Newfie wrote:Plant,
I have been reading “Done Even Think About It”
https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Even-Think- ... 163286102X
Not quite half way through. It is a good summary if how the human mind has evolved to address threats. There is little to be hopeful about. If it is like almost all books it will end on a positive note about how if we do XYZ now there is still time to save our ass.
I don't think so. If you look at the IPCC (?) carbon budget estimates we have very little room left to make necessary changes. All of our remaining budget needs to ho into the transition, and we are not doing that.
Newfie wrote:The “good” news is the worst effects kick in after I will be worm food. Not so good for future generations. I have come to see as effectively similar to a giant asteroid, it is coming, it will hit, we are powerless to stop it. That I am a part of that asteroid makes for some sharp irony.
Not to stop you from your posts, please carry on.
COP26 aims to banish coal. Asia is building hundreds of power plants to burn it
Summary
New coal plants to emit 28 bln tonnes carbon
COP26 host wants agreement on ending coal use
Asian governments say coal needed for economic growth
Coal remains world's leading power-generation fuel
UDANGUDI, India/TOKYO, Oct 29 (Reuters) - On the coastline near India's southern tip, workers toil on a pier carrying a conveyor belt that cuts a mile into the Indian Ocean where the azure waters are deep enough for ships to berth and unload huge cargoes of coal.
The belt will carry millions of tonnes of coal each year to a giant power plant several kilometres inland that will burn the fuel for at least 30 years to generate power for the more than 70 million people that live in India's Tamil Nadu state.
The Udangudi plant is one of nearly 200 coal-fired power stations under construction in Asia, including 95 in China, 28 in India and 23 in Indonesia, according to data from U.S. nonprofit Global Energy Monitor (GEM).
This new fleet will produce planet-warming emissions for decades and is a measure of the challenge world leaders face when they meet for climate talks in Glasgow, where they hope to sound the death knell for coal as a source of power.
Coal use is one of the many issues dividing industrialised and developing countries as they seek to tackle climate change.
Many industrialised countries have been shutting down coal plants for years to reduce emissions. The United States alone has retired 301 plants since 2000.
But in Asia, home to 60% of the world's population and about half of global manufacturing, coal's use is growing rather than shrinking as rapidly developing countries seek to meet booming demand for power.
More than 90% of the 195 coal plants being built around the world are in Asia, according to data from GEM.
Tamil Nadu is India's second-most industrialised state and is one of the country's top renewable energy producers. But it is also building the most coal-fired plants in the country. read more
"We cannot depend on just solar and wind," a senior official at Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corp told Reuters.
"You can have the cake of coal and an icing of solar," he said, declining to be named as he was not authorised to speak to media.
Coal-fired power plants in operation, construction and in permit phase by country
HOOKED ON COAL
Despite dramatic jumps in renewable energy output, the global economy remains hooked on coal for electricity. In Asia, coal's share of the generation mix is twice the global average - especially in surging economies such as India.
In 2020, more than 35% of the world's power came from coal, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy. Roughly 25% came from natural gas, 16% from hydro dams, 10% from nuclear and 12% from renewables like solar and wind.
This year, coal demand is set for a new record, driving prices to all-time highs and contributing to a worldwide scramble for fuel. read more
Record coal demand is contributing to a rapid rise in emissions in 2021 after a fall last year, when restrictions on movement for billions of people to slow the pandemic caused fuel use to plummet.
While some of the new coal plants under construction will replace older, more polluting stations, together they will add to total emissions.
"The completion of the capacity that is already under construction in these countries will drive up coal demand and emissions," said Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst with the Centre for Research on Energy and Clear Air.
The carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the new plants alone will be close to 28 billion tonnes over their 30-year lifespans, according to GEM.
That's not far off the 32 billion tonnes of total worldwide CO2 emissions from all sources in 2020, according to BP, highlighting how tough it will be for leaders gathering in Glasgow - including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi - to make meaningful progress on climate change.
India's Environment Secretary Rameshwar Prasad Gupta told Reuters in a recent interview that India was on track to reach its target of cutting back the country's carbon footprint, and with that coal, too, would fall - but it cannot be abolished.
