[GWSG] 0 emissions semi; Larsen C splitting; vets at Standing Rock; Google 100% renewable in 2017

[Tilley, Al]

1.  Nikola Motor Company has announced a zero emissions semi-truck which employs a hydrogen fuel cell to supply its electric engine.  They intend to begin production by 2020.  https://cleantechnica.com/2016/12/02/nikola-motor-company-unveiling-details-zero-emissions-semi-truck/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IM-cleantechnica+%28CleanTechnica%29  Nikola's headquarters are in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Its web site provides more detail.  They are developing solar farms to produce hydrogen by electrolysis.  The company will operate a chain of 364 hydrogen stations.  The fuel for the first million miles is included in the leasing price.  https://nikolamotor.com/



2.  The Larsen C ice shelf, largest of the West Antarctic Peninsula, has developed a 300 foot wide, 70 mile long crack which runs entirely through the sheet and is expected to run entirely across it soon, detaching an iceberg as large as Delaware.  Further dissolution of the ice shelf is expected to ensue.  https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/rift-in-antarcticas-larsen-c-ice-shelf   In 2014 Climate Central provided a general description of ice shelf collapse in the area.  Dissolution of Larsen C will lead to accelerated glacier disintegration, and thus to sea level rise.  http://www.climatecentral.org/news/global-warming-antarctic-ice-shelf-collapse-18014



3.    The thousands of veterans who showed up to act as human shields for the Indian tribes at Standing Rock were organized partly by an Iraq veteran, Mark Sanderson, who considers that an unjust war.  "In my prior deployment, I really feel like I was being utilized in the same way the troops are being utilized here," he said. "To protect American interests, whether fossil fuel, natural gas, pipeline. It's all the same, and it's the wrong way forward."  https://news.vice.com/story/us-veterans-become-human-shields-for-standing-rock-protesters  A statement from Energy Transfer Partners which I have read but cannot find on the internet called the vets radical environmentalists who wished to deny Americans fossil fuels, and said that they dishonored the troops who had died for US energy security.  That supports Sanderson's view of the Iraq war.  The protestors have won this battle to protect the Missouri River, anyway, and appear determined to persist until the war is won.  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/04/dakota-access-pipeline-permit-denied-standing-rock



4.  Google, which uses about as much power as San Francisco, will run entirely on renewable energy next year.  https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/dec/06/google-renewable-energy-target-solar-wind-power   Apple, Facebook, Amazon, the Department of Defense, and many others are moving in the same direction.   The Huffington Post supplies more detail on the economics of the decision (it saves money), on Google's commitment to climate action, and on the growth of renewable energy use among other US groups.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/google-100-percent-renewable-energy_us_5846db9be4b08487410ffa04  ?

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