Trump officials back firm in fight over California offshore oil drilling after huge spill
Trump officials back firm in fight over California offshore oil drilling after huge spill
Sable Offshore Corp. says it wants to work with California to restart the pipeline again.gqlshare (The Mercury News)
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UK Labour ministers met fossil fuel lobbyists 500 times in first year of power, analysis shows
Labour ministers met fossil fuel lobbyists 500 times in first year of power, analysis shows
Lobbyists attended 48% more meetings than Tories, as Labour accused of giving them ‘backstage pass’Matthew Taylor (The Guardian)
Depends
They start to give off CO2 when it gets to hot - or at least can't take up as much anymore
We aren't just losing storage, nature joins us in producing more CO2 the hotter it gets
Plants can only consume so much.
sciencealert.com/trees-struggl…
Trees Struggling to Absorb CO2, Leading Emissions to Skyrocket : ScienceAlert
Recording-breaking carbon emissions in 2023 could be a sign that nature's carbon removal systems are failing, a study awaiting peer-review warns.Tessa Koumoundouros (ScienceAlert)
The Blue-State Governors Who’ve Gone Weak on Climate Policy | They make a big show of standing up to Trump. But what about standing up for the planet?
* archive.today
* web.archive.org
The Blue-State Governors Who’ve Gone Weak on Climate Policy
They make a big show of standing up to Trump. But what about standing up for the planet?The New Republic
US and Canada weigh revival of ‘zombie’ Keystone XL pipeline in trade talks | Controversial project to ship heavy crude to Texas coast was killed by Biden administration on environmental grounds
* archive.today
FT
The latest UK and international business, finance, economic and political news, comment and analysis from the Financial Times optimised for your device on app.ft.com.Financial Times
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Toward cleaner, safer Philadelphia waterways
Climate change and ancient infrastructure make Philadelphia vulnerable to potentially catastrophic flooding, but federal, state, and local efforts are meeting the moment.
I figure they just haven't gotten around to yanking federal support for this kind of adaptation measure
Prospects Dim for Denmark’s Renewable Energy Star
Orsted, which helped create and dominated the offshore wind industry, has felt a huge impact from these setbacks. The company said last week that it would lay off 2,000 people, or 25 percent of its staff, over the next two years.Instead of lining up new, multibillion-dollar wind farms to build in shallow waters around the globe, Orsted will mainly focus on finishing those it has under construction and managing them or selling them off.
Orsted said 235 of the 500 layoffs planned for this quarter would be in Denmark
Wood Mackenzie, an energy consulting firm, forecast that less than 50 percent of the cumulative targets set by national governments, excluding China, for offshore wind for the end of the decade will be achieved.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/16/business/denmark-orsted-wind-farms-trump.html
Hope
cross-posted from: slrpnk.net/post/28796937
Yet every time we open Pandora's box there's Andrew Tate or his like.
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CO2 from wildfires increases by 9% as climate crisis supercharges infernos
CO2 from wildfires increases by 9% as climate crisis supercharges infernos
Greenhouse gases from wildfires at sixth highest level on record after blazes in large areas of the Americas and AfricaSandra Laville (The Guardian)
Judge Throws Out Children’s Lawsuit Against Trump’s Energy Policies
The group had challenged the president’s executive orders as unconstitutional. A judge “reluctantly” said the suit was too broad in scope.
This Hydrogen has no Color
This Hydrogen has no Color
Peregrine Hydrogen has an unusual idea for making clean Hydrogen, one that it says fits into existing industrial processes. One of the world's largest Phosphate mining companies is interested.Hanno Böck (industrydecarbonization.com)
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Approaching peak phosphorus - Nature Plants
Any long-term solution to the projected decline in phosphate supply must involve improving phosphorus use efficiency in crop plants.Nature
Controversial UK oil field reveals climate impact if approved
Controversial UK oil field reveals climate impact if approved
The impact from the Rosebank oil field is estimated at nearly 250 million tonnes of planet warming CO2.Esme Stallard (BBC News)
Americans can’t afford their cars any more and Wall Street is worried
cross-posted from: lemmy.world/post/37630345
If only we had invented and built some sort of alternative mode of collective transportation. Maybe it could be in tunnels and ride on metallic rails. It would serve many people and make periodic stops to the same locations instead of the highway clusterf- we have today. Sad that we don't, but a man can dream though. A man can dream though. A man can dream.
copymyjalopy likes this.
