[GWSG] UK >50% renewable; S AUS >66% renewable; banana leaf plates etc.; green trade pacts; becoming adults; fusion power?

[Tilley, Al]

1.  Last quarter the UK generated more power with renewables than with fossil fuels for the first time. https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-uk-renewables-generate-more-electricity-than-fossil-fuels-for-first-time?utm_campaign=Carbon%20Brief%20Daily%20Briefing&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20newsletter



2. Solar power met over 2/3 of the demand in South Australia last weekend, with excess power being exported to Victoria. https://reneweconomy.com.au/solar-reaches-80-per-cent-share-of-demand-in-south-australia-on-saturday-32409/



3. Until we develop alternatives to plastics the fossil fuel industry is not dead; so long as we are cutting down trees for pulp we will be hampered in rewilding. Banana leaves can be processed to replace many single-use plastic and paper products with biodegradable food containers which have a one year lifespan. We would not even need further banana plantations as the leaves are treated as waste now.  https://cleantechnica.com/2019/10/13/could-banana-leaf-technology-squelch-our-use-of-single-use-plastics/?utm_source=CleanTechnica+News&utm_campaign=0e3cf1fd40-Daily+Email+CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b9b83ee7eb-0e3cf1fd40-331994013



4. The Sierra Club’s trade program director Ben Beachy describes the need for environmental concerns to be represented in the negotiation of trade deals. As things stand, the only hope for forcing an environmentally responsible revision of NAFTA 2.0 lies in a refusal by the House to ratify the proposed agreement.  https://grist.org/article/elizabeth-warren-wants-green-trade-deals-what-does-that-mean/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=daily



5. Astrophysicist Adam Frank suggest we think of the climate crisis as a natural concomitant of the evolution of life on earth. As we were led to it in the course of our evolution, so we need to attend to the tools we have to cope with it. We are passing our adolescence and need to learn to act as adults.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/10/15/reframing-climate-change-story-human-evolutionary-success/

I make a similar argument at length in my 1995 book Plots of Time: An Inquiry into History, Myth, and Meaning. Forgive the boast; I must add that few read it, and Adam Frank does not appear to have been among them. https://smile.amazon.com/Plots-Time-Inquiry-History-Meaning/dp/0813013577/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=plot+of+tim+allen+tilley&qid=1571140705&s=books&sr=1-1



6. The US Navy has supported a patent application for a compact fusion reactor. If it is practical it would be a source of prodigious quantities of clean power. https://cleantechnica.com/2019/10/14/did-the-us-navy-solve-clean-energy-with-a-compact-fusion-reactor/?utm_source=CleanTechnica+News&utm_campaign=067dba629e-Daily+Email+CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b9b83ee7eb-067dba629e-331994013

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.unf.edu/pipermail/gwsg/attachments/20191015/9f7927f2/attachment.html>