Coal Plants and Planes Pushed Carbon Emissions to New Record in '22, Would've Been Worse If Not For Renewables: Yesterday the International Energy Agency announced that global carbon emissions grew to 36.8 billion tons last year, more than any year on record but less than some feared given the energy fallout of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The 0.9% increase in emissions were largely a result of air travel and coal plants, though climate-related weather extremes also increased A/C demand and reduced hydropower availability, and US emissions grew due to methane gas use. Far from the 7% annual reductions needed to halve emissions this decade, the not-quite-1% increase could have been worse, as renewables, electric cars and heat pumps prevented the release of 550 million tons of emissions. But “any emissions growth — even 1% — is a failure,” Stanford professor Rob Jackson said. Still, one in seven cars sold globally last year was an EV, and renewables accounted for 90% of last year's growth in electric supply. IEA executive director Fatih Birol said that “Without clean energy, the growth in CO2 emissions would have been nearly three times as high." But according to Jackson, "it's cuts or chaos for the planet." (AP, Bloomberg, Washington Post $, Reuters, FT $, PoliticoPRO $, Gizmodo, WSJ $, Insider)

#GasKnewIn'72 -- Industry Still Denies Gas Stove Health Risks It Documented 50 Years Ago: On Wednesday the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a formal request for information on hazards of (methane) gas stoves. Given the manufactured outrage and industry denial of its products' harms (and a new industry-backed reanalysis downplaying the health concerns, a classic disinfo tactic) one new indication that stoves are dangerous comes from a rather surprising source: the industry itself. While the American Gas Association has vociferously denied its products harms in 2023, and the industry actually acknowledged some harms as early as 1907, Rebecca John at DeSmog has uncovered a draft report from 1972 showing the AGA was aware of the indoor air pollution problem, and "was actively testing technological solutions." But the final report cut the "Indoor Air Quality Control" section entirely, and instead described methane gas as the "cleanest burning of fuels," aligning with ads at the time describing methane gas as being able to "give us a cleaner world," or showing toddlers whose health the industry knew methane gas endangered, instead describing the fuel as being "good for growing things." (Gas Knew: DeSmog; CPSC request: MarketWatch, The Hill, WSJ $, I-TEAM; Reanalysis: FoxNews)

DoomScrolling Improved? OptOut of Corporate News With App for Independent Media: With the consolidation of corporate news and Elon Musk's Twitter "enshittification" speed-run, it can be hard to find reliable, independent media. But a new app promises to change that by allowing users to "OptOut" of corporate-dominated journalism and instead support 180 different news publications, podcasts, videos and other content that isn't pushing a profit-driven agenda. "If there's a publication that specializes in, let's say, energy and climate reporting," like Semafor, "and they're sponsored by Chevron, that's disqualifying for us," co-founder and investigative journalist Alex Kotch explained in an interview. "Politico's energy podcast has some good stuff, but they're also sponsored by big oil and gas, and that's just not trustworthy. American's trust in the media is at an all-time low. We can't risk having people not trust the news that we're pushing out. And frankly, we don't have faith in news that has financial conflicts of interest." Instead, OptOut aggregates content from local and regional publishers across the country, as well as national outlets, climate and other issue-specific publications, like Grist, HEATED and The Nation. The small team is also producing original content, with weekly newsletters covering NewYork, LGBTQ+ issues and climate change. "The hope is that when people are reading, they have a healthier, more diverse diet of news on a daily basis," Kotch told Nieman Labs. (OptOut: Nieman Lab; Enshittification: Financial Times)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: The case for climate reparations in the United States (Brookings), Congressional leaders revive legislation aimed at justice for Black farmers (TriplePundit), Norway's government apologizes to Sami reindeer herders (AP), In Norway, Indigenous-led protests against a wind farm heat up (Grist) [ed note: see today's Denier Roundup at the bottom of Hot News for more]

MOOD: As climate changes, climate anxiety rises in youth (CBS)

MUSIC: And on drums… Earth! Musicians to credit planet as collaborator to raise funds for activism (Guardian) 

9:37 🚂 TO THE PETROCHEMICAL DYSTOPIA: Did dioxins spread after the Ohio train derailment? (AP), Biden says he will visit East Palestine 'at some point' (The Hill), Bipartisan bill would tighten federal oversight of trains carrying hazardous materials (The Hill)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: Why North Dakota is preparing to sue Minnesota over clean energy (Grist)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Vanuatu gathers support for UN climate justice statement (Climate Home), At Gabon talks, a debate on who pays to save world's forests (AP), How to reframe the migration debate for climate change (Bloomberg), Climate change displaces individuals internationally (Tennessee Tribune), Are debt-for-climate swaps finally taking off? (EnergyMonitor)

