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Climate Change Resists Narrative, Yet the Alphabet Prevails (A to Z): Now E!
by Frack Check WV: admin 05 Jan '23

05 Jan '23

# [Climate Change Resists Narrative, Yet the Alphabet Prevails (A to Z): Now E!](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/01/05/climate-change-resists-narrativ… yet-the-alphabet-prevails-a-to-z-now-e/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/01/BF8873F0-D479-44FD- BEC8-655D8FF442E3.jpeg)](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/01/BF8873F0-D479-44FD-BEC8-655D8FF442E3.jpeg) Since 2016, the U. S. has added over 35,000 MW of off-shore wind turbine capacity **Electrify Everything ~ Let’s try again, this time with feeling** . [Article by Elizabeth Kolbert, New Yorker Magazine](https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/elizabeth-kolbert), November 28, 2022 **BIWF2 is a wind turbine that sticks up out of the Atlantic Ocean** , about fifteen miles off the coast of Rhode Island. **It’s six hundred feet tall, which is higher than the Washington Monument, and its blades are more than two hundred feet long.** I’m on a boat designed to transport crews to offshore wind farms. The captain maneuvers right up to the metal stanchions that hold the turbine in place, so the blades are rotating directly overhead. They make a fantastic whooshing sound that builds and fades, builds and fades. The effect is at once thrilling and terrifying, as if some gigantic bird were trying to land on the deck. “Ah,” everyone on board exclaims as another blade descends. **BIWF2 has one neighbor half a nautical mile to the north and three more neighbors to the south. Together the turbines make up Block Island Wind Farm, America’s first offshore wind operation. A dozen more wind projects are currently planned off the East Coast, from Massachusetts to North Carolina.** The turbines that will be erected in these projects will make BIWF2 look puny. Staring up at the blades, I am looking into the future — or at least a future —and it’s inspiring. BIWF2 is a symbol of what can be accomplished when people put their minds to it. In 1992, the year of the Earth Summit, the world had exactly one offshore wind farm, called Vindeby. Situated off the Danish island of Lolland, it consisted of eleven turbines, which, collectively, produced less power than BIWF2 does today. Now there are scores of offshore farms, most of them in European and Chinese waters. The largest, known as Hornsea 2, is in the North Sea, off the English coast; it comprises a hundred and sixty-five turbines, each so massive that a single sweep of its blades can power a household for a day. Block Island Wind Farm and Hornsea 2 are owned by the same company, which used to be known as Danish Oil and Natural Gas, or dong, but recently— and for obvious reasons — changed its name, to Ørsted. (It also owned Vindeby, which was decommissioned in 2017.) **As more turbines have gone up, costs have plunged; just in the past decade, the price of offshore wind energy has declined by half.** **Onshore wind has grown even faster, and its cost, too, has plummeted. In many parts of the world, it’s now cheaper to put up turbines than it is to operate an existing power plant that burns natural gas. In places with a lot of wind, such as Denmark, Ireland, and western Oklahoma, there’s sometimes so much power pouring into the grid that producers have to pay to get rid of it.** **The price of solar power, meanwhile, has declined even more spectacularly. Since 2010, it’s dropped by more than eighty per cent. According to the International Energy Agency, solar power now offers “some of the lowest-cost electricity ever seen.”** The rapidly falling price of renewables makes it possible to imagine a not too distant future in which the U.S., indeed the world, generates all its electricity emissions-free. Already there are brief periods — on the order of minutes —when California can produce enough electricity from renewables to meet its demand. In Denmark, this happens for entire windy days. (It occurred two days in a row this past May.) **And, once it’s possible to imagine a carbon-free grid, all sorts of other opportunities open up. Substitute electric motors for internal-combustion engines and cars, too, can run emissions-free. The same goes for trucks and buses, ferries and forklifts. Plug them in! Tear out boilers and replace them with heat pumps! Swap gas ranges for induction stoves! Electrify as much as possible. _Ideally, electrify everything._** e! URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/01/05/climate-change-resists- narrative-yet-the-alphabet-prevails-a-to-z-now-e/>

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Climate Change Resists Narrative, Yet the Alphabet Prevails (A to Z): Now D!
by Frack Check WV: admin 04 Jan '23

