New federal data show global atmospheric concentrations of methane at a record high just as a separate Harvard study shows the US oil and gas industry is emitting far more methane than earlier estimated.
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Our best shot to slow climate change now: Cut methane — The Hill
Locked down for a full year now, there was at least one bright spot: The clear drop in air pollution in 2020. But now there’s even a blot on that. This week the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that methane, the second biggest driver of global warming and a major contributor to air pollution, spiked upward last year with the highest growth rate in NOAA’s 37-year record. What’s going on?
Record surge in methane levels ‘surprising and disturbing’, say scientists — Financial Times
Methane levels in the atmosphere surged during 2020, marking the biggest increase since records began in 1983, in what scientists called a worrying development for the planet.
Legal Challenge: Duke Energy Plans Would Supersize Climate Pollution, Waste Billions on Unused Power Plants — News Release
NC WARN and the Center for Biological Diversity have filed a legal challenge to Duke Energy’s plan to build scores of gas-fired power plants in the Carolinas even though huge amounts of excess generation already sit unused even during the worst winter weather.
See coverage by WXII
Report Card: Duke’s 15-year energy resource plans fail to serve the public interest — News Release
A coalition of over a dozen Carolina-based and national clean energy and environmental justice nonprofit organizations issued a report card that finds Duke Energy Carolinas’ and Duke Energy Progress’ 2020 Integrated Resource Plans fall short of the coalition’s principles for a plan in the public interest.
Editorial: Climate change remains the greatest crisis of our crisis-filled era — Los Angeles Times
As the nation deals with the tragic drama of President Trump’s final days in office, and the world reels under a now-year-long assault by a virus, the Earth continues to evolve into a dangerously inhospitable environment. And it is our collective fault.
We’ve fought the pandemic together. Let’s do the same with climate change. — News & Observer
Op-Ed by Drew Shindell and Jim Warren. Reducing methane emissions is crucial for limiting climate change in the near term. Doing so can provide vital benefits, including fewer people dying from air pollution and heat waves and harmed by powerful storms and wildfires. The climate crisis demands that we stop building fossil fuel infrastructure immediately.
Governor Roy Cooper Led North Carolina to Act on Climate Change. Will That Help Him Win a 2nd Term? — Inside Climate News
“The climate crisis demands that we stop building new fossil fuel infrastructure immediately,” Duke University climate scientist Drew Shindell, 40 former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials and leaders of the environmental group NC WARN wrote to Cooper and Duke Energy on Sept. 14.
Prominent Climate Scientist Leads Call for NC Governor, Duke Energy CEO to Halt Gas Expansion and Turn to Clean, Cheaper Options — News Release from NC WARN
A globally prominent expert on methane’s impacts on the climate is urging Governor Roy Cooper and Duke Energy CEO Lynn Good to lead a cooperative effort for North Carolina to help slow the global climate emergency. In a letter signed by 40 former EPA officials from this state, Dr. Drew Shindell said lessons from the ongoing pandemic and the cancelled Atlantic Coast fracked gas Pipeline (ACP) provide a critically important opportunity to spring forward to a more equitable and economically timely “new normal” while a return to business as usual could be disastrous.
See the Op-Ed Running in the N&O, Charlotte Observer, Durham Herald-Sun, NC Policy Watch, and the Fayetteville Observer
Unequal Impact: The Deep Links Between Racism and Climate Change — Yale Environment 360
Activist Elizabeth Yeampierre has long focused on the connections between racial injustice and the environment and climate change. In the wake of George Floyd’s killing and the outsized impact of Covid-19 on communities of color, she hopes people may finally be ready to listen.