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Elders Seek to Supercharge Climate Action

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Friday, April 21, 2023

Last month thousands of senior Americans took to the streets in 30 states to demand that the country’s major banks divest from fossil fuels. This “rocking chair rebellion” — organized by Third Act, a fast-growing climate action group focused on older Americans — shows that Baby Boomers are becoming a new force in the climate movement. Third Act cofounder Bill McKibben, who joined a Washington, D.C., protest, says it’s unfair to put all the weight of climate activism on the shoulders of young people. It’s time for older Americans to take a central role. “Young people don’t have the structural power necessary to make changes,” McKibben tells The Revelator. “But old people do. There are 70 million Americans over the age of 60. Many of us vote, we’re politically engaged, and have a lot of financial resources. So if you want to press either the political system or the financial system, older people are a useful group to have.” The March protests hope to build on an earlier success. In December Europe’s largest bank, HSBC, announced that it will stop investing in new oil and gas projects. McKibben says activism and pressure from Democratic politicians, many at the state and city level, will eventually force U.S. banking giants to follow suit. “The amount of attention and anger that the climate crisis is creating keeps rising and rising and at some point, even players as big as Chase and Citi and Wells Fargo and Bank of America are going to have to listen,” he says. These four banks provided $1.2 trillion in funding to the fossil fuel industry between 2016 and 2021 — a quarter of all the financing that oil and gas companies received in that period. Win-Win Activism Third Act’s National Day of Action to Stop Dirty Banks, when many people over 60 sat in rocking chairs in front of bank branches and cut their credit cards, showed that older climate activists are becoming a force to be reckoned with. Photo: Third Act Retired Baby Boomers have plenty of time to spare, control more than two-thirds of the country’s household wealth, and their ranks are increasing rapidly. By 2050 people over 65 are expected to account for nearly 22% of the country’s population, up from around 17% at present. Researchers are seeing an increase in climate activism among older Americans, says Karl Andrew Pillemer, a sociologist and gerontologist who is the Hazel E. Reed Professor of Human Development at Cornell University. Older climate activists tell The Revelator that in addition to joining protests, they help increase climate change awareness in their communities, lobby local leaders and legislators, write newsletters, and join regular webinars and meetings. One of their main motivations is the welfare of future generations. “When people reach their 70s and beyond,” Pillemer says, “psychological research shows that they become motivated by ‘generativity’ — that is, a desire to contribute to a future that they themselves may not live to see.” Dave Freedman, a member of Elders Climate Action, says he and his wife joined the climate movement when they retired, partially because they have two kids and two grandkids. “And we were concerned about the future for them and others. I mean, it’s not just my kids, it’s all kids and all grandkids,” the 73-year-old says. But elders are also being prompted into action by “self-interest,” says Pillemer. Research shows that older adults are more vulnerable to air pollution and extreme heat, while they often have compromised immune systems that make them more prone to water- and insect-related illnesses, which are set to increase as the planet continues warning. Another reason why climate action is a win-win for Baby Boomers is that there is a very clear correlation between volunteering and well-being. “We’re trying to share this with our community members so they understand that what they’re doing isn’t just some nice to do,” says Peter Kaldes, president and CEO of the American Society on Aging. “It’s actually impacting their health and well-being in a positive way.” A couple of years ago, Jim Thompson, the founder of THIS! Is What We Did, a climate action group for people over 50, didn’t know anyone in the climate movement. “And now I’ve got new friends, some of the most amazingly wonderful people in the world to work with on this. It’s kind of a blessing,” he says, adding that climate activism has filled him and his peers “with a sense of purpose.” Although people who identify as Democrats are often more likely to take part in climate action, sources say the partisan divide is not as obvious among elders. Many older Republicans have joined the climate movement because Middle America is packed with farmers and outdoorsy retirees who enjoy hunting and fishing; the kind of people who have seen the impacts of severe drought, devastating hurricanes, and floods with their own eyes. Elders are also motivated by a sense of nostalgia. “Baby Boomers are responsible for the climate activism of the 1960s and 1970s,” Kaldes says. “What we see is a real renaissance, a real desire to revive this activism of theirs.” Perhaps that’s why poetry, live music, dance and art installations played a central role in the March 21 protests. McKibben, who is 62, says this joviality is partly the result of the “generational muscle memory” of senior protesters who joined the Civil Rights movement back in the 1960s and the first Earth Day in 1970. Photo: Third Act The most high-profile member of this new wave of senior climate activists is Jane Fonda. Last year the actress, feminist and long-time civil rights advocate, who is 85, unveiled a climate PAC to help elect politicians with a climate action agenda and counter the political influence of the fossil fuel industry. Generational Divide And yet sources say elders face many barriers when it comes to environmental activism. Polls show that people over 60 are less likely than younger generations to consider climate change “a top concern” or get involved in climate action. In addition, many Americans don’t understand climate science well and fail to see the correlation between the climate crisis and respiratory ailments and mental health issues, and older adults are no exception. That’s why rising awareness of the climate crisis is a priority for many senior climate activists. To make matters worse, Pillemer says some environmental organizations are not particularly “elder-friendly” and often fail to make a concerted effort to recruit older people or offer opportunities for volunteers with less physical ability, effectively creating a generational divide in the climate movement. To fill that gap, over the past 10 years, Cornell University has run the Retirees in Service to the Environment program in New York, Florida, Illinois and other states. RISE provides training and group support to older citizens interested in joining the climate movement. It includes six educational sessions on topics such as climate change impacts, green energy and water quality. The final goal of the program, Pillemer says, is not just to educate older Americans but to build a movement based on “intergenerational solidarity,” because we need people of every age to save the planet. The good thing is that many younger climate activists are welcoming Baby Boomers with open arms. Twenty-six-year-old Giselle Herzfeld, who works for 350.org in Colorado, has been a climate activist since her late teens. On the one hand, she says high school climate activists “are crushing it,” while on the other she notes that many of her mentors are older activists who were involved in the anti-war and anti-nuclear movements decades ago. “As a younger activist, I know there is a lot I can learn from everyone around me,” she says. “There’s just a lot of wisdom and a lot of organizing insight that older people can bring to the new generation of climate activism. It’s going to take everybody from every generation working together.” Previously in The Revelator: The Solution to Extinction Is You The post Elders Seek to Supercharge Climate Action appeared first on The Revelator.

