[TheClimate.Vote] April 9, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/April 9, 2018/

[Another newsletter, from Chris Goodall]
*CARBON COMMENTARY NEWSLETTER 
<https://mailchi.mp/c31924fa416b/carbon-commentary-newsletter?e=8e52da85fe>*
"This is a weekly newsletter about low-carbon energy generation and 
efficiency. I summarise the blog posts I have published during the 
previous week and comment on news stories that have interested me in the 
last few days." Subscribe at www.carboncommentary.com.
[sample topics:]

    *Industry news*
    Things I noticed and thought were interesting
    Week ending 8th April 2018
    *1, Shell scenarios. *Shell, the inventor of scenario-based business
    planning, unveiled an alternative vision of the future...
    *2, Green premium.* A German study showed that producers of
    chemicals for home and industrial use typically believe that
    bio-based products achieve a price premium over those products made
    from oil...
    *3, Solar roof tiles.* The first Tesla solar roof was connected to
    the Californian electricity supply...
    *4, Carbon capture and use*. LanzaTech, the US/NZ company that
    converts waste industrial gases to liquid fuels using microbes, said
    that state-owned Indian Oil Company had bought a 4% stake in the
    business...
    *5, Conversion of methane to methanol.* Long-term energy storage is
    unlikely to be economically achieved using batteries...
    *6, Microgrids*. Germany's Sonnen and local solar installer Pura
    installed their tenth microgrid in Puerto Rico...
    *7, Global energy trends*. The world invested $280bn in renewable
    energy in 2017...
    *8, Off grid solar.* Engie completed its purchase of Fenix, the
    US/Uganda provider of pre-paid solar power...
    *9, Meatless meat.* Impossible Foods, the leader in meat
    substitutes, raised another $114m from Singaporean investor Temasek
    and a Chinese investment group, taking its funding to almost $400m...
    *10, Australian energy.* Central government policies support
    expansion of coal generation...

Carbon Commentary
26 Navigation Way
Oxford, Oxfordshire OX2 6XW
United Kingdom
https://mailchi.mp/c31924fa416b/carbon-commentary-newsletter?e=8e52da85fe


[Opinion]
*There's still hope on global warming - if the world gets to work 
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/theres-still-hope-on-global-warming--if-the-world-gets-to-work/2018/04/08/2b9f7968-2edb-11e8-8688-e053ba58f1e4_story.html?utm_term=.e4d29ae2d663>*
Washington Post - Editorial Board April 8
THE FIGHT against global warming is not hopeless. But the world must 
work harder. That is the upshot from a new report 
<http://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/GECO2017.pdf> 
on the world's energy use and emissions, which shows that modern 
economies can cut their addiction to carbon dioxide but that the pace 
must pick up.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) reported last month that global 
greenhouse emissions rose faster in 2017, after flattening out in the 
three previous years. Ramped-up economic growth in Asia is the main 
culprit. Despite China's impressive investments in renewables and a more 
efficient Chinese economy, the nation also burned more coal to meet 
rapid growth in energy demand. Though it is installing new solar power 
capacity, India's efforts to bring electricity to more of its citizens 
have nevertheless put upward pressure on its emissions. Emissions even 
ticked up in the European Union, which had aggressively slimmed its 
carbon footprint in previous years.

Perhaps surprisingly, the United States, which pulled out of the Paris 
climate accord last year 
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-to-announce-us-will-exit-paris-climate-deal/2017/06/01/fbcb0196-46da-11e7-bcde-624ad94170ab_story.html?utm_term=.0ac023086c2b>, 
was a bright spot. U.S. emissions were down slightly last year, the 
third year in a row. Previous declines were driven by power companies 
switching from coal to less dirty natural gas. But the deployment of 
renewables accounted for much of last year's drop. Renewables met about 
17 percent of the nation's electricity needs, while carbon-free nuclear 
power contributed about 20 percent. With the Trump administration 
abdicating its role in driving the needed energy transformation, it is 
crucial that states and Congress support further progress.

