Tacoma Chapter
Our solution to climate change? Democracy.
Please join us! We meet on the first Wednesday of the month at 1 pm, via ZOOM. Our goal, as part of CCL Education, is to provide a space to discuss books, articles, documentaries, and other media about climate activism and related topics. The stimulating discussions and friendly support help us to deal with the challenges of these times.
Find the meeting date and how to submit articles/attend on the homepage under “Upcoming Chapter Events.”
Contact Sue Lepore with any questions.
Article Lists per Month 2024-
April-
We need to talk about food prices
https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2024/03/we-need-to-talk-about-food-prices/?
You flood it, you pay for it. https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/you-flood-it-you-pay-for-it
MIT tool shows climate change could cost Texans a month and a half of outdoor time by 2080. Finally, something that makes climate change relatable.
Read in TechCrunch: https://apple.news/AWNPz5uHESVmzC_nPHwr-qQ
Solar Power Takes Up A Lot Of Land. Here's How It Can Be More Ecologically Beneficial. https://www.civilbeat.org/2024/03/solar-power-takes-up-a-lot-of-land-heres-how-it-can-be-more-ecologically-beneficial/
How federal dollars meant to fight climate change could end up boosting Louisiana's fossil fuel production. https://theconversation.com/how-federal-tax-dollars-meant-to-fight-climate-change-could-end-up-boosting-louisianas-fossil-fuel-production-225885
Recycling lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles. PDF
Oil industry sees a vibe shift on climate tech. PDF
A New Surge in Power Use is Threatening U.S. Climate Goals https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/03/13/climate/electric-power-climate-change.html
Biden Administration Announces Rule Aimed at Expanding Electric Vehicles https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/20/climate/biden-phase-out-gas-cars.htm
Can Climate Cafes Help Ease the Anxiety of Planetary Crisis? https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/20/climate/climate-change-anxiety-fear.html
March-
The US Becomes Global Gas Supplier and the Debate Over Climate Impact
Climate Action 100+ Reaction to Recent Departures
https://www.climateaction100.org/news/climate-action-100-reaction-to-recent-departures/
Environmental Justice and Carbon Pricing: Can They be Reconciled? Parts 1-3
Carbon Pricing Analysis, Boyce, et al, April 2023 National Institute of Health PDF
What Would Happen if Every American Got a Heat Pump?
Getting these climate superheroes into more US homes would massively cut emissions, and it would be cost-effective.
Read in WIRED: https://apple.news/AUITm5ahtTau-8BOoi7JcpQ
Government rolls out program allowing low-income drivers to lease EVs for as little as $43 a month: ‘It’s about time’
Read in The Cool Down: https://apple.news/Ajz8wnignRuOLUcRrKI6t4w
Satellite to ‘name and shame’ worst oil and gas methane polluters
Leaks are driving 30% of the climate crisis and MethaneSat will provide the first first near-comprehensive global view
Read in The Guardian: https://apple.news/AGV6xOMElQ1K8QjC9w5BtNQ
Germany Plans to Enable Underground Storage of Carbon Dioxide at Offshore Sites, Geir Moulson, Associated Press, 2/26/24. PDF
Scientists Take Action Over Climate Change. Daniel Grossman, Nature, 2/22/24 PDF
February-
How a giant space umbrella could stop global warming. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20160425-how-a-giant-space-umbrella-could-stop-global-warming
Teslas crash more than gas-powered cars. Here’s why. https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/18/business/why-do-people-keep-crashing-teslas/index.html
Outsulation' and 'flexiwatts': Saving energy can help close the demand gap
Read in South Dakota Searchlight: https://apple.news/AWG-YOAnJSHasvWMDqD2gaQ
Study: Fossil fuel workers have skills for clean energy jobs, but might have to move
Read in WESA: https://apple.news/AR_fA4RwvSjeeZ8loGCnmNw
Americans' climate fears gave Democrats the White House in 2020
https://www.newsweek.com/climate-change-concerns-voting-democrats-1861802
Invisible landscapes
https://orionmagazine.org/article/interstitium-scientific-discovery-anatomy/
We are all climate economists now Jan. 23 NYT by Lydia DePillis PDF
January-
As tree species face decline, "assisted migration" gains popularity in the Pacific North West. PDF
Taking Stock, charts from John Doherty, PDF
The Climate Can't Afford another Trump Presidency, by Zoe Schlanger, Atlantic Monthly Special Issue: If Trump Wins, Jan/Feb 2024. PDF
Earth was due for another year of record warmth. But this warm? by Raymond Zhong, NYT Dec. 26 2023. global-warming-accelerating.html
Coal: the Climate Scourge that Won't go Away, by Mark Gongloff, Dec. 29 2023. https://lasvegassun.com/news/2023/dec/29/coal-the-climate-scourge-that-wont-go-away/
What if people don't need to care about climate change to fix it? by Hannah Ritchie, NYT, Dec. 28, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/31/magazine/hannah-richie-interview.html?mwgrp=a-dbar&unlocked_article_code=1.Kk0.4yYA.WU7lBNJUEs3y&smid=url-share
This new cement could become America’s next big bumper crop and help save the world as we know it
Colorado-based Prometheus Materials and other emerging companies are developing new biocements that could help meet the world’s growing concrete demands and avert climate catastrophe.
