| 1 big thing: Harsh climate reality
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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
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Climate change isn't an existential cliff that we'll
suddenly fall off of, with no turning back. It's more like a hill we're
sliding down at ever-increasing speed, Axios' Andrew Freedman reports. - During the past few months, we've seen an unprecedented chain of events, all with ties to climate change: a deadly heat wave in the Pacific Northwest that shocked veteran climate researchers ... wildfires raging across the West, well ahead of peak fire season ... and cities and towns flooded in Europe, China and elsewhere.
Optimism has its place in the climate debate: - Many of the technologies
needed to dramatically reduce emissions, such as renewable energy
resources like wind and solar power, are getting more widely adopted.
They often have a cost advantage over fossil fuels such as coal and
natural gas.
- Electric vehicles are gaining traction, and money is flowing into next-generation technologies like carbon removal mechanisms.
- A social movement
is pushing for climate action in the U.S. and abroad. And corporations
are seeking ways to reduce their emissions in response to pressure from
customers and regulators.
But the fact is that we're still on course for at least 3°C (5.4°F) of warming compared to the preindustrial era. - The planet has only warmed by about 1.2°C (2.16°F) so far, and we're already seeing the consequences.
Andrew's thought bubble: Being
a climate reporter is like being a chronicler of human-caused
disasters. My job is to inform, and that means being blunt that climate
change is ravaging the Earth. - But I also know that
too much doom risks leaving people with a sense of fatalism — obscuring
the fact that the damage doesn't have to keep getting worse at this
pace.
Share this story.
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2. Delta dilemma
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Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
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Here's the Delta dilemma for government and the media: - Reassuring most vaccinated Americans they d0n't need to freak out could backfire if it causes those who are at risk to let down their guard.
Public health experts spent
the weekend trying to reassure vaccinated Americans that they're not at
a high risk of coronavirus infection, and certainly not of
hospitalization or death, Axios' Caitlin Owens reports. - At the same time, researchers
around the world are trying to determine how much the vaccines'
effectiveness against severe disease wanes over time.
Some countries are going ahead with booster shots for immunocompromised and elderly people: - Israel has recommended that immunocompromised people and those 60 and older receive a third shot of the Pfizer vaccine.
- Germany plans to begin offering boosters to the elderly and at-risk beginning in September, AFP reports.
- U.S. officials increasingly think that at least some Americans will need booster shots in the coming months. Pfizer has also been publicly making the case for boosters.
The bottom line: The vaccines work extremely well, including against Delta. The vaccinated are at much lower risk than those who aren't.
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3. Boston's new history
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Clockwise from top left: Boston City Council president Andrea
Campbell, acting Mayor Kim Janey, at-large councilor Annissa Essaibi
George, former City Council president Michelle Wu. Photos: Getty Images
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For the first time in history, a white man isn't in
serious contention to be the next mayor of Boston, a city with a
checkered racial history, Axios' Alexi McCammond reports. - Why it matters: The face of Democratic Party politics has changed, with more women and people of color running and winning races.
Boston's seven-candidate field is historically diverse: All but three are women, and all but one are people of color. The primary is Sept. 14. - Acting Mayor Kim Janey, who is Black, and city councilor Michelle Wu, who is Asian American, led the field in a Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll in late June.
Wu told Axios: "It’s been a rapid, inspiring transformation in Boston politics over the eight years that I've been honored to serve."
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A message from AT&T
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AT&T is connecting communities to their American Dream
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AT&T is making a $2 billion, 3-year commitment
to help ensure broadband is more accessible and affordable for more
people in the U.S., so low-income families like Susana’s have the
opportunity to succeed and thrive. Find out how.
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4.  Breaking: Belarus sprinter seeks asylum
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Photo: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters Above: Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, 24, walks into the Polish embassy in Tokyo today to seek asylum, Reuters reports. - She refused to
board a flight home after she said Belarus officials took her to Haneda
Airport against her wishes. Police protected her at the airport. Poland
and the Czech Republic publicly offered assistance.
