Daily Quick Read - October 7, 2019

Rainforests and Palm Oil

Palm oil has an apparent infinite number of uses driving voracious demand.  And, that demand is causing the destruction of rainforests in places like Indonesia.  The companies that are using palm oil in their products claim that they only buy from sustainable sources, but as this report details that claim is not true.  For more information check out the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) site.

The Singkil-Bengkung rainforest in the Leuser Ecosystem presents an increasingly rare opportunity, because it is a place where it’s still not too late to achieve top priority conservation goals, for Indonesia and the world, but that window of opportunity is now. The high stakes for local communities, threatened wildlife and the global climate demand a thoughtful, coordinated, solution-oriented approach by all parties to achieve long term conservation goals and sustainable economic prosperity.

RAN’s field investigators documented the trafficking of freshly harvested oil palm fruit from an illegal palm oil plantation developed on peatlands inside the Leuser Ecosystem’s national protected Rawa Singkil Wildlife Reserve1 to a nearby palm oil broker. Two mills were identified to be processing the controversial oil palm fruit and were found to be supplying refinery operators and traders, who in turn sell
and distribute palm oil products to major snack food companies in over 100 countries worldwide. Unilever, PepsiCo, Nestlé, Mondelēz, General Mills, Kellogg’s, Mars and Hershey’s were all found sourcing palm oil from suppliers connected to deforestation in one of the world’s most important peatland forests: the Singkil-Bengkung region of the Leuser Ecosystem. This is despite public commitments made by each company to halt sourcing from suppliers destroying rainforests and peatlands for new palm oil plantations several years
ago.

Saving the Giants

Walking around California’s giant sequoias is a humbling experience.  The trees are majestic and from their massive bases to the crown that is sometimes lost in the morning mist, these trees inspire awe.  The Save the Redwoods group has a deal to buy the largest privately owned sequoia grove which will allow these ancient giants to be preserved and protected.

But a couple hundred years of human encroachment on to the sequoias’ habitat, combined with the climate crisis, increasingly intense wildfires, and drought have threatened the species’ future. The last of the world’s most massive trees now live on just 73 groves scattered across the Sierras. Most lie within protected national parks such as Sequoia national park, where visitors flock from around the world to marvel at General Sherman, the world’s most massive tree.

But not all sequoias are protected within the parks system. Now, in an ambitious bid to secure a future for them, a conservation group has struck an unusual deal to acquire the last, largest privately owned sequoia grove.

The deal is the result of two decades of discussions between the not-for-profit conservation group Save the Redwoods and the Rouch family, which has owned the 530-acre Alder Creek grove since before the second world war. The forest is home to hundreds of sequoias, including the Stagg Tree which – at more than 240ft tall and 100ft around – is the fifth-largest in the world.

The UAW and EVs

The US is miles behind China in electric vehicle development and deployment.  European countries are serious about phasing out internal combustion engine cars in a matter of decades and they are pulling their auto industry along with them.  With that background in mind, maybe the current UAW strike is really about the future of the US auto industry.

From the outside looking in, the talks between the United Auto Workers’ (UAW) striking members and the management of General Motors look like normal disagreements over pay. In reality, they’re really about the future of cars in the U.S.

Electric cars have far fewer parts, which means far fewer people are needed to put them together. When one analyst took apart a Chevrolet Bolt and Volkswagen Golf, he found that the Golf had 125 more moving parts than its electric counterpart. What’s more, the electric vehicles’ parts are often easier to put in place using automated machines. The UAW’s own estimates that the move to electrification may cost 35,000 members to lose their jobs may not be the most scientific study ever done, but it’s also probably not far off.

Timeline projections differ, but many analysts and auto executives believe that EVs will become comparable or cheaper than internal combustion vehicles by the mid-2020s, and most agree that electric cars will begin to outsell conventional ones by 2030 or the mid-2030s. And most of that EV growth is happening in China and Europe, not in the United States.

Batteries Key to Renewables

The wind doesn’t always blow and the sun doesn’t shine at night, so some method of energy storage is critical if these sustainable sources are going to replace fossil fuels in the power grid.  The lithium-ion battery is the current workhorse for almost all modern battery powered electrical devices – from cell phones to electric vehicles.  But, there are serious material issues which impact cost and, ultimately, the global supply of lithium may be insufficient.  New materials and technologies are going to be necessary to keep the lights on.

So as the world works to decarbonize its energy supply by reducing its reliance on coal, natural gas and petroleum and increasing its use of these variable renewable sources of electricity for the grid, one technology in particular is experiencing a renaissance: the stationary battery.

…researchers at RMIT University in Melbourne are developing a proton battery that works by turning water into oxygen and hydrogen, then using the hydrogen to power a fuel cell. Several other research teams around the world are exploring completely lithium-free ion batteries using materials such as graphite and potassium for the electrodes and aluminum salt liquids to carry the charged ions. Researchers in China are looking at improving the existing technology of nickel-zinc batteries, which are cost effective, safe, nontoxic and environment-friendly but don’t last as long as Li-ion. There is even work going on related to saltwater-based batteries, with one design already being used for residential solar storage.

Fracking’s Financial Failings

                                              Peter Aengst Wilderness Society

We are leading the world in natural gas production thanks to fracking.  Yet, the industry’s financial outlook is bleak.  Perhaps some big dollar government subsidies.  Of course, when these companies go out of business, it will be taxpayers who foot the environmental mitigation bills.

This one line from the Journal sums up the problems: “Unlike several years ago, when shale production fell due to a global price collapse, the slowdown this year is driven partly by core operational issues, including wells producing less than expected after being drilled too close to one another, and sweet spots running out sooner than anticipated.”

As we have reported at DeSmog over the last year and a half, the shale oil and gas industry, which has driven the recent boom in American oil and gas production, has been on a more than decade-long money-losing streak, with estimated losses of approximately a quarter trillion dollars. Those losses have continued in 2019.

This failure to generate profits led to the Financial Times recently reporting that shale investors are having a “crisis of faith” and turning away from U.S. oil and gas investments. That's been bad news for frackers because the entire so-called “shale revolution” was fueled by massive borrowing, and these companies are increasingly declaring bankruptcy, unable to pay back what they borrowed because they haven't been turning a profit.