Ecology newsroll headlines on The Multipolar World, March 2024
Deforestation in Indonesia is intensifying disasters from global warming and resulting severe weather, Associated Press, Mar 30, 2024 …According to Global Forest Watch, more than 74 million hectares (285,715 square miles) of Indonesian rainforest — an area twice the size of Germany — have been logged, burned or degraded since 1950 for development of palm oil, paper and rubber plantations, and mining and other natural resource extraction…
NOAA gets dire warning about the folly of solar geoengineering, report in Politico, Mar 25, 2024
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency is being asked to strengthen a toothless rule that requires only a heads-up before experiments to modify the weather
Rowers in annual Oxford-Cambridge boat race warned to avoid sewage-polluted, Thames River water as Britain’s waterpollution crisis grows, report by CNN, Mar 28, 2024 The annual boat race pits teams from the two historic British universities against each other. It has been held since 1829 and draws hundreds of thousands to the banks of the Thames in west London. Recent E-coli measurements of the river in places are ten times the inland bathing water quality standard of the UK Environment Agency.
Indoor farms are remaking the produce market… at a cost to the planet, Washington Post, Mar 28, 2024 (here in pdf format: The environmental costs of indoor farming)
The installation costs of wind power turbines has plunged nearly 45% in China, sealing China’s place as the global leader, South China Morning Post, Mar 29, 2024 (here in pdf format: China seals its place as global leader in wind power)
In 2021, Biden administration promised to bild 500,000 charging stations for electric vehicles. Seven have been built, Washington Post, Mar 28, 2024
Measles vaccination rates plunged in Ontario during the pandemic, and they haven’t bounced back, report in Toronto Star, Mar 29, 2024 …Vaccination rates among school-aged children in Ontario have not caught up to pre-pandemic levels and in some regions remain far below recommended targets, a new report by Public Health Ontario shows… The province-wide immunization coverage estimate for measles among seven-year-olds was at 60 per cent for the 2022-23 school year — about the same as the previous year and down from about 85 per cent in 2019-20. The coverage estimate for measles for this age group was 94 per cent in 2013-14. Additionally, the report found “the proportion of seven-year-olds who had no reported doses of measles vaccine” has increased to about 17 per cent in 2022-23, up from about four per cent in 2019-20…
Drought has hit the Panama Canal hard; can it survive global warming?, by James Dinneen, in New Scientist (UK weekly), Feb 7, 2024 (Print issue of Feb 14, 2024; here in pdf format: Can the Panama Canal survive global warming and drought?) A severe drought exacerbated by global warming and a lack of updated infrastructure have led to some ships waiting more than a month to cross one of the world’s most important waterways. Transits remain one third below normal.
Capitalism’s new age of plagues, part 3, by Ian Angus, editor and publisher, Climate And Capitalism, Mar 26, 2024 Relentless evolution is creating ‘resilient, dangerous foes’ in the Anthropocene
Part one is here, Mar 2, 2024
Part two is here, Mar 14, 2024
Coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, is preparing for a long goodbye, Bloomberg News, Mar 23, 2024 Much of coal’s second wind is coming from Asia. In 2000, the International Energy Agency estimated advanced economies accounted for almost half of coal consumption. By 2026, China and India alone will make up more than 70 per cent.
[The above report makes only a brief mention of the NATO-provoked war in Ukraine. Yet the war in Ukraine is precisely the blunt ‘answer’ of the fossil fuel/ automobile/military industrial nexus to rising global demands to ‘slow down’ the global capitalist economy and cease its endless and mindless expansionism. ‘Degrowth communism’ is the future of the world, but capitalism will choose to destroy the planet if the alternative is a planned, social economy prioritizing social and environmental needs. If only the left-wing and environmental movements could open their eyes to see this, but anti-Russia and anti-China prejudices dating well back into the 20th century as well as other manifestations of capitalist ideology (commodity fetishism) get in the way and remain a very serious obstacle to human progress.]
