Lake Erie’s Eroding Shoreline Raises a Bigger Question: Who Pays for Climate Risk?

The Energy Mix: Lake Erie’s Eroding Shoreline Raises a Bigger Question: Who Pays for Climate Risk?

I spent more than 25 years living within a 15-minute drive from a southern shore of Lake Erie, so this caught my attention.

Walking along the shoreline of Erie Shore Drive, a narrow stretch of road along Lake Erie in Chatham-Kent, Ontario, the signs of climate change are hard to miss. Aging breakwaters, patchwork protection barriers, and empty lots where homes once stood, all point to its growing impacts. The area has become a visible example of what happens when climate impacts outpace planning, infrastructure, and policy responses, and when responsibility for those impacts remains unclear.

While this community is far from alone, Erie Shore Drive offers a stark view of how climate risk is reshaping communities and raising a more difficult question: who is responsible for the costs when changing environments put infrastructure and human lives at risk?

Link.

Critical Atlantic current significantly more likely to collapse than thought

Guardian: Critical Atlantic current significantly more likely to collapse than thought.

This is bad. As others have already pointed out, likely the biggest climate-related story at the moment.

The critical Atlantic current system appears significantly more likely to collapse than previously thought after new research found that climate models predicting the biggest slowdown are the most realistic. Scientists called the new finding “very concerning” as a collapse would have catastrophic consequences for Europe, Africa and the Americas.

The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (Amoc) is a major part of the global climate system and was already known to be at its weakest for 1,600 years as a result of the climate crisis. Scientists spotted warning signs of a tipping point in 2021 and know that the Amoc has collapsed in the Earth’s past.

How catastrophic?

The Amoc is a major part of the global climate system and brings sun-warmed tropical water to Europe and the Arctic, where it cools and sinks to form a deep return current. A collapse would shift the tropical rainfall belt on which many millions of people rely to grow their food, plunge western Europe into extreme cold winters and summer droughts, and add 50-100cm to already rising sea levels around the Atlantic.

Link.

CarbonBrief Factcheck: Nine false or misleading myths about North Sea oil and gas

CarbonBrief Factcheck: Nine false or misleading myths about North Sea oil and gas.

CarbonBrief factchecks claims made in the UK by opposition politicians, newspapers and other public figures who are using the fossil fuel energy crisis triggered by the US-Israel war on Iran to argue in favour of opening the North Sea to more oil and gas drilling.

Link.

AP: Energy fallout from Iran war signals a global wake-up call for renewable energy

AP: Energy fallout from Iran war signals a global wake-up call for renewable energy.

It’s a simple equation: more renewables, less shocks. Reporting for the AP, Aniruddha Ghosal, Anton L. Delgado and Allan Olingo write:

The war in Iran is exposing the world’s reliance on fragile fossil fuel routes, lending urgency to calls for hastening the shift to renewable energy.

And

Unlike during previous oil shocks, renewable power is now competitive with fossil fuels in many places. More than 90% of new renewable power projects worldwide in 2024 were cheaper than fossil-fuel alternatives, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.

It’s obvious, but bears repeating: countries that have built out or invested in renewables have also invested in a cushion from oil shocks, which are a trait of the fossil fuel-based energy system. These include China and India, and other Asian countries, too, including:

Pakistan’s solar boom has preempted more than $12 billion in fossil fuel imports since 2020

And

Vietnam’s current solar generation will help the country save hundreds of millions of dollars in potential coal and gas imports in the coming year, based on current high prices.

NYT: E.P.A. Moves to Weaken Limits on a Cancer-Causing Gas

NYT: E.P.A. Moves to Weaken Limits on a Cancer-Causing Gas.

Another thing that 49.9% of Americans voted for in 2024 – weakening the limits on emissions of the cancer-causing gas ethylene oxide. From the New York Times report:

The agency’s proposed rule would loosen limits on ethylene oxide emissions from around 90 commercial sterilization facilities across the country. Roughly 2.3 million people live within two miles of these facilities in what are often low-income neighborhoods or communities of color, according to an analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists, an environmental group.

The proposal is the E.P.A.’s latest move to relax pollution limits in an effort to lower costs for industries. In recent months, the agency has also weakened restrictions on mercury from coal-burning power plants and repealed a scientific finding that allowed the government to regulate planet-warming pollution from cars and trucks.

Link.