The Energy 202: These are the top climate stories of 2020 Alexandra Ellerbeck
with Dino Grandoni A presidential election. A national reckoning over race and justice in America. A worldwide pandemic that ground economies to a halt. 2020 was a momentous year. Yet looming over each of those events is climate change, which has pushed global temperatures to about 1 degree Celsius above preindustrial levels, a threshold that has already led to rising seas, a thawing Arctic and devastating droughts. Here are some of the top stories on climate change in 2020: 1. With Joe Biden’s victory, the United States is set for an about-face on climate change policy.
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It’s been nearly five years since the chilly February morning when I shuffled into the back of a conference room at Salt Lake City’s convention center to watch the federal government auction off oil and gas drilling rights for up to 45,000 acres of public lands. There were nearly 100 protesters in the room too, part of a growing campaign urging the Obama administration to stop allowing new fossil fuel extraction on lands and waters owned by the American people.
The Energy 202: Biden s choice of ex-Michigan governor as energy secretary points to focus on electric cars Dino Grandoni
with Alexandra Ellerbeck President-elect Joe Biden’s choice of Jennifer Granholm to be his energy secretary is a sign the president-elect’s team will try to spur automakers to sell cars that need little to no gasoline. The relationship that Granholm, the former two-term governor of Michigan, has with Detroit automakers may prove crucial to the incoming administration’s effort to cut climate-warming emissions spewing from the millions of cars and trucks on American roads. Biden intends to nominate Granholm to run the sprawling department also responsible for overseeing the nuclear weapons arsenal and managing radioactive waste, Will Englund, Juliet Eilperin and I report.
The Finance 202: Momentum builds for economic relief package as leaders report progress washingtonpost.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from washingtonpost.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Kerry recently commented on Covid-19: âIt’s a tragically teachable moment. I don’t say this in a partisan way. But the parallels between COVID-19 and climate change are screaming at us, both positive and negative. You could just as easily replace the words climate change with COVID-19; it is truly the tale of two pandemics deferred, denied, and distorted, one with catastrophic consequences, the other with even greater risk if we don’t reverse course. The long-term parallels between this pandemic and tomorrow’s gathering storm of climate crisis are more clear. If the economic devastation of the coronavirus pandemic is costly today, the cost of climate inaction will matchâif not exceed our current expenditures, which is why the next administration must act with urgency on day one.â