Emissions from driving in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area grew faster than population between 1990 and 2017, which means emissions per person have increased. (Boston University's Database of Road Transportation Emissions. New York Times/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
The Most Detailed Map of Auto Emissions in America. The transportation sector remains the largest single source of planet-warming greenhouse gases; accelerating electrification can help to lower emissions, according to an article at The New York Times (paywall): "Even as the United States has reduced carbon dioxide emissions from its electric grid, largely by switching from coal power to less-polluting natural gas, emissions from transportation have remained stubbornly high. The bulk of those emissions, nearly 60 percent, come from the country's 250 million passenger cars, S.U.V.s and pickup trucks, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Freight trucks contribute an additional 23 percent..."
(The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Lawmakers Who Denied Biden's Victory Also Embrace a Deadlier Conspiracy: Climate Denial. Here's the intro of a post at HEATED.com: "The members of Congress who spread dangerous disinformation about Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election are the same lawmakers spreading dangerous disinformation about the climate crisis, a HEATED investigation has found. According to an analysis of their public statements and votes, 90 of the 147 Republican members of Congress who voted to overturn the results of the presidential election explicitly deny or have denied that climate change is human-caused and dangerous. These lawmakers' denials of basic scientific facts range from delicate expressions of doubt to preposterous claims of conspiracy. Maryland Rep. Andy Harris, for example, has merely said he believes climate science "is uncertain," while Texas Rep. John Carter calls climate change "a chicken-little scheme" to use "government propaganda" to brainwash the "unwashed masses..."
(Greta Thunberg, Twitter/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
(NASA/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
"The President Needs to Hit the Ground Running on Climate". Here's an excerpt of an Op-Ed from friend and climate scientist Michael Mann at The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: "...As a climate scientist, I know all too well that we are running out of time to avert climate catastrophe. In fact, we've already run out of time. It's too late to protect everyone. From "zombie storms" in superheated oceans to wildfires so widespread and intense that they're creating "smoke waves" that blanket the country, befoul the air and endanger public health, to an unprecedented Atlantic hurricane season that can be tied to a bathtub-warm tropical Atlantic, the past year alone has provided ample evidence that climate change is now an ongoing, rolling threat from one place to another. The carbon we either do or don't choose to emit could shape not only the climate threats we must contend with in the decades ahead, but those that loom over the next 10,000 years. At this point it's a matter now of limiting, rather than preventing, the damage..."
September 9, 2020 image showing smoke from western fires. (NASA Earth Observatory/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Biden To Rescind Keystone, Rejoin Paris On Day One: Climate Nexus has headlines and links: "President-elect Biden is expected to revoke permits for the Keystone XL pipeline as one of his first acts upon taking office Wednesday. The cancellation of the $8 billion pipeline would be a major victory to environmental advocates and Indigenous groups and a demonstration of Biden's commitment to making climate actions a top priority of the new administration. Rescinding the cross-border permit would be just the latest twist in the project's tumultuous, 15-year history. President Obama delayed construction in 2015 under pressure from protests led by Lakota and other Indigenous front line groups, only to see Trump reinstate it in 2017. This week, in an apparent – and seemingly unsuccessful – bid to get Biden to change his mind, TC Energy Energy Corp, the pipeline's Canada-based developer, pledged to spend $1.7 billion to install renewable energy and eliminate all greenhouse gas emissions from the pipeline's operations, as well as hire an all-union workforce to build it. By stopping the pipeline, Biden would be "showing courage and empathy to the farmers, ranchers and Tribal Nations who have dealt with an ongoing threat that disrupted their lives for over a decade." Jane Kleeb, founder of the anti-pipeline group Bold Nebraska, told the Washington Post. "Today marks healing, hope and a path for the clean energy that builds America back better." (CBC, Washington Post $, New York Times $, Wall Street Journal $, Reuters, Politico, The Guardian, BBC, The Hill, Earther, Climate Home, Truthout. Biden's first 10 days: Wall Street Journal $, CNN, The GuardianBloomberg $, Bloomberg $)
(Tim McCabe, USDA/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
How Consumers Could Drive More Farmers to Fight Climate Change. IndyStar.com has the post; here's an excerpt that caught my eye: "...Efforts are underway across the country to propel the idea of sustainable agriculture beyond the term "organic" and bring regenerative farming into the mainstream. This type of farming — which includes things like planting cover crops, not tilling the soil and grazing livestock on pasture — can build nutrients in the soil, prevent erosion and improve overall soil health. It also creates a vast carbon sink that pulls the greenhouse gas out of the air and stores it in the ground. But it doesn't come without a complete overhaul to how farmers do what they've done their whole lives..."
