California’s New Era of Heat Destroys All Previous Records
Tom Randall, Bloomberg
Sadly, this is only the beginning…
Scrap fossil fuel subsidies now and bring in carbon tax, says World Bank chief
Larry Elliott, The Guardian
Poor countries are feeling “the boot of climate change on their neck”, the president of the World Bank has said, as he called for a carbon tax and the immediate scrapping of subsidies for fossil fuels to hold back global warming.
Jim Yong Kim said awareness of the impact of extreme weather events that have been linked to rising temperatures was more marked in developing nations than in rich western countries, and backed for the adoption of a five-point plan to deliver low-carbon growth…
American Companies Are Shipping Millions Of Trees To Europe, And It’s A Renewable Energy Nightmare
Ari Phillips, Think Progress
In late March, a loosely affiliated coalition of southerners gathered outside of the British Consulate in Atlanta, Georgia with an unusual concern: wood pellets. The group, primarily made up of outdoors enthusiasts and conservationists, had traveled from multiple states to British Consul General Jeremy Pilmore-Bedford’s doorstep. Chief on their minds was the rapidly increasing use of the pellets, a form of woody biomass harvested from forests throughout the southeastern U.S. and burned for renewable electricity in Europe. According to the group, what started as a minor section of Europe’s renewable energy law has now burgeoned into a major climate and environmental headache.
“We were trying to elevate the profile of what exactly is going on on the ground here in the U.S.,” Shelby White, who helped organize the event, told ThinkProgress. “And also how it conflicts with the intentions of the policies that are driving the massive explosion of the industry.”…
Permafrost ‘carbon bomb’ unlikely but melt danger rising
Tim Radford, RTCC
Three sets of scientists in the same week have helped narrow the uncertainties about how the natural world will respond to extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere caused by the burning of fossil fuels.
Carbon locked in the frozen earth will escape gradually as the Arctic permafrost melts – but the scientists say the process could accelerate.
As greenhouse gas levels soar, and soils warm, and plant roots tap down into the carbon stored there by centuries of ancient growth, they will release potent chemicals that will accelerate microbial attack – and speed up the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
The soil carbon cycle is one of the great headaches of climate science. And the Arctic is the first place to look for answers about it, and about how the Earth and oceans that store atmospheric carbon will respond to global warming…
Why utilities could soon face massive load defection, and how they can prevent it
Herman K. Trabish, Utility Dive
Two roads are diverging for utilities. One leads to huge opportunities if they take the initiative to transform the grid and their business models. The other road leads to upward spiraling prices, massive load defection, and customers learning to live mostly without utilities.
At least, that’s the message from a new study from the Rocky Mountain Institute, Cohn Reznick, and Homer Energy….
Oil supply buffer could halve as OPEC output rises
Christopher Johnson, Reuters
An oil supply shortage may be the last thing on investors’ minds right now, but the ability of OPEC producers to cope with an unexpected surge in demand is diminishing fast, analysts and forecasters say.
For years, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has pumped much less than it can – as much as 4 million barrels per day (bpd) less than capacity – leaving lots of room for a response if there’s a sudden jump in consumption.
The cartel can now pump around 33.5 million bpd, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday, well above demand for its oil this year at around 29.5 million bpd.
But that spare capacity could halve this year, if trends persist, perhaps to as low as 1.7 million bpd, analysts say…
Shale Output Is Falling Faster Than Expected
Joe Carroll, Bloomberg
Shale drillers will see production drop sooner than expected under a U.S. government forecast, a momentum change that hints at an eventual price rally.
Just five months after Saudi Arabia put the market into a tailspin by refusing to cut supply despite a global glut, the shale oil industry will record its first monthly dip since U.S. officials began weighing output in 2013…
Fracking: what is the British government trying to hide?
John Ashton, RTCC
We shouldn’t need a report by Medact to tell us what fracking means for our health. We have a Government led by politicians we elect to represent us in the public interest.
We have Government Departments and regulatory agencies we pay for with our taxes to act in the public interest.
Fracking for shale gas on the scale proposed by the Government would transform our nation. The direct physical impacts alone would be experienced by millions.
We should not embark on this without a strong national consensus based on full, rigorous, and transparent consideration of all the implications, particularly the implications for health.
