Future Timeline

February 13, 2023 10:15 am

In a line from the ballad ‘Michael’, it was left to the unseen curlew in the damp grass to tell the world that the ‘Big Fella’ had fallen at Béal na Bláth.

Who will it be left to, to tell the world that in the Irish countryside the decurved bill one is gone?

The curlew, a wader resident of rough pastures, meadows and heather, could be extinct as a breeding species in Ireland before 2030.

From agricultural intensification, disturbance, pollution, climate change, and shooting (outlawed in 2012), the curlew is ecocide hemmed in.

wjfox wrote: ↑Fri Feb 17, 2023 9:27 am

every home

Despite constant warnings from the scientific community about the dangers of the climate crisis and extreme weather events from devastating flooding in Pakistan to record-breaking heat waves worldwide, world leaders still subsidized fossil fuel consumption with a record more than $1 trillion in 2022.

That’s the conclusion from an International Energy Agency (IEA) report that found that fossil fuel subsidies in response to a global energy crisis more than doubled their 2021 number. The record spending came despite the fact that world leaders had committed to phasing out “inefficient fossil fuel subsidies” at the close of 2021 as part of the Glasgow Climate Pact.

“Our analysis shows that many of these government measures were not well targeted, and while they may have partially protected customers from skyrocketing costs, they artificially maintained fossil fuels’ competitiveness versus low-emissions alternatives,” IEA Senior Energy Analyst Toru Muta and IEA Energy Analyst Musa Erdogan wrote in a commentary on the new report.

By fuel, subsidies for natural gas and electricity more than doubled while oil subsidies skyrocketed by approximately 85 percent. Most of the subsidies were in developing or “emerging market” economies. In addition, countries spent more than $500 billion to reduce energy bills, mostly in developed countries, with around $350 billion of the spending occurring in Europe. That said, bill relief did not always count as a subsidy for the IEA because the average user price was still close to market value.

A new report finds that last year China permitted the equivalent of two coal plants per week. China's renewable sector is also booming.
VCG/VCG via Getty Images

China permitted more coal power plants last year than any time in the last seven years, according to a new report released this week. It's the equivalent of about two new coal power plants per week. The report by energy data organizations Global Energy Monitor and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air finds the country quadrupled the amount of new coal power approvals in 2022 compared to 2021.

That's despite the fact that much of the world is getting off coal, says Flora Champenois, coal research analyst at Global Energy Monitor and one of the co-authors of the report.

"Everybody else is moving away from coal and China seems to be stepping on the gas," she says. "We saw that China has six times as much plants starting construction as the rest of the world combined."

The Biden administration is soon set to approve ConocoPhillips’ Willow Project, a major oil drilling project on Alaska’s North Slope, according to a congressional source familiar with the details. The decision will be announced next week, the source confirmed.

The expected approval is a victory for Alaska’s bipartisan congressional delegation and a coalition of Alaska Native tribes and groups who hailed the drilling venture as a much-needed new source of revenue and jobs for the remote region. It is a major blow to climate groups and Alaska Natives who oppose Willow, arguing the project will hurt the president’s ambitious climate goals and pose health and environmental risks.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre pushed back Friday, saying no final decision on the project had been made, and that the US Department of the Interior would make an “independent decision on the Willow Project.”

“No final decisions have been made – anyone who says there has been a final decision is wrong,” Jean-Pierre said. “President Biden is delivering on the most aggressive climate agenda of any US president in history and spurring an unprecedented expansion of clean energy.”

The Biden administration on Monday approved a massive oil development project on Alaska’s North Slope.

ConocoPhillips’ $8 billion Willow prospect in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska is expected to be one of the largest oil fields developed in Alaska in decades, and would produce oil for three decades, including 180,000 barrels of oil daily at its peak. The administration approved three drill sites, which the ConocoPhillips has said is economically viable.

The White House’s decision bucked intense pressure from environmental groups, which have called the project a “carbon bomb” and said it contradicts President Joe Biden’s goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030.

Many Alaska Native leaders, politicians and business groups have lobbied intensely for approval of the massive oil field, saying it would provide badly needed revenues to support North Slope villages and help Alaska’s struggling economy — though the mayor the Inupiaq village closest to the project had opposed it.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Oil giant Saudi Aramco reported Sunday earning $161 billion last year, claiming the highest-ever recorded annual profit by a publicly listed company and drawing immediate criticism from activists.

The monster profit by the firm, known formally as the Saudi Arabian Oil Co., came off the back of energy prices rising after Russia launched its war on Ukraine in February 2022, with sanctions limiting the sale of Moscow’s oil and natural gas in Western markets.

Aramco also hopes to increase its production to take advantage of market demand as China reenters the global market after lifting its coronavirus restrictions. That could raise the billions needed to pay for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plans to develop futuristic cityscapes to pivot Saudi Arabia away from oil.

However, those plans come despite growing international concerns over the burning of fossil fuels accelerating climate change. Meanwhile, higher energy prices already have strained relations between Riyadh and Washington, as well as driven up inflation worldwide.