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Category: Climate Change

An international power struggle over cobalt rattles the clean energy revolution

An international power struggle over cobalt rattles the clean energy revolution

The New York Times reports from Kisanfu, Democratic Republic of Congo: Just up a red dirt road, across an expanse of tall, dew-soaked weeds, bulldozers are hollowing out a yawning new canyon that is central to the world’s urgent race against global warming. For more than a decade, the vast expanse of untouched land was controlled by an American company. Now a Chinese mining conglomerate has bought it, and is racing to retrieve its buried treasure: millions of tons of…

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The forgotten oil ads that told us climate change was nothing

The forgotten oil ads that told us climate change was nothing

The Guardian reports: Why is meaningful action to avert the climate crisis proving so difficult? It is, at least in part, because of ads. The fossil fuel industry has perpetrated a multi-decade, multibillion dollar disinformation, propaganda and lobbying campaign to delay climate action by confusing the public and policymakers about the climate crisis and its solutions. This has involved a remarkable array of advertisements – with headlines ranging from “Lies they tell our children” to “Oil pumps life” – seeking…

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You can’t beat climate change without tackling disinformation

You can’t beat climate change without tackling disinformation

Amy Westervelt writes: In the past month or so, climate disinformation has been making its way into the news more than usual. There was the House Oversight Committee’s climate disinformation hearing in October, and then, just days later, leaked documents from Facebook revealed its role in spreading climate denial. The Oversight Committee’s investigation continues, as does the work to fully understand social media’s role in disinformation, about climate and otherwise. But for all we know about disinformation and how dangerously…

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This next-generation nuclear power plant is pitched for Washington State. Can it ‘change the world’?

This next-generation nuclear power plant is pitched for Washington State. Can it ‘change the world’?

The Seattle Times reports: Near the Columbia River, Clay Sell hopes to launch a new era of nuclear power with four small reactors, each stocked with billiard ball-sized “pebbles” packed full of uranium fuel. Chief executive officer of Maryland-based X-energy, Sell aims to bring the project online by 2028 as part of a broader attempt to develop safer, more flexible reactors to redefine the nation’s energy future. These efforts have gained support in the nation’s capital where many Democrats eager…

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‘COP26 hasn’t solved the problem’: Scientists react to UN climate deal

‘COP26 hasn’t solved the problem’: Scientists react to UN climate deal

Nature reports: Government ministers at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) have reached a deal on further steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions after discussions overran by 24 hours. On 13 November, representatives from nearly 200 countries agreed the final text of the deal, which pledges further action to curb emissions, more frequent updates on progress and additional funding for low- and middle-income countries. Researchers have expressed relief that the meeting did not fail to…

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After the failure of Cop26, there’s only one last hope for our survival

After the failure of Cop26, there’s only one last hope for our survival

George Monbiot writes: Now it’s a straight fight for survival. The Glasgow Climate Pact, for all its restrained and diplomatic language, looks like a suicide pact. After so many squandered years of denial, distraction and delay, it’s too late for incremental change. A fair chance of preventing more than 1.5C of heating means cutting greenhouse gas emissions by about 7% every year: faster than they fell in 2020, at the height of the pandemic. What we needed at the Cop26…

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COP26 negotiators do little to cut emissions, but allow oil and gas executives to rest easy

COP26 negotiators do little to cut emissions, but allow oil and gas executives to rest easy

Inside Climate News reports: As the debate continues over whether the global climate summit in Scotland will significantly move the needle on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, one thing is clear: The oil and gas industry still holds its grip on the world’s economic and political systems. Many climate advocates and vulnerable nations entered this year’s conference hoping to address an enduring failure of the Paris Agreement, which said nothing about fossil fuels. But a draft agreement released on Saturday included…

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Fossil fuel companies owe reparations to countries they are destroying

Fossil fuel companies owe reparations to countries they are destroying

Mark Hertsgaard writes: Mohammed Nasheed made global headlines in 2009 by convening the world’s first underwater cabinet meeting. As president of the Maldives, a nation of 1,138 low-lying islands south-west of India, Nasheed donned scuba gear and descended beneath the waves with 13 government ministers. The officials used waterproof pencils to sign a document urging the world to slash carbon dioxide emissions so the Maldives would not disappear beneath rising seas. “If the Maldives cannot be saved today, we do…

