Articles Archive

Bill McKibben Writings

Bill McKibben writes regularly for The New Yorker in:

"Annals of a Warming Planet"

as well as sending out The Climate Crisis newsletter from the New Yorker.

Some not so recent writings:

‘A Bomb in the Center of the Climate Movement’: Michael Moore Damages Our Most Important Goal" - Rolling Stone - May 1 2020

"The Coronavirus and the Climate Movement" – The New Yorker – March 18, 2020

"23 Reasons to Climate Strike Today" - The Nation - Sept 19, 2019

"Don’t Burn Trees to Fight Climate Change—Let Them Grow" - The New Yorker - August 15, 2019

"Let's Win the War on Warming" - The New Republic - August 15 2016

Climate Crisis News Articles Archive

Articles are listed by publishing organization then by date.

BBC News

“University of Cambridge: Removing meat 'cut carbon emissions'” – Sept 10, 2019

“Climate change: Big lifestyle changes 'needed to cut emissions'” – Aug 29, 2019

Carbon Brief

“IEA: Coronavirus impact on CO2 emissions six times larger than 2008 financial crisis” – Apr 30, 2020

“Factcheck: How electric vehicles help to tackle climate change” – Zeke Hausfather – May 13, 2019

Synopsis by RJC 1/5/20

The author, Zeke Hausfather. covers research in climate science and energy with a US focus. Zeke has masters degrees in environmental science from Yale University and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and is completing a PhD in climate science at University of California, Berkeley. He has spent the past 10 years working as a data scientist and entrepreneur in the cleantech sector.

Notice that emissions arising from battery manufacture and other manufacturing for the Nissan Leaf don’t vary much. The comparison is also predicated on 150,000 km driven over the vehicle lifetime. The Fuel Cycle (orange) reflects the countries manufacturing commitment to renewable electricity production. The countries’ electricity grid carbon intensity is from 2015.

Using the data from chart and the EU Average Nissan lifetime emissions of 128 gm/km with a conventional vehicle being 258 gm/km we can do some calculations.

The EU Nissan manufacturing cycle emits 35 gm/km or 35*150000 gm/life = 5,250 kg more than the conventional vehicle manufacture, but eliminates 165 gm/km of tail pipe emissions. Saving 165 gm/km means the Nissan Leaf pays this back after 5,250,000/165 km = 31,818 km. If the manufacturing emissions were the same or less, the Nissan would save CO2 as soon as it drove off the lot. This assumes the driver is buying a new Leaf instead of a new conventional vehicle.

If the driver is buying a new Leaf to early replace an existing conventional vehicle with similar performance, the payback time is 165 gm/km over the total Nissan Leaf emissions of 128*150,000 gm/life => 19,200 kg which would be paid back in 19,200,000/165 km = 116,363 km. This assumes the replace vehicle is taken off the road.

If the fuel cycle is all driven by renewables (see Norway) the replacement Nissan lifetime emissions of 73*150,000 gm/life => 10,950 kg pays back in 10,950,000/165 km = 66,363 km.

It’s clear that the manufacturing processes for building the car and the battery need to convert to renewables as quickly as possible to gain the best impact for EVs and to get existing drivers to retire their current vehicle in favor of an EV. It’s a no-brainer for first time car buyers.

Battery lifecycle emissions vary widely depending on the study reporting and the country of manufacturer with Asia being 20% higher than EU and USA due to the continued used of coal.

Incremental emissions from adding an EV to electricity demand may rely on incremental energy generation, i.e. natural gas fired generators.

Clean Technica

“Red Flags A-Plenty for Natural Gas In New Sustainable Energy Report” – Feb 13, 2020

CNBC

“Capitalism ‘will fundamentally be in jeopardy’ if business does not act on climate change, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says” – Jan 16, 2020

Common Dreams

“'Scale of This Failure Has No Precedent': Scientists Say Hot Ocean 'Blob' Killed One Million Seabirds” – Jan 16, 2020

Financial Times

“Extinction Rebellion: inside the new climate resistance” – April 10 2019

Forbes

"Plunging Renewable Energy Prices Mean U.S. Can Hit 90% Clean Electricity By 2035 - At No Extra Cost" - Silvio Marcacci - Jun 9, 2020

"We Have To Implement A Green Economic Recovery" - Enrique Dans - June 9, 2020

Gizmodo

“World's Biggest Fossil Fuel Funder Notes Climate Change Could End 'Human Life as We Know it'” – Feb 21, 2020

The Guardian

"How did Michael Moore become a hero to climate deniers and the far right?" - May 7, 2020

"Carbon emissions from fossil fuels could fall by 2.5bn tonnes in 2020" - April 12, 2020

“Revealed: quarter of all tweets about climate crisis produced by bots” – Feb 21, 2020

“‘The only uncertainty is how long we’ll last’: a worst case scenario for the climate in 2050” – Feb 15, 2020

“‘Overwhelming and terrifying’: the rise of climate anxiety” – Feb 10, 2020

“Yes, electric vehicles really are better than fossil fuel burners" – November 26 2019

“Are electric vehicles really so climate friendly?” – November 25 2019

“Naomi Oreskes: ‘Discrediting science is a political strategy’” – November 3, 2019

“Top investment banks provide billions to expand fossil fuel industry” – Oct 13, 2019

“Doubt over climate science is a product with an industry behind it” – March 5 2015

Intelligence Squared

“To Stop Climate Collapse, We Must End Capitalism” – Feb 21, 2020 - Podcast

International Energy Agency (IEA)

“Global EV Outlook 2019: Scaling up the transition to electric mobility” – May 2019

Market Watch

“Opinion: Your electric car and vegetarian diet are pointless virtue signaling in the fight against climate change” - December 26 2019

Notes: The author, Bjorn Lomborg is not well respected in the main stream of climate crisis fighters but checkout the Guardian articles.

