Could This Group of Voters Decide the Election?

The annual Emission Gap Report analyzes what nations must promise to do by the COP30 talks in Brazil next year to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Drastic reductions in warming gases of 42 percent are needed by 2030 and then 57 percent by 2035. The consequences of not closing the gap will lead to debilitating effects to people, the planet, and economies, according to the report, including increased severity and frequency of heat waves, droughts, and flooding.  

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a video statement that humanity is “teetering on a planetary tightrope” if we don’t bridge the gap between what is needed and what is being done. He continued that we will plunge into a climate disaster with the poorest and most vulnerable suffering the most. The chief editor of the report, Anne Olhoff, told Reuters the G20 governments have not made a lot of progress toward their climate targets for 2030.

The more optimistic view in the report says that, if every country were to implement their existing pledges, then the temperature rise could be limited to 1.9 C, but that would still lead to rising sea levels and extreme weather events.

Renewable energy from wind and solar is growing rapidly, but the International Energy Agency says that demand for electricity has been rising faster, leading to the burning of more fossil fuels. Last year, global greenhouse gas emissions grew to a new record.

A new report by international experts at the Global Commission on the Economics of Water says that the water cycle is out of balance for the first time in human history, and that worldwide demand could be 40 percent greater than supply by 2030. The water cycle has been disrupted by mismanagement, destructive land use practices, and human-caused global warming. Currently, half of humanity faces water scarcity, and it’s likely that more will, as the crisis worsens.

The authors explain that there are two types of water. One that is found in plants, soils, and aquifers called green, and the other found in rivers and lakes referred to as blue. Current management practices tend to focus on blue water, that which we can see.

Green water in plants and soils has been overlooked, they say, even though it generates about half the rain that falls. Green water is critical because plants store carbon and keep it from heating the atmosphere. However, the destruction of forests and wetlands is accelerating global warming, which then dries landscapes and can lead to wildfires.

The commission also reports that water has been underpriced in many regions, which allows it to be diverted to intense uses like data centers and to crops that are water-thirsty, like alfalfa.

Another startling conclusion of the study is that the amount of water needed for people to have a dignified life has been vastly underestimated. They say each person requires about 4,000 liters of water per day for nutrition and hygiene, compared to earlier estimates of a mere 100 liters.

The commission warns that more than half of the world’s food production could collapse in the next 25 years because of the growing crisis.

Writing in The Conversation, the authors say it’s a troubling discovery because human studies have shown that inhaling microplastic can lead to lung inflammation, which can possibly cause tissue damage, excess mucus, pneumonia, bronchitis, scarring, and cancer.

Dolphins have large lung capacities and take really deep breaths, so they may be inhaling much higher doses than humans and be more vulnerable to the health impacts. Worse, the animals are likely already ingesting plastics in the water, adding to their exposure. Research in humans has shown that consuming plastics can affect reproduction, cardiovascular health, and neurological function. Since dolphins are mammals too, they might have similar risks.

To conduct their study, the team collected samples of exhaled air just above the blowhole of five bottlenose dolphins in Sarasota Bay, Florida, and six bottlenose dolphins in Barataria Bay, Louisiana. They found that all 11 dolphins had at least one suspected microplastic particle in their breath. Further analysis of the exhaled microplastic particles showed that they included both fibers and fragments and included several types of plastic polymers, including polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyester, polyamide, polybutylene terephthalate, and poly(methyl methacrylate), also known as PMMA.

The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE.

The organization, a nonpartisan nonprofit, has been analyzing data on so-called “non-voting climate voters”—voters under age 35 who are mostly people of color and who’ve sat out elections. The project told CBS News, there's nearly five million of them in 19 states including crucial battlegrounds, where their ballots could be consequential.

For example, the organization has identified nearly 250,000 climate voters in Pennsylvania and almost half a million in Georgia. Nathaniel Stinnett, the founder of the Environmental Voter Project, told CBS that in 2020, Arizona was decided by fewer than 11,000 votes, yet his group has identified 230,000 potential first-time climate voters in the state.

Research by the University of Colorado Boulder earlier this year supports the Environmental Voter Project’s outlook. They found that views on climate change likely gave Democrats the White House in 2020.

Additionally, according to a new study from Florida Atlantic University, nearly 52 percent of Floridians surveyed said that a candidate with a record of reducing climate impacts was more likely to get their vote. The team’s Florida Climate Survey also revealed strong support for increasing renewable energy and teaching climate science in K-12 classrooms.

However, Jeff Chanton, a climate scientist at Florida State University, is skeptical. He told USA TODAY that despite the study, Republicans are leading in Florida polls. Still, the Environmental Voter Project says many climate voters they’ve been tracking have already cast ballots—and in larger numbers than the general electorate.