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Flooding in Surfside Beach, Texas, from Tropical Storm Alberto.Brandon Bell/Getty Images
Today marks the summer solstice, the longest day of the year here in the Northern Hemisphere and the official start of summer 2024. With global temperatures still at record highs, what we’re experiencing now is probably just a preview of what’s to come in the following months and years. “These days I think it’s much more appropriate to call it ‘global weirding’” than global warming, climate professor Katharine Hayhoe told Bloomberg. “Wherever we live, our weather is getting much weirder.”
The warm temperatures across the U.S. are driving up power generation and putting a strain on the grid. Natural gas-fired power generation is up 6% so far this year compared to 2023, and in fact is at its highest since 2021, Reutersreported. While clean power output is also set to rise, natural gas is expected to remain the top fuel source in the U.S. “In turn, U.S. power sector emissions from gas use will likely also climb to new highs in 2024, potentially accelerating the climate warming trends that are fuelling increased higher gas demand in the first place,” Reuters added. The heat wave sweeping east prompted New England’s power grid operator to declare a level 1 emergency this week, and briefly pushed electricity prices up near $2,000 per megawatt-hour, “more than 10 times the day-ahead cost for the hour,” Bloombergreported. Back-up oil generation came online Tuesday.
Global fossil fuel use hit a record high last year as energy consumption rose, according to a report from the Energy Institute. Coal demand rose, oil consumption “rebounded strongly” after a pandemic dip, and crude oil consumption exceeded 100 million barrels per day for the first time ever. As a result, greenhouse gas emissions increased 2.1% and broke the record set the year before. Emissions from energy have increased by 50% since the year 2000, the report found. At the same time, renewable power generation reached a record high last year and accounted for about 15% of the global energy mix, and fossil fuel consumption for energy dropped ever so slightly (by 0.4%). The report sheds light on huge regional contrasts: “In advanced economies, we observe signs of demand for fossil fuels peaking, contrasting with economies in the Global South for whom economic development and improvements in quality of life continue to drive fossil growth,” Energy Institute Chief Executive Nick Wayth said.
Mississippi’s first utility-scale wind farm got up and running this week, marking a point of progress in the Southeast, where “wind energy development has long been stuck in the doldrums,” said Maria Gallucci at Canary Media. The 184-megawatt Delta Wind farm will provide power to Amazon for its regional data centers. One interesting detail is that this farm features some of the tallest onshore turbines in the country, manufactured to make the most out of the top wind speeds. Developers hope this will be “a catalyst for accelerated renewable energy and economic development throughout the South.”
Activists from Just Stop Oil sprayed parts of the ancient Stonehenge monument with orange cornflour powder yesterday and called for an end to new fossil fuel use and extraction. Their actions were immediately and widely condemned and have sparked a national conversation about just how far climate protesters should go for their cause. The group said the powder will wash away with the rain, “but the urgent need for effective government action to mitigate the catastrophic consequences of the climate and ecological crisis will not.” This morning the group also spray painted private jets at a London airport.
Meanwhile, also in the UK, the Supreme Court there today ruled that, before new oil drilling projects can commence, companies must disclose and consider the environmental impacts of the resulting emissions. The decision “could put future UK oil and gas projects in question,” reported the BBC.
A new UN climate survey covering more than 70 countries representing most of the global population found that 80% of people worldwide want their governments to do more to address the climate crisis.
The ADVANCE Act, which would reform the nuclear regulatory policy to encourage the development of advanced nuclear reactors, passed the Senate yesterday by a vote of 88-2, preparing it for an almost certain presidential signature. The bill is just one of a flurry of legislative and executive actions to support the nuclear energy industry. It is designed to align the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) around so-called “advanced” nuclear reactors, a catch-all term that covers a number of designs and concepts that are typically smaller than the existing light water reactor fleet and would, ideally, be largely factory-built to reduce costs. The ADVANCE Act would eliminate some fees for applicants going through the NRC approval process; instruct the NRC to develop specific rules for “microreactors,” which might only have 20 or so megawatts of capacity and could be used for single sites or rural areas; establish prizes for advanced reactors; and “streamline” the NRC process for advanced nuclear reactors.
Reports suggest that more than 550 people have died from extreme heat exposure during this year’s Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Updated death tolls are trickling in from various national news outlets, and haven’t been independently verified, but temperatures on Monday hit 125.2 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade at the Grand Mosque in Mecca and Saudi authorities said they had treated more than 2,000 people for heat stress. Nearly 2 million pilgrims were expected to take part in the Hajj this year. The event, which began last Friday, comes to a close today.
Struggling electric vehicle startup Fisker declared bankruptcy yesterday. The announcement wasn’t hugely surprising given the company’s financial troubles and layoffs in recent months, but it serves as a cautionary tale to other EV startups about how a “lack of preparedness” for what happens after a company gets a new car out on the road can cause major problems, as Sean O’Kane at TechCrunch put it. Fisker’s electric Ocean SUV was plagued with a laundry list of problems – electrical failures, braking issues, software glitches – and staff couldn’t keep up while also trying to sell more vehicles, O’Kane wrote, adding: “Fisker wasn’t ready to grapple with bringing a flawed car to market.”
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NASA is working with GE Aerospace to develop hybrid electric engines for jets, “like a Toyota Prius of the skies,” Reutersreported. The engines are still in the early stages of development, but the goal is to eventually use them to power single-aisle jets, which are responsible for half of the aviation industry’s carbon emissions. “Our collaborations with industry partners like GE Aerospace are paving the way for U.S. leadership in hybrid electric commercial transport aircraft,” said Anthony Nerone, a project manager with NASA’s Glenn research center.
The Biden administration started swearing in the first cohort of the American Climate Corps this week, and expects to enroll 9,000 young people in the program by the end of the month.
