[GWSG] New wind; broad play view; risks we run; businesses going blind; heat forecasts; Manchin wins cut

[Tilley, Al]

1. The Biden administration has moved to open large sections of the US coast for wind power development. The goal is 30,000 megawatts of wind power by 2030. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/13/climate/biden-offshore-wind-farms.html

2.  Bill McKibben takes a broad view to identify two opposing forces contending for dominance in the Glasgow conference which begins on Halloween: climate action and climate inaction. For action are two main forcings: the low and dropping price of renewables and energy storage, and the growing millions of people who understand the situation and demand action. Opposing action are the fossil fuel lobby and inertia. Finally, the good guys will win, because fossil fuels are more and more obviously disastrous as renewables grow ever more attractive financially, and because the spurs to action are so urgent. The greatest drama so far in human history lies in the speed of the change.  To do well too late will not serve us. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/15/climate-crisis-cop26-bill-mckibben

3. The Guardian provides an interactive, well documented illustration of the risks we are running in our continent’s northern hemisphere from climate disruption. The article amounts to a forceful overview of a vulnerability study for this century under three broad emissions scenarios.  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2021/oct/14/climate-change-happening-now-stats-graphs-maps-cop26

4. A UK survey found that while most businesses have suffered from climate disruption only about one in eight have studied their vulnerability, and one in six have any plans to deal with future disruptions. https://theconversation.com/most-businesses-have-already-been-hit-by-extreme-weather-but-still-arent-preparing-for-future-climate-disruption-169908?utm_campaign=Carbon%20Brief%20Daily%20Briefing&utm_content=20211015&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20Daily

5. People in cities are suffering three times as many “extreme heat” days as they did in the 1980s. Countermeasures include green spaces which cool through vegetation, and heat stress awareness programs. https://phys.org/news/2021-10-extreme-days-tripled-1980s.html

6. The clean energy program, a system of rewards for utilities which transition to renewable energy and penalties for those who don’t, is likely to be cut from administration plans after pressure from Sen. Manchin. He maintains that it would pay utilities for what they are doing anyway. They might still do it more quickly with incentives.  https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/clean-energy-program-will-likely-be-cut-from-budget-bill/ar-AAPzGTL?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531
The original Adam and Eve delivered us from Eden to this world. Their avatars, the condescending coal baron from West Virginia and Arizona’s strangely insubstantial and transparently venal senator, seem bent on delivering us from this world to something more challenging, perhaps the void. The role of the snake is being played by the fossil fuel industry and its creatures, including the entire legislative delegation of the Republican party. This fall is not inevitable. We are more aware of our weaknesses, of our greed and our folly, and could renounce and purify them.

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