Month: July 2024

Wildfire Smoke Linked to Alzheimers

More reasons to mask up.

PBS:

Wildfire smoke may be worse for brain health than other types of air pollution, according to new research linking it to an increased risk of dementia.

The findings, reported Monday at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Philadelphia, come as millions spent the weekend under air quality warnings from wildfires spewing smoke across the western U.S.

At issue is fine particulate matter or PM2.5 – tiny particles about 30 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair that can be inhaled deep into the lungs and move to the bloodstream. This pollution – from traffic, factories and fires – can cause or worsen heart and lung diseases, and the new study adds to evidence it may play some role in dementia, too.

Researchers tracked health records from 1.2 million older adults in Southern California between 2009 and 2019. They used air quality monitoring and other data to estimate residential exposure to PM2.5 over three years from wildfire smoke or other causes.

The study found the odds of a new dementia diagnosis increased about 21% for every 1 microgram increase in the concentration of wildfire particles. That compared with a 3% increased risk for every 3 microgram jump in non-wildfire particles, concluded researchers from the universities of Washington and Pennsylvania.

It’s not clear why there would be a difference. But with wildfires increasing, this needs more study, said Alzheimer’s Association chief science officer Maria Carrillo. That’s especially considering that the risk of Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia, is higher for lower-income populations who may have a harder time avoiding unhealthy air, she said.

Health warnings urge staying indoors when air quality is poor but “there are a lot of people who don’t have the option to stay home or they work outside,” she noted.

Biden Climate Bill’s Biggest Boost is in Red Areas

CNN:

When President Joe Biden’s massive climate bill passed Congress in 2022, Republican Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina complained it was boondoggle.

The Inflation Reduction Act, which contained the largest climate investment in US history, would “throw money at woke climate and social programs that won’t work — including over $350 billion for ‘Green New Deal’ initiatives,” Hudson said in a statement after IRA’s passage.

But Hudson – now the head of House Republicans’ campaign committee – is one of the members of Congress whose district has benefitted the most from the climate law and its massive investment in clean energy.

About $12.7 billion in private investment has been announced in Hudson’s district since the bill passed, the second-highest amount in the nation. Much of it is from Toyota expanding a gargantuan car battery plant that has tripled in size since it was first announced. The factory will span the length of 756 football fields and will spur 5,100 new jobs, the company estimates.

Hudson isn’t alone. House Republicans uniformly voted against the IRA in August 2022 and have voted to repeal some of its biggest programs dozens of times, but their districts are disproportionately reaping its benefits.

The vast majority of the $346-billion-worth of announced investments – nearly 78% – has gone to Republican congressional districts, according to a CNN analysis of data from the nonpartisan Rhodium Group and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

When Climate Deniers Just Can’t Back Down

They’re just too vested.
Recent history shows that paranoid science deniers would rather die alone on a ventilator than get a freakin’ vaccine. What made anyone think they could process climate reality?
We’ll have to wait for the old ones to die, or, perhaps for Gen Z to step it up and take the lead.
—
Ruben Bolling is a pseudonym for Ken Fisher, an American cartoonist, the author of Tom the Dancing Bug. His work started out apolitical, instead featuring absurdist humor, parodying comic strip conventions, or critiquing celebrity culture. He’s been one of the most consistently brilliant cartoonist in America for a long time.
Follow him at
https://www.instagram.com/rubenbolling/

In Vermont, “1000 year” Events Keep Coming


It was only a few years ago people were still saying “Vermont is a climate haven”.

It’s starting to look like the pleasant river valleys of Vermont may be uninhabitable, uninsurable death traps in a climate changed world.
Where do you go if you’re a refugee from Vermont?

CNN:

Emergency responders sprang into action early Tuesday to rescue residents in flooded areas of northeast Vermont after a 1-in-1,000-year rainfall event created a surge of dangerous floodwaters for the second time in a matter of weeks.

Ten swift-water rescue teams completed about two dozen rescues in Caledonia and Essex counties, some of the hardest-hit areas, where flash flood emergencies warning of “catastrophic flooding” were issued and the storm unleashed inches of rainfall in just a few hours.

Continue reading “In Vermont, “1000 year” Events Keep Coming”

Olympics Gamble on Climate: Will Triathlon Poop Out?

Heavier than usual rains overwhelming Paris Storm sewers, leading to high E. Coli counts in the Seine, where officials gambled they would be able to hold the swimming leg of the Triathlon.
Situation on hold.

Associated Press:

Olympics organizers are banking on the sun and scorching temperatures to improve the water quality of the Seine River enough for triathletes to swim in it.

Otherwise, they could be feeling the heat.

Concerns about the Paris river’s cleanliness postponed the men’s triathlon on Tuesday, with officials hoping the swimming portion of the race will soon be able to go forward in the long-polluted waterway following an expensive cleanup effort.

Organizers said they will try to hold the men’s triathlon Wednesday instead. The women’s competition also is scheduled that day, but both will only happen if water tests show acceptable levels of E. coli and other bacteria. Friday is also planned as a backup date. 

However, storms or rain are forecast Tuesday night through Thursday, which could complicate rescheduling because rain generally causes bacteria levels in the Seine to rise.

Elon Musk’s Weird War on Tesla’s Brand

Last night a quickly organized group called “White Dudes for Harris” staged a zoom call which was attended by almost 200,000, and raised 4 million dollars for presumed Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
The group was quickly suspended by Elon Musk’s “X” media platform, and although it was reinstated this morning, the incident only adds to a strong stench that is pushing away buyers and investors from the Tesla brand.

