Energy & the Environment News and Discussions

User avatar
Time_Traveller
Posts: 2105
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 4:49 pm
Location: Clermont, Indiana, USA, October 7th 2019 B.C.E

Re: Energy & the Environment News and Discussions

Post by Time_Traveller »

Germany will in turn withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty
11/11/2022, 5:50:45 PM

After France, Spain and the Netherlands, Germany will in turn pull out of the 30-year-old Energy Charter Treaty, accused of hindering climate ambitions, the German government announced on Friday. .

“We are consistently orienting our business policy towards climate protection and are therefore withdrawing from the Energy Charter Treaty, ” says State Secretary at the Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection , Franziska Brantner, in a press release.

" is an important sign sent to the United Nations climate conference", COP 27 currently meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt), she adds.
https://newsrnd.com/news/2022-11-11-ger ... s-hrj.html
"We all have our time machines, don't we. Those that take us back are memories...And those that carry us forward, are dreams."

-H.G Wells.
User avatar
caltrek
Posts: 6509
Joined: Mon May 17, 2021 1:17 pm

Re: Energy & the Environment News and Discussions

Post by caltrek »

The Renewable Energy Transition Is Failing
by Richard Heinberg
November 21, 2022

Introduction:
(Independent Media Institute) Despite all the renewable energy investments and installations, actual global greenhouse gas emissions keep increasing. That’s largely due to economic growth: While renewable energy supplies have expanded in recent years, world energy usage has ballooned even more—with the difference being supplied by fossil fuels. The more the world economy grows, the harder it is for additions of renewable energy to turn the tide by actually replacing energy from fossil fuels, rather than just adding to it.

The notion of voluntarily reining in economic growth in order to minimize climate change and make it easier to replace fossil fuels is political anathema not just in the rich countries, whose people have gotten used to consuming at extraordinarily high rates, but even more so in poorer countries, which have been promised the opportunity to “develop.”

After all, it is the rich countries that have been responsible for the great majority of past emissions (which are driving climate change presently); indeed, these countries got rich largely by the industrial activity of which carbon emissions were a byproduct. Now it is the world’s poorest nations that are experiencing the brunt of the impacts of climate change caused by the world’s richest. It’s neither sustainable nor just to perpetuate the exploitation of land, resources, and labor in the less industrialized countries, as well as historically exploited communities in the rich countries, to maintain both the lifestyles and expectations of further growth of the wealthy minority.

From the perspective of people in less-industrialized nations, it’s natural to want to consume more, which only seems fair. But that translates to more global economic growth, and a harder time replacing fossil fuels with renewables globally. China is the exemplar of this conundrum: Over the past three decades, the world’s most populous nation lifted hundreds of millions of its people out of poverty, but in the process became the world’s biggest producer and consumer of coal.
Read more here: https://independentmediainstitute.org/ ... -failing/

caltrek’s comment: Less desirable solutions may also come to be included in the mix. I am very reluctant to support the development of nuclear fission produced energy, but it is a potential alternative. Geoengineering is also highly problematic in my view. Greater efforts toward recycling are highly desirable. Hydrogen also strikes me as having great potential. Still, it is hard to disagree with the conclusion presented in the article:
We need a realistic plan for energy descent, instead of foolish dreams of eternal consumer abundance by means other than fossil fuels. Currently, politically rooted insistence on continued economic growth is discouraging truth-telling and serious planning for how to live well with less.
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
weatheriscool
Posts: 12971
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: Energy & the Environment News and Discussions

Post by weatheriscool »

Water boil order issued for more than 2 million in Houston
Source: AP

54 minutes ago
HOUSTON (AP) — More than 2 million people in the Houston area were under a boil order notice Monday after a power outage caused low pressure at a water purification plant, officials said.

The order means water must be boiled before it’s used for cooking, bathing or drinking. Multiple Houston area public and private schools, as well as some local colleges, were closed Monday as a result of the notice, while others made adjustments to provide affected campuses with bottled water and sanitizer. The warning was issued Sunday after a power outage at a water purification plant, the city’s public works department said.

