2023.09.22 What if you blustered about the harm done to you by the 'carbon tax', but it turns out you actually benefitted from it? It's time for the energy industry to wake up and smell the reality. The Canadian climate incentive feebate program is working.

Federal carbon charges levied on N.B. Power have been returned, utility concedes (CBC)

TL;DR: N.B. Power got ALL the money they paid into the program back.
As a result of a real price signal, N.B. Power started selecting power suppliers based on cost.
The funds returned are paying for a conservation program for New Brunswickers which will help them reduce their personal energy costs, while also reducing their GHG emissions.
Apparently these are the 'harms' that N.B. Power needed to be saved from and justified their lobbying campaign to be exempted from the 'Trudeau carbon tax'.
Pierre Poilievre - who is currently living rent-free in a taxpayer-funded residence - should take note of how real economics work and that N.B. Power, like all Canadians en masse, get their carbon fees refunded. So, it's not a tax; it's a feebate.

2023.09.22 Much is being made of the 'thousands of abandoned EVs in China' in western corporate media in recent weeks.

There’s a lesson to take from China’s abandoned electric cars (electrek)

There is indeed a lesson to be learned here: inferior products have a limited market, especially when faced with something better for the same price. This is why EVs are eroding gasoline and diesel vehicles market share worldwide; EVs provide a better driver experience (quiet, clean, lower cost of fuel, lower maintenance costs), and the prices of EVs continue to fall as economies of scale mount and battery costs per kWh of storage continue to fall. By comparison, gasoline and diesel fuel contine to get more expensive, and initial purchase prices continue to rise. We're pretty much at the the tipping point now where the market for fossil fuel vehicles is going to collapse, and there will be a short-term premium for EVs in the face of a gold-rush market demand until it is satisfied. BTW, Big 3 automakers, it's a bad time to set up for a months-long strike when the final battle for EV market share consciousness is about to be established, and you won't even have product to put in a showroom.

2023.09.21 I'll bet my own dollar this isn't going to happen

Canada To Aggressively Reduce Methane Emissions From Its Oil And Gas Industry (OilPrice.com)
The government which continues to throw cash, tax-breaks and subsidies at the Taxpayer's Money eXtraganza, err, I mean Trans Mountain eXpansion or TMX, isn't going to hold the oil and gas industry's feet to the fire to get them to reduce their own waste and save their own money. I absolutely wish they would, starting tomorrow, as methane is over 100 times as potent a GHG as carbon dioxide over a 10-year span, and reducing natural gas fugitive emissions is the ultimate low-hanging fruit in reducing GHGs in Canada, but the sector has under-reported the amounts and dragged their feet on remedial action for decades.

2023.09.20 Industry has known this for ages. The question is, why won't they do anything to fix it? This is lost revenue for them.

Trio of Sentinel satellites map methane super-emitters (Phys.org)

2023.09.20 Project is expected to cut diesel fuel reliance in half - real climate change action

Sanikiluaq wind project represents major Nunavut renewable energy policy shift (CBC)

2023.09.20 Won't happen in Canada. Pity. Our governments are committed to climate destruction like buggy-whip makers when cars were replacing horses en masse.

U.N. chief calls for an end to $7 trillion in fossil fuel subsidies (CNBC)

2023.09.20 Australia: imagine if your roof could contribute zero-emissions electricity to the grid, and you weren't alone.

Rooftop solar takes record 74 pct share of generation in world’s biggest standalone grid (Renew Economy)

2023.09.19 "Oil extraction dwarfs mining"

"To compare EVs with conventional vehicles, first we need to look at how much stuff we pull out of the ground to make and fuel them.
"Mining minerals for the clean-energy economy is measured in millions of tons per year. For fossil fuel extraction, that’s a rounding error." Bing, bing, bing. That's the short version from the article.

Are electric cars really better for the environment? (Washington Post)

2023.09.19 Debunking another climate change myth: speculative 'carbon credits'

Revealed: top carbon offset projects may not cut planet-heating emissions (The Guardian)

2023.09.18 AI, Social Justice, Reduced shipping energy use and undergarments for the climate win

The uplifting undergarment that combats fashion industry waste (National Observer)

2023.09.17 Wright's Law and Battery EV technology - Cheaper and Cleaner with increased production

Why EV Batteries Keep Getting Cheaper & Cleaner (CleanTechnica)

2023.09.17 Australia: Photovoltaics displacing coal generation to record low

Ottawa’s program supporting Indigenous energy transition partnerships was so popular, it had to pause (Renew Economy)

2023.09.15 Doug Ford's 2018 Ministerial mandate letters were retrograde and reprehensible. They were kept secret because the government knew it.

Ontario 2018 mandate letters told ministers to limit climate law impact on businesses (Global News)

2023.09.15 If you want GHG removal done right, you may have to do it yourself

Rainforest carbon credit schemes misleading and ineffective, finds report (The Guardian)

Also, trees aren't an effective carbon sink if you set them all on fire, as Canada did in 2023.

2023.09.14 If you didn't like the volatile weather in 2023, here's your climate change wake-up call

New study finds most communities will encounter heavy rainfall, excessive heat under climate change (Phys.org)

2023.09.14 Emm, wasn't the right answer to increase funding when you're winning?

Rooftop solar sends coal to record low, and peaks at nearly half of all grid demand (National Observer)

2023.09.14 - As prices fall, two thirds of global car sales could be EVs by 2030, study says (MoneyControl)

2023.09.14 - And yet, Canadian taxpayers are continuing to subsidize future expansion of the worst oil on the planet

2023.09.14 Oops, you mean burning the planet and launching land-grab wars doesn't mitigate climate change?

Climate change is undermining nearly all sustainable development goals, says report (Phys.org)

2023.09.14 Reality check in case you believed the oil industry greenwashing on reducing GHG emissions

Oilsands profits remain high, but companies are putting the brakes on energy transition spending, with no new investment in reducing emissions (Pembina Institute)

2023.09.13 Can we go 9 for 9 before expiring as a species? Our actions say that's the way forward.

Six of nine planetary boundaries now exceeded (Pembina Institute)

2023.09.08 "Axe the Carbon Tax" - Disinformation

The Canadian Leader of the Official Opposition continues to mislead Canadians regarding global policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). The phrase is catchy, but like most such propaganda, it is meant to hide the truth. While it is the responsibility of the federal government to implement the feebate system, it is a commitment under international agreements, not a Canadian government initiative.

