MORE ON ENERGY TODAY

The World Health Organization reported today that the COVID pandemic end is in sight, with deaths at the lowest level since March of 2020, when it began.

WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said the world has never been in better position to stop COVID-19.
However, while the end is in sight, we are not there yet.
World deaths the past week fell 22% to 11,000.
New cases the past week dropped 28% to 3.1 million.
Notice that the mortality rate is thus now 0.35%. That is three times lower than the overall death rate for COVID, which is 1%. Vaccinations have helped lower the rate.
The Omicron subvariant BA.5 continues to dominate with 90% of all cases.
China is here and there having problems. I am still predicting that China will again someday lead in new deaths/day and new cases/day. Omicron BA.5 is too, too contagious for a populace that hasn't been adequately vaccinated. The Chinese vaccines are marginal.

I regularly summarize the weekly mailing of the American Energy Society. For this week:

There is a ploy going on: China is buying Russian LNG at a discount, and reselling it as Chinese LNG to Europe at marked-up prices.
Emissions from China have fallen for four consecutive quarters.
OPEC countries cut production. Petroleum prices should now rise.
The largest open pit copper mine in the world is Chuquicamata, located 9,350 feet high in northern Chile.

Most don't realize that the metal for electrification is copper, as important, if not more so, than lithium and cobalt.
Copper is the oldest metal, used from 8000 BC.
The deepest copper mine is Bingham Canyon Mine located near Salt Lake City.

2.75 miles across and 0.75 miles deep.
Began operations in 1906.
As a stadium could seat the equivalent of 9 million people.
Kennecott also supplies gold, silver, molybdenum, platinum and palladium from this pit.
Known as the richest hole on Earth, annually generating $1.8 billion.

Copper sold for $2/pound in 2016, rising to $5/pound in April of this year. Lithium price has jumped from 2019 to 2021. Was as low as $2.21/pound in 2020 and rose to $41/pound at the end of 2021. Is today near $32/pound.

U.S. shipments of solar PV modules rose to 29 million peak kW last year.

Solar PV capacity in megawatts: #1 China 306,973, #2 European Union 178,700, #3 USA 95,209.
Electric cars made up nearly 10% of car sales globally last year. The top 20 in percentage.

California will restrict and eventually ban the sale of gasoline-powered cars by 2035. More so, 17 other states will follow California.
Japan's GX green transformation plan is based on more nuclear plants.

Ravil Maganov, chairman of the Russian oil giant Lukoil, employing 100,000 people, fell out of a sixth-floor window and died. He made headlines in March, calling for the soonest termination of the Ukraine War. Here he is with Putin. HE IS THE 8TH RUSSIAN ENERGY EXECUTIVE TO SUDDENLY DIE THIS YEAR!!! Think there is some resistance to the war in the country? Read that article.

11 sensitive climate tipping points to watch:

Melt of the Greenland ice shelf
Boreal (Canada and Russia) forest dieback
Dieback (and clearcutting) of the Amazon rainforest
Increasing El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSP) rainfall variability
Instability of West Antarctic ice shelf
Arctic sea-ice loss
Permafrost and tundra loss (Russia)
Increasing Indian monsoon multi-stability
Sahara desert greening
West African monsoon shift
Changes in Antarctic bottom water formations

Greenhouse gas concentrations, global sea levels, and ocean heat all set record highs in 2021.

I can continue, for this goes on and on. But I'll return to this source on a future Wednesday. So I'll close with a couple red rainbows.

From EarthSky:

Bottom line: If you’re watching a sunset, and there’s rain in the air, turn in the direction opposite the sun and watch for the elusive red rainbow. Red rainbows happen when the sun is on the horizon. They’re created for much the same reason that a sunset or sunrise looks red. When the sun is low, its blue and green light is weakened by scattering during the long journey to your eyes through Earth’s atmosphere. The red light travels through more directly. Voila … a red rainbow.

And yes, there are circular rainbows. I've take a bunch of them. From my apartment and airplanes.

A NEXT COVID SUBVARIANT?

By now most know that the Omicron BA.5 subvariant has become the dominant infectious agent, now accounting for more than 80% of all COVID-19 cases. Very few are aware that a new one, BA.4.6, is sneaking in and steadily rising, now accounting for 13% of sequenced samples . However, as BA.4.6 has emerged from BA.4, while there is uncertainty, the scientific sense is that the latest bivalent booster targeting BA.4 and BA.5 should also be effective for this next threat. One concern is that Evusheld--the only monoclonal antibody authorized for COVID prevention in immunocompromised individuals--is not effective against BA.4.6. Here is a reference as to what this means. A series of two injections is involved. Evusheld was developed by British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, and is a t ixagevimab co-packaged with cilgavimab . More recently, Los Angeles County reported on subvariant BA.2.75.2 . which Tony Fauci termed suspicious and troublesome. This strain has also been spreading in

Part 3: OUR NEXT AROUND THE WORLD ODYSSEY

Before I get into my third, and final, part of this cruise series, let me start with some more newsworthy topics. Thursday was my pandemic day for years. Thus, every so often I return to bring you up to date on the latest developments. All these subvariants derived from that Omicron variant, and each quickly became dominant, with slightly different symptoms. One of these will shock you. There has been a significant decline in the lost of taste and smell. From two-thirds of early patients to now only 10-20% show these symptoms. JN.1, now the dominant subvariant, results in mostly mild symptoms. However, once JN.1 infects some, there seem to be longer-lasting symptoms. Clearly, the latest booster helps prevent contracting Covid. A competing subvariant, BA.2.86, also known as Pirola , a month ago made a run, but JN.1 prevailed. No variant in particular, but research has shown that some of you will begin to lose hair for several months. This is caused by stress more than anythi

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These are held every five years, and there have only been

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