Tag Archives: fossil fuels

CNN reports: Last month, two major storms, Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, caused a total of between $51.5 billion and $81.5 billion of property damage, mostly to Southeastern US states, according to estimates from CoreLogic. That’s a lot of damage – but it’s only a small fraction of what climate change has cost people around the world. A new report …

CNN reports: The planet just marked a “shocking” new milestone, enduring 12 consecutive months of unprecedented heat, according to new data from Copernicus, the European Union’s climate monitoring service. Every single month from June 2023 to May 2024 was the world’s hottest such month on record, Copernicus data showed. The 12-month heat streak was “shocking but not surprising” given human-caused …

The Associated Press reports: Earth last year shattered global annual heat records, flirted with the world’s agreed-upon warming threshold and showed more signs of a feverish planet, the European climate agency said Tuesday. In one of the first of several teams of science agencies to calculate how off-the-charts warm 2023 was, the European climate agency Copernicus said the year was …

The Washington Post reports: You won’t hear President Biden talking about it much, but a key record has been broken during his watch: The United States is producing more oil than any country ever has. The flow of huge amounts of crude from American producers is playing a big role in keeping prices down at the pump, diminishing the geopolitical …

NPR reports: As 2023 draws to a close, it’s going out on top. “It’s looking virtually certain at this point that 2023 will be the hottest year on record,” says Zeke Hausfather, climate scientist at Berkeley Earth, a non-profit that analyzes climate trends. Though temperature records from December have yet to be finalized, climate scientists at the National Oceanic and …

The Washington Post reports: For the past several years, a small group of scientists has warned that sometime early this century, the rate of global warming — which has remained largely steady for decades — might accelerate. Temperatures could rise higher, faster. The drumbeat of weather disasters may become more insistent. And now, after what is poised to be the …

Reuters reports: Representatives from nearly 200 countries agreed at the COP28 climate summit on Wednesday to begin reducing global consumption of fossil fuels to avert the worst of climate change, a first of its kind deal signaling the eventual end of the oil age. The deal struck in Dubai after two weeks of hard-fought negotiations was meant to send a …

Reuters reports: Chevron Corp said on Monday it will buy smaller rival Hess Corp in a $53-billion all-stock deal, as the oil major looks to increase its footprint in oil-rich Guyana. The deal puts two of the top oil giants, Chevron and Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), head-to-head in two of the world’s fastest growing oil basins – shale and Guyana. Guyana …

The Guardian reports: It was probably the Earth’s hottest week in history earlier this month, following the warmest June on record, and top scientists agree that the planet will get even hotter unless we phase out fossil fuels. Yet leading energy companies are intent on pushing the world in the opposite direction, expanding fossil fuel production and insisting that there …

The New York Times reports: Global temperatures are likely to soar to record highs over the next five years, driven by human-caused warming and a climate pattern known as El Niño, forecasters at the World Meteorological Organization said on Wednesday. The record for Earth’s hottest year was set in 2016. There is a 98 percent chance that at least one …

Reuters reports: The West’s top energy firms are expected to rake in a combined record profit of $200 billion from a turbulent 2022 marked by huge volatility in oil and gas prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with buoyant earnings likely to roll through 2023. Flush with cash, BP Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Shell and TotalEnergies also delivered shareholders unprecedented returns …

The New York Times reports: The world remained firmly in warming’s grip last year, with extreme summer temperatures in Europe, China and elsewhere contributing to 2022 being the fifth-hottest year on record, European climate researchers said on Tuesday. The eight warmest years on record have now occurred since 2014, the scientists, from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, reported, …

Science News reports: The Arctic is heating up at a breakneck speed compared with the rest of Earth. And new analyses show that the region is warming even faster than scientists thought. Over the last four decades, the average Arctic temperature increased nearly four times as fast as the global average, researchers report August 11 in Communications Earth & Environment. …

Bloomberg News reports: US retail gasoline prices fell below $4.50 a gallon for the first time since mid-May, starting to ease pressure at the pump for millions of Americans. The nationwide average was at $4.495 a gallon, according to data released on Tuesday by the American Automobile Association. Prices have fallen more than 10% since hitting a record last month …

The Associated Press reports: President Joe Biden on Tuesday ordered 50 million barrels of oil released from the strategic reserve to help bring down energy costs, in coordination with other major energy consuming nations, including China, India, and the United Kingdom. The move is aimed at global energy markets, but also at voters who are coping with higher inflation and …

ABC News reports: A United Nations climate panel has confirmed — in its strongest language ever — that the impacts of human-caused climate change are severe and widespread, and that while there is still a chance to limit that warming, some impacts will continue to be felt for centuries. “It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean …

The Associated Press reports: The left-leaning government of Greenland has decided to suspend all oil exploration off the world’s largest island, calling it is “a natural step” because the Arctic government “takes the climate crisis seriously.” No oil has been found yet around Greenland, but officials there had seen potentially vast reserves as a way to help Greenlanders realize their …

The Detroit Free Press reports: General Motors “aspires” to have all of its global new light-duty vehicles, including full-size pickups and SUVs, be zero emission by 2035. It also targets 2040 for its global products and plants to be carbon neutral. GM made the announcements Thursday, stopping short of saying all of its vehicles will be zero emissions, which means …

The Verge reports: This week, United Airlines pledged to completely eliminate its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. To make good on that promise, the company says it will invest in emerging technologies that capture planet-heating carbon dioxide from the air. It also plans to continue powering its flights with sustainable aviation fuel. United is the latest airline to respond to …

The Guardian reports: Chesapeake Energy, the shale gas drilling pioneer that helped to turn the United States into a global energy powerhouse, has filed for bankruptcy protection. The Oklahoma City-based company said on Sunday that it had been forced to enter chapter 11 protection because its debts of $9bn were unmanageable. It has entered a plan with lenders to cut …