Mic
- AJ Dellinger
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For those of us who lived through it, 2020 will forever be remembered as the
year that just wouldn't end, the year where it felt like everything bad happened
all at once. But it will hopefully also be looked back on by future historians
as a turning point in our efforts to address climate change. During a year in
which the devastating effects of our changing atmosphere became impossible to
ignore, countries and corporations in 2020 seemed to recognize more than ever
before that urgent action is necessary.
It will be a few years, or
decades, before we know if things really did change for the better in 2020, but
regardless of what this year’s ultimate legacy may be, a lot has happened over
the last 12 months in the environmental and climate change arenas. This is Mic’s
guide to the most important of those happenings.
Wildfires run rampant in Australia and California
Though they started in 2019, Australia’s devastating bush fires raged well into
2020. When the flames
finally started to die down in March, the country had lost more than 46 million acres of land, about 6,000
buildings including nearly 3,000 homes, and the lives of 34 people. The fires
were particularly damaging to Australia's wildlife. Experts believe as many as
one billion animals died in the flames, and many others
lost access to the habitats
they call home. The fires, exacerbated by
record-setting heat plaguing the nation
and
science-denying politicians
who ignored the warning signs, amounted to the
worst year for Australia's environment
in more than a century.
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While it wasn't the literal embers from Australia's fires that carried over to
California, it sure felt like a continuation of those destructive flames when
the West Coast of the United States was
on fire through the summer of 2020. In August, California started experiencing one of its
worst wildfire seasons on record. Nearly 10,000 individual fires, including a massive one caused by the use of
a
pyrotechnic at a gender reveal party, ended up destroying more than
four million acres of land. The fires spread into neighboring states, expanding the destruction and
forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes. While pinning the
particularly
horrific wildfire season
on a single cause is difficult, there's little doubt that
climate change made matters much worse, and we should likely expect more calamitous events to come.
Joe Biden elected president on climate-forward agenda
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After four years of Donald Trump's seeming disdain for experts and destructive
tendencies that left the Environmental Protection Agency in shambles and infused
with anti-science impulses, a majority of Americans decided it was time to right
the ship. Joe Biden was elected president of the United States, and while he
won't take office until 2021, his victory in 2020 was enough to warrant a sigh
of relief for many. Biden ran with climate change as one of his top priorities,
including a
$2 trillion plan
to get the US to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and a
strong history on the issue. He'll have plenty of work ahead of him, as the previous administration
left a mess of environmental policy, but with promises to
create new positions to address climate change, a
climate-focused cabinet, and a
slew of executive tools at his disposal, the Biden administration could mark the moment that the US
finally gets serious about climate change.
Trump rushes to open up ANWR
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After losing the election, Trump has made a point to do as much damage as
possible before getting kicked to the curb. Earlier this year, his
administration finalized a rule that would allow the federal government to
lease land in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
(ANWR), the largest national wildlife refuge in the country, for oil drilling.
To make it happen, Trump is
rushing the auction process
to try to sell off the land as quickly as possible, just to get the deals on the
books before he leaves office. It's one of a number of
rush jobs that Trump is trying to push through, as if he's got to fit as many environmental disasters in as possible before
January 20, 2021.
Climate pledges get serious
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Climate change is real and caused by human activity. Thus far, too much of the
emphasis on addressing it has been placed on individuals when the biggest
polluters are just a
handful of corporations
and
industrious countries. 2020 is the year that those most responsible for the emissions that are
warming the planet finally promised to change their ways. China, the world's
leading emitter of greenhouse gases,
pledged that it would reach net-zero emissions by 2060. It was joined by gas and oil giants like BP, which claims it will
reach net-zero status by 2050. Other companies that present as more climate-conscious, like Microsoft, are
making plans to
remove their entire history of carbon emissions. Even the US appears to be back on board with addressing the issue, with the
incoming Biden administration promising to
re-join the Paris Climate Agreement. We just have to hope it isn't too little, too late.
US leaves Paris Agreement (but will be right back)
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2020 marked the five-year anniversary of the Paris Climate Agreement, but the US
did not attend the reunion. Under the Trump administration, the US left the
accord. It was a promise that Trump
made on the campaign trail,
set in motion as soon as he took office, and finally
made good on this year. Leaving the global agreement
didn't tank the effort entirely, though the Paris Climate Agreement has produced
considerably less ambitious efforts
than are needed. But President-elect Biden has promised to bring the US back
into the fold and
recommit to the accord, with the goal of leading a much more aggressive effort that other nations
will hopefully follow.
Coronavirus-related emissions reductions
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When the coronavirus pandemic sent much of the world into lockdowns,
emissions dropped dramatically. We started to see the
skies and water clear up
and it seemed as though we might actually put a big enough dent in our emissions
to make a difference. That dream was short-lived, as emissions started to
skyrocket
back to pre-pandemic levels
as soon as the world started turning again. The response to the pandemic is
not necessarily a blueprint for addressing climate change, but it does show how collective action can make a significant difference. Now
we've just got to figure out how to make that action stick.
Another hottest year on record
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If it seems like every year is the hottest year in history, that’s because it
is. The planet keeps getting warmer, and as a result, we keep setting new
records for heat. 2020 is unlikely to be an exception to the rule. Experts
indicate that the year is
nearly tied for the mark of hottest year
in the record books and is
likely to earn the title by year's end. This should come as little surprise following the
hottest decade in our recorded history
and expectations that
extreme heat will continue to get worse
throughout this century.
Clean energy gains momentum
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