The EU has had energy labels for dishwashers, washing machines, fridges, lamps and computer since 1995.
But since then, consumer groups have complained that the design of the grades has been guided by industry sensitivities, resulting in labels which are not helpful.
Labels of A+, A++ and A+++ were added, and before long no appliances were earning a “C” and a “B” was being seen as a failing grade.
The new labels adopted today scrap the “A+” labels and reintroduce the original A-G scale.
Other improvements include a requirement to display energy efficiency class on promotional materials such as TV commercials and online ads, as well as on the products themselves.
This will help market surveillance authorities verify that products comply with energy efficiency requirements and that the information on the label is accurate.
The European Commission estimates that 10-25% of products on the European market do not fully comply with energy efficiency labelling regulations, and that around 10% of potential energy savings are lost due to non-compliance.
Consumer advocates and environmentalists have welcomed the changes adopted today, thought they said the EU could have gone further.
“However, until durability and repairability information is also included, the label will remain incomplete.” The European Commission said in a statement that such information will be included in a different EU regulation governing ecodesign.
However repairability information will not be included on labels.

The microbial process of “nitrogen fixation” converts the element into a form that organisms can use, and was discovered recently in the frigid polar waters.
This shift may be a result of climate change and could affect global chemical cycles, according to the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “It was shocking to find this process in the Arctic,” said Deborah Bronk, one of the study’s authors and president and CEO of Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences.
Scientists long believed that the major nitrogen-fixing phytoplankton in the ocean lived only in warm waters, and that nitrogen fixation was essentially absent in the Arctic Ocean.
In 2017, Bronk and colleagues published a paper revealing that nitrogen fixation was in fact occurring in the Arctic Ocean, but they didn’t yet know which organism was responsible for the process. “The more we learn about the ocean, the more we see that organisms are incredibly plastic in what they can do and where they can live.”
As phytoplankton grow, they remove carbon from the ocean and ultimately the atmosphere — but they need nitrogen in order to do this, which UCYN-A may increasingly provide.
Continuing to investigate this process and incorporating it into global biogeochemical models will improve climate predictions and the understanding of important ocean cycles. “It is only because of past research that we were able to identify that this process is new,” Bronk said. “This study highlights the fact that sometimes not finding a process you are looking for is incredibly significant.

Guest essay by Eric Worrall Nature refusing to play along with climate crisis narratives.
‘Tornado drought’ dampens Democrats’ climate-change narrative Bernie Sanders pushes climate-change narrative despite last year’s ‘tornado drought’ In the wake of last week’s deadly twister outbreak, Sen. Bernie Sanders declared that climate change is making tornadoes worse, to which the experts say: Not so fast.
Purdue University professor Ernest Agee, who has studied tornadoes for 50 years, said his research and that of other scientists shows that the number of violent U.S. tornadoes has in fact tapered off slightly in recent decades.
… What’s more, 2018 was the first year since record-keeping began in 1950 without an EF4 or EF5 tornado, the most devastating twisters, as rated on the Enhanced Fujita Scale from EF0 to EF5, according to the NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center.
“We’re definitely not seeing a trend of increase.
If anything, we’re seeing a decrease in the number of strong and violent tornadoes,” Mr. Agee said.
“And that’s in papers that I’ve published and my students and other colleagues that are prominent in the field.” … Climate change is inevitably blamed for any natural disaster, and Mr. Sanders led the charge following the deadly tornado, saying in a Facebook post, “The science is clear, climate change is making extreme weather events, including tornadoes, worse.
We must prepare for the impacts of climate change that we know are coming.” … “He [Sanders] references our study, which says that climate change is shifting eastward.
Move over wind farms.
Step aside acres of solar panels.

