[GWSG] Net zero moves; Arctic oil; 6th Extinction snail report; in the lead?; NYT on Willow; transition subtleties

[Tilley, Al]

1. Net zero programs offset emissions by carbon absorption elsewhere. That can lead to double-counting, as when carbon sinks which would have operated in any case are used as offsets, or to promises never meant to be kept, impossible, inappropriately short-term, or specious in whatever ways a clever fossil fuel industry can devise. We would have a more secure program of action if we simply measured emissions and tried for zero.  https://e360.yale.edu/features/net-zero-emissions-winning-strategy-or-destined-for-failure

2. The Biden administration is backing a large Trump-era oil project in the Arctic over the objections of environmental groups and Native Alaskans. ConocoPhillips plans to use chillers to firm up the melting permafrost so that it will support their equipment. It is hard to see the administration’s legal advocacy of the project as other than disclosure of an ominous hypocrisy. Does Joe Biden believe we are in an “existential crisis” as he often says? https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/27/biden-administration-alaska-oil-gas-drilling-project?utm_campaign=Carbon%20Brief%20Daily%20Briefing&utm_content=20210528&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20Daily

3. Biden should take his statements more seriously. 66 million years ago the Fifth Great Extinction began with a comet strike; it took 12 million years for evolution to regain something of the previous biodiversity. Now the Sixth Extinction is underway at a rate 1000 times faster than the Fifth. A study traces the growing effects on European freshwater snails. https://climatenewsnetwork.net/fossils-show-oblivions-malign-impact-on-nature/

4. Biden sees us in a race to lead the 21st Century. He apparently believes that short-term profits from Arctic oil will help put us ahead. We need some serious, and public, examination of our values. https://climatecrocks.com/2021/05/27/biden-the-race-to-lead-the-sustainable-century-has-begun/

5. The NY  Times recounts the political calculations behind the administration’s support of the Willow project in the Arctic and relates the support to the failure to block the Dakota Access pipeline and to support for oil and gas leases in Wyoming.  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/28/climate/biden-fossil-fules-climate-Willow.html

6. The energy transition to renewables will not draw from all areas and people equally, nor will its impact be uniform. To plan for both efficiency and justice requires a great deal of attention to the implications of alternative plans. https://news.mit.edu/2021/3-questions-caroline-white-nockleby-solving-socio-environmental-complexities-renewable-energy-0527

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