Energy & the Environment News and Discussions

[Time_Traveller]

North Sea green energy could overtake oil and gas by 2030, says study

Tue 25 May 2021

The UK’s half-century legacy as a leading offshore oil and gas hub will be eclipsed by the North Sea’s fast-growing green energy industry within the next decade, according to new research.

An academic study by the Robert Gordon University, based in the oil industry capital of Aberdeen in Scotland, has found that by 2030 most of the UK’s offshore energy jobs will be in the low carbon energy industry.

The research found that the number of green jobs off the UK’s coastlines is likely to climb from 20% of the country’s offshore energy sector to 65% by the end of the decade in a “significant change for the offshore energy industry”.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... says-study

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

First baby Tasmanian devils born wild in mainland Australia in 3,000 years
By Michael Irving
May 25, 2021
https://newatlas.com/environment/baby-t ... australia/

Last year, more than two dozen Tasmanian devils were released back into the wilds of mainland Australia, a place they haven’t called home in more than 3,000 years. And now, the first new baby devils have been born in this new refuge, cementing hopes for the species.

In 2020, 26 Tasmanian devils were set free in a 1,000-acre (404.6-ha) sanctuary in Barrington Tops, about 200 km (124 miles) north of Sydney. This safe new home is designed to protect them from introduced long-time rivals like cats and foxes, as well as other dangers like fire, cars and disease.

That last point is the most pressing. Devils in their native Tasmania have been devastated in recent years by a deadly form of cancer called Devil Facial Tumor Disease (DFTD) which has reduced their numbers so dramatically that they’re now considered endangered.

[weatheriscool]

GE designs massive floating turbine to take wind energy into deep water
By Nick Lavars
May 26, 2021
https://newatlas.com/energy/ge-massive- ... ing-ocean/

While offshore wind farms continue to play a growing part in the renewable energy mix, particularly in the US which recently approved its first major facility off the coast of Massachusetts, there remains a lot of untapped potential in the winds blowing across the world's oceans. GE is looking to unlock this potential through the development of massive wind turbines that can operate in deeper waters, by using advanced floating platforms that keep them steady as the waves crash violently around them.

GE Renewable Energy has been making some big moves in the world of offshore wind energy lately, unveiling its huge 12-MW Haliade-X turbine back in 2018, the world's largest. This 853-ft (260-m) tall behemoth features three of the longest offshore blades ever made, which are claimed to capture around 45 percent more energy than anything else on the market. There's already an even more powerful 14-MW version in the works.

[weatheriscool]

Biden opens California coast to offshore wind turbines
Source: San Jose Mercury News

The Biden administration on Tuesday announced plans to open areas of the Pacific Ocean off California’s coast to offshore wind development for the first time, supporting the construction of hundreds of large wind turbines to expand renewable energy and reduce the impacts of climate change.

The announcement, endorsed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, moves forward the prospect for wind farms in two areas about 20 miles off the coast of Morro Bay and Humboldt County. Turbines roughly 600 to 700 feet tall would be built on floating platforms because the water is too deep to anchor them to the sea floor. Combined, both sites would generate 4,600 megawatts of electricity — enough to power 1.6 million homes.

“California has a world-class offshore wind resource and it can play a major role in helping accelerate California’s and the nation’s transition to clean energy,” said White House climate adviser Gina McCarthy.

Specifically on Tuesday, the Department of Defense agreed to drop its opposition to the Morro Bay site, which had stalled plans for several years. In 2017, during the Trump administration, the Navy issued maps that would have put much of the ocean off the California coast off-limits to offshore wind development, saying the turbines and their undersea cables might conflict with training exercises.

Read more: https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/05/25/ ... -turbines/

[weatheriscool]

US pipelines ordered to increase cyber defenses after hack
Source: AP

By BEN FOX

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. pipeline operators will be required for the first time to conduct a cybersecurity assessment under a Biden administration directive in response to the ransomware hack that disrupted gas supplies in several states this month.

The Transportation Security Administration directive being issued Thursday will also mandate that the owners and operators of the nation’s pipelines report any cyber incidents to the federal government and have a cybersecurity coordinator available at all times to work with authorities in the event of an attack like the one that shut down Colonial Pipeline.

Pipeline companies, which until now operated under voluntary guidelines, could face financial penalties that start at $7,000 per day if they fail to comply with a security directive that reflects an administration focus on cybersecurity that predates the May attack on Colonial, senior Department of Homeland Security officials said.

“The evolution of ransomware attacks in the last 12-18 months has gotten to a point that it poses a national security risk and that we are concerned about the impact on national critical functions,” one of the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of the regulation ahead of the formal release.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/hacking-busi ... 69e547a1b4

[weatheriscool]

Zero-carbon energy from seawater now a step closer
https://phys.org/news/2021-05-zero-carb ... loser.html
by McGill University

Researchers at McGill University have demonstrated a technique that could enable the production of robust, high-performance membranes to harness an abundant source of renewable energy.

Blue energy, also known as osmotic energy, capitalizes on the energy naturally released when two solutions of different salinities mix—conditions that occur in countless locations around the world where fresh and salt water meet.