Further, it is NOT a TAX. In Canada, it is a fee-bate system. Fees are collected, but the equivalent amount is returned to Canadians in the form of the Climate Action Incentive (CAI). The idea is that those that consume a lot of goods and services which create a lot of GHG emissions will pay more, and the CAI will not cover their out-of-pocket costs. Those who embrace a low-GHG approach will pay less in fees, and get a higher net benefit from the CAI. For example, someone who uses their CAI to buy an electric bike for commuting instead of a gas-powered SUV could cover the purchase cost with a year's worth of CAI payments, and continue to benefit from not paying the GHG fee in the gasoline purchases avoided. In a way, it's like a 'sin tax', except that you can get more than your money back via the incentive, if you change your purchasing behaviour. Similarly, if you buy a heat-pump for your house, and cut your heating oil or natural gas costs, you can come out ahead on the incentive program.

Even if Canada did choose to eliminate the fee within its borders, it would simply be imposed on us as a real trade tariff (tax) by other countries, with no off-setting rebate for regular Canadians. This is one example of such tariffs. EU agrees to the world’s largest carbon border tax.
So in reality, what the CPC is proposing to Canadians is to kill our exports as other countries close their borders to our goods via their 'carbon tariffs'. As Canada is highly dependent on exports, this will kill our economy.
The reality is that Canada is bound by international conventions to implement a basic fee on greenhouse gas emissions within its borders. The chart at (provided by Danny Kusuma via LinkedIn) shows that Canada is currently charging a fee which is at the lowest rate compatible with the intent of the agreements.
What the CPC isn't telling people is that they will will also axe the Climate Action Incentive, that 4 times a year bonus per household which offsets their GHG emissions fees, intended to provide households with the ability to make small changes to reduce their GHG emissions. All in all, this CPC policy is a multi-level financial loss for Canadians, even if we ignore the consequences of further climate change like storm and flood damage, and higher insurance, heating and cooling energy bills.
You can believe what you want, but this policy initiatve is a loss for Canadians on all fronts.

2023.09.08 Chasm between climate action and scientific reality laid bare in UN stocktake

2023.09.08 This is how the oil industry extracts the profit and leaves the liability to taxpayers.

2023.09.08 Proven technology and low-temperature differential make an efficient long-term energy store

2023.09.07 There is a lot of manufactured angst in corporate media about the horror of all those solar panels going to landfill.

Well, turns out that solar panels have some valuable materials in them, so when they reach end of service, they can largely be recycled (unlike post-consumer plastic). Because the materials have value, and there is a profit to be made. Another renewable energy myth bites the dust.
Greenbacker, which owns nearly 1GW of solar, makes a deal to recycle it all (ElecTrek)

2023.09.07 Again. Sigh. Deny, deceive, delay - from the tobacco industry playbook.

2023.09.07 Fossil fuel megacorps and captured governments don't want you to have clean, less expensive energy which can mitigage climate change and reduce the pressure on your wallet. If you really want something which is beneficial for people, you will probably have to fight for, and do it, yourselves.

2023.09.07 One clue about tech that won't work or be financially viable: the extremely profitable and profit-hungry fossil-fuel sector won't pay for development, but expects taxpayers to do so.

Like green hydrogen as a fuel or the TMX pipeline. This time, it's carbon capture, another industry greenwash mirage. If is could actually work and be profitable, industry would be all over it to stake their ownership claim and future profits. But CCUS has always been a climate-change stink bomb. Fun fact (not): most captured carbon to date in Canada has been used for Enhanced Oil Recovery, so it actually creates more net GHG emissions, not less. Finally, there is no evidence that carbon dioxide pumped underground actually stays there in the long-term, and due to the 'pincushion effect', every reason to believe it won't.

2023.09.07 Two of the enduring myths about EVs: they can't haul heavy loads; they can't do a full work day.

I have been driving EVs for a long time, so I know EVs can do whatever a fossil-fueller can do in terms of performance, and do it quietly, cleanly and at a lower fuel cost. Here's a story from the real world. The heavy duty electric truck that can run 24 hours a day (The Driven)
It's no longer about what vehicles makers could build; they're building these. This is Volvo, one of Europe's biggest heavy truckmakers, not some sketchy start-up. It runs 24 hours a day, recharging when it is stopped anyway to load or unload. Typical private vehicles are parked more than 20 hours a day. So now it's just about sticker price vs. people's supposed desire to keep the planet survivable.

2023.09.07 If you want a market for renewable electricity, the generator has to be able to get it to market. Transmission grid operators are not always cooperative with small and intermittent generators. Off the Grid (Science)
If we want a survivable planet, priority has to be given to zero and low-emissions producers instead of fossil-fuel burners. Another solution is to have municipalities be more friendly to renewables energy production within their borders, so long-haul transmission of clean electricity isn't needed.

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2023.09.07 Another way to keep end-of-life wind turbine blades out of landfill. Renewable energy: The upcycled wind turbines getting a second life (Science)

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2023.09.06 It's as if basic, greed-based economics works. Hunh. So if you want somebody to stop doing something, you tax the crap out of it, like alcohol and tobacco.

