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<p><i><font size="+1"><b>March 7, 2021</b></font></i></p>
[Carbon Brief]<br>
<b>Cancel all planned coal projects globally to end ‘deadly
addiction’, says UN chief</b><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/daily-brief/cancel-all-planned-coal-projects-globally-to-end-deadly-addiction-says-un-chief">https://www.carbonbrief.org/daily-brief/cancel-all-planned-coal-projects-globally-to-end-deadly-addiction-says-un-chief</a><br>
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[NYTimes warns]<br>
<b>In the Atlantic Ocean, Subtle Shifts Hint at Dramatic Dangers</b><br>
The warming atmosphere is causing an arm of the powerful Gulf Stream
to weaken, some scientists fear.<br>
By MOISES VELASQUEZ-MANOFF and JEREMY WHITE<br>
The Gulf Stream propels the heat of the Caribbean past Cape
Hatteras, N.C., before bending toward the British Isles.<br>
But now, in the North Atlantic, there is the “cold blob.”<br>
<br>
The fear: Melting Greenland ice will tip the delicate balance of hot
and cold that defines not only the North Atlantic, but life far and
wide.<br>
<blockquote>“We’re all wishing it’s not true,” Peter de Menocal, a
paleoceanographer and president and director of the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution, said of the changing ocean currents.
“Because if that happens, it’s just a monstrous change.”<br>
<br>
The consequences could include faster sea level rise along parts
of the Eastern United States and parts of Europe, stronger
hurricanes barreling into the Southeastern United States, and
perhaps most ominously, reduced rainfall across the Sahel, a
semi-arid swath of land running the width of Africa that is
already a geopolitical tinderbox...</blockquote>
They’ve also revealed a system of currents that’s far more complex
than once envisioned.<br>
<br>
Dr. Broecker’s old schematics of the AMOC posit a neat warm current
flowing north along the western edge of the Atlantic and an equally
neat cold current flowing back south below it. In fact, says Dr.
Lozier, that deeper current is not confined to the western edge of
the Atlantic, but rather flows southward via a number of “rivers”
that are filled with eddies. The network of deep ocean currents is
much more complicated than once envisioned, in other words, and
figuring out how buoyant meltwater from Greenland might affect the
formation of cold deepwater has become more complicated as well.<br>
<br>
This is the place scientists currently find themselves in. They
suspect the AMOC can work like a climate switch. They’re watching it
closely. Some argue that it’s already changing, others that it’s too
soon to tell.<br>
<br>
“There’s no consensus on whether it has slowed to date, or if it’s
currently slowing,” said Dr. Lozier. “But there is a consensus that
if we continue to warm the atmosphere, it will slow.”<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/03/02/climate/atlantic-ocean-climate-change.html">https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/03/02/climate/atlantic-ocean-climate-change.html</a><br>
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[ Opinion ]<br>
<b>The climate crisis can't be solved by carbon accounting tricks</b><br>
Simon Lewis<br>
Disaster looms if big finance is allowed to game the carbon
offsetting markets to achieve ‘net zero’ emissions<br>
Wed 3 Mar 2021 ...<br>
- -<br>
The science of net zero is simple: every sector of every country in
the world needs to be, on average, zero emissions. We know how to do
this for electricity, cars, buildings and even a lot of heavy
industry. But in certain areas, including air travel and some
agricultural emissions, there is no prospect of getting to zero
emissions in the near future. For these residual emissions,
greenhouse gasses will need to be sucked out of the atmosphere at
the same rate as they are added, so that, on average, there are net
zero emissions.<br>
<br>
Making this work requires carbon removal, also known as “negative
emissions”. This can be low-tech, like restoring forests, as this
takes carbon out of the atmosphere and stores it in trees. Or it can
be hi-tech, like using chemicals to strip carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere and then pumping it deep underground into safe geological
storage. In theory this is all fine, as pragmatically some carbon
removal is needed to balance hard-to-reduce emissions: but negative
emissions and offsetting alone are not a route to net zero.<br>
<br>
In practice, by believing in the promise of these methods, we are
too often deceiving ourselves, in three major ways. The first is an
unrealistic overreliance on carbon removal to preserve the status
quo. Shell recently published its net zero plan, that actually
projects high oil and gas production through to 2050 and beyond,
which voila, are magically removed with negative emissions.