Mother Jones

“A New Study About the Death of 1 Million Seabirds Should Scare the Crap Out of You” – Jan 15, 2020

“We Need a Massive Climate War Effort—Now” – Kevin Drum – January/February 2020 issue

Synopsis RJC 12/27/19

The author is Kevin Drum is a political blogger for Mother Jones. He has a degree in journalism and a history working in the tech industry.

This article uses numbers from the Bloomberg New Energy Finance article on “Solar, Wind, Batteries To Attract $10 Trillion to 2050, But Curbing Emissions Long-Term Will Require Other Technologies Too” see (https://about.bnef.com/blog/solar-wind-batteries-attract-10-trillion-2050-curbing-emissions-long-term-will-require-technologies/)

Quote:

“Let’s be clear about something: We’re not talking about voluntary personal cutbacks. If you decide to bicycle more or eat less meat, great—every little bit helps. But no one who’s serious about climate change believes that personal decisions like this have more than a slight effect on the gigatons of carbon we’ve emitted and the shortsighted policies we’ve enacted. Framing the problem this way—a solution of individual lifestyle choices—is mostly just a red herring that allows corporations and conservatives to avoid the real issue.”

Generally points out that societies faced with imminent environmental catastrophes failed to stop them. 84% of Canadians don’t want to pay a modest tax of $8-$40/mo to fight climate crisis.

Quote:

As the Green New Deal suggests, part of the solution is building infrastructure for what we already know how to do. But our primary emphasis needs to be on R&D aimed like a laser at producing cheap, efficient, renewable energy sources—a program that attacks climate change while still allowing people to use lots of energy. This is the kind of spending that wins wars, after all. And make no mistake, this is a war against time and physics. So let’s propose a truly gargantuan commitment to spending money on clean energy research.

Bold my emphasis.

Graphic:

“We need to pump billions into these promising green technologies” primarily to get costs down so that it makes economic sense to adopt them. Pros and cons are discussed for:

• Renewable Energy
• Nuclear Power
• Energy Storage
• Land Use
• Carbon Capture
• Concrete
• Adaptation
• Biofuels
• Less Meat, Mostly Plants
• Fusion Energy
• Geoengineering

Last words:

“We simply don’t know which discoveries are most likely to pan out, and climate change is dire enough that we can’t afford to close off any possibilities.”

MSN

“'Nail in the coffin': Era of big oil sands mines may be over” – Bloomberg - Kevin Orland and Robert Tuttle - Feb 24, 2020

NASA

“Is it too late to prevent climate change?” – date unknown

New Mexico Political Report

"How climate change Is contributing to skyrocketing rates of infectious disease" - ProPublica - May 9, 2020

New Scientist

“Return of warm water 'blob' in the Pacific threatens marine life” – October 9, 2019

New York Times

"Think This Pandemic Is Bad? We Have Another Crisis Coming" - April 15, 2020

"Wildlife Collapse From Climate Change Is Predicted to Hit Suddenly and Sooner" - April 15, 2020

“The Party That Ruined the Planet” – Paul Krugman – December 12 2019

“Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change” – Nathaniel Rich, August 1 2018

Oil Change International

“Stop the Money Pipeline: Private Banks Owning Oil Companies Is a Recipe for Disaster” Apr 10, 2020 – posted at CommonDreams

“Drilling Towards Disaster: New Mexico’s Oil & Gas Boom Undermines The State’s Climate Goals” – Feb 2020

“Burning The Gas ‘Bridge Fuel’ Myth: Why Gas Is Not Clean, Cheap, Or Necessary” – May 2019

“Drilling Towards Disaster: Why U.S. Oil And Gas Expansion Is Incompatible With Climate Limits” – Jan 2019

One Earth

"Impacts of Green New Deal Energy Plans on Grid Stability, Costs, Jobs, Health, and Climate in 143 Countries" - Dec 20, 2019

Science Alert

"Stanford Researchers Have an Exciting Plan to Tackle The Climate Emergency Worldwide" - Dec 27, 2019

Scientific American

“Why CO2 Isn’t Falling More During a Global Lockdown” – E&E News - Apr 24, 2020

“How the Coronavirus Pandemic Is Affecting CO2 Emissions” – E&E News - Mar 12, 2020

Time Magazine

“The Reason Fossil Fuel Companies Are Finally Reckoning With Climate Change”/ – Jan 16, 2020

“Antarctic Glacier Loss Is 'Unstoppable,' Study Says” – May 12, 2014

Truthout.org

"The Fed Just Changed Its Own Rules to Bail Out the Fossil Fuel Industry" - May 5, 2020

“Could COVID-19 Spell the End of the Fracking Industry as We Know It?” - Dahr Jamail – Mar 30, 2020

Union of Concerned Scientists

“Climate Disinformation: Misleading information on global warming can usually be traced directly to special interests”

USA Today

“Climate change could be a 'catastrophic' national security threat, report warns” – Feb 24, 2020

“10 years to save planet Earth: Here are 6 imaginative climate change solutions” – December 24 2019

US News

"Why We Can't Ignore the Link Between COVID-19, Climate Change and Inequity" - April 1, 2020

Good News Articles

For more inspiring news see these articles:

(tbd)