Migrant Farmworkers Hit By Climate, Societal Inequities: Skilled, but systemically vulnerable contract workers are performing an increasing amount of farmwork across the U.S. and are especially exposed to workplace abuses exacerbated by the climate crisis, the AP reports. Migrant farmworkers are often scared to raise concerns about unsafe workplace conditions, such as being forced to work in extreme heat without water and shade breaks, due to their legal and logistical circumstances. Many either have H-2A visas, which are tied to one specific job, or lack legal documentation to work in the U.S. altogether — both leave workers exposed to threats of deportation. For many, “there’s no other option,” but to endure abuses like working unpaid overtime in extreme heat, a North Carolina worker told the AP in Spanish. “People with an H-2A visa have to come to work, they have to comply with their work and they have to do their work.” Migrant workers are also often isolated, living on the farms where they work, and thus prevented from accessing resources like healthcare and counseling. No federal standards exist protecting workers from extreme heat exposure. “I worry about some of our most vulnerable populations who have contract jobs that don’t have very good protections in place being more exposed to worse conditions,” Arizona State University professor Jennifer Vanos, who studies climate and health with a focus on extreme heat, told the AP. Adding, it’s “a scary situation because people die and that’s just not okay.” (AP)

UN Issues Dire 'Red Alert' Over Climate Inaction: The extraction and combustion of fossil fuels, boosted by a strong El Niño cycle in the Pacific Ocean, made 2023 an epic year of shattered climate records, the UN's World Meteorological Organization said Tuesday. The WMO State of the Global Climate report illustrates the increasing costs of inaction on the climate crisis, detailing broken records for everything from sea ice loss to land and water temperatures, to greenhouse gas pollution. The underlying heating, mainly caused by the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels, set the stage for the hottest year since the Industrial Revolution. "Never have we been so close – albeit on a temporary basis at the moment – to the 1.5° C" goal established in the Paris Agreement, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said. Adding, the WMO was "sounding the Red Alert to the world." Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London who was not involved in the report, echoed that sentiment. "If we do not stop burning fossil fuels," Otto told The Guardian, "the climate will continue to warm, making life more dangerous, more unpredictable, and more expensive for billions of people on earth." (The Guardian, Axios, The Hill, AP, Bloomberg $, Reuters, Al Jazeera, Deutsche Welle, The Independent)

Syrup Farmers Tap Other Options As Winters Warm: Warming winters are pushing maple syrup farmers to branch out and tap new trees for different syrups, the Boston Globe reports. As climate change, mainly caused by the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels, makes winters shorter and warmer, broad swaths of historic maple forests are no longer getting consistently cold enough for long enough to induce sap flow. While tapping diverse tree species could be a way to incentivize more diverse forests and make small syrup businesses more resilient to climate change, significant challenges remain. "Which trees can you tap? Which trees can you extract syrup from? How do you boil that syrup?” said Steven Roberge, a forest specialist with the University of New Hampshire and a maple expert. “Because that’s all really unknown.” (Boston Globe $) 

ENVIRONMENTAL (IN)JUSTICE: No reprieve for 'Cancer Alley': Louisiana pollution correlates with preterm births (NPR), As threats to air quality rise, communities deploy low-cost air monitoring networks (Yale Climate Connections), How Biden’s infrastructure plan created a ‘climate time bomb’ in Black neighborhoods (Capital B News)

OIL & GAS <3 AI: Gas execs sees tailwinds from AI power needs (Axios), Bitcoin, data centers fuel energy spike, risking climate goals (Floodlight via Energy News Network)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Methane to become key criteria for future EU energy imports, official says (Reuters), In Somalia, Green Climate Fund tests new approach for left-out communities (Climate Home)

DENIAL & DISINFO: Time Magazine front covers corrupted to push climate misinformation (Reuters, fact check), Election misinformation is a problem in any language. But some gets more attention than others (AP)

EPA: EPA weakens steel mill regs update (E&E $)

DOE: A win for automakers as US softens EV mileage rule (Reuters, Politico Pro $), Energy Department unveils roadmap for 90 gigawatts of geothermal energy by 2050 (Houston Chronicle, E&E $), DOE outlines path to 100% aviation biofuels (E&E $)

SEC: Change to SEC climate rule opens door to mischief, experts say (E&E $), Lottery will decide which court hears SEC climate slugfest (E&E $)

WHITE HOUSE: White House slams House GOP ‘energy week’ bills (E&E $)

