[✔️] April 26, 2024 Global Warming News | Outage trends, Resilient Virginia, Al Gore climate news, Filter world, 1978 SCOTUS

[Richard Pauli]

/*April *//*26, 2024*/

/[ new data analysis ]/
*Weather-related Power Outages Rising*
Of all major U.S. power outages reported from 2000 to 2023, 80% (1,755) 
were due to weather.

Most weather-related outages were caused by severe weather (58%), winter 
storms (23%), and tropical cyclones including hurricanes (14%).

The states with the most reported weather-related power outages 
(2000-2023) were Texas (210), Michigan (157), California (145), North 
Carolina (111), and Ohio (88).

The Southeast (360), South (352), Northeast (350), and Ohio Valley (301) 
experienced the most weather-related outages from 2000 to 2023.
More extreme weather, more power outages
Many types of extreme weather are becoming more frequent or intense 
because of human-caused climate change. These events put stress on aging 
energy infrastructure and are among the leading causes of major power 
outages in the U.S.

The nation’s electrical grid wasn't built for the present-day climate. 
Electricity is mostly transmitted and distributed through above-ground 
transformers, transmission wires, and utility poles that are exposed to 
extreme weather such as high winds, heavy rain, ice, lightning, and 
extreme heat. Even in areas where power lines are buried, flooding can 
lead to loss of power.

Power outages affect millions of people and cost billions of dollars 
annually. Outages can disrupt access to clean water, food, and critical 
healthcare. They also have cascading effects on communications networks 
and transportation.

The impacts of power outages and lengthy restoration times can 
disproportionately burden people of color, as during the February 2021 
Texas cold outbreak; the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico; 
and power restoration in Florida after Hurricane Irma....
-- -
*Outages by weather type*
Weather-related outages were sorted into five categories: severe 
weather, winter weather, tropical cyclones (including hurricanes), 
extreme heat, and wildfire. During the 24-year period analyzed:

Severe weather — such as high winds, rain, and thunderstorms — caused 
58% of weather-related outages (1,011 events).

Winter weather — including snow, ice, and freezing rain — accounted for 
23% of weather-related outages (398 events).

Tropical cyclones (including hurricanes) caused 14% of weather-related 
outages (249 events). Although tropical storms accounted for a smaller 
percentage of weather-related outages, they account for most of the 
longest-lasting outages through 2022.

Extreme heat was responsible for 48 outages (about 3% of weather-related 
outages). Heat waves bring increased electricity demand for cooling, 
which can overload the system. A recent study shows that widespread 
extreme heat has coincided with power outages in every U.S. region from 
2012 to 2021. These events can ​​expose people to dangerous temperatures 
and amplify health risks during heat waves.

Wildfire accounted for 39 outages (about 2% of weather-related outages). 
More than half of these outages were concentrated in the last five 
years. About one-third were public safety power shutoffs by utilities 
due to wildfires or to reduce risk of equipment-related ignitions during 
extreme fire weather days. Wildfire seasons are lengthening and 
intensifying across the U.S.
- -
*Dangers of losing power*
Power outages are more than just an inconvenience. A lack of 
refrigeration, heating, and air conditioning can be dangerous or even 
deadly, especially during extended outages. Outages can also lead to a 
range of potential health consequences, particularly for those who rely 
on electricity for critical medical equipment.

Older people and individuals with disabilities or certain health 
conditions may be especially vulnerable during weather-related power 
outages. Consequences can be compounded by the precipitating events, 
such as flooding, wildfire, or extreme temperatures.

Longer outages amplify health risks for vulnerable populations. A 2023 
study found that long-duration outages were most prevalent across the 
Northeast, South, and Appalachia from 2018 to 2020. Arkansas, Louisiana, 
and Michigan in particular experienced significantly more long-duration 
outages in counties with large socially- and medically-vulnerable 
populations.


