Fossil fuel future

[Tero]

Oil companies bend to pressure
https://twitter.com/billmckibben/status ... 5198071808
share holders voted environmental people to boards

[Brian Peacock]

‘Dig coal to save the climate’: the folly of Cumbria’s plans for a new coalmine

It was in early 2019 that I first heard about the proposals for a new coalmine in Cumbria. It happened almost by chance. I was speaking with a local government officer who was developing the county’s economic strategy. As someone who has worked with governments on climate issues for many years, I had been asked to offer advice on how to make Cumbria a climate leader. We talked through the opportunities – investing in renewables, helping businesses reduce waste, developing Cumbria’s tourist industry.

And then the government officer mentioned, almost in passing, that they had been helping a company with plans for a new coalmine, to produce coking coal for steel production. I didn’t know what to say. This would be the first new deep coal mine in the UK for 30 years, and the only active one: the last of the old ones closed in 2015. After a long silence I pointed out that digging up coal – the most polluting of all fossil fuels – is no definition of climate leadership. Yet just a couple of weeks later, Cumbria county council’s planning committee voted unanimously in favour of the mine.

Two years later, the fate of the mine hangs in the balance. In March, after mounting controversy, the local government secretary Robert Jenrick took the decision out of Cumbria’s hands and ordered a public inquiry. It is now Jenrick, not Cumbria, who will decide. But behind the row over the mine lies a complex story about the politics of post-industrial communities, and about the UK’s deeply ambiguous climate strategy.

To many, Cumbria may seem a vision of rural perfection. Each year, 18 million visitors come to admire the breathtaking scenery of the Lake District. The proposed mine site sits in the north-west corner of the county, sandwiched between the sandstone cliffs of St Bees Head to the west and the fells to the east. But Cumbria’s natural beauty masks a difficult economic situation. Jobs in tourism are badly paid and insecure, and farming faces an uncertain future. Decades ago, Cumbria’s west coast was a vibrant industrial centre, with coal mining, chemical plants, steelworks, shipbuilding and nuclear power. Today, all these industries are in decline, or have disappeared entirely. The Sellafield nuclear complex, which used to reprocess nuclear fuel, is now being decommissioned, with the loss of 3,000 jobs. Young people are leaving to find work elsewhere...

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... w-coalmine

[Brian Peacock]

Court orders Royal Dutch Shell to cut carbon emissions by 45% by 2030

A court in the Hague has ordered Royal Dutch Shell to cut its global carbon emissions by 45% by the end of 2030 compared with 2019 levels, in a landmark case brought by Friends of the Earth and over 17,000 co-plaintiffs.

The oil giant’s sustainability policy was found to be insufficiently “concrete” by the Dutch court in an unprecedented ruling that will have wide implications for the energy industry and other polluting multinationals.

The Anglo-Dutch company was told it had a duty of care and that the level of emission reductions of Shell and its suppliers and buyers should be brought into line with the Paris climate agreement.

Judge Larisa Alwin said Shell must “at once” reduce its CO2 output, adding that the ruling would have “far-reaching consequences” for the company and may “curb the potential growth of the Shell group”.

“The interest served with the reduction obligation outweighs the Shell group’s commercial interests,” she said...

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... 45-by-2030

[Svartalf]

About that mine in Cumbria... would that coal be used to produce steel in Newcastle, or would they have to sell it abroad?

[Tero]

We're burning again. Civilization will leave a pile of burning tires, when when it is gone. Or gas:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/video ... xico-video

[laklak]

Exxon stock looking good, stock split coming up. I don't have any but my sister has a bit.

[Brian Peacock]

We're burning again. Civilization will leave a pile of burning tires, when when it is gone. Or gas:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/video ... xico-video

This is an example of what Laleh Khalili calls Apocalyptic Infrastructure.

[Tero]

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[Tero]

At lest we know how to take down skyscrapers when we are done with them
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse_ ... ade_Center
Despite efforts to extinguish the blaze, the large pile of debris burned for three months, until the majority of the rubble was finally removed from the site.[96][97] In 2007, the demolition of the surrounding damaged buildings was still ongoing .

Demolition of the surrounding damaged buildings continued even as new construction proceeded on the Twin Towers' replacement, the new One World Trade Center, which was opened in November 2014.

[Tero]

I'll be giving a senior class on carbon in January. Two classes deals with the history of the planet. The third session gets a little pushy. I'll show an 80 min documentary.

[Brian Peacock]

As welcomed as it was Carbon Nation was wildly optimistic even for it's time.

I hope you have space to use it to talk about the rise in atmospheric CO2 levels in the 12 years since the film was released, contrasting levels and projections from the time with those today and along with the increased rate of emissions during that period.

[Tero]

Depends on who signs up for the class. The current class, I threw out half the slides as none in the class remembers much of high school science. None of them took college chemistry.