Notices by CelloMom On Cars (cellomomoncars@mastodon.social), page 6

The #US is making and deploying more #SolarPanels than ever before

"The #InflationReductionAct has caused solar panel manufacturing capacity to quintuple, revived domestic cell production, and sparked a surge in deployments."

https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/the-us-is-making-and-deploying-more-solar-panels-than-ever-before

A handful of countries (plus the fossil fuel industry) are in the way of meaningful progress on the curbing of plastic pollution.

"Consensus" is easily sabotaged by a small number of bad-faith actors. But a global problem needs globally agreed solutions. Is there another way forward?

https://www.ft.com/content/5ddd782c-3b4d-40d8-ab69-90a26af6e063

If the plastics industry were a country, it’d be the world’s fourth-biggest emitter

https://grist.org/international/the-global-plastics-crisis-explained-in-6-charts/

“Consensus is dead,”

"The final decision, or lack there of, underscored the influence of the United States and other oil-producing countries such as Saudi Arabia, which opposed any limit on the productions of plastics, made mostly from fuels like oil and gas.

The Youth Plastic Action Network was the only organization that spoke at the closing meeting Friday. Comments from observers were cut off at the request of the U.S. and Kuwait.

https://apnews.com/article/plastic-pollution-treaty-negotiations-united-nations-geneva-e73090282a22be7ff5979ea2d648dc10

Nuclear power plants are thermal plants.
Thermal plants need cooling.

"A nuclear plant in northern France was temporarily shut down on Monday after a swarm of jellyfish clogged pumps used to cool the reactors, energy group EDF said.

The beaches around Gravelines, between the major cities of Dunkirk and Calais, have seen an increase in jellyfish in recent years due to warming waters and the introduction of invasive species."

https://www.france24.com/en/france/20250811-jellyfish-swarm-forces-france-s-largest-nuclear-plant-to-shut-down

" From acid-taming ocean tech to coral breeding and seaweed farming, ocean-based climate interventions are ramping up fast. But a new international study warns we’re moving too quickly—and without solid governance, these quick fixes could cause more harm than healing."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/08/250802022929.htm

Now that companies are salivating at the prospect of making the oceans "more effective" at countering global heating, here are a few reminders:

2. The oceans are ALREADY absorbing the VAST majority of excess heat from global warming: 93%

(We're a water planet, after all. And the ocean heat at the surface is already powering much more destructive hurricanes and typhoons)

https://www.carbonbrief.org/scientists-clarify-starting-point-for-human-caused-climate-change/

Only ONE PERCENT of that heat goes into the atmosphere, and wreaking havoc.

Now that companies are salivating at the prospect of making the oceans "more effective" at countering global heating, here are a few reminders:

1. The oceans are ALREADY absorbing about A THIRD of human caused carbon dioxide

(And are acidifying from all the excess CO2; ocean acidification is global warming's "evil twin").

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_sink

Ah, the money trail:
"As corporate interest in ocean carbon removal grows ...."

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/10082025/ocean-carbon-removal-climate-change/

"A new document reveals that one of the world’s largest plastic producers, DuPont, acknowledged as early as 1974 that recycling its plastic products was not possible.

This new discovery also comes against the backdrop of two pending lawsuits alleging that U.S. plastic producers have deceived the public about the feasibility of recycling since the 1980s."

https://www.desmog.com/2025/08/05/maddening-proof-plastics-industry-knew-recycling-was-false-solution-in-1974-new-document-shows/

Thanks to @benjamingeer for the link.

"Fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists outnumber the combined diplomatic delegations of all 27 European Union nations and the EU combined (233). Major fossil fuel and chemical companies and their lobbyists are particularly well represented.

Nineteen fossil fuel and chemical lobbyists have secured places in the national delegations of Egypt (6), Kazakhstan (4), China (3), Iran (3), Chile (2), and the Dominican Republic (1)."

https://www.breakfreefromplastic.org/2025/08/07/fossil-fuel-lobbyists-overrun-plastics-treaty-negotiations/

Add the $1.5tn health costs of plastics to the $ 7tn annual cost of burning fossil fuels (subsidies, health costs, etc, but not counting climate costs), and the case for stopping the subsidies to the fossil fuel industry becomes that much stronger.

What if we redirected this at least $ 8.5 tn A YEAR to the global climate fund?

"The driver of the crisis is a huge acceleration of plastic production, which has increased by more than 200 times since 1950 and is set to almost triple again to more than a billion tonnes a year by 2060. While plastic has many important uses, the most rapid increase has been in the production of single-use plastics, such as drinks bottles and fast-food containers."

More than 98% of plastics are made from fossil oil, gas and coal.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/03/world-in-15tn-plastics-crisis-hitting-health-from-infancy-to-old-age-report-warns

"Plastics are a “grave, growing and under-recognised danger” to human and planetary health, a new expert review has warned. The world is in a “plastics crisis”, it concluded, which is causing disease and death from infancy to old age and is responsible for at least $1.5tn (£1.1tn) a year in health-related damages."

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/03/world-in-15tn-plastics-crisis-hitting-health-from-infancy-to-old-age-report-warns

Frontline communities urgently need an end to #PlasticPollution .

"Communities on the frontlines of any part of the #plastic lifecycle, from oil extraction to trash dumps and everywhere in between, are hit with a trifecta of injustice: plastic pollution, social #injustice, and the #climate crisis. The plastic deluge that is left after every climate-crisis-fuelled storm only reinforces this point."

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/frontline-communities-need-ambitious-global-plastics-treaty

Plastics are made of oil or fracked ethane. The #FossilFuel industry is looking to plastics as their future income stream. Not surprisingly:

At negotiations to end #PlasticPollution, delays "manufactured" by oil-rich countries "left little time to discuss the actual ins and outs of the future #plastics treaty — including whether to reduce plastic production, how to fund the implementation of the treaty, and whether to ban certain single-use plastic products."

https://www.politico.eu/article/un-global-plastic-treaty-talks-limp-despite-blockade-oil-rich-countries/

"The Alliance to End Plastic Waste (including ExxonMobil, Dow, Shell, TotalEnergies and ChevronPhillips, promised to divert 15m tonnes of plastic waste in five years to the end of 2023, by recycling, and creating a circular economy.

The data reveals the five companies alone produced 132m tonnes of polyethylene (PE) and PP (polypropylene) in five years – more than 1,000 times the weight of the 118,500 tonnes of waste plastic the alliance has actually removed."

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/20/five-firms-in-plastic-pollution-alliance-made-1000-times-more-waste-than-they-saved-analysis-shows

"The world will be “unable to cope” with the sheer volume of plastic waste a decade from now unless countries agree to curbs on production, the co-chair of a coalition of key countries has warned ahead of crunch talks on curbing global #PlasticPollution.

Progress has stalled over a row about the need for cuts to the $712bn plastics industry.
The final round of talks, which starts on Monday and is due to end on 1 December, is critical."

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/24/world-unable-cope-10-years-talks-un-global-treaty-to-end-plastic-waste

Plastics currently cause triple the emissions of aviation.

If, for climate reasons, you're not hot on flying: I'm with you!
Let's also work on plastics.

Plastics are everywhere, so you can tackle it everywhere.

https://www.carbonbrief.org/five-charts-why-a-un-plastics-treaty-matters-for-climate-change/

"Carbon Brief analysis shows that without any agreement to cut plastic production, emissions from plastics could consume half of the remaining carbon budget for limiting warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels."

https://www.carbonbrief.org/five-charts-why-a-un-plastics-treaty-matters-for-climate-change/