recycling or donating your old computer

[4/27/25] You can recycle CD players and boom boxes at Best Buy

[4/21/13] Recycle at Best Buy

[2/27/13] Recycling for Education

[11/8/12] Before you throw the old computer monitor away, think again. E-waste recycling options in Hawaii are now expanding.

Goodwill Industries of Hawaii and Dell International are partnering up to offer Dell Reconnect — a free recycling program for unwanted computers or computer equipment of any brand and condition.

The first Dell Reconnect in Hawaii takes place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 10 on the corner of Ward Avenue and Ala Moana Boulevard (across from Ward Warehouse). The first 100 people to donate their e-waste receive a special gift.

Dell Reconnect's goal is to keep used computers and computer equipment from landfills in the U.S. as well as to educate residents of the importance of proper computer recycling.

Items that Dell Reconnect will take for recycling include: computers (both laptops and desktops), keyboards, printers, scanners, computer monitors, USB accessories, computer cords and computer mice.


[4/24/12] More locations.  (I notice the place where I recycle on King Street (near Tamashiro Market) is listed, but I didn't notice any place to drop off computer equipment.)

[10/29/11] From a tip from Sue, RRR Recycling, at least in the Kaimuki location, has an open bin where you can dump your electronic waste (old computers, monitors, printers, TVs, etc.). The bin is actually handled by T&N Computer Recycling (which I assume is a different company), which handles electronic waste for the State, City & County, and the Federal Government, but has apparently put out this bin as a public service.

[8/10/10] The University of Hawaii wants your ewaste.

The college system is again planning to offer free collection, disposal and recycling of electronic waste — computers and accessories, televisions, cellular phones and other such items.

The ewaste can be brought to any one of six UH campuses on Oahu, Kauai, Maui and the Big Island between October 27 and 30.

The service will be free to Hawaii residents, nonprofit groups, small to medium-size businesses, and all local, state and federal government agencies.

***

Everyone who has no-longer-useful electronics is encouraged to participate, said Larry Wiss, communications officer for information technology services at the University of Hawaii. "It's very important that people take advantage of this program. It keeps all the contaminants from entering our waste stream." Some companies ship e-waste to Third World countries, but the equipment collected during this drive will be sent to "one of the few recycling companies licensed under our new recycling law. ... It's guaranteed environmentally safe," he said.

California-based computer maker Apple Inc. approached the university with this disposal program idea.

[10/15/08] Coming up in a couple of weeks, we'll all have the opportunity to recycle our electronic waste thanks to the University of Hawaii's "Education & Government eWaste Disposal Days 2008"

[2/18/08] Another site is myboneyard.com

[2/11/08] Costco and Greensight had teamed up to allow you to trade in or discard your old electronic equipment

[10/20/07] Rather than simply trashing your PC, it should be disposed of responsibly. The Honolulu Department of Environmental Services lists recycling options throughout the state. Consider donating usable computers to organizations such as Hawaii Computers for Kids, Ohana Komputer or Aloha Computers for Education in Samoa.

EPA roll back

WASHINGTON (AP) — In what he called the “most consequential day of deregulation in American history,” the head of the Environmental Protection Agency announced a series of actions Wednesday to roll back landmark environmental regulations, including rules on pollution from coal-fired power plants, climate change and electric vehicles.

In all, Zeldin said he is rolling back 31 environmental rules, including a scientific finding that has long been the central basis for U.S. action against climate change.

Zeldin said he and President Donald Trump support rewriting the agency’s 2009 finding that planet-warming greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. The Obama-era determination under the Clean Air Act is the legal underpinning of a host of climate regulations for motor vehicles, power plants and other pollution sources.

Environmentalists and climate scientists call the endangerment finding a bedrock of U.S. law and say any attempt to undo it will have little chance of success.

“In the face of overwhelming science, it’s impossible to think that the EPA could develop a contradictory finding that would stand up in court," said David Doniger, a climate expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group.

G7 to end coal by 2035

TURIN (Reuters) -Energy ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) wealthy countries reached a deal to shut down their coal-fired power plants by 2035 at the latest, in a significant step towards the transition away from fossil fuels.

"We have an agreement to stop using coal in the first half of 2030's... it is an historical agreement," Britain's minister for Energy Security and Net Zero Andrew Bowie told Class CNBC according to a video posted on X.

Italian diplomatic sources said a technical deal had been reached.

The accord will be included in the G7 energy ministers' final communique to be released on Tuesday at the end of a two-day meeting in Turin.

One source told Reuters earlier that diplomats from the G7 nations - Italy, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Canada and Japan - discussed the issue until late on Sunday, before the start of the ministerial gathering.

The agreement marks a significant step in the direction indicated last year by the COP28 United Nations climate summit for a transition away from fossil fuels, of which coal is the most polluting.

"It helps accelerate the shift of investments from coal to clean technology in particular in Japan and more broadly in the whole Asian coal economy, including China and India," Luca Bergamaschi, co-founding member of Italian climate change think-tank ECCO, said on X.