2023.09.06 Hunh, selling a fake product based on colonialist standing practice could lead to a corrupt market that benefits the rich?
Carbon markets are 'bogus solutions' as rich world keeps polluting, African Climate Summit is told (Phys.org)

2023.09.06 If you thought we were moving in the right direction on GHG emissions, spoiler alert.

2023.09.05 Turns out, now that we have end-of-life wind turbine blades, somebody figured out how to repurpose them.

2023.08.23 The uber-rich aren't just trying to escape the cess-pool of an environment they have made of planet Earth, they're adding even more GHGs as part of their escape projects.

2023.08.23 You have to be impressed with how resolutely the G20 governments continue to pour taxpayer money into fossil fuel subsidies and incentives in the face of catastrophic climate change. They may be fantastically wrong, but they're proud and committed to destroying our futures with our money.

2023.08.22 56 GW of new U.S. electric utility generation coming from non-fossil-fuels is a big deal, and pretty much all the capacity being retired is fossil-fuels. Why? Because renewables are cheaper. Ontario, BC, Saskatchewan and Alberta take note: net natural gas generation is falling in the U.S. due to economics, so why are you squandering taxpayer money to go in the wrong direction financially and environmentally?

2023.08.22 Uh-oh, reality intrudes on Canada's fairyland approach to climate change

2023.08.22 Speaking of carbon credits smoke and mirrors ...

2023.08.22 More evidence that tradable CO2 credits may be a scam. And this doesn't even count world-wide wildfires in 2023 that are turning tree-planting carbon credits into soot, ash and more carbon dioxide).

2023.08.22 Another gift from U.S. taxpayers to the fossil fuels industry - this instalment - US$1.2 billion

2023.07.21 Goodbye forests, goodbye carbon sink myth, goodbye carbon credits, hello climate change death spiral.

2023.07.21 Air conditioners use energy, which typically means increased GHG emissions and waste heat.

2023.08.21 I usually do a hard think when I find myself agreeing with Bloomberg. In this case, I accept their headline, but they are understating the case in the article.

The reality here is that the impact of methane emissions are undercounted (the real multiplier is greater than 100 per IPCC GWP10 numbers from 2 decades ago, not 80 times, or the 25 times that the Canadian government persists in using from 50 years ago), AND the amount of methane continues to be under-counted by the voluntary reporting system used by the fossil fuels industry (though new satellites which can see methane emissions are starting to force some grudging honesty on that front.

2023.08.17 One of the few things that can divert Doug Ford's attention from destroying the Greenbelt, is destroying the future by increasing GHG emissions with more natural gas fugitive emissions and carbon dioxide, while adding even more waste heat to an already too-warm planet. Proudly and defiantly anti-people and anti-planet. Today's instalment on natural gas: problem, not solution.

2023.07.16 Change in blog practice - announcement

In recent days, we have seen wildfires in Canada surpass 10 times the average number and area burned.
And we're only about halfway through the typical season.
Similar stories are coming out of the U.S. and Europe.
Significant portions of the northern hemisphere are literally on fire.
We are setting records the hottest weeks planetwide consecutively.
At the same time, the oil industry is reneging on past commitments to reduce their GHG emissions, not even taking into account downstream GHG emissions from the products they produce. They continue to campaign for more use of natural gas, even though their fugitive emissions quantities continue to rise, and methane is more than 100 times a potent as carbon dioxide on the 10-year scale.
And yet, I'm seeing no sign that major governments are serious about curbing emissions in the immediate term, reducing practices that produce waste heat, or even reduce subsidies to the massively profitable oil and gas sectors. In fact, Ontario has announced their plans to buy even more natural gas electricity generating stations which will necessitate more gas pipelines, and inevitably more fugitive methane emissions.

This is insanity.

Going forward, I will be focusing less on the escalating horror stories, and trying to bring forward more information on what individuals and small businesses can do to keep the planet survivable for humans and other species adapted to temperatures that were typical 10-100 years ago. Good luck to us all.

2023.07.16 Big Oil lied to us - again. (and again and again)

2023.07.14 Big Oil doesn't understand survival of their customers; they only understand money.

2023.05.16 Ontario’s electricity system moves forward with largest energy storage procurement ever in Canada

2023.06.23 Oregon County Sues Big Oil For Heat Wave

2023.06.09 At its core, climate change is an existential people issue

2023.05.26 Let's not forget CCUS is not sequestration, and to date CCUS projects have been huge disappointments

2023.05.26 Scientific studies indicate nature-based solutions are all-around more effective and less expensive than CCUS for actually removing CO2 from the atmosphere

2023.05.25 Don't you hate it when your electricity prices go down because your government chose to shift to zero-carbon and low-carbon alternatives? The fossil fuel sector does.

2023.05.25 Is anyone really surprised an oil company's 'carbon offsets' are mostly a sham?

2023.05.24 The Southern Ocean overturning circulation has ebbed 30% since the 90s, CSIRO scientist claims, leading to higher sea levels and changing weather

2023.05.24 Researchers set out to clearly quantify connection between companies, emissions and climate events (37%)

2023.05.24 The Canadian government is supposed to be reducing oil industry subsidies, not hiding them

2023.05.24 Campaign group says plastics are incompatible with circular economy as countries prepare for treaty talks

2023.05.23 If ExxonMobil has a tab of $18.4 billion for climate change damage, how much is the company really worth?

2023.05.22 Electricity generation from grid-connected renewables now second only to natural gas (U.S. 2022 data)

2023.05.22 Another day, another country, another climate change plan that will start later (sigh)

2023.05.22 Polluting remains profitable, but is it good for the share price?

2023.05.21 Actually greening the grid? Nice job, Spain.

2023.04.25 US climate envoy says existing measures, such as shift to renewable energy, must be deployed faster to stop global warming

2023.04.24 Self-reporting never seems to work, but it took a U.S. agency to blow the whictle on this Alberta emissions cover-up

2023.04.21 Why is it that as a species, we are so intent on cooking ourselves?

2023.04.21 Ontario greenwashing electricicity generation from natural gas. So many things wrong with this story. This is carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCUS), not sequestration. The kinds of abandoned gas and oil wells they talk about are what caused the explosion in Wheatley, Ontario in 2021, so they leak, and won't contain the carbon dixoide for geologic time. The solutions won't be in place by 2030, when we need them. But it is another bone for the oil and gas industry thrown by Doug Ford

2023.04.21 Reduing food waste and creating a circular economy to reduce costs and GHG emissions

2023.04.20 The charging capacity for big EVs is quantity can be built as the big EVs arrive

2023.04.13 A technology which extracts carbon dioxide from ocean water and actually SEQUESTERS it as calcium and magnesium carbonates, minerals which normally occur in the oceans and on the seafloor, and are buiding blocks for seashells, coral and limestone.

