Celebrating One Year of One Earth Now!
A heartfelt thank you to all subscribers and supporters. Plus, some bits of a “bright spot amidst the chaos” on this Earth Day.
Happy Earth Day! One Earth Now first launched on Earth Day 2024, which means today marks our one-year anniversary! I want to express my deepest gratitude to all who read and subscribe. Your support is what keeps me going. And to all new subscribers, thank you for signing up, and welcome! One Earth Now publishes weekly, and covers important developments in the climate change space broadly. The theme or tag line is dispatches on climate action and accountability during this decisive decade. The 2020s has been described by some climate experts as the critical decade for taking decisive action on what has undoubtedly become a global climate emergency, before irreversible “tipping points” or thresholds in the climate system are breached. As one scientist said during a recent webinar: “Inaction is not an option. There will be a point of no return, and many scientists think that this point of no return will be in the early 2030s.” Accountability goes hand-in-hand with action, as there are powerful interests and actors that are actively fueling the worsening destruction while also obstructing or delaying the systemic shift away from a fossil fueled, extractive economy towards one that is renewably-powered and regenerative. Efforts are underway that aim to hold them accountable, and One Earth Now strives to help report on such initiatives.
Here is a sampling of some of the stories and topics One Earth Now has covered over its first year:
Novel legislative strategy by states to force Big Oil to help pay for climate damage and adaptation costs by enacting “climate superfund” laws (“This Strategy Could Be a Game-Changer…”; “New York Enacts Climate Superfund Law…”; “Following Devastating LA Wildfires, California Legislators…”)
Youth-led climate litigation in the US (“Pursuing Climate Justice Through the Courts…”); “ ‘Holding Our Government Accountable:’ Youth Speak Out…”)
And international developments in climate justice court cases (“ ‘A Matter of Survival:’ Pacific Islands Turn to World’s Highest Court…”); (“Court Hearings in the ‘Most Consequential Case in the History of Humanity’ Have Concluded…”); (“Landmark Climate Case Against Shell Goes to Dutch Supreme Court”)
Highlighting the voices and stories of those most impacted by the climate emergency, including extreme weather survivors and youth (“ ‘We’re Wide Awake:’ Young Climate Organizers Reflect…”); (“The Human Toll of the Climate Emergency: Survivors Speak Out”; (“Survivors of Climate Disasters and Extreme Weather Call for Accountability…”)
Important updates and assessments from climate scientists (“Global Society Faces Converging Crises…”; “Breaking the Planet: Scientists Issue Dire Warning of Triggering Irreversible Climate Tipping Points”; “Latest Dire Climate Assessment…”; “ ‘Fossil Fuels are Killing Us,’ Scientists Warn…”)
Expert warnings on how the climate crisis harms the economy (“The Climate Crisis Will Harm the Economy and Consumers…”; “A Looming Financial and Economic Storm”)
A high-stakes SLAPP case against Greenpeace that threatens First Amendment rights (“Protest and Free Speech Rights on the Line…”; “Greenpeace Trial in North Dakota Concludes…”)
Fossil fuel sponsorships in major league sports (“ ‘Major’ Conflict?...”)
Other developments in climate accountability, such as a congressional report revealing new evidence of Big Oil’s climate deception and calls from some advocates and lawyers to hold fossil fuel companies criminally responsible (“The Consequential Climate Cover-up…”; “Confronting the Climate Crisis’s Corporate Culprits”)
I look forward to continuing to do this reporting and bringing these types of stories to you, at a time when speaking truth to power is ever-so important.
Now, for today’s Earth Day “dispatch,” I thought I would hone in on a couple of “sparks of positivity” despite all of the terrible things that are happening in our society and to our Earth. There is always so much doom and gloom and bad news when it comes to climate and environment, and it can be really difficult not to give in to despair. Taking note of signs of progress and potential in advancing accountability or climate and environmental action, therefore, seems helpful. As the saying goes, action is the antidote to despair.
Here Comes the Sun – Study quantifies the potential for rooftop solar energy to shave off global temperature rise
A study published last month in the journal Nature Climate Change examines the climate change mitigation potential of rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) electricity, finding it could shave 0.05–0.13 °C off temperature rise by 2050 and reduce the risk of breaching climate tipping points. Solar energy, the researchers explain, “could provide the single largest contribution to [climate change] mitigation in 2050,” and rooftop solar PV in particular “may also offer a global-scale opportunity to reduce fossil fuel reliance.” The study is global in scope and assesses the potential of fully deploying this sustainable energy technology - in other words, what could be. While there is still a long way to go to realize that potential, it does seem clear that rooftop solar energy is already taking off. Just from my own observations in my community, for example, it is evident that rooftop solar systems are becoming a lot more common. They offer a solution, for energy affordability and for moving away from fossil fuels, that is deployable now.
