Month: June 2019

As I mentioned the other day, Republicans still on the climate denial crazy train, but creeping toward the emergency exits.
Perhaps they are hoping to save their souls, but it’s too late to save their place in history.

UtahPolicy.com

Sen. Mitt Romney said Wednesday he was considering co-sponsoring a carbon tax bill with Delaware Democrat Cris Coons.

Romney told E&E News he’s considering the proposal which would put a $15-per-metric-ton fee on carbon emissions.

“Taxes have never been my intent, but we’ll see what he has to say,” Romney said. “I would very much like to see us reduce our carbon emissions globally, and we’ll see if this might help.”

 

There are still a handful of GOP carbon tax supporters left in the House after the Democratic wave of the 2018 midterms, but Romney — if he does co-sponsor the bill — would be the only Republican senator openly supporting the idea.

 

For Romney, who has taken some heat for his relative moderation in some wings of the GOP, it would be another step away from President Trump, who denies climate science.

Romney, who has previously said he wants to work on climate change issues, but has not committed to backing the measure.

Fear still the guiding principle of GOP approach to the issue..

Continue reading “Deniers Panicking as GOP edges to the Exit”

More on India’s rolling crisis in climate and water. Essentially invisible in the west.

This is a country with more than a billion people, a proud 5 thousand year old culture, a long history of religious violence, and nuclear weapons.
Do we think they’re just going to die quietly in a climate catastrophe?

Jeff Masters in Weather Underground:

In early 2018, a three-year drought pushed Cape Town, South Africa, within weeks of experiencing “Day Zero”—the day when the city would run out of water and the taps be shut off. Fortunately, extreme water conservation efforts and the arrival of timely rains pushed “Day Zero” back indefinitely. But in India, “Day Zero” has already arrived for over 100 million people, thanks to excessive groundwater pumping, an inefficient and wasteful water supply system and years of deficient rains. “Day Zero” is expected to arrive for millions more in India by 2020, when groundwater supplies are predicted to run out for 100 million people in the northern half of India.

“Large parts of India have already been living with ‘Day Zero’ for a while now,” said Mridula Ramesh in a 2018 interview with Reuters. Mridula is author of the 2018 book, The Climate Solution: India’s Climate Change Crisis and What We Can Do About It. “Much of it is because of bad management. Most cities lose between a third and a fifth of their water from pilferage or leakage through antiquated pipes, and we don’t treat and reuse wastewater enough,” she said.

Over 12% of India’s population–163 million people of 1.3 billion–live under “Day Zero” conditions, with no access to clean water near their home, according to a 2018 WaterAid report. That is the most of any country in the world. With the taps dry, people are forced to dig ever-deeper wells or buy water.

The number of people in India experiencing “Day Zero” is set to grow significantly by 2020, according to a startling report released in 2018 by Niti Ayog, India’s federal think tank. “Supply gaps are causing city dwellers to depend on privately extracted ground water, bringing down local water tables,” the report says. “In fact, by 2020, 21 major cities, including Delhi, Bengaluru (formerly called Bangalore), and Hyderabad, are expected to reach zero groundwater levels, affecting access for 100 million people.” Loss of groundwater supplies will force people in the affected cities to rely on rainwater harvesting and water piped from rivers–sources that are inadequate to meet the demand. Groundwater supplies 40% of India’s water needs, including more than 60% of irrigated agriculture and 85% of domestic water use. India accounts for 12% of global groundwater use.

Continue reading “In India, “Day Zero” for Water is Here”

A stunning heat event in Asia that most Americans know nothing about.

I interviewed veteran Journalist Keith Schneider last summer after he had just returned from an extended visit to Asia, and India.

Washington Post:

NEW DELHI — When the temperature topped 120 degrees (49 Celsius), residents of the northern Indian city of Churu stopped going outside and authorities started hosing down the baking streets with water. 

Churu — home to more than 100,000 people — has been the hottest place in India in recent days, part of a summer heat wave suffocating most of the country as temperatures rise above normal even for this sweltering time of year.

