The Environment Thread

[Buck_Mulligan]

Do you live near a super methane emmitter, secret or otherwise?

https://wastemap.earth/map?mode=country&country=USA&city=&site=

[Buck_Mulligan]

Virtual Power Plants 2.0, the German model, comes to Texas.

https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/virtual-power-plants/sonnen-solrite-to-offer-free-batteries-and-solar-to-texas-homeowners

[Buck_Mulligan]

From NREL. I'm surprised more federal land is not already in use for renewables...

A new study from NREL highlights the potential for solar, wind, and geothermal energy on these lands, where currently only 4% of utility-scale renewable energy capacity is deployed. The research shows federal lands could support a much larger share of the nation's energy demand while still leaving significant room for other land uses.

In the central three scenarios, NREL estimates 51–84 gigawatts of solar photovoltaics, wind, and geothermal capacity could be deployed by 2035 on federal lands. The total land area used for these technologies ranges from 325,000 to 2 million acres, which is less than 0.5% of all federal land area—and a large fraction of that land could still be used for other purposes.

[Buck_Mulligan]

China hits its 2030 wind and solar targets 6 years early. They might even hit peak emissions in 2025.

HONG KONG, Jan 21 (Reuters) - China broke its own records for new wind and solar power installations again last year, official data showed on Tuesday, accelerating from a breakneck pace set in 2023 as the country looks to peak its carbon emissions before 2030.
Installed solar and wind power capacity climbed 45.2% and 18%, respectively, in 2024, the National Energy Administration said on Tuesday.
There is now 886.67 GW of installed solar power, up from 609.49 GW in 2023, it said. The United States had 139 GW in 2023, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/chinas-solar-wind-power-installed-capacity-soars-2024-2025-01-21/

[Buck_Mulligan]

When Mount Pinatubo erupted in 1991 it pushed some 20 million tons of SO₂ into the stratosphere reducing global temperatures by ~0.5°C for two years. Make Sunsets is a startup that replicates this effort at small scale to reduce global warming. To be precise, Make Sunsets launches balloons that release SO₂ into the stratosphere, creating reflective particles that cool the Earth. Make Sunsets is cheap compared to alternative measures of combating climate change such as carbon capture. They estimate that $1 per gram of SO₂ offsets the warming from 1 ton of CO₂ annually.

As with the eruption of Pinatubo, the effect is temporary but that is both bug and feature. The bug means we need to keep doing this so long as we need to lower the temperature but the feature is that we can study the effect without too much worry that we are going down the wrong path.

Solar geoengineering has tradeoffs, as does any action, but a recent risk study finds that the mortality benefits far exceed the harms:

the reduction in mortality from cooling—a benefit—is roughly ten times larger than the increase in mortality from air pollution and ozone loss—a harm.

https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2025/01/make-sunsets.html

[Buck_Mulligan]

Electricity generation in the EU broke some records in 2024.
For the first time solar at 11% overtook coal at 10%. Total EU electricity generation from fossil fuels declined from 39% in 2023 to 29% in 2024.

No 2024 info for the US yet, but the comparable fossil # for 2023 was 60%. Let's hope the US dropped some in 2024.
95% of new US generating capacity that came online in 2024 was renewable, mostly solar.

https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/european-electricity-review-2025/

[Buck_Mulligan]

Bloomberg New Energy Finance(BNEF) reports that in 2024 investment in no/low carbon infrastructure broke $2T for the first time. Up from less than $1T in 2020.

https://about.bnef.com/blog/global-investment-in-the-energy-transition-exceeded-2-trillion-for-the-first-time-in-2024-according-to-bloombergnef-report/

[DJChameleon]

As the Trump administration rushes to cut spending and eliminate federal jobs, even the people who work at the national parks — among the country's most beloved and least politicized institutions — find themselves directly in the crosshairs.

Last week, the seasonal workers who staff 433 national parks and historical sites, including Yosemite, Death Valley and Joshua Tree, began receiving emails saying their job offers for the 2025 season had been "rescinded," with little further explanation.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-01-30/national-parks-on-chopping-block-as-trump-cuts-federal-jobs

[Buck_Mulligan]

Don't know if these numbers are accurate, how they were developed, or where they came from, but if even 50% accurate they're still shocking.

Chernobyl was the worst nuclear disaster in history. Depending on who you ask, it killed somewhere between 4,000 and 60,000 people.
 
The global retreat from nuclear that followed killed an estimated 4 million people through increased air pollution alone.

[Lisnaholic]

Another step backwards for the environment:

US stops sharing air quality data from embassies worldwide. Scientists say that cuts out a vital resource for global health :
 
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/05/world/us-air-quality-pollution-intl-hnk/index.html

It's a news item that is just crying out for some clever remark linking lack of transparency (air) and lack of transparency (information), but I'm to depressed/busy to work it out.