Norway sets electric car record as battery autos least dented by Covid-19 crisis
Electric car sales worldwide are suffering less from the Covid-19 crisis than petrol and diesel rivals, in sign of hope for a shift to cleaner transport
Ireland to set annual emissions goals to reach 2050 carbon neutrality
The formation of a historic coalition government has put climate action at the top of Ireland's priorities, with a plan to halve emissions in the next decade
UK risks missing UN climate deadline, in headache for hosts of key summit
Britain's timeline for developing a more ambitious climate plan has slipped, challenging diplomatic efforts to encourage other countries to raise their game
India eyes private investment to open 41 new coal mines
Prime Minister Modi says private coal mining will boost India's energy security, despite expert warnings of stranded assets and indigenous rights violations
Six in 10 Fish Species Could Face Reproductive Failure As Temperatures Rise, Study Finds
An estimated 60 percent of fish species will struggle to reproduce in their current spawning habitats by 2100 under worst-case climate scenarios, according to a new study of nearly 700 salt and freshwater species published in the journal Science. The research argues that previous studies, which focused solely on adult fish, underestimate the impact climate change will have on economically and ecologically important species.
Will Climate Change Upend Projections of Future Forest Growth?
While the world’s forests can play an important role in absorbing carbon dioxide and slowing climate change, new research indicates that elevated CO2 concentrations do not necessarily boost forests and that higher temperatures could cause changes in trees that reduce their ability grow.
The South Pole has warmed at a rate three times the global average over the last three decades, according to a new study in the journal Nature Climate Change. Temperatures at the Amundsen-Scott research station in Antarctica rose by 1.8 degrees Celsius between 1989 and 2018. For comparison, global temperatures rose a total 0.5 to 0.6 degrees C during the same 30-year period.
Listening to Silence: Why We Must Protect the World’s Quiet Places
As more people push into once-remote areas, truly quiet spots — devoid of the noise of traffic or crowds of tourists — have become increasingly scarce. Now, a coalition of activists, scientists, and park officials are trying to preserve the last quiet places on the planet.
A New Tool Visualizes Environmental Changes During Pandemic
Space agencies in the United States, Japan, and the European Union have collaborated to create a new tool that visualizes environmental changes during the Covid-19 pandemic, from air and water quality, to greenhouse gases, to agriculture. The system uses data from 17 satellites, monitoring 30 environmental indicators, 17 economic signals, and three agricultural indices.
From the Lab to the Field, Agriculture Seeks to Adapt to a Warming World
With rising temperatures, the world’s food supplies are at risk, with deceasing yields in key staple crops. Researchers and innovators are looking at more resilient crops and farm animals — from heat-resistant wheat, to drought-resistant rice, to Naked Neck chickens that stay cooler.
Temperatures Exceed 100 Degrees F North of the Arctic Circle
Scientists with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) are examining new data indicating that temperatures in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk — located north of the Arctic Circle — hit a record-breaking 38 degrees Celsius (100.4 degrees Fahrenheit) earlier this month. The region has experienced a prolonged heatwave, which started in January and is expected to last through at least August.
In Pandemic Recovery Efforts, Polluting Industries Are Winning Big
Oil and gas giants, mining interests, and coal-fired power plants have all received financial and regulatory relief as governments around the world enact pandemic recovery plans. These moves threaten to create a dirty, high-carbon legacy that long outlasts the current crisis.
Climate Change Tied to Increased Pregnancy Risks, Analysis Finds
More than a decade of overwhelming evidence links air pollution and heat exposure with negative pregnancy outcomes in the United States, according to a new review of dozens of studies. The investigation, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, identified 57 studies since 2007 showing a significant association between the two factors and the risk of pre-term birth, low birth weight, and stillbirth.
New Jersey Announces $400 Million Offshore Wind Port
New Jersey is taking steps to become a major hub for offshore wind in the United States, announcing a plan to build a 30-acre port along the Delaware River for assembling and deploying turbines, plus an additional 25 acres for manufacturing facilities. Officials say the new port, which is expected to cost as much as $400 million, will create up to 1,500 jobs in southern New Jersey.
Parks vs. People: In Guatemala, Communities Take Best Care of the Forest
When Guatemala created a major reserve 30 years ago, environmentalists complained that too much land was entrusted to local people and not converted to parks. Now, the parks have been overrun by ranches linked to drug traffickers, while the community-run lands are well preserved.
Climate Models Underestimate CO2 Emissions from Permafrost by 14 Percent, Study Finds
Climate change models have underestimated the amount of carbon dioxide that will be emitted from thawing permafrost by as much as 14 percent, according to a new study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
How Global Regulators Are Selling Out the World's Largest Tuna
The international commission responsible for managing Atlantic bluefin — prized for high-quality sushi — is failing to protect this magnificent fish. The regulators’ focus on fishing industry profits points up the need to change the way we view, and value, the lives of wild creatures.
Wildlife officials in Botswana are investigating the mysterious deaths of 154 elephants over a three-month period in the Okavango Delta, in the northwest corner of the country. Both poaching and poisoning have been ruled out as causes of the die-off, Reuters reported.
