Podcast Episode: Has the Amazon reached its 'Tipping Point'?

BP scales back climate goals as profits more than double to £23bn

BP cut its emissions pledge and plans a greater production of oil and gas over the next seven years compared with previous targets.

Leaked video footage of ocean pollution shines light on deep-sea mining

a Canadian mining firm that is one of the leading industry players, spent September to November of last year testing its underwater extraction vehicle in the Clarion Clipperton Fracture Zone, a section of the Pacific Ocean between Mexico and Hawaii. But a group of scientists hired by the company to monitor its operations, concerned by what they saw, posted a video of what they said was a flawed process that accidentally released sediment into the ocean.

How to find public climate funding (in the US)

I don’t know if “climate activist” is really the right way to put it. Like, if I’m drowning and trying to come up for air, I’m not suddenly an “oxygen activist”—I’m literally just trying to stay alive.

EU Unlocks $270B for Green Deal Industrial Plan to Boost Net Zero

The EU's response to the US' IRA and its $360b fund for climate

World’s biggest investment fund warns directors to tackle climate crisis or face sack

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s single largest investor, has warned company directors it will vote against their re-election to the board if they do not up their game on tackling the climate crisis, human rights abuses and boardroom diversity.

Massive, game-changing iron air battery farm coming to Minnesota

Taiwan’s retreat from nuclear power

"Germany was far from the only nation to try to turn against nuclear energy after the 2011 accident in Japan. Taiwan did, too. And the current government under President Tsai Ing-wen, whose party shares the German Greens’ anti-nuclear position, wants to shut down Taiwan’s nuclear plants by 2025."

BP, Shell, Exxon and co. bag £1bn handout in give-away CO2 permits, as profits soar.

Study Documents a Halt to Deforestation in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest After Indigenous Communities Gain Title to Their Territories

"A study published in the scientific journal PNAS Nexus suggests that after Indigenous communities obtain legal title to their territories, the rate of deforestation significantly declines."

"The PNAS Nexus study looked at forest cover change, or the net difference between deforestation and reforestation, in 129 Indigenous territories throughout the country’s Atlantic rainforest from 1985 to 2019. Among the territories reviewed, 77 Indigenous communities had obtained legal title to their lands during the time period studied while 52 had not."

While most trees in CA are likely 'breathing (& drinking) easier' w/this wet winter, a few species may be benefiting more than others from the big water recharge. One of these is the world's largest, the Giant Sequoia.

"Montane forests in the southern Sierra Nevada, where the majority of Sequoias are found, have received very little precip over the last 3 yrs. As a result, many 'big trees', especially those in Sequoia/ Kings Canyon NPs & GS Natl Monument, have likely become water stressed."

"As might be expected based on massive size & leaf area (>2.5 billion living leaves per tree), these monarchs of the forest need *a lot* of water. During the summer a single tree can use >500 gallons/day - which makes them highly dependent on abundant/reliable supply for survival."

Chile battles deadliest wildfires on record as heatwave grips

Chilean firefighters were battling to hold back forest fires on Monday as authorities said hot and dry weather would continue this week, potentially exacerbating what are already the deadliest blazes in the country's recent history.

Illegal gold miners blamed for causing a humanitarian crisis on Brazil's largest indigenous reservation are asking authorities to help them leave, one of their leaders and a Brazilian senator said on Monday.

The No-Jet Set: They’ve Given Up Flying to Save the Planet

With airplanes producing a large amount of climate-warming emissions, a growing number of travelers are signing pledges to keep their journeys on the ground.

Battling Lava and Snowstorms to Keep a Climate Project Alive

Ever since an eruption in Hawaii halted a long-running record of carbon dioxide, scientists have found ways to carry on — atop a neighboring volcano.

"Two and a half miles above the Pacific, with the combined exhalations of a vast swath of humankind and its cars and factories blowing toward him, Aidan Colton looked out over the volcano’s snow-streaked summit and lifted up a glass flask the size of a coconut."

"He held his breath — even the carbon dioxide from his lungs might corrupt the sample. After a moment, he opened the valve. The air he is collecting at Mauna Kea is feeding the world’s longest-running record of direct readings of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere."

"After Mauna Loa started belching lava, technicians with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which runs the observatory, flew in and installed instruments on Mauna Kea shortly before a fierce winter storm brought hurricane-force winds to the summit, which could have delayed the work. They got it done so quickly because, months earlier, NOAA had already started exploring putting a backup site there, at a telescope run by the University of Hawaii."

