Major UN report calls for urgent climate action, Amazon to lay off more workers: 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: 'Humanity is on thin ice:' Major UN report calls for urgent action

The latest UN climate report paints a dire picture. Brendan Guy, the Director of International Climate at the Natural Resources Defense Council, explains. Plus, Amazon will lay off more workers, President Joe Biden has issued his first veto, USA TODAY Education Editor Nirvi Shah explains why Los Angeles teachers are striking, and Team USA tries to win it all in the World Baseball Classic.

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Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Tuesday, the 21st of March 2023. Today, how concerned should we be about the latest UN climate report? Plus, Amazon announces more layoffs, and thousands of teachers and staffers strike in California.

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Urgent action is needed to fight climate change. That's what the latest UN report on climate says. UN Secretary-General António Guterres put it bluntly.

António Guterres:

Humanity is on thin ice and that ice is melting fast.

Taylor Wilson:

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, painted a dire picture this week. But what's different about this report from other calls to action we've heard in recent years? I spoke with Brendan Guy, the Director of International Climate at the Natural Resources Defense Council to find out. Brendan, thanks for hopping on the podcast.

Brendan Guy:

My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

So can you just start by explaining what the IPCC is and why their findings carry so much weight?

Brendan Guy:

The IPCC is a representative set of the world's foremost experts on climate science from every single region in the world. So they take a look at all the science that has been published over the last couple of years and basically do a comprehensive assessment. They put together these reports every five to seven years to say what are the big picture implications that policy makers, that individuals, that business leaders need to know to incorporate climate action into their lives and into their day-to-day.

Taylor Wilson:

Yeah, I'm happy you use those words "big picture." What is different about this final report?

Brendan Guy:

So there's two areas I think that are somewhat new in putting all these different puzzle pieces together. The first one is on urgency. So this report really is showing now that because we have basically seen emissions going up for those past five years, our pathway to hold emissions to that level of 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit is really now that much steeper. And so it finds we really do need to step up our game in the next couple of years if we want to avoid that type of really, really negative outcome.

A second insight that's somewhat new is on the equity side, that climate change is already causing impacts and harms that are beyond our ability to adapt even in rich countries like the US, and that if we're going to really address these losses and damages that the world is experiencing and will continue to experience, we need to really hit accelerate in terms of what we're doing, not only to reduce emissions, but what we're doing to build resilience to the people on the ecosystems that are being hardest hit by this crisis.

Taylor Wilson:

So most of our listeners won't have the power required maybe to put these big government bureaucracies to work changing things. What can some of our listeners do about these issues?

Brendan Guy:

That's the good news is the IPCC tells us we still have a narrow window to act and we need everyone on board and all hands on deck. So everyone has a role to play in figuring out how to combat this crisis. Whether it's having a conversation with a loved one, a parent or a friend. You can go to local meetings, engage with your local elected officials, ask them what they're doing to take into account these latest scientific findings and craft policy that is actually going to make people's lives richer, healthier, more equitable, more vibrant, and act on that. You can write to your members of Congress. So whatever you do, no matter how small, I think the most important thing is do something and it's going to take all of us to really make the changes necessary to confront this crisis.

Taylor Wilson:

What's next for the IPCC?

Brendan Guy:

This was a little bit of a last call for them. So their next report is not going to come until the end of the decade, and so they basically are saying, this is your last call to the world of you have this window to act. And we will know by the next time we issue a report later this decade, whether or not we have been able to avert the worst impacts of climate change. So it's a pretty significant task they have left us with. World leaders are gathering at the end of this year to actually look at that progress that the world has made trying to implement the Paris Agreement. And they have an opportunity, a really generational opportunity to set more ambitious targets on how much renewables are we going to invest in? How are we going to accelerate the transition from dirty fossil fuels, all these important targets, timelines, and investments that the world needs to make to accelerate this transition.

Taylor Wilson:

All right. The NRDC's Brendan Guy with some great perspective and insight for us. Thanks so much, Brendan. Appreciate it.

Brendan Guy:

Thank you.

