All Activity

The Greek port city of Volos has declared a state of emergency after being completely flooded with dead fish. Pictures show how huge amounts of fish have accumulated along the coast and in rivers. The stench is described as unbearable and tourists have left the area. “There are millions of dead fish all the way from Lake Karla and 20 kilometers (12 miles) eastward,” Anna Maria Papadimitriou, the deputy regional governor of the central Thessaly area, told state-run television, AP News report. Authorities in Greece have linked the mass die-off to extreme weather fluctuations due to climate change. The mass die-off occurred after a nearby lake flooded last year, followed by a severe drought this summer that forced freshwater fish into the sea, where they cannot survive. The stench must be unbelievably bad. We will probably see more and more of these mass die-off events as the effects of climate change worsens.

In the US, natural gas for electricity production has usually outpaced renewables. But for the first time ever, renewables will clearly outpace natural gas in 2024. Newly published data from the US Energy Information Agency (EIA), as reported by Ars Technica, shows that renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, and batteries were each installed at a pace that easily dwarfs new natural gas generators during the first half of the year. According to the EIA data, around 20 GW of new electricity capacity was added in the US during the first half of this year, with solar accounting for about 60 percent of that. Solar power is seemingly growing at an extremely rapid pace, even in the US. Which really should come to no surprise for those of us whom been following the news about renewables lately. Following the rapid - and seemingly unstoppable - expansion of solar power are batteries. In the first half of 2024, about 4.2 GW of battery capacity was added in the US. As Ars Technica explains: "Batteries are treated as the equivalent of a generating source by the EIA since they can dispatch electricity to the grid on demand, even if they can't do so continuously." By comparison, wind power in the US is being added at a much slower pace. According to the EIA, only about 2.5 GW of the new capacity being added during the first half of 2024 was from wind power. Despite this seemingly small addition to the overall capacity from wind power, nuclear energy accounted for even less. Only 1.1 GW of new nuclear capacity was added, and there are no plans to add any new nuclear capacity in 2024 or even during the rest of this decade. This should also come to no surprise to anyone, nuclear power is simply too expensive and takes too long to build for it to play a meaningful part in decarbonizing our energy grid. Besides all the dangers and waste issues with nuclear energy, we simply don't have the time to wait for nuclear energy! In comparison, natural gas accounted for only 400 MW, or about 2 percent, of the total new capacity that was added in the US. And renewables will continue to outpace fossil fuels. EIA calculates that a bit over 60 GW of new electricity capacity will be added to the US energy grid by the end of this year. Solar power will account for about 37 GW, batteries 15 GW, and wind power will land at around 7.1 GW. EIA expects that natural gas will only account for about 2.6 GW. "Throw in the contribution from nuclear, and 96 percent of the capacity additions of 2024 are expected to operate without any carbon emissions. Even if you choose to ignore the battery additions, the fraction of carbon-emitting capacity added remains extremely small, at only 6 percent." It's obviously great to see renewables overtake fossil fuels in the US. And hopefully this trend will continue for decades to come. But reducing the usage of existing sources of fossil fuels is just as important as adding new capacity from clean and renewable energy sources. So what does the EIA data tells us about that? Well, a reduction in the overall capacity from fossil fuels is happening, but it's going slowly. Too slow. During the first half of 2024, around 5.1 GW of capacity was retired from the US grid. And most of that was from fossil fuel-powered sources, including 2.1 GW of coal capacity and 2.7 GW of natural gas.

Iconic toymaker Lego will replace oil-based plastics used in their bricks with recycled and renewable plastics by 2032, Reuters and Financial Times reports. Lego plans to gradually reduce the amount of oil-based plastic in the bricks with renewable resin. Lego's resin suppliers are using bio-waste such as cooking oil or food industry waste fat as well as recycled materials to replace virgin fossil fuels in plastic production. This greener resin is usually much more expensive than traditional "virgin plastic", which the large majority of plastic products worldwide are made from. According to Lego's calculations, it will cost them 70 percent more to make the toys with renewable resin. But the company says they have no plans to push the costs onto their customers and rise their prices. "This means a significant increase in the cost of producing a Lego brick," said Lego CEO Niels Christiansen to Reuters. "With a family-owner committed to sustainability, it's a privilege that we can pay extra for the raw materials without having to charge customers extra," Christiansen said. Other toy makers have also started to include more plant-based or recycled materials in some of their plastic toys. Toymaker Hasbro is one of those but they haven't set any firm targets on plastic use. And toymaker Mattel plans to use only recycled, recyclable or bio-based plastics in all products by 2030.

Forget the claim that climate change only affects future generations. As you are probably aware of, the effects of our pollution crisis can already be felt around the world. Just take this example. According to a new report from the UN agency the International Labor Organization (ILO), almost 70 percent of the world's workers are already exposed to excessive temperatures at work. According to the report, this is a nine percent increase since the year 2000. And the problem will continue to worsen as global warming accelerates, the ILO-report warns. "As the world continues to grapple with rising temperatures, we must protect workers from heat stress year-round. Excessive heat is creating unprecedented challenges for workers worldwide year-round, and not only during periods of intense heatwaves, said ILO Director-General Gilbert F. Houngbo in a press release. The report finds that workers in Africa (93 percent), followed by the Arab states (83.6 percent) and Asia and the Pacific (74.7 percent) are among the worst affected by increasingly intolerable temperatures. But regions in Europe and North America that have previously been unaccustomed to extreme heat will also face increased risks. The reports detail how these regions have already witnessed the largest rise in workplace injuries from heat stress since the year 2000, with increases of 33.3 per cent and 16.4 per cent respectively. The findings in this report build on a previous UN-report, published in April earlier this year, which indicated that excessive heat alone causes 22.85 million occupational injuries and the loss of 18,970 lives each year. “If there is one thing that unites our divided world, it’s that we’re all increasingly feeling the heat. Earth is becoming hotter and more dangerous for everyone, everywhere. We must rise to the challenge of rising temperatures – and step up protections for workers, grounded in human rights,” explained the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres.

Hi Jerry and welcome to the community!

Hi there. Im Jerry and ive just moved out of Sydney. Im a Soil Scientist and love a beer :-)