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Our climate change turning point is right here, right now | Rebecca Solnit
People are dying. Aquatic animals are baking in their shells. Fruit is being cooked on the tree. It’s time to act
Human beings crave clarity, immediacy, landmark events. We seek turning points, because our minds are good at recognizing the specific – this time, this place, this sudden event, this tangible change. This is why we were never very good, most of us, at comprehending climate change in the first place. The climate was an overarching, underlying condition of our lives and planet, and the change was incremental and intricate and hard to recognize if you weren’t keeping track of this species or that temperature record. Climate catastrophe is a slow shattering of the stable patterns that governed the weather, the seasons, the species and migrations, all the beautifully orchestrated systems of the holocene era we exited when we manufactured the anthropocene through a couple of centuries of increasingly wanton greenhouse gas emissions and forest destruction.
This spring, when I saw the shockingly low water of Lake Powell, I thought that maybe this summer would be a turning point. At least for the engineering that turned the southwest’s Colorado River into a sort of plumbing system for human use, with two huge dams that turned stretches of a mighty river into vast pools of stagnant water dubbed Lake Powell, on the eastern Utah/Arizona border, and Lake Mead, in southernmost Nevada. It’s been clear for years that the overconfident planners of the 1950s failed to anticipate that, while they tinkered with the river, industrial civilization was also tinkering with the systems that fed it.
Continue reading...Shell, PetroChina sign 5-year deal on carbon neutral LNG
Major Chinese steel hub commits to peaking carbon emissions by 2025
Project Lead Coal Regions Just Transition, Agora Energiewende – Berlin/Bangkok
Project Manager Coal Regions Just Transition, Agora Energiewende – Berlin/Bangkok
Global Campaigns Director, Oil Change International – Remote
Regional Program Director, Oil Change International – Remote
Managing Director, Greenhouse Gas Management Institute – Remote (US Pacific)
Carbon Analyst, The Nature Conservancy – London
Florida breaks manatee death record in first six months of 2021
How years of Coalition interference left AGL with no option but to split in two
After years of Coalition interference - and attempts to depose its CEO - AGL has been forced to undertake emergency measures to save its business.
The post How years of Coalition interference left AGL with no option but to split in two appeared first on RenewEconomy.
“Last straw:” Community members slam AusNet grid plans, quit consultations
Community members quit AusNet consultation group, saying they had been misinformed by network operator over its major grid transmission plans.
The post “Last straw:” Community members slam AusNet grid plans, quit consultations appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Zooming versus flying: The net climate impacts of internet use
One hour spent on Zoom generates less CO2 than driving a car a kilometre. Going virtual is actually a good thing for emissions.
The post Zooming versus flying: The net climate impacts of internet use appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Winter energy price shock: Regulators and policy makers are to blame
The failure of policy makers and regulators is now being felt in the electricity market, and consumers are being sent the bill.
The post Winter energy price shock: Regulators and policy makers are to blame appeared first on RenewEconomy.
‘Environmental accounting’ could revolutionise nature conservation, but Australia has squandered its potential
Record number of manatees die in Florida as food source dries up
State officials report ‘unprecedented’ deaths due to starvation as pollution and algal blooms take toll
More manatees have died already this year than in any other year in Florida’s recorded history, primarily from starvation due to the loss of seagrass beds, state officials have said.
The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission reported that 841 manatee deaths were recorded between 1 January and 2 July, breaking the previous record of 830 that died during the whole of 2013 because of an outbreak of toxic red tide.
Continue reading...Chart of the Day: Australia’s ageing coal plants are not so reliable
Number of forced outages from Australia's feet of ageing coal fired generators jumped sharply in the last financial year.
The post Chart of the Day: Australia’s ageing coal plants are not so reliable appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Why burning trees for energy makes no sense
Burning roundwood and stemwood for power actually emits more CO2 than coal per unit of energy generated. The practice must be stopped.
The post Why burning trees for energy makes no sense appeared first on RenewEconomy.
The government must take responsibility for the Great Barrier Reef and stop looking for someone else to blame | Peter Garrett
When Unesco recommended the reef be placed on the ‘in danger’ list, the Coalition’s response was to shift the blame. We must do better
- Unesco recommends reef world heritage site be listed as ‘in danger’
- Timeline: decades of damage and Australia’s fight to stop ‘in danger’ listing
Escaping responsibility has become the recurrent theme of the Morrison government. Whether it is the glacial progress of the vaccination rollout, dealing with the megafires two summers ago, or the parlous state of the Great Barrier Reef, someone else is always to blame.
When Unesco released its recommendation to the World Heritage Committee in June to place the Great Barrier Reef on the “in danger” list, the first reaction of the federal government was to blame China.
Continue reading...Wind, solar and battery hybrids desperately need a change in market rules
"The technology allows for it, but the rules are getting in the way." Why Australia's hybrid wind, solar and battery facilities can't work together.
The post Wind, solar and battery hybrids desperately need a change in market rules appeared first on RenewEconomy.