Category: Climate News Roundup

Remember COP21, aka the 2015 Paris Climate Accords?  Here’s an update on the world’s progress in meeting the goals, and there’s good and not-so-good news (from Renewable Energy World):  http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2016/07/part-i-it-ain-t-over-until-it-s-over-a-cop21-reality-check.html

This week’s news about renewable energy covered many aspects, but here are two articles, also from Renewable Energy World, about some municipal approaches to energy efficiency and clean energy that could have some applicability close to home (think:  Harrisonburg and its Harrisonburg Electric Commission):
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/ugc-content/2016/07/25/city-power-play-report-part-1–municipal-utilities.html
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/ugc-content/2016/07/28/city-power-play-report-part-2–communities-choosing-clean-energy.html

From a Virginia blog, Bacon’s Rebellion, comes an opinion piece from James Bacon about solar–its potential and how Virginia’s stance may put our state way behind as solar becomes cheaper and more available:  http://www.baconsrebellion.com/2016/07/solar-technology-advances-solar-policy-backtracks.html

From another Virginia blog, The Energy Fix, we get Jim Pierobon’s take on a lawsuit challenging the 2015 Virginia legislature’s law restricting the State Corporation Commission’s authority to set utility rates.
http://www.theenergyfix.com/2016/07/26/fast-fix-utility-customers-in-virginia-take-their-challenge-of-a-2015-law-to-the-states-supreme-court/#sthash.KcfATQZb.dpbs
http://southeastenergynews.com/2016/07/15/constitutional-test-looms-over-who-sets-utility-rates-in-virginia/

Here are two admittedly wonky stories from the Washington Post about climate change effects, giving some details on recent scientific reports.  One is about gravity’s effect on melting sea ice and the other provides a graphic illustration of the effects of global warming since 1850.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/07/27/a-stunning-prediction-of-climate-science-and-basic-physics-may-now-be-coming-true/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/07/28/these-climate-spirals-perfectly-illustrate-the-human-hand-in-global-climate-change/

Speaking of wonky, here’s a link to a NOAA web site that will give you climate resilience information for a given location.  You may want to try it for, say, Rockingham County, and then take a gander at the projected temperatures between 2020 and 2080:  https://toolkit.climate.gov/climate-explorer2/

This week brought three articles in the Washington Post about water–as a potential source of renewable energy, how human behavior risks harm to drinking water, and how lack of it may lead to conflict.  Also, this week James Cameron released a 5 1/2 minute “short” called “Not Reality TV” that shows, among other things, climate change’s nexus to water; I’ve included also a link to the National Geo web site for “Years of Living Dangerously”, of which the Cameron short is a part.  (Coincidentally, I recently viewed the 1st of several episodes from a chillingly prophetic and not-at-all uplifting 2007 documentary called “The Future of Water” that explores these same themes; check it out if you’re interested.)  And no series of items on water would be complete without one on flooding, this one from the Ohio Valley ReSource; Ohio, you are no doubt aware, is a neighbor of WV (so, no, this isn’t a story about sea level rise which, as it happens, is known to many VA legislators as recurrent flooding).
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/07/26/the-surprisingly-bright-future-of-americas-overlooked-renewable-energy-source-water/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/07/26/the-way-were-damaging-the-environment-may-also-be-costing-us-our-drinking-water/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/07/25/how-climate-disasters-can-drive-violent-conflict-around-the-world/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wJJk-kVjWg
http://yearsoflivingdangerously.com/
http://ohiovalleyresource.org/2016/07/22/flood-next-time-warming-raises-risk-disaster/

From Commonwealth Magazine (no, not VA; it’s that other one) comes an oped by Synapse Principal Economist Liz Stanton on New England’s clean energy leadership.  Too bad VA isn’t part of that leadership, but Climate Nexus featured a Southeast Energy article about the July 23 “March on the Mansion” (that’s VA’s governor’s home).  And the Daily Climate provided a link to a Richmond TV station’s coverage.
http://commonwealthmagazine.org/opinion/new-england-is-a-leader-in-fighting-climate-change/
http://southeastenergynews.com/2016/07/22/with-term-running-out-activists-push-virginia-governor-on-fossil-fuels/
http://wric.com/2016/07/23/protesters-march-to-governors-mansion-over-environmental-issues-in-virginia/

Shakespeare, climate change, and a carbon tax!  Huh?  Read this oped from The Daily Climate and a reader’s response in iambic pentameter.  Unrelated to two of these three subjects, but noteworthy nonetheless, The Guardian tells us that Canada is getting ready to put a price on carbon.
http://www.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2016/july/to-tax-or-not-to-tax2014that-is-the-question
http://www.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2016/july/carbon-tax-shakespeare
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/jul/28/canada-emissions-climate-change-justin-trudeau-corporate-business

The Guardian reported on China’s coal peak; some scientists see it as a major milestone:  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/25/china-coal-peak-hailed-turning-point-climate-change-battle

Speaking of coal, OH is not just worried about WV’s flooding.  As this article in Midwest Energy News points out, First Energy is closing coal plants and wants its customers to pay the freight:  http://midwestenergynews.com/2016/07/28/as-firstenergy-announces-closures-bailout-request-keeps-growing/

Remember Keystone XL?  And of course VA has its own pipeline issues.  Here’s some discouraging news from Climate Progress about a new pipeline’s approval in the Midwest and from Inside Climate News about how U.S. planned new pipelines threaten our climate goals:  http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/07/28/3802907/bakken-pipeline-gets-full-approval/

Pipeline Expansion Threatens U.S. Climate Goals, Study Says

Politics has been a hot topic all week; here’s one item.  Climate Nexus reported the following about the two parties’ platform’s climate-change-related provisions and also gave links to many news items about this.
“GOP, Democratic Platforms Polar Opposites on Climate: Side-by-side comparisons of the Republican and Democratic party platforms show that the parties’ stances differ almost completely on key climate and energy issues. The Democratic platform calls for implementing the Clean Power Plan (CPP) and supports renewable energy, while the Republican platform avows to do away with CPP and supports “clean” coal. The two presidential nominees also hold differing viewpoints. GOP nominee Donald Trump is not a “believer of global warming” and wants to “cancel” the Paris Agreement while Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton calls climate change “one of the defining threats of our times” and aims to cut US carbon emissions 80 percent by 2050. At present, neither candidate support a carbon tax but Clinton’s campaign said yesterday that she is open to having a conversation if Congress wanted to implement a carbon tax.  (News: Inside Climate News, Carbon Brief,VOA News, Politico Pro $, The Hill, E&E News $, National Journal $. Commentary: USA Today, James Bruggers column; Wall Street Journal, Karen Alderman Harbert op-ed $)”

This week brought a plethora of items about wildfires, drought, algae blooms and rising seas, but we’ll save these doom and gloom stories for future roundups.  Unfortunately, there are sure to be more of them in our future.

