EPA Could Eliminate 55 GW of Coal Power with Regulations
By far the greatest threat coal poses is to future climate. But even regulations that only seek to reduce its more immediate health threats could cut coal plants in the US by 20%, according to a report from coal industry consulting firm The Brattle Group, via Electricity Forum. Even aside from regulations specifically to lower greenhouse gas emissions, if the EPA mandates further reductions in sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, particulates, mercury and other harmful emissions by 2015, 40 to 55 Gigawatts will likely be retired.
Another 11-12 Gigawatts would be shut down, if cooling towers are required, with 75% of the reduction coming from the oldest, dirtiest coal plants, that are mostly in the Midwest. New mandates in combination would reduce the number of coal power plants by about 20%. This would be even without greenhouse gas regulation. To replace coal power from the oldest dirtiest plants, natural gas power plant conversions would likely increase.
However, since 2009, renewable energy and particularly wind power has been the fastest growing new power on the grid. The Recovery Act is responsible, with one provision in particular, Section 1603 cash grants covering 30% of the project costs for companies and organizations unable to take a tax credit. According to Clean Energy States, as of early 2010, wind has received 87% of the nearly $3.6 billion in Section 1603 cash grants that were awarded in 2009, and the tax provision was responsible for getting 6.2 Gigawatts of new wind on the grid in its first year.
Efficient Lighting Could Save U.S. $9 Billion Annually
Replacing incandescent lighting with energy-efficient alternatives could save the United States $9 billion a year and avoid the carbon dioxide emissions of 11 million midsize cars, says a United Nations report. Energy-efficient lighting could save $5.5 billion a year in China, which uses 12% of its electricity for lighting, $1 billion annually in Indonesia and $900 million in Mexico, according to an analysis of 100 countries by the U.N. Environment Programme and the Global Environment Facility. These groups, working with lighting companies Osram and Philips, released the findings this week at the U.N. climate change summit in Cancun, Mexico.
President Obama and his family attend the National Christmas Tree lighting ceremony on the Ellipse, just south of the White House, on Thursday. The tree has efficient LED (light emitting diode) lighting. Worldwide, a shift from incandescent lamps to efficient alternatives would reduce electricity demand for lighting by more than 2%, the U.N. reports. “In reality, the actual economic benefits could be even higher,” Achim Steiner, U.N. Under-Secretary General and UNEP executive director, said in a statement. “A switch to efficient lighting in Indonesia, for example, would avoid the need to build 3.5 coal-fired power stations costing U.S. $2.5 billion and similar findings come from other country assessments.”
“Among the low hanging fruit in the climate change challenge,” he added, “a switch to far more efficient lighting must rank as among the lowest.” Yet despite these environmental and economic savings, the study says incandescent lamps account for 50% to 70% of lighting sales worldwide. It notes, however, that about 40 countries including the United States currently have plans to phase out old bulbs.
Cancºn Agreement Signals a New Pragmatism in Global Climate Policy
In the end, it came down to Bolivia. The South American country “” whose President Evo Morales was one of the few world leaders to attend this meeting “” had raised angry objections throughout the two-week-long U.N. climate-change summit in Cancºn, Mexico. On Friday night, with the draft texts of an agreement prepared and every other nation ready for a deal, Bolivia wouldn’t budge. “We reject this document,” Bolivia’s U.N. Ambassador Pablo Solon told the assembled representatives of more than 190 nations at the final plenary session, “and therefore there is no consensus for its adoption.”
That spelled trouble, because the rules of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) “” the body to guide global-warming action “” require decisionmaking by consensus. That gives an effective veto to even a single obstinate country: a handful of holdouts blocked adoption at last year’s summit of the Copenhagen Accord, a last-minute agreement brokered by President Barack Obama. “Showdown at the Bolivian pass coming up soon,” tweeted Andrew Light, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress who followed the negotiations. (Read more about the Cancºn climate-change agreement.)