Clean, renewable energy like solar is now cheaper than fossil fuel electricity, and improving access to clean energy, the International Energy Agency reports, “can relieve pressures on the cost of living more broadly.” In the United States, a record 49 gigawatts of clean energy was installed in 2024, according to the American Clean Power Association, demonstrating strong growth in this sector. The Trump administration may be trying to slow this growth, but the clean energy revolution really does appear to be unstoppable – and that is very good news for the fight against climate change. The question is, will this energy transition happen in time, since acting on climate is a matter of speed.
People are mobilizing in the streets against Trump, and a global majority wants stronger climate action
Millions of people took to the streets on April 5 in more than 1,300 “Hands Off!” demonstrations across the US and beyond in what was the largest single day of protests against the new Trump administration. And last weekend, on April 19, there was another massive wave of anti-Trump and anti-fascism protests, suggesting that the demonstrations have the potential to be sustained. People are mobilizing based on all kinds of concerns and issues, including the Trump administration’s hostility to the environment, but also its demonizing of immigrants, threats to civil liberties and democracy, cuts to the federal workforce and to education, and much more. Uniting across different issues is what is needed in this time of polycrisis to help usher in systemic change. “We should build a broad coalition based on the repression coming down on us all,” John Paul Mejia, national spokesperson for the youth climate organization Sunrise Movement, said during a press briefing Tuesday on climate activism, hosted by a climate journalism initiative called Covering Climate Now.
This week, Covering Climate Now launched what it calls the 89 Percent Project, highlighting that up to 89% of people globally are in favor of governments doing more to tackle climate change. “The overwhelming majority of the world’s people, between 80 and 89 percent of us according to studies, want our governments to take stronger climate action,” Covering Climate Now executive director Mark Hertsgaard said during Tuesday’s briefing. Media coverage that brings attention to this “climate majority” could help spur more action and, as the Guardian puts it, “unlock the change so urgently needed.”
Efforts are underway at state and local levels to hold fossil fuel polluters accountable and secure legal rights for ecosystems
There has been significant momentum in recent years on legal actions in the US – the world’s largest historical carbon polluter – aimed at holding major fossil fuel companies accountable for damaging climate impacts and for deceiving the public about climate change, including its reality and the solutions needed to address it. Dozens of lawsuits have been filed by states, municipalities, and Tribal governments against companies like ExxonMobil and Chevron, and several of the cases are starting to get closer to trial. A separate but complimentary strategy is also now underway to pass laws at the state level that directly impose liability on the largest generators of planet-warming emissions and require these companies to help pay for a share of the enormous climate-related costs that states are incurring. One Earth Now’s first article, published one year ago, examined this potentially “game-changing” legislative strategy. Since then, two states – Vermont and New York – have adopted so-called “climate superfund” laws. Similar bills are currently working through legislatures in a handful of other states, including in California. Just yesterday, California’s climate superfund bill advanced out of a committee in the state Assembly.
“California needs funds to prepare for and clean up after climate disasters. But the Musk-Trump administration’s looting and privatization of public resources and politicization of relief means we cannot rely on support from the federal government when disaster strikes. That’s why common-sense legislation like the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act is vital for ensuring our state has the necessary resources to protect Californians from the ravages of climate change,” Food & Water Watch California Director Nicole Ghio said in a statement. “We applaud the Assembly Natural Resource Committee for passing this important bill out of committee.”
In New York, legislation was introduced last month that would grant legal rights to the Great Lakes watershed and other water bodies throughout the state, recognizing their “unalienable and fundamental rights to exist, persist, flourish, naturally evolve, regenerate and be restored.” The legislation, if passed, would be the first state-level “rights of nature” law in the United States, according to the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, which supports paradigm-shifting rights of nature initiatives like this.
“The Great Lakes & State Waters Bill of Rights is about restoring balance between people and the ecosystems we depend on, making sure future generations inherit more than just our mistakes,” said New York Assemblyman Patrick Burke, who introduced the bill.
Rights of nature declarations have been passed by some municipalities in the US, and have been adopted at a national level in several countries such as Ecuador. Advancing these kinds of laws, which align with the eco-centric perspectives long embraced by Indigenous peoples, is especially important during a time when the US government is attacking environmental protections, says CELDF’s Ben Price.
“Given the current political atmosphere, people are looking for answers. Climate funding has been canceled. References to environmental harm removed from government websites. Under these circumstances, people rising up and passing laws like this at the local and state level is essential,” he said. “These efforts are a voice in the wilderness and a bright spot amidst the chaos.”