Italy last year produced 4.7% of its total electricity through its six remaining coal-fired stations. Rome currently plans to turn off its plants by 2025, except on the island of Sardinia where the deadline is 2028.

In Germany and Japan coal has a bigger role, with the share of electricity produced by the fuel higher than 25% of total last year.

Last year under Japan's presidency, the G7 had pledged to prioritise concrete steps towards phasing out coal power generation, falling short of indicating a specific deadline.

(Reporting by Francesca Landini; Editing by Gavin Jones, Alvise Armellini, Jan Harvey and Jonathan Oatis)

global warming to peak in 2050

The world will likely achieve the Paris Agreement target of limiting average global temperature rise to “well below 2°C”, finds a new forecast of global climate policies published today by the Inevitable Policy Response (IPR), a consortium of climate policy experts.

Thanks to an acceleration of policies to curb global warming, the IPR predicts that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will fall 80% by 2050 and reach net zero by 2080, with warming peaking at 1.7–1.8°C around the year 2050, before declining below 1.7°C by the end of the century.

The report notes that this is a “more optimistic future than many anticipate”, given that Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and UN reports have suggested we are on track for around 2.4–2.8°C of warming by the end of the century, based on current pledges and policies.

methane emissions

If carbon dioxide is an oven steadily roasting our planet, methane is a blast from the broiler: a more potent but shorter lived greenhouse gas that’s responsible for roughly one-third of the 1.2°C of warming since preindustrial times. Atmospheric methane levels have risen nearly 7% since 2006, and the past 2 years saw the biggest jumps yet, even though the pandemic slowed oil and gas production, presumably reducing methane leaks. Now, researchers are homing in on the source of the mysterious surge. Two new preprints trace it to microbes in tropical wetlands. Ominously, climate change itself might be fueling the trend by driving increased rain over the regions.

If so, the wetlands emissions could end up being a runaway process beyond human control, although the magnitude of the feedback loop is uncertain. “We will have handed over a bit more control of Earth’s climate to microorganisms,” says Paul Palmer, an atmospheric chemist at the University of Edinburgh and co-author of one of the studies, posted late last month for review at Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Most climate scientists already agreed that the post-2006 methane spike has largely not come from fossil fuel production.

Most researchers think a mix of cattle ranching and landfills in the tropics are the main driver of the post-2006 increase, because they have expanded dramatically alongside populations in the region.

But the sharp acceleration in the past couple of years seemed to require some other source. Studies are now implicating the Sudd in South Sudan, the continent’s largest swamp and a region researchers have been unable to study on the ground because of the long-term conflict in the region.

How you can help endangered species

 “At some point climate change will find its way to your backyard. It will affect everybody,” says Nikhil Advani, director of climate, communities and wildlife for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Here are some ways to make a difference today.

Go Native: A garden with native plants (plants that grew in the U.S. before the settlers came and have evolved to survive) conserves water and electricity, says the WWF’s Advani, and it’s likely to attract pollinators. A native oak tree can support the caterpillars of 500 species of moths and butterflies, providing food for songbirds, says Collin O’Mara, CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. A non-native honey locust, in contrast, supports just three or four caterpillar species. Encourage your local schools, governments and parks to plant more native species. Plug your zip code in the NWF’s database for a list of native plants in your area.

Eat Local: For example: Most of the oysters harvested in the U.S. are farmed in coastal waters by small businesses; buying those aquacultured oysters “supports small businesses and is a surprisingly direct way to help,” says Sarah Cooley, climate science director for the Ocean Conservancy. Because aquafarms hatch and produce their own oysters, wild oysters and oyster reefs are left intact. “Aquacultured oysters help clean the water and improve the area while not asking a whole lot of the environment in return,” Cooley says. “That, plus the overall strong environmental stewardship philosophy of U.S. shellfish growers, make oyster aquaculture in the U.S. a real win-win for the environment.”

Cut Down on Plastic: Every year, 8 million metric tons of plastic pours into the world’s oceans—that’s a garbage truck of plastic waste every minute, says the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. Three kinds of plastic—fishing debris, filmlike plastic (like on your store-bought veggies) and latex (such as balloons)—are responsible for the majority of deaths among 80 “marine megafauna” species, including dolphins, whales, seals, seabirds and sea turtles. Say no to plastic bags, swap out plastic wrap for reusable food storage bags and don’t release balloons. (Instead of party balloons—which can take years to break down—try nontoxic bubbles. Visit Bubble Tree online to find an eco-friendly refillable bubble system.) Check out rePurpose to calculate your own annual plastic footprint.

Eat More Fish: Consuming protein that leaves a small carbon footprint can make a big difference. Swapping beef out for fish even twice a week is “a good move in the right direction,” says Katie Matthews, chief scientist with Oceana. “Fish is one of the most climate-smart and nutrient rich sources of protein on the planet. And it requires no fresh water or grazing space.”

