An analysis of prehistoric “Heinrich events” that happened many thousands of years ago, creating mass discharges of icebergs into the North Atlantic Ocean, make it clear that very small amounts of subsurface warming of water can trigger a rapid collapse of ice shelves….

If water were to warm by about 2 degrees under the ice shelves that are found along the edges of much of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet … it might greatly increase the rate of melting to more than 30 feet a year.

Greenland Ice Sheet Icebergs spilling out of Jakobshavn Fiord from the Greenland Ice Sheet, seen on the horizon. (Photo Credit: Oregon State University)

We knew that one West Antarctic Glacier is disintegrating much faster than almost anybody imagined — see “Nothing in the natural world is lost at an accelerating exponential rate like this glacier” (8/09).  And we knew deep ocean heat is rapidly melting Antarctic ice (12/10), which noted: “Global warming is sneaky. For more than a century it has been hiding large amounts of excess heat in the world’s deep seas. Now that heat is coming to the surface again in one of the worst possible places: Antarctica.”

Now this new Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study, “Ice-shelf collapse from subsurface warming as a trigger for Heinrich events” (subs. req’d)  provides paleoclimate evidence that very small temperature increases of the subsurface water at the poles can trigger rapid collapse of ice shelves.  The study concludes that a subsurface warming of only 2°C ( 3.6°F) “increases basal melt rate under an ice shelf … by a factor of approximately 6.” And remember, we are headed for very large temperature increases at the poles on our current emissions path — see M.I.T. doubles its 2095 warming projection to 10°F — with 866 ppm and Arctic warming of 20°F.

Here’s more from the news release:

Read more

The longest tree-sit in West Virginia history continues into its third week, as one protester remains perched near the mountaintop removal site at Coal River Mountain. Becks Kollins came down from her tree today and was immediately arrested by state police for trespassing:

Becks Kolins, who has been occupying a tree on the Bee Tree permit on Coal River Mountain for the last two weeks, descended the tree voluntarily and was arrested this afternoon by the West Virginia State Police. Kolins, along with Catherine-Ann MacDougal, had been sitting in a tree eighty feet above the ground since July 20th to protest the strip mining of Coal River Mountain. MacDougal remains in her tree, where she continues to stop work on the portion of the Bee Tree surface mine within Bee Tree hollow; she has stated no plans to come down.

Alpha Natural Resources senior management and residents of coal-impacted communities are meeting today at Alpha’s regional headquarters in Madison, WV.

Kolins and MacDougal are part of a nationwide movement of people willing to engage in civil disobedience to stop the immoral destruction of their future by the fossil fuel industry

Researchers at MIT are designing a new method of building concentrating solar power plants with thermal storage that they say could lower the cost of energy by 50% compared with existing technologies.

Last month, a 19.9 MW power-tower concentrating solar power plant in Spain became the first to generate electricity for 24 hours using molten-salt storage. But the cost of building that demonstration plant is higher than most CSP technologies – around $18 per watt, putting the cost of electricity somewhere around 30 U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour.

The company developing the plant, Torresol, wasn’t building it to prove the design could be the cheapest. It was a demonstration plant to prove molten storage technology and allow the company to scale up a much larger plant. But it also showed that there’s still work to be done in order to bring down costs of concentrating solar power designs.

MIT Mechanical Engineering Professor Alexander Slocum – along with a group of other researchers – says he’s designed a new type of tank for molten salt storage that could reduce equipment needs, increase durability and ultimately reduce the cost of electricity being generated by a plant.

Rather than use a complicated plumbing infrastructure to heat and pump the molten salt for storage, Slocum’s design puts the salt storage and water heating in a single tank mounted on the ground, rather than on a tower far above the field of mirrors. Under the new design, the mirrors are actually mounted on a hillside above the storage tank and reflect sunlight down into a small opening in the top.

The system could be “cheap, with a minimum number of parts,” says Slocum, the Pappalardo Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT and lead author of the paper. Reflecting the system’s 24/7 power capability, it is called CSPonD (for Concentrated Solar Power on Demand).

The new system could also be more durable than existing CSP systems whose heat-absorbing receivers cool down at night or on cloudy days. “It’s the swings in temperature that cause [metal] fatigue and failure,” Slocum says. The traditional way to address temperature swings, he says: “You have to way oversize” the system’s components. “That adds cost and reduces efficiency.”

Read more

Last Friday, California Republican Darrell Issa called for an investigation into the negotiations between the Obama Administration and auto companies in the lead-up to an historic increase in fuel efficiency for America’s fleet of trucks and cars.

