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<font size="+2"><font face="Calibri"><i><b>April</b></i></font></font><font
size="+2" face="Calibri"><i><b> 17, 2023</b></i></font><font
face="Calibri"><br>
</font> <br>
<i>[ Inside Climate News on how fossil fuel money flows ]</i><br>
<b>Banks Say They’re Acting on Climate, But Continue to Finance
Fossil Fuel Expansion</b><br>
Two new reports say banks are not shifting away from fossil fuels
fast enough. While lending declined last year, it was likely because
oil companies were “swimming in profits.”<br>
By Nicholas Kusnetz<br>
April 13, 2023<br>
If money makes the world go round, it should be no surprise that
fossil fuel still powers the global economy. Ever since world
leaders reached the Paris climate agreement in 2015 to limit warming
and slash the pollution driving it, environmental groups have
chronicled the continued flow of finance from the wealthiest banks
to the oil and gas industry.<br>
<br>
Climate advocates have been increasing the pressure on banks to
change course, and many lenders have responded by adopting policies
to reduce the climate pollution generated by their vast portfolios.
Some have also pledged to stop financing certain types of fossil
fuel extraction altogether, such as coal mining and Arctic drilling.
But have those policies made any difference?<br>
<br>
A pair of new reports provides a muddled picture. Banks lent
significantly less money to fossil fuel companies last year,
according to a report by a collection of environmental groups led by
Rainforest Action Network. However, the decline was likely driven
not by choices the banks made, the report said, but because oil
companies were sitting on so much cash they didn’t need to borrow
any. Many oil firms, including ExxonMobil and Chevron, earned record
profits last year.<br>
All told, the world’s top 60 banks plowed $673 billion in financing
into fossil fuel companies last year, according to the report, which
is the lowest amount since the groups began tracking in 2016.
Despite the decline, the report’s authors said the banks’ fossil
lending policies remain weak and inadequate, and that such financing
is not declining nearly fast enough to curb climate pollution in
line with the Paris Agreement’s more ambitious target of limiting
warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit...<br>
- -<br>
“We still see just this tremendous flow of finance into fossil fuel
companies, including into companies that are expanding fossil
fuels,” said April Merleaux, research manager at Rainforest Action
Network and the report’s lead author. The report singled out the
largest companies involved in fossil fuel expansion—those exploring
new oil fields, for example, or building new pipelines—and found
that banks had lent them $150 billion last year. “Every dollar
that’s going into expansion is a dollar that is pushing us past that
1.5 degree target.”<br>
<br>
In 2021, the International Energy Agency said that no new oil and
gas fields should be developed if the world is to meet that goal of
the Paris Agreement.<br>
<br>
A second report analyzed the fossil fuel lending policies of the top
six American banks and similarly found them to fall short of meeting
the Paris Agreement goals. That report was published by the
sustainable investment nonprofit Ceres and the Transition Pathways
Initiative Center, a low-carbon research institute based at the
London School of Economics and Political Science.<br>
<br>
The reports come amid increased scrutiny of the role of financial
markets in cutting emissions across the economy. Climate advocates
have taken to the streets to urge banks to phase out fossil fuel
lending, and the Biden administration has adopted new rules to
increase climate disclosures in financial reporting. Meanwhile,
Republicans have been pushing back, with some states enacting laws
meant to punish banks that restrict lending.<br>
<br>
Pavel Molchanov, an analyst with the financial firm Raymond James,
agreed that the decline in lending last year was driven largely by
the fact that many oil companies earned more money than ever. But
new pressure from investors is beginning to have an effect on how
oil companies spend their money, too, he added. Much of that
pressure is from conventional investors seeking higher returns and
more disciplined spending from the industry, rather than lower
emissions. The result is the same, he said, “which is drill less.”<br>
- -<br>
Rothstein said the Biden administration’s target of cutting climate
pollution 50 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 will remain out of
reach unless banks move faster.<br>
<br>
“We’re not going to get there as a society if the banks continue to
finance new fossil fuel areas,” he said.<br>
<br>
JPMorgan Chase has provided the most by far to fossil fuel companies
since 2016, more than $434 billion, according to Rainforest Action
Network, followed by Citi, Wells Fargo and Bank of America. The
other two banks profiled by the Ceres report, Morgan Stanley and
Goldman Sachs, lent substantially less...<br>
- -<br>
Rothstein said the Biden administration’s target of cutting climate
pollution 50 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 will remain out of
reach unless banks move faster.<br>
<br>
“We’re not going to get there as a society if the banks continue to
finance new fossil fuel areas,” he said.<br>
<br>
JPMorgan Chase has provided the most by far to fossil fuel companies
since 2016, more than $434 billion, according to Rainforest Action
Network, followed by Citi, Wells Fargo and Bank of America. The
other two banks profiled by the Ceres report, Morgan Stanley and
Goldman Sachs, lent substantially less...<br>
- - <br>
“Our belief is that banks actually do play an important role in
making these changes in the economy,” Merleaux said. They make risk
calculations with broad social consequences, she added, and “this is
a case where they are not evaluating the future climate risks with
as much seriousness as they deserve.”<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/13042023/banks-say-theyre-acting-on-climate-but-continue-to-finance-fossil-fuel-expansion/">https://insideclimatenews.org/news/13042023/banks-say-theyre-acting-on-climate-but-continue-to-finance-fossil-fuel-expansion/</a><br>
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<i>[ Artificial intelligence ]</i><br>
<b>Can Artificial Intelligence revolutionise Climate Action?! feat.
