Articles on or after 3/14/2024: |
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| Financial Times,Guardian,New York Times,Washington Post,Los Angeles Times,Boston Globe,Chicago Tribune |
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‘Bewildering' to omit meat-eating reduction from UN climate plan - Guardian  (Mar 18) |
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Mar 18 · Academic experts also criticise UN Food and Agriculture Organization for dismissing alternative proteins The omission of meat-eating reduction from proposals in a UN roadmap to tackle the climate crisis and end hunger is “bewildering”, according to academic experts. The group also criticised the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s report for “dismissing” the potential of alternative proteins, such as plant-based meat, to reduce the impact of livestock on the environment. In a commentary published in the journal Nature Food, experts said the FAO’s failure to include a methodology on how the 120 actions it did support were chosen, or a list of authors, was ... Read more ... |
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‘The Shell Trial' seeks a guilty party in climate change - New York Times  (Mar 18) |
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Mar 18 · Ellen Reid and Roxie Perkins’s new opera, about events still in progress, finds fault and complicity in every player of a global blame game. Reporting from Amsterdam The climate activist was tired. Protests at the house of Shell’s chief executive had led to little more than free cookies and the police being called to break things up. The same thing had happened the week before. And the week before that. And the week before that. “I don’t wanna be perfect,” they screamed into a loudspeaker in Ellen Reid and Roxie Perkins’s “The Shell Trial.” “I just don’t wanna die,” the activist added, with an expletive for emphasis. It was a moment of one person speaking for ... | By Joshua Barone Read more ... |
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‘We don't know where the money is going': The ‘carbon cowboys' making millions from credit schemes - Guardian  (Mar 15) |
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Mar 15 · Carbon schemes are touted as a way to transfer billions in climate finance to the developing world – but people at the Kariba project in Zimbabwe say most of the profits never arrive In the districts surrounding Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe, most people have little idea their villages were at the centre of a multimillion-dollar carbon boom. Punctuated by straw-thatched mud houses, the Miombo woodlands on the edge of the enormous artificial lake are mostly home to smallholder farmers. The gravel roads are full of potholes; cars are infrequent, as are medical facilities and internet connections. Data on the region is patchy, but Hurungwe district, that covers a number of the villages ... Read more ... |
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America is on fire, says one climate writer - New York Times  (Mar 22) |
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Mar 22 · In “On the Move,” Abrahm Lustgarten predicts a massive demographic shift in response to an increasingly unlivable world. Jon Gertner’s most recent book is “The Ice at the End of the World: An Epic Journey Into Greenland’s Buried Past and Our Perilous Future.” ON THE MOVE: The Overheating Earth and the Uprooting of America, by Abrahm Lustgarten It’s happening already, of course. You can see it in the blazes in California, incinerating homes and forcing residents to escape the terror of wildfires. You can glimpse it in Arizona, where droughts have pushed farmers to give up on growing crops and sell their fields to developers. On the coasts, tides are rising, ... | By Jon Gertner Read more ... |
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Barren fields and empty stomachs: Afghanistan's long, punishing drought - New York Times  (Mar 19) |
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Mar 19 · In a country especially vulnerable to climate change, a drought has displaced entire villages and left millions of children malnourished. The countryside in Samangan Province in north-central Afghanistan, where water for agriculture, and even drinking, is scarce.Credit... Text by Lynsey Addario and Victoria Kim They awake in the mornings to find another family has left. Half of one village, the entirety of the next have departed in the years since the water dried up - in search of jobs, of food, of any means of survival. Those who remain pick apart the abandoned homes and burn the bits for firewood. They speak of the lushness that once blessed this corner of ... | By The New York Times Read more ... |
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Can climate cafes help ease the anxiety of planetary crisis? - New York Times  (Mar 20) |
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Mar 20 · The groups, which are springing up across the country, allow people to talk through their emotions around environmental change. Lola Fadulu reported from New York, and Emily Schmall from Chicago. In a small room in Lower Manhattan, a group of eight New Yorkers sat in a circle sharing kombucha and their climate fears against the background of pattering rain and wailing sirens. In Champaign, Ill., a psychotherapist facilitating a meeting for other therapists held up a branch of goldenrod, asking the half-dozen participants online to consider their connection to nature. And in Kansas City, Mo., a nonprofit that runs a weekly discussion on Zoom began its session ... | By Lola Fadulu and Emily Schmall Read more ... |
