When Sierra Club began the effort to challenge the final permitting of a proposed coal fired power plant being built by Indeck in Elwood, Illinois southwest of Chicago near Joliet, we never could have imagined where we’d be some 16 years later. After 8 years Indeck threw in the towel and gave up. Now, burning coal to boil water to produce electricity is a…
The following article is kinda long and detailed. But the point is profound. Humans are depleting the groundwater aquifer under the California farmland. This is not simply a climate change issue but a warming planet is contributing to the crisis. Less rain in the area and less snow melting from the Sierra Nevada mountains is exacerbating the depleting water supply.…
If you go to my website, franklytalking.com, and look back over the years of posts, you’ll see quite a few are pointing out the economic and investment risk that climate change threatens. Gradually, over the past years, the alarm has been growing and growing. Undoubtedly, there is going to be disruption to “business as usual.” Enormous shifts of capital are…
When you think of climate change what do you think of? Do you think about how it will affect you personally? Or how it may affect others? Do you worry about hurricanes? Tornados? Flooding? Sea level rise? Storm surge? Fires? Drought? Mud slides? Heat waves? Travel delays? Economic impact? Refugees? War? All of our lives are most likely are going…
There are some small obscure items that fly way under the public’s radar that can have an enormous impact on individuals and society. One of those is a regulation called NSR. That stands for New Source Review and falls under the Clean Air Act. This regulation for coal fired power plants controls the definition of what constitutes general maintenance and…
There are untold numbers of articles reiterating the fact that regardless of what the Trump Administration does about reducing the current CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards it would be insane for the auto manufacturers NOT to continue pushing forward on maximum fuel economy for their ICE’s (Internal Combustion Engines) and rollout of electric vehicles. The article below is one…
It can be hard to imagine the catastrophic impact that climate change can create. While the US has seen impacts, somehow when droughts dissipate, hurricanes die out, mud slides get cleaned up, fires are doused, flood waters recede and temperatures drop most of the public forgets about these events. Not, of course, those who’s lives are severely impacted. But most of the public puts…
I’d love to be wrong on my prognostications about the consequences of a warming climate as that would mean that the future is not so bleak as I’ve often made it out to be. And I guess it’s a bit braggadocios to be an “I told you so”. But, as has been the case over and over, the early warnings…
Since I’ve been writing about how horrible the impact of Global Climate Change is likely to be, I thought I’d pass on a more optimistic view. Besides, some of you have been responding to me siting information showing that things aren’t as dire as I make them out to be. Let’s hope that I am over inflating our grim future. I…
I know. I said that the last post would be the last about how the warming climate is impacting our society. But I just couldn’t help myself with this article since it dovetails perfectly with my previous message. “That river is drying up. This winter, snow in the Rocky Mountains, which feeds the Colorado, was 70% lower than average.” “the…