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The chronicle of a fire foretold | Rebecca Solnit

The Guardian - Fri, 2025-01-10 03:00

The current fires in Los Angeles are reminders of the costs of forgetting

The fires raging in and around Malibu are huge, and they’re terrible, and they’re also the latest in a series of catastrophic fires in Los Angeles county and the region, the latest consequence of heat and drought and wind that have long created the region’s volatile fire weather.

The climate crisis has made it hotter and dryer and made wildfire worse here and across the west and around the world, but this region’s ecology has always been wedded to fire. Homes built in and around natural landscapes – canyons, chaparral coastal hills, forests, mountainsides – with a history of wildfire that are pretty much guaranteed to burn again sooner or later create the personal tragedies and losses and the pressure for fire crews to try to contain the blazes. But suppressing the blazes lets the fuel load build up, meaning that fire will be worse when it comes.

Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. She is the author of Orwell’s Roses and co-editor with Thelma Young Lutunatabua of the climate anthology Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility

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Categories: Around The Web

Major BP gas terminal in Azerbaijan hits flaring record in 2024

Carbon Pulse - Fri, 2025-01-10 02:47
The largest BP gas processing plant in Azerbaijan carried out record levels of gas flaring in 2024, according to new research published on Thursday.
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EU car industry “hopeful” CBAM concerns will be addressed

Carbon Pulse - Fri, 2025-01-10 02:28
Manufacturers have cited lack of access to accurate emissions data along the auto industry’s complex supply chain as well as administrative challenges among a range of factors hampering the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM).
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Carbon removal market more than doubles in size in 2024 after Microsoft spending spree

Carbon Pulse - Fri, 2025-01-10 02:23
The carbon removal (CDR) market more than doubled in size in 2024, but the surge was dominated by Microsoft, which accounted for 72% of fresh demand, according to a new report.
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INTERVIEW: German industry laments climate policy paralysis as CBAM fees approach

Carbon Pulse - Fri, 2025-01-10 02:15
As Europe prepares for the rollout of new carbon regulations, Germany’s industrial sector faces mounting uncertainty due to delays in implementing climate policies.
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INTERVIEW: EU taxonomy proposal to benefit biodiversity credit technology

Carbon Pulse - Fri, 2025-01-10 02:10
An influential advisory body has proposed recommending amendments to its biodiversity-related criteria, in the EU taxonomy of sustainable activities, which could benefit biodiversity credits, an expert has said.
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Scientists prize neutrality – that doesn’t cut it any more. In 2025, they must fully back the climate movement | Bill McGuire and Roger Hallam

The Guardian - Fri, 2025-01-10 02:00

With 2024 set to go down as the hottest year on record, we know that what is coming is truly horrifying

The past 12 months have seen our world enter new territory. Last year will go down as the first time that the global average temperature exceeded 1.5C above preindustrial times over a calendar year. We could crash permanently through the 1.5C guardrail within the next five years, and shatter the 2C limit as soon as 2034. This will almost certainly result in the tipping points for collapse of the Greenland and west Antarctic ice sheets being crossed, committing us to the drowning of coastal towns and cities.

In years to come, we will look back at this time and ask the same question that future generations will ask: why didn’t we stop this catastrophe?

Bill McGuire is professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at UCL and author of Hothouse Earth: an Inhabitant’s Guide

Roger Hallam is co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil

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BRIEFING: UK to rely heavily on removals and emissions trading to reach its 2050 jet zero target

Carbon Pulse - Fri, 2025-01-10 01:59
Only 36% of the UK’s ability to achieve net zero emissions in aviation by 2050 will come from low-carbon fuels and technologies and improved fuel efficiency, with the remainder to come from abatement outside the aviation sector and trading under the UK ETS and global aviation offsetting scheme, according to government projections.
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New images of Mercury captured by UK spacecraft

BBC - Fri, 2025-01-10 01:58
Stevenage-built BepiColombo makes final flyby of Mercury ahead of entering the plant's orbit in 2026.
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Fortum sets SBTi-validated targets, net zero goal by 2040

Carbon Pulse - Fri, 2025-01-10 01:33
Finnish energy company Fortum announced Thursday that its near- and long-term emissions reduction targets, along with its net zero target for 2040, have been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).
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Denmark invites bids for three more potential offshore CO2 storage sites