“I really should have started a blog about that,” she laughs on a call to mbg.
For Luger, this realization was empowering—and she wanted to share it with other Natives across the country.
Today, Luger and her partner Thosh Collins, who is also Native, help indigenous populations across America reclaim their health and wellness through their company, Well for Culture.
There’s a massive disparity between Native Americans’ traditional way of life and the conditions that they live in today. “We don’t have terms in our language for ‘wellness,’ and it’s because a lot of our indigenous practices are automatically wellness-based,” explains Collins, referencing practices like eating foraged foods as an example. “People are living in food deserts, where they don’t have access to the food they used to subsist on,” Collins says.
They also travel around the country to host wellness workshops with indigenous people on reservations, as well as in nonprofits, schools, and corporations. “Indigenous wellness can be useful not just for indigenous people but for all people.
But let indigenous people lead that.
As for the lessons we can all learn from indigenous wellness, Luger says that respecting the earth, putting food at the center of culture, and finding balance in the everyday all rank high on the list: “I find it interesting that today many functional medicine practitioners are presenting this idea that for many people is revolutionary: We can’t subcategorize things like food and fitness as separate because everything impacts everything else.

The project, developed and owned by Juhl Energy, is among the first of its kind in the country to pair wind and solar on the same site.
Other customer prospects include cooperatives and municipally owned power providers in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa.
Electricity generated by wind-solar hybrids gets transmitted directly to distribution grids of utilities or companies.
Global Market Insights predicts hybrid solar wind storage projects will increase 4 percent in the United States by 2024, becoming a $1.5 billion market internationally.
Selling the renewable credits prohibits Lake Region from claiming it as a green project, but that turned out to be an acceptable tradeoff in return for greater cost savings, Norrbom said.
Lake Region CEO Tim Thompson said the project lowers costs to ratepayers and “gives us a local renewable energy source with the wind and solar production that will tie into the local distribution grid we already own.” The co-op can only produce electricity for up to 5 percent of its generation demand, he said, but the wind hybrid project does not put Lake Region near that threshold.
“We’re trying to help our members save money, be renewable and be good stewards of the environment.” One barrier to further adoption of wind-solar hybrids has been the rules and tariffs that regulate electricity in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. marketplace, said Beth Soholt, executive director of Clean Grid Alliance, which promotes wind and clean energy.
“Wind and solar pair well together because solar produces during the day and wind is more of a nighttime source.
Greater economies of scale would bring even more savings for ratepayers.
The problem is many cooperatives and municipal-owned electric companies have contracts with their generation and transmission cooperatives or utilities limiting self-generated electricity to 5 percent of their demand.

That is, until you figure out how many amazing health benefits it has and how you can apply it to improve your well-being.
This means that it’s aged and yes, that it can be expensive.
In fact, like wine, some of the most expensive forms of this tea can sell for thousands of dollars!
One demonstrated that black tea extract from pu-ehr tea significantly reduces cholesterol levels and could be a safe and useful tool in improving cholesterol plaque formation and/or obesity in those with metabolic syndrome.
The study authors took aqueous extracts of fermented and non-fermented pu-erh teas and looked at the composition and function of the gut microbiome in rats who had diet-induced obesity.
Better blood sugar balance is another of the reasons people may want to drink pu-ehr tea.
One interesting article discussed how a group of carbohydrates in pu-ehr tea could block alpha-glucosidase and might have a less inhibitory effect on alpha-amylase.
The authors suggested that it improved glucose intolerance and it may have a beneficial role in blood sugar balance in those with type 2 diabetes.
While the research is still developing on pu-ehr tea, it’s pretty amazing stuff.
Many of you are probably ready to become a pu-ehr connoisseur after hearing all the benefits of this fermented Chinese black tea.

for Pete’s sake Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, likes to imagine what America will look like in 2054, the year he’ll be 72, the same age as the current president.
His campaign is underpinned by the concern that young people today will likely be stuck with the problems created by older generations, especially climate change.
Midwestern sensibilities Two big floods hit South Bend in the past couple of years — floods that “should happen once in a lifetime, if that,” Buttigieg told me.
So when he thinks about climate change, he remembers a family on the porch of their flooded house in South Bend, the night before the first day of school.
So he prioritized “finding a cost-saving and environmentally-friendly solution to the stormwater problem,” said Therese Dorau, director of South Bend’s sustainability office.
He’s installed a couple of free electric vehicle chargers downtown and has spent millions on greener buildings, parks, trails.
“I think that anyone who uses the word ‘security’ in a 21st-century context had better be able to explain what they would be doing about climate change,” he said.
In previous presidential elections, Buttigieg might have had that issue all to himself.
“Unlike something like the Great Depression or World War II, this time we see it coming.
But the homegrown Indiana politician thinks that he can reach the Midwestern voters that coastal Democrats can’t.