Critically, there is far too little land to plant enough trees to
counter today’s emissions, and large-scale hi-tech methods do not
yet exist...<br>
- -<br>
What is to be done? Negative emissions and offsets are here to stay.
In a limited way, they are needed to stabilise the climate as they
are the only way to tackle the hardest-to-eliminate emissions.
Urgent discussion is needed about what comprises a “residual
emission” that requires offsetting. In practical terms, making the
carbon accountancy trustworthy will require truly independent
regulation that is based on science. It is the only way to contain
the bad actors and release the capital of good actors. Solving these
carbon deceptions should be a core outcome of the Glasgow Cop26
climate summit.<br>
<br>
If such deceptions remain, disaster looms. Big finance, led by
Carney, is planning to massively expand carbon markets. Conceivably,
new carbon-based financial products could boom, with little impact
on emissions. Just like the sub-prime crisis, few will understand
what they bought, and another globe-spanning crash could sweep the
world, compounding economic and climate crises causing mass
suffering, as we realise again that the Earth owes us nothing.
Nature doesn’t do bailouts.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/03/climate-crisis-carbon-accounting-tricks-big-finance">https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/03/climate-crisis-carbon-accounting-tricks-big-finance</a><br>
<br>
<br>
[China aspires]<br>
<b>China aims to be carbon neutral by 2060. Its new 5-year plan
won’t cut it.</b><br>
The plan could allow for emissions to keep growing through 2025.<br>
<blockquote>The new plan’s 2025 emissions goals reflect an ongoing
contradiction between China’s short-term and long-term climate
goals.<br>
<br>
In the long run, China has expressed a strong commitment to
climate action. President Xi Jinping surprised the world last
September when he announced that China would aim to reach carbon
neutrality by 2060. Climate scientists have called for countries
to hit that goal by 2050, but it was still a significant step
forward for China — the first time the country made any formal
commitment to zeroing out its emissions.<br>
<br>
And yet, even as Xi made that announcement, CO2 emissions in China
were soaring. Like the rest of the world, the pandemic had
initially caused economic activity to plummet in China in early
2020. But after swiftly bringing the pandemic under control within
its borders, the Chinese government funneled stimulus dollars into
the heavily polluting construction and manufacturing sectors,
stoking steel and cement production. As a result, China’s
emissions rose an estimated 1.5 percent in 2020, even accounting
for the initial drop.<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.vox.com/22313871/china-energy-climate-change-five-year-plan-wind-solar-coal-oil-gas">https://www.vox.com/22313871/china-energy-climate-change-five-year-plan-wind-solar-coal-oil-gas</a><br>
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<p><br>
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[complex consequences]<br>
<b>UN Human Rights Experts Condemn Expanding Petrochemical Industry
in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley as 'Environmental Racism'</b><br>
By Julie Dermansky • March 3, 2021<br>
Human rights experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights
Council issued a statement on March 2 raising concerns about the
further industrialization of Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley.” This
largely Black-populated stretch of the Mississippi River between New
Orleans and Baton Rouge is lined with more than a hundred refineries
and petrochemical plants. The experts said additional petrochemical
development in this region, which U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) data shows has some of the country’s highest cancer
risks from air pollution, constitutes “environmental racism” that
“must end.”<br>
<br>
“This form of environmental racism poses serious and
disproportionate threats to the enjoyment of several human rights of
its largely African American residents, including the right to
equality and non-discrimination, the right to life, the right to
health, right to an adequate standard of living and cultural
rights,” the experts said.<br>
<br>
The statement calls for U.S. officials to reconsider allowing FG LA
LLC, a subsidiary of Formosa Plastics Group, to build its proposed
“Sunshine Project” in St. James Parish, in the middle of the region.