Use Your Buying Power: Contact manufacturers and retailers whenever you buy something with excess plastic packaging to suggest they make changes; social media is a good way to bring attention to the issue too. Ask your area stores to carry more local goods, which cuts down on environment-unfriendly shipping.

Support Monarchs: Adult monarchs need your help: They feed on hundreds of different flowers and need nectar from spring through fall. Make your garden monarch-friendly by planting several kinds of pesticide-free native milkweed that flower at different times, says Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD). Avoid tropical milkweed, which is invasive, or milkweed that’s been treated with insecticides to be aphid resistant. Go to Save Our Monarchs to request free seeds.

Vote for the Next Generation: “Talk to your friends and neighbors about climate change. Make climate a key voting issue,” says Shaye Wolf, climate science director for the CBD. “Action right now is critical to what kind of planet we leave to our children.”

Speak Up: Contact your local and federal politicians to express your support for legislation that will help protect species, from clean energy bills to the the Big Cat Public Safety Act to protect tigers. “Biodiversity conservation is a bipartisan issue. Wildlife conservation is a bipartisan issue,” Advani says.

Be Aware: Since the pandemic began, illegal trafficking of items like tiger furs, rhino horns and elephant ivory has moved from brick-and-mortar stores to online, says Colby Loucks, vice president of wildlife conservation for the WWF. The WWF and other organizations are pushing social media companies to remove ads for items like these. You can familiarize yourselves with commonly trafficked endangered species (“A lot of people might not know what a pangolin is or that it’s one of the most trafficked species in the world,” Loucks says), and how to report it if you see endangered species and their parts/products for sale online. Every platform (e.g. Facebook, eBay, Etsy) typically has its own reporting mechanism, but you can go to Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online to file a report.

--- Parade, April 12, 2022, Kathleen McCleary (edited)

global plastics treaty

Feb 18 (Reuters) - United Nations member states are set to meet this month in Nairobi to draft the blueprint for a global plastics treaty, a deal that could see countries agree for the first time to reduce the amount of single-use plastics they produce and use.

It's being touted as the most important environmental pact since the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.

A global explosion of disposable plastic, which is made from oil and gas, is increasing carbon emissions, despoiling the world's oceans, harming wildlife and contaminating the food chain. More than 50 countries, including all 27 members of the European Union, are calling for the pact to include measures targeting plastic production.

That's a problem for big oil and chemical companies. The industry is projected to double plastic output worldwide within two decades.

Publicly, plastic industry groups representing firms like ExxonMobil Corp (XOM.N), Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Dow Inc (DOW.N), have expressed support for a global agreement to tackle this garbage.

Behind the scenes, however, these trade organizations are devising strategies to persuade conference participants to reject any deal that would limit plastic manufacturing, according to emails and company presentations seen by Reuters, as well as interviews with a dozen officials involved in the negotiations.

Leading that effort is the American Chemistry Council (ACC), a powerful group of U.S.-based oil and chemical firms. The Washington-based ACC is attempting to forge a coalition of big businesses to help steer treaty discussions away from production restrictions, according to an Oct. 21 email sent from the trade group to a blind-copied list of recipients. Reuters received a copy of that email from an employee of a consumer goods company who requested anonymity.

The ACC has dubbed the proposed alliance "Business for Plastic Pollution Action," according to the email, which called on firms to "shift the debate" by focusing governments' attention on the benefits of plastic. The group planned to hold monthly meetings and share policy recommendations with governments, according to the email.

The ACC did not respond to Reuters' questions about the email or the proposed business coalition.

Plastic is embedded in modern life and indispensable to sectors such as automaking. The plastics industry has been quick to cite such applications in defending unfettered production.

But it is throwaway plastics such as food wrappers, grocery bags and delivery packaging that are the main focus of the U.N. conference. Single-use plastic accounts for around 40% of all production, according to a landmark 2017 study in the journal Science Advances.

The ACC has long defended disposable plastics as better for the planet than alternatives such as glass and cardboard, which are heavier and require more fossil fuel to transport. Some climate scientists say that analysis is flawed because it doesn't take into account the massive societal cost to managing plastic garbage, which is hard to recycle, slow to degrade and expensive to collect, bury and burn.

recycling won't solve plastic crisis

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Recycling will not be able to contain a runaway global plastic waste crisis, experts said on Friday as they called on companies to reduce plastic production and shift more products into reusable and refillable packaging.

Moving away from single-use plastics and towards systems that allow for it to be reused are among the solutions that experts believe could ease the problem, but radical changes to the production system are also needed.

"We won't be able to just recycle or reduce our way out of it," said Rob Kaplan, CEO of Circulate Capital, which invests in emerging markets initiatives to solve the plastic waste crisis.

"It's a systems problem and needs to combine upstream and downstream solutions," he said, speaking on a panel at  the  Reuters Next conference.

The world produces around 300 million tonnes of plastic waste every year, according to the United Nations Environment Programme.