"Look, every country has its strengths. We have coal, we have to depend on it," Gupta said.
"Our position is once you take up targets of reducing carbon intensity, that will have impact ... Leave it to us whether we do it in coal, or somewhere else."
Anil Swarup, a former Coal Secretary, took the same line in an interview. "Renewable energy expansion is critical, but coal will remain India's main energy source for the next 15 years at least, and production needs to be ramped up to address our energy needs," he said.
CHINA CRUNCH
Across India, 281 coal plants are operating and beyond the 28 being built another 23 are in pre-construction phases, GEM data show.
These numbers are dwarfed by China, the top global coal miner, consumer and emitter, whose leader, President Xi Jinping, is not expected to attend COP26. More than 1,000 coal plants are in operation, almost 240 planned or already under construction.
Together, coal plants in the world's second-largest economy will emit 170 billion tonnes of carbon in their lifetime - more than all global CO2 emissions between 2016 and 2020, BP data show.
Lifetime CO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants by region and stage of development
Despite also boasting the world's largest renewables capacity, China is now suffering a major energy crunch and has urged coal miners to raise output. read more
That's likely to boost coal consumption in the near term, even though China plans to reduce coal use from 2026. read more
Even so, total global coal consumption looks set to rise, driven by accelerating use in South and Southeast Asia, where projects under construction will raise coal-burning capacity by 17% and 26% respectively.
Lifetime CO2 emissions from coal plants by country
Lifetime CO2 emissions from coal plants by country
AFTERLIFE
Even in economies committed to slashing emissions, coal's grip remains strong.
Japan, with its nuclear power industry in crisis since the Fukushima disaster, has turned to coal to fill the gap and is building seven large new coal-fired power stations.
Leading generator JERA plans to add clean-burning ammonia to be used with coal to help meet its target to be carbon neutral by 2050, and potentially keep old units operating longer. read more
On a bay near Nagoya, JERA's 30-year-old, 4,100 megawatt Hekinan station - once Asia's largest - supplies electricity to the likes of auto giant Toyota Motor Corp.
Like many power plants, Hekinan's boilers rely on fuel from top exporters such as Australia, where coal is both a vital source of revenue - $18 billion in the current financial year - and a bone of contention with allies urging ambitious emissions cuts.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is set to attend the Glasgow talks. But resources minister Keith Pitt has said there would be demand for coal for decades and made it clear the country would not be swayed by pressure from banks, regulators and investors to hobble the industry. read more
"While the market exists, Australia will look to fill it," Pitt said.
($1 = 1.3398 Australian dollars)
Reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan in Udangudi, Aaron Sheldrick and Yuka Obayashi in Tokyo, and Melanie Burton In Melbourne; Additional reporting by Sanjeev Miglani in New Delhi; Editing by Gavin Maguire, Simon Webb and Kenneth Maxwell
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Plantagenet wrote:Senile old Joe Biden dozes off while the world teeters on the brink of global warming destruction
Peak_Yeast wrote:we have to choose between killing off (indirectly or directly) a huge amount of people or totally destroy anything resembling the living standards we have gotten accustomed to.
When the Unstoppable Activists Met Their Match
Six months ago, the Sunrise Movement was feeling bullish. The four-year-old youth climate organization had catapulted a massive legislative blueprint, the Green New Deal, to the forefront of Democratic politics. It helped elect progressives in the House and Senate in 2018 and 2020. It even successfully nudged President Joe Biden to put one of its allies in his Cabinet. Its leaders were starting to talk about how 2021 could be “Year 1” of a transformational decade of climate-driven politics in America.
They had reasons for optimism. The Democratic Party had just gained control of both Congress and the White House, and the once-controversial Green New Deal was polling well among voters. In the four years since Sunrise publicly launched in mid-2017, it had grown from a handful of former student activists to a full-fledged advocacy organization with a paid staff of more than 100 people, millions of dollars between its 501(c)3, 501(c)4 and PAC, and thousands of regular volunteers across the country.
“We’re kind of at the strongest that we have ever been,” Sunrise co-founder and executive director Varshini Prakash, who is 28, told Politico Magazine in May. “We’re doing more rallies and demonstrations and actions.”
