Lesson Fourty-One: 2020 In Review
2020 was… a year.
However it wasn’t just a weird year for humanity, but for the planet too. What started off as a promising respite for the planet quickly turned into a scenario where carbon was ramped up after a quick “coffee break” from carbon emitters.
That being said, there were some good and some bad things that came from 2020. This isn’t a comprehensive list by all means, so if you have something that you think should be included, feel free to comment and I’ll add it to the list.
Baby Elephants
Efforts to curb poaching have helped Kenya’s elephant population more than double over the past three decades. (16,000 in 1989 to over 34,000 now). (Bloomberg, 2020)
Windy Cities
Wind power supplier, NextEra, overtook oil giant ExxonMobil as the largest US energy company. (Forbes, 2020)
More Believers
Public recognition of climate change has been gradually increasing. In Canada 66% consider it a major threat and 25% consider it a minor threat. For the US it’s 66% & 23% respectively. (Pew Research, 2020)
A New Mr. President
This win has more to do with ending the climate-denial era of President Trump. The US will have a president who listens to scientific experts and who will (hopefully) steer the US into the green. (Washington Post, 2020)
Sunny Days
Due to ongoing technological advancements, the International Energy Agency published that solar is now the “cheapest electricity” in history. (IEA, 2020)
Close But Not Quite
COVID curbed carbon emissions in 2020 — but not by much. Despite sharp drops early in the pandemic, global emissions of carbon dioxide picked up in the second half of the year. (nature.com, 2021)
More Pipelines
Major court wins in the first six weeks of 2020 cleared the way for construction to begin on the Line 3 and Keystone XL pipelines AND to continue on Trans Mountain. (Financial Post, 2020)
The Arctic Is Burning
Wildfires blazed along the Arctic Circle, incinerating tundra, blanketing Siberian cities in smoke, and releasing record levels of carbon dioxide. (nature.com, 2020)
Waterless
Droughts have gotten very bad throughout the continent of Africa. The drought in South Africa was re-declared as a national emergency for the 3rd time in 6 years. (nature.com, 2020)
The World Is On Fire
2020 is the hottest year on record. FYI, It’s the hottest by an amount so slight (<0.01°C) that 2020 is basically tied with 2016 (2nd hottest year on record). (Goddard Institute for Space Studies, 2020)
Wet Ones
The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season broke the record for the highest number of storms in a singly year (29 tropical and subtropical storms). (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2020)
Gigafires
Wildfires have gotten so extreme in recent years, experts had to coin new terms to describe the increasingly massive scale. A “gigafire” burns at least a million acres of land - a level above “megafire” which burns 100,000+ acres. (CNN, 2020)
Hope you enjoyed the high-level recap of 2020! If there are any wins/losses that weren’t included, please share below!
