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This week’s roundup of climate news is below.  Please pass it on to those you think might be interested.  If they wish to subscribe directly have them send an email to contactcaav [at] gmail.com.

• Another essay was posted to the Washington Post “In Theory” series on climate change after I mailed last week’s roundup. It is by Stephen Gardiner and is entitled “Why climate change is an ethical problem.” It is one of the clearest essays I have read on the difficulties of dealing with climate change as an ethical problem.
• Yale Climate Connections has compiled a list of 2015’s most significant scientific papers concerning climate science. While the material is not technical, it is of most interest to those who like to follow climate science. They have also compiled a list of new climate related books you may find of interest.
• Equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS) is defined as the amount Earth would ultimately warm as a result of doubling the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. It is important as an indicator of the possible impacts of CO2 emissions. At the time of publication of? the IPCC 4th assessment report in 2007 there were two techniques for estimating ECS and they gave estimates between 2 and 4.5 degrees C, with a most likely value of 3 degrees C. Between 2007 and the publication of the 5th IPCC assessment report in 2013/14 another estimation technique was developed and it gave significantly lower ECS values, causing the IPCC to?the lower limit of possible ECS values. Now a study has found that the new assessment technique contains a flaw that causes it to underestimate ECS.
• The Japan Meteorological Agency and the independent group Berkeley Earth have both declared 2015 as the hottest year on record. NASA, NOAA, and other governmental agencies are expected to do the same next week.
• A major type is electric power generation that does not emit CO2 is hydroelectric generation. While most suitable hydroelectric sites have been exploited in the developed world, this is not the case in the developing world. Consequently, many countries in Asia and Africa are planning new hydroelectric dams. Unfortunately, dams are not without consequences. For example, a team of 39 aquatic ecologists, writing in the journal Science, has warned that if dozens of hydroelectric dams are constructed in the Amazon, Congo, and Mekong river basins the consequences could be devastating for freshwater biodiversity, putting one-third of the world’s freshwater fish at risk. One example is the potential impact on the aquatic productivity in Tonle Sap, southeast Asia’s largest lake.
• Arch Coal, the U.S.’s second largest coal company, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. As a consequence, coal mining companies accounting for more than 25% of U.S. coal production are currently in bankruptcy. Also, on Monday, shares of Peabody Energy Corp, the leading U.S. coal producer, hit a record low. In 2015 coal production hit its lowest level since 1986. On a related note, China’s coal imports fell by 30% last year.
• Currently, aircraft contribute about 2% of global CO2 emissions and the amount is expected to grow as the number of people flying increases in the future. In an effort to curb increases in CO2 emissions, NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center is investigating a number of ways in which the fuel efficiency of airplanes can be increased.
• One way in which CO2 is removed from the atmosphere is by the growth of phytoplankton (very small photosynthetic organisms) that take up CO2 in the ocean, grow, and then die and fall to the ocean floor. In the Southern Ocean around Antarctica, the growth of phytoplankton is limited by the amount of iron available in the water, which is very small. Scientists have now found that as giant icebergs (larger than 10 miles on a side) travel away from Antarctica they release iron that had been incorporated into them as the glaciers from which they came scoured the rock over which they traveled. This fertilizes the ocean, stimulating the growth of phytoplankton and helping with the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere. More research will be needed to show just how important this is.
• New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, Vermont, and Washington, DC are entering into discussions of how they might use market-based approaches to reduce CO2 emissions from the transportation sector.
• Do you or someone you know want to use more energy-efficient light bulbs, but just don’t like the nature of the light from CFLs and LEDs? Well, researchers at MIT may be on the way to providing an incandescent light bulb with an energy efficiency exceeding that of any other technologies available today.
• Murres, common Alaskan seabirds, have been dying in large numbers from starvation. The cause is thought to be loss of forage fish due to warming waters caused either by climate change or El Nino. Unfortunately, these are not the only die-offs that have been observed around the globe recently, all of which may be related to a changing environment. In addition, a recent study has predicted that by mid-century salmon and herring, the fish species relied upon by Canada’s First Nations people, will have moved so far north that they will no longer be a reliable food source.
• Most of the growth in solar electricity installations has been driven by renewable portfolio standards (RPSs), of which Virginia has only a weak, voluntary one. Now, a new study has found that the benefits from strong RPSs are seven times greater than the costs associated with them. In addition, in 2015 the solar industry added jobs 12 times faster than the rest of the economy and now employs more people than the coal industry. Similar changes are being seen on a global scale where total investments in clean energy technology (solar plus wind) amounted to $329 billion in spite of falling prices for oil, gas, and coal. Unfortunately, the total amount of renewable energy in place in the U.S. is still so small that it is having only a minor effect on our CO2 emissions. Furthermore, traditional electricity providers are fighting rooftop solar with additional fees, which has a big negative impact on the industry.
• For the first time in the eleven years that the World Economic Forum has been conducting its survey of economists, a catastrophe caused by climate change ranks as the biggest potential threat to the global economy in 2016.
• A new report by the World Resources Institute finds that putting a price on carbon (either through a carbon tax or a cap and trade system) will have a bigger effect on CO2 emissions than that suggested by computer models run by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
• The National Hurricane Center announced on Thursday that subtropical storm Alex had been upgraded to a category I hurricane with sustained winds of 85 mph. This is the first time since 1938 that an Atlantic hurricane has formed in January and only the third time since hurricane record keeping began. It was downgraded to a tropical storm 24 hours later.

