[TheClimate.Vote] January 7, 2021 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

Thu Jan 7 08:40:38 EST 2021

/*January 7, 2021*/

[planning ahead]
*Control of Senate allows Democrats to act on Biden’s climate change agenda*
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/06/democratic-control-of-senate-is-victory-for-biden-climate-change-agenda.html
- -
[Axios]
*What a Democratic sweep would mean for climate and energy policy*
https://www.axios.com/democrat-senate-energy-policy-c7c7788b-ba8c-4781-8361-3103525901b5.html 

[essential video at 21 mins]
*Grief for our battered world is a Superpower for 2021 | Extinction 
Rebellion UK*
Jan 6, 2021
Extinction Rebellion
High-profile climate scientist Peter Kalmus is a brilliant rarity – a 
respected expert in his field who is also an environmental activist 
unafraid to openly display his heartbreak about the Climate & Ecological 
Emergency.

Peter talks movingly and inspiringly to Extinction Rebellion’s Clare 
Farrell about the urgent need for system change, the crucial difference 
between climate fear and climate grief, and how to face hard truths 
about the future of our beautiful world without surrendering to ‘doomism’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx_sR8kYLKA
- -
*[Peter Kalmus (climate scientist) *- Wikipedia
Kalmus is an internationally recognized science communicator whose 
efforts center on shifting culture away from fossil fuel acceptability. 
... He focuses in particular on encouraging the earth science and other 
academic communities to speak out with greater urgency on the need for 
climate action.]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Kalmus_(climate_scientist)

[Yale Climate Connections]
*Reviewing the horrid global 2020 wildfire season*
Amid its other dubious 'firsts' and 'near-firsts,' the year just 
[mercifully] ended was fifth most costly in terms of fire damages. 
Experts implicate warming climate.By Jeff Masters, Ph.D. | Monday, 
January 4, 2021
The 2020 global wildfire season brought extreme fire activity to the 
western U.S., Australia, the Arctic, and Brazil, making it the fifth 
most expensive year for wildfire losses on record...
https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2021/01/reviewing-the-horrid-global-2020-wildfire-season/

[fire crimes]
*California wildfires: How PG&E continues to avoid accountability | FIRE 
– POWER – MONEY special*
Dec 23, 2020
ABC10
With California’s wildfires growing deadlier and bigger than ever, the 
state’s largest power company admitted to the largest corporate homicide 
in American history. PG&E killed 84 people when its power lines started 
the 2018 Camp Fire that destroyed the town of Paradise. Our 
investigation will take you behind the scenes of the criminal 
prosecution and look into how PG&E and the California state government 
are avoiding accountability.
You're watching season two of FIRE - POWER -MONEY, an ABC10 Originals 
investigation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDcbX4ifRVM&feature=emb_logo

[from The Barents Observer]
*What is happening with Arctic weather? Moscow wants to know*
The Russian government decides to upgrade 123 meteorological stations in 
the Arctic.
- -
The upgrades are to be completed by year 2024, the Ministry of the Far 
East and Arctic informs.

Roshydromet will also get federal funding for a modernization of its 
Sever information system on Arctic sea-ice. That modernization includes 
an integration with the systems operated by Rosatom and its Northern Sea 
Route Directorate.

The federal authority is leading key parts of Russia’s research of 
Arctic weather and climate developments.

It is taking an active part in the ongoing major investments in the 
Russian Arctic, including the development of the Northern Sea Route.

Shipping across the Russian Arctic has increased explosively over the 
last years and in 2020 exceeded 32 million tons of goods. That figure is 
to increase to 80 million tons by year 2024 and to 130 million tons by 
2035, Yuri Trutnev reiterated to the member of the Arctic Commission.
https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/arctic/2021/01/what-happening-arctic-weather-moscow-wants-know

[politico]
*How the Department of Defense could help win the war on climate change*
The Pentagon has a huge appetite for clean energy — and a massive budget.

President-elect Joe Biden has warned that climate change will pose 
future threats for the U.S. military as it worsens unrest in volatile 
regions and creates new dangers to its facilities from rising seas, 
powerful storms and harsh droughts.

