Les Grady was out of town this week. Thanks to CAAV member Bishop Dansby, who compiled this week’s Roundup.
Politics
Government Report Finds Drastic Impact of Climate Change on U.S.
It directly contradicts claims by President Trump and members of his cabinet who say that the human contribution to climate change is uncertain, and that the ability to predict the effects is limited.
The report was completed this year and is a special science section of the National Climate Assessment, which is congressionally mandated every four years. The National Academy of Sciences has signed off on the draft report, and the authors are awaiting permission from the Trump administration to release it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/07/climate/climate-change-drastic-warming-trump.html
Under Trump, Coal Mining Gets New Life on U.S. Lands.
A business-friendly secretary of the interior has moved to invigorate a struggling industry, reversing Obama-era restrictions to help create “wealth and jobs.”
Trump’s 2018 budget proposal calls for zeroing out funding for Energy Star.
https://www.google.com/amp/amp.usatoday.com/story/102192146/
The Ongoing Battle Between Science Teachers And Fake News
Utilities fighting against rooftop solar are only hastening their own doom
https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/7/7/15927250/utilities-rooftop-solar-batteries
Climate Science
Carbon farming creates healthy soils to help reverse climate change.
Farming practices that reduce emissions and sequester carbon are usually good farming practice in general. Farming is destined to play a major role in addressing climate change.
Only 5% chance of staying below 2 degrees C
A new study published in Nature Climate Change concludes that there’s only a 5 percent chance that the world can hold limiting below 2 degrees Celsius and a mere 1 percent chance that it can be limited below 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Golden rule for cutting emissions
In this 3 minute video Johan Rockström of the Stockholm Resilience Centre makes the case for a Global Carbon Law. He suggests a global carbon budget consistent with the Paris Agreement can be met if (1) global emissions peak no later than 2020, and (2) Greenhouse gas emissions half every decade. This halving of emissions is, he suggests, applicable at all scales from the global to the individual.
Animation visualizes century of warming in 35 seconds.
http://e360.yale.edu/digest/new-video-visualizes-a-century-of-global-warming-in-just-35-seconds
Global ocean circulation appears to be collapsing due to a warming planet.
From the Daily News Record
Even the conservative local paper must publish news on climate change: “2016 Weather Report: Anything But Normal”
dailynewsrecord.va.newsmemory.com/publink.php?shareid=2a2c2df36
Technology
Toyota in “production engineering” for a solid state battery, WSJ says.
Reports suggest the new battery will debut in Japan in a model 2022 car with an all-new platform. Since Toyota had been pursuing hydrogen fuel cells as its technology of choice for electric vehicles, this announcement suggests that Toyota is convinced this new battery technology meets customer requirements.
The super-capacitor electric bus is adopted in China.
Both batteries and capacitors have potential to provide energy for vehicles. Capacitors charge very fast and do not degrade with use, but tend to have far less energy storage capacity than batteries. So-called super-capacitors have the potential to replace batteries in electric vehicles.
https://www.supercaptech.com/the-supercapacitor-electric-bus-is-adopted-in-china
The power grid of the future will require sunny skies above and energy storage below. Thanks to Tesla, Kauai has both.
If Tesla can help keep Kauai solar-powered around the clock with its batteries, then it can apply what it has learned elsewhere in the country, and around the world.
http://grist.org/climate-energy/welcome-to-paradise-batteries-now-included/
The respected Economist Magazine predicts the death of the internal combustion engine.
or
https://www.acast.com/theeconomisteditorspicks/thedeathoftheinternalcombustionengine
Climate Action Alliance of the Valley 