MARCH 5, 2021
Amazing, but climate news is now daily. A very positive development. Now that every government agency (Federal and in California)) has a climate mission, there are many stories, often in depth. Not to say that the deniers aren't still at work and that a new opposition isn't coalescing. We are adding climate books, other newsletter references and, of course, local and Bay Area events. Welcome to March.
Links to climate articles
Legislation, regulations, politics
Why Texas Republicans Fear the Green New Deal
Small government is no match for a crisis born of the state’s twin addictions to market fixes and fossil fuels.
By Naomi Klein
Can You Believe This Is Happening in America? Thomas Friedman
We used to dream big. Now we’re increasingly thinking short term.
The Texas freeze fits a recent pattern of increasingly destructive “global weirding.” I much prefer that term over “climate change” or “global warming.”
If global weirding is our new normal, we need a whole new level of buffers, redundancies and supply inventories to create resilience for our power grids — and many more distributed forms of energy, like solar, that can enable households to survive when the grid goes down.
Interview: The author on the deniers’ new tactics and why positive change feels closer than it has done in 20 years.
Who is the enemy in the new climate war? It is fossil fuel interests, climate change deniers, conservative media tycoons, working together with petrostate actors like Saudi Arabia and Russia. I call this the coalition of the unwilling.
Extreme weather - Texas
Texas Blackouts Point to Coast to Coast rises waiting to Happen
By Christopher Flavelle, Brad Plumer and Hiroko Tabuchi
Even as Texas struggled to restore electricity and water over the past week, signs of the risks posed by increasingly extreme weather to America’s aging infrastructure were cropping up across the country.
Texas and California built different power grids, but neither stood up to climate change
The winter storm that crippled Texas this week and heat wave that hit California last summer show much more needs to be done to protect power supplies from extreme weather.
Extreme weather – more
Iceberg size of Greater London breaks off Antarctica
The 1,270sq km chunk separated from Brunt Ice Shelf near a British Antarctic Survey station on Friday
How We Can Better Predict Weather Catastrophes
We need to develop an early warning system to forecast climate-induced extreme weather events.
By Abhishek Chatterjee, William Collins, David Crisp and Arun Majumdar
The authors are scientists who study climate change and its impact on the weather.
Wildfires among the dangers of doing nothing on California’s climate goals
In 2018 alone, homeowners and businesses suffered damages in excess of $150 billion in California and beyond due to climate-stoked wildfires. And the costs of the biggest fire season on record, which we all just went through, have not even been calculated yet, and will undoubtedly be even more immense.
To weather the worsening drought, California needs healthy soils
By Ellie Cohen, The Climate Center, and Torri Estrada, Carbon Cycle Institute
California is in the early stages of a severe multi-decadal drought, exacerbated by the climate crisis. As Dan Walters pointed out in his recent op ed, we must move quickly to prepare for water shortages and wildfires.
Marin Voice: Who really pays price if Costco’s cheap gas comes to Novato?
Silke Valentine
Who wouldn’t want cheap gas? Who wouldn’t want their city to have revenue from a Costco gas station. As a member of 350 Marin — a group of grassroots activists who are deeply concerned about climate breakdown — I can say we don’t.
Petaluma’s gas station ban draws Marin, regional interest, March 3, 2021
The city’s measure prohibits permits for new sites and the expansion of existing gasoline fueling equipment.Petaluma’s move this week to become the first city in the nation to ban new gas stations to combat climate change could be the beginning of a trend in Marin and beyond, supporters and opponents said.
The controversial measure, which the Petaluma City Council approved unanimously on Monday night, prohibits the permitting of new gas stations. It also prohibits the expansion of gasoline fueling equipment, such as gas pumps and underground storage tanks, at existing stations. Existing stations would still be allowed to apply for permits to install electric vehicle chargers and hydrogen fueling equipment.
Climate science
Mike Mann on Climate Change and Cold Air Outbreaks (excellent video)
February 21, 2021
This science is still an area of intense debate – the frequency and intensity of arctic cold outbreaks, and their relation to climate change.
Mike Mann addresses starting at :50 here.
Clean energy, economics, new technologies, social justice
Reading Between the Lines: A Conversation With Janet Yellen
The Treasury secretary dropped hints about her priorities — if you know how to interpret them.
On Climate:
“There’s a new movement now toward stress testing of financial institutions,” she said, which acknowledges that finance firms face risks from the changing climate, in terms of “physical risks and also risks due to price changes, stranded assets and the like.”It is “encouraging” that the Fed is looking into this, she said, “and I think that’s something that at Treasury we may be able to discuss and facilitate.” She added, “It’s not envisioned that these tests would have the same status in terms of limiting payouts and capital requirements, but I think they would be revealing to both regulators and to the firms themselves.”
President Biden on Friday dramatically altered the way the U.S. government calculates the real-world cost of climate change, a move that could reshape a range of consequential decisions, from whether to allow new coal leasing on federal land to what sort of steel is used in taxpayer-funded infrastructure projects.
We must attend to the structural injustices
Global Action Is ‘Very Far’ From What’s Needed to Avert Climate Chaos
New climate pledges submitted to the United Nations would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by less than 1 percent, the world body announced.
Editorial: Focus should be on adding EV charging stations
Costco’s push to build a 14-pump gas station next to its Novato warehouse store makes sense from a business standpoint.
The “Big Box” retail giant can also cash in on the money its shoppers spend to get to and from its store.
Climate books
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need by Bill Gates. Learn more and buy a copy from our local Copperfield’s Books.
The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet by Michael E Mann Learn more and buy a copy from our local Copperfield’s Books.
Events
Electrify Your Ride: We’ll review available electric vehicles, charging at home and on the road, incentives, total cost of ownership, and you’ll have the chance to ask the questions you’ve always wondered about EVs. Register here for any of the events below, if those dates don’t work for you check back later for these ongoing presentations.
Monday, March 29th, 5pm
Wednesday, April 14th, 7pm
Tuesday, April 20th, 4:30pm
Thursday, April 29th, 12:30pm