[GWSG] CA at 100%; sea C; countering despair; Shell's $; what they buy; fossils care for fetuses?; corporate activism

[Tilley, Al]

1. Last weekend, for a few minutes, CA was running on 100% renewables. https://climatecrocks.com/2022/05/02/on-saturday-california-ran-on-100-percent-renewables-the-first-time-but-not-the-last/

2. The US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine have published A Research Strategy for Ocean-based Carbon Dioxide Removal and Sequestration. Of the six strategies considered in the report’s 300 pages, Seaweed Cultivation—that is, growing seaweed to be sunk in the deep ocean—seems to offer the most promise, at least in my reading. (Recovery of Marine Ecosystems proposes more of a goal than a competing course of action.) The paper discusses the history, difficulties, and feasibility of the projects, recommending courses of research to resolve crucial issues. https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/26278/chapter/1

3. People involved with countering the climate breakdown are generally susceptible to despair. Loss of hope can weaken our ability to act. EU officials dealing with climate policy are being trained in meditation. It is proving useful in working past despair. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/04/eu-bureaucrats-being-trained-meditate-help-fight-climate-crisis
I wonder if the criminal and the corrupt who are attempting to profit by sabotaging climate action are protected by their cynicism from despair. Perhaps if we could talk them into meditating it might open them to a little salutary grief.

4. Shell’s Q1 profits tripled over last year’s. As oil prices rise, so does the cost of living. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61330552

5. Some of the oil profits continue to fund propaganda efforts. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/may/04/climate-sceptic-thinktank-received-funding-from-fossil-fuel-interests?utm_campaign=Daily%20Briefing&utm_content=20220505&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20newsletter

6. In the US, some of the oil profits go to anti-abortion actions. I don’t suppose that oil companies care much about women or babies. I do suppose that the fossil fuel interests and their Republicans had rather run on such glittering social issues than on their actual agenda of installing a government sufficiently corrupt and unrepresentative to prevent climate action. https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2021/09/texas-largest-anti-abortion-group-spent-millions-on-public-campaign-lobbying-in-past-decade/

7. A study from the Brennan Center traces some of the corporate sources of anti-abortion funds. Fossil fuel corporations are apparently not the only ones which want to see us preoccupied with social issues. Corporations concerned to lessen suffering would support lobbyists for public health and representatives committed to voting for measures to make it available. The public health impact of fossil fuels has been devastating and will only become more so.   https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/follow-money-behind-anti-abortion-laws

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