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Effects of geoengineering must be urgently investigated, experts say - Guardian  (Mar 14) |
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Mar 14 · Impact on ecosystems must be predicted before technology is used, US atmospheric science agency chief says Scientists must work urgently on predicting the effects of climate geoengineering, the chief of the US atmospheric science agency has said, as the technology is likely to be needed, at least in part. Richard Spinrad, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), said the government-backed body was estimating the effects of some of the likely techniques for geoengineering, including those involving the oceans. “My own belief is that we need to get a better understanding of what the impacts are,” he said. “I suspect some aspects of ... Read more ... |
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Fossil fuel firms could be tried in US for homicide over climate-related deaths, experts say - Guardian  (Mar 21) |
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Mar 21 · Public Citizen, a non-profit group, proposed the idea last year to prosecute companies for millions of deaths due to climate crisis Each year, extreme temperatures take 5 million lives, while 400,000 people die from climate-related hunger and disease and scores perish in floods and wildfires. The radical idea, first proposed last year by consumer advocacy non-profit Public Citizen, may sound far-fetched, but it’s gaining interest from experts and public officials. “We’ve been really excited to see the curiosity, interest and support these ideas have garnered from members of the legal community, including from both former and current federal, state and local ... Read more ... |
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Germany plans to keep coal-fired plants ready in case Russian gas is cut - New York Times  (Mar 31) |
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Mar 31 · The power plants, due to be shut down, would be kept in reserve to provide electricity if Russia ended shipments of natural gas. Germany plans to order coal-fired power plants that were due to be shut down to be placed in reserve, as part of a plan to ensure the country can keep the lights on if supplies of natural gas from Russia are abruptly cut. A bill drawn up this week by the economy ministry, led by Robert Habeck, a member of the Greens, envisions maintaining power plants that burn coal and brown coal, or lignite, so they could be fired up on short notice. “This means that the short-term use of coal-fired plants in the electricity sector is made possible on ... | By Melissa Eddy Read more ... |
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Here's why there is no nuclear option for Australia to reach net zero - Guardian  (Mar 21) |
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Mar 21 · Any call to go directly from coal to nuclear is effectively a call to delay decarbonisation of our electricity system by 20 years The battle lines have been drawn over Australia’s energy future. With the nation signed up to net zero emissions by 2050, the Albanese Labor government is committed to renewables. The Coalition wants nuclear. The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has a vision for meeting Australia’s energy needs that would include large-scale nuclear power plants and small modular reactors, a technology that is not yet proven, but which the shadow minister for energy, Ted O’Brien, says could be “up and running within a 10-year period.” While nuclear ... Read more ... |
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How Toyota, a laggard on electric cars, got its fight back - New York Times  (Mar 22) |
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Mar 22 · The auto giant lobbied hard against tougher pollution rules. This week, the E.P.A.’s new rules proved favorable to hybrid technology, an area that Toyota dominates. The breakfast at Toyota’s annual dealership gathering in Las Vegas last fall was an exclusive, invite-only affair, where attendees were told to cover their cellphone cameras with red stickers. Speaking was Stephen Ciccone, Toyota’s top lobbyist. He said the industry was facing an existential crisis - not because of the economy or fuel prices, but because of stronger tailpipe pollution limits being proposed in the United States. The rules were “bad for the country, bad for the consumer, and bad for the auto ... | By Hiroko Tabuchi Read more ... |
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Inside the Republican attacks on electric vehicles - New York Times  (Mar 21) |
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Mar 21 · President Biden’s new rule cutting emissions from vehicle tailpipes has deepened a partisan battle over automotive technology. Credit...Pete Kiehart for The New York Times Coral Davenport and Lisa Friedman have covered climate change policy and politics and Jack Ewing has covered the automobile industry for nearly two decades. The electric vehicle, a breakthrough achievement in automotive technology, has driven into this year’s presidential election, inflaming partisan fights that have come to define much of American culture. One reason is that President Biden has made electric vehicles central to his strategy to combat climate change. This week, his ... | By Coral Davenport, Lisa Friedman and Jack Ewing Read more ... |
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Officials warn of dangerous conditions as brush fires bring smoke to DC area - Washington Post  (Mar 20) |
