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Category: Climate Change

After the Keystone XL pipeline, the next target is Line 3

After the Keystone XL pipeline, the next target is Line 3

Bill McKibben writes: The announcement this week from the Canadian company TC Energy that it was pulling the plug on the Keystone XL pipeline project was greeted with jubilation by Indigenous groups, farmers and ranchers, climate scientists and other activists who have spent the last decade fighting its construction. The question now is whether it will be a one-off victory or a template for action going forward — as it must, if we’re serious about either climate change or human…

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A Biden climate test on the banks of the Mississippi

A Biden climate test on the banks of the Mississippi

Bill McKibben writes: I suppose that, if I’d thought about it, I could have figured out that there had to be a place where you could jump across the Mississippi. But I’d seen its majestic flow at so many points along its course (ripping through Minneapolis, regal in St. Louis, oceanic by Baton Rouge) that I’d never imagined it as a mere trickle. Now I have—I’ve waded through that trickle, in fact—and on an epic day in recent American Indigenous…

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Carbon dioxide levels hit 50% higher than preindustrial time

Carbon dioxide levels hit 50% higher than preindustrial time

The Associated Press reports: The annual peak of global heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the air has reached another dangerous milestone: 50% higher than when the industrial age began. And the average rate of increase is faster than ever, scientists reported Monday. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the average carbon dioxide level for May was 419.13 parts per million. That’s 1.82 parts per million higher than May 2020 and 50% higher than the stable pre-industrial levels of 280 parts…

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If we can vaccinate the world, we can beat the climate crisis

If we can vaccinate the world, we can beat the climate crisis

Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo write: It would only cost $50bn to ensure 40% of the world’s population is vaccinated by the end of the year, and 60% by the first half of 2022. This is a recent estimate from the IMF, the latest institution to join a chorus of voices calling for a global vaccination programme to bring Covid-19 under control. The IMF has highlighted the economic benefits of global vaccines, which would be huge. But there is another…

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Engine No. 1’s big win over Exxon shows activist hedge funds joining fight against climate change

Engine No. 1’s big win over Exxon shows activist hedge funds joining fight against climate change

Engine No. 1 wants Exxon to focus less on fossil fuels. AP Photo/Matthew Brown By Mark DesJardine, Penn State and Tima Bansal, Western University One of the most expensive Wall Street shareholder battles on record could signal a big shift in how hedge funds and other investors view sustainability. Exxon Mobil Corp. has been fending off a so-called proxy fight from a hedge fund known as Engine No. 1, which blames the energy giant’s poor performance in recent years on…

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Why electric cars will take over sooner than you think

Why electric cars will take over sooner than you think

BBC News reports: We are in the middle of the biggest revolution in motoring since Henry Ford’s first production line started turning back in 1913. And it is likely to happen much more quickly than you imagine. Many industry observers believe we have already passed the tipping point where sales of electric vehicles (EVs) will very rapidly overwhelm petrol and diesel cars. It is certainly what the world’s big car makers think. Jaguar plans to sell only electric cars from…

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Western fires are burning higher in the mountains at unprecedented rates in a clear sign of climate change

Western fires are burning higher in the mountains at unprecedented rates in a clear sign of climate change

By Mojtaba Sadegh, Boise State University; John Abatzoglou, University of California, Merced, and Mohammad Reza Alizadeh, McGill University The Western U.S. appears headed for another dangerous fire season, and a new study shows that even high mountain areas once considered too wet to burn are at increasing risk as the climate warms. Nearly two-thirds of the U.S. West is in severe to exceptional drought right now, including large parts of the Rocky Mountains, Cascades and Sierra Nevada. The situation is…

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Big Oil’s bad, bad day

Big Oil’s bad, bad day

Bill McKibben writes: In what may be the most cataclysmic day so far for the traditional fossil-fuel industry, a remarkable set of shareholder votes and court rulings have scrambled the future of three of the world’s largest oil companies. On Wednesday, a court in the Netherlands ordered Royal Dutch Shell to dramatically cut its emissions over the next decade—a mandate it can likely only meet by dramatically changing its business model. A few hours later, sixty-one per cent of shareholders…

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Despite pandemic economic shutdown, global warming continues to accelerate