2023.04.13 Speaking of easy methane emissions reduction solutions that would make money ...

Wasted natural gas pollutes the air and robs Louisiana of millions in tax revenue, report says (Nola.com)
Save the gas industry money, provide more product to sell, save taxpayers money, reduce potent GHG emissions, improve air quality - and yet the gas industry continues to fight measures to reduce fugitive emissions. That's not good business, it's megalomania.

2023.04.12 If you're tired of me sounding the alarm about methane emissions, imagine how tired I am to keep doing it while governments continue to ignore the problem and easy solutions.

UK still well off track on pledge to cut methane emissions, study says (The Guardian)

2023.04.07 Save this one for when you have time for some sobering thoughts.

Personally, I still think the core issues can be solved, but we do need to take a wholistic view of the systems that support our current and proposed societal structures. There are some things we really do need to think about before making bet-the-planet decisions. Most of this isn't new information, but we ignore it at our future peril. Lessons are available to be learned before simply repeating the same mistakes.

The Rising Chorus of Renewable Energy Skeptics (The Tyee)

2023.03.28 Wrong headline: Flagging because this borders on being EV disinfo by implying general case and can be interpreted as a household hazard

Stanford study warns against charging electric cars at home overnight (Brighter Side News)
But here's the thing, the issue isn't about charging at home, and the 'overnight' is a sloppy characterization of interstate power wheeling specific to California's unusual green power electricity generation by time of day. California, due to past action, has a significant amount of electric generation from solar, which produces most during sunny afternoons. As a result, the electrical utilities there would like to shift more electricity demand to the periods of peak solar generation. Which is not at night. That's the real story here. However, if you have EV in California, figure out for yourself when the cost of electricity is lowest for you, and charge then if it works for your schedule. What matters is that you get the transportation you control off fossil fuels.

2023.03.27 Note the implications for geologic carbon storage. For consequences, research Lake Nyos & Lake Monoun carbon dioxide releases.

Alberta’s Oil Patch Regulator Changes Tune on Earthquakes (The Tyee)
After saying Peace River temblors were natural, AER blames Obsidian Energy, raising big questions.

2023.03.24 So Alberta says the federal government has to give them more money, but they don't even spend what they get now

Alberta may have to return $130M in unspent federal funding for oil and gas well cleanup (CBC)
Leaking methane and carbon dioxide from abandoned wells are a source of GHG emissions, and an easy fix. Can also be cheaper if they shift to modern tools instead of 'scoop and move'.

2023.03.20 A dangerous climate threshold is near, but ‘it does not mean we are doomed’ if swift action is taken, scientists say

World is on brink of catastrophic warming, U.N. climate change report says (Washington Post)

2023.03.19 If you want to invest in climate mitigation, the oil industry would like to take your money by pretending they are good corporate citizens and actually do what they claim in their ESG propaganda.

Note the Canadian government labels some oilsands (aka tarsands) development as 'green'.
So you want to be a climate-conscious investor. Here's how to avoid greenwashing (CBC)

2023.03.18 Right out of the Big Tobacco playbook: Airline industry claimed science not ‘robust’ enough to implement new controls to combat climate warming caused by vapour trails

Aviation chiefs rejected measures to curb climate impact of jet vapours (The Guardian)

2023.03.13 $30 billion wasted on a pipe to carry a product that Asia doesn't really want.

Canada’s Oil Pipeline To Nowhere Tripling Costs Could Have Built HVDC Across The Country (CleanTechnica)

2023.03.11 EV Naysayers take note: more EV batteries NOT going to landfill

EV battery recycler hits 95% recovery rate in world-first collection program (The Driven)
Lithium-ion Battery Recycler ABTC Expands Operations with Purchase of Move-In Ready, Commercial-Scale Facility (Yahoo Finance)

2023.03.08 Buying another gasoline or diesel vehicle now is likely going to be a stranded asset

EV Battery Innovation Spells The End For Fossil Fuel And Fuel Cells (CleanEnergyRevolution)

2023.03.02 Canada joins Russia as climate criminals on oil, gas, and now boreal forest carbon releases

Northern forests released a record amount of carbon dioxide in 2021 (NewScientist)

2023.02.28 Once again, the Alberta War Room (oil propaganda central), is delivering all the disinformation Alberta taxpayers can afford to spume.

The question is, why the personal attacks? Because they have no facts on their side?
Alberta’s War Room accuses Catherine McKenna of misleading Canadians (National Observer)

2023.02.28 A vanishing world

Winter sea ice is melting away from Labrador. For the Inuit way of life, it’s a death knell. (CBC)

2023.02.28 Spoiler: it's Canadian taxpayers paying for oil and gas industry greenwashing.

Canada’s carbon capture craze and who might be paying for it (National Observer)

2023.02.27 It takes energy to make new commodity minerals, and generally less to recycle them.

Still, it is astonishing how much of the metals we use are just tossed to landfill after a single use. Have a look at the graphic in this article, and note we throw away more steel, iron, copper and aluminum than we recycle (U.S. data). It isn't until we get to lead that we see more recycling than binning. That's because lead-acid batteries get recycled, massively. We can expect the same for EV batteries.
Visualizing the Opportunity Cost of Unrecycled Metals in the U.S. (Visual Capitalist)

2023.02.23 This finding agrees with data collected for a peer-reviewed paper (see Discussion, 4th paragraph) in which I was a co-author.