Study: More frequent atmospheric rivers slow the seasonal recovery of Arctic sea ice

An increase in atmospheric rivers (ARs) – ”intense corridors of moisture transport” – is contributing to “reduced recovery of sea ice” in the Arctic during winter,

A leading conservation research group found that 40% of animals and 34% of plants in the United States are at risk of extinction

NatureServe, which analyzes data from its network of over 1,000 scientists across the United States and Canada, said the report was its most comprehensive yet, synthesizing five decades' worth of its own information on the health of animals, plants and ecosystems.

Remote Corner of China Unveils $25 Billion Clean Energy Push

Inner Mongolia embarks on 32 projects. Most of the investments start construction this year.

China’s weather agency warned regional authorities to prepare for more extreme weather this year

How China is building so much solar, so fast. (With pictures)

McKinsey blueprint for scaling voluntary carbon markets to meet the climate challenge

What it would take to strengthen voluntary carbon markets to support climate action on a large scale.

What's the deal with electrolyzers?

An interview with the CEO of Electric Hydrogen, an electrolyzer startup. Serves as an excellent, information-dense introduction to and perspective on the current state of electrolyzers.

Colombia announces halt on fossil fuel exploration

Colombia’s leftwing government has announced that it will not approve any new oil and gas exploration projects.

Fears about A.I. are best understood as fears about capitalism.

"And I think that this is actually true of most fears of technology, too. Most of our fears or anxieties about technology are best understood as fears or anxiety about how capitalism will use technology against us. And technology and capitalism have been so closely intertwined that it’s hard to distinguish the two."

"So when you think about the canonical example of A.I. killing us all, like the paperclip maximizer, where you tell an A.I. to make as many paper clips as it can, and then it converts the entire world into a paperclip materials and that’s the end of us, that seems like some capitalist wanted to make paper clips and invented A.I."

Fearmongering over footballs

The fossil fuel industry says footballs couldn't exist without oil. It's a lie designed to prevent us from imagining a more sustainable world.

"Over the past 25 years, 68 football players across all levels have died from heat stroke, according to the University of North Carolina. Eleven of those players died in the past five years."

A handy guide to finding a job in climate

EU unveils Green Deal Industrial Plan to boost Europe's clean tech competitiveness

The European Commission published its 21-page EU Green Deal Industrial Plan this week, calling for a new Net Zero Industry Act and a host of measures to accelerate the roll out of clean technologies.

Researchers discover elephant extinction could have major impact on atmospheric carbon levels

If the already critically endangered elephants become extinct, rainforest of central and west Africa, the second largest rainforest on earth, would lose between six and nine percent of their ability to capture atmospheric carbon, amplifying planetary warming.

How Putin’s plans to blackmail Europe over gas supply failed

"Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, meanwhile, gleefully predicted that Europeans would be “freezing in their homes” because they hadn’t thought through the consequences of throwing their support behind Ukraine. “The cold is coming soon,” he said, menacingly, in June last year."

"Within eight months of Russian troops setting foot on Ukrainian soil, the bloc of 27 European states replaced about 80% of the natural gas it used to draw through pipelines with Russia, by rapidly building up new infrastructure for liquid natural gas, finding creative ways to help each other out amid shortages, and successfully pursuing energy-saving policies."

"The Nordic countries were even more successful at reducing gas consumption, with Denmark cutting total demand – for power generation, industry and domestic heating – by 24%, Sweden by 36% and Finland by a mighty 47% (although natural gas accounted for only 5% of its overall energy needs)."

Mexico looks to giant solar park in the desert

Coal communities fear South Africa’s clean energy transition

Colombia will get the first pay-out of a $300m Climate Investment Funds pot for transmission lines, batteries, EV chargers and green hydrogen

The money comes from a $300m pot made up of one-off donations from the governments of the United Kingdom, Netherlands and Switzerland.

Study: Future global streamflow declines are probably more severe than previously estimated

A new study finds that the amount of water in Earth’s rivers by mid-century may be lower than models currently predict. Using observations and weather data from more than 9,500 catchments around the world, researchers quantify how the flow of each river relates to drivers such as precipitation and groundwater storage. They find that streamflow is more sensitive to changes in precipitation than previously thought, particularly in Africa, Australia and North America.