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Taylor Wilson:

Amazon announced plans yesterday to cut another 9,000 jobs. It's the second round of mass layoffs in recent months after the company previously cut some 18,000 positions. Amazon will be targeting roles in its cloud computing unit, human resources division, and in advertising and Twitch according to CEO Andy Jassy. After a wave of hiring sprees in the early days of the pandemic, rising interest rates have pushed a number of tech giants to trim staff. Facebook parent company Meta announced plans earlier this month to lay off another 10,000 workers after cutting 11,000 last year, and Google said in January it was eliminating around 12,000 jobs.

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President Joe Biden issued his first veto yesterday. The move came after Congress voted to block a labor department rule allowing retirement plans to weigh the long-term impacts of social factors and climate change on investments. Republicans had called that a woke policy that hurts retirees' pockets. Biden said he signed the veto because the block passed by Congress would put retirement savings at risk around the country. A two-thirds majority of Congress would now be needed to override Biden's veto. President Donald Trump vetoed 10 bills in office while President Barack Obama vetoed 12 bills.

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The massive Los Angeles Unified School District will be closed today because of a planned strike by tens of thousands of teachers and other school employees. What are they demanding? USA TODAY Education Editor Nirvi Shah explains.

Taylor Wilson:

Hi, Nirvi. Thanks for coming on the podcast.

Nirvi Shah:

Thank you for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

So Los Angeles teachers and staff say they'll strike this week. What are they planning specifically and what are they demanding?

Nirvi Shah:

So the strike is actually initiated by support staff who really make schools run. They are not the classroom teachers, but you have people who work in libraries, custodians, school bus drivers, people who specifically work with kids with disabilities, and they are being joined by teachers in solidarity. They are looking for an increase in their hourly wages. They're looking for better benefits, and they say that for some of their members, it's just not a living wage what they earn to work in these schools, they have additional jobs to make ends meet.

Taylor Wilson:

So what are the potential consequences for students here, Nirvi?

Nirvi Shah:

It's the second-largest school district in the country, so that's pretty big and there's a lot of repercussions for parents who don't have childcare that's readily available. Some schools will be opened for supervision. The city has said that they'll be helping however they can with parks and other things to try to keep students engaged even when their classes are out. This is a tough year though. A lot of people consider this a big year for recovering from what students may have lost in terms of time during remote schooling because of COVID. And so any kind of loss is a tough one for kids, any kind of disruption. Potentially this strike could go beyond three days. I don't know what the limits are in terms of the union's ability to strike and their appetite for keeping this thing going, to try to get what they want from the school system.

Taylor Wilson:

And, Nirvi, do you think this could have an impact on other teacher labor movements around the country outside of Los Angeles?

Nirvi Shah:

It's possible. I think about 2018 and 2019 when there was that so-called red wave of teachers protesting in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona. I'm not sure that this is quite the same. Teachers are certainly beleaguered right now. They are frustrated by the political winds that they're facing. They're frustrated by the demands of some groups of parents about what they can and cannot teach or the types of books that they can have or have not in their classroom. But I haven't seen so much momentum. I think LAUSD is a bit of its own thing or its own beast, so to speak, and we'll have to see if this is going to trigger things in other places.

Taylor Wilson:

All right. USA TODAY Education Editor Nirvi Shah with some great insight for us. Thanks, Nirvi.

Nirvi Shah:

Thank you.

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Taylor Wilson:

The World Baseball Classic final will be played tonight in Miami with Team USA taking on Japan. The US made the final after some offensive explosions in the knockout rounds, beating Venezuela 9-7 in the quarters and Cuba 14-2 in the semis. As for Japan, they rolled through Italy 9-3 in the quarters before coming from behind to beat Mexico 6-5 on a walk off last night. This was the call on Japanese television.

[Call of walk off on Japanese television.]

Once every three years, World Baseball Classic has been a massive success after there was no tournament in 2020 due to the pandemic. According to Japanese sports newspaper Sponichi, 48% of Japanese households watched their quarter-final game, a higher percentage than US households during this year's Super Bowl. You can watch tonight's action at 7:00 PM Eastern Time on Fox Sports 1.

Thanks for listening to 5 Things. We're here every morning wherever you get your audio. I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Urgent' climate action call, World Baseball Classic final: 5 things podcast