The Weekly Anthropocene: March 1 2023
Dispatches Against Despair, from the Wild, Weird World of Humanity and its Biosphere
Namibia
The lions of the Namib Desert are the only population of lions known to hunt marine prey, eating beach creatures from fur seals to flamingos in Namibia’s vast Skeleton Coast National Park. Now, an innovative conservation program is helping them coexist with human visitors to Torra Bay, a popular campsite within the park. The lions living near the campsite have been fitted with satellite tracking collars (just visible in the photo above), and anytime they cross a virtual “geofence” around Torra Bay, automatic alerts are sent to rangers and campsite managers, who then close the area to visitors. This is a small, local program, but it’s worth noting for its innovative approach to helping humans live alongside large predators: a very “good Anthropocene” model, and an idea worth spreading!
Southern Ocean
In January 2022, the cruise ship National Geographic Endurance chanced across an extraordinary sight: the largest ever recorded gathering of fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus, the second longest species of whale after blue whales) just off the coast of the tiny Coronation Island, north of the Antarctic Peninsula. (Check out the video!) A new study in the journal Ecology chronicles the historic event, which consisted of an estimated 830 to 1,153 fin whales, joined by two young humpback whales, a blue whale, several fur seals, and thousands of sea birds (including penguins, petrels, prions, and albatrosses), feeding on a school of krill together. Notably, they also noted four commercial krill harvesting ships trawling in the same krill patch, violating international CCAMLR rules (regulating the Southern Ocean krill fishery) by fishing too close to whales. The study authors urged the CCAMLR commission to enforce existing rules more effectively, and keep in mind growing whale numbers when writing new regulations.
Overall, though, this encounter is great news: strong evidence that fin whales have been thriving since the end of large industrial whaling in 1986, and another sign that it is possible to support the epic animal abundance of historical Earth alongside humans in the landscapes and seascapes of the Anthropocene!
Clean Energy
The Economist has a great article about how the events of 2022, particularly the war in Ukraine and increased renewables subsidies (including the Inflation Reduction Act) have “turbocharged the green transition.” They estimate that the transition to renewable energy has been advanced by five to ten years due to the renewables boom of 2022, with coal use and energy-related emissions now both set to peak in 2025.
Now that funding for renewables is plentiful due to the Inflation Reduction Act, it’s increasingly clear that the biggest obstacle for the clean energy transition in the United States is our moribund regulatory environment, with a multiplicity of “veto points” stopping many good projects in their tracks.
The New York Times has an article on the massive grid interconnection problem, with renewable projects across the nation held up by “clogged” grids unable to quickly connect them, or asked to pay for wide-ranging grid upgrades with unpredictable costs.
Economist and energy commentator Noah Smith (recently interviewed by this newsletter) has an impassioned article about this problem more generally on his Substack, highlighting the dangerous confluence of supply chain issues, interconnection problems, local NIMBYism, and abuses of environmental review laws to derail energy and manufacturing projects vital for the national interest and the fight to stabilize Earth’s climate.
Fortunately, forward-thinking states are starting to push back on this: Democratic governor of Illinois J.B. Pritzker recently signed into law a bill that took away local governments’ ability to limit or ban solar and wind projects (an ability often hijacked by local NIMBYs), following similar bills in California and New York. This should substantially help Illinois’ ability to reach its legal target of reaching 100% carbon-free electricity by 2050!
There’s been a boom in state-level subsidies to attract EV manufacturing since the passage of Inflation Reduction Act. Since federal subsidies make a lot more clean energy projects profitable, new state subsidies have sprung up to attract the new crop of projects to their state in particular, further encouraging investment. And, as this newsletter has chronicled, it’s working magnificently: currently announced manufacturing plans would expand America’s battery making capacity from 55 gigawatt-hours per year in 2021 to 900 by 2030, enough to produce 10 million all-electric vehicles per year (about half of all cars bought annually!) with American-made batteries alone. This will likely switch America from EV manufacturing under-capacity to overcapacity, slashing reliance on China and boosting US carmakers’ global market share.
Some notes on the electric vehicle transition from the great data analyst Hannah Ritchie: the average range (per battery charge) of an electric car sold in 2010 was under 80 miles. In 2021, it hit 220 miles! Also, in 2011 there were just 3 commercial EV models tested in US EPA reports; there were over 70 in 2022.
Duke Energy is building a unique “electric truck depot” in North Carolina, to “develop, test and deploy zero-emissions light-, medium- and heavy-duty commercial electric vehicle fleets.” It has its own carbon-free microgrid.
Major solar industry group SEMA plausibly asserts that due to the Inflation Reduction Act, the majority of solar panels installed in America could be domestically manufactured within 3 to 5 years, up from just 20% today.
California’s Public Utilities Commission released a new plan for 54 gigawatts (1 GW=1,000 megawatts) of new renewable energy, mostly solar power, by 2035, plus 28 GW of new grid-scale batteries to store it. Deploying this is likely to depend on overcoming the threats affecting renewables across America: grid interconnection problems and permitting challenges.
The Amazon Rainforest
On February 1, Ecuador designated the vast new Tarímiat Pujutaí Nuṉka Reserve in the Morona Santiago province, formally protecting swathes of Amazon and Andes forests. The new reserve protects 1,237,395 hectares of land (only slightly smaller than the land area of Connecticut!) and is home to a wide range of landscapes and wildlife, including cloud forests, lowland forests, floodplain forests, sandstone plateaus, jaguars, tapirs, spectacled bears, and over 1,000 species of birds.
Notably, this reserve is in the territory of local Shuar and Achuar peoples, who advocated for the formal preservation of their land and were intimately involved in the planning process. A wide range of studies have found that indigenous-managed lands are among the best at protecting biodiversity, and it’s heartening to see more much-needed integration of indigenous leadership into new conservation actions!
Since longstanding environmental protector Lula da Silva was inaugurated as the President of Brazil in January 2023 (replacing the loathsome Bolsonaro), things have started to look up for the beleaguered, crime-ridden Brazilian Amazon, battered by wildfires, the illegal wildlife trade, illegal logging, illegal ranching, illegal mining, and brutal attacks on its indigenous peoples. New satellite data reveals that even the first month of Lula’s presidency has reduced deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon: only 64 square miles (167 square kilometers) were cleared in January 2023, down 61% from January 2022 under Bolsonaro. Notably, Lula has already launched an array of anti-deforestation raids and started work to restore Brazil’s environmental laws in January 2023 (as previously reported in this newsletter) after years of Bolsonaro actively supporting illegal logging and mining. Restoring law, justice, and environmental protection to the Brazilian Amazon will be a multi-year struggle, but it’s starting to get on the right track!