Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill Advances – The bill moved forward in the Senate with every Democrat and 17 Republicans voting yes. The bill contains numerous climate-related investments like mass transit and rail infrastructure, but falls far short of President Biden’s climate goals. A second, partisan measure is also making its way forward. While many Democrats in both the House and the Senate have said they won’t vote for the former without the latter, some Republicans have indicated they may not vote for the bipartisan bill if the partisan bill is voted on at the same time.
Form Energy Announces Long-Duration Storage Breakthrough – The company, which is based in Somerville, MA, announced that their long-duration storage product is an iron-air battery, that has 100 hours and costs $20/kWh. If these numbers are true, it would represent a major breakthrough. Cheap, long-duration storage made from common materials is essential for decarbonizing the economy. Form’s product appears to check all those boxes. Of course, it’s unlikely that one long-duration storage product will meet all of our needs, and even if Form’s claims are accurate, we would need to scale up production on a massive scale.
Earth Overshoot Day Moved Up – The anti-holiday, which marks the point when human society has used up a year’s worth of renewable resources, fell on July 29, up three weeks from last year. This date has been moving in the wrong direction for years, and last year it temporarily moved back because of the pandemic-induced economic recession.
Greenland Ice Sheet Experiences Massive Melting – On Wednesday, July 28 the Greenland Ice Sheet experienced its third largest single-day ice loss since 1950 (the top two came in 2012 and 2019). On that single day, it lost enough ice to cover the state of Florida in 2 inches of water. The Greenland Ice Sheet the second largest on Earth and its melting is one of several climate “tipping points.” The more the ice melts, the more vulnerable it becomes to more melting.
16 of 31 Planetary Vital Signs Hit New Lows – A new study identified 31 planetary “vital signs” such as greenhouse gas concentrations, ocean acidification, and others that are critical for the future of life on our planet. Of these, they found that 16 had hit worrying new levels. Many or all of these vital signs may have their own tipping points, and it’s difficult to tell when we’ve crossed them.
The Mangrove 