[GWSG] Flash droughts; new batteries; G7 moves both ways; Biden approves LNG; some of both; no, just one, please; the curator's dilemma

[Tilley, Al]

1. Flash droughts have become widespread and are “projected to expand to all land areas in the future.” https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abn6301?utm_source=cbnewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2023-04-14&utm_campaign=Daily+Briefing+14+04+2023#abstract

2. The first story discusses three new batteries in or close to production, familiar from previous stories in this list. The text story is on a nickel-hydrogen battery from EnerVenue for home power storage. Its efficiency is 85-90%, it has little fire hazard, will last as long as a solar cell or longer, and will cost little more (while performing a lot better and longer) than currently available Li-ion batteries. They will begin production later this year at a new plant in Kentucky. https://climatecrocks.com/2023/04/17/battery-breakthroughs-coming-quickly/

3. The G7 nations have pledged to phase out fossil fuels faster so as to achieve net zero carbon in energy systems by 2050. The agreement left room for the development of new gas. https://phys.org/news/2023-04-g7-pledges-fossil-fuels-faster.html

4. The Biden administration has approved the export of liquid natural gas from Alaska. Expanded terminal facilities in the Gulf will “double or even triple current capacity to deliver natural gas, which a report by Climate Action Tracker researchers said would keep carbon emissions above the levels needed for net zero.” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/14/biden-alaska-lng-liquefied-natural-gas-exports

5. Americans support various ways of developing renewable energy by large majorities. Still: “A majority of U.S adults support the United States taking steps to be carbon neutral by 2050, but two-thirds want to keep a mix of fossil fuels and renewable energy sources.” https://www.eesi.org/briefings/view/020923camp

6. The above statistic helped explain to me the glib “all of the above” stances of both the Obama and Biden presidencies. 2/3 of us want to see renewables developed but have little idea of our situation. If you are trying to move in the right direction but find your way impeded by the fossil fuel industry, throwing them business with one hand while developing their competition with the other eases your actions. You yourself, Barrack or Joe, may not quite understand that we have no choice now but to cease burning fossil fuels as quickly as possible. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/24/ipcc-report-we-must-stop-burning-fossil-fuels

7. I am placed in a dilemma. Do I continue to run such news as items 3 and 4, which feed despair, which impedes action? Does the G7 promising to move faster even as they approve the development of further gas deserve mention? What about our doubling or trebling the export of LNG?
For a year now I have not been running stories on weather and climate disasters on the grounds that such stories were pretty much inescapable anyway and have become a continuing condition of our existence. From now on I will not ordinarily be running stories on policies which combine pious gestures toward mitigation with easing the path for future burning of fossil fuels. Such stories are usually trumpeted as political cover anyway. However, the time is too short for serious moves to be hedged in this ruinous way. The stories are used by fossil fuel interests as counsels of despair, and as such are best spurned. Of course the gas, coal, and oil industries are anxious to sell off our future. That’s not news.
I will continue to run items such as the first on flash droughts, which constitute a change in our weather system. I will also run items about a growing (or, the spirits forbid, a diminution) in our sense of urgency, and about actions by groups and nations which do not undercut themselves. Those which combine a genuine advance with a serious failure pose a problem.
It is a difficult path. Sen. Joe Manchin compromised the Inflation Reduction Act, but it could not have been passed otherwise and on balance is immensely worthwhile. Of course I do not intend to ignore efforts which suffer only relatively small, perhaps politically necessary, shadows. The G7 action is debatable in this way, and I should probably post it and advise further inquiry; the approval of LNG exports is not debatable, that I can see.

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