Health impact of tyre particles causing ‘increasing concern’, say scientists (The Gurardian)

2023.02.23 Another lithium battery recycler pops up. The batteries are not going to landfill, they're too valuable.

Lithium-ion battery recycling company Li-Cycle scores $375 million conditional loan from Energy Department for Rochester plant (CNBC)

2023.02.23 Petrobras brags about their new CCUS record, as though it wasn't just EOR to produce more oil.

Petrobras beats its annual record for CO2 Capture, Utilization and Storage (Petrobras)
CCUS is generally used by the oil and gas industry to help them produce more oil and gas and create more GHG emissions. But by pretending they are sequestering carbon dioxide, they can qualify for tax credits for climate change mitigation, while in reality creating even moro GHG emissions and making more profits.

2023.02.23 2021 data. Despite working from home going mainstream, 2021 emissions were higher than 2020.

Canada's carbon emissions rose in 2021 but were still below pre-pandemic highs: report (CBC)

2023.02.23 At best, this is about a leaky form of 'net-zero' capture of carbon dioxide to make a volatile hydrocarbon. Methanol is a product of value, but it is not indicated what the energy or financial costs are to implement this energy cycle. As direct air capture (DAC) of carbon dioxide is still not living up to its billing, odds are this will have to be implemented in the exhaust stream of a facility that is burning fossil fuels and creating carbon dioxide (flue gas) as a consequence. That sounds like perpetuating fossil fuels as the base case, not shifting away from them. Best case, Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage - with leaks, not Carbon Capture and Sequestration.

The Least Costly Yet: Scientists Unveil a New Carbon Capture System (SciTechDaily)

2023.02.21 Other than a steady diet of social media and mainstream media disinformation, how can anyone still be surprised that fossil fuel vehicles are driving climate change, and EVs are part of the near-term solution.

I wrote "Electric Vehicles: Part of Canada's Climate Change Solution" for Electric Mobility Canada 15 years ago, but somehow this is still news for the Canadian public? (By the way, the Canadian electric grid, and especially Ontario, is cleaner now than in 2008, while oil production has become more carbon intensive.)
Gasoline versus electric cars? Here’s how their life cycle emissions compare in Canada (National Observer)

2023.02.21 How about that? People and countries can kick the fossil fuels addition if the motiviation is right.

EU Gas Demand Fell More Than Target (OilPrice.com)

2023.02.21 Another lithium battery recycling plant is opening - in Arizona.

(The dead batteries are too valuable to go to landfill, just like lead-acid batteries have been for decades. It's time to stop looking for disinformation to justify your unwillingness to move to environmentally-friendly vehicles.)
The world’s largest battery recycler is opening its first US li-ion recycling factoryg (electrek)

2023.02.21 Could it be that the airlines - who don't even pay taxes on fuel for aircraft - are also tired of being price-gouged by the oil industry? Because they were never very interested in biofuels before the 2nd half of 2022.

A Sudden Rush to Make Sustainable Aviation Fuel Mainstream New York Times)

2023.02.21 Disinformation, misinformation and spin all prevent good decision-making and taking appropriate action.

The thin green line — where disinformation meets greenwashing (National Observer)

2023.02.16 I could not make this stuff up. But this is what passes for reality in the Alberta UCP's world. The big problem here is that they are the government. And they believe the foreign-owned oil industry in Alberta needs another $20 billion bailout, in a year the four main beneficiaries will make that much in profits.

Danielle Smith's no good, very bad, $20-billion idea (National Observer)

2023.02.16 Even Barclay's Bank, which will continue funding other oil and gas projects, recognizes that oil sands projects carry too high a financial risk to continue funding those, probably because they can see that it is impossible for oil sands extraction to reduce their GHG emissions to meet anyone's targets. Looks like the Pathway Alliance is going to be even more dependent on Canadian taxpayers to keep their carbon capture charade going.

World’s seventh largest fossil-fuel-funding bank dumps oilsands financing in Canada (National Observer)

2023.02.16 Avoiding a doom loop required a more honest acceptance by politicians of the great risks posed by the climate crisis

World risks descending into a climate ‘doom loop’, warn thinktanks (The Guardian)

2023.02.15 Hunh, after decades of actively suppressing electric vehicles in Canada, now the federal government is surprised that there is a lack of them to support the sudden about-face to embrace them.

Imagine that. Odd that places like Sweden and China don't seem to have a supply shortage. Maybe Canada should have another look at electric microcars and microtrucks, an industry it killed (pptx PowerPoint deck), which would need smaller batteries, less materials, take up less space, use less energy to operate and would fit well in the short-mission urban environment which is still car-centric, where most of our driving is actually done.

2023.02.15 Stand by for seal level rise.

‘Extreme situation’: Antarctic sea ice hits record low (The Guardian)

2023.02.14 U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Tuesday that sea levels will rise significantly even if global warming is “miraculously” limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius

Rising seas risk ‘death sentence’ for some nations, says UN secretary-general (Globe & Mail)

2023.02.10 Americans will shift off fossil fuels, if it saves them money.

Chart: Americans bought more heat pumps than gas furnaces last year (Canary Media)

2023.02.08 Current EVs need lithium for their batteries. You may have heard a LOT of lithium.

However, the numbers in the studies assume essentially no recycling, do not allow for solid-state batteries using less lithium or the potential for new battery formulations (e.g. sodium-based batteries). Still, we should be realistic about the potential impacts of obtaining a lot of lithium within the next 30 years.
On the other hand, we should also consider the impacts of the status quo on climate change, air quality, water quality, soil and food quality and health. So, for that, read this article.
Weighing the harm of gasoline against lithium (National Observer)

You might also be worried about all those batteries going to landfill. It might not be the problem the oil industry is leading you to believe. For starters, the best proxy today is the automotive and industrial equipment lead-acid battery disposal market. Yes, market. Because of the value of the materials in a lead-acid battery, they are the most recycled consumer product in the world. But, lithium batteries have an even better story. Second-life. Here are the real 'landfills' for old lithium EV batteries today.
EV batteries getting second life on California power grid (Reuters)

Eventually, these batteries will have capacity reduced below even viable stationary duty, when they will head for recycling.
Redwood Materials scores a new $2 billion loan to build out battery recycling facility in Nevada (CNBC)
And other lithium battery recyclers are coming.