These news items have been compiled by Joy Loving, member of the CAAV steering committee and leader of Solarize efforts in the valley.

Last September, the 193 member states of the United Nations adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals.  Now, the first scorecard on those goals has been released, and the U.S. doesn’t rank very well, coming in 25th among the 150 countries evaluated.

Climate

Once again, a new monthly temperature record has been set, with both NOAA and NASA declaring that June 2016 was the hottest June on record, making it the 14th consecutive month of record-breaking temperatures.  This prompted Deke Arndt, the head of the climate monitoring division at NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, to state in an email to Climate Central: “It’s important to keep perspective here. Even if we aren’t setting records, we are in a neighborhood beyond anything we had seen before early 2015.  We’ve left the 20th century far behind. This is a big deal.”  Looking to the future, according to United Nations research, higher temperatures caused by climate change may cost global economies more than $2 trillion by 2030 due to lost worker productivity.

If you’ve been paying attention to the weather you know that parts of the U.S. are experiencing a severe heat wave.  This raises the obvious question: is the heat wave related to climate change?  Chris Mooney examines this question in light of a new report on attribution of extreme weather events from the National Academy of Sciences.  John Abraham has good advice in The Guardian on how to cool someone who has hyperthermia or is otherwise over heated.

Over the four year period from January 2011 through December 2014 Greenland lost around one trillion tons of ice and the rate of ice loss is increasing.  On the other side of the globe, the Antarctic peninsula has been known to be warming since measurements were started in 1951, but now a new study has found that it started cooling slightly around 1998.  Chris Mooney explains that this doesn’t refute global warming, while Roz Pidcock takes a deeper dive into the study.  At The Conversation Australian scientists explain the differences between land ice and sea ice, as well as the impacts of changes in each.  Finally, scientists have started a 3 year study of how the summer growth of red, green, and brown colored algae on the ice in Greenland is affecting the absorption of the sun’s heat, thereby increasing the melt rate.

Climate Central has released an updated version of its Surging Seas Risk Finder that clearly illustrates the impacts of rising sea level.  The original version was really good and the new one looks even better.  This video provides a short tutorial.

Last Friday the EPA issued updated regulations that will reduce methane emissions from landfills containing municipal solid waste.

According to Justin Marshall, of the University of Queensland and the chief investigator of the citizen science program Coral Watch, complete ecosystem collapse has occurred in parts of the Great Barrier Reef following the wide-scale bleaching that occurred due to high water temperatures during the recent summer in the Southern Hemisphere.

Diplomats are in Vienna negotiating a modification to the Montreal protocol to phase out HFC refrigerants, which are much more potent greenhouse gases than CO2.  With 1.6 billion air conditioners expected to be installed worldwide by 2050 as the world warms up, it is important that the refrigerants in them neither damage the ozone layer or exacerbate global warming.  The negotiators are optimistic about reaching a tentative agreement by Saturday, which will be formally adopted in October.

Although the devastating El Niño of 2015 to 2016 has now subsided, in many parts of Africa, Central America and Southeast Asia rains and harvests are not expected to recover until 2017, causing an extreme humanitarian crisis on those regions of the world.

Energy

As they say, the devil is in the details, but if the Hazer Group’s technology for producing hydrogen from methane pans out it will provide a way to economically produce large quantities of hydrogen without also producing CO2.  In fact, it ties up the carbon as graphite.  This provides a reason to be hopeful about our future energy supply.

A new study by the Environment Virginia Research and Policy Center has found that Virginia ranks 39th among the 50 states in installed solar capacity per capita, whereas North Carolina ranks 5th and Maryland 14th.

Eduardo Porter, who writes the “Economic Scene” column for The New York Times, has some interesting thoughts about the rapid increase in renewables and its impact on the total energy mix.  He is concerned that it will throw efforts to combat climate change off course.  One concern Porter expresses is that nuclear power will be priced out of the market, causing its carbon-free power to be replaced by natural gas power plants with their associated CO2 emissions.  The state of New York is considering subsidies to its nuclear power plants to prevent this from happening.

John Wihbey, writing at Yale Climate Connection, looks at the pros and cons of a carbon tax as a way of combating climate change.  Ruth Greenspan Bell, a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and a research associate at the Columbia Business School, examines the factors that must be considered when deciding whether to enact a carbon tax.  In spite of the questions raised in the preceding two articles, Canada’s Environment Minister Catherine McKenna has stated that Canada will have a national price on carbon by the end of this year.

Shell’s answer to the question of what strategy oil companies should follow to stay viable in a carbon-constrained world is to focus more on natural gas and less on oil.  Consequently, it now has a 20% share of the global liquefied natural gas market, scores of giant gas tankers prowling the seas, and double the production capacity of its closest competitor, ExxonMobil.  Still, some question the strategy.  Meanwhile, Oil Change International and 11 other environmental organizations have issued a report that finds that if the U.S. builds all 19 natural gas pipelines that have been proposed in the eastern part of the country, it will be unable to meet its emission-reduction targets under the Paris climate agreement.

A review of auto and light truck fuel efficiency standards by EPA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has revealed significant progress in the auto industry in improving fuel efficiency to meet the standard set for 2025.  The only impediment to meeting the standard is that the public is buying more trucks and larger autos as a result of low gasoline prices.  One way to increase the average fuel efficiency in the U.S. is to replace cars powered by gasoline and diesel engines with plug-in electric cars.  Two impediments to doing that are a lack of charging stations and the time required to charge.  Consequently, the Obama administration has announced an array of new initiatives to address both impediments.

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.

