The Weekly Anthropocene, September 21 2022
Dispatches from the Wild, Weird World of Humanity and its Biosphere.
New Species: Costa Rica, China, and California
A new species of tiny tree frog has been discovered in Costa Rica, after six months of dedicated searching for the origin of an unfamiliar frog call. The Tapir Valley tree frog (Tlalocohyla celeste) is only known to exist in a 20-acre wetland within the rewilded Tapir Valley Nature Reserve, on the slope of Tenorio Volcano in northern Costa Rica. (Pictured above is a female, with eggs visible through her transparent skin). Awesome news!
And a new species of octopus has been discovered in the waters off Dongshan Island in China’s Fujian province. It was previously mistaken for the juveniles of another species. Callistoctopus xiaohongxu (pictured above) is a smallish, reddish-brown, and smooth-skinned octopus, weighing only about 40 grams as an adult.
Two teenage community scientists and iNaturalist aficionados, Prakrit Jain and Harper Forbes, discovered two new species of scorpions in California: Paruroctonus soda (pictured above, a mother with babies) and Paruroctonus conclusus. Spectacular work!
Clean Energy: South Australia
For years, South Australia (one of Australia’s six states) has been a leader on renewable energy, having built out an excellent array of wind turbines, solar farms, and grid-scale battery storage. (Pictured above: South Australia’s Port Augusta Renewable Energy Hub, a combined 210 MW wind farm and 107 MW solar farm). For the last twelve months, wind and solar together have provided an average of 64% of the state’s electricity, one of the highest rates for a gigawatt-sized grid in the world. And on windy and sunny days, it’s often much higher than that: on the morning of Wednesday, September 14th, wind power alone produced 146% of South Australia’s energy needs, with the excess power stored in batteries and exported to the neighboring state of Victoria. As a result of this renewables cornucopia, the last fossil fuel generation in the state, serving primarily as a backup, was reduced in 2021 from four gas-fired generators to two. Now, AEMO (the Australian Energy Market Operator) is planning to reduce that to just one gas-fired generator, which would bring fossil fuel’s share of electricity generation South Australia down to a minimum of 2%. By 2025 or 2026, the last gas generator should be removed when a new power line to New South Wales is completed, adding more grid flexibility. This is excellent progress, and rather conclusive proof that renewables naysayers are hopelessly out-of-date: a large, state-scale grid, providing stable electricity to 1.8 million people in a highly developed county, is a few years away from reaching 100% renewable electricity. Spectacular news!
Clean Energy: United States
The Biden Administration disbursed National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program funds (from last year’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law) to fund the submitted plans of 35 states (including Maine!) to build strong new networks of public EV charging stations. This will amount to $900 million in investment for fiscal years 2022 and 2023, and help accelerate electric vehicle adoption. (The Biden Administration is also extending new support to floating offshore wind power).
The US Senate passed the bipartisan Strategic EV Management Act, incentivizing recycling of used batteries from federal electric vehicles. It now goes to the House. A small but useful step!
The California Public Utilities Commission unanimously voted on September 15th to eliminate all ratepayer subsidies for the installation and extension of new gas lines in homes and buildings. (Gas stoves are terrible sources of indoor air pollution: electric stoves are much better for your health and the climate!). This makes California the first state to eliminate these “perverse incentive” subsidies for gas line extensions. Great works!
As long planned, and previously foreshadowed in this newsletter, Hawaii shut down its last coal plant at midnight between August 31 and September 1, 2022. Great news!
Minnesota approved Xcel Energy’s plan to build a 460 MW new solar power project right next to its old Sherco coal plant (set to retire in phases this decade), to take advantage of the preapproved grid interconnection rights, a critical point as grid connectivity increasingly becomes the bottleneck limiting new renewables projects. The newly passed Inflation Reduction Act will likely decrease the cost of this project for ratepayers by 30%. Just one of many such examples of clean energy progress!
Patagonia, Inc.
Popular outdoor apparel maker Patagonia has long been on the cutting edge of corporate action on environmental issues, donating 1% of its sales to environmental groups for decades and pioneering a wide range of sustainable materials in their clothing. Now, its renowned founder Yvon Chouinard (pictured) has taken an unprecedented step: creating a brand-new legal structure for his billion-dollar business (and personally giving away hundreds of millions in stock value) to devote all profits to fighting climate change and environmental destruction.
“Earth is now our only shareholder…Here’s how it works: 100% of the company’s voting stock transfers to the Patagonia Purpose Trust, created to protect the company’s values; and 100% of the nonvoting stock had been given to the Holdfast Collective, a nonprofit dedicated to fighting the environmental crisis and defending nature. The funding will come from Patagonia: Each year, the money we make after reinvesting in the business will be distributed as a dividend to help fight the crisis.”-Yvon Chouinard.
This is a truly extraordinary action, both individually generous and farsighted and societally unprecedented in the history of American capitalism. While most companies are legally obligated to maximize shareholder value (which can often lead to unethical actions), Patagonia is now run by and for environmental action. Spectacular news!