04 Jan '23

# [Climate Change Resists Narrative, Yet the Alphabet Prevails (A to Z): Now D!](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/01/04/climate-change-resists-narrativ… yet-the-alphabet-prevails-a-to-z-now-d/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/01/716EB733-FCE2-4469-B45F-1DB2672F48BB.jpeg)](https:/… content/uploads/2023/01/716EB733-FCE2-4469-B45F-1DB2672F48BB.jpeg) Polar vortex brings despair to most of the continental United States **“D” for Despair ~ The Climate Change “Despair” in Winter Storm Elliott** Technical Article by Randi Pokladnik, Submitted January 1, 2023 **Some will use the recent cold weather event to claim climate change is not real and the planet isn’t warming. But, when one looks at the actual science behind these “Arctic bomb cyclones” and the record-breaking Winter Storm Elliott, it is obvious that climate change has played a significant role.** This Christmas 2022, many of us might have felt like we were enacting the 2004 movie “ **The Day After Tomorrow** ”. The movie is loosely based on a theory called “ **abrupt climate change** ”. [The ocean’s thermohaline conveyor normally circulates ocean water around the planet.](https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA469325.pdf) Cold, salty ocean water sinks and pulls warmer fresh surface water in to replace the sinking water. This sets up a deep-sea current that circulates water round the planet. If the belt shuts down, the northern hemisphere abruptly cools while the southern hemisphere warms. [Paleoclimate records from Greenland ice cores show that the conveyor belt shut down near the end of the last ice age.](https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/207427) The ocean circulation stops when higher water temperatures and the addition of more freshwater cause the salinity and density of seawater to drop. A warming planet and melting freshwater could trigger another shut-down of the belt, throwing North America and Europe into frigid cold temperatures for hundreds of years. While most scientists agree that what happened in the movie (overnight change) will never occur, USA citizens witnessed some dramatic weather changes in matter of hours. Denver, Colorado experienced a temperature drop of 70 degrees in an 18-hour period. Winter Storm Elliott affected over two-thirds of our population and almost every state except the South Western area. There were record setting winds and cold temperatures in our region, blizzard conditions in the plain states and feet of snow in the New England area; even Florida broke some records for cold temperatures. Meteorologists say this storm will be a once in a generation storm. **So what caused Winter Storm Elliott?** The [northern polar vortex](https://www.ecowatch.com/polar-vortex-explained-2650399482.html) played a major role in the crushing cold that blanketed the North American continent. There are two polar vortices on our planet, one which spins around the North Pole and the other spins around the South Pole. [We are dealing with the northern vortex which was first described in an article published in 1853.](https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Living_Age.html?hl=de&id=Df… Normally, low-pressure cold air circulates counterclockwise and inward towards the North Pole. The polar jet stream (high-altitude high-speed wind currents) helps hold the vortex in place, much like an old-fashioned girdle held our bulges in place. However, a weakened polar jet stream causes tiny breaks in the “girdle” and allows the cold vortex to seep out of its circular orbit dipping southward. It is like someone opening the refrigerator door and the cold air seeps through your house. [It is thought that climate change is causing a destabilization of the polar jet stream](https://www.ecowatch.com/winter-storm-elliott-climate- crisis.html). Scientists say that the Arctic region is warming faster than any other area on the globe, on average four times faster in the past forty years. As the polar air warms, the temperature differences between that air and mid- latitude air lessens. This causes a “wobble” in the jet stream, or weakening of the “girdle”, allowing the cold air to advance south. **This year’s[2022 Arctic Report Card](https://www.noaa.gov/news- release/human-caused-climate-change-fuels-warmer-wetter-stormier-arctic), authored by 147 experts from 11 nations, tells the disturbing story of the effects of climate change on the Arctic. Some of the changes include: shrinking sea ice, warming atmospheric temperatures, and shorter periods of snow cover. These could all play a role in more frequent polar air intrusions into our region.** So far at least fifty deaths have been attributed to the storm, with at least twenty-seven in New York State. More than 8,305 flights were cancelled and millions of people spent Christmas day without power. The economic impact “will likely be in the billions.” Scientists have been warning us that the time frame for mitigating climate change is quickly closing. [The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in their 2022 report](https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/), “The dangers of climate change are mounting so rapidly that they could soon overwhelm the ability of both nature and humanity to adapt, creating a harrowing future in which floods, fires and famine displace millions, species disappear and the planet is irreversibly damaged.” **Winter Storm Elliott proved to be an example of how we humans cannot successfully adapt to abrupt changes in our weather, even though we have access to advance technology. As climate changes occur more often and at a faster rate, we find that adapting to these changes will become that much harder and more expensive. Even more alarming is the fact that many of the species we share the planet with will not be able to adapt but will instead succumb to extinction.** >>> Randi Pokladnik is a Scientist residing at Tappan Lake, Uhrichsville, Ohio 44683. She was born and raised in Ohio. She earned an associate degree in Environmental Engineering, a BA in Chemistry, MA and PhD in Environmental Studies. She is certified in hazardous materials regulations and holds a teaching license in science and math. URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/01/04/climate-change-resists- narrative-yet-the-alphabet-prevails-a-to-z-now-d/>

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Climate Change Resists Narrative, Yet the Alphabet Prevails (A to Z): Now C!
by Frack Check WV: admin 03 Jan '23