Testing of the water quality was underway, according to Houston officials.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said on Twitter that the city believes the water is safe but a boil order was required because water pressure dropped below the required minimum by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. He said water sampling would begin Monday morning, and the boil order could be lifted 24 hours after the city is notified the water is safe.



Read more: https://apnews.com/article/business-hou ... m=HomePage
weatheriscool
Posts: 12971
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: Energy & the Environment News and Discussions

Post by weatheriscool »

Denver gets go-ahead from EPA after progress on lead pipes
Source: AP

By MICHAEL PHILLIS

The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday approved a nearly $700 million plan to remove all lead water pipes in the Denver region, saying the local water utility’s approach for reducing lead levels is succeeding and making swift progress. It’s a recognition that cities can effectively address the lead pipe crisis if they try.

Lead water lines are a major source of lead poisoning. The metal causes brain damage and the agency says no amount is safe for children’s bodies.

Denver’s water had high levels of lead a decade ago, testing showed. In response, local officials promised in 2020 to replace between 64,000 and 84,000 lead pipes in 15 years, a comparatively fast pace. To make sure people aren’t getting lead poisoning in the meantime, they also promised to hand out lead-removing filters to residents. So far the utility has dug up 15,000 lead pipes.

“From our perspective, Denver Water has one of the most successful (lead water line) replacement programs in the country,” the environmental group EDF told EPA in official comments.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/health-busin ... 95120694b2
User avatar
caltrek
Posts: 6509
Joined: Mon May 17, 2021 1:17 pm

Re: Energy & the Environment News and Discussions

Post by caltrek »

While Helpful in Preventing Air Pollution, Wind Power is Not Yet Living Up to Its Potential
by Justine Calma
December 2, 2022

Introduction:
(The Verge) Wind power isn’t cleaning up as much pollution as it could, especially in communities of color and low-income neighborhoods, new research shows. The US’s wind energy boom has already led to billions of dollars of health benefits. But the majority of that hasn’t trickled into communities that have historically been burdened with the most air pollution, finds a study published today in the journal Science Advances. Fortunately, that could change if new wind energy projects are deployed more strategically.

Over the past two decades, wind energy has grown from less than half a percent of the US electricity mix in 2002 to almost 10 percent today. By 2014, increasing amounts of wind energy had measurably improved air quality, resulting in health benefits across the US, according to the new study. But only 32 percent of those benefits reached low-income communities. And just 29 percent reached racial and ethnic minority populations.
The Biden administration, meanwhile, has set a goal of ensuring that 40 percent of the benefits from clean energy reach “disadvantaged communities that are marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by pollution.”

In this study, “health benefits” are actually a matter of life and death. They essentially put a dollar amount on deaths that are prevented by cleaning up the air. In this case, they estimated that by 2014, wind energy contributed to $2 billion in health benefits, spurred on by renewable electricity standards set by dozens of states. And while the US has improved its air quality since the 1970 Clean Air Act, there’s still a lot of progress to make. More than 137 million Americans, about 40 percent of the population, live in locales that received failing grades for air pollution from the American Lung Association.

Moreover, the health risks that come with breathing in that dirty air are unevenly spread. People of color are 3.6 times more likely to live in counties with multiple failing air pollution grades. Low-income communities in the US have also been consistently exposed to more particulate pollution than more affluent neighborhoods
Read more of The Verge article here: https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/2/234 ... l-justice

Read sbout the results of the study as presented in Science Advances here: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abn8762
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
weatheriscool
Posts: 12971
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: Energy & the Environment News and Discussions

Post by weatheriscool »

OPEC+ Latest: Group Agrees to Keep Oil Production Unchanged
Source: Bloomberg
The OPEC+ alliance decided to maintain production at current levels, pausing to take stock of a global oil market that’s roiled by uncertainty over Chinese demand and Russian supply.