Unlike last year, however, Bolivia was isolated in its opposition, virtually friendless in the plenary hall. Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa, the tough diplomat who presided over the summit negotiations, held firm, gaveling through Bolivia’s objections no matter how often Solon raised his voice to speak. In the end, with no other opposition in the hall and sleepless diplomats desperate to end hours of round-the-clock negotiations, Espinosa declared the process finished. “The major results of this meeting will be issued as the Cancºn Agreements,” she said, to a standing ovation in the plenary hall. “This is a new era of international cooperation in climate change.”
Apparently, multilateralism isn’t quite dead yet. The disarray at Copenhagen prompted many calls for abandoning the UNFCCC’s dysfunctional consensus model. A few small developing countries could stop all progress, and negotiations were poisoned by paranoia and suspicion. Given that a relatively small number of large nations “” the U.S., European countries, India, China, Brazil “” were responsible for most of the carbon emissions on the planet, it seemed that the future for climate talks lies in more manageable institutions, like the G-20. (See five ways of looking at the U.N. climate-change summit in Cancºn.) But the U.N. process might still have some life yet. Thanks in part to the oversight by the host country, Mexico “” acclaimed for its transparency and focus “” negotiations at Cancºn were relatively productive.
Deepwater Wind Energy to Build Giant Wind Energy Center in Atlantic Waters
Shortly after the announcement made by the Obama administration, which supports the offshore wind-power development, Deepwater Wind Energy has great plans regarding the building of a “Wind Energy Center” that according to the company would supply electricity for several East Coast states. Deepwater Wind Energy also stated that more than 200 offshore wind turbines would be assembled in southern Rhode Island Sound. The turbines will be capable of generating around 1,000 MW of clean energy, most of them being located in deep waters (20-25 miles from the coastline).
As officials said, the northeastern United States now has one of the largest renewable energy projects ever proposed. “This ‘second generation’ of offshore wind farms will be larger and farther from shore, and will produce lower priced power, using more advanced technology than the offshore projects announced to date. We expect the offshore wind industry in the United States to follow the European experience, where a more mature industry is building larger projects farther from shore,” Deepwater Wind CEO William M. Moore said in a press release.
Southern New England and eastern Long Island will be connected by a regional offshore transmission network called the New England-Long Island Interconnector (NELI) which allows the electricity generated to go to Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island. The company also said that unlike any offshore wind farm in the United States, its project would help produce energy at a lower price, having the advantage of the stronger winds farther offshore.
U.S. Defense Agency Deploys Yeast to Fight Global Warming
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, otherwise known as DARPA, has been developing next generation solar technology and a slew of other game-changing innovations designed to drive the military into a more sustainable future. The latest example is a new kind of bioplastic made from yeast. And what, you may ask, does bioplastic have to do with national defense?
As it turns out, bioplastic has everything to do with national defense. Disposing of waste is part and parcel of the “logistical nightmare” and troop risk equation that fossil fuels pose for overseas bases. Whether trucked off site to landfills or burned on site, the disposal operation requires fuel and plenty of it. Just to give you some idea of the volume involved, a couple of years ago the military’s Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) estimated that the 135,000 U.S. troops stationed in Iraq were generating 446 million pounds of plastic waste annually.
Now, if all that plastic was bioplastic, composting would be an option. And if you don’t think the U.S. military is interested in all that hippy-dippy composting stuff, guess again. They’ve been investigating both food waste and sewage sludge composting, so bioplastic composting is the next logical step. It sure beats soaking solid waste in diesel fuel and putting it in a burn box, which is the conventional practice. DARPA and SyntheZyme have developed an all-biodegradable, durable, moisture-resistant bioplastic that can be used for different kinds of packing films, bags, and gloves.
