Category Archives: Climate Change

Climate Change Chronicles July 2022

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Climate change is not a short news story that can be told in one post, but is a long narrative that will span decades in which history will judge humanity for what we did and did not do as we individually and collectively bear witness. The latest Climate Change Chronicles news digest, prepared for followers of the PLM Green Global Alliance, summarizes news during just one month from around the world about the changing climate and efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The past month of July 2022 was another month of climate-related suffering – including my own Midwest city of St. Louis which flooded from 10 inches of rain over one night – with abundant scientific evidence that demonstrates the worsening effects of climate change and a warming planet. Despite all the bad news, there was continued progress in the movement to decarbonize industry as we share with the PLM Green LinkedIn Group.

July 2022 Eurasia Heat Wave from NASA

Our good news question of the month: what country has started sending its citizens a quarterly climate carbon dividend rebate from a tax on carbon polluters? Read on to find out and learn what you might have missed in your own climate news feeds during the past month. For news about the role of PLM in creating a more sustainable low-carbon economy, subscribe to our other PLM Green news digest on the Intersection of PLM & Sustainability.

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Product and Planet Lifecycle Management

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When the term “Planet Lifecycle Management” first occurred to me during the anxiety-filled months of the COVID pandemic, the environmentalist in me was offended by the Product Lifecycle Management business professional I have been for much of my career.

How arrogant of me to think that we humans can ever manage nature – either a microscopic virus or an entire planet – like it was some engineered and manufactured product!

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Climate Change News Digest May 2022

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The latest Climate Change News Digest, prepared for followers of the PLM Green Global Alliance, summarizes the most important monthly news from around the world about the changing climate and progress in decarbonizing the global economy. Our good news question of the month: what is the “First Movers Initiative” announced at the Davos World Economic Forum this year? Read on to find out and learn what you might have missed in your own news feeds during the past month.

CO2 in the atmosphere as measured at Mauna Loa hit another record at 421 ppm. April is the month when C02 is the highest in the Northern Hemisphere. The Keeling Curve shows no sign of slowing down and is expected to blow past 430 then reach 440. The last time levels were this high was over 4 million years ago on a planet that would not have been habitable for humans or the flora and fauna that we now enjoy.

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Climate Change News Digest April 2022

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The latest Climate Change News Digest for April 2022, prepared for followers of the PLM Green Global Alliance LinkedIn Group, summarizes in one place the most important monthly news from around the world about the changing climate and progress in decarbonizing the global economy. Our good news question of the month: what petroleum organization agreed that a price or tax on carbon was a good idea? Read on to find out and learn what you might have missed during a month with a lot of news, much of it good.

👍 In excellent news, for the first time ever wind and solar energy was reported to have generated more than 10% of total global electricity in 2021. Over 50 countries now get more than 10% of their electricity from solar and wind sources, which grew 23% and 14% respectively last year. Unfortunately, power from burning coal also rose last year by an alarming 9%. Continue reading →

Climate Change News Digest for October 2021

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The latest Climate Change News Digest prepared for followers of the PLM Green Global Alliance summarizes a significant number of news items from October 2021 on the climate crisis and the growing movement to decarbonize the global economy. The good news question of the month: which country announced its intent that all electricity generation will be fossil fuel free by 2035?  Read on to find out.

👍 A global trio of climate research scientists have won the Nobel Prize in Physics this year. The most notable is Dr. Syukuro Manabe who as far back as 1967 developed a model of the link between CO2 in the atmosphere and warming. Yes, we have now had over 50 years of warning from scientists that we failed to take seriously.

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Climate Change News Digest September 2021

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This month’s Climate Change News Digest prepared for followers of the PLM Green Global Alliance summarizes the latest news not just about the changing climate but the growing momentum to decarbonize the global economy. Our good news question of the month: how many international companies have now joined The Carbon Pledge to reduce their GHG emissions to net-zero by 2040? Read on to find out.

The emissions of another powerful greenhouse gas, methane, is getting more visibility from space. Interactive maps made from satellite images clearly show where most of the methane emissions are coming from, especially in Asia and China. The composition of methane in the atmosphere is rising rapidly, but unlike CO2 emissions, its sources have historically been more difficult to identify.

👍 The Biden Administration continues to raise the importance of combating climate change with the announcement of a new pledge to reduce methane gases. In cooperation with the EU the US will work to lower methane emissions by 30% by the end of this decade.

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Climate Change News Digest August 2021

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The month’s Climate Change News Digest prepared for busy followers of the PLM Green Global Alliance summarizes the latest news from the end of summer while many of us were out on vacation. It was not a good month for the planet due to the record heat, droughts, and wildfires along with other new research findings. Yet, there was hopeful progress as more nations, communities, NGOs, and industries around the world agree that climate change is happening now and must be dealt with a greater sense of urgency. Our good news question of the month: what country reported that in 2020 it produced more energy from all types of renewable sources than from coal? Bonus question: what is the difference between green hydrogen and blue hydrogen? Read on to find out.

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Climate Change News Digest July 2021

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Climate Change Digest good news question of the month: Along what country’s coast is the world’s largest tidal energy turbine being installed? Read on to find the answer in the latest Climate Change News Digest prepared for followers of the PLM Green Global Alliance.