But the Defense Department also offers a silver lining on climate change 
for the new president: a huge appetite for clean energy sources and a 
massive budget to help accelerate the development of new technologies 
needed to curb greenhouse gases and harden infrastructure to protect 
against worsening climate impacts.
Biden has called climate change an "existential threat" and promised to 
spend $2 trillion to expand clean energy and build resilient facilities 
over the next four years. But that ambitious plan will need approval 
from Congress — a heavy lift that's likely to draw resistance from 
Republicans who may control the Senate and block any major green plans. 
That's where the Pentagon can provide some help.

The Pentagon has long been a crucial customer for clean energy 
technologies, driving the country's adoption of solar power and the 
rollout of mobile batteries. Now, its $700 billion budget may offer an 
opportunity for the Biden administration to help scale-up industries 
such as those producing electric vehicles and advanced batteries.

"Start with the fact the Department of Defense is the single largest 
energy user," said Sherri Goodman, a deputy undersecretary of defense 
for environmental security under Obama and now a senior fellow at the 
Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program, a think tank. 
"What it does and how it uses its energy, how it reduces its emissions, 
makes its bases more resilient to climate threats — that helps all 
America by learn by example."

Though its energy consumption has been declining for years, the Defense 
Department is still by far the largest energy user in the federal 
government — accounting for more than three-quarters of total government 
energy usage and 15 times the energy consumption of the Post Office, the 
No. 2 consumer — and it emits about 1 percent of the total U.S. carbon 
emissions.
The Pentagon helped jump-start the U.S. solar industry back in 2007, 
when the Air Force contracted to build a 14-megawatt solar farm at 
Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, then the largest plant of its kind in 
the country. Since then, the industry has built solar projects more than 
40 times that size, and the military has been one its biggest customers, 
adding more than 130 megawatts to bases in nearly three dozen states.

Former President Barack Obama also pushed the Pentagon to experiment 
with biofuels to reduce its ships' dependence on oil, and though a 
"Great Green Fleet" powered by biofuels from home-grown crops failed to 
live up its promise, then-Navy Secretary Ray Mabus found success in even 
simple solutions: He ordered refitting ships to replace all their bulbs 
with high efficiency technology, saving power and allowing the ships to 
stay at sea longer. And the aviation biofuels developed during the 
period are now being used by airlines to acquire carbon offsets required 
by European aviation authorities.
U.S. troops also saw other benefits from the Obama years. Batteries 
carried by soldiers to power radios and other equipment went from 13 
pounds to nine pounds, easing their load while they are on maneuvers.

Though Congress often guides the Defense Department on energy 
conservation projects through the annual National Defense Authorization 
Act, President Donald Trump reversed many of Obama's efforts to use the 
federal government to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to fight climate 
change, including through a 2018 executive order revoking specific 
carbon reduction targets for federal agencies. And military leaders who 
resented being tools of a policy they didn't feel contributed to the 
fighting mission were relieved to see an end to that chapter.

Biden is likely to lean on his incoming Defense secretary, former Gen. 
Lloyd Austin, to ramp up the use of renewable energy sources while 
hardening the nation's military bases to the dangers from climate 
change. Though Austin was tapped over Michele Flournoy, an Obama DoD 
official with deep experience fighting climate change, experts say he 
will be keenly aware of the dangers hurricanes and fires pose to bases, 
and will bring experience dealing with the complexities of fuel logistics.

As commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, Austin oversaw the first 
impact of climate change in a theater of operations, in 2015, said 
Andrew Holland, chief operating officer for the think tank the American 
Security Project.

"He should know the importance of this, even as he doesn’t have a long 
record working on this issue,” he said.

Biden's transition team declined to comment on his plans, and pointed to 
his posted climate plans.

Biden will likely pick up an Obama-era program in which bases in Nevada 
and Hawaii built microgrids, enabling them to keep their lights on and 
continue operations even if the civilian power supply failed. The 
maturity of solar and wind technology has also driven down prices, and 
U.S. bases in many places may be able to install their own generation at 
a lower cost than fossil power.