According to weather website El Dorado on Wednesday, five of the hottest 15 places on the planet over the previous 24 hours were in India or neighboring Pakistan. In Churu, the mercury hit 118 degrees, down from 122 degrees on Monday. That temperature is just shy of India’s all-time high, recorded in 2016.

Nearly the whole country remained under a heat-wave warning Wednesday, with severe warnings for a swath of north and central India, including the states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. 

Earlier this week, the Health Ministry issued an advisory with do’s and don’ts for staying safe in rising temperatures. They included avoiding the sun between noon and 3 p.m. and refraining from drinking alcohol, tea and coffee. The National Disaster Management Authority weighed in with its own tips: Cover your head, cross-ventilate your room and try sleeping under a slightly wet sheet.

Continue reading “In India, “Horrid” Heat Wave”

NBC 2 Fort Myers, Fla:

COLLIER COUNTY, Fla. – Representative Francis Rooney and 35 of his constituents took a boat ride last month to see the effects of climate change and sea level rise firsthand.

“I think it’s really important that as many people as possible see firsthand these things that we’re seeing,” Rooney said. 

Scientists from Florida Gulf Coast University led the excursion to Keewaydin Island, a barrier island, off the coast of Naples, that’s managed by state and federal agencies.

So, what makes Keewaydin so special?

The management strategy has always been to leave Keewaydin Island alone — let it behave naturally, without manipulation — and see what happens, related to sea level rise.

“Keewaydin Island is a great laboratory for looking at the effects of climate change, sea level rise, and storminess,” said FGCU marine science professor Michael Savarese. “We’re here mostly to help you understand what’s going on as best we can.”

As we toured the island, it looks like any ordinary beach to our untrained eyes.

But Savarese called it an “island on the move.””We saw trees that used to be behind the dunes, now in standing water, because everything in front of the trees, the dunes and beach, have eroded away, and that part of the island has been eroded back,” Savarese said. 

So, why should you care?

If sea level rise continues at its current rate, Keewaydin will keep retreating.

If sea level rise increases, Keewaydin could actually drown. And without Keewaydin, Southwest Florida loses that protection.

Rooney said that’s a big concern.

“I think this points out very poignantly the risks to our barrier islands of loss of the dunes, the loss of protection,” Rooney said. “If we were to lose all of these barrier islands, in short, we’d be vulnerable to rising water.” 

Over the last year, Rooney has emerged as a leader on climate change – not because of political pressure he said – but because of science.

“I just don’t think we can deny so much of the evidence that has been put out by so many scientists all around the world, that despite the fact that both man and nature have inputs into some of the changes that are happening, man has had a big role,” Rooney said.

A perfect metaphor for climate change denial. Works on multiple levels. #ClimateBrawl

https://t.co/rrg94hYYjK

— Mark Boslough @boslough.bsky.social (@MarkBoslough) June 5, 2019

I gather this is movie footage. But makes the point.

Conspiracy theories are as American as Cherry pie. People have always believed bullshit.

I remember back in the pre-internet Stone Age, standing behind two older, midwestern women at a rally for a Republican candidate. They were staring at the peace symbol on a sign held up by protesters.

“Look,” one said, breathlessly, “..the Witches Foot!”

Climate Denial is the most mundane of conspiracy theories, but perhaps the deadliest.

“The earth is not dying, it is being killed, and those who are killing it have names and addresses.” – U. Utah Phillips

If you, and me, and 100,000 of our closest friends all stop eating meat, driving, flying, using the internet, and go live on nuts and berries in the woods – would that save the climate?
No.
Because there are a relatively small number of organizations who have an outsized impact on what is happening on the planet, and who have blocked meaningful action for the last 30 years.
Time is long past to hold them accountable.

Michael Mann in USAToday:

“People start pollution. People can stop it.” That was the tag line of the famous “Crying Indian” ad campaign that first aired on Earth Day in 1971. It was, as it turns out, a charade. Not only was “Iron Eyes Cody” actually an Italian-American actor, the campaign itself successfully shifted the burden of litter from corporations that produced packaging to consumers.

