The Weekly Anthropocene, October 25 2023
A big Polish election win, solar power in Iraq, rewilding in the UK, the biggest-ever investment in America's grid, and more!
Poland
In a victory for the renewables revolution as well as an array of other vital issues, Poland’s centre-left opposition won the national elections on October 15, 2023, with a nascent coalition of three parties taking more parliamentary seats that the incumbent right-wing Law and Justice (PiS in Polish) party. PiS have governed Poland since 2015, and are known for their anti-migrant, misogynist, anti-LGBT, anti-EU, and pro-coal (Poland is one of the biggest coal users left in the rapidly-decarbonizing European Union) policies, as well as increasingly authoritarian tendencies. The new governing coalition is likely to reverse most or all of PiS’ reactionary legacy. The Civic Coalition alliance, largest of the three liberal winners and probable provider of the next Polish prime minister, has pledged to replace coal as a majority source of Poland’s electricity with already fast-growing renewables by 2030. We can expect a lot of good news from Poland in the upcoming years. Great news!
Sweden
The Swedish capital of Stockholm will ban all fossil-fueled cars from its 20-block downtown commercial area starting in 2015. (EVs are still allowed, and ambulances, police cars, and disabled peoples’ cars are exempt). As EVs become more and more the default, this could be a great model for other world cities to adopt (Oslo is already considering it), speeding decarbonization as well as delivering immediate air quality and health benefits!
Brazil
Despite a severe climate change-induced drought (which has dried up rivers and worsened fires shrouding the city of Manaus in smoke), deforestation continues to decline on net in Brazil thanks to the new Lula administration’s strict enforcement of environmental law. This is particularly impressive as during a drought, it’s easier to destroy forest by setting fires (a favored technique of Brazilian illegal ranchers), but deforestation continues to decline anyway. Satellite deforestation monitoring found 629 km2 of forest loss in September 2023, a 57% decrease from 1,455 km2 in September 2022 under the pro-deforestation Bolsonaro. Overall, 49% less forest was destroyed in Brazil in January-September 2023 compared to January-September 2022. There’s a lot more work to do, but Brazil seems to be finally (re)building the state capacity to protect the Amazon in the Anthropocene!
In other news from Brazil, indigenous seed collection networks across Amazonia are uniting to share ecosystem restoration expertise.
And the three municipal nurseries of the São Paulo metro area are now producing 1.5 million tree seedlings per year, many of them from rare “forgotten” native species.
Iraq
Iraq has awarded contracts to build 7 gigawatts (7 GW= 7,000 megawatts) of solar power over the next few years, hoping to reach a total of 10 GW of solar capacity in the country by 2025. French, Chinese, Saudi, and Emirati companies are reported to among the companies set to built the new Iraqi solar farms. Another example of global clean energy progress! As the renewables revolution continues, we’ll see more and more such underreported advances from around the globe.
United Kingdom
Chinese water deer (Hydropotes inermis), at risk in their native China, are finding a new home in the UK, with descendants of escapees from the Duke of Bedford’s animal collection thriving in the English countryside. An estimated 10% of the world’s Chinese water deer (recognizable from their prominent tusks instead of antlers) now live in the marshlands of eastern England.
The world’s first dedicated center for rewilding has opened in the Scottish Highlands, part of the UK’s rapidly growing rewilding movement.
A baby beaver was born in London for the first time in over 400 years. Beavers were hunted to extinction in Britain in the 1500s, but were reintroduced in the 2000s.
After being slammed by the global H5N1 bird flu pandemic in 2022, a recent study found that 30% of northern gannets on Scotland’s Bass Rock (the species’ largest colony) have developed antibodies to H5N1. This is good for gannets and a hopeful sign that more wild bird species may be able to develop immunity.
United States
On October 18, 2023, the Biden Administration announced the disbursement of $3.46 billion in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding for 58 grid resilience and reliability projects across 44 states, the largest single investment in the grid in American history. Among other projects, the funding will help develop over 400 independent microgrids for vital services like hospitals and emergency centers. In addition to helping the grid keep running through climate disasters, the Department of Energy projects that these improvements will directly help 35 gigawatts (35,000 MW) of new clean energy come online. (Grid interconnection backlogs are one of the last big hurdles slowing the renewables revolution, so grid fixes help a lot). This is a spectacular multidimensional win and a great example of smart public policy for the Anthropocene!
Renewable energy generated 25.11% of U.S. electricity in the first half of 2023, a new record high likely to be quickly surpassed. Renewables plus nuclear are set to account for 84% of all new electricity-generating capacity built in America in 2023!
The Grain Belt Express is a $7 billion power transmission line project set to carry 5 gigawatts (5,000 MW) of electricity from the windy and sunny plains of Kansas to consumers in Missouri, Illinois, and the Mid-Atlantic region. In more good grid news, Phase 1 of this project just received final approval from the Missouri Public Service Commission!
The giant new Qcells solar factory in Dalton, Georgia, has begun production, and will be making enough American-made solar panels per year to generate 5.1 gigawatts of power! For context, this one factory will be making more solar generating capacity per year (5.1 GW) than the entire United States made in 2022 (5 GW1). And this is just the first of the many, many, many, many new solar factories announced since Inflation Reduction Act passage to be completed! Spectacular news!
The 5 GW in 2022 number is from this article, which cites this NREL data. Note that the U.S. installed considerably more new solar generation capacity than this in 2022, and is set to install a whopping 32 GW in 2023. We’ve just been mostly buying our solar panels from other countries, and Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act is now building up America’s domestic solar manufacturing industry.