Shell’s lack of ambition is maddening: it’s time to speed up transition to renewables

Study: UK butterflies vanish from nearly half of the places they once flew

Shell Hits the Brakes on Growing Renewables Unit After Record 2022 Profit

What Exxon and Chevron Are Doing With Those Big Profits

Shell’s Profit Soared to $42 Billion Last Year

This Guide Can Help You Save Money and Fight Climate Change

The new climate and tax law can bring big savings for anyone looking to buy an electric car or make their home more energy efficient.

Interview with Chief Climate Officer of $60b US Development Finance fund

Shell made a record $40b in profit in 2022

UK butterflies vanish from nearly half of the places they once flew

Environmental Impacts of the Foods we Eat

New study: yes, storing CO2 underground is safe.

According to the simulations, the CO2 would remain deep in the subsurface for millions of years, even if the overlying low-permeability rocks were fractured.

A price war is brewing in the electric vehicle market

Europe shares a "Green Deal" new industrial policy

The Green Deal Industrial Plan is our plan to make Europe the home of clean tech and industrial innovation on the road to net-zero.

How the South Atlantic is overcoming its history as an under-researched ocean

This Five-Mile-Long Cloud of Methane Was Spotted Over Wyoming

Three satellites observed a big plume of the potent planet-warming gas over the US state last month, which scientists attributed to a natural gas facility.

"It all started with an apparent mistake. Alarms at Tallgrass Energy’s Douglas Gas Plant in Wyoming were triggered by high oxygen levels after a maintenance project didn’t go as planned. The operator told regulators it vented a total of about 2.1 metric tons of methane in five separate safety releases."

"A satellite passing over the US state, however, observed a methane cloud 4.6 miles (7.4 km) long emanating from the location, which scientists estimated was spewing the planet-warming gas at a rate of 76 to 184 metric tons an hour."

Administration Expected to Endorse Limited Drilling in Alaska Project

The Biden administration is expected to propose a scaled-down version of a sprawling oil drilling project in the North Slope of Alaska, according to two people familiar with the decision. The proposal would allow drilling to proceed on a limited basis as part of an $8 billion project known as Willow that climate activists have criticized for years.

"The move to allow some drilling is widely considered a balancing act as the Biden administration seeks a middle ground between its climate change goals and pressure from the oil industry, as well as Alaska lawmakers. Willow is a particular priority for Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, a moderate Republican who is frequently the most likely senator to break with her party and support Democratic appointees and some policy compromises."

"The politics are complex. Mr. Biden has urged oil companies to increase production amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which continues to threaten energy supplies. At the same time, the administration is overseeing $370 billion in wind, solar, electric vehicle and other clean energy investments to pivot the country away from fossil fuels."

Norway's oil company @Equinor wants to drill an oil field in the UK that would create more CO2 than 28 countries in the Global South do in a year.

Fossil fuel giants paid 13,000 times more political “donations” than taxes

There’s a deal to save the Colorado River — if California doesn’t blow it up

"After months of tense negotiation, a half-dozen states have reached an agreement to drastically cut their water usage and stabilize the drought-stricken Colorado River — as long as California doesn’t blow up the deal."

"California, which takes more water than any other state, has rejected the proposal as too onerous, instead proposing its own plan with a less stringent scheme for cutting water usage."

"The Colorado River has been oversubscribed for more than a century thanks to a much-maligned 1922 contract that allocated more water than actually existed, but it has also been shrinking over the past 20 years thanks to a millennium-scale drought made worse by climate change."

Joe Biden passed billions worth of climate change tax credits and rebates but Americans mostly have no idea about them

Polling shows that while Americans support action to slow climate change, they are broadly unaware of the Inflation Reduction Act, the massive legislation that includes financial incentives to lower emissions, and skeptical of their own role in the climate crisis.

How Climate Change Is Forcing Therapists to Mend Their Field

"We’re trying to train therapists in a different model of thinking, one that is much more culturally and historically informed."

A safer gas stove that created less pollution was invented in the 1980s. But it was never rolled out. The gas industry knew that gas stoves were harmful for our health. They lied about the science, just like the tobacco companies.