Read in Fast Company: https://apple.news/AtrCN4FlAQJehmrLndMHu4w
10 climate tech innovations that give us hope for 2024
From ships powered by food waste to jet fuel made from CO2, here’s the climate tech we’re most excited about.
Read in Fast Company: https://apple.news/A2ODak76SSvWJH--seFOmsQ
In 2023, organized labor became core to the climate movement
In the clean energy transition, labor unions and the climate movement are finding that they're stronger together.
Read in Grist: https://apple.news/A2RYXI3QeQk64O-j8tP5GbA
These rocks glow brighter than the sun. They could also help end the use of fossil fuels
At some point in the dawn of humanity, a smarter-than-average homo sapien moved a rock away from the fire for warmth and invented the thermal battery.
Read in CNN: https://apple.news/AAKMmXQ1WSJO7BUNhWgQXMw
Opinion: I’m a climate scientist. This is why I’m laughing
Climate scientist Bill McGuire writes on the power of comedy in grabbing peoples’ attention — and why COP28 was the biggest joke of all.
Read in CNN: https://apple.news/AdmOGILRDSvuBPWa9rUnvqA
Articles from 2023
December-
The surprisingly simple way to convince people to go green
Could Biden's clean energy push be a victim of its success? PDF
U.S. bets on small nuclear reactors to help fix a huge climate problem
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/11/12/climate/nuclear-reactors-clean-energy.html
Google DeepMind’s weather AI can forecast extreme weather faster and more accurately
How soon do you have to buy heat pumps and EVs to avoid climate catastrophe?
The godfather of climate science turns up the heat. PDF
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/08/opinion/hansen-climate-warming-warning.html
In charts: how electricity is changing, country by country
Electrical grids aren't keeping up with the green energy push
November-
Climate change is keeping therapists up at night
The energy transition in 5 charts and not too many numbers
https://rmi.org/the-energy-transition-in-five-charts-and-not-too-many-numbers/
How Americans view future harms from climate change in their community and around the US.
Gavin Newsom wants to export California's climate laws to the world
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/23/climate/gavin-newsom-california-climate-action.html
Will California and Washington marry their carbon markets?
https://www.eenews.net/articles/will-california-and-washington-marry-their-carbon-markets/
They went hunting for fossil fuels. What they found could help save the world
When two scientists went looking for fossil fuels beneath the ground of northeastern France, they did not expect to discover something which could supercharge efforts to tackle the climate crisis.Read in CNN: https://apple.news/A7n9Noah7RUuWew2nXGGiGw
To decarbonize cement, the industry needs a full transformation
This story was originally published by Canary Media and is part of its special series “The Tough Stuff: Decarbonizing steel, cement and chemicals.”Read in Grist: https://apple.news/Al-TUycVgSMWzTs5jnZoMtA
Can concrete dust help to fight climate change? This Irish startup is trying it out on US farmland
Concrete dust could permanently sequester up to 100 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.Read in Euronews: https://apple.news/AXSecgWnNQGC6OIBKIGNYqg
Solar energy storage breakthrough could make European households self-sufficient
Norwegian startup Photoncycle says it can store solar energy from summer to winter cheaper than batteriesRead in Sifted: https://apple.news/AZwsUqTINQh-hMEESQ79q7A
October-
It's time to engineer the sky
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/its-time-to-engineer-the-sky/
We looked at 1,200 possibilities for the planet's future. These are our best hope.