@AnkurShah</b><br>
ClimateAdam<br>
Mar 23, 2023 #ClimateChange<br>
From ChatGPT to Midjourney, it's clear A.I. (artificial
intelligence) will change everything we do. And climate change and
energy are two of the biggest things that we do. From understanding
climate change, to developing new energy tech, and even building
better climate policy, A.I. could mean huge amounts in our fight to
stop global warming. But A.I. isn't a silver bullet, and there are a
host of risks to relying to heavily on machine learning to tackle
our problems for us.<br>
Check out our video on Ankur's channel:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EapIRSBbUeM">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EapIRSBbUeM</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PR27zlDN8I">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PR27zlDN8I</a><br>
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</p>
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<font face="Calibri"><i>[ Just have a think - video ] </i><br>
</font> <font face="Calibri"><b>3 major energy storage
breakthroughs in 2023.</b><br>
Just Have a Think<br>
</font><font face="Calibri">Apr 16, 2023<br>
Energy storage breakthroughs. You've heard it all before, right?
And it is true that apparently "game changing" new technologies
are being announced on an almost weekly basis. It's a sign of a
rapidly accelerating market disruption that will see western
societies move rapidly away from fossil fuel combustion by 2030.
Now there are 3 more to add to the list - each of which looks set
to change their respective sectors for ever.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrL8OB761f8">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrL8OB761f8</a><br>
</font>
<p><font face="Calibri"><br>
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</font> </p>
<font face="Calibri"> <i>[ Sea Level rise = most difficult to
control ]</i></font><br>
<b>Disturbing Sea Level Studies</b><br>
BY ROBERT HUNZIKER<br>
APRIL 14, 2023<br>
For decades, climate scientists have been sounding the alarm that
unless the nations of the world stop emitting greenhouse gases
global warming will bring dangerous consequences. Rather, greenhouse
gases, like CO2, have escalated to new highs year-over-year without
hesitation.<br>
<br>
Now, new climate studies are exposing the results of decades of a
couldn’t-care-less world interwoven within a deadly entrapment of
free-market dictates of “not to worry, the market will handle it.”
It hasn’t!<br>
<br>
Ergo, the price for decades of jaded indifference is starting to run
very high and maybe irreversible with a sea level calamity poised to
spring loose, catching the world unprepared.<br>
<br>
Two major new studies paint a sobering picture of unexpected sea
levels well beyond anybody’s expectations. Indeed, the world is not
braced for this:<br>
<br>
1. According to an article in The Guardian d/d April 10, 2023: “What
experts are calling a dramatic surge in ocean levels has taken place
along the US south-eastern and Gulf of Mexico coastline since 2010.
(referenced study: Jianjun Yin, Decadal Acceleration of Sea Level
Rise Along the U.S. East and Gulf of Mexico During 2010-2022…
Journal of Climate, March 2, 2023)<br>
<br>
2. Another new study: Christine L. Batchelor, et al, Rapid,
Buoyancy-Driven Ice-Sheet Retreat of Hundreds of Metres Per Day,
Nature, April 5, 2023 demonstrates nightmarish rapid sea level rise
based upon events in the past when ice sheets retreated in pulses of
almost 2,000 feet per day during the end of the last ice age.
