Beliefs do not change our actions. Actions change our beliefs. Do you believe there is nothing you can do to make a difference? Logical. Do you fear the future? Understandable. Do you feel stressed about climate change? Sensible. However, stress is your brain telling you to act. Stress is a signal; it is urging you to do something. Not only do actions change your beliefs, your actions change other people’s beliefs. —Paul Hawken
Our Climate Crisis
More than 1.5 billion people — almost one-fifth of the planet’s population — endured at least one day this year when the heat index topped 103 degrees Fahrenheit, the threshold the National Weather Service considers life-threatening. It was much worse in some major cities around the world such as Bangkok and Delhi. Heat is the deadliest form of extreme weather.
Amid what will likely be a record-breaking hot summer in the U.S., health experts are stepping up warnings about the risks that extreme temperatures pose to children. From how they sweat to how they breathe, young people process high temperatures differently than adults. Recent studies also show heat’s negative effects on learning, sleep and mental health.
Flooding has gotten increasingly severe in an era of extreme weather and now costs the U.S. economy an estimated $179.8 to $496 billion per year. Florida and Louisiana are grappling with insurers fleeing their states amid rising hurricane-related hazards like inland, coastal and storm surge flooding. Homeowners are being squeezed by increasing insurance prices.
Local Climate News
A short video about JMU ISAT professor Wayne Teel’s ebike commute won first place in the EPA’s EV Transportation Video Challenge in the Personal Mobility category. (Scroll down on the linked website to see the video). Local filmmaker Wade Puffenbarger interviewed Wayne about his daily 8 mile ebike commute from Keezletown to the JMU campus. Wayne says that traffic planners underestimate the potential sea change ebikes could bring to personal transportation in the U.S. if safer routes to common destinations become available to people on bikes.
Charlottesville Area Transit plans to convert to a zero-emission electric and hydrogen-electric fuel cell public transit fleet by 2040. The transit agency, serving a city of 45,000, is matching the zero-emissions goals of larger counterparts in New York, Chicago and San Diego. The Charlottesville based Community Climate Collaborative (C3) is celebrating this as a win in its advocacy for clean energy in the city.
An energy company with a rocky 1.8 MW solar facility at The Village at Orchard Ridge retirement community in Winchester, Virginia, had challenges with mowing without breaking equipment or the solar panels. It therefore contracted with a farmer to maintain the landscape with grazing sheep and pigs.
Politics and Policy
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is circumventing the state legislature to upend climate policy. While climate advocates are confident that Youngkin’s moves will be tossed by courts or reversed by the next governor, that could take years. In the meantime, Youngkin has withdrawn Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and rolled back clean car standards. He’s also locking in place new gas-powered electric power plants for decades to come.
As California grapples with a budget shortfall, Governor Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers have proposed slashing hundreds of millions of dollars for clean alternatives to help with grid emergencies. The much larger pot of money directed to fossil-fueled power plants and backup generators—which don’t fit into the state’s clean energy plans—keeps flowing.
New York City, the most heavily congested city in the United States, had a plan to charge drivers entering lower Manhattan a $15 toll. This was expected to raise $1 billion a year for public transportation while also reducing air pollution. Similar schemes have been adopted in other major cities, including London, Singapore, and Stockholm. Gov. Kathy Hochul then abruptly derailed the plan because of feared political pushback from suburban voters.
Green parties in the European Union have lost significant ground in the latest elections, prompting concerns about the future of the Green Deal and climate policies. They dropped from fourth to sixth place in the European Parliament, with their vote share nearly halved in Germany. Conversely, a Green-Left coalition appears to have narrowly beaten the far-right for first place in the Netherlands.
Donald Trump delivered a campaign-style energy address during a day of meetings with congressional Republicans. He hit on his trademark themes like “drill baby drill” and pledged to reverse Biden administration policies he said hamper fossil fuel development and favor electric vehicles.
Energy bills in the United Kingdom were £22bn higher over the past decade than they would have been if successive Conservative governments had not cut the “green crap” by rolling back climate policies for areas such as insulating homes, new home building standards and onshore wind and solar growth. This also raised net gas imports by a third, making the UK more reliant on gas imports and leaving customers more exposed to high gas prices.
The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned the Chevron doctrine, thereby gutting federal environmental protections. This could send a “convulsive shock” to decades of federal environmental, financial, and healthcare regulations.
