I’m mining DK today, rather than the wider Internet, for good (mostly) Global Warming News. I thank everyone who posted on the subject for everything they found, and for their mostly positive attitudes to the problems and the solutions. That includes the Gloom and Doom movement, the Oil and Gaslighters, the Evangelical and other Wrong-Wing science deniers, and then all of the activists, engineers, scientists, entrepreneurs, and workers in the movement and the resulting industries.
There is Bad News, but we have reached a point where we can point and laugh at the hapless bad actors,, because we’re winning more and more every day.
👆👆😂😂👆👆👆👆😂😂👆👆👆👆😂😂👆👆👆👆😂😂👆👆
We are now doing so much, setting and breaking records, reaching Peak Oil and setting our sights on Peak Gas and Peak Carbon, while their propagandists rack their brains to think of excuses for carbon that they can still sell to—anybody?
Weekly spotlight on DK climate and eco-diaries (8/27/2023)
Earth Matters: Oil subsidies at $7 trillion; PragerU Texas claim busted; UAW meets electrification
Two new studies about the fossil fuel industry were published this past week. The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) found that the G20 nations pumped $1.4 trillion into explicit subsidies for the industry in 2022. In its study the International Monetary Fund (IMF) put the explicit subsidy level at $1.3 trillion. But the IMF also calculated implicit fossil fuel subsidies. Those include failing to account for environmental and other social costs of fossil fuel burning. Though they are not easy to measure, social costs of extracting, refining, transporting, and burning fossil fuels are real, and when they are added in, total subsidies last year soared to $7 trillion, up by $2 trillion over 2020. All this as the oil giants rake in gobsmacking profits.
Removing direct fuel subsidies and implementing “corrective” measures, such as a carbon tax, could reduce global carbon dioxide emissions 43 percent by 2030, the IMF paper finds. That’s in line with what’s needed to stay within the temperature rise limits of the Paris climate agreement.
It is important to remember the funny thing about tipping points. Nothing seems to happen until you reach one, and then everything seems to happen all at once. (It’s an illusion, of course.)
Historic victory for Indigenous communities against oil drilling in the Amazon • As Biden Revives Offshore Safety Rules, Advocates Say Drilling Must End to Prevent Disaster • Looking for a US ‘climate haven’ away from heat and disaster risks? Good luck finding one • Appalachia’s fracking counties are shedding jobs and residents: Study • Coastal areas will face record 'sunny day' flooding in 2024 — NOAA • Appalachian Economy Sees Few Gains From Natural Gas Development, Report Says • Wealthiest 10 Percent of Americans Responsible for 40 Percent of U.S. Emissions
If we all get together to topple the next tipping point in the 2024 elections, all up and down the ballots, we won’t have to take this any more.
The United Auto Workers Meet Electrification by Jared Facundo
There’s a way for the [EV transition] to work for everybody…but it can’t be a one-sided affair. Labor has to have a seat in this too. Worker conditions need to be taken into account.
Electric vehicles are simpler to build, without the fuel system, engine, transmission and drive train. And you don’t get any fumes from driving cars off the assembly line. Just big, pre-assembled battery packs and wheel-mounted motors. The real problem is bosses with no imagination who regard workers as expenses rather than assets. After they deal with hard questions about pay and working conditions, they should make sure that all of the workers can afford EVs.
Even Most Republicans Aren't Deniers Any More, Consider Climate A Problem, Want Gov't Action by ClimateDenierRoundup.
US can cut building emissions by 91% Paige Bennett, EcoWatch
Saves real money, too.
Anger A Catalyst for Climate Activism & The Global Fight to End Fossil Fuels by boatsie
The study involved 2000 adults from Norway and determined that “fear and guilt were the best predictors of policy support, while sadness, fear and hope were the best predictors of behavioural change.”
Climate Strike -- Carbon Added Fee (week 61) by birches.
Even economics denialist Milton Friedman favored taxing pollution—but not his acolytes. I will have a Diary on Friedman’s bogosity and his occasional good ideas next Saturday, in Readers and Book Lovers
Democratic Sen. Edward Markey and Reps. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan have recently reintroduced the Fossil Free Finance Act, which would require big banks to stop financing greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Now we need the rest of Congress to cosponsor and then pass this bill. Sign the petition: Demand banks stop funding the climate crisis!
Global banks are pouring billions into the climate crisis. It needs to end now by Erin Tulley.
Ecuadorians vote against oil drilling in the Amazon Rainforest by Pakalolo.
