Analysis: global plastics boom fueled 2018 CO2 emissions rise - Unearthed

The world added more non-fossil power last year than ever before, but energy demand rose by even more

Last year’s rise in global CO2 emissions – the largest since 2011 – was driven in part by a surge in demand for petrochemicals used largely to manufacture plastic materials, according to statistics in BP’s latest world energy review.

Growth in production of naptha, ethane and LPG – which primarily function as petrochemical feedstocks – accounted for half of oil demand growth in 2018, far more than in previous years.


Petrochemical production has been soaring in recent years. Photo: China Photos, Getty Images.

Emissions were also pushed up by a rebound in China’s coal use – tied to the steel industry – and a jump in demand for heating and cooling around the world, largely due to yearly variation, but potentially a sign of things to come as climate change proceeds.

Analysis: global plastics boom fueled 2018 CO2 emissions rise - Unearthed

Hundreds of new pesticides approved in Brazil under Bolsonaro | Environment | The Guardian

Many of those permitted since far-right president took power are banned in Europe

Brazil has approved hundreds of new pesticide products since its far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, took power in January, and more than 1,000 since 2016, a study has found. Many of those approved are banned in Europe.



A farmed field alongside native savanna in Formosa do Rio Preto, western Bahia state. Photograph: Nelson Almeida/AFP/Getty Images

Of 169 new pesticides sanctioned up to 21 May this year, 78 contain active ingredients classified as highly hazardous by the Pesticide Action Network and 24 contain active ingredients banned in the EU, according to the study published on Wednesday by Greenpeace UK’s news agency Unearthed. Another 28 pesticides not included in the report were approved in the last days of 2018.

Hundreds of new pesticides approved in Brazil under Bolsonaro | Environment | The Guardian

Brazil's President Is Making It Impossible to Fight Deforestation, Activists Say

Brazil's President Is Making It Impossible to Fight Deforestation, Activists Say

Britain Becomes First Major Country to Commit to Legally Binding Zero Emissions Target

Britain Becomes First Major Country to Commit to Legally Binding Zero Emissions Target

Justice Through Citizen Science: How ‘Chemical Fingerprinting’ Could Change Public Health • The Revelator

When residents of Tonawanda, N.Y., began falling sick with cancer, they launched their own investigation. It led to legal action and the closure of a polluting coal plant, but the work didn't end there.

University at Buffalo PhD candidate Kaitlin Ordiway (left) prepares to run a sample in a secondary ion mass spectrometer. UB chemistry professor Joseph Gardella (right) is leading the Tonawanda Coke soil study. (Photo by Douglas Levere / University at Buffalo)
Justice Through Citizen Science: How ‘Chemical Fingerprinting’ Could Change Public Health • The Revelator

How much will the US Way of Life © have to change? – Uneven Earth

Debates about the Green New Deal—Ocasio-Cortez’s version and occasionally radical varieties such as that of the US Green Party—have incited much discussion about paths to utopia. Central to these conversations is the labour question: who will do the work of making the world, and how will that work be apportioned? And how much will the US Way of Life © have to change?
Ecologically-minded socialists and degrowthers tend to point out that cheap energy and excess material use are built into the socio-technical structures of capitalism. Getting rid of capitalism requires replacing capitalist technology. We must build, literally, a new world, which may require more labour and much lighter consumption patterns in the core, especially among the wealthy. Eco-socialists also tend to be more attentive to agriculture’s role in development in the periphery and core.

Image: Karla S. Chambers
How much will the US Way of Life © have to change? – Uneven Earth

Electric car Netherlands: focus on the Lombok eco-district in Utrecht - Easy Electric Life

The Lombok eco-district, located in Utrecht, the Netherlands, illustrates how the electric car fits into grander reflections on the city, consumption trends and power grids.
Operated by the Start-up LomboXnet, the carsharing service “We Drive Solar” launched in the district of Lombok has a fleet of 150 ZOEs at the disposal of residents on a self-serve basis. A number of parking spaces are reserved for these cars and are easily recognisable by their charging stations. While the latter are connected to the power grid, they are also powered by several thousand solar panels installed on neighbouring roofs, creating 100% renewable energy.

Electric car Netherlands: focus on the Lombok eco-district in Utrecht - Easy Electric Life