90 Percent of U.S. Could Be Powered by Renewables by 2035
Despite America’s continued reliance on fossil fuels as its primary source of energy, the plummeting costs of alternative energy sources — like power harnessed from the sun or wind — is making them an increasingly viable choice on the competitive market. So much so, that a University of California, Berkeley report released on Tuesday argues that by 2035, 90 percent of the United States could be powered by renewables.
Environmental Activists Worldwide Face High Risk of Criminalization and Violence, Report Finds
In one-fifth of environmental conflicts around the world, activists face criminal charges or imprisonment as a result of their work defending natural resources, according to a new analysis by researchers at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
Building Back Better: Why Europe Must Lead a Global Green Recovery
With the global economy reeling from the pandemic, most nations are focusing stimulus programs on reviving employment. But Europe is moving forward with a Green Deal initiative that provides a framework for decarbonizing its economy and spurring the rest of the world to follow.
Diesel fuel from a 21,000-ton oil spill in the Russian Arctic has reached a freshwater lake that serves as a gateway into the Arctic Ocean, Russian officials announced. The spill, one of the largest in Russian history, has contaminated several rivers and tributaries so far, triggering a major clean-up effort and prompting Russian President Vladimir Putin to declare a state of emergency.
Unequal Impact: The Deep Links Between Racism and Climate Change
Activist Elizabeth Yeampierre has long focused on the connections between racial injustice and the environment and climate change. In the wake of George Floyd’s killing and the outsized impact of Covid-19 on communities of color, she hopes people may finally be ready to listen.
The U.S. Global Change Research Program will be presenting at the American Geophysical Union 2019 Fall Meeting from December 9-13 in San Francisco, CA. We hope you will join us for the following talks, sessions, and activities: All Week: Visit us at Exhibit Booth #512 All times local (Pacific Standard Time) Monday [1:40 - 6:00 PM] GC13E Advancing
Dr. Anthony Janetos, a longstanding member of the USGCRP community and Director of Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, passed away on Tuesday, August 6, 2019. He was 64 years old. Dr. Janetos dedicated his career to interdisciplinary, policy-relevant global change science. Prior to the Pardee
The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) is pleased to announce the release of Volume II of the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) and the 2nd State of the Carbon Cycle Report (SOCCR2). NCA4 Vol II NCA4 Vol II, Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States , assesses a range of potential climate change -related impacts, with
The Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) Vol. II remains on track for a December delivery in fulfillment of the Congressional mandate. NCA4 Vol. I, the Climate Science Special Report, is available at science2017.globalchange.gov. Final agency review and comment. Authors have been revising chapters and responding to comments submitted in the
It’s been a while since our last update, but rest assured that we’ve been hard at work on Volume II of the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4 Vol. II) in the meantime. Here’s a brief rundown of the goings-on: Public review and comment. This winter (November 3, 2017 through January 31, 2018), the public had the chance to weigh in on the draft
On behalf of the U.S. Global Change Research Program, we are pleased to announce major milestones in the timelines of three important reports. The first of these is the Climate Science Special Report (CSSR), which represents Volume I of the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4). The final version of CSSR is released today as a step toward
Let’s start with the big news: As of last week, first drafts of all 28 chapters and five appendices of the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) were submitted and are now in the hands of the editorial team at the Technical Support Unit (TSU). A huge thank you goes out to our volunteer author teams for their dedication and hard work over the
NCA4 author teams, staff, and regional collaborators have been hard at work gathering input from stakeholders across the country through regional engagement workshops, webinars, and other public events. Chapter teams have received extensive training on chapter development, scientific resources and tools, and assessment writing through a chapter leadership meeting and regular webinars with all authors. Development of full, first order chapter drafts for interagency review in June is underway and on-schedule.
Building on the success of the third, and most recent, National Climate Assessment , production of the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) is now underway and is expected for release in late 2018. Recent efforts are laying the foundation for a robust, inclusive assessment process that responds to information needs across the country.
By Dr. Tamara Dickinson and Dr. Michael Kuperberg Re-posted from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy blog. This and previous Administrations have periodically conducted congressionally mandated National Climate Assessments to assess and inform the Nation about the impact of climate change . The U.S. Global Change Research
The June contiguous U.S. average temperature was 70.29 degress Fahrenheit, 1.8 degress Fahrenheit above the 20th century average. The precipitation total was 2.72 inches, 0.21 inches below average.
The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for May was 0.95 degrees C (1.71 degress Fahrenheit) above the 20th century average of 15.5 degrees C (59.9 degress Fahrenheit).
During May, the Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent (SCE) was 16.66 million square km (6.43 million square miles), 12.42% below the 1981-2010 average. The global sea ice extent was 22.18 million square km (8.56 million square miles), 5.42% below the 1981-2010 average.
