Archived

Authorities and environmentalists in Zambia fear the long-term impact of an acid spill at a Chinese-owned mine that contaminated a major river and could potentially affect millions of people after signs of pollution were detected at least 100 kilometers (60 miles) downstream.

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The collapse allowed some 50 million liters of waste containing concentrated acid, dissolved solids and heavy metals to flow into a stream that links to the Kafue River, Zambia’s most important waterway, the engineering institution said.

“It is an environmental disaster really of catastrophic consequences,” said Chilekwa Mumba, an environmental activist who works in Zambia’s Copperbelt Province.

China is the dominant player in copper mining in Zambia, a southern African nation which is among the world’s top 10 producers of copper, a key component in smartphones and other technology.

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Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema called for help from experts and said the leak is a crisis that threatens people and wildlife along the Kafue, which runs for more than 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) through the heart of Zambia.

Authorities are still investigating the extent of the environmental damage.

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The [Zambian] Ministry of Water Development and Sanitation said the “devastating consequences” also included the destruction of crops along the river’s banks. Authorities are concerned that ground water will be contaminated as the mining waste seeps into the earth or is carried to other areas.

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Discontent with Chinese presence

The environmental impact of China’s large mining interests in mineral-rich parts of Africa, which include Zambia’s neighbors Congo and Zimbabwe, has often been criticized, even as the minerals are crucial to the countries’ economies.

Chinese-owned copper mines have been accused of ignoring safety, labor and other regulations in Zambia as they strive to control its supply of the critical mineral, leading to some discontent with their presence. Zambia is also burdened with more than $4 billion in debt to China and had to restructure some of its loans from China and other nations after defaulting on repayments in 2020.

A smaller acid waste leak from another Chinese-owned mine in Zambia’s copper belt was discovered days after the Sino-Metals accident, and authorities have accused the smaller mine of attempting to hide it.

Local police said** a mine worker died at that second mine after falling into acid and alleged that the mine continued to operate after being instructed to stop its operations by authorities**. Two Chinese mine managers have been arrested, police said.

Both mines have now halted their operations after orders from Zambian authorities, while many Zambians are angry.

“It really just brings out the negligence that some investors actually have when it comes to environmental protection,” said Mweene Himwinga, an environmental engineer who attended the meeting involving Zhang, government ministers, and others. “They don’t seem to have any concern at all, any regard at all. And I think it’s really worrying because at the end of the day, we as Zambian people, (it’s) the only land we have.”

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/19515961

Archived version

Nearly 200 advocacy groups have urged [U.S.] Democratic representatives to “proactively and affirmatively” reject potential industry attempts to obtain immunity from litigation.

“We have reason to believe that the fossil fuel industry and its allies will use the chaos and overreach of the new Trump administration to attempt yet again to…shield themselves from facing consequences for their decades of pollution and deception,” reads a letter to Congress on Wednesday. It was signed by 195 environmental groups such as the Sierra Club, Earthjustice, and Sunrise Movement; legal nonprofits including the American Association for Justice and Public Justice; and dozens of other organizations.

Over the last decade, states and municipalities have brought more than 30 lawsuits accusing big oil of intentionally covering up the climate risks of their products, and seeking potentially billions in damages. The defendants have worked to kill the cases, with limited success.

Now, with Republicans in control of the White House and both congressional chambers, advocates fear the industry will go further, pursuing total immunity from all existing and future climate lawsuits. To do so, they could lobby for a liability waiver like the one granted to the firearms industry in 2005, which has successfully blocked most attempts to hold them accountable for violence.

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[Edit typo.]

https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/166-peter-strack

States averaging ten thousand watts per year - with other Western countries close behind - our excessive energy consumption is built into both our physical and cultural infrastructure. How much energy do we truly need to lead fulfilling lives, and what changes would be necessary in our neighborhoods and cities to achieve that? In today’s discussion, Nate is joined by Peter Strack, a French researcher and author, to explore the concept of 2000-Watt Societies—innovative models that aim to balance reduced energy consumption with the well-being of the people who live there. Peter explains the historical context of energy consumption and origins of lower-energy communities, as well as the necessary changes in infrastructure, social dynamics, and personal habits to reduce energy consumption while sustaining a lifestyle that is fulfilling and caring for residents. How can building relationships based on trust and reciprocity within our communities enhance resilience and help reduce energy consumption? What models already exist for communal infrastructure and sharing the labor needed for maintenance and care work? Finally, how could the 2000-Watt Society offer a more comfortable, connected way of living for more people – perhaps even more than high-energy Western lifestyles – while staying within our environmental and resource constraints?

