Planet-Killing

 

JEFFREY. St. CLAIR>>

+ A new assessment published in Environmental Research estimates that all regions on the planet will hit the 1.5 °C warning threshold by 2040 or earlier and that 31 out of 34 regions will reach the 2.0 °C threshold by 2040. For 3.0 °C, 26 out of 34 regions are predicted to reach the threshold by 2060.

+ Once one of the planet’s top carbon sinks, the Arctic is becoming a carbon emitter as its permafrost melts.

+ According to a new study published in Science, warming ocean waters killed about half of the common murres off Alaska’s coast (more than four million birds) and have shown no signs of recovery.

+ Carbon markets don’t work to reduce carbon emissions. That’s the damning conclusion of a new report published in Nature. Even so, the World Bank, US Treasury, IMF and the UN keep pushing them as a decarbonizing solution for the Global South.

+ The first ice-free day in the Arctic Ocean may arrive before 2030.

+ According to a new report from the UN, more than three-quarters (77.6%) of Earth’s surface has become permanently drier in the last 30 years.

+ The nine largest wildfires in California’s history have occurred since 2017, including three of the five deadliest.

+ Big Tech’s AI boom is generating a natural gas infrastructure boom. Scott Strazik, the CEO of GE Vernova, maker of gas turbines, told investors: ” “They’re not building those data centers with an assumption for anything other than 24/7 power. Gas is well suited for that…I can’t think of a time that the gas business has had more fun than they’re having right now.”

Meanwhile, Alberta is trying to lure tech companies to build huge, power-hungry AI data centers in the province and run them on natural gas instead of solar or hydro. This will give the oil and gas industry a fresh market for its planet-killing product.

+ The persistent drought in Brazil has driven the price of Arabica coffee to a record high, topping the peak set in 1977.