Source 3: Hellenicshippingnews. (2020, March 18). E. Africa’s locusts outbreak, Zimbabwe’s drought may push neighbors to buy South African corn. Retrieved from https://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/e-africas-locusts-outbreak-zimbabwes-drought-may-push-neighbors-to-buy-south-african-corn/

Summary: The outbreak of desert locusts in East African countries and severe drought in Zimbabwe have raised serious concerns about grain production in these countries, pushing them to consider importing corn from South Africa. Corn production in Kenya and Tanzania this year is estimated to be down 15% and 6% respectively from a year ago, and Zimbabwe is expected to experience a 54% drop. South Africa, on the other hand, is likely to produce 35.3% more corn than they did last year. There was exceptionally heavy rainfall during the 2019 rainy season, which created the perfect environment for the outbreak of desert locusts. 

Response: In contrast to Brazil and Argentina’s lack of rainfall, East African nations have been experiencing an abundance of precipitation. This comes with a whole new set of problems, however. The unifying factor in both situations is (big surprise) climate change. This article illustrates how far-reaching the effects of climate change are, and how they present themselves in more than just the expected ways. While it’s easy to see how climate change has impacted rainfall, it’s not immediately obvious to see how these changes can lead to others, such as the locust outbreak.

Bloomberg. (2019. November 1, 2019.) World’s Biggest Coal User Is Set to Boost Imports This Year. Retrieved November 12, 2019 from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-31/china-likely-to-loosen-cap-on-foreign-coal-as-imports-race-ahead

China, the world’s largest coal consumer is boosting imports this year, 2019. China’s foreign purchase of coal has boosted 10% of last year despite setting goals to fight climate change. Despite this, it is very hard for China to manage and decrease consumption of coal while maintaining affordable energy due to their massive population growth. In efforts to control imports of coal this past year, China sets limits on imports to help domestic mining. This has hurt China though, due to slowing economy because of the trade war with the U.S. Coal imports from neighboring countries last year, for instance, were the equivalent of just 8% of domestic output. This means that China has proven that they can provide enough energy for themselves with the abundance of coal in the country.

Providing affordable power and heat to all of its people is a very difficult task that other countries do not face to the extent that China does. China is undisputedly the largest coal consumer in the world so it is key that they have a plan in place towards fighting the climate crisis. This article shows that there is good but also bad. Regulating coal imports is good, damaging the international trade market for coal, but it is also bad because China is still mining for much of it domestically.

Mining Dot Com. (2019. November 5.) Germany’s coal consumption continues to go down. Retrieved November 11, 2019 from https://www.mining.com/germanys-coal-consumption-continues-to-go-down/

A new report by the Centre for Solar Energy and the German Association of Energy and Water Management (BDEW) reveals that coal produced 50% less energy than renewable forms in Germany during the first three quarters of 2019. Down 45 billion kWh from last year, coal generated 124 billion kWh this year. Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden Württemberg stated that “Solar, wind and other renewable sources, on the other hand, generated around 183 billion kWh of electricity between Q1 and Q3, 2019, which covered 42.9% of gross electricity consumption in the country and represented a 5% increase over the same period last year”. Renewable energy is soon to overcome coal due to being more innovative, efficient, and environmentally friendly although in order for them to continue growing at this rate, we must build more solar and wind farms, BDEW and ZSW state. “We are sliding into a real recession for a lack of land and increasingly prohibitive distance regulations. If politicians don’t ease off the brakes on the expansion of wind farms, we are going to fall well short of the 65% target,”

Great news for Germany, as they are veering away from the coal energy industry they have relied upon for so many years, pointed in the direction towards renewable and more environmentally friendly sources to harvest energy. Despite the problems they project facing in the near future, I believe that Germany is still in great shape towards moving to renewable energy even if they were slow production of these new energy farms. Viewing renewable energy as an investment for the country rather than an unnecessary cost is is important to focus on in considering their future and the planet’s.

US Energy Information. (2019. June 14.) Today in Energy: Japan is the World’s third-largest coal-importing country. Retrieved November 10, 2019 from https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=39853

Behind India the China, Japan imported more that 210 million tons of coal this past year. Japan still relies heavily on coal. One third of their electricity is produced by it and it is also used in their steal producing. With Australia as their primary supplier (60%), 99% of all the coal Japan consumes is imported. Japan’s geography does not support the production of coal, but they are still one of the largest players in driving the industry. Despite Japan’s large role in the coal industry, they plan on cutting coal consumption by 25% by 2030. How? They still plan on using coal, but to just make the burning of it more efficient. The government plans to build these more efficient powerplants within the next decade and is labeling the project as a step towards their environmental goal. Although these newer plants will emit less carbon than older traditional coal-fired plants, the emissions are still twice that of natural gas.

It is nice to see Japan put in an effort, but because they are putting new money in coal energy plants, I doubt that they will push towards renewable sources as fast as other countries like the United States or in Europe. Investing in renewable energy will bring long term benefits to both the environment and the economy. This article also reminded me about the documentary on Japan’s decreasing population. There might  a correlation between their population and their energy usage (majority is imported). With jobs not being filled, they might be forced to outsource many other products as well.

