The Climate Crisis Post 12

The climate crisis post is back for a new year. There is both good and bad news about the climate from 2023, but overall we are still very far from sufficient action and the climate crisis is accelerating at an ever greater pace. Public awareness of the seriousness of the climate crisis and what is needed to reduce the damage to an acceptable level is still far too low; especially in Norway. It is our duty to ensure that this awareness spreads.

Development of emission-free energy will not help the climate crisis unless we actually shut down fossil power plants. Electrification of the transport sector will not help if we do not create sustainable and circular value chains. In any case, the best climate measure is always lower and more efficient resource consumption.

If we are to manage to get on the right track, it is important that we think and act holistically, fairly and purposefully. We cannot continue with fossil energy. Environmental crimes must have consequences. Neo-colonialist structures must be broken. 2024 is expected to be even hotter than 2023. Activism is ramping up, but so are the attacks against it. I hope 2024 will be the year when climate crisis understanding becomes common knowledge.

Climate

2023 was a turning point for climate, believes The Guardian in this year’s summary. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/26/first-edition-climate-crisis-2023

The Israeli oil company Delek Group is excluded from the Norwegian Pension Fund abroad following the recommendation of the Ethics Council. https://energiwatch.no/nyheter/olje_gass/article16697377.ece

Greenwashing

Equinor sentenced for misleading advertising in Great Britain. When will the same come to Norway? https://www.naturpress.no/2023/12/20/equinor-drev-villedende-reklame-i-storbritannia/

Blood-carbon: Forced displacement of Kenyans so the UAE can greenwash. https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/12/18/blood-carbon-kenyans-are-being-erased-so-the-uae-can-greenwash/

Equinor is still 99.6% fossil, says a new report. https://www.klimastiftelsen.no/aktuelt/while-oil-has-been-removed-from-the-company-name-equinors-energy-production-remains-99-6-fossil-based

Energy

What effect is the US’s growing LNG exports having on the world? https://www.symonspa.com/post/report-status-of-u-s-lng-export-permits-and-associated-greenhouse-gas-emissions

Wind

The world’s largest wooden windmill has been put into operation https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-67718719

Oil

There is no room for new oil investments and the world has decided to phase out fossil energy. When will this be followed up, say climate scientists. https://www.dn.no/inllegg/energi/klima/olje/ikke-rom-for-nye-oljeinvesteringer/2-1-1572317

Residents of Texas exposed to cancer-causing oil pollution for a number of years. https://publichealthwatch.org/2023/12/13/houston-chemical-air-pollution-benzene/

Politics

Swedish opposition warns of no confidence in the climate minister. https://www.naturpress.no/2023/12/21/svensk-opposisjon-varsler-mistillitsforslag-mot-klimaministeren/

Sweden has held its first national citizens’ council. https://www.stockholmresilience.org/news--events/general-news/2023-11-27-first-swedish-national-citizen-assembly-on-climate-could-show-the-way-to-transformation.html

What if we canceled debt for developing countries in order to achieve climate action and nature conservation? https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20231212-what-if-the-world-cancelled-debt-for-climate-and-nature

Extreme weather

NRK collects the extreme weather in 2023, but does not mention that it is due to fossil energy, that action is urgent, that new oil developments are not compatible with the climate goals and that extreme weather can be demonstrably attributed to the climate crisis. https://www.nrk.no/urix/ekstremvaeraret-2023-1.16687248

Nature

The Osage tribe in the USA, known from the feature film “Killing of the flower moon”, just won a case against wind turbine developments on their territory. The climate crisis cannot be solved by continuing colonialist systems against indigenous peoples and nature. https://open.substack.com/pub/robertbryce/p/federal-judge-sides-with-osage-tribe

Catastrophic reproduction crisis among emperor penguins due to ice melting. https://www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/loss-of-sea-ice-causes-catastrophic-breeding-failure-for-emperor-penguins/

Activism

2023 was the year governments looked at the climate crisis and chose to punish the activists instead. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/22/2023-governments-climate-crisis-persecute-activists-silenced?

Climate activists have blocked the highway outside IGN bank in Amsterdam to protest their funding of fossil energy. https://www.ctvnews.ca/climate-and-environment/climate-activists-from-extinction-rebellion-have-blocked-part-of-the-highway-around-amsterdam-1.6705542

Extinction Rebellion greenwashed the Ministry of Energy to protest the greenwashing name change when oil policy remains the same. https://www.vartoslo.no/energidepartementet-extinction-rebellion-jonas-kittelsen/extinction-rebellion-vasket-energidepartementet-fasade-gronn/526039

Research

Could the planet be boiled alive by a self-reinforcing greenhouse effect? https://bgr.com/science/how-the-runaway-greenhouse-gas-effect-could-literally-boil-earth-alive/

The research article is here https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2023/12/aa46936-23/aa46936-23.html

Genotyping of octopus DNA shows the last time the West Antarctic ice sheet collapsed. The temperature was then only 1 degree warmer than the pre-industrial temperature. https://astrobiology.com/2023/12/using-genomics-to-trace-ice-planet-history-octopus-dna-reveals-west-antarctic-ice-sheet-collapse-during-last-interglacial.html

How has the sea ice changed over time? https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-piecing-together-arctic-sea-ice-history-1850/

Solutions

To deal with water shortages, California is now planning to recycle its sewage. https://www.businessinsider.com/california-drinking-toilet-water-sewage-waste-drought-climate-crisis-solution-2023-12?r=US&IR=T

Videos

ExxonMobil tells what they have spent the year on in this satirical video https://youtu.be/u8JVf1ytJfI

There is also good news from 2023! https://youtu.be/b9DYk7c1Uk8

The king makes a clear climate appeal in his New Year’s speech. https://www.nrk.no/norge/kongen-med-tydelig-klimaoppfordring-i-nyttarstalen-1.16697392

Artist and climate activist Louse Harris has made the song “We tried” about the climate crisis. It reached #4 in the UK charts despite extensive censorship by the radio channels. The song is nice, but gloomy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2XV20G85Tg

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