Interestingly, the idea is to use the bioplastic as packaging material, then break it down and use it for biodiesel on site rather than composting it. That part of the research is still under way, and if successful it demonstrates multipurpose flexibility that DARPA and other Department of Defense agencies envision for the fighting force of the future, in which energy is harvested or scavenged from a variety of renewable resources, including garbage. Let’s hope that certain politicians change their head-in-the-sand position on climate change and start adapting this mindset for civilian life, too.
Chevron told to close pipeline after second oil spill in Salt Lake City
It’s not quite the Gulf Coast, but Salt Lake City has developed a persistent problem with oil spills. The federal Department of Transportation ordered Chevron this week to temporarily close a pipeline running through the city after the second spill there in six months.
The first incident happened in June while the BP spill was gushing thousands of gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico. The Salt Lake City pipeline, which carries oil from a western Colorado terminal to a Utah refinery, leaked, sending 800 gallons into the Jordan River. That river runs through the city and empties into the Great Salt Lake, a major bird refuge.
Then, on the evening of Dec. 1, the pipeline leaked again as temperatures plunged below freezing and a valve cracked. This time, 500 gallons of oil spilled toward a local creek, though only trace amounts have been found in the water. A Chevron spokesman said the leaks were “highly unusual” and promised a full examination of the latest one. The order from the Department of Transportation, issued Wednesday evening, requires the oil company to submit a detailed plan before it can restart the pipeline. In the meantime, some of the oil is being trucked to the Salt Lake City-area refinery.
Twin Creeks Technologies Builds Solar Plant in Malaysia
Twin Creeks Technologies Incorporated (TCTI) is an American company that wants to invest in the construction of a high power solar cell plant in Ipoh, Malaysia, at the Kanthan Industrial Area. The plant costs about RM1 billion and will be built by Twin Creeks Malaysia Sdn Bhd (TCMSB). In the first part of 2012, the TCMSB plant will generate around 100 MW of electricity. Afterwards, the power production will be increased to 500 MW in 2014.
According to company officials, TCMSB will expand the solar cell plant on a 15-hectare area stretching to the Perak Hi-Tech Park (PHTP) by the end of 2015. The technology used by this company in the solar cell production does not involve toxic metals, being different from that of other manufacturers operating in Malaysia.
When the new plant will begin operating, it will create 1,000 green jobs for the natives, involving 200 in engineering, 500 semi-skilled workers and the rest in supervision and management.
Production and Delivery of Ford Transit Connect Electrics Underway
Ford Motor Company and Azure Dynamics have begun shipping the first Ford Transit Connect Electrics to early customers in North America and to the United Kingdom for a demonstration project. The all-electric commercial vans, built on the Ford Transit Connect vehicle body, equipped with Azure Dynamics’ patented Force Drive„¢ battery electric powertrain, and assembled by AM General at its facility in Livonia, Mich., are reaching the market 13 months after the collaboration to develop the zero-emission vehicle was first announced.
To date, all initial units have designated customers. Azure Dynamics’ LEAD customer program includes seven companies that are taking delivery of their first units in 2010, with the remainder of their orders to be filled in 2011. Customers that have been previously announced include AT&T, Southern California Edison, Xcel Energy, Johnson Controls Inc., New York Power Authority, Canada Post and Toronto Atmospheric Fund EV300. Additional LEAD customers will be identified by the end of the year. Transit Connect Electric is the first product in Ford’s accelerated electrified vehicle plan, and will be followed by the Focus Electric passenger car in 2011, along with a plug-in hybrid electric and two next-generation lithium-ion battery-powered hybrid vehicles in 2012.
The all-electric, zero-emissions Transit Connect Electric has a driving range of up to 80 miles per full charge and is designed for fleet owners who have well-defined routes of predictable distances and a central location for daily recharging. Delivery fleet and utility vehicle operators have begun to show a preference for smaller, more efficient vehicles. Owners will have the option of recharging Transit Connect Electric with either a standard 120-volt outlet, or preferably a 240-volt charge station, typically installed at the user’s base of operations for optimal recharging in six to eight hours. A transportable cord that works with both types of outlets will be available for recharging at either voltage.