Six months later, however, “more rallies and demonstrations and actions” doesn’t have quite the same shine as it used to. As Congress started negotiating a big infrastructure spending bill this summer and fall, set against a backdrop of record-level heat waves and deadly floods, Sunrise increasingly turned up the dial on its activism — hoping to push for multitrillion-dollar green investments. Over the past two weeks, for example, five Sunrise members went on hunger strike outside the White House, hoping to force Biden to fight for them at the negotiating table. Yet it’s becoming clearer that the organization’s core political promise — that it could harness youthful energy and idealism to deliver true big-ticket change — will remain unrealized. The more than $500 billion in climate investment Congress is currently considering is only a fraction of what Sunrise was calling for. More broadly, the prospects of the U.S. adopting any truly radical policies to cut carbon emissions — the kind of thing many scientists say is necessary to avert climate catastrophe — have never looked slimmer.
“I’m feeling pretty enraged. We worked really hard as a movement, as a generation, as working people, to elect Biden and flip the Senate,” Sunrise’s advocacy director Lauren Maunus, who is 23, told Politico Magazine this week. “I’m really enraged that we have a Democratic trifecta and they haven’t delivered for us yet.”
What’s happening to Sunrise, right now, is a real-time test of the limits of the progressive wave of the past few years — that heady time for leftists in 2018 when the “Squad” was primarying establishment Democrats, when momentum from Sen. Bernie Sanders’ first presidential campaign was creating new horizons of possibility. The thesis driving the movement was pretty simple: If you push enough Democrats — in the public and the halls of power — to the left on an issue, the party will follow, much the same way the Tea Party and Freedom Caucus leveraged an obstinate minority to push the Republican Party to the right.
Sunrise, in particular, has promoted itself as the most effective vehicle for young people who want to push the government to go big on climate — more engaging and populist than traditional environmental organizations like Friends of the Earth, and more focused on real-world political results than theatrical new groups like Extinction Rebellion. The movement has been profiled by the likes of Vox and Vogue. “Sunrise has established itself as the dominant influence on the environmental policy of the Democratic Party’s young, progressive wing,” the New Yorker wrote at the end of 2018.
But this year, Sunrise’s strategy has run up against a roadblock all the enthusiasm in the world can’t budge: In a 50-50 Senate, with no margin for error, climate policy is subject to the veto of whoever the most conservative, most cautious Democratic senator happens to be. In this case, that person is West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, a canny coal-state power broker who sees green policy as bad for both his constituents and his electoral chances. He’s made clear he won’t vote for any spending bill that, in his view, will hurt the economy — while the Democrats require his vote for anything they do. And for that, Sunrise has had no answer.
Increasingly, the movement that seemed like the future of progressive politics has found itself at an impasse: attacked by pundits for impeding its own cause, wading into diffuse non-climate causes of the activist left, racked by internal conflict and out of options to deal with Manchin.
Now, Sunrise is faced with a question about how to move forward: embrace the idealistic side of its mission and keep hammering Biden — the president who’s on the verge of making more progress toward the climate agenda than any of his predecessors — for not going far enough, or embrace its pragmatic side and declare a partial victory whenever Congress passes its spending compromise?
By all indications, Sunrise is prepared to take the latter route. The White House hunger strike ended this week as Sunrise shifted gears to urge quick passage of the compromise bill. Sunrise’s leaders seem to recognize that an at least somewhat positive outlook may be necessary to keep youthful energy alive in a political world that seems to specialize in killing it.
In the wake of Biden releasing his framework for the spending bill last Thursday, the movement held a mass Zoom call, on which Prakash said: “I am sad that the pieces on climate, even though they are really significant, are not enough to put us on a path toward a livable future.” At the same time, she didn’t want to say that Sunrise’s efforts amounted to failure: “Everything that is good in this bill,” she added, “is because of movements like ours.”
“I’ll be honest,” Sunrise’s communications director Ellen Sciales said on the same call, “this was our best shot in a long time of passing federal policy at the scale of the crisis, and this past year has been really freaking hard.”
“Three-word chant! Three-word chant! Three-word chant!”