But less than 10% of all the plastic  ever made has been recycled, in large part because it is too costly to collect and sort. The rest ends up dumped or buried in landfills or burned.

As recycling schemes falter, big consumer goods companies, including Unilever, Coca-Cola and Nestle, have started investing in projects to burn plastic waste as fuel in cement kilns, Reuters revealed in October.

Meanwhile, plastic production is projected to double by 2040 - something many critics of the industry believe is excessive and the biggest driver of the huge waste problem facing the planet.

"Recycling can't compete with overproduction," said Von Hernandez of the Break Free from Plastic campaign, a global alliance calling for an end to plastic pollution.

"So what we need is limits on virgin plastic production," he said, speaking alongside Kaplan on the panel.

While there is no global regulator or treaty for the plastics industry, the panel speakers said individual consumers can help drive the changes needed in corporate behaviour and hold companies accountable through the life cycle of their plastic products and where they end up.

"Citizens and consumers can compel these companies...to reveal their global plastic and carbon footprint, reduce the amount of plastic they are producing and deploying to the market, and really reinvent their delivery systems," Hernandez said.

U.N. head calls for cut in greenhouse gas emissions

The head of the United Nations called Thursday for “immediate, rapid and large-scale” cuts in greenhouse gas emissions to curb global warming and avert climate disaster.

Video: The impacts of climate change are here, and the government needs to take action (MSNBC)

Ahead of the annual U.N. General Assembly meeting next week, Antonio Guterres warned governments that climate change is proceeding faster than predicted and fossil fuel emissions have already bounced back from a pandemic dip.

Speaking at the launch of a U.N.-backed report summarizing current efforts to tackle climate change, Guterres said recent extreme weather — from Hurricane Ida in the United States to floods in western Europe and the deadly heatwave in the Pacific Northwest — showed no country is safe from climate-related disasters.

“These changes are just the beginning of worse to come,” he said, appealing to governments to meet the goals of the 2015 Paris climate accord.

“Unless there are immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, we will be unable to limit global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit),” said Guterres. “The consequences will be catastrophic.”

In their report, titled United in Science 21, six U.N. bodies and scientific organizations drew on existing research to argue that there is a direct link between human-caused emissions, record high temperatures and disasters that have a tangible impact on individuals and societies, including “billions of work hours (…) lost through heat alone.”

Read: ‘Older generations aren’t protecting us’: Anxious about climate, 4 in 10 young people may not ever have kids, major survey shows

Because of the long-lasting effects of many emissions already released into the atmosphere, further impacts are inevitable, they noted.

“Even with ambitious action to slow greenhouse gas emissions, sea levels will continue to rise and threaten low-lying islands and coastal populations throughout the world,” the authors wrote.

University of Michigan environment dean Jonathan Overpeck, who wasn’t part of the report, said scientists have said this before but it’s important: “The situation is getting bad, we know why and we know how to solve it in ways that leave us, and future generations, with a better, healthier, more sustainable world.”

Guterres urged governments to put forward more ambitious plans for cutting emissions by the upcoming U.N. climate summit in Glasgow, including a commitment to stop adding more greenhouse gas to the atmosphere by mid-century than can be removed.

Michael Mann, a prominent climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University, said he agreed with the report’s message of urgency but questioned some of the starker warnings it contained.

In particular, the 1.5C threshold agreed in Paris didn’t apply to individual years, some of which can be unusually hot due to other factors, he said.

“This misleading framing unnecessarily feeds the fears that the public has that we’ve somehow already crossed that threshold and that it is too late now to prevent,” said Mann. “We have not. And it is not.”

He also noted that the drop in emissions seen during the pandemic could be viewed as a positive sign that significant cuts are possible if entire economies are weaned off fossil fuels.

The United States, Britain and the European Union have already made pledges that — if implemented — would help avert dangerous planetary warming, said Mann.

Read: U.S., EU will push first ever global deal to slash planet-warming methane: report

Kim Cobb, a professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech, was equally reassured that the 1.5C target isn’t out of reach.

“However, this new report is a stark reminder of the difference between the emissions pathways required to achieve that target, and the reality on the ground,” she said. “Simply put, we are way off course.”

cows against plastic

July 2 (UPI) -- Microbes found in a cow's stomach can break down plastics, according to new research.

Researchers found the polymer-munching microbes in the rumen, one of four compartments comprising the bovine stomach.

The bacteria, described Friday in the journal Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, could be used to reduce plastic litter in landfills and polluted ecosystems.

The discovery wasn't entirely unexpected, as the diet of cows and other ruminants features a significant amount of natural plant polyesters.

Scientists figured the bacteria could probably break down synthetic plastics, too, which are similar in their construction and chemical composition.

what happens if cows eat seaweed?

Feeding seaweed to cows is a viable long-term method to reduce the emission of planet-heating gases from their burps and flatulence, scientists have found.

Researchers who put a small amount of seaweed into the feed of cattle over the course of five months found that the new diet caused the bovines to belch out 82% less methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere.

solar powered car?

