Report: Fossil fuel "addiction" is killing millions and worsening climate change impacts

Report: Fossil fuel "addiction" is killing millions and worsening climate change impacts

Well, here's the idlers in action. Time for WUSTL to ban idling on campus

Engine running for 1 minute 👇👇 pic.twitter.com/D3DSAKZm9R

— Daniel Moser (@_dmoser) September 6, 2022

Carbon capture has a long history. Of failure.

Carbon capture has a long history. Of failure. 

 A Guardian article summarized this report here: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/01/carbon-capture-is-not-a-solution-to-net-zero-emissions-plans-report-says?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Bob Giordano on Why Streets are Political. (More on automobility and the ways that cars privatize public space, while biking creates more community)

Bob Giordano on Why Streets are Political

We're talking automcobility this week -- here's a pro-bike anti-truck ad from the UK - and it makes sense

Picking up groceries with an F-150 is like...
Cracking nuts with a sledgehammer or
Making toast with a flamethrower.
6 out of 10 trips are under 5 miles.
Love this ad from the UK. pic.twitter.com/pqqQlmiwtR

— Taras Grescoe 🚇 (@grescoe) September 7, 2022

Carbon Capture is a fossil fuel industry distraction from real solutions. They use a lot of money to skew public opinion and do unnecessary expensive research (and they're here at WUSTL too).

New letter to the Department of @Energy Inspector General - 50 groups requesting an investigation of the Livermore National Lab campaign promoting carbon capture in California, and the funding arrangement for that campaign.https://t.co/4DcpZxPcER pic.twitter.com/WgnfE20DIr

— Joe Smyth (@joesmyth) September 2, 2022

Time to Blow Up Electricity Markets | by Yanis Varoufakis - Project Syndicate. TLDR: 'Free markets' do not work for energy consumers. And they are never free. Energy should be owned and regulated by the state, not for a profit motive, but for a wellbeing motive.

Time to Blow Up Electricity Markets | by Yanis Varoufakis - Project Syndicate

Cool chart you can see - after Mitchell - the rise of coal, first, and then the expansion of oil use, over time

Energy use per capita: US and Saudi Arabia and Norway (a big oil producer) are at the top

We'll talk about 'clean coal' and carbon capture and storage later this semester, TLDR: it is a non-solution that only serves the interests of the fossil fuel companies

“CCS (carbon capture and storage) is an unnecessary, expensive, wasteful diversion away from a modern, efficient renewable-powered economy with good jobs for all.”

Learn more about the harmful effects of carbon capture.👇 https://t.co/KFz7Ieu5Cu

— 350 US (@350_US) September 2, 2022

Environmental Injustice: The Case of Pakistan -- mentioned this in class, here's a graphic echoing what I said about who caused the problem and who is suffering the impacts

Pakistan is still within its fair share of the safe planetary boundary for CO2 emissions. The global North countries, as a group, have overshot the boundary several times over, driving climate breakdown. pic.twitter.com/psxF03chvt

— Jason Hickel (@jasonhickel) September 1, 2022

The US relationship to the Middle East has everything to do with oil, which is complicated by multiple other forces and relations. One of these is the question of Iran, and the likely return to a thawing of US-Iran relations with a return to the nuclear deal set up by Obama. This would likely free up Iranian oil supplies for global trade, thus lowering prices. Saudi Arabia does not want this, because Iran is a rival oil power. In addition, Israel and pro-Israel politicians in the United States do not want this. Here's the latest. Hawkish Democrats Ramp Up Campaign Against Possible New Iran Deal

Hawkish Democrats Ramp Up Campaign Against Possible New Iran Deal

You'll read more about this tangled history with Iran in Carbon Democracy.  Here's a preview.

Towards a unified theory of Biden's climate deal (Kate Aronoff)

Towards a unified theory of Biden's climate deal

Exploring the Big Challenge Ahead: Insights on the Path to a Net-Zero Power Sector by 2035

Exploring the Big Challenge Ahead: Insights on the Path to a Net-Zero Power Sector by 2035

I was harping on car exhaust, which we can't see. Unless we have a FLIR Camera - check out this cool video, can see CO2 too.