Faster then expected :)

Ad Council “Campaign for Freedom”

Beware of hyperbolic headlines. But in this case, I’m afraid, as Ulrike Herrmann’s very readable book The End of Capitalism makes clear, the choice between capitalism and civilisation really does seem to be either/or – and the end will probably come a lot sooner that we thought.

Waste defined: devoting 30 million acres of prime farmland to growing fuel for cars

Similary with biodiesel, lay waste to rainforests to grow palm oil for biodiesel

https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/end-cheap-palm-oil-output-stalls-biodiesel-demand-surges-2025-03-09/

MIT aerospace engineers have found that greenhouse gas emissions are changing the environment of near-Earth space in ways that, over time, will reduce the number of satellites that can sustainably operate there.

In a study appearing today in Nature Sustainability, the researchers report that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases can cause the upper atmosphere to shrink. An atmospheric layer of special interest is the thermosphere, where the International Space Station and most satellites orbit today. When the thermosphere contracts, the decreasing density reduces atmospheric drag — a force that pulls old satellites and other debris down to altitudes where they will encounter air molecules and burn up.

Less drag therefore means extended lifetimes for space junk, which will litter sought-after regions for decades and increase the potential for collisions in orbit.

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Their predictions forecast out to the year 2100, but the team says that certain shells in the atmosphere today are already crowding up with satellites, particularly from recent “megaconstellations” such as SpaceX’s Starlink, which comprises fleets of thousands of small internet satellites.

“The megaconstellation is a new trend, and we’re showing that because of climate change, we’re going to have a reduced capacity in orbit,” Linares says. “And in local regions, we’re close to approaching this capacity value today.”

“We rely on the atmosphere to clean up our debris. If the atmosphere is changing, then the debris environment will change too,” Parker adds. “We show the long-term outlook on orbital debris is critically dependent on curbing our greenhouse gas emissions.”

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cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/19368886

Most of the world has dirty air, with just 17% of cities globally meeting air pollution guidelines, a report Tuesday found.

Colour me surprised :(

It reminds me of this from last year

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-24/air-pollution-modelling-university-of-melbourne-traffic/102015778

Traffic pollution likely causes more than 11,000 premature deaths in Australia a year, new modelling by climate researchers has revealed.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/19266054

The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. National Security Minister Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was "destroyed."

Maybe their climate denying President's chainsaw can be used to gouge some drainage ditches ? /s

The downpour, which began Friday morning, dumped more than 400 millimeters (15.7 inches) of rain in the area in just eight hours, "practically what Bahia Blanca gets in an entire year," provincial security minister said

Archive : https://archive.ph/g2FEb

The world is experiencing a string of intense weather, from the polar vortex in the north to a cyclone near south-east Australia, as the latest data show the global temperatures that contribute to extremes continue to linger near record highs.

• Daily global sea ice extent, which combines the sea ice extents in both polar regions, reached a new all-time minimum in early February and remained below the previous record of February 2023 for the rest of the month.
• Arctic sea ice reached its lowest monthly extent for February, at 8% below average. This marks the third consecutive month in which the sea ice extent has set a record for the corresponding month.*
• Antarctic sea ice reached its fourth-lowest monthly extent for February, at 26% below average. The daily sea ice extent may have reached its annual minimum near the end of the month. If confirmed, it would be the second-lowest minimum in the satellite record. This confirmation will only be possible in early March.

It is important to note that the new record low for the Arctic in February is not an all-time minimum. Arctic sea ice is currently approaching its annual maximum extent, which typically occurs in March.

Temperatures in world regions

• The average temperature over European land for February 2025 was 0.44°C, 0.40°C above the 1991-2020 average for February, ranking it well outside the 10 warmest months of February for Europe.
• European temperatures were most above average over northern Fennoscandia, Iceland and the Alps. A large region of negative anomalies was recorded for eastern Europe.
• Outside Europe, temperatures were most above average over large parts of the Arctic. They were also above average over northern Chile and Argentina, western Australia and the southwestern United States and Mexico.
• Temperatures were most notably below average over parts of the United States and Canada. Other regions with below-average temperatures include the regions adjacent to the Black, Caspian and eastern Mediterranean Seas, as well as in a large region in eastern Asia, covering parts of southern Russia, Mongolia, China and Japan.
• The average temperature for European land for winter 2025 (December 2024 to February 2025) was the joint second highest on record for the season at 1.46°C above the 1991-2020 average, significantly cooler than the warmest European winter in 2020 (2.84°C).