It seems clear that Elon Musk’s dive into social media with purchase of the Twitter platform has been a destructive distraction from his responsibilities at Tesla. The auto unit’s brand has, in turn, has been damaged by Musk’s obvious and weird fascination with conspiratorial, racist, and right wing ideas, as demonstrated by numerous posts on the site, and endorsement of Donald Trump in the current Presidential Race.
For many buyers who have looked to Tesla as a leader in a key technology to fight climate change, the turn towards a Party that denies science and physics, and trashes Electric Vehicles, has been jarring.

Continue reading “Elon Musk’s Weird War on Tesla’s Brand”

Texas Utility Would Raise Rates for Beryl “Restoration”

Pretty brazen.
Hard to blame wind turbines for the extended Houston blackouts following Cat 1 Hurricane Beryl’s pass over the city.
The local utility, Centerpoint, has been defending itself against charges that it pays more attention to building new generators, for which it is well rewarded in the rate base, vs maintaining existing transmission and distribution lines that failed miserably in the storm.


Houston Chronicle’s Chris Tomlinson explains (paywall):

Texas Republicans and Democrats rarely agree on anything, but CenterPoint’s grid failure during Hurricane Beryl united 13 senators Monday to rage against the utility and demand every electricity transmission and distribution company to better prepare for future disasters.

However, the truth that emerged from the Texas Senate hearing is that state leaders have not adequately overseen the electric business for decades. Winter Storm Uri in 2021 demonstrated that our generation system was decrepit; Beryl proved the electric lines and poles were, too.
–
Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican, focused on the perverse incentives of how Texas rewards utilities. The state grants a company, city or cooperative a monopoly to maintain transmission and distribution wires in a particular area. In return, customers pay for the service on their electricity bills.

The funds are paid to maintain existing lines and manage vegetation near power lines. However, the company does not earn a profit on operations and maintenance. Utilities only collect their guaranteed 9.5% profit from big capital expenditures on new equipment or power lines.

Bettencourt called that “bassackwards.” He accused CenterPoint of directing spending where the PUC allows it to collect a profit, such as $800 million allocated for backup generators, instead of trimming trees and vines.

CenterPoint budgeted only $3.9 million to trim vegetation from 3,500 miles of power lines in 2023 on a grid with 29,000 miles of cables, committee members reported. The company has since promised to expand that to 7,000 miles, but only after at least 30 people died from lack of power.
—
Oh, about those backup generators….

Continue reading “Texas Utility Would Raise Rates for Beryl “Restoration””

Climate Catastrophe Animal Vids of the Week

Project 2025 Has Plans for a Fossil Fueled Grid

Discussion here includes reference to “RTOs” – Regional Transmission Organizations, which are Transmission system operators, similar to system operators like MISO, PJM, or CAISO, which regulate transmission over large areas or several states.

Arie Pesko, Director of the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard Law, on X:

Project 2025’s main goal is to raise market prices received by coal, gas, and nuclear and/or raise market costs paid by wind and solar. Project 2025 calls this “reliability pricing” but it has only half-baked ideas (at best!) for how to implement it. 

It asserts that “there is a growing problem with the electric grid’s reliability because of the increasing growth of subsidized intermittent renewable generation (like wind and solar)…” and

“Subsidized renewable resources are undermining electric reliability in RTOs.” 

What’s the proof? In a footnote, it says that devastation from Winter Storm Uri in 2021 was due to subsidized renewables and “a lack of dispatchable generation.”
There was in fact plenty of dispatchable capacity in TX in 2021. It just didn’t work. 

It also cites to a few NERC documents that don’t support the proposition about subsidized wind and solar and notes outages in California in 2020 and 2022. 

Of course, it ignores all problems experienced by coal and gas generators. Anyway…

Continue reading “Project 2025 Has Plans for a Fossil Fueled Grid”

Home Insurance Industry’s Worst Shock of the Century


Above, the gigantic Park fire in California is burning close to the same area, Paradise, that was famously destroyed 6 years ago in another disaster, the Camp fire. Residents have continued to build in areas vulnerable to increasing massive disasters.

Insurers taking a beating. We are all paying for this through increased rates already. Clearly this is unsustainable but something no one wants to talk about. Graph below is daunting.

Financial Times (paywall):

US home insurers last year suffered their worst underwriting loss this century as a toxic mix of natural disasters, inflation and population growth in at-risk areas put a vital financial market under acute pressure. Insurers providing policies to homeowners suffered a $15.2bn net underwriting loss last year, according to figures from rating agency AM Best, a figure it said was the worst since at least 2000 and more than double the previous year’s losses.

The figures lay bare the underwriting conditions that have sparked a pullback by US insurers from disaster-hit areas, either exiting markets or driving up prices, creating an affordability crisis for many homeowners. The report identified rising populations in those regions most susceptible to natural disasters as a significant factor — citing census figures showing that six states prone to severe weather, including California and Texas, accounted for half of the country’s population growth in the 2010s.

“The industry is facing rapidly escalating coverage demands while insured losses are skyrocketing,” said Robert Gordon, senior vice-president of policy, research and international at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, a trade body.
“Not only are more homes being built in areas that are at high risk for natural disasters, but these homes are increasingly more expensive to repair and rebuild as inflation has driven up the cost of construction labour and materials.”