Big Tech’s big bet on a controversial carbon removal tactic
Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage can scale faster than other approaches. But some experts are dubious about the climate benefits.
Archived copies of the article:
* archive.today
* web.archive.org
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I am dubious that business people and techbros give a shit enough to remain rational about this vs. just sell the vibe of caring.
Actually I am very sure they don't.
Caring with too big of an ego to listen doesn't count as caring.
This strategy will end up catastrophically failing, no matter, techbros and business people will have made a killing in profits while delaying actual action on climate change.
But experts have raised a number of concerns about various approaches to BECCS, stressing they may inflate the climate benefits of the projects, conflate prevented emissions with carbon removal, and extend the life of facilities that pollute in other ways. It could also create greater financial incentives to log forests or convert them to agricultural land.When greenhouse-gas sources and sinks are properly tallied across all the fields, forests, and factories involved, it’s highly difficult to achieve negative emissions with many approaches to BECCS, says Tim Searchinger, a senior research scholar at Princeton University. That undermines the logic of dedicating more of the world’s limited land, crops, and woods to such projects, he argues.
“I call it a ‘BECCS and switch,’” he says, adding later: “It’s folly at some level.”
Chinese freighter halves EU delivery time on maiden Arctic voyage to UK
The Istanbul Bridge's maiden voyage, originally expected to take 18 days, was delayed by two days due to a storm off the coast of Norway but the ship still reached Europe earlier than the 40 to 50 days it takes freighters going through the Suez Canal or around the Cape of Good Hope.The new Northern Sea Route, running entirely through Arctic waters and within Russia's exclusive economic zone, can now be navigated by ships due to global warming.
Forty years ago today (Oct 15, 1985) a clear loud climate warning was given. We didn't listen.
Forty years ago today (Oct 15, 1985) a clear loud climate warning was given. We didn't listen. - All Our Yesterdays
If you and I lived in a rational world, a world that cared about the future of human life – and indeed all life – on the planet, then by now October 15 would be internationally recognised as “The Day We Woke Up.drmarchudson (All Our Yesterdays)
Global Investors Are Pouring More Money into Climate Tech | Clean energy companies, EV makers and other green firms attracted $56 billion in the first nine months of 2025 — more than in all of 2024.
Global Climate Tech is Attracting More Investors Than Pre-Trump
Clean energy companies, EV makers and other green firms attracted $56 billion in the first nine months of 2025 — more than in all of 2024.Coco Liu (Bloomberg)
Teens Who Sued Hawai‘i Say Climate Plan For Aviation Doesn’t Fly
Interisland flights are Hawaiʻi’s biggest transportation carbon producer, making up more than half of all emissions related to civilian travel in the state.
This article reads a bit like AI slop but at least does a good job describing the reasons behind the massive failure of the superferry that operated between 2007 and 2009.
Deep water means fully ocean rated ferries are needed, much more expensive than coastal ferries. Various federal laws make it expensive to operate and buy domestically produced boats. Locals protested the effects on whales. NIMBYs don’t want more easy access promoting overtourism. Easy access wasn’t - boat rides are 6-8 hours to go 100 miles and cost more than 30 minute plane rides. The operator lost a court case and went bankrupt hard.
Ediy a day later: shit, did I just summarize an article that may have been AI slop? In a public forum that will be ingested in future trainings, no less. I’m sorry and I’ll try not to train it again with direct feedback.
Why You Can’t Travel Between Hawaii’s Islands By Boat
This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I earn a small commission if you use the links. View our Privacy Policy and for more.You're planning yourBryan Murphy (Hawaii's Best Travel)
On this week’s “More To The Story,” environmentalist Bill McKibben examines how the remarkable rise of solar power could (finally) begin to slow climate change.