The United States, in other words, has restrained its emissions even as 
economic growth has ticked up. In large developing countries, emissions 
increases have not been as large as they would have been just a couple 
years ago for the same amount of economic growth. China's commitment to 
renewables and, more recently, electric cars promises to improve this 
picture further, and the country still burns less coal than it did in 
2013. Renewables now provide a quarter of the world's electricity.

But the world does not have the time to wait for gradual change. To 
avoid the risk of very negative climate shifts, "global emissions need 
to peak soon and decline steeply to 2020," the report warns 
<http://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/GECO2017.pdf> 
. "The share of low-carbon energy sources must increase by 1.1 
percentage points every year, more than five-times the growth registered 
in 2017," the IEA concluded.

Every country in the world, the United States included, must put in more 
effort. Even if stringent global emissions goals seem too difficult to 
reach, it is still worth cutting the risk of truly catastrophic warming 
as much as possible. The most plausible vehicle for encouraging global 
effort, so the United States does not shrink its carbon footprint while 
others dawdle, is the Paris agreement that President Trump repudiated. 
Unless the president changes his mind and the United States rejoins the 
pact, the country will squander the moral currency it earns when reports 
like this come out.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/theres-still-hope-on-global-warming-if-the-world-gets-to-work/2018/04/08/2b9f7968-2edb-11e8-8688-e053ba58f1e4_story.html?utm_term=.e4d29ae2d663


[damning accusation]
*Dem senator: GOP the only major political party dedicated to making 
climate change worse 
<http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/382185-dem-senator-rips-gop-its-the-only-major-political-party-on-the-planet>*
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) on Sunday tore into the Republican Party 
over its stance on climate change.
"The Republican Party is the only major political party on the planet 
that is explicitly dedicated to making climate change worse," he tweeted.
"Climate change is real, caused by humans, and solvable."
Under Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt, 
the agency has questioned the exact impact humans have made on climate 
change...
Schatz's comments apparently came in response to a Politico story titled 
"The Myth of Scott Pruitt's EPA Rollback," which he retweeted. The story 
focuses on how Pruitt has stopped the agency's focus on combatting 
climate change...
Schatz has in the past gone after Pruitt and Republicans over climate 
change. In September of last year, he accused Republicans of abdicating 
their "moral and political responsibility" to address climate change by 
voting to confirm Pruitt.
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/382185-dem-senator-rips-gop-its-the-only-major-political-party-on-the-planet


[worst air in India]
*Kolkata India's air pollution capital 
<http://www.sixdegreesnews.org/archives/24026/kolkata-indias-air-pollution-capital>*
04/08/2018 - JAYANTA BASU
VEHICULAR POLLUTION, PARTICULARLY FROM DIESEL CARS AND TRUCKS, ARE 
PRIMARILY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE WORSENING AIR QUALITY IN KOLKATA, WHICH IS 
EMERGING AS THE POLLUTION CAPITAL OF INDIA
...Delhi may be vying with Beijing for global topper status in air 
pollution and garnering all the attention for polluted air, but Kolkata 
has silently pushed Delhi behind on the air quality index and turned the 
toxic topper among metro cities in India during the first two months of 
2018.

Experts warn that the actual air quality in Kolkata may be even poorer, 
and hence the difference of Kolkata and Delhi's pollution levels are 
even wider, as air pollution in the eastern Indian city is measured 
manually, which tends to underestimate the pollution figures.
- - - - -
An analysis of the official air quality index (AQI) data of different 
metro cities - West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) for Kolkata 
and Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data for rest of the cities - 
for the months of January and February found that Kolkata's average AQI 
at 295 parts per million during the period was higher than Delhi at 287 ppm.

