November 19, 2024

Owl in America is a series of letters tracing the actions of the current U.S. administration from the perspective of an environmental lawyer. These notes follow how, in a time of rapid political and ecological change, governmental decisions are felt in the living world.

Hi all~

An atmospheric river is bearing down on the U.S. Pacific Northwest today, promising heavy rainfall and likely flooding over the next several days. Residents of the Philippines are reeling from the aftermath of the fourth typhoon to hit the islands in just 10 days. UN climate talks continue in “authoritarian petrostate” Azerbaijan, where almost 1,800 fossil-fuel lobbyists outnumber the delegations sent from every other country except Brazil, Turkey, and the host country itself. The ten nations judged to be the most vulnerable to climate change collectively have just 1,033 delegates at the conference. 

Climate scientists have “gloomily concluded” that 2024 is set to be the first calendar year that will exceed the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold goal for mitigating global climate change. This marks what will probably be the warmest year on record. According to climate scientist Zeke Hausfather of Berkeley Earth, the 1.5C climate goal is “deader than a doornail.”

On the heels of last month’s report showing that in 2023, land-based carbon sinks were unable to absorb as much atmospheric carbon as in previous years due in large part to drought and wildfires, a new paper published today in the scientific journal Nature admonishes nations to be honest in calculating Gaia’s contribution to net-zero plans. According to its lead author, nations must not “cheat” their way to net-zero emissions by assuming natural carbon sinks will absorb future greenhouse gas releases. “We are already counting on forests and oceans to mop up our past emissions . . . . We can’t expect them to compensate for future emissions as well.”

Amid the chaos, biologists continue to discover new life on Earth. A National Geographic team has documented the world’s largest coral just off the Solomon Islands. It’s visible from space at 183 meters in circumference and is estimated to be at least 300 years old.

Meanwhile, scientists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium have reported a new species of nudibranch living in the midnight zone off the Pacific Coast of North America. Brilliantly bioluminescent, this almost-transparent little being lives far below the reach of sunlight, living out its days in what one of the institute’s scientists calls “the largest habitat on Earth.”

More high-level government appointments have issued forth from Trump’s transition team. Of particular note, Doug Burgum, billionaire governor of North Dakota and funding “liaison between Trump and oil billionaires” during the campaign, has been tapped for Secretary of the Interior.

This cabinet position is in charge of the majority of America’s public lands and waters, and its new leader will be tasked with expediting both on- and offshore oil drilling in publicly owned places. Minimal leasing fees will assure “oil billionaires” won’t have to pay too much for the privilege. The Interior Department manages America’s national parks, the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. 

Also notable is Trump’s pick for Energy Secretary. Chris Wright, founder and CEO of Liberty Energy, has stated that “There is no climate crisis, and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition, either.” Demand for electricity is growing in the United States for the first time in 20 years, alongside demand for power for AI, cryptocurrency, and electric vehicles. The U.S. Department of Energy, created in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis, oversees national energy policy and production, nuclear power and nuclear weapons, and energy conservation. 

Billionaires whose wealth depends in large part on access to vast amounts of electricity seem to be overcoming traditional rivalries in a bid for control over a share of U.S. electricity generation. Cryptocurrency mining, in particular, demands a massive and growing portion of electrical power output. “Green transition” magnate Elon Musk courted coal billionaire Joe Craft, whose empire includes both coal mines and crypto mines, on behalf of the Trump campaign. Musk has made no secret of his intention to increase his stake in cryptocurrencies. 

In beleaguered agency staff news, career scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) fear Trump will follow through on a promise to target its research office that houses many of the nation’s top climate scientists. Beyond climate research, NOAA performs weather forecasting, monitors ocean and atmospheric conditions, charts the seas, conducts deep-sea exploration, and protects marine fisheries and endangered species. These functions will potentially be among those cut by the new administration’s belt-tightening regime.

Over at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), staff members, many scarred by the memory of Trump I’s gutting of over 100 environmental rules and retaliation against individual employees for refusing to falsify chemical data, are preparing for more of the same. The employees’ union has moved out of EPA’s headquarters and removed its payroll and records from EPA computer servers in an attempt to shield workers’ data. 