/[  American Resiliency --  this time Virginia  ]/
*Virginia 2C Climate Outlook: NCA5 Update*
American Resiliency
Apr 25, 2024
Virginia, you've got a solid overall outlook here.  To the west, you 
look awesome.  Towards the coast, you're going to be looking at some 
significant warming, as well as some serious sea level rise issues. 
Check it out, we'll walk through projected changes to seasonal temps, 
precipitation, and more, and help you identify risks and actions to take 
in your area.

Here's a link to the NCA5 https://nca2023.globalchange.gov/

And to the sea level rise viewer- check out your address if you're in a 
coastal area
https://coast.noaa.gov/slr/#/layer/slr
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22Q7YtfD_9Q




[ Al Gore for Inside Climate News ]
*‘Pathetic, Really, and Dangerous’: Al Gore Reflects on Fraudulent 
Fossil Fuel Claims, Climate Voters and Clean Energy*
The former presidential candidate spoke privately with reporters in New 
York while helping to train the next generation of climate activists.

By Kristoffer Tigue
April 24, 2024
NEW YORK CITY—Former Vice President Al Gore paid a visit to the Big 
Apple earlier this month to help train a new cohort of climate activists 
just ahead of Earth Day.

The training session, which took place from April 12 to 14, was part of 
The Climate Reality Project, Gore’s nonprofit that focuses on providing 
tools and resources to grassroots organizers so they can better tackle 
issues related to climate change and environmental justice in their own 
neighborhoods.

Gore, who has become one of the most recognizable climate advocates 
globally since stepping away from elected politics, also held a private 
roundtable discussion with a small group of journalists to talk about 
anything from the upcoming presidential election to the fossil fuel 
industry’s decades-long misinformation campaign on global warming. 
Here’s what the former vice president had to say.
On what a second Trump term could mean for climate change:

The technological tailwinds—with the continuing cost reductions for 
solar and wind electricity, for battery storage, for green hydrogen, for 
electric vehicles, etc.—will continue to move the sustainability 
revolution forward regardless of who is president.

But our chance to accelerate that progress to the levels that are 
necessary to really solve this crisis would be taken away if an 
anti-climate president came into office. And we saw this in 2017, when a 
lot of the progress that was already underway did continue, but there 
were no new initiatives and there was a stagnation when there should 
have been an acceleration.

On whether climate voters will support Biden:

I think that President Biden has earned their support even though he’s 
done some things that I disagree with strongly. The specific gravity of 
the Inflation Reduction Act out-balances almost all of the other issues 
involved here. What he did there was really historic.

Yesterday, we had the administrator of the Environmental Protection 
Agency here in New York, talking about a lot of major changes just in 
the past week—PFAS, forever chemicals, air pollution, etc. There are a 
lot of examples, and I think the good far, far outweighs the policy 
changes that I disagree with.

I think at the end of the day, most voters will come to that same 
conclusion...
- -
On the biggest challenges for clean energy development:

The two principal obstacles are: number one, the financing challenges, 
particularly in the developing world. All 100 percent of projected 
increases in emissions come from developing countries, and yet, the 
current system by which private capital is allocated globally 
shortchanges the developing countries because they have risk factors 
that are discouraging for lenders and investors. The currency 
exchange—they don’t know if the value of the currency in Nigeria is 
going to go up or down and suddenly collapse. Corruption risks, off-take 
risks, continuity of government risks.

And so traditionally, for really understandable reasons, lenders and 
investors have been more reluctant to make capital available. I use an 
example of Nigeria, where interest rates are often seven times higher 
than the interest rate you have to pay in the U.S. or Europe. If you 
want to build a new solar farm or whatever, that makes it prohibitive.

Number two, the opposition of the fossil fuel companies. That is a huge, 
huge obstacle. The U.S. is already distorted by gerrymandering—the 
distortion of political boundaries of congressional districts—and the 
nationalization of fundraising. So they have the opportunity to threaten 
members of Congress, to take away their funding, and instead finance a 
challenger in the primary.

