Climate - truthful information about climate, related activism and politics.

An unintended consequence of President Donald Trump’s trade policy could be a realization of the hazards of imported oil and gas.

• Over 800,000 metric tons of plastic from end-of-life vehicles in Europe end up in landfills or incinerators each year.
• However, despite the automotive industry’s sustainability commitments, less than 20% of these plastics are recycled.
• The Global Impact Coalition's Automotive Plastics Circularity project is working on recycling ELV plastics more efficiently.

Ways listed:

1. Rethinking the value chain: from waste to resource.
2. Regulatory incentives: setting the right targets.
3. Advancing recycling technologies: from limitation to innovation.
4. Financing circularity: sharing the cost, sharing the benefits.

I blame Elon Musk, who has done incredible damage not only to his own brand, but to the idea of EVs.

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Archived copies of the article:

• archive.today
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There is also coverage in the New York Times (gift link)

Main Takeaways

• Internal combustion vehicles – those that run on gasoline and diesel fuel – produce CO~2~ and a number of air pollutants.
• Over recent decades, big improvements have been made in reducing vehicle-emission pollution; however, it is still problematic at a global scale.
• Transport accounts for one fifth of CO~2~ emissions globally; of this portion the majority comes from road transport (cars, motorcycles, buses, and taxis).
• Rising atmospheric CO~2~ from vehicle emissions and other human activities has been driving recent global warming.
• Air pollution from vehicles has health effects like respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, and even an increased risk of getting cancer.
• You can reduce your vehicle pollution by using more sustainable transport options like electric vehicles, ride sharing, walking, bicycles, and public transport.

The article also has a second section on the failure of the Canadian carbon tax.

The message is everywhere: You (alone) can save the planet

Choose a veggie burger instead of beef. Book this flight, not that one. Buy thrift over fast fashion. Shrink your "carbon footprint."

But here's what most people don't know: The very concept of a personal carbon footprint originated with oil giant British Petroleum (BP). In 2004, BP launched a carbon calculator to persuade people to measure their personal climate impacts. The campaign worked — shifting our collective gaze from fossil fuel companies, the biggest drivers of the climate crisis, to individuals like you and me.

Two decades later and with climate disasters rapidly intensifying, we're still caught in this sleight-of-hand. Choices made by corporations and governments continue to shape the speed and scale of climate disruption, while marketing campaigns around climate action try to shift our focus to consumer decisions.

New WRI research tells a different story. Our data shows that pro-climate behavior changes, such as driving less or eating less meat, could theoretically cancel out all the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions an average person produces each year^1^ — specifically among high-income, high-emitting populations.

But it also reveals that efforts focused exclusively on changing behaviors, and not the overarching systems around them, only achieve about one-tenth of this emissions-reduction potential. The remaining 90% stays locked away, dependent on governments, businesses and our own collective action to make sustainable choices more accessible for everyone. (Case in point: It's much easier to go carless if your city has good public transit.)

...

Voting at both the national and local levels is key, as elections directly determine whether governments enable or hinder pro-climate behaviors.

...

Systemic pressure creates enabling conditions, but individuals need to complete the loop with our daily choices. It's a two-way street — bike lanes need cyclists, plant-based options need people to consume them. When we adopt these behaviors, we send critical market signals that businesses and governments respond to with more investment.

WRI's research quantifies the individual actions that matter most. While people worldwide tend to vastly overestimate the impact of some highly visible activities, such as recycling, our analysis reveals four significant changes that deliver meaningful emissions reductions. In order of climate impact, these behaviors are:

1. Shift to sustainable ground travel

2. Shift to air travel alternatives

3. Install residential solar and increase home energy efficiency

4. Eat more plant-rich meals

...one thousand trucks poured into the national park, offloading over 12,000 metric tons of sticky, mealy, orange compost onto the worn-out plot. The site was left untouched and largely unexamined for over a decade. A sign was placed to ensure future researchers could locate and study it.

16 years later, Janzen dispatched graduate student Timothy Treuer to look for the site where the food waste was dumped.

Treuer initially set out to locate the large placard that marked the plot — and failed.