Watch 1PM Weekly News - December 11, 2023
This week Shelby covers seven breaking news stories--from Oil companies' unexpected plan to tackle climate change to the Great Lakes wind boom.
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Replacing All Lead Pipes in United States
The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a new rule that would require that all lead pipes in the United States be replaced within the next ten years. Lead is a potent neurotoxin that can cause irreversible cognitive damage, particularly in regards to young children with developing brains. Up to now there has been no enforceable limit for the amount of lead that’s found in tap water. Following the 2014 Flint water crisis that exposed young children to high levels of lead, there has been more demand from advocates to better regulate the lead lines that remain in use. If finalized, the rule would require local utilities to replace an estimated nine million lead pipes, many of which are over 100 years old. The question of who will pay for the project is still being worked out, but the price tag is estimated to cost between $45 - $60 billion dollars over the next ten years.
Oil companies’ unexpected plan to tackle climate change
Some of the largest oil companies in the world announced at COP28 that they will reduce methane emissions from their wells by 80% by 2030. According to the Environmental Defense Fund, the oil industry leaks up to 3% of all the gas that it produces directly into the atmosphere. The new pact would require oil companies to keep emissions below 0.2% of their total output and includes monitoring to ensure compliance. A new coalition of environmental and international groups joined together with $40 million dollars in backing from Bloomberg Philanthropies with the intent to hold oil companies accountable. The reduction of methane emissions is part of a larger pledge at COP28 by over 120 countries to decarbonize the world’s energy sources. Other key aspects of the pledge include the expansion of nuclear energy and the discontinuation of the private financing of coal.
Corn-Fueled Airline Jets
Airline carriers are looking to replace jet fuel with ethanol as a way to decarbonize air travel. Because aviation produces about 2.5% of total carbon emissions in the world, there is a lot of pressure on airlines to find other options for powering aircraft without using fossil fuels. The challenge is that corn, a main ingredient of ethanol, is a water-intensive crop that can take hundreds of gallons of water to produce just one gallon of fuel. With climate change making precipitation less reliable, rising demand for ethanol could put even more strain on aquifers to be used for irrigation. Industry representatives say that concerns over aquifer levels are overblown and that corn has become increasingly water-efficient with new irrigation methods, seeds, and fertilizers. It’s estimated that the airlines will need 35 billion gallons of sustainable aviation fuel a year by midcentury.
What Happened to the Great Lakes Offshore Wind Boom?
A new Inside Climate News article asks the question, what happened to the Great Lakes offshore wind boom? Offshore wind projects designed for the Great Lakes looked promising in 2012 when developers were offering up proposals for offshore wind farms around lakes in the US and Canada. In 2014 the Obama Administration and five states formed the Great Lakes Offshore Wind Consortium to streamline the permitting process. Yet almost a decade later, there are still no commercial wind turbines on any of the Great Lakes. This is due in part to pushback by the fossil fuel industry, citizens who don’t want wind farms in view of their property and environmentalists who are concerned about habitat loss and bird migrations. Despite some recently failed bills in Illinois and Ohio state assemblies and a lack of new proposals from offshore wind developers, lawmakers say they will keep trying. Stay tuned.
Where will the whales be? Ask the Climate Model
New climate modeling technology is helping fishing fleets avoid conflicts with whales and other sea life. Because whales prefer cooler ocean temperatures, scientists can now use global temperature models to predict up to a year in advance where the whales will be. This allows state regulators to plan ahead and work with fisherman and related businesses on possible fishing restrictions. Scientists are also applying satellite observations, physical oceanography and climate science as part of a larger emerging field called “ecological forecasting.” One example cited by the New York Times article includes ecological forecasts that could be used to avoid entanglements between fishing gear and the endangered right whale off the coast of New England and maritime Canada, where it is estimated that only 350 right whales remain.
A Blind but Elusive Critter that was Presumed Extinct
A golden blind mole that was thought to be extinct since 1937 has been rediscovered on the north-western coast of South Africa. Called De Winton’s golden mole, this small, iridescent blind animal spends nearly its entire life underground in the sand dunes, coming up occasionally at night to forage for insects. Taking soil samples from the underground tunnels that the moles create, microscopic DNA was identified in the lab from shedded skin cells, hair and excretions. This process is called environmental DNA, or eDNA. The DNA sequence was later matched to a De Winton golden mole specimen in a museum. The funding for the research that found the mole came from Re:wild, a non-profit organization founded by a group of renowned scientists and actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/12/03/dewinton-golden-mole-rediscovered-dna/
- https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/golden-mole-that-swims-through-sand-rediscovered-after-86-years/
Where the world is/isn’t making progress on climate change
A new forecast of global greenhouse gas emissions by a research firm called Rhodium Group estimates that the world is on track to reach 5 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels by 2100. Despite these long-term projections, two sectors are soon expected to show declines in greenhouse gasses–electricity and transportation. Solar and wind power are growing so quickly that experts now expect electricity that is powered by fossil fuels to peak as soon as this decade. Coal power in the United States and Europe is dropping quickly, and China is expected to soon follow. The transportation sector is also expected to have lower carbon-dioxide emissions due to the spread of electric vehicles, which make up 20% of sales globally today. But until coal or natural gas stop being used to back up wind and solar power, long-term solutions for decarbonizing long-distance trucks, airplanes and ships are unclear. Sectors that are expecting continued greenhouse gas emissions include heavy industry– such as cement and steel production in emerging global markets–and the agriculture sector in markets that are experiencing large population growth. “The fossil fuel industry might look at these current policy projections and think that oil and gas demand will still be high all the way out in 2100,” said Joel Jaeger, a senior researcher at the World Resources Institute. “But if countries put in place new policies to meet the Paris Agreement and their net-zero pledges, that’s absolutely not the case.”