Biden will also get the advantage of the cultural shift toward 
efficiency and renewables engendered by Obama and his Defense officials, 
Goodman said. Veterans have entered the clean energy workforce in higher 
numbers than other parts of the workforce in states like Ohio, where 11 
percent of the clean energy workforce were veterans — double their 
representation in other industries, according to a report from Clean 
Energy Trust, a Midwestern clean energy investment fund. And junior 
officers who were still learning how to implement energy efficiency 
measures during the Obama years have now advanced to positions of 
responsibility inside the military.
The threats to its bases from storms packing a stronger punch because of 
climate change and increased flooding may be the most expensive risks 
for the Pentagon now. Bases in Florida have suffered billions of dollars 
in damages in recent years, and the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Virginia 
has flooded nearly a dozen times in recent years because of rising seas.

The Iraq War also drove home the need to find more fuel efficient ways 
of operating, as fuel truckers had among the highest casualty rates in 
the war. Between 2003 and 2007, nearly 3,000 contractors died or were 
injured transporting oil to forward operating bases, according to an 
American Security Project report. Dependence on fuel oil for tanks and 
Humvees prompted the commander of forces in Iraq — who was later 
Secretary of Defense — Gen. Jim Mattis to ask military technologists to 
"unleash us from the tether of fuel."

That sentiment dovetails with Biden's plan to rapidly expand the U.S. 
manufacturing capacity for electric vehicles — an effort where the 
Pentagon could play a similar role as it did with solar power over a 
decade ago.

"We're going to buy electric vehicles," Holland said. "There will be an 
increased push to make that a part of energy resilience as well."

But if Biden wishes to wield the military's energy budget to push 
climate goals, he will likely have to find a way to exercise greater 
control over the purchasing decisions.

Ben Steinberg, now a consultant with Venn Strategies, was the key Energy 
Department liaison with the Defense Department during part of the Obama 
administration, and he helped link up DOE energy efficiency and 
technology programs to the appropriate offices in the Pentagon. He warns 
that while DoD has a lot of money to invest in research and in scaling 
up solar, spending decisions are made by thousands of different people 
across bases, ships and other installations.

"DoD is not a monolithic entity," he said. "It's hard to consolidate all 
of that and have the buying power all working together. My advice is to 
drive it at the highest level possible and have the [White House Office 
of Management and Budget] extremely involved in purchasing things and 
have the OMB drive it with tools. That's with things like electric 
vehicles, clustering how you purchase renewable energy so multiple bases 
can go into a deal together and costs can come down."

Biden may also be able to duck some of the resistance Obama faced from 
conservatives. Sen. Jim Inhofe, now chair of the Armed Services 
Committee, previously lambasted Obama for putting policy objectives 
ahead of military ones. But solar and wind power in conjunction with 
batteries have fallen so much in cost that fighting climate change and 
advancing the Pentagon's fighting mission are no longer in conflict.

"So long as the military spending is mission and capabilities driven 
first, if that spending has broader economic and climate benefits, 
that’s great," said Nick Loris, a fellow in Energy and Environmental 
Policy at the conservative Heritage Foundation. "We shouldn’t mandate 
pricier electricity or fuels on the military unless DOD determines the 
national security benefits justify the higher costs, which hasn’t always 
been the case. That diverts resources away from more productive use. 
However, if the green technologies are cheaper and enhance mission 
capabilities, all the better."
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/04/biden-pentagon-climate-change-454404

[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming - January 7, 1982*
The New York Times reports:

    "Mankind's activities in increasing the amount of carbon dioxide and
    other chemicals in the atmosphere can be expected to have a
    substantial warming effect on climate, with the first clear signs of
    the trend becoming evident within this decade, a scientist at the
    National Aeronautics and Space Administration said here today.

    "The changes are in prospect because of excess carbon dioxide put
    into the atmosphere as humans burn coal, gas, oil and wood and cut
    forests for agriculture and other purposes. More recently there has
    also been an atmospheric buildup of methane, nitrous oxide and other
    chemicals as a result of agriculture and industry, said Dr. James
    Hansen of the space agency's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in
    New York.

    "Dr. Hansen spoke at a session of the annual meeting of the American
    Association for the Advancement of Science here and amplified some
    of his remarks at a news conference."

http://www.nytimes.com/1982/01/07/us/warming-of-world-s-climate-expected-to-begin-in-the-80-s.html

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