[GWSG] A necessary death; new green bank; Manchin's gift; encouraging news; pensions assessed; China's heat wave; 2012 IPCC forecast

[Tilley, Al]

1. The proper demise of the fossil fuel industry should probably not recall axe murders. The industry is too closely interwoven with our culture for that. Triage, euthanasia, and hospice care are more useful images. In any case, the industry has to expire for the general good, and the sooner the better. https://climatecrocks.com/2022/09/09/the-future-for-fossil-fuels-euthanasia-or-hospice/

2. The Inflation Reduction Act devotes $27 billion to establishing a Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a national green bank. This source of clean energy capital joins local and state programs already in force. One beneficiary will be community solar, which provides neighborhood-sized solar installations. Such projects, ordinarily hard to finance, reach many for whom home solar panels are not a good choice. The Coalition for Green Capital has identified $21 bn in backlogged green projects at state and local green banks. So far, green loans have close to a 100% repayment history. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/11/green-bank-clean-energy-climate-change

3. In All Biden Has to Do Now Is Change the Way We Live Ezra Klein profiles the challenges which lie ahead as we make the transition to renewable energy. He argues that acceding to Senator Manchin’s fossilized demands can be crucial; renewables will be the most significant beneficiaries. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/11/opinion/biden-climate-congress-infrastructure.html?campaign_id=258&emc=edit_ntez_20220911&instance_id=71659&nl=ezra-klein&regi_id=43628374&segment_id=106002&te=1&user_id=8c547d53af6ff6fc7d49cb8612c07102

4. Among the encouraging pieces of climate news, you may already know that China has recorded a drop in emissions and the US has finally passed an properly ambitious climate bill. Did you know that enough solar polysilicon is now under construction to replace fossil energy and bring emissions to a halt? Or that the G7 is committed to financing the energy transition in developing countries such as Indonesia, India, and Vietnam? https://www.theguardian.com/environment/commentisfree/2022/sep/12/reasons-for-cautious-optimism-the-good-news-on-the-climate-crisis

5. The manager of a large pension fund says that it is not possible to escape losses from the climate crisis by simply avoiding carbon-based investments. Projections indicate that even if we achieve zero emissions the funds’ portfolios will shrink by 14%, more if we do not succeed. He recommends investing in infrastructure to assist the energy transition. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/sep/13/you-cant-stock-pick-your-way-out-of-environmental-collapse-superannuation-boss-warns

6. China’s environmental condition has become dire, with groundwater declining and polluted, power resources not up to the demand, agriculture stunted, and cities heated to questionably livable levels. The heat wave is beginning to ease, but the country provides a picture of the conditions under which we must meet the climate crisis. https://climatecrocks.com/2022/09/12/chinas-water-crisis-has-global-implications/

7. An IPCC special report ten years ago accurately depicted today’s extreme weather events. "We are adapting fast enough to reduce the impacts. We are not reducing greenhouse gas emissions to actually go after the cause of the warming." https://phys.org/news/2022-09-clairvoyant-climate-extreme-weather.html

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.unf.edu/pipermail/gwsg/attachments/20220913/35b96a78/attachment.htm>