You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
In the next 5 years
According to a new analysis of corporate disclosures by the nonprofit CDP, many of the world’s largest companies are preparing for the “prospect that climate change could substantially affect their bottom lines within the next five years.” This impact could come through a large number of channels, including disrupted supply chains, droughts that make it harder for borrowers to repay loans and increasing costs of cooling data centers. Trillions of dollars hang in the balance, per early estimates. [The New York Times]
300 tons of lead
Children and pregnant women in Paris who live near the Notre-Dame cathedral are being told to take blood tests to check for lead poisoning. Some 300 tons of lead in the cathedral melted in the blaze that engulfed it in April, and tests on one child from the Île de la Cité area revealed lead levels above “regulatory limits.” [BBC]
$15 million increase
Chipotle says that President Trump’s proposed tariffs on Mexican imports would increase its 2019 costs by $15 million. The restaurant was already expecting food prices to increase by 1 percent in the second quarter thanks to increasing avocado prices, and the tariffs could push costs higher still. “We could also consider passing on these costs through a modest price increase, such as about a nickel on a burrito,” said Chipotle’s CFO. [CNBC]
739 square kilometers
The Brazilian Amazon rainforest lost 739 square kilometers to deforestation in May — or the equivalent of two soccer fields a minute. It’s the worst rate of deforestation since the current satellite monitoring methods began, and is “prompting concerns that president Jair Bolsonaro is giving a free pass to illegal logging, farming and mining.” [The Guardian]
$5 trillion climate plan
Joe Biden, Democratic candidate for president, has unveiled his own $5 trilli0n-plus climate plan. The plan calls for $1.7 trillion in federal spending over the next decade. The money would come from repealing President Trump’s corporate tax cuts, eliminating fossil fuel subsidies and private sector investment. The former vice president claims it would lead to net zero carbon pollution emission by 2050. [Associated Press]
21-point difference
My colleague Nathaniel Rakich examined which 2020 candidates are more or less popular than they “should” be, based on the relationship between the share of Democrats with an opinion about a candidate and that candidate’s net favorability rating. The correlation between these two variables is positive and strong. But falling well below that trend line is New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio: 46 percent of Democrats have an opinion of him, but his net favorability rating is -1 when it “should” be +20. In other words, plenty of people have heard enough about de Blasio to form an opinion of him, and yet more members of his own party dislike him than like him. [FiveThirtyEight]
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