Solar Power Is Now As Inexpensive As Grid Electricity In China Charles Q. Choi

Researchers found that PV systems could produce electricity at a lower price than the grid in 344 cities.

Good news for air quality and climate. China has been relying on coal-fired plants (72% in 2016).

Two anecdotes. I have a friend that teaches for six-weeks in Beijing on occasion. I once said to him that it must be a great experience. He answered that it was terrible, the pollution was so bad. I have another acquaintance that is Chinese, now living in the US. He's been here about 20 years. I asked him if he thought ever of returning to China. He shook his head and pointed upward. I asked him what he meant, and he said, "blue sky." 

China is not alone in this in the developing world. Electrification is a big deal, and cost is a major consideration.

IEEE Specturm
Solar Power Is Now As Inexpensive As Grid Electricity In China

Charles Q. Choi
 

Dominique Mosbergen — Insects Are Dying En Masse, Risking ‘Catastrophic’ Collapse Of Earth’s Ecosystems

The insect apocalypse is indeed upon us, according to the first global scientific review of insect population decline.

Another bad omen?

Huff Post
Insects Are Dying En Masse, Risking ‘Catastrophic’ Collapse Of Earth’s Ecosystems
Dominique Mosbergen

Jonathan Turley — Study: Pollution Kills More People Than War, Smoking, Hunger, and Other Causes of Death

We have previously discussed how environmental dangers remain something of an abstraction for most people who fail to recognize that changes in air or water pollution standards results in high and quantifiable rises in death rates. Even changes in areas like shipping fuels can translate to thousands of deaths. However, since these deaths are not immediate and borne privately, the true costs of pollution are often dismissed. I have been highly critical of the environmental record of the Trump Administration for this reason in rolling back on protections in a variety of areas as well as appointing regulators with anti-environmental record.

Now a new major study has found that environmental pollution kills more people every year that all of the wars. It exceeds the death tolls for smoking, hunger or natural disasters combined. It kills more than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. Yet, unlike these causes of death, pollution remains a policy concern that is often pushed to the side for more immediate goals like job creation. This is not to say that environmental protection would trump all other concerns but rather the real costs of such pollution are rarely discussed in real terms of premature deaths by politicians.

The study in the respected Lancet medical journal found that one out of every six premature deaths in the world in 2015 was caused by toxic exposure. That amounts to 9 million people who died prematurely due to pollution. The study also found that the cost of the resulting illnesses and deaths amounted to some $4.6 trillion in annual losses.

Worse yet, the 9 million deaths from pollution appears a highly conservative estimate since it relied on only limited data on specific measurable cases of deaths and illnesses. The actual number is likely much higher. Moreover, only half of the 5000 news chemicals introduced since 1950 have actually been fully tested for their toxicity....

Jonathan Turley
Study: Pollution Kills More People Than War, Smoking, Hunger, and Other Causes of DeathJonathan Turley | Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University

Sputnik — Going Green: China to Invest $360Bln in Renewable Energy Before 2020

China plans to invest 2.5 trillion yuan ($359.8 billion) in the development of renewable energy resources, deputy head of the Chinese National Energy Administration (NEA) Li Yangzhe said Thursday.

"According to initial calculations, the 13th five-year (2016-2020) investment plan in renewable energy will amount to 2.5 trillion yuan," Li said in a statement.

The renewable energy development plan was prepared by the NEA and the National Development and Reform Commission of the People's Republic of China (NDRC), the deputy head added.

Sputnik
Going Green: China to Invest $360Bln in Renewable Energy Before 2020

Also

Beijing Announces Highest Warning as Heavy Smog Creeps In (VIDEO)

Oliver Milman — More than half US population lives amid dangerous air pollution, report warns

Not just climate change. I changed my place of residence, previously large cities, in 1973, something I would not have done otherwise. Never looked back. I did some short stints in cities since, working on projects, fortunately never in stinkpots.

The Guardian
More than half US population lives amid dangerous air pollution, report warns
Oliver Milman

Jason Hickel — To Save The Economy, We Have To Break Its One Sacred Rule

We must stop worshiping the false god of GDP growth [because "trickle down].

As Joseph Stiglitz has put it, "What we measure informs what we do. And if we’re measuring the wrong thing, we’re going to do the wrong thing."

co.exist
To Save The Economy, We Have To Break Its One Sacred Rule
Jason Hickel

ht Don Quijones at Raging Bull-Shit

Sara Hsu — China’s Clean Energy Plans—Enough to Stave Off Climate Change?

The are working on it, but.…

Still, it will take a prodigious effort to cure China’s environmental ills. If energy needs increase, expanding the use of renewable energy to 20% of the fuel makeup may be insufficient to avert climate change. China has stated in the international arena that emissions are to peak by 2030, the year by which climate change is predicted to become irreversible. After this point, the earth will have reached the tipping point, in which the Arctic will become a source, rather than a net sink, of carbon.

