Frankly, climate headlines can be a little overwhelming. At Emeraldology, we find mixing some good news with the bad makes staying informed a little easier. Here’s what we found interesting this week:
The Amazon isn’t the only forest that’s burning. Can consumer pressure stop the destruction?
- Professors and PhD students from UW examine the source the fires burning tropical forests in the Amazon, Indonesia and Malaysia.
- Certification and consumer pressure are two ways to discourage burning forest land for agriculture and ranching.
Exxon and Oil Sands Go on Trial in New York Climate Fraud Case
- A civil case between ExxonMobil and the New York attorney general is set to begin next week.
- Exxon is accused of defrauding stockholders by “disclosing one set of these projected carbon costs while planners used an entirely different set internally for evaluating investments.”
Largest ferries in the state will be converted to hybrid electric propulsion
- Up to $35 million from the Volkswagen federal enforcement action was approved to convert three of Washington’s Jumbo Mark II ferries from diesel to hybrid electric propulsion.
- The state’s ferry fleet consumes more than 18 million gallons of diesel fuel per year. The three Jumbo Mark II ferries currently account for 26% of that.
- Conversion designs will begin this month and continue through 2020. Construction will begin in 2021.
- “In addition to cost savings and reduced maintenance costs, converting the Jumbo Mark IIs will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 48,565 metric tons per year – that’s like taking more than 10,000 cars off the road.”
Renewable energy to expand by 50% in next five years – report
- “The International Energy Agency found that solar, wind and hydropower projects are rolling out at their fastest rate in four years.”
- Renewable energy currently produces 26% of the world’s electricity.
- The cost of solar is expected to decline 15% to 35% by 2024.
