help.
What did Tallinn do in its year as the EGC? What can other cities learn from Tallinn?
‘Green tracks’ project aimed to introduce greenery into urban spaces all over Tallinn, from housing blocks to traffic islands and bus stop roofs. Tallinn’s network of parks now constitutes 19.5 per cent of the city’s total landmass.
Pollinator highway is a green corridor which traverses six of the city's districts and was built to increase insect pollination. This 13-kilometre walkway is yet another example of Tallinn encouraging its citizens to ditch private vehicles and adopt a more sustainable approach to transportation.
Public transportation has been free in Tallinn since 2013. They have also built some great cycling infrastructure with cycling tracks all over the city that discourage the use of cars.
Cleaning up the Baltic sea: The Baltic sea is one of the most polluted seas in the world, being almost completely landlocked and from years of industrial pollution. The citizens of Tallinn have been coming together to do clean up drives to pick up trash from the beaches and the sea.
Sources to read further:
EU moving to heat pumps - avoided 8 mn tons of CO2 emissions last year
A record number of heat pumps were sold last year in Europe.
Data shows that 3 mn units replaced around 4 bn cubic metres of natural gas last year - the equivalent of avoiding 8 million tonnes of CO2 emissions.
The demand for heat pumps is being driven by the need to move away from gas and the desire to decarbonise.
As gas costs have increased, people have been drawn to heat pumps as a way to reduce their fuel bills - despite the fact they can be expensive to install.
Poland leads the way by quite a large margin. Sales increased by 120 per cent in 2022 when compared to 2021. The country is rapidly undergoing a heat pump revolution, breaking records for sales along the way.
Source to read further:
Stormy news
FIFA announces that the 2030 Football world cup will be held over 3 continents, drawing criticism for its environmental footprint.
Where will the world cup be held?
Spain, Portugal and Morocco would be hosting majority of the matches (Africa and Europe)
However, the opening 3 matches would be held in Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina to mark the centenary of the Football world cup
Hence, effectively the world cup will be held over 3 continents and 6 countries.
Why is this being criticised from a climate point of view?
Matches across 3 continents which will lead to increased travel for the players as well as fans resulting in increased carbon footprint.
The 2030 World Cup is expected to contribute close to 5.5 million tons of CO2 to the atmosphere. 60-80% of that is associated with travel alone
These plans are problematic given FIFA's stated commitments to combat climate change, including a 50 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 and "net-zero" by 2040.
Sources to read further:
Hottest September on record!
Last month marked another month of record-breaking temperatures throughout the globe, with September 2023 ranking as the warmest September in a 174-year global climate record.
The Sept 2023 avg. temperature was ~1.5 deg C above the pre-industrial average for September.
Africa, Europe, North America and South America each had their warmest September on record.
2023 is now on track to be the hottest year on record.
September was a month of climate anomalies. Some other notable ones include:
Lowest global September sea ice extent (coverage) on record, besting the previous record low from September 2016.
Seventeen named storms occurred across the globe last month!
Source to read further:
Over 100 river dolphins found dead in the Amazon river, presumably due to drought and extreme heat
The carcasses of 120 river dolphins (that are endemic to the region) have been found floating in a tributary of the Amazon River in circumstances that experts suspect were caused by severe drought and heat.
Low river levels during a severe drought have heated water in stretches to temperatures that are intolerable for the dolphins, researchers believe.
At least 70 of the carcasses surfaced on Thursday when the temperature of Lake Tefé's water reached 39 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit), more than 10 degrees higher than the average for this time of the year.
Sources for further reading:
Thank you Sailee! Good luck with your projects. It's a lot of work to do your research for the newsletter so we appreciate you are sticking to it and 2 weeks gap is very good still. Catherine