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What all this means is not quite anybody’s guess, but it is far from certain. As Heatmap’s Jeva Lange has written, “describing hurricane seasons as ‘quiet’ or ‘active’ is really a matter of perspective, even if it makes for good headlines.” It all depends on where they land. If that’s along the Gulf Coast, Heatmap’s Matthew Zeitlin wrote, it could spoil what looks to be a mild summer for gasoline prices in addition to whatever physical and emotional devastation it might cause.
So far this year the Northern Hemisphere has yet to see a named storm, the latest we’ve gone without one since 1983, according to CSU’s Phil Klotzbach. When we do get one in the Atlantic, it’ll be called Alberto.
Nissan is delaying an expansion of its electric vehicle lineup in response to slow sales growth. The automaker had announced plans last year to build five new EV models, including two electric sedans, at its factory in Canton, Mississippi, as part of a push to offer 19 EV models worldwide by 2030. Nissan is now shifting its focus to the crossover SUVs in its EV lineup while it continues work on the sedans.
“We are adjusting the timeline for the introduction of these five new models to ensure we bring the vehicles to the market at the right time, prioritizing in line with customer demand and maximizing the opportunity for our brands and supplier partners,” a Nissan spokesperson said in a statement to CNN.
During the deadly storm that devastated the town of Greenfield, Iowa on Tuesday, a tornado also caused significant damage to a nearby wind farm. Footage from the storm shows multiple 250-foot turbines collapsing, one by one, as the tornado passes over them. MidAmerican Energy Company has reported the “unprecedented” destruction of five turbines at its Orient wind farm in Iowa. The company said some of its turbines recorded wind speeds above 100 miles per hour.
Wind turbines are designed to withstand extreme weather, and losses like this are rare, even in Tornado Alley. (Iowa ranks second after Texas in total wind power generation.) But weather patterns’ increasing unpredictability and severity due to climate change are making such events more likely. Most wind turbines are not equipped to handle direct hits from powerful tornadoes, according to researchers.
The tornado’s aftermath in Greenfield, Iowa.Scott Olson/Getty Images
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Eight Alaskans between the ages of 11 and 22 are suing the state over a major liquified natural gas export project they say violates their constitutional rights. Alaska Gasline Development Corporation’s nearly $40 billion Alaska LNG project — which would include a treatment plant, a liquefaction facility, and an 800-mile gas pipeline stretching across the state — is projected to start exporting around 2030. Its shipments would go to Asia, where demand for LNG is expected to rise. The youth bringing the lawsuit argue that the project infringes on the freedoms afforded them by the Alaska constitution, including access to natural resources and protection from government overreach.
“The acceleration of climate change that this project will bring will affect what the land provides and brings to my culture,” Summer Sagoonick, the 22-year-old lead plaintiff and a member the Iñupiaq tribe, told The Guardian. “I am counting on the courts to protect my rights.”
Gas “peaker” plants — those used by electric utilities mostly to satisfy peak demand — emit above-average amounts of pollution and are often located near historically disadvantaged communities, a new report from the Government Accountability Office found. The 999 peaker plants operating in the U.S. in 2021 provided just 3.1% of the country’s net electricity generation that year. But these peaker plants emitted sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides at much higher rates than non-peaker plants, in part because they often lack emissions control technologies, the report found. It pointed to battery storage systems as an alternative that can help meet fluctuating power demand but acknowledged that utilities are concerned about the impacts such a shift would have on grid reliability.
NASA and IBM are releasing a new artificial intelligence model they hope will refine weather forecasting and climate simulations.
Editor’s note: This post has been updated to clarify the region that has seen no named storms so far this year.
“The benefits to donor countries disproportionately overshadow the primary objective of supporting climate action in developing countries,” Ritu Bharadwaj, principal researcher on climate governance and finance at the International Institute for Environment and Development, told Reuters.
Solar projects that are co-located with storage are dominating Western interconnection queues, according to an energy research analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence. More than 98% of proposed solar capacity within the territory of the California Independent System Operator and about 87% of proposed solar capacity in the rest of the West is paired with storage, or, in some instances, with wind, S&P’s Adam Wilson said. Only about one-fourth of the West’s existing solar capacity is co-located with storage. Hybrid solar projects have “yet to gain firm foothold,” Wilson told Utility Dive, but recent data “suggest that tide may be turning.”
We’re almost halfway through the decade that will make or break our climate future. To get to net-zero by 2050, we’re going to have to spend a lot more money a lot more quickly.
These are among the main conclusions of BloombergNEF’s 2024 New Energy Outlook, which determined that emissions will have to peak and renewable capacity will have to triple this decade for the world to hit net-zero by midcentury. Decarbonizing the global energy system within that time frame could cost $215 trillion, the report found — 19% more than the cost of an economics-driven transition that would miss the Paris Agreement goals and result in 2.6 degrees Celsius of warming. Even in that economics-driven scenario, which assumes no new climate policies other than the ones we’ve already got, renewable sources power 70% of global energy needs by 2050. The conclusions illustrate both the momentum behind the clean energy transition and the urgent need for stronger government support.
BloombergNEF
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The Adani Group, a multinational commodities trading conglomerate with close ties to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, allegedly bought cheap, highly polluting coal and passed it off as expensive, low-polluting coal, achieving a fat profit and worsening air quality in the process, according to reporting from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project published in the Financial Times. Invoices from 2014 appear to show nearly two-dozen instances of the group buying low-grade coal from one company and selling it to another with which it had a contract to supply high-efficiency coal — 1.5 million metric tons in total. Adani Group denied the allegations, and other companies involved in the transactions did not respond to FT’s request for comment.
The report comes in the midst of nationwide voting in India, which began in April and will end next week. Modi is running for a third term, but questions about his relationship with the powerful Adani family have dogged his campaign. Meanwhile, air pollution kills millions in India each year.
In a win for island nations threatened by rising seas, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea said in an advisory opinion Tuesday that greenhouse gases count as marine pollution, making countries responsible for limiting the impacts of their emissions. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the tribunal found, countries are required to “take all necessary measures to prevent, reduce and control pollution of the marine environment from ‘any source.’” This includes greenhouse gases that are absorbed by the ocean, according to the tribunal. The opinion is the tribunal’s first climate-related judgment and, while not legally binding, could set a precedent that shapes decisions in courts around the world.
Drought in Mexico is worsening the strain already felt by some species of endangered axolotl, an aquatic salamander with an unusual life cycle.
Iva Dimova/Getty Images
