[Jan 29-Feb 4'24] 14.5 million by 2050

Soil carbon can't offset livestock emissions, mining for the climate, climate change will kill 14.5M by 2050 and fossil fuel industry sponsored climate research already in 1954.

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Weekly Climate 🎉

References: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5] and [6].

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‼️News you can’t miss

Here’s one important scary/bad (🙀), good (😻), interesting (😼) and fossil (💩) news item.

🙀 Soil carbon can’t offset livestock emissions

😻 The climate case for a career in mining

😼 Climate change will kill 14.5 million people by 2050

💩 New evidence reveals that the fossil fuel industry sponsored climate science research all the way back in 1954

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👩‍⚕️ Status: Climate & Science

Let’s look at how we’re doing this week!

[#antarcticice] — The year 2023 was an exceptional year for Antarctic sea ice, with record-breaking lows and slow regrowth. Factors such as warm sea surface temperatures, atmospheric circulation patterns, and ocean processes contributed to these conditions. The significance of Antarctic sea ice lies in its role in the regional and global climate, ocean currents, weather patterns, and protection of the ice sheet. While the impact of climate change on Antarctic sea ice is complex, models project a decline in sea ice extent due to rising temperatures and greenhouse gas emissions.

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📰 The 7 Grand Challenges

⚡️Decarbonize Electricity

Clean electricity is the one do-or-die challenge we must solve.

[#birdkills] — Wind farms in the United States are estimated to kill around one million birds per year, with a potential global death toll of over 5 million. However, compared to other hazards like cats, buildings, and cars, wind turbines have a relatively low impact on bird populations. The threat to birds is more significant for certain species, such as birds of prey. Wind power also poses a threat to bats, with estimates suggesting that 6 to 20 bats are killed per turbine per year. There are measures that can be taken to reduce bird and bat deaths, such as turning off turbines at low wind speeds, avoiding high-risk areas for birds and bats, using larger turbines instead of many small ones, painting turbines black for better visibility, and playing alert noises to deter birds and bats.

[#solarefficiency] — British solar developer Oxford PV has set a new world record for solar efficiency, achieving 25% conversion efficiency with its perovskite-on-silicon tandem solar cells. This surpasses the more common 24% efficiency seen in commercial modules. The achievement was made in collaboration with Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, and the resulting module is described as the world's most efficient silicon perovskite tandem solar module in industrial format. Oxford PV plans to scale up its manufacturing capacity and continue its search for a high volume manufacturing site.

🏘 Reduce impact of urban and rural areas

Lowering the impact of urban and rural areas.

[#batteries] — The rise of batteries is leading to a domino effect that puts half of global fossil fuel demand at risk. Battery sales are growing exponentially, costs are falling while quality rises, and a battery domino effect is opening up new applications. Incumbent modelers have consistently underestimated battery growth. The drivers of change, including falling costs and rising policy support, will strengthen in the coming years. Batteries are on track to displace a significant amount of fossil fuel demand in road transport, shipping, aviation, and the electricity sector.

[#slowcharging] — Installing slower, more affordable Level 1 EV chargers in multifamily housing can be an effective way to encourage EV adoption. Peninsula Clean Energy (PCE) in California is focusing on getting a high volume of Level 1 chargers into apartment buildings, providing convenient and accessible charging options for tenants. This approach reduces costs, avoids infrastructure hurdles, and puts less strain on the grid. PCE's strategy of "right sizing" charging solutions prioritizes ubiquity over speed, aiming to get more people charging their EVs instead of a few people charging quickly. By installing Level 1 chargers in high volumes, PCE is helping to make EV charging more accessible and affordable for residents in multifamily dwellings. (P.S. If you think is cool, you should check out my startup elby.co as this is exactly what we’re doing).

🛁 Clean non-electrifiable activities

Some activities we do today can’t be electrified, these must be cleaned some other way.