[TheClimate.Vote] March 28, 2019 - Daily Global Warming News Digest..
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Thu Mar 28 10:43:09 EDT 2019
/March 28, 2019/
[shutdown of capricious drilling]
*Court Ruling: Feds Illegally Approved Colorado Gas Drilling in Elk Habitat*
Federal Agencies Failed to Adequately Consider Climate, Wildlife Impacts
DENVER -- A federal judge ruled today that the U.S. Bureau of Land
Management and U.S. Forest Service illegally approved two adjacent
natural-gas drilling plans in western Colorado, finding that officials
did not adequately analyze wildlife and climate impacts.
In today's ruling U.S. District Judge Lewis T. Babcock faulted the two
federal agencies for failing to account for downstream emissions from
drilling and failing to adequately address potential harm to mule deer
and elk. The judge said the agencies must clarify the area it used when
analyzing potential harms to elk and mule deer habitat...
Press Release posted at https://westernlaw.org/news/all-news-updates/
[Must see AOC and her 2:30 polemic of political passion]
*This is not an elitist issue': AOC on Republican inaction on climate
change -video*
Guardian News - Published on Mar 26, 2019
Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gives a fiery speech during a
committee hearing in response to Republicans push-back on her climate
change policy, The Green New Deal. 'You want to tell people that their
desire for clean air and clean water is elitist?', yells a impassioned
Ocasio-Cortez. 'Tell that to the kids in the South Bronx which are
suffering from the highest rates of childhood asthma in the
country…You're telling those kids that they are trying to get on a plane
to Davos? People are dying!'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5M8vvEhCFI
- - -
A few quotes:
"This is not an elitist issue, this is a quality of life issue," she
said. "You want to tell people that their concern and their desire for
clean air and clean water is elitist? Tell that to the kids in the south
Bronx, which are suffering from the highest rates of childhood asthma in
the country.
"Tell that to the families in Flint whose kids have their blood
ascending in lead levels, their brains are damaged for the rest of their
lives. Call them elitist."
"This is about American lives, and it should not be partisan. Science
should not be partisan," she continued, highlighting the importance of
tackling climate change on both sides of the aisle.
"We talk about cost -- we're going to pay for this whether we pass a
Green New Deal or not. Because as towns and cities go underwater, as
wildfires ravage our communities, we are going to pay. And we're either
going to decide if we're going to pay to react, or if we're going to pay
to be proactive."
"I'm very sad to say that the government knew that climate change was
real starting as far back as 1989 when NASA was reporting this. And the
private sector knew way back in the 1970s. So, we had until around the
time I was born to address this issue."
"I wish it didn't have to cost so much, but I'm going to turn 30 this
year and for the entire 30 years of my lifetime we did not make
substantial investments to prepare out entire country for what we knew
was coming."
- - -
[summary of her words]
*AOC Torches the Republican Talking Point That Caring About Climate
Change Is 'Elitist'*
"People are dying" while the GOP helps oil companies and bails out banks.
By Mark Hertsgaard
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez demonstrated again yesterday
that she is the best political communicator in the United States when
she torched congressional Republicans for climate denialism and inaction
as "vast swaths of the Midwest are drowning" and children in Flint,
Michigan, are suffering lifelong brain damage from polluted water.
Republican Representative Sean Duffy said in a hearing of the House
Financial Services Committee that "I think it's rich that we talk about
how we care about the poor, but all the while we'll sign on to bills
that dramatically increase the cost of a family to get into a home."
Offered a chance to respond by Representative Maxine Waters,
Ocasio-Cortez did--and created a viral moment that registered some 3
million views by early Wednesday morning, The Guardian reported.
Ocasio-Cortez blasted the notion that caring about the environment is
elitist. "Tell that to the kids in the South Bronx, who have the highest
asthma rates in the country," she said.
