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A 100% renewable grid isn’t just feasible, it’s in the works in Europe

A 100% renewable grid isn’t just feasible, it’s in...

Europe will be 90% renewable powered in two decades, experts say. The myth that a very high level of renewables can’t be integrated into the electric grid is being demolished by the clean tech and battery storage revolution. “By 2040, renewables make up 90% of the electricity mix in Europe, with wind and solar accounting for 80%,” predict the experts at Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) in their annual energy outlook...
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Climate Change: Why is it So Often “Sooner than Predicted”?

Climate Change: Why is it So Often “Sooner than Pr...

A June 15th headline elicited feelings in me of both shock and déjà vu: “Climate change: Arctic permafrost now melting at levels not expected until 2090” [Independent, June 15, 2019].  Shock because that’s quite a bit ahead of time. Déjà vu because how often does a climate change headline or story use a phrase like that? “At levels not expected until” or “faster than expected” or “sooner than predicted”? I opened a search...
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Pope Francis Declares Climate Emergency in Meeting With Big Oil Leaders

Pope Francis Declares Climate Emergency in Meeting...

Pope Francis declared a climate emergency Friday as he met with oil industry executives and some of their biggest investors to urge them to act on the climate crisis. “Future generations stand to inherit a greatly spoiled world. Our children and grandchildren should not have to pay the cost of our generation’s irresponsibility,” he said, as The Guardian reported. “Indeed, as is becoming increasingly...
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We must Mobilise for the Climate Emergency like we Do in Wartime. Where is the Climate Minister?

We must Mobilise for the Climate Emergency like we...

The second Morrison (ed. Australia’s Prime Minister) ministry contains no one with nominal responsibility for “climate” in any sense, despite the fact that it is the greatest threat facing the country. Angus Taylor, who spent much of his pre-parliamentary career fighting windfarms, claiming repeatedly that there is “too much wind and solar” in the system, is now minister for energy and emissions reduction. No mention...
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Permafrost is thawing rapidly. How much should we worry?

Permafrost is thawing rapidly. How much should we ...

Scientists warn of consequences to infrastructure, the economy, and the climate. Watch the video The change is visible from space. In the Earth’s high latitudes, new lakes and ponds are appearing in once-dry areas. These so-called “thermokarst” lakes form when underground ice collapses as permafrost warms. In the freshly formed lakes, the greenhouse gas methane is bubbling to the surface and escaping to the atmosphere, where...
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Alarm bell on decline of nuclear power way too late

Alarm bell on decline of nuclear power way too lat...

Recently, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned that neglect of the world’s nuclear electric generating plants would lead to a precipitous decline in climate-friendly nuclear energy production around the world. The agency, a consortium of 30 countries which monitors energy developments worldwide, said 25 percent of nuclear capacity could be lost by 2025 and two-thirds by 2040. The cause is clear. Little new capacity...
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Climate change could cost the U.S. economy hundreds of billions a year by 2090

Climate change could cost the U.S. economy hundred...

Unless the world reduces emissions swiftly. A newly-published peer-reviewed analysis of climate change impacts across broad sectors of the U.S. economy provides what may be the most comprehensive economic assessment to date of those costs. The April report in the journal Nature Climate Change is a condensed version of the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2017 Climate Change Impacts and Risk Analysis report. That analysis...
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7 Reasons You May Want to Become a Vegetarian

7 Reasons You May Want to Become a Vegetarian

Global consumption of beef, lamb and goat is expected to rise by almost 90 percent between 2010 and 2050. But that doesn’t mean you need to eat more meat. In fact, recent news from Washington gives you even less confidence in your meat: Pork inspections may be taken over by the industry itself, if a Trump administration proposal goes into effect, putting tests for deadly pathogens into the hands of line workers. If...
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12 books on how climate change is transforming businesses and the global economy

12 books on how climate change is transforming bus...

For some businesses and entrepreneurs, climate change isn’t just a threat. It’s an opportunity. The significant transformations required to meet the challenges posed by climate change are, from another perspective, fabulous opportunities. Inventors, entrepreneurs, and business strategists recognized this fact many years ago. Their activities have since been chronicled and analyzed by reporters, researchers, and,...
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12 free reports on climate change and the economy

12 free reports on climate change and the economy

These resources illuminate the economic risks of climate change and prospects for a cleaner, more sustainable economy. The significant transformations required to meet the challenges posed by climate change are also, from an entrepreneurial perspective, tremendous opportunities. Inventors, business strategists and, of course, far-sighted entrepreneurs appreciated this perspective for years. Their activities have since been...
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What price tag would you put on a walk in the woods?

What price tag would you put on a walk in the wood...

Photo © iStockphoto.com/bombuscreative May 21, 2019 — Many of us have natural places in the world that we like to visit for fun, for their beauty or to relax. Maybe it’s the park or forest you loved as a child, or the beach you walked with your friends last year. I love my annual visits to the clear waters and white sands of Moonta Bay in South Australia. Wherever it may be, there’s much to enjoy about the intangible...
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Scientists Warn the UN of Capitalism’s Imminent Demise

Scientists Warn the UN of Capitalism’s Imminent De...

Capitalism as we know it is over. So suggests a new report commissioned by a group of scientists appointed by the UN Secretary-General. The main reason? We’re transitioning rapidly to a radically different global economy, due to our increasingly unsustainable exploitation of the planet’s environmental resources. Climate change and species extinctions are accelerating even as societies are experiencing rising...
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Electric vehicles (EVs) and batteries can drive growth in rooftop solar

Electric vehicles (EVs) and batteries can drive gr...

Falling battery and EV costs with equal grid market access can accelerate transition to renewables: lessons from UK and Germany (LONDON) – The falling costs of batteries and electric vehicles can help drive the next phase of growth in renewables including rooftop solar power, provided small-scale renewables and storage have the same access to electricity and grid services markets as conventional power plants, according to a...
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Exxon predicted in 1982 exactly how high global carbon emissions would be today

Exxon predicted in 1982 exactly how high global ca...

CO2 in the atmosphere has reached unprecedented levels. The concentration of carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere reached an unprecedented level this month. Researchers at the fossil fuel giant Exxon saw it coming decades ago. Measurements taken on May 3 at the world’s oldest measuring station, the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, recorded “humanity’s first day ever with more than 415 parts per million [ppm] CO2 in the...
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Old batteries could play big role in greening grid — study

Old batteries could play big role in greening grid...

ELECTRIC VEHICLES David Iaconangelo, E&E News reporter Published: Monday, May 6, 2019 The next decade could see a market emerge for recycled electric-vehicle batteries, according to a new report. A battery pack inside a Nissan Leaf is shown. Tennen-Gas/Wikipedia Old electric vehicle batteries could become a key form of storage for utilities by the end of the next decade, boosting the power sector’s transition to...
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