The problem, we were told, wasn’t pollution-generating corporate practices. It was you and me. And efforts to pass bottle bills, which would have shifted responsibility to producers for packaging waste, failed. Today, decades later, plastic pollution has so permeated our planet that it can now be found in the deepest part of the ocean, the Mariana Trench 36,000 feet below.

Here is another Crying Indian campaign going on today — with climate change. Personal actions, from going vegan to avoiding flying, are being touted as the primary solution to the crisis. Perhaps this is an act of desperation in an era of political division, but it could prove suicidal.

Though many of these actions are worth taking, and colleagues and friends of ours are focused on them in good faith, a fixation on voluntary action alone takes the pressure off of the push for governmental policies to hold corporate polluters accountable. In fact, one recent study suggests that the emphasis on smaller personal actions can actually undermine support for the substantive climate policies needed.

This new obsession with personal action, though promoted by many with the best of intentions, plays into the hands of polluting interests by distracting us from the systemic changes that are needed.

There is no way to avert the climate crisis without keeping most of our coal, oil and gas in the ground, plain and simple. Because much of the carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for centuries, our choices in the next few years are crucial, and they will determine the lives our grandchildren and their grandchildren. We need corporate action, not virtue signaling. “People start pollution. People can stop it.” That was the tag line of the famous “Crying Indian” ad campaign that first aired on Earth Day in 1971. It was, as it turns out, a charade. Not only was “Iron Eyes Cody” actually an Italian-American actor, the campaign itself successfully shifted the burden of litter from corporations that produced packaging to consumers.

Continue reading “It’s Not Your Fault. Let’s Get Real in Assigning Blame for Climate Change”

New York Times:

Many of the world’s biggest companies, from Silicon Valley tech firms to large European banks, are bracing for the prospect that climate change could substantially affect their bottom lines within the next five years, according to a new analysis of corporate disclosures.

Under pressure from shareholders and regulators, companies are increasingly disclosing the specific financial impacts they could face as the planet warms, such as extreme weather that could disrupt their supply chains or stricter climate regulations that could hurt the value of coal, oil and gas investments. Early estimates suggest that trillions of dollars may ultimately be at stake.

Even so, analysts warn that many companies are still lagging in accounting for all of the plausible financial risks from global warming.

“The numbers that we’re seeing are already huge, but it’s clear that this is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Bruno Sarda, the North America president for CDP, an international nonprofit that wrote the new report and works with companies around the world to publicly disclose the risks and opportunities that climate change could create for their businesses.

–

Many firms are bracing for direct impacts. Hitachi Ltd., a Japanese manufacturer, said that increased rainfall and flooding in Southeast Asia had the potential to knock out suppliers and that it was taking defensive measures as a result. Banco Santander Brasil, a large Brazilian bank, said increasingly severe droughts in the region might hurt the ability of borrowers to repay loans. Google’s parent company, Alphabet, Inc., noted that rising temperatures could increase the cost of cooling its energy-hungry data centers.

Continue reading “The Bottom Line: Climate Will Crush Company Profits”

Leading Democratic candidate answers critics with ambitious climate proposal.

New York Times:

Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who has faced criticism from Democratic presidential rivals about his commitment to combating climate change, on Tuesday unveiled a plan centered on reinstating the climate policies of the Obama administration — but he included some unexpected proposals that would push significantly beyond what the previous White House achieved.

Mr. Biden, who in tone and substance is one of the most centrist candidates seeking the Democratic nomination, has insisted he is no moderate when it comes to protecting the environment, though progressives have been skeptical. Polls show that fighting climate change is a top priority for Democratic voters, and Mr. Biden selected the issue for his second policy rollout, after an education plan he released last week.

“On day one, Biden will sign a series of new executive orders with unprecedented reach that go well beyond the Obama-Biden Administration platform and put us on the right track,” his campaign wrote. “He will not only recommit the United States to the Paris Agreement on climate change — he will go much further.”

