OHPA Weekly Newsletter #3
Week of April 26th 2024
Welcome to the OHPA weekly newsletter, curating the week’s most topical developments in Anthropocene politics for your reading convenience.
BOOK LAUNCH SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:
Chasing Greatness - On Russia’s Discursive Interaction with the West over the Past Millennium
By Anatoly Reshetnikov, recommended by OHPA director Dr. Alexander Etkind, available now.
UPCOMING OHPA SEMINAR: Thursday, May 2nd 5:30-7:30pm
Monetary Origins of the Great Acceleration: Tracing the Extractive, Racial, and Environmental Legacies of Bretton Woods by Dr. Jeremy Green, Professor of Political Economy and Fellow of Jesus College at the University of Cambridge. Register here and join us in Vienna and online.
Weekly article recommendations:
Climate Change is spreading Malaria to new regions
Our weekly newsletter begins with a story from Africa News, which reports that due to an increase in global annual temperature, Malaria is both spreading to new previously inaccessible regions as well as wreaking further havoc in areas which the disease is already prevalent. Mosquitos, which transmit and spread the disease, are increasingly finding regions further from the equator freshly inhabitable due to global temperature rise, adding to the poly-crisis threat climate change already poses. Malaria is already a colossal threat to African populations, and climate change is set to further exacerbate this crisis.
Source: African News
Study predicts 19% global income reduction over next three decades due to temperature rise
A study published this week in Nature predicts that climate change will likely decrease global macroeconomic efficiency within a range of 11-29%. The researchers purport this is independent of future emissions reduction choices, and such potential damages already total sixfold of mitigation costs which would keep global temperature below 2 degrees celsius. This study represents another development in the growing body of evidence that climate change will wreak unparalleled havoc on global economic development in the 21st century, particularly in developing nations.
Source: Nature
WMO Report declares Asia most affected region by extreme weather in 2023
The WMO (World Meteorological Organization) published a report this week detailing that the most extreme changes to the climate have occurred across Asia. The report highlighted temperature increase higher than the global average, a reduction in regional precipitation and the further reduction of glaciers and permafrost. This has resulted in increasingly violent and frequent typhoons, with 2023 encapsulating 79 water related disasters. The WMO reported this is a “warning sign” for the rest of the planet.
Source: The UN
EU votes to leave behind antiquated Energy Treaty
The EU voted this week to exit the Energy Charter Treaty, which has existed since 1994 to facilitate trade and investment in the energy sector. However as time passed, the charter came under scrutiny as it favored fossil fuel development and expansion, thus spurring the European parliament to abandon it in favor of contemporary measures which better anticipate climate change. Additionally the Parliament approved additional subsidies with laxer environmental standards for agriculture, walking the fine line between environmental protection efforts and appeasing an absolutely vital political demographic.
Source: Eco-business
Report finds Heat related mortality in Europe up 30% over past two decades
The latest European State of the Climate report, collected by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and the aforementioned WMO established a report this week decreeing heat mortality increased by a staggering amount, particularly in 2023. The report found that the number of “extreme heat days” increased by 30% over 20 years, and heat-related mortality across the continent is up by 94%. Additionally the Alps suffered a monumental loss in glacier ice, totaling 10% loss between 2022 and 2023.
Source: Earth
Another missed opportunity? Archives reveal Nixon’s cabinet developed carbon surveillance plan in 1970s
Our final recommendation represents a time capsule from a bygone era, with contemporary implications. In the 1970s, US President Nixon received a request from his scientific advisors to implement a network of satellite stations to monitor the climate and carbon in the atmosphere, which they quantified as “vital to ensuring man’s survival.” The plan detailed creation of six global stations and 10 regional facilities, which would have used carbon monitoring technology which has not been widely implemented until today. The reason for the plan’s rejection is lost to history, however it is yet another example of scientists unearthing climate change decades earlier than previously thought.
Source: Inside Climate News
Don't forget to subscribe to our channels on X, LinkedIn and YouTube!