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.

The Weekly Roundup of Climate News for the week ending Jan. 8, 2016, is below. Please forward it to anyone you think might be interested, or I’ll be happy to add them to our distribution list. Just have them send an email to contactcaav [at] gmail [dot] com.

• In a series entitled “In Theory”, each week The Washington Post “takes on a big idea in the news and explores it from a range of perspectives.” This week the subject was the ethics of global warming and a primer was provided by Christine Emba. Essays were provided by Daniel Farber, Robert Brulle, John Nagle, Thomas Kostigen, and Eric Posner.
• If you would like a review of the top climate stories from 2015 check out Carbon Brief’s top 15.
• In case you missed the broadcast, BBC World Service had an excellent panel discussion entitled “The End of Oil.” It is both interesting and disturbing. Should be a must listen because it provides a picture of the difficulty of the task the world faces in keeping oil in the ground.
• We have been living in the geological epoch of the Holocene since the end of the last ice age. However, for the past several years scientists have proposed that we are in a new epoch, the Anthropocene, so named because of the impacts of humans on the planet. Later this year the question of whether to designate a new epoch will be considered by the geological organization that formally approves such time divisions. Meanwhile, a new study, published Thursday in the journal Science, provides one of the strongest cases yet that Earth has entered a new epoch.
• Given the warm December that we in the Valley experienced last year, it would be easy to expect that 2015 was the hottest year on record in the U.S. However, this was not the case, according to NOAA. Rather, 2015 was second to 2012. Nevertheless, high temperature records were broken all over the eastern U.S. Meanwhile, in the U.K., not only were high temperature records broken, but rainfall records as well, leading to massive flooding. In fact, December was the wettest month ever recorded in the U.K. (Note, 25.4 mm = 1.0 inch.) The flooding has been linked to climate change by some scientists.
• In spite of increasing global temperatures, denial of climate change and humans’ role in it is strong and well, at least in the U.S., according to two studies recently published in scientific journals. One examined the role of conservative think tanks in generating and perpetuating denial, while the other looked at the diffusion of doubt through social media.
• India has been planning to increase its use of coal as its economy develops. Now the low prices associated with two big solar projects are calling those plans into question, with many thinking that coal imports will cease by 2017. Also, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency China will not approve any new coal mines for the next three years. Finally, two large Oregon utilities have agreed to support legislation that would phase out coal-fired power in Oregon by 2030. This is all great news. On the other hand, Zimbabwe has gotten up to 50% of its electricity from hydro-power, but two years of severe droughts have dropped water levels so low that the country is having to turn to diesel, natural gas, and coal for electricity production. This is bad news.
• Water is very important to electricity production by thermal generation (coal, natural gas, and nuclear) in addition to hydroelectric generation. Water availability is of main concern for the latter, whereas both availability and suitable temperature are crucial to the former. Climate change will impact both the temperature and availability of surface water; hence a new study has examined how it will affect the productivity of electric generation facilities. Carbon Brief provides maps showing where the major impacts will occur.
• When melting occurs in a place like Greenland much of the melt water is trapped by the firn (the porous layer of built-up snow that has not yet been compressed into ice) and does not run off into the ocean, where it would contribute to sea level rise. A new study published in Nature Climate Change has found that in West Greenland dense ice layers are forming above the firn, making it impossible for melt water to reach it, causing it to immediately run off instead. This also changes the surface characteristics of the ice sheet, making it absorb more solar heat and melt faster.
• Aircraft contribute around 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions and that number is expected to grow by 3 to 4% a year due to increased air travel. To counteract those contributions to emissions, NASA has been conducting research on ways to increase the fuel efficiency of aircraft. If all of their recommendation were implemented, fuel consumption would be reduced by more than 80 billion gallons over the next 25 years.
• Statoil has received a contract from the Norwegian government to study the storage of carbon dioxide in the Norwegian continental shelf. The study will be carried out at three locations in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea.
• Later this year Chevrolet will have a new entry in the electric car market, the Chevy Bolt. It will have a range of around 200 miles and can be charged to 80% capacity in 30 minutes. The main competitor to electric cars as the clean energy car of the future is a fuel cell powered car. The current drawback of fuel cell cars is the production of hydrogen, which is their fuel. According to a recent paper in Nature Chemistry scientists at Indiana University have developed a biological catalyst that can split water into hydrogen and oxygen, providing a more rapid and cleaner technology for hydrogen production than is currently available.
• TransCanada Corp, the company behind the Keystone XL pipeline has announced two legal challenges to President Obama’s rejection of the pipeline. One of those challenges, based on provisions in free trade agreements, constitutes a significant threat to our environmental regulations. The potential impact of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is discussed in a blog by Ben Beachy, a senior policy adviser for the Sierra Club’s Responsible Trade Program. Ayehsa Rasco of Reuters has analyzed the hurdles that the challenges face.
• On Wednesday the Agriculture Department announced that wildfires in the U.S. burned a record 10.1 million acres in 2015 and required the Forest Service to spend 52% of its budget fighting them. Both scientists and forest agency officials saw a link between climate change and the costly fire season.
• As one might expect, droughts and heatwaves affect grain production negatively. Now scientists have been able to quantify the impacts for both developed and developing nations. According to a paper in the journal Nature the overall average loss in annual crop yields was 10% compared to the three years preceding an event.

