carbon reduction – Page 2 – Desdemona Despair

Screenshot from “Honest Government Ad: COP31 🇦🇺 & the Pacific”, by The Juice Media, showing the rapid, record-breaking decline of Antarctic sea ice in 2023. Photo: The Juice Media

December 3, 2023

Video: Honest Government Ad: COP31 🇦🇺 and the Pacific – “Let this major fossil-fuel exporter that’s cockblocked climate action for decades co-host a crucial summit with the most climate-vulnerable nations in the world while ignoring their pleas to stop harming them”

1 August 2023 (The Juice Media) – Hello. Bonjour. Ciao stronzi. Namaste. Ham maadarachod hain. I’m from the Australien Government with a message to the world. As cities bake, fires rage, reefs die, jet streams weaken, and 6-Ligma events cause climate scientists to shit their dacks, many are wondering if we’ve finally broken our favourite […]

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore speaks during an interview with Reuters at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 3 December 2023. Photo: Amr Alfliky / REUTERS

December 3, 2023

Al Gore slams COP28 climate summit host UAE, says its emissions soared – “He should not be taken seriously. He’s protecting his profits and placing them in a higher priority than the survival of the human civilization”

By Valerie Volcovici 3 December 2023 DUBAI (Reuters) – Climate advocate and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore on Sunday slammed the UAE – host of the COP28 climate summit – saying its position as overseer of international negotiations on global warming this year was an abuse of public trust. The comments, made to Reuters […]

Smoke rises from the Crater Creek (K52125) wildfire near Keremeos, British Columbia, Canada, 15 August 2023. BC Wildfire Service / REUTERS

September 11, 2023

Carbon credit market confidence ebbs as big names retreat – Voluntary carbon markets shrink in 2023 for the first time in at least seven years

By Susanna Twidale and Sarah Mcfarlane 1 September 2023 LONDON (Reuters) – Voluntary carbon markets have shrunk for the first time in at least seven years, as companies including food giant Nestlé and fashion house Gucci reduced buying and studies found several forest protection projects did not deliver promised emissions savings. Preserving forests is crucial […]

The Bald Mountain Wildfire burns in the Grande Prairie Forest Area in Alberta on 12 May 2023. Government of Alberta Fire Service / Canadian Press / AP

September 10, 2023

Forests are no longer our climate friends – “As extreme as this year’s wildfire emissions have been, they are just the latest escalation in a multi-decade flood of CO₂ pouring out of Canada’s ‘managed’ forests and forestry”

By David Wallace-Wells 6 September 2023 (The New York Times) – Canadian wildfires have this year burned a land area larger than 104 of the world’s 195 countries. The carbon dioxide released by them so far is estimated to be nearly 1.5 billion tons — more than twice as much as Canada releases through transportation, […]

Carbon dioxide emission reductions, in gigatons, required to limit warming to 2°C if climate action action were taken in each year from 2000 to 2029. Data: Robbie Andrew / Global Carbon Project. Graphic: Clayton Aldern / Grist

September 10, 2023

Humans are releasing greenhouse gases at level unprecedented in geologic history – “Uncertainty is not our friend”

By Saul Elbein 7 September 2023 (The Hill) – Human civilization came to be thanks to the comparatively stable climate of the past 10,000 years. But the unchecked burning of fossil fuels is undermining that foundation, according to a leading climate scientist. “There is no analog in the past for the rapid warming” we are […]

Estimated energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in 2021 and 2050 by sector, in billions of metric tons. Data: IPCC AR6 Scenarios Database hosted by IIASA release 1.0 average / IPCC C3: “Likely below 2°C” scenarios; ExxonMobil analysis. Emissions do not contain industry process emissions or land use and natural sinks Graphic: ExxonMobil

September 3, 2023

ExxonMobil predicts climate efforts will fail – “Fossil fuels remain the most effective way to produce the massive amounts of energy needed to create and support the manufacturing, commercial transportation, and industrial sectors that drive modern economies”

By Maggie Harrison 1 September 2023 (Futurism) – According to Exxon Mobil, oil giant and one of the more prominent architects of our planet’s fossil fuel-laden doom, humanity is likely to fail its climate goals of halting a global temperature rise of two degrees Celsius by 2050. As The Wall Street Journal reports, Exxon published its grim prediction in […]

