Will they ever pay a price?

Maybe not--but there are hints of accountability in the air

Some of the young people from the Pacific island of Vanuatu that brought the lawsuit that triggered this week’s historic ruling from the International Court of Justice

Of all the frustrations that go with watching the rise of the MAGA right here and around the world (and the rise of their billionaire and corporate allies), perhaps none tops the sense that they are never held accountable for anything—that on any given day Donald Trump, and the minor Donald Trumps of the world, do things that at any other point in our lifetimes would have ended their political careers or landed them in jail. And…nothing. Some combination of utter brazenness, flooding the field with so many scandals that none stick, and the fear they induce in too many who might otherwise raise questions has let them get away with, well, murder. (And rape). But there’s some sense this week that that might not go on forever.

In the Middle East, for instance, Israel and America’s cruel decision to starve Gazans into submission is beginning to bring even the timid off the sidelines— as the pictures of protruding ribs flooded the news, France announced yesterday that it would recognize a Palestinian state, and it seems possible that Britain may follow suit as early as today.

And in America the Epstein case seems, at the least, to be making the White House sweat—they may well be able to cover up files, buy off witnesses like Ghislaine Maxwell, and shutter DC till things die down. But for once it’s not automatic—one senses that a few more Americans are seeing through to the ugly core.

Meanwhile, in the longest-running crime of all—the decades-old and ongoing effort by the oil industry, with massive amounts of government backup, to wreck the planet’s climate—there was an interesting new development. The International Court of Justice held this week that failing to protect the planet from global warming could be a violation of international law. As the Associated Press explained, judges in the Hague ruled that “countries could be in violation of international law if they fail to take measures to protect the planet from climate change, and nations harmed by its effects could be entitled to reparations.”

“Failure of a state to take appropriate action to protect the climate system ... may constitute an internationally wrongful act,” court President Yuji Iwasawa said during the hearing. He called the climate crisis “an existential problem of planetary proportions that imperils all forms of life and the very health of our planet.”

The ruling came in a suit brought by the low-lying island state of Vanuatu, and backed by 130 other nations. As UN chief Antonio Guterres said

“This is a victory for our planet, for climate justice, and for the power of young people to make a difference. Young Pacific islanders initiated this call for humanity to the world. And the world must respond.”

It’s not clear what this means in the immediate future—there’s no way for the court to force, say, Exxon, or the United States, to pay reparations for the damage they’ve done. As the chief judge said, international courts can play “an important but ultimately limited role in resolving this problem.” But for those nations that still pay some attention to international opinion (which would be most nations except ours), the ruling will be one more spur to action—it will certainly heighten the rhetoric and the stakes at COP30, the next global climate talks which will be held (sans America) in Belem, Brazil in November.

And it’s not as if there’s no chance that this will eventually mean something. European-based oil companies, for instance—which often have some state ownership and control—may be more exposed. "The legal consequences resulting from the commission of an internationally wrongful act may include... full reparations to injured states in the form of restitution, compensation and satisfaction," said ICJ President Yuji Iwasawa on behalf of the 15-judge panel.

At the moment the oil companies imagine themselves to be unshakable colossi, astride the world because they control Washington. But as so often, it is in the moment of greatest hubris that disaster looms. Here’s an ominous little note for them: Chinese data yesterday showed that Beijing has managed to essentially end all imports of oil and gas from America. That’s a big change—as Bloomberg notes, “crude is the most heavily traded commodity in the world and China the biggest buyer. In June last year, its purchases from the US were worth nearly $800 million.” But no more—remember, China is currently installing 100 solar panels a second, and more than half the cars it sells have a plug dangling out the back. They’re figuring out how to say buzz off to Big Oil.

So imagine, for a moment, a scene in 2029, when the balance of power has shifted in Washington—and when it’s become clear that we no longer really need fossil fuels to power the world. It’s not impossible to imagine that an America seeking to rejoin the world, and needing to make amends for the utter stupidity of the Trump years, might not see the oil industry as a useful sacrifice to offer the rest of the planet. “Restitution, compensation, satisfaction.” Justice delayed is justice denied, as the British prime minister Gladstone correctly remarked. But to everything there is a season, as King Solomon also correctly remarked.