03 Jan '23

# [Climate Change Resists Narrative, Yet the Alphabet Prevails (A to Z): Now C!](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/01/03/climate-change-resists-narrativ… yet-the-alphabet-prevails-a-to-z-now-c/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/01/A7D64FD5-0896-406D-9BF5-02AA417F9248.jpeg)](https:/… content/uploads/2023/01/A7D64FD5-0896-406D-9BF5-02AA417F9248.jpeg) Rational analysis favors a “carbon tax” called a “dividend” **“C” for Capitalism & Climate Change** [Article by Elizabeth Kolbert, New Yorker Magazine](https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/elizabeth-kolbert), November 28, 2022 **What’s the matter here? Why has so little progress been made on climate change, even as the dangers have become ever more apparent?** According to one school of thought, the problem has to do with incentives. There’s a great deal of money to be made selling fossil fuels — just in the first quarter of 2022, twenty-five of the world’s largest oil-and-gas producers announced profits of close to a hundred billion dollars — and still more money to be made by burning fossil fuels to make stuff to sell, from sunglasses to steel girders. **Meanwhile, the costs of climate change can be fobbed off on someone else. To use the technical term, they are a “negative externality.” In the words of the Stern Review, a report commissioned by the British government in 2005, climate change “is the greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen.”** **By this account, the obvious solution is to realign the incentives — to internalize the externalities. If the cost of the damage caused by a ton of CO2 was borne by the business (or individual) responsible for emitting that ton, then the business (or individual) would be motivated to cut back.** **“A carbon tax offers the most cost-effective lever to reduce carbon emissions at the scale and speed that is necessary,” a 2019 statement signed by thirty-five hundred economists, including twenty-eight Nobel Prize winners, declared. Such a tax would move “the invisible hand of the marketplace to steer economic actors towards a low-carbon future.”** **According to a second school of thought, the trouble runs a whole lot deeper. Our political system is dominated by corporate money in general and fossil-fuel money in particular.** (Last year, the oil-and-gas industry reportedly spent a hundred and twenty million dollars lobbying Washington, and it probably spent a great deal more via front groups.) **It’s therefore naïve to imagine that policies that cut into fossil-fuel profits will be enacted. And even if they were, they wouldn’t solve the essential problem, which is that the “invisible hand” always grasps for more.** If it’s not more oil, it will be more lithium to build batteries, and if it’s not more lithium it will be more cobalt, mined from the bottom of the sea. **“When it comes to global warming, we know that the real problem is not just fossil fuels — it is the logic of endless growth that is built into our economic system,” Jason Hickel, an economic anthropologist at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, has written.** **[Climate change can’t be dealt with using the tools of capitalism](https://youtu.be/Jdaxehd0cF0), because it is a product of capitalism. It can be dealt with only by throwing off capitalism in favor of something else — a system aimed not at growth but at “degrowth.”** “The difficult truth is that, to prevent climate and ecological catastrophe, we need to level down” is how the British environmental writer George Monbiot recently put it. **A third line of thought — perhaps too bleak and unpopular to be called a school — is that, if big change is hard, bigger change is even harder. How are we going to build a whole new economic system if we can’t even enact a carbon tax?** #######+++++++#######+++++++####### **See Also:** [Naomi Klein - This Changes Everything](https://youtu.be/Jdaxehd0cF0), Bioneers, November 5, 2014 Climate change as more than an “issue.” It’s a civilizational wake-up call delivered in the language of fires, floods, storms and droughts. It demands that we challenge the dominant economic policies of deregulated capitalism and endless resource extraction. Climate change is also the most powerful weapon in the fight for equality and social justice, and real solutions are emerging from the rubble of our failing systems. URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/01/03/climate-change-resists- narrative-yet-the-alphabet-prevails-a-to-z-now-c/>

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Climate Change Resists Narrative, Yet the Alphabet Prevails (A to Z): Now B!
by Frack Check WV: admin 02 Jan '23

02 Jan '23

# [Climate Change Resists Narrative, Yet the Alphabet Prevails (A to Z): Now B!](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/01/02/climate-change-resists-narrativ… yet-the-alphabet-prevails-a-to-z-now-b/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/01/C89CC715-C6AF-4B3B-A498-37780F390D56.jpeg)](https:/… content/uploads/2023/01/C89CC715-C6AF-4B3B-A498-37780F390D56.jpeg) Greta Thunberg brings much needed logic and truth to bear overall! **Greta Thunberg Says Most Climate Talk is “Blah, Blah, Blah”** [Article by Elizabeth Kolbert, New Yorker Magazine](https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/elizabeth-kolbert), November 28, 2022 **On September 28, 2021, at the Youth4Climate conference, held in Milan, Greta Thunberg took the stage. Sitting near her was the city’s mayor, Giuseppe Sala, wearing a mask. Thunberg, who is five feet tall, could barely be seen over the lectern. She had removed her mask and was smiling.** **“Climate change is not only a threat, it is above all an opportunity to create a healthier, greener, and cleaner planet which will bene!t all of us,” she began. “We must seize this opportunity—we can achieve a win-win in both ecological conservation and high-quality development. . . . We need to walk the talk; if we do this together, we can do this. “When I say ‘climate change,’ what do you think of ?” she went on. “I think of jobs — green jobs.” This received a round of applause. “We must find a smooth transition towards a low-carbon economy,” Thunberg said. “There is no Planet B. There is no Planet Blah—blah, blah, blah; blah, blah, blah.” Her listeners, including Sala, started to realize that they’d been had. The applause died down. “Build Back Better—blah, blah, blah,” Thunberg continued. “Green economy—blah, blah, blah. “Net zero by 2050—blah, blah, blah. “Net zero—blah, blah, blah. “Climate neutral—blah, blah, blah.** **“This is all we hear from our so-called leaders: words — words that sound great, but so far have led to no action,” Thunberg said. “Of course we need constructive dialogue, but they’ve now had thirty years of blah, blah, blah, and where has that led us?”** **Five countries are responsible for over half of all historical CO2 emissions, namely United States, China, Russia, Germany and the United Kingdom. About a hundred and ninety countries are responsible for the other half.** **It was thirty years ago that the world’s “so-called leaders” gathered in Rio de Janeiro for the so-called Earth Summit.** Everyone agreed that radical change was needed. To avert disaster, global CO2 emissions, which were then running at around twenty-two billion metric tons a year, would have to be reduced, eventually almost to zero. How this would happen, no one really knew. **Still, the goal of preventing “dangerous” warming was enshrined in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which President George H. W. Bush cheerfully signed.** “Some find the challenges ahead overwhelming,” Bush said. “I believe that their pessimism is unfounded.” **A follow-up “conference of the parties,” or COP, took place in Kyoto in 1997.** By then, annual global emissions had risen to twenty-four billion tons. After much back-and-forth, it was agreed that something had to be done. **This Kyoto Protocol, an addendum to the Framework Convention, laid out specific emissions-reduction targets for countries to meet.** **“I am both determined and optimistic that we can succeed,” Vice President Al Gore told the diplomats gathered in Japan.** **After Kyoto, global emissions kept on rising, only faster. By 2009, they’d climbed to thirty-two billion tons a year. That fall, President Barack Obama "flew to Copenhagen for yet another conference of the parties — COP-15. “I believe that we can act boldly, and decisively, in the face of this common threat,” he declared.** **By 2015, emissions had increased to thirty-five billion tons a year. At that year’s COP No. 21 — held in Paris, it was decided that, at last, really and truly, it was time to get serious.** “The decisions you make here will reverberate down through the ages,” the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, told the delegates. Nevertheless, emissions continued to rise. **In the past thirty years, humans have added as much CO2 to the atmosphere as they did in the previous thirty thousand.** **At some point during all the “blah, blah, blah”-ing — it’s hard to say when, exactly — climate change ceased to be a prospective problem and became a clear and present one. Since Rio, the Arctic ice cap has shrunk by two-fifths. Greenland has shed some four trillion metric tons of ice, and mountain glaciers have lost six trillion tons. Heat waves are now hotter, droughts deeper, and storms more intense. In some parts of the world, the wildfire season never ends.** **One conclusion to draw from this pattern is that the world isn’t going to avoid “dangerous” warming. Global leaders will continue to gather at COPs — this year’s, in Sharm el-Sheikh, just concluded — and to speak loftily about “net zero” and “a low-carbon economy.” But nothing will change, and, as a result, everything will change. There will be large-scale crop failures. The Greenland ice sheet will start to collapse — it may already be collapsing — and, owing to sea-level rise in some places and desertifcation in others, large swaths of the globe will become uninhabitable.** **This conclusion is not, however, the one that Thunberg chose to draw when she spoke at the Youth4Climate conference. “Right now we are still very much speeding in the wrong direction,” she told the crowd in Milan. “But, of course, we can still turn this around — it is entirely possible.** **“The leaders like to say, ‘We can do this,’ ” Greta went on. “They obviously don’t mean it, but we do — we can do this. I’m absolutely convinced that we can.” Or, as Thunberg herself might put it, Blah, blah, blah.** URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/01/02/climate-change-resists- narrative-yet-the-alphabet-prevails-a-to-z-now-b/>

