- In an interesting opinion piece in The New York Times Sunday Review, former astronaut and current NASA scientist Piers Sellers reflects on how humankind will make it through the changes required to solve climate change.
- As projected, 2015 was the warmest year in the surface temperature record. Chris Mooney and Joby Warrick at The Washington Post take a deeper dive into the implications of the record and the likelihood it will be surpassed this year. In addition, Roz Pidcock at Carbon Brief provides an analysis of how 2015 became the hottest year on record, while James Hansen, along with his former colleagues at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, provides a very detailed analysis of the 2015 temperature record.
- At the same time that we focus on the global average temperature, it is important to recognize that regional temperatures will typically change more drastically than the global average. This is something that many policy makers do not recognize and is one of the disadvantages of focusing on global rather than regional temperature changes.
- As you sit out winter storm Jonas this weekend you might wonder if it is related to climate change in any way. Erika Spanger-Siegfried of the Union of Concerned Scientists examines that as well as why Jonas will cause coastal flooding, particularly in Delaware and New Jersey.
- A new study by the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) shows that if the world switches to renewable energy rapidly enough to make it 36% of the global energy mix by 2030, that will provide about half of the CO2 reductions needed to hold warming to 2 degrees C. Furthermore, doubling the share of renewables by 2030 would increase global GDP by 1.1%, or about $1.3 trillion, and provide jobs for more than 24 million people. On a similar note, in 2015 the solar workforce in the U.S. grew by 20%, adding 35,000 new jobs. In addition, Denmark generated 42% of its electricity from wind turbines in 2015, the highest percentage yet recorded, despite having two windfarms offline for much of the year.
- Pumped storage is commonly used in concert with nuclear power plants as a way to provide peaking power when demand is higher than the production of the facility. The idea is that you pump water to an elevated reservoir when electrical demand is lower than the production of the power plant and then let it flow back down to generate electricity when electrical demand is high. Now, this concept will be used with a solar power plant in Chile to provide electricity 24/7 to a fishing village.
- Wednesday the Great Green Fleet set sail from San Diego on its latest deployment. Its name, while being purposefully reminiscent of President Theodore Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet, derives from the fact that much of its fuel came from renewable sources, thereby providing a boost to the renewable fuel industry at a time when the price of fossil fuels is exceptionally low. Simon Evans of Carbon Brief asked a number of energy experts what the impacts of low oil prices are likely to be on action against climate change. Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency has said that supply is likely to continue to outstrip demand at least until late 2016, which would mean continued low oil prices. One impact of those low oil prices is a decline in electric vehicle sales in the U.S., although they have not had a major effect on growth in renewable energy.
- According to a new study published Monday in Nature Climate Change as much heat entered the oceans in the last 18 years as had entered in the previous 130 years. The result is that the oceans are taking up twice as much heat now as they were just 20 years ago.
- You may recall that in December Sen. Ted Cruz held hearing on climate change in which he kept insisting that the satellite measurements of Earth’s temperature are the best type and that they show that there has been no warming over the last 18 years. Phil Plait has written a critique of those assertions and included a video by Peter Sinclair. Be sure and watch the video; it is both entertaining and understandable.
- The Yale Program on Climate Change Communication has a new report entitled “Faith, Morality and the Environment: Portraits of Global Warming’s Six Americas“, the findings of which suggest that a moral framing of climate change could resonate with many people currently unconcerned about the issue.
- China’s carbon emissions appear to have fallen around 3% in 2015 for a variety of reasons. In addition, Chine has allocated $4.56 billion to shut 4300 coal mines over the next three years and redeploy over a million workers.
- As states examine ways to meet the requirements of the Clean Power Plan, many are considering implementing some form of carbon trading program, such as the cap and trade programs used successfully to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides, air pollutants that contribute to photochemical smog. On the other hand, former South Carolina Congressman Bob Inglis thinks that the best approach is to put a price on carbon.
- Fish stocks in the Indian Ocean have been declining, reducing a major source of protein for many people. While one important contributing factor is over-fishing, another is a decline in phytoplankton, which form the base of the food chain. That decline appears to be caused by warming of the ocean, which is a result of climate change.
- The U.S. Department of Energy has provided grant money to help energy companies develop new types of nuclear reactors. One is the air-cooled pebble bed reactor, which cannot melt down in an accident, while the other is the molten chloride reactor, which is self-cooling an an accident and thus doesn’t need an emergency water cooling system.
- A briefing for congressional staff and federal regulators focused on a recent USDA report entitled “Climate Change, Global Food Security and the U.S. Food System” and painted a stark future in the face of unchecked climate change.
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.
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