Our lead is a VERY lengthy article from the New York Times Magazine about Virginia’s own Tangier Island and the likely effects on the island of sea level rise (also known by too many Virginia Legislators as recurrent flooding).  Maybe TMI but you’ll get the gist of it early on.  http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/10/magazine/should-the-united-states-save-tangier-island-from-oblivion.html

While many are wondering about Brexit’s effect on EU efforts to mitigate climate change, for once it seems the North American countries may be making some headway.  http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/285979-us-canada-mexico-detail-continent-wide-clean-energy-plan

Speaking of Brexit, here are a couple of articles about the UK–its climate change preparedness and its new Prime Minister’s axing of its climate department.
From The Guardian:  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/12/uk-poorly-prepared-for-climate-change-impacts-government-advisers-warn
From Independent:  http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change-department-killed-off-by-theresa-may-in-plain-stupid-and-deeply-worrying-move-a7137166.html

No self-respecting climate weekly roundup could leave out dire warnings about climate change’s effects on melting ice and biodiversity, so here are this week’s contributions from the Washington Post, The Guardian and Think Progress:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/07/07/snow-and-sea-ice-keep-hitting-record-lows-this-year-in-the-northern-hemisphere/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/07/13/the-extraordinary-years-have-become-the-normal-years-scientists-survey-radical-melt-in-the-arctic/

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/14/biodiversity-below-safe-levels-across-over-half-of-worlds-land-study

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/07/13/3797042/mangroves-die-off-climate-change-australia/

Uh oh, more dire warnings.  Here are items reporting on links between climate change and human and wildlife deaths.  Even though one is about a 2003 heat wave, the world’s warming has not lessened, and we continue to break heat records.
From Inside Climate:  https://insideclimatenews.org/news/07072016/climate-change-blame-deadliness-2003-heat-wave-new-study-paris-london
From The Guardian:  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2016/jul/11/we-just-broke-the-record-for-hottest-year-9-straight-times
From the Washington Post:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2016/07/07/june-was-record-hot-for-the-u-s-and-billion-dollar-weather-disasters-surge-to-eight/

Here’s some politicians’ takes on the economic benefits of addressing climate change:  http://www.republicen.org/alerts/indiana-mayor-makes-environment-and-conservation-a-priority
Two south Florida congressman weighed in on addressing ocean acidification (which many believe is worsening because of climate change):  http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article88981322.html

And from the other party:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/07/12/why-obamas-top-scientist-just-called-keeping-fossil-fuels-in-the-ground-unrealistic/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/senators-target-climate-change-denial_us_57856398e4b0867123dececc

http://grist.org/election-2016/sanders-final-win-climate-action-in-the-democratic-platform/

On the other hand….
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/07/12/3797378/gop-clean-coal/

GOP votes down funding for global climate fund

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/07/13/republicans-just-escalated-the-war-over-exxonmobil-and-climate-change/

Here’s an article about utilities’ planning for carbon regulation–makes one wonder about what Virginia utilities are doing in this regard.  http://www.eenews.net/interactive/clean_power_plan/column_posts/1060040032

Let’s finish with some more bad news and a ray of hope, shall we?

The weather we can look forward to:  http://www.climatecentral.org/news/sizzling-summers-20515

Climate change reality checks from Bloomberg and the Christian Science Monitor:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-11/fossil-fuel-industry-risks-losing-33-trillion-to-climate-change
http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2016/0713/Insurers-banks-and-pension-funds-could-all-be-hurt-by-climate-change

But we’re working on getting ready for climate change, aren’t we?  Well, maybe not all of us.
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/some-cities-are-falling-behind-in-preparing-for-the-effects-of-climate-change

And what do Americans think about climate change (hint–this is the ray of hope):  http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/07/14/3797998/americans-climate-alarm-denial/

Have a good week anyway.

These news items have been compiled by Joy Loving, member of the CAAV steering committee and leader of Solarize efforts in the valley.

Should people only be able to advocate for action on climate change if they have a zero carbon footprint?  A very interesting piece on Climate Wire explores this question and asks what we should all be doing about our carbon footprints.

Many people who read this weekly roundup advocate actively for a carbon fee and dividend as a way to move our economy away from fossil fuels.  Adele Morris, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institute, has written a piece entitled “Eleven Essential Questions for Designing a Policy to Price Carbon.”  Although long, this piece deserves careful study before making another trip to Washington, D.C. to lobby with CCL.  It gives a good understanding of what is required to address such a major policy change.

Climate

CAAV member Dave Pruett has a new blog post on The Huffington Post entitled “What Economists Don’t Know about Physics – and Why It’s Killing Us.”

Last month was the hottest June on record for the contiguous U.S., the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Thursday.  It was 3.3°F above the 20th century average of 68.5°F, beating the previous record set in 1933 by 0.2°F.

A new study in Nature Climate Change reconciles the differences in estimates of Earth’s climate sensitivity, showing that the lower values obtained by the energy budget technique are not accurate, suggesting that the degree of warming projected by the various models used by the IPCC is more likely to be accurate.  While this finding is good for our understanding of the climate, it is no solace for those concerned about the future.

The Indo-Pacific Warm Pool is a region of the Indian and Pacific oceans centered on the equator that has significant impacts on weather patterns, including the formation of monsoons and tropical cyclones, in south Asia.  Now a new study published in Sciences Advances has shown that it is growing larger.  Chris Mooney, writing in The Washington Post, explains the significance of this finding.

On Friday, super-typhoon Nepartak hit the east coast of Taiwan with sustained winds of 145 mph.  Although the winds dropped as it passed over Taiwan, Nepartak was expected to make landfall in China on Saturday morning, bringing heavy rains.  Andrew Freedman summarized the characteristics of the storm and why it was so strong.  While the impacts of climate change on the frequency and magnitude of tropical cyclones is still unknown, sea level rise from climate change increases the damage in low-lying areas.  This article is an example of what often happens to the women on the coasts of India and Bangladesh following a typhoon.

One puzzle that has plagued climate science for a while and provided fodder for climate change deniers is that while the extent of Arctic sea ice has been shrinking (go here to see a new spiral plot of the ice volume), the area of Antarctic sea ice has been increasing.  Now a new study published in Nature Geoscience has attributed the behavior of the Antarctic sea ice to a natural cycle in the Pacific Ocean.

Deforestation is a major driver of climate change.  Consequently, it is both interesting and important that a study in Uganda has demonstrated clearly that paying owners of forest land not to cut down their trees (so-called payment for ecological services) decreases the rate of deforestation.

Energy

As one might expect, the U.S. is not the only country with methane leakage from gas wells and fractures in the earth.  Australia has similar problems, with methane leakage from coal seam gas wells.  Unfortunately, at this point, no one knows how extensive the leakage is.  Yale Climate Connections summarizes the promises and pitfalls of natural gas (i.e., methane).

With the Interior Department set to finalize a five-year offshore drilling plan later this year, climate activists and representatives of the oil industry are lining up for what will likely be the last major battle over Arctic drilling during the Obama administration.  Meanwhile, the Obama administration on Thursday finalized rules that will require companies to have strict safety and environmental protection plans in place before they drill for oil or natural gas in the Arctic Ocean.

According to Ian Urbina in The New York Times the Kemper clean-coal power plant “project is a story of how a monopoly utility, with political help from the Mississippi governor and from federal energy officials who pressured state regulators in letters to support the project, shifted the burden of one of the most expensive power plants ever built onto the shoulders of unwitting investors and some of the lowest-income ratepayers in the country.”  The Southern Co. responded in the Atlanta Business Chronicle.  Dan Zegart at DeSmog has additional background information.  Urbina also has an article about clean coal technology.