Pew Reports on Potential $2.3 Trillion Clean Power Investment by 2020
A report released by the Pew Charitable Trusts shows that investment in clean power projects could rise as high as US$2.3 trillion at the end of the next decade. The Pew Charitable Trusts, says that private investment (read venture capital funding) in clean power among G-20 nations could be the serendipitous result of adopting clean energy policies whose ultimate aim is to keep global warming below the 2 degrees (Celsius) threshold, beyond which most scientists see an inevitable climate “tipping point”. The G-20, or Group of Twenty, is a consortium of nations formed in 1999 to discuss the global economy and make recommendations.
Using data compiled by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, and released through the Trust’s Environment Group, the report extrapolated from 2009 clean energy investments to conclude that such financing could reach US$2.3 trillion globally if the countries in question developed policies to strongly promote solar, wind, and hydro energy. Biofuels were absent from the equation due to concerns “surrounding the reliability of production targets.” Energy efficiency was also not a factor. The report also noted that, if current policies are all the inspiration offered to clean tech, investments would likely top out at $1.7 trillion – yet more evidence that the carrot works more magic than the stick.
Strong policies would include renewable portfolio standards, or RPSs (mandated levels at which individual states calibrate renewable energy in the overall electricity generation mix); carbon taxing or cap-and-trade (putting a price on carbon dioxide emissions, as per the 2009 Copenhagen Accord, or COP15; figures available on page 23 of the report); feed-in tariffs (FiTS), which are price supports for renewable energy generation usually paid per watt-hour; and federally funded clean energy tax incentives like the United States’ Treasury Grant Program (TGP) and the Advanced Energy Manufacturing Credit, both due to expire at the end of the year.
Previous in TP Climate Progress
Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga
“reduce coal demand by about 15 percent by 2020″
from
http://www.electricityforum.com/news/dec10/50000MWofcoalpowerthreatenedbyEPAregulations.html
A good start if it had already been done.
Hurry the day, about he 55 GW of coal power retired by the EPA.
A pulse of heat has entered the oceans. That pulse of heat is working its way down into the methane hydrate deposits.
They’re going to start spewing jets of methane, gradually or catastrophically, just like the deposits off Spitsbergen are already doing.
We need to minimize the size of that pulse of heat, lest we end up with a situation totally out of our control, as most of us that read this blog already know.
Releatively recent information on the methane hydrates:
NETL Methane Hydrate Research
This is bad news, about the hydrates, IMO.
We need some good news from the EPA, big enough to make a difference, very soon, I think.
I think the cold weather pattern the eastern U.S. is seeing this month could be similar to that which happened exactly ten years ago. It’s related to the negative AO/NAO random variability. This is due to high pressure dominating the Arctic which facilitates more polar air outbreaks.
December 2000 global temperature anomalies:
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/do_nmap.py?year_last=2010&month_last=11&sat=4&sst=1&type=anoms&mean_gen=12&year1=2000&year2=2000&base1=1951&base2=1980&radius=1200&pol=reg
Same map except from the polar view:
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/do_nmap.py?year_last=2010&month_last=11&sat=4&sst=1&type=anoms&mean_gen=12&year1=2000&year2=2000&base1=1951&base2=1980&radius=1200&pol=pol
The U.S. was unusally cold that month, but I think this December the cold anomaly may be more limited to the eastern U.S. The reason is the western half of the country is currently warmer than average with many record high temperatures being broken in the southwest.
http://mapcenter.hamweather.com/records/7day/us.html
Revenge of the Electric Car’ trailer debuts on YouTube
It’s been four years since “Who Killed the Electric Car?” riled up greenies with an incendiary documentary about General Motors’ EV1 and its ultimate demise in the claws of a car crusher. Now director Chris Paine is back, not so much with a follow-up to his acclaimed film but the next chapter in EVs’ convoluted history.
