Opinion:
¶ “Think Climate Change Is Scary? Try Talking To Your Kids About It” • As an environmental reporter, I have written over and over about how the pollution we keep dumping into the air is hurting people, threatening ecosystems and endangering our future. But at home, I’ve struggled to explain this to my own daughters. [Yahoo News]
Talking with daughters (Josh Willink, Pexels)
World:
¶ “COP15: Summit On ‘Pact With Nature’ Enters Final Stretch” • With only hours left to secure a global agreement to stop the destruction of nature, delegates at COP15, the UN biodiversity summit in Montreal, are considering a new draft deal. There has been deep division over the strength of ambition and how to finance the plans. [BBC]
¶ “Canada’s Polar-Bear Capital Churchill Warms Too Fast For Bears” • As the polar bear becomes an icon of climate change, the bears’ plight in Churchill, Manitoba, embodies the inextricable link between preserving the natural world and fighting global warming. The polar-bear capital of the world is simply getting too warm for polar bears. [BBC]
Polar bear (Susi Miller, USFWS)
¶ “Toyota Is Shifting Its Electric Vehicle Plans To Become More Like Tesla” • Like many automakers in the EV market. Toyota is reportedly looking to shift its plans to become more like Tesla. The Japanese automaker is one of many hoping to reach Tesla’s level of profitability in the sector, and it’s now readying to unveil a new business model. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “Ford To Unveil First MEB-Based Vehicle This Spring” • At a media event at the Ford Europe Design Center, Martin Sander, head of the Model E electric vehicle division at Ford, lifted a part of the shroud on a car and said, “Can’t wait for 2023 to arrive, when we will pull off the cover of our first electric passenger vehicle coming from Cologne.” [CleanTechnica]
Ford teaser (Courtesy of Ford)
¶ “ReNew Power Signs 150-MW Agreement With Microsoft” • ReNew Power, a leading renewable energy company, announced that it has signed a renewable energy agreement with Microsoft India, in one of the largest such deals in the country. ReNew will produce 150 MW of clean energy from a recently commissioned solar site near Bikaner. [SolarQuarter]
¶ “SSE Begins Work On Hydrogen Storage Cavern On Yorkshire Coast” • The energy company SSE has begun work to develop a cavern in east Yorkshire for storing hydrogen. The company aims to stockpile the renewable source of power for times when the freezing, windless conditions like those experienced in the last week happen again. [The Guardian]
East Yorkshire (Ian S, CC-BY-SA 2.0)
Australia:
¶ “Renewable Energy Production Hits New Record In SA, As Expert Predicts More Milestones To Fall Soon” • South Australia has been effectively powered by green energy for a week. From December 12 to 19, National Energy Market data shows wind and solar contributed on average 103.5% towards the state’s energy demand. One expert predicts more growth. [ABC]
¶ “Victoria’s Gippsland Coast To Become Australia’s First Offshore Windfarm Zone” • Gippsland’s coast in south Victoria will be home to the turbines of Australia’s first offshore windfarm zone, with the heavy winds of the Bass Strait offering plenty of wild weather to power Australian homes. The zone is expected to drive renewable industry investment. [The Guardian]
Offshore wind turbines (Fxp42, CC-BY-SA 3.0)
¶ “Could Queensland Export Sun And Wind To Japan?” • Exports of zero-emissions hydrogen, produced at a large green hydrogen project in the Gladstone Region in Central Queensland powered by renewable energy, are technically and commercially feasible, the Central Queensland Hydrogen Project Feasibility Study shows. [Australian Renewable Energy Agency]
US:
¶ “Agrivoltaics Goes Nuclear On California Prairie” • Interest in the emerging field of agrivoltaics has been exploding as farmers and researchers keep finding ways to combine solar panels with agricultural activity. Now, an agrivoltaic project in California is aimed at restoring native prairie at the site of a decommissioned nuclear power plant. [CleanTechnica]
Agrivoltaics and prairie restoration (Julia Fox, EPRI)
¶ “Michigan’s Clean Energy Transition Continues With Federal Laws, Utility Plans, State Political Shift” • The “2030 Report” examined progress for Michigan’s clean energy. It concluded that Whitmer’s MI Healthy Climate Plan would need to be bolder to collectively reduce emissions from the electricity generation, transportation, building and industrial sectors. [MiBiz]
¶ “NASA Cancels Climate Change Satellite” • NASA has canceled the GeoCarb mission, a collaboration with the University of Oklahoma and Lockheed Martin intended to put a greenhouse gas–monitoring satellite orbit. GeoCarb would have measured levels of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and methane in the atmosphere. [Space.com]
Have a fascinatingly fulfilling day.
geoharvey 