How a climate doomsayer became an unexpected optimist
On this week’s “More To The Story,” environmentalist Bill McKibben examines how the remarkable rise of solar power could (finally) begin to slow climate change.Mother Jones
To Meet Pledges to Save Forests Spending Must Triple, U.N. Report Says
Four years after a global pledge to end deforestation, the amount of money going toward conserving and restoring forests is not enough, the analysis found.
Trump’s Tariff Fight With China Means Trouble for a Vast Wilderness in Brazil
Brazilian farmers are lobbying to roll back deforestation restrictions in order to sell more soybeans to the huge Chinese market.
What happened is kind of like what happened to the cotton market in the Civil War — back then the South decided to threaten to withhold cotton destined for British mills in order to force the British to intervene on their side. Instead, the mill owners set up a cotton industry in Egypt, and stopped needing to buy from the US anymore. This meant that the high profits from cotton never returned. In the same way, Chinese pig farmers have switched their sourcing of soy, and no longer buy from the US
Trump’s Tariffs Should Force a Reckoning With America’s Soy Industry
The industry became the world’s second-largest not because of human demand for soy, but to feed China’s pigs.The New Republic
Record leap in CO2 fuels fears of accelerating global heating | CO2 in air hit new high last year, with scientists concerned natural land and ocean carbon sinks are weakening
Record leap in CO2 fuels fears of accelerating global heating
CO2 in air hit new high last year, with scientists concerned natural land and ocean carbon sinks are weakeningDamian Carrington (The Guardian)
Government told to prepare for 2C warming by 2050
Government told to prepare for 2C warming by 2050
The Climate Change Committee said the UK should make climate change adaptions beyond the Paris Agreement.Justin Rowlatt (BBC News)
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Yeah. Two years ago, mainstream studies were estimating 3°C by 2100 - and it's well documented at this point how climate scientists deliberately underestimate predicted rates of warning to avoid being seen as alarmist.
At this point I agree with 2°C by 2040 and bet on 3°C by 2050. 5°C by 2100, 10°C if some of the worst case feedback loops exist.
Brazil’s first private Amazon road paves new trade route to China as pro-deforestation mindset prevails
cross-posted from: lemmy.sdf.org/post/44101271
Archived
- Brazil’s government has signed a 30-year contract to privatize a section of the BR-364 highway, a key part of its plan to create an overland corridor to Peru to streamline commodity exports to China.
- Critics warn that expanding the highway into well-preserved rainforest risks repeating its history by attracting illegal loggers and land grabbers, a pattern that previously cleared vast areas for agriculture.
[...]
Fueled by soybean, corn and beef production, [the Brazilian state of] Rondônia is now one of Brazil’s leading agribusiness states, where a pro-deforestation mindset prevails, rooted in a population largely disconnected from the forest, rivers and traditional Amazonian culture. This view gained renewed momentum under Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right president from 2019-2022, who won all 52 of Rondônia’s municipalities in both the 2018 and 2022 elections.
Cutting across Rondônia, BR-364 has become a key route for moving grain, beef and minerals to ports on the Madeira River in Porto Velho. From there, commodities from Brazil’s central-west region are shipped downriver to foreign markets via the Atlantic Ocean.
Brazil's first private Amazon road paves new trade route to China
A road that once opened the Amazon to destruction is being expanded, and critics fear history will repeat itself.Alexandre de Santi (Conservation news)
Dozens Are Dead and Dozens More Missing as Catastrophic Rains Devastate Mexico
While it’s difficult to draw a connection between any specific downpour and climate change in real time, studies suggest that, as global temperatures rise, storms produce more extreme rain because warm air holds more moisture than cool air.
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A Coal-Processing Plant Closed. Local E.R. Visits Dropped Sharply.
As President Trump tries to revive the United States coal industry, research has found that closing a coal facility can improve local health.
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The disasters we talk about shape our priorities and determine our preparedness
In December 1989, the United Nations declared Oct. 13 International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction. At the time, the aim was to make disaster-risk reduction part of everyday thinking worldwide.Today, this mission is more urgent than ever as disasters strike more often and with greater force.
And although substantial progress has been made, there is still much to achieve in reducing disaster risks and their impacts.
