Sunny climate, stormy climate | News Digest #40

Operation Bhediya, a week long Seismic hum and a suit against Exxon Mobil

Hello folks! Welcome to your weekly dose of climate where I bring to you 3 climate stories, 1 climate action and 1 climate content reco!

⛈️ Stormy news ⛈️

---

1. ‘Operation Bhediya’ in UP reveals gaps in human-wildlife conflict mitigation in India

The kind of visuals seen in mainstream media that tend to create panic amongst people

What is happening?

• Since March this year, there have been animal attacks on people in Bahraich in UP

• So far 10 people have been killed and several others have been injured.

• The forest department and local villagers suspected these to be done by a pack of wolves based on drone footage of the pack of wolves roaming around in the area. They launched 'Operation Bhediya' to capture the pack of 6 wolves.

• However, the attacks continued.

• It is not yet proven that the attacks have indeed been done by wolves.

  • There has been no DNA test of the saliva from the wounds matching it to wolves.

  • They haven’t found pug marks or photographic evidence that indicate that the wolves were present at the site of the attack.

  • And scientists say this behaviour is unlike wolves who are shy, elusive animals that typically avoid human habitations.

Why does this matter?

• This is a case of human-wildlife conflict which can be expected to happen, however the response of the forest department is problematic.

• Jumping to capturing the wolves before gathering adequate evidence to ascertain the animal doing the attacks (through DNA test, pug marks, better footage) is ineffective and damaging

• Labelling this ‘Operation Bhediya’ without adequate evidence has created panic amongst the local communities.

• The attacks have been covered in mainstream media as ‘wolf attacks’ with little or no coverage of the uncertainty pointed out by scientists. They have been further sensationalised by using terms like ‘aadmakhor’ (meaning man eater) and ‘blood thirsty’ fuelling further panic.

• Unable to differentiate between feral dogs, jackals and wolves, all canid species were targeted and few jackals even fell victim to the people’s ire.

• The Indian grey wolf is an endangered species with only ~3000 individuals remaining. Retaliatory attacks and human hostility could have severe consequences for the remaining population.

• More broadly, this shows that forest departments need to be better equipped to handle situations of human wildlife conflict.

Why are we talking about this in a ‘climate newsletter’?

• The climate crisis is a meta crisis and is closely related to the ‘biodiversity crisis’. The world is going through what some scientists are calling the ‘sixth extinction’. We are losing species at an alarming rate and it’s important to conserve and protect species we can.

Sources for further reading

• Operation Bhediya reveals gaps in human-wildlife conflict mitigation (Mongabay)

---

2. A week long seismic hum: A new era of climate uncertainty?

What are we talking about?

• In September 2023, scientists recorded a mysterious seismic hum that lasted for nine days, and was detected all over the world, from the Arctic to Antarctica

• The hum was a continuous signal with a single vibration frequency, unlike the usual rumble of an earthquake. It pulsed every 92 seconds.

• Researchers were initially puzzled by the signal and classified it as an unidentified seismic object (USO)

• 1 year later, the cause is clear. The hum was caused by a massive landslide in Greenland's Dickson Fjord, triggered by climate change. The landslide generated a mega-tsunami that sloshed back and forth across the fjord, causing vibrations that traveled around the Earth.

Before and after the landslide and tsunami. Søren Rysgaard (left); Danish Army (right)

Why does this matter?

• FT: “The headline is not that climate change is happening, nor even that it is happening faster than anticipated. Rather, it is that the consequences are not always apparent, predictable, measurable or explicable. We are moving into a new era of climate uncertainty”

• It is a stark reminder that we are navigating uncharted waters.

• This was a massive Tsunami. Let the scale sink in.

  • It happened in Greenland, near the Arctic circle and the vibrations reached Antarctica, across the world.

  • The vibrations continued for 9 whole days.

  • A mountain had collapsed, triggering a landslide that dumped 25mn cubic metres of rock and ice into the fjord.

• A landslide-tsunami is a first for eastern Greenland.

Sources for further reading

• A seismic hum signals a new era of climate uncertainty (FT)

---

What can ‘I’ do? 😎

---

In this, I bring to you a simple action you can do as a step towards leading a more sustainable life

Segregate waste at home

Segregate waste at home and ask your apartment to start insisting on waste segregation if they don’t already.

We have spoken about how waste that ends up in landfills is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. If you have to reduce that, it can happen only through recycling or up cycling and none of that is possible if the waste is not segregated. It is easiest done at source. So start segregating at home!

---

🌞 Sunny news 🌞

3. ‘They knew and they lied’: California sues Exxon Mobil for misleading people about plastic recycling

What are we talking about?

• The attorney general of California sued Exxon Mobil alleging that the oil giant carried out a “decades-long campaign of deception” that overhyped the promise of plastic recycling.

• The suit says company misled consumers into believing that recycling was a viable solution for plastic waste and that people were more likely to buy single-use plastics because of a false belief, promoted by Exxon Mobil, that they would be recycled.

• "Exxon Mobil knew that 95% of the plastic in the blue bin was going to be incinerated, go into the environment or go into a landfill," Bonta told NBC News.

Why does this matter?

• The case opens a new front in the legal battles against oil and gas companies over climate and environmental issues.

• There have been other suits against oil and gas giants for carbon pollution, this is the first one that holds them accountable for plastic pollution

Sources for further reading

• California sues ExxonMobil, alleging deception about plastics recycling (NBC news)

---

Sailee’s climate picks

Every week, I’ll bring to you 1 piece of climate content I’d like to recommend that could be books, article, podcasts, movies etc.

This week’s recommendation is:

Source: The visual capitalist

---

You can read previous editions of the newsletter -

Sunny climate, stormy climate | News Digest #39

Sunny climate, stormy climate | News Digest #38

Sunny climate, stormy climate | News Digest #37

If you liked this newsletter, please hit like or leave a comment. Please share the newsletter with a friend, family member or colleague who may like it too. It’s free!