Workers Leaving Oil & Gas Industries For Renewables: An increasing number of workers are leaving the fossil fuels industry to produce renewable energy, the New York Times reports. Many find their skill sets transfer easily to the renewable energy sector, while others are seeking to leave behind an industry whose best days are over, where even the good days were subject to volatile boom/bust cycles of rapid growth and massive layoffs. “The basics are the same,” Miguel Febres, an oil industry veteran who is now a planner for wind and solar projects at Enel, told The Times. “We install foundations, we install turbines, we build roads, we lay cables.” Increasing concern over climate change, mainly caused by the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels, is also influencing workers' decisions. “There are a lot of people coming from oil and gas, and they’re saying, ‘Hey, I’m ready for a change,’” said Anthony Cervantes, himself a former oil consultant who is now director of IT at Sunnova. “It’s nice to have a purpose in your job.” (New York Times $)

Volatile Methane Gas Prices Squeeze California Restaurants: Skyrocketed methane gas prices are pushing some California restaurants to the brink of closure, the LA Times reports, even as the gas industry uses restaurants to fight stove regulations. While methane gas prices have fallen elsewhere in the U.S. — in part because Freeport LNG remained shutdown, preventing the sale and shipment of about 20% of U.S. export capacity — California's have continued to rise. California gas prices normally rise somewhat at this time of year, and Tre Dinh, owner of Pho 87 in LA's Chinatown, typically raises prices about 25¢. This year, however, with an $8,000 January gas bill that's 10 times higher than the restaurant's November bill, he's considering raising prices as much as $1.50, or even closing temporarily. “I’m not just worried about us. I’m worried about the whole community,” Dinh told The Times. Paul Cao, chef-owner of Burnt Crumbs in Irvine, said “If they keep increasing gas prices by 60% every month, we are not going to last. We can’t be selling $25 sandwiches." (LA Times $)

War A Known Unknown Of Solar Geoengineering: Alongside drought, famine, and climatic destabilization, you can add war to the list of potential (un)intended consequences of geoengineering, the Washington Post reports. As fossil-fueled climate changes continue to exacerbate drought, extreme heatwaves, and other disasters, so grows the incentive for governments to use geoengineering to block the sun or change rainfall patterns, despite the inevitable impacts outside their borders. Solar geoengineering "may end up concentrating power in rich countries or nonstate actors in the global north,” Ajay K. Sood, the principal scientific adviser to the Indian government, said at a conference earlier this month. Malik Amin Aslam, a former Pakistani minister for climate change, also pointed out that even small-scale tests, "in troubled neighborhoods like ours" would need to be closely and collectively monitored; "an impossibility in the highly fractured and polarized environments like the one that exists between Pakistan and India.” If and when there are negative outcomes of solar geoengineering, Mohammed Abu Syed, a senior fellow at the Bangladesh Center for Advanced Studies, told The Post, “We would be the one who would most suffer from this.” (Washington Post $)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: How the seeds of environmental racism were planted in the progressive era (Grist), Troubled LNG plant sparks rage in Texas town (E&E $)

FOSSIL FUELED ENERGY CRISIS: Europe has weathered an energy crisis, for now (New York Times $), US regains its energy clout as Ukraine war enters second year (Wall Street Journal $), War in Ukraine drives new surge of US oil exports to Europe (Wall Street Journal $)

9:37 🚂 TO THE PETROCHEMICAL DYSTOPIA: East Palestine residents file class-action against Norfolk Southern (The Hill), East Palestine train derailment killed at least 43,000 animals (Gizmodo), EPA tells Norfolk Southern to temporarily stop shipping toxic train derailment waste (NPR, AP, Axios), Michigan, Texas officials complain they weren’t warned of contaminated soil, water shipments from Ohio train wreck (The Hill), North African countries snap up Russian oil products shunned by West (Wall Street Journal $), After Ohio train wreck, Biden orders door-to-door checks (AP), Brockovich warns Ohio town of dangers after train crash (AP), Contaminated waste shipments from Ohio derailment to resume (AP), Toxic air pollutants in East Palestine could pose long-term risks, researchers say (Washington Post $)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Italy seeks alliance with France and Germany to tame EU car emissions laws (Reuters), Peacetime would be a Black swan event for energy (Wall Street Journal $), UK told to ‘raise game’ on green finance or risk falling behind EU and US (Bloomberg $), UN chief slams ‘climate-wrecking’ firms at human rights body (AP)

