Thursday, February 17, 2022
US Army surrenders to wokery: New climate change plan will see electric fleet of non-combat vehicles by 2035 and 50% reduction in greenhouses gasses at bases
The Left will do anything they can to mess up the army. They know that two thirds of the army votes GOP
The U.S. Army has unveiled a new climate change plan that includes an electric fleet of non-combat vehicles and a desire to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at military bases.
The woke new plan was released amid rising tensions overseas, with President Joe Biden telling Americans to leave Ukraine immediately and warning them that they could not expect to be rescued by U.S. troops if Russia launches an invasion.
The Army's climate change strategy, published in a report Tuesday, aims to make its bases more self-efficient and to move to an electric fleet of non-combat vehicles by 2035.
The plan says the Army's 'immediate objectives' are to provide 100 percent carbon-pollution-free electricity for branch installations needs by 2030 and a 50 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions at all Army buildings by 2032.
'The time to address climate change is now. The effects of climate change have taken a toll on supply chains, damaged our infrastructure, and increased risks to Army Soldiers and families due to natural disasters and extreme weather,' Secretary of the Army Christine E. Wormuth penned in the report.
'The Army must adapt across our entire enterprise and purposefully pursue greenhouse gas mitigation strategies to reduce climate risks. If we do not take action now, across our installations, acquisition and logistics, and training, our options to mitigate these risks will become more constrained with each passing year.'
To some Americans, the report may appear ill-timed given the fact that Russia has amassed some 120,000 troops close to the Ukrainian border, triggering fears of an invasion.
'American citizens should leave now,' Biden said in a Thursday interview with NBC News. 'It's not like we're dealing with a terrorist organization. We're dealing with one of the largest armies in the world. It's a very different situation and things could go crazy quickly.'
The president added: 'That's a world war when Americans and Russia start shooting at one another. We're in a very different world than we've ever been.'
The Army's new plan seeks to deal with the effects of climate change that it claims 'endangers national and economic security' by making all military installations self-sufficient in terms of energy and water needs.
It also calls for a transformation to sources of clean energy, including development of electric combat vehicles by 2050. It also calls on bases to switch to an all-electric fleet of non-combat vehicles by 2035.
Wormuth said the Army is on-track to achieve its goals by the target dates.
'As the Army invests in modernization, readiness, and operations, we can create the land forces that our nation needs today while securing a sustainable, cleaner tomorrow,' she wrote in the report.
'As the Army optimizes the use of fuel, water, electricity, and other resources, we increase our resilience while saving taxpayer dollars and reducing our impact on the planet.'
'The Army will mitigate and adapt to climate change, and in doing so gain a strategic advantage, especially as we continue to outpace our near-peer competitors.'
The plan, released ahead of Biden's notice to withdraw from Russia, argues armed conflict will continue to grow globally as world temperatures continue to rise, increasing competition for resources.
It also calls for a transformation to sources of clean energy, including development of electric combat vehicles by 2050. It also calls on bases to switch to an all-electric fleet of non-combat vehicles by 2035
The report - citing Middle Eastern nations like Syria where drought has played a role in civil war - claims the impacts of climate change will 'compound social instability, reduce access to basic necessities, undermine fragile governments and economies, damage vital infrastructure and lower agricultural production'.
'Climate change poses unique challenges to the Army at all levels. Bold actions now will ensure the Army is ready to support our nation in competition, crisis, and conflict far into the future,' the report states.
'By implementing this strategy, the Army will be a resilient and sustainable land force able to operate in all domains with effective mitigation and adaptation measures against the key effects of climate change, consistent with Army modernization efforts.'
Experts allege the impacts of climate change will 'disrupt Army activities, displace individuals and communities, and increase the frequency of crisis deployments' for the 'foreseeable future'.
The military organization claims it must be prepared to energy and water scarcity, damage to installations and infrastructure, disruptions to supply chain operations and imperiled soldier healthy from exposure to airborne irritants like smoke and dust, disease vectors, and temperature extremes.
Experts also warn that the land on which the Army trains and operates may be altered, limited or constrained.
'The Army must act decisively and urgently to address the risks associated with all these effects,' the plan urges.
The climate change plan is just the latest of the U.S. military's push towards progressiveness.
Last week, the Army announced it will 'immediately begin separating soldiers from the service' who refuse to comply with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
Those who refuse to be vaccinated or don't have an approved or pending request for exemption will be discharged.
'Army readiness depends on soldiers who are prepared to train, deploy, fight and win our nation's wars,' Wormuth told NPR. 'Unvaccinated soldiers present risk to the force and jeopardize readiness.'
Soldiers who are discharged over vaccination refusal 'will not be eligible for involuntary separation pay'. They may also have to return any unearned special or incentive pay.
The Army said in January that 96 percent. of active troops have been completely vaccinated. 3,350 soldiers had refused to get the vaccine and nearly 5,900 had received temporary exemptions.