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Climate Change Resists Narrative, Yet the Alphabet Prevails … A to Z!
by Frack Check WV: admin 01 Jan '23

01 Jan '23

# [Climate Change Resists Narrative, Yet the Alphabet Prevails … A to Z!](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/01/01/climate-change-resists-narrativ… yet-the-alphabet-prevails-%e2%80%a6-a-to-z/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2022/12/2E3D52ED-741D-4A83-BAF5-6BB5D2B0F075.jpeg)](https:/… content/uploads/2022/12/2E3D52ED-741D-4A83-BAF5-6BB5D2B0F075.jpeg) Svante August Arrhenius, Swedish (1859 – 1927), foresaw climate change. **“A is for Arrhenius”** . [Article by Elizabeth Kolbert, New Yorker Magazine](https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/elizabeth-kolbert), November 28, 2022 Svante Arrhenius was, by nature, an optimist. He believed that science should — and could — be accessible to all. In 1891, he got his !rst teaching job, at an experimental university in Stockholm called the Högskola. That same year, he founded the Stockholm Physics Society, which met every other Saturday evening. For a fee of one Swedish crown, anyone could join. Among the society’s earliest members was a Högskola student named Sofia Rudbeck, who was described by a contemporary as both “an excellent chemist” and “a ravishing beauty.” Arrhenius began writing her poetry, and soon the two wed. Physics Society meetings consisted of lectures on the latest scientific developments, many delivered by Arrhenius himself, followed by discussions that often lasted well into the night. The topics ranged widely, from aeronautics to volcanology. The society devoted several sessions to considering the instruments that would be needed by Salomon August Andrée, another early member of the group, who had decided to try to reach the North Pole via balloon. (Whatever the quality of his instruments, Andrée’s voyage would result in his death and the death of his two companions.) A question that particularly interested the Physics Society was the origin of the ice ages. All over Sweden lay signs of the glaciers that had, for vast stretches of time, buried the country: rocks with parallel scrapings; strange, sinuous piles of gravel; huge boulders that had been transported far from their source. But what had caused the great ice sheets to descend, carrying all before them? And then what had caused them to retreat, allowing the rivers to "ow once again and the forests to return? In 1893, the society debated various theories that had been proposed, including one linking the ice ages to slight variations in the Earth’s orbit. The following year, Arrhenius came up with a different—and, he thought, better—idea: carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide, he knew, had curious heat-trapping properties. In the atmosphere, it allowed visible light to pass through, but it absorbed the longer-wave radiation that the Earth was constantly emitting to space. What if, Arrhenius speculated, the amount of CO2 in the air had varied? Could that explain the glaciers’ ebb and flow? The math involved in testing this theory went far beyond what was possible at the time. Arrhenius didn’t have a calculator, let alone a computer. He lacked crucial information about which wavelengths, exactly, CO2 absorbs. The climate system, meanwhile, is immensely complicated, with feedback loops nestled within feedback loops. Arrhenius, who would later win a Nobel Prize for an unrelated discovery, plunged ahead anyway. On Christmas Eve, 1894, he began constructing a climate model — the world’s first. He assembled temperature data from around the globe and made ingenious use of a set of measurements that had been taken a decade earlier by an American astronomer, Samuel Pierpont Langley. (Langley had invented a device — a bolometer — for gauging infrared radiation, and had used it to determine the temperature of the moon.) Arrhenius performed thousands of computations —perhaps tens of thousands — and often labored over this task for fourteen hours a day. He was still calculating away as his marriage fell apart. In September of 1895, Rudbeck moved out. In November, without having seen Arrhenius again, she gave birth to their son. The following month, Arrhenius finished his work. “I should certainly not have undertaken these tedious calculations if an extraordinary interest had not been connected with them,” he wrote. Arrhenius believed that he had unravelled the mystery of the ice ages, a riddle that had “hitherto proved most difficult to interpret.” He was at least partly right: ice ages are the product of a complex interplay of forces, including wobbles in the Earth’s orbit and changes in atmospheric CO2. His model turned out to have another use as well. All across Europe and North America, coal was being shovelled into furnaces that were bellowing out carbon dioxide. By thickening the atmospheric blanket that warmed the Earth, humans must, Arrhenius reasoned, be altering the climate. He calculated that, if the amount of carbon dioxide in the air were to double, then global temperatures would rise between three and four degrees Celsius. A few quadrillion computations later, vastly more advanced climate models predict that doubling CO2 will push temperatures up between 2.5 and four degrees Celsius, meaning that Arrhenius’s pen-and-paper estimate was, to an uncanny degree, on target. Arrhenius thought that the future he had conjured would be delightful. “Our descendants,” he predicted, would live happier lives “under a warmer sky.” The prospect was, in any event, distant; doubling atmospheric CO2 would, he reckoned, take humanity three thousand years. It’s easy now to poke fun at Arrhenius for his sunniness. The doubling threshold could be reached within decades, and the results are apt to be disastrous. But who among us is any different? Here we all are, watching things fall apart. And yet, deep down, we don’t believe it. URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/01/01/climate-change-resists- narrative-yet-the-alphabet-prevails-%e2%80%a6-a-to-z/>