According to Nichola Groom of Reuters, “The cost of electricity from large-scale solar installations now is comparable to and sometimes cheaper than natural gas-fired power, even without incentives aimed at promoting environmentally friendly power, according to industry players and outside cost studies.”  This causes some to suggest that the focus should now shift away from residential, rooftop solar to larger installations.  Let’s hope the VA Legislature and SCC are paying attention.  Tom Gorter of Dynamic Mechanical Energy Systems/Helios Nevada told the Roanoke City Council that his company had bought property close to Roanoke and plans to build a renewable energy power plant system.  He said their goal is to build a 50-megawatt 24/7 renewable energy plant, beginning with solar power and combining with other technologies.  Speaking of rooftop solar, Dow Chemical is shutting down its solar shingle business.

Kelly Vaughn of Rocky Mountain Institute makes the case for net zero energy schools.  There are lots of reasons for having them.  Perhaps we could convince our local school boards.

The World Nuclear Association, a nuclear power industry trade group, has the goal of supplying 25% of the world’s electricity by 2050.  There are many reasons why that goal might be unrealistic.  Indeed, although continued use of nuclear energy is inherent in the plans announced last week by President Obama and the leaders of Canada and Mexico, Chris Mooney says that the future of nuclear (and CCS) is murky.

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

A new meta-analysis of the national pledges made in Paris last December at the Climate Conference reaffirms the earlier conclusion that those pledges are insufficient to limit warming to 2 C, much less 1.5 C, which was an aspirational goal.  Even more disturbing, the current pledges are likely to leave temperatures at 2.6 to 3.1 C warmer than pre-industrial levels by the year 2100.  Malte Meinshausen, one of the authors of the study, discusses its implications at The Conversation, while Joeri Rogelj, the lead author, presents his views in a guest post at Carbon Brief.  All three of the linked-to articles are worth reading to provide a deeper understanding of the challenges we face.

The drought in the southwestern U.S. continues, in spite of the precipitation in some areas over the winter.  As a result, wildfire season has already started, with fires in both California and Arizona.  Meanwhile, in the Sierra Nevada region of California, insect infestations in combination with the drought have killed an estimated 66 million trees, greatly adding to the available fuel if a fire does start.  The Guardian examines changes in the fire season in California while Bob Berwyn of Inside Climate News summarizes recent forest loses around the world and examines their implications.

In what has been called a once in 1000 year event, massive flash flooding hit southern West Virginia, killing over 20 people, destroying 1500 homes, and causing massive property damage.

Dana Nuccitelli examines the parallel between the Brexit vote and climate change as far as the impact on young people is concerned.  While Great Britain’s vote to leave the EU has caused a great deal of turmoil in the world economy, it has also raised a great deal of uncertainty with regards to its and the EU’s commitments to the Paris Climate Agreement.  Nevertheless, The Guardian reported that UK Ministers were expected to approve the fifth UK carbon budget before the end of the month and it was expected to commit the UK to a 57% reduction in carbon emissions (compared to 1990 levels) by 2032.

Recently, the Sahel of Africa has seen a recovery from the severe drought that it had experienced in the 1970’s and 1980’s.  Now a new study published in Nature Climate Change has attributed that recovery in part to increased atmospheric moisture over the Mediterranean resulting from increased temperatures, i.e., global warming.  That is not to say that global warming will be good for the Sahel overall, because of increased evapotranspiration, higher heat index, and more intense rainstorms.  This illustrates, once again, that the climate is complicated.

Another example of the complexity of climate change comes from a study reported in Nature Climate Change.  This one deals with greening of the North American Arctic, which is evident from satellite images collected over almost 30 years.  The cause was attributed to rising CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere.  Meanwhile, a new study of the ocean region south of Greenland that contains the “cold blob” concluded that the blob was due to exceptionally deep ocean mixing in the region driven by local weather and winds, rather than by meltwater from Greenland.  Other scientists disagree.

The rate of increase in global average temperature slowed somewhat during the first part of this century.  Now a new study published in Nature Climate Change has found that the slowdown was associated with the large emissions of sulfur dioxide from China’s coal-fired power plants, which lacked pollution control devices.

Diet, and specifically consumption of ruminants (beef, lamb, and goats), is a large contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.  Consequently, some are now advocating for a meat tax as a way of impacting consumer choices.  To help people make informed choices the World Resources Institute has published a chart that shows greenhouse gas emissions per unit of protein for a variety of protein sources.

Energy

Ben Rosen of the Christian Science Monitor looked at why Exxon Mobil is now lobbying for a revenue-neutral carbon tax.  It would be a big help if governments would phase out the subsidies they give to the fossil fuel industry.  The U.S., for example, provides some $20 billion annually.  Unfortunately, the G-20 nations have failed to reach an agreement on a deadline for phasing out such subsidies.

Later this summer, BARC Electric Cooperative in southwestern Virginia will flip the switch on the state’s first community solar project.  Southeast Energy News interviewed BARC CEO Mark Keyser about the system and how it came about.  On Thursday Dominion Virginia Power won regulatory approval from the State Corporation Commission for three new solar farms at sites in Louisa, Powhatan and Isle of Wight counties.  The US solar industry expects to install 14.5 gigawatts of solar power in 2016, a 94% increase over the record 7.5 gigawatts last year, according to a new market report by GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association.

Barack Obama, Justin Trudeau and Enrique Peña Nieto committed their countries to a new regional clean power goal at a summit in Ottawa, pledging to produce 50% of their power from hydropower, wind, solar, nuclear plants, and carbon capture and storage by 2025.

The Oakland, California, City Council voted unanimously Monday to block the handling and storage of coal in the city, effectively halting a developer’s controversial plan to ship coal from the port.  As might be expected, the decision is highly controversial, and thus can’t yet be considered a done-deal.  The Utah counties from which the coal would come have stated that they are determined to find a port from which to export their coal.

On Tuesday Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe issued an Executive Order directing Secretary of Natural Resources Molly Ward to convene a working group and recommend concrete steps to reduce carbon pollution from the state’s power plants. The group will evaluate options under Virginia’s existing authority to address carbon pollution.  Nevertheless, some environmental groups were critical of the governor’s record on climate change.

In the first two months of 2016, greenhouse gases from transportation topped those from the power sector for the first time, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.  In spite of more stringent fuel economy standards, Americans are choosing larger vehicles, which get lower gas mileage, and driving more, both of which are causing greenhouse gas emissions from transportation to continue growing.  Perhaps increased adoption of electric vehicle mandates by states will help address the problem.