John Ashton fracking speech by www.rtcc.org
5/04/17/fracking-what-is-the-uk-government-trying-to-hide/#sthash.wy8S7qTK.dpuf
The writer was UK’s Special Representative for Climate Change between 2006-2012.
Did The Senate Just Say Yes To Action On Climate Change?
Emily Atkin, Thin Progress
It’s not a bill, it’s non-binding, and there’s no guarantee anything will actually come of it. But either way, the Republican-led Senate apparently thinks climate change should be tackled in the final federal budget for fiscal year 2016.
On Thursday evening, the Senate approved a motion to instruct budget negotiators to “insist” that the final spending bill include measures to address human-caused climate change. Specifically, it calls for funding that “respond[s] to the causes and impacts of climate change, including the economic and national security threats posed by human-induced climate change.” Via the motion, budget negotiators were also instructed to provide funds for the Department of Defense to bolster resilience of critical military infrastructure to the impacts of climate change…
Coal Is Dying and It’s Never Coming Back
Tim McDonnell, Mother Jones
Coal, the No. 1 cause of climate change, is dying. Last year saw a record number of coal plant retirements in the United States, and a study last week from Duke University found that since 2008, the coal industry shed nearly 50,000 jobs, while natural gas and renewable energy added four times that number. Even China, which produces and consumes more coal than the rest of the world put together, is expected to hit peak coal use within a decade, in order to meet its promise to President Barack Obama to reduce its carbon emissions starting in 2030…
That’s the conclusion of a sweeping new account of the coal industry, Coal Wars, authored by leading energy analyst Richard Martin. The book dives deep into a simple truth: As long as we’re still burning coal for the majority of our energy, all the solar panels, electric cars, and vegetarian diets in the world won’t do a thing to stop global warming. Saving the planet starts with getting off coal…
China farm pollution worsens, despite moves to curb excessive fertilisers, pesticides
Dominique Patton, Reuters
Farm pollution in China is worsening, despite moves to reduce excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides, said the agricultural ministry, urging farmers to switch to organic alternatives to tackle severe soil and water pollution.
But experts say achieving the ministry’s goal will be difficult without sacrificing food output, a top priority in the world’s most populous country…
Agriculture poses immense threat to environment, German study says
Nicole Sagenertranslated from German by Erika Körner, Euractiv
Conventional agriculture is causing enormous environmental damage in Germany, warns a study by the country’s Federal Environment Agency, saying a transition to organic farming and stricter regulation is urgently needed. EurActiv Germany reports. Spanning over 50% of the country, agriculture takes up by far the biggest amount of land in the country, and is one of its most important economic sectors…
Virtual speech trumps Spain’s gag law
Editorial Board, Boston Globe
THE FACE of dissent just took on another dimension, quite literally. To protest a new “gag” law aimed at cracking down on demonstrations outside government buildings, Spanish activists last weekend assembled the world’s first-ever virtual march, made up of 2,000 rallying holograms in front of the national parliament in Madrid. The event had the energy, images, and sound of a protest but without actual bodies. It was a technological lesson for Spanish politicians. But beyond being a clever stunt to raise awareness of a possibly unconstitutional anti-activism law, the spectacle reinforced the realization that technology will always find ways to outwit government forces trying to silence citizens’ voices.
The new Spanish law, which is scheduled to take effect July 1, essentially criminalizes freedom of expression under the guise of “public security.” The legislation penalizes and establishes hefty fines for unauthorized protests that turn violent inside or outside parliament buildings or key locations, and for taking or distributing photos of police officers if it endangers their safety or the success of an operation. “From now on, the only way to demonstrate in Spain will be through holograms,” said one of the organizers of last week’s virtual protest…
Why Stephen Hawking and Bill Gates Are Terrified of Artificial Intelligence
James Barrat, Huffington Post
Stephen Hawking. Bill Gates. Elon Musk. When the world’s biggest brains are lining up to warn us about something that will soon end life as we know it — but it all sounds like a tired sci-fi trope — what are we supposed to think?
In the last year, artificial intelligence has come under unprecedented attack. Two Nobel prize-winning scientists, a space-age entrepreneur, two founders of the personal computer industry — one of them the richest man in the world — have, with eerie regularity, stepped forward to warn about a time when humans will lose control of intelligent machines and be enslaved or exterminated by them. It’s hard to think of a historical parallel to this outpouring of scientific angst. Big technological change has always caused unease. But when have such prominent, technologically savvy people raised such an alarm?…