The temperature patterns in May 2020 were driven largely by the period May 6-14. A large ridge associated with a negative East Pacific Oscillation (EPO) brought above-normal temperatures to Alaska that drove that state's monthly mean anomalies. The Alaskan ridge extended southward to a persistent ridge over the Southwestern U.S. that brought warm and dry conditions to the Southwest for most of the month.
For the sixth year in a row, the Atlantic produced a named storm before the official start of the Atlantic Hurricane Season on June 1. Two such storms formed in 2020: Tropical Storms Arthur and Bertha. Both were marginal storms that formed off the coast of Florida and traveled northward along the Carolinas with minimal impacts. However, Bertha's precursor disturbance caused heavy rain and flooding in South Florida.
This analysis is based on preliminary data available from the Storm Prediction Center. Final tornado counts published by the Storm Prediction Center and NCEI's Storm Events Database might differ from this report. For a more detailed climatology, please visit our tornado climatology page.
Stop making sense: why it's time to get emotional about climate change | Rebecca Huntley
The science has been settled to the highest degree, so now the key to progress is understanding our psychological reactions
It took me much longer than it should have to realise that educating people about climate change science was not enough. Due perhaps to my personality type (highly rational, don’t talk to me about horoscopes, please) and my background (the well-educated daughter of a high school teacher and an academic), I have grown up accepting the idea that facts persuade and emotions detract from a good argument.
Then again, I’m a social scientist. I study people. I deal mostly in feelings, not facts. A joke I like to tell about myself during speeches is that I’m an expert in the opinions of people who don’t know what they’re talking about. Over the 15 years I’ve been a social researcher, I’ve watched with concern the increasing effects of climate change, and also watched as significant chunks of the electorate voted for political parties with terrible climate change policies.
The environmentalist's apology: how Michael Shellenberger unsettled some of his prominent supporters
The American environment and energy commentator’s piece in the Australian has found praise in conservative media
Few things engage a particular subset of conservative media more than an environmentalist having an apparent change of heart and dumping all over the “climate scare”.
Earlier this week, the Australian newspaper ran an opinion piece that fitted this narrative so perfectly that room was found on its front page.
Voices that have questioned human-caused climate change have embraced and applauded Shellenberger’s article
The chancellor of the exchequer must lay out urgent plans to realign government spending with the target to cut carbon emissions to net zero, or risk missing the target and fuelling high carbon emissions for years to come, Labour has urged.
The warning comes as the Treasury prepares key policy announcements on the UK’s recovery from the coronavirus recession, which Rishi Sunak is expected to set out in his spending review next week.
Global heating will make it much harder for tropical plants to germinate, study finds
Temperatures will be too hot for the seeds of one in five plants by the year 2070, Australian researcher says
Global heating will make it much harder for tropical plants around the world to germinate, with temperatures becoming too hot for the seeds of one in five plants by the year 2070, according to a new study.
Global heating will impact the ability of more than half of all tropical plants to germinate if emissions of greenhouse gases remain high.
Chinese glaciologists have found the freeze-thaw process has concentrated discharge from the disaster
The Fukushima nuclear accident has added a distinctive signature to snow and ice across the northern hemisphere, new research published in Environmental Research Letters shows. Triggered by the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami off the coast of Japan on 11 March 2011, the disaster resulted in a month-long discharge of radioactive material into the atmosphere, ocean and soil.
Feiteng Wang from the Tian Shan glaciological station in Lanzhou, China, and colleagues collected snow samples in 2011 and 2018 from a number of glaciers (spanning a distance of more than 1,200 miles (2,000km) in north-western China. They expected the Fukushima signature to have faded away by 2018, but to their surprise the freeze-thaw processing had made it more concentrated, creating a strong and lasting reference layer in the ice.
Democrats say they have a bold climate plan – but Republicans have other plans
Plan will be fodder for election-year attacks from Republicans who will frame it as economy-killing and a grab-bag of Democratic social policies
House Democrats on Tuesday released an ambitious and wide-ranging climate crisis plan on par with what scientists say the world will have to do to avert catastrophic warming.
But the US government remains far from ready to seriously tackle the problem, and the action plan will be fodder for election-year attacks from Republicans who will frame it as economy-killing and a grab-bag of Democratic social policies.
South pole warming three times faster than rest of the world, our research shows | Kyle Clem for the Conversation
Dramatic change in Antarctica’s interior in past three decades a result of effects from tropical variability working together with increasing greenhouse gases
Climate scientists long thought Antarctica’s interior may not be very sensitive to warming, but our research, published this week, shows a dramatic change.
Over the past 30 years, the south pole has been one of the fastest-changing places on Earth, warming more than three times more rapidly than the rest of the world.
Government climate advisers running scared of change, says leading scientist
Rapid transformation needed, Kevin Anderson says, particularly in lifestyles of rich
Kevin Anderson, one of the world’s leading climate scientists, had a familiar reaction to the latest report from the government’s climate advisers, which was published this week.
The 196-page document by the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) delivered a stinging rebuke of the government’s record and said ministers must urgently up their game if the UK is to avoid a significant rebound in carbon emissions after the coronavirus crisis and meet its 2050 net zero carbon target.