That development, one of several new petrochemical projects slated
for the region, would be a massive complex. Its 14 units would
produce two types of plastic and the petrochemical ethylene glycol,
which is used to make polyester fabrics and antifreeze.<br>
<br>
It is a development that Sharon Lavigne, founder of the faith-based
grassroots organization RISE St. James, has been trying to stop ever
since learning in 2018 that the company planned to build its complex
less than two miles from her home.<br>
If built, “Formosa Plastics' petrochemical complex alone will more
than double the cancer risks in St. James Parish affecting
disproportionately African American residents,” the human rights
experts wrote. Their statement also took government regulators to
task for their role. “Federal environmental regulations have failed
to protect people residing in ‘Cancer Alley,’” they said, calling
for the U.S. Government “to deliver environmental justice in
communities all across America, starting with St. James Parish,” by
stopping the Formosa Plastics project... <br>
- -<br>
The UN experts’ statement comes after years of campaigning and
protests by Louisiana residents, community organizations, and
environmental advocacy groups. In November last year, Loyola
University law students, with the support of many of these same
groups, sent a letter calling for intervention to the United Nations
Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial
discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance. <br>
<br>
In response to the UN statement, FG LA LLC called “protecting
health, safety, and the environment” a priority for the company and
emphasized that the Sunshine Project meets all regulatory criteria.<br>
<br>
“We are constructing this project with advanced emissions reduction
mechanisms in place and extensive measures to protect the
environment, and also plan to keep pace with technological advances
that may enable the company to further strengthen those measures,”
Janile Parks, Director of Community and Government Relations for FG
LA LLC, told DeSmog by email. “As the project continues forward, FG
will uphold its commitment to operate safely, listen to community
concerns, keep the community informed, support real needs in the
parish, and continue to be a responsible corporate citizen.”<br>
<br>
The company also said it included “the remoteness or distance from
nearest residents” as an important criterion in choosing the
location of the facility. Its choice of location — a former sugar
plantation — has also raised concerns after an archeologist hired by
a nonprofit law firm representing RISE St. James identified the
gravesites of former enslaved ancestors on the property in 2019.<br>
Diane Wilson, a Texas-based activist who sued Formosa Plastics Corp.
USA over its plastics water pollution in her state and won,
disagrees with Parks’s statement. According to Wilson, Formosa is
anything but a responsible corporate citizen. Despite a $50 million
settlement and agreement not to release any more plastic into
waterways, Wilson continues to report instances of the company
releasing the nurdles it manufactures into local waterways in Point
Comfort, Texas. <br>
<br>
In addition, Texas state regulators recently fined that same Texas
plant $333,638 for air quality violations, including for the
unauthorized release of carcinogens, feeding further skepticism in
the mind of Wilson about the company’s claims of corporate
responsibility.<br>
<br>
Parks also pointed out that FG’s air quality permits were approved
by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, adding, “Any
claim that FG will greatly increase 'toxic emissions' in the area is
a misrepresentation and inaccurate.” <br>
<br>
Lavigne finds this claim — that the petrochemical complex won’t
further pollute the area because it received government permits —
laughable. The other factories releasing pollution around her were
permitted by the government too, she pointed out. <br>
At a February 12 press conference, a Louisiana-based community
coalition known as the Coalition Against Death Alley (CADA) cited
federal data showing Louisiana has the highest toxic air emissions
per square mile of any state. That data comes from the EPA’s Toxics
Release Inventory, and the EPA’s most recent National Air Toxics
Assessment (2014) showed that parts of Louisiana have high potential
cancer risks. <br>
<br>
In her response to the UN human rights statement, Parks also took
issue with the region’s moniker “Cancer Alley,” a moniker that came
from residents starting in the 1980s. “Simply stated, there is no
scientific proof that cancer rates in the Industrial Corridor,
including St. James Parish, or District 5 where The Sunshine Project
is located, are higher due to industrial activity,” Parks said. “In
fact, cancer rates and deaths are lower than, or there is no
significant difference from, the rest of the state.” As evidence,
she pointed to reports from the Louisiana Tumor Registry, which
aggregates data on cancer incidences in the state...<br>
- -<br>
“The 1.6 million pounds of toxic air pollutants to be released by
Formosa’s planned petrochemical complex includes thousands of metric
tons of known carcinogens, such as ethylene oxide, benzene,
1,3-butadiene, acetaldehyde and formaldehyde,” Dr. Marcos A.