Tonga volcano eruption raises ‘imminent’ risk of temporary 1.5C breach

In a warming world, California’s trees keep dying

California’s forest mosaics are vanishing. According to a study published in AGU Advances last July, the state’s forests lost almost 7%, or just over 1,700 square miles, of tree cover since 1985. That’s an area larger than Yosemite National Park. In particular, forests in California’s southwestern mountains lost 14% of tree cover.

Taiwan Is Retreating From Nuclear Energy. At What Cost?

The self-governing island plans to shut down its last atomic power stations by 2025, threatening more emissions and greater vulnerability to a blockade by China.

This Friday I'm defending my PhD thesis 'Steel Beyond Coal'. With nearly 6 years of research on steel decarbonisation coming to an end, here comes a very long 🧵about steel, coal and what we can do radically reduce carbon emissions in line with a just transformation.

a new climate change indicator showing the cumulative loss of mass for reference glaciers around the world for every year from 1950 to 2021

Every coal plant in the US (except for 1) is more expensive to run than building new wind or solar

California may follow New York in divesting from fossil fuel

Global elite produce almost half greenhouse emissions, UN says

The sweeping research, by a group led by the Nobel Prize winning economist Thomas Piketty, examined the unequal effects of climate change and also found that the top 1 per cent of global emitters were responsible for nearly a quarter of the total growth in pollution between 1990 and 2019.

Wind and solar were EU’s top electricity source in 2022 for first time ever

The EU "coal bump" is down

Twitter thread on why the EU burned more coal for a while, and why that's finished now.

"The EU was perceived to be having a "coal rebound" in 2022 because it imported much more coal. But only 1/3 of that extra coal was burnt. 2/3rds was implicitly added to stockpiles. It was bought as an emergency buffer for a winter gas crunch that didn't happen..."

"It was the surge in solar that was one of the biggest stories of 2022, that led to such a small rise in coal. Solar generation increased twice as much as any other year. Almost 50% more capacity was installed in 2022 as in 2021. Total generation (and capacity) was up 25%."

A Deadly, Overlooked Consequence of Climate Change: Disease

The largest cholera outbreak in Malawi shows how increasingly extreme weather is having negative impacts on health.

Will Steffen, ‘courageous’ climate scientist, dies in Canberra aged 75

Steffen was known for his studies on the rate humans were driving changes to the planet and the risks of irreversible “tipping points” that could push the world to “hothouse” conditions.

Wind and solar were EU’s top electricity source in 2022 for first time ever

YC startup OutSail Shipping launches - Sustainable wind-powered container ships

The Dollar and Climate

The climate crisis offers a new angle from which to evaluate US dollar hegemony, since carbon emissions are tied to economic activity.

Amazon’s least-deforested areas are due to ‘vital role’ of Indigenous peoples

Only 5% of net forest loss in the Brazilian Amazon occurs in Indigenous territories and protected areas.

How Russia dodges oil sanctions on an industrial scale

Antarctica’s Brunt Ice Shelf Finally Breaks

According to the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the break occurred late on January 22, 2023, and produced a new iceberg with an area of 1550 square kilometers (about 600 square miles).

The Art of Eating Well in Antarctica

Surprising no one, the American Gas Association's go-to "scientist" to create uncertainty on the dangers of indoor gas use previously worked for Phillip Morris making safety claims for Marlboro.

Marie Tharp pioneered mapping the bottom of the ocean 6 decades ago – scientists are still learning about Earth’s last frontier

As a geoscientist, I believe Tharp should be as famous as Jane Goodall or Neil Armstrong. Here’s why.

Study: there's less climate content in university textbooks today than there was a decade ago.

YCombinator wants to invest in more climate tech startups

World’s first agriculture-focused satellite launched

Accountability Is The Most Important Climate Solution

"The focus on technological and policy solutions to climate has put the cart before the horse, and in doing so, created a solutions framework that is hopelessly inadequate. Americans in particular have a tendency to skip right over accountability and straight to "solutions," but failing to understand how a problem came about in the first place tends to deliver…not solutions, but new problems. And on climate, examples of that abound."

Gas Knew Too

A lot has been written about how Exxon was hiding climate impacts for decades. Now a similar story is happening with gas. "Gas companies have known for over a century that breathing gas in your home is harmful to human health."

New paper shows that no, mining lithium and such won't blow our carbon budget.

We see a lot of concern today that renewables and other clean electricity will require too much materials, and producing those will break our remaining carbon budget. We have a new paper out today we find that these concerns are overblown.