Activism isn’t only for the young. Many seniors are eager to join the climate movement — and they have the power to achieve key goals, says Bill McKibben. The post Elders Seek to Supercharge Climate Action appeared first on The Revelator.

Last month thousands of senior Americans took to the streets in 30 states to demand that the country’s major banks divest from fossil fuels.

This “rocking chair rebellion” — organized by Third Act, a fast-growing climate action group focused on older Americans — shows that Baby Boomers are becoming a new force in the climate movement.

Third Act cofounder Bill McKibben, who joined a Washington, D.C., protest, says it’s unfair to put all the weight of climate activism on the shoulders of young people. It’s time for older Americans to take a central role.

“Young people don’t have the structural power necessary to make changes,” McKibben tells The Revelator. “But old people do. There are 70 million Americans over the age of 60. Many of us vote, we’re politically engaged, and have a lot of financial resources. So if you want to press either the political system or the financial system, older people are a useful group to have.”

The March protests hope to build on an earlier success. In December Europe’s largest bank, HSBC, announced that it will stop investing in new oil and gas projects. McKibben says activism and pressure from Democratic politicians, many at the state and city level, will eventually force U.S. banking giants to follow suit.

“The amount of attention and anger that the climate crisis is creating keeps rising and rising and at some point, even players as big as Chase and Citi and Wells Fargo and Bank of America are going to have to listen,” he says.

These four banks provided $1.2 trillion in funding to the fossil fuel industry between 2016 and 2021 — a quarter of all the financing that oil and gas companies received in that period.

Win-Win Activism

Third Act’s National Day of Action to Stop Dirty Banks, when many people over 60 sat in rocking chairs in front of bank branches and cut their credit cards, showed that older climate activists are becoming a force to be reckoned with.

A line of colorful rocking chairs at a climate protest
Photo: Third Act

Retired Baby Boomers have plenty of time to spare, control more than two-thirds of the country’s household wealth, and their ranks are increasing rapidly. By 2050 people over 65 are expected to account for nearly 22% of the country’s population, up from around 17% at present.

Researchers are seeing an increase in climate activism among older Americans, says Karl Andrew Pillemer, a sociologist and gerontologist who is the Hazel E. Reed Professor of Human Development at Cornell University.

Older climate activists tell The Revelator that in addition to joining protests, they help increase climate change awareness in their communities, lobby local leaders and legislators, write newsletters, and join regular webinars and meetings.

One of their main motivations is the welfare of future generations.

“When people reach their 70s and beyond,” Pillemer says, “psychological research shows that they become motivated by ‘generativity’ — that is, a desire to contribute to a future that they themselves may not live to see.”

Dave Freedman, a member of Elders Climate Action, says he and his wife joined the climate movement when they retired, partially because they have two kids and two grandkids. “And we were concerned about the future for them and others. I mean, it’s not just my kids, it’s all kids and all grandkids,” the 73-year-old says.