This has been one of the reasons why one of our two major political 
parties is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the fossil fuel industry. I 
mean, it’s pathetic, really, and dangerous.

On how the fossil fuel industry continues to hold up progress on climate 
action:

One month after they gave the impression that they agreed with the final 
document in COP28 to transition away from fossil fuels, the American 
Petroleum Institute began a massive, eight-figure campaign to try to 
convince the American people that it was unwise and indeed impossible to 
transition away from fossil fuels. The coal industry began their ‘Not So 
Fast’ campaign. The CEO of the largest oil and gas company in the world 
said it’s a fantasy to think we can transition away.

But their public persuasion and advertising campaign is only one part of 
a multipronged, long-term effort to try to extend their highly 
disruptive business model into the future as long as they can.

There are the fraudulent claims that carbon capture and direct air 
capture can be a solution to the crisis that has been created by fossil 
fuels; the massive use of campaign contributions and lobbying; the 
skillful use of the revolving door that places fossil fuel beholden 
executives into positions in charge of public policy, not only in this 
country but around the world; and the pretense that they will help to 
lead the energy transition toward renewables when they have utterly no 
intention of doing any such thing...
- -
On the importance of permitting reform for the clean energy transition:

The permitting challenge is one that really needs to be addressed. For 
so long, much of the power wielded in the environmental movement writ 
large was the power to say no and block things.

National Environmental Policy Act, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, the 
Endangered Species Act: All of these gave environmentalists tools to 
stop things they didn’t want to go forward. And those tools are 
available to those who want to stop the siting of a new wind farm or a 
new solar farm or a new transmission line.

A majority within the environmental movement have now come to the 
conclusion that we have to crack this nut; we have to find ways to make 
permitting of new transmission lines, and the rest, easier to accomplish.

And we’ve seen some progress. The approval last month of the Sunrise 
Wind project off the coast [of New York] is an example of going forward 
in spite of considerable opposition. I’m not saying it’s solved yet. 
There is still a legislative remedy, both at local, state and federal 
levels that needs to be crafted. But slowly we’re making progress on them.
Kristoffer Tigue is a staff writer for Inside Climate News
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/24042024/al-gore-on-fossil-fuel-claims-climate-voters-clean-energy/



/[ Sort of wild television book review ]/
*[ Why we don't see any news about global warming ]*
Kyle Chayka -”Filterworld” & Experiencing the World Through Algorithms | 
The Daily Show
https://youtu.be/8JKgircOigo



/[The news archive - wow, SCOTUS was idiotic back then too  ]/
/*April 26, 1978 */
April 26, 1978: The Supreme Court explicitly gives private-sector 
entities (including polluters) 1st Amendment rights in the First 
National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti case.
https://www.oyez.org/cases/1977/76-1172


/Archive of Daily Global Warming News 
https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote/

/To receive daily mailings - click to Subscribe 
<mailto:subscribe at theClimate.Vote?subject=Click%20SEND%20to%20process%20your%20request> 
to news digest./

/Archive of Daily Global Warming News 
https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote/

Privacy and Security: *This mailing is text-only -- and carries no 
images or attachments which may originate from remote servers. Text-only 
messages provide greater privacy to the receiver and sender. This is a 
personal hobby production curated by Richard Pauli
By regulation, the .VOTE top-level domain cannot be used for commercial 
purposes. Messages have no tracking software.
To subscribe, email: contact at theclimate.vote 
<mailto:contact at theclimate.vote> with subject subscribe, To Unsubscribe, 
subject: unsubscribe
Also you may subscribe/unsubscribe at 
https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/theclimate.vote

Links and headlines assembled and curated by Richard Pauli for 
http://TheClimate.Vote <http://TheClimate.Vote/> delivering succinct 
information for citizens and responsible governments of all levels. List 
membership is confidential and records are scrupulously restricted to 
this mailing list.

===
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote/attachments/20240426/34644132/attachment.htm>