[✔️] May 13, 2021 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/*May 13, 2021*/

[universal blame]
*Climate Change Is Making Big Problems Bigger*
New data compiled by the E.P.A. shows how global warming is making life 
harder for Americans in myriad ways that threaten their health, safety 
and homes.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/12/climate/climate-change-epa.html


[let the sun shine - video positivism]
*A solar solution for Sub Saharan Schools.*
May 12, 2021
Just Have a Think
Kerosene lamps are still widely used in many parts of the world, not 
least by kids trying to study during the evenings in Sub-Saharan Africa. 
This week we meet Namene Solar, who are working hard to provide 
solutions that will help students to do their work in a safe, healthy 
environment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7CDHXzjvJo
- -
*How carbon offsetting with solar lights cuts emissions, reduces poverty 
and saves lives*
Namene Solar’s innovative carbon offsetting solar project is the first 
of its kind in Zambia. Our lights cut carbon emissions, reduce poverty 
and have truly life-changing impacts.

In rural Zambia, 90% of people live below the extreme poverty line, on 
less than $1.25 a day. This means they also live in energy poverty, 
without access to electricity.

They rely on dangerous, expensive fossil-fuel based lighting such as 
kerosene lamps. These lamps emit carbon dioxide and can cause fatal fires.

Our solar lights replace these outdated, toxic lamps with clean, 
renewable solar light at the push of a button.
https://namenesolar.com/stories/how-carbon-offsetting-with-solar-lights-cuts-emissions-reduces-poverty-and-saves-lives/



[famous methane scientist interviewed - be sure to use captions]
*Sources of Arctic Methane | Igor Semiletov | Unseen footage of methane 
plumes from 2020 voyage | pt1*
May 12, 2021
Nick Breeze
The whole series will also be published on https://climateseries.com and 
https://genn.cc

This is part 1 in series of three posts on methane releases from the 
East Siberian Arctic Shelf recorded in 2021.

This is the first in a miniseries discussing the ongoing work in the 
Russian Arctic talking to Dr Igor Semiletov, one of the lead scientists 
who has been studying the region for over twenty years.

Old deep thermogenic pool
In assessing whether the potential for increased climate warming is a 
significant risk, scientists look at the size of the carbon pool and 
also the origin of the methane.

In many cases where methane is produced from biogenic sources, such as 
animals and plants, it is created by microbes and although has the same 
global warming potential, it is created very slowly and is often broken 
down to CO2 before it reaches the atmosphere.

The other source is thermogenic methane that occurs due to the decay of 
organic matter at high pressure and temperature. For these conditions to 
occur, the sediments where they are found are older and deeper.

In terms of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf, many scientists have 
believed that the methane emissions are from biogenic sources. This 
means they would be slower to form and overall a lesser risk to the 
global climate.

This article has been created using extracts from recent interviews with 
Dr Semiletov. In part 2 I speak to Professor Orjan Gustafsson from the 
Department of Environmental Science at Stockholm University.

Orjan has been visiting the East Siberian Shelf for many years working 
alongside an international group of scientists including the Russians. 
He discusses how research into the escaping methane  and thawing 
permafrost in the East Siberian Arctic Shelf should be greatly expanded 
considering the magnitude and changing stability of the carbon pool. He 
also suggests that this research could have enormous ramifications for 
how carbon budgets that inform policy, are calculated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGgcUSJbAqE  [turn on captions]



[DW is a German public broadcast service]
*Electric batteries, fuel cells, hydrogen fuel: Carmakers look for 
energy solutions | DW News*
May 12, 2021
DW News
No car manufacturer can avoid electromobility. After long start-up 
difficulties, everyone has made this a priority. In order to achieve the 
climate protection goals (see the occasion today) and not least because 
China, the important car sales market, is demanding more electrical 
outlets. Batteries are needed for e-cars. However, their production is 
currently still dominated by Asian companies that do not necessarily 
build cars. In view of the rapidly growing e-fleets, some car 
manufacturers want to take this into their own hands
At the same time the demand for green hydrogen will skyrocket in the 
next few years. This requires a lot of green electricity, for example 
from wind turbines. But the expansion of onshore wind farms is only 
progressing slowly. And at the same time, functional wind turbines are 
even being demolished.
Where will the electricity come from to switch to green hydrogen?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNdDtjoPmmE


[valid but difficult approach to the problem - censorship of stupidity]
*Advert ban tries to wean the Dutch off fossil fuels*
May 6th, 2021, by Alex Kirby
How do you wean the Dutch off fossil fuels? Well, you could always start 
by banning advertisements that promote them.

LONDON, 6 May, 2021 − Three days ago Amsterdam, capital of the 
Netherlands, “Venice of the North” (and destination of many travellers 
who appreciate a little something extra with their coffee), took a 
serious step into the future. It sought to wean the Dutch off fossil 
fuels by banning many advertisements for the pollutants.

The ban isn’t total − yet. But this prohibition of what are described as 
“fossil fuel products”, including air travel as well as fossil-fuelled 
cars, means the adverts will no longer be seen in Amsterdam’s subway 
stations.