Trump ally Russell Vought, who served as his first-term director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), recently had this to say about the Americans who serve us at the EPA:

“When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains.”

“We want their funding to be shut down so that the EPA can’t do all of the rules against our energy industry because they have no bandwidth financially to do so. We want to put them in trauma.” (The Guardian)

Vought is one of Project 2025’s authors, a chief planner of its “180-Day Playbook” for the first six months of the new term, and appears to be under consideration for his former position at OMB or a top White House economic policy role. The madness rolls on.

And yet, the good work rolls on, too. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced a periodic review of the conservation status of 38 southwestern species, including several fish and salamanders as well as the ocelot, jaguar, yellow-billed cuckoo, and the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse. Those with information on the status of any of these animals are asked to submit it to the agency before December 13.

The world’s fifth largest economy (if it were a separate country), California has announced it’s aiming to revolutionize food packaging in a step toward making the state’s economy a “circular” one. One among the program’s many goals is to ensure that all single-use packaging used in the state will be either compostable or fully recyclable by 2032. 

In the U.K., the Wildlife Trust for Beds, Cambs and Northants has announced it successfully crowdfunded the purchase of Strawberry Hill farm. £1.5 million raised from donors went toward a 377-acre rewilded farm that now serves as a rare slice of habitat for threatened species including nightingales, turtle doves, warblers, 11 bat species, orchids, and butterflies. In protest against 1980s government agricultural policies, the farm’s owner left it fallow for decades. Now, Mother Nature having reclaimed it, individuals (including two young brothers who contributed their lemonade-stand earnings) raised over half a million pounds toward its purchase and permanent protection. 

In Italy, environmental activists are protesting the Vatican’s plan to chop down a 200-year-old fir from a forest in the Ledro Valley to be displayed for a Christmas tree in St. Peter’s Square. Over 40,000 Italians have signed a petition to Pope Francis asking him to leave the tree, and the residents of Ledro village are planning a roadblock to prevent officials from moving it to Rome if it’s cut.

Finally, I’ve got a wonderful book to give away. I have an extra copy of Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures. I ordered it after its U.S. publication, only to realize I already owned the UK-published edition called The Golden Mole: and Other Living Treasure. Its author Katherine Rundell announced, as a response to the U.S. election of a climate-denier, that she’ll be donating all royalties from this book to climate charities. If you’re interested in the book giveaway, let me know in a comment below. It’s fine if you’re not in the United States. If there are many people interested, I’ll choose one person randomly and reach out to them directly for their shipping address. 

Be well, and talk to you soon,
Owl

Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/15/coal-oil-and-gas-lobbyists-granted-access-to-cop29-says-report

https://climateactiontracker.org/publications/the-climate-crisis-worsens-the-warming-outlook-stagnates/

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/18/climate-crisis-world-temperature-target

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08326-8

Down to Earth, The Guardian. November 18, 2024.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/14/worlds-largest-known-coral-discovered-in-solomon-islands

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/13/sea-slug-monterey-bay-pacific

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4992955-burgum-interior-department-nomination-trump/

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/16/trump-administration-chris-wright-energy-secretary

www.planetcritical.com/p/wtf-emily-atkin

https://www.eenews.net/articles/noaa-staff-stress-over-return-of-trump-climate-hostility/

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/11/environmental-protection-agency-staff-react-trump-second-term

https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-vetting-project-2025-architect-top-administration-post/story?id=115993180

https://www.endangeredspecieslawandpolicy.com/assets/htmldocuments/NewBlogs/EndangeredSpecies/2024-26525.pdf

https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/california-aims-to-revolutionize-5667843

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/14/a-special-place-guardian-readers-generosity-helps-to-save-rewilded-farm

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/12/campaigners-in-italy-urge-pope-to-stop-sacrifice-of-200-year-old-tree-for-xmas

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/articles/katherine-rundell-donates-all-royalties-on-book/

*Inspired by historian Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American.

Owl in America will remain free to all readers. You can subscribe directly below, choosing a free or paid subscription. Tips of any size can be left in the tip jar, and will be received with great thanks. 🦉