Orellana, who is also an adjunct professor at the George Washington
University School of Law, told DeSmog. “Exposure to these hazardous
substances poses a clear and grave risk to the right to life and the
right to health.” <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2021/03/03/un-human-rights-formosa-petrochemical-cancer-alley">https://www.desmogblog.com/2021/03/03/un-human-rights-formosa-petrochemical-cancer-alley</a><br>
- -<br>
[consequences]<br>
<b>Pennsylvania Families Exposed to Unusually High Levels of Oil and
Gas Industry Chemicals, Report Finds</b><br>
By Sharon Kelly • Wednesday, March 3, 2021<br>
A groundbreaking four-part report by Environmental Health News (EHN)
offers new scientific evidence that living near oil and gas
development can expose people to a wide array of hazardous and
carcinogenic chemicals — not just those living near shale drilling
and fracking, but also those living near older conventional oil and
gas wells.<br>
- -<br>
The researchers discovered striking levels of chemicals associated
with oil and gas and their “biomarkers,” substances produced when
the body processes chemicals — like mandelic acid, which can be
evidence of exposure to ethylbenzene or styrene, or hippuric acid, a
biomarker for toluene. The compounds they found biomarkers for,
which also included benzene, can cause irritation of the skin, nose,
and eyes, central nervous system problems, and liver and kidney
damage; some are also carcinogens.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2021/03/03/pennsylvania-families-exposed-unusually-high-levels-oil-gas-chemicals">https://www.desmogblog.com/2021/03/03/pennsylvania-families-exposed-unusually-high-levels-oil-gas-chemicals</a><br>
- -<br>
[Study publication]<br>
Mar 01, 2021<br>
<b>Fractured: The body burden of living near fracking</b><br>
EHN.org scientific investigation finds western Pennsylvania families
near fracking are exposed to harmful chemicals, and regulations fail
to protect communities' mental, physical, and social health.<br>
It's been 12 years since fracking reshaped the American energy
landscape and much of the Pennsylvania countryside.<br>
<br>
And despite years of damning studies and shocking headlines about
the industry's impact—primarily on the state's poor and rural
families—people that live amongst wellpads remain in the dark about
what this proximity is doing to their health and the health of their
families. A two-year investigation by EHN set out to close some of
those gaps by measuring chemical exposures in residents' air, water,
and bodies.<br>
<br>
In the summer of 2019, we collected air, water, and urine samples
from five nonsmoking southwestern Pennsylvania households. All of
the households included at least one child. Three households were in
Washington County within two miles of numerous fracking wells,
pipelines, and compressor stations. Two households were in
Westmoreland County, at least five miles away from the nearest
active fracking well.<br>
<br>
Over a 9-week period we collected a total of 59 urine samples, 39
air samples, and 13 water samples. Scientists at the University of
Missouri analyzed the samples using the best available technology to
look for 40 of the chemicals most commonly found in emissions from
fracking sites (based on other air and water monitoring studies).<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.ehn.org/fractured-series-on-fracking-pollution-2650624600/far-reaching-impacts">https://www.ehn.org/fractured-series-on-fracking-pollution-2650624600/far-reaching-impacts</a><br>
- -<br>
[Frequently Asked Questions - what to do about it, learning more]<br>
Feb 25, 2021<br>
<b>Fractured: FAQs page</b><br>
We found alarming exposures to likely fracking pollution. But that's
just the beginning of the story.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.ehn.org/fractured-faqs-page-2650790584/scientific-studies-on-fracking-and-exposures">https://www.ehn.org/fractured-faqs-page-2650790584/scientific-studies-on-fracking-and-exposures</a><br>
- -<br>
[State by state information]<br>
<b>State Oil and Gas Boards</b><br>
State Oil and Gas Board and Commission sites are related to oil and
gas production, well sites, and any other relevant data and
information. The Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission is a
multi-state government agency that promotes the quality of life for
all Americans. This list is where information for OpenEI pages is