A bright spot at the intersection of farming, electric vehicles and solar energy.
How does climate change threaten your neighborhood? A new map has the details.
https://grist.org/extreme-weather/new-map-climate-change-risks-neighborhood-vulnerability-index/
A year after the IRA, industrial policy has gone global. Now what?
For many big food companies, emissions head in the wrong direction.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/22/business/food-companies-emissions-climate-pledges.html
Americans don't hate living near solar and wind farms as much as you might think.
France seeks strategy as nuclear waste site risks saturation point.
The United States' edge in the clean energy economy starts with outcompeting China on hydrogen
September-
Forests are no longer our climate friends
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/06/opinion/columnists/forest-fires-climate-change.html#:~:text=A%202021%20review%20of%20590,a%20much%2Dfeared%20tipping%20point.
America is using up its groundwater like there's no tomorrow
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/america-is-using-up-its-groundwater-like-theres-no-tomorrow/
Anger is most powerful emotion by far for spurring climate action, study finds
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/21/anger-is-most-powerful-emotion-by-far-for-spurring-climate-action-study-finds
How U.S. oil extraction plans will scupper global climate goals
https://www.energymonitor.ai/policy/exclusive-how-us-oil-extraction-plans-will-scupper-global-climate-goals
Could sand be the next lithium? A cadre of start-ups are building batteries that can store renewable energy in natural materials such as sand, salt and rock.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2023/08/24/natural-battery-storage/
A big leap in solar power: the bio-inspired photovoltaic leaf shows greater efficiency
NASA releases first U.S. pollution map images from new instrument launched to space
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nasa-first-us-pollution-map-images-tempo-instrument-space/
COP28 and the limits of eco-modernism
https://drilled.ghost.io/the-limits-of-eco-modernism/?ref=drilled-newsletter
I thought fossil fuel firms could change. I was wrong.
https://www.outrageandoptimism.org/blog/fossil-fuel-firms-could-change
The Faustian bargain of reducing air pollution
August-
Grid Rewiring: an Answer for Biden's Climate Goals?
https://www.eenews.net/articles/grid-rewiring-an-answer-for-bidens-climate-goals/
Backlash to climate policies is growing
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/07/24/climate-change-backlash-europe/
America Can't Build a Green Economy without China
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/17/opinion/america-china-clean-energy.html
Adding Clean Energy to the US Power Grid Just Got a Lot Easier
Federal regulators overhauled the process for connecting new energy projects to the power grid.
Read in The Verge: https://apple.news/AbjeCs1uqSlaHROhlS0vzZA
Competing visions of the future are driving a wedge between clean energy companies and traditional environmentalists.
Read in Los Angeles Times: https://apple.news/AObIPq7YjRwqD4_ekbIu9kA
Big Oil quietly walks back on climate pledges
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/16/big-oil-climate-pledges-extreme-heat-fossil-fuel?CMP=share_btn_tw
July-
Art meets solar: These Dutch startups are making photovoltaics sexy
https://thenextweb.com/news/solar-panels-art-dutch-startups-europe
Five ways AI could improve the world
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jul/06/ai-artificial-intelligence-world-diseases-climate-scenarios-experts
U.S. truck makers reach deal to phase out polluting big rigs
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2023/jul/06/us-truck-makers-reach-deal-to-phase-out-polluting-/
Even in Texas, you can't stop the green revolution
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/14/opinion/texas-green-revolution-fossil-fuels.html
Canada offers lesson in the economic toll of climate change
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/03/business/economy/canada-wildfires-economy.html
Climate misinformation in a climate of misinformation
https://www.stockholmresilience.org/news--events/climate-misinformation.html
Virtual power plants are coming to save the grid
https://www.governing.com/infrastructure/virtual-power-plants-are-coming-to-save-the-grid
California just can't kick its coastal gas plant addiction
https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2023-06-22/california-just-cant-kick-its-coastal-gas-plant-addiction-boiling-point
June-
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/01/opinion/the-ocean-is-looking-more-menacing.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/23/business/australia-lithium-refining.html
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/16/cop28-host-uae-climate-united-arab-emirates
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/30/opinion/climate-clean-energy-investment.html
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/global-energy-consumption-source
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05052023/electric-grid-customer-control/
https://www.bing.com/search?q=the+earth+is+really+quite+sick+now+and+in+ecological+danger&FORM=AWRE
Gasoline use isn’t falling fast enough. Targeting ‘superusers’ could help.