One of the main culprits for overlooking certain disasters is the way we talk about them. We tend to focus more on the narratives surrounding rapid-onset events — wildfires, earthquakes, hurricanes — versus long-term crises like climate change.
The disasters we talk about shape our priorities and determine our preparedness
From drought to soil degradation and environmental pollution, why does society overlook the most impactful disasters?The Conversation
Russia’s Arctic Sea route sells speed at the planet's expense, another new study finds
cross-posted from: lemmy.sdf.org/post/44071783
ArchivedA recent study published in Nature Communications by Pengjun Zhao, Yunlin Li, Caixia Zhang and co-authors examines how the opening of Arctic shipping routes is set to reshape not just the global shipping traffic, but global carbon emissions. The research points to possible environmental advantages from shorter routes, but also reveals hidden risks that complicate the promise of this new era in maritime trade.
Here is the study published in Nature
Key points:
- A Shorter Route Doesn’t Guarantee a Cleaner Route: The Arctic shipping route can cut some journeys by up to 40%, particularly between Northern Europe and Northeast Asia, but efficiency gains may be offset by induced shipping demand and shifts in global fleet patterns.
- Arctic Emissions Could Surge: Maritime emissions within the Arctic could rise sharply, from 0.22% to as much as 2.72% of global shipping emissions, creating a new climate hotspot.
- Heavy Emitters Set to Dominate: Oil, gas, and chemical tankers are expected to make up the bulk of NSR traffic, amplifying the carbon footprint of rerouted shipping flows.
- Policy Matters More Than Distance Saved: The study finds that relying on current IMO targets or Green Corridors only modestly reduces emissions. Only a robust Net-Zero strategy with cleaner fuels, caps, and regional implementation could fully offset added Arctic emissions.
- Risks of Carbon Inequality: Route shifts may concentrate emissions in specific areas while reducing them elsewhere, creating localized “hot spots” of pollution exposure.
- Technological & Environmental Constraints: Short-term fuel savings may be undermined by Arctic-specific challenges such as extreme weather, heavy fuel oils, spill risks, inadequate infrastructure, and regulatory gaps.
The findings in the study do support claims that the Northern Sea Route is a shorter and cheaper alternative to existing shipping routes. However, the study is only the latest to sound the alarm over the potential environmental and safety risks inherent to the route.
In recent weeks, the Bellona research group presented their findings from years of analysis into the dangers posed by the Northern Sea Route. You'll find a video on the linked site for some of the main findings.
Russia’s Arctic route sells speed, at the planet's expense - ArcticToday
Researchers are sounding the alarm that the Northern Sea Route is not the climate boon its advocates promiseMary McAuliffe (ArcticToday)
Fact-checking a Trump administration claim about climate change and crops
A recent Department of Energy report falsely states that rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere will boost agricultural yields. In fact, climate change is much more likely to make food scarcer and more expensive.
Is there an extension to Betteridge's law of headlines for fact checking right wing governments?
Pretty sure the answer is always "yep, they lied again"
Exposed: Uncontrolled biogas expansion funded by public purse
More than €37 billion in public money available and €28 billion of private investments committed – with added risks to climate and healthA new report from the Methane Matters coalition – a consortium of civil society organisations – finds that The EU has handed the biogas industry billions of euros of public money to expand, without ensuring adequate environmental controls.
Exposed: Uncontrolled biogas expansion funded by public purse
More than €37 billion in public money available and €28 billion of private investments committed - with added risks to climate and health A new report from the Methane Matters coalition - a consortium of civil society organisations – finds that The E…EEB - The European Environmental Bureau
Pentagon retreats from climate fight even as heat and storms slam US troops
For decades, the military treated climate crisis as a threat. Now it’s backing away from plans to protect people and bases from extreme weather
Pentagon retreats from climate fight even as heat and storms slam US troops
For decades, the military treated the climate crisis as a threat. Now it’s backing away from plans to protect people and bases from extreme weatherGuardian staff reporter (The Guardian)
This is fucking stupid.
Aside from the threat that it is, knowing what the fucking weather is doing is VITAL to military operations and has been since one cave dweller sharpened a stone!
Seriously, go back in time to any point where England and France were at war with eachother and ask either side waiting by their boats for days/weeks/months why they haven't set off yet.