The World Bank has agreed to lend India $1 billion for its huge solar energy program.  India’s goal is to increase its solar capacity 30 fold by 2020.

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.

There will be no Weekly Roundup next week.  The next one will be July 1.

Climate

John Abraham, writing in The Guardian, provides some insights into the causes of coral bleaching and the failure of “managed resilience” to protect against it.  Not all is bad news, however, as a study of 2,500 coral reefs has revealed certain “bright spots” that did not have as much bleaching as might be expected, providing information about how coral reefs might be protected.

This item may be of interest to folk in business or manufacturing that you might know.  There is a sense among some that the developed world will be less affected by the impacts of climate change than the developing world because developed countries have more resources that can be brought to bear on the problem.  A new study published in Science Advances challenges that.  Because manufacturing has become so globalized and inventories are kept to a minimum, disruptions at any point in the supply chain can have cascading effects.  Consequently, we are not as immune to climate change impacts as we might think.

According to scientists with the World Weather Attribution project, preliminary analysis indicates that climate change made the recent flooding in France 90% more likely, whereas the impact of climate change on the flooding in Germany was less clear.

Warmer temperatures and the just-ended El Nino are having an impact on CO2 levels in the atmosphere.  A new paper, published in Nature Geoscience, finds that as summers warm, alpine soils are losing carbon to the atmosphere as CO2 as a result of increased microbial activity.  In other words, they are becoming sources of carbon rather than sinks.  Furthermore, according to a new paper in Nature Climate Change, El Nino has dried out tropical forests and plants, thereby reducing their ability to take up CO2 and helping the concentration in the atmosphere to increase this year by 3.1 ppm (projected) compared to an annual average increase of 2.1 ppm in past years.  Finally, a milestone was passed when the CO2 level in Antarctica exceeded 400 ppm for the first time.

El Nino helped make May the hottest May in NASA records and the 8th straight warmest month on record.  Analysis by NOAA also listed May 2016 as the hottest May on record.  Because the El Nino event is over, it is likely that the streak of record-breaking months will end.  Nevertheless, May temperatures caused the World Meteorological Agency to warn of “fundamental changes” in the global climate.

The Wall Street Journal has a long record of presenting editorials and op-ed pieces that deny the role of humans in climate change.  As a counter to that, and to provide the business community with the facts about climate change, The Partnership for Responsible Growth is taking out ads on the Journal’s editorial page.  Background research on the Journal can be found here.

Greenhouse gases released from the growing of crops and livestock increased by a little more than 1% in 2014, compared with a year prior, according to data from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, whereas burning fossil fuels for energy grew by about half that amount.

In 1955 there were 10 extreme weather events in the U.S. that cost more than $1 billion each; together they killed 155 people.  Whether they were caused by climate change is a question that scientists are seeking to answer through “attribution studies.”  It’s complicated.

Energy

A new forecast by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) plots out global electric power markets for the next 25 years and lists eight massive shifts that are coming to those markets.  Chief among them is that costs of wind and solar power are falling too quickly for gas ever to dominate on a global scale.  In addition, according to a new report by the International Renewable Energy Agency, the average cost of electricity generated by solar and wind energy could fall by up to 59% by 2025 if the right policies are in place.

A detailed study by MIT engineers, published in the journal Applied Energy looked at the potential role of energy storage in our future.  According to Greentech Media “The researchers found that it’s possible to meet stringent greenhouse gas limits without any energy storage. The energy mix in a no-storage scenario requires high levels of nuclear, though….  As the level of storage increases, it allows greater penetration of renewable sources by helping to balance the ups and downs of variable production.”  Another study from MIT examined different types of storage and found that some can be good investments, even with today’s technology and costs.

For a fascinating example of innovation with renewables and storage, check out this article about the Kodiak Electric association in Kodiak, Alaska.  It’s this sort of thing that keeps me optimistic that we can meet our energy needs in cleaner ways.

German automobile manufacturer Daimler will introduce a prototype of its new electric-powered Mercedes at the Paris Motor Show in October.  It will have a range of 300 miles.  Matthias Mueller, chief executive of Volkswagen, announced that the company plans to introduce 30 battery-powered electric vehicles over the next 10 years.  In addition, even Harley riders will be able to ride green within 5 years according to a company executive.  If advances in battery technology continue, electric cars can have a big impact on emissions from the transportation sector, provided they are charged with green energy.  This is important because transportation now emits more CO2 in the U.S. than power plants for the first time since 1979.  Furthermore, a new report from the Rocky Mountain Institute examines the impact on the grid of having large numbers of electric vehicles.  Surprisingly, many of the impacts can be positive, if energy regulators adopt appropriate regulations.

According to a report from the Department of Energy, for a variety of reasons U.S. coal production during the first quarter of 2016 fell to the lowest level seen in 35 years, when the nation was in the middle of a major coal strike.

Building transmission lines is one of the most difficult tasks in the power sector, requiring a great deal of coordination and planning, particularly if renewables are to be incorporated.  Thus it is disturbing that a new report from the Brattle Group finds that transmission planners are failing in their preparation for a new mix of energy generators.  As an example of the problems transmission planners face, in spite of having spent six years in the approval process, the Clean Line Energy project to transmit wind-generated electricity across Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Tennessee now faces blockage by a bill passed out of the Committee on Natural Resources to the full U.S. House.

For a variety of reasons, people of low income spend a greater percentage of their income on energy.  One of those reasons is that their homes often are poorly insulated, which is why CAAV is working to inform people of free weatherization programs.  What you may not realize is how bad the situation is in Virginia.  Look at the map in this article, zoom in on Virginia, and compare it to our surrounding states.  Looks like something is very, very wrong.

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.

In last week’s Roundup I mentioned the flooding in Europe and Texas. Huffington Post published a summary article with pictures about the events.  In addition, scientists have already determined that climate change increased both the likelihood and the severity of the flooding in France.

A few weeks ago the press paid a lot of attention to Native Americans in Louisiana who had to be relocated, making them the first climate refugees in the lower 48 states.  However, Native Americans in Alaska have been facing similar problems for quite some time.  Madeline Ostrander has an essay in Hakai Magazine about the Yup’ik people of Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta of Alaska.

Professor Peter Wadhams, head of the Polar Ocean Physics Group at Cambridge University, has predicted that the Arctic will be essentially ice free (less than 1 million sq km) in September of this year or next.  If not, at the very least a new record low will be set.  Other scientists disagree, although May 2016 experienced the lowest amount of sea ice in May ever, by a significant amount.

Alaska had the warmest spring on record.  In a new study using 87,000 images from Landsat satellites collected over 29 years, NASA has found that parts of Canada and Alaska are greening as a result of climate change.  Also in the Arctic, a retrospective study published in Nature Communications finds that during the summer of 2015 the northern part of Greenland was exceptionally warm due to a blocking pattern in the jet stream.  This led to greater than normal melting in northern Greenland, greater than in the south.