While solar-powered vehicles have been a dream for more than a half-century, this could be the year we see one mass-produced off a California assembly line.

8,000 people have already put down deposits on a solar-powered vehicles from Aptera that hopes to be in production by year's end.

The three-wheeler can transport two people, using a solar array that can be supplemented with additional panels on the hood and rear hatch to extend range up to 1,000 miles.

The Batmobile-like profile was designed to reduce wind resistance, which impacts range. Instead of steel, the body is a composite of carbon, Kevlar and hemp. Composites are used in racing cars, such as Formula 1, to provide strength and safety.

Price is another key factor to keep it affordable. Depending on features, the range is expected to be from $26,000 to $46,000.

The Aptera can be plugged in when driving long distances or when it's cloudy. A factory is being built in San Diego. The co-founders believe sales of 2,000 vehicles per year are viable with a goal of 10 times that many, especially as its develops a full fleet of models.

U.N. environmental report calls for change

Humans are making Earth a broken and increasingly unlivable planet through climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. So the world must make dramatic changes to society, economics and daily life, a new United Nations report says.

Unlike past U.N. reports that focused on one issue and avoided telling leaders actions to take, Thursday’s report combines three intertwined environment crises and tells the world what’s got to change. It calls for changing what governments tax, how nations value economic output, how power is generated, the way people get around, fish and farm, as well as what they eat.

“Without nature’s help, we will not thrive or even survive,” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. “For too long, we have been waging a senseless and suicidal war on nature. The result is three interlinked environmental crises.”

Thus the 168-page report title is blunt: “Making Peace With Nature.”

“Our children and their children will inherit a world of extreme weather events, sea level rise, a drastic loss of plants and animals, food and water insecurity and increasing likelihood of future pandemics,” said report lead author Sir Robert Watson, who has chaired past UN science reports on climate change and biodiversity loss.

“The emergency is in fact more profound than we thought only a few years ago,” said Watson, who has been a top level scientist in the U.S. and British governments.

This year “is a make-it or break-it year indeed because the risk of things becoming irreversible is gaining ground every year,” Guterres said. “We are close to the point of no return.”

The report highlighted what report co-author Rachel Warren of the University of East Anglia called “a litany of frightening statistics that hasn’t really been brought together:”

• Earth is on the way to an additional 3.5 degrees warming from now (1.9 degrees Celsius), far more than the international agreed upon goals in the Paris accord.

• About 9 million people a year die from pollution.

• About 1 million of Earth’s 8 million species of plants and animals are threatened with extinction.

• Up to 400 million tons of heavy metals, toxic sludge and other industrial waste are dumped into the world’s waters every year.

• More than 3 billion people are affected by land degradation, and only 15% of Earth’s wetlands remain intact.

• About 60% of fish stocks are fished at the maximum levels. There are more than 400 oxygen-depleted “dead zones” and marine plastics pollution has increased tenfold since 1980.

“In the end it will hit us,” said biologist Thomas Lovejoy, who was a scientific advisor to the report. 

“It’s not what’s happening to elephants. It’s not what’s happening to climate or sea level rise. It’s all going to impact us.”

The planet’s problems are so interconnected that they must be worked on together to be fixed right, Warren said. And many of the solutions, such as eliminating fossil fuel use, combat multiple problems including climate change and pollution, she said.

The report “makes it clear that there is no time for linear thinking or tackling problems one at a time,” said University of Michigan environment professor Rosina Bierbaum, who wasn’t part of the work.

In another break, this report gives specific solutions that it says must be taken.

This report uses the word “must” 56 times and “should” 37 times. There should be 100 more because action is so crucial, said former U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres, who wasn’t part of the report.

“Time has totally ran out. That’s why the word ‘must’ is in there,” Figueres said.

The report calls for an end to fossil fuel use and says governments should not tax labor or production, but rather use of resources that damages nature.

“Governments are still playing more to exploit nature than to protect it,” Guterres said. “Globally, countries spend some 4 to 6 trillion dollars a year on subsidies that damage the environment.”

Scientists should inform leaders about environmental risks “but their endorsement of specific public policies threatens to undermine the credibility of their science,” said former Republican Rep. Bob Inglis, who founded the free market climate think tank RepublicEn.org.

The report also tells nations to value nature in addition to the gross domestic product when calculating how an economy is doing.

Getting there means changes by individuals, governments and business, but it doesn’t have to involve sacrifice, said UN Environment Programme Director Inger Andersen.

“There’s a country that has been on that path for 25 years: Costa Rica,” Andersen said. “Yes, these are difficult times, but more and leaders are stepping in.”

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor

PARIS — A hugely ambitious project to replicate the energy of the sun is entering a critical phase, as scientists and technicians in southern France begin assembling giant parts of a nuclear fusion device, an international experiment aimed to develop the ultimate clean energy source.

World leaders involved in the project, or their representatives, on Tuesday appeared virtually at a ceremony for the start of the new stage of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER, noting that work has proceeded despite the COVID-19 pandemic in many of the 35 contributing countries.

