Environment
www.canarymedia.com
> Rooftop solar, backup batteries, electric vehicles, and smart thermostats and appliances are all crucial to the energy transition in their own right. But if utilities are able to combine these distributed energy technologies together to form so-called virtual power plants, the result could be greater than the sum of its parts — and make the energy transition tens of billions of dollars cheaper. > Solar United Neighbors, a nonprofit that has helped organize more than 30,000 households to secure lower-cost rooftop solar, worked with clean energy boutique law firm Keyes & Fox and industry partners including leading solar-battery installers Sunrun and Sunnova to craft the model tariff and legislation. > > The goal is to bring a standardized approach to what’s now a fractured state-by-state landscape for VPPs — also referred to as distributed power plants.
cross-postowane z: https://szmer.info/post/4572970 > Crime scenes are not always confined to dark alleyways and abandoned warehouses—sometimes they are hidden in plain sight. Environmental crimes are illegal activities which directly harm the environment, often resulting in significant damage to ecosystems, biodiversity, and human health.
www.theguardian.com
> Her big idea is guerrilla gardening – with a twist. Where guerrilla gardeners subvert urban spaces by reintroducing nature, Incredible Edible’s growers go one step further: planting food on public land and then inviting all-comers to take it and eat. > > “I used food because it seemed to me that we needed to act fast,” Warhurst says. “We needed to get experience as soon as we could, and probably food was the thing that we could demonstrate an alternative way of living around, in a really simple way.” --- > Warhurst conceptualises the mission of Incredible Edible as three spinning plates: “You grow, in the place you call home, food to share – sometimes you ask permission, sometimes you don’t. You share the skills you’ve got, you find out who knows how to do things in your community. > > “And the third plate is, if you’re really going to try to create impact in the place you call home, you have to try and support the economy, you have to try and see if there’s local jobs in it.” > > The result is an all-round benefit for the community: free, healthy food, physical activity, and a forum to connect with neighbours in an increasingly atomised society. And for Warhurst, it shows something else: “What it’s doing is demonstrating that in a crisis when you’ve not got a load of money, there’s a lot you can do if you trust the people.”
heatmap.news
the [methodology behind this](https://heatmap.news/decarbonize-your-life/how-to-decarbonize-your-life), which notes: > Trying to zero out your personal carbon footprint, in other words, is a fool’s errand. What you can do, however, is maximize the degree to which you’re building a new, post-fossil-fuel world. > > To be clear, we don’t mean that in a woo-woo way. We’re not saying you should imagine a kumbaya world where we all hold hands and take public transit to the nearest all-volunteer renewable-powered co-op. We’re saying that there are real, already existing products and technologies that must become a bigger part of today’s built environment if we are to have any hope of solving climate change. What you can do — and what we recommend in this guide — is help take those technologies from the fringes into the center of everyday life. If you want to decarbonize the whole planet, you should think about decarbonizing your life. > > What we have tried to do here is not focus on how to reduce your marginal emissions — the number of tons that you, personally, are responsible for pumping into the environment. Instead, we’re trying to help you understand how to focus on high-leverage actions — the kinds of choices that can drive change throughout the energy system.
reasonstobecheerful.world
> Switchgrass and foxtail provided the perfect camouflage for a heron slowly wading through a prairie pond. Only the squawking of a Canada goose mother scolding her offspring shattered the bucolic stillness of the wetland. It was the summer of 2023, and throughout large areas of the Canadian prairie provinces and the Great Plains of the United States, increasingly dry conditions had made water a precious resource. But not here. The 260-acre Hannotte wetland in east-central Saskatchewan was an oasis in an otherwise arid desert of wheat fields. > > It hadn’t always been this way. The land had been drained for agriculture over a century earlier, and it took 20 years of door-knocking for Kevin Rozdeba to convince farmers in the Yorkton region of Saskatchewan that removing land from crop production and turning it back into a wetland was in their best interests. As a program specialist for Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUCS), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to conserve and manage wetlands, Rozdeba knew a wetland’s unique hydrology could contribute to water availability essential for crop production in times of drought. Getting farmers on board, though, was a tall order.
Hey all, While I'm aware that most issues regarding reducing greenhouse gasses land more on companies and governments than they do on individual responsibility, I still want to work on forming my diet to overall be more climate-friendly. I'm curious if there's a website that compares the carbon footprint of certain foods. Since I'm currently modifying my diet to be more healthy and nutritious, I was also thinking about maybe making some changes where possible that are more friendly to the environment. What brought up this thought is that I'm currently making sweetened drinks at home using zero-calorie sweeteners, and with the options I have available and how little they differ from one another in my eyes, I was curious which option between Stevia and Sucralose was more environmentally friendly, and then it became a more general question as to where I can compare these things. Thanks in advance!
I've been watching Tom Nicholas for a bit now, and he gets more and more audacious as he grows his base. This is journalism. Not really a fan of the Tarantino aspect of "but we'll get back to that;" he's nonetheless someone to watch. It's thoughtful, insightful and perhaps can offer a wider worldview of how desperate fossil-fuel companies are getting now that it's generally accepted that we are fucked. It's an hour and change. Other than the Nebula ad at the end, there's no filler. You probably haven't heard about this act of civil resistance, but you really should.
rhg.com
> With all federal and state policies on the books as of June 2024, we estimate the US is on track to reduce its GHG emissions by 38-56% below 2005 levels in 2035, representing at least a doubling—and potentially as much as a four-times increase—from the pace of annual emissions abatement from 2005 to 2023. On the way to 2035, we find the US could reduce its emissions by 32-43% below 2005 levels in 2030. These emissions reductions under current policy are a measurable acceleration in mitigation even compared to our Taking Stock 2022 edition from just before the passage of the IRA, in which we found the US on track for a 24-35% reduction below 2005 levels in 2030. But they are not enough for the US to achieve its 2030 climate commitment under the Paris Agreement of a 50-52% reduction by 2030, or deep decarbonization by mid-century.
www.volts.wtf
Passive homes (a building designed for minimum losses on heating and cooling) are cheaper and easier to construct than you might think. In fact, it's nearly the default code in Massachusetts.
wagingnonviolence.org
> Last month, Extinction Rebellion D.C. scored a major victory for the End Methane, Electrify D.C. campaign: the D.C. Public Service Commission dismissed corporate utility provider Washington Gas’ application for the third phase of their $12 billion fossil fuel pipeline replacement project dubbed Project Pipes. The commission also partially approved a petition to investigate Washington Gas’ leak reduction practices. > > This victory is a major milestone in the fight to shut down a fossil fuel project that would lock D.C. into decades of planet-warming emissions while poisoning the city’s residents, especially the communities that are most marginalized and underserved.
Environment
!environment@beehaw.orgEnvironmental and ecological discussion, particularly of things like weather and other natural phenomena (especially if they're not breaking news).
See also our Nature and Gardening community for discussion centered around things like hiking, animals in their natural habitat, and gardening (urban or rural).
This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.