Posted on 9 June 2024 by BaerbelW, Doug Bostrom, John Hartz

Story of the week

Our Story of the Week is Yale Climate Connection's Resources for debunking common solar and wind myths, by Sueellen Campbell. Without a lot of fuss and bother Campbell's article inventories silly myths about modernized (aka "renewable") energy sources and cuts directly to the chase for each with a ink to clarifying information from reliable sources. Topics covered include:

• Wind turbine noise
• Bird mortality caused by wind turbines
• Whale mortality caused by wind turbines
• Cancer caused by wind turbines
• The environmental footprint of resources for updated energy sources
• Electromagnetic health effects of solar farms
• Solar power as a threat to farmland
• Intermittency of wind and solar power

A few of these have some basis in fact. Others are complete inventions of imagination with no basis in reality whatsoever. All share in common calculated emotional appeal, synthesized in hope of generating public fear, rejection and— the real objective— profitable public policy procrastination.

Our legacy energy system based on fossil fuel has vastly larger negative impacts, yet fossil fuel's continued growth mostly flies beneath the public radar. High profile projects such as Keystone XL may encounter signifcant negative publicity, but for the most part the industry carries on in relative serenity. Regardless of all of the obvious downsides of sticking with this primitive system, the sheer momentum of more than a hundred years of habit lends an eerie sort of inexorability of increased commitment to the identifed folly of our caveman-grade combustion lifestyle.

How may this be? We find some details in Pam Radtke's article published in floodlight, a journal with the self-described mission of "investigating the powers that stall climate action."  Is US offshore wind dead in the water — or just poised for the next big gust? certainly does that, describing sophisticated regulatory capture by the fossil fuel industry leading to legally mandated paralysis of energy modernization. This is of course made easier when a public confused by misinformation cannot pass clear messages of preferences to polticians in charge of public policy. The only way out of this impasse is to be less confused, which leads us back to our story of the week. Facts at our fingertips are our way forward, and there they are!

Stories we promoted this week, by publication date:

Before June 2

• Medical Schools Around the World Are Expanding Their `Climate Change Curriculums`, Inside Climate News, Kiley Price. Medical students are pushing their schools to teach more about the health impacts of climate change.
• Expecting worse: Giving birth on a planet in crisis, Vox, The 19th & Grist, Zoya Teirstein. "A new series explores how climate change transforms our reproductive lives, from menstruation to fertility to pregnancy"
• Skeptical Science New Research for Week #22 2024, Skeptical Science, Marc Kodack & Doug Bostrom. Skeptical Science's weekly scan of new climate research.
• Is US offshore wind dead in the water — or just poised for the next big gust?, Floodlight, Pam Radtke. "The Biden Administration wants to boost offshore wind. But other forces, including cost, political opposition and disinformation, have slowed adoption."
• ‘The choice could not be more stark’: How Trump and Biden compare on climate change, Yale Climate Connections, Barbara Grady. Under Biden’s policies, the U.S. is on track to cut its climate pollution in half by 2030. Trump and his allies aim to gut those policies and downsize the EPA.

June 2

• 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #22, Skeptical Science, Bärbel Winkler, Doug Bostrom & John Hartz. List of 33 articles shared during the last week
• How is climate change affecting heat waves in California and the West?, Los Angeles Times, Hayley Smith.
• When it comes to climate change and democracy, Liev Schreiber is taking it personally, Entertainment, CNN, Penelope Patsuris.

June 3

• Resources for debunking common solar and wind myths, Yale Climate Connections, SueEllen Campbell. These articles can help you tell fact from fiction.
• Fossil fuels are shredding our democracy, The Climate Brink, Andrew Dessler. Their goal is to stop us from switching to clean energy
• Devastating Brazil floods made twice as likely by burning of fossil fuels and trees, The Guardian, Jonathan Watts. Scientists say calamities on same scale as disaster that has killed 169 will become more common if emissions not cut
• Republican governors gather to attack Biden`s climate agenda, The Guardian, Dharna Noor. Governors say president has ‘done nothing but attack American energy’ and urge end to US fossil-fuel rules and regulations
• How climate social scientists are finding their way in the era of climate crisis, The Conversation, Matthew Hoffmann.

June 4

• Finding Light in Dark Places: Specific Obligations for Climate Change and Ocean Acidification Mitigation, Climate Law Blog, Cymie Payne.
• Germany's deadly floods spread along Danube, BBC News, Paul Kirby.
• Can AI defeat climate misinformation?, Politico, Arianna Skibell. Human fact-checkers can’t keep up with the spread of false information on social media. But maybe artificial intelligence can.
• National TV news show little curiosity about how climate change fueled record-breaking extreme weather over Memorial Day weekend, Media Matters, Evlondo Cooper.
• World will miss target of tripling renewable electricity generation by 2030 – IEA, Environment, The Guardian, Fiona Harvey. "Analysis of policies of nearly 150 countries shows shortfall to hit target viewed as vital for transition from fossil fuels"
• Nine key takeaways about the `state of CO2 removal` in 2024, Carbon Brief, Carbon Brief Staff. From tree-planting to spreading silicate rock dust over land, the methods for “carbon dioxide removal” (CDR) vary in approach, impacts, readiness and cost.

June 5

• Tracking the unprecedented impact of humans on the climate, Carbon Brief, Guest Post by Prof Piers Forster & Dr Debbie Brown. "Our new scientific assessment of how humans are affecting the climate is nothing short of alarming, yet it does contain some encouraging news."
• UN chief says world is on ‘highway to climate hell’ as planet endures 12 straight months of unprecedented heat, Climate, CNN, Laura Paddison.
• A punishing heat dome will only worsen. Here’s when temperatures could peak, Weather, CNN, Mary Gilbert.
• `Godfathers of climate chaos`: UN chief urges global fossil-fuel advertising ban, Environment The Guardian, Oliver Milman. António Guterres says world faces ‘climate crunch time’ and announces dire new scientific warnings of global heating
• How do EU parties compare on climate change?, Youtube, Simon Clark. How do the parties standing in the 2024 European Parliament election compare in their climate policies?

June 6

• A climate scientist questioned his findings. It didn’t go well., Environment, The Christian Science Monitor, Stephanie Hanes.

June 7

• The Cranky Uncle game can now also be played in Romanian!, Skeptical Science, Bärbel Winkler. Cranky Uncle is now available in 13 languages!
• Heat dome set to bring more sizzling temperatures to the West a day after Death Valley hit 122 degrees, Weather, CNN, Dalia Faheid & Robert Shackelford.
• Who are the wealthy climate sceptics funding rightwing UK politics?, The Guardian, Helena Horton Environment reporter. How climate-denying money is influencing UK politics in the run-up to the general election
• The hottest place on Earth is cracking from the stress of extreme heat, Climate, CNN, Paige Vega . "If even Death Valley is in trouble, what does that mean for the rest of us?"
• Extreme weather trivia contest: Can you beat the experts?, Yale Climate Connections, YCC Team. This contest pits meteorologists Jeff Masters, Bob Henson, and John Morales against YOU in the ultimate test of weather and climate knowledge.

June 8

• Fact Brief - Is the ocean acidifying?, Skeptical Science, John Mason.
• Climate scientist Susan Solomon: `Let`s not give up now - we`re right on the cusp of success`, The Guardian, Killian Fox. The US atmospheric chemist on why she doesn’t share the pessimism of most climate scientists, fixing the ozone layer, and why Jacques Cousteau is her hero