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Lanzarote Declaration, MICRO 2022 ~ UNITED NATIONS Treaty on Plastic Pollution
by Frack Check WV: admin 31 Dec '22

31 Dec '22

# [Lanzarote Declaration, MICRO 2022 ~ UNITED NATIONS Treaty on Plastic Pollution](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2022/12/31/lanzarote-declaration- micro-2022-united-nations-treaty-on-plastic-pollution/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2022/12/470999FE-F077-431F-8024-9D55AA66100D-300x204.png)](… content/uploads/2022/12/470999FE-F077-431F-8024-9D55AA66100D.png) Intense study and planning underway for UN treaty on plastic pollution **Welcome to MICRO 2022** >>> [Organized & Presented by UNESCO](https://micro2022.sciencesconf.org/), November 18, 2022 **We are deeply thankful to All MICRO 2022 Speakers, Chairpersons and All Participants, for the intense week we spent, rooted in an Open Science context, Under the Patronage of the the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, sharing the evolving research on plastic pollution from macro to nano, with a core focus on microplastics.** You can find the [Full Programme HERE.](https://www.micro.infini.fr/prog.html) This year, 40 Local Nodes hosted the Chairpersons facilitating an intense week of 500 online presentations, and Friday Nov. 18th’s collective effort to synthesize these intense days into the [Lanzarote Declaration, MICRO 2022 for the UN Treaty on Plastic Pollution.](https://zenodo.org/record/7359316) **Focusing on what We, the MICRO community, think is important for the UN Plastics Treaty, and where We want the research to go from here, this is Our collective effort for the UN Treaty on Plastic Pollution.** Nice to see the [2022 Lanzarote Declaration](https://zenodo.org/record/7359316) begin to circulate, while we start preparing the way towards the in-person **MICRO 2024 : Human edition**. _Very best wishes from Lanzarote, >>> MICRO 2022 Scientific and Organizing Committee_. URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2022/12/31/lanzarote-declaration- micro-2022-united-nations-treaty-on-plastic-pollution/>

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Nordstream 2 Operator Approaches Bankruptcy for Third Time in Germany
by Frack Check WV: admin 30 Dec '22

