Sustainable Arlington

Tuesday 16

U.S. Automakers Double Down on Trucks & SUVs, Despite Talk of a Cleaner Future

The automakers say they’re headed for an all-electric future and they want fuel economy standards, but their assembly lines tell a different story. A year ago, General Motors laid out a bold vision for a transition to a zero-emissions future.  It announced plans for 20 new electric vehicle models by 2023, and CEO Mary Barra wrote:  "Our generation has the ambition, the talent and the technology to realize the safer, better and more sustainable world we want." But in the U.S. market, GM was aggressively transforming its product line for something else—it was scaling back on cars and doubling down on higher-emissions pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles. SUVs and other light trucks now make up more than three-quarters of GM's passenger vehicle sales in the U.S., up from less than 60 percent five years ago.  The majority of the 20 planned electric car models are destined for China, where the government has new EV mandates.  The company has announced no plans for electric versions of any of the big vehicles that are its best sellers in the U.S. "We have ... successfully transitioned to a crossover- and truck-focused business," Kurt McNeil, U.S. vice president of Sales Operations said in a statement to investors early this year. GM is not alone.  All of the Big Three automakers—GM, Ford, and Fiat Chrysler—have shifted toward big, heavy vehicles that drink more fuel per mile.  In fact, they were in last place for fuel economy among the 13 automakers selling in the U.S.[…]

Mary Robinson on Climate Change:‘Feeling “This Is Too Big for Me” Is No Use to Anybody’

The former president of Ireland has a new raison d’être: saving the planet. Yet, despite the dire warnings of this week’s IPCC report, she is surprisingly upbeat.On the morning that the world’s leading climate scientists warn that the planet has until 2030 to avert a global warming catastrophe, Mary Robinson appears suitably sombre.  She wears black shoes, black trousers, and a black sweater and perches at the end of a long table at her climate justice foundation, headquartered in an austere, imposing Georgian building opposite Trinity College Dublin....“Governments are not responding at all adequately to the stark reality that the IPCC is pointing to:  that we have about 11 years to make really significant change,” says Robinson, sitting ramrod straight, all business.  “This report is extraordinarily important, because it’s telling us that 2 degrees is not safe.  It’s beyond safe.  Therefore, we have to work much, much harder to stay at 1.5 degrees.  I’ve seen what 1 degree is doing in more vulnerable countries ... villages are having to move, there’s slippage, there’s seawater incursion.” Robinson sips a glass of water and sighs.  “We’re in a bumpy time.  We’re in a bad political cycle, particularly because the United States is not only not giving leadership, but is being disruptive of multilateralism and is encouraging populism in other countries.” This could be the start of a depressing interview that concludes we should hitch a ride on Virgin Galactic’s first trip to space and try to stay there.  But it turns out[…]

Poster of the Week - Toto, I Think the Climate Has Changed!

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Flash Flood Risks Grow as Downpours Get More Intense

If you’ve noticed that torrential rain storms are getting more common, you’re right. Andreas Prein of the National Center for Atmospheric Research says the amount of rain that falls during the most intense storms is increasing all over the country.  The change is most extreme in northeastern states … Prein:  “… where we have up to seventy percent higher intensities of rainfall than we had fifty years ago.” One of the reasons is that warmer air can hold more evaporated water.  So as temperatures increase, clouds can hold more moisture, which means more water can fall in a single storm. And with more intense storms comes an increased risk of flash floods, which can threaten lives and damage property. Prein says the risks are particularly great in urban areas.  That’s because, with more paved surfaces and less vegetation, cities have fewer areas that can absorb stormwater.  So flooding is more likely. Prein:  “Therefore urbanized areas have to update their infrastructure to be more prepared for flash flooding, and we have to try to limit global warming to a certain extent that the consequences don’t get unmanageable.” Read original at Flash Flood Risks Grow as Downpours Get More Intense