UN staff and delegates to the UN Environment Assembly, which opened in Nairobi on Monday, were among 157 to die on the way from Addis Ababa At least 22 UN staff died in an Ethiopian Airlines plane crash on Sunday, along with many delegates travelling to a major environment summit, according to officials.
“The environmental community is in mourning today,” she said in a statement released as she participated in the opening ceremony of the UN Environment Assembly in the Kenyan capital on Monday.
We lost UN staff, youth delegates travelling to the assembly, seasoned scientists, members of academia and other partners,” said Msuya.
The airline has grounded its fleet of Boeing 737 8 Max aircraft – the same model involved in a recent disaster in Indonesia.
UN offices lowered the organisation’s flag to half mast on Monday.
The Associated Press reported that 32 Kenyans were killed in the accident, nine Ethiopians, eighteen Canadians as well as multiple citizens from China, the US, Italy, France, the UK, Egypt, the Netherlands, India and Slovakia.
“The entire UN Environment Assembly will honour them in our efforts this week,” Msuya said.
The assembly aims to generate a sharper political focus on biodiversity, climate change and the natural systems that support human civilisation.
Global issues need global coverage CHN is dedicated to bringing you the best climate reporting from around the world.
It’s a huge job and we need your help.

for Pete’s sake Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, likes to imagine what America will look like in 2054, the year he’ll be 72, the same age as the current president.
His campaign is underpinned by the concern that young people today will likely be stuck with the problems created by older generations, especially climate change.
Midwestern sensibilities Two big floods hit South Bend in the past couple of years — floods that “should happen once in a lifetime, if that,” Buttigieg told me.
So when he thinks about climate change, he remembers a family on the porch of their flooded house in South Bend, the night before the first day of school.
So he prioritized “finding a cost-saving and environmentally-friendly solution to the stormwater problem,” said Therese Dorau, director of South Bend’s sustainability office.
He’s installed a couple of free electric vehicle chargers downtown and has spent millions on greener buildings, parks, trails.
“I think that anyone who uses the word ‘security’ in a 21st-century context had better be able to explain what they would be doing about climate change,” he said.
In previous presidential elections, Buttigieg might have had that issue all to himself.
“Unlike something like the Great Depression or World War II, this time we see it coming.
But the homegrown Indiana politician thinks that he can reach the Midwestern voters that coastal Democrats can’t.

Zakiya Mckenzie, one of the Forestry Commission’s new writers in residence, can’t find her way to this nature reserve just west of Bristol.
Come to our meetings, in our space, and ask us, ‘What can we do?
She developed her love of green spaces staying with her grandmother in rural Jamaica.
I’m not going to tell the kids to be quiet to make everyone else feel comfortable.
As a black woman interested in writing about the woods, Mckenzie must also face the extremely white world of publishing.
“Publishing itself has its own problem with representation,” she says.
“I love all the different emotions you have in these narrative poems,” says Francis during a walk around a commission wood not far from her home in Petersfield, Hampshire.
“They are always about people, and I wanted to write about the forest in the same way.
“I find woods very comforting,” says Francis.
It’s a complete cycle of everything and that’s reassuring and calming.” The woods, says Mckenzie, “just remind me I’m so tiny compared to everything else and my problems today might not be the same problems tomorrow.