The key to capturing blue energy lies in selectively permeable membranes, which allow only one constituent of a saltwater solution to pass through—either the water molecules or the dissolved salt ions—but not the other.

[wjfox]

Cities like London and Tokyo have their own unique microbiomes

27 May 2021

Each city has its own distinct microbiome, according to a vast survey of microbes in 60 urban areas worldwide that also discovered 11,000 new viruses and bacteria.

Christopher Mason at Cornell University in New York and his team asked colleagues around the world to collect swabs from urban transport systems, such as subways, between 2015 and 2017. In all, 4728 samples were collected from cities including London, New York, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo. Some 58 per cent of the cities were in east Asia and Europe.

[...]

“We could probably tell with about 90 per cent accuracy where someone was from, and this data gets better when we do more sampling,” says Mason.

This suggests that the microbiomes could have applications in forensic investigations, perhaps to establish whether an individual visited a particular city in the recent past.

Mason and his team discovered 10,928 new viruses and 748 new bacteria that didn’t exist in any reference databases. “I was surprised at how many there were,” he says. “I think it’s a wonderful affirmation of how much left we have to discover about the world.”

Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/22 ... z6w9pd6diw

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

^ Check out his additional posts in that thread, amazing stuff.

[Time_Traveller]

Sri Lanka facing marine disaster from burning ship: Environment official

29 May 2021

NEGOMBO, Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka is facing its worst beach pollution crisis as tonnes of plastic waste from a burning container ship wash ashore, a senior environment official said Saturday (May 29).

Fishermen have been banned from an 80km stretch of coast near the Singapore-registered MV X-Press Pearl as an international firefighting operation went into a 10th day.

"There is smoke and intermittent flames seen from the ship," navy spokesman Captain Indika de Silva told AFP. "However, the vessel is stable and it is still in anchorage."

Authorities are more worried about millions of polyethylene pellets washing up on beaches and threatening fish-breeding shallow waters.

The affected seafront is known for its crabs and jumbo prawns as well as its tourist beaches.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/as ... r-14910244

[Time_Traveller]

Recycling textile waste: ‘A solution exists, we can’t go backwards’

Sat 29 May 2021

An Australian startup working on a process to recycle textiles by turning worn-out fabric into raw materials says it has funding to build a world-first commercial-scale plant in Queensland.

The federal government held a first national roundtable on textile waste on Wednesday – recognition of a piling-up problem that results in Australians discarding an estimated 780,000 tonnes of textile waste each year, according to a 2020 national waste report.

The problem is exacerbated by the lack of an effective recycling process. Studies show many large-scale garment recycling systems provide negligible benefits and can be as environmentally harmful as producing raw fabrics.

BlockTexx, an Australian company that has developed its process with researchers at the Queensland University of Technology, hopes it can help “close the loop” by diverting textiles from landfill, and at the same time replacing virgin material.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... -backwards

[Yuli Ban]

‘Black Wednesday’ for big oil as courtrooms and boardrooms turn on industry

The world’s patience with the fossil fuel industry is wearing thin. This was the stark message delivered to major international oil companies this week in an unprecedented day of reckoning for their role in the climate crisis.

In a stunning series of defeats for the oil industry, over the course of less than 24 hours, courtrooms and boardrooms turned on the executives at Shell, ExxonMobil and Chevron. Shell was ordered by a court in The Hague to go far further to reduce its climate emissions, while shareholder rebellions in the US imposed emissions targets at Chevron and a boardroom overhaul at Exxon.

“There is no doubt that this week’s news has been not so much a shot across the bows as a direct hit to the hull of Big Oil,” says Mark Lewis, the chief sustainability strategist at BNP Paribas Asset Management. “They will have to recognise now that no amount of patching up the hole will do; shareholders and society want the vessel completely overhauled.”

[Time_Traveller]

Clean energy summit ready to start virtually in Santiago, Chile

May 31st 2021

The Global Clean Energy Summit is to be held for the first time in Latin America and it is due to span from Monday, May 31, through Friday, June 4 in Santiago, Chile, albeit in a virtual format.

Leaders from 27 countries will convene at the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM 12) which will be held concurrently with the Mission Innovation Ministerial (MI-6).

The main topics to be discussed are decarbonisation, electromobility, green hydrogen and the innovations necessary to achieve carbon neutrality.

“We are at a turning point, in which we have to take the necessary actions to push the energy transformation to achieve a real change that allows reducing global warming before it is too late,” said Chile's Minister of Energy and Mining Juan Carlos Jobet.

“This summit seeks precisely to reach agreements that allow for the adoption of the technologies and innovations necessary to achieve this and is the prelude to what will be COP 26 in a few more months.”

https://en.mercopress.com/2021/05/31/cl ... iago-chile

[Time_Traveller]

Covid sent Australia’s carbon emissions plummeting in 2020 to lowest levels in 30 years

Mon 31 May 2021

Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions dropped last year to levels not seen in more than 30 years due mostly to the coronavirus pandemic that put a handbrake on fossil fuel burning in the transport sector and slowed economic activity.