“Revenge of the Electric Car” won’t be in theaters until early 2011, but the trailer was released on YouTube Friday and is already pulling in impressive numbers. The “Revenge of the Electric Car” movie trailer highlights the film’s four main characters: Bob Lutz, former General Motors vice chairman; Elon Musk, Tesla Motors CEO; Carlos Ghosn, Nissan CEO; and EV conversion guru, Greg “Gadget” Abbott.
Unlike “Who Killed the Electric Car?”, which found car makers, the California Air Resources Board, the federal government, the oil industry and consumers mostly to blame for electric vehicles’ untimely death, “Revenge” appears less interested in conspiracy theories and automaker industry bashing than their high-stakes race to make EVs succeed now that they actually exist in the marketplace. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/12/revenge-of-the-electric-car.html
Official Trailer: Revenge of the Electric Car (watch in 1080pixel)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkRIu5a6Sb0
Refilling the Carbon Sink:
Biochar’s Potential and Pitfalls
The idea of creating biochar by burning organic waste in oxygen-free chambers — and then burying it — is being touted as a way to cool the planet. But while it already is being produced on a small scale, biochar’s proponents and detractors are sharply divided over whether it can help slow global warming.
Biochar has been lumped in with other so-called geoengineering ideas like solar radiation management and ocean fertilization, but it carries ancillary benefits to agriculture that the other planetary experiments can’t claim. The last two years have seen a sharp rise in research indicating its technical potential, and while the world treads carefully around other geoengineering fixes, there are now dozens of companies already producing and selling biochar on a small scale. Is large-scale deployment really feasible, or is it time for a step back and to take a harder look at whether this is a technology worth pursuing?
Biochar is created using a process called pyrolysis. Organic waste such as wood chips, agricultural byproducts or switchgrass is burned in the presence of little or no oxygen, yielding oil, synthetic gas (known as and a solid residue resembling charcoal. In fact, it is charcoal, except that the point is not to burn it, but to bury it. The pyrolysis process can be tweaked, with “slow pyrolysis” yielding more biochar and less oil and gas, and a faster version — seconds rather than hours or days — lowering the biochar product and upping the bio-energy side of the equation. In some systems, the syngas and oil can actually be used as a fuel to run the pyrolysis reaction, meaning it requires no external energy source beyond the organic waste itself.
Proponents point to two completely distinct benefits to burying biochar. The first is the ability of biochar to store carbon in a stable form, preventing the CO2 from organic matter from leaking into the atmosphere, where it contributes to climate change. Biochar also enriches soil, which improves food security in developing countries and crop production almost anywhere. The details on the benefit to soil are still being researched, but in certain types of soil, burying biochar can improve crop yields by improving water retention and moderating the pH, or acidity, of the soils.
Creating biochar actually reduces CO2 in the atmosphere because the process takes a theoretically carbon-neutral process of naturally decaying organic matter and turns it carbon-negative: When plants decay, they emit CO2, which other plants eventually absorb, and the cycle continues. Biochar stabilizes that decaying matter and accompanying CO2 and puts it in the ground to stay for — potentially — hundreds or even thousands of years. This idea, with supposedly enormous potential to help slow global warming, has drawn an impressive array of supporters toward biochar. Among its most vocal proponents is James Lovelock, founder of Gaia theory, who has touted biochar as the way to save the planet.
**** The hype elicited a predictable response in the other direction, including scathing columns by The Guardian’s resident environmentalist George Monbiot and warnings from organizations like the UK’s BiofuelWatch.
The backlash came, perhaps, with good reason, as the claims arrived without the support of much strong science. That picture, though, has started to shift. One research group led by Johannes Lehmann at Cornell University recently showed that a full 12 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions could be offset with biochar produced from “sustainably obtained” biomass. In other words, using organic waste that doesn’t affect food production or soil conservation could take about 1.8 gigatons of carbon dioxide, methane, and other gases out of the atmosphere each year. Over a century, Lehmann estimates the total offset at 130 gigatons, an amount that would play a big part in helping bring CO2 concentrations down and slow the world’s rising temperatures and sea levels.
