A round-up of the top climate and energy stories.
In the U.S. – land of the gas-guzzler SUV and 24/7 air conditioning – energy efficiency isn’t known as a strong suit. The country’s power management efforts are so poor that a new report ranks it near the bottom of the pack of major economies. [Los Angeles Times]
Rising temperatures caused by climate change may lead to reduced milk production among cows in the southern United States, a new study suggests. [U.S. News]
America declared a natural disaster in more than 1,000 drought-stricken counties in 26 states on Thursday. [Guardian]
It’s high season in the nation’s national parks as millions of visitors come to see nature. Yet many visitors are likely to find their view of the natural landscapes softened, if not significantly obscured, by haze or smog from civilization. [New York Times]
According to a new survey, the most eco-conscientious consumers were in the developing world, in places like China and India. And these countries tend to have the most green guilt. [Wonk Blog]
Senegal is one of 11 countries in the Sahel region of Africa looking towards the same solution to the desertification problem: The Great Green Wall. [Guardian]
Global oil demand is expected to rise by one million barrels a day next year, faster than growth this year, but “well below” the levels seen before the financial crisis as economic recovery remains muted, the International Energy Agency said Thursday. [Wall Street Journal]
Previous in TP Climate Progress
Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga
Temperature in Greenland summit station hit +2C on July 11th 2012: http://www.wunderground.com/history/station/04416/2012/7/11/MonthlyHistory.html so the bets are off, to my knowledge this is the first ever but I stopped tracking it after 2009 summer, better check it elsewhere too.
Water flow through the river narrows in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland was 3.5 million liters of second from July 10-12. The previous record high flow was 2.0 million liters per second.
For comparison, the average flow of the Mississippi is 6 million liters per second.
An additional roundup of top energy and climate news is posted at http://www.marcaccicomms.com/news/energy-and-environment-news-roundup-7-13-12/
Today’s space weather
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/alerts/warnings_timeline.html
has a large proton and electron flux.
It is expected to put electronics and electrical grids at some risk, as well as provide aurora borealis displays as far south as Washington DC.
I think this is going to be good event to learn from. We are turning towards energy dependence on sustainable power, which commonly translates to dependence on electric power. Electric power sources have to be resilient in conditions of solar storms as well the terrestrial extreme weather.
This is a good reason why we need widely distributed electricity generation, with local storage, connected through micro-grids that can be disconnected from the main grid.
The Internet was designed and built to be highly distributed and massively redundant — so that it could survive a nuclear attack.
The electric grid should have the same attributes.
Joan Savage wrote: “We are turning towards energy dependence on sustainable power, which commonly translates to dependence on electric power.”
Actually, modern civilization is absolutely dependent on electricity, whether that electricity comes from solar panels or from coal-fired power plants. Without electricity, there is simply no such thing as “modern civilization”.
Fortunately, a grid powered by highly distributed wind and solar power sources should be inherently more resilient and less vulnerable to disruption and shutdown by geomagnetic storms.
Spot on.
High atmospheric CO2 levels impair carbon accumulation in soils according to new research
http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/22755.html
Thanks, it’s fascinating. The authors also mention a significant finding about nitrogen cycling.
“The authors also report that nitrogen cycled faster in this forest as the demand for nutrients by trees and microbes became greater under elevated CO2.
“The growth of trees is limited by the availability of nitrogen at this site, so it makes sense that trees are using the ‘extra’ carbon taken up under elevated CO2 to prime microbes to release nitrogen bound up in organic matter,” Phillips said. “What is surprising is that the trees seem to be getting much of their nitrogen by decomposing root and fungal detritus that is less than a year old.”"
—
The whizzed-up nitrogen cycling could also be happening in agricultural soils that don’t get applications of nitrogen fertilizer.
More unexpected bad news. Gaia seems to have it in for us, and, really, who can blame her?
“Can we say this year’s warm weather is because of global warming? It’s not for certain, and it’s important not to ascribe one especially warm season or year to global warming. ”
No, don’t answer with negatives!
Here is a more appropriate consistent approach…
“This year’s warming is probably due to GW. Due to the extreme nature of this event, its statistically off the chart, we have high confidence that it is probably due to GW. ….”
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/expeditions/2012/07/12/following-the-ice-is-this-global-warming/
…how about, there’s less than 1% chance that global warming didn’t cause this? And, there are no other suspects.
…how about, ‘Gaia has a nasty infection that is killing off all her children, so she is having a ‘healing crisis’ mediated by a fever.
negative response in there…
Just a trance song i made with samples from James Hansen, speaking about the rate of climate change.
http://soundcloud.com/galaxy-studio/galaxy-machine-the-rate-of
$80 million down the drain?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jul/13/obama-80m-everglades-environmentalists-question
This is indeed news to me.
Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore(AP),India
Wind Energy Expert
E-mail: anumakonda.jagadeesh@gmail.com