‘We are witnessing a fire-sale of the world’s rainforests’ – global banks earn billions from deforestation
cross-posted from: lemmy.sdf.org/post/44051179
Archived
- US banks earned the most globally, making $5.4 billion, with Vanguard, JPMorgan Chase and BlackRock topping the list. In the US, the SEC’s climate-related financial disclosure rules remain suspended, and attempts to pass the FOREST Act, an import regulation like the UK’s law banning imports grown on illegally deforested land, have stalled.
- EU banks generated $3.5 billion, led by BNP Paribas and Rabobank, while UK banks made $1.2 billion, with HSBC, aberdeen Group and Schroders at the top. The EU’s flagship deforestation law, due to enter into application at the end of 2025 has already been delayed by 12-months [...] and remains at risk of additional delays.
- Chinese financial institutions made $1.2 billion, almost entirely from credit-related deals and fees – despite the country’s green finance policy requiring banks to restrict lending for companies with ESG concerns. In China, Green Finance Guidelines introduced in 2022 could be utilised to outline how banks should identify, monitor, prevent and control their environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks. However, China remains the biggest international financier of companies that trade and produce goods linked to deforestation.
- Together, banks in all other countries including Indonesia and Brazil earned $15.9 billion.
- The UK passed a law in 2021 prohibiting the use of products linked to illegally deforested land, but it has yet to come into fully force. Once it does, the Treasury must conduct a review of the UK’s role in financing global deforestation.
Global banks earn billions from deforestation
New Global Witness research exposes glaring contradiction at the heart of forest finance, as Brazil prepares to launch flagship tropical forest fund at COP30Global Witness
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Carbon credits are failing to help with climate change — here’s why
Offsets are tradable credits from projects that claim to reduce emissions, either by avoiding them or by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Businesses and countries trade these credits — each representing the equivalent of one tonne of CO2 — to ‘neutralize’ their own emissions.Although conceptually appealing, this reliance on offsets has fatal flaws. In practice, it’s difficult to ensure that they represent real emissions reductions rather than ‘hot air’, with the claimed climate benefits existing only on paper. Equally challenging is ensuring that emission reductions are ‘additional’, meaning that they would not have occurred without the incentive provided by the sale of carbon credits. (...)
This results in more emissions, delays the phase-out of fossil fuels and diverts scarce resources to false solutions.
Carbon credits are failing to help with climate change — here’s why
The idea that emissions can be offset through projects that claim to avoid releases or to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is fatally flawed.Rockström, Johan
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OpenAI’s New Energy Chief Is a Trump Administration Natural Gas Evangelist
OpenAI’s New Energy Chief Is a Trump Administration Natural Gas Evangelist - DeSmog
The ChatGPT creator hired John McCarrick, a gas-loving former Trump energy official, to guide how the company will source huge quantities of power for its colossal supercomputers.Rei Takver (DeSmog)
Oof. The one good thing about Trump 2.0 is that I feel like everyone is dropping a lot of acts.
All the tech CEOs are various shades of authoritarian end-times doomers. They all know that they're frying the planet, and they're getting more comfortable admitting that they just can't really be bothered to stop doing it anyway.
ChatGPT will be the first to fall. Claude will linger because programming uses a textbook-taught model. Nobody was ever going to use Copilot anyway. Apple didn’t even want Apple “Intelligence”, much like their stupid Alexa speaker, they just did it to appease idiot shareholders. Muskrat’s sex doll AI actually killing real humans will just be an AI sex worker that murders humans with generator pollution and nothing more.
Oh, and Google’s whatever AI thinks a rabbit is a squirrel. But nobody cares anyway. Google destroyed their phone OS permanently. Nobody will use their tech going forward. So. Yeah.
ByeAI! 👋
Models will live on, likely in the style of China’s goals. Small compact models to run on common hardware to achieve simple goals like fixing a lawnmower or a 747.
Australia's Queensland reverses policy, pledges to keep using coal power
Australia's Queensland state government said on Friday it would run coal power plants at least into the 2040s, reversing a previous plan to pivot rapidly to renewables
als
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