[GWSG] 3 Climateers; Med heating; a biodiversity risk index; EV subsidies; C a pollutant; UK food tsar speaks

[Tilley, Al]

1. Democratic Senators Sheldon Whitehouse, Brian Schatz, and Martin Heinrich are working together to pursue constructive climate legislation and to educate their fellow senators, who have become more receptive. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/18/three-climateers-meet-new-generation-senate-climate-hawks/

2. The Mediterranean Sea holds 4-18% of the world’s known marine species. It is heating so rapidly that they are at risk. So are the human cultures which surround it.  https://phys.org/news/2022-08-fast-warming-ailing-med-sea.html

3.  The new Climate Risk Index for Biodiversity indicates that at very high greenhouse gas emissions almost 90% of marine species are at high or critical risk of extinction across 85% of ecosystems. If we limit emissions so that we keep heating to 2C, the risks are reduced for all species and ecosystems, and for some, eliminated. https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-how-meeting-the-2c-goal-cuts-the-climate-risks-for-25000-marine-species/?utm_campaign=Daily%20Briefing&utm_content=20220823&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20newsletter

4. The new federal tax credits for electric vehicles are a little hard to apply. Here’s an explanation of them, and lists of vehicles which they will support as of this month and next January. https://electrek.co/2022/08/21/which-electric-vehicles-still-qualify-for-us-federal-tax-credit/

5. Over fierce but private Republican opposition, Democrats succeeded in working into the Inflation Reduction Act the stipulation that carbon is an air pollutant, and thus under the Clean Air Act may be regulated by the EPA. No matter what the Supreme Court says. (Not that the court cases to fight regulation of greenhouse gasses will cease—but they are unlikely to find as much success now.) https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/22/climate/epa-supreme-court-pollution.html?smid=em-share

6. Henry Dimbley, food tsar of the UK, warns that by cooking meat people are cooking themselves. Eating 30% less meat within 10 years is required to free up agricultural land and reduce emissions. Government regulation may be necessary.  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/21/the-guardian-view-on-earth-friendly-diets-cooking-animals-is-cooking-the-planet

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