Mr. Biden’s plan calls for the United States to entirely eliminate its net emissions of planet-warming carbon dioxide pollution by 2050, the same goal put forth in the Green New Deal, the sweeping climate change proposal championed by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.

By comparison, Mr. Biden’s former boss, President Barack Obama, had pledged to the world that the United States would lower its emissions 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.

Mr. Biden would also call for an investment of $1.7 trillion over 10 years into clean energy and environmental justice programs, designed to help minorities and poor people disproportionately harmed by pollution, paid for by a rollback of President Trump’s tax breaks for corporations.

“This definitely goes further than the Obama administration in terms of aspiration,” said Robert N. Stavins, an environmental economist at Harvard.

Mr. Biden’s plan is not as ambitious or detailed as those of some of his more environmentally minded competitors, but some of its goals are similar. Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington, who is basing his campaign on fighting climate change, has called for the nation to eliminate its net carbon emissions by 2045.Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who has faced criticism from Democratic presidential rivals about his commitment to combating climate change, on Tuesday unveiled a plan centered on reinstating the climate policies of the Obama administration — but he included some unexpected proposals that would push significantly beyond what the previous White House achieved.

Mr. Biden, who in tone and substance is one of the most centrist candidates seeking the Democratic nomination, has insisted he is no moderate when it comes to protecting the environment, though progressives have been skeptical. Polls show that fighting climate change is a top priority for Democratic voters, and Mr. Biden selected the issue for his second policy rollout, after an education plan he released last week.

“On day one, Biden will sign a series of new executive orders with unprecedented reach that go well beyond the Obama-Biden Administration platform and put us on the right track,” his campaign wrote. “He will not only recommit the United States to the Paris Agreement on climate change — he will go much further.”

One more demonstration that companies, states, or countries, that take steps down the path to renewable energy, meet with greater success, faster, and more cheaply, than they ever imagined.

Fast Company:

When a new solar farm is completed on a sprawling, 2,000-acre site in Pecos County, Texas, by early 2021, every beer that Anheuser-Busch makes in the U.S. will come with a purchase of renewable electricity equal to the power used to brew it.

The company, which originally planned to reach a goal of using 100% renewable electricity to brew its beer by 2025, announced today that it would accomplish that four years early. The brewer already buys renewable electricity credits from a wind farm in Oklahoma (the wind farm doesn’t directly send power to the company’s breweries, but Anheuser-Busch buys an equivalent amount of power from the facility). The credits that it buys from the new solar farm will cover the rest of its electricity use.

It’s the largest solar deal of its kind for an American beverage company. The project will generate as much electricity as it takes to brew 20 billion 12-ounce servings of beer each year. Brewing beer also uses heat that currently comes from fossil fuels, so the shift to renewable electricity doesn’t solve all of the company’s energy challenges–it’s just a first step.

The goal is part of a larger sustainability agenda for the company that also involves developing barley varieties that can help farmers use less water, placing orders for electric and hydrogen-powered delivery trucks, and cutting water use at its 12 large U.S. breweries roughly in half over the last 10 years. “Sustainability is our business, because we rely on crops and water in order to have our final product,” says Michel Doukeris, president and CEO of Anheuser-Busch. Like other companies that rely on agriculture, it faces direct risks from the impacts of climate change, from drought to flooding.

Because the cost of solar power has fallen so dramatically, the project can have both climate and financial benefits, says Ty Daul, president of Recurrent Energy, the firm developing the new solar farm. The same thing is true for other businesses now committing to buy solar. “As we’ve been able to improve efficiencies and drive out costs and really get that cost of energy down, we’re seeing companies doing it for multiple reasons, including economic decisions. So it’s not just sustainability. That has helped with demand. But where we’re heading is more and more of an economic decision.”

Anheuser-Busch’s example is spreading. The first 100 percent renewable dance club opens in Chile…

Continue reading “Anheuser-Busch Will be 100% Renewable 4 Years Early”