FIRST LOOK: 

Join the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine for a conversation about how to respond to the rising seas – which are already threatening people, infrastructure, and property on U.S. coasts. TODAY at 3 pm ET

'Marginal Wells' The Source Of Major Methane Pollution: Oil and gas wells accounting for just 6% of U.S. extraction are the source of nearly half its methane pollution, a study published Tuesday in Nature Communications found. The half a million "marginal wells" extracting less than the equivalent of 15 barrels of oil per day release methane pollution — through intentional venting and leaks and equipment malfunctions — equivalent to the climate impact of 88 coal-fired power plants. Methane, the primary ingredient in what the industry calls "natural gas" traps 80 times more heat in the atmosphere than CO2 over a 20 year timeframe. It also leaves the atmosphere faster, making immediate action to cut methane pollution the most efficient way to limit near-term global warming. The study also found "equipment negligence and disrepair" were common at the well sites, highlighting the opportunity for significant pollution cuts simply by implementing leak monitoring and site inspections. Marginal wells accounted for about one-fifth of Texas's extraction, Texas regulators said in July 2021. Though not addressed in the study, the findings are not inconsistent with the trend of oil majors, which (contrary to smaller oil and gas firms) have supported methane regulations, selling off oil and gas assets to private equity firms. (E&E News, Reuters, Bloomberg $)

South Africa Flood Devastation Shows Compounding Climate, Social Crises: The devastation wrought by the floods in South Africa's eastern Kwazulu-Natal Province last week illustrates how addressing the climate crisis must include concurrent action on other social crises, the New York Times reports. The flooding that killed at least 448 people in and around Durban, are exactly the kind of disaster climate scientists warn are being made more frequent and extreme by the continued extraction and combustion of fossil fuels. The floods' impact was also made more tragic by housing and other societal inequities that thrust those least responsible for climate change directly into its path. Themba Lushaba was 21 when he was displaced — into a known flood zone — to clear room for a World Cup soccer stadium in 2009. Still living in what was promised to be a temporary resettlement, Lushaba has now survived four major floods, the worst and most recent of which tossed shipping containers like legos. As much as 15 inches of rain poured on Durban in 24 hours, which normally gets about 4 inches in February, its wettest month. "Climate change is here," South African Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma told reporters Tuesday. "The scientists have been telling us that the eastern part of the country is going to be wetter and will have frequent floods. … in KwaZulu-Natal we had floods in 2018, in 2020 and we have had floods now in 2022. Of course each flood gets worse than the previous one. So clearly, climate change is with us and we are beginning to feel the effects of it." (New York Times $; Flooding: AFP, ABC, AP, Reuters; Zuma: AllAfrica; Climate Signals background: Extreme precipitation increase, Flooding)

Geoengineering Could Have Major Malaria Implications: Shooting aerosols into the atmosphere to block the sun and thus cool the planet could have major impacts on the prevalence of Malaria, new research shows. The study, published Wednesday in Nature Communications, found using geoengineering to cool the planet could increase the spread of malaria in West Africa, parts of South Asia, and the Amazon basin, but could reduce risks in cooler areas in East Africa and on the Indian subcontinent. Deploying emergency geoengineering measures to stave off the devastating effects of the continued extraction and combustion of fossil fuels is controversial because its impacts are complicated and unknown and because it could diminish the urgency of getting off fossil fuels. "It's a nice thought but one of the key ideas — that it actually saves lives — hasn’t been tested nearly as much as it should be,” Colin Carlson, the study’s lead author, told Gizmodo. Cutting fossil fuel pollution, however, he told Thomson Reuters, should be a “moral imperative, and will save lives no matter what.” (Gizmodo, Thomson Reuters Foundation, The Guardian)

FOSSIL FUELED WAR: Experts predict lasting environmental damage from Russia's invasion of Ukraine (ABC), EU considers higher renewables goal to shift from Russian energy (OilPrice, Reuters)

GERMANY: Germany will end Russian oil imports by end of year, foreign minister says (Axios, OilPrice)

US: US natural gas is on a path to `crazy prices' with no relief in sight (Bloomberg $), US refiners receiving last Russian oil cargoes before wind-down (Reuters), US Treasury sanctions Russian bitcoin miners as war enters its third month (CNBC)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Egypt calls for global cooperation to tackle climate change (Prensa Latina)

WILDFIRES: A megafire raged for 3months. no one’s on the hook for its emissions. (Washington Post $), 6 takeaways from our investigation into greenhoUSe gas emissions (Washington Post $)

• TUNNEL FIRE: Tunnel Fire in Arizona nearly triples in size amid high winds (Washington Post $, AP, AP)AP, New York Times $) 
• SECONDARY IMPACTS: After wildfires, scorched trees could disrupt water supplies (AP)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: Court sides with Calif. cities in climate litigation fight (E&E $)

RIVERS: Colorado River most in danger (Indian Country Today, Axios), Damming the American West (PBS NewsHour)

SOCIAL COST OF CO₂, CH₄, NO₂: How a wonky metric became the proxy war on climate change (Politico Pro $)