oh sheet Changing weather patterns have triggered a stark change in how Greenland is melting, according to a new paper published on Thursday.
By combining data from satellites and weather stations, a team of scientists found that rainstorms are now driving nearly one-third of the frozen island’s rapid melt.
Those runoff events are increasingly tied to rainstorms — even during winter — that trigger extensive new ice melt.
“That was a surprise to see,” lead author Marilena Oltmanns of the Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research in Germany said in a statement.
The researchers looked at more than 300 sudden melt episodes from 1979 to 2012, the most recent year available.
Warmer air temperatures are having a big effect on Greenland, but warm water falling as rain is apparently disastrous to the ice — tunneling through divots and cracks and melting surrounding snow with abandon.
The rain-on-snow process transforms the surface of the ice sheet from fluffy and reflective to compact and dimmer, a dangerous feedback loop that’s perfect for encouraging further melt on sunny days.
“We are starting to realize, you have to look at all the seasons.” It seems increasingly clear that the Greenland ice sheet crossed a tipping point around 2002.
In the decade after that year, melting increased nearly four-fold, coming mostly from the southern part of the island that’s especially prone to these rain-on-ice events.
In recent decades, meltwater tied to rain events has doubled in the summer, and tripled in the winter — despite overall total volume of precipitation on the ice sheet remaining about the same.

A forest ranger has been killed in Virunga national park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, weeks after the reserve was reopened to tourists.
Virunga, home to critically endangered mountain gorillas as well as hundreds of other rare species, was shut for more than eight months for a review of security after a series of attacks on staff last year.
A statement from the park said the ranger, Freddy Mahamba Muliro, died during an attack on a ranger position in its central sector.
It gave no further details.
It is a tragedy that his young life has been cut short in dedicated service to Virunga.
Now more than ever, Ranger Freddy’s death highlights the very real threats to our rangers in their protection of Virunga national park,” said Emmanuel de Merode, the park’s director.
In May one of the many local militias, Mai Mai, attacked a vehicle carrying tourists from the city of Goma, about 30 miles from the park headquarters, to their accommodation.
A 25-year-old ranger was shot dead, a Congolese driver was wounded and two British tourists, Robert Jesty and Bethan Davies, were held by the militia overnight.
Following that attack, De Merode, a Belgian aristocrat, said the decision had been taken reluctantly to close Virunga to tourists to allow a thorough review of security precautions and reinforcement of the 700 rangers deployed to keep animals and visitors safe.
The park, located in the DRC’s North Kivu province, has a reputation as one of the most dangerous conservation projects in the world.

Lincoln takes office Tuesday.
Congraaaats to Lincoln, the new pet mayor of Fair Haven!
It’s a big job, no kidding, but you goat this.
#vtpoli 🐐 https://t.co/45tlzPuOyB — Rep. Peter Welch (@PeterWelch) March 7, 2019 Lincoln, with 13 votes, beat out a dog named Sammie that received 10 votes.
The other candidates combined for 30 votes.
During its time as mayor, Lincoln will be expected to attend local events, such as marching in the Memorial Day parade wearing a custom-made sash.
Town Manager Joseph Gunter said he heard about a small town in northern Michigan trying something similar and he thought it would be a good way to raise money for a local playground.
It only raised about $100 through a $5 entry fee, but it provided other benefits.
“It was a great way to introduce the elementary school kids to local government,” he said.
The balloting for pet mayor was held alongside the regular Town Meeting Day vote, but any town resident could vote.

Should she try to make more of a publicly visible effort to live a climate-conscious lifestyle — like, say, committing to flying and driving less?
A. Dear IMHAH, I’m going to assume this question stems from the New York Post story that meticulously and gleefully catalogued the “gas-guzzling” habits of outspoken environmental advocate and Green New Deal co-parent Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: taking ubers over public transit, flights over trains, and, ah, not composting sweet potato peels.
And, of course, she wants to use political power to transform American society in a potentially remarkable way.
Although the Rupert Murdoch-owned Post seems pretty obsessed with bashing the young congresswoman, the driving question behind the article’s litany of eco-transgressions is a legitimate one that plagues American environmentalists every day: How does one live in such a wasteful, energy-intensive society without being a hypocrite?
Her introduction to environmentalism as a high school student focused on “behavior change as opposed to, say, learning about city council.” She says that lens obscured the fact that she was “living in a system created by political decisions made before [she] was even born.” But when you look closer, the line between individual actions and policy-level changes starts to blur.
If climate change is a driving value for you, an individual, shouldn’t you do everything that you personally can to limit your own carbon-footprint?
Shouldn’t you choose the emissions-reducing option, even if it’s unpleasant and inconvenient?
Gottlieb goes on to quote philosopher Marion Hourdequin: “A commitment to mitigating climate change should entail a commitment to being the kind of person who is thoughtful about her greenhouse gas emissions and makes an effort to reduce them.” Popula editor-in-chief Maria Bustillos wrote this weekend that “collective action doesn’t fall off a tree, it is made up of countless individual acts.” As for me, a person who has struggled with climate hypocrisy in my own life, I agree that any juxtaposition of individual versus collective action is false; it’s not an either-or decision.
The act of reducing one’s personal carbon footprint is complicated because it can be either a luxury or a sacrifice, depending on your personal circumstances or how you feel like framing it.
So, at long last, back to your question, IMHAH: Should Ocasio-Cortez commit to reducing her personal carbon footprint in a public way?