https://apple.news/ApDi1tktERBGxqeX20wUVuw
May-
Supreme Court unlocks climate cases by rejecting oil industry bid
https://www.eenews.net/articles/supreme-court-unlocks-climate-cases-by-rejecting-oil-industry-bid/
Nuclear waste is misunderstood
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/28/opinion/climate-change-nuclear-waste.html
EPA rules may push power plants to capture carbon, is the tech ready?
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/epa-rules-may-push-power-073000695.html
Clean Tech takes off in Moses Lake
https://medium.com/wagovernor/clean-tech-takes-off-in-moses-lake-211294767929
Could AI save the Amazon rainforest?
Conservationists in the Brazilian Amazon are using a new tool to predict the next sites of deforestation – and it may prove a gamechanger in the war on logging
Read in The Guardian: https://apple.news/AXLatkRDWQTaCUXo6O8b3fw
Scientists utilize mushrooms powerful enough to digest cigarette butts and their toxic contents: ‘We’re aiming to go even higher’
Read in The Cool Down: https://apple.news/AiWvCRqvHScKmGYDti_QDYg
Electric car battery investments skyrocketed in 2022
April-
More killer tornados will hit the South as global warming creates dangerous new weather patterns
https://fortune.com/2023/03/28/tornado-supercells-more-frequent-southern-us-global-warming-study/
We need the right kind of climate optimism
Climate pessimism dooms us to a terrible future. Complacent optimism is no better.
https://apple.news/AiAS837HcTHaHiC6qLyUjJg
House climate hawks pitch "clean" permitting plan
https://www.eenews.net/articles/house-climate-hawks-pitch-clean-permitting-plan/
Eight reasons why Volkswagen's decision to pick Ontario over Oklahoma matters to Virginia
Company devises ingenious method of solving major construction problem: recycling wind turbine blade material
https://apple.news/Agj0HxscOQHm0H4e5DNhdnA
Green hydrogen development-the high tech gamble that turns water into fuel
March-
Recapturing excess heat could power most of Europe, say experts
Preventing heat waste largely being ignored as solution to energy crisis, say environmental campaigners
Read in The Guardian: https://apple.news/AUS68_L_BSgK7i5nXao0j6g
Analysis | How energy from Earth’s crust could pull carbon from the sky
A geothermal company announced today it will design and engineer the first purpose-built geothermal and direct air capture plant.
Read in The Washington Post: https://apple.news/AfDlGVzZAThSxKTaNA9zPEQ
He ran the NAACP. Now he’s leading the Sierra Club's fight against climate change
"There is no green vote without the Black or brown vote," he says.
Read in Los Angeles Times: https://apple.news/Abawv_TpbQx-c6Gx6WferDQ
Outrage and Optimism, The Bridgetown Initiative by Avinash Persaud
https://www.outrageandoptimism.org/episodes/this-is-the-rainy-day
The CREST Act of 2022:
Japan adopts plan to maximize nuclear energy, in major shift
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-business-japan-climate-and-environment-02d0b9dfecc8cdc197d217b3029c5898
In the Year of Sustainability UAE Takes Significant Leap towards Net Zero 2050 as Unit 3 of Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant Starts Commercial Operations
South Korea to expand its nuclear share to 30% by 2030
February-
Opinion | A Deal to Help South Africa Is a Breakthrough for the Worldnytimes.com
Lost for words: fears of ‘catastrophic’ language loss due to rising seastheguardian.com
How Central Ohio Got People to Eat Their Leftoversnytimes.com
These remarkable new solar panels can even generate electricity at night
“The coldness of outer space is also an extremely important renewable energy resource.”
