350 Humboldt is going to experiment with passing along a once-a-week digest of important climate news. We are hoping you will find it useful not only in keeping up with a lot of fast-changing climate advances (and setbacks) but also in dispelling a little of the gloom it is easy to feel over the disparity between the climate action needed and where we are. We may be making better progress than you believe!

One hint: a few linked articles may be behind a paywall. You can sometimes read it by searching in news.google.com. Or a similar story is likely to be on the Associated Press site (apnews.com) or the NPR website.

EPA Acts! The Environmental Protection Agency this week finalized an ambitious set of rules aimed at slashing air pollution, water pollution and planet-warming emissions spewing from the nation’s power plants. When fully implemented, the rules will have enormous consequences for U.S. climate goals, the air Americans breathe and the ways they get their electricity. The power sector ranks as the nation’s second-largest contributor to climate change, and it is a major source of toxic air pollutants tied to various health problems.

A publication on climate news intended for news reporters is Covering Climate Now: The Climate Beat. Here are some news stories they have passed along (including a couple of movies).

  • Pollution surge. US air pollution is getting worse due to climate change, according to a new report by the American Lung Association. Over 130 million Americans live in areas with poor air quality, with “high ozone days and spikes in particle pollution related to extreme heat, drought and wildfires,” contributing to the problem, according to the report. See The American Lung Association’s report for air pollution grades in cities and counties across the US to localize the story.
  • Nature-based solutions. California has unveiled a plan that will transform more than half of the state’s 100 million acres into lands that can help fight climate change. The plan includes managing land to reduce wildfire risk, protecting biodiversity, and more with the goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2045. By Hayley Smith at the Los Angeles Times… or the press release here.
  • Climate optimism. Though climate change is expected to get worse before it gets better, a lot of good work is being done to stop it, including the shift to clean energy. “We are on this cusp of a lot of really positive shifts happening … and those don’t get reported enough,” says Elizabeth Weise, USA Today’s national climate correspondent. The article quotes Al Gore and others and contains a display of 34 sculptures made of recycled plastic.
  • In Spanish: Our Planet: Voices of Climate Change,” a documentary from Telemundo Orlando, highlights how climate is impacting Hispanic farm workers, rancheros, fishermen, and students from Alaska to Puerto Rico.
  • Solving Our Climate Crisis,” by WKOW-TV, delves into how climate change is impacting Wisconsin, and how residents are adapting. It is an interesting blend of general information about global warming with specifics applicable to localities in Wisconsin such as the anticipated loss of 80% of freshwater fish species.

The New York Times also has some good news (only the last link is to the NY Times, though).

  • Car and trucks: Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency issued new tailpipe pollution limits designed to ensure that at least 56 percent of new passenger cars and light trucks sold in the United States are all-electric or hybrids by 2032. The rule on passenger cars would eliminate more greenhouse gas emissions than any other climate rule in the nation’s history.

The California attack on rooftop solar goes on. “The California Contractors State License Board (CSLB) approved a new rule late last week that would prohibit licensed solar contractors from installing new battery storage capacity to existing solar systems. It also prohibits solar contractors from performing maintenance on battery storage systems — including systems they installed themselves. Those projects would now require a licensed electrician.”

But the feds are on it.  The EPA’s historic, $7B Solar for All program will help every state fund solar projects for lower-income residents. In many states, that will be a first.

What’s happening in India? India is in the midst of national voting while a 23 day heat wave across India and South and Eastern Asia is causing temperatures of 111F. One billion people are eligible to vote. India is investing massively in renewable energy but at the same time adding many new coal plants. Their ambition is to be carbon neutral by 2070 – which of course puts in doubt the global goal of net zero by 2050.

Finally – low carbon cement. Cement is a tough climate problem because it requires lots of energy to produce which means it is responsible for 7.5% of global CO2 emissions today. The U.S. DOE recently announced that it will be funding two low-carbon alternatives: $87M for Sublime Systems and $189M for Brimstone to initialize commercial scale-up of their zero-carbon cement technologies, which do not use CCUS and can potentially be cost-competitive with conventional cement at scale, without subsidies. Brimstone’s process has the potential to actually be carbon-negative, with sequestration of up to 1 ton CO2 per ton of cement. (Conventional processes generate 0.8 ton CO2 per ton cement.)

Podcast that is always interesting. Shaye Kann is an investor in climate tech who always has interesting guests talking about issues we all know about (like the high emissions from cement) or ones that are new. You can download the podcast anywhere you get podcasts. Here is the website for the show.

Feel free to drop us an email at [email protected] about whether you like (and use) these news clips or anything else you would like to get from 350 Humboldt.  Our monthly newsletter, the LookOut, has been on hiatus a couple of months because of illness but should be returning soon.