30 Dec '22

# [Nordstream 2 Operator Approaches Bankruptcy for Third Time in Germany](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2022/12/30/nordstream-2-operator- approaches-bankruptcy-for-third-time-in-germany/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2022/12/8416517C-22AC-4D28-8831-78F7048CB1002-289x300.png)]… content/uploads/2022/12/8416517C-22AC-4D28-8831-78F7048CB1002.png) After these pipelines were shutdown, three deliberate explosions occurred **Nord Stream 2 Construction Company Approaches Bankruptcy For A Third Time** From an Article by Irina Slav, Oilprice.com, December 29, 2022 The company responsible for the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline received a six-month stay of bankruptcy, shielding it from creditors, the AP reported, noting the stay will last from January 2023 to June the same year. The gas pipeline, which doubled the capacity of its twin pipeline Nord Stream 1 to 110 billion cubic meters, was among the first targets of sanction action from Europe against Russia, even before its invasion of Ukraine. Two days before Russian troops entered eastern Ukraine, Germany’s government said it would not certify Nord Stream 2, meaning the billion-dollar piece of infrastructure could not be put into operation. The announcement came following Moscow’s official recognition of two eastern Ukrainian regions, Donetsk and Luhansk, as independent. The United States also imposed sanctions on Swiss-based Nord Stream 2 AG, a day before the invasion began. Soon after, reports emerged that the company was considering filing for insolvency after it let all its employees go following the sanctions announced by Washington. A bankruptcy procedure eventually began but was suspended by a court in Zug, Switzerland, where the company is registered. The first loan repayment moratorium was granted for the period until September 2022, which was then extended until January 2023, Russia’s TASS reported in early September. This is the third, and longest, extension that Nord Stream 2 AG has received from the Swiss court to protect it from its creditors. The same-name pipeline, meanwhile, suffered damage in an act of sabotage on the twin pipelines last summer, which put an end to all gas deliveries via the Nord Stream system. According to Gazprom, damage on the Nord Stream 2 is smaller than on its sister pipeline and it can be repaired. The investigation of the blasts failed to name the perpetrator of the sabotage. #######+++++++#######+++++++####### **SEE ALSO:** [Sweden finds explosive traces at Nord Stream blast sites, confirms sabotage](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/18/nord- stream-sweden-explosives-sabotage/), Emily Rauhala and Ellen Francis, Washington Post, November 18, 2022 URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2022/12/30/nordstream-2-operator- approaches-bankruptcy-for-third-time-in-germany/>

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GEO~ENGINEERING: The Earth Does Her Own Natural Engineering!
by Frack Check WV: admin 29 Dec '22