Despite pandemic economic shutdown, global warming continues to accelerate

NPR reports: The average temperature on Earth is now consistently 1 degree Celsius hotter than it was in the late 1800s, and that temperature will keep rising toward the critical 1.5-degree Celsius benchmark over the next five years, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization. Scientists warn that humans must keep the average annual global temperature from lingering at or above 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid the most catastrophic and long-term effects of climate change. Those include…

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Shell ordered to deepen carbon cuts in landmark Dutch climate case

Shell ordered to deepen carbon cuts in landmark Dutch climate case

Reuters reports: A Dutch court ordered Royal Dutch Shell to drastically deepen planned greenhouse gas emission cuts on Wednesday, in a landmark ruling that could trigger legal action against energy companies around the world. Shell said it was “disappointed” and plans to appeal the ruling, which comes amid rising pressure on energy companies from investors, activists and governments to shift away from fossil fuels and rapidly ramp up investment in renewables. Judge Larisa Alwin read out a ruling at a…

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Green finance goes mainstream, lining up trillions behind global energy transition

Green finance goes mainstream, lining up trillions behind global energy transition

The Wall Street Journal reports: Some of the world’s biggest companies and deepest-pocketed investors are lining up trillions of dollars to finance a shift away from fossil fuels. Assets in investment funds focused partly on the environment reached almost $2 trillion globally in the first quarter, more than tripling in three years. Investors are putting $3 billion a day into these funds. More than $5 billion worth of bonds and loans designed to fund green initiatives are now issued every…

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Antarctica is headed for a climate tipping point by 2060, with catastrophic melting if carbon emissions aren’t cut quickly

Antarctica is headed for a climate tipping point by 2060, with catastrophic melting if carbon emissions aren’t cut quickly

The big wildcard for sea level rise is Antarctica. James Eades/Unsplash By Julie Brigham-Grette, University of Massachusetts Amherst and Andrea Dutton, University of Wisconsin-Madison While U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken draws attention to climate change in the Arctic at meetings with other national officials this week in Iceland, an even greater threat looms on the other side of the planet. New research shows it is Antarctica that may force a reckoning between the choices countries make today about greenhouse…

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Bitcoin mining is giving new life to old fossil-fuel power plants

Bitcoin mining is giving new life to old fossil-fuel power plants

The Wall Street Journal reports: Across America, older fossil-fuel power plants are shutting down in favor of renewable energy. But some are getting a new lease on life—to mine bitcoin. In upstate New York, an idled coal plant has been restarted, fueled by natural gas, to mine cryptocurrency. A once-struggling Montana coal plant is now scaling up to do the same. The lofty price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has investors pouring money into power generation—and risking a backlash. Elon…

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Ford and Biden hope to catch lightning with electric pickup

Ford and Biden hope to catch lightning with electric pickup

Politico reports: When Ford Motor Co. surveyed American truck owners last year, the automaker received a clear message: “Keep your hands off my truck.” Only 40 percent said they’d be “excited” about an electric pickup. That truck, like it or not, is here. Now the question is whether consumers — and Congress — will join Ford and other automakers for the ride. The Ford F-150, an iconic American brand with a seven-decade history, will go electric in 2022. President Joe…

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How climate change is erasing the world’s oldest rock art

How climate change is erasing the world’s oldest rock art

This Warty Pig is part of a panel dated to more than 45,500 years in age. Basran Burhan/Griffith University, Author provided By Jillian Huntley, Griffith University; Adam Brumm, Griffith University; Adhi Oktaviana, Griffith University; Basran Burhan, Griffith University, and Maxime Aubert, Griffith University In caves on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, ancient peoples marked the walls with red and mulberry hand stencils, and painted images of large native mammals or imaginary human-animal creatures. These are the oldest cave art sites…

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From denial to ambiguity: A new study charts the trajectory of ExxonMobil’s climate messaging

From denial to ambiguity: A new study charts the trajectory of ExxonMobil’s climate messaging

Inside Climate News reports: Fossil fuel companies’ messaging on climate change has revolved around some common refrains: Energy demand must grow to alleviate global poverty, so fossil fuels are critical to economic growth. Technological innovation is key to limiting emissions, and consumers can do their part by using energy efficiently. New research shows that these arguments were carefully cultivated over the course of decades by ExxonMobil, which beginning in the early 2000s shifted away from outright obfuscation of climate science…

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