Month: May 2022

Not much new in the rant by banking exec Stuart Kirk above, given at a recent Financial Times conference. Basically warmed-over Bjørn Lomborg stuff, with the addition of the punch line “Who Cares?”. He does exhibit some “Lord Monckton” pretentiousness, ie throwing out latin phrases, as in his assertion that impacts on, say, the average citizen of Bangladesh in 2100, will be “de minimis”, and borrows from Rex Tillerson’s “We’ll Adapt”.
Not a word, or indication of the slightest glimmer of awareness of the impact on the natural world and it’s life support system of long term climate change. Mr Kirk demonstrates with a graph of S&P returns of the last century, unaffected by wars, depressions, and all those obvious non-issues that lesser beings handwring about. No indication, for instance, of a 100 million souls perishing in WW2. (Obviously there never was a problem, so can you shut up about that non-event already?)

In case you were wondering what the internal dialogue of a soulless Wall Street monster sounds like, you can listen in.

New York Times:

HSBC (so named after a founding member Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) is in damage-control mode after a senior executive said policymakers and central bankers had exaggerated the financial risk of climate change.

Stuart Kirk, the head of responsible investing for the bank’s asset management division, last week compared predictions about the negative effects of climate change to “Y2K” theories that a computer glitch would cause havoc at midnight on Jan. 1, 2000.

“There’s always some nut job telling me about the end of the world,” he said at a Financial Times conference in a presentation titled, “Why investors need not worry about climate risk.”

He added: “What bothers me about this one is the amount of work these people make me do. The amount of regulation coming down the pipes. The number of people in my team and at HSBC dealing with financial risk from climate change.”

Later in the speech, he said: “Who cares if Miami is six meters underwater in 100 years? Amsterdam has been six meters underwater for ages, and that’s a really nice place. We will cope with it.”

Note: Amsterdam is about 6 feet, not 6 meters, below sea level.
Today, this rant from Al Gore showed up online, which appears to be a response.

A rightfully angry @algore speaks about our inaction on climate change.

I share his anger after decades of trying to warn everyone of what we’re doing. https://t.co/uLyC24FjYO

— Eric Corey Freed (@ericcoreyfreed) May 27, 2022

BTW if anyone can point me to the full recording of this, I’d be grateful.

Continue reading “The Weekend Wonk: Who Cares? Financier Says “Not Me”. Gore has Fiery Answer”

New York Times:

In West Virginia, the state treasurer has pulled money from BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, because the Wall Street firm has flagged climate change as an economic risk.

In Texas, a new law bars the state’s retirement and investment funds from doing business with companies that the state comptroller says are boycotting fossil fuels. Conservative lawmakers in 15 other states are promoting similar legislation.

And officials in Utah and Idaho have assailed a major ratings agency for considering environmental risks and other factors, in addition to the balance sheet, when assessing states’ creditworthiness.

Across the country, Republican lawmakers and their allies have launched a campaign to try to rein in what they see as activist companies trying to reduce the greenhouse gases that are dangerously heating the planet.

“We’re an energy state, and energy accounts for hundreds of millions of dollars of tax revenue for us,” said Riley Moore, the West Virginia state treasurer. “All of our jobs come from coal and gas. I mean, this is who we are. This is part of our way of life here in the state. And they’re telling us that these industries are bad.”

“We have an existential threat here,” Mr. Moore said. “We have to fight back.”

In doing so, Mr. Moore and others have pushed climate change from the scientific realm into the political battles already raging over topics like voting rights, abortion and L.G.B.T.Q. issues. In recent months, conservatives have moved beyond tough words and used legislative and financial leverage to pressure the private sector to drop climate action and any other causes they label as “woke.”

“There is a coordinated effort to chill corporate engagement on these issues,” said Daniella Ballou-Aares, chief executive of the Leadership Now Project, a nonprofit organization that wants corporations to address threats to democracy. “And it is an effective campaign. Companies are starting to go into hiding.”

The pushback has been spearheaded by a group of Republican state officials that has reached out to financial organizations, facilitated media appearances and threatened to punish companies that, among other things, divest from fossil fuels.

They have worked alongside a nonprofit organization that has run television ads, dispatched roaming billboard trucks and rented out a Times Square billboard criticizing BlackRock for championing what they call woke causes, including environmentalism.

