Month: April 2019

An unexpected current that’s remaking American politics

This Politico article discusses an unexpected current that’s remaking American politics. New forms of electricity storage are making the grid more renewable and more reliable—and may change the politics of climate change.

At the annual National Republican Congressional Committee dinner in Washington this month, President Donald Trump made news with some curious remarks about wind power. What went viral was his untrue suggestion that the noise from wind turbines causes cancer, but his warning that home values instantly plunge 75 percent when a windmill is built nearby was equally false. He also claimed wind power is inordinately expensive, when in fact in much of America it is now the cheapest source of electricity. The president then play-acted a scene of a woman complaining to her husband about wind power’s supposed unreliability: “I can’t watch television, darling. Darling, please tell the wind to blow!”

That was baseless, too, yet at the same time it actually did refer to a serious challenge for the clean energy revolution: the “intermittency” of wind and solar electricity. As more renewable power replaces Trump’s preferred coal plants, and more states aim to eliminate fossil fuels from their electric grids, utilities are grappling with how to make sure they can ensure uninterrupted service when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining. Some states are already starting to get major portions of their electricity from renewables, and while the president’s exaggerated scenario of weather-dependent TV reflects his general disdain for climate-friendly technologies, reliability could become an increasingly formidable problem as the grid gets increasingly green.

But now another technology revolution is underway that could help solve that problem: an electricity storage boom. The cost of lithium-ion batteries has plunged 85 percent in a decade, and 30 percent in just the past year, so utilities across the U.S. have started attaching containers full of them to the grid—and they’re planning to install far more of them in the coming years.

Report: Great Barrier Reef on the move south as scientists watch from space

This article discusses how the Great Barrier Reef is moving south as scientists watch from space.

Warming ocean temperatures are causing a “migration” of the Great Barrier Reef away from the equator, research published this week has found.

But scientists say we’re unlikely to see the reef off the coast of Brisbane, with other factors meaning it could be halted for good before it gets too far south.

The researchers took to the fossil record to find examples of the reef moving south away from the equator when the water got too hot.

A paper published in the journal Royal Society Open Science this week found at multiple points in the past coral reefs across the world migrated south to take advantage of cooler waters near the poles.

Oil industry under pressure to respond to climate change

This France 24 article discusses how the O&G industry is under pressure to respond to climate change.

The oil industry, under mounting pressure from environmental activists to react more quickly to counter climate change, has begun to adapt its strategy but is struggling to convince critics it is doing enough.

Last week activists, responding to a call from the Extinction Rebellion group, laid siege to Shell’s London headquarters whose windows were smashed.

Several days later hundreds of activists blocked several symbolic sites in France, including the headquarters of oil giant Total.

Inside the EPA’s ‘resistance room,’ where Trump was never president and climate change is real

This article discusses a museum inside EPA called the ‘resistance room,’ where Trump was never president and climate change is real.

No such thing. That was the verdict delivered by the security guard inside the Ronald Reagan Building on the question of whether there existed a museum of the Environmental Protection Agency and, more to the point, whether that museum was somewhere within this airy warren of federal offices in downtown Washington. In fact, she appeared to regard the question as downright insane.

Actually, there was — and is, as of this writing at least — such a thing as an EPA museum. The security guard looked on with annoyed concession as this reporter produced on his phone seemingly incontrovertible evidence that not only did an EPA museum exist in the reality-based community, it existed inside the Reagan Building, which is adjacent to the EPA’s headquarters (and just a few hundred feet from the Trump International Hotel).

House Freshman Democrats Urge Funds for Climate Change Programs

This article discusses how many House Freshman Democrats Urge Funds for Climate Change Programs. More than half of the newly elected Democratic representatives signed onto a letter calling for “robust funding” for U.S. climate change research programs.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who is the lead sponsor of the Green New Deal resolution in the House of Representatives, isn’t the only freshman Democratic member of Congress pushing for action on climate change.

More than half of the freshman Democrats in Congress have signed onto a 24 April (2019) letter urging the House Committee on Appropriations “to provide robust funding for our nation’s climate change research programs” in fiscal year (FY) 2020 appropriations bills. The letter, dated 16 April, was released on 24 April, after members of Congress signed onto it.

8 Ways To Teach Climate Change In Almost Any Classroom

This NPR article discusses 8 Ways To Teach Climate Change In Almost Any Classroom.

NPR/Ipsos conducted a national poll recently and found that more than 8 in 10 teachers — and a similar majority of parents — support teaching kids about climate change.

But in reality, it’s not always happening: Fewer than half of K-12 teachers told us that they talk about climate change with their children or students. Again, parents were about the same.

The top reason that teachers gave in our poll for not covering climate change? “It’s not related to the subjects I teach,” 65% said.

Report: Trump’s claim that the U.S. has ‘record clean’ air is BS

This Think Progress article discusses an American Lung Association’s report that debunks Trump’s claim that the U.S. has ‘record clean’ air. More than one in four Americans are being exposed to unhealthy pollution.

People across the United States are breathing increasingly polluted air, according to the American Lung Association’s annual State of the Air report. Climate change is a major contributor to worsening air quality, and the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to roll back environmental protections could make it even worse.

12 Female Climate Activists Who Are Saving the Planet

This article discusses activists who are trying to save the world.

For the past 30 years, environmental activists have been calling on governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to avoid catastrophic climate change.

The world has less than 12 years to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half — a daunting task that would require a total transformation of the global economy — according to the United Nations.

Yet even as the consequences of climate change become more stark with each passing year — floods and storms submerging coastlines more frequently, wildfires growing to new extremes, and droughts drying up critical sources of water —  fossil fuel consumption continues to rise.

But for the emerging generation of activists whose future depends on the overhaul of a global economy still heavily dependent on fossil fuels, there is no other option than to fight for change— and they’re making sure that governments, businesses, and powerful interests everywhere understand the stakes of inaction. Women and girls — often hit the hardest by climate disasters — in particular, have become leading figures in this movement.

DeSmog Blog

This article discusses multiple topics, including: