As we honor Earth, let's remember how much she's been through lately.
Cameron Oglesby for the Environmental Health News
But
most of that was scrapped thanks to the coronavirus pandemic.
Here
we are on the 51st anniversary—still battling COVID-19. Since last year the
world has faced an unprecedented economic crisis, racial reckoning, and
political shift in the fight for climate change.
So
much has happened—and to celebrate this Earth Day we wanted to highlight
notable environmental and climate events, issues, and news that have shaped
society and our planet over the past year.
Summer 2020
Although COVID-19 lockdowns were clearing the air and driving down greenhouse gas emissions, experts were saying this was only a temporary solution to the climate crisis, especially as countries began restarting economies.
The
executive director of the UN Environment Programme, Inger Andersen, said that
"in COVID-19, the planet has delivered its strongest warning to date that
humanity must change."
Pangolins,
the species thought to have been a possible conduit of the COVID-19 virus, were
spotlighted as one of the most heavily trafficked species in the world.
And
plastic pollution as a result of COVID shutdowns was increasing— a new study highlighted
that hundreds of thousands of tons of plastic waste wash up on shores every
year. With mask and plastic glove use on the rise, and recycling programs on
the decline, a new source of plastic waste spiked.
In the U.S., the Trump administration, in advance of the upcoming November election, loosened environmental regulations under cover of pandemic turmoil.
The Guardian reported
that the federal government eased pollution reporting rules for industries
during the pandemic as well as "eased fuel-efficiency standards for new
cars; frozen rules for soot air pollution; proposed to drop review requirements
for liquefied natural gas terminals; continued to lease public property to oil
and gas companies; sought to speed up permitting for offshore fish farms; and
advanced a proposal on mercury pollution from power plants that could make it
easier for the government to conclude regulations are too costly to justify
their benefits."
One
week before the start of June, 46-year-old George Floyd died in Minneapolis
after a police officer pressed his knee into Floyd's neck while he was in
police custody. The world responded around this latest act of police
mistreatment, resulting in weeks of protests calling for an end to the
systematic mistreatment of Black and Brown individuals in the U.S. The officer
who killed Floyd was just this week found guilty of murder.
The
environmental movement announced solidarity with the Black Lives Matter
protesters, and the environmental justice movement.
Another similar movement—the intersectional environmentalist movement—announced
that in order to truly address the climate crisis, the government must first
acknowledge and address the disproportionate health burdens faced by certain
communities.
Later
in the month, Democratic leaders in Congress released a comprehensive report outlining how the
federal government could address the climate crisis. The report emphasized
racial justice.
Reports
highlighted that Australia's 2019 bushfires, a period also dubbed the
"Black Summer," had displaced or killed nearly three billion animals.
And on the other side of the world on the U.S. West Coast, massive wildfires
had turned the skies of California, Oregon, and Washington luminescent orange.
July
was deemed the hottest month on
record worldwide. And five of the six largest wildfires in California history
took place in August 2020. At the same time, and also as a result of changing
climatic and precipitation patterns, some of the largest locust swarms on
record hit parts of East Africa and decimated local plant life.
On
the lighter side, Trump signed into law the Great American Outdoors Act to
provide permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Act, which
commits funding to "safeguard our natural areas, water resources and
cultural heritage, and to provide recreation opportunities to all
Americans."
Fall 2020
In
September, 84 countries across the world as well as the European Union attended
the United Nations Summit Biodiversity where
they committed to reversing biodiversity loss by 2030. Around the same time, a
global partnership of governments and corporations committed to planting more
than 25 million trees as
a part of Australian bushfire recovery efforts.
In
October, China, one of the
world's largest emitters of greenhouse gases at approximately 28 percent of
global emissions, committed to net zero carbon emissions by 2060. Two days
later, Canada announced
plans to ban single-use plastics by the end of 2021 as a part of a larger goal
to cut the country's plastic waste completely by 2030.
And
by November, the African migratory red locust outbreak in East Africa had been
brought under control after a team of experts fought the plague for several
weeks, according to authorities.
The
International Energy Agency, which works with governments to create sustainable
energy policies, announced that solar energy had officially become cheaper than
coal, stating that "solar projects now offer some of the lowest-cost
electricity ever seen."
But
domestically, on November 4 after four years of waiting and one day after
Election Day, the U.S. officially exited the Paris Agreement. At
the time, this made the U.S. the only major polluter in the world to leave the
historic pact.
And
then the Saturday after Election Day, the results are called: Joe R. Biden has
become President Elect with plans to set forth a rigorous climate agenda, which
includes rejoining the Paris Agreement. Vox reported in
November that Biden's climate plan included a suite of decarbonization
standards that would cost upwards of $2 trillion to implement.
Winter 2020 into
2021
On the other side of the country, the largest coal-fired power plant in the western U.S., the Navajo Generating Station, or NGS, was officially demolished, marking the end of the coal industry dominance in the region. The transition was a part of a larger trend across the U.S. and worldwide to phase out coal as an energy source.
Internationally,
the European Union Council announced that EU leaders agreed to
cut their greenhouse emissions by 55 percent by 2030.
As
many looked to the new year as an opportunity to shuck off the hardship of
COVID, wildfires, and protests in 2020, January 6 brought an unprecedented riot
to the steps of the Capitol Building, signalling a continued ugly partisan
divide in the U.S.
But
in line with the shifting administration, a federal appeals court struck down President
Trump's industry-friendly Affordable Clean Energy, or ACE, rule, finding that
the rule did not provide sufficient environmental or health protections. This
was not the first judicial pushback on
Trump-era environmental rollbacks.
Newly
inaugurated President Joe Biden, using an executive order on his first day in
office, rescinded the
permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, cancelling the project for good.
Indigenous advocates and environmentalists had been battling the
pipeline for years, pointing to a concern over potential oil spills and treaty
right infringements.
February
and March brought a slew of Senate confirmations, including Pete Buttigieg for
Transportation Secretary, Michael Regan as administrator for the Environmental
Protection Agency, and Deb Haaland as the first Indigenous Secretary of the
Interior. These confirmations among others represented
a unique diversity in the new Cabinet as well as emphasis on environmental
justice.
February
brought devastating winter storms that
hit much of the South and spotlighted a need for energy and water
infrastructure reform amidst the threat of climate change.
Looking
forward
Numerous reports this
year have highlighted that many countries are not on track to meeting their
Paris goals. And even more recently, the Biden administration made a decision
that has disappointed many environmentalists in deciding not to cancel the
Dakota Access Pipeline project.
But last week, Biden announced a $2 trillion infrastructure plan that would repair more than 20,000 miles of road across the country and speed up the U.S. transition to cleaner sources of energy.
This "largest American jobs
investment since World War II," would draw funds from corporate taxes and
would address longstanding social and economic disparities through community
investment and job opportunities.
So
what's on tap today? NASA is hosting
a live virtual conversation with NASA scientists and astronauts currently in
space to discuss our connection to the Earth, and Biden will host a Leaders Summit on Climate in
an attempt to make up for time lost over the last four years. Other nonprofits and local groups will be
hosting events of their own.
If
nothing else, from Earth Day 2020 to Earth Day 2021, we've seen municipal and
state governments, in the absence of a national plan, rally around carbon
neutrality. We've seen the world begin to take the meaningful, incremental
steps necessary in addressing biodiversity loss, rising seas, and the
overarching threat of climate change. And more recently, we've witnessed a
shift in the U.S. at the federal level in acknowledging the embedment of
environmental injustice and racism within our political structures and
regulatory systems.
Let's use today, this 51st Earth Day, to look forward toward a better future for the planet.
