ICYMI: Sinister Rainbows, Gloomy Octopus, Toad Lickers & Hero Lynx

A weekly roundup for busy people

By Paul Rauber

November 11, 2022

ICYMI

Illustration by Peter Arkle

Climate change is expected to increase the incidence of rainbows by 4 to 5 percent by the end of the century.

The promised “red wave” fails to materialize at the US midterm elections, creating surprising openings for climate action.

Four states win trifectas of Democratic control, making possible ambitious climate and clean energy legislation.

California’s Proposition 30, which would have subsidized EV purchases by taxing personal income over $2 million, fails largely because of the opposition of governor Gavin Newsom.

When irritated by a neighbor, the gloomy octopus (Octopus tetricus) will throw silt or shells at them.

The Biden administration wants to require all large federal contractors to publicly disclose their carbon emissions and to set goals for reducing them in line with the 2015 Paris Agreement.

COP27, the 27th UN climate change conference, opens in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, with a warning from UN Secretary General António Guterres: “We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator. Our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible.”

The day before the start of the COP27 climate conference in Egypt, hundreds of Dutch climate protesters blocked private planes from leaving Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky uses his address to COP27 to demand that Russia be made to pay for the carbon emissions and other environmental damage of its invasion of his country.

Late-season hurricane Nicole hits Florida, killing at least four and causing several houses in Daytona Beach Shores to collapse into the ocean.

France requires that all parking lots with room for 80 or more vehicles be covered by solar panels.

Switzerland is paying Ghana and other poorer nations to reduce their carbon emissions on its behalf.

The Czech Republic imposes a windfall profits tax on oil and energy companies that is expected to bring in $3.5 billion next year.

Thirty fossil fuel companies are responsible for nearly half of global methane emissions.

The Biden administration tightens rules on emissions of methane from oil and gas drilling operations.

The American Public Health Association declares that gas stoves are a public health concern.

The World Health Organization reports a 90 percent drop in global COVID deaths since February.

More than 100,000 people die every year in fishing-related accidents.

The National Park Service warns Southwest park visitors not to lick Sonoran desert toads (a.k.a. Colorado river toads).

A celebrity TikToker faces multiple charges after posting a video of herself hitting golf balls into the Grand Canyon.

A house in Northern California burns in a fire that appears to have been caused by a meteor.

Aura, the Iberian lynx whose remarkable fecundity rescued her species from extinction, dies in Spain at age 20.