In December, the Air Force announced it was authorizing the use of gender-neutral and gender-specific pronouns in email signature boxes.
The Air Force made it clear that allowing for emails to end with he/him, she/her and they/them would be allowed in a memo on December 9.
'This guidance provides approval for the use of pronouns in electronic signature blocks and expands on written communication by providing official templates posted on e-publishing website available for download,' the Air Force correspondence states.
'The use of pronouns (he/him, she/her, or they/them) in an email signature block is authorized but not required,' the memo added.
The Air Force memo came on the heels of the Army releasing a recruitment ad that features an animated lesbian wedding and an LGBTQ pride parade.
Released on May 4, the two-minute recruitment video, centers on Corporal Emma Malonelord and her upbringing as she is raised by two moms. Malonelord is an actual Army corporal; her story is illustrated in the cartoon.
The animated recruitment video chronicles Malonelord's life from her childhood up until she joins the Army as a Patriot Missile operator.
Her animated counterpart watches her two mothers get married after one recovers from a serious car accident that left her paralyzed
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Trendy woodburning stoves do NOT pollute the atmosphere as much as they were previously feared to – but are still a growing problem for clear air
Woodburning stoves produce less emissions that previously thought but still contribute to particle pollution, revised government data has found.
New data from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has cut the estimated proportion of small particle pollution that comes from wood burners from 38 per cent to 17 per cent.
The revised data also shows that manufacturing and construction now represent the largest single contributor to tiny particle pollution, called PM2.5, The Telegraph reports.
However the new report, which comes after a survey of 50,000 homes provided updated information on the use of wood stoves, said the burners are still a growing problem for clear air.
Particulates are the group of pollutants that are so tiny they can 'enter the bloodstream, lodging in the heart, brain and other organs', and causing serious impacts to health, according to Defra.
The report also found that particulate air pollution had declined between 1970 and the late 2000s, largely due to Britain turning its back on burning coal as a source of power.
But since then, this has 'been partially offset by increases in emissions from residential burning' and 'the increasing popularity of solid fuel appliances in the home such as wood-burning stoves,' according to the report.
Previous data showed that last year domestic wood-burning alone was responsible for 38 per cent of all PM2.5 emissions.
However this has now been reduced to 17 per cent with figures suggesting households are now burning less wood that previously thought.
Simon Birkett, founder and director of the campaign group Clean Air, said the new figures were still an 'enormous percentage' and woodburning stoves were still a 'serious problem'.
He told The Telegraph: 'It is still an enormous percentage of the most powerful pollution. Whether it is 17 per cent or 38 per cent, it's still an extremely serious problem.
'In policy terms, the key thing is that the number has gone up 35 per cent in the past 10 years, and is still growing at 3 per cent a year, so wood-burning stoves are clearly a problem.'
Figures last year showed the most deadly form of air pollution rose by three per cent thanks to an increase in the use of trendy woodburning stoves.
'Emissions of particulate matter arising from the domestic combustion of wood as a fuel increased by 35 per cent between 2010 and 2020, and accounted for 17 per cent of primary emissions of PM2.5 and 10 per cent of PM10 in 2020,' the report said.
'There is an increasing trend in emissions from this source; annual emissions from domestic wood burning have increased by an average of 3 per cent each year since 2003.'
This makes wood burning a bigger contributor to particulate pollution than cars and lorries, which contributed 12 per cent of PM10 and 13 per cent of PM2.5 in 2020.
Wood burners are a danger to children and elderly people and should be sold with a health warning, a study finds.
Researchers from the University of Sheffield placed pollution detectors in 19 homes for a month and collected data every few minutes.
Wood burners were lit for four hours at a time and, while operating, the levels of harmful particles was three times greater than when they were unlit.
These particles have been linked to a number of health issues and can cause damage to the lungs - particularly in young and old people.
The burners were all 'smoke exempt', meaning they meet government standards due to be compulsory by 2022.
Scientists warned that the trend for burning wood at home was threatening to undo improvements in air quality.
Professor Alastair Lewis, National Centre for Atmospheric Science, University of York said: 'Burning wood for home heating, particularly in cities, undoes many of the recent improvements seen in PM2.5 - hard won gains that have been achieved from our collective investments in cleaner cars, buses and lorries.'
Professor William Collins, professor of climate processes, University of Reading, said the air pollution caused by burning wood meant it could not be classed as 'environmentally friendly'.
He said: 'Domestic wood burning is now the single largest contributor to fine particle pollution in the UK.
'These particles can increase the risk of cancer and heart disease.
'Strong pollution controls have been very successful in cleaning up particles from vehicle exhausts.
'Cutting down on pollution from wood burning would therefore make significant inroads into reducing the particles in the air we breathe.'
The report said that 2020 saw air pollution from NOX - oxides of nitrogen particularly nitrogen dioxide - fall sharply.