I mentioned the FLIR camera in class today, which can be used to see gas emissions (CO2, methane, car exhaust) that we otherwise do not see. Found this cool video. Modified Camera Exposes Alarming CO2 Emissions https://t.co/8HTkkadTb7 via @YouTube

— Energy Politics STL (@slsproject) August 30, 2022

More radical direct action

🚨 Tunnelers enter their sixth day of occupation 🚨https://t.co/DwnKICCr6B

An 8 minute video on our YouTube that summarises the last week of underground resistance against fossil fuels.

While it is dirty, claustrophic and dangerous, there is nowhere they would rather be.

— JustStopOil (@JustStop_Oil) August 28, 2022

Civil disobedience by scientists helps press for urgent climate action - Nature Climate Change

Civil disobedience by scientists helps press for urgent climate action - Nature Climate Change

The Economic Case for ‘Blue Hydrogen’ Is Getting Worse. Cue the Lobbyists.

The Economic Case for ‘Blue Hydrogen’ Is Getting Worse. Cue the Lobbyists.

How Far Would You Go to Stop Climate Change?

How Far Would You Go to Stop Climate Change?

Middle East security still fragile, with or without Iran nuclear deal - Responsible Statecraft

Middle East security still fragile, with or without Iran nuclear deal - Responsible Statecraft

How to Blow up a Pipeline, Exhibit A

@metpoliceuk rushing to protect petrol pumps

You should be arresting @BorisJohnson and @GOVUK for crimes against humanity

We are in resistance because they are killing us all, including you#ClimateCrisis #CostOfGreedCrisis pic.twitter.com/LNDe5hDk7T

— JustStopOil (@JustStop_Oil) August 26, 2022

How Fracking Billionaires, Ben Shapiro, and PragerU Built a Climate Crisis–Denial Empire

How Fracking Billionaires, Ben Shapiro, and PragerU Built a Climate Crisis–Denial Empire

Manchin Delivered “Game Changer” To His Oil Donor

Manchin Delivered “Game Changer” To His Oil Donor

‘A huge day’: Climate plan to make Kansas City carbon-neutral by 2040 moves forward

‘A huge day’: Climate plan to make Kansas City carbon-neutral by 2040 moves forward

Biden’s Militarized Foreign Policy is Obstructing his Climate Agenda (Stephen Semler)

Biden’s Militarized Foreign Policy is Obstructing his Climate Agenda

It's ok to be angry about those who refuse to act on climate. Anger leads to action

 https://kenyonreview.org/journal/july-aug-2022/selections/genevieve-guenther/

The right-wing pro-Israel lobby is attacking progressives. This has everything to do with fossil fuels and resistance to action on the climate. The status quo in Israel is militarized, fossil-fueled relationships with dictatorships and ongoing oppression of Palestinians. All built on the oil-weapons-war cycle. We'll discuss this fall..

Peter Beinart: The Israel Lobby Is Spending Millions to Defeat Progressive Democrats in Primary Races

 https://www.democracynow.org/2022/7/19/maryland_donna_edwards_aipac_israel_palestine

Peter Beinart:

"So, there’s a group called Mainstream Democrats. If you look at their website, it says nothing about Israel-Palestine whatsoever. It just says it doesn’t want the Democratic Party to be taken over by far-left groups. But Mainstream Democrats is actually run by Democratic Majority for Israel. So what you see is this very, very close alliance. They work out of the same offices with the same staff, so, essentially, this extremely close relationship between groups that want to defeat progressives because they support Palestinian rights, and groups that just want to defeat progressives because they essentially want the Democratic Party to be dominated by people like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, who will do the bidding of the fossil fuel industry, the healthcare industry, the financial services industry."

People say the transition to renewable energy costs too much, biggest red herring talking point there is. The alternatives are much costlier.

 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/19/opinion/environment/build-back-better-joe-manchin.html?referringSource=articleShare

Thea Riofrancos reviews Andreas Malm: "How to Blow up a Pipeline"

 https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/andreas-malm-climate-politics/

I have long referred to the criminality of the fossil fuel industry, and people say I'm conspiratorial. Well, the evidence is on my side: "Spire criticized for destroying documents about controversial St. Louis pipeline" (Bryce Gray - Post-Dispatch)

 

Last year we thought things were getting better in the Middle East, now the Biden administration is dragging the US deeper into the circle of weapons and oil. (Sarah Whitson in the American Prospect)

 

Big Oil Bought the Supreme Court, Which is Why They Love Global Warming and Hate the EPA (The Intercept)

 

Ameren looks to solar and gas-powered plants for new energy sources -- bad news

 Don't let the solar plant fool you.