Conditions today may be similar...<br>
- -<br>
<font face="Calibri">The infamous Thwaites (Doomsday) Glacier in
West Antarctica has an ocean-bottom that matches the Batchelor
study earmarked as a “danger zone” “which has a relatively flat
area just a few kilometers inland of where it is currently… so it
would be a good candidate of where you might see a pulse of rapid
retreat in the future,” Ibid.</font><br>
<font face="Calibri"><br>
According to the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration:
Thwaites is losing ice faster than at any time in the past 5,000
years. And based upon an article in Scientific American d/d
November 1, 2022: “Two expeditions to the Thwaites Ice Shelf have
revealed that it could splinter apart in less than a decade,
hastening sea-level rise worldwide.”<br>
<br>
The Batchelor study showed the fastest rate of ice sheet retreat
on record, but accordingly, depending upon “the level of warming”
even faster rates are possible. This may be what is happening
today. According to US climate.gov: Today’s global warming is much
faster than warm periods between ice ages over the last million
years.<br>
<br>
Rignot claims: “During the time period when these events were
recorded, sea level was rising 4 meters (13 feet) per century…
That is 10 times what we have today. Are you scared yet? Well, you
should be,” Ibid.<br>
<br>
Meanwhile, the Jianjun Yin, University of Arizona study published
in Journal of Climate: “Provides an alarming new assessment of a
key ingredient of the escalating climate emergency, particularly
in popular but vulnerable areas of the US where millions of people
live.” (Source: Miami and New Orleans Face Greater Sea-Level
Threat Than Already Feared, The Guardian, April 10, 2023)<br>
<br>
Scientists have detected “a dramatic surge in ocean levels” along
the US south-eastern and Gulf of Mexico coastlines since 2010, an
increase of 5in. This is more than double the global average. The
entire region is feeling the impact of sea-level acceleration.
Climate scientists claim the surge is unprecedented and amplified
by internal climate variabilities. Already, stories of cascading
shoreline homes as well as physical movement of houses more inland
occur regularly at the Outer Banks, North Carolina.<br>
<br>
These are some of the first known studies to identify an actual
surge in sea levels over the past decade as well as paleoclimate
evidence of rapid pulses of ice sheet retreat and likely
disintegration that are well beyond projections of sea levels by
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC.<br>
<br>
A certain level of wistfulness follows in the footsteps of these
studies that depict a worsening, as well as absolutely
frightening, global warming scenario that’s hastening the collapse
of ice sheets that clearly and impactfully threaten modern-day
civilization. But based upon blasé reactions by the world at
large, it’s treated lightly, almost like it’s not reality. If it
were otherwise, accepting a very harsh reality, major nations of
the world would be pulling out all the stops to do whatever is
necessary. Alas, this is not happening, not even close.<br>
<br>
Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:rlhunziker@gmail.com">rlhunziker@gmail.com</a>.<br>
</font><font face="Calibri"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/04/14/disturbing-sea-level-studies/">https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/04/14/disturbing-sea-level-studies/</a><br>
</font>
<p><font face="Calibri"><br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Calibri"><br>
</font></p>
<font face="Calibri"><i>[ Resilience opinion ]</i><br>
</font><font face="Calibri"><b>Another offering from our tech
overlords: A climate change solution without sacrifice</b><br>
By Kurt Cobb, originally published by Resource Insights<br>
</font><font face="Calibri">April 16, 2023</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">My expectations are never disappointed when I
read the news each day and find out that the solutions to the
problems created by our modern technology are to be found in more
technology. We do not need to restructure our society, reduce our
consumption, moderate our desires or change our habits. Technology
will solve our problems without us having to make any substantial
change in our way of life.<br>
<br>
The breathless coverage of a university-based startup company that
will draw carbon dioxide out of the ocean—thereby making room for
more carbon dioxide from the air to be absorbed—may convince you
that we can all sit back and let our tech overlords solve climate
change. But if you read to the very bottom of the article, you
will find out that there is one important sticking point. It’s an
energy-intensive process and the energy must come from somewhere.<br>
<br>
The company says its process will produce hydrogen as a by-product
which will cover about half of the energy needs. What about the
other half? Well, I suppose they could just use renewable sources.
But that would seriously limit the scale of this technology
because of the lack of available renewable energy in many locales
and its low market penetration to date. According to the “Our
World in Energy” site (using data from the BP’s Statistical Review
of World Energy), less than 3 percent of the world’s energy comes
from wind. Only 1.65 percent is solar. Only seven-tenths of one
percent is biofuels. Even if you add nuclear which is
nonrenewable, nuclear makes up only 4.3 percent of world energy.