Changes of sea surface temperature (SST) gradient anomalies and the spatial distribution of SST to a changing CO2 pathway. (A) Time evolution of latitudinal gradient of sea surface temperature anomaly (unit: °C) in the SH (pink) from its PD value. (B) Same as (A) but for the NH (black), the North Pacific (NP; 120°E to 90°W, green dotted line), and the North Atlantic (NA; 70°W to 0°E, orange dashed line) sectors with the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) strength anomaly from its PD value (skyblue; unit: Sv). The SST gradient is determined by the SST differences from the tropics (0° to 15°) to the midlatitudes (45° to 60°) in each hemisphere. The AMOC strength is defined by averaging annual-mean Atlantic meridional ocean stream function within the latitudinal band from 35°N to 45°N at a depth of 1000 m. Note that the weakening of AMOC is upwards in the right axis in (B). All values are based on the ensemble mean of 28 members (subjected to an 11-year running mean), with their 1 SD ranges across the ensemble members marked with shading. (C to E) SST changes (unit: °C) for peak (2121–2160) minus early RU (2001–2040) periods, late RD (2241–2280) minus peak periods, and late RD minus early RU periods, respectively. Climatological SST in the PD climate (unit: °C) is contoured in (C) to (E). The hatched regions in (C) to (E) indicate where temperature changes are statistically insignificant at the 95% confidence level. The SH, NP, and NA sectors for the SST gradient in (A) and (B) are denoted by colored boxes in (C) to (E). Graphic: Kim, et al., 2023 / Science Advances

August 5, 2023

Removing carbon from Earth’s atmosphere may not “fix” climate change – Changes to atmospheric circulation caused by global warming may persist for centuries after CO2 concentrations decrease – “We cannot control nature. We cannot reverse the consequences that easily. We cannot fix nature.”

By Tereza Pultarova 28 July 2023 (Space.com) – Removing carbon from Earth’s atmosphere may not reverse devastating changes to weather patterns in vulnerable areas, a new study suggests. In the study, Korean researchers simulated how removing large quantities of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the air might affect the progress of local climate changes […]

Primary energy global consumption (left) and share of global primary energy by source (right), 2000-2022. Primary energy demand growth slowed in 2022, increasing by 1.1 percent, compared to 5.5 percent in 2021, and taking it to around 3 percent above the 2019 pre-COVID level. Consumption increased in all regions apart from Europe (-3.8 percent) and CIS (-5.8 percent). Renewables’ (excluding hydro) share of primary energy consumption reached 7.5 percent, an increase of nearly 1 percent over the previous year. Fossil fuel consumption as a percentage of primary energy remained steady at 82 percent. Graphic: Energy Institute

July 24, 2023

World energy system struggled in face of geopolitical and environmental crises in 2022 – Coal production reached record high – CO2 emissions reached record level – “We are still heading in the opposite direction to that required by the Paris Agreement”

26 June 2023 (EI) – The Energy Institute (EI) and partners KPMG and Kearney today released the 72nd annual edition of the Statistical Review of World Energy, presenting for the first time full global energy data for 2022. Five key themes emerge from the data EI President Juliet Davenport OBE HonFEI said: “The EI Statistical Review […]

The California State Capitol in Sacramento. Photo: Rschlie / Getty Images

July 23, 2023

Oil and gas lobbying threatens California’s game-changing climate bills – Legislation aims to shine a light on corporate climate pollution and carbon offsets – “Delay is the new denial”

By Aaron Cantú 26 June 2023 (Capital & Main) – Two transparency bills in the California Legislature would require corporations to disclose more information about their emissions and their efforts to fight the climate crisis. The oil and gas industry is spending millions to kill them. The bills would force big companies that do business in California to […]

Construction site of the Gemini solar project in southern Nevada. Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the conservation group Defenders of Wildlife show the bureau’s Las Vegas field office drafted several versions of a “record of decision” that would have denied the permit application for Gemini. The drafts listed several objections, including harm to desert tortoises, loss of space for off-road vehicle drivers and disturbance of the Old Spanish National Historic Trail, which runs through the project site. Photo: Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times

July 3, 2023

Solar sprawl is tearing up the Mojave Desert. Is there a better way?

By Sammy Roth 27 June 2023 (Los Angeles Times) – High above the Las Vegas Strip, solar panels blanketed the roof of Mandalay Bay Convention Center — 26,000 of them, rippling across an area larger than 20 football fields. From this vantage point, the sun-dappled Mandalay Bay and Delano hotels dominated the horizon, emerging like […]