NYT – Oil Firms Knew for Decades of Methane’s Danger to Planet, Documents Suggest (Gift Link)

NYT – Oil Firms Knew for Decades of Methane’s Danger to Planet, Documents Suggest (Gift Link)

Of course they did.

The oil and gas industry has known for decades that its wells were releasing far more planet-warming methane than companies acknowledged, according to industry documents identified by an environmental group.

In a report on the findings released on Monday, the Center for Climate Integrity cited, among other examples, a 1979 report commissioned by the research arm of the American Gas Association, an industry group. That report said that major gas fields in the United States could be releasing far more planet-warming gases than was being officially reported.

Link.

The report, ‘The Fraud of “Clean” Natural Gas: How Big Oil and Gas Created the Myth that Natural Gas is a Climate Solution’, is here.

France Wildfires live updates: France 24, the Guardian and The New York Times (Gift link)

France Wildfires live updates: France 24, the Guardian and The New York Times (Gift link)

The devastation continues. As of early this evening 197,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in southwestern France because of the unprecedented wildfires that continue to burn and spread near Bordeaux. More than 70,000 have been evacuated in Spain, mostly from villages west of Madrid.

Live coverage from France 24, The Guardian and The New York Times (Gift link).

Wildfires have ravaged nearly 98,000 hectares (242,000 acres) in France this year, an area nearly 10 times the size of Paris. A fourth heatwave in two months is expected to kick in by Wednesday 29 July.

T&E analysis: Charging infrastructure has far outpaced EV sales in all but one EU country

T&E analysis: Charging infrastructure has far outpaced EV sales in all but one EU country.

Good news for those of us with EVs in the European Union, from an analysis by Brussels-based advocacy organization Transport & Environment (T&E):

All but one EU country are meeting the bloc’s targets for EV charging infrastructure to keep pace with the number of EVs on the road, new research shows. The analysis by T&E also finds that most of the EU meets its goals for fast chargers to be located every 60 km along main roads. T&E said the network expanded in advance of strong electric car sales growth in 2025 and 2026, showing the charging targets are enabling the EV transition as intended.

Link.

Guardian: AI-altered images on birdwatching forums putting research at risk

Guardian: AI-altered images on birdwatching forums putting research at risk.

I see lots of this slop on Facebook and Instagram, encounters that result in an immediate block. If you use AI to enhance your wildlife photos, please stop.

From the story:

Scientists are appealing to birders to limit their use of AI when editing images over fears that it could undermine the credibility of popular citizen science platforms such as iNaturalist and Macaulay Library, which are routinely used in scientific research to monitor species’ habitat range.

The rise of generative AI platforms such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini has led to a sharp increase in fake and enhanced images of rare and celebrated birds across wildlife photography forums. Users can create high-quality fake images in seconds – or enhance a photograph by asking the AI to remove a branch or leaf that might be obscuring part of the subject, which can inadvertently introduce significant changes.

In a recent commentary in the science journal Nature, researchers warned that hundreds of fake images have already been discovered on popular databases for recording species. They said that the true scale of the issue is unknown – as many could go undetected – and could contaminate records collected by the public.

Link.

EOS – For the Birds: Solar Panels over Peatlands May Increase Avian Biodiversity

EOS – For the Birds: Solar Panels over Peatlands May Increase Avian Biodiversity.

A new study finds an unusual mix of bird species thriving in a German solar park built on degraded peatland. EOS, the news site of the American Geophysical Union, reports:

When Hanna Rae Martens visits the solar park she studies in northern Germany, she finds meadow pipits perched on the panels. They launch off to catch insects, then return, using the panels like tree branches.

This solar park, built on rewetted peatland, hosts a more diverse bird community than adjacent drained farmland, according to a new study in Ecological Solutions and Evidence. The findings suggest that combining peatland restoration with solar energy development could benefit birds.

And

The solar park attracted a mix of species, including some typically found in wetlands, wooded edges, and urban areas. “The presence of wetland species like reed bunting and the endangered meadow pipit shows that the solar park is truly rewetted,” Martens said. “But we also recorded species like Eurasian tree sparrow and tree pipit, which are not typically found in peatlands. They all appear to use the structure of the solar panels.”

Link.

The 19th: Trump dismantled a federal climate website. These women rebuilt it.

The 19th: Trump dismantled a federal climate website. These women rebuilt it.

A good piece on the three women who rebuilt Climate.gov after the Trump Administration took it offline. All three, Rebecca Lindsey, Anna Eshelman, and Mary Lindsey lost their jobs at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) courtesy of Elon Musk’s DOGE slaughter of the US federal bureaucracy last year. Their site, Climate.us, went live on 22 June.

The venture came out of a need for more science-backed climate information. For decades, Climate.gov was the go-to resource that translated complex climate science data into accessible public information, sharing critical tips on everything from how to survive heat waves to explainers on El Niño’s impacts on hurricanes to over 15 million site visitors per year. Funding for climate communications used to come straight from the federal government and for that to just be “yanked away” was jarring, (Rebecca) Lindsey said.

“It’s not a pretty picture for climate communication and climate journalism right now,” Lindsey said. “We just felt like it was really important that there be a mature, robust, comprehensive online platform to serve as a hub. We felt that there needed to be a foundation, or cornerstone, that other people could build on and grow with.” 

Via Kottke.org.

Link.

Literary Hub: How—and Why—to Cull Your Book Collection

Literary Hub: How—and Why—to Cull Your Book Collection.

We made a cull about three months ago. And once the culled books are out of the way, we’ll have room for another.

Some good and practical steps and rationale is here, including, “Sometimes new information really can change my feelings about an author”, “The books to keep are the ones I keep revisiting”, and ”There will always be more books”.

Via Kottke.

The Guardian: Listen to Britain’s Dawn chorus of 1976, illustrating the Dramatic Loss of Birdsong in 50 years

The Guardian: Listen to Britain’s dawn chorus of 1976 – the dramatic loss of birdsong in 50 years.

The Guardian recreated a decade-by-decade audio landscape of what the past morning symphonies of birds sounded like before 73 million of them were lost over the past five decades in Great Britain. The story also mentions a ‘shifting baseline syndrome’, a gradual shifting of accepted norms that applies, in this case to the natural environment, be it habit loss, species decline or the rapidly rising temperatures brought on by the climate crisis.

“What we have is a shifting baseline,” said Dr Rob Robinson, a senior scientist at the BTO who researches wild bird populations. “People engaging in nature today are going to think the numbers they are seeing are normal, particularly children. But if you go back 50 years, they would have been able to experience a much richer environment.”

And

This “shifting baseline syndrome” – a gradual shifting of the accepted norm when it comes to the natural environment – is, said nature writer Robert Macfarlane, an “enormously powerful and I think very pernicious, psychological mechanism whereby each new generation measures loss from the degraded baseline that it grew up into. We’re part of a web. We’re wired into the wild world. Birds help us remember that, and they can do it in a very everyday way.”

Give it a listen – possibly the most mindful 35 seconds you’ll experience today.