After Hottest Month In Human History, Deniers Resort To Endorsing Adaptation As Climate Solution by ClimateDenierRoundup.
Overnight News Digest: Urgency and agency—our winning combo to manage climate doomerism by Besame.
Kitchen Table Kibitzing: Climate News
Forests managed by Indigenous nations face a $100 million funding gap by Lyric Aquino at Grist.
Come on, people, we need a trillion trees, which also means we need funding and organization. We have a chance to reverse the destruction of the Amazon rain forest, Alaskan forests, and other old growth reserves. We can expand the Great Green Wall of Afirica, which will contribute billions of trees for shade, human food, fodder, and much more, and reverse the growth of the Sahel.
Extreme Texas Heat Linked to Giant Planet-Warming Methane Releases by Zachary Mider and Aaron Clark
A new telescope orbiting the Earth captured an unprecedented picture of the climate damage.
Renewables Are Both Necessary for Carbon Reduction and Cheap
Ramenda Cyrus, August 25, 2023 [The American Prospect]
New research shows that renewable power like solar and wind is now affordable enough to shut down the debate over cost.
Does The Ocean Floor Hold The Key To The Green Energy Transition?
[NOEMA, via The Big Picture 8-25-2023]
Abundant minerals at the bottom of the ocean could be vital for renewable energy infrastructure. But what harm will be caused by mining them?
Global renewables deployment hits record levels in 2023
The global renewable energy market is growing faster than most analysts had forecast — and it’s being led by solar power and a resurgent onshore wind market, much of it in China.
We are moving towards a green future faster than ever before. Lets keep it up.
"Flying Blind" as Climate Change Wreaks Havoc on our World
The Global Fight to End Fossil Fuels takes place in New York City on September 15 and 17 to coincide with Climate Week and the UN Climate Ambition Summit. Demonstrations are also planned across the country and internationally. Information on transportation is available on the site.
Global Climate Strike on Sept. 15-17 to End the Era of Fossil Fuels
Wherever you live, you can Join one of the numerous mobilizations, demonstrations, rallies, marches, and more happening across the planet. Find your local group. Or start one.
3 Must-Read Books for Your Climate-Heating Summer Reading List
Sea Change: An Atlas of Islands in a Rising Ocean by Christina Gerhardt
Blue Skies by T.C. Boyle
The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet by Jeff Goodell
Overnight News Digest: Thousands of emperor penguin chicks drown as ice vanishes from climate change by Magnifico.
TEXAS SCHOOL OFFICIALS shoot down PRAGERU’S CLAIM IT’S AN AUTHORIZED state VENDOR
PragerU, the propaganda operation fronting as an educational institution, announced that it had become an authorized state vendor in Texas.
PragerU has not submitted any instructional materials to the SBOE under the new instructional material review process that was adopted by the legislature this year.
Climate science denial is just one of the many areas where this not-a-university-anymore-than-TrumpU demolishes the truth in the guise of “education.” And that’s no surprise given that the start-up money for PragerU came from the Wilks brothers, a pair of oil billionaires. One PragerU video meant for kids goes so far as to compare pushing back against climate science to the Warsaw ghetto Jews rising up against the Nazis in 1943.
To which traditional Jews everywhere chorus
You should grow like an onion with your head in the dirt.
WFAE, David Boraks
Duke wants to build wind, solar, and a new generation of smaller nuclear reactors. Nuclear power is stupid. It always costs far more than promised, and takes far too long to build.
Duke Energy has big plans for small nukes
Here in the Carolinas, the race to go carbon-free has a big head start: About half the region's electricity comes from nuclear plants like the McGuire Nuclear Station on Lake Norman, north of Charlotte, and the Catawba Nuclear Station on Lake Wylie, just south of the city. And the region's big utility company, Duke Energy, has plans to build more.
Duke is studying the feasibility of building a new generation of small modular nuclear reactors, known as SMRs, that would provide "base load," or always-on electricity, alongside new gas plants, solar and wind farms and battery storage. These would have about one-quarter to one-third the generating capacity and take up far less space than a full-sized plant like McGuire or Catawba.
In January, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave final approval to the first design for a small modular reactor, by a company called NuScale Power.
The first module is expected to be operational by 2029 with full plant operation the following year.
That’s not the usual meaning of “expectation”, which here is marketing hype for “we hope so”. If it comes in on time and under budget, we can discuss it then, but the plan is to be at better than 50% renewables by then.