Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: U.S. Congresswoman on Fixing the Country – Rolling Stone #Auspol #Qldpol #NSWpol Demand a #GreenNewDeal #ClimateStrike #ExtinctionRebellion #ClimateChange

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Alexandria Ocasio Cortez

What would you like to see accomplished in 2019?

What we have to do is redefine what the climate movement is about, and we have to re-define it in the scope of environmental justice.

For so long, people have thought of climate-change legislation as saving polar bears, but they don’t think of the pipes in Flint.

They don’t think of the air in the Bronx.

They don’t think of coal miners getting cancer in West Virginia.

When we talk about defining the scope, we have to talk about climate as a social-justice issue, as an economic-justice issue and as an environ-mental issue.

We really want to lay some stakes in the ground that say, “If your legislation is not dealing with jobs, if it’s not dealing with infrastructure, if it’s not dealing with bringing justice to frontline communities, then it’s not a Green New Deal.”

And we have a majority in the House, so why not swing for the fences?

— Read on www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-congress-interview-797214/

Katharine Hayhoe: To fight climate change, “Talk about it” – CBS News #Auspol #Qldpol #NSWpol #StopAdani Join #ClimateStrike #ExtinctionRebellion #TheDrum #ClimateEmergency Demand a#GreenNewDeal

Katharine Hayhoe suggests you step on a carbon footprint scale.

The reason why climate change has gotten political is due to the solutions, she explained. 

“Many of us have been told that the only solutions to climate change are to destroy the economy and let the government set our thermostat. In reality, the solutions are very different. They involve getting our energy from clean sources that don’t pollute our air and our water, that grow the local economy, and that help the U.S. lead in the coming century,” Hayhoe said.

While President Trump pulled out of the Paris climate accord in 2017, Hayhoe said “cities, states, businesses, colleges, tribes that represent over 40 percent of U.S. emissions are still in the Paris Agreement.”

— Read on www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/katharine-hayhoe-to-fight-climate-change-talk-about-it/

New Study: 99.9999 Percent Chance Humans Are Causing #ClimateChange – ExtremeTech #Auspol #Qldpol #NSWpol #StopAdani Join #ClimateStrike #ExtinctionRebellion Demand a #GreenNewDeal

A new study from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California says there can no longer be any doubt that humans are responsible for climate change. Technically, there is a tiny amount of doubt, but the scientists cite statistical analysis showing 99.9999 percent confidence that we’re to blame.

This so-called “gold standard” is as close to a guarantee as you’ll get in scientific analysis. 

Climate change deniers have gone through various stages of disinformation in an attempt to cast doubt on the scientific consensus.

In past years, they denied that global temperatures were increasing at all. As the evidence for that became incontrovertible (the last four years have been the hottest on record), they’ve shifted tactics to claim global temperature increases are part of a natural cycle and have nothing to do with human activity.

— Read on www.extremetech.com/extreme/286567-new-study-99-9999-percent-chance-humans-are-causing-climate-change

Queensland coal-mining towns should reskill: Trad #Auspol #Qldpol #NSWpol #StopAdani Demand a #GreenNewDeal #ClimateStrike #ExtinctionRebellion #ClimateEmergency

Workers in Queensland’s coal mining towns need to learn new skills as demand for the resource drops, the state’s deputy leader says.

Workers in Queensland’s coal mining towns need to learn new skills as demand for the resource drops, the state’s deputy leader says.

In state parliament on Tuesday, Liberal National Party members asked Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and her deputy Jackie Trad where they stood on coal.

The government returned serve to question the Opposition about its stance on climate change.

Ms Trad said it was time to help thermal-coal-dependent communities move away from the industry in the face of declining demand.

“The fact is, markets are moving away from thermal coal, communities are moving away from thermal coal, nation states are moving away from thermal coal,” she said.

— Read on www.brisbanetimes.com.au/politics/queensland/queensland-coal-mining-towns-should-reskill-trad-20190226-p510g4.html

Global banks and insurers turn their back on thermal coal – The World Today – ABC Radio #Auspol #Qldpol #NSWpol #StopAdani #ClimateStrike #ExtinctionRebellion #TheDrum #ClimateChange

A new report says the world’s biggest banks and insurers are turning their back on coal.

A new report says the world’s biggest banks and insurers are turning their back on coal. 

The report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis found that more than 100 financial institutions have introduced policies restricting coal funding since 2013. 

This year, five companies have announced plans to restrict the funding of coal fired power plants or thermal coal mines.

— Read on www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/worldtoday/global-banks-and-insurers-turn-their-back-on-thermal-coal/10853600

Thailand Prepares to Install Floating Solar Plants at Eight Dams – IEEE Spectrum #Auspol #Qldpol #NSWpol #ClimateStrike #ExtinctionRebellion Demand a #GreenNewDeal #TheDrum

Siam Cement Group hopes to win the first contract to install a 45-megawatt floating solar farm at Thailand’s Sirindhorn Dam

Photo: SCG Chemicals 

Solar Float: This 1-megawatt installation in a Thai reservoir owned by SCG Chemicals was the company’s first floating solar farm. 