DISINFO: These groups fighting offshore wind say it's about whales– but they're funded by Big Oil (FastCompany), FACT FOCUS: Conspiracies misconstrue '15- minute city' idea (AP), Whale safety research planned near East Coast wind farms (AP), Climate change skeptics mislead on Saudi Arabia snow images (AFP via Yahoo), Exclusive: Canon refutes climate change denial accusations (PetaPixel)

GOP vs. ESG: Biden's first veto will be over 'woke capitalism' (Gizmodo)

INFLATION REDUCTION ACT: Big money coming to Colorado to fight climate change and create jobs (CBS)

EPA: Forever chemicals' about to get their first US limits (AP, PoliticoPRO $) 

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: Biden admin offers $1.2 bln for distressed, shut nuclear plants (Reuters), The next labor secretary will face a big shortage of clean-energy workers (Washington Post $)

WHITE HOUSE:  Climate advocates are rallying against the Willow Project. The White House is eyeing concessions to soften the blow (CNN), Vice President Kamala Harris to visit Denver next week to discuss climate change efforts (Denver7)

LEGACY: For Jimmy Carter, protecting environment has been an "exhilarating" challenge (CBS), Jimmy Carter signed 14 major environmental bills and foresaw the threat of climate change (Inside Climate News)

IMPACTS: Meteorologist: West Coast snowfall is 'once in a generation' (AP), With drifts 15 feet deep, snowstorms bury Yosemite (New York Times $), Why we should expect colder winter storms in a warmer world (TIME)

HEAT: 'A part of winter is missing': Ottawa grieves over lack of canal ice for skating (Guardian), The impact of climate change on Richmond's warm winter (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

WILDFIRES: Carbon emissions from boreal forest fires rose in 2021 (AP, Grist, FT $)

DROUGHT: Some of California is free of drought, but the climate crisis is changing what that means (LAist) 

WATER: Over 26,000 evacuated as floods hit Malaysia again; 1 dead (AP) 

DEFORESTATION: Saving the rainforests would be a bargain (The Economist)

RENEWABLES: Energy transition blows past headwinds (Politico), Portugal's EDP to invest $27 billion to nearly double renewable capacity (Reuters), Spain is ramping up green hydrogen production - but can its renewable energy sector keep up? (Euronews), Renewable energy company discusses the 'full circle' of the planned transition to net-zero (CNBC)

COAL: Deutsche Bank tightens finance policy on coal, but not on oil and gas (Reuters, Oilprice), Citi pledges to cut emissions for more sectors including coal (Reuters), As Alabama coal miners strike nears end, a look at why it started, and how it failed (MPB)

HYDROGEN: How a tax break meant to curb climate change could make it worse (Washington Post $)

NUKES: California reactors win exemption in fight to keep running (AP)

FUSION: Fusion power: don't overreact (Quartz)

GRID: Ice age fossils slow massive power line for renewable energy (E&E News)

ACTIVISM: Watch live: protestors hold Fridays for Future climate change strike in Germany (Independent, AP), In Pennsylvania, home to the nation's first oil well, environmental activists stage a 'People's Filibuster' at the bustling state capitol (Inside Climate News), [NJ] Environmentalists get day in court over state's climate-change regulations (NJ Spotlight), Miami kids eager to tackle climate change (Axios), Jurors trying Insulate Britain protesters fail to reach verdict (Guardian) 

AGRICULTURE: Cherry blossom 'peak bloom' becoming harder to predict due to climate change (WUSA), Can millions of genetically modified trees slow climate change? (Quartz)

CARS: Why it's time to officially get over your EV range anxiety (Inside Climate News), UK struggles with transition to manufacturing electric cars (Financial Times $) 

OCEANS: To fix the climate, these 10 investors are betting the house on the ocean (TechCrunch)

HEALTH: Scotland first to ban environmentally harmful anesthetic (BBC)

WILDLIFE: Overconsumption by the rich must be tackled, says acting UN biodiversity chief (Guardian)

INTERNATIONAL: Finance key climate issue for new Nigerian president (Climate Home), Fossil fuel linked donors gift half a million to [UK] Conservative party (DeSmog)

• Ayisha Siddiqa on climate change, human rights, and activism (TIME interview, Ayisha Siddiqa)

• Why we can't solve the climate crisis without schools – and teachers (LA Times, Andra Yeghoian interview) 

• Republicans are splitting their party over clean energy (Bloomberg, Carl Pope op-ed)

