California Sets Record

First, the good news: The amount of planet-warming gases Californians released into the atmosphere in 2020 was 9% less than the previous year — a record decline mostly because of motorists driving less amid the COVID-19 lockdown.

Now, the bad news: The quantity of carbon dioxide spewed by record-setting wildfires that same year effectively erased almost two decades of emission reductions on the part of the world’s fifth — and soon to be fourth — largest economy.

Those two findings — both released in a little more than a week’s time this month — have painted a grim and confusing portrait of California’s efforts to curb global warming. They also come as a U.N. report finds that global greenhouse gas reduction efforts are “highly inadequate.”  READ MORE...

China Not Impressed

US climate envoy John Kerry has told China that climate change is more important than politics as tensions between the two countries continue.  He made the remarks following two days of talks with Chinese leaders in the city of Tianjin.

But China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned on Wednesday that the worsening relationship could hamper future co-operation on climate issues. Both countries have outlined steps to tackle climate change.  But Mr Kerry has called on China to increase its efforts to tackle carbon emissions.

Tensions between the two countries have worsened in recent months with disputes over China's human rights record, the South China Sea and the Covid-19 pandemic.  Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Mr Kerry said he had told the Chinese that "climate is not ideological, not partisan and not a geostrategic weapon".

"It is essential... no matter what differences we have, that we have to address the climate crisis," he said   Earlier, Mr Wang called on the US to "stop seeing China as a threat and an opponent", accusing Washington of a "major strategic miscalculation towards China".

"It is impossible for China-US climate co-operation to be elevated above the overall environment of China-US relations," he said. China became the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide in 2006 and is now responsible for more than a quarter of the world's overall greenhouse gas emissions.

President Xi Jinping has said he will aim for China's emissions to reach their highest point before 2030 and for the country to be carbon neutral by 2060. But it is not yet clear how he plans to achieve this.  Mr Kerry said he aimed to meet Chinese leaders again ahead of the upcoming COP26 UN climate summit in Glasgow this year and push for stronger emission reduction targets.  READ MORE  

Wild Pigs and CO2

Wild Pigs Release as Much CO2 as More Than 1 Million Cars
They are like tractors plowing through fields.




Feral pigs have the same climate impact as 1.1 million cars, according to recent research.

Using modeling and mapping techniques, an international team of scientists predict that wild pigs are releasing 4.9 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide each year around the world when they uproot soil.1

One of the study’s authors, Christopher O'Bryan, is a postdoctoral research fellow of the University of Queensland. He tells Treehugger that feral pigs are prolific globally.

“Wild pigs (Sus scrofa) are found on every continent except Antarctica but are native throughout most of Europe, Asia, and parts of northern Africa,” he says. “As such, they have been spread around the world by humans and are invasive species in Oceania, parts of Southeast Asia, parts of southern Africa, and North and South America.”

For the study, which was published in the journal Global Change Biology, researchers only looked at areas where wild pigs are invasive and not native.  READ MORE