Darko Matovic, a professor of mechanical engineering at Queens University in Ontario, published his own analysis of biochar’s potential and also found it to be enormous. He contends that burning and burying 10 percent of the world’s biomass waste would sequester nearly five gigatons of carbon annually — more than the net 4.1 gigatons that human activity adds to the atmosphere each year. Humans emit roughly 28 gigatons of CO2 into the atmosphere each year, but much of that is taken up by vegetation and oceans.
“The idea of biochar is really attractive, and in my opinion it is the only viable way of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere,” Matovic says. http://e360.yale.edu/feature/refilling_the_carbon_sink_biochars_potential_and_pitfalls_/2349/
Of course, the important thing to remember is that these analyses show technical potential rather than realistic goals. The logistics of actually converting 10 percent or more of the world’s organic waste into biochar and burying the result are, at this point at least, incredibly daunting.
“There are a lot of analyses that still have to be done to prove the economic potential, the social potential, the logistical potential,” says Debbie Reed, executive director of the non-profit International Biochar Initiative. “How would we do this? How long would it take to deploy? How much money would it cost?”
Matovic noted in his paper that carbon capture and sequestration carries its own significant energy requirements, and the fact that it may take decades to bring the technology into commercial viability swings the emissions reduction equation back in favor of burying biochar.
And Matovic and Lehmann are not alone: Along with James Lovelock, NASA’s Jim Hansen has published on the potential of the idea. http://e360.yale.edu/feature/refilling_the_carbon_sink_biochars_potential_and_pitfalls_/2349/
UN officials have also argued for its potential, and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change included it in recent documents as a potential sequestration tool. Also, a recent Natural Resources Defense Council report, though cautious in touting biochar’s benefits, calls for up to $150 million over eight years to start commercial-scale pilot projects.
U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon (D—Tenn.), chairman of the House committee on science and technology, also highlighted its potential for carbon sequestration. It acknowledges the “economic challenges” of large-scale development, but there is no hint yet that any regulatory framework to control the small but growing market in biochar technology.
Security Council must tackle climate change: Germany
(AFP) – 9 hours ago
BERLIN — Germany, which will join the UN Security Council in January, believes the body should start dealing with climate change as a potential global threat, its UN ambassador said on Monday.
Peter Wittig told an audience at a think tank in Berlin that Germany shared the view of the more than 40 island states represented at the United Nations that global warming was an urgent security issue.
“We are of the opinion that it would be worth the effort to consider strategically — in the Security Council as well — which effects climate change could have on the security situation in the broadest sense including defence assistance, resource assistance, the disappearance of entire island states, the rising of sea levels,” he said.
“In New York this is a current, and for some countries, existential problem and we would like to take up these issues and bring them before the Security Council.” http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gOqoCv9x2vC4Yc1wV8ZpF_Y5bb7Q?docId=CNG.1105c440b481cba34edfd4b77cabac44.bb1
Highland Council ponders cuts and climate change
A council has begun assessing the positive and negative effects on the environment of making massive cuts to its services.
In a report, Highland Council said savings proposed for 2010-11 and 2012-13 would be “screened for climate change impacts”.
It suggests fewer bin collections could encourage more people to recycle.
But the council said reducing its workforce could lead to remaining staff having to travel more.
Climate change is routinely considered in decision making at Highland Council.
However, the local authority faces a bigger task in weighing up the good and bad impacts of cuts running to many millions of pounds.
Councillors meeting on Thursday will consider plans that include shedding 300 jobs, shutting some public toilets and reducing street cleaning. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-11981922
This sure will make a huge impact
Global warming protesters ramp up with climate talks’ failure
The failure of global climate negotiations to slow greenhouse gas emissions is fueling protest movements in the U.S. and other countries, as the effects of sea level rise, longer droughts and stronger storms begin to take a toll.
