Wassup world? Today is Thursday, December 20th, 2018 and this is the Weekly Environmental Wrap Up. As you should know by now, Wassup World News is coming to a close. This episode will be our 2nd to last episode of Wassup World News. All future podcasts will be released by Carbon Copy. Find us on iTunes, google podcasts, and Spotify by searching Carbon Copy. We’ve got a few podcasts that will be coming to you, but FWD Earth This Week is the fdirect replacement for this show. You can also Text us at 8 triple 24 25 to get notifications of new episodes.
Now for the headlines.
The solar-powered barrier meant to clean the Great Pacific Garbage Patch hasn't collected any loads of trash because it's moving more slowly than the plastic it's trying to capture. Its inventor, Boyan Slat, now 24 years old and a crew of engineers are working to speed the massive machine up to be able to collect an estimated 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic have coalesced into a field of debris twice the size of Texas.
Pacific Garbage Patch: Boyan Slat’s Ocean Cleanup Device Isn’t Catching Trash : NPR
Nearly 400,000 acres of ocean between Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard sold on Friday (Dec. 14) for the most money ever paid for wind-lease plots in the United States, more than $1,000 an acre. Massachusetts’ commitment to buy more renewable energy drove up the prices to levels equal to offshore drilling leases. Three companies, Statoil—now named Equinor; Mayflower Wind Energy—which is co-owned by Shell; and Vineyard Wind, which is jointly held by a Danish and an American company— will have 33 years under the leases to build and operate the wind farms after they go through environmental review. Just three years ago, the exact same patch sold for $1.50 an acre, one for less than $1, and two others received no bids.
Wind-farm plots off of Martha’s Vineyard fetched a stunning $405 million — Quartz
Last week the Trump administration offered more than 150,000 acres of public lands for fossil-fuel extraction near some of Utah's most iconic landscapes, including Arches Canyonlands, Bears Ears, Canyons of the Ancients, Hovenweep, and Glen Canyon. This year the Bureo od Land MGMT has offered more than 420,000 acres of public land in Utah for oil and gas extraction. The agency plans to auction another 215,000 acres in March. Trump Auctions Off 150,000 Acres of Public Lands for Fracking Near Utah National Parks
The winning International Statistic of 2018, decided by the Royal Statistics Society, is 90.5%: that’s proportion of plastic waste that has never been recycled. Total plastic weight is estimated at 6,300 million metric tonnes, around 12% of all plastic waste has been incinerated and 79% had accumulated in either landfill or the natural environment. https://www.statslife.org.uk/news/4026-statistics-of-the-year-2018-winners-announced
The Green New Deal is apparently finding some legs. Pollinng released on Friday by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication shows that 81 percent of respondents across the political spectrum support tenants of the progressive plan. however 82% of Americans have no idea what a Green New Deal means. -New Poll Shows Basically Everyone Likes Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal
That is why we started RE: Green New Deal, where we’ll be breaking the most recent happenings with the legislative movement, and talking to every day Americans to figure out exactly what such a sweeping program might do. Just search Carbon Copy in your podcast app and follow RE: Green New Deal.
A panel of federal judges in Virginia blocked the construction of an underground gas pipeline that would cross two national forests and a portion of the Appalachian Trail. The decision, issued last week by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, says the US Forest Service failed to preserve national forest resources when it authorized the construction of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The underground natural gas pipeline was being built by Dominion Energy, a Virginia power company, and would stretch 604.5 miles across West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina.
A federal court invoked Dr. Seuss when a pipeline threatened national forests - CNN
California on Friday became the first state to mandate a full shift to electric buses on public transit routes, Starting in 2029, mass transit agencies in California will only be allowed to buy buses that are fully electric under a rule adopted by the state’s clean air agency. bus fleets should be fully electric by 2040, the equivalent of taking four million cars off the road. The rule applies to all transit buses; school buses and privately operated buses aren’t covered.
California Requires New City Buses to Be Electric by 2029 - The New York Times California just decided to move to 100% electric city buses
Spain will close the last of its nuclear reactors and coal power plants before 2030, according to State Secretary for Energy José Dominguez, who made the announcement shortly after Madrid pledged to work towards a completely renewable electricity system. Dominguez said on Thursday (15 November) that the current socialist government does not plan to extend the lifespan of any of its nuclear reactors beyond their current 40-year shelf-life.
https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy/news/spain-to-nix-nuclear-and-coal-power-by-2030/
The COP24, the informal name for the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, has come to a close. After a one day extension of the two week conference, COP24 agreed to a common rule book for reporting emissions and efforts made to cut them, with goals to be reviewed at the UN summit to be held next September.
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Throughout the conference, The US, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Brazil seamed to team up in order to push for more lax rules and allow the fossil fuel industry more time to continue operating.
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At the same time, the US was also pushing hard for strong transparency rules,”
- one of the biggest failures is in the language associated with the carbon offset market, where carbon offsets are now ‘voluntarily’ cancelled. if offsets are not cancelled, m the carbon market would become a zero sum game where no actual gains are made in terms of reducing carbon output.
- in more exciting news, The World Bank pledged $200 billion over five years to climate action.
- The largest failure of the conference is that Countries emissions reduction pledges did not change. Their current pledges put the world on track for 3 deg C of change, which would be devastating to coastal communities and agriculture
That’s it for this Weekly Environmental Wrap Up. Tune in Next Week to hear more about the flora, fauna, and planet you care oh so much about. Remember to text us at 80-triple-24-25. For all our newest podcasts from Carbon Copy, the new home of your weekly environmental news. That’s 80 - 24 - 24 - 24 - 25. I’m John Brindley. This has been a podcast by Wassup World News. Things may have changed by the time you’re listening to this. Thanks for listening. Peace out world!