Two Climate Change Stories to Read This Week
Greenwashing has gone on for far too long
Shell's 'green' ad campaign has been banned in the UK for being 'likely to mislead' consumers. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) found that the ads did not make it clear that most of Shell's business is based on environmentally damaging fossil fuels, such as petrol.
Greenwashing is a common practice among companies that want to appear environmentally friendly. But this landmark ad ban could set a precedent for all fossil fuel energy companies to be branded greenwashers when advertising 'green' energy, while also expanding their fossil fuel business.
The EU has also been taking steps to crack down on greenwashing by imposing reporting requirements on companies after a European Commission assessment of 150 claims about products' environmental characteristics in 2020 found that more than half - 53 per cent - provided "vague, misleading or unfounded information".
The fossil fuel sector has known for decades that it is directly driving climate change, but instead of raising the alarm, major oil and gas companies have worked to prevent the scientific evidence from affecting their business. They can no longer hide their activity - destroying the planet while making record profits and sanitising their image - but this greenwashing has gone on for far too long.
Climate Change is a Health Issue
Further evidence (as if any were needed) that we are just beginning to understand the risks of extreme heat.
Arsht-Rock (Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center ) published a peer-reviewed science article examining evidence on the associations between heat exposure and negative health outcomes during pregnancy and the neonatal period.
The findings are sobering - extreme heat is making pregnancy more dangerous.
The impact of high heat on population health is widely documented, high temperatures are associated with a number of adverse health outcomes, such as acute heat sickness, diabetes, acute renal failure, and cardiovascular disease. Pregnant women are more likely to suffer from heat exhaustion, heat stroke, or other heat-related illnesses because their bodies must work harder to cool down both the pregnant woman’s body and the developing baby.
Heat exposure may also increase the risk of preterm birth, which is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in neonates. Also, because of their special physiology and metabolism, newborns are particularly vulnerable to heat stress and dehydration.