2023.02.06 Climate change escapism fantasies for those that can't afford to travel to another planet.

Clue to rising sea levels lies in DNA of 4m-year-old octopus, scientists say (The Guardian)

2023.02.05 To be clear, the comparison is NEW-BUILD renewables vs. EXISTING coal-fired electric generating stations.

Almost all coal plants in the US are more expensive than new renewables (ZME Science)

2023.02.04 The West Antarctic Ice Shelf has disappeared before, and we're on track to doing it again, triggering a relatively sudden, multi-metre sea level rise world-wide. Not the time to buy that beachfront property.

Huge dust cloud launched from Earth's moon could ease global warming (New Scientist)

2023.02.03 Geo-engineering fantasies go to the moon - but where's the off-switch?

Huge dust cloud launched from Earth's moon could ease global warming (New Scientist)

2023.02.03 Carbon capture is not a viable path to climate change mitigation, it's another oil & gas subsidy from taxpayers

Why Carbon Capture and Storage Is Not a Net-Zero Solution for Canada’s Oil and Gas Sector (International Institute for Sustainable Development)

2023.02.03 We need real plans and strategic execution over hype and prayers.

Canada can plan for a net-zero future or bet on tech and ‘hope for the best’: Wilkinson (National Observer)

2023.02.01 Over a 10-year period from release into the atmosphere, a molecure of methane is more than 100 times as potent a GHG as carbon dioxide, and we know where a lot of it comes from.

It's not easy to measure methane, say energy companies told to reduce emissions (National Observer)

2023.02.01 Finally, somebody else has realized that CCUS is not Sequestration, it's enhanced oil recovery.

Originally, the term was CCS for Carbon Capture and Sequestration. Sequestration means permanently removed and made inaccessible for periods measured in geological time. This got climate change attention and funding. But, over time, the oil industry changed this so that the 'S' became Storage instead of Sequestration, and then the 'U' appeared, for Utilization. CCUS = Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage. Which meeans, industry wants to use the captured carbon dioxide GHG. What they use it for mostly is making more fossil fuels, more GHGs and a lot of the CO2 pumped into depleted oil and gas wells comes back out with produced water, oil and gas. This is called Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR). In other words, CCUS as the front end for EOR, actually puts more GHGs into the atmosphere than it allegedly removes. And the oil industry has taxpayers paying to build the CCUS facilities as climate change mitigation technology greenwashing. Welcome to upside-down world.

What the heck is carbon capture? The pollution-cutting technology that’s got Canada investing billions (National Observer)

2023.01.31 Why do corporations use gaslighting against science? Because the science of climate change threatens their business, says Gerald Kutney.

Climate science is a victim of gaslighting (National Observer)

2023.01.31 Coastal GasLink: unaffordable environmentally, socially and financially - more cost overruns.

Estimated cost of Coastal GasLink pipeline surges to $14.5-billion (Globe & Mail)

2023.01.30 Remember, Toyota won the PNGV wars with the Prius, and it was a long time before they recovered those costs.

Why Toyota spent years behaving like electric cars were the enemy (National Observer)

2023.01.30 Good news! (not) We have another 10-12 years before climaate change oblivion! So, our governments still won't take it seriously. Sigh.

World likely to hit key warming threshold in 10 to 12 years. That’s what new AI modelling sees (National Observer)

2023.01.30 Cryptocurrency isn't just a hot-bed for corruption, unregulated shadow exchanges and enabling criminal enterprises. It's also an energy-suck.

Cryptocurrency’s Energy Consumption Problem (Rocky Mountain Institute)

2023.01.29 Two important things to know: a) CCUS - Carbon Capture, Utilization and STORAGE is not sequestration; it's a path to enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and rejuvenating old gas wells; b) methane is at least as potent a GHG now as carbon dioxide.

Carbon Sequestration (For Dummies) (Clean Technica)

2023.01.28 How a 'blizzard of false information' undermines the threat of climate change

Why don't we talk about acid rain and the ozone hole anymore? Scientists debunk misinformation (CBC)

2023.01.27 Developing a discerning eye and taking time to research can help you get a better idea of what’s true — and what’s not — in the fashion world.

‘Vegan,’ ‘sustainable’: How to spot misleading fashion claims (Washington Post)

2023.01.27 One key thing most of us can do to reduce climate change is use less fossil energy in our living spaces, or even survivable in the event of a severe weather event. Of course, that's going to take some pioneering spirit and courage, because building codes, insurers and government programs are not doing their part to help.

Why your home isn’t built to last against extreme weather (The Globe & Mail)

2023.01.26 You could see Covid-19 as an empathy test.

Who was prepared to suffer disruption and inconvenience for the sake of others, and who was not?
We are all playing Covid roulette. Without clean air, the next infection could permanently disable you (The Guardian)

2023.01.24 Greenhushing can now be linked to businesses that are trying to falsely appear more sustainable, but are unable or unwilling to share the data and proof to fully back these claims

What is ‘greenhushing’ and why is it a risk for sustainability professionals? (edie)

2023.01.23 Somehow, pumping a carcinogenic GHG into our homes seems like a bad idea - unless you get paid to do it.

Gas Stove Dangers 'Well Known' Since 1839, Industry Acknowledged in 1907 (Daily KOS)

2023.01.21 How is piping natural gas into our homes a culture war?

The burning truth behind gas stoves — and how it fanned the flames of a culture war (Toronto Star)

2023.01.20 Provincial governments should not be permitted to undermine nationwide greenhouse gas reduction regulations

The latest dangerous instalment in Scott Moe’s crusade against Ottawa (National Observer)

2023.01.18 Sure, gas stoves are bad for your family's health, but you should keep them so natural gas revenues are maintained.

