Wind Turbines: Not A Significant Source Of Death For Birds.

As the Trump administration rolls back Obama’s Clean Cars program, meant to increase the fuel efficiency of American cars and light trucks, demand for electric vehicles [EV] - both battery electric (BEV) and plug-in hybrids (PHEV) - is soaring globally. 

But as Brad Plumer points out, a good deal of this growth is the result of policy meant to encourage the purchase of electric vehicles and build up EV infrastructure.

As a result, electric vehicles now make up more than 1 percent of sales in China, France, Denmark, and Sweden. They make up 9.7 percent of sales in the Netherlands, and 23 percent of sales in Norway, which offers some of the most generous tax incentives around, worth about $13,500 per car.

Predicted land change along the Louisiana coast over the next 50 years if we do nothing more than we have done to date. Red indicates areas likely to be lost, and green indicates areas of new land. This map is based on assumptions about increases in sea level rise, subsidence, and other factors.

The global rise in mean sea level is complicated in the Mississippi River Delta region by subsidence (sinking land). The Gulf of Mexico has one of the highest rates of subsidence in the nation due to sediment compaction and the extraction of groundwater, oil and natural gas. Restoration of the deltaic system can help stabilize shorelines and reduce the associated risks with rising sea levels. Deltas are formed by the constant inflow of sediment from rivers. However, the Mississippi River Delta has been cut off from this natural process through the construction of extensive levee systems for navigation and flood protection. Through planned sediment diversions, the natural deltaic process can be restored and help increase the resiliency of coastal areas.

Climate change is hitting Georgia’s peach industry, where an unusually warm winter this year let to a dramatically reduced peach harvest.

From FiveThirtyEight:

For trees that fruit each year (such as peaches, cherries, blueberries, almonds and other fruits and nuts), cool weather is as important as warm. Cold air and less sunlight trigger the release of chemicals that halt trees’ growth, prepare them to withstand freezing temperatures and enable them to resume growing the following spring. When a tree enters this dormant state, it sets a kind of internal seasonal alarm clock that goes off once the tree has spent enough time in chilly temperatures. This countdown is measured in so-called chill hours — the amount of time the temperature is between 32 and 45 degrees Fahrenheit. When crops don’t get the chill hours they expect, they can’t properly reset. Buds are delayed, and instead of ripening into juicy, delicious fruit, they remain small and underdeveloped.

This last winter, middle Georgia got about 400 chill hours during what Chavez described as the usual dormancy period for peaches (roughly Oct. 1 to Feb. 10). The winter before, while still on the low side, had closer to 600 chill hours. But that 200-hour difference meant several peach varieties that had produced fruit in 2016 never bloomed this year.

As shown in the last image, this reduction in chill hours is not unique to Georgia, and will impact farmers growing fruit and nut trees.

Change in mean sea level over the past two decades. The lull in 2011 was the result of La Nina, not a pause in climate change.

A recent report from the Energy Information Administration found that U.S. plant owners and operators are getting ready to retire 27 gigawatts’ worth of coal generation, or about 8.5 percent of the coal fleet, between now and 2016. Considering the substantial contribution of burning coal to climate change, coal plant retirements are one of the greatest ways to reduce carbon emissions.

As Trump casts himself as a savior for the coal industry, the red states that voted for him are adding most of the nation’s clean energy,

From JUSTIN GILLIS and NADJA POPOVICH in the New York Times:

The five states that get the largest percentage of their power from wind turbines — Iowa, Kansas, South Dakota, Oklahoma and North Dakota — all voted for Mr. Trump. So did Texas, which produces the most wind power in absolute terms. In fact, 69 percent of the wind power produced in the country comes from states that Mr. Trump carried in November... These red states are not motivated by a sudden desire to reduce greenhouse gas emissions... their leaders see tapping the wind, and to a lesser degree the sun, as an economic strategy. The clean energy push allows their utilities to lock in low power prices for decades, creates manufacturing jobs, puts steady money in the hands of farmers who host wind turbines, and lures big employers who want renewable power.

Wetlands losses and gains for different land use categories. While, historically, agriculture was responsible for the vast majority of wetlands losses, government incentive programs like the Wetlands Reserve Program have encouraged farmers to restore former wetlands on their lands, contributing to a net gain of wetlands from the agriculture sector 2004-2009. In contrast, silviculture (forestry) is contributing heavily to wetlands losses, with urban and rural development also destroying wetlands. Urban and rural development combined accounted for 23 percent of the wetland losses 2004-2009, while silviculture accounted for 56% (a decrease from 1998-2004 for urban and rural development and an increase for silviculture).

*"Other" included areas such as native prairie, un-managed forests, scrub lands, barren and abandoned land, lands enrolled in conservation easements or other lands designated as wildlife management areas. Conservation programs are largely responsible for high wetlands gains from these areas.

In a report Tuesday, Environment and Climate Change Canada said the 51 separate herds [of boreal caribou] across the country remain under pressure from human and natural disturbances to their habitat more than five years after the federal and provincial governments concluded a protection agreement.

The range of the boreal caribou extends across the country from Yukon to Labrador, but its forest habitat has been increasingly disturbed by industrial activity such as forestry, mining and oil and gas development, as well as by forest fires, the spread of pests and other impacts of climate change.

In 2013 the Energy Information Administration (EIA) projected global coal use to grow 39% by 2040. Their 2017 projected revises that growth to... about 1%.

Pollution-related mortality in Europe