But elders are also being prompted into action by “self-interest,” says Pillemer. Research shows that older adults are more vulnerable to air pollution and extreme heat, while they often have compromised immune systems that make them more prone to water- and insect-related illnesses, which are set to increase as the planet continues warning.

Another reason why climate action is a win-win for Baby Boomers is that there is a very clear correlation between volunteering and well-being.

“We’re trying to share this with our community members so they understand that what they’re doing isn’t just some nice to do,” says Peter Kaldes, president and CEO of the American Society on Aging. “It’s actually impacting their health and well-being in a positive way.”

A couple of years ago, Jim Thompson, the founder of THIS! Is What We Did, a climate action group for people over 50, didn’t know anyone in the climate movement.

“And now I’ve got new friends, some of the most amazingly wonderful people in the world to work with on this. It’s kind of a blessing,” he says, adding that climate activism has filled him and his peers “with a sense of purpose.”

Although people who identify as Democrats are often more likely to take part in climate action, sources say the partisan divide is not as obvious among elders. Many older Republicans have joined the climate movement because Middle America is packed with farmers and outdoorsy retirees who enjoy hunting and fishing; the kind of people who have seen the impacts of severe drought, devastating hurricanes, and floods with their own eyes.

Elders are also motivated by a sense of nostalgia. “Baby Boomers are responsible for the climate activism of the 1960s and 1970s,” Kaldes says. “What we see is a real renaissance, a real desire to revive this activism of theirs.”

Perhaps that’s why poetry, live music, dance and art installations played a central role in the March 21 protests. McKibben, who is 62, says this joviality is partly the result of the “generational muscle memory” of senior protesters who joined the Civil Rights movement back in the 1960s and the first Earth Day in 1970.

Bill McKibben stands at a microphone
Photo: Third Act

The most high-profile member of this new wave of senior climate activists is Jane Fonda. Last year the actress, feminist and long-time civil rights advocate, who is 85, unveiled a climate PAC to help elect politicians with a climate action agenda and counter the political influence of the fossil fuel industry.

Generational Divide

And yet sources say elders face many barriers when it comes to environmental activism.

Polls show that people over 60 are less likely than younger generations to consider climate change “a top concern” or get involved in climate action. In addition, many Americans don’t understand climate science well and fail to see the correlation between the climate crisis and respiratory ailments and mental health issues, and older adults are no exception. That’s why rising awareness of the climate crisis is a priority for many senior climate activists.

To make matters worse, Pillemer says some environmental organizations are not particularly “elder-friendly” and often fail to make a concerted effort to recruit older people or offer opportunities for volunteers with less physical ability, effectively creating a generational divide in the climate movement.

To fill that gap, over the past 10 years, Cornell University has run the Retirees in Service to the Environment program in New York, Florida, Illinois and other states.

RISE provides training and group support to older citizens interested in joining the climate movement. It includes six educational sessions on topics such as climate change impacts, green energy and water quality.

The final goal of the program, Pillemer says, is not just to educate older Americans but to build a movement based on “intergenerational solidarity,” because we need people of every age to save the planet.

The good thing is that many younger climate activists are welcoming Baby Boomers with open arms.

Twenty-six-year-old Giselle Herzfeld, who works for 350.org in Colorado, has been a climate activist since her late teens. On the one hand, she says high school climate activists “are crushing it,” while on the other she notes that many of her mentors are older activists who were involved in the anti-war and anti-nuclear movements decades ago.

“As a younger activist, I know there is a lot I can learn from everyone around me,” she says. “There’s just a lot of wisdom and a lot of organizing insight that older people can bring to the new generation of climate activism. It’s going to take everybody from every generation working together.”

Previously in The Revelator:

The Solution to Extinction Is You

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South Carolina's coastal adaptation debates stir community concerns

In a bid to tackle coastal erosion, South Carolina communities and environmentalists clash over the construction of erosion control structures called groins at Debidue Beach. Daniel Shailer reports for Inside Climate News.In short:Environmental advocates argue that the construction of groins could harm the North Inlet-Winyah Bay reserve by disrupting natural sand movement.Debidue Beach residents advocate for these structures to protect their homes from increasing erosion, highlighting tensions between climate resilience and coastal development.Legal challenges and confusion over state coastal management regulations underscore the difficulties of balancing property protection with environmental conservation.Key quote:"Equity plays a huge part in this. When you look at environmental justice communities throughout the United States, you see an intentional disinvestment in those communities."— Omar Muhammad, executive director of the Lowcountry Alliance for Model CommunitiesWhy this matters:By preserving beaches, groins also support local economies that depend on tourism. On the other hand, groins can have unintended consequences. For instance, while they may accumulate sand on one side, they can also starve areas down drift of sand, leading to increased erosion elsewhere. Disparate state, local, private and federal conservation efforts are failing to protect biodiversity. Connectivity and coordination would help, say agency scientists and conservation leaders.