At any rate: we keep fighting. Next stop on our calendar is of course Sun Day, and in honor of the glory days of high summer here’s a particularly juicy version of the logo that popped up in the global gallery this week

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In other energy and climate news:

+What city will be the next Detroit? Not Detroit, obviously, since the Trump administration (with the suicidal connivance of the auto companies) is killing off our EV industry. But the Economist reports on the ongoing battle between Chongqing, Wuhan, Changan—and some other competitors. (It remains to be seen if they can also recreate Motown Records—that may be asking too much)

+Truly sick. The Trump administration is planning to shut off the funding for the co2 monitor on the side of Mauna Loa in Hawaii. This is—by a large margin—the most important instrument in the history of science, the thing that let us understand our danger. It was installed at the peak of America’s scientific power in 1959, a testament to our desire for knowledge. Now it’s the equivalent of a security camera recording the crimes of the Trump era in real time, and so like the good burglars that they are, they’re trying to spray paint over the lens.

“It’s frankly inconceivable,” said Lisa Graumlich, an emeritus climate scientist at the University of Washington and past president of the American Geophysical Union. People know and understand the “iconic” record, she said. “A lot of the science we do is incredibly complex, and this record is something that can be grasped.”

“We would lose any understanding of how climate is changing, at what pace, and where,” Dr. Spinrad said. Identifying what places are most vulnerable to climate change would be more difficult, as would pinpointing promising spots for carbon dioxide removal efforts and assessing those efforts, he said.

Although other countries and scientific organizations are measuring greenhouse gases and the atmosphere, both through air sampling networks and dedicated measurement labs, NOAA’s observatories and programs are internationally invaluable.

Ralph Keeling, son of Charles Keeling who built the station, is in charge of much ongoing air monitoring around the world. He’s a wonderful scientist that I’ve known for many years, and here’s what he had to say about this effort to destroy the various NOAA projects that measure our fate

“The NOAA effort is really the backbone of the global effort to track greenhouse gases,” he said. Scientists building other long-term records rely on the Keeling curve to interpret their own. “We need to do everything we can do make sure these stations don’t close.”

This would be as ugly as bulldozing the Louvre: it’s a monument to what people are capable of. No wonder it’s on the Trump hit list.

Meanwhile, Lisa Friedman reports, as I’ve been writing about for some time, that the EPA is on the edge of ditching the endangerment finding—that is, the federal government declaration that carbon dioxide drives dangerous global warming.

If the Trump administration is able to repeal the endangerment finding, it would not only erase all current limits on greenhouse gas pollution from cars, factories, power plants and other sources. It would prevent future administrations from trying to tackle climate change, with lasting implications.

+Hundreds of climate and indigenous activists took part in demonstrations outside the offices of Wells Fargo bank in New York and San Francisco this week and at least seven were arrested. As Nina Lakhani reports,

Wells Fargo, currently ranked 33rd in the Fortune 500 list, became the first major bank to abandon its climate commitments – just weeks after the president signed a slew of executive orders to boost fossil fuels and derail climate action. The US bank is among the biggest financiers of planet-warming oil and gas companies, with $39bn in fossil fuel investments in 2024 – a 30% rise on the previous year, according to the most recent annual Banking on Climate Chaos report.

“As dozens of teenagers die in climate-driven floods in Texas and thousands die in heatwaves around the world, it’s unconscionable that a bank like Wells Fargo would just completely walk away from its climate goals,” said Liv Senghor with Planet Over Profit, the non-profit group that led the New York protests.

+At Poets for Science, Michael Garry (channelling Moses) has an excellent riposte for the climate fool Lee Zeldin

“We are driving a dagger straight
into the heart of the climate change religion.”
Lee Zeldin, EPA Administrator, March 12, 2025

Impale my heart? Yet still . . .
no respite from the heat that scorches you
no forgiveness from the fire torching your towns
no relief from the smoke choking you
no refuge from the dust that blinds you
no peace from mosquitoes infecting you
no sustenance as drought rots your crops
no deliverance from rivers flooding your streets
no salvation from the sea that swallows your shores
no shelter from the rains that drench you
no mercy from the winds that will carry you away

+Kye’s Climate Action Fund, named for the late climate activist Kye Moffatt, has released its first round of grantees, four young women doing remarkable work. (Here’s the application for the next round). Meanwhile, dear climate colleague Thanu Yakupityage is raising money to repair her mother’s house in Sri Lanka, destroyed in a tropical storm last month. As Thanu writes, “as someone who literally works on climate justice - I’m struck by how none of us are safe from climate disasters, and how life for so many changes in an instant. I’m leaning into Assata Shakur saying that “we must love each other and support each other.”