“Clearly, the pandemic impacted the initial schedule,” said ITER’s director-general, Bernard Bigot, who led the ceremony at Saint-Paul-les-Durance, northeast of Marseille. He said none of the on-the-ground staff has contracted COVID-19.

Scientists have long sought to mimic the process of nuclear fusion that occurs inside the sun, arguing that it could provide an almost limitless source of cheap, safe and clean electricity. Unlike in existing fission reactors, which split plutonium or uranium atoms, there’s no risk of an uncontrolled chain reaction with fusion and it doesn’t produce long-lived radioactive waste.

The project “seeks to create an artificial sun,” said South Korean President Moon Jae-in. “An artificial sun is an energy source of dreams."

Among other elements, Korea is manufacturing four sectors of a vacuum vessel, a hermetically sealed chamber in which plasma particles, derived from heated hydrogen gas, spiral without touching walls. European countries are building five other sectors.

French President Emmanuel Macron hailed ITER as a “promise of peace” because it brings together countries that decided to forego differences for the “common good.” China, the U.S., India, Russia, South Korea and nations of the European Union are taking part in the project.

There was no sign of the acute discord currently roiling ties between the U.S. and China, and India and China.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a statement read by the Indian ambassador to France, called international collaboration “a perfect symbol of the age-old Indian belief ... (that) the world is one family.”

Bigot compared the milestone phase getting under way to assembling a giant, three dimensional puzzle that “must (have) the precision of a Swiss watch.”

Billed as the world’s largest science project, ITER is gigantic. The circular device, called a tokamak, has a 30-meter circumference, stands 30 meters (100 feet) high, and is made up of more than a million parts constructed in numerous countries.

Some pieces transported to France weigh several hundred tons. Tools to put the reactor together match that size, with giant lifts that must transfer components over the walls and down into “the pit.” A key component being built by the U.S., the Central Solenoid, is the most powerful of ITER’s numerous magnets. Together, they will be strong enough to lift an aircraft carrier.

The project begun in 2006 is far from over. The experimental reactor is to head for another landmark moment in five years, described as a “trial run” when scientists launch what is called “First Plasma” showing that the machine functions, including magnetic fields and other operations.

Bigot, the ITER’s director-general, called fusion energy a “miracle for our planet.”

He said that smaller experiments are complementary to ITER. Bigot predicts a bright future for his international baby, saying he foresees a scaled-up ITER, perhaps twice as large, to provide power to the grid. But its viability and economic competitiveness must first be demonstrated, he said.

The project's estimated cost just for the EU was about 20 billion euros ($23.5 billion), Bigot told reporters. He said a full price tag was difficult to estimate because participating countries make their own contributions.

Planet of the Humans

A new documentary produced by Michael Moore, Planet of the Humans, was pulled from YouTube overnight – a decision writer-director Jeff Gibbs called a “blatant act of censorship.”

The film was released on YouTube on April 21, and has seen 8.3 million views since its launch.

Climate scientists and environmentalists urged for the removal of the film, calling it “dangerous, misleading and destructive”.

In a letter written by Gasland filmmaker Josh Fox and signed by scientists and activists, the way the film “trades in debunked fossil fuel industry talking points” is criticised.

Following the removal of the film, Gibbs said in a statement yesterday (May 25):  “It is a misuse of copyright law to shutdown a film that has opened a serious conversation about how parts of the environmental movement have gotten into bed with Wall Street and so-called ‘green capitalists’.

“There is absolutely no copyright violation in my film. This is just another attempt by the film’s opponents to subvert the right to free speech.”

Planet of the Humans suggests electric cars and solar energy are unreliable, relying on fossil fuels. The film also criticises Al Gore for helping corporations to test “ineffective technologies over real solutions”.

Gibbs added: “Opponents of Planet of the Humans, who do not like its critique of the failures of the environmental movement, have worked for weeks to have the film taken down and to block us from appearing on TV and on livestream.

“Their efforts to subvert free speech have failed, with nearly eight and a half million people already viewing the film on YouTube. These Trumpian tactics are shameful, and their aim to stifle free speech and prevent people from grappling with the uncomfortable truths exposed in this film is deeply disturbing.”

The producers subsequently announced that Planet of the Humans will now stream for free on Vimeo.

***

The controversial film Planet of the Humans, produced by Michael Moore, was taken down from YouTube on Monday because of a copyright infringement claim. The complaint was filed by photographer Toby Smith, who was alarmed that his work was used in a film that he doesn’t support, The Guardian reports.

“I don’t agree with its message and I don’t like the misleading use of facts in its narrative,” Smith said to The Guardian. A few seconds of Smith’s video, Rare Earthenware, were used in Moore’s film, which criticizes renewable energy.

A firestorm of criticism from influential environmental advocates followed the release of Planet of the Humans in April. Among other things, the film makes the dubious claim that solar and wind power are potentially as harmful to the environment as fossil fuels and that environmentalists are essentially in the pockets of renewable energy corporations. Those claims have been torn apart by environmentalists and scientists who say that the film’s assertions are misleading.

