I do worry a lot about environmental laws becoming under attack by climate change activists β and politicians who see climate change as an excuse to build big projects with out careful consideration of impacts.
The risk only grows in the coming years β everybody at one level knows that when a doctor or scientist warns you β but you ignore their advice things might be okay for years until something truly awful happens. The power brokers are waiting in the sidelines for the bottom to drop out and theyβll be the hell with environmental laws or quite possibly even democracy when the climate crisis truly hits.
You often see these trucks with highly compressed natural gas on the roads, which help natural gas companies overcome pipeline limitations which put cost constraints on the movement of gas. They're has been a number of these trucks that have been in crashes in recent years, although so far there has not been a major explosion or release of gas from the trucks.
"The new study estimates the ocean heating rate at about three Hiroshima bombs per second for the period of 1990 to 2015βwhich is actually on the low end, compared to other estimates."
The Republican Party is the only major right-of-center party in the world that refuses to acknowledge the link between greenhouse-gas emissions and rising global temperatures. The major cause of this is one liberals are well aware of: The partyβs climate stance is controlled by a combination of fossil-fuel interests and active cranks dissembling about the science. But there is a secondary cause of the GOPβs inability to confront reality that is less understood. Many leading conservatives do understand climate science, yet refuse to frontally challenge their partyβs denialism.
The non-cranks of the right will admit that global warming is real, and usually concede as well that some policy solution other than allowing the free dumping of carbon pollution into the atmosphere is needed. But their main energies are reserved for attacking excesses of the left. This solution goes too far, that solution accomplishes too little; that social-media message oversimplifies. It is uncomfortable to linger on disagreements with their colleagues on the right. Much easier to linger on their shared resentment of environmentalists.
To be fair, I would say both sides have a lot of mutual resentment due to different lifestyles -- whether it's dirt and diesel or skyscrapers and city buses. And it's unfortunate and unproductive.
Wildfires are a regular occurrence in Australia, but on New Year's Eve, residents of the state of New South Wales experienced blazes stronger and more destructive than they had in years. In several of the southeastern towns, smoke blocked out the sky, houses were destroyed, and thousands of tourists and locals were forced to flee to nearby beaches. Seven people have died so far, and several others are unaccounted for.
Climate change is pretty scary stuff and we've been ignoring it for too long as it's a difficult thing to address politically -- it requires difficult choices and drastic changes in lifestyle of millions of Americans that nobody really wants to seriously. But everybody knows, this is the decade -- the 2020s -- when it's going to bite hard.
A public hearing has been set for the Jan. 8 town board meeting at 6 p.m. where people can comment on how Bethlehem intends to pass a local law authorizing the creation of a Community Choice Aggregation program.
Since October, Bethlehem originally began exploring β but not officially enrolled in it yet β a regional CCA program with Municipal Electric and Gas Alliance, a local corporation that helps the town purchase electricity in bulk from renewable energy resources. Ten other municipalities have also joined to explore the program: the towns of Guilderland, New Scotland, Niskayuna and Knox, the villages of Kinderhook and Voorheesville, and the cities of Glens Falls, Troy, Watervliet and Saratoga Springs.
Bethlehemβs participation in the regional CCA program would only go into effect much later in 2020 if the town decides to officially enroll in the program. Even though Bethlehem is exploring the program now, there is still a chance that the town can ultimately not enroll in it. MEGA also still needs to identify potential suppliers, negotiate pricing, review bids and reconnect with the town government in the months to come.