TLDR (but the report is worth your click as it contains a lot of very illuminating diagrams and tables):

• The historical overview, spanning from 1750 to 2023, reveals that 67% of global fossil fuel and cement emissions can be traced to 181 entities, with over one-third of these emissions attributed to just 26 producers.

• In 2023, the database traced 33.7 GtCO₂e of emissions to the 169 active entities, marking a 0.7% increase from 2022. Notably, just 36 companies were linked to over half of global fossil fuel and cement CO₂ emissions that year.

• The top 20 highest carbon-producing entities in 2023 are dominated by state-owned enterprises, with 16 of the 20 being state-owned. This list also underscores the significant role of Chinese entities, with the eight entities on the list responsible for 17.3% of global emissions in 2023.

• Coal companies also feature prominently, with seven on the list, six from China and one from India, highlighting Asia's continued reliance on coal.

• A significant update in this year’s analysis is the disaggregation of coal emissions previously aggregated at the national level for China, the Russian Federation, the Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. Attributing these emissions to individual companies, many of which are state-owned, further emphasizes the dominant role of state-owned enterprises.

• In fact, state-owned entities have emerged as the largest emitters by type in 2023, with 67 state-owned entities linked to 22.3 GtCO₂e, more than double the 10.2 GtCO₂e attributed to 99 investor-owned entities.

• Coal remained the largest contributor to emissions in 2023, with its share of total emissions increasing, while cement emissions saw the largest relative rise. In contrast, natural gas emissions declined slightly, and oil emissions remained stable.

• Regionally, Africa and Europe made some progress in emissions reductions, with most companies in these regions decreasing emissions and overall emissions dropping across all fuels. All other regions saw total emissions increase from 2022, with the majority of companies in those regions, except the Middle East, linked to higher emissions.

Archived version

Governments have delayed for the third time a key decision on the timing of an influential climate science assessment, after failing to resolve deep divisions at a meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) over whether and how to align its work with UN climate policy.

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Most governments spoke in favour of a proposal put forward by the IPCC’s administrative arm to conclude the scientific review process by August 2028, so that the reports would be ready in time to be considered as part of the “Global Stocktake”, a scorecard of climate action carried out under the Paris Agreement. European nations, Japan, Turkiye, small island states and most Latin American and least developed countries supported the plan, three delegates told Climate Home.

But China, Saudi Arabia and India strongly pushed back against that timeline, while South Africa and Kenya asked for further discussions to bridge concerns over the inclusivity of the process, the sources added.

At the eleventh hour, the Chinese hosts of the summit brokered an interim deal that will kick-start the assessment process in 2025, while discussions over the deadline for completing the reports will resume again at the next IPCC session later this year, for which there’s still no fixed date.

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At the start of the meeting, Liu Zhenmin, China’s Special Envoy for Climate Change, praised the contribution of the climate science community in informing policy responses.

“Upholding multilateralism and strengthening global climate action is the only way forward. I hope the IPCC and the UNFCCC will continue to work together in an orderly manner to advance human climate action,” he added.

But three delegates [reported] of a disconnect between public statements from Chinese officials and negotiating positions in closed meetings where, they said, China reinforced its national priorities.

They added that China – and some other high-income developing nations – seem keen to keep the IPCC reports out of the next stocktake as they fear the scientific findings would put them under mounting pressure to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

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Diana Urge-Vorsatz, a Hungarian scientist and vice-chair of the IPCC, criticised efforts to remove “key scientific concepts” from the outlines which, she said, creates concerns over the future of global climate science.

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A handful of countries led by Saudi Arabia wanted the panel’s focus to include controversial marine geoengineering interventions that involve adding alkaline substances to ocean water to increase its pH and supposedly boost its capacity to absorb CO2, sources told Climate Home.

But most governments rejected the proposal, arguing it would be premature to raise the profile of technologies whose side effects are not yet fully understood.

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The absence of US government delegates and federal scientists loomed large over the gathering, after a stop-work order imposed by the Trump administration kept them from travelling to the meeting in China.

While it remains unclear whether the US will fully withdraw from the IPCC process, delegates said there were informal discussions in the corridors on the far-reaching implications of a US retreat.

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