COMPILATION OF GLOBAL IMPACTS: How climate change is reshaping the world  (Washington Post $)

EARTH DAY EVE: On Earth Day ‘the world is not on track’ (Indian Country Today), 12 books for another Earth Day in the warming climate (Yale Climate Connections), This Earth Day, Biden faces ‘headwinds’ on climate agenda (AP)

HIGH IMPORTANCE:SEXY RATIOS: There’s a climate solution hiding in our walls (Vox)

EPA: Should EPA back-off pollution controls to help LNG exports replace Russian gas in Germany? (Inside Climate News)

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: GAO: Former Biden regulations chief served unlawfully (E&E $)

WHITE HOUSE: Biden officials talk solar loans, Congress and Gina McCarthy (E&E News), White House forced to defend Biden’s climate agenda after setbacks (FT $)

• PUBLIC LANDS: US has permitted more wind and solar under Biden, but needs to do more -report to Congress (Reuters, E&E News, The Hill), Biden administration deflects blame to courts for new oil lease sale (The Hill)
• NUKES: Biden tosses $6B lifeline to save struggling nuclear plants (E&E News, Reuters, The Hill, Axios, OilPrice)
• NEPA: New Biden NEPA regs won't stop legal war over Trump overhaul (E&E $), Biden’s CEQ has a Stephen Miller problem (E&E News)

BUILD BACK BETTER ACT: Greens to rally with Biden officials for 'Build Back Better' (E&E $), Groups push Congress to pass climate package before Memorial Day (Washington Post $)

SENATE: Senate might finally ratify Kigali, supporters say (E&E $)

ELECTIONS: Dr. Oz has close ties to the wealthy Du Pont family heirs, and they’re backing his GOP bid for Pennsylvania’s Senate seat (CNBC)

NOMINEES & CONFIRMATIONS: Greens give Biden’s Fed pick the silent treatment (E&E News)

CITIES AND STATES: Gov. Evers releases Wisconsin’s first clean energy plan (AP, Wisconsin State Journal), New York approves transmission contracts to advance Clean Path NY, Champlain Hudson projects (Utility Dive), Gov. Whitmer wants federal aid to keep nuclear plant open (AP), Report: Oregon has $5.3b invested in fossil fuel companies (AP), What does climate justice in California look like? (Inside Climate News)

IMPACTS: Experimental forest shows impacts of climate change scenarios (CBS), Scientists discover cause of abrupt thaw in Antarctica (E&E $), Climate change, big agriculture combine to threaten insects (AP), These whales are on the brink. Now comes climate change — and wind power. (Washington Post $)

PERMAFROST: Don’t look down (Grist)

WATER: A 1,000-year-old irrigation system in Spain is getting a new life (Gizmodo)

FORESTS: To save a forest, look to the women (Yes Magazine)

CORONAVIRUS: PFAS are in face masks. Should you be concerned? (E&E News), The national fight against COVID-19 isn't ready to go to the sewers (FiveThirtyEight)

RENEWABLES: ‘Good stewards’: More N.C. communities of faith going solar thanks to 2017 law (Energy News Network), How we can build a clean and renewable future (ABC), Indonesia solar is finally tapped, but for its rich neighbor Singapore (Bloomberg $), Philippines has potential for 21GW wind power by 2040 -World Bank (Reuters, Bloomberg $)

• BOTTLENECKS: The US has more clean energy projects planned than the grid can handle (Canary Media), Renewables are growing — but a backlog of projects is holding up a greener grid (Grist)

• GEOTHERMAL: Clean energy is buried at the bottom of abandoned oil wells (Vox)

METHANE: Glencore climate plan in spotlight on concern over methane emissions (Bloomberg $), Billions of federal dollars to cut emissions will come with few strings attached (Washington Post $)

OIL & GAS: Can gas be fossil free? This utility says it can (E&E $), Gas is falling as an electricity source and may have peaked (The Hill), Gulf coast gas export frenzy raises tough questions for U.S., Europe (Washington Post $) 

PIPELINES: Uganda, Tanzania sign oil pipeline project agreement (AA Energy)

COAL: Should we be worried about coal’s resurgence? (Energy Monitor), Polish coal mine blast kills five, others trapped in shafts (Reuters)

HYDROGEN: Investors wary of Australia’s green hydrogen hype (FT $), Walmart will run forklifts on ‘green’ hydrogen in Plug Power deal (Bloomberg $)

UTILITIES: Courts dismiss co-op suits seeking exits from long-term power supply contracts (Utility Dive), TVA forms partnership to build small nuclear reactors (E&E $)

EVs: Ginger Zee visits Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee (Good Morning America), Australian scientists to power Tesla on 15,000-km trip with printed solar panels (Reuters)

CRYPTO: Bitcoin’s new puzzle: How to ditch fossil fuels and go green (AP)

ACTIVISM: MPs to get scientific briefing on climate after activist’s hunger strike (The Guardian)

AVIATION: Electric aviation startup Beta Technologies raises $375 million (Axios)