Carbon Pulse - Fri, 2025-01-10 01:11
Denmark kicked off its fourth licencing round for exploration and use of offshore geological CO2 storage, it announced on Thursday. 
Categories: Around The Web

Developer completes validation of carbon project in Sierra Leone under Verra reforestation methodology

Carbon Pulse - Fri, 2025-01-10 00:31
A Canada-based project developer announced Wednesday it has completed third-party validation of its first large-scale reforestation carbon credit project in Sierra Leone.
Categories: Around The Web

AI firm secures deal for ‘underground’ nuclear power plant in the US

Carbon Pulse - Fri, 2025-01-10 00:30
A sustainable infrastructure company looking to service power hungry data companies has struck a partnership with a startup US nuclear power company to build a new reactor deep undergound.
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INTERVIEW: Biodiversity footprint methodologies need more scientific rigour

Carbon Pulse - Fri, 2025-01-10 00:21
Academics must be better involved in the development of methodologies for assessing the biodiversity footprint of companies and financial institutions, as current approaches largely lack scientific rigour, researchers have told Carbon Pulse.
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Labour’s agriculture plans will increase chicken waste in rivers, say campaigners

The Guardian - Fri, 2025-01-10 00:01

Steve Reed says planning rules ‘have got in the way’ of farmers and apologises for ‘shock’ of inheritance tax change

Labour’s proposal to loosen planning regulations for farmers will deluge rivers with chicken faeces, environmental campaigners have warned.

The environment secretary, Steve Reed, promised farmers on Thursday they would be able to build larger chicken sheds, but experts have said this would create “megafarms” and contribute to river pollution.

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Australia weather: rainy week forecast for Sydney and Brisbane – but BoM says summer isn’t over yet

The Guardian - Fri, 2025-01-10 00:00

Bureau of Meteorology says showers and storms a regular feature of Australian summer, but warm and dry periods still to come

Showers are expected to continue for Sydney and Brisbane throughout much of the coming week, but summer isn’t over yet, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

In fact, senior meteorologist Miriam Bradbury said showers and storm activity were a regular feature of the Australian summer, especially for northern Australia, as well as south-east Queensland and eastern New South Wales.

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Categories: Around The Web

I’ll never be a summer person but I’ve found ways of surviving the season and even enjoying it – sometimes | Indigo Perry

The Guardian - Fri, 2025-01-10 00:00

Everyone around me is commenting on the loveliness of the weather and I’m wiping the sweat off my upper lip and hoping for a nice southerly

I’m not made for heatwaves. If my DNA could talk, it would tell me about how it still dreams of the windswept Scottish island that was home to my ancestors and then ask why it’s so hot outside.

Many people talk about suffering low moods in winter but I’m the opposite. I adore winter but easily get sad in summer. Everyone around me is commenting on the loveliness of the weather and I’m wiping the sweat off my upper lip and squinting at the rain radar again in case I missed a hint of a cloudburst or nice southerly that’s on its way to save me. It can be isolating to be one of the seemingly few who fail to revel in a season that others thrive in.

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EPA to require municipal waste incinerators monitor for toxic emissions

The Guardian - Thu, 2025-01-09 23:00

New rule hailed as major step toward reining in source of local toxic air pollution that hits low-income neighborhoods

The EPA plans to require the nation’s municipal waste incinerators to monitor for dangerous air emissions, a move environmental groups have hailed as a major step toward reining in a staggering source of localized toxic air pollution that most frequently hits low-income neighborhoods.

Municipal incinerators’ stacks often spew hazardous pollutants like dioxins, particulate matter, PFAS, carbon monoxide, acid gases, or nitrogen oxides. The substances are linked to cancer, developmental disorders and other serious diseases, but still are burned with limited or patchwork oversight.

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Categories: Around The Web

Euro Markets: Midday Update

Carbon Pulse - Thu, 2025-01-09 22:56
EU carbon prices jumped sharply as midday approached, erasing early losses of as much as 0.9% as the correlation between the market and prompt TTF natural gas broke down briefly amid technical carbon buying, after prices failed to conclusively breach a key support level.
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