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China and U.S., at odds on many issues, agree on a surprise climate deal

China and U.S., at odds on many issues, agree on a surprise climate deal

The New York Times reports: China’s top climate change envoy, Xie Zhenhua, apologized as he entered late for a weekend meeting at the United Nations climate summit. “We have quite busy schedules,” Mr. Xie said, according to two people who were present for the exchange. “Especially for me, I have to meet with John Kerry almost every day.” In an unexpected development, the United States and China on Wednesday announced in a joint statement that they will both do more…

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Few willing to change lifestyle to save the planet, climate survey finds

Few willing to change lifestyle to save the planet, climate survey finds

The Guardian reports: Citizens are alarmed by the climate crisis, but most believe they are already doing more to preserve the planet than anyone else, including their government, and few are willing to make significant lifestyle changes, an international survey has found. “The widespread awareness of the importance of the climate crisis illustrated in this study has yet to be coupled with a proportionate willingness to act,” the survey of 10 countries including the US, UK, France and Germany, observed….

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Nations most impacted by global warming kept out of key climate meetings in Glasgow

Nations most impacted by global warming kept out of key climate meetings in Glasgow

Inside Climate News reports: Discontent about lack of progress on climate financing for vulnerable countries spilled into the second week of climate negotiations in Glasgow during Monday’s opening session of COP26, when representatives of all 197 countries at the United Nations Climate talks had a chance to directly address conference president Alok Sharma. How to financially aid developing countries that hold almost no historical responsibility for global warming but are most vulnerable to its intensifying impacts has been a thorny…

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Trust is hard to find at the UN climate summit in Glasgow

Trust is hard to find at the UN climate summit in Glasgow

Bill McKibben writes: As the second week of the COP26 United Nations global climate talks began in Glasgow on Monday, the Washington Post published a truly remarkable piece of reporting that will surely demoralize the hardworking people gathered in the convention hall trying to hammer out an agreement. A team led by the Post’s veteran climate analyst Chris Mooney went through the emissions data proffered by countries at the summit, and found that they were in many cases wildly wrong….

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COP26: Fossil fuel industry has largest delegation at climate summit

COP26: Fossil fuel industry has largest delegation at climate summit

BBC News reports: There are more delegates at COP26 associated with the fossil fuel industry than from any single country, analysis shared with the BBC shows. Campaigners led by Global Witness assessed the participant list published by the UN at the start of this meeting. They found that 503 people with links to fossil fuel interests had been accredited for the climate summit. These delegates are said to lobby for oil and gas industries, and campaigners say they should be…

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Running out of time at the UN climate conference

Running out of time at the UN climate conference

Elizabeth Kolbert writes: For those inclined to see them, there were plenty of bad omens last week as the latest round of international climate negotiations—COP26—got under way in Glasgow. A storm that lashed England with eighty-mile-per-hour winds disrupted train service from London to Scotland, leaving many delegates scrambling to find a way to get to the meeting. Just as the conclave began, Glasgow’s garbage workers went on strike, and rubbish piled up in the streets. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in…

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Want to change the world? Then you’d better give up on self-defeating pessimism

Want to change the world? Then you’d better give up on self-defeating pessimism

Kenan Malik writes: The kind of facile optimism that a figure such as Boris Johnson exudes is deeply obnoxious. It’s a way of avoiding the issues, of pretending that we can resolve our problems by not thinking deeply about them, but by simply asserting “we can do it”. There is something equally objectionable about unthinking pessimism. About the insistence that a social problem is so beyond control that we cannot avoid catastrophe or so deeply rooted that it cannot be…

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Voices from across America on what the climate crisis stole

Voices from across America on what the climate crisis stole

The Guardian reports: The jubilation of the Paris climate agreement, where delegates from around the world triumphantly declared the climate crisis would finally be tamed, will have felt very hollow to many in the US in the six years since. Following the landmark 2015 deal to curb dangerous global heating, the US has experienced four of its five hottest years ever recorded. A drought of a severity unprecedented in modern civilization has tightened its grip upon the American west, parching…

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