Carol Browner, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a former climate official under President Obama, joined John Podesta, the chairman of CAP and the chief of staff to President Clinton, in the pages of Bloomberg today to explain why they’ve decided to oppose oil and gas drilling in the Arctic. [Bloomberg]
Developers and President Barack Obama’s administration assured us these operations would be safe, thanks to strict oversight and new technology. Now it seems this optimism was misplaced. Unfortunately for Shell and other oil producers seeking to exploit the region, the company’s best efforts were met with multiple failures.
We were open to offshore oil and gas development in the Arctic provided oil companies and the government could impose adequate safeguards, ensure sufficient response capacity and develop a deeper understanding of how oil behaves in ice and freezing water. Now, following a series of mishaps and errors, as well as overwhelming weather conditions, it has become clear that there is no safe and responsible way to drill for oil and gas in the Arctic Ocean.
Citing the unfinished business of climate legislation, and the warnings recently put forward in the draft of the National Climate Assessment, CAP also put forward ten recommendations yesterday to guide President Obama’s second term. [CAP]
Yesterday, Amtrak and the California High-Speed Rail Authority announced they’ll be combining resources to purchase as many as 60 trains over the next decade that can run up to 220 mph along the East and West coast corridors. [Grist]
It turns out Canada tops the United States in garbage production — the Conference Board of Canada ranked the country 15th out of 17 developed nations across a number of environmental-efficiency metrics. [Grist]
A new study has determined that solar power is 30, 50, or even 200 times more efficient that biofuels in terms of land use. [CleanTechnia]
Markets are expecting German and French power prices to drop to record lows in 2014, as increasing solar output is anticipated to alleviate demand for other sources of electricity. [Bloomberg]
A prominent coastal scientist warned yesterday that some of the world’s best-known beach resorts may not survive the projected rise in sea levels, and that failures of short-term coastal management may compound the problem. [PhysOrg]
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Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga
Think that there is already the capability to do horizontal drilling into gas hydrate stores from the coast into shallow off shore deposits. Think that there is already the capability to make fuel cells mobile to the head site and large enough to need big dc elec lines to hook up to. Sorry, given that the hydrate deposits will melt and that it will be a hazard or resource, it seems smarter to make it a resource. Just thinking.
As we do know, bad behavior is socially acceptable and even rewarded by the marketplace. So goes the geoengeering of putting fossil fuels into the atmosphere. We should go with the development of knowledge about what it is and how to change it into what it should become.
Shell Contracts Transocean for Four Ultra-Deep-Water Rigs http://www.1derrick.com/shell-contracts-transocean-for-four-ultra-deep-water-rigs/3153/
Climate change: scientists puzzle over halt in global warming
By Axel Bojanowski
How much our climate is warming real? NASA researchers have shown that the temperature rise in 15 years takes a break. At the same time, there are indications that shifts the problem: The environment could be a completely different place preliminary heat. http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spiegel.de%2Fwissenschaft%2Fnatur%2Fstillstand-der-temperatur-erklaerungen-fuer-pause-der-klimaerwaermung-a-877941.html&act=url
This is kind of a twisted article by the main “obstructionist” in Germany (Article will be translated by SPIEGEL within the next days). He also posted about Climategate and since did not corrected the assumptions he made back then. Always muddling the Science to some degree or building arguments based on cherry picking.
Though this post is a bit puzzling, since it acknowledges some changes but misses the bigger bigger and urgency in regards to the overall risk we take with pumping the atmosphere full with emissions.
Spiegel.de is ranked 147 in the world (among the 30 million domains), a low rank means that this website gets lots of visitors. via Alexa
Alexa is not considered credible.
About flat surface temperature rise since 2000, what amount of heat is required to melt the Arctic sea ice? Any connection there?
My guess is that we do not see a steep curve is because of the polar air which escapes into lower hemisphere, and the temperature observation might be poorer within the polar area. Although the heat-energy is going to some degree into the thaw scenario.
All the reasons why global warming hasn’t stopped
Making judgements about global temperature usually boils down to how long you measure temperatures for. Others have given helpful explanations of the difference between short-lived natural climate variability and longer term climate change. Scientists Gavin Schmidt and Stefan Rahmstorf said in a post for science blog Real Climate in 2008 that considering only 10-15 years of temperature is like “analysing the temperature observations from 10-17 April to check whether it really gets warmer during spring.”
http://www.carbonbrief.org/blog/2013/01/all-the-reasons-why-global-warming-hasnt-stopped
Debunking the Denial: “16 Years of No Global Warming” http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/01/14/no_global_warming_for_16_years_debunking_climate_change_denial.html
Global temperature evolution 1979–2010
FEATURED ARTICLE
Grant Foster and Stefan Rahmstorf
Environ. Res. Lett. 6 044022 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/6/4/044022
in
http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/6/4
is used to derive that
The trend established in the late 20th century continues in the 21st:
http://tamino.wordpress.com/2012/12/13/global-temperature-update/
In agreement with
Ranking of years, hottest to coldest
http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/MetOffice.gif
Decadal average global temperatures (NOAA/NCDC)
http://kgcdevelopment.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/30-year-heat-wave-graph.pdf