A new investigation from the Guardian's climate journalists shows that oil and gas investment continues globally on 195 projects that would each release more than one gigaton of carbon if the reserves were fully exploited.

This, despite the fact that scientists say 60 per cent of oil and gas reserves will need to stay in the ground if we want to avoid heating the Earth by 1.5 C.

If you add up all of the carbon that could be released from these oil and gas "carbon bombs," Canada is in sixth place as one of the worst potential polluters. We're home to nine sites that could release more than 27 gigatons of carbon.

Canada is also home to three coal carbon bombs.

Damian Carrington is the environment editor for the Guardian. He says the ongoing investment in these projects reveal an oil and gas industry that does not believe the world will achieve its climate goals.

French dijon mustard supply hit by climate and rising costs, say producers

Climate change and rising costs are causing supermarkets in France to run out of dijon mustard, raising questions over whether the shortage could spread to other countries.

French mustard producers said seed production in 2021 was down 50% after poor harvests, which they said had been brought on by the changing climate in France’s Burgundy region and Canada, the second largest mustard seed producer in the world.

It has caused French supermarket shelves to run empty of the condiment, including in several stores visited by the Guardian.

One of France’s largest mustard producers, Reine de Dijon, said the shortages were being driven by climate breakdown. The group’s general manager, Luc Vandermaesen, said a “heat dome” in Canada at the beginning of July in 2021 had “really dried up the crops”.

He added: “In Burgundy, the region had a very wet winter and then three days of cold at the beginning of April last year, so we only harvested about 48% of expectations.”

The war in Ukraine has further restricted seed supply, with both Ukraine and Russia being major exporters of the crop, something which has resulted in costs rocketing, said Vandermaesen.

A new research [paper] shows batteries could last 100 years

Tesla's battery research arm based in Canada published a paper earlier this month that provides details of a battery design that could serve us for 100 years, Electrek reported.

As the world looks to reduce carbon emissions, electric transportation is one of the ways that is being touted to achieve emission targets that countries have set themselves. To ensure this can be sustainable, countries need to switch to renewable sources of power, while electric vehicle makers need to ensure that the cars themselves do not become a cause of concern.

Amogy's system can power the tractor for several hours on a 60 gallon tank of ammonia. But it's not used directly in the fuel cell; instead, the ammonia is cracked in a reactor to make hydrogen on-demand, which is then used to power the fuel cell. While there are inefficiencies in the system, Amogy says that the higher energy density of ammonia in the first place means you can easily carry enough fuel to compensate, coming out ahead of a normal hydrogen fuel cell in terms of both energy and power density.

California Drought Update

MAY 23, 2022

January, February, and March 2022 were the driest on record dating back over 100 years, with just six inches of precipitation observed across the Sierra Nevada.

Statewide precipitation for the water year to date is 73 percent of average. Sierra-Cascades snowpack for the water year to date is 10 percent of average, down from 18 percent last week.

Statewide reservoir storage is 71 percent of average for this time of year.

All of California’s 58 counties are under a drought emergency proclamation. Californians are being asked to reduce their water use by 15 percent over 2020 levels to protect water reserves and help maintain critical flows for fish and wildlife wherever possible.

As of May 16, the state’s voluntary household dry well reporting system received reports of 92 dry wells in the past 30 days. Fifty-two dry wells were reported in Fresno County alone.