On a Sunday in late June, dozens of teenagers and twenty-somethings stood in church pews and repeated in unison an empty placeholder phrase — literally, “Three-word chant!” — as they pretended to hold signs in their hands and got coached on the best posture to be taken seriously (neither “slouched” nor “robotic”). The next day would be Sunrise’s first major protest against the Biden administration — an administration that Sunrise helped put in power and which it wanted to keep on its toes. The group had convened hundreds of activists from around the country to St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Washington to prepare.
Sunrise leaders don’t think of their movement as just another Extinction Rebellion, the youth environmental activist organization that, for example, in April dumped wheelbarrows full of cow poop outside the White House to protest Biden’s “bullshit” climate plan. Sunrise frames its protests as more than just noisemaking. “This is not a symbolic action,” Sunrise staffer Benjamin Finegan, who is 24, emphasized to the people gathered inside the church ahead of the planned protest in D.C. They should be prepared, Finegan warned, to remain outside the White House, where they would be divided into groups blocking each official entrance, “until our demands are met.”
The next evening, however, Sunrise leaders explained that they planned to end the protest as soon as some of their members got arrested, which they expected to happen. Before 5 p.m., about an hour after chickpea burgers were passed out, word spread that at one entrance, several Sunrisers had been removed by Secret Service. The hundreds at the various other entrances then picked themselves up and gathered at Lafayette Square to celebrate, where they were soon joined by the “arrested” group, who had been quickly released. “What we just did is f---ing amazing,” one Sunrise staffer shouted into a microphone. “We just shut down the White House!” It wasn’t clear that any of their demands had been met.
The political demands were supposed to be the whole point. In a book released last year, Prakash, Sunrise’s leader, wrote that Sunrise didn’t come up with the idea or phrase of a Green New Deal (versions of it have been batted around since as early as 2007), nor did they inspire “the largest numbers of people to take to the streets in recent years — Greta Thunberg and the Friday school strikers did that.” Instead, she wrote: “Sunrise’s unique contribution, where we have excelled, has been in taking the fight to the political arena, bringing some of these ideas to greater prominence in the mainstream. We’ve done this by combining a political savvy with a disciplined and fast-growing movement set on a clear goal.”
But a political strategy based almost entirely around electing and working with close political allies, or at least those deemed convincible, may not be so savvy when it finally comes down to governing...
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
dissident wrote:
US CO2 emissions from transportation are showing no sign of decline since 1990. The transient decreases are clearly related to recessions. Where are all those hybrids and pure electrics that were supposed to usher in a green new era? .
JuanP wrote:"Chasm opens between COP26 words and climate action" AFP
https://news.yahoo.com/chasm-opens-betw ... ccounter=1
"End of coal?
On Wednesday, for instance, COP26 president Alok Sharma announced: "A 190-strong coalition has today agreed to phase out coal power".
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng tweeted: "The end of coal is in sight."
The 190 figure was given to the media under embargo on Tuesday night, but a list of signatories was not released until the following day.
It contained only 77 new signatories, including 46 countries, on top of others that had already signed on to a previous alliance to end coal.
Out of these, COP26 organizers said 23 countries had issued new pledges to phase out coal during the summit, including major users South Korea and Vietnam.
But in the list of countries with new commitments obtained by AFP, 10 nations use no coal at all in their energy mix, according to data from the Ember climate think tank.
All told, national signatories to the COP26 coal pledge account for around 13 percent of global output."
I believe we just saved the biosphere from Global Warming and Climate Change! I am extremely happy for the younger generations. On this basis, I would like to do my bit for the planet by pledging never to fly in a private jet in the future.
Countries such as Australia and Saudi Arabia announced net-zero goals with "no plans to implement them and emissions going massively in the wrong direction," Simon Lewis, professor of global change science at University College London and the University of Leeds, told AFP.
"It's logical to take all pledges and convert them into a best estimate," he said.
"But you've got to take it with a huge pinch of salt and an enormous banner saying: Warning! This is unlikely to happen."
The UN says that the latest round of net-zero commitments will see emissions rise 13.7 percent by 2030. To be 1.5C compliant, they must fall 45 percent by then.
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Return to Environment, Weather & Climate
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 106 guests