“There is no perfect solution to our energy challenges. But this film does not grapple with these thorny questions; it peddles falsehoods,” Leah Stokes, UC Santa Barbara assistant professor and author of the book on clean energy Short Circuiting Policy, wrote for Vox.

Greta Thunberg

[1/23/20] Mnuchin vs. Thunberg

[9/23/19] Teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg on Monday opened the United Nations Climate Action Summit with an angry condemnation of world leaders for failing to take strong measures to combat climate change - “How dare you,” she said.

[9/19/19] In a Tweet, the former president shared a photo of his meeting with Thunberg, calling the Swedish climate activist "one of our planet’s greatest advocates." Thunberg is in the US ahead of a global climate strike, which will see students march on September 20 to protest inaction on climate.

China to ban plastic bags

China, one of the world's biggest users of plastic, has unveiled a major plan to reduce single-use plastics across the country.

Non-degradable bags will be banned in major cities by the end of 2020 and in all cities and towns by 2022.

The restaurant industry will also be banned from using single-use straws by the end of 2020.

China has for years been struggling to deal with the rubbish its 1.4 billion citizens generate.

The broadcaster David Attenborough has warned that the planet can't be protected unless China changes its polluting ways.

Suddenly that's just starting to happen.

China is not the only country in Asia that has cracked down against single-use plastics.

Thailand announced earlier this year that single-use plastic bags would be banned in major stores, with a complete ban across the entire country in 2021.

Indonesia's capital Jakarta also is banning single-use plastic bags in department stores, supermarkets and traditional markets by June 2020.

The Indonesian island of Bali has also banned single-use plastic.

Separately, Malaysia has sent back 150 shipping containers of illegally imported plastic waste back to their countries of origin.

"[We] will take the necessary steps to ensure that Malaysia does not become the garbage dump of the world," Environment Minister Yeo Bee Yin said on Monday.

She added that there were plans to send back further containers in the near future.

Wealthier countries have been sending plastic waste to Malaysia since 2018, but officials say they are struggling to cope with the amount that is being brought in illegally.

Single-use plastic ban becomes law on Oahu

Mayor Kirk Caldwell on Sunday signed into law one of the nation’s strictest bans on plastics, which will prohibit all single-use plastic plates, bowls, cups and serv­ice ware on Oahu by 2022.

Bill 40 was supported by environmental groups — including many college and high school students — who spoke of the long-term harm to the earth from continued plastic use. It was opposed by a broad spectrum of food industry and other businesses that said the bill is vague and requires too much too soon.

The bill’s effective date is Jan. 1, 2021, when plastic forks, knives and spoons would be banned while other types of service ware would be distributed to customers only upon request. The bulk of the prohibitions, however, will take place Jan. 1, 2022. That would include polystyrene and other plastic plates, bowls and other food ware, as well as the general sale of plastic products to food industry companies unless they have exemptions.

the plastic problem

Since the 1950s, when the world was first introduced to the flexible, durable wonder of plastic, 8.3 billion metric tons of it has been produced. Plastic doesn’t biodegrade, so technically, all of that tonnage is still sitting someplace on the planet. And a lot of it is in China.

That’s because when hundreds of countries around the world said they were “recycling” their plastic over the past few decades, half the time what they really meant was they were exporting it to another country. And most of the time, that meant they were exporting it to China. Since 1992, China (and Hong Kong, which acts as an entry port into mainland China) have imported 72 percent of all plastic waste.

But China has had enough. In 2017, China announced it was permanently banning the import of nonindustrial plastic waste. According to a paper published in June 2018 in the journal Science Advances, that will leave the world—mostly high-income countries—with an additional 111 million metric tons of plastic to deal with by 2030. And right now, those countries have no good way to handle it.

“We know from our previous studies that only 9 percent of all plastic ever produced has been recycled, and the majority of it ends up in landfills or the natural environment,” Jenna Jambeck, an associate professor at the University of Georgia’s college of engineering who co-authored the study, said in a statement.  ”Without bold new ideas and system-wide changes, even the relatively low current recycling rates will no longer be met, and our previously recycled materials could now end up in landfills.”

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After decades of earnest public-information campaigns, Americans are finally recycling. Airports, malls, schools, and office buildings across the country have bins for plastic bottles and aluminum cans and newspapers. In some cities, you can be fined if inspectors discover that you haven’t recycled appropriately.

But now much of that carefully sorted recycling is ending up in the trash.

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By 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans. PBS NewsHour takes a closer look at this now ubiquitous material, how it’s impacting the world and ways we can break our plastic addiction.

2019 U.N. Climate Report is bleak

With world leaders gathering in Madrid next week for their annual bargaining session over how to avert a climate catastrophe, the latest assessment issued by the United Nations said Tuesday that greenhouse gas emissions are still rising dangerously.