Energy
The International Energy Agency reports that global investment in clean energy will hit $2 trillion this year, with solar power receiving the most funding. For every dollar going to fossil fuels today, almost two dollars are now being invested in clean energy. This massive influx of capital into clean energy sectors underscores the growing recognition of the economic and environmental benefits of renewable energy.
West Virginia is attracting diverse energy producers including green energy investments that leverage federal incentives to support former mining communities. “We embrace all forms of energy and want to continue to be one of the world’s leaders in providing power for making people’s lives better and producing more products and equipment,” says West Virginia Secretary of Economic Development Mitch Carmichael.
Fossil gas production in the U.S. rose by 40% from 2015 to 2022 but methane emissions from gas extraction fell by 37%, according to a study of Environmental Protection Agency. This is both bad news and some good news. If oil and gas extraction isn’t about to disappear, then making it as clean as possible is at least a partial win for the climate.
The hotly contested Mountain Valley Pipeline was given the go-ahead by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to start operating, six years after construction began at more than double its original estimated cost. The environmental group Appalachian Voices put out a statement saying that by allowing the pipeline to proceed despite all the hazards it poses, the system meant to protect our communities, land and water has failed.
Construction has begun on a 73-acre hub facility for offshore wind in Brooklyn. It will receive and ship out the enormous wind turbines that will be installed in the Atlantic Ocean. When completed it will be one of the largest dedicated hubs serving offshore wind, a crucial energy industry that’s slowly emerging in the United States.
Despite past failures, the Biden administration is betting big on nuclear power. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm is emphasizing the need to triple nuclear energy output by 2050 to meet climate targets.
Dominion Energy officials say their $1.2 billion plan to extend the life of two half-century old nuclear power plants in Virginia is on schedule and on budget, although the process is more complicated than they anticipated.
AI-enabled activities such as ChatGPT or AI-enhanced internet searches take a lot more data processing than a regular internet search or scroll. This involves more data centers—and more electricity to power them. Analysts predict that data centers could account for as much as 9% of U.S. energy demand by 2030. New solar and wind energy will meet about 40% of that new power demand while the rest will come from a vast expansion in the burning of natural gas.
Climate Justice
Indigenous communities seek to make the drive toward clean energy work for, not against, them. Rather than clean energy as a new type of ‘clean’ colonialism, there’s another path toward making the energy transition more just, sustainable and equitable through partnerships with Indigenous communities.
A recent study shows that almost 3 million Americans live in coastal communities with critical infrastructure at risk of monthly disruptive flooding due to sea level rise. Sea level along the coastline is projected to rise, on average, around 10 to 12 inches by 2050. The burden will not be equal: more than half the critical assets facing frequent flooding are located in communities already disadvantaged by historic and current structural racism, discrimination and pollution.
Dominion Energy has plans to build a new natural gas peaker plant in Chesterfield County, Virginia, where an old coal plant once operated. The minority community in that location has dealt with the environmental and health impacts of the coal plant for the past 80 years. Residents don’t want this plant and are doing what they can to stop it.
Climate Action
Henry County, Virginia, is looking toward a greener future by reducing energy consumption, with the goal of becoming carbon-neutral by 2050. County staff, in conjunction with researchers from George Mason University, are spearheading the Local Energy Efficiency Action Plan, which seeks to establish paths for the county to optimize commercial, residential and governmental energy usage.
Purchasing electric equipment like lawnmowers and leafblowers can be key in encouraging homeowners to take on bigger electrification projects down the line. A recent study shows that people who already have electric lawn equipment are 84% more likely to want to electrify their cooking appliances, and 33% more likely to want to electrify their home and water heating.
Hundreds of sheep have arrived at Dominion Energy’s 500 acre solar farm in Hampton Roads to weed and mow the landscape. “If you think about it—it’s a really perfect pairing for solar farms because sheep and solar farms are both environmentally friendly alternatives to their traditional counterparts,” said Tim Eberly, spokesman for Dominion Energy.
The Environmental Defense Fund, entering controversial territory, will spend millions of dollars to research the impact of geoengineering to reflect sunlight into space. While they do not presently support geoengineering because of the risks, they seek to persuade environmentalists of the necessity of research.
Americans believe recycling is one of the most effective ways they can fight climate change, when experts say it’s unlikely to make much of a difference. Recycling plastics is especially problematic because only 9% of the plastics ever produced have gone on to be recycled. We need to consider if recycling should even be the goal, rather than solutions such as reducing, reusing, refilling, and repairing, which are much better for the environment.
Earl Zimmerman is a member of the Steering Committee of the Climate Action Alliance of the Valley.
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