I’m sure you are aware that over half of US coal fired power plants have been closed since 2002 when the Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign began. (281 retired and 249 to go) And almost no new ones have been permitted for construction. This has not only reduced significant amounts of CO2 but also small particulate matter and other emissions…
One of the first consequences of a warming climate that I said would occur is now happening and being confirmed by data. Scientists predicted that the snow pack in the Rocky Mountains would shrink as a result of shorter and warmer winters. The principal problem that was foreseen was less water flowing into the rivers which flow into the Great Plains that provide irrigation for…
The following headlines and articles are becoming more and more frequent as the consequences of a warming climate are becoming increasingly evident and consequential. It’s one thing to say, “get used to these headlines”. It’s an altogether different thing to get used to what is and going to happen. The frequency of the headlines is only a small sampling of…
For decades, many people said that the cost of doing something, anything to fight climate change was simply too much and uneconomical. I have always said that there is no evidence of this and that there is not one shred of data to support this contention. Not one single study. In fact, all the research shows that doing what is…
Recently, I’ve been writing quite a bit about the financial risk climate change presents to the capital markets and insurance companies. And the last post was about the consequences to people who live in the path of hurricanes that cause catastrophic rain and storm surge and other weather events that create climate refugees. Now, I want to turn to the…
Two themes that I have written about a great deal come together in this article. One is that risk of climate change is increasingly becoming factored into financial markets and financial decisions. I’ve cautioned about being invested in fossil fuel industry assets especially those companies that have trillions of dollars of fossil fuels on their balance sheets that could end…
This post reverts back to the one I sent recently about peak oil growth. In that post I highlighted this point: “Investors are increasingly sitting up and taking notice”. The following article, maybe not unintentionally published on 9/11, a day that changed the world, is about the financial consequences of the shift away from oil (and other fossil fuels). As the article title indicates, energy companies…
As the flood waters recede in the Carolinas, the cleanup begins. And billions of our tax payer money will be used to help the victims of Hurricane Florence recover. My guess is that most of us want to help our fellow citizens in their time of great need get back on their feet and using our tax dollars is a…
Two reoccurring themes in my posts are that mainstream thinking is wrong and that changes are going to happen much, much faster than the experts project. One of those changes is how fast the transition from a fossil fuel economy to one that is powered by renewable energy will happen. Usually when I make some bold statement about how fast things will…
In following up on my last post about how insurance companies are retreating from providing coverage for the coal industry, here is information published by Sierra Club reaffirming that the retirement of coal plants is continuing unabated by anything that is happening in Washington right now. The information presented below speaks for itself but here are some of the highlights. …