“The summary findings are bleak,” said the annual assessment, which is produced by the United Nations Environment Program and is formally known as the Emissions Gap Report. Countries have failed to halt the rise of greenhouse gas emissions despite repeated warnings from scientists, with China and the United States, the two biggest polluters, further increasing their emissions last year.

The result, the authors added, is that “deeper and faster cuts are now required.”

As if to underscore the gap between reality and diplomacy, the international climate negotiations, scheduled to begin next week, are not even designed to ramp up pledges by world leaders to cut their countries’ emissions. That deadline is still a year away.

Rather, this year’s meetings are intended to hammer out the last remaining rules on how to implement the 2015 Paris climate accord, in which every country pledged to rein in greenhouse gases, with each setting its own targets and timetables.

“Madrid is an opportunity to get on course to get the speed and trajectory right,” said Rachel Kyte, a former United Nations climate diplomat who is now dean of the Fletcher School at Tufts University. “What the Emissions Gap Report does is take away any remaining plausible deniability that the current trajectory is not good enough.”

The world’s 20 richest countries, responsible for more than three-fourths of worldwide emissions, must take the biggest, swiftest steps to move away from fossil fuels, the report emphasized. The richest country of all, the United States, however, has formally begun to pull out of the Paris accord.

Global greenhouse gas emissions have grown by 1.5 percent every year over the last decade, according to the annual assessment. The opposite must happen if the world is to avoid the worst effects of climate change, including more intense droughts, stronger storms and widespread hunger by midcentury. To stay within relatively safe limits, emissions must decline sharply, by 7.6 percent every year, between 2020 and 2030, the report warned.

Separately, the World Meteorological Organization reported on Monday that emissions of three major greenhouse gases — carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide — have all swelled in the atmosphere since the mid-18th century.

“We are sleepwalking toward a climate catastrophe and need to wake up and take urgent action,” said Alden Meyer, director of policy and strategy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, on a phone call with reporters Tuesday after the publication of the report.

Even if every country fulfills its current pledges under the Paris Agreement — and many, including the United States, Brazil and Australia, are currently not on track to do so — the Emissions Gap Report found average temperatures are on track to rise by 3.2 degrees Celsius from the baseline average temperature at the start of the industrial age.

According to scientific models, that kind of temperature rise sharply increases the likelihood of extreme weather events, the accelerated melting of glaciers and swelling seas — all endangering the lives of billions of people.

The Paris Agreement resolved to hold the increase in global temperatures well below 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit; last year, a United Nations-backed panel of scientists said the safer limit was to keep it to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

There are many ways to reduce emissions: quitting the combustion of fossil fuels, especially coal, the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel; switching to renewable energy like solar and wind power; moving away from gas- and diesel-guzzling cars; and halting deforestation.

In fact, many countries are headed in the wrong direction. A separate analysis made public this month looked at how much coal, oil and natural gas the world’s nations have said they expect to produce and sell through 2030. If all those fossil fuels were ultimately extracted and burned, the report found, countries would collectively miss their climate pledges, as well as the global 2 degree Celsius target, by an even larger margin than previously thought.

A number of countries around the world, including Canada and Norway, have made plans to reduce emissions at home while expanding fossil-fuel production for sale abroad, that report noted.

“At a global level, it doesn’t add up,” said Michael Lazarus, a lead author of the report and director of the Stockholm Environment Institute’s United States Center. To date, he noted, discussions on whether and how to curb the production of fossil fuels have been almost entirely absent from international climate talks.

The International Energy Agency recently singled out the proliferation of sport utility vehicles, noting that the surge of S.U.V.s, which consume more gasoline than conventional cars, could wipe out much of the oil savings from a nascent electric-car boom.

“For 10 years, the Emissions Gap Report has been sounding the alarm — and for 10 years, the world has only increased its emissions,” the United Nations Secretary General, António Guterres, said in a statement. “There has never been a more important time to listen to the science. Failure to heed these warnings and take drastic action to reverse emissions means we will continue to witness deadly and catastrophic heat waves, storms and pollution.”

The pressure on world leaders to pivot away from fossil fuels and rebuild the engine of the global economy comes at a time when the appetite for international cooperation is extremely low, nationalist sentiments are on the rise, and several world leaders have deep ties to the industries that are the biggest sources of planet-warming emissions.

If there’s any good news in the report, it’s that the current trajectory is not as dire as it was before countries around the world started taking steps to cut their emissions. The 2015 Emissions Gap Report said that, without any climate policies at all, the world was likely to face around 4 degrees Celsius of warming.

Coal use is declining sharply, especially in the United States and Western Europe, according to an analysis by Carbon Brief. Renewable energy is expanding fast, though not nearly as fast as necessary. City and state governments around the world, including in the United States, are rolling out stricter rules on tailpipe pollution from cars.

Young people are protesting by the millions in rich and poor countries alike. Even in the United States, with its persistent denialist movement, how to deal with climate change is a resonant issue in the presidential campaign.