Environment

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – BloombergNEF reports that in 2021, a record-breaking $920 billion was invested globally in low-carbon technology, just short of $1 trillion. The report says that $755 billion was spent to implement low-carbon technologies, with $366 billion going into renewable energy and $273 billion into electrifying transportation. That $273 billion put into […]

Agriculture

With fewer animals to spread their seeds, plants could have trouble adapting to climate change

The Conversation

By Evan Fricke, Alejandro Ordonez, Haldre Rogers, and Jens-Christian Svenning | – Picture a mature, broad-branched tree like an oak, maple or fig. How does it reproduce so that its offspring don’t grow up in its shadow, fighting for light? The answer is seed dispersal. Plants have evolved many strategies for spreading their seeds away […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Emergency Parable: Mammoth Iceberg that broke free from Antarctica Dumps 168 billion tons of Water in South Atlantic

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Anne Braakmann-Folgmann et al. in an article for Remote Sensing of the Environment observed by satellite the now-disintegrated Iceberg A68A over its 3.5-year life since it hived off the Larsen-C Ice Shelf in Antarctica in 2017, and found that it dumped 168 billion tons of fresh water into the ocean […]

Climate Crisis

Europe is dependent on Russian Gas during Ukraine Crisis because it didn’t Ramp up Renewables Faster

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The growing conflict between the United States and the Russian Federation over the Ukraine has taken an increasingly dark turn, with press reports that US embassy personnel and dependents are being pulled out of Kiev and that President Biden is considering sending US troops to Ukraine’s neighbors. The conflict has […]

Climate Crisis

The Climate Emergency is Already Here: Deaths in Heat Waves are Increasing even in the Cool North

The Conversation

By Chloe Brimicombe | – When you take age out of the equation, temperature-related deaths are on the decline in England and Wales. That’s according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). But more people are going to hospital, compared with 20 years ago. It turns out, that’s not the only […]

Climate Crisis

Biden Still Determined to pass the Blockbuster Green Energy Package in BBB; Here’s how He can Do it

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – I argued last December that since Sen. Joe Manchin’s opposition had tanked the enormous Build Back Better act, President Biden should hive off the green energy portions and try to get them passed on a bipartisan basis. Carol Davenport and Lisa Friedman writing in the New York Times report that […]

Germany

Germany’s First Battery-Powered Train Plies Regional Routes on Way to Green Rails

Benjamin Wehrmann

( Clean Energy Wire ) – Together with French manufacturer Alstom, German railway company Deutsche Bahn is going to start trial runs with the country’s first battery-powered passenger train. Test operation of the so-called Battery Electric Multiple Unit (BEMU) from Alstom would begin in late January on regional routes in the southern German states of […]

Environment

Scientists issue Dire Warning: Chemical Pollution now Exceeds Safe Planetary Limit

The Conversation

By Patricia Villarrubia-Gómez | – The production and release of plastics, pesticides, industrial compounds, antibiotics and other pollutants is now happening so fast and on such a large scale that it has exceeded the planetary boundary for chemical pollution, the safe limit for humanity, a new study claims. We asked Patricia Villarrubia-Gómez, a PhD candidate […]

Batteries

The Best Battery is Nature’s Own: How Pumped Hydro is the Future of Renewables

The Conversation

By Andrew Blakers,Bin Lu, and Matthew Stocks | – To cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in half within a decade, the Biden administration’s goal, the U.S. is going to need a lot more solar and wind power generation, and lots of cheap energy storage. Wind and solar power vary over the course of a day, […]