SELECTED ENVIRONMENTAL NOTES

Some good news and some bad news

Solar panels in the Navajo Nation

Solar development is happening over the Navajo’s 27,000 square miles of land. Independent operators have been installing standalone solar systems at homes that, for many tribal members, are providing the first electricity that has flowed inside their residences. However, the Interior Department reported last year that 21 percent of homes on the Navajo Nation still lack electricity.

The decline of coal, oil’s booms and busts, the Biden Administration’s incentives for renewable energy and ongoing environmental justice concerns on Diné lands all came up during a recent conference.

Muslim pilgrims gather on Mount Arafat, or the mount of mercy, during the annual Hajj pilgrimage outside the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on June 15, 2024. Photo by Mohamad Torokman/Reuters

Six people have died from heatstroke during the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, amid warnings from Saudi officials that temperatures during the annual gathering could reach 48 degrees Celsius (118 degrees Fahrenheit) this year.

Brazil’s Pantanal, the largest tropical wetland on earth, is ablaze, with fires in June breaking historical records for that month.

While aerial views of the wetland show smoke rising and the bright orange of burning fires, a closer look at burnt vegetation found charred skeletons of wildlife, including an alligator, monkey and snake, photos from Reuters showed earlier this week.

Brazil’s National Institute of Space Research (INPE) has detected 733 fires in the Pantanal biome so far this month, with the previous record for fires in Pantanal for June being 435 registered in 2005.\

The state of Mato Grosso do Sul, which encompasses 60% of the Brazilian Pantanal, is under a “danger” warning for a heat wave expected to hit with temperatures 5ºC higher than average for the next three to five days, according to Brazil’s National Meteorological Institute (INMET).

The World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) Brazil has warned that the entire year of 2024 could become the worst year on record for the Pantanal as the dry season is just beginning, and the number of fires this year already represents an increase of 898% compared to the same period in 2023, according to INPE’s data.

“It is necessary to act quickly reinforcing [fire] brigades and counting with the support of the local communities to avoid a catastrophe”, said Cynthia Santos, conservation analyst for WWF Brazil, in a statement.

San Francisco’s Marina district neighborhood was severely flooded on Dec. 31, 2023. (Image courtesy Roberto Graves)

The San Francisco Grand Jury has released its report Come Hell or High Water: Flood Management in a Changing Climate. Their findings include:

● Flood management lacks the necessary interdepartmental coordination.

● With no plan to fund the necessary adaptation infrastructure, the city is hampered by a self-imposed limit on the use of debt finance.

● The city is paying avoidable flood damage recovery costs.

● The city’s activities for climate resilience are not transparent in the city’s budget.

● The city is failing to communicate to residents the future impacts of climate change.

Recommendations include:

● Reforming the process of decision making in the Climate Resilience Program

● Providing more transparency in planning for climate adaptation

● Reassessing the certain funding shortfalls needed to respond to the impacts from climate change

● Improving interdepartmental coordination by the city to address expected flooding

● Stepping up efforts to notify the public about flood insurance options and to inform the public about those areas most likely to be affected.

Temperatures in Pakistan Top 120 Degrees, There’s Nowhere to Run

Rushing to get cold water at an ice factory in Jacobabad, Pakistan.Insiya Syed for The New York Times

Environmental attorney Rafay Alam’s report from Lahore: animals crumpling, waters rising, crops collapsing, an economy on the brink and millions displaced with nowhere safe to go.

“The interesting thing is, while we are experiencing a heat wave right now and I want to get into detail with that, April was the wettest April in all of Pakistan’s recorded history,” Alam said. “There were torrential rains in the northern and western parts of Pakistan that led to over 120 deaths.

“What we are experiencing is not just a heat wave, but actively the climate crisis. This is the coolest summer of the rest of our lives. It’s only going to get hotter and hotter from here.”

Rafay Alam is also a member of Pakistan’s Climate Change Council. “It’s only met four times in its last seven years. And mostly to agree on what Pakistan’s position at the Conference of Parties is going to be,” he told “Living on Earth,” public radio’s environmental news magazine executive producer and host Steve Curwood.

“There is a significant denialism on climate change in places like the United States. And it angers me because I see people affected. I see animals affected. And this is a lived experience for the global majority, the Global South. It’s extremely infuriating to see people who’ve participated in this global warming deny it, deny any accountability, try and move on as if nothing’s happened and try and continue to make money and drive that bottom line.”

Speaking of denying the reality of climate change, in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis has publicly insisted that the current record-setting rain and floods in south Florida are not due to climate change.

Members of the City of Hollywood SWAT team look for people who may need help being evacuated from a flooded area in Hollywood, Florida, just north of Miami, on Wednesday, June 12. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The Republican governor declared a state of emergency for South Florida, but at a news briefing Friday he downplayed the idea that the storm was unusual. He said there have been similar events “going back decades.”

“This clearly is not unprecedented,” he said. “I think the difference is, you compare 50 to 100 years ago to now, there’s just a lot more that’s been developed, so there’s a lot more effects that this type of event can have.”

His communications team also made light of the storm, dismissing it as typical summer rainfall. Christina Pushaw, the governor’s former press secretary, who is now an analyst with the state, wrote on X: “Welcome to the rainy season. South Florida is in the tropics. There will be thunderstorms for the next 4-5 months.”

In May, DeSantis signed a bill that removes most references to climate change in state law. The legislation, which is set to take effect July 1, eliminates climate change as a priority in making energy policy decisions, even though Florida routinely faces threats from extreme heat, deadly hurricanes and toxic algae blooms.