We're also covering Black farmers in America, what it means to be displaced by climate change, and a big idea to protect biodiversity. |
 | | New cars on a dock at the Port of Los Angeles in April.Lucy Nicholson/Reuters |
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The shift toward clean cars |
The decision by the companies had been widely expected, but was still significant: The shift may help the Biden administration move quickly to reinstate national fuel-efficiency standards that would control planet-warming auto pollution, this time with support from industry giants that fought such regulations for years. |
The move also amounted to a U-turn for California's influence on Washington policymaking. Former President Donald J. Trump had reversed Obama-era auto pollution rules that had been modeled after California's state-level rules. He also withdrew the state's authority to set its own rules. Now, Mr. Biden is expected to use California as a model for swiftly reinstating national rules. |
Why it matters: Auto tailpipe emissions are the United States' single largest source of greenhouse gas pollution. |
What's next: Mr. Biden wants to move fast. Gina McCarthy, the top White House climate adviser, has already held meetings with top executives from auto companies as she begins writing the new regulations. It's expected that the Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department will jointly publish a notice of proposed rule-making — the first legal step in reinstating the Obama-era rules — by March or April. |
The big picture: The president isn't just planning to restore the environmental protections rolled back by his predecessor, he's aiming to go much further. So far, he's signed several executive orders. But, as I told Michael Barbaro on The Daily podcast this week, the real work is just beginning. |
 | | Sedrick Rowe is one of Georgia's few organic peanut farmers and one of a shrinking number of African-American farmers in the United States.Matthew Odom for The New York Times |
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Where two Biden priorities, climate and race, converge |
Who do you think of when you think of a typical American farmer? You might think of a white man, or perhaps a white woman. And you wouldn't be wrong: Few farm owners today are minorities, and very few are Black. |
The numbers: Farms run by African-Americans make up less than 2 percent of all of the farms in the United States today, down from 14 percent in 1920, because of decades of racial violence and unfair lending and land ownership policies. |
Why it matters: Change could be coming to rural America, as the Biden administration's biggest priorities — addressing racial inequality and fighting climate change — are converging on Black farmer's lives. |
 | | "If they want to take us somewhere that's far from the ocean, they're not going to go," said Jomary Budier, a lifelong resident of Haulover, Nicaragua.Cesar Nunez for The New York Times |
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Video: How a climate disaster affected one village |
For millions of people displaced each year by extreme weather, leaving home and relocating to safer ground can be a tough decision. Even in the face of climate disasters, hope persists that the drought, forest fire or hurricane that destroyed homes or crops was a fluke and that things will go back to normal next year. |
That's exactly the case for hundreds of Indigenous Miskito residents of Haulover, Nicaragua. |
Hurricane Iota, the most powerful storm of the record-breaking Atlantic 2020 season, pummeled the village in November. A channel the width of a football field now cuts through the middle of town, connecting the ocean to a lagoon. "It was like a bomb went off that practically disappeared the community," said Marcos Williamson, an ecologist who is leading an environmental assessment to help determine viable resettlement sites. |
In December, a New York Times camera crew visited Haulover with Mr. Williamson and his team. Despite the devastation, they found many residents reluctant to move. You can watch the video here. — Brent McDonald and Alfonso Flores Bermúdez |
Also important this week: |
Bundle up: The polar vortex is experiencing an unusually long disturbance this year because of a "sudden stratospheric warming." That very likely means wild weather down south. |
A bruising year for Big Oil: Companies lost billions in 2020 because of the pandemic. They also face broad questions about how they'll adapt to climate change and regulations. |
Puerto Rico storm aid: The Biden administration plans to release $1.3 billion that was meant to help Puerto Rico rebuild after Hurricane Maria in 2017. |
Amazon deforestation: Former environmental officials from both parties are pressing President Biden to confront the problem, especially in Brazil. |
A first in France: A Paris court said the French state had failed to meet its climate commitments. The court awarded a symbolic 4 euros in damages and said it would consider additional orders. |
Sharks in decline: Oceanic sharks and rays have declined more than 70 percent since 1970, mainly because of overfishing, according to a new study |
And finally, we recommend: |
 | | Trans-Amazonian Highway near Rurópolis in northern Brazil.Johannes Myburgh/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
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Paying Mother Nature for all her hard work |
How can you put a dollar value on nature? |
Nature is the basis of life itself, vast and immeasurable. But a new study on the economics of biodiversity, commissioned last year by the British government and led by the Cambridge economist Partha Dasgupta, finds that in order to save nature as we know it, our global system must find a way to account for its value. |
Many chafe at the idea of turning nature into numbers, but several environmentalists I checked in with celebrated the report as a huge step in the right direction. Dr. Dasgupta said it doesn't have to be an either/or equation. We can assign value to things that we've been taking freely, and we can also understand that humans are just one small part of nature. Read more here. — Catrin Einhorn |
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