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Mar 20 · More than 100 wildfires in Virginia, West Virginia, the District and Maryland brought a smoky haze into the D.C. region Wednesday evening, and the fire threat lingered into Thursday because of a combination of strong winds and low humidity. While most of the fires within a two-county radius of the District were contained by Thursday, many continued to rage in central and western Virginia and eastern West Virginia, where they were largest and most numerous. The arid and gusty conditions conducive to fires were most severe on Wednesday before red-flag warnings for dangerous fire weather were discontinued that night. But it was dry and windy enough Thursday that the ... Read more ... |
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Oil executives, meeting in Texas, cast doubts on ‘fantasy' energy transition - New York Times  (Mar 19) |
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Mar 19 · The comments by a Saudi executive raised questions regarding whose predictions about the future of oil and gas are more likely to be true. Max Bearak reported from New York and Brad Plumer from the energy-industry conference in Houston. To some, it felt like the oil executive blurted the quiet part out loud. “We should abandon the fantasy of phasing out oil and gas,” said Amin Nasser, head of what is, by far, the world’s biggest oil producer, Saudi Aramco. The energy transition was “visibly failing,” he added, saying that predictions of impending peak oil and gas demand were flatly wrong. The room, full of representatives of the fossil-fuel industry at a ... | By Max Bearak and Brad Plumer Read more ... |
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Our energy policy is a success. president Biden should be proud. - Washington Post  (Mar 18) |
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Mar 18 · Joe Manchin III, a Democrat, represents West Virginia in the U.S. Senate. I’m going to do something you probably haven’t heard me do much in the past three years: I want to congratulate President Biden for the record-breaking energy production we are seeing in America today. The United States is producing more oil, gas and renewable energy than ever before. We are exporting more fossil fuel energy than we import. Our country has never been more energy-independent than we are today. This is something to celebrate. And it would not have been possible without the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that Biden signed. Thanks to these two historic ... Read more ... |
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Scientists divided over whether record heat is acceleration of climate crisis - Guardian  (Mar 16) |
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Mar 16 · Some believe global anomalies are in line with predictions but others are more concerned by speed of change Record temperatures in 2024 on land and at sea have prompted scientists to question whether these anomalies are in line with predicted global heating patterns or if they represent a concerning acceleration of climate breakdown. Heat above the oceans remains persistently, freakishly high, despite a weakening of El Niño, which has been one of the major drivers of record global temperatures over the past year. Scientists are divided about the extraordinary temperatures of marine air. Some stress that current trends are within climate model projections of how the ... Read more ... |
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SEC Adopts Rules to Enhance and Standardize Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors | JD Supra - New York Times  (Mar 15) |
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Mar 15 · Two fracking companies had challenged requirements that some businesses disclose more information about the risks they face from climate change. A federal court on Friday temporarily halted new rules from the Securities Exchange Commission that require public companies to disclose more about the business risks they face from climate change, siding with two oil and gas companies that criticized the requirements as costly and arbitrary. Approved by the S.E.C. this month, the rules require some publicly traded companies to disclose their climate risks, and how much greenhouse gas emissions they produce. Industry groups, as well as their political allies, have filed numerous ... | By Hiroko Tabuchi Read more ... |
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The maddening, nightmare quest to decarbonize my home - Guardian  (Mar 21) |
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Mar 21 · Here’s what happened when two climate reporters tried to ditch natural gas My wife and I live in a green, two-story colonial at the end of a cul-de-sac in Burlington, Vermont. Each spring, the front of our home is lined with lilacs, crocuses, and peonies. The backyard is thick with towering black locust trees. We occasionally spot a fox from our office windows, or toddlers from the neighborhood daycare trundling through the woods. It’s an alarmingly idyllic home, with one exception: it runs on natural gas. The boiler, which heats our house and our water, burns it. So do the stove and the dryer and even the fireplace in the living room. About 60% of American ... Read more ... |
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The zombies of the US tax code: Why fossil fuels subsidies seem impossible to kill - New York Times  (Mar 15) |
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Mar 15 · For the fourth year in a row, President Biden is trying to eliminate federal tax breaks for coal, oil and gas companies. But fossil fuel subsidies have proven difficult to stop. An oil field at Signal Hill near Long Beach, Calif., in 1927.Credit...Sueddeutsche Zeitung Photo, via Alamy As a candidate in 2020, Joseph R. Biden Jr. campaigned to end billions of dollars in annual tax breaks to oil and gas companies within his first year in office. It’s a pledge he has been unable to keep as president. Mr. Biden’s budget request to Congress this week was his fourth attempt to eliminate what he called “wasteful subsidies” to an industry that is enjoying record profits. | By Lisa Friedman Read more ... |
