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New rule compels US coal-fired power plants to capture emissions – or shut down

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By Associated Press/The Guardian.  Excerpt: Coal-fired power plants would be forced to capture smokestack emissions or shut down under a rule issued on Thursday by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). ...The power plant rule marks the first time the federal government has restricted  carbon dioxide emissions  from existing coal-fired power plants. The rule also would force future electric plants fueled by coal or gas to control up to 90% of their carbon pollution. The new standards will stave off 1.38bn metric tons of carbon pollution through 2047, equivalent to the annual emissions of 328m gas cars, the EPA said, and will provide hundreds of billions of dollars in climate and health benefits, measured in fewer premature deaths, asthma cases, and lost work or school days. ...Rich Nolan, president and CEO of the National Mining Association, said that through the latest rules, “the EPA is systematically dismantling the reliability of the US electric grid”. ...Coal provided about 16
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IRA’s Solar for All Program Will Install Nearly 1 Million Systems in US

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By Dan Gearino , Inside Climate News.  Excerpt: For people who have spent their careers trying to expand access to rooftop solar energy, the announcement on Monday of $7 billion worth of project support from the Biden administration is almost unfathomable in its size and scope. Money from the Solar for All program, which is part of the Inflation Reduction Act, will go to 60 recipients that include state and Tribal governments and nonprofit organizations. Its goal is to help lower-income and otherwise disadvantaged households obtain the financial and environmental benefits of solar. “It’s a good day,” said Erica Mackie, CEO and co-founder of GRID Alternatives, an Oakland, California-based nonprofit that will receive two grants totaling more than $310 million and is involved with a third grant of $62.3 million. ...GRID Alternatives started in 2004 with the installation of two solar systems and has grown to about 500 employees who provide job training for solar installers and set up solar
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Three Places Changing Quickly to Fight Climate Change

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By Delger Erdenesanaa , The New York Times.  Excerpt: To mark Earth Day (and to try to reach young, environmentally-minded voters) President Biden is  promoting a new national program  to train and employ people in climate-related jobs, and reminding voters of the clean-energy investments underway following the Inflation Reduction Act. ...Uruguay, a nation of 3.4 million people wedged between Argentina and Brazil, generates nearly all its electricity from renewable sources. In 2008, the  government set a goal  of transforming the electric grid, which had come to depend on imported oil. ...Between 2013 and 2018, wind generation grew sharply from almost nothing to about a quarter of Uruguay’s electricity mix. By the end of 2022, the most recent year data is available, Uruguay generated more than  90 percent of its power  from renewables, with wind and solar growing even as hydropower declined. ...Transportation is the second biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions. Electric car sales
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Oldest ever ice offers glimpse of Earth before the ice ages

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By ELISE CUTTS , Science.  Excerpt: Samples of eerie blue glacial ice from Antarctica are a staggering 6 million years old, scientists announced last week,  doubling the previous record  for Earth’s oldest ice. The ice opens a new window on Earth’s ancient climate—one that isn’t exactly what scientists expected. The ice opens a new window on Earth’s ancient climate—one that isn’t exactly what scientists expected. The results are preliminary, stresses Ed Brook, a geochemist at Oregon State University (OSU) and leader of the U.S. Center for Oldest Ice Exploration (COLDEX), which  presented   the   discovery  last week here in multiple talks at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly. But if even a tiny drop in CO 2  can kick off a major climate change, Brook adds, “you know, we probably care about that.”....  Full article at https://www.science.org/content/article/oldest-ever-ice-offers-glimpse-earth-ice-ages . 
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Drilling on the Edge

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By CHRISTIAN ELLIOTT , Science.  Excerpt: The helicopter hovered overhead, whipping up snow. ...One trip down, 17 more to go,  thought [Peter] Neff, a polar glaciologist  at the University of Minnesota (UM) Twin Cities. ...Neff and his team would have just 10 days to drill ice cores on Canisteo, a peninsula on the west coast of Antarctica—and a blizzard was already looming. ...Scientists usually target sites deep in the continent’s interior, where the weather is calmer and they can spend years collecting kilometers-long ice cores that record hundreds of thousands of years of climate history. Neff needed just a couple hundred years of history, and he only needed to drill 150 meters deep to get it. But his chosen location was exceptionally remote and stormy. He was there because of ...the  Pine Island  and  Thwaites glaciers , which jut into the Amundsen Sea as frozen shelves tens of kilometers wide. These glaciers act as corks in the bottle of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which ...stor
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Deadly marine ‘cold spells’ could become more frequent with climate change, scientists warn

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By WARREN CORNWALL , Science.  Excerpt: In March 2021, a grisly scene materialized on the beaches of South Africa. Giant bat-winged manta rays sprawled belly up on rocks. Hulking bull sharks lay dead in the sand. Puffer fish littered shorelines like deflated footballs. Such fish kills are usually triggered by hot water, low oxygen, or toxic algae blooms. But this time it was a surprising culprit. In the middle of the southern summer, these fish died of cold—a phenomenon that may be linked to climate change, according to  a new paper . At a time when global warming is driving ocean temperatures to record-setting highs and  marine heat waves are striking around the globe , it might seem paradoxical that climate change could be linked to the underwater equivalent of a cold snap. But researchers now say that in some parts of the world, incidents like the 2021 cold spell appear to be getting more common as currents change, with potentially lethal consequences for marine life....  See articl
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Northern Permafrost Region Emits More Greenhouse Gases Than It Captures

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By Saima May Sidik , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: Permafrost underlies a quarter of the Northern Hemisphere. A comprehensive analysis shows that the area may have shifted from a sink to a source of greenhouse gases, bringing a longtime prediction to fruition. Permafrost underlies about  14 million square kilometers  of land in and around the Arctic. The top 3 meters contain an estimated 1 trillion metric tons of carbon and 55 billion metric tons of nitrogen. Historically, the northern permafrost region has been a sink for carbon, as frozen soils inhibit microbial decomposition. But rising temperatures contribute to thawing permafrost and enhance the biogeochemical activities that  exacerbate climate change  by releasing greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), methane (CH 4 ), and nitrous oxide (N 2 O). ... Ramage et al.   synthesized greenhouse gas measurements of the northern permafrost region between 2000 and 2020 to provide a carbon balance for the region, as well as the first compr
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