Thinkshift | March 27, 2018
It’s spring! What better time for climate change news? (Sorry we’re a bummer that way—but hey, it’s not all bad.)
Climate v. Big Oil: Courts are facing a rising tide of climate lawsuits. Arguments opened this month in a suit by San Francisco and Oakland claiming the oilies hid their knowledge of climate change and seeking billions for mitigation. A similar suit by New York City waits in the wings. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that 21 youths can forge ahead with a bid to force the feds to take stronger climate action. And Arnold Schwarzenegger, not a word mincer, says he plans to sue Big Oil “for knowingly killing people all over the world.”
A mighty wind: No, we’re not talking about Christopher Guest’s folkie mockumentary (you should see it if you haven’t), but about a report finding that wind off the Atlantic Coast could generate four times the electricity the region consumes.
Cold, with a chance of solar: Among the nuggets from the latest U.S. Solar Market Insight report: Minnesota installed more megawatts of community solar in 2017 than the entire country did in 2016. Thinkshift’s resident former Minnesotan shrugs, “Little-known fact: it’s pretty darn sunny.”
Show us the money! According to the California Air Resources Board, the state’s cap-and-trade program provided more than $720 million in funding last year for projects that reduce climate emissions in all 58 counties—a two-thirds increase in implemented investments.
On the other hand … A February heat wave melted more than a third of the Bering Sea’s ice in just over a week, reports Inside Climate News, marking the fourth year in a row of extreme winter temperatures in the Arctic.
We retreat to the Onion for answers. “Climate Experts Say Only Hope For Saving Planet Lies With People Who Save Napkins From Takeout Order,” ICYMI. Our hands are clean.
Finally, Earth Day is April 22. This year’s focus is on plastic pollution.