Kolkata's air stood almost twice as polluted compared with other metros 
like Mumbai (AQI of 155), Chennai (127), Bangalore (88) and Hyderabad 
(130) during the period. The AQI has been calculated on basis of 
dominant pollutant, PM 2.5 in most cases, measured in automatic 
stations. In the case of Kolkata, the readings of four manual stations - 
Behala Chowrasta, Minto Park, Moulali and Shyambazar - were considered, 
as the city's automatic stations have been non-functional for the past 
few months.

However, even before becoming non-functional, they were not used to 
measure PM 2.5, which is the most potent air pollutant, and can 
penetrate the innermost crevices of lungs and trigger a bevy of 
diseases. "The actual scenario may be even poorer as manual stations 
tend to under-calculate the pollution figures," Dipankar Saha, a CPCB 
scientist, told indiaclimatedialogue.net.
more at: 
http://www.sixdegreesnews.org/archives/24026/kolkata-indias-air-pollution-capital


[Censorship of science]
*National Park Service officials delete references to humans' role in 
causing climate change from drafts of new report 
<http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/382138-national-park-service-officials-delete-references-to-humans-role-in>*
rafts of a federal report on sea level rise and storm surge reportedly 
no longer include any mentions of humans' role in climate change.
Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting found that National 
Park Service officials had scrubbed the mentions from drafts of the report.
The report was drafted initially during the summer of 2016 as part of an 
effort by the National Park Service to tell the public and officials how 
to protect park resources.
According to Reveal, mentions of "human activities" causing climate 
change were deleted from the report, as was the word "anthropogenic," 
used to describe the impact humans have on nature.
Jonathan Overpeck - a climate scientist and dean of the University of 
Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability - called the 
changes "shocking from a scientific point of view, but also from a 
policy point of view."
"To remove a very critical part of the scientific understanding is 
nothing short of political censorship and has no place in science," he said.
"Censorship of this kind is something you'd see in Russia or some 
totalitarian regime. It has no place in America."
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke testified last month before the Senate 
that the department had not altered any scientific documents.
A report last month said the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sent 
staffers climate change talking points, encouraging staffers to 
highlight a lack of evidence that ties humans to climate change.
Under Administrator Scott Pruitt, the EPA has questioned the exact 
impact humans have made on climate change.
While Pruitt has maintained that he believes in climate change, he has 
been reluctant to tie effects to humans as the agency works to roll back 
a number of environmental regulations that green groups argue will speed 
up global warming.
After he was confirmed, Pruitt worked quickly to approve a slew of EPA 
website changes that removed references to climate change and climate 
programs.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/382138-national-park-service-officials-delete-references-to-humans-role-in


[Now for something completely different]
*Artists & Climate Change is an initiative of The Arctic Cycle. 
<https://artistsandclimatechange.com/>*
Does Laughter Have a Place Here? 
<https://artistsandclimatechange.com/2018/04/09/does-laughter-have-a-place-here/>
Why Do Women Climate More Than Men? 
<https://artistsandclimatechange.com/2018/04/05/why-do-women-climate-more-than-men/>
Art as Collision 
<https://artistsandclimatechange.com/2018/04/02/art-as-collision/>
Necessary Recalibration 
<https://artistsandclimatechange.com/2018/03/29/necessary-recalibration/>
Striving for Meaningful Impact 
<https://artistsandclimatechange.com/2018/03/26/striving-for-meaningful-impact/>
Imagining Water, #7: 2-Minute Shower Songs 
<https://artistsandclimatechange.com/2018/03/19/imagining-water-7-2-minute-shower-songs/>
Follow the links <https://artistsandclimatechange.com/links/>above and 
below to learn more about organizations dedicated to exploring the 
intersection of arts & climate change.
https://artistsandclimatechange.com/links/


*This Day in Climate History - April 9, 2007 
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/19/AR2007041900650.html> 
   -  from D.R. Tucker*
April 9, 2007: Environmental activist Laurie David and singer Sheryl 
Crow begin a brief tour of colleges and universities across the United 
States to raise awareness about climate change. Later in the month, the 
Washington Post reports on the David/Crow tour.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/19/AR2007041900650.html


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