Therefore, even though China is working hard to increase its usage of renewable energy, this simply may not be enough to stave off climate change. The solution must be a stronger reduction in the use of carbon-intensive energy, entailing conscientious consumer use as well as more efficient producer use and implementation of carbon-reducing technologies. China’s policy makers take a gradual approach to changing the status quo, but climate change cannot wait.

Triple Crisis
China’s Clean Energy Plans—Enough to Stave Off Climate Change?
Sara Hsu | Assistant Professor of Economics at the State University of New York at New Paltz and Research Director at the Asia Financial Risk Think Tank in Hong Kong. Dr. Hsu specializes in Chinese economic development, informal finance, and shadow banking.

New Research Shows Pollution Inequality in America is Even Worse Than Income Inequality — Lynn Parramore interviews James K. Boyce

Lynn Parramore interviews James K. Boyce, professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, who directs the environment program of the Political Economy Research Institute, where his research focuses on the effects of inequalities of wealth and power and the dynamics of conflict.

INET Blog
New Research Shows Pollution Inequality in America is Even Worse Than Income Inequality
Lynn Stuart Parramore | AlterNet senior editor

Qin Guangrong — Chinese Shift: Put the Environment Above GDP Growth

"We would rather reduce our growth rate a bit in order to protect the environment and never seek short-term economic development at the expense of the environment. We should never pursue a 'pollution first, treatment later' approach. "

World Post
Chinese Shift: Put the Environment Above GDP Growth
Qin Guangrong | Communist Party Secretary of Yunnan Province, China

AFP — World Health Organization: Outdoor air pollution a leading cause of cancer

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday classified outdoor air pollution as a leading cause of cancer in humans.

“The air we breathe has become polluted with a mixture of cancer-causing substances,” said Kurt Straif of the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

“We now know that outdoor air pollution is not only a major risk to health in general, but also a leading environmental cause of cancer deaths.”

The IARC said a panel of top experts had found “sufficient evidence” that exposure to outdoor air pollution caused lung cancer and raised the risk of bladder cancer.

Although the composition of air pollution and levels of exposure can vary dramatically between locations, the agency said its conclusions applied to all regions of the globe.

Air pollution was already known to increase the risk of respiratory and heart diseases.

The Raw Story
World Health Organization: Outdoor air pollution a leading cause of cancer
Agence France-Presse

Bruce Melton — Arctic Sea Ice and Al Gore's "Prediction 2013"

Whatever you do, do not get frightened at climate change. It is only pollution. The same voices that tell us that Al Gore is a fraud also tell us that the solutions to climate change will ruin our economies; it's a massive climate science conspiracy that climate change is a myth or that it won't be good for us. These people are confused.

Cornell and Stanford have published a plan for a fossil-fuel-free New York state by 2030. The plan seems big at $569 billion. But upon completion, by 2030, the savings from health and environmental issues (not inclusive of climate change impacts), plus the higher profit margin from alternative energy sources, will equal $114 billion per year. This pays off the capital investment in less than five years. And each year thereafter, savings and profits will be higher under an alternative energy infrastructure because under a fossil fuel energy infrastructure, environmental and health costs go up only as profits diminish because of rising fuel costs.12

Don't get frightened; get mad. Get really mad. … Get motivated. Take action. Tell your political leaders what they need to do.

Truthout | Opinion
Arctic Sea Ice and Al Gore's "Prediction 2013"
Bruce Melton

Michael Ricciardi — Swedish Engineers Invent ‘Nano Gas’ That ‘Instantly Neutralizes’ Carbon Pollution (via Planetsave)

Swedish Engineers Invent ‘Nano Gas’ That ‘Instantly Neutralizes’ Carbon Pollution (via Planetsave)

The old saying “fighting fire with fire” may be true or not depending upon the situation, but if someone told you the best way to fight (carbon-based) gas is with another gas, you might raise a skeptical eyebrow or two. But that’s exactly what…

---

Audrey Clark — Biologist Paul Ehrlich gives dire prediction for global civilization

“I believe and all of my colleagues believe that we are on a straightforward course to a collapse of our civilization.”

VTDigger
Biologist Paul Ehrlich gives dire prediction for global civilization
Audrey Clark

Technology running ahead of our ability as a species to adapt to emerging challenges arising from it.

After an hour-long talk about all the reasons why a collapse of civilization is likely and how hard it will be to prevent, Ehrlich offered one iota of hope: “If there’s any reason for hope, it’s that we do have a history of showing that human beings, human societies, in relatively recent times can change extremely dramatically, extremely rapidly.” 

Ehrlich went on, “For some reason — we don’t fully understand it — when the time is right, you can get dramatic, dramatic changes, which indicates to me that there’s a chance that when the time is right, we can change the way we behave towards each other and towards our environment and it can happen very very rapidly. I think … your main challenge is to find a way to ripen the time.”