Scientists using elephant seals to carry instruments deep into Antarctic waters near glacial outlets have confirmed that warm circumpolar deep water is moving onto continental shelves where glaciers rest and melting their bases.

According to NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch bleaching has occurred on reefs near at least 38 countries or island groups in what is the most widespread coral bleaching event on record.

My sense of optimism is fortified whenever I run across innovative ideas that may someday provide us with energy without the use of fossil fuels.  One idea that has been in the press recently is the “bionic leaf” invented by Daniel Nocera of Harvard and Pamela Silver of Harvard Medical School.  The latter was featured on Science Friday today and in case you missed it you can listen to it here.  The bionic leaf is just one example of “liquid sunlight”, which was written about by David Roberts at Vox.

The Union of Concerned Scientists has two interesting infographics; one is entitled “The Climate Risks of Natural Gas” while the other is about “Fugitive Methane Emissions.”  On Wednesday, a North Carolina environmental advocacy group, NC Warn, asked the EPA inspector general to investigate whether a dispute over the calibration of methane detectors used in an important study of methane emissions from oil and gas fields has risen to the level of fraud.  The Washington Post also reported on this issue.

When water and CO2 are pumped into basalt rock formations in the subsurface, chemical reactions occur that convert the CO2 into mineral forms, i.e., new rock.  Consequently, there is little possibility the CO2 will come back to the surface, providing a way to sequester the carbon.  Now, studies in Iceland have shown that the transformations occur rapidly, within 2 years, rather than decades or centuries, as feared.  How extensively this can be exploited for carbon sequestration and storage still must be determined.

In their meeting earlier this week, President Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached an important agreement that will facilitate elimination of the use of hydroflurocarbons (HFCs) as refrigerants in air conditioners, refrigerators, etc.  This is particularly important because HFCs are important greenhouse gases that are 10,000 times stronger than CO2 and are widely used in India and China, both of which are seeing large increases in air conditioner sales as a result of increasing affluence and a warmer climate.  Prime Minister Modi also addressed a joint session of Congress and announced several other initiatives important to fighting climate change.

Jim Pierobon has published an analysis of Dominion Virginia Power and solar energy in Southeast Energy News.  He also wrote about a meeting of a group of stakeholders hoping to establish proposals for solar energy for next year’s General Assembly.  Nationwide, 64% of the new electricity generating capacity that came on-line in the first quarter of 2016 was solar and the total installed capacity in 2016 is expected to be 14.5 gigawatts, almost double the amount installed in 2015.

Rockbridge County Board of Supervisors has written to DEQ objecting to the approval of a proposed wind farm in Botetourt County by its Board of Supervisors.  The proposers of that wind farm have said that they will take measures to minimize bat mortality, although scientists now say that the provisions used by the wind energy industry to reduce bat mortality may need to be strengthened.

Four states had sued the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, contending that it had not properly considered safety over the long term when it established the regulation allowing nuclear power plants to store spent fuel rods on-site indefinitely.  A federal appeals court rejected that argument.  Whether new nuclear power plants will be built in the future is a question being debated within power providers and environmental organizations alike.  For example, last week a debate about nuclear energy was held at Stanford University.  Andrew Revkin provides a commentary and a link to the YouTube archive of the debate.

Beyond Extreme Energy and other activist groups shining a light on FERC and the approval process for gas and oil pipelines are having an impact on the way they do business.  Activists and environmental organizations also have shown a light on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement, revealing the negative impact it could have on environmental and climate rules.  This has led to a consortium of organizations calling on senators to reject the TPP when it comes to a vote this fall.

For-profit oil and gas pipeline companies are experiencing increasing scrutiny as they attempt to use eminent domain to secure right-of-way for new pipelines.  According to BP, because of lower coal use and sluggish growth CO2 emissions from energy consumption grew by only 0.1% last year, the smallest advance since 2009.

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.

 

A special thanks to Joy Loving for handling the Weekly Roundup for me while I was away.  I greatly appreciate her help.

Need some inspiration?  Read this blog post by David Rivka at Citizens’ Climate Lobby about the efforts of Jim Probst in West Virginia.  On the other hand, if you want to be brought back to Earth you might consider Richard Heinberg’s comments at the Post Carbon Institute.  Or you can read the rather long essay by Naomi Klein in The London Review of Books on how our tendency for “othering” influences how we respond to the human tragedies of climate change.

The big news locally was that Dominion Virginia Power lost the $40 million grant from DOE that it had been given to help finance the off-shore wind demonstration project.  This puts the entire project in jeopardy.  In other Virginia news, the Department of Environmental Quality has imposed precedent-setting protections against greenhouse gases and other air pollutants from Dominion Virginia Power’s proposed gas power plant in Greensville County.  Finally Ivy Main has a new blog post about Dominion and the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.

The G7 nations (U.S., UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the EU) have pledged to stop most fossil fuel subsidies by 2025.  The rub comes from how they define “most.”

The Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication have released a new report entitled Climate Change in the American Mind: March 2016.  Since spring 2015 the proportion of Americans who think global warming is happening has increased by 7 percentage points, to 70%.  Furthermore 58% now say that they are “somewhat” or “very” worried about the issue.

According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, the current El Nino has ended.  It still remains uncertain, however, whether it will be followed by La Nina.  The Atlantic hurricane season began on June 1.  There is a 45% chance that it will be near-normal, with 10 to 16 named storms, of which 4 to 8 will be hurricanes with 1 to 4 category 3 or higher.

According to a report from the US Geological Survey, Alaska may be a net sink for carbon throughout the 21st century, rather than a source as many had feared.  It should be noted, however, that this conclusion is controversial because of some potential sources or sinks not considered due to insufficient knowledge.  What is clear, however, is that wildfires must now be recognized as a significant driver of climate change.

More than one-third of the coral reefs in the central and northern regions of the Great Barrier Reef died in the huge bleaching event that occurred earlier this year.  In some regions mortality exceeded 50%.  Interestingly, the Australian government scrubbed all reference to Australia from a draft UNESCO report on the danger that climate change poses for World Heritage sites, of which the Great Barrier Reef is one.  This was done out of fear of the impacts of the report on tourism.  Graham Readfearn of The Guardian has a commentary on the affair and Amy Davidson summarizes what made it into the report in The New Yorker.