• The role health care plays in climate change (WTNH, Dr. Sten Vermund interview)

• The promise and peril of Biden's climate policy (New York Times, Paul Krugman column $)

• Fossil fuels kill more people than Covid. Why are we so blind to the harms of oil and gas? (The Guardian, Rebecca Solnit op-ed)

• Apocalypse then: lessons from history in tackling climate shocks (Financial Times, Peter Frankopan op-ed)

• Maine Voices: Climate change is a complex issue. It requires a complex solution. (Portland Press-Herald, Matt Cannon op-ed)

• See South Africa's energy crisis in four charts (Washington Post, Hannah Ritchie op-ed) 

• Japan's 'green transformation' would derail the energy transition in Asia (Climate Home, Dwi Sawung and Gerry Arances op-ed) 

• 'Let's get real': scientists discover a new way climate change threatens cold-blooded animals (The Conversation, Lesley Alton and Vanessa Kellermann

  op-ed)

• How to get serious about climate change (The Hill, David Victor and Jeff Engler op-ed)

• It's time for the Republican Party to admit climate change (PennLive LTE)

• Economic growth is fuelling climate change – a new book proposes 'degrowth communism' as the solution (The Conversation, Timothee Parrique op-ed)

• Public finance professionals can lead on climate change (Forbes, Rob Whiteman column)

• Capitalism in its current form is not equipped to combat climate change (The

  Breeze, Eliot Zedd column)

• Biden and Lula want to save the Amazon. Will the private sector answer their call? (Reuters, Natalie Unterstell, Karen Marie Oseland and Kyle Saukas op-ed) 

• This [is] a look behind the campaign to induce NJ to file a climate lawsuit (USA Today via NorthJersy.com, Phil Goldberg op-ed)

Indigenous Rights and Clean Energy Aren't Mutually Exclusive, Confusing Trolls

Protests against wind farms in Norway have sparked a resurgence of wind energy disinformation, since climate deniers can’t seem to wrap their heads around the fact that environmental justice activists can advocate in favor of wind energy while also objecting to green colonialism and the destruction of Indigenous ways of life. (Or maybe they're actually just jumping at an excuse to be gross at Greta Thunberg.)

This week, activists, including Thunberg, blocked the entrance to the Norwegian energy and finance ministries in order “to pressure the Norwegian government to take down 151 turbines that make up two wind farms in the Fosen region of central Norway.”

Though the disinfosphere's just taking notice, these protests are the continuation of previous legal battles and advocacy around the complex issue of Norwegian wind farms and Indigenous rights. The Sámi people practice the cherished tradition of herding semi-domesticated reindeer on Sápmi, their ancestral homeland, and reindeer husbandry is the main source of income for many Sámi families. Wind energy projects block herders’ migration routes, and turbines disrupt reindeer grazing patterns. By building huge wind farms in Sápmi, wind energy companies and the Norwegian government are destroying long-standing Sámi traditions and violating Indigenous rights.

Christina Henriksen, then-president of the Saami Council NGO, explained in 2020, “[Sápmi] is our homeland, on which our culture, our people, our existence depend. This is where we transfer Indigenous knowledge between generations, this is where we get our nutritious, traditional food, so the Saami Council’s view on the wind power development is that it is a new kind of colonialism.”

Of course, instead of engaging with this issue in any meaningful way, conservative media used these protests as an opportunity to attack the environmental justice activists. Fox News dismissed the protesters as “mainly teenagers,” and Breitbart snidely quipped, “Will Nobody Think of the Reindeer?” before gleefully rejoicing when Thunberg was “Hauled Off by Police.”

Daily Caller reporter Trevor Schakohl pointedly brought up the fact that "Thunberg has been an outspoken critic of fossil fuels, highlighting wind and solar power as renewable energy sources,” as if that somehow invalidates her current activism in Norway. Thunberg has literally always argued that the transition away from fossil fuels needs to center equity and climate justice, Trevor! This isn’t the “gotcha” moment that you want it to be!

On Twitter, numerous fossil fuel fanatics, including Steve Milloy, Michael Shellenberger, and Matthew M. Wielicki, referenced the Norway protests and criticized both Thunberg specifically and wind energy in general. Disinfluencer Tom Nelson wrote, “If you’re keeping score, Greta has now heroically protested both for *and* against wind turbines. Science!” Yes, she has, Tom. That's not a burn. Context is important!

Could someone please explain to these climate deniers that Indigenous rights and renewable energy both matter at the same time? We don’t expect them to stop with all the fossil-fueled misogyny aimed at Thunberg, but we’d love to see their mental gymnastics.

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