Global Climate Change Science News

[JimC]

To do anything else would be a sin against the mighty Deity, Shareholder Profit...

[macdoc]

Antarctic sea-ice at 'mind-blowing' low alarms experts
Published
4 hours ago

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66724246

[Brian Peacock]

Revealed: top carbon offset projects may not cut planet-heating emissions

The vast majority of the environmental projects most frequently used to offset greenhouse gas emissions appear to have fundamental failings suggesting they cannot be relied upon to cut planet-heating emissions, according to a new analysis.

The global, multibillion-dollar voluntary carbon trading industry has been embraced by governments, organisations and corporations including oil and gas companies, airlines, fast-food brands, fashion houses, tech firms, art galleries and universities as a way of claiming to reduce their greenhouse gas footprint.

It works by carbon offset credits being tradable “allowances” or certificates that allows the purchaser to compensate for 1 ton of carbon dioxide or the equivalent in greenhouse gases by investing in environmental projects that claim to reduce carbon emissions.

But there is mounting evidence suggesting that many of these offset schemes exaggerate climate benefits and underestimate potential harms

In a new investigation, the Guardian and researchers from Corporate Accountability, a non-profit, transnational corporate watchdog, analysed the top 50 emission offset projects, those that have sold the most carbon credits in the global market.

According to our criteria and classification system:

• A total of 39 of the top 50 emission offset projects, or 78% of them, were categorised as likely junk or worthless due to one or more fundamental failing that undermines its promised emission cuts.
• Eight others (16%) look problematic, with evidence suggesting they may have at least one fundamental failing and are potentially junk, according to the classification system applied.
• The efficacy of the remaining three projects (6%) could not be determined definitively as there was insufficient public, independent information to adequately assess the quality of the credits and/or accuracy of their claimed climate benefits.
• Overall, $1.16bn (£937m) of carbon credits have been traded so far from the projects classified by the investigation as likely junk or worthless; a further $400m of credits bought and sold were potentially junk.

...

[macdoc]

- I like the Guardian and their campaigning but ......There are a lot of questionable practices in the offset efforts but they aren't all that way....

Meanwhile

ABOUT US
Started by our visionary leaders in 2007, LivClean is a low-profit organization dedicated to the responsible business movement. We emphasize transparency in the goal of helping our customers go carbon neutral. LivClean carbon offset projects that meet the strict standards of international carbon systems such as the Voluntary Carbon Standard, American Carbon Registry, British Columbia Carbon Registry, CSA CleanProjects, Gold Standard.

In addition to the rigorous third-party oversight of the these carbon standards

https://www.livclean.ca/about-us

Think I will wait for Nature to report. Guardians "experts" have their own agenda....much political.
https://www.influencewatch.org/non-prof ... rnational/

[pErvinalia]

Brian is against the whole concept of offsets, as it implies that we can continue in our consumptive ways. Brian wants us to go back to living in caves.

[macdoc]

Offset is simply one tool in the kit to deal with excess carbon.

[macdoc]

A better article
snip

Markets in ‘carbon offsets’ — credits that pay someone else to reduce atmospheric carbon on your behalf — can be an effective way to manage CO2 removal globally. But they will work only if the prices and incentives are right, and there are currently two fundamental problems with how they are set up.

First, at least 90% of the offsets traded3 in the voluntary market are not for removing carbon at all, but for avoiding its release. Foresters, for example, are paid to not chop down trees. These offsets do little to lower CO2 levels in the air and should be replaced with those that facilitate proper removal3,4. The amount of carbon offset also needs to grow at least 15-fold from current levels (mainly based on avoidance offsets) to meet a projected demand for carbon-removal offsets of 1.5 billion to 2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year in 20303.

Second, the price put on locking away one tonne of carbon is meaningless. Every approach to carbon removal differs in its stage of maturity1,2, in how much it can be scaled up, in how effectively it removes CO2 and for how long, and in the costs involved. Different approaches are thus hard to compare. Markets don’t know whether the method used is reliable4, and no timescale is attached. Current offsets treat one tonne of carbon removed as one tonne, whether it is sequestered for a few years or for 100.

more
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02649-8

[Tero]

Some thoughts on gas and oil and consumers.
https://esapolitics.blogspot.com/2023/0 ... r-gas.html

[pErvinalia]

What thoughts?

[Tero]

You will have to click the link. I use my link in a few forums for a signature. It is not merely for Ratz.

The reason I come in favor of plug in hybrids is that the charging business is still a hurdle for consumers. The other reason is that we do not have enough lithium for 100% of the cars to go electric.

[macdoc]

There is lots of charging for the congested areas that need to go elecric and ranges are going way up.

New batteries don't need lithium or cobalt tho there is lots of lithium....its just slow to bring to market.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/0 ... ingredient.

[Tero]

Sodium will work, but there may be an optimum price for cars. Also, light weight cars need to appear. There have been plans. From my blog.

link is there

[Tero]

In connection with that, all our safety features...air bags and all...will need to be redone. If cars are going to look like that, they will not be driving 80mph anymore. And trucks...need to be dealt with on the same highway.

[Sean Hayden]

I’ve been car shopping since Friday, naturally less than a month after I paid off the last one.

But I’ve had it, not going to do it, not going to spend that kind of money, just picking up a motorcycle instead —KLR, or DRZ400 SM, or CB500x, even thinking about the supposedly boring—probably not boring—Versys 650.

Thought about hybrids but they need to be ordered atm. Would really, really love to say fuckit and make a major lifestyle overhaul to do away with cars altogether.

[macdoc]

CB500x is indeed boring - I took mine cross Canada - with the correct windscreen it will do 140 kph all day rock solid.
Very good fuel mileage as well.

Versys is nice middle weight similar to the Vstrom 650s I owned. More fun in the twists tho the CB500x is okay too if you keep the revs up plus it is lighter.