[GWSG] Too many subjects to list here

[Tilley, Al]

I have not been able to access my distribution list for about two weeks—something about a congested server at UNF. News did not slow down. Now that the server is decongested, here are about three mailings worth of stories.

1. Oil and gas tankers could be replaced by Power X’s renewable energy tanker, floating 96 big batteries full of renewable energy to your port for offloading. The first ship is scheduled to begin test runs in 2025.  https://electrek.co/2023/05/29/electric-tanker-transport-clean-energy-batteries/

2. The World Resources Institute offers a careful overview of the transition to renewable energy. Difficulties arise with the growth of energy demand, the construction of transmission and storage facilities, and the provision of equitable energy supply, but determined effort can carry us through. https://www.wri.org/insights/carbon-free-power-system-shifts?utm_campaign=wridigest&utm_source=wridigest-2023-06-01&utm_medium=email

3. The International Energy Agency projects that global renewable energy capacity will rise by a third this year. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/new-global-renewables-capacity-additions-rise-by-third-this-year-iea-2023-06-01/?utm_source=cbnewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2023-06-01&utm_campaign=Daily+Briefing+01+06+2023

4. A revision of the planetary boundaries analysis adds a framework of justice—interspecies, intergenerational, and intragenerational. Seven of the eight global earth-system boundaries have already been breached in this analysis from Nature. A “safe and just” surface temperature of 1C is proposed.  https://www.carbonbrief.org/safe-and-just-climate-boundary-has-already-been-breached-says-contested-study/?utm_source=cbnewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2023-06-01&utm_campaign=Daily+Briefing+01+06+2023
The new study of boundaries goes beyond climate to outline the conditions of a safe and just earth. Crossing a boundary exposes us to irreversible tipping points.  https://phys.org/news/2023-05-world-safe-planet-quantifying-earth.html

5. A forthcoming article in Science looks at the effect of the decrease in particulates in the atmosphere as pollution decreases and finds that the warming effect is at least partially offset by the decrease in methane and black carbon. https://climatecrocks.com/2023/06/01/will-clearer-skies-mean-runaway-warming/

6. Electric cars are not popular among auto dealers; many actively oppose their adoption. https://cleantechnica.com/2023/06/01/electric-car-report-fear-loathing-at-nada-annual-convention/

7. New developments in the Phoenix, AZ, area will no longer be approved because there is not enough ground water to support them. Existing projects will overtax expected water levels. /<https://climatecrocks.com/2023/06/01/bill-coming-due-arizona-limits-development-on-water-concerns/>  https://phys.org/news/2023-06-arizona-limits-groundwater-dries.html

8. Globally, protected forests sequestered 9.65 billion tons more carbon than unprotected areas. That is about one year’s emissions from burning fossil fuels. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-forest-successfully-emissions-global-scale.html

9. 48% of the world’s animal species are in decline. https://www.ecowatch.com/animals-biodiversity-loss.html

10. The Chinese firm Gotion High-Tech has developed a battery which is as powerful as, lighter, and more fire-resistant than current Li-ion batteries. It lasts much longer, too. The manganese doped L600 LMFP Astroinno will have a range of up to 1000kms (621 miles) and an expected life of 2 million kms (1,243,000 miles). Gotion expects to put it on sale next year. The effect of such a battery paired with autonomous vehicles may drive down the cost to operate vehicles by a factor of 10-20 and spur a transition away from private ownership to leased transportation on demand. https://climatecrocks.com/2023/05/28/new-battery-tech-high-performance-no-cobalt/

11. An abundance of renewable energy and clement weather brought the wholesale price of energy to zero and even below in several European countries in the past week. (More and cheaper storage is indicated.) https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/29/weather-tracker-power-prices-dip-to-negative-in-europe-amid-clean-energy-boost

12. The health effects of increasing heat in Africa have not been well studied and are poorly understood. Public education and preventative programs have become necessary. https://phys.org/news/2023-05-extreme-events-high-ambient-temperatures.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter

13. During the pandemic, reduced greenhouse gas emissions led to increased global temperatures. Sulfur and nitrogen particulates were reduced along with carbon emissions, and as the existing particulates settled to the ground, they ceased reflecting the sun’s heat. https://phys.org/news/2023-05-emissions-pandemic-climate-reveals.html
The net effect was to increase heat. We can expect about 2C of this as we succeed in halting greenhouse emissions. Perhaps we will be able to engineer a temporary compensating blocking of solar heat while we pull enough C out of the air with, say, UCLA’s SeaChange project to balance out the rise in heat from the dropping particulates.

