EcoOptimism’s current selection of favorite posts
We can all use some positive news these days, especially on the environmental front in which science is considered evil, denial is an alternative fact and the EPA is now what I’m calling the Environmental Destruction Agency. And while I don’t want to gloss over the issues – there isn’t enough paint in the world to do that – I offer here The Distillery, a weekly (or thereabouts) selection of posts to help offset the PTSD of our current nightmare.
The posts I pick will be “real” in the sense that they aren’t pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking, as fun as those can be, but are evidence of EcoOptimism.
We’ve got a plethora this week.
August 22, 2017
From Grist.org:
California defies Trump claim that environmental regulation kills economic growth
EcoOptimism’s take: Just more “fake news,” right? (It doesn’t get more EcoOptimistic than this!)
source: U.S. Navy photo by Rick Naystatt
August 22, 2017
From Grist.org:
The eclipse was a test, and the solar industry aced it
EcoOptimism’s take: Chicken Little lives another day. CNBC headline on August 18 before the eclipse: “The total solar eclipse is going to knock out a lot of solar power.”
August 14, 2017
From Environmental Network News:
Ozone Treaty Taking a Bite Out of US Greenhouse Gas Emissions
EcoOptimism’s take: In my sustainable design classes, when I describe all our environmental issues and my students begin to get totally demoralized, I point out there are some bright spots. One of them is an international agreement, the Montreal Protocol, that addressed ozone depletion (aka ozone holes) by reducing the use of chemicals causing the depletion. This 1989 agreement has been an enormous success and the ozone layer is now predicted to return to normal within this century.
Those ozone depleting gases, CFCs, are also one of the greenhouse gases causing climate change and this article says “In a twist, a new study shows the 30-year old treaty has had a major side benefit of reducing climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions from the U.S.”
The ozone hole has stopped growing. Source: NASA
August 17, 2017
From Yale Environment 360:
Renewable Energy Prevented 12,700 Premature Deaths Over Nine-Year Period, Study Says
EcoOptimism’s take: It’s great when environmental actions, as illustrated by the ozone article above, have side benefits.
“The expansion of wind and solar energy, and the resulting avoided emissions from fossil fuels, helped prevent up to 12,700 premature deaths in the U.S. from 2007 to 2015, according a new study in the journal Nature Energy.”
Credit: Department of Energy via ThinkProgress.org