DENIAL & DISINFO: Dead whales on the East Coast fuel misinformation about offshore wind development (NPR), There's no shortage of climate solutions — here's how to tell which ones are legitimate (NPR)

• FACT CHECK: '15-minute city' slogan on Ottawa construction site not evidence of any government policy where citizens will be 'locked in' (Reuters), How ‘15-minute cities’ turned into an international conspiracy theory (CNN)

ANJAY BANGA: Germany signals support for US pick to lead World Bank (Reuters), Incoming World Bank chief faces tests before he gets to climate (Reuters), Unpacking Biden's World Bank surprise (Axios), US nominee for top World Bank job gets positive reviews at G20 meeting (Reuters), Why Ajay Banga got the nod to lead the World Bank (Axios), World bank mission shift to combat climate change sparks activism concerns (Washington Examiner)

INFLATION REDUCTION ACT: US eyes trade deals with allies to ease clash over electric car subsidies (New York Times $), Biden’s IRA is the US playing ‘catch-up’ after Trump, UK minister says (CNBC), Europe banks on its €72 billion to counter Biden’s green payouts (Bloomberg $), Europe tempers criticism of Biden’s green subsidies (Wall Street Journal $)

RELIGION: The Christian case for fighting climate change is being tested in Eastern Oregon (Oregon Public Broadcasting)

AGENCIES: Timeline of the Ohio train derailment response: From EPA’s initial response to Buttigieg visit  (The Hill)

EPA: US 2022 power plant emissions fell on switch from coal to gas -EPA (Reuters)

DOE: DOE to offer $2.5B for carbon capture projects at power plants, industrial sites (Utility Dive), Enabling floating offshore wind could rapidly expand total offshore wind pipeline, Biden advisor says (Utility Dive), Energy Department exploring clean natural gas designation (Politico Pro $)

DOI: US to hold Gulf of Mexico oil and gas auction next month (Reuters)

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: This Arctic US air base has its eyes on Russia. But climate is a bigger threat (Inside Climate News)

HOUSE: Republicans look at security risks of clean energy, with eye on China (Houston Chronicle), Ohio train derailment: House GOP to hold hearings on Biden administration response (Washington Examiner)

POLITICS: Al Gore talks climate progress, setbacks and the first rule of holes: Stop digging (Inside Climate News)

TRIBES: Offshore wind halt urged by Native Americans seeking sway (Bloomberg $, The Verge)

CITIES AND STATES: 'Climate justice' would be taught under bill sponsored by senator-meteorologist (Star Tribune $), Environmental groups want MI Supreme Court to reverse Court of Appeals ruling in CAFO permit case (Michigan Radio), Murphy wants all new car sales to be electric by 2035. Are we ready for it? (NJ.com), Maryland governor taps gas industry official to help regulate gas industry (Washington Post $)

• CALIFORNIA: California boosts clean power requirement by 35% (E&E $), California ups renewables target again with new plan to add 85GW by 2035 (Canary Media)

IMPACTS: A looming El Niño could give us a preview of life at 1.5°C of warming (Grist), For the first time in 52 years, there’s no skating through the [Canadian] capital (New York Times $), Gulf of Maine sees second-hottest year on record, report shows, ‘getting to the edge of habitability’ (Boston Globe $), Which US cities will fare best in a warming world — and which will be hit hardest? (Washington Post $, CNBC), Martha’s Vineyard home teetering on bluff’s edge will soon be demolished, official says (Boston Globe $), Ski resorts are surviving climate change with more money and less snow (Bloomberg $), 'The great displacement' looks at communities forever altered by climate change (NPR), US man's death suggests deadly tick virus is spreading to new regions (Gizmodo), Where’s the snow? Snowboarding brands are trying to find out for themselves. (New York Times $), ‘A time bomb’: India’s sinking holy town faces grim future (AP)

WIN-MER? SUM-TER?: A rare blizzard hits California as summerlike heat roasts the eastern US (Yale Climate Connections), How climate change and the polar vortex influenced this week’s harsh winter storms (Inside Climate News), Parts of US see earliest spring conditions on record: ‘Climate change playing out in real time’ (The Guardian), Snow, rain slam California as Michigan suffers without power (AP), This week’s winter storm is scary—but so is the heat wave (New Republic, Gizmodo), Michigan power remains out for 471,000 after historic ice storm (Bloomberg $, The Hill, Wall Street Journal $), Snowfall tops 6.5 feet and rainfall tops 5 inches across southern California (CNN)

HEAT: Texas heat-related deaths reached a two-decade high in 2022 amid extreme temperatures (Texas Tribune)