29 Dec '22

# [GEO~ENGINEERING: The Earth Does Her Own Natural Engineering!](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2022/12/29/geoengineering-the- earth-does-her-own-natural-engineering/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2022/12/EBB1972F-4D97-4E4D-8C18-C0F75947A73E.jpeg)](https:/… content/uploads/2022/12/EBB1972F-4D97-4E4D-8C18-C0F75947A73E.jpeg) Geoengineering creates a false sense mankind can manipulate nature **Can Geoengineering Fix the Climate? ~ Hundreds of scientists say not so fast!** From an [Article by Oliver Milman, The UK Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/25/can- controversial-geoengineering-fix-climate-crisis), December 25, 2022 **Proposed geoengineering methods include pumping salt water into clouds to make them more reflective of sunlight, or to place ice particles in clouds to stop them from trapping heat.** As global heating escalates, the US government has set out a plan to further study the controversial and seemingly sci-fi notion of deflecting the sun’s rays before they hit Earth. But a growing group of scientists denounces any steps towards what is known as solar geoengineering. The Biden administration is developing a controversial solar geoengineering research plan to the dismay of many experts. **The White House has set into motion a five-year outline for research into “climate interventions”. Those include methods such as sending a phalanx of planes to spray reflective particles into the upper reaches of the atmosphere, in order to block incoming sunlight from adding to rising temperatures.** **The work is required by Congress. It is “not new research, but a report that highlights some of the key knowledge gaps and recommendations of priority topics for relevant research”, said a spokesperson for the White House’s office of science and technology policy, adding Joe Biden’s administration wants “effective and responsible CO2 removal” as well as deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.** Several American researchers, somewhat reluctantly, want to explore options to tinker with the climate system to help restrain runaway global heating, even as they acknowledge many of the knock-on risks aren’t fully known. “Until recently, I thought it was too risky, but slow progress on cutting emissions has increased motivation to understand techniques at the margins like solar geoengineering,” said Chris Field, who chaired a National Academies of Sciences report last year that recommended at least $100m being spent researching the issue. “I don’t think we should deploy it yet and there are still a ton of concerns, but we need to better understand it,” Field said. “Climate change is causing widespread impacts, it’s costing lives and wrecking economies. We are in a tough position; we are running out of time, so it’s important we know more.” **Previous attempts at running experiments for what is known as solar radiation management (SRM) have faced staunch opposition. Last year, an exploratory flight in Sweden of a high-altitude SRM balloon, led by Harvard University researchers, was halted after objections by environmentalists and Indigenous leaders.** **But at least one US startup is now hoping to leap ahead with solar geoengineering. Make Sunsets, backed by two venture capital funds, launched in October. It claims to have already run two internal test flights for its plan to inject sulphur via balloons into the stratosphere, more than 20km above the Earth’s surface.** The venture, named after the deep red sunsets that would occur if particles were seeded into the stratosphere, says its “shiny clouds” will “prevent catastrophic global warming” and help save millions of lives. “Any human- caused release of carbon dioxide is geoengineering,” it argues on its website, which asks people to buy “cooling credits” to fund its work. “We screwed up the atmosphere, and now we have a moral obligation to fix things!” **Edward Parson, an expert in environmental law at University of California, Los Angeles, says Make Sunsets’ claims that it could return the world to its pre-industrial temperature for just $50bn a year are “absurd”. He explains that most researchers are wary of deploying what they consider to be a desperate, last-ditch option.** But Parson says the risks in researching solar geoengineering have been overblown and that the US “is probably the bold leader on this. It would be a big step forward if we have a research program.” “In my opinion, the probability that a nation makes a serious effort on solar geoengineering over the next 30 years is about 90%,” he adds. “As impacts get much worse and if mitigation doesn’t massively increase, I judge it quite likely that some major nation considers its citizens are suffering climate harms that are intolerable.” This prospect horrifies opponents of solar geoengineering. An open letter signed by more than 380 scientists demands a global non-use agreement for SRM; it also says that growing calls for research in this area are a “cause for alarm”, due to an unknown set of ramifications that will have varying consequences in different parts of the world and could scramble “weather patterns, agriculture and the provision of basic needs of food and water”. Frank Biermann, an expert in global governance at Utrecht University, said he’s also disturbed that solar geoengineering will create a sort of moral hazard where governments ease off efforts to cut emissions and fossil fuel companies use it as cover to continue business as usual. Planet-heating emissions are expected to hit a record high this year, even though they must halve this decade if the world is to avoid dangerous levels of global heating. This debate threatens to derail current climate policies. It’s a huge risk. “I would say the majority of scientists believe this is a crazy idea for a variety of reasons,” said Biermann, who thinks the US is an outlier because of its own large per-capita emissions and inconsistent adherence to global agreements. “Soon, everyone who is dependent on coal, oil and gas will jump on the solar engineering bandwagon and say, ‘we can continue for 40 years with fossil fuels’ now. This debate threatens to derail current climate policies. It’s a huge risk.” Biermann likens research on blocking sunlight to the satirical movie Don’t Look Up, in which researchers who warn of a catastrophic incoming meteoroid are sidelined in favor of an outlandish plan to deal with it. “The only way to find out whether this works is to do it to the whole planet for several years,” he said. “I mean will 8 billion people sit there in our living rooms having our last meal waiting and hoping that elite western universities got it right, that the Americans will not mess it up?” There isn’t any international governance around solar geoengineering for now. Critics fret that unilateral action to alter the climate could spark conflict if one part of the world benefits, while another suffers knock-on droughts or floods. Also, the addition of aerosols would have to be continuous to maintain the cooling – any disruption, either intentional or otherwise, would cause a sort of “termination shock”, where bottled up warming would be unleashed in a disastrously rapid jolt. “Termination shock terrifies me,” said Lili Fuhr, a climate and energy expert at the Center for International Environmental Law. “This is just a gigantic gamble with the systems that sustain life on Earth. It could be weaponized, it could be misused – imagine if, say, India and Pakistan disagreed over one of them doing this. “We need to do more than just emissions cuts and I wish we had a magical fix to this, but this doesn’t turn bad ideas into good ones,” Fuhr adds. The idea of recalibrating the world’s climate to deal with heat-trapping emissions isn’t new. A group of scientific advisers to Lyndon Johnson cautioned the US president about global heating in 1965, musing that “deliberately bringing about countervailing climatic changes therefore need to be thoroughly explored”. Calls for intervention have grown in recent years as countries continue to dawdle over emissions cuts and as an internationally agreed limit of 1.5C of global heating over pre-industrial times looms into view. There are several types of proposed geoengineering, such as pumping a mist of salt water into clouds to make them more reflective of sunlight, or to place ice particles in high-altitude clouds to stop them trapping so much of the heat that bounces off Earth. The most high-profile method, though, is firing a reflective substance such as sulphur or chalk dust from nozzles into the stratosphere, where the particles would then circulate around the world and start deflecting the sun’s rays. David Keith, professor of applied physics and of public policy at Harvard, estimates that around 2m tons of sulphur a year, injected via a fleet of about 100 high-flying aircraft, would cool the planet by around 1C, around the amount it has heated up since the Industrial Revolution. All of this would cost several billion dollars a year according to an estimate, and provide a relatively quick drop in temperatures. Keith argues it is more compelling than various carbon capture technologies that can take a long time and involve complex, expensive infrastructure. “Pretending that climate change can be solved with emissions cuts alone is a dangerous fantasy,” Keith has stated. The basic physics of doing this is well understood, Parson said, likening it to the huge eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991, an event that expelled nearly 20m tons of sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere and caused global temperatures to drop temporarily by about 0.5C. “Most people didn’t notice that and there have been studies since that give us confidence it can be done,” said Parson. “We don’t know how it should be done, yet, and the environmental aspects and the governance remain concerns. It would be reckless to just start deploying this now but we have lost so many easy paths to limit the harms of climate change that we only face worse options.” Spraying sulphur into the skylight of the Earth could deplete the ozone layer, some have suggested, and perhaps make the sky a milky white color. Other effects on regional weather are more uncertain, to the extent one recent novel based on the topic, The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson, depicted India embarking upon solar geoengineering to save itself from deadly heatwaves while another, Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson, conversely had India sabotaging a sulphur deployment system in Texas because it interfered with its monsoon. **The debate over how much we should meddle with the climate is likely to intensify as the fallout from global heating worsens. For now, opponents won’t back down. To Biermann, solar geoengineering should be considered by governments as being akin to landmines or biological weapons and blacklisted internationally.** “This is just another one on this list,” he said. “People talk about the freedom of research, but you don’t have the freedom to sit in your back yard and develop a chemical bomb.” URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2022/12/29/geoengineering-the-earth-does- her-own-natural-engineering/>

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West Va. Center on Budget & Policy ~ 10th ANNUAL BUDGET BREAKFAST (1/20/23)
by Frack Check WV: admin 28 Dec '22