Rather than back an industry-supported agreement that would reduce consumption of oil and create American jobs, Issa used the moment to attack the Administration with a politically-motivated inquiry into the deal through the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

But Issa is not only out of step with public sentiment, he appears to be out of step with his own party.

Other Republican leaders in the House aren’t going along with this “green scare” tactic. Congressman Fred Upton, Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, is featured in Politico’s Morning Energy with this snarky headline:

ISSA’S BELUSHI MOMENT? Darrell Issa is launching an investigation into Obama’s CAFE deal with the auto industry, but Fred Upton says it’s time to let the deal work its way through the regulatory process, he tells POLITICO.

“We’ve not decided to take that [Issa investigation] course,” Upton said. “We’ve had some discussions with the auto companies. They believe. They signed the letters of intent. And we’ll see how it plays out.”

This latest deal will raise fuel efficiency of automobiles to 54.5 mpg by 2025, up from 27.3 mpg today. The standards could create tens of thousands of jobs due to new manufacturing activity, while also potentially saving consumers more than a trillion dollars.

“Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?”

– Stephen Lacey and Joe Romm

In light of the debt debate dominating the Halls of Congress, some in Congress continue to fight to maintain billions in tax breaks for big oil while asking American families to sacrifice even more. A group of nine U.S. Senators wrote to President Obama protesting the idea of closing oil tax loopholes and calling for even more giveaways of national assets to the rapacious industry:

While we continue to hear talk about increased taxes on the oil and natural gas industry, numerous studies show the industry can create thousands of jobs throughout the economy and substantially increase the revenues it provides to our government if increased access is given to domestic resources.

Not surprisingly, the handful of senators — six Republicans and Democrats Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Mark Begich (D-AK), and Mark Warner (D-VA) — that recently sent a letter to President Obama have received $7.1 million in contributions from the oil and gas industry.

Senator	Career Oil and Gas Money
Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX)	$2,223,475
John Cornyn (R-TX)	$1,809,300
David Vitter (R-LA)	$991,785
Mary Landrieu (D-LA)	$830,894
Roger Wicker (R-MS)	$487,360
Richard Shelby (R-AL)	$355,200
Thad Cochran (R-MS)	$229,485
Mark Begich (D-AK)	$144,255
Mark Warner (D-VA)	$57,700
TOTAL	$7,139,454

One of the silliest headline to come out of the debt ceiling post mortems comes from ClimateWire (subs. req’d):

Debt deal, promising energy budget cuts, appears to chill hopes for a carbon tax

How exactly do you chill something that has been frozen near absolute zero?

In fact, in my reading, the debt deal actually warmed up hopes for a carbon tax from those liquid helium temperatures to at least liquid nitrogen temperatures — you know, around -321°F.

Why?  Because it didn’t include any revenue increases or reforms in the tax code.  That means a grand bargain is still on the table.  There are two things Republicans want more than anything else in the bargain — more, even than actual debt reduction — extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy and a reduction in the corporate tax rate.

And there is one thing Democrats will insist on as part of the post-2012 debt ceiling deal –  some net revenue increases.

Yes, it’s true that President Obama has proven himself to be a feckless negotiator and even worse messager on the debt issue.  But he will actually have maximal leverage right after the 2012 election when the Bush tax cuts are poised to expire if no positive action is taken.  Also, he won’t be up for re-election so, in theory, he can play hardball.  Yes, I know, it’s a theory, but remember, we’re 321°F below 0.  Put on your thermal underwear and play along.

Obama could trade both the Bush tax cuts and the corporate tax rate reduction for a carbon tax.  No, I’m not saying he will.  I’m only saying that he could — and indeed, it strikes me as his only opportunity in his entire second term to enact any policy that would actually reduce absolute levels of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

It is therefore his only chance  to meet the commitment he made before Copenhagen, a commitment that is certainly crucial if there is to be a global deal  during his, hypothetical, second term,  a commitment that is crucial if there is to be even a tiny chance of averting multiple, catastrophic climate impacts.  Yes, Obama does have to get reelected for this scenario to make much sense, but that looks to be at least 50-50 right now.

The ClimateWire piece comes to its conclusions with some bizarre quotes from experts at the end:

Read more

The cold hard fracks

The hunt for coal seam gas is dangerous to the health of all Australians.

AS A long-time advocate for the environment, I am greatly concerned about the continued health of Australia and its people. That is why I am horrified to learn of the extensive plans for coal seam gas and shale gas exploration here. Until recently, I was unaware of the hidden dangers lurking in this so-called clean natural gas exploration.

There are serious risks to human health and the environment associated with coal seam gas (CSG) mining and hydraulic fracturing. ”Fracking” is the practice of using high-pressure pumps to inject a mixture of sand, water and a mystery cocktail of toxic chemicals into gas wells to release unconventional gas.