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US approves $500 million for Bahrain oil project, despite opposition - New York Times  (Mar 14) |
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Mar 14 · The financing faced criticism that it doesn’t mesh with U.S. commitments on climate change. Earlier, two climate advisers had resigned over the plan. A federal bank that finances projects overseas voted Thursday to put $500 million toward an oil and gas project in Bahrain, a transaction that critics said was out of step with President Biden’s climate commitments. Just days before the vote, six lawmakers had urged the bank, the Export-Import Bank of the United States or ExIm, not to move ahead with the financing, given the project’s negative effects on the climate. “We cannot afford to have ExIm undermine domestic and international climate progress,” lawmakers led by ... | By Hiroko Tabuchi Read more ... |
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Want a more sustainable meat for the grill? Try a 13-foot python steak - Washington Post  (Mar 14) |
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Mar 14 · They’re scaly, fork-tongued and can measure upward of 20 feet long. Pythons may also be one of the most Earth-friendly meats to farm on the planet. A group of researchers studied two large python species over 12 months on farms in Thailand and Vietnam - where snake meat is considered a delicacy - and found that they were more efficient to raise than other livestock. The snakes were fed a mix of locally sourced food, including wild-caught rodents, pork byproducts and fish pellets. They gained up to 1.6 ounces a day, with the females growing faster than their male counterparts. The snakes were never force-fed, and the researchers found that the reptiles could fast ... Read more ... |
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What about nature risk? - New York Times  (Mar 14) |
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Mar 14 · Subscriber-only Newsletter Climate Forward Climate is not the only aspect of the natural world that is being transformed by human activity. Reporting the corporate risks of climate change is increasingly becoming a required part of doing business. This month, the Securities and Exchange Commission made such disclosures mandatory for public companies in the United States, following the lead from the European Union and California. But climate is not the only aspect of the natural world that is being transformed by human activity. Oceans, forests and fresh water supplies have also suffered. Though corporate leaders often don’t talk about these other parts ... | By Manuela Andreoni Read more ... |
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When we see the climate more clearly, what will we do? - New York Times  (Mar 20) |
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Mar 20 · Subscriber-only Newsletter David Wallace-Wells Opinion Writer This month MethaneSAT, an $88 million, 770-pound surveillance satellite conceived by the Environmental Defense Fund and designed at Harvard to precisely track the human sources of methane being released so promiscuously into the atmosphere, was launched by SpaceX, to great fanfare. Methane, a somewhat less notorious greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, is produced by industrial and natural processes - leaking oil and gas infrastructure, decomposing melted permafrost, the belching of cows and the microbial activity of wetlands. We’ve known that methane is producing a lot of warming and that there is ... | By David Wallace-Wells Read more ... |
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Women and girls suffer first when droughts hit poor and rural areas, says UN - Guardian  (Mar 21) |
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Mar 21 · World water development report warns that access is major source of conflict between countries Women and girls are the first to suffer when drought strikes poor and rural areas, and water strategies around the world must reflect this, the UN has said in a plea to countries to mend conflicts over water resources. Stress on water resources, which is being exacerbated by the climate crisis, as well as overuse and pollution of the world’s freshwater systems, is a large source of conflict, according to the latest UN world water development report. The impacts of sharing water, and the possibilities of harnessing cooperation over water resources into wider peace ... Read more ... |
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World's top fossil-fuel bosses deride efforts to move away from oil and gas - Guardian  (Mar 20) |
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Mar 20 · Executives at Texas summit claim clean-energy transition is failing and say world should 'abandon the fantasy’ of fossil-fuel phaseout The bosses of the world’s leading oil and gas companies have poured scorn on efforts to move away from fossil fuels, complaining that a “visibly failing” transition to clean energy was being pushed forward at an “unrealistic pace”. The oil executives, gathered at the industry’s annual Cera Week conference in Houston, Texas, have taken turns this week to denounce calls for a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels, despite widespread acknowledgment within the industry, as well as scientists and governments, of the need to radically reduce ... Read more ... |
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