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/health-science-environment/2022-06-29/ameren-looks-to-solar-and-gas-powered-plants-for-new-energy-sources

Climate Denialism is About White Supremacy

 https://atmos.earth/climate-denial-mass-shootings-white-supremacy/

Republicans have been gunning for the EPA for a long time

 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/19/climate/supreme-court-climate-epa.html?referringSource=articleShare

Fossil Fuels on Campus: Stanford's just like Wash U in some ways

 https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/stanford-sustainability-school/

The Fossil Fuel Industry is Racist

 https://gizmodo.com/the-fossil-fuel-industry-is-racist-1846594231?utm_medium=sharefromsite&utm_source=earther_twitter

On the Supreme Court's EPA decision

 https://www.drilledpodcast.com/what-paths-would-the-worst-west-virginia-v-epa-ruling-leave-open/

Response to Global Energy Crisis So Far? A Planet-Wrecking Fossil Fuel 'Gold Rush': Analysis

 https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/06/08/response-global-energy-crisis-so-far-planet-wrecking-fossil-fuel-gold-rush-analysis

New York Democrats Kill Public Renewable Energy Bill -- for now

 https://gizmodo.com/new-york-build-public-renewables-act-1849027902

Lovely -- UN Warns of ‘Total Societal Collapse’ Due to Breaching of Planetary Boundaries

 https://bylinetimes.com/2022/05/26/un-warns-of-total-societal-collapse-due-to-breaching-of-planetary-boundaries/

Michael Klare's dreadful take on the hopes for the planet in the wake of the new global wars emerging

 https://tomdispatch.com/the-ukraine-wars-collateral-damage/

Methane Leakage: Worse than we thought

 https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2022-methane-leaks-natural-gas-energy-emissions-data/?utm_medium=email

Climate activist's fight against 'terrorism' sentence could impact the future of protests

 https://abcnews.go.com/US/climate-activists-fight-terrorism-sentence-impact-future-protests/story?id=84345514

Fossil Fuels and Children's Health (2017)

 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5289912/

It's Air Pollution from Fossil Fuels that is killing us

 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/19/opinion/air-pollution-fossil-fuels.html

Ukraine: The resurgence of militarism and the fossil fuel industry

 https://theintercept.com/2022/04/14/russia-ukraine-noam-chomsky-jeremy-scahill/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=The%20Intercept%20Newsletter

Ameren is one of the worst utilities in the country

 https://influencemap.org/report/The-U-S-Power-Sector-and-Climate-Policy-18074

DOCUMENTS SHOW HOW POLLUTING INDUSTRIES MOBILIZED TO BLOCK CLIMATE ACTION

 https://theintercept.com/2022/04/12/ipcc-report-global-climate-coalition/

The group that brought down Keystone XL faces agonies of its own

The group that brought down Keystone XL faces agonies of its own

US seeks new lithium sources as demand for batteries grows

US seeks new lithium sources as demand for batteries grows

Whatever His Motives, Putin’s War in Ukraine Is Fueled by Oil and Gas - Inside Climate News

Whatever His Motives, Putin’s War in Ukraine Is Fueled by Oil and Gas - Inside Climate News

Understanding Sunrise, Part 1: Strategy (Reflections on the Sunrise Movement)

Understanding Sunrise, Part 1: Strategy

Will war in Ukraine Hasten the End of Fossil Fuels?

 https://theconversation.com/will-war-in-ukraine-hasten-the-end-of-fossil-fuels-179980

Oil Industry Loves the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

 https://www.rigzone.com/news/times_square_billboards_have_oil_message_for_biden-15-mar-2022-168264-article/?utm_campaign=DAILY_2022_03_15&utm_source=GLOBAL_ENG&utm_medium=EM_NW_F1

Ameren again accelerates closure of Rush Island power plant

Ameren again accelerates closure of Rush Island power plant

Power Plant Emission Trends | US EPA

Power Plant Emission Trends | US EPA