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The U.S. officially rejoined the Paris climate accord on Friday to much media and European applause. Our guess is that China is the most pleased because it knows the accord will restrict American energy while Beijing gets a decade-long free ride. Paris is a voluntary agreement, and nations submit their own commitments to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. The Obama Administration vowed to slash emissions 26% or more from 2005 levels by 2025, but the Trump Administration withdrew from the accord. President Biden has now pledged to reach “net-zero emissions no later than 2050.” Like Mr. Obama, Mr. Biden is committing the...

Maputo (AFP) - The leader of Mozambique's second largest opposition party and a top mayor who fought climate change in his low-lying coastal city Beira, Daviz Simango, has died aged 57, his family said Monday. He was transferred to a South African hospital last week for treatment, his brother Lutero Simango said in a text message, without disclosing the nature of the illness. As mayor of Beira, a key port that lies below sea level, Simango worked to shore up the city's climate defences against rising seas, flooding and storms.

After enduring multiple days of freezing temperatures and Texans dripping faucets to prevent frozen pipes from bursting, cities across the state warned residents that water levels are dangerously low and may be unsafe to drink. They’re telling Texans to boil tap water for drinking, cooking, brushing their teeth, and making ice — as residents have been struggling to maintain power and heat while an unprecedented winter storm whips across the state. While activities such as showering and doing laundry are safe, cities underwater boil notices are asking people to conserve water if at all possible. Approximately 590 public water systems...

Since 1980 Americans have heard that the Earth was warming rapidly, that the South would not have winters anymore and we would see “the end of snow.”We were told it is the “scientific consensus” and the science was “settled.” So why the heck would politicians prepare for something when they were told by "experts" that it would never happen?(source)Clearly the UN, Al Gore, John Kerry, Bill Gates and all the others that push this garbage on the public, without scientific data to support it, are to blame, not the Texas politicians.John Kerry, who flies on private jets, is out there...

John Kerry has repeated his claim the upcoming COP26 talks have to produce results..."international talks this year are the “last, best hope” of avoiding catastrophic global heating". With his repeated last chance claims, John Kerry has added his name to the hilarious and very long list of last chances to save the world from climate change. The list stretches all the way back to the 1980s, so clearly some of the last chance claims were a little exaggerated.

The story of how Texas was brought to its knees by crippling cold weather leaving millions without power is a complex one, yet entirely predictable and avoidable. The details matter, so it is important to know the long story, but let’s start with the short version: For years, Texas’ grid operator (ERCOT) has overestimated the ability to maintain a reliable grid without a sufficient supply buffer, known as a “reserve margin.” That margin is the difference between demand for electricity and what the grid can produce. When demand exceeds production, you get blackouts. That buffer has been shrinking because reliable...

For many, especially folks who live in the South, the arctic outbreak that has gripped the nation's heartland for the past week is the kind of cold that only happens once in a century. Countless record cold temperatures were set. Conditions overwhelmed the Texas power grid, cutting off electricity to millions and bursting water pipes, creating a humanitarian crisis. But with climate change making for generally warmer winters and causing heat records to outnumber cold records by 2 to 1 globally over the past decade, this historic cold snap may seem counterintuitive. It's not. In fact, paradoxically, a warmer climate...

After debunking misinformation about COVID-19 and the 2020 presidential election results, Facebook will now be the arbiter of truth about climate change. The social network will begin flagging and debunking climate change myths.Facebook released a statement Thursday stating that the social media platform will "add informational labels to some posts on climate," and direct users to the Facebook Climate Science Information Center, a resource that provides "science-based news, approachable information and actionable resources from the world's leading climate change organizations." Previously, Facebook rolled out its Voting Information Center in August and the Coronavirus Information Center in March to combat news...

This is a funny and infuriating look at the hypocracy of Bill Gates.The Truth About Bill Gates

WASHINGTON - The United States officially rejoined the Paris climate agreement on Friday, reinvigorating the global fight against climate change as the Biden administration plans drastic emissions cuts over the next three decades. Scientists and foreign diplomats have welcomed the U.S. return to the treaty, which became official here 30 days after President Joe Biden ordered the move on his first day in office. Since nearly 200 countries signed the 2015 pact to prevent catastrophic climate change, the United States was the only country to exit. Former President Donald Trump took the step, claiming climate action would cost too much....