In a bid to tackle coastal erosion, South Carolina communities and environmentalists clash over the construction of erosion control structures called groins at Debidue Beach. Daniel Shailer reports for Inside Climate News.In short:Environmental advocates argue that the construction of groins could harm the North Inlet-Winyah Bay reserve by disrupting natural sand movement.Debidue Beach residents advocate for these structures to protect their homes from increasing erosion, highlighting tensions between climate resilience and coastal development.Legal challenges and confusion over state coastal management regulations underscore the difficulties of balancing property protection with environmental conservation.Key quote:"Equity plays a huge part in this. When you look at environmental justice communities throughout the United States, you see an intentional disinvestment in those communities."— Omar Muhammad, executive director of the Lowcountry Alliance for Model CommunitiesWhy this matters:By preserving beaches, groins also support local economies that depend on tourism. On the other hand, groins can have unintended consequences. For instance, while they may accumulate sand on one side, they can also starve areas down drift of sand, leading to increased erosion elsewhere. Disparate state, local, private and federal conservation efforts are failing to protect biodiversity. Connectivity and coordination would help, say agency scientists and conservation leaders.

New approach to lithium mining sparks environmental concerns

A lithium mining technique promises environmental benefits but raises concerns over water use and safety in Utah.Wyatt Myskow reports for Inside Climate News.In short:A test well for a new lithium mining process in Green River, Utah, unexpectedly released water and CO2, causing local concerns over water supply impacts.The direct lithium extraction (DLE) method, though potentially less damaging than traditional mining, remains unproven on a large scale in the U.S.Critics question the long-term environmental impact of DLE, especially regarding water consumption in the already arid Southwest.Key quote:"We are not opposed to lithium. We are opposed to unsustainable and dangerous appropriations of water under the false assumptions that this new technology is absolutely harmless."— Kyle Roerink, executive director for the Great Basin Water NetworkWhy this matters:As the global demand for lithium continues to surge with the transition toward greener energy sources, the industry faces the challenge of balancing the need for this critical mineral with the imperative to protect water resources and ensure sustainable practices.In push to mine for minerals, clean energy advocates ask what going green really means.

A lithium mining technique promises environmental benefits but raises concerns over water use and safety in Utah.Wyatt Myskow reports for Inside Climate News.In short:A test well for a new lithium mining process in Green River, Utah, unexpectedly released water and CO2, causing local concerns over water supply impacts.The direct lithium extraction (DLE) method, though potentially less damaging than traditional mining, remains unproven on a large scale in the U.S.Critics question the long-term environmental impact of DLE, especially regarding water consumption in the already arid Southwest.Key quote:"We are not opposed to lithium. We are opposed to unsustainable and dangerous appropriations of water under the false assumptions that this new technology is absolutely harmless."— Kyle Roerink, executive director for the Great Basin Water NetworkWhy this matters:As the global demand for lithium continues to surge with the transition toward greener energy sources, the industry faces the challenge of balancing the need for this critical mineral with the imperative to protect water resources and ensure sustainable practices.In push to mine for minerals, clean energy advocates ask what going green really means.

Stone Age People Survived a Supervolcano Eruption by Adapting to Dry Periods, Archaeologists Suggest

Humans living in northwest Ethiopia around 74,000 years ago switched to eating more fish following the eruption, a behavior that might have enabled migration out of Africa

