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Energy groups commit to tackling climate change

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Why the Earth’s past has scientists so worried about the Atlantic Ocean’s circulation

January–August 2015 blended land and sea surface temperature percentiles. (NOAA) In the last month, there’s been much attention to a cool patch in the North Atlantic Ocean, where record cold temperatures over the past eight months present a stark contrast to a globe that is experiencing record warmth. And although there is certainly no consensus on the matter yet , some scientists think this pattern may be a sign of one long-feared consequence of climate change — a slowing of North Atlantic ocean circulation, due to a freshening of surface waters. The cause, goes the thinking, would be the rapidly melting Greenland ice sheet, whose large freshwater flows may weaken ocean “overturning” by reducing the density of cold surface waters (colder, salty water is denser). If cold, salty waters don’t sink in the North Atlantic and flow back southward toward Antarctica at depth, then warm surface waters won’t flow […]

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Welcome To a New Planet

Not so long ago, it was science fiction. Now, it’s hard science — and that should frighten us all. The latest reports from the prestigious and sober Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) make increasingly hair-raising reading, suggesting that the planet is approaching possible moments of irreversible damage in a fashion and at a speed that had not been anticipated. Scientists have long worried that climate change will not continue to advance in a “linear” fashion, with the planet getting a little bit hotter most years. Instead, they fear, humanity could someday experience “non-linear” climate shifts (also known as “singularities” or “tipping points”) after which there would be sudden and irreversible change of a catastrophic nature. This was the premise of the 2004 climate-disaster film The Day After Tomorrow . In that movie — most notable for its vivid scenes of a frozen-over New York City — melting polar […]

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With Market on Their Side, Electric Utilities Skip Fight Against Carbon Rule

Lynn Good, Duke’s chief executive, is undecided about the EPA’s carbon-dioxide emissions plan. U.S. coal companies and at least 16 state governments are working on challenges to the Obama administration’s new rule limiting carbon emissions from power plants. Most electric utilities have a different strategy: They are embracing it. The main reason, executives and experts say, is that economic forces are pushing the power industry inexorably toward a lower-carbon future. “Everybody is moving in this direction anyway,” said Dominion Chief Executive Tom Farrell. The new regulations just add certainty to companies’ plans to move away from relying on coal to generate electricity, turning instead toward cheap natural gas as well as renewable energy, which is available at increasingly lower cost. “Price is a larger force in electricity markets today than what Washington is doing with regulations,” said Todd Carter, president of Panda Power Funds, a private-equity investor and generating-plant […]

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Oil CEOs Differ on Carbon Strategy, Highlighting Industry Divide

LONDON—The chief executives of Royal Dutch Shell PLC and ExxonMobil Corp. laid out contrasting visions this week for reducing fossil-fuel emissions, illustrating a divide between American and European energy companies ahead of a United Nations climate-change summit. Rex Tillerson , CEO of U.S.-based Exxon, said Wednesday that innovation, free markets and competition were the best tools for curbing emissions. His remarks came a day after Ben van Beurden, chief of Anglo-Dutch giant Shell, said technology wouldn’t be enough to bring about emissions cuts, and that governments needed to step in. Both executives were speaking here at the Oil and Money conference, co-hosted by Energy Intelligence and the International New York Times. The differing messages show that the oil industry hasn’t come up with a unified response to climate change, even as its leaders become increasingly vocal about it in the run-up to the U.N. summit in Paris. Nearly 200 […]

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There Are Half as Many Fish as There Were in 1970

Mankind’s insatiable appetite for seafood has decimated global fisheries. A disturbing new report from the World Wildlife Fund and the Zoological Society of London reveals that the number of fish and other aquatic animals dropped 49 percent between 1970 and 2012. There’s no question that leaving animals off our plates is the most powerful choice each of us can make to help fish populations rebound. alternet

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Survey of Republican Voters Shows a Majority Believe in Climate Change

Photo A Republican supporter wore a tie decorated with elephant mascots at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., in 2012. Credit Daniel Acker/Bloomberg, via Getty Images WASHINGTON — A majority of Republicans — including 54 percent of self-described conservative Republicans — believe the world’s climate is changing and that mankind plays some role in the change, according to a new survey conducted by a trio of prominent Republican pollsters. The results echo a number of other recent surveys concluding that, despite the talk of many of the party’s candidates, a significant number of Republicans and independent voters are inclined to support candidates who would back some form of climate action. It may also point to a problem facing Republicans seeking their party’s presidential nomination: The activists who crowd town hall meetings and Republican presidential caucuses and primaries might not reflect the broader attitude of even the Republican electorate. […]

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Volkswagen Scandal Highlights European Stalling on New Emissions Tests

Photo A Volkswagen factory building in Wolfsburg, Germany. The company installed software in 11 million diesel vehicles to provide false information about emissions. Credit Michael Sohn/Associated Press BRUSSELS — European legislators got a jolt this month in their long-running effort to update auto-emissions standards when a German member of the European Parliament suddenly proposed exempting a whole class of vehicles. “This was a huge loophole, and everyone was asking: Where does this idea come from?” recalled Bas Eickhout, a member of the Dutch Green party who sits on the committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety. It did not take long to discover the origin of the contentious proposal: Volkswagen Group. What had seemed a proposal by a legislator was in reality the work of the German carmaker. This was just one particularly brazen example of how European automobile manufacturers have for years sought to thwart or […]

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China carbon trading not all bad news for commodities: Russell

The China Central Television (CCTV) building is seen next to a construction site in heavy haze in Beijing’s central business district, January 14, 2013. – China’s planned national cap-and-trade carbon emissions system may at first appear to be yet another bearish factor for commodity demand in the world’s largest consumer of natural resources. In theory, limiting the amount of carbon emissions by setting a price per tonne and then making polluters pay for permits above their allocated limits will serve to raise costs for carbon-intensive industries, such as steel, aluminum, power generation, copper smelting and oil refining. A cap-and-trade system is only effective when it raises the cost of polluting to the point where the polluter limits output or invests in new technology or takes other steps to reduce emissions. Of course, a polluter can try to raise prices for the goods they produce, but this assumes that they […]

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Volkswagen CEO Promises Action on Emissions Scandal in Letter

He has promised investors and customers a thorough investigation into the emissions cheating scandal that has rocked Europe’s biggest car maker. And in a letter to employees, which was viewed by The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Müller closed ranks with labor representatives, vowing to ensure that such misconduct “never happens again.” “We will be relentless in getting to the bottom of this—fast, open and as decisively as possible,” Mr. Müller and Bernd Osterloh, head of VW’s powerful works council, said in the letter, which is to be sent to employees on Monday. The letter echoes comments Mr. Müller made during his first public appearance after being named CEO of the group on Friday. By sending it together with Mr. Osterloh, the new VW chief is demonstrating his willingness to work closely with labor, a key reason why he was chosen for the job. On Friday, Mr. Müller acknowledged the […]

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