Eco Report – December 20, 2024

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According to new data from Copernicus Climate Change Service, 2024 will be the planet’s warmest ever recorded, as well as the first above the 1.5 degrees Celsius temperature threshold set by the 2015 Paris Agreement. The European Union’s climate monitor found that the planet’s average surface temperature for November was 1.62 degrees Celsius higher than the pre-industrial average. With 11 months of data for 2024 now available, scientists have said that the global average temperature for the year is projected to be 1.60 degrees Celsius, which would break the record of 1.48 degrees Celsius set last year, reported The Guardian.

Nobel Laureates urge the Senate to turn down Kennedy’s nomination to head health, according to the New York Times. More than 75 Nobel Prize winners have signed a letter urging senators not to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald J. Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. The letter, obtained by The New York Times, marks the first time in recent memory that Nobel laureates have banded together against a Cabinet choice, according to Richard Roberts, winner of the 1993 Nobel in Physiology or Medicine, who helped draft the letter.

The group tries to stay out of politics whenever possible, he said. But the confirmation of Mr. Kennedy, a staunch critic of mainstream medicine who has been hostile to the scientists and agencies he would oversee, is a threat that the Nobel laureates could not ignore, Dr. Roberts said. “These political attacks on science are very damaging,” he said. “You have to stand up and protect it.”

Indiana Business News reports an Indianapolis-based developer has broken ground on a $110 million mixed-use project in Kokomo, Indiana, just a few blocks south of the $7.5 billion battery facilities under development by a joint venture between car maker Stellantis NV and Samsung SDI. The project, known as The Hub District, is expected to consist of town houses, retail space, a hotel and more than 500 apartments on a 26-acre site. The project, which has received extensive city support, is being led by Premier Hospitality, which has developed multiple hotel and residential properties across central Indiana.

The Hub will include 28 townhomes with up to five bedrooms and two-car garages, a 120-room Hyatt Studio Hotel, 66,000 square feet of retail and outdoor space, and a 504-unit apartment complex. It will also offer walking paths that connect directly to the battery facilities that are now under construction. The U.S. Department of Energy said it has committed up to $7.5 million in loans for the electric vehicle battery plants, which are expected to employ at least 2,800 people after they fully open in 2027. The plants are expected to produce enough batteries to supply about 670,000 vehicles per year.

Inside Climate News reports around the country, nonprofits and other community organizations were hoping their climate projects would receive funding from the Environmental Protection Agency, which has $3 billion to spend on environmental justice community grants through Sept. 30, 2026. But the Biden administration has only been able to award about half the money so far, and experts say the unspent 50 percent will most likely be clawed back by President-elect Donald Trump—a blow to communities of color and poor rural communities that had long waited for help like this.

Among the threatened initiatives is the EPA’s Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking Program, which dedicated $600 million in block grants for projects aimed at tackling climate and environmental justice issues in disadvantaged communities. The money has been hailed by advocates as one of the most important federal investments ever made in closing the nation’s long-standing socioeconomic and racial gaps.

The Associated Press reports the EPA hails ‘revitalized’ enforcement efforts as Biden administration heads into exit. The Environmental Protection Agency enhanced enforcement efforts this year, doubling financial penalties issued to polluters and issuing the first-ever arrest for a climate change-related crime, the agency said in a report Thursday. The EPA said it concluded more than 1,850 civil cases, a 3.4% increase over 2023, and charged 121 criminal defendants, a 17.6% increase over the previous year.

The “revitalized enforcement and compliance efforts” resulted in the reduction or elimination of more than 225 million pounds of pollution in overburdened communities, the agency said in its final report on Biden-era enforcement actions before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January. The agency said it issued $1.7 billion in fines and penalties, more than double the 2023 total and the highest level in seven years.

Bolstered by 300 new employees hired since last year, the enforcement program focused on “21st century environmental challenges,” including climate change, environmental justice and chemical waste, said David Uhlmann, EPA’s assistant administrator for enforcement and compliance assurance. More than half the agency’s inspections and settlements involved poor and disadvantaged communities long scarred by pollution, reflecting the Biden administration’s emphasis on environmental justice issues.

The New York Times reports that widespread adoption of heat pumps could prevent thousands of premature deaths and save billions on energy bills, according to a new analysis. Electric heat pumps, the most affordable and energy efficient way to heat and cool homes, continue to outsell gas furnaces nationwide. They can also reduce outdoor pollution and, as a result, save lives, according to a report issued on Tuesday.

The study, by Rewiring America, a nonprofit group that promotes electrification, calculated that if every American household got rid of furnaces, hot water heaters and clothes dryers powered by oil or gas and replaced them with heat pumps and electric appliances, annual greenhouse gas emissions could drop by about 400 million metric tons. Fine airborne particulate matter and other air pollutants could decrease by 300,000 tons, the equivalent of taking 40 million cars off the road.

Roughly two-thirds of the country’s households burn fossil fuels such as natural gas, propane and fuel oil for heat, hot water and drying clothes, releasing nitrogen oxides and other pollutants into the air. While a transition to electric appliances could shave $60 billion off people’s annual energy bills, it could also deliver important health rewards, researchers found. It could prevent 3,400 fewer premature deaths per year, 1,300 fewer hospital visits and 220,000 fewer asthma attacks, all of which amounted to about$40 billion in benefits, according to the study.

• There will be a Winter Solstice Hike at Spring Mill State Park on Saturday, December 21st, beginning at 1 pm. Meet at the Twin Caves parking lot for a long, rugged 2.5 mile hike on the shortest day of the year on Trail 3.
• Learn about otters on the Otter Spotter Hike at Spring Mill State Park on Sunday, December 22nd, beginning at 10 am. Hike around the lake to search for the ever-exciting otters at play.
• Whooper Wednesday’s will continue at Goose Pond Fish and Wildlife Area every Wednesday until February 26th. Meet at the Visitor’s Center at 8 am to walk around the property to see if you can spot the endangered Whooping Crane.
• There will be a Winter Animal Evidence presentation at McCormick’s Creek State Park on Friday, December 27th, from 2 to 3 pm. Learn how to identify animal remnants in the winter with the Naturalist in the Nature Center Auditorium.
• A Naturalist Booth about Mammals of Brown County State Park is scheduled for Saturday, December 28th, from 3 to 4 pm. Meet in the lobby of the Abe Martin Lodge to learn about the park’s furry residents.