Why gas stoves matter to the climate – and the gas industry: Keeping them means homes will use gas for heating too (The Conversation)

2023.01.16 "Fossil fuels are relatively inefficient, requiring 10% of their energy to extract and process them, and up to two thirds of the available energy is lost in thermodynamic losses. Renewable technologies offer greater efficiencies. An electric vehicle uses about one quarter of the amount of energy as an internal combustion engine, solar is 2.5 times more efficient than coal, and a heat pump uses three times less energy than a gas generator."

But this does not stop Canada's big banks from continuing to make massive dead-end loans to the fossil fuels industry, or the Canadian government from guaranteeing those loans. But somehow, we're supposed to believe the Canadian government is serious about reducing GHG emissions and eliminating subsidies to this massively profitable sector.

Fossil fuels already peaked, growth in renewables exponential (pv magazine)

2023.01.14 To answer the question in the headline for this article: NO!

'We're still on the bunny slopes': As 2023 kicks off, is Canada's climate change plan aggressive enough? (CTV)
Ironically, the bunny slopes are usually the first ones to lose their snow due to warmer winters.

2023.01.13 This won't come as news to long time readers at this site.

Exxon accurately predicted climate change in the 70s: Which other fossil fuel giants knew the risks? (euronews.green)

2023.01.13 CBC's coverage on the same story (above).

Exxon Mobil accurately predicted global warming since 1970s, study finds (CBC)

2023.01.13 This should provide the proof you need that the annual schmooze-fests for the Confernce of the Parties (COP) to the Paris Agreement and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) has been an oil industry sponsored farce for years.

‘Horror at the whole situation’ after UAE oil magnate tapped to lead next UN climate conference (National Observer)

2023.01.13 This was a voice of climate change denial, and it did real damage by enabling others

George Pell saw climate science as a dangerous religious dogma – in the end his hardline stance held the church back (The Guardian)

2023.01.08 Not even counting traumatic injuries from storm events or impacts from disrupted supply lines ...

Dr. Kevin Liang calls climate change the biggest threat to everyone’s healthn (National Observer)

2023.01.09 Despite years of price-gouging, getting free passes on decommissioning old wells and massive, growing subsidies from the Canadian government, this industry still can't clean up an oil spill., let alone figure out how to prevent them.

Investigation: Oil giants who ‘make more money than God’ lobbied the federal government and got $2.6 billion in taxpayer dollars (National Observer)

CCUS, where the 'S' is for storage, not sequestration, is actually another subsidy, as the captured gases - including carbon dioxide - are then used (the 'U' in CCUS is utilization) to increase pressure in old oil and gas wells, to get more hydrocarbons out. Not only does this result in more GHGs being released into the atmosphere, but a significant amount of the carbon dioxide injected into the fields is also brought back out with the oil, gas and produced water.

2023.01.08 Explore the mission to answer oceanography questions in a new Atlantic Voice documentary

Meet the scientists and their underwater drones tackling the 'weirdly complicated' world of ocean carbon (The Guardian)

2023.01.07 Wheat supplies one-fifth of the calories humans consume on Earth, and it is threatened by climate change

‘Holy grail’ wheat gene discovery could feed our overheated world (CBC)

2023.01.06 You may know carbon contamination of the snowpack by another name - 'dark snow'. It increases the rate of snowpack and glacier melt, accelerating cliimate change. That's why the Alberta government won't release this data.

Alberta government refuses to release data on snowpack contamination from coal mines (National Observer)

2023.01.04 This is a scientific paper about a project which extracts carbon dioxide from ocean water and actually SEQUESTERS it as calcium and magnesium carbonates, minerals which normally occur in the oceans and on the seafloor, and are buiding blocks for seashells, coral and limestone.

Electrolytic seawater mineralization and how it ensures (net) carbon dioxide removal (ChenRxiv)

I admit some of this is beyond my expertise, but what I have read seems logical. The process even produces hydrogen, which is used on-board the barge.

for a more layperson-friendly version, see this newsletter account Boiling Point - Could removing carbon from the ocean be a climate change solution?

2022.12.29 Pumped storage (water) is essentially gravity storage.

You lift water when energy is abundant or cheap, and drop it again taking kinetic energy from the potential energy. However, conventional water energy storage takes up a lot of space. Why not use materials heavier than water (e.g. scrap lead) which take up less space, don't have evaporation, freeze-up or potential flooding issues? These could be fitted to abandoned mines, either shaft type or open pit. All you need is the vertical elevation. Even some ski resorts might qualify.

The ‘Sleeping Giant Of Energy Storage’ Is Waking Up (Forbes)

2022.12.29 It's past time for agrivoltaics. New revenue for farmers, better energy supply for everyone. Also past time for the Ontario government to get out the way and get with the program.

Doubting farmers, here is proof solar panels and sheep get along just fine (National Observer)

2022.12.29 Canadian banks and government like to talk about fixing climate change, but when their money talks, it's the opposite message. We know which story actually matters.

2022 connected the dots between fossil fuel finance and climate chaos (National Observer)

2022.12.24 Return of the geo-engineering rogue cowboys

A startup says it’s begun releasing particles into the atmosphere, in an effort to tweak the climate (MIT Technology Review)

2022.12.23 When it comes to sustainability, it seems we can't even get the simple definitions right.

Canada’s biggest certifier of sustainable forests faces greenwashing accusations (National Observer)

2022.12.22 Just remember, as the citizens of the developed and developing nations, through our consumer habits and repeatedly voting for the fairy tale that catastropphic climate change is a hoax, we chose this path. We had the data; we chose the disinformation. Now we will reap the whirlwind, in some cases, literally.