Urging the United States to "ascend" to the same levels of commitment it
did in the face of the Great Depression and World War II, Ocasio-Cortez
said that a Green New Deal is necessary today because US political
leaders ignored the climate threat for 30 years. Now, as damages mount,
she added, "The cost of pursuing a Green New Deal will be far less than
the cost of not pursuing it."
https://www.thenation.com/article/aoc-green-new-deal-mcconnell-speech/
See the CSPAN [long and boring] original
https://youtu.be/yj9QawZELDw?t=10905
- - - -
[NYT opinion]
*Where's Your Climate Plan, Mr. McConnell?*
The Senate Republican leader staged a sham vote on a Democratic climate
change resolution, embarrassing only himself.
By Michelle Cottle
Ms. Cottle is a member of the editorial board.
March 26, 2019
For those wondering if it was still possible for the Senate Republican
leader, Mitch McConnell, to raise his cynicism game, Tuesday's show vote
on the Green New Deal supplied a resounding "yes."
Of all the pressing business Mr. McConnell could be tackling, he devoted
precious floor time to the resolution introduced last month by the
Democrats Ed Markey, the junior senator from Massachusetts, and
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a House freshman from New York. A grand
reimagining of America's environmental and economic landscape, the Green
New Deal is not a policy proposal. It is a statement of values -- a
nonbinding resolution that even its champions do not expect to become
law. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has called it "a vision document."
Which is precisely why Mr. McConnell couldn't resist it.
The Senate majority leader, like so much of his party, has zero interest
in climate change -- or rather, he has no interest in pursuing policies
to address what many regard as the defining crisis of our time. Mr.
McConnell is, however, passionate about making life politically awkward
for the opposition. With their base voters fired up about climate
change, dozens of Democratic lawmakers have embraced the Green New Deal,
including at least half a dozen 2020 presidential contenders. Even so,
the resolution's sweeping ambitions -- built around a huge
infrastructure investment and a shift to carbon-free energy -- strike
more than a few Democrats, especially moderates, as unrealistic and
politically perilous.
Republicans have been quick to mock the proposal, claiming that
Democrats are poised to outlaw everything from cars to cows to
airplanes. Mr. McConnell has been particularly vicious, slamming it as a
"destructive socialist daydream."
Mr. McConnell sought to raise the stakes on Tuesday by forcing Democrats
to cast a vote on the controversial measure -- exacerbating intraparty
tensions in the process.
The ploy fell flat. Most Democrats agreed ahead of time to go with a
noncommittal vote of "present," thus denying Mr. McConnell his desired
drama and any meaningful vote count.
Republicans are sure to continue harping on the Green New Deal as a way
to paint Democrats as out-of-touch extremists. As Senator James Inhofe,
a proud climate-change denier from Oklahoma, crowed, "It's the gift that
keeps on giving."
While Mr. Inhofe and President Trump may not believe in climate change,
a growing majority of Americans care about it a great deal. In its
latest survey, conducted in December, the Yale Program on Climate Change
Communication found that just shy of 60 percent of Americans are either
"alarmed" or "concerned" about the issue, with the number of those
"alarmed" -- 29 percent -- having doubled since 2013 and risen eight
points in just the past year. The numbers of "dismissive" and "doubtful"
respondents have sunk to 9 percent each.
Outside the bubble of the Republican base, Mr. McConnell's political
stunt may strike many people as shameless, coming as it did as the
Midwest was being swallowed up by floodwaters. While the role that
climate change plays in any particular natural disaster is complicated,
there is widespread scientific agreement that the phenomenon is fueling
a pattern of ever more extreme weather, from historic floods to
hurricanes to droughts.
The Green New Deal is by no means a fully baked proposal for combating
climate change. But for all its flaws, it is a more promising first step
than the Republican leaders' chosen strategy of inaction and sneering
denial.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/26/opinion/mcconnell-green-new-deal.html
[Some action]
*Nancy Pelosi is trying to force Trump to return the US to the Paris
climate agreement*
Democrats just introduced their first actual climate bill of the new
Congress.
By Umair Irfan - Mar 27, 2019
After a raucous day of Senate Republicans trolling Democrats on a Green
New Deal vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday morning stepped
up with a clear message: Climate change is a pillar of House Democrats'
legislative agenda in the new Congress.
In a press conference, Pelosi announced that House Democrats were
introducing HR 9, the Climate Action Now Act, which aims to keep the
United States in the 2015 Paris climate agreement. It's one of the first
10 bills introduced by the new House majority and will likely come to a
vote this year.