The 23-nation group has only just implemented the hefty 2 million barrel-a-day reduction agreed at its last gathering in October, and the full impact of that cut is unclear amid severe gyrations in prices. After hitting the lowest level since September on Nov. 28, Brent crude ended up posting its biggest weekly gain in a month.

The volatility has been driven by European Union sanctions on crude exports from OPEC+ member Russia, which come into effect on Monday. At the same time, China is tentatively easing the Covid measures that have eroded consumption in the world’s biggest oil importer.

The agreement came after an online gathering of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, which replaced the in-person gathering at its Vienna headquarters that had been planned until this week. Sunday’s virtual meeting took about 20 minutes.
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... et-outlook
weatheriscool
Posts: 12971
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: Energy & the Environment News and Discussions

Post by weatheriscool »

Thousands of dead seals wash up on Russia's Caspian shore
Source: CNN

By Mariya Knight,

(CNN)
Around 2,500 endangered seals have been found dead on Russia’s Caspian coast, state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported Sunday, citing authorities in the North Caucasus region.

Caspian seals, the only mammals found in the Caspian Sea, have been classified as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list since 2008.

The seals washed up on the coast of Russia’s republic of Dagestan, along the Caspian Sea, the largest landlocked body of water in the world, which is bordered by five countries: Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan.

Dagestan’s Ministry of Natural Resources said the animals had died of “natural factors” and warned that the number of dead seals was likely to be much higher.



A Caspian seal swimming in the Caspian Sea.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/04/world/de ... index.html
User avatar
raklian
Posts: 1747
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 4:46 pm
Location: North Carolina

Re: Energy & the Environment News and Discussions

Post by raklian »

U.S. pledges to ramp up supplies of natural gas to Britain as Biden and Sunak seek to cut off Russia

U.K. government says the new partnership will “drive work to reduce global dependence on Russian energy exports.”

The U.K.-U.S. Energy Security and Affordability Partnership, as it’s known, will be directed by a U.K.-U.S. Joint Action Group.

Among other things, the group will undertake efforts to make sure the market ramps up supplies of liquefied natural gas from the U.S. to the U.K.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/07/energy- ... plies.html
To know is essentially the same as not knowing. The only thing that occurs is the rearrangement of atoms in your brain.
weatheriscool
Posts: 12971
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: Energy & the Environment News and Discussions

Post by weatheriscool »

Researcher creates algorithms to predict arsenic contamination in private wells
https://phys.org/news/2022-12-algorithm ... wells.html
by Greg Bruno, Rutgers University

Despite the risks to human health, testing for arsenic isn't required for most private drinking wells in New Jersey. To help address this regulatory gap, a Rutgers researcher developed a machine learning model that can estimate arsenic contamination in private wells without the need to sample the water itself.

"New Jersey has many naturally occurring arsenic sources, which can elevate the arsenic concentration in groundwater," said Subhasis Giri, an assistant research professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources and lead author of the study published in the journal Science of the Total Environment. "Our work contributes to the understanding of this human health risk by revealing the sources of arsenic concentration in private drinking water wells, which will in turn help with mitigation."

Arsenic occurs in both organic and inorganic forms. Natural sources are rocks, soils and water, while anthropogenic sources include pesticides, wood preservatives, mining and the smelting of arsenic-containing minerals. Long-term exposure to elevated levels of arsenic in drinking water can cause serious health consequences, such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

To identify arsenic hotspots in three countries in west-central New Jersey (Hunterdon, Somerset and Morris), Giri and colleagues at Columbia University and the New Jersey Institute of Technology developed a computer model that uses machine learning to predict the likelihood that a private well is contaminated with unsafe arsenic levels.
User avatar
wjfox
Site Admin
Posts: 8732
Joined: Sat May 15, 2021 6:09 pm
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Re: Energy & the Environment News and Discussions

Post by wjfox »

Post Reply