For many people, such news induces a lurch of fear, or avoidance – closing the webpage because they don’t want to hear yet more bad news. A few might think “It’s just weather,” and roll their eyes.
The government’s statutory adviser, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), publishes its progress report on Thursday on efforts to cut emissions. This is what it says needs to happen urgently if the UK is to reach its target of hitting net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Labor's climate wars truce is cause for hope, as long as it doesn't lead to bipartisan inaction | Frank Jotzo
Taken at face value, Anthony Albanese’s intervention throws a positive challenge to the government
Australia has been in the climate wars since late 2009 when Tony Abbott rolled Malcolm Turnbull and made the pursuit of no climate policy a hallmark of Australian conservative politics. It has been an all-out battle at many points, simmering conflict at others. Investor confidence has been one of the casualties.
Now it appears that the Labor party is offering a truce. The opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, offered the PM to “agree on an energy investment framework that will deliver the modernisation of our energy system”. Labor wants a “flexible and enduring” policy model that can adapt to different emissions targets and says it is agnostic about which policy instrument would deliver this.
Tackle UK carbon emissions by working with nature, government urged
‘Restoring nature needs to be given top priority,’ says Craig Bennett, Wildlife Trusts CEO
Restoring the natural environment could absorb as much as a third of the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions, making the government’s target of net zero emissions by 2050 much easier to meet, according to green campaigners.
Britain still failing on climate crisis, warn advisers
Committee urges that companies must meet green standards to qualify for Covid-19 corporate bailouts
Ministers are bracing themselves for a powerful new rebuke from the government’s own advisers over the nation’s inadequate response to the climate crisis. In its annual progress report, to be published on Thursday, the Committee on Climate Change will lambast continuing failures by the government to tackle the issues of overheating homes, flash floods, loss of biodiversity and the other threats posed as our planet continues to overheat dangerously.
Last year, the committee complained that no areas of the UK’s response to the climate crisis were being tackled properly. “The whole thing is run by the government like a Dad’s Army,” said the committee’s chairman, Lord Deben.
The UK is due to host the critical UN summit next year, but its credibility as a climate leader is now under threat
Enforcing strict environmental conditions to any corporate bailouts made during the pandemic crisis, in line with standards imposed in France, Germany and Canada
Making major improvements in broadband provision and cycling routes to ensure the nation avoids a surge in car use as people return to work while trying to avoid using buses and trains
Consideration of a new tax on fossil fuels
Introducing new policies on energy efficiency in buildings, planting more trees, and protecting peatland
From acoustic engineers in Britain to marine biologists in Canada, researchers made the most of the drastic drop in noise from human activity
One of the few upsides of lockdown was that, if a nightingale sang in Berkeley Square, you had a chance of hearing it. City dwellers across the globe delighted in the silence, the freedom from the incessant rumble of traffic, and the joy of birdsong. How cleaner the air seemed, and how splendid the blue skies without their usual grid of aeroplane contrails!
Those memories might now be receding but for some scientists they were not just silver linings to a grim situation. The enforced experiment in which human activity was brought almost to a standstill created an opportunity to conduct studies that are normally impossible, in topics ranging from acoustics to atmospheric science to ecology. “We are being given an extraordinary experiment,” said climatologist Nicolas Bellouin of the University of Reading.
'Tipping point': Greta Thunberg hails Black Lives Matter protests
People are realising ‘we cannot keep looking away from these things’, says climate activist
Greta Thunberg has said the Black Lives Matter protests show society has reached a tipping point where injustice can no longer be ignored, but that she believes a “green recovery plan” from the coronavirus pandemic will not be enough to solve the climate crisis.
Reflecting on the protests that have swept the globe in recent weeks, the Swedish climate activist told the BBC: “It feels like we have passed some kind of social tipping point where people are starting to realise that we cannot keep looking away from these things. We cannot keep sweeping these things under the carpet, these injustices.
Climate worst-case scenarios may not go far enough, cloud data shows
Modelling suggests climate is considerably more sensitive to carbon emissions than thought
Worst-case global heating scenarios may need to be revised upwards in light of a better understanding of the role of clouds, scientists have said.
Recent modelling data suggests the climate is considerably more sensitive to carbon emissions than previously believed, and experts said the projections had the potential to be “incredibly alarming”, though they stressed further research would be needed to validate the new numbers.
In November 2014 Sir John Houghton gave the annual Edmund Halley lecture at St Margaret’s church, Lee, south-east London, where I was rector, on the theme of climate change. The audience, including secondary school students, was packed. He was gracious, obviously knowledgable and clear-sighted about the dangers awaiting us. He was also sure, as a religious believer, that the universe did not contain its own final explanation.
The sounds of melting icebergs and whale songs: a journey into Antarctica – podcast
The effects of global heating are in evidence everywhere across the islands of Antarctica – from penguin colonies to melting glaciers. The Guardian’s global environment editor Jonathan Watts witnessed how conditions are changing quickly
When you stand on the wild terrain of St George’s Island in Antarctica, many of the world’s problems can feel very far away. For example, Antarctica is the only continent not to have a single case of coronavirus. But it is vulnerable to the other great global crisis: the climate emergency.
