Degrees is a daily round-up of climate headlines, assembled by Eric McDaniel.
🌡️ News
‘Unprecedented’ number of emergency-level wildfires scorch eastern Australia
Andrew Freedman, Washington Post (Tweet)
An “unprecedented” outbreak of emergency-level bush fires has scorched a vast area of Australia’s southeastern state of New South Wales during the past few days.
The fires, which have injured 30 and threatened large communities such as Port Macquarie, a city of 46,000, represent the latest outbreak in what is already an unusually active and early bush fire season.
More dangerous fire weather is anticipated next week, and the early-season blazes do not bode well for the summer, when large parts of Australia tend to experience their peak fire risk.
We Are Wasting a Massive Amount of Food. Here Are 4 Concrete Ways to Change That
TIME (Tweet)
First, we need to change social norms that exacerbate food waste.
Second, we need to rethink arbitrary expiration dates in places like the United States. Most people don’t realize that these dates are set by companies, not health agencies, with the intention that you buy more food.
Third, our local governments, which are often responsible for the collection of household scraps, can play a major role in reducing food waste. In San Francisco, for example, which has a zero waste goal by 2020, they’ve diverted waste from the landfill by over 80 percent, and they’re transforming food waste into compost and selling it back to farmers.
Fourth, we need better refrigeration to prevent food spoilage. Many countries don’t have the capacity to keep food cold when it’s stored or transported. Countries that already have refrigeration need to significantly increase their energy efficiency so that this expansion is done sustainably elsewhere.
New Zealand Commits To Being Carbon Neutral By 2050 — With A Big Loophole
Laurel Wamsley, NPR (Tweet)
New Zealand's bill sets an ambitious target: to reduce all greenhouse gases (except biogenic methane, emitted by plant and animal sources) to net zero by 2050.
The country is well-positioned to hit zero. New Zealand already generates 80% of its electricity from renewables, and that portion will be higher by 2035 as offshore oil and gas are phased out. The government is shifting its fleet to electric vehicles and is working to transition other vehicles to electric, too. The government also has restarted a program to subsidize home insulation and is putting $14.5 billion over the next 10 years into transit, biking and walking infrastructure. In addition, New Zealand has already committed to planting 1 billion trees by 2028.
But that methane loophole is actually a big deal.
As greenhouse gases go, methane is a different beast from carbon dioxide. Methane in the atmosphere decays within decades, while CO2 stays in the atmosphere for centuries or longer. But methane is noxious stuff: It traps about 30 times as much heat in the atmosphere as CO2 does.
This newsletter is not affiliated with NPR.