Solar farms take up land, which is especially precious in areas with dense populations—and those areas need renewable power most.

To solve this paradox, populous countries short on land have started to turn to solar farms that float on reservoirs and dams. Of the world’s 1.1 gigawatts of floating solar capacity, 450 megawatts exists in China, Japan, India, and South Korea.

Thailand now wants in, and an unlikely player is vying to get a big share of that market. Thailand’s Siam Cement Group (SCG), one of Southeast Asia’s largest building-material companies, has developed floating solar modules that it will build, install, and maintain.

As the only large Thai company making floating panels, it hopes to land contracts to build at least some of the 1 GW of floating solar capacity that state-run Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) plans to install across eight dams over the next two decade

Floating solar is attractive in Thailand, and the country’s several hydropower plants offer ideal staging waters. “Hydropower and floating solar make a lot of sense together because the grid infrastructure is already built,” Macknick says. Hydropower can balance out solar’s variable output, he adds, and “floating systems on reservoirs could reduce evaporation from those reservoirs, which means more fuel for hydropower systems.”

— Read on spectrum.ieee.org/energy/renewables/thailand-prepares-to-install-floating-solar-plants-at-eight-dams

#ExtinctionRebellion activists arrested outside oil conference | The Guardian #Auspol #Qldpol #NSWpol #ClimateStrike #TheDrum #StopAdani Demand a #GreenNewDeal #ClimateEmergency

Protesters glued themselves to windows of central London hotel hosting industry event.

Filmmaker Jack Harries was among eight arrested at the peaceful action, where activists glued themselves to the glass front doors of the Intercontinental Park Hotel in central London. Photograph: Extinction Rebellion

Nine activists from the environmental group Extinction Rebellion have been arrested after they glued themselves to the front of a central London hotel to demand that the petroleum industry end its “deeply immoral” behaviour in driving climate change.

Specialist police officers spent about two hours unsticking the protesters from windows next to the entrance of the InterContinental Park Lane hotel in Mayfair, which was hosting an oil and gas industry conference.

As one protester was led to a police van, she said: “I’ve been a very law-abiding citizen all my life but I realise now that is not really working.

I am a mother of two girls and I am really terrified about their future.

We can’t just carry on like this.”

Another said: “The petroleum industry has been complicit in the destruction of our environment and they have been making money out of selling products that are harmful and we need them to stop.”

— Read on amp.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/27/extinction-rebellion-activists-arrested-outside-london-oil-conference

Coal’s perfect storm hits $70 billion Australian projects #Auspol #Qldpol #NSWpol Demand a just transition to clean energy a #GreenNewDeal #ClimateStrike #ExtinctionRebellion #TheDrum #ClimateChange

Coal’s perfect storm hits $70 billion Australian projects

The local coal industry has had a tough few weeks – and things are unlikely to get any easier.

Photo: Peter Braig

It’s been a tough few weeks for our coal industry.

First there was a court ruling blocking a new mine on climate change grounds, then one of the world’s largest producers, Glencore, capped output growth, and finally China was seen to be slowing down Australian imports.

The developments are symptoms of the fossil fuel’s decline and likely signal headwinds for the industry. Australia, which is the world’s second-biggest supplier of coal used for power generation and steel making, has some $70 billion of new coal projects in the pipeline, according to government estimates.

“They’re probably game-changing events from what we once knew of coal,” said David Lennox, a mining analyst at consultancy Fat Prophets. Recent developments should be viewed as part of the fuel’s gradual decline from a position of dominance in the global power mix, he added.

“If you’re building a coal mine and you need to find third parties (to buy the coal), it may not necessarily be so easy, so you’re not going to tip in billions of dollars.”

— Read on amp.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/coal-s-perfect-storm-hits-70-billion-australian-projects-20190227-p510ha.html

Neglected threat: Kingston’s toxic ash spill shows the other dark side of coal #auspol #qldpol #nswpol #StopAdani

Workers who cleaned up a huge spill from a coal ash pond in Tennessee in 2008 are still suffering—and dying. The U.S. has 1,400 ash dumps.

— Read on www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/02/coal-other-dark-side-toxic-ash/

Climate risks pose a clear and present danger for investors #Auspol #Qldpol #NSWpol #ClimateRisk #ExtinctionRebellion #Heatwave #Drought #BushFire #Flood #ClimateStrike

Extreme weather events are the most threatening global risks this year, the World Economic Forum warned last month.

— over 500,000 Cattle killed in North Australian Floods

Read on www.gulf-times.com/story/623436/Climate-risks-pose-a-clear-and-present-danger-for-