Tsimanouskaya told
a Reuters reporter via Telegram that the Belarusian head coach turned
up at her room at the athletes' village and told her she had to leave,
after she complained about her last-minute entry in a race. - The Belarusian Olympic Committee said coaches decided to withdraw her from the Games on doctors' advice about her "emotional, psychological state."
Context: Belarus, a former Soviet state, is run with a tight grip by President Alexander Lukashenko.
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5. Rising gas prices hurt climate action
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Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios
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Cutting oil production before we cut our demand for oil could undermine much of the progress that needs to be made on climate change, Amy Harder writes in her "Harder Line" column. - Why it matters:
If companies cut back on producing oil but consumers don’t cut back on
consuming it, demand will exceed supply. Prices will shoot up. That’s
bad for our pocketbooks — and the transition to cleaner energy.
This appears to be the track we're on: - Buoyed largely by politics and growing activism, Wall Street is demanding that oil companies invest less in new oil discoveries and more in cleaner energy.
- In response to
that pressure and the collapse in oil prices starting in 2014, overall
industry investments in new oil and gas resources have fallen, according
to Bob McNally, president of consulting firm Rapidan Energy Group.
Keep reading. - Amy Harder, an Axios alumnus, is vice president of publishing at Breakthrough Energy, where she's launching a new journalism initiative.
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6. Push for "PBS for the internet"
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Photo illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios. Photos: Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images
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The idea of a new media ecosystem that's nonprofit
and publicly funded is gaining traction as a way to shift the power
dynamics in today's information wars, Axios' Kim Hart writes in her "Tech Agenda" column. A new policy paper
from the German Marshall Fund proposes a revamp of the Corporation for
Public Broadcasting to fund not just broadcast stations, but a wide
range of digital platforms and potential content producers — including
independent journalists, local governments, nonprofits and educational
institutions. - The goal is to increase the
diversity of local civic information, leaning on institutions like
libraries and colleges that communities trust.
Keep reading.
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7.  Infrastructure fine print: 2,702 pages
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A bipartisan group of senators released the 2,702-page text for their $1 trillion "hard" infrastructure bill late last night, setting a floor debate this week, Axios' Alayna Treene reports. With the House out for the summer, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer kept senators in town for a rare legislative weekend. - The bill needs 60 votes to advance.
- A final vote could come as soon as this week.
Schumer then plans to move on Democrats' $3.5 trillion budget resolution.
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8.  Startup gusher
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Investment in U.S. startups for the first half of 2021 hit $150 billion, eclipsing full-year funding every year before 2020, The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription) from PitchBook data: - "From 2016 through 2019, there
were on average 35 deals a month with funding rounds that reached $100
million or more, according to data provider CB Insights. This year, it
is 126 deals a month."
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9. Ina's Tokyo diary: A momentous match
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While waiting for weightlifting, Ina watches U.S. women’s soccer semifinal vs. Canada. Photo: Ina Fried/Axios Axios' Ina Fried reports from Tokyo: I'm at Tokyo International Forum for the women's over 87-kilogram weightlifting competition (6:50 a.m. ET). - The match
has attracted attention the way no other story has at the Olympics,
with the possible exception of Simone Biles, because of one particular
athlete — Laurel Hubbard of New Zealand.
- There have been other
trans and nonbinary athletes at these Games, but Hubbard is set to be
the first openly transgender woman to compete when she makes her first
lift.
Ina's thought bubble: I've been covering this story for quite a while now, but the momentousness really started to set in on the bus ride over here. - I
feel tremendously privileged to be here for this moment, in part
because if I weren't here, I’m not sure that — despite the crush of
press — there would be another transgender reporter here.
Also from Ina this morning: Elite trans athletes decry youth sports bans.
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10.  What we're watching: Obama doc debuts tomorrow
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Photo: Pete Souza/The White House via HBO
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A message from AT&T
|
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AT&T is connecting communities to their American Dream
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
AT&T is making a $2 billion, 3-year commitment
to help ensure broadband is more accessible and affordable for more
people in the U.S., so low-income families like Susana’s have the
opportunity to succeed and thrive. Find out how. |
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