- Ivy Main has a new blog post about the implications of current policy barriers in Virginia on investments in solar energy. She also has one concerning the order by the State Corporation Commission requiring Dominion Virginia Power to refund $19.7 million to its customers.
- Does climate change bum you out? Tired of hearing about all of the things that are happening? Well perhaps you need to join in singing the “Climate Change Deniers’ Anthem” with January Jones and others at Funny or Die.
- David Waskow and Jennifer Morgan of the World Resources Institute summarize the key provisions and highlights from the Paris Climate Summit.
- Now that the climate negotiators have all gone home from Paris, the big question is just what exactly does the climate agreement mean for the future. Robinson Meyer of The Atlantic and Oscar Reyes of Foreign Policy in Focus provide postmortems on the Paris Climate Summit, with the former a little more optimistic than the latter. John Vidal of The Guardian lists five reasons to be gloomy and five reasons to be glad about the agreement. Chris Mooney of The Washington Post provides a look at what may lie ahead while Richard Heinberg of the Post Carbon Institute lays out nine issues for climate (and world) leaders to think about.
- CarbonBrief has an interactive map that helps us visualize various countries’ contributions to greenhouse gas emissions over time.
- On Friday both the House and the Senate passed the new spending bill that has important energy provisions in it. As far as climate change is concerned, the bill has both positive and negative impacts. On a positive note, the subsidies for both wind and solar will be extended for five more years, but on the negative side, the ban on the export of crude oil has been lifted. Steven Mufson and Chris Mooney both of The Washington Post provided analyses written before the final vote (which did not change the provisions in the bill). In addition, the bill does not restrict President Obama from contributing to the Green Climate Fund designed to help poorer countries adapt to climate change.
- Naomi Oreskes, senior author of Merchants of Doubt, has an interesting opinion piece in The Guardian arguing that there is a new kind of denialism loose in the world – that we can’t meet our energy needs by renewable energy alone. On the other hand, Michael Specter, writing in The New Yorker, has pushed back against Oreskes for using such a loaded word as denialist to characterize four prominent climate scientists who happen to think that the world’s energy needs can’t be met by renewable energy alone.
- One thing to watch next year in the renewable energy area is energy storage. For example, AES, a large energy company, has announced that it is gaining access to 1 gigawatt-hour of lithium ion batteries from LG Chem. The batteries will be used to provide large scale grid energy storage to utility companies.
- The latest national survey by the Yale Project on Climate Change Communications has found that 36% of registered voters are more likely to vote for a presidential candidate that supports strong action on climate change whereas only 16% are more likely not to.
- Here’s surprising news. According to a study from Carnegie Mellon University, following the USDA nutritional guidelines to eat more fruits, vegetables, dairy, and seafood is more harmful to the environment than eating a less healthy diet. However, before you rush out and stock up on bacon, you might want to consider some of the caveats associated with the study.
- Kiritimati, the largest atoll in the world, is part of Kiribati in the Pacific. It provides a unique site for studying the impacts of ocean warming on coral reefs because its reefs vary from pristine to very impacted by human activity. Typically, water temperatures around Kiritimati hover near 81 degrees F. However, this year, because of the strong El Nino water temperatures have reached as high as 88 degrees, leading to extensive coral bleaching and, in some cases, death. Nevertheless, another study has shown that with proper management, reefs can recover.
- A new study has found that fish populations around the globe have experienced a decline in their ability to reproduce and replenish themselves. The pattern of decline is tied closely to a decline in phytoplankton, the food for young fish, that is associated with climate change.
- NOAA released its latest Arctic Report Card at this year’s American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco. Not surprisingly, the Arctic continues to deteriorate, experiencing record warm temperatures. Carbon Brief’s Roz Pidcock presents a summary of its most important findings.
- A massive new study just reported on in the journal Nature found that Greenland has lost over 9 trillion tons of ice since 1900. More disturbingly, the rate of ice loss in the 2003-2010 period was more than twice that over the 1983-2003 period. Robert McSweeney at CarbonBrief provides a more detailed description of the findings.
- Lakes all over the world are warming due to climate change. This can impact algal blooms and other factors that impact the suitability of the lakes as water supplies.
These news items have been compiled by Les Grady, member and former chair of the CAAV steering committee. He is a licensed professional engineer (retired) who taught environmental engineering at Purdue and Clemson Universities and engaged in private practice with CH2M Hill, the world’s largest environmental engineering consulting firm. Since his retirement in 2003 he has devoted much of his time to the study of climate science and the question of global warming and makes himself available to speak to groups about this subject. More here.
Climate Action Alliance of the Valley 