[GWSG] Children's risk; iron-air battery; Mulkey's campaign; no cheap meat and dairy; a hobbit's quest

[Tilley, Al]

1. The first comprehensive study of children’s risk from the climate crisis finds that half the world’s children—about a billion—live in countries considered at high risk for such events as cyclones and heatwaves. While those children (typically in areas least responsible for the crisis) will suffer most, almost every child will see their security compromised in some way. Thanks to Patrick Parenteau for the story. https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/one-billion-children-extremely-high-risk-impacts-climate-crisis-unicef

2. The iron-air battery is described in an 11-minute video. Most of the information was included in an item here a little while ago, but perhaps you too could use a refresher on this gas-killing technology: safe, reliable energy storage at the grid scale which can deliver stored power for six days at 1/10 the cost of current batteries. (Grid-scale lithium-ion batteries usually carry about four hours of storage.) The one megawatt pilot is due in 2023. With this technology on the way, it becomes even less defensible to develop any new fossil gas resources or operations.  https://climatecrocks.com/2021/09/04/the-weekend-wonk-has-long-term-storage-been-solved/

3. Stephen Mulkey is attempting to persuade the U of Florida administration to drop their plan to build a fossil gas fueled power plant on the campus. Along the way he disputes a suggestion that hydrogen would be a good alternative. https://environmentalcentury.net/2021/09/04/no-slack-for-uf-and-the-methane-power-plant/

4. There’s no way out of the climate mess which does not face our diet problem. 20 meat and dairy firms together release as much greenhouse gas as Germany, the UK, or France; meat and dairy are backed by billions from banks and pension funds and are heavily subsidized by governments. Perhaps we should pay what foods cost rather than what lobbyists wangle. Direct action through regulation could supplement a corrected market. “In England and Wales, the National Farmers’ Union has set a target of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture by 2040.” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/07/20-meat-and-dairy-firms-emit-more-greenhouse-gas-than-germany-britain-or-france

5. An Italian pastry chef, Nicolas Gentile, is living as a hobbit along with his family. He symbolized his will to confront the climate crisis by tossing a symbolic ring into the crater of Mt. Vesuvius after a trek in the company of an elf, a hobbit, a sorcerer, a dwarf, and some people. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/06/what-is-this-if-not-magic-italian-man-living-hobbit

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