June 2019 – No Fricking Fracking

In Greenland’s Melting Ice, A Warning on Hard Climate Choices

This Yale Environment 360 article discusses the fact that Greenland’s ice is melting and we have to make hard climate choices now. Greenland is melting at an unprecedented rate, causing vast quantities of ice to disappear and global sea levels to rise. The fate of the ice sheet is not sealed, but unless CO2 emissions are sharply cut, the long-term existence of Greenland’s ice is in doubt.

Greenland’s ice sheet covers about 80 percent of the island, and measures about 660,000 square miles; in its center, it runs to a depth of about two miles. According to the most recent NASA studies, the ice sheet holds enough water to raise sea levels by about 24 feet, should it ever disappear completely.

The Green New Deal is a chance to make clean energy accessible to all

This article discusses why the Green New Deal is a chance to make clean energy accessible to all. Transitioning the U.S. economy from fossil fuels to 100% clean energy is a massive undertaking. But from an equity, economic, and environmental perspective, the opportunities far outweigh the costs.

Late last year, California instituted a revolutionary piece of policy. Starting in 2020, all new homes will be required to be built with rooftop solar panels and onsite battery storage. On top of that, developers would need to comply with a whole new host of codes to ensure the buildings will be as energy-efficient as possible. Solar providers like Sunrun, already meeting a steady churn of demand, started preparing themselves for a significant influx of work.

Less than three months after California’s rooftop solar mandate passed—currently, it’s the only one of its kind in the country—Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) introduced the Green New Deal resolution. Suddenly, California’s radical policy felt like a warmup for larger efforts that could be in our future.

New York City declares a climate emergency, the first US city with more than a million residents to do so

This CNN article discusses New York City’s declaration of a climate emergency.

New York City officials declared a climate emergency in an effort to mobilize local and national responses to stall global warming.

It’s the largest city in the US, with over 8.62 million inhabitants.

The New York City Council passed the legislation Wednesday, calling for an immediate response to the global climate crises. The bill referenced several reports on the state of global warming and its impact, imparting that extreme weather events brought about by rising temperatures demonstrates that the planet is “too hot to be a safe environment.”

Utility Carbon Targets Reflect Decarbonization Slowdown In Crucial Next Decade

This article discusses how utilities in the US are slowing down their efforts to lower the use of carbon-based fuel in the crucial next 10 years. Many of the nation’s largest utilities are planning to slow down their efforts to decarbonize, according to the companies’ own goals.

There are some good graphics here.

Many of the nation’s largest utilities are planning to slow down their efforts to decarbonize their electricity generation over the next decade compared to the previous one, threatening the ability for the U.S. to respond to the climate crisis at the speed that scientists say is necessary to avoid its worst effects.

Electric utilities lie at the crux of the effort to decarbonize the U.S. economy, which involves two steps: the first is to move all electric generation to zero-carbon sources of electricity. The second is to switch everything that’s currently fueled directly by oil or gas, like cars and trucks, onto that carbon-free electricity.

Most U.S. utilities have decreased the carbon dioxide that they pollute directly from power plants over the past decade, mainly by retiring coal-burning power plants. But between now and 2030, these same companies are planning to slow down their rates of decarbonization, according to a new analysis of the utilities’ goals.

Climate Change Is Scaring Kids. Here’s How to Talk to Them.

This NY Times article discusses how to talk to kids about climate change.

Hollywood has produced quite a few fictionalized depictions of dramatic climate change. Scores of people die after Manhattan freezes in 2004’s “The Day After Tomorrow.” In “Geostorm,” released in 2017, the weather goes haywire after satellites malfunction.

U.S. Medical Groups Warn Candidates: Climate Change Is a ‘Health Emergency’

This Inside Climate News article discusses a warning from multiple US medical groups – climate change is a ‘health emergency’. ‘I’ve seen a lot, but this scares me,’ one doctor said. Ahead of the first debates, 70-plus health groups call for moving away from fossil fuels.

The nation’s leading medical organizations are urging political candidates “to recognize climate change as a health emergency.” As the campaign season enters full gear, they issued a call on Monday for urgent action on “one of the greatest threats to health America has ever faced.”

More than 70 health organizations signed a statement that, among other things, calls for a move away from fossil fuels. The groups cite storm and flood emergencies, chronic air pollution, the spread of diseases carried by insects, and especially heat-related illnesses.

Europe is anticipating an intense heat wave starting this week, and parts of the U.S., where extreme heat has been the leading cause of weather-related deaths , have already experienced record-breaking heat this year.

Soggy springs, scorching summers: Higher temperatures taking toll on US staple crops

This Environmental Health News article discusses how soggy springs and scorching summers are taking a toll on US staple crops. As a changing climate continues to increase average temperatures in the US, researchers estimate yield losses that could cost billions.

The United States just experienced its wettest 12 months on record. An onslaught of rain in the Midwest and Great Plains has made it difficult for farmers to plant crops like corn and soybeans, which need to be planted before the weather gets hotter and drier during the summer. Farmers have been tweeting using the hashtag #NoPlant19 to show the effects of catastrophic rain.

With fewer crops planted by summertime, farmers are facing smaller crop yields this year. The USDA recently cut their estimate of this year’s planted corn area to 89.8 million acres, 3 million acres fewer than March’s estimate. Yield estimates are rarely cut this early in the growing season.

Plastic wrapped in plastic: the wasteful reality of America’s grocery stores

This The Guardian article discusses plastic used by grocery stores.

A bundle of six small brie cheeses from Trader Joe’s seemed to sum it all up. Each 0.9oz wheel was encased in flexible clear plastic, bound together in a plastic sack, to be sold to Americans who might carry it home in a single-use plastic shopping bag, none of it apparently recyclable.

Supermarkets in the United Kingdom have at least attempted to reduce the more than 800,000 tons of plastic waste they sell each year, starting plastic bottle deposit schemes and ending sales of plastic bags.

But American grocers, who serve a population nearly five times larger, have taken comparatively little action. Trader Joe’s has promised to reduce plastic by 500 tons in 2019; Kroger said it would stop giving out plastic bags. Yet the radical changes needed to tackle the problem still feel distant.

deSmogBlog – June 29, 1019

This week’s blog posting discusses:

As Trump attempts to prop up the struggling coal industry, Illinois is taking another step away from its dirtiest source of electricity

This article discusses how Illinois is taking another step away from its dirtiest source of electricity, coal.

As President Donald Trump attempts to prop up the nation’s dwindling coal industry, Illinois is taking another step away from its dirtiest source of electricity.

Under a deal brokered by Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration, the Texas-based owner of eight coal-fired power plants in central and southern Illinois agreed last week to shutter 40% of its fleet by the end of the year.

Vistra Energy will be allowed to choose which units it retires and might scrap some of its cleaner power plants instead of the dirtiest. But the company’s agreement with the state’s new Democratic governor is far more stringent than industry-friendly rules proposed two years ago by former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner.