January 2021 Environmental Policy News: Saving the Whales, Climate Migration, and More

Photo by Sébastien Goldberg

Here’s the best of what we’ve read over the last month.

“Climate change and its enormous human migrations will transform agriculture and remake the world order — and no country stands to gain more than Russia.”
— How Russia Wins the Climate Crisis (The New York Times)

“More significant is the level of interest in EVs—71 percent of U.S. drivers say they would consider buying one at some point in the future, with nearly a third indicating interest in an EV for their next vehicle purchase. More than 70 percent of those surveyed agree EVs would reduce air or climate pollution, and that automakers should offer other vehicle types, such as plug-in electric pickups and SUVs, alongside their car EV models.”
— Consumer Reports Survey Shows Strong Interest in Electric Cars (Consumer Reports)

“We don’t need to flatten emissions—we need to eliminate them as rapidly as possible. Even then, we’ll be left to deal with the effectively permanent damage we’ve caused. Some argue that the radical changes in behavior and practices that went into effect as the coronavirus spread around the planet are a promising sign for our collective ability to address climate change. This is, frankly, nonsense.”
— The pandemic taught us how not to deal with climate change (MIT Technology Review)

“Fifty years ago, a hit album proved whales “sing” – and led to one of the great environmental success stories. But soon it could all be for nothing.”
— Calls from the deep: do we need to Save the Whales all over again? (The Guardian)

“There’s a better explanation than free-riding to explain how countries negotiate, Aklin and Mildenberger say: domestic political factions and special interests. The core problem negotiators face isn’t fear that other nations will betray them, it’s getting domestic support for their positions.”
— All Politics Is Local, Including Climate Politics (Bloomberg Green)