Guest essay by Eric Worrall Nature refusing to play along with climate crisis narratives.
‘Tornado drought’ dampens Democrats’ climate-change narrative Bernie Sanders pushes climate-change narrative despite last year’s ‘tornado drought’ In the wake of last week’s deadly twister outbreak, Sen. Bernie Sanders declared that climate change is making tornadoes worse, to which the experts say: Not so fast.
Purdue University professor Ernest Agee, who has studied tornadoes for 50 years, said his research and that of other scientists shows that the number of violent U.S. tornadoes has in fact tapered off slightly in recent decades.
… What’s more, 2018 was the first year since record-keeping began in 1950 without an EF4 or EF5 tornado, the most devastating twisters, as rated on the Enhanced Fujita Scale from EF0 to EF5, according to the NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center.
“We’re definitely not seeing a trend of increase.
If anything, we’re seeing a decrease in the number of strong and violent tornadoes,” Mr. Agee said.
“And that’s in papers that I’ve published and my students and other colleagues that are prominent in the field.” … Climate change is inevitably blamed for any natural disaster, and Mr. Sanders led the charge following the deadly tornado, saying in a Facebook post, “The science is clear, climate change is making extreme weather events, including tornadoes, worse.
We must prepare for the impacts of climate change that we know are coming.” … “He [Sanders] references our study, which says that climate change is shifting eastward.
Move over wind farms.
Step aside acres of solar panels.

UN staff and delegates to the UN Environment Assembly, which opened in Nairobi on Monday, were among 157 to die on the way from Addis Ababa At least 22 UN staff died in an Ethiopian Airlines plane crash on Sunday, along with many delegates travelling to a major environment summit, according to officials.
“The environmental community is in mourning today,” she said in a statement released as she participated in the opening ceremony of the UN Environment Assembly in the Kenyan capital on Monday.
We lost UN staff, youth delegates travelling to the assembly, seasoned scientists, members of academia and other partners,” said Msuya.
The airline has grounded its fleet of Boeing 737 8 Max aircraft – the same model involved in a recent disaster in Indonesia.
UN offices lowered the organisation’s flag to half mast on Monday.
The Associated Press reported that 32 Kenyans were killed in the accident, nine Ethiopians, eighteen Canadians as well as multiple citizens from China, the US, Italy, France, the UK, Egypt, the Netherlands, India and Slovakia.
“The entire UN Environment Assembly will honour them in our efforts this week,” Msuya said.
The assembly aims to generate a sharper political focus on biodiversity, climate change and the natural systems that support human civilisation.
Global issues need global coverage CHN is dedicated to bringing you the best climate reporting from around the world.
It’s a huge job and we need your help.

My court case is scheduled for 26-28th March in Brisbane.
The main arguments of both sides have been submitted to the court and the James Cook University arguments will certainly make interesting reading when they become public during the hearing.
On a philosophical note, in my opinion JCU will lose the ethical argument even if they manage to win on some narrow legal definition.
If they win, it will mean that a judge has decided that a university has set up legally binding contracts that give them the power to effectively take away the right to intellectual freedom of an academic and silence him/her.
That would be something of a pyrrhic victory.
But without getting over-confident, I reckon the chances of us winning are considerably above average, so we will see.
For me the last few months waiting for the court case has been productively spent writing a book on the Great Barrier Reef.
It documents why it is actually in excellent shape, looks at all the supposed threats to the reef, and with one exception shows that they are massively exaggerated.
It documents some of the appalling “science” and explains how our science institutions, especially those of the Great Barrier Reef, have become so untrustworthy.
Thanks again for all the help, and we will let you know how it all develops.

