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Renewable Tuesday: Good News [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-01-28
We have been mining Bluesky for good Global Warming news, and will continue to do so often, but today we are mining Good News Roundups of the last few days, and other DK resources. We begin with Jessiestaff’s post from yesterday, and work our way backwards.
Deforestation rates had doubled under Jair Bolsonaro, and things were looking bleak. But at the time of writing, Lula da Silva had just been re-elected and I said that this should give us some hope of a turnaround.
In my book (published at the start of this year), I included this chart of deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon since the 1980s. I also wrote about it on my Substack.
Our local library has a copy, with 11 holds on it. I don’t know when I will be able to borrow it, but I will let you know, with details when I can read it.
These problems are big. But they are solvable. We are not doomed. We can build a better future for everyone. Let's turn that opportunity into reality.
Packed with the latest research, practical guidance and enlightening graphics, this book will make you rethink almost everything you've been told about the environment, from the virtues of eating locally and living in the countryside, to the evils of overpopulation, plastic straws and palm oil. It will give you the tools to understand what works, what doesn't and what we urgently need to focus on so we can leave a sustainable planet for future generations.
But in this bold, radically hopeful book, data scientist Hannah Ritchie argues that if we zoom out, a very different picture emerges. The data shows we've made so much progress on these problems, and so fast, that we could be on track to achieve true sustainability for the first time in history.
We are bombarded by doomsday headlines that tell us the soil won't be able to support crops, fish will vanish from our oceans, that we should reconsider having children.
Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet , by Hannah Ritchie
But in the last few decades, coal use in Britain has tanked, and its journey towards a coal-free grid ends today as it closes its final power plant: Ratcliffe-on-Soar. The decline in coal power has been pretty rapid. Here it is as a share of electricity. Or you can find total production data here.
I was in England in the early 1970s, after the end of burning soft coal, when public buildings were being sandblasted all over the country to reveal the original stones, whether marble, sandstone, or whatever. The smogs had gone away, too. Now, as we have seen in these posts, the entire UK is well on its way to discarding Fossil Foolishness completely. Maybe nukes, too. Fantasy writer Terry Pratchett had once worked as a publicist in the British nuclear power industry. He said that he couldn’t write about his experiences, which were too unbelievable.
The title above is wrong, of course. Coal is seriously prehistoric. But coal as the foundation of the Industrial Revolution was indeed British, along with steam engines.
On the evening of Dec. 10, 12 self-identified elder climate activists sat around the Christmas tree in the New York State Capitol, in Albany, singing carols as they waited to be arrested. The protesters, who were there to support New York’s Climate Change Superfund Act, had been told by police they would face criminal misdemeanor trespass charges if they stayed put. “Normally, for a protest like this, we’d expect to be written a citation rather than charged with a misdemeanor,” said Michael Richardson of Third Act Upstate New York, which helped plan the civil disobedience. “But there were enough of us ready to take the elevated charges. We knew it would have fewer consequences for us than a younger person.” The next evening, another seven elders gathered around the Christmas tree in expectation of being arrested. Protests continued into a third day, dramatically capping off a campaign that had worked for two years to pass a state law making fossil fuel companies pay for damage caused by an escalating climate crisis. On Dec. 26, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul bowed to the activists’ demands by signing the Climate Change Superfund Act, which will force fossil fuel companies to pay an estimated $75 billion over 25 years into a fund for addressing the impacts of climate change. “This legislation is about getting resources to people in need,” said Jamie Henn of Fossil Free Media. “We’re already seeing states and municipalities drain their budgets as they try to respond to increasingly expensive extreme weather disasters. This bill helps fill those gaps while pointing a finger at the corporations who are most responsible.”
Bloomberg Philanthropies says efforts will include helping fund U.N. climate body
Move follows Trump announcement U.S. again withdrawing from Paris deal
Bloomberg Philanthropies will also help encourage state, local effort to meet U.S. climate goals
Nice to see a billionaire actually trying to help the world with his money.
Bloomberg shares many Republican fantasies, but he is a firm believer in Real MoneyTM, where he made his billions providing factual data to paying customers.
Cement has an emissions problem, can tech that mimics coral fix it?
Oregon to host nations largest solar plus storage installation
Illinois considers state incentives for transmission projects
Heat pumps keep widening the lead on gas furnaces
Then comments on that post.
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