held, and also, in most cases, where oil and gas data can be
derived, open to the public. In many cases, EIA may hold the data
related to Oil and Gas. Also, some datasets may only contain a state
report pdf, in which case the data would need to be pulled out of
the pdf and put into an excel or xml. Here are the states:<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://openei.org/wiki/State_Oil_and_Gas_Boards">https://openei.org/wiki/State_Oil_and_Gas_Boards</a><br>
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<p><br>
</p>
[Two Paul Beckwith lectures]<br>
<b>Science Behind a Completely FRESH Arctic Ocean Under a Kilometer
Thick Ice Shelf Cap: Part 1 of 2</b><br>
Mar 5, 2021<br>
Paul Beckwith<br>
Part 1 of 2<br>
I delve into the details of the science behind the remarkable new
finding that the entire Arctic Ocean was essentially fresh water
trapped beneath kilometer thick ice shelves that extended from
Arctic coastlines to essentially create a thick ice cap over the
entire Arctic Ocean, extending from the landlocked Bering Strait
region all the way across the Arctic region to the
Greenland-Scotland Ridge. <br>
<br>
The scientific evidence behind this incredible finding is very
strong. Within salty sea water, there is naturally occurring
dissolved uranium, with concentrations proportional to the dissolved
salt content. This uranium decays to Thorium-230 which then goes
into the seafloor sediments close to the site of production. There
is also Calcium, and Manganese, and Sulphur in the salts. During the
time periods when the Arctic Ocean was fresh water, with no salt
content, these components drop to near zero levels. <br>
<br>
How could this happen? With global sea levels 130 meters lower, and
a sea ice shelf cap over the Arctic nearly 1 km thick, connections
to the other oceans were basically closed off. Over thousands of
years, the freshwater discharge into the Arctic Ocean, estimated at
1,200 cubic kilometers per year (20% of Amazon River discharge)
filled the Arctic volume under the ice shelf cap, forcing out all
the salt water. <br>
<br>
Amazing stuff. Not only that, but as the glacial periods ended and
the ice shelves receded, the 9 million cubic kilometers of fresh
water under the Arctic cap was rapidly released to the Atlantic
Ocean and then later the Pacific Ocean, causing abrupt global
climate system lurches.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dbGzwNTjEg">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dbGzwNTjEg</a><br>
- -<br>
[follow-up video]<br>
<b>Science of a Completely FRESH Arctic Ocean — Thorium-230,
Calcium, Beryllium-10: Part 2 of 2</b><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPoAvJWfiaw">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPoAvJWfiaw</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
[information warfare - history documentary video]<br>
<b>How We All Became Richard Nixon by Adam Curtis</b><br>
Premiered March 5, 2021<br>
Adam Curtis Documentary<br>
This short film uses the story of Richard Nixon’s paranoia to
explore how a similar outlook has been perpetuated on the larger
social scale by the new media age. Skimming through the evolution of
the mainstream media via television and newspapers, this short film
comments on how politics has been paralysed by a media that has
taken serious threats and sensationalised them, resulting in
political cynicism and disengagement, which in-turn feeds a viscous
cycle of nihilism and further sensationalist politics and media.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6-IuHtthcM">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6-IuHtthcM</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
[Digging back into the internet news archive]<br>
<font size="+1"><b>On this day in the history of global warming -
March 7, 2013 </b></font><br>
<p>Kate Sheppard of Mother Jones reports:<br>
<br>
"Despite record heat and extreme weather disasters in recent
years, insurers aren't adequately planning for climate change,
according to a report issued Thursday. Only 13 percent of
insurance companies have a 'specific, comprehensive strategy' to
deal with global warming."<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2013/03/report-insurers-still-ignoring-climate-change">http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2013/03/report-insurers-still-ignoring-climate-change</a>
<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
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