In a recent paper in Nature Geoscience lead author Dr. Kyle Armour stated: “When we talk about ‘global warming’, there is a tendency to imagine that the warming will occur everywhere at the same rate. Yet, we’ve seen very rapid warming in the Arctic and very slow warming over the ocean around Antarctica over the last 50 years.”  His paper reports on studies of the Southern Ocean around Antarctica and why its warming rate is low.  Robert McSweeney of CarbonBrief reports on the major findings from the paper as does Alister Doyle of Christian Science Monitor.  Meanwhile, a new study raises concern about the stability of another large glacier in West Antarctica, although it is currently stable, but retreating.

Hydroelectric power does not produce greenhouse gases, but it has other environmental and social impacts.  Thus, it is disturbing that the Democratic Republic of Congo is moving forward with construction of the Inga 3 dam on the Congo River even though environmental and social impact studies have not been completed.  Nevertheless, when done properly, hydroelectric power can serve an important role in a grid with a large percentage of solar and wind power.  On a similar note, the easing of the California drought has increased its springtime hydroelectric generation to the highest level since 2011.

Proponents of nuclear energy as part of the mix of generation systems for carbon-free electricity are counting on fourth-generation reactors.  One of the most promising is molten salt reactor (MSR) technology, which Oak Ridge National Laboratory is working on with China, as well as with others.  Meanwhile, in spite of arguments within the scientific community about the best direction to take, efforts are underway to keep existing second-generation nuclear reactors running in the U.S. as a source of carbon-free electricity.

A new meta-study published Monday by researchers from the Brookings Institution suggests that rooftop solar actually benefits all consumers — regardless of whether they have solar panels.  The findings from the study should be considered by all regulatory and legislative agencies considering actions regarding rooftop solar.  If you are buying a new home and wish to install solar panels Fannie Mae will allow you to roll their cost into your mortgage through their HomeStyle Energy Mortgage.  Also this week, California power companies cancelled $192 million worth of transmission upgrades because they are no longer necessary, thanks to improved energy efficiency and increased rooftop solar.

An analysis of China’s energy strategy by Greenpeace suggests that its coal use and carbon emissions could be 10% lower than expected by the end of the decade.  Furthermore, the Renewables Global Status Report by REN21 found that investments in renewables worldwide in 2015 were more than twice the amount spent on coal- and gas-fired power plants.  With China leading the way, developing nations spent more than developed nations on renewable power for the first time.  This is very important because as the world heats up and developing nations become more affluent, the demand for air conditioning will increase markedly, driving up electricity usage.

Sierra Club presented its electric vehicle buyer’s guide.  One of those vehicles is a Volkswagen, which is  targeting sales of one million electric vehicles by 2026 and is also considering building its own battery plant.  The International Energy Agency’s (IEA) report Energy Technology Perspectives 2016 indicates that the electric vehicles sector is the only one on track to meet a 2C scenario.

As the developing world becomes more affluent, millions of buildings will be built for offices and residences.  Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, told The Guardian that the number one priority in tackling climate change must be to ensure that those buildings meet higher standards of energy efficiency or they will commit the world to high greenhouse gas emissions for decades to come.

On Wednesday, environmental groups said they would not comply with a sweeping request for information about climate change and ExxonMobil from the House Committee on Space, Science and Technology led by Chairman Lamar S. Smith (R-Tex).

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.

 

Les is still away so I’m filling in once again this week.  And again, the news is hopeful, gloomy, and dire.

Let’s start with some good news.  Last week we saw a look-back at the 10th year anniversary of An Inconvenient Truth.  Here’s a Climate Reality Project report on 5 climate successes since 2006.  http://www.takepart.com/article/2016/05/23/five-moments-climate-progress-inconvenient-truth

Speaking of looking back, The Guardian reports on a 2001 Exxon Mobil attempt to keep some climate science from becoming public.  https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/may/25/exxonmobil-climate-change-scientists-congress-george-w-bush

In the same vein, the Center for  International and Environmental Law (CEIL) reports on evidence about what oil companies knew way back when but neglected to tell the rest of us.  http://www.ciel.org/news/100-new-documents-highlight-oil-industry-studied-climate-delayed-solutions/

Speaking of oil companies, several of them recently held annual shareholder meetings where shareholders voted on proposals raising climate-related matters.  Following are a few articles…

Exxon Mobil’s CEO says humanity isn’t ready for an end to oil production….
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/may/25/exxonmobil-ceo-oil-climate-change-oil-production

The CEO of another oil company, Shell, isn’t in a big hurry to move toward solar, but maybe at least he’s thinking about the possibility….  https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/may/26/shell-limit-solar-investment-until-profitable

And here’s a brief summary about these 2 plus a few other oil companies’ recent shareholder meeting results (check out the French company Total CEO’s position) plus how some retirement system investments may be affected….http://grist.org/climate-energy/big-oil-is-all-over-the-place-on-climate-change/
http://www.takepart.com/article/2016/05/25/fourth-biggest-oil-firm-vows-go-big-renewable-power
http://www.cpr.org/news/story/climate-change-becoming-bigger-deal-state-retirement-funds

As many of us know all too well, we have our pipeline battles in VA.  But we’re not alone in fighting such battles.  Here’s a story about Canadian First Nations’ fights.  http://grist.org/climate-energy/in-battle-over-new-canadian-pipeline-its-trudeau-vs-tribes/

From Princeton University (and Take Part) comes a new study with dismal news for our great-grandchildren and great-greats if we don’t act soon to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere.  This prediction of a super hot world sounds a bit futuristic and there is time to mitigate, but still it’s scary.  http://www.takepart.com/article/2016/05/23/high-heat-global-warming-fossil-fuel-renewable-energy

When we think of climate change’s effects, often we focus on severe weather events more than other risks and adversities.  Perhaps we should think more broadly….
• http://grist.org/food/climate-change-is-making-food-more-toxic/
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/05/20/the-fort-mcmurray-fires-stunning-pulse-of-carbon-to-the-atmosphere/
• http://www.npr.org/2016/05/25/477014085/rising-seas-push-too-much-salt-into-the-florida-everglades
• http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/05/24/3781243/how-air-pollution-causes-heart-disease/
• http://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-tourism-economy-idUSKCN0YH1SP
• http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/27/australia-scrubbed-from-un-climate-change-report-after-government-intervention

From Climate Nexus, here’s a link to a new, beta site with maps and other graphics that may help us understand better the connection between climate change and what are termed “climate events”.  You may want to bookmark it and check it out periodically.  http://www.climatesignals.org/#

Here’s a somewhat wonky, maybe even “Star War-zy” article about a Yale theoretical physicist on how we might capture CO2 from the air.  Coupled with another article (both from Daily Climate), it may mean we should pay attention to what this guy is proposing.
http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2996
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/us-leads-globe-oil-production-for-third-year-20368

Bloomberg says El Nino is over.  Good news?  Not necessarily.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-24/farewell-el-nino-it-s-la-nina-s-turn-to-cause-trouble-now

Remember the Supreme Court’s stay of the Clean Power Plan?  And the Virginia General Assembly’s ban on the Department of Environmental Quality’s spending money to plan for it until the stay is lifted?  Here’s an update.  http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/05/24/3781301/morrissey-tells-epa-to-stop-working-on-cpp/

We’ll finish up with a few more good/hopeful news….