The city says it’s the first in the world determined to keep fossil fuel 
advertising off its streets. Never before has a city decided to ban 
advertising solely on the basis of climate change, it insists.

The agreement about advertisements in its metro stations is the 
municipality’s first step towards making advertising everywhere in 
Amsterdam fossil-free. The Dutch capital is still investigating a wider 
ban on advertising, and on marketing festivals by fossil fuel companies 
such as ExxonMobil and Shell (or, to give it its original name, Royal 
Dutch Shell).

“We don’t have any time to waste. Adverts that portray fossil fuels as 
normal worsen climate disruption”

Ban Fossil Advertising (Reclame Fossielvrij) is a Dutch citizens’ group 
working for a nationwide ban on advertising by the fossil fuel industry 
and on adverts for polluting transport. Its co-ordinator, Femke 
Sleegers, said: “The decision to ban fossil fuel advertising from subway 
stations comes at a crucial moment in the fight against climate change.

“We don’t have any time to waste in working towards the Paris climate 
goals. Adverts that portray fossil fuels as normal worsen climate 
disruption and have no place in a city − or a country − that has 
complied with Paris.”

The decision by Amsterdam’s city council to start banning fossil fuel 
adverts followed pressure by Ban Fossil Advertising and 51 other local 
groups. The city’s public transport company, GVB, had already decided to 
sharpen up its advertising policy in order to keep greenwashing 
advertisements (when polluters falsely present themselves as 
environmentally responsible) out of its vehicles, after a call by 
Extinction Rebellion Amsterdam.

Ban Fossil Advertising is working for a nationwide law to cover the 
fossil fuel industry, modelled on the Dutch advertising ban on the 
tobacco industry, which is regarded by campaigners as an indispensable 
step in the fight against smoking. It is seen not only as a step which 
changed social norms, but as one that removed temptation. Today’s 
campaigners say an identical approach is needed towards fossil fuels.

*Global pressure*
Three more cities in the Netherlands − The Hague, Utrecht and Nijmegen − 
say they are open to a ban on fossil fuel ads. Similar moves are under 
way in a number of other countries in Europe, North America and 
Australia, some at national level and some in individual cities, with 
media backing in several cases.

A Canadian group, for example, the Citizens’ Initiative for a fossil 
fuel advertisement-free Canada,  urges Parliament “to demand 
accountability from the fossil industry and legislate a ‘tobacco law’ 
for oil, gas and petrochemical companies; a ‘fossil law’”.

This would ban adverts for Big Oil, air travel and cars with fossil fuel 
engines, with fossil fuel money used for marketing redirected into “an 
unbranded fund that helps the transition.” A similar initiative is under 
way in France.

In the US, the city of New York is suing three major oil companies and 
the top industry trade group, arguing that the companies are 
misrepresenting themselves by selling fuels as “cleaner” and advertising 
themselves as leaders in fighting climate change.

In the UK the Badvertising campaign is seeking to stop adverts from 
fuelling the climate emergency, and the environmental lawyers 
ClientEarth are urging policymakers to ban all fossil fuel company ads 
unless they come with tobacco-style health warnings about the risks of 
global heating to people and the planet. − Climate News Network
https://climatenewsnetwork.net/advert-ban-tries-to-wean-the-dutch-off-fossil-fuels/


[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming  May 13, 2011 *

In an editorial, the Washington Post declares, "Climate change denial 
becomes harder to justify."

    Climate-change deniers, in other words, are willfully ignorant, lost
    in wishful thinking, cynical or some combination of the three. And
    their recalcitrance is dangerous, the report makes clear, because
    the longer the nation waits to respond to climate change, the more
    catastrophic the planetary damage is likely to be — and the more
    drastic the needed response.

    That response, the panel concluded, ought to include not only a
    strong policy to begin reducing greenhouse gas emissions but also a
    plan to begin adapting to climate change, some amount of which is
    already inevitable; more research into climate science and
    alternative energies; and active engagement in international efforts
    to control climate change. Given the global nature of the problem,
    the report says, U.S. action can’t be sufficient, but “strong U.S.
    emission efforts will enhance our ability to influence other
    countries to do the same.”

    What happens when Congress asks a question and gets an answer it
    doesn’t like? The response from Texas Rep. Joe Barton, senior
    Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, provides a
    clue. “I see nothing substantive in this report that adds to the
    knowledge base necessary to make an informed decision about what
    steps — if any — should be taken to address climate change,” Mr.
    Barton told the New York Times.

    He’s right, of course — there is essentially nothing new, and that’s
    the point. Every candidate for political office in the next cycle,
    including for president, should be asked whether they disagree with
    the scientific consensus of America’s premier scientific advisory
    group, as reflected in this report; and if so, on what basis they
    disagree; and if not, what they propose to do about the rising seas,
    spreading deserts and intensifying storms that, absent a change in
    policy, loom on America’s horizon.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/climate-change-denial-becomes-harder-to-justify/2011/05/13/AF44QQ4G_story.html

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