'A large reduction in road traffic activity in 2020 following the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic contributed to a substantial reduction in average roadside NO2 concentrations in 2020 compared to previous years,' it added.
In May last year, new legislation came into force that restricted the sale of the most polluting fuels used in domestic burning.
Meanwhile, in January 2022, rules came into place that meant all new stoves placed on the market in the UK had to be Ecodesign compliant.
'Ecodesign stoves, compared to non-Ecodesign stoves, produce lower emissions and are more efficient,' a Defra spokesperson explained.
'We recognise that some households are reliant on solid fuels for heating, hot water and cooking.
'The measures we have introduced will protect health by phasing out the sale of the most polluting fuels and by encouraging a transition to less polluting fuels.'
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U.S. corn-based ethanol worse for the climate than gasoline, study finds
Corn-based ethanol, which for years has been mixed in huge quantities into gasoline sold at U.S. pumps, is likely a much bigger contributor to global warming than straight gasoline, according to a study published Monday.
The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, contradicts previous research commissioned by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) showing ethanol and other biofuels to be relatively green.
President Joe Biden's administration is reviewing policies on biofuels as part of a broader effort to decarbonize the U.S. economy by 2050 to fight climate change.
“Corn ethanol is not a climate-friendly fuel,” said Dr. Tyler Lark, assistant scientist at University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment and lead author of the study.
The research, which was funded in part by the National Wildlife Federation and U.S. Department of Energy, found that ethanol is likely at least 24% more carbon-intensive than gasoline due to emissions resulting from land use changes to grow corn, along with processing and combustion.
Geoff Cooper, president and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association, the ethanol trade lobby, called the study "completely fictional and erroneous," arguing the authors used "worst-case assumptions [and] cherry-picked data."
Under the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), a law enacted in 2005, the nation's oil refiners are required to mix some 15 billion gallons of corn-based ethanol into the nation's gasoline annually. The policy was intended to reduce emissions, support farmers, and cut U.S. dependence on energy imports.
As a result of the mandate, corn cultivation grew 8.7% and expanded into 6.9 million additional acres of land between 2008 and 2016, the study found. That led to widespread changes in land use, including the tilling of cropland that would otherwise have been retired or enrolled in conservation programs and the planting of existing cropland with more corn, the study found.
Tilling fields releases carbon stored in soil, while other farming activities, like applying nitrogen fertilizers, also produce emissions.
A 2019 study from the USDA, which has been broadly cited by the biofuel industry, found that ethanol’s carbon intensity was 39% lower than gasoline, in part because of carbon sequestration associated with planting new cropland.
But that research underestimated the emissions impact of land conversion, Lark said.
USDA did not respond to a request for comment.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which administers the nation's biofuel policy, is considering changes to the program. Under the RFS, Congress set blending requirements through 2022, but not beyond, giving the EPA authority to impose reforms. EPA plans to propose 2023 requirements in May.
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Australia: Super battery to boost State supply once coal-fired power station closes
What rubbish! You just have to have an extended period of high demand and the battery will go flat. What do you do then?
NSW Treasurer and Energy Minister Matt Kean says NSW’s energy supply will be secured through a super battery to be installed by the private sector as Australia’s largest coal-burning power station prepares to close early.
Mr Kean made the announcement on the back of Origin Energy’s revealing that it intended to bring forward the closure of its Eraring power station in Lake Macquarie. Eraring supplies 20 per cent of the state’s energy.
The Treasurer said he was disappointed about Origin’s announcement but the government had been doing preparatory work after the company flagged several months ago its intentions to close the station.
Eraring was originally intended to close in 2032.
The 700 megawatt super battery will be operational by 2025 to release grid capacity to ensure Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong consumers can access more energy from existing electricity generation, Mr Kean said.
Mr Kean said the battery would be the “biggest in the southern hemisphere and would act as a shock absorber for incidents such as lightning strikes and bushfires.
“NSW has the strongest reliability standard in the country – the Energy Security Target – which aims to have sufficient firm capacity to keep the lights on even if the state’s two largest generating units are offline during a one-in-10 year peak demand event,” Mr Kean said.
The Eraring power station was originally intended to close in 2032, but will now shut in 2025.
The Eraring power station was originally intended to close in 2032, but will now shut in 2025.CREDIT:DEAN SEWELL
The government will also accelerate its NSW electricity infrastructure road map to keep energy prices affordable.
“The best way to put downward pressure on electricity prices is to increase supply and the road map provides us the tools to do just that,” he said.
Under its road map, the NSW government will drive the transition to renewable energy by attracting $32 billion of private investment in infrastructure.
As part of that plan, the government will support the private sector to build critical energy infrastructure by 2030 as NSW faces the end of the coal-fired power generation.
Mr Kean said the government would release a significant support package on Friday for workers affected by the closure of Eraring.
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http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM )
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http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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