The suite of proposals from congressional Democrats to fight climate
change range from pricing carbon dioxide to the expansive Green New Deal
resolution. But HR 9 is the first actual climate bill -- the others are
proposals and resolutions -- and Democrats say the fact that it's one of
the first bills of the new Congress shows how serious they are about
fighting climate change...
- - -
But, again, these proposals would still have to gain President Trump's
signature, which seems...unlikely. Where these climate proposals are
already having an effect is in distinguishing Democratic 2020
presidential contenders in a crowded field. Some have already come out
in favor of the Green New Deal while others have staked out less
ambitious policies. But none can ignore climate change.
"We're laying the foundation for the next Congress to move on climate,
which, of course, will be impacted by the next election," said Andrea
McGimsey, the senior director for global warming solutions at
Environment America.
https://www.vox.com/2019/3/27/18283831/pelosi-climate-change-green-new-deal
[Washington Post opinion]
*Mozambique isn't alone. Rising sea levels threaten millions in the
developing world...*
- -
The push for progress on reducing greenhouse gas emissions must be
pursued with unshakable resolve, but it must be accompanied by an
equally strong push for investment in resilient infrastructure in the
poorest places on Earth, where adaptation to climate change is now a
matter of life or death.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/03/26/mozambique-isnt-alone-rising-sea-levels-threaten-millions-developing-world/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.fb55bda8e43e
- -
[UNISDR is For developing nations]
*United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction*
It is mandated by the United Nations General Assembly resolution
(56/195), to serve as the focal point in the United Nations system for
the coordination of disaster reduction and to ensure synergies among the
disaster reduction activities of the United Nations system and regional
organizations and activities in socio‐economic and humanitarian fields.
It is an organisational unit of the UN Secretariat and is led by the UN
Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk
Reduction (SRSG).
https://www.unisdr.org/who-we-are
[Not really the big one]
*The Viking Sky incident - A wake-up call for the Arctic cruise industry?*
When the Viking Sky, with 1,373 people on board, sent out a mayday
Saturday afternoon after engine trouble stranded the cruise ship in
stormy waters off the western coast of Norway, rescue services were
quickly activated...
- - -
With waves too high to deploy rescue boats, Norwegian rescue services
used six rescue helicopters for some 19 hours to make a collective 30
trips back and forth from the boat, rescuing passengers and bringing
them to shore in Fraena, a municipality in More og Romsdal, a county of
some 261,500 people in western Norway.
Although passengers were injured, including things like bruising,
trauma, and broken bones, and approximately a dozen were hospitalized,
there were no fatalities.
By all accounts it was an astoundingly successful response by everyone
from Norway's search and rescue services, to police to humanitarian
groups on land.
"This was a bigger incident than even what we've trained for," Trond
Bjornoy, a search mission controller at Hovedredningssentralen, Norway's
Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC), told Eye on the Arctic in phone
interview on Monday. "We were lucky. There were no fatalities."...
- -
Search mission controller Trond Bjornoy says the JRCC's extensive
training allowed them to respond rapidly and effectively to the Viking
Sky incident, but it would not have been the same had the incident
happened in the Norwegian Arctic.
"This was very demanding for everyone," Bjornoy said. "I can't tell you
how many of our JRCC were involved. It was just everybody. But if this
had been in the Arctic? We would not have been able to respond as
rapidly. The distances are too big. You can't get people in as rapidly."
*Volunteers mobilized *
Anders Thorheim, head of preparedness for the Norwegian Red Cross, says
the humanitarian organization trains extensively with Norwegian rescue
services and local authorities, to respond to incidents like the Viking Sky.
In all, the Red Cross ended up mobilizing 240 volunteers to assist in
the rescue operations this weekend doing everything from receiving
evacuees and providing first aid and psychological support, to providing
practical and logistical help, to bringing food and drink to helicopter
crews during the 19-hour rescue mission.
