On 27 June 2023, Texas once again braced for a record spike in electricity demand as 110F heat spurred air-conditioning usage. An early heat wave gripped the second most-populous US state, buckling highways, stressing oil refineries and pushing up natural gas prices. At least two deaths were attributed to the searing temperatures and it was only expected to get hotter as the week wears on. It was not a new problem for Texas: The Lone Star State broke power-demand records 11 times in the summer of 2022. Graphic: Bloomberg

Texas power demand again forecast to peak amid Summer 2023 heat wave – “Texas is running about 2 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than it did during the 20th century”

26 June 2023 (Reuters) – Texas’ power grid operator on Monday again projected electricity use would break records this week as homes and business cranked up air conditioning amid soaring temperatures. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates the grid for more than 26 million customers representing about 90% of the state’s power […]

Greta Thunberg stands outside the Swedish parliament in Stockholm during her last School Strike for Climate on 9 June 2023. Photo: Reuters

Greta Thunberg takes part in her last school strike for climate – “We who can speak up have a duty to do so. … The fight has only just begun.”

By Tobi Thomas 10 June 2023 (The Guardian) – After what began as a solo protest in Sweden five years ago and grew into a movement with millions of children across the world participating, Greta Thunberg has taken part in her last “school strike” protest as she graduates from school. The protests, which led to many climate […]

The Glen Canyon Dam in Page, Arizona, performed high flow experiments on 25 April 2023. Video: John Farrell / The Washington Post

Lake Powell is rising more than a foot a day, but megadrought’s effects will still be felt – “It’s maybe a year’s worth of breathing room. The crisis is still very real and very much in front of us.”

By Scott Dance 11 May 2023 (The Washington Post) – Weeks after the surface of Lake Powell sunk to an all-time low, the key Colorado River reservoir is rising more than a foot a day — on track to deepen by some 70 feet in the coming months. Spring flows into the lake are among the […]

Trucks transport bauxite on a red-dirt mining road in the Boké region of Guinea. Photo: Chloe Sharrock / MYOP / The Washington Post

On frontier of new “gold rush” quest for coveted EV metals yields misery – “I am frustrated. But even more than that, I have lost hope.”

By Rachel Chason and Chloe Sharrock 27 April 2023 KAGBANI, Guinea (The Washington Post) – One of the poorest countries on Earth has become a crucial player in the world’s green-energy transition. Guinea, a West African nation of more than 13 million people, is home to the world’s biggest reserves of bauxite — a reddish-brown […]

A heavy vehicle loads coal from the barge into a truck to be distributed, at the Karya Citra Nusantara port in North Jakarta, Indonesia, 13 January 2022. Photo: Willy Kurniawan / REUTERS

Drops of climate finance start to fill an ocean of need – “When you see the announcements, it never feels significant enough”

By Simon Jessop and Aidan Lewis 22 November 2022 SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) – The biggest deal to date to forge the kind of private-public sector low-carbon collaboration sought at U.N. climate talks promises $20 billion to shut down Indonesian coal-fired power plants – and it’s a drop in the ocean. Estimates of how much external funding […]

Inside the King Abdullah research center in Riyadh, a space station-like compound powered by 20,000 solar panels. Photo: Iman Al-Dabbagh / The New York Times

Inside the Saudi strategy to keep the world hooked on oil – “People would like us to give up on investment in hydrocarbons. But no.”

By Hiroko Tabuchi 21 November 2022 (The New York Times) – Shimmering in the desert is a futuristic research center with an urgent mission: Make Saudi Arabia’s oil-based economy greener, and quickly. The goal is to rapidly build more solar panels and expand electric-car use so the kingdom eventually burns far less oil. But Saudi […]

Screenshot from a video showing the low water level at Kariba dam in Kariba Zimbabwe, 28 November 2022. Photo: Africanews

Water levels in Zimbabwe’s biggest dam too low for power – Zimbabweans without power for 19 hours a day – “The dam no longer has any usable water to continue undertaking power generation operations”

By David Henning 9 December 2022 Lake Kariba, the world’s largest artificial lake, has recorded low dam levels during the drought, currently standing at 4.6%, according to the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA). The ZRA limited the generation of Kariba’s hydroelectric power stations to 300 megawatts owing to the reduced water levels, and Zimbabweans are having to endure […]

This undated photo provided by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources shows a northern long-eared bat. On Tuesday, 29 November 2022, the Biden administration declared the northern long-eared bat endangered, a last-ditch effort to save a species driven to the brink of extinction by a deadly fungus. This is the third species of bat recommended for the designation in 2022 due to white-nose syndrome. Photo: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources / AP

U.S. bat species devastated by fungus now listed as endangered – “This species is in dire straits, but we never want to give up hope”

By John Flesher 29 November 2022 TRAVERSE CITY, Michigan (AP) – The Biden administration declared the northern long-eared bat endangered on Tuesday in a last-ditch effort to save a species driven to the brink of extinction by white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease. “White-nose syndrome is decimating cave-dwelling bat species like the northern long-eared bat at […]

Electricity fed into the German power grid from conventional and renewable sources (percent) in 2021 and 2022. Graphic: Destatis

Germany generates almost one-third of its electricity from coal as it replaces Russian gas before winter – Coal-generated electricity up 17 percent in 2022 on the same period in 2021

By Zahra Tayeb 8 September 2022 (Insider) – Germany is relying more on coal to generate electricity, as Russian gas cuts force the country to seek alternative sources of fuel before winter.  The European nation produced 82.6 kilowatt-hours of electricity from coal-fired power plants in the first six months of 2022, a 17.2% rise from […]

A sunken boat that sat underwater for years has been exposed as Lake Mead continues to recede after years of chronic overuse and drought worsened by rising temperatures. Photo: Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times

Facing “dead pool” risk, California braces for painful water cuts from Colorado River – “It’s very scary. If there’s no river, then you have no community.”

By Ian James 4 September 2022 (Los Angeles Times) – California water districts are under growing pressure to shoulder substantial water cutbacks as the federal government pushes for urgent solutions to prevent the Colorado River’s badly depleted reservoirs from reaching dangerously low levels. California has the largest water entitlement of any state on the Colorado […]

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