CYCLONIC STORMS: Hurricane winds will hit new places in coming decades. See where by ZIP code. (Washington Post $), Cyclone Freddy slams Mozambique with ‘dangerous’ rainfall (AP), How restoring wetlands can help protect coastal communities from hurricanes (Yale Climate Connections)

DROUGHT: France to enforce water ‘sobriety plan’ amid severe drought risk (Bloomberg $), Will Utah's Great Salt Lake disappear? (CBS)

WATER: Rift in Idaho GOP exposed amid multistate water rule lawsuit (AP), Saving water can help us deal with the climate crisis. Here’s how to reduce your use (CNN), The Salton Sea, an accident of history, faces a new water crisis (New York Times $)

POLLUTION: California particle pollution linked to heightened risk of heart attack: study (The Hill, Forbes, New York Post)

DEFORESTATION: Director Marcos Colón takes an intimate look at three Indigenous leaders’ fight to preserve their ancestral connection to nature in the Amazon (Inside Climate News)

RENEWABLES: Bill signed for West Virginia renewable energy battery plant (AP), A big proposed wind project in Idaho faces major local opposition (NPR), New French fund with 87.5 million euros targets African solar development (Reuters)

"RENEWABLES": Drax plugs into US renewable power opportunity (Reuters)

BATTERIES: GM battery partner tied to China gets cold shoulder in Washington (Bloomberg $), US judge won’t block huge lithium mine on Nevada-Oregon line (AP)

OIL & GAS: Frackers increase spending but see limited gains (Wall Street Journal $)

COAL: China’s coal plant approvals highest in seven years, research finds (Washington Post $), In India, ‘phase down’ of coal actually means rapid expansion of mining (Washington Post $)

HYDROGEN: BP's new hydrogen business gets new leader in Houston as the company plans move from fossil fuels (Houston Chronicle)

NUKES: Westinghouse Electric to submit key nuclear microreactor licensing reports for US-Canadian review (Utility Dive)

UTILITIES: AEP moves to ‘de-risk’ with $1.5B sale of unregulated wind and solar assets as it eyes further sales (Utility Dive)

GRID: Hackers are ‘increasingly bold,’ NERC warns, as Dragos report identifies new grid threats (Utility Dive)

EVs: Electric vehicle drivers get candid about charging: 'Logistical nightmare' (ABC), First big US EV-battery plant offers lessons as industry springs up (Wall Street Journal $), Ford stalls production of F-150 Lightning EV for additional week (Wall Street Journal $), Struggling for funds, Sono Motors abandons plans for partly solar-powered car (Reuters), The Cinderella ride is over for Tesla' (Business Insider)

HVs: Hybrid cars are still incredibly popular, but are they good for the environment? (NPR)

SCHOOL: This student was overwhelmed by ‘alarmist’ environmental education. So she designed her own college course. (The 19th* News)

CARBON PRICING: Ancient farming practice draws cash from carbon credits (Wall Street Journal $)

GEOENGINEERING: Geoengineering startup’s claim it got ‘OKs to launch’ from the FAA doesn’t stand up to scrutiny (The Verge), Why billionaires are obsessed with blocking out the sun (TIME)

CARBON CAPTURE: Pipeline debate at center of California carbon capture plans (AP)

FINANCE: ‘We have no time to lose’: Ban Ki-moon criticises climate finance delays (The Guardian)

AI: These AI-generated images of climate change make me uncomfortable (Gizmodo)

WILDLIFE: Ecosystem collapse ‘inevitable’ unless wildlife losses reversed (The Guardian)

INTERNATIONAL: Australian energy minister rules out ban on new coal mines (Bloomberg $), Brazil calls on development banks to boost funding to fight climate change, poverty (Reuters), German court rejects farmer’s climate suit vs Volkswagen (AP), India wants a clean energy transition deal - and its coal too (Context), Uber says Delhi's plans to allow only electric bike taxis to impact millions (Reuters), Vegetable shortages in UK could be ‘tip of iceberg’, says farming union (The Guardian), What Denmark’s North Sea coast can teach us about the virtues of respecting the planet (Inside Climate News)