More than 190 nations sent some 9,000 government officials, scientists and technicians to Cancun over the last two weeks, but the diplomatic arm-wrestling yielded little progress. That didn’t sit well with thousands of environmentalists and social activists, many of them from California, who converged on the seaside resort to pressure negotiators.
The negotiations were “shrouded in a fog of unreality,” said Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, a group that advocates drastic cuts in emissions to reduce carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere from the current 387 ppm to 350 ppm. “The biggest and most powerful nations on Earth simply aren’t paying attention to physics and chemistry.”
McKibben, whose group sent several San Francisco-based activists to Cancun, predicted that “the grassroots movement to demand real action will continue to mushroom. We’re not big enough yet to beat the fossil fuel industry and its allies, but we’re gaining.”
Over the last two years, 350.org has organized more than 14,000 climate demonstrations in 188 countries.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/12/cancun-climate-protests-photos-cop-16-images.html
CU prof named NASA’s chief scientist
At CIRES, Abdalati and his co-workers use satellite and airborne remote sensing techniques — with modeling and field observations — to study ice sheets, glaciers, and their vulnerability to climate change. http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_16849970
But he’s equally passionate about creating a national discussion on climate change, one that transcends the polarization of politics.
“It’s not my job to convince people to stop driving their SUVs,” he said. “It’s to ensure that the best information is available for conversations, and to inform policy. Conversation that is not rooted in data and accurate information is a flawed conversation.”
WikiLeaks and climategate
Now we have some indication of the forces behind “climategate,” the theft and release of private emails held by the Climatic Research Unit at University of East Anglia.
This report from Plain Justice Today – French WikiLeaks Coverage Reports Cyberattacks on Climate Scientists:
http://sciblogs.co.nz/open-parachute/2010/12/14/wikileaks-and-climategate/
NJ town blocks sale of flood-prone property http://www.newsday.com/news/region-state/nj-town-blocks-sale-of-flood-prone-property-1.2538030
Ministers tour flood-stricken Queensland properties
One property they’re visiting is Arcturus Downs, between Rolleston and Springsure, which was also flooded in February and March.
Its manager Sam Bradford says cropping and cattle country is awash and help is needed.
“We’ve been struggling the whole year with the weather,” he said.
“We’ve had a difficult harvest right through from our sorghum, sunflowers and now our winter crop.
“It’s been a battle the whole way and the guys that are staring down the barrel of more crop losses are going to do it very tough, that’s for sure.” http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/201012/s3092654.htm
Saturating Seattle | Rain, flood and mud
Heavy rains cause a Burien house to slide down the hill http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/picturethis/2013666205_pt_flood.html
Is this just me or are there significant uptakes in record breaking precipitation events recently?
Evening rain worries those already under water
More rain in the forecast isn’t good news for those already mopping up after the Pineapple Express that broke rain records over the weekend. “Obviously the soils are really saturated and the rivers are running really high. We’d be happy is if all we saw were sunny days ahead,” said Doug Williams with the King County Flood Warning System.
The National Weather Service says the scattered showers will develop into constant rain late Monday night and return to showers around daybreak Tuesday. Forecasters say we’ll get a break Tuesday afternoon, but then we’re in for more showers Tuesday night. Things may dry out a bit Thursday and Friday, but the rain returns this weekend. http://www.mynorthwest.com/category/local_news_articles/20101213/Evening-rain-worries-those-already-under-water/
Seattle Public Utilities says that most of Seattle received three to four inches of rain over a 24-hour period. In fact, based on data from rain gauges at West Seattle, Green Lake, and South Park, the amount of rain was close to that of a historical 100-year event.
Florida shelters fruit from incoming cold
Wintry weather takes aim at Florida as the Midwest struggles to recover from a weekend storm that dumped more than a foot of snow in some areas, then sent temperatures below zero.