Indonesia's Lake Toba, formed by a volcanic eruption around 74,000 years ago. In the new study, researchers uncovered fragments of glass from the eruption at an archaeological site in northwest Ethiopia, pointing to the volcano's global impacts. Goh Chai Hin / AFP via Getty Images Around 74,000 years ago, a massive supervolcano called Toba erupted in Indonesia, creating the largest known natural disaster in the last 2.5 million years. Now, an archaeological site in northwest Ethiopia, called Shinfa-Metema 1, may point to how humans adapted to the widespread changes in climate induced by the catastrophic eruption. People at this site shifted to eating more fish during dry periods that seem to be linked to the volcano, according to a study published last week in the journal Nature. “This points to how sophisticated people were in this time period,” John Kappelman, first author of the new study and a paleoanthropologist at the University of Texas at Austin, tells the New York Times’ Carl Zimmer. “This on-the-ground evidence contradicts the popular model that the ‘volcanic winter’ caused by the Toba eruption almost drove humans and our closely related ancestors to extinction,” Michael Petraglia, an archaeologist at Griffith University in Australia who did not contribute to the findings, tells the Washington Post’s Carolyn Y. Johnson. “Instead, all evidence from Shinfa-Metema and elsewhere now indicates that human populations were flexible enough in their adaptations to overcome environmental challenges, even those introduced by the Toba volcanic super-eruption of 74,000 years ago,” he adds. Kappelman’s team first came across the Shinfa-Metema 1 site in 2002. Excavations revealed fossil mammoth teeth and ostrich eggshells, as well as bones with cut marks, writes New Scientist’s Michael Le Page. Archaeologists estimate humans populated the site for five to ten years, during a time with seasonal dry periods. The researchers dated the pieces of ostrich eggshell to around 74,000 years ago, the time of the Toba eruption. And the same layers of sediment contained rocks with tiny fragments of volcanic glass, suggesting people lived there both before and after the blast in Indonesia, writes CNN’s Katie Hunt. The site had an unusually high abundance of fish compared to other Stone Age sites, suggesting that people captured more fish as waterholes shrank during the dry season. “People start to increase the percentage of fish in the diet when Toba comes in. They’re capturing and processing almost four times as much fish [as before the eruption],” Kappelman says to CNN. “It is sophisticated behavior… to fish, instead of hunting terrestrial mammals,” Kappelman tells the Washington Post. “That kind of behavioral flexibility is kind of a hallmark of modern humans today.” The researchers also uncovered 16,000 chipped rocks that could be arrowheads, suggesting the site’s inhabitants used bows and arrows to hunt. If confirmed, these artifacts would be the earliest evidence of archery, per the New York Times. Humans’ apparent adaptability at this site might shed light on early migrations, some researchers say. Modern humans spread out from Africa on multiple occasions more than 100,000 years ago, but people without African ancestry are tied genetically to a dispersal that occurred within the last 100,000 years. Previous research had suggested that early humans migrated during humid periods that offered more plants and food sources. Instead, the finding that Stone Age people adjusted to arid conditions suggests humans may have ventured out of Africa during dry periods. They could have followed “blue highways” created by seasonal rivers, moving between small waterholes as they depleted each one, according to a statement from the University of Texas at Austin. Rachel Lupien, a geoscientist at Aarhus University in Denmark who did not contribute to the findings, tells the Washington Post that she isn’t convinced by this theory yet. Comparing the short-term climate at Shinfa-Metema 1 to the climate in other locations, or across thousands of years, overlooks other variables that contribute to climate and rainfall, she says to the publication. “Of course this new work doesn’t mean that humid corridors were not still important conduits for dispersals out of Africa, but this work adds credible additional possibilities during more arid phases,” Chris Stringer, a paleoanthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London who was not involved in the research, tells CNN. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Texas energy companies are betting hydrogen can become a cleaner fuel for transportation

Supporters say developing hydrogen as a fuel is critical to slowing climate change. Critics are concerned that producing it with fossil fuels will prop up the oil and gas industry.

