Climate Crisis AM Edition 3/11/24 America's Broken Electricity Grid

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The livestock industry has undermined research about the effects of its activity on the environment, according to a recent study titled “The animal agriculture industry, US universities, and the obstruction of climate understanding and policy,” “Consistent with other industries, including tobacco and fossil fuels, the animal agriculture industry’s response to evidence that its product caused harm was to push back. The industry employed the help of universities. Industry-funded university-based researchers and centers have helped downplay livestock’s contributions to climate change, increase public trust that the industry is proactively reducing emissions on its own accord, and shape climate policymaking in the industry’s favor,” the authors wrote. The comparison to the fossil fuel industry is particularly apt. Chicago and California recently sued several oil companies for misleading the public about the effects of the industry’s emissions.

Wet America —Maine And Vermont

Rising Seas —New York And Miami

The EU Environment Agency released a study titled “Europe is unprepared for rapidly growing climate risks.” It suggests Europe must prepare for massive climate change. Reuters points out that Europe is warming faster than any other continent. The analysis says that Europe faces several climate risks, some of which could reach “critical or catastrophic” levels before 2100. The news agency reports that these include health and infrastructure. The research also suggests that new laws must be adopted to help people who work in extreme weather, and the infrastructure designed to slow climate change must be built. Nothing in the paper is new. And nothing about calls for changes in public policy is original. Many studies of the adverse effects of climate change point to a need for a new direction in policies. There is no evidence that these calls for change have had any effect or jump-started any significant changes.

UN Refugees

The UN Refugee Agency launched a new initiative to protect displaced persons from some of the effects of the climate crisis. It described its plans in a document titled “Law and policy for protection and climate action.” It described its challenges. “Climate change is one of many factors that compel people to move; it adds fuel to poor governance, inequity and inequality, and contributes to the conditions for conflict, violence, and persecution that displace people, including across borders.”

As electricity use continues to be among the central discussions about climate change, Advanced Energy United published its “Generator Interconnection Scorecard.” It looked at the energy efficiency of the electricity grid in seven US regions. The primary conclusion was “The Scorecard confirms the widespread recognition, including by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Regions, that the generator interconnection process is not working effectively and efficiently to allow new generation and storage resources access to the transmission network.” It described grid interconnection as “dysfunctional.”