Category: Climate News Roundup

• Several large insurance companies are calling upon the Federal Government to revamp its disaster relief system to put more emphasis on preparedness before a disaster.
• Lester Brown and colleagues at the Earth Policy Institute have released a new book entitled The Great Transition.
• John Cook and colleagues at the University of Queensland have a developed a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) entitled “Making Sense of Climate Science Denial” that is available free through EdX. A description of it can be found at RealClimate.
• Ivy Main’s blog reports on the Virginia Attorney General’s opinion letter concerning the 2014 Virginia law prohibiting HOAs from banning solar panels. The short answer is that they can’t do it unless the prohibition was written into the founding documents of the HOA. She also reports on Gov. McAuliffe’s comments at a forum on climate change in Richmond on Earth Day.
• Chesapeake Climate Action Network has launched a new website entitled domtruth. Check it out.
• A new report finds that China could feasibly get 60% of its energy and 85% of its electricity from renewables by 2050.
• March 2015 set the record for the hottest March ever recorded and the period Jan-March 2015 set the record for the warmest Jan-March ever.
• The Dutch have developed a way to retrofit existing housing in 10 days to make it net zero energy housing. The occupants don’t even have to vacate during the retrofit.
• Peter Sinclair has a disturbing new video about Totten Glacier in East Antarctica. Recent research indicates that it is being destabilized by warm ocean waters coming under it, much like two glaciers in West Antarctica.
• Climate scientists have a difficult enough time communicating their results without people misinterpreting them. Read how one climate scientist has had to work to clear up misuse of his findings.
• One of the weakest links in climate models is how clouds will influence future warming. Recent research provides new insights and the findings are not encouraging: clouds can amplify global warming.
• In the April 3 Weekly Roundup of Climate News I gave you a link to a new book on climate change economics by Wagner and Weitzman. In this post they explain how rapidly the likelihood of exceeding a temperature increase of 6 degrees C goes up as the average temperature increase goes up. Scary, but well worth reading.
• Panelists at the Electric Power Conference and Exhibition gave their opinions on how the electric power industry can meet the goals of the Clean Power Plan. The plan is achievable, but the industry faces large challenges in meeting it.
• Planting forests in places where they haven’t been before can help to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. A recent study indicates a positive impact from such efforts, although there are some potential negative impacts as well.
• A Federal Court of Appeals today dismissed a challenge to the fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas standards for big trucks.

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.

• Doug Hendren has a new song entitled “Fracking’s Just a Bad Dream.”
• Here is a brief, hopeful essay about why the “Merchants of Doubt” will lose in the end.
• In a Guardian column, economics editor Larry Elliott asks “Can we imagine a future that is cleaner, greener and sustainable – one that avoids climate Armageddon – without abandoning the idea of growth and, thus, forcing living standards into decline?” To see what he concludes, go here. It is a very thought-provoking essay.
• Libertarian science writer and author Ronald Bailey asks what evidence would it take to persuade you that man-made climate change is real. His essay is one you might want to share with your conservative and/or libertarian friends and relatives.
• The Post Carbon Institute is releasing a series of four videos by Richard Heinberg in conjunction with the release of his new book, Afterburn: Society beyond Fossil Fuels. The first is here.
• The Yale Project on Climate Change has released an interactive map that shows public opinion on a variety of climate change issues down to the county level. It is interesting to note that Rockingham County is more accepting of man-made climate change than surrounding counties.
• The Risky Business Project issued its third report, this one on the economic impacts of climate change. This report focuses on California, particularly the impacts on agriculture.
• The National Environmental Education Foundation is offering a free course entitled “Extreme Weather 101” through UDEMY.
• Two members of the Natural Resource’s Defense Council staff have published a paper outlining how the federal flood insurance program can be used to encourage people to retreat from shore lines and move away from flood prone areas.
• A new study shows that cities with extensive urban sprawl will have a difficult time decreasing their CO2 emissions from transportation, even if they increase housing in the city center.
• The Rocky Mountain Institute, an energy policy think tank, has issued a new report on how we will get our electricity in the future. Chris Mooney has a description of the major findings from the report.
• As Shell moves drilling equipment near Alaska, environmental groups maintain that drilling for oil in the Arctic is just not compatible with President Obama’s pledge to lead on climate change.
• A new study confirms that significant amounts of organic carbon are stored in permafrost. While it is unlikely that they will be abruptly emitted as CO2 or methane, they are expected to serve as a continuous carbon source over long time periods.
• One impact of increasing the CO2 content of the atmosphere is to make the oceans more acidic. BBC News summarized a recently published study that provided evidence that the Permian-Triassic mass extinction (252 million years ago), in which over 90% of marine species went extinct, was likely caused by increased ocean acidity caused by CO2 released by volcanic activity.
• A recent study demonstrated that marine ecosystems can be disrupted by climate events on timescales of multiple decades, but recovery can require a thousand years.

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.

• Let’s start with some good news.
  • Robert Shiller, a professor of economics at Yale, argues that individual actions can have a beneficial effect fighting climate change.
  • Utilities are making progress in reducing leaks from their natural gas distribution systems.
  • There was an unprecedented boom in renewables across the globe in 2014, but it still isn’t fast enough.
• There were several interesting article in The Guardian this week.
  • A new study has shown that limiting climate change could have huge economic benefits.
  • The U.S. Episcopal Bishop said that climate change denial is immoral.
    
  • The drought in California is having a major impact on the state and global warming is thought to be influencing it. (The second article is from The Washington Post).
  • So far, corporate America is reluctant to sign on to EPA’s Clean Power Plan.
    
• Other items of interest:
  • There is a new book examining the economic consequences of a hotter planet.
  • Two stations in Antarctica have reported what may well be record high temperatures.
    
  • The amount of water used for fracking gas wells is twice that used for oil wells.
    
  • The Washington Post has an interesting graphic showing where the world’s CO2 is coming from.
    
  • Polar bears were back in the news with articles discussing the impacts of a need for a change in their diet as a result of sea ice loss.
  • Blue crabs have been found further north than they typically live.
    
  • Ivy Main has a new post, this one about sea level rise and coastal property.

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.

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 an article in the March 2014 issue of Nature Climate Change, climate scientist and statistician Doug McNeall of Hadley Centre in the UK mentioned a list of blogs on climate science written by climate scientists. It can be found at http://dougmcneall.wordpress.com/links/.

The only two with which I am familiar are RealClimate by Gavin Schmidt and others (listed under “climate blogs from groups or institutions”), which I read regularly, and Climate Etc. by Judith Curry, which I read for a while, but gave up on because I found it to be light on climate science and high on opinion and politics.

A brief description of each blog is given in the list. I was surprised at how extensive the list is. Perhaps you will find one there that captures your fancy. If you do and would like to alert others on our email list about your experience with it, just send an email to contactcaav[at]gmail.com and I’ll pass it on (perhaps after consolidation with others).

Les Grady
Chair, CAAV Steering Committee
3/23/2014