World’s top body for geology rejects proposed concept of ‘Anthropocene’ for the present geological epoch, brief report on Climate & Capitalism (publisher Ian Angus), Mar 21, 2024 …There is no appeal possible of the decision by the International Union of Geological Sciences to reject the concept of the ‘Anthropocene’. Its decision effectively ends formal discussion within the official geological organization. Jan Zalasiewicz, who spearheaded the discussion for nearly 15 years, is resigning as chair of the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy. Nature magazine quotes him as planning to work through other channels to win acceptance for the ‘Anthropocene’ concept…
In 2023, only seven countries met the air quality standards of the World Health Organization, report in Ecowatch, Mar 19, 2024 [The only countries to meet the guidelines for PM2.5 particulate pollution were three in northern Europe–Estonia, Iceland and Finland, two small underdeveloped countries–Grenada and Mauritius, and Australia and New Zealand located in the wind-swept southern Pacific Ocean.]
The water runs dry in Bengalaru, India, city of 14 million, report in South China Morning Post, Mar 19, 2024 Bengalaru (Bangalore), population 14 million, is one of the fastest growing cities in the world. Infrastructure for fresh water supply is not able to keep up with a growing population. The city’s water shortage crisis resembles that of Cape Town, South Africa in 2018. (here in pdf format: The water runs dry in Bengalaru, India, city of 14 million)
Cape Town, South African tackles global warming and shrinking water supply by removing its invasive tree species, report in Washington Post, Feb 28, 2024 (here in pdf format: Cape Town tackles global warming and shrinking water supply)
The fraud of plastics recycling, essay by Adnan Khan, in Globe and Mail, March 16, 2024 A report published last month by the U.S.-based Center for Climate Integrity (The Fraud of Plastic Recycling: How Big Oil and the plastics industry deceived the public for decades and caused the plastic waste crisis, published by the Center For Climate Integrity, February 2024, 68 pages) has made some of the most specific and explosive accusations against the petrochemical industry to date, accusing it of a “decades-long campaign of fraud and deception about the recyclability of plastics.” More than 99 per cent of plastics are produced from fossil fuels, the report notes, and the “vast majority” cannot be processed and remanufactured into new products. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last reported America’s plastic recycling rate at 8.7 per cent, in 2018; in 2021, Bennington College’s Beyond Plastics project estimated that the rate has dipped even more, to no more than 6 per cent. The dismal numbers add an alarming dimension to the growing evidence that plastic is not only toxic to the environment and human health, but difficult to dispose of, too…
Related: Plastic experts say recycling is a scam. Should we even do it anymore?, report by Matthew Rozsa, staff writer, Salon.com, Feb 23, 2024 Evidence shows fossil fuel companies pushed recycling instead of addressing our growing plastic problem
How China became the world’s leader in alternative energies, by Isabel Hilton, published in Yale E360, March 13, 2024 China has achieved stunning growth in its installed renewable capacity over the last two decades, far outpacing the rest of the world …Renewable [sic] energy sources now account for half of China’s installed capacity, but there has also been a surge in permits for new coal-fired power plants. China still generates about 70 percent of its electricity from fossil fuels. All this means that actual renewable energy use is lagging behind installed capacity…
What is the averge life span of solar panels?, report in Forbes magazine, Sep 11, 2023 The industry standard for most solar panels’ lifespans is 25 to 30 years. Most reputable manufacturers offer production warranties for 25 years or more. The average break even point for solar panel energy savings occurs six to 10 years after installation.
Related news: Solar energy is booming. What happens when the panels die?, by Izzy Ross, in Corporate Knights (Canada), Oct 24, 2023 They usually end up in landfills …In 2016, the International Renewable Energy Agency released a big report (100 pages) saying that in the next few decades the world could see up to 78 million metric tons of solar waste. To put that in perspective, that’s about 5 million school buses. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory now estimates waste could reach between 54 and 160 million metric tons…
What happens to electricity when used?, analysis in Energy Vanguard, Jan 24, 2023 …Heat is the ultimate form of energy because all energy is either heat now or on its way to being transformed into heat…
Related: If electricity returns in a circuit, how does it ever get used?, Q&A published in Quora undated (here in pdf format: If electricity returns in a circuit, how does it ever get used?) I’ve written elsewhere that I find the word ‘electricity’ very misleading in the way it is used in common language. It generates the kind of distortions giving rise to questions like the above. Electricity is not a thing, like an apple or a car. Electricity is a form of interaction, much like gravity…
[This above entry on the ‘Ecology news’ page of A Socialist In Canada addresses the persistent, anti-scientific views of liberal environmentalists and eco-utopians who use the magical terms ‘renewable energy’ or ‘alternative energy’. There are no such entities. There is ‘energy’ (‘electricity, etc’) period, and energy can only be generated anew, not ‘renewed’ out of nothing. Crucially, there is ‘more polluting’ (‘more destructive)’ energy and ‘less polluting’ (‘less destructive)’ energy. The philosophy of ‘degrowth communism’ argues that most of the eneergy produced in today’s world is destructive because it serves the interests of private greed and ambition. A world of social and national equality living in harmony with the natural environment will provide an infitely greater quality of life at a fraction of the destruction which the present, global capitalist order (‘imperialism’) visits upon the planet and its people every minute of every day.]