This is the first of a three-part series on emerging energy sources and Texas' role in developing them. Part two, on geothermal energy, publishes Tuesday, and part three, on small nuclear reactors, will publish on Wednesday. JEFFERSON COUNTY — A concrete platform with fading blue paint marks the birthplace of the modern oil and gas industry in southeast Texas. Weather-beaten signs describe how drillers tapped the Spindletop oil well in 1901, a discovery that launched petroleum giants Texaco, Mobil and Gulf Oil. Nearby, a red pipeline traces a neat path above flat, gravel-covered earth. French company Air Liquide started building this unassuming facility, with a wellhead and other machinery, on the iconic site in 2014 to store what it believes will be key to an energy revolution: hydrogen. The ground that once released millions of barrels of oil now holds some 4.5 billion cubic feet of highly pressurized hydrogen. The gas is contained in a skyscraper-shaped cavern that reaches about a mile below ground within a subterranean salt dome. Hydrogen promoters see the gas as a crucial part of addressing climate change. If it’s produced in a way that creates few or no greenhouse gas emissions, it could provide an eco-friendly fuel for cars, planes, 18-wheelers and ships, and could power energy-intensive industries such as steel manufacturing. Hydrogen emits only water when used as fuel. If companies can produce clean hydrogen at a price that’s competitive with gasoline or diesel, supporters say it would revolutionize the fuel industry. That’s a big if. Hydrogen is among the most common elements in the universe, but on Earth it’s typically found bonded with something else, such as carbon. Today, hydrogen is often obtained by isolating it from methane, a mix of carbon and hydrogen that is the main component of natural gas. This process leaves behind carbon dioxide, which worsens climate change if released into the air. Engineers say it’s possible to clean up that process by catching the extra carbon dioxide and reusing it — to get more oil out of a well, for example — or injecting it into the earth to store it. Another less polluting method is to split hydrogen from water, which is made up of hydrogen and oxygen, using electricity generated by wind, solar or nuclear power. Texas has emerged as a leader in producing hydrogen the cheaper way using abundant supplies of natural gas without capturing the carbon dioxide. Air Liquide makes hydrogen at facilities along the state’s coast, from Beaumont to Corpus Christi. More than 100 miles of pipelines move that hydrogen to companies that buy it for processes such as removing sulfur from crude oil. Little hydrogen is made from gas with carbon capture or from water in the state — or the rest of the country. Some academics, policy advisers and companies that make hydrogen say Texas and the Gulf Coast should be where hydrogen created with fewer emissions takes off. A majority of the country’s hydrogen pipelines are already here, Texas’ petrochemical workers have skills that easily transfer to hydrogen production — which involves chemical reactions — and the state has the natural gas and renewable energy needed to produce it. “We can be the breadbasket for not only the U.S. but for the world in providing hydrogen,” said Bryan Fisher, a managing director with RMI, a nonprofit that supports the clean energy transition. But producing enough hydrogen cheaply, building the pipelines to move it and the subterranean caverns to store it and finding the customers to buy it requires companies to take some financial risk. That effort is getting a boost from the federal government, which is offering billions of dollars’ worth of tax credits to kick-start production of hydrogen from gas with carbon capture or water. The government also plans to divide as much as $7 billion among seven regional clusters of projects to build hydrogen infrastructure, including up to $1.2 billion for projects in Texas and Louisiana that plan to make hydrogen largely from natural gas. Competing to break into the industry are traditional fossil fuel companies, including Chevron and ExxonMobil. Hydrogen advocates say interest by the oil giants is good because they have the money and expertise to tackle such an ambitious project. But environmental groups doubt that fossil fuel companies can make hydrogen from natural gas as cleanly as they say they can. They worry the federal funding will prop up oil and gas companies, when the emphasis should be on making hydrogen from water or creating clean power another way. “Producing hydrogen from natural gas is not clean, not low-carbon and cannot and should not be considered a solution in our efforts to solve the world’s worsening climate change crisis,” David Schlissel, the co-author of a report from the Institute for Energy, Economics and Financial Analysis, said in a webinar. Katie Ellet, left, president of hydrogen energy and mobility for Air Liquide, walks past Facility Manager Craig Allen at the company's hydrogen storage facility. Credit: Mark Felix for The Texas Tribune First: A worker monitors the hydrogen storage site. Last: Marked pipelines move hydrogen. Credit: Mark Felix for The Texas Tribune Sitting in a mobile office at the Spindletop site, Katie Ellet, president of hydrogen energy and mobility for Air Liquide, urged critics not to be so puritanical about hydrogen production. She described hydrogen as part of a centuries-long evolution toward progressively cleaner fuels: coal replaced wood, then oil replaced coal. Ellet believes now is hydrogen’s Spindletop moment. She believes the technology, economics and interest are in place to allow the industry to boom. “We transition through these different energy cycles,” Ellet said. “And we’ve gotten better. We’ve learned, and we’ve gotten better. This is us … evolving into that next generation.” Hydrogen hype grows in Texas One weekday in October, Brian Weeks, senior director of business development at GTI Energy, walked onto a Houston hotel’s conference room stage to discuss hydrogen. GTI Energy used to be known as the Gas Technology Institute and researched natural gas. Now it promotes low-carbon energy. Weeks faced a standing-room-only crowd at the Hydrogen North America event. He remembered when, maybe a decade earlier, only seven people at a conference showed up to hear him speak on the topic. People have predicted hydrogen was about to take off before. Weeks worked on the idea off and on since the late 1990s, when he was at Texaco and the company believed hydrogen could power cars. At the time, they worried energy prices would keep rising. Weeks recalled it as a heady time for hydrogen, with actors from the hit TV series Baywatch starring in promotional videos. But hydrogen didn’t catch. Technology for producing it remained expensive, while oil production instead got a giant boost. Hydraulic fracturing technology allowed the United States to rapidly increase how much oil it produced. Still, Weeks wouldn’t have spent so much of his life on hydrogen if he didn’t believe it had a future, he said. Like Ellet, he said the circumstances feel different now. That’s in large part because of the federal government’s big investment: By 2030, the Biden administration wants America to produce 10 million metric tons per year of hydrogen made from water using renewable energy or from gas using carbon storage — about how much is produced now largely from gas without carbon capture. “It’s been a roller coaster, really, for the last at least 20 years,” Weeks said in an interview. Over the past few years, Weeks has helped a coalition of businesses, researchers and others apply for the federal funding earmarked in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for regional hydrogen projects, called “hydrogen hubs.” Nine projects centered in Houston sought money as a single hub, and on Oct. 13, the Department of Energy announced that they and six other applicants from across the country won. As part of the Houston group, Chevron wants to make low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia, which is used in fertilizer. ExxonMobil wants to build hydrogen pipelines and fueling stations for trucks. The Gulf Coast projects aimed to produce more than 1.8 million metric tons of hydrogen per year, more than any of the other winning hubs. Some 80% would be made from natural gas. Brett Perlman, CEO of the nonprofit Center for Houston’s Future, poses for a portrait at the Houstonian Hotel in Houston on March 24, 2024. Credit: Mark Felix for The Texas Tribune Local and state leaders are cheering on the industry’s growth. Brett Perlman, CEO of the nonprofit Center for Houston’s Future, supported the hydrogen hub effort. Perlman’s job is to consider Houston’s economy and what will happen to it as the world works to address climate change and wean itself off fossil fuels. Perlman wrestles with how to make Houston the low-carbon energy capital of the world. He speaks at conferences, too, to build the case that hydrogen should be part of maintaining the city’s success. “The energy transition is going to happen, and Houston will have a role,” Perlman said at his office. “The real question is can Houston be, continue to be, a leader?” Back at the same conference where Weeks spoke, Texas Public Utility Commissioner Lori Cobos, whose agency regulates the electricity industry, explained that because it has huge natural gas reserves and is a top producer of wind and solar energy, Texas is “uniquely positioned to be a national and global leader in hydrogen.” The easy path to selling hydrogen made in these new ways would be to start by converting places already using hydrogen for purposes such as making fertilizer, refining petroleum and treating metals. But even more environmental benefits would come if it could also be used in new applications, said John Hensley, vice president of markets and policy analysis for the industry advocacy group American Clean Power Association. Hydrogen believers envision the fuel could decarbonize industries that are considered hard to electrify. Hydrogen would power planes and trucks that heavy electric batteries would slow down. It would supply the high heat needed to make cement that electricity could not provide. The new federal tax incentives get hydrogen close, if not all the way, to being able to compete with fossil fuels on price, said Fisher of RMI. The government plans to pay up to $3 per kilogram of what it defines as clean hydrogen, such as that made from water, or up to $85 per metric ton of stored carbon dioxide that’s captured after making hydrogen from natural gas. With the subsidies, producing hydrogen from water would cost generally from $4 to $6 per kilogram, and producing it from natural gas would cost generally from $2 to $4, Fisher said. He stressed that it would depend on the specifics of the project. The government’s goal is to get the cost to $1 per kilogram for both types. Environmental groups and critics raise concerns  The hydrogen solution does not sound so promising to environmental groups, especially when it comes to making it from natural gas using carbon capture. A number of critics came together in a windowless Houston conference room of their own later in October to build the case to journalists that carbon capture in hydrogen production shouldn’t be seen as a way to address climate change but instead as a boost to the oil and gas industry. “This is not a transfer off of fossil fuel dependency,” said Jane Patton, campaign manager for U.S. fossil economy at the Center for International Environmental Law. “This is a perpetuation of fossil fuel dependency.” With money from the Rockefeller Family Fund, which has an initiative focused on slowing oil and gas production because it drives climate change, organizers brought in the big guns to tell the other side of the story. The day began with a speech from Bob Bullard, founding director of the Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice at Texas Southern University, known by many as the father of environmental justice. Bullard has passionately told many versions of the same narrative. He pioneered his environmental justice work decades ago when he highlighted that the city of Houston primarily built its trash incinerators and landfills in Black neighborhoods. And he brought attention to one example after another of companies polluting poor communities of color rather than wealthy, white ones. Professor Robert Bullard, center, speaks at a roundtable event with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan at Texas Southern University in Houston on Nov. 18, 2021. Credit: Annie Mulligan for The Texas Tribune Now a member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, Bullard said he’s seen no proof that a build-out of hydrogen and carbon storage will be any better for local communities than the expansion of the petrochemical industry was over the past century, bringing more pollution than benefits to surrounding communities. He continued to call for a federal study to find out whether hydrogen production with carbon capture is safe for the people who live around it. “You’re asking the same people to sacrifice in the same way,” Bullard said at the event. “Can we trust the oil and gas industry to be truthful? I don’t have to write a book on that. We know the answer.” Schlissel, the director of resource planning analysis for the Institute for Energy, Economics and Financial Analysis, believes the government is using a badly built model to judge how clean hydrogen projects are when they’re evaluated for federal support. One problem is that the model inappropriately leaves out the fact that hydrogen pipelines could leak, Schlissel says. Hydrogen can react with the molecule that breaks down harmful methane in the atmosphere and make the methane last longer, contributing to climate change. Schlissel also says the model assumes companies can catch a lot of carbon dioxide — which he believes is totally unrealistic. While companies using carbon capture technology don’t typically publicize their capture rates, Schlissel and his colleagues dug up what they could and concluded that the technology was far short of where it needs to be. Speakers at the event also expressed little confidence in the Railroad Commission of Texas, which regulates the state’s oil and gas industry, to regulate hydrogen pipelines and underground storage. Commission Shift, a watchdog group that calls for reforming the Railroad Commission, says the agency has a poor track record when it comes to protecting Texans from explosions, leaks and other problems with wells and pipelines. In a statement, commission spokesperson Patty Ramon said the agency has "protected public safety and the environment for more than a century." The agency does pipeline inspections regularly and has exceeded Legislative performance goals, Ramon added. These advocates are up against wealthy, politically powerful companies that say making hydrogen from natural gas with carbon capture is a ready solution to start lowering how much carbon dioxide escapes into the atmosphere — even if it’s imperfect. “I find this polarization of seeking perfect at the expense of very good is problematic,” Chris Greig, a senior research scientist with the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment at Princeton University, said in an interview. “And, to be clear, the distrust (of oil and gas companies) is not unwarranted, right? There’s been some wrongs done,” Greig added. “But somehow we have to set that aside and find some sort of middle ground.” Disclosure: Exxon Mobil Corporation and Texas Southern University - Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. We can’t wait to welcome you to downtown Austin Sept. 5-7 for the 2024 Texas Tribune Festival! Join us at Texas’ breakout politics and policy event as we dig into the 2024 elections, state and national politics, the state of democracy, and so much more. When tickets go on sale this spring, Tribune members will save big. Donate to join or renew today.

UN: Droughts hit women and girls hardest in vulnerable areas

In poor and rural regions around the globe, women and girls bear the brunt of drought's impacts, underscoring the need for water strategies to address their unique challenges, according to the United Nations.Fiona Harvey reports for The Guardian.In short:The UN's world water development report calls for enhanced global cooperation on water resources to mitigate conflicts and improve conditions for women and girls.Access to clean water and safe sanitation significantly affect women's and girls' education and safety in disadvantaged areas.Conflicts over water, exacerbated by climate change, pollution and overuse, pose risks of local and regional disputes, impacting food security and health.Key quote:"As water stress increases, so do the risks of local or regional conflict."— Audrey Azoulay, director general of UNESCOWhy this matters:Climate-related water stress significantly impacts communities worldwide, but its effects tend to be more acute for women and girls, who often bear the brunt of environmental crises. Due to traditional roles and socio-economic factors, women and girls are primarily responsible for water collection in many cultures. This task becomes increasingly arduous and time-consuming as water scarcity, exacerbated by climate change, forces them to travel longer distances.Bangladesh is on the front lines of a water crisis driven by climate change and politics. There, as in many other countries, women are made especially vulnerable by safe drinking water shortages.

In poor and rural regions around the globe, women and girls bear the brunt of drought's impacts, underscoring the need for water strategies to address their unique challenges, according to the United Nations.Fiona Harvey reports for The Guardian.In short:The UN's world water development report calls for enhanced global cooperation on water resources to mitigate conflicts and improve conditions for women and girls.Access to clean water and safe sanitation significantly affect women's and girls' education and safety in disadvantaged areas.Conflicts over water, exacerbated by climate change, pollution and overuse, pose risks of local and regional disputes, impacting food security and health.Key quote:"As water stress increases, so do the risks of local or regional conflict."— Audrey Azoulay, director general of UNESCOWhy this matters:Climate-related water stress significantly impacts communities worldwide, but its effects tend to be more acute for women and girls, who often bear the brunt of environmental crises. Due to traditional roles and socio-economic factors, women and girls are primarily responsible for water collection in many cultures. This task becomes increasingly arduous and time-consuming as water scarcity, exacerbated by climate change, forces them to travel longer distances.Bangladesh is on the front lines of a water crisis driven by climate change and politics. There, as in many other countries, women are made especially vulnerable by safe drinking water shortages.

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