Joe Biden makes his presidential debut at the G7 on Friday as America's partners re-focus their collective heft on pandemic recovery and climate change after the psychodramas of the Trump era. Following the summit, Biden, Johnson and EU leaders in the G7 will join another gathering online, the annual Munich Security Conference, to discuss "renewing transatlantic cooperation". Biden will become the first US president to address the Munich meeting, underlining a decisive shift after cooperation was all but broken under his go-it-alone predecessor Donald Trump. Since taking office last month, the Democrat has re-committed the United States to action on...

The billionaire philanthropist offers four bold ideas to help business take on the climate crisis ---- [cut] It took me years to come to this point of view. I became interested in climate change not as an environmentalist, but as an advocate for global health and development. Since the early 2000s, my wife Melinda and I have been funding efforts to improve health and fight poverty in lower- and middle-income countries. A few times a year, I would travel abroad for the chance to see the work in action. Often, I’d fly into a country at night and be struck...

In a fawning interview with billionaire Bill Gates aired on Wednesday’s 3rd Hour Today show, co-host Al Roker hailed the Microsoft founder for launching a climate change crusade to “help save the planet.” A prominent left-wing climate activist in his own right, Roker was particularly concerned about “deniers” spreading “misinformation” and wondered if “big tech” could be used to silence them. “Bill Gates is talking about saving the planet. Being emissions free in 30 years,” Roker heralded at the top of the segment. Turning to Gates, Roker fretted: “Plain and simple, if we don’t act now, what’s at stake here?”...

If a business wants to operate under “green” rules (or Marxist rules, or whatever sort), it is free to do so — and suffer the consequences. Investors may choose to put their money into such businesses if they want to take the risk. Or maybe the inventor prefers to put his money into an index fund that has announced its commitment to invest only in firms that have certain operating frameworks, such as minimizing carbon emissions. Again, no problem, as long as the investor knows ahead of time where the index fund will or will not put his money. But...

<p>In reality, failures in natural gas, coal and nuclear energy systems were responsible for nearly twice as many outages as frozen wind turbines and solar panels, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state’s power grid, said in a press conference Tuesday.</p>

Climate deniers are using a spell of unusually cold weather in Europe to incorrectly argue that CO2 emissions are not warming the planet. As Germans shiver through double-digit negative temperatures and more than 80 centimeters (30 inches) of snow in parts of the country, climate science deniers have taken to social media to argue that global warming is a hoax. Their claim — which has been repeatedly debunked by climate scientists — is that extremely cold weather shows that carbon dioxide emissions are not warming the Earth. In fact, the effects of global warming may even have favored the extremely...

WASHINGTON - Deadly weather will be hitting the U.S. more often, and America had better get better at dealing with it, experts said as Texas and other states battled winter storms that blew past the worst-case planning of utilities, governments and millions of shivering citizens. This week’s storms fit a pattern of worsening extremes under climate change and demonstrate anew that local, state and federal officials have failed to do nearly enough to prepare for greater and more dangerous weather. Power supplies of all sorts failed in the extreme cold, including natural gas-fired power plants that were knocked offline amid...

The Polish government wants to start producing nuclear energy in 2033 and has agreed to deals with the US and France. But Germany is increasingly alarmed by its neighbor’s energy plans. […] The EU member has to find new sources of energy in order to meet the bloc’s climate, energy and environmental targets. Poland currently depends on coal for 70% of its energy and is thus one of the most polluting EU states. But Poland’s energy transition is not driven by external pressure alone. Brown coal mining in central Poland, which currently supplies 20% of the country’s energy, is set...

Snowy winters could become a thing of the past as climate change affects the UK, Met Office analysis suggests. It is one of a series of projections about how UK's climate could change, shared with BBC Panorama. It suggests by the 2040s most of southern England could no longer see sub-zero days. By the 2060s only high ground and northern Scotland are still likely to experience such cold days. The projections are based on global emissions accelerating. It could mean the end of sledging, snowmen and snowball fights, says Dr Lizzie Kendon, a senior Met Office scientist who worked on...

WASHINGTON — A devastating winter storm that has plunged Texas into an electricity crisis offers warning signs for the U.S. as the Biden administration seeks to prepare for a future in which extreme weather is a greater risk and America is almost entirely powered by renewable energy. Energy generation is one challenge. But an equally daunting task centers on storing power from renewable energy for extreme events like the one hammering Texas. Wind and solar, still fairly small slices of the state's energy mix, played only a minimal role in the sudden power shortage, utility officials said — contrary to...