14. Local climate action commonly recognizes a need for climate justice and equity, but also commonly fails to carry through with plans to ensure that the need is met. The U of Waterloo offers four guidelines for planners, based on inclusion and engagement of vulnerable populations. https://phys.org/news/2023-05-ways-advance-equity-justice-goals.html

15. Carbon emissions continue to grow rapidly. Atmospheric levels have reached 424 parts per million, a third more than in 1958 and the highest in over 4 million years.  350 ppm is a decent target.  https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/environment/ct-aud-nw-carbon-dioxide-warming-20230605-ajllyxtoojhuxa7okyiokroprm-story.html?utm_source=cbnewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2023-06-06&utm_campaign=Daily+Briefing+06+06+2023

16. UCLA’s SeaChange project hopes to begin removing thousands of tons of CO2 from the ocean near Singapore this year. If all goes well there, larger test labs are planned for 2025 leading to installations which would remove millions of tons of CO2 annually. The final goal is to install 1,800 facilities removing 10 billion tons of CO2 a year, the entire current human output. As we cut emissions, that would allow us to draw down atmospheric CO2 to the goal of 350 ppm. Meanwhile, we would be lowering oceanic acidity toward normal levels. https://www.techspot.com/news/98438-seachange-new-technology-designed-capture-carbon-dioxide-using.html  I know I ran a notice of SeaChange a few weeks ago. I plan to look for and run stories as they appear. I believe that every newspaper should have a little SeaChange block on the front page telling us how it’s going in Singapore. ABC’s story on SeaChange adds some information. https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/california-researchers-attempt-ocean-climate-solution-98725681

17. The Global Stocktake is a process of global climate assessment and the formation of an international action plan at COP 28 next December. Planned as part of the Paris Agreement, this is the first time Stocktake has been put into effect. It is a major opportunity to deal with mitigation, adaptation, and the means of implementation, including finance, technology transfer, and capacity building. It is also meant to address the loss and damage suffered in the climate crisis. The technical phase concludes at the current meeting in Bonn, and the political phase begins.  https://www.wri.org/insights/explaining-global-stocktake-paris-agreement

18. Speaking at the Bonn conference, IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee warns that development of carbon capture and storage technology (such as SeaChange) should not lead us to believe we can afford to continue high emissions in the present. The consequences of our use of fossil fuels are evident now and could get much worse while we wait for carbon capture to take place. We remain in danger of disastrous positive feedbacks. Fossil fuel interests will continue to look for excuses to maintain their flow of profits and must be resisted. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/06/carbon-capture-and-storage-is-no-free-lunch-warns-climate-chief-hoesung-lee
The US appears to be among those representing the fossil fuel industry’s interest in using carbon capture in the future as an excuse for continuing emissions in the present. The group is led by Sultan al-Jaber, the oil executive presiding over the COP 28 climate summit.  https://phys.org/news/2023-06-climate-lines-harden-slash-co2.html

19. Summer ice in the Arctic Ocean will disappear as soon as the end of this decade, about a decade sooner than we had thought. We appear to have no way to reverse the trend, according to a study in Nature Communications. The effects include accelerated melting of permafrost and of the Greenland ice sheet. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-arctic-ice-free-decade-earlier-thought.html

20. Canadian wildfires are blanketing the NE US “in a dystopian haze.” https://phys.org/news/2023-06-canada-wildfires-air-quality-stay-safe.html
A record season of fires is expected to continue in Canada through the summer. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-canada-braces-worst-wildfire-season.html
Few news stories are reporting the connection between the fires and the climate crisis. https://climatecrocks.com/2023/06/06/raise-your-hand-if-you-knew-the-gray-skies-red-sun-and-asthma-attacks-were-all-part-of-climate-change/
The CBC explains the connection. https://www.cbc.ca/news/climate/canada-wildfire-data-change-1.6854186

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