Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images) The numbers are startling. We know roughly how much more carbon dioxide we can put into the atmosphere before we exceed our climate goals—limiting warming to 1.5° to 2° C above preindustrial temperatures. From that, we can figure out how much more fossil fuel we can burn before […]
Enlarge / The sun sets beyond an oil pumping unit, also known as a pumping jack, at a drilling site operated by Tatneft OAO near Almetyevsk, Russia. (credit: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg) Daimler Trucks, eBay and a US energy company were among the recent buyers of carbon offsets created by projects that involved injecting carbon dioxide underground […]
Enlarge / Activists from the environmental organization Greenpeace demonstrate in the Baltic Sea in front of a ship carrying Russian oil on March 23, 2022. (credit: Frank Molter/picture alliance) First there was the Russian oligarch jet tracker ; then there was the particular Russian oligarch yacht tracker; now there’s the Russian oil tanker tracker. The […]
Enlarge President Joe Biden announced today that the US will ban imports of Russian oil, natural gas, and coal. The UK will follow suit, according to a Politico report, phasing out Russian oil and gas purchases over the next several months. The coordinated moves will add further pressure to Putin’s regime after he ordered the […]
Enlarge (credit: Sean Hannon) Giant methane plumes from fossil fuel extraction and transportation are losing the industry millions of metric tons of methane—at high costs for the climate, society, and even the industry’s pocketbooks. Although methane emissions are relatively low compared to CO2 emissions, each ton has a whopping 30 to 80 times the relative warming […]
Enlarge / A low-temperature isomerization unit at the Novokuibyshevsk Refinery, a subsidiary of Rosneft Oil Company, in the Russian city of Novokuibyshevsk. (credit: Yegor Aleyev / TASS) Shell announced today that it would be pulling out of the stalled Nord Stream 2 pipeline and seeking to sell its stakes in various oil and gas projects […]
Enlarge / Exhaust from fossil fuel vehicles is a significant contributor to PM2. 5 pollution in the US. (credit: Ina Fassbender/picture alliance) At the outset of the pandemic, when lockdowns were widespread, the remarkable phenomenon occurred. Places that had been saturated with pollution suddenly cleared. The sky over Los Angeles turned blue. Snow-capped mountain ranges […]
Enlarge / Coal smoke and steam vapor pour out of the Bruce Mansfield Power Plant across from a largely abandoned children’s park on September 11, 2008, in Shippingport, Pennsylvania. After two enormous toxic coal soot discharges in 2006 and 2007, the children’s park was rarely used. The 2,460 MW coal-fired plant wasn’t fully decommissioned until […]
Enlarge (credit: iStock) New York took an aggressive stance toward fossil fuels this week, effectively killing the development of new fossil fuel power plants in the state. The Department of Environmental Conservation denied permits for two proposed natural gas power plants, saying they were incompatible with the state’s climate law, which calls for an end […]
Enlarge / At some point, this must stop. A recent congressional hearing left us no closer to figuring out when that point will be reached. (credit: Getty Images ) Thursday, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform held hearings on the role of oil companies in fostering our present climate crisis. The companies led by […]