Brazil gov’t says it wants better protection for the Amazon, but the state-owned oil company is pumping record amounts of oil. Report in New York Times, Mar 13, 2024
Related: Brazil projects becoming the world’s fourth largest oil producer, report by Oil Price.com, June 12, 2023
The great GDP myth, and growth ideology, by Bert Schouwenburg, in Morning Star Online on March 5, 2024 (here in pdf format: The great GDP myth) …It is increasingly being recognised that profit-driven capitalism dependent on infinite economic growth is unsustainable on a planet of finite resources. This has given rise to degrowth theories, which argue that economic policy objectives should focus on social metrics such as life expectancy, adequate healthcare, housing and education as being better indicators of both ecosystems and human wellbeing…
Related: The case against growth, book review by John Green, published in Morning Star, Mar 23, 2023 Reviewing: Marx In The Anthropocene: Towards the Idea of Degrowth Communism, by Kohei Saito, Cambridge University Press, Jan 2023, 276 pages (review here) [In early 2024, Japanese social and ecological researcher Kohei Saito published a new book in English: Slow Down: The degrowth manifesto (W&N, Orion Publishing Group). The book is an English-language adaptation of Saito’s bestselling book in Japan in 2020, Hitoshinsei no Shihonron (‘Capital in the Anthropocene’). Read a review of the new book here.]
Rains are scarce in the Amazon region causing megafires to rage in their place, report in New York Times, Mar 8, 2024 (here in pdf format: Megafires rage in the Amazon region as rains fail) As countries continue to burn fossil fuels and the planet reaches the highest average temperatures measured by scientists, a grueling year of fires is expected around the world. Severe blazes have already ravaged large parts of the United States and Australia, and a worse season is forecast for Canada, where more acres burned last year than had ever been recorded.
Warmest winter on record in Canada… by a large margin, report in Toronto Star, Mar 9, 2024 (here in pdf format: Warmest winter on record in Canada) …World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said in statement on March 4, “Every month since June 2023 has set a new monthly temperature record — and 2023 was by far the warmest year on record. El Niño has contributed to these record temperatures, but heat-trapping greenhouse gases are unequivocally the main culprit.”
Facing explosive demand, the United States is running out of electricity, Washington Post, Mar 7, 2024 (here in pdf format: Facing explosive demand, the U.S. is running out of electricity) A major factor behind the skyrocketing demand for electricity is the rapid innovation in artificial intelligence, which is driving the construction of large warehouses of computing infrastructure that require exponentially more power than traditional data centers. Furthermore, AI is but a part of a huge scale-up of cloud computing. Tech firms like Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta and Microsoft are scouring the country for sites for new data centers, and many lesser-known firms are also on the hunt. The situation also threatens to stifle the transition to cleaner energy [sic].
The fires sweeping across Texas are a terrifying warning, commentary by John Vaillant, in New York Times, Mar 2, 2024 (John Vaillant is the author of Fire Weather: A True Story From a Hotter World, published in 2023; see immediately below. Read the commentry here in pdf format: The fires sweeping across Texas offer a terrifying warning)
Previously reported: ‘Fire Weather’ should make a chill run down your spine, book review by Robert J. Wiersema, in Toronto Star, May 17, 2023 Reviewing: Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World, by John Vaillant, published by Knopf (Penguin Random House), June 2023, 432 pages Read the review here in pdf format: ‘Fire Weather’ should make a chill run down your spine
The melting glaciers of Peru offer a tourist destination, and a warning of global warming, Washington Post, May 6, 2023 (here in pdf format: The melting glaciers of Peru
California rains resurrect a long-dead lake in dry Death Valley, report in Washington Post, Mar 1, 2024 (here in pdf format: California rains resurrect desert Lake Manly)
