A new report from the climate risk analytics firm Climate X highlights the threats to UNESCO world heritage sites this century if climate change is not addressed, and the list includes some familiar sites in the U.S. The report found that Everglades National Park in Florida is the most threatened site in the U.S. due to sea level rise, storm surges and other impacts. Washington's Olympic National Park is also among the top 50 at-risk sites with threats including flooding and landslides triggered by heavy precipitation. Yellowstone, Yosemite and Redwood national parks are also on the list. "The potential impact of climate change on these sites is profound. But it's not just our past heritage that's at risk—it's our present, too," Lukky Ahmed, CEO and co-founder of Climate X, said.
Our oceans are also feeling the heat from climate change. NASA data in late August showed the surface of the water between Iran and the Arab Peninsula hit 97.7 Fahrenheit, one of the highest sea temperatures ever recorded, according to meteorologists. Last year was the hottest on record, and 2024 appears on track to match or exceed it. Global average temperatures between July 2023 and June 2024 set new record highs each month.
Berkeley Earth climate scientist Zeke Hausfather, a widely respected observer of global temperature data, posted Monday on X, formerly Twitter, that data from August showed temperatures roughly tied those from August 2023. Hausfather wrote that 2024 is “now virtually certain to be the warmest year on record.”
Whew. That’s a lot to take in. How about a little good news on the clean-energy front?
Reuters reported last week that jobs in the U.S. clean-energy industry grew last year more than twice as fast as other jobs around the country. Employment in clean-energy businesses such as wind, solar, nuclear and battery storage increased by 142,000 jobs, a growth rate of 4.2 percent in 2023, according to the latest U.S. Energy and Employment Report from the Department of Energy. Further, the report found, a greater proportion of those jobs are union jobs. Unionization in clean energy surpassed that for the wider energy sector last year for the first time, largely due to incentives in federal law that offer larger tax credits for clean-energy projects that follow prevailing wage standards and employ trained apprentices. Biden administration officials said the growth of union jobs meant better pay and benefits for clean-energy workers and a more highly trained and skilled workforce for clean-energy companies.
