🌡️ News
Climate Change Might Hit the Economy Harder and Faster Than Thought
Yuko Takeo, Bloomberg
In the absence of efforts to curb emissions, the earth could warm by 2 degrees by 2050, cutting global gross domestic product by 2.5% to 7.5%, Oxford estimates. Longer term, a rise in temperatures of 4 degrees by 2100 could cut output by as much as 30%.
The U.S. Natural Gas Boom Is Fueling A Global Plastics Boom
Reid Frazier, NPR (Tweet)
Natural gas is mostly used for heating homes or fueling power plants. But when it comes out of the ground it contains another key ingredient — ethane, a building block of plastics — and that is now fueling another booming industry.
America is producing so much ethane that over 300 new petrochemical and plastics plants are either planned or under construction around the country. President Trump has touted the economic benefits of this, recently telling workers at a Shell ethane plant in Pennsylvania that "we are reclaiming our noble heritage as a nation of builders."
Fukushima to be Transformed into Renewable Energy Hub
Yale E360 (Tweet)
Eight years after an earthquake and tsunami transformed Fukushima into the site of one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters, plans are underway to turn the Japanese prefecture into a hub of renewable energy. Japanese officials announced a new $2.7 billion project that will include 11 solar plants and 10 wind farms, built on abandoned or contaminated lands, according to The Nikkei, a Japanese newspaper.
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