28 Dec '22

# [West Va. Center on Budget & Policy ~ 10th ANNUAL BUDGET BREAKFAST (1/20/23)](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2022/12/28/west-va-center-on-budget- policy-10th-annual-budget-breakfast-12023/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2022/12/8A4B2CD5-95C7-4E67-8199-F11685F039FA-214x300.png)](… content/uploads/2022/12/8A4B2CD5-95C7-4E67-8199-F11685F039FA.png) Open budgeting and open spending are realistic goals … **Join the WVCBP at Our 10th Annual Budget Breakfast!** As the 2023 legislative session approaches, the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy staff would like to invite you to join us at our [10th annual Budget Breakfast,](https://wvpolicy.org/2023-budget-breakfast/) taking place on January 20, 2023. Each year, the WVCBP holds this event to provide analysis of the Governor's proposed budget. You'll hear from our executive director, Kelly Allen, our senior policy analyst, Sean O'Leary, and [our chosen keynote speaker](https://www.cbpp.org/about/our-staff/michael-leachman). **Please find further event details below.** [You can register for the event here.](http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07ejfr1u… **WHAT: WVCBP 's 10th Annual Budget Breakfast** **WHEN: January 20, 2023.** Breakfast will be available starting at 7:30am. The WVCBP’s analysis of the Governor’s 2024 proposed budget will begin at 8am, followed by keynote speaker presentation and time for Q&A. **WHERE: Charleston Marriott Town Center** (200 Lee Street East, Charleston, WV 25301) **WHO** : · Kelly Allen, WVCBP executive director · Sean O'Leary, WVCBP senior policy analyst · Keynote Speaker: Michael Leachman, Vice President for State Fiscal Policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities **PLEASE NOTE:** The cost of a single standard ticket is $50, but if you take advantage of our Early Bird Special (available to all who register by 12/31/22), you will receive $10 off. We appreciate your ongoing support of the WVCBP and we hope you can join us at this upcoming event! #######+++++++#######+++++++####### **SEE ALSO:** [Are tax cuts coming as West Virginia’s budget surplus grows?](https://www.wboy.com/news/west-virginia/are-tax-cuts-coming-as-west- virginias-budget-surplus-grows/) ~ Mark Curtis, WBOY News 12, December 6, 2022 CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WOWK) — West Virginia continues to see record budget surpluses. The question now is how should that money be spent or returned. This is a big change from six and seven years ago when West Virginia’s budget deficits were about $500 million. So far this fiscal year, West Virginia has collected a record-high of $453 million in coal and natural gas severance taxes. At the same time, personal income tax collections from all workers are up 15% over last year and consumer sales taxes from people buying things are up $86 million over last year. URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2022/12/28/west-va-center-on-budget- policy-10th-annual-budget-breakfast-12023/>

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Significant EARTHQUAKE Shakes Oil & Gas Region of Texas AGAIN
by Frack Check WV: admin 27 Dec '22

27 Dec '22

# [Significant EARTHQUAKE Shakes Oil & Gas Region of Texas AGAIN](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2022/12/27/significant-earthquake-shake… oil-gas-region-of-texas-again/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2022/12/853C9D1F-00C8-44DD-9182-4043FAFD75A6.jpeg)](https:/… content/uploads/2022/12/853C9D1F-00C8-44DD-9182-4043FAFD75A6.jpeg) The leading explanation involves the high pressure injection of residual brines from fracking operations **Magnitude 5.4 earthquake latest in a series of seismic events to shake Texas** From an [Article by Andrew Wulfeck, New York Post](https://nypost.com/2022/12/24/magnitude-5-4-earthquake-latest-in-a- series-of-seismic-events-to-shake-texas/), 12/24/22 Nearly a month after a magnitude-5.4 earthquake rocked parts of the Lone Star State, residents were again caught off guard Friday evening by another magnitude-5.5 quake centered near the town of Midland. The United States Geological Survey reported the quake took place about 3 miles under the rural Texas terrain, but the shaking was reported over a wide area that stretched from New Mexico through the heart of Texas. Seismologists said small earthquakes are not uncommon in Texas, but larger events are rare. Many of the quakes are linked to oil fracking and the reinjection of fluids underground. “The area is known for oil and gas production, so that will research. We’re sure people are going to be looking at the number of wastewater injection sites in the region,” a USGS seismologist said. November’s 5.4-magnitude, which occurred about 100 miles away from the epicenter of Friday’s quake, caused the state’s oil and gas regulators to propose tougher temporary restrictions on oil and gas production to help limit seismic activity. Seismologists said it was still too early to determine whether the most recent quake is linked to wastewater injection. Still, researchers will be working around the clock to determine the cause. There were no initial reports of significant damage around the quake’s epicenter or in other regions of Texas. If the magnitude is not adjusted downward, the quake will rank as one of the strongest to impact the region. According to USGS records, a magnitude-6.0 earthquake that shook the town of Valentine in 1931 holds the record for being the largest to impact the state. #######+++++++#######++++++++ **MORE THAN YOU WANT TO KNOW, LESS WELL EXPLAINED:** [To ease looming West Texas water shortage, oil companies have begun recycling fracking wastewater](https://www.texastribune.org/2022/12/19/texas-permian-basin- fracking-oil-wastewater-recycling/), Dylan Baddour, Inside Climate News, The Texas Tribune, December 19, 2022 Oil and gas companies are increasingly reusing “produced water” as West Texas aquifers are being depleted and the practice of injecting wastewater into disposal wells triggers more earthquakes. URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2022/12/27/significant-earthquake-shakes- oil-gas-region-of-texas-again/>

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