Continue reading “GOP Opens New Front on War Against Climate Action”

They say a butterfly’s wing in China can cause a hurricane in the Caribbean.
Here’s how that hurricane can affect sales of mousetraps.

I’ve posted a lot about the price of natural gas, which has been jacked up following the Covid recovery and the Ukraine invasion – but another big driver of the price pressures people are feeling is diesel. Again, correct me if I’m wrong, but a commodity price set globally, not locally.

One more example of why continued reliance on globally priced fossil fuels is a mistake, but also an example of the parts of the economy that will be most difficult to decarbonize. For shipping, there are many examples now of all-electric ferries, which have relatively short runs and can recharge frequently. Replacement fuels for things like barges on the Mississippi, or ocean going freighters, are harder to make out.

Hydrogen fuel cells comes to mind as a possibility, but that suggests a pretty long turnover time.

Going to be breaking out more of my conversations with scientists in what I call the THINC (This Is Not Cool) interviews.
Starting here with Jeff Masters. Jeff and I have known each other for more than a decade, and as a former hurricane hunter, Yale Climate Connections colleague, (and fellow Wolverine), Jeff has been my go-to guy for extreme events of all kinds.
We had a great talk earlier today, and I’ll be digging out more through the weekend.

Washington Post:

During World War II, motorcycles were widely used by militaries to conduct reconnaissance missions. Japanese forces took to pedal-powered bicycles during the conflict’s Malayan campaign, using them to outmaneuver British troops moving more slowly on foot — in what became known as the “Bicycle Blitzkrieg.”

Now, Ukrainian fighters are using electric bikes in the battle against Russia, mostly in support of reconnaissance missions, demining operations and medical deliveries, according to one of the Ukrainian e-bike makers involved. They’ve reportedly also been used for carrying out sniper attacks. The bikes have a top speed of 55 miles per hour and are relatively silent — helping their riders evade Russian fire.

Ukrainian e-bike firm Eleek initially gave a few bikes to the military when the war began, according to manager Roman Kulchytskyi. Soon after, they began to mass-produce bikes — kitted out in military green, with a small Ukrainian flag on the rear wheel — for Ukraine’s fighters.

“When the war started, we were shocked at first. … Everyone was worried and thought about what to do,” Kulchytskyi told The Washington Post. “But we all rallied.”

Working from a bomb shelter, Eleek began making a power bank based on lithium-ion battery cells it had left in stock. After struggling for parts, it turned to electronic cigarettes — launching a social media campaign to get people to send in their devices.

The military version of the bike was stripped down to remove parts such as mirrors and rotating lights that were considered unnecessary for trail riding. The company added footrests for passengers, improved the charging time, installed a battery control system and included a 220V output that allows soldiers to charge gadgets and can help power Starlink satellite Internet terminals, Kulchytskyi said.

The bikes, which are fitted with relatively fat tires, are particularly useful in forested areas where riders can carve their own paths along unsealed trails. They weigh about 140 pounds — light compared with motorbikes — but can carry relatively heavy loads. One video posted on social media showed an armed Ukrainian fighter zipping along a road on an e-bike, apparently traveling as fast as an accompanying vehicle.

Continue reading “E-Bikes Go to War”

Joe Manchin campaign ad from 2010 was the first one I can remember where the tough guy politician pulls out a gun and symbolically shoots something his pollsters tell him target voters don’t like.
It’s kind of the same logic thread that leads to “can’t we drop a nuke on a hurricane?”

Since then it’s been kind of a thing. In MTG’s case below, the target is a car that gets good mileage – weirdly labeled “socialism”.

That said, there’s this today:

MANCHIN on gun talks: “I’ve never been in this frame of mind, I can't get my grandchildren out of my mind.”

Manchin said talks this time around feel very different.

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) May 26, 2022

United Nations University:

E-waste is referred to as the world’s fastest growing solid waste stream. Since 2000, e-waste amounts have grown from 20 million to 50 million tonnes per year. A new report from the United Nations University-hosted Solving the E-waste Problem (StEP) Initiative, published together with UN Environment, highlights future e-waste scenarios. Under a baseline scenario, the amount of e-waste will more than double by 2050, to reach approximately 111 million tonnes per year.

