CDP: Oceans Clips: March 9, 2023
Biden Once Again Targets Fossil Fuel Benefits In Budget Proposal. According to The Hill, “President Biden is once again taking aim at government subsidies for the fossil fuel industry in his new budget proposal after a contentious year between the administration and the industry. Biden’s proposal — which is highly unlikely to be taken up by Congress — would raise $31 billion by “eliminating special tax treatment for oil and gas company investments, as well as other fossil fuel tax preferences,” said a White House fact sheet.” [The Hill, 3/9/23 (=)]
US Says It Won't Complete Offshore Drilling Plan Until Year-End. According to Reuters, “The Biden administration needs until the end of this year to finalize a long-awaited five-year plan for offshore oil and gas development in federal waters, according to court documents filed this week. The U.S. has been without a congressionally-mandated five year schedule of offshore oil and gas auctions since the previous one expired in June 2022. The process is being closely watched by the oil and gas industry, which has pressed for more leasing to boost domestic fuel supplies, and by environmentalists, who say drilling conflicts with President Joe Biden's promise to fight climate change.” [Reuters, 3/9/23 (=)]
Offshore Wind To Account For 80% Of Stationary Infrastructure At Sea By 2050. According to Offshore Magazine, “The collaboration between ocean industries will need to intensify for the rapid buildout of offshore wind and aquaculture to coexist sustainably with other industries and the ecosystem, according to DNV. Authors of DNV’s Spatial Competition Forecast stated that the amount of ocean space occupied by installations will grow fivefold by 2050. This will be driven by offshore wind, which will account for 80% of stationary infrastructure at sea by midcentury, followed by aquaculture (13%) and oil and gas (5%).” [Offshore Magazine, 3/9/23 (=)]
Arctic River Channels Changing Due To Climate Change. According to Phys.org, “A team of international researchers monitoring the impact of climate change on large rivers in Arctic Canada and Alaska determined that, as the region is sharply warming up, its rivers are not moving as scientists have expected. Dr. Alessandro Ielpi, an Assistant Professor with UBC Okanagan's Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science, is a landscape scientist and lead author of a paper published this week in Nature Climate Change. The research, conducted with Dr. Mathieu Lapôtre at Stanford University, along with Dr. Alvise Finotello at the University of Padua in Italy, and Université Laval's Dr. Pascale Roy-Léveillée, examines how atmospheric warming is affecting Arctic rivers flowing through permafrost terrain.” [Phys.org, 3/9/23 (=)]
Many Coastal Residents Willing To Relocate In The Face Of Sea Level Rise. According to Yale Climate Connections, “As seas rise, water is increasingly creeping into homes and neighborhoods. And over time, a growing number of coastal residents will need to decide whether to accept frequent flooding or move. Anamaria Bukvic of the Center for Coastal Studies at Virginia Tech wanted to know how willing people are to consider a permanent move. She surveyed more than 1,400 residents living in flood-prone urban areas from New York to Florida. She found that almost half would be willing to move if flooding becomes more frequent and severe.” [Yale Climate Connections, 3/9/23 (=)]
La Niña Has Ended, And El Niño May Be On The Way. According to the New York Times, “La Niña, the climate pattern that helped fuel the extremely active hurricane seasons and drought in the southwest over the past two and a half years, has ended, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Thursday. The intermittent phenomenon — which occurs when sea-surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean are below average — typically brings drier, warmer conditions to the southern half of the United States and wetter weather to the northern half. The last La Niña began in September 2020.” [New York Times, 3/9/23 (=)]
171 Trillion Plastic Particles Floating In Oceans As Pollution Reaches "Unprecedented" Levels, Scientists Warn. According to CBS News, “group of scientists analyzing global data collected over the past four decades have found a "rapid increase" in ocean plastic pollution since 2005, according to a research article published in the journal Plos One. That increase has created a "plastic smog" in the world's oceans made up of an estimated 171 trillion plastic particles, the scientists said. The authors used 11,777 samples taken from the surface layer of oceans, which is roughly the first 600 feet of depth, to estimate the average amount of microplastics in that layer over time, then compared that to an historic overview of international policy measures aimed at reducing ocean pollution.” [CBS News, 3/9/23 (=)]
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