It's frustrating to see new-to-climate founders basically pitching the same 4 companies. (thread)

Climate-driven changes in the Amazon basin have knock-on effects on the Tibetan Plateau 20,000 kilometres (12,500 miles) away

China Solar Silicon Producers Forecast Soaring 2022 Profits

The largest chemical company in the world, Germany’s BASF, was ranked recently by the UK thinktank InfluenceMap as the third most “negatively influential” corporation in the world, following US oil giants Chevron and ExxonMobil.

Brazil's President Lula da Silva yesterday urged his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, to have France attend the summit of the Amazon countries that he aims to host in coming months.

New research warns that human activity and drought may have degraded more than a third of the Amazon rainforest – “double the previous estimate”.

The review study, published in Science, says that fires, land conversion, logging and water shortages have weakened the resilience of up to 2.5m sq km of the forest, an area 10 times the size of the UK, the paper says. This has left the area “drier, more flammable and more vulnerable than before, prompting the authors to warn of ‘megafires’ in the future”.

As the Colorado River Shrinks, Washington Prepares to Spread the Pain

The seven states that rely on the river for water are not expected to reach a deal on cuts. It appears the Biden administration will have to impose reductions.

"Without a deal, the Interior Department, which manages flows on the river, must impose the cuts. That would break from the century-long tradition of states determining how to share the river’s water."

"A century’s worth of laws, which assign different priorities to Colorado River users based on how long they’ve used the water, is facing off against a competing philosophy that says, as the climate changes, water cuts should be apportioned based on what’s practical."

"If the water level falls below 950 feet, the Hoover Dam will no longer be able to generate hydroelectric power. At 895 feet, no water would be able to pass the dam at all — a condition called “deadpool.”"

"That leaves California and Arizona, which have rights to 4.4 million and 2.8 million acre-feet from the Colorado — typically the largest and third-largest allotments among the seven states. Negotiators from both sides seem convinced of one thing: The other state ought to come up with more cuts."

Climate change could make parts of Lebanon ‘too hot’ for producing olive oil

New York City will require Uber and Lyft to go 100 percent electric by 2030

The proposed rule would likely affect an estimated 100,000 vehicles that operate in the five boroughs. And Uber and Lyft have both set the goal of transitioning to an all-electric fleet by 2030.

Ecuador Tried to Curb Drilling and Protect the Amazon. The Opposite Happened.

A novel idea to leave the country’s vast oil reserves in the ground fizzled for lack of international support. Now, struggling under painful debt, the government wants to expand drilling in the rainforest.

Oceanic SACZ produces an abnormally wet 2021/2022 rainy season in South America

Global warming has reached the top of the Greenland ice sheet

Ice shelves guarded by snow shields

Floating ice shelves that fringe Antarctica are at risk from warming ocean water and from above by warming air. Work now reveals that snow accumulation on ice shelves can minimize surface melt and ponding, but that future atmospheric warming will likely overpower this protection that snow provides, leaving ice shelves vulnerable to collapse.

Why California wasn’t prepared for the atmospheric rivers

New research finds that high-income regions will see an improvement in “thermal comfort conditions” as the planet warms, while low-income regions will see a deterioration.

Coal tycoon Gautam Adani’s rise to the number two spot in global wealth rankings “deserves to be in the spotlight”.

Despite killer floods, Nigerian presidential frontrunners dismiss climate change

The excellent HEATED newsletter is on TikTok now, if that's your thing.

Crypto fraud and Direct Carbon Capture

"Fraud is going to be a problem for the direct air capture industry."

"One, there is economic incentive to *not* to the right thing, and two, there's not enough oversight."

"While fraud is maybe not an issue today, fraud in the future *is* a huge concern."

The EU's Common Agricultural Policy is one of the most environmentally destructive forces on Earth. Its perverse incentives have driven the destruction of hundreds of thousands of hectares of wildlife habitats.

State of Climate Report shows how the world warmed in 2022: Warmest year on record on multiple scales, Extreme Heatwaves and flooding

State of Climate Report shows how the world warmed in 2022: Warmest year on record for ocean heat, 5th warmest year on record for surface, warmest year on record in 28 countries. Extreme Heatwaves and flooding. The year ended up cooler due to triple-dip La Nina

How activists are working to change New England’s grid operator from the inside