So begins an Australian op-ed by “Olivia Newton-John, AO, OBE, is a singer, actress and in 1990 became the United Nation’s first Goodwill Ambassador for the Environment.”

And here you thought  she was just the star of Grease who sang that song about exercise — it was about exercise, wasn’t it? — you saw in concert some three decades ago….  Oh, wait, that wasn’t you, that was me!  But I digress.

More from Newton-John :

Read more

A round-up of climate and energy news. Please post other stories below.

Tepco Says Highest Radiation Yet Is Detected at Fukushima Dai-Ichi

Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, said it detected the highest radiation to date at the site.

Geiger counters, used to detect radioactivity, registered more than 10 sieverts an hour, the highest reading the devices are able to record, Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager at the utility, said today. The measurements were taken at the base of the main ventilation stack for reactors No. 1 and No. 2.

Read more

ThinkProgress and the Des Moines Register have reported on the Iowa Energy Forum, a new oil industry front group designed to manipulate the GOP presidential primary. The group, financed by some of the world’s largest oil companies, sends activists to GOP primary events in Iowa to ask candidates about oil industry priorities, like building the Keystone XL pipeline, opening new land to drilling/fracking, and protecting subsidies to big oil.

ThinkProgress witnessed the Iowa Energy Forum in action on a recent reporting trip. At a local Republican event at the Pizza Ranch buffet, a man affiliated with the group pressed Rick Santorum to commit to supporting the Keystone XL pipeline as another person with the group videotaped the exchange. The same dynamic happened again later that week at a Tea Party event with Herman Cain.

We came across a Youtube account affiliated with the Iowa Energy Forum. In addition to hosting an infomercial from the American Petroleum Institue, the trade association sponsoring the Forum, the channel features videos of astroturfed questions planted with GOP presidential candidates like Cain, Santorum, Tim Pawlenty, and Newt Gingrich. Many of the exchanges appear as authentic dialogue between a candidate and a regular Iowan. However, the questions are part of a well-crafted effort by oil lobbyists steer, and to some extent control, the GOP primary. Watch a compilation of planted questions at town hall events:

Although he is not featured in the video, Iowa Energy Forum staffers have touted the fact that they have spoken with Mitt Romney as well.

Of course, Republican candidates are more than willing participants in the oil industry’s outreach efforts. Some of the oil industry’s lobbyists behind the Iowa Energy Forum effort double as consultants to the Pawlenty campaign. Cain has said that he would literally appoint the CEO of Shell Oil to set oil industry regulations at the EPA. And as ThinkProgress discovered, the American Petroleum Institute maintains an official partnership with Gingrich’s 527 attack group, American Solutions for Winning the Future (ASWF).

A profile of American Petroleum Institute head Jack Gerard sheds light on the purpose of groups like the Iowa Energy Forum. Gerard’s lobbying strategy has focused on boosting the public perception of big oil. Gerard has dedicated millions of dollars worth of ads promoting his industry, but he has also organized fly-ins of African American and Hispanic oil workers, bused in workers to hold large public rallies in pivotal states, and recruited unlikely allies to press his case, including labor unions. He even hired one of the Nature Conservancy’s top officials to help build his pro-oil army.

Gerard’s current strategy in Iowa mimics the coal industry. In 2008, the coal lobby planted questions about “clean coal” in town halls with major candidates, including Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John McCain.

Last year, the United States slipped to third in clean energy race behind China and Germany.  Many more countries spend a larger fraction of GDP on clean energy than we do — and are planning to increase that edge.  For instance, South Korea plans to spend $36 billion on renewable energy by 2015 to become a leader in this fast-growing market.

While the debt deal torpedoes U.S. energy investment for the foreseeable future, blowing up America’s ability to defend our economic, energy, environmental security, the media is focused on the impact of the cuts on the uber-bloated defense budget.

I am reposting this chart from The Economist because of overblown articles like this from USA Today:

Cuts to defense spending in the debt reduction bill could total nearly $1 trillion over 10 years — more than double what President Obama had proposed earlier this year — and sap American military might worldwide, say analysts and members of Congress….

Thomas Donnelly, a military analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, said the Pentagon cuts won’t require “long knives so much as chain saws.”

Oh, no.  Instead of military spending that is “bigger than that of the next 17 countries combined,” we might only have a military budget that is bigger than the next 15 countries combined.

Darn you Canada and Turkey!  Of course, even that assumes those other 15 countries don’t slash their military budgets over the next decade.  Yeah, it’s a real chain saw massacre!