+PBS Newshour’s Brief But Spectacular series has an excellent take on agrivoltaics, interviewing Byron Kominek about his Colorado farm

I did five years with USAID in Zambia a couple years, in Mozambique. I wanted to see what it would be to do something in my own culture. The farm was there with nobody living on it for at least eight years. And I learned about how we were losing money haying the fields. It wasn't anything that was looking towards the future of what our farm could be for our family.

And the idea of solar came about because it was something that could be passive income for the land. Dual land use is taking two different things and just doing it together. With solar it could be a tennis court underneath solar panels. It could be a beer garden, a bowling alley, whereas agrivoltaics is a subset of that where you're specifically integrating agricultural activities.

The dumbest thing I hear is that things can't grow in the shade. I tell people go look in the forest. There's plenty of things that grow underneath the trees. The shade from the solar panels reduces the overall temperature on the property over the course of the day. It reduces stresses on the various types of vegetation and shade keeps moisture in the ground longer.

And the hotter it is, the drier the land is. So the more shade that's there, the more moisture can stay in the ground longer. Dual use for landowners provides multiple streams of income and it — oftentimes, for farmers and ranchers, it keeps the purpose of the land there. For our land, it's really nice having people on the land.

+The wonderful Joanna Macy has passed, after a long lifetime at the forefront of environmentally engaged Buddhism. From an obituary in Tricycle magazine

Little in Joanna Macy’s early years predicted the direction her life would take or the impact she would have in developing what she called “the ecological self.” There were hints, however, that her path would not be a conventional one. Born Joanna Rogers on May 2, 1929, she grew up in New York City. But as she wrote in Widening Circles, as a child she found the city “hideously confining” and sought solace in nature during summers on her grandfather’s Western New York farm. In an interview on NPR she told On Being host Krista Tippett, “Being in the fields, the woods, around the barns gave me a sense the world was very big and wise and intelligent.”

+Always always always read the reports coming out of the European thinktank Ember, led by veteran climate analyst Kingsmill Bond. Here is their new paper on the long history of electrification, concluding

We are on the cusp of another pivotal moment in electrification. Many energy services once thought impossible to electrify are now technically and commercially viable. As electricity is highly efficient, this shift will curb overall energy demand — even as electricity demand continues to grow — pushing fossil fuel demand into structural decline.

+Spain hits its first day of 100 percent electricity provided by renewables.

Wind generated 256 GWh, accounting for 45.8% of total output. Solar followed with 151 GWh, or 27%. Hydroelectric sources added 129 GWh, making up 23.1% of the mix. Solar thermal contributed 11 GWh, or 2%, while other renewables added another 11 GWh, or 1.9%. Renewable waste generated 1 GWh, or 0.2%.

At 11:15 a.m. that day on April 16, wind and PV combined to generate 100.63% of total demand – a first in Spain’s energy history. Unlike previous milestones, this occurred on a weekday.

+Want to understand how climate change is a killer? Check out this short account of the spread of Rift Valley fever in Kenya.

And now want to understand how solar power is a lifesaver? Check out this account from South Africa

Mark Moodley believes that installing a domestic solar power system has helped keep his 81-year-old mother alive.

She spent three weeks in intensive care last year, and now back at home in Benoni, east of Johannesburg, she needs an oxygen concentrator to help her breathe.

But the country's erratic electricity supply meant could not be relied on.

"There were days we'd be without power for six hours. I had to use a car battery to run her oxygen tank, but that didn't last long and you'd have to sit with her with her arms raised to try and get oxygen into her lungs," Mr Moodley tells the BBC.

"Sometimes we had to rush her to hospital when that didn't work. It was scary."

Back then, doctors told the family she might not have long to live. But a steady power supply has given them more time together.

"It's been a lifesaver. I don't have to check on her constantly through the night. I know her oxygen tank has power no matter what," he says, voice trembling.