Earlier this year the Guardian’s global environment editor, Jonathan Watts, joined a scientific voyage to Antarctica, a journey taking in research on penguin colonies, glaciers and sealife. He tells Anushka Asthana that what he witnessed was both awe-inspiring and terrifying. The speed at which the climate crisis is moving is all too evident, and avoiding its worst consequences will need global cooperation on a larger scale than that working to good effect currently on the continent.
There was no time to lose when Cyclone Amphan began forming over the Indian Ocean in May.
But shelters are not built with social distancing in mind in Bangladesh and the country faced a challenge: how to move 2.4 million people from the destructive path of the storm without delivering them into an even greater danger – Covid-19.
It is not enough to deal with the immediate effects of a natural disaster; communities need to be better prepared for the next storm
Football pitch-sized area of tropical rainforest lost every six seconds
Report also warns Australia will experience more extreme fire seasons due to climate crisis
The amount of pristine tropical rainforest lost across the globe increased last year, as the equivalent of a football pitch disappeared every six seconds, a satellite-based analysis has found.
Nearly 12m hectares of tree cover was lost across the tropics, including nearly 4m hectares of dense, old rainforest that held significant stores of carbon and had been home to a vast array of wildlife, according to data from the University of Maryland.
Talks to revise water-use agreements are set to begin later this year as river flows shrink. The fate of the humpback chub helps explain the challenge.
By Judy Fahys
Charismatic is hardly the best word to describe the humpback chub, a fish with a frowny eel face jammed onto a sportfish body in a way that suggests evolution has a sense of humor. Nor did tastiness build a fan base for this "trash fish" across its natural habitat throughout the Colorado River Basin.
Monday night is not a time when I expect to see news that could reshape an entire industry, but that’s what happened this week when Sunrun, the leading rooftop solar company in the United States, announced it was buying Vivint Solar, the second-leading solar company.
Sunrun, based in San Francisco, will become the Goliath of rooftop solar at a time when the industry is struggling to sell its services amid the coronavirus.
“We had known about some murmuring of Vivint being sold, being shopped around, but I don’t think any of us really anticipated that the buyer would be another residential solar company and largest residential solar company,” said Bryan White, an analyst for Wood Mackenzie. “It has been a surprising turn of events.”
Sunrun has an agreement to acquire Vivint in an all-stock deal worth $3.2 billion, subject to approval by shareholders and regulators. The combined company would have a customer base of about 500,000 and a value of $9.2 billion.
When the top two competitors in any industry join forces, I expect the third-place player to be listening to sad music and feeling generally glum.
But this is different because the third-place company is Tesla, a business that mainly sells cars and has the resources to be a much larger player in rooftop solar if it can figure out how to revitalize that side of the company.
Tesla’s SolarCity subsidiary was the national leader in rooftop solar as recently as 2017, but it pulled back on its sales outreach and got passed by Sunrun in 2018 and then Vivint in 2019.
But Tesla is not simply a rival for the new, super-sized Sunrun. Tesla also is an important supplier for Sunrun, part of a partnership in which Sunrun sells Tesla’s Powerwall battery storage systems.
“I don’t think Tesla cares much about what its competitors are doing,” White said. “I don’t think they need to.”
Vivint, founded in 2011 and based near Salt Lake City, became a solar leader through the use of door-to-door sales and an emphasis on leasing its products. Leasing has the advantage of lower upfront costs, which expands the pool of customers who can afford solar.
Sunrun, founded in 2007, also has relied on leasing, but it has not used door-to-door sales to the extent that Vivint has.
The two companies have grown to cover nearly every state that has a large market for rooftop solar. They nowoperate in 22 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, footprints that are almost identical except that Sunrun is in Wisconsin, while Vivint isn’t, and Vivint is in Virginia, while Sunrun isn’t.
Lynn Jurich, Sunrun’s co-founder and CEO, said in a letter to customers that the acquisition of Vivint is a “transformational opportunity to bring cleaner, affordable energy to more homes and accelerate our mission to create a planet run by the sun.”
There is lots of room to grow. As Sunrun notes in the news release announcing the deal, rooftop solar has only reached about 3 percent of U.S. households.
Photo Credit: Sunrun
A Tesla Short(s) Sale? Yes, and in Red Satin
Tesla probably isn’t worried about Sunrun buying Vivint, because it has plenty of its own developments to celebrate.
The company’s market value is surging, despite those who bet against it. Elon Musk, Tesla’s founder and CEO, mocked the doubters earlier this week by tweeting about a new product for sale on Tesla’s website: Tesla-branded short shorts, with a purchase price of “$69.420” (not a typo).
“Celebrate summer with Tesla Short Shorts,” the website says. “Run like the wind or entertain like Liberace with our red satin and gold trim design. Relax poolside or lounge indoors year-round with our limited-edition Tesla Short Shorts, featuring our signature Tesla logo in front with “S3XY” across the back. Enjoy exceptional comfort from the closing bell.”