Scott Morrison’s recent pivot on climate policy is unlikely to have a positive impact on Australia’s emissions profile because it fails to grapple with the underlying drivers of increased pollution, according to a new analysis by the Investor Group on Climate Change.
The IGCC, a group that represents institutional investors such as super funds, with total funds under management of about $2tn, has told its members Morrison’s “climate solutions package” won’t change the current trajectory of rising emissions because it is “small scale and unlikely to be a durable policy framework through time”.
“In the absence of this, policy uncertainty will be increased, the necessary investment in zero emissions generation will be delayed and upward pressure will continue on electricity prices,” the new paper warns.
The Morrison government is counting a 367-megatonne contribution from carry-over credits – an accounting system that allows countries to count carbon credits from exceeding their targets under the soon-to-be-obsolete Kyoto protocol periods against their Paris commitment for 2030 – to help meet the 2030 target.
The IGCC notes taht there is currently a gap between the targets that countries have set, and actions required to achieve the objectives of the Paris agreement.
“For investors this is concerning because the economic and social impacts of current projected levels of climate change risk investment returns and economic prosperity over the longer-term,” the paper says.
“The use of carryover to weaken Australia’s emissions commitments is also fundamentally at odds with limiting warming in line with the objectives of the Paris agreement and driving global momentum for coordinated, and increased ambition,” the paper says.
It says that if the ALP uses the same accounting as the government, factoring in a 367-megatonne contribution in its carbon budget, Labor’s 45% emissions reduction target would become a 35% target.
The safeguards mechanism – part of the Direct Action scheme, which is at the centre of Morrison’s recent climate redux – sets emissions “baselines”, or limits, for big polluters.
The mechanism is supposed to ensure pollution cuts paid for through the taxpayer-funded emissions reduction fund – rebadged by Morrison last week as the “climate solutions fund” – are not undone by a blowout in emissions in other parts of the economy.

Independent scientists must review alarmist “science” that is driving anti-fossil fuel policies John Droz America is in the midst of a cataclysmic battle – and yet you’ve likely heard very little about it.
It is vital that we take immediate action to support President Trump on an important initiative.
Their assignment will be to separate real, evidence-based science from agenda-driven political science.
Those who want a genuine scientific assessment of global warming / climate change claims fully support the PCCS.
Those who oppose a real scientific assessment of climate chaos claims are against the PCCS.
Not surprisingly, so far the most vocal and dominant voices oppose any scientific review of their claims.
The President’s decision is expected within the week, so please do this quickly.
I hope there will be a segment about the PCCS on Fox News, an article or editorial in the Wall Street Journal, and more sensible articles on other media outlets (like this, this, this, and this).
Get involved.
Move over wind farms.

Jeremy Corbyn has downplayed the Brexit crisis by claiming poverty and climate change are far greater priorities for Labour and the country.
“We are facing a climate crisis.
And fundamentally, the destruction of our climate is a class issue,” he said.
“We believe that the real divide in our society is not between people who voted yes or no for [Scottish] independence.
It’s not between people who voted to remain or to leave the EU,” he told party members in Dundee.
But he added: “Where he is completely wrong is we can’t resolve these issues with Brexit because Brexit makes delivery on them that much harder.
[There] is no such thing as a Labour Brexit or a jobs-first Brexit”.
Corbyn said Labour would commit his party to a target of reducing carbon emissions to net zero by 2050, a goal many climate experts and campaigners say is not fast or ambitious enough to halt runaway climate change.
“We need to reduce our net emissions to zero by 2050 at the latest – it’s not just an ecological priority, it’s a socialist priority too.” Corbyn also addressed the antisemitism problems engulfing Labour, saying he was “utterly determined” to rid the party of the scourge.
“The only thing that can hold us back is if we were to turn our fire on each other rather than on the Tory government and the wealthy establishment interests they represent,” he told delegates.