- -
https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/travel/2019/03/viking-sky-incident-wake-call-arctic-cruise-industry
[longer version]
*Battery Power's Latest Plunge in Costs Threatens Coal, Gas*
March 26, 2019
London and New York, March 26, 2019 - Two technologies that were
immature and expensive only a few years ago but are now at the center of
the unfolding low-carbon energy transition have seen spectacular gains
in cost-competitiveness in the last year.
The latest analysis by research company BloombergNEF (BNEF) shows that
the benchmark levelized cost of electricity,[1] or LCOE, for lithium-ion
batteries has fallen 35% to $187 per megawatt-hour since the first half
of 2018. Meanwhile, the benchmark LCOE for offshore wind has tumbled by 24%.
Onshore wind and photovoltaic solar have also gotten cheaper, their
respective benchmark LCOE reaching $50 and $57 per megawatt-hour for
projects starting construction in early 2019, down 10% and 18% on the
equivalent figures of a year ago.
Elena Giannakopoulou, head of energy economics at BNEF, commented:
"Looking back over this decade, there have been staggering improvements
in the cost-competitiveness of these low-carbon options, thanks to
technology innovation, economies of scale, stiff price competition and
manufacturing experience.
"Our analysis shows that the LCOE per megawatt-hour for onshore wind,
solar PV and offshore wind have fallen by 49%, 84% and 56% respectively
since 2010. That for lithium-ion battery storage has dropped by 76%
since 2012, based on recent project costs and historical battery pack
prices."
The most striking finding in this LCOE Update, for the first-half of
2019, is on the cost improvements in lithium-ion batteries. These are
opening up new opportunities for them to balance a renewables-heavy
generation mix.
Batteries co-located with solar or wind projects are starting to
compete, in many markets and without subsidy, with coal- and gas-fired
generation for the provision of 'dispatchable power' that can be
delivered whenever the grid needs it (as opposed to only when the wind
is blowing, or the sun is shining).
Electricity demand is subject to pronounced peaks and lows inter-day.
Meeting the peaks has previously been the preserve of technologies such
as open-cycle gas turbines and gas reciprocating engines, but these are
now facing competition from batteries with anything from one to four
hours of energy storage, according to the report.
Tifenn Brandily, energy economics analyst at BNEF, said: "Solar PV and
onshore wind have won the race to be the cheapest sources of new 'bulk
generation' in most countries, but the encroachment of clean
technologies is now going well beyond that, threatening the balancing
role that gas-fired plant operators, in particular, have been hoping to
play."
Offshore wind has often been seen as a relatively expensive generation
option compared to onshore wind or solar PV. However, auction programs
for new capacity, combined with much larger turbines, have produced
sharp reductions in capital costs, taking BNEF's global benchmark for
this technology below $100 per MWh, compared to more than $220 just five
years ago.
Giannakopoulou said: "The low prices promised by offshore wind tenders
throughout Europe are now materializing, with several high-profile
projects reaching financial close in recent months. Its cost decline in
the last six months is the sharpest we have seen for any technology."
Although the LCOE of solar PV has fallen 18% in the last year, the great
majority of that decline happened in the third quarter of 2018, when a
shift in Chinese policy caused there to be a huge global supply glut of
modules, rather than over the most recent months.
BNEF's LCOE analysis is based on information on real projects starting
construction and proprietary pricing information from suppliers. Its
database covers nearly 7,000 projects across 20 technologies (including
the various types of coal, gas and nuclear generation as well as
renewables), situated in 46 countries around the world.
https://about.bnef.com/blog/battery-powers-latest-plunge-costs-threatens-coal-gas/
[BBC series]
*Sustainable thinking 16 VIDEOS*
A playlist featuring new, challenging and even visionary thinking around
climate change and sustainability.
https://www.bbc.com/ideas/playlists/sustainable-thinking
*Imagining a world without fossil fuels*
In this newtopia, former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres outlines
her vision of a world that's entirely free of fossil fuels.
https://www.bbc.com/ideas/videos/imagining-a-world-without-fossil-fuels/p0639hks
*This Day in Climate History - March 28, 2001 - from D.R. Tucker*
March 28, 2001: President George W. Bush says his administration will
not honor the Kyoto Protocol.
http://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/flatview?cuecard=238
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