The shorts appear to have sold out quickly.
In Tesla’s world, “short shorts” is a reference to Musk’s battles with short sellers, investors who aim to profit by placing financial bets that a stock will lose value. Musk has mocked short sellers and vowed to prove them wrong in their view of the company.
For now, Tesla’s share price is crushing the short sellers, but Tesla has a long way to go in managing its global expansion and fulfilling its huge potential.
“You have to give Elon massive credit,” said Karl Brauer, executive publisher for AutoTrader.com and Kelley Blue Book. “He has, in his own creative, unique way, shepherded this company.”
In the last month, Tesla’s market capitalization has grown enough that it has become the most valuable automaker in the world, passing Toyota.
But that’s just the start. Last week, Tesla reported vehicle sales that exceeded analysts’ expectations, and investors responded by buying shares. The company’s share price went from $960 on June 26 to $1,405 on Wednesday morning, an eye-popping increase of about 45 percent.
Based on the current share price and the number of outstanding shares, Tesla is worth about $260 billion.
The value has grown so much in just a few weeks that it has left Toyota far behind, with Toyota worth $174 billion.
Tesla’s market value is based not on current sales or profit but on the idea that the company is poised to become the leader of the auto market of the future.
“You can’t really compare its value to automakers anymore,” said Brauer about Tesla. “You have to compare it to tech companies.”
Toyota sold 10.7 million vehicles worldwide last year, while Tesla sold 367,500. The global sales leader was Volkswagen, with 10.9 million.
To underscore how market value is disconnected from present-day performance, Volkswagen’s market value is about $70 billion, less than half of Toyota’s and less than one-third of Tesla’s.
Photo Credit: Telsa
A ‘Virtual Power Plant’ Is Coming to Oregon. So What Is That?
Portland General Electric is the latest utility to announce a virtual power plant, which provides me with an opportunity to geek out over the possibility of this kind of technology one day being deployed on a large scale.
So what is a virtual power plant? It’s a system in which utilities combine the power of many batteries installed in homes and businesses, making it so the batteries collectively can send power back out to the grid during times of high demand. Often, this power comes from rooftop solar that consumers are using in tandem with their batteries.
The key element is software that coordinates the use of the batteries.
The individual owners of the batteries can decide if they want to be part of this, and they get paid for selling their electricity. They also get the benefits of having batteries, such as backup power during outages.
Portland General Electric said last week that it is conducting a pilot project to provide incentives for 525 households to receive the batteries, adding up to 4 megawatts of capacity. Larry Bekkedahl, a vice president for the utility, said the project is an example of how the company is increasingly using “creative partnerships and diversified energy resources."
There are dozens of virtual power plant demonstration projects across the country. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory issued a report in 2018 about the 23 projects that were around at that time, finding a growing potential for this method of making many small systems work together for the greater good.
“There is a big opportunity for these to serve the grid in a big way,” said Jeff Cook, an analyst at the lab who was lead author of the report.
He told me that the continuing trend of utilities making their first forays into virtual power plants is a step toward this being done, potentially, on a much larger scale.
I find this an intriguing possibility because it reduces the need to build power plants, and points to decentralization of the way we produce and consume electricity in the future.
The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, has been working on identifying potential sites for offshore wind in California for years, but the Department of Defense consistently challenges these siting plans, arguing that the turbines could interfere with military exercises.
On July 1, the California Energy Commission held a virtual workshop to inform the public about the current status of offshore wind in California and solicit feedback on proposed sites near Morro Bay.
The Department of Defense isn’t the only obstacle to offshore wind in the state. The physical landscape is challenging, with a deep sea floor that requires the construction of floating wind turbines as opposed to turbines that can be bolted to the sea bottom in shallower waters. And most of the federal waters off of California with wind speeds suitable for turbines are part of national marine sanctuaries.
BOEM previously identified three small areas along the California coast, each located about 20 miles offshore, that are not automatically disqualified by limitations on wind speed and water depth or by sanctuary status.
In 2018, the Department of Defense declared that the two potential sites in Central California—labeled by the department “Morro Bay” and “Diablo Canyon”—would be incompatible with its operations, forcing the Energy Commission to rethink its plans.
Since then, a working group of state and federal officials has identified three other possible areas for development near or partly overlapping with the initially proposed area of the Morro Bay site.
Two of those areas, labeled “North” and “South,” are spots where turbines could be placed without directly interfering with Department of Defense operations. The third, labeled “Discussion Area,” is part of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Right now, BOEM doesn’t have permission to lease the discussion area, but it is including the space in early siting conversations as it gauges public opinion and evaluates the turbines’ potential impacts on wildlife, fisheries and shipping.
The farther offshore that turbines are sited, the smaller their environmental and human impacts are expected to be.
“These will be long-term energy projects and we want to ensure that we site them as well as possible, because we will be living with them for a long time,” said Jean Thurston-Keller, BOEM task force coordinator, during the workshop.