Read in The Cool Down: https://apple.news/AwAWf3eaARHahsyPn2eAXAg
Algae-based bioplastic for 3-d printing
January -
Snapshots, Hotshots and Moonshots: Images of Climate Change in 2022
Six climate breakthroughs that made 2022 a step toward net zero
The newest crop found on the farm? Solar panels.
Superhot rock energy is growing, but needs more support to reach its full potential
https://www.wnps.org/blog/wa-ecosystems-are-changing-conservation-efforts-are-too
Climate misinformation spreads on Musk's Twitter
Greta Thunberg tweet https://apple.news/A4V6eiz3gSnuxlCPM2aR_iA
Rural America Is Battleground for Green Energy | The New York Times
How U.S. oil extraction plans will scupper global climate goals
List of Materials 2020-2021
The Overstory by Richard Powers, 2018. Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about people and trees.
The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis by Christiana Figueres and Ton Rivett-Carnac, 2020. They led the negotiations for the UN during the Paris Agreement.
“2040” a documentary of 2019 by Damon Gameau, who travels the world meeting with innovators about climate solutions.
Clade by James Bradley, 2015. Novel about a family coping with planetary changes. Australian author.
Carbon Pricing: A critical perspective for community resistance by Indigenous Environmental Network, 2017. It’s a free PDF download, about 50 pages. It’s a critique of why they don’t support carbon pricing as a viable solution. We try to reach for and understand conservatives but how about the progressive left?
Eat Like a Fish: My Adventures as a Fisherman Turned Restorative Ocean Farmer, by Bren Smith, 2019. Fascinating life story and a hopeful climate solution.
Grassroots Rising, a call to action on climate, farming, food, and a green new deal by Ronnie Cummins, 2020. Transforming our food system is a great climate mitigation action.
Viking Economics: How the Scandinavians Got It Right and How We Can, Too by George Lakey, 2016. An excerpt, Chapter 13, on the clean energy successes of this region.
Doughnut Economics: 7 Ways to Think Like a 21st Century Economist by Kate Raworth, 2020. A brilliant and revolutionary model for meeting the needs of all while staying within the limits of the planet.
Caste: the Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson, 2020. Pulitzer Prize-winning expose of the underlying caste system behind white privilege and racial bias.
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo, 2018. Thoughtful treatment of race relations in the U.S.
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo 2018. Frank, hard-hitting, and very useful. A Seattle-based author.
The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson, 2021. By an acclaimed sci-fi author, but with so many fascinating “info-dumps” about climate solutions that it seems halfway non-fiction. Visionary—we keep referring to it as a possible “guide” to the near future.
Various articles from The Economist and from Yes Magazine
How To Avoid a Climate Disaster: the Solutions we Have and the Breakthroughs We Need by Bill Gates, 2021. Recommendations from the business and technology giant, including nuclear power.
Learning to Die in the Anthropocene by Roy Scranton, 2015. “Calls for a reimagined humanism that will help us meet our stormy future with as much decency as we can muster.” (Naomi Klein)
“Seaspiracy” a 2021 damning documentary about industrial fishing’s impact on ocean life.
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer, 2013. An excerpt, “Windigo Footprints” on the monstruous greed and ruin caused by capitalist consumer culture.
“Biggest Little Farm” a 2018 documentary by John Chester about developing a sustainable farm on desolate ground outside of Los Angeles.
Various articles from The Economist.
Everything Change Vol III, an anthology of short stories about climate change and the future, 2021. Free download.
“Breaking Boundaries: the Science of our Planet,” a 2021 documentary by Johan Rockstrom, narrated by David Attenborough. Excellent big-picture science and visuals explaining how human activity has broken the boundaries of most of our planet’s stabilizing systems, but ending with a positive note on “solutions.”
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, 2021. Geeky fun not just for geeks! The whole planet must work together to solve an existential threat by the skin of their teeth...sound familiar?