Forbes.(2019. June 28.) Coal Demand Rises, But Remains Below Peak Levels. Retrieved November 9, 2019 from https://www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/2019/06/28/coal-demand-rises-but-remains-below-peak-levels/#79b1e9f42646

The planet’s largest emission of of carbon is from the burning of coal, specifically from Asia. From 1965-2018, Asia’s rate of coal consumption is identical almost to the rate at which our planet as a whole is consuming it. The author Robert Rapier then points out that coal consumption in most of the developing countries is continuing to grow, and in contrast, wealthier, more developed countries are at a steady decline with their coal consumption. 47.5% of Eastern Asia relies on coal, while the European Union and United States both only have about 13% reliance on coal energy.

This article really intrigues me because we can see the coal consumption growth rate of top countries in the past 70 years. Every country goes through an industrialization era where their coal consumption goes through the roof. As technologies advance, it declines often in correspondence with the population. Applying this relationship on a global level, we can predict future outcomes of environmental instances. Regarding coal, if countries like the United States and much of Europe have decreased their coal consumption after their birth rates and population stabilize, we can expect other developing ones to do the same. 

Enerdata. (2019. September 9.) For the second year in a row, global coal production increased (+1.9%), led by China. Retrieved November 9, 2019 from https://yearbook.enerdata.net/coal-lignite/coal-production-data.html

Asia has been the largest producer of coal for the past several decades. The global production of coal has increased 1.9% from 2018, with China in the lead producing a whopping 45% of the global production. China is reluctant to veer away from coal due to past gas shortages for space heating. Australia, Indonesia and Russia all supply China’s top coal suppliers, where coal imports also have increased over previous years (4% last year, highest in past 5 years). Due to government ambitions to lessen imports from other countries, India has faced an increase too on coal production (+5.3% in 2018).

With Asia’s booming population from India to China (which has actually stopped increasing in recent years), energy is in very high demand with the billions of people living on this continent. The article describes how China has put efforts towards renewable energy sources, but because the demand is so high, if a mistake is made or energy supply decreases, it can have detrimental effects. Hopefully in the near future countries like China and India will receive the majority of their energy from renewable sources, as both of these countries are developing at rapid rates.

U.S. News. (2019. April 29.) U.S. Renewable Energy Production Set to Outpace Coal in April. Retrieved August 1, 2019 from https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2019-04-29/report-us-renewable-energy-production-set-to-outpace-coal-in-april

For the first time, U.S. renewable energy production is set to outpace coal in April, according to a recent report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis despite Trump’s backing of the industry. Dennis Wamstead states in the article that no one would have predicted this to happen now five years ago, “The transition that’s going on in the electric sector in the United States has been phenomenal.” It is claimed evident that renewable energy is catching up to coal faster than predicted and will surpass it in production forever very soon.

This article proves energy production to be stepping in the right direction and faster than we expected at that. I’m glad to hear that people underpredicted the speed at which coal production would die. This leads me to believe that we will become even better at making renewable energy in different forms to replace the gap that coal had filled for so long.

U.S. Energy Information Administration. (2019. July 26.) More U.S. Coal-Fired Power Plants are Decommissioning as Retirements Continue. Retrieved August 1, 2019 from https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=40212

This government website has growth statistics of the coal industry from the past decade. The number of coal factory units has decreased over time but the capacity per plant has increased with the help of technological improvements in newer plants. The decommission process of a coal plant is very orderly too and the website goes over that process.

Coal plants are a dying species with a fast decline in operating plants in the U.S..Between 2010 and the first quarter of 2019, U.S. power companies announced the retirement of more than 546 coal-fired power units. The statistics in this article are very good for the future of the environment and renewable energy but the downside is the job displacement and the process of transition between the resources we use for energy production in the U.S.. 

The New York Times. (2019. July 13). People in Coal Country Worry About Climate Too. Retrieved July 27, 2019, from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/13/opinion/sunday/jobs-climate-green-new-deal.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FCoal&action=click&contentCollection=energy-environment&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=6&pgtype=collection

This article goes over an interview between a NYT journalist and and old-timer coal miner whose family has relied on the fossil fule industry for generations. Thomas, 70 years old believes in climate change and further more that we must transfer to other industries to find energy to help reduce the damage we are doing to our planet. The article also talks about the Green New Deal and its potential even though Trump rejected it. It states how Trump and his believers think the act is extremely detrimental to the poor people who work in these industries and there’s no reason to switch to alternative sources of energy. 

I really liked this article because it showed that there are many people who work in the coal industry who want the country to move on from it. Learning about the dangers of coal mining from these first person sources displays the reality that coal is no longer the way to go and science backs it up. Some people are afraid of change because it can mean venturing into the unknown but if we just stay in coal, we will drown in our own mistakes when it is too late.

ThinkProgress. (2019. May 13). Future of workers uncertain as third-biggest US coal company declares bankruptcy. Retrieved June 27, 2019, from https://thinkprogress.org/cloud-peak-coal-workers-bankruptcy-trump-just-transition-a8fe2479013d/

Coal company in Montana, third largest in the country went bankrupt in in May this year, further proving the fall of the industry despite Trumps efforts to keep it alive. More coal plants closed during Trump’s first two years in office than during the entire first term of the Obama administration which even more clearly displays the direction of thi industry. The article also goes into depth about the working conditions of coal miners, many of which work for companies that don’t have unions to support their employees.

This piece of text uses the downfall of this large company as an example to show the overall trend in the coal business. The future of the coal industry is uncertain which makes investors veer away from it. Unions too are in a troubled position because they are having trouble promising the safety and security of these jobs for these people because the industry is dying.