The bottom line is that the United States continues to run 2+ wars and be policemen to the world while conservatives insist that we must not have millionaires spend a dollar more in taxes to pay for any of that.  At the same time, the real long-term threat to US security –  global warming and peak oil — get eviscerated in the debt deal while conservatives insist we must not have uber-profitable oil companies give of one dollar of their lush subsidies.  Ah, but that is news, is it?

 

Below are old comments from the earlier Facebook commenting system:

• Leif Erik Knutsen · Top Commenter · Friends with Joseph Romm

The only hope for the Nation in my eyes is for the Military to place sustainable energy and economic security on the top of its National Security list and treat it with the respect it deserves. Since the Military is second only to protecting the wealthy in the eyes of the Tea Party and it holds a sacred pedestal with a lot of money, perhaps it alone will be able to instill some rationality into this circus.

Can/should the the Nation’s Military turn a blind eye to a National Security threat that originates within our borders? Is the damage and destruction done to the Nation by the Tea Party any less than the attack of 9/11? Is a viable economy required to support this kind of Military spending in the first place? By allowing the American economy to become eviscerated by the Tea Party Vermin, TPV, the Military is writing its own obituary.

4 · Like · Reply · Subscribe · August 2 at 10:51am

• b040875 (signed in using Yahoo)

“By allowing the American economy to become eviscerated by the Tea Party Vermin, TPV, the Military is writing its own obituary.”

Here’s my nightmare scenario – sometime in the future, when America reaches the food-riot stage, the corporatists will have a Blackwater/Xe-style paramilitary force that may very well try to overtake the regular army. And if anyone can bring this about, it’s the Banana Republicans.

1 · Like · Reply · August 2 at 11:21am

Joan Savage · Top Commenter · SUNY-ESF

The war profiteer hyenas emit distracting howls when the military speaks up on strategic priorities.

1 · Like · Reply · August 2 at 11:48am

Leif Erik Knutsen · Top Commenter · Friends with Joseph Romm

The Tea Party Vermin have been relentless, and have had some success, in mixing Church and State, (of course only their approved Church), and the tax payers are already funneling vast amounts of tax money into Blackwater/Xe-style paramilitary endeavors. Consequently it is not out of the question that the TPV will be capable of spinning tax support for enforcing Corporate Greed. My suspicion however is that by that time corporations will have extracted all the easy pickings that the earth has to offer and the Green Awakening Economy will become the obvious course of action. The problem with allowing that scenario to run its course, as we all know, is that humanity will have already stepped across the door step of doom and it will be all over but the shouting.

Like · Reply · August 2 at 12:17pm

Jim Vijay · University of Florida

Does that chart include dollars given by the US to countries like Pakistan, Egypt, Israel, etc explicitly for the purchase of (US usually) military hardware? Or is that included in the State budget?

Does it include dollars spent by the CIA for military operations like operating drones and other operations that in the past had been done by the military?

Does it include funding for the private security firms like Blackwater (or Xi?)?
…See More

Like · Reply · Subscribe · August 3 at 3:07pm

George Ennis · Top Commenter · University of Toronto

I am surprised at the number of people who actually believe that their will be defense cuts.

How long will it take before the GOP points out that the DEmocrats are putting fighting soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Pakistan and Yemen in harm’s way because of the cuts? So as this President and the Democratic party has always done they will fold and forgo most of the cuts on defense and instead take the GOP alternative which is further cuts on domestic spending.

The US will continue to engage in endless wars in a widening and desperate effort to find and secure access to cheap (ish) oil.

Like · Reply · Subscribe · August 2 at 12:54pm

• James Hwang · Top Commenter (signed in using Hotmail)

The good news is that the military cuts are separate from the wars so the GOP can’t use that argument. BTW, we only have troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The other countries we only have drones. But I wish they would’ve capped war funding at $450 billion over the next decade like Reid’s plan did.

Like · Reply · August 2 at 1:03pm

Alex MacPherson · Software Engineer Co-op at Enterasys Networks

Well thanks to military funding, your able to share this with people around the world. The internet is a descendant of ARPANET, which was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency of the US Department of Defense. I’m sure the commerce that the internet has sprung year over year is well over $700B.

The common misconception is that it funds weaponization, but it also funds advanced technology research.

Like · Reply · Subscribe · August 2 at 11:26pm

Robert Fanney · Top Commenter · Flagler College

How about $50 billion a year in renewable energy investments? Of course, we might need to raise revenue for such a plan. Carbon tax please?

Like · Reply · Subscribe · August 2 at 3:12pm

John Haynes · Works at University of Pennsylvania Health System

: well, that’s a telling chart.

Like · Reply · Subscribe · August 3 at 1:07pm