The first installment of the sixth assessment report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis, was released earlier this month, reiterating the scientific community’s assessment that greenhouse gas emissions must be slowed if the planet is to reduce the rapidly intensifying impacts of global warming. Otherwise, the planet will heat to a dangerous level by the end of the century, the scientists say.
The full report is scheduled to be completed in 2022. This portion was approved by 195 member governments of the IPCC on Aug. 6.
The report concluded that global warming is increasing the number of droughts and tropical storms, and that every part of the planet is affected. IPCC vice-chair Ko Barrett, a deputy administrator with the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration, said the new report provides “unequivocal” confirmation that humans are warming the planet to a dangerous level, causing widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, and biosphere in every region of the world and across the whole climate system.
State’s Largest Wind Farm Changes Hands
The Granite Reliable Wind Farm, which produces 99 megawatts of power with 33 turbines on four mountain ridges in Dixville, Millsfield, and unincorporated places in Coos County, is being acquired by a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Inc., which owns the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant.
The state’s Site Evaluation Committee approved the ownership transfer from Brookfield Renewable Energy and Freshet Wind Energy, which owns 10.5 percent of Granite Reliable, to Tusk Wind Holdings III as part of a four-wind-farm sale that also includes three California wind farms. The total sale price for the plants, which produce nearly 400 megawatts of power combined, is $733 million.
Much of the power from Granite Reliable is sold to Vermont utilities. The Coos Loop transmission line does not have the capacity to transport the maximum power the wind farm generates, which has been a point of contention with Eversource.
Chip Shortage Forces Production Cuts
Toyota, the world’s largest car-maker, has announced that it will cut worldwide vehicle production by 40 percent in September because of the global microchip shortage. Instead of making 900,000 cars next month, Toyota now plans to produce only 540,000 vehicles.
Volkswagen, the second-largest car producer, may also be forced to further reduce its output, the company told Reuters. “We currently expect supply of chips in the third quarter to be very volatile and tight,” the company said.
Toyota's other rivals, including General Motors, Ford, Nissan, Daimler, BMW, and Renault, have already scaled back production in the face of the global chip shortage.
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