In northern Indiana, frigid air racing over Lake Michigan churned up lake-effect snow that stranded “dozens upon dozens” of drivers in their vehicles, says Lt. Chris Eckert of the Porter County, Ind., Sheriff’s Department.
At Family Express, a gas station in Westville, Ind., clerk Sandi Oller could barely see the fuel pumps from the store windows Monday. She called conditions outside “a great big mess.” http://www.usatoday.com/weather/storms/winter/2010-12-13-snow-cold-winter-weather_N.htm
Power Plants: Engineers Mimic Photosynthesis to Harvest Light Energy
Theoretical models suggest ways for optimizing artificial photosynthesis to turn light into energy the way plants do
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=power-plants-engineers-mimic-photosynthesis
Local farmers eligible for federal assistance after brutal summer
While this past summer’s heat and dry weather were not as bad as the extended drought that devastated the crops of many local farmers two years ago, they were bad enough for the federal government to declare 42 counties as natural disaster areas, including Lenoir and Greene.
“This crop came in a close second to 2008, but it was not as devastating as 2008 in my opinion,” said Ed Sugg of Greene County, who has been farming in the local area for 35 years. http://www.enctoday.com/news/summer-70245-kfpress-farmers-federal.html
“Most every crop this year has been affected, and it has been overall a pretty dismal year for farmers,” Toler said. “I am glad to hear we’ve been officially declared a disaster area, because that opens up a little bit of help for farmers.”
Sugg said his soybeans and tobacco were particularly affected by the heat, and that it made the tobacco susceptible to diseases “that otherwise wouldn’t have been a problem.”
GASland
Gas drilling tactic fuels a boom and health concerns
SHREVEPORT, La. — Residents here rejoiced two years ago when gas companies poked into a mammoth natural gas deposit 2 miles under their homes, sparking a modern-day gold rush.
The companies offered residents tens of thousands of dollars an acre to drill on their land, enriching some folks overnight in this rural corner of northwestern Louisiana.
Then cows started to die. Methane seeped into the drinking water. Homes were evacuated when natural gas escaped uncontrollably from a wellhead.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-12-14-1Alouisiana14_CV_N.htm?csp=34news
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40655137/ns/weather/
[JR: PLEASE add explanatory comments and not just links!]
Ok.
Storm threatens historic Roman-era Israeli port of Caesarea
CAESAREA PORT, Israel – A massive storm that battered the eastern Mediterranean destroyed the breakers protecting the Roman-era port of Caesarea, threatening to wash away the historic site, officials said Monday.
“In this big storm, the wave breakers that protect the Caesarea shore totally collapsed,” …”Now the port is exposed to the full force of the waves,” Margalit told AFP. “It is a matter of time until it all collapses.”
High winds of up to 100 kph whipped up enormous waves, some as high as 12 metres, which continuously battered the ancient port making any intervention to protect the site impossible, he said. … The ruins of the port city, one of the largest in the region in Roman times, is a major tourist attraction in Israel and the Roman amphitheatre continues to host concerts.
It also contains the remains of dozens of buildings from the subsequent Byzantine and Crusader periods, including the moat and fortified walls that surround the site.
In recent times Caesarea has become an upscale residential town, home to some of Israel’s wealthiest and most influential citizens. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a weekend home in the town, some 50 kilometres north of Tel Aviv.
Margalit said it would cost about 60 million shekels (16 million dollars) and take three years to construct a new, modern wave breaker to protect the site. http://www.vancouversun.com/travel/Storm+threatens+historic+Roman+Israeli+port+Caesarea/3969296/story.html
A massive storm that battered the eastern Mediterranean caused the collapse of a cliff in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, revealing a rare Roman-era marble statue http://gulfnews.com/news/region/palestinian-territories/storm-uncovers-roman-era-statue-in-israel-1.730105