Some of that will be solar panels. But solar or not, it is urgent to get a handle on the burgeoning challenge.
Note the relative size of the e-waste stream vs solar component. (111 million tons total – some estimate 120 – vs 10 million for solar, see below)

Wall St. Journal:

The solar-energy boom will trigger a landslide of electronic waste in the coming decades. Some companies are already preparing for the recycling challenge.

Solar panels are typically built to last between 25 and 30 years. Most in use today have many years of life left in them, and the few that are scrapped due to damage or age often end up in trash heaps. Experts say the small waste volumes mean it isn’t yet profitable to harvest the glass, aluminum, copper, silicon, silver and lead from old panels, but the breakneck expansion of solar power is expected to change that.

The global volume of solar-panel waste generated annually will rise from 30,000 metric tons in 2021 to more than 1 million tons in 2035 and more than 10 million tons in 2050, according to BloombergNEF. The International Renewable Energy Agency estimates that the recovered materials could be worth $450 million by 2030 and $15 billion by 2050.

“We have to work today if we don’t want to have a problem in the future,” said Agustín Delgado, sustainability and innovation chief at Spanish utility Iberdrola SA, one of the world’s biggest providers of solar power.

Iberdrola has formed partnerships with waste managers to prepare for an increase in scrapped panels expected later this decade, and is considering setting up new companies dedicated to solar recycling, Mr. Delgado said.

The company believes it should be profitable to create an industry dedicated to recycling panels in Spain when volumes of solar-panel waste in the country exceed 10,000 tons a year, up from less than 2,000 tons today. Mr. Delgado said he expects that tipping point to be reached in 2027 or 2028, based on industry forecasts, but he said Iberdrola doesn’t have an estimate of how much money it could make.

Continue reading “Building a Solar Recycling Industry”

Interview starts at 1:47.

Clear, well spoken and impressive.

CNBC:

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told CNBC on Tuesday that she’s hoping an agreement to sanction Russian oil will be reached in the coming days.

The 27 EU countries have been stuck over an oil embargo on Russia for several weeks, with countries such as Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic blocking the measure. Any sanctions imposed by the EU need to have the approval of all member states in order to be implemented.

“I hope we are talking about days. So what we are looking at is one or two member states that are landlocked, so cannot have oil via the sea and need alternatives in pipelines and in refineries, and there we are trying to find solutions,” von der Leyen said at the World Economic Forum.

“We are working on the oil embargo very hard,” she added. 

The EU decided to block imports of Russian coal last month, but imposing restrictions on oil has proven a much more complicated task. Countries that are highly dependent on Russian fossil fuels are concerned about the implications of such measures for their own economies.

Hungary, for example, is reportedly asking for financial support of between 15 billion and 18 billion euros ($16 billion and $19 billion) to move away from Russian energy. Hungary will also reportedly refuse to discuss the matter at an upcoming EU meeting later this month.

Dr. Jeff Masters in Yale Climate Connections:

Potential trouble is brewing in the Gulf of Mexico for the coming Atlantic hurricane season: waters with a high amount of heat energy. Sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in mid-May were 27-28 degrees Celsius (81-82° F) across most of the Gulf, 0.5 to 1.5 degrees Celsius (0.9-2.7°F) above the 1981-2010 average. That’s a lot of heat energy for potential hurricanes to feast on. 

What’s more, the Gulf waters have the potential to be at near record-warm levels during the peak part of hurricane season, if the southeastern U.S. gets a sustained heat wave that brings light winds and hot conditions to the Gulf for an extended period. (The first half of May was record-warm for Galveston, Texas, which contributed to the unusually warm ocean temperatures off the Texas coast.)

But sea surface temperatures don’t tell the whole story. When a hurricane traverses a shallow area of warm ocean waters, its powerful winds will churn up cold waters from the depths, cooling the surface and putting the brakes on any rapid intensification the hurricane may have had. But when unusually warm ocean waters extend to great depth, 100 meters or more below the surface, the hurricane’s churning winds simply stir up more warm water, allowing dangerous rapid intensification to occur if wind shear is low. Thus, total Ocean Heat Content (OHC) is a key metric used to determine the potential for hurricane rapid intensification. And unfortunately, given the present ocean current configuration, there will be high ocean heat content in the Gulf of Mexico this hurricane season.