New government data released Monday shows sectors where emissions fell sharply in 2020 due to factors beyond the government’s control – the global pandemic and the end of a sharp drought – were starting to rebound.

In the final quarter of 2020, transport emissions – which includes road and rail movement as well as domestic air travel – rose by 11% on the previous three months, reflecting the easing of lockdown restrictions and increases in domestic air travel.

Increasing levels of solar and wind energy was continuing to push out coal in the electricity sector that accounts for a third of the country’s emissions.

Emissions in this sector have dropped 21% since 2009. A milder December meant people had used less power for cooling than usual, helping cut emissions further.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... n-30-years

[Time_Traveller]

Fears raised over risks of water contamination as result of HS2 works

Mon 31 May 2021

Environmental campaigners have raised concerns about potential contamination of the drinking water supply during the construction of the HS2 high-speed rail link, after the company was ordered to disclose internal documents that provide frank assessments of the risks.

The documents were revealed following a battle lasting more than two years. A Green party member, Sarah Green, unsuccessfully tried freedom of information requests and the information commissioner to gain access to the internal analysis of risk to water supplies from the HS2 project before a tribunal ruled in her favour, ordering the rail company to disclose three unredacted water risk assessments to her.

These documents reveal that six public water sources, including at Blackford and Northmoor in Hillingdon and West Hyde, Amersham, Chalfont St Giles and Little Missenden in Buckinghamshire, may need additional treatment works. Some may need to close during construction and others are awaiting planned closures.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... -hs2-works

[Time_Traveller]

Glasgow to plant 18m trees as city readies for Cop26 climate summit

Tue 1 Jun 2021

Councils in the Glasgow area have pledged to plant 18m trees – equivalent to 10 trees for every resident – as the city prepares to host a global climate summit later this year.

The Clyde Climate Forest (CCF) project hopes to increase tree cover in urban areas of Glasgow to 20% and ensure that a fifth of the region’s rural landscape is forested or planted with native woodland over the next decade.

Glasgow is the host city for the Cop26 climate talks in November, when world leaders are expected to set much tougher targets to combat global heating, as evidence grows that the world is close to breaching the 1.5C limit agreed in the Paris climate treaty in 2016.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... ate-summit

[wjfox]

Alaska: Biden to suspend Trump Arctic drilling leases

Published 3 hours ago

US President Joe Biden's administration will suspend oil and gas leases in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge pending an environmental review.

The move reverses former President Donald Trump's decision to sell oil leases in the refuge to expand fossil fuel and mineral development.

The giant Alaskan wilderness is home to many important species, including polar bears, caribou and wolves.

Arctic tribal leaders have welcomed the move but Republicans are opposed.

Covering some 19 million acres (78,000 sq km), the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is often described as America's last great wilderness.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-57322511

[Time_Traveller]

World’s soils ‘under great pressure’, says UN pollution report

Fri 4 Jun 2021

The world’s soils, which provide 95% of humanity’s food, are “under great pressure”, according to a UN report on soil pollution.

Soils are also the largest active store of carbon, after the oceans, and therefore crucial in fighting the climate crisis. But the report said industrial pollution, mining, farming and poor waste management are poisoning soils, with the “polluter pays” principle absent in many countries.

Pollutants include metals, cyanides, DDT and other pesticides, and long-lasting organic chemicals such as PCBs, the report said, making food and water unsafe, cutting the productivity of fields and harming wildlife. However, it said most releases of pollutants that end up in soils are not easily quantified and therefore the true damage remains highly uncertain.

The global production of industrial chemicals each year has doubled since 2000 to 2.3bn tonnes, the report said, and is projected to nearly double again by 2030, meaning soil pollution is expected to increase further. The UN also warns of emerging contaminants including pharmaceuticals, antimicrobials that lead to drug-resistant bacteria, and plastics.

“Global soils are under great pressure,” said Qu Dongyu, head of the UN food and agriculture organisation. “This thin crust of the Earth’s surface, the soil, supports all terrestrial life and is involved in many key ecosystem services that are essential to the environment and to human health and wellbeing.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... ing-mining

[Time_Traveller]

The battle to save England’s chalk streams, one of the planet’s rarest habitats

Sun 6 Jun 2021

Conservationist Allen Beechey remembers a time, in the 1990s, when trout swam along the River Chess as it meandered through the centre of his home town of Chesham. “It was a gentle, reassuring sight and it helped trigger my love of nature,” Beechey said last week.

Then came the droughts, the river dried up – sometimes for several years at a stretch – and the fish died out. They have yet to come back to the Buckinghamshire town.

But Beechey has a dream that one day trout will return to this part of the river, which is one of most important chalk streams in England. It would be a signal that this critically important but highly endangered habitat was returning to good health after years of damage caused by increasing water abstraction and other threats.

These hopes were raised recently when the local water company, Affinity, announced it had stopped abstracting water from the Chess. Previously it had been taking out about 6m litres a day from the river from two pumping stations at Chesham and Chartridge, a nearby village. This abstraction has now been halted and water for the region is now being piped in from other areas of southern England, including regions close to the Thames.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... t-habitats