• There’s a cleaner way to heat your home, and it’s not hydrogen (Lara Williams op-ed $)
• The deadly costs for Mexico’s Indigenous communities fighting climate change (LA Times, Rafael Lozano and Anjan Sundaram op-ed $)
• Ajay Banga and the World Bank: An opportunity for transformational progress on climate and poverty (Forbes, Michael Sheldrick op-ed), 
• Ajay Banga is a weird pick for a 'green' world bank head (New Republic, Kate Aronoff commentary)
• Climate needs an ally like Sultan Al Jaber (Bloomberg Editorial Board $)
• An unfair plan to cut California’s use of Colorado River water (LA Times, Los Angeles Times Editorial Board $)
• Balloon bans are the result of humans acting irresponsibly with their stuff (LA Times, Los Angeles Times Editorial Board $)
• Why space companies want to make solar cells from lunar dirt (The Hill, Mark R. Whittington op-ed)
• Can American automakers really compete in a global EV market? (The Hill, Pete Harrison op-ed)
• The fate of the Okefenokee Swamp is in your hands (New York Times, Margaret Renkl column $)
• SOS for the US electric grid (Wall Street Journal Editorial Board $)
• Vanguard’s CEO bucks the ESG orthodoxy (Wall Street Journal, Terrence Keeley op-ed $)

Even Stupid AI Is Smart Enough To Debunk Climate Disinfo

Back on Valentine's Day, we talked about the latest round of overly-credulous AI reporting, in the context of some ridiculous disinfo about EVs. We made it clear that we're unimpressed by the very-much-artificial "intelligence" displayed by chatbots, but now it turns out that even these unthinking regurgitation machines are too clever for climate disinfo! 

Or, to put it in terms that don't anthropomorphize overblown copy+paste machines, climate disinformation is so profoundly at odds with the overwhelming scientific consensus, and has been so repeatedly and resoundingly debunked, that even AI knows denial's dumb. 

But Fox News is all too happy to prove that it's even dumber and its readers are even more gullible than a machine that literally cannot think. 

On Friday, Fox News’ piece on ChatGPT (which for starters originally referred to it as “ChatGTP” in the headline) claimed the AI confessed that warming has paused since 2016. 

Except it didn't, really. Your first hint that something may be amiss in the story is that its source is "Junk Science's Steve Milloy." Now, it's always interesting to see Milloy on Fox spreading climate disinformation, because he was fired as a Fox columnist for not disclosing that his pro-smoking advocacy was funded by Big Tobacco. Do current Fox staff not know his history of using them to advance the interests of his clients? Or do they not care? We'll leave it to AI to answer that question (at least until Fox staff gets sued and everyone finds out that they know they're lying). 

Anyway, the story here is that Milloy badgered ChatGPT about a supposed hiatus in warming since 2016, which is the new version of the old disinformation about a supposed pause before 2016's record heat, which was also never real. It's the sort of thing that's been debunked quite often, for like the past decade. And Milloy's (mis)use of a NOAA graph has also been fact-checked recently, so the AI had plenty to draw from when responding. 

So when Milloy asked ChatGPT about “CO2 warming,” it first regurgitated the many, many available debunkings of the claim that global warming has supposedly paused and gave an accurate-looking answer: "While it is true that global average surface temperatures have not increased as rapidly since 2015 as they did in the previous decade, this does not mean that global warming has stopped. In fact, global temperatures in recent years have been some of the warmest on record, and the five hottest years on record have all occurred since 2015."

When pressed, it acknowledged that NOAA data "for the period 2015 through 2022 show that the rate of warming has slowed down and that there has been little net warming during this period." This, and a follow-up parroting Milloy's prompt, are what justify Fox's headline for the piece, which declares, "ChatGPT confession: Global warming? Not much since 2016." But since that confession only came after multiple paragraphs explaining why Milloy's question is inherently deceptive, this was probably not the clean win he was looking for. 

Which is not to say Fox doesn't know how to spin a story! For example, their dedicated climate disinfo writer Thomas Catenacci reported (to use the term loosely) that the ChatGPT bot has "recently changed its response to a question asking it to formulate an argument in favor of fossil fuels as a way of increasing human happiness." 

Back in December, ChatGPT would apparently give the AI version of Alex Epstein's propaganda, responding to the prompt (by essentially repeating) that it's "important to recognize the potential benefits that the use of fossil fuels can bring to human happiness and well-being." 

But now, it says it "cannot provide an argument in support of using more fossil fuels as it goes against the principles of promoting sustainability and reducing the negative impact on the environment," Catenacci says the bot "told Fox News Digital." 

In addition, the chatbot cobbled together text accurately describing fossil fuels as "a significant contributor to the issue of global climate change, which poses a threat to the health and happiness of both current and future generations," and then recommended renewables that "can provide power and energy security while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and minimizing the risks associated with climate change." 

Wow! Looks like the robot learned, which means that AI, as flawed as it may be, is already smarter than climate deniers! 

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