This Week on Earth: May 15-21

A rabbit enjoys an afternoon snack on Northwestern’s campus. (Ruby Grisin/ION)

Florida

In a state enduring a spike in natural disasters and increased risk of flooding, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ decision to remove the term “climate change” from state laws on Wednesday reverses previous climate progress.

This move deletes over 50 lines of laws dealing with the climate crisis and fulfills the governor’s promise to replace the words “climate change” with “energy dominance.” In practice, this statute requires the state to ignore climate change when making legislation and ends various programs that encourage clean energy.

One of DeSantis’ predecessors, Charlie Crist, made substantial efforts to address  greenhouse gas emissions during his time in office between 2007 and 2011, but DeSantis’ policy will undo much of this.

With recovery efforts in the wake of Hurricane Michael keeping around 45,000 students from their classrooms and unbearable heat posing an environmental justice issue, Florida students in particular are pushing for more conversation about climate change, not less.

Hawaii

May marks nine months since the deadly wildfires in Maui, but the impacts of the disaster are far from gone, finds a recent report by the University of Hawaii. Researchers and grassroots organizers surveyed and tested nearly 700 people in the area and found that health and infrastructure issues stemming from the fires persist.

The fire, which occurred in Maui’s Lahaina and Upcountry regions, destroyed much of the area’s land and killed more than 100 people. 

While the Hawaii Department of Health put out a statement last week saying there was no evidence of large-scale toxic lead exposure as a result of the fires, the University of Hawaii researchers found that almost 75% of participants have respiratory issues and about half demonstrated signs of compromised lung function.

After learning about the study, Dr. Gopal Allada, an associate professor of medicine at the Oregon Science & Health University, told AP that he hopes researchers will receive funding to continue their progress. He noted that the study might have been more reliable if residents were tested prior to the fires too, but he acknowledged the limitations that stood in the way of this.

 “This is important work that hopefully influences policymakers and people who control budgets and where trainees train and that sort of thing,” he said.

Worldwide

A new article by The Nation highlights how news deserts, or areas lacking local news coverage, prevent people from hearing about natural disasters. Especially as resources for local outlets dwindle, the lack of climate reporting has become a rising concern.

News deserts prevent people from hearing about crucial news in their area. Inside Climate News reporter Keerti Gopal expressed concern about the disproportionate need for coverage in the climate realm met with shrinking numbers of climate reporters in a conversation with In Our Nature’s Ruby Grisin.

“I think as we’re in this era of scarcity of journalists and a scarcity of funding in newsrooms, for every one story I do, there’s like five stories that I wish I could have done that I didn’t do,” Gopal said.

Brazilian reporter and columnist Marisa Gibson spoke about her experiences with news deserts and said she relies mainly on national news, with local weekend news often airing on Mondays because of limited TV schedules.

Nigerian journalist Obas Esiedesa also highlighted the environmental injustices in the Niger Delta region, which he said are not sufficiently covered by local news. For example, the oil pollution in the area harms fishermen and farmers’ livelihoods. Local journalism is known to raise awareness and prompt change surrounding climate issues like this.