Several public comments, submitted after the workshop, expressed concerns about the visibility of the turbines from shore. One commenter equated offshore wind in the Big Sur region with installing a solar farm on the pyramids at Giza.
Tom Hafer, president of the Morro Bay Commercial Fishermen’s Organization, wrote in a public comment that the fishing industry has “grave concerns that need to be addressed.”
The fact that officials held this workshop is a sign of progress, but don’t expect anything to happen quickly. Officials will need to approve sites for development before beginning the evaluation process for the projects themselves.
Developers are much deeper into work on projects along the East Coast, but offshore wind on the West Coast may be worth the wait. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory found substantial potential for offshore wind energy and jobs in the region.
Reporter Nicole Pollack contributed to this story.
Inside Clean Energy is ICN’s weekly bulletin of news and analysis about the energy transition. Send news tips and questions to dan.gearino@insideclimatenews.org.
Intense wildfires in the Arctic in June released more polluting gases into the Earth's atmosphere than in any other month in 18 years of data collection, European scientists said in a report Tuesday. The fires released 59 million metric tons of planet-warming carbon dioxide that month, greater than all the carbon emissions produced by Norway, an oil-producing country, in a year.
With oil development expected to expand in northern Alaska, and with technology meant to detect Alaskan bear dens effective less than half the time, polar bear mothers are at particular risk of death, a new study warns. Mother bears are unlikely to abandon their dens when they are disturbed—for example, by fossil fuel drilling—even if the disturbance is life-threatening, it found.
From sexual violence in displacement camps to extra farm work and greater risk of illness, women shoulder a bigger burden from worsening extreme weather and other climate pressures that are pushing people to move for survival, a global aid group said on Tuesday. Forced displacement will likely be one of the most common and damaging effects on vulnerable people if warming isn't curbed, it said.
In some communities of color, residents report that police are nowhere to be seen when natural disasters hit. When they are present, some say officers only make things worse. As protests over defunding police continue, and as climate change fuels more extreme weather, some communities are discussing what role law enforcement should play in emergency responses.
Around the globe, lawyers are filing lawsuits in response to slow international negotiations, demanding urgent climate action and using creative new legal arguments to challenge companies and governments in court, Reuters reports. Two decades ago, only a handful of climate-related lawsuits had ever been filed worldwide. Today, that number is 1,600, with 1,200 of those lawsuits in the U.S. alone.
The young climate activists clamoring today for rapid cuts to the world's fossil fuel emissions could be well into their 30s or 40s before the impact of those changes becomes apparent, a new study warns. Even if humans cut greenhouse gas emissions by 5 percent or more a year, it could still take decades before it's clear those actions are starting to slow Earth's warming, researchers said.
A group of 39 companies, including some of Brazil's largest firms, expressed concerns over deforestation in the Amazon rainforest on Tuesday, following global investor demands that President Jair Bolsonaro end the destruction or risk divestment. Deforestation of Brazil's rainforest climbed 34 percent in the first five months of 2020 from a year ago after hitting an 11-year high in 2019, government data shows.
Four experts discuss the options to prepare for crisis response—defund the police, reform police practices, or look to communities of color to protect themselves.
By Ilana Cohen
With cell service out, rumors of looting, rape, and violent crime spread like wildfire across the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens as Hurricane Sandy came to a close in New York City on Nov. 2, 2012.
Within 24 hours, three high-profile fossil fuel pipelines were handed major defeats in what many environmental activists say is a turning point for the oil and gas industry's role in the nation's energy economy. The Atlantic Coast Pipeline will no longer be pursued, its developers announced, while courts delivered setbacks to both the Dakota Access pipeline and the Keystone XL pipeline.
More than 5,600 companies in the fossil fuel industry have taken at least $3 billion in federal coronavirus aid, according to a new Guardian analysis. The businesses include oil and gas drillers and coal mine operators, as well as refiners, pipeline companies and firms that provide services to the industry. Environmentalists argue investing in a struggling fossil fuel industry is a poor use of public money.
The coronavirus pandemic revealed deep flaws in the world's food system, as supermarket shelves were cleaned out, produce was left to rot in fields and farmers were forced to euthanize livestock. With those issues expected to intensify under climate change, experts are now calling for a coordinated global response and more climate-resilient agriculture.
The pandemic is poised to usher in the biggest retreat from global meat eating in decades. Per-capita meat consumption in 2020 is set to fall by almost 3 percent to the lowest level since 2011, according to data from the United Nations. In the U.S., it's predicted that per-capita meat consumption won't return to pre-pandemic levels until at least after 2025.
One of the country's most visible climate scientists and a lead author of the Fourth National Climate Assessment says Facebook is restricting her ability to share research and fact-check posts containing climate misinformation. That news comes as groups increasingly use the platform to spread misleading theories on global warming, and after Facebook weakened its own fact-checking policies.
