What mattered this week

Listen carefully: The world is getting darker, and it’s a nasty feedback loop

Darker? It’s called albedo. Like a black T-shirt in the summer: darker is hotter.
Why? Fewer clouds. Why? Hotter. Effect? We get hotter. Result? Fewer clouds. Feedback loops aren’t good.
How much does this matter? The OG climate scientist, James Hansen worries it’ll DOUBLE warming.
Best commentary: Hansen’s latest email; Want to be really scared? Try a jolly read on CollapseOfIndustrialCivilisation.com

Big: China’s emissions are DROPPING. Seriously.

WTF, really? Seems so. Down 1.6% year on year.
So they’re using less energy, right? No - increased by “one Germany” in the last year. But new wind, solar and nukes more than offset power growth - so coal down.
Best commentary: Carbon Brief did the research; also in New Scientist

Best of the rest

😳 Rogue communication devices found in Chinese solar equipment (Reuters)
🇹🇼 Taiwan closes its last nuke, just as everyone else starts building again (Bloomberg)
🚗 Now 130 different EV models to choose from in the UK (Independent)
🕵 Secret government plan to control weather isn’t secret, won’t control weather (Carbon Brief)

One thing to worry about

Carbon in the atmosphere is UP again, of course. Now over 431 parts-per-million (ppm) of CO2. Pre-industrial was about 275ppm - we’re up 50%.

The last time CO2 levels were this high was 14m years ago, when your living ancestor was also the ancestor of all chimpanzees, gorillas & orang-utans.

One thing to be optimistic about

California is building a steel plant for the first time in 50 years, because solar and batteries are now so cheap, it works in the (sunny parts of) the west, again.

700 jobs, $540M investment, 85% clean power. (CleanTechnica)

If you’ve got more time…

How might we actually use hydrogen?

Regular readers know my scepticism. But a thoughtful new piece in Nature explores possibilities.

• Forget cars and heating. These will be electric.

• Potential is in industry, long-duration energy storage and long-haul transport

• Big challenge is that we need massive cost reductions. But this won’t be anything like what we’ve seen in solar, due to hydrogen’s energy inputs, flammability and difficulty to transport. It’s just expensive

• Uncertainties remain about the real carbon emissions of hydrogen

The bottom line is there are limited applications: