Climate Change with Scott Amyx

Welcome to “Fridays with Scott” segment of the Climate Change program. So is there investment appetite for renewable energy? In this multi-part series, I explore the strength of clean energy investments. On the supply side, some energy producers are investing in renewables. Shell has allocated as much as 8 percent of their capital budget or $2 billion to renewable energy projects, roughly four times what competitors BP and Total SA spend. CEO Van Beurden is questioned on the wisdom of pivoting away from oil & gas, Shell’s bread and butter, but he doesn’t see another option. If demand for oil & gas falls in the next decade as predicted, Shell would shrink if he doesn’t diversify. For other energy companies, they are doubling down on oil & gas. Spurred by wind and solar sector growth, investment in America’s renewable energy industry exceeded $40 billion in 2017 according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, and is tracking close to the same amount in 2018, showing surprising resilience despite policy headwinds. While the industry’s continued growth looks strong, some analysts expect renewable energy installations will decline in the 2020s, putting the U.S. at risk of falling behind other nations that are investing heavily in renewables and the jobs that come with them. We are hitting a pause, when we should be doubling down on the energy system – and the energy economy – of the future. Fortunately, a new financial sector survey shows strong confidence that U.S. renewable energy projects will continue to increase in attractiveness compared to other investment portfolio asset classes, and cumulative U.S. private investment in renewable energy could reach up to $1 trillion between 2018 and 2030. Stay tuned next Friday as I continue to elaborate on the investment appetite for renewable energy. And to learn more, visit https://ScottAmyx.com/.

This is Scott Amyx with today’s Climate Change Flash Briefing. Earlier this week high winds battered much of the East Coast, cutting power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses, thousands of flight delays and cancellations, and even ice tsunami that pushed walls of broken ice onto the shores of Lake Erie. Wind gusts of hurricane force — 74 mph (119 kph) — or higher were reported around the region, including West Virginia and New York. While on top of Mount Washington in New Hampshire, 144 mph (231 kph) wind was recorded. Residents in Ontario witnessed 25 to 30 feet tall ice mounds piled up on their properties. Piles of broken-up ice blew unto shore because of 60 miles an hour gusts that hammered the region around the Great Lakes. According to the Weather Channel, there are several reasons spring is the most active weather season. Spring is still a snowy time of the year. Tornado activity in the lower 48 states begins to increase in March before peaking in April, May and June. River flooding often occurs in spring in places such as the Ohio Valley, Mississippi Valley and other part of New England. Gusty winds often accompany strong spring storms. The windiest time is early spring with March being the windiest for the East Coast and the Plains. And finally, spring is known for its changing temperatures with up and time temperatures due to strong low-pressure systems moving through the central and eastern states that draw warm air ahead of them into the northern area of the country. Later in spring, the atmosphere becomes less prone to wild temperature swings. In the meantime, brace yourself out there. Stay tuned tomorrow as I discuss investment appetite for clean energy. And to learn more, visit https://ScottAmyx.com/.

This is Scott Amyx with today’s Climate Change Flash Briefing. Today is International Polar Bear Day, an annual event that raises awareness about the impact of climate change and thinning sea ice on polar bear populations. As I shared on my February 14th flash briefing, things are not looking great for polar bears. The ongoing loss of their sea ice habitat is forcing polar bears to desperately look for food elsewhere, pushing them closer to human villages and cities. Some estimates put two-thirds of the global population of polar bears could be wiped out by 2050. The day encourages people to find ways to reduce their carbon output, such as by turning down their thermostat, driving less or installing energy efficient insulation in homes. But, I would challenge you to further. Every little thing helps but to really make a difference, it requires changing our source of energy. As long as we continue to burn fossil fuels to generate electricity, power businesses and cars, nothing is going to change. Make a commitment to buy clean energy and/or invest in clean energy. Listen to my “Fridays with Scott” episodes to learn how you can get involved in increasing clean energy. Remember, turning down the thermostat or walking more helps but to turn the tide in climate change, it requires an overhaul in our energy production. Stay tuned next time to find out why it’s been so windy lately. And to learn more, visit https://ScottAmyx.com/.

This is Scott Amyx with today’s Climate Change Flash Briefing. Do you live in Florida or have a vacation home? In a few years you might find yourself literally under water. More than half the population of 100 Florida cities live within 4 feet of the local high tide line. Global warming has raised global sea level about 8 inches since 1880, and the rate of rise is accelerating. Across the country, nearly 5 million people live in homes at less than 4 feet above high tide. Between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, sea level is estimated to rise between three to seven feet by 2050. According to Harold Wanless, the Chair of the Geology Department at the University of Miami, the rate of sea level rise is currently doubling every seven years, and “that we have to take seriously the possibility that we could have 15 feet by then.” So what can be done? One mitigation is to protect marshlands. Florida has more wetlands than any other state. Florida’s marshlands are in danger from invasive grasses and from invasive rodents called nutria. Wetlands are highly valuable because they absorb flood water, help reduce the impact of coastal storms by absorbing wave energy, filter out pollution and provide habitat for wildlife. And for salt marshes to persist despite rising waters, they must grow at a rate equal to or greater than the rate of sea level rise. Florida Governor Rick Scott recognizes the real danger of rising sea level to the very existence of Florida. That’s why he and his environmental regulators are trying to protect lands within marsh migration corridors so wetlands have places for the marshes to migrate into the future. Stay tuned next time to find out what you can do to help on International Polar Bear Day. And to learn more, visit https://ScottAmyx.com/.

Welcome to the Monday Climate Change interview with Scott Amyx. Today, I’m joined by Seth Schultz, the founder of Urban Breakthroughs, a consultancy focused on climate change and cities. He is an advisor to organizations such as the Global Covenant of Mayors on Research & Innovation, the Coalition for Urban Transitions, the Global Commission on Adaptation and leading global engineering firms. This past year, he was the Co-Chair of the Scientific Steering Committee for CitiesIPCC and served as a lead author on the IPCC Special Report on 1.5 Degrees. Stay tuned next time. And to learn more, visit https://ScottAmyx.com/.

Welcome to “Fridays with Scott” segment of the Climate Change program. Last Friday, I talked about consumer demand for clean energy. Today, I am going to cover renewable energy demand from industries.   Google Data centers are a large source of carbon emissions. According to a recent report in the journal Nature, data centers use 200 terawatts of energy a year—roughly 1 percent of global electricity use. And that’s why Google with its massive data center infrastructure, 14 in total around the globe, have been carbon-neutral since 2007. They are able to achieve this by reducing its energy demand, including the use sophisticated AI algorithms for energy optimization, by buying renewables to match its use of non-renewable energy, and finally through other carbon offsets. In 2017, Google purchased 3 GWs of wind and solar to offset their energy use, allowing the company for the first time to match 100 percent of its energy use with renewables. It was the first year it was able to buy enough clean energy to offset all its data center energy consumption. The message is clear. There is demand for renewables but there isn’t enough supply. This is a common theme across many sectors.   Walmart Walmart is embracing 100 percent renewable energy by 2020. They want to scale renewables by driving the production of procurement of 7 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of renewable energy globally by 2020. They want to accelerate efficiency by reducing the energy per square foot required to power their Walmart stores by 20 percent versus their 2010 baseline. Walmart’s renewable energy activities are focused on three core objectives: Development and installation of new renewable energy projects at scale Driving down the cost of renewable energy Securing cost-effective, stable renewable energy pricing that meets or beats utility power pricing    EU The European Union announced a plan to go totally carbon neutral in 30 years. It still requires EU member nations to adopt in 2020. The holistic plan includes strategies ranging from increasing the amount of electricity generated by solar and wind farms to 80 percent to investing in energy efficiency measures like improved building insulation to cut down on heating and air conditioning. Germany, for instance, is considering closing coal power plants by 2038.   There’s another great reason for transitioning to clean energy. Solar employs more workers than traditional energy sectors. The U.S. Department of Labor recently underscored the job-creation potential by reporting that solar PV installers and wind turbine service technicians are the nation’s two fastest growing occupations. Stay tuned next Friday as I discuss investment appetite for clean energy. And to learn more, visit

This is Scott Amyx with today’s Climate Change Flash Briefing. Waiter, can I have some more water, please? He offers you more water but with one caveat. It’s full of microplastics. Microplastics are very small pieces of plastic debris resulting from the disposal and breakdown of plastic products and industrial waste. Groundwater make up about a quarter of the drinking water supply worldwide. It’s also what’s used to bottle water, make beer and wine. Because of their geology, groundwater aquifers are highly porous so they easily absorb contaminants from the surface above. Researchers from the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center and Loyola University Chicago collected 11 groundwater samples from an aquifer near St. Louis and six others in northwestern Illinois. Only one sample came back microplastic-free. The researchers speculate the tiny plastic fibers they found are coming from household septic tanks, perhaps carrying runoff from laundry loads. Clothes have previously been identified as a key source of microplastic pollution, with each wash potentially releasing hundreds of thousands of tiny plastic fibers. In this latest study, the highest concentration of plastics found in a sample was around 15 particles per liter. The researchers didn’t just find microplastics in the water. They also found medicine and household contaminants, supporting the idea that the particles originated in household septic systems. Another study from the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) warned that the impact of microplastics in soils, sediments and the freshwaters could have a long-term negative effect on our ecosystems throughout the world. These reports remind us that our local water supplies are highly vulnerable. And whether microplastics enter our drinking water or fish in the ocean, they eventually make their way back to us. Stay tuned next time to find out why protecting our marshlands could save lives and billions of dollars in coastal damage. And to learn more, visit https://ScottAmyx.com/.

This is Scott Amyx with today’s Climate Change Flash Briefing. Another hard days work. You just want to relax with your favorite beer and watch a game. But what happens if your beer starts to lose its great taste? To make great beer, you need water, yeast, hops and barley. Almost 142 millions bushels of barley are produced for beer making but barley is fragile. They need just the right amount of water and cool temperatures. Storms can destroy crops overnight. Climate change is unbalancing the art of making great beer. There are more droughts, heat waves or overall warmer temperatures. In these conditions, barley yield goes down as much as 95 percent. The starch level goes up, making the sugar water that gets fermented into beer too gloppy. The proteins in the seeds increase. There’s not enough starch to make into beer. And there’s not enough enzyme to break down the starch into sugar to feed the yeast. According to research, this could lead to the price of beer to double and decrease in worldwide beer consumption by 16 percent. And the worse part is that beer just won’t taste the same. Even the beer companies are taking steps. They’re developing barley genes that can withstand less rain and 100 plus degree temperatures. Anheuser-Busch InBev director of global barley research comments, “The climate today drives disease pressure, drives environmental stresses and they will change in the future. As climate changes, we have to be ready for that so we have good barley production.” For wine lovers, the situation is the same. So if you love beer or wine, the solution is to move away from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy in order to slow down the effects of climate change. Stay tuned next time to find out why your beer, wine, table salt and drinking water might be contaminated with microplastics. And to learn more, visit https://ScottAmyx.com/.

This is Scott Amyx with today’s Climate Change Flash Briefing. You or someone in your family is bound to be afraid or creeped out by bugs. Don’t you sometime wish we didn’t have to deal with mosquitos, spiders and cockroaches? There are more insects than all the fish in the oceans and the livestock on land. They outnumber us by a factor of 17. Whether you’re a fan of insects or not, they play a critical role in our ecosystem. According to a report in the Biological Conservation, 40 percent of all insect species may be endangered over the next several decades. About 41 percent of all insect species have seen population declines in the past decade. The researchers indicate that we are witnessing the largest insect extinction event on Earth since the late Permian and Cretaceous periods. Studies suggest that the causes of insect declines are not tied to particular habitats but affect common traits shared among all insects. The researchers attribute this to habitat loss as a result of human development, deforestation and expansion of agriculture; pollution from pesticides, fertilizers and industrial wastes; parasites and pathogens; and climate change. Why are insects so important? Researchers warn that the loss of insects have a catastrophic impact on our planet as insects are the foundational base of many of the world’s ecosystems. When insects go extinct, other species soon follow. It begins to jeopardize the entire food supply. Stay tuned next time to find out why your favorite beer might be in jeopardy. And to learn more, visit https://ScottAmyx.com/.

Welcome to the Monday Climate Change Interview with Scott Amyx. Today I’m joined by Nick Troutman who is a World Champion whitewater kayaker and outdoor enthusiast. He is the World Freestyle Kayak Champion, North American Champion, Bronze Medalist at the World Championships, and 3x Canadian National Champion. He has descended numerous waterfalls including the Niagara Gorge. Nick has been featured in Nomads: National Geographic and Rush HD TV. Listen to the full episode on .   Stay tuned next Monday for another great guest interview. And to learn more, visit https://ScottAmyx.com/.