Prospects for nearly half of the world's projects to build infrastructure for exporting liquefied natural gas have faltered in recent months amid rising concerns about climate change, public protests and delays due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new report. It marks a stark shift by investors away from what many had considered a promising fuel market worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
The vast Arctic Siberia region, already warming faster than the rest of the world, experienced record-breaking heat and fires for the second straight year in June, adding to the concerns of climate scientists. Average land temperatures last month rose more than 5 degrees Celsius above normal levels and slightly above the June 2019 mark, according to new European Union data.
The pandemic has revealed deep flaws in the world’s food system and food leaders are calling for global coordination and climate resilient agriculture.
By Georgina Gustin
In the months since Covid-19 convulsed the globe, the world's food system has undergone a stress test—and largely failed it.
The pandemic disrupted global supply chains, induced panic buying and cleared supermarket shelves. It left perfectly edible produce rotting in fields, and left farmers no choice but to gas, shoot and bury their livestock because slaughter plants were shut down.
A federal judge on Monday sided with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and ordered the "highly controversial" Dakota Access pipeline to shut down until more environmental review is done. The 1,172-mile oil pipeline was the subject of months of sometimes violent protests, during its construction near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation that straddles the North Dakota-South Dakota border.
The two energy companies behind the controversial 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline on Sunday abandoned their six-year bid to build it, saying the project has become too costly and the regulatory environment too uncertain to justify further investment. The natural gas pipeline would have tunneled under the Appalachian Trail on its way from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina.
Torrential rain hit Japan's southwestern island of Kyushu on Monday, with at least one more river bursting its banks, as the death toll from three days of floods and mudslides rose to 44, including 14 at an elderly housing facility. Japanese broadcasters said evacuation orders have been issued for more than half a million residents, with tens of thousands more under evacuation advisories.
William Perry Pendley, President Trump's controversial pick to lead the Bureau of Land Management, is expected to come under tough scrutiny during the Senate confirmation process, posing a test for vulnerable GOP senators. Pendley has been a lightning rod for criticism as acting director for the agency over his dismissal of climate science and his record of opposing public land ownership.
A new invasive species has arrived in the U.S. and has ravaged California's Central Valley over the past year. Nutria—large rodents native to South America—have now been found in 17 states, and as climate change shifts where invasive species live, it is creating challenges for scientists and farmers who are trying to manage them.
When floodwaters inundated Louis Byford's home for the fourth time in March 2019, he didn't care if people thought he was crazy for rebuilding. "I don't have any desire to be located anywhere else but right here," said Byford, who has lived in Corning, Missouri, for nearly 50 years. This is part of our American Climate series documenting how climate change is impacting people across the country.
Scientists in Italy are investigating the mysterious appearance of pink glacial ice, caused by algae that accelerate the effects of climate change, in the Alps. Normally ice reflects more than 80 percent of the sun's radiation back into the atmosphere, but as algae appear, they darken the ice so that it absorbs the heat and melts more quickly.
If the world continues to warm at its current pace, as many as 60 percent of the world's fish species could struggle to breed and reproduce by the end of the century, a new study warns. But the study, which examined nearly 700 species of freshwater and saltwater fish, added that that percentage could drop to as low as 10 percent if warming was limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the year 2100.
The state faces a massive threat from invaders—like the nutria, a swamp rat from South America—that threaten crops and the environment.
By Abby Weiss
California Rep. Josh Harder needed a way to convince the U.S. House of Representatives to pay attention to his speech about invasive species during a meeting in February. So he brought in a hefty rat carcass and laid it on the table next to him.
The taxidermied rat, which Harder called "Nellie," convinced the House to unanimously pass a bill that supports eradication efforts in states infested with nutria, large rodents also known as swamp rats that are native to South America.
Rhode Island was the first state in the lower 48 whose average annual temperature warmed more than 2 degrees Celsius since 1895. Then New Jersey hit that threshold, which global leaders aim to keep the planet’s warming from exceeding. Next was Connecticut, then Maine and Massachusetts. But why is the Northeastern United States warming faster than the rest of the country? Climate scientists don't fully understand this trend, but they offer an array of explanations.
Also this week, House Democrats proposed a plan for climate action that looks similar to the Green New Deal—except for the fact that it does not call for a sweeping end to fossil fuel development. Instead, the package of more than 120 pieces of legislation seeks to drive a transition to net zero carbon emissions by 2050, achieved by reaching into every corner of the U.S. economy with new investments, standards and incentives favoring clean energy, jobs creation, lands protection and environmental justice.
The Newest Threat to a Warming Alaskan Arctic: Beavers BY: BOB BERWYN The large rodents are creating lakes that accelerate the thawing of frozen soils and potentially increase greenhouse gas emissions, a study finds.
Hurricane Sandy inundated parts of Staten Island, Queens and Lower Manhattan, where sea level rise caused by climate change threatening homes—and lives.
By Ilana Cohen
The three-story house, painted a grayish blue, stood on Fox Beach Avenue in Oakwood Beach, Staten Island. On a clear day in 2015, the house took six to eight hours to demolish. Nathan Kensinger captured it all on film.
"That process of seeing someone's house torn to the ground was really a powerful moment," said Kensinger, a photographer, filmmaker, artist and journalist.