The Green Man — Congressional Democrat Proposes Ban On Climate Action

Yesterday, a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives stepped up to deal with the issue – by protecting the market forces that have led to the climate crisis in the first place. Congressman Nick Rahall introduced H.R. 1486, legislation that would make it against the law for the government to shift the expense of carbon dioxide pollution from individuals and small businesses to the corporations that release the pollution in the first place. Rahall’s bill would ban an entire category of action to confront climate change, with the goal of protecting the dirty energy dominance of fossil fuels corporations.

Irregular Times
Congressional Democrat Proposes Ban On Climate Action
The Green Man

James Hoggan with Richard Littlemore — Climate Cover-Up

DeSmog Blog

Climate Cover-Up  The Crusade to Deny Global Warming

James Hoggan with Richard Littlemore

Jeff Spross — Bombshell IMF Study: United States Is World’s Number One Fossil Fuel Subsidizer

Between directly lowered prices, tax breaks, and the failure to properly price carbon, the world subsidized fossil fuel use by over $1.9 trillion in 2011 — or eight percent of global government revenues — according to a study released this week by the International Monetary Fund.

The biggest offender was by far the United States, clocking in at $502 billion. China came in second at $279 billion, and Russia was third at $116 billion. In fact, the problem is so significant in the U.S. that the IMF figures correcting it will require new fees, levies, or taxes totaling over $500 billion a year, or more than 3 percent of the economy.

Climate Progress
Bombshell IMF Study: United States Is World’s Number One Fossil Fuel Subsidizer
Jeff Spross

As Warren Mosler says, a subsidy is a negative tax. Now we learn that it is necessary not only to eliminate the subsidies but to increase taxes and regulation (which increases costs) in order to save the home planet.

But developing an inexpensive, renewable, clean source of transportable energy is of the highest priority to avoid severe culling of the species.

Jeff Spross — In Australia, Wind Power Is Already Cheaper Than Fossil Fuels, And Solar Is Right Behind

According to the latest research from Bloomberg New Energy Finance, electricity from wind power can now be supplied more cheaply in Australia than power from either coal or natural gas — and solar and other forms of renewable energy aren’t far behind.
Older coal-fired power plants from the 70s and 80s still compete at lower prices than renewables — but only because their construction costs have depreciated. For the deployment of any new power generation in Australia, renewables now appear to be the way to go.

Australia currently charges polluters $23 in Australian dollars per metric ton of carbon they emit, but the study concluded that wind power would still undercut fossil fuels even without that correction of the market’s failure to properly build in the costs of carbon pollution....

Climate Progress
In Australia, Wind Power Is Already Cheaper Than Fossil Fuels, And Solar Is Right Behind
Jeff Spross

First study showing Northern Hemisphere enveloped by Fukushima radiation

AbstractMassive amounts of anthropogenic radionuclides were released from the nuclear reactors located in Fukushima (northeastern Japan) between 12 and 16 March 2011 following the earthquake and tsunami. Ground level air radioactivity was monitored around the globe immediately after the Fukushima accident. This global effort provided a unique opportunity to trace the surface air mass movement at different sites in the Northern Hemisphere. Based on surface air radioactivity measurements around the globe and the air mass backward trajectory analysis of the Fukushima radioactive plume at various places in the Northern Hemisphere by employing the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory model, we show for the first time, that the uninterrupted complete revolution of the mid-latitude Surface Westerlies took place in less than 21 days, with an average zonal velocity of >60 km/h. The position and circulation time scale of Surface Westerlies are of wide interest to a large number of global researchers including meteorologists, atmospheric researchers and global climate modellers.
© 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Science of the Total Environment 438 (2012) 80–85
Tracking the complete revolution of surface westerlies over Northern Hemisphere using radionuclides emitted from Fukushima
M.A. Hernández-Ceballosa, Department of Applied Physics, University of Huelva, Huelva, Spain, G.H. Hong, Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute, Ansan 426–744, South Korea , R.L. Lozano a , Y.I. Kim Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute, Uljin 767–813, South Korea, H.M. Lee, Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute, Ansan 426–744 , S.H. Kim Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute, Ansan 426–744 , S.-W. Yeh, Department of Environmental Marine Science, Hanyang University, Ansan, 426–791, South Korea , J.P. Bolívar, Department of Applied Physics, University of Huelva, Huelva, Spain, ⁎, M. Baskaran, Department of Geology, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA a Department of Applied Physics, University of Huelva, Huelva, Spain
(H/t Peak Oil)

Tara Lohan — Romney Releases Energy Plan for the 19th Century: We Are Doomed

Here's a frightening look at what a Romney-Ryan ticket looks like for the environment and our future.

AlterNet
Romney Releases Energy Plan for the 19th Century: We Are Doomed
Tara Lohan

Paul B. Farrell — Big Oil is Earth’s Public Enemy No. 1

Commentary: 200-year supply but we’re all dead in 50
Read it at MarketWatch
Big Oil is Earth’s Public Enemy No. 1
Paul B. Farrell