THE HILL: Green groups plot counterattack for GOP ‘energy week’ (E&E $), Lawmakers, White House strike new deal on spending (E&E $), Proposed bill seeks to ban single-use plastic foam products in US (Environmental Health News)

HOUSE: House committee sets markup for 7 energy bills (E&E $), House Republican calls for national security tariffs on EVs (Politico Pro $, E&E $)

SENATE: Manchin praises Biden’s record on the one thing Democrats don’t want to talk about (Washington Examiner), Manchin, Sullivan criticize Biden administration LNG pause, expected auto rules at CERAWeek (Houston Chronicle), Manchin: lawmakers are ‘so close’ to a permitting reform deal (The Hill)

TRIBES: The massive copper mine that could test the limits of religious freedom (Grist)

CITIES AND STATES: Connecticut wants to penalize insurers for backing fossil-fuel projects (Grist), Florida legislators ban local heat protections for millions of outdoor workers (Inside Climate News), Lawmakers advance 100 percent clean energy bill in New Jersey Senate (Politico Pro $), New York moves to update its fracking ban to include liquid carbon-dioxide as well as water (AP), Texas laws targeting ESG have cost taxpayers $270 million, study says (Houston Chronicle), California lawmakers backpedal on income-based utility charges as IOUs, others propose alternatives (Utility Dive)

IMPACTS: 10 years after the deadliest US landslide, climate change is increasing the danger (AP)

CERAWEEK: Fossil fuel protesters rally outside Houston's CERAWeek energy conference (Houston Chronicle)

RENEWABLES: A Boston grocery store could become a proving ground for a new approach to equitable community solar (Energy News Network), Solar panel prices to remain low for up to two years, says industry exec (Reuters)

• NEGLIGIBLE: How much are wind turbines dragging down home values? A new study has surprising answers (CNN)
• GEOTHERMAL: Chevron CEO Mike Wirth outlines geothermal pilot (Houston Chronicle), Exxon CEO says company is 'keeping a very close eye' on geothermal (Axios), US geothermal production could grow 20 times current level by 2050, DOE says (Politico Pro $)

DAMS: Study: Lower Snake River dams match emissions of 1M tons of coal (E&E $)

OIL & GAS: Oil executives, meeting in Texas, cast doubts on ‘fantasy’ energy transition (New York Times $, Reuters), Oil executives cast doubt on future of hydrogen (Politico Pro $), Petrochemicals are killing us, a new report warns in the New England Journal Of Medicine (Inside Climate News), Specialist buyout firms cash in on shale consolidation (Wall Street Journal $), US should not 'flip-flop' on gas export policy- Hess CEO (Reuters)

GRID: New scorecard rates nation’s grid managers on connecting renewables (Minnesota Reformer), Why moving to 24/7 clean electricity is going to be really, really hard (Heatmap $)

YOU GOTTA FEEL YOUR FEELINGS: Can climate cafes help ease the anxiety of planetary crisis? (New York Times $)

BUSINESSES: Google pledges to buy $35M in carbon removal credits, matches DOE (Utility Dive)

GEOENGINEERING: Harvard shuts down geoengineering experiment (E&E $)

FINANCE: Accounting body says investors want climate data that US rules exclude (Reuters)

INTERNATIONAL: European coal-to-gas fuel switching set to continue this year (Reuters)

• Getting the right data is critical for reporting emissions. Here’s how we can fill in the gaps (Reuters, Angelica Afanador op-ed)
• Big Oil blames climate change on the public, demands a slower energy transition (Houston Chronicle, Chris Tomlinson column)
• A walk in the woods with my brain on fire:  the end of winter (Inside Climate News, David Sassoon essay)
• 46°C summer days and ‘supercell’ storms are Britain’s future – and now is our last chance to prepare (The Guardian, Bill McGuire op-ed)
• Companies are missing opportunities with the IRA’s clean energy tax credit incentives (Utility Dive, Akshat Kasliwal, Jesse Gilbert, and Vy Manthripragada op-ed)
• Biden, Congress must address China’s efforts to undermine the Inflation Reduction Act (The Hill, Peter DeFazio and Cory Gardner op-ed)
• Our future lies in America’s Arctic (The Hill, Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove op-ed)
• Court ruling erodes climate activists’ ability to defend themselves – as the planet heats up (The Guardian, Sandra Laville analysis)

Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up to receive Hot News every morning!

Send updates or feedback to nkauffman@climatenexus.org
Submit events and other items for consideration for a First Look using this form
Some articles require logins or subscriptions ($)