Climate and the holiday storms of 2022: ‘I don’t think people realize just how much trouble we’re in’ (National Observer)

2022.12.21 Unfortunately the wood pellet industry has proved not to be that picky about what wood it uses for its pellets - virgin old growth has been used.

Australia rejects forest biomass in first blow to wood pellet industry (Mongabay)

2022.12.20 Puerto Rico invokes the RICO Act to go after climate change fraudsters

Big oil is behind conspiracy to deceive public, first climate racketeering lawsuit says (The Guardian)
Government jawboning never affected oil industry behaviour, but the industry does care about money, so this frontal assault on its wallet will get its attention.

2022.12.20 Yet, somehow the social vibe in Canada is that the 'carbon tax' is too high.

Overheated — Canada’s gasoline emissions are surging out of control (National Observer)
(Mandatory fact: Canada does not have a 'carbon tax'. It has a feebate system, where the nominal amount Canadians pay on fossil fuels is returned to them quarterly by the federal government.)

2022.12.18 A decommissioned nuclear power plant from the 1980s is repurposed for agrivoltaics and prairie restoration.

Agrivoltaics Goes Nuclear On California Prairie (CleanTechnica)

2022.12.15 Fuel for thought as you fill up at the pumps next time.

Coal is extremely CO2-intensive. Gasoline is far worse (National Observer)

2022.12.15 Don't panic over this headline; this is what renewables maturity looks like.

California pulls the plug on rooftop solar (PV Magazine)
The Public Utilities Commission approved Net Energy Metering 3.0, slashing payments for sending rooftop solar production to the grid. New rooftop solar projects are now considered uneconomical without an attached battery.

2022.12.15 Sea level rise could me moving a lot faster than we thought

Greenland's glaciers might be melting 100 times as fast as previously thought (Phys.Org)

2022.12.14 You can unknot your knickers now. The fusion announcement is actually a nothing-burger.

US scientists just announced a major nuclear fusion breakthrough that could be ‘one of the most impressive scientific feats of the 21st century’ (Yahoo finance)

What they got right: for microseconds, in a military nuclear weapons test facility, they managed to get more energy out of the reaction than they put in.
But it's irrelevant to civilian energy or climate change in the time we have left. (OK, it could be exciting if your objective is building bigger fusion weapons.) It's irrelevant for a few reasons.
a) The kinds of energy used and produced matter. The input energy started from very high quality, expensive electricity, transformed into even higher quality and more expensive focused, synchronized, multi-point laser light beam sourcds. The energy produced was very hot (as in hard to contain hot), very short duration heat, which is typically the end point for entropy, or the lowest quality form of energy. So it doesn't get captured (stored) or available to do useful work. Something we don't need on this planet now is more heat, especially really expensive heat.
b) If it can be scaled up successuully in the next 2-5 decades, it will be highly centralized, while our forward direction should be to more distibuted energy sources which minimize waste heat and GHG emissions. If the electricity that powered the lasers was generated from coal or natural gas, then this not a GHG-free energy source.
c) No matter how much money the US DOE funnels to this from their weapons budget, it won't be even near ready within a decade, which is the maximum time we have left to turn the corner on GHG emissions to avert catastrophic climate change. (Very expensive and harmful climate change is already baked in, we're not going to avoid that, no matter what we do next.)
d) If you think that getting more energy out of a device than you put in is exciting, you need to buy a heat pump. It can can also convert high quality electricity into low quality heat, but it can be bought off the shelf today, does not cost billions of dollars, and can operate continously for years. Also, very distributed (decentralized), and can be run from locally-sourced electricity (like an in-house battery charged from solar panels).

2022.12.12 The world's permafrost is rapidly thawing and that's a big climate change problem

The world's permafrost is rapidly thawing and that's a big climate change problem (CBC)
They buried the word 'methane' so hard in this article I missed it on my first read. But they finally let this sentecne make it to print:
"Olefedt says those emissions can be carbon dioxide or, if the area is near water, methane, a more potent greenhouse gas."
Pity they didn't expand on why methane is the bigger problem than CO2 as the permafrost melts.

2022.12.11 We seem to have signed a global suicid pact on catastrophic climate change through inaction

World Unlikely to Avert Climate Catastrophe, New Zealand Minister Says (Yahoo News)

2022.12.11 Curb your enthusiasm when reading the headline. Note 'international' and 'exceptions'.

Canada to end international fossil fuel financing, with few exceptions (National Observer)
However, the exceptions are big enough to sail a fleet of oil tankers through. Canada's bankers can rest easy that their world-leading lending for climate destruction can continue 'unabated', just like the fossil fuel industry's drive to maximize profits and externalizing costs will also continue 'unabated'.
As before, if you want a survivable planet, you can't rely on the captured Canadian governments to do the job, we'll have to do it ourselves.

2022.12.09 The news here isn't that anything will come of this; it's that the moribund U.S. Senate is even writing letters on the topics of fossil fuel greenwashing on climate change and windfall profits (i.e. gouging consumers).

Democratic lawmakers accuse big oil companies of ‘greenwashing’ (CNBC)

2022.12.06 Before you dismiss this as another greenie rant, note the article appears in one of the top automotive performance magazines in the U.S.: MotorTrend. Now, go read the article.

You're Being Lied to About Electric Cars (MotorTrend)

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2022.11.16 If you think this is an intelligent solution to a growing problem, please don't visit the RESTCO website. In particular, don't waste any time contemplating what a smarter approach might look like.

Canada spends more on responding to climate emergencies in First Nations than preventing them, auditor general says (National Observer)

2022.11.16 Don't worry about this happening. It's a climate change pretend action from the Canadian government, and it has a solid record for never meeting any climate change target or standing up to the fossil fuels sector.

Canada lays out new regulations for methane emissions from oil and gas (National Observer)

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2022.10.21 We fact-checked FortisBC's (fossil gas utility) claims about cooking, renewables and more.