And, this is not to mention other demands on these sources of
energy.<br>
<br>
There are more difficulties. It turns out that hydrogen when
released in its gaseous form into the atmosphere makes climate
change worse. And, hydrogen is notorious for leaking from just
about anything you can put it in, partly because it’s a gas and
mostly because it is the smallest molecule in the universe (which
makes it easier for hydrogen to get around other molecules trying
to block it).<br>
<br>
Here’s the explanation for why hydrogen aggravates global warming:<br>
</font>
<blockquote><font face="Calibri">[Hydrogen] has an indirect global
warming effect by extending the lifetime of other GHGs
[greenhouse gases]. Certain GHGs such as methane, ozone, and
water vapor are gradually neutralized by reacting with hydroxide
radicals (OH) in the atmosphere. When H2 reaches the atmosphere,
however, the H2 molecule reacts with OH instead, depleting
atmospheric OH levels and delaying the neutralization of the
GHGs, which effectively increases the lifetime of these GHGs.</font><br>
</blockquote>
<font face="Calibri">How potent is hydrogen in its indirect warming
effects? The report cited above says 100 times more potent than
carbon dioxide. Another source says 11 times. So, the transition
to a hydrogen economy would also have to be coupled with serious
measures to prevent hydrogen leaks which are hard to prevent. In
fact, in most applications involving liquid hydrogen—which is the
form in which it is normally stored and transported—it is expected
that about 1 percent of it will boil off and escape each day.
Proponents say even with leaks, burning hydrogen will be far
better than burning carbon fuels. But that’s assuming that you
make hydrogen fuel without burning carbon fuels.<br>
<br>
Remember: There are no hydrogen reservoirs. If we want to separate
it from water molecules through hydrolysis, it takes a
considerable amount of energy, more than we get back by burning
the hydrogen. That means that under currrent technology, hydrogen
is not an energy source, only an energy carrier. (Another common
way to obtain hydrogen is to strip it from natural gas—which, of
course, is not a sustainable or climate friendly way to make it.)<br>
<br>
I do not doubt the sincerity of the people behind extracting
carbon dioxide from seawater. The oceans are believed to have
absorbed about one-third of all human-made carbon dioxide emitted
to date. Theoretically, it seems to make sense to extract that
carbon dioxide in order to make room for more atmospheric carbon
dioxide to dissolve in the oceans. But, of course, what makes even
more sense is to stop emitting carbon dioxide into the air. But,
human society continues to increase carbon emissions to the
atmosphere.<br>
</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">Our tech overlords, whether cynical or sincere,
do not want anything to interrupt their ability to profit from the
introduction of more and more technology. I have previously
defined this group as follows:</font><br>
<blockquote><font face="Calibri">The tech overlords are a grab bag
technology companies, technology scientists and inventors, and
technology investors and journalists who have bewitched the
modern world through inventions that speed up our daily lives
without necessarily making them better.</font><br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote><font face="Calibri">The tech overlords purport to know
how to feed the world, end poverty, empower the individual,
solve climate change and colonize other planets. And the key to
these feats is, of course, more and newer technology.</font><br>
</blockquote>
<font face="Calibri">But as I said in the same piece:<br>
</font>
<blockquote><font face="Calibri">[G]rand techno-uptopian visions of
the future are just tricks to make us think that humans know
more than they do and that there are “experts” who know so much
more than the rest of us that we should just leave everything to
them.</font><br>
</blockquote>
<font face="Calibri">I do not think we can wait for our tech
overlords to solve our problems. In fact, I believe their kind of
thinking only perpetuates them.</font><br>
<font face="Calibri"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.resilience.org/stories/2023-04-16/another-offering-from-our-tech-overlords-a-climate-change-solution-without-sacrifice/">https://www.resilience.org/stories/2023-04-16/another-offering-from-our-tech-overlords-a-climate-change-solution-without-sacrifice/</a><br>
</font>
<p><font face="Calibri"><br>
</font> </p>
<font face="Calibri"><br>
<i>[The news archive - looking back at media talking about global
warming ]</i><br>
<font size="+2"><i><b>April 17, 2008</b></i></font> <br>
April 17, 2008: <br>
<b>Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection releases a commercial
featuring House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, and former
House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Republican,</b> calling for a
bipartisan effort to address human-caused climate change. Gingrich
is rhetorically flogged by right-wing bloggers for participating
in the commercial, and later disavows it.<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi6n_-wB154">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi6n_-wB154</a><br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1COYhkzEXPI">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1COYhkzEXPI</a><br>
- - <b><br>
</b><b>TIME magazine releases its April 28, 2008 issue, with the
cover story: "How to Win the War on Global Warming."</b><br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20080428,00.html">http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20080428,00.html</a><br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://content.time.com/time/specials/2007/printout/0,29239,1730759_1731383_1731363,00.html">http://content.time.com/time/specials/2007/printout/0,29239,1730759_1731383_1731363,00.html</a><br>
<br>
<br>
</font>
<p><font face="Calibri">======================================= <br>
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