Mid-May and I am wondering if there is a light at the end of tunnel for this entire COVID-19 situation.
If I listen to Donald Trump or Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds it sounds like we have already beaten the virus. Yet, everyone seems pretty afraid to just go back to normal. And rightfully so because this is still a bad situation.
I hope that in a few months we come out into the sunlight, blinking a little bit, and wonder what the heck we just went through while we sort through the self-inflicted wreckage of our own collective hubris.
Stay safe out there.
On to the links…
America’s Meat Shortage is More Serious than your Missing Hamburgers—Our food system is designed for maximum efficiency in producing profit for multi-national corporations. It is not designed to produce the best quality food nor is it designed to protect the safety of its employees or its consumers. When you depend on a system that prizes efficient production of profit above all else you get “shit in the meat” so to speak.
Trump Dismantles Environmental Protections under Cover of Coronavirus—The coronavirus profiteers have lined up at Trump’s hotels to get in good with the most corrupt president in the history of the United States. These same profiteers realize that this might be the twilight of their influence as broader macro changes are threatening their primacy.
If We Don’t Take Climate Seriously After COVID-19, We’ll Deserve the Consequences—Let’s get some adults in the room and figure out solutions.
India’s Carbon Emissions Fall for First Time in Four Decades—I guess it is good news. Too bad it took a global pandemic and horrible recession.
Wind & Solar = 11% Of Electricity Generation In January & February In USA—There was a time when renewables were thought to be limited to less than 5% of the total market. Now we see greater than 10% market share for non-hydro renewables. I wonder what the numbers will look like in March and April as our collective power down due to coronavirus ripples through electricity markets.
U.S. Drillers Cut Oil & Gas Rigs to Historic Low—Shale oil was on the ropes before COVID-19 and now it appears like the industry is basically pulling up stakes to wait for better times.
Environmentalists Worry Colorado will See a Surge of Abandoned Oil and Gas Wells as Industry Tanks—These companies will find a way to weasel out of any obligations by declaring bankruptcy or just having legislatures change laws. Have no fear, you will be paying to clean up their mess for decades.
Minnesota’s Great River Energy Closing Coal Plant, Switching to Two-Thirds Wind Power—Another one bites the dust.
These Dirty Power Plants Cost Billions and Only Operate in Summer. Can They be Replaced?—So-called peaker plants should be the next wave of cancelled fossil fuel electrical plants targeted for closure. These are expensive and inefficient power producers. Demand shifting, energy storage, and greater efficiency will drive them out of business.
Location Selected for Operations Base which will Serve ‘World’s Largest Offshore Wind Farm’—These offshore wind farms in the UK are crazy big. Millions of homes powered by offshore wind. It feels like the future is here already.
Future Energy: Zero-Carbon Heating—In the drive to cut our reliance on fossil fuels the need to electrify our home heating is paramount to success. Thankfully, technologies exist today that will allow us to get most of the benefits without a breakthrough.
Gas Stoves can Generate Unsafe Levels of Indoor Air Pollution—Who thought it was a good idea to have an unsealed natural gas powered flame just burning in a kitchen? We no longer accept open flames in our furnaces or water heaters, so why is this accepted as a feature of homes?
Plastic Recycling is Broken. Why Does Big Plastic Want Cities to Get $1 Billion to Fix It?—You cannot fix plastic recycling because there is no such thing as plastic recycling. All that collection in blue and green bins is just another waste stream that makes us feel virtuous.
Florida Beachgoers Left Behind 13,000 Pounds of Trash Last Week on This Beach—Thanks for wrecking everything Florida.
Why You Should Start Squirting a Little Bit of Dish Soap Down the Drain—I one of those zealots who cleans their sink daily after dinner is put away because I cannot stand a dirty sink. Just clean up after yourselves.
These Insects Are Not ‘Murder Hornets’ So Please Stop Killing Them—2020 has brought us a lot of bad shit, but murder hornets? Now it just feels like the world is fucking with us for fun.