AGRICULTURE: Dairy giant Arla wants to pay farmers more for low-emission milk (Bloomberg $), Emissions of meat giant JBS rival rich countries, data shows (E&E $)

BUSINESS: Amazon set to reach 100% renewable goal 5 years ahead of target with 3.5 GW of new energy projects (Utility Dive)

CARBON PRICING: Exxon sees carbon capture market at $4 trillion by 2050 (Reuters), States can spend $6.4 billion of infrastructure fund to limit carbon (Wall Street Journal $)

CARS: Can Portland be a climate leader without reducing driving? (New York Times $)

FINANCE: Bankers with bad CO2 targets face certification crackdown (Bloomberg $), Global Citizen seeks up to $1 bln for six sustainable 'Impact' funds (Reuters), World needs extra $1.3 trillion energy investment by 2030 - JP Morgan (Reuters)

FOOD: Become a climate-conscious cook in eight weeks with Ecokitchen (Washington Post $)

• Riding a bike in America should not be this dangerous (New York Times, Farhad Manjoo column $)
• How an organizer tries to be sustainable: scheduling, biking and hope (Washington Post, Daniel Sherrell climate diary $) 
• The Guardian view on spiralling fuel bills: Johnson must get a grip (The Guardian, Editorial Board)
• FERC must stand strong against industry pressure to weaken climate and environmental justice policies (Utility Dive, Moneen Nasmith op-ed)
• Cities must address the threat of climate change (Forbes, Richard McGahey op-ed)
• Why freezing the Arctic Council is bad news for global security (The Conversation, Gabriella Gricius commentary)
• How to kill American infrastructure on the sly (Wall Street Journal, Editorial Board $)

Big Tech Fails To Protect Users From Climate Disinformation. New Scorecard DAREs Them To Do Better. 

According to a new report published today analyzing Big Tech’s approach to climate disinformation, “social media companies are largely leaving the public in the dark about their efforts to combat the problem. There is a gross lack of transparency, as these companies conceal much of the data about the prevalence of digital climate dis/misinformation and any internal measures taken to address its spread.” 

The report, from Avaaz, Friends of the Earth, and Greenpeace, found that Pinterest’s recent move to ban climate misinformation puts it, along with YouTube/Google’s demonetization of climate lies, at the top of the pack. But it’s not an impressive group, as none earned more than 14 of the 27 possible points for policy measures.

None of the companies provide any decent degree of transparency like regular reports that document the extent of the problem and efficacy of their solutions, so it’s impossible to believe any of their claims to be successful in keeping the fossil fuel industry’s false advertising machine from exploiting their platform to serve propaganda to their users. 

In a statement to press, Rebecca Lenn at Avaaz said that “it’s time for Big Tech to answer the years-long call from researchers, advocates, and lawmakers for full transparency on the scale of climate disinformation online and their policies to combat it. If they won’t, then lawmakers need to step up and mandate transparency and accountability from tech platforms – not just to clean up our feeds, but to help end the climate crisis.”

Charlie Cray of Greenpeace added that the report “expands on what the IPCC identified in its latest report – the pernicious spread of climate disinformation across social media is a key reason for the delay in the transition to the clean energy economy that we need for a livable future.” 

And indeed, there’s plenty of spread, and Big Tech is barely bothered — judging by how little they’re doing. Facebook, for example, is hiding behind its deference to fact checkers, essentially tasking a handful of journalists to moderate the billion-dollar platform’s infinite, algorithm-boosted scroll of climate-denying, election-stealing disinformation so that its climate-denying election-stealing leadership can’t get in the way of efforts to reduce such harmful content that’s tarnishing the brand so badly they tried to change their name to Meta to escape it. 

While TikTok does have some misinfo policies and repeat offender consequences, it doesn’t specify anything about climate, so it only got 7 points (compared to Facebook’s 9 and Pinterest and YouTube’s tie at 14.) 

Coming in a pitiful last place is Twitter, with just 5 of a possible 27 points. Twitter completely lacks transparency on enforcement of what vague disinfo policies they do have, none of it addresses climate, and they haven’t even acknowledged the issue formally in their policies at all. 

But good-hearted Silicon Valley denizens can rest assured that solutions are presented. The Climate Disinformation Coalition, which includes the report authors, has a set of policy prescriptions for Big Tech. 

Here’s how the report describes them, though we changed the order in which they’re listed, so now the first letter of each makes this the Disinfo DARE: 

• Disclose weekly reports on the scale and prevalence of climate change dis/ misinformation on the platform and mitigation efforts taken internally.
• Adopt privacy and data protection policies to protect individuals and communities who may be climate dis/misinformation targets.
• Release in full the company’s current labeling, fact-checking, policy review, and algorithmic ranking systems related to climate change disinformation policies.
• Establish, disclose, and enforce policies to reduce climate change dis/ misinformation. 

So, here’s a message to Silicon Valley employees who might be mad that we’re being so mean to social media companies: Do better on climate disinfo- we DARE you!

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