The previous month of June 2021 had now been deemed to be the hottest June on record for the United States. Numerous all-time records for any month and date were set at several locations. Temperatures were an astonishing 4.2 degrees F above their 20th century average.

The extreme temperatures in the Pacific Northwest of the US last month were so far off the charts that scientists suggested global warming may be triggering non-linear climate responses. An estimated 800 people died as a result of the heat that reached as high as 121 degrees F in Lytton, Canada.

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The Role of PLM in Slowing Climate Change – Part 1

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This new series of posts by Klaus Brettschneider and Richard McFall, contributing members of the PLM Green Global Alliance (PGGA), will explore how Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) can be used to slow climate change by reducing human-generated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions into the atmosphere.

Carbon dioxide and methane are the two most damaging GHG which are commonly reported on as CO2 equivalents, or CO2e, and are measured in billions of tons or gigatons. Carbon continues to build in the atmosphere due to human activities on the ground where it has now surpassed 410 ppm, nearly double that prior to the start of the industrial age. Since CO2 stays in the atmosphere for hundreds of years, a consensus is urgently building among climate scientists, elected officials, and NGOs like the International Energy Agency that the global economy must attain net-zero GHG emissions by 2050. This starts with a very challenging reduction of 50% by 2030, less than ten years away.

Image credit of NOAA at https://research.noaa.gov/ —

We begin our series by outlining the different roles and use cases that PLM can have in minimizing the carbon footprint – or “decarbonizing” – products, businesses, industries, and even entire economies. But first a brief level set on what PLM is and is not.

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Climate Change News Digest May 2021

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Climate change good news question of the month: What country’s federal court was the latest to rule that their government has a responsibility to protect young people from harm and injury due to the climate crisis? Read on to find the answer in this month’s Climate Change News Digest prepared for followers of the PLM Green Global Alliance.

New studies have shown the urgency of drastically cutting greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) starting now and limiting temperature increases to avoid massive melting of ice on land and sea. Over the coming years scientists predict that the melting of land-based ice, like that in Antarctica and Greenland, will be responsible for about half of the predicted rise in sea-level. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that sea level rise by 2100 will be from 1 to 3 feet. Other scientists worry that an irreversible tipping point, like “ice cliff instability”, could be reached that accelerates Antarctica melting, resulting in rapid sea level rise of dozens if not hundreds of feet.

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Solutions to Avoid a Climate Disaster – Part 1

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International members of the PLM Green Global Alliance (PGGA) met recently to discuss the timely new book “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need.” The panel discussion was moderated by PGGA co-founder Jos Voskuil with participants Klaus Brettschneider, Lionel Grealou, Patrick Hillberg, Ilan Madjar, and Richard McFall.

That author Bill Gates, who admits upfront in the book that he is an imperfect messenger, wrote what many of us often think about the climate crisis:

“It’s easy to feel powerless in the face of a problem as big as climate change. But you’re not powerless. And you don’t have to be a politician or a philanthropist to make a difference. You have influence as a citizen, a consumer, and an employee or employer.”

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Climate Change News Digest April 2021

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The latest Climate Change News Digest offers PLM Green Global Alliance followers a compendium of news and research about climate change from around the world during April 2021. With the recent virtual Climate Summit a remarkable sense of urgency continues to build from world leaders, businesses, industry associations, financial institutions, and NGOs that this is the decade we must reverse GHG emissions.  The PLM Green Alliance is excited to be a small part of this big transition to decarbonize industries through the use of PLM-enabling strategies and digital transformation technologies that our profession has pioneered.

At the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, CO2 levels have for the first time exceeded 420 parts per million. When carbon was first measured in the atmosphere in the 1950s it was 100 ppm lower, at 315. It is now higher than any time in the last 800,000 years based on glacial ice core samples. The world is now more than halfway to a doubling of carbon by the year 2060. Climate scientists warn at this rate the resulting temperature changes would be 4-8 degrees Fahrenheit higher, which could be double that agreed to in the Paris Climate Accords.

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Climate Change News Digest March 2021

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This latest Climate Change News Digest offers busy PLM Green Global Alliance followers in one source a compendium of news, research, and announcements about climate change from around the world. While some climate news may be equally distressing and motivating, there is increasingly more good news from recent months. A remarkable consensus and urgency is emerging from political leaders, industry associations, tech leaders, financial institutions, businesses, and communities – and not just climate scientists – that this is THE decade to reverse trends, invest, and innovate. We within the PLM Green Alliance are excited and motivated be a small part of this growing movement to help decarbonize our industries using PLM-enabling strategies and digital transformation technologies.

The featured image and quote this month is from young European climate activist Greta Thunberg who motivated this much older industry veteran, Richard McFall, to take action within my own profession by starting the PLM Green Global Alliance with European co-founder Jos Voskuil.

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Climate Change News Digest February 2021

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This month’s Climate Change News Digest shared with followers of the PLM Green Global Alliance offers busy professionals a compendium of news, research, and announcements about climate change from around the world. Our featured image is the Keeling Curve that shows the steady rise in the level of CO2 in the atmosphere as measured at Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii.

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Climate Change News Digest January 2021

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This month’s Climate Change News Digest shared with followers of the PLM Green Global Alliance has much news (both good and not so good), research, and announcements from around the world. The featured image this month is a graph of the average global temperature produced by the U.S. NOAA at https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-global-temperature.

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