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December 28 2021

Dear Friends:

We wish you a very HAPPY NEW YEAR as we sort out the good news and disappointments of the year. Much work ahead as we focus on 2022 strategies. 

Belle, Victoria and the Climate Team

Links to Articles

Scary Extreme Weather

Rising from Antarctic -a Climate Alarm

Examining the Role of Climate Change in a Week of Wild Weather

The powerful storm that swept through the Midwest in mid-December was extraordinary in many respects, with 100 million Americans under some form of weather alert.

Hurricane-force gusts in nine states. Immense dust storms in Colorado and wind-fanned wildfires in Kansas. The first-ever December tornadoes observed in Minnesota and western Iowa. Temperatures soaring past 70 degrees in cities like Omaha and Des Moines, a record.

Was Climate Change to Blame for the Tornadoes, or Was It Just Really Bad Weather?

Year End Perspectives

The Economist -- The Climate Issue

The Year in Climate News, New York Times

2021 was yet another year that felt like five. 

The Planet Is Failing. What Does That Look Like in Every Single Country?

2021: when the link between the climate and biodiversity crises became clear

By Max Benato

Looking back on a year in which the Age of Extinction reported on everything from summits to species loss, solutions and community involvement

Global Developments

Chile’s Constitutional Rewrite Confronts Climate Change Head On

Chile has lots of lithium, which is essential to the world’s transition to green energy. But anger over powerful mining interests, a water crisis and inequality has driven Chile to rethink how it defines itself.

Mexico’s wheat fields help feed the world. They’re also releasing a dangerous greenhouse gas.

California Wildfires

California wildfire fallout: Timber industry confronted by too many dead trees, warns of damaged forests

By Julie Johnson

Wildfire Watch: Episode 4 - The Cost of Wildfire

BACK TO THE FUTURE. 2021: A MAJOR ACCELERATION IN CLIMATE ACTION … AND IN EMISSIONS

Coral Reefs

Nobel-winning stock market theory used to help save coral reefs

Portfolio selection rules on evaluating risk used to pick 50 reefs as ‘arks’ best able to survive climate crisis and revive coral elsewhere

Plastics

Why Trying to Clean Up All the Ocean Plastic Is Pointless

A pollution expert on why any attempt to rid the ocean of plastic completely is doomed to fail—and what we actually need to be focusing on.

Local Climate Action

Marin lands $1M state grant for carbon farming projects

Marin County has been awarded a $1 million state grant to advance one of its key strategies to cut greenhouse gas emissions — carbon farming.

The Climate Crisis Is Raging, but We Are Not Powerless

By Margaret Renkl

“Fortunately, saving the planet isn’t something we’re obliged to manage on our own. Our collective efforts can make a huge difference…”

Marin to spend $4M in pandemic aid on climate projects

Dick Spotswood: MALT’s value as protector of farmland fuels supervisors’ Measure A concerns

Renewables and Fossil Fuels

These Bay Area refineries want to ditch crude oil for biofuels. Critics say that’s a bad idea

2021: when the link between the climate and biodiversity crises became clear

Green-Energy Race Draws an American Underdog to Bolivia’s Lithium

Chinese and Russian industrial giants seek to tap mineral deposits vital to electric cars. A Texas entrepreneur has his own strategy: the long game.

Clean-Energy Gold Rush Alarms Tribes in US

By Jack Healy and Mike Baker

YELLOW PINE, Idaho — Net in hand, Louis Reuben waded into the frigid waters where his ancestors once fished, long before Idaho’s rivers were dammed and contaminated, before the Nez Perce were driven off their land when white miners struck gold.

Is nuclear energy green? France and Germany lead opposing camps.

The French government wants to build reactors. The German government wants to shut them down.

"Electricity: An Optimist's Playbook for our Clean Energy Future"

By Saul Griffiths; reviewed by Bill McKibbon here

California Voice: Is hydrogen a zero-emissions solution for our state?

By Teresa Cooke

Deforestation Solutions

Inside the Campaign to Save an Imperiled Cambodian Rainforest

Deep in the Southern Cardamom Mountains, former loggers and poachers have assumed new roles as protective rangers and ecotourism guides.

If the world loves forests, it should put a price on their carbon

Without that, more trees may not mean less climate change


https://www.economist.com/international/the-world-should-prove-its-love-for-forests-by-putting-carbon-prices-on-them/21806086

Politics, Legislation, Public Opinion

What the Stalled Build Back Better Bill Means for Climate, in One Chart

By Brad Plumer and Nadja Popovich

Joe Manchin Rejects Democratic Plan to Ban New Drilling in Atlantic and Pacific

Manchin Rejects Landmark Legislation, Putting Biden’s Climate Goals at Risk

How do you spend trillions of dollars? What President Biden’s infrastructure bills will mean to Bay Area communities

Public Support for International Climate Action, September 2021

By Anthony Leiserowitz, Edward Maibach, Seth Rosenthal, John Kotcher, Jennifer Carman, Liz Neyens, Matthew Goldberg, Karine Lacroix and Jennifer Marlon

Biomass

Wood Waste to Hydrogen: Mote’s H2 gambit in California announced

What you need to know about California's new composting law — a game changer for food waste

Controlled burning of natural environments could help offset our carbon emissions


Events

Sunday, January 30, 2022, at 1:00 pm

Skills for Bridging the Divide on Climate Solutions, a workshop offered by Braver Angels in collaboration with Citizens' Climate Lobby.

For a sneak preview of the workshop, check out this video. The workshop is offered entirely online, and you can register at the link below. We hope to see you there! Register here.


BIOCHAR IN THE WOODS, 2022

January 27 (Online Webinar); February 1-3 (Field Days - free). Learn how to use biochar for forest resilience

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