Here’s hope for more solar in low income areas, even without community solar.  I know this is about California, which probably also has community solar (unlike VA), but still….  http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2016/05/report-solar-storage-could-eliminate-electric-bills-for-california-s-affordable-housing-properties.html

From the Washington Post, here’s a report of a recent study that says rooftop solar is benefiting, not costing, the utilities.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/05/26/some-states-may-be-making-a-big-mistake-about-rooftop-solar/

What about solar in the U.S.?  Here’s 2 updates.
http://insideclimatenews.org/news/24052016/solar-energy-27-gigawatts-united-states-one-million-rooftop-panels-climate-change-china-germany
http://phys.org/news/2016-05-renewable-energy-million-irena.html

Last week we learned about Germany and Portugal and how they were close to or at 100% renewable energy recently.  Here’s another story, unfortunately not about the U.S.  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/the-day-coal-power-dropped-out-of-the-national-grid-for-the-first-time-in-more-than-100-years-a7040291.html

Some good news about low carbon urban transit electric buses in this article.  http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/05/24/3778463/proterra-tesla-electric-buses/

These news items have been compiled by Joy Loving, member of the CAAV steering committee and leader of Solarize efforts in the valley.

Les is away for a bit and I am substituting for him.  As usual, lots of climate-related news to share this week–some encouraging, some not so much, and some downright discouraging.  I’ll mix it up a bit so you don’t want to stop reading after a minute or two….

Two Virginia residents, one from our coastal area and one from our south-central rural area, penned an op-ed in the Richmond Times Dispatch, published May 16, chiding our governor for the inconsistency of his rhetoric and his actions vis-à-vis fossil fuel exploration and use.  http://www.richmond.com/opinion/their-opinion/guest-columnists/article_1bbd2d5f-7046-5d74-8d9f-d5f247b0a16d.html

Virginians often point to North Carolina as more renewable-friendly.  Maybe not.  http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article78472572.html

Concerning the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline, the Allegheny Blue Ridge Alliance (ABRA) issued a press release to announce a recent Bath County Supervisors’ unanimous decision to express opposition to the ACP.  ABRA’s website has a lengthy list of official concerns by many public officials.  http://www.abralliance.org/acp-official_concerns/

Communities protesting fracking aren’t just in the U.S.  http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/05/20/3780097/fracking-north-yorkshire/

The District of Columbia Federal Court of Appeals has decided that the entire court will hear the Clean Power Plan case en banc.  The decision was on the court’s own initiative, which is relatively rare.  The Washington Post and Climate Progress articles explain:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2016/05/16/clean-power-plan-to-get-unanticipated-en-banc-review/
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/05/17/3778827/cpp-oral-arguments-punted/

From Take Part and Grist come articles examining where we were then and where we are now, 10 years after the release of An Inconvenient Truth:  http://www.takepart.com/article/2016/05/11/inconvenient-truth-then-and-now-what-s-changed-our-climate-2006 http://grist.org/feature/an-inconvenient-truth-oral-history/

Renewable Energy World and the Australian organization Solar Choice have reported that Germany produced almost over 90 percent of its energy from renewables on Sunday, May 8.  http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2016/05/germany-achieves-milestone-renewables-supply-nearly-100-percent-energy-for-a-day.html;
http://www.solarchoice.net.au/blog/news/renewables-supply-record-90pc-german-ower-demand-170516

Not to be outdone, Portugal recently achieved zero emissions for 107 hours, according to a Guardian article. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/18/portugal-runs-for-four-days-straight-on-renewable-energy-alone

Also from the Guardian, farming contributes greatly to air pollution in Europe and elsewhere.  Although many of us understand that fertilizer runoff contributes to water pollution and is bad for marine life, I suspect not too many of us realize that very tiny nitrogen particles can harm our lungs when we breathe them in.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/17/farming-is-single-biggest-cause-of-worst-air-pollution-in-europe

Speaking of agriculture, another Climate Progress article says this industry will have to do its bit to reduce carbon emissions.  http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/05/19/3779777/agriculture-emission-mitigation-gap/

Wired agrees:  http://www.wired.com/2016/05/chemical-reaction-revolutionized-farming-100-years-ago-now-needs-go/

In the more-bad-news department, the UN has released a study showing that we humans are degrading our environment faster than it can recover.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/19/humans-damaging-the-environment-faster-than-it-can-recover-report-finds

Let’s hear it for the growth of renewable energy!  From the Electric Governing Initiative comes word that wind and solar are “soaring”.  http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2016/05/renewable-energy-is-soaring-are-we-ready.html

Reporter Joe Romm echoes the above giving data on 2016’s 1st quarter.  http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/05/16/3778542/grid-70-times-renewables-natural-gas/

Here’s an article about a cooperative effort between Cornell University and Iceland to model the use of geothermal energy as a way to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.  Iceland is doing this as part of its Climate Action Plan (wouldn’t it be nice if the U.S. had one of those?) and has long used its massive geothermal resources to produce its electricity.  http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2016/05/cornell-and-iceland-team-to-model-geothermal-energy.html

Another piece of hopeful news about implementation of the Paris Climate Accords comes from the World Resources Institute.  http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2016/05/what-s-next-eu-us-and-colombia-show-they-re-moving-forward-with-the-paris-agreement.html

In the not-so-good news department, a Washington Post article reports on the apparent instability of an East Antarctica glacier.  It’s a bit on the detailed side and a bit wonky, but the research it talks about should give us all pause about sea level rise.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/05/18/fundamentally-unstable-scientists-confirm-their-worries-about-east-antarcticas-biggest-glacier/

CNN reports that April was the latest month to break records in the high temperatures realm.  Overall, 2016 is looking to smash prior records.  http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/16/world/climate-change-april-hottest-month/index.html

Another Washington Post article reports on a thoughtful and insightful interview with the Director of the National Park Service (NPS) and some of implications for the NPS system for the many parks, monuments, and other destinations.  The Director also talks about who’s visiting the parks and what that means for the future.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/05/18/national-park-service-director-climate-change-among-the-biggest-challenges-ahead/

These news items have been compiled by Joy Loving, member of the CAAV steering committee and leader of Solarize efforts in the valley.