Energy

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Greenhouse gases reach a new record as nations fall behind on climate pledges : NPR

GENEVA — The three main greenhouse gases hit record high levels in the atmosphere last year, the U.N. weather agency said Wednesday, calling it an "ominous" sign as war in Ukraine, rising costs of food and fuel, and other worries have elbowed in on longtime concerns about global warming in recent months.

"More bad news for the planet," the World Meteorological Organization said in a statement along with its latest annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin. It's one of several reports released in recent days looking at several aspects of humanity's struggle with climate change in the run up to the U.N.'s latest climate conference, in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. The U.S. pledged billions to fight climate change. Then came the Ukraine war Goats and Soda The U.S. pledged billions to fight climate change. Then came the Ukraine war

Of the three main types of heat-trapping greenhouse gases — carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide — the biggest jump from 2020 to 2021 was in methane, whose concentrations in the air came in with the biggest year-on-year increase since regular measurements began four decades ago, WMO said.

"The continuing rise in concentrations of the main heat-trapping gases, including the record acceleration in methane levels, shows that we are heading in the wrong direction," said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.

Methane is more potent at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, but doesn't stay in the atmosphere nearly as long as carbon dioxide and there's 200 times more carbon dioxide in the air than methane. Over a 20-year time-period, a molecule of methane traps about 81 times the heat as a molecule of carbon dioxide but over a century it goes down to trapping 28 times more heat per molecule than carbon dioxide, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

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Gloom oozes from forecasts that show oil demand to drop , heating bills to rise : NPR

OPEC predicts that oil demand will soften in the next few months, thanks to economic headwinds, while the U.S. Energy Information Administration warns that winter heating bills are likely to rise.

Both closely watched fuel forecasts were released on Wednesday.

OPEC's monthly oil market report sounded a pessimistic note about global economic growth. And because economic growth drives oil demand, the group reduced its projections for growth in global oil consumption by 500,000 barrels per day, or more than 15%.

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OPEC makes deep oil output cuts sought by Saudi Arabia and Russia, snubbing US : NPR

The OPEC alliance announced a 2 million barrels a day cut in oil production Wednesday — an amount that could drive oil and gas prices back up after weeks on a downward trend.

The meeting of the 24 OPEC oil-producing countries, including Russia, comes at a time when much of the world is already battling soaring energy costs. A supply cut will also exacerbate tensions between Saudi Arabia and the U.S., where President Biden has been trying to rein in prices at the gas pump ahead of the midterm elections.

The White House called the decision "shortsighted" and said in a statement the administration would "deliver another 10 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to the market next month, continuing the historic releases the President ordered in March."

The harvest moon is such an eerie orange color this year. 🌕

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Every year I get a bit creeped out by the dull skies and the bright orange moon that sometimes happens when smoke from the Western Wildfires drifts east.

The harvest moon is such an eerie orange color this year. 🌕

While all the activist types are pontificating about their electronic cars and solar panels, the planet continues to bake as more and more carbon becomes part of the atmosphere. Denialism is as popular on the left as on the right. We’re told we should be scared for the future but not today, yet it’s tossed around more and more just about virtue signaling and green consumerism and patronage then any real solution.

Myself I’m increasingly alarmed as I see where this is going. I wish I could find ways to be more resilient and protective of my own life by owning land and equipment to protect it. Because I’m not at all convinced government is going to protect us from climate change and waiting on government for a hand out after a disaster is a very risky proposition. Sometimes the politicians help but often they dodge responsibility with red tape.

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Western drought raises risk of power blackouts : NPR

Driving through the Wyoming sagebrush west of Cheyenne, the clouds of dust rising from the road give way to giant plumes of steam shooting into the warming sky.

This is the Jim Bridger power plant, one of the largest coal-fired power sources in the nation and an enormous emitter of carbon dioxide pollution. At the plant's edge there's a reservoir, lined with rocks and clumps of drying grass. The plant sucks up about 16 million barrels of water each day, using it to power more than million homes across six western states, all the way to Oregon.

But there's a problem that looms for the coal plant operator and the customers that rely on it for electricity. This water is piped here from the Green River, a tributary of the rapidly shrinking Colorado River. Now, amidst a decades-long drought and a shortage of water downstream across the Southwest, future conservation in the basin could mean industrial users like Jim Bridger see their water shut off, says Wyoming State Engineer Brandon Gebhart.