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.

• 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.

• The most important news is that 196 countries approved the Paris Climate Accord Saturday afternoon (EST). Joby Warrick and Chris Mooney have summarized five things you should know about the agreement.
• Naomi Oreskes, coauthor of Merchants of Doubt, argues that in order to stop climate change the U.S. will have to give up on the idea that free markets alone can adequately address the problem and embrace a government-led plan of action. This is a compelling and beautifully written essay that raises many points worth considering; if you don’t have time to read the entire thing, at least read the last paragraph.
• In previous Weekly Roundups I have given links to articles calling into question the adequacy of the 2 degree C target and the use of “negative emissions” to achieve it. This week two articles appeared in scientific journals on those topics, one in Nature Geoscience and one in Nature Climate Change. Because of the expected impacts of a 2 degree C temperature increase on sea level rise, island nations are calling for limiting the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees C instead. Chris Mooney examines recent studies on the vulnerability of Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets to warming. A team of reporters from Carbon Brief interviewed scientists and others about the feasibility of a 1.5 degree C goal. This piece contains an interesting graphic showing how long we have before we use all of the carbon budget for a variety of temperature targets.
• Although most of us don’t often think about international shipping as a major source of CO2 emissions, it is currently responsible for 2-3%, and that number is likely to rise as nations cut back on their emissions. Consequently, there is a call for limitations on shipping emissions at the Paris Climate Summit. Henry Fountain of The New York Times analyzes what can be done to make ships more efficient.
• The buildings we live in make significant contributions to global warming through the energy required for heating/cooling, lighting, appliances, etc. How we build or retrofit them can have big impacts and best practices will be required to meet our climate goals.
• A California natural gas well is leaking methane to the atmosphere and by the time they get it stopped it is likely to have leaked as much greenhouse gas as a half-million cars would contribute in a year. You can see a video of the plume here. Meanwhile, a study of methane emissions from the Barnett Shale gas field in North Texas found that they are almost two times as large as estimated by the EPA Greenhouse Gas Inventory and 5.5 times the number from a separate global database.
• Global CO2 emissions during 2015 will decrease by 0.6% according to a study just published in Nature Climate Change. The projected decrease is attributable to a decrease in coal use in China.
• One hundred and fourteen large corporations have pledged to reduce their carbon emissions to a level consistent with keeping global warming below 2 degrees C. Currently, their cumulative emissions equal that of South Africa.
• A new study has found that up to a quarter of the near-surface permafrost in Alaska could thaw by 2100, releasing long-trapped carbon the atmosphere, exacerbating global warming.
• A paper published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides a better evaluation of the disproportionate impacts of climate change on the poor. One finding is that estimates of the social cost of carbon have been too low. Another is that climate change will make it much harder for the poor to better their economic situation.
• A bipartisan group of leaders met in Norfolk on Wednesday to push for passage of the Virginia Coastal Protection Act in the 2016 General Assembly. This bill would generate about $250 million per year to invest in flood-protection measures, as well as energy efficiency, clean energy, and job training programs.
• NOAA announced Wednesday that this autumn (Sept. – Nov.) was the warmest on record for the contiguous U.S., with every state in the Lower 48 recording above average temperatures.
• A new paper reveals that nighttime temperatures have a major impact on respiration rates of trees in tropical rain forests. At night, plants use their internal sugars and other energy reserves to maintain cell function (respiration). This process acts the opposite of photosynthesis, meaning that CO2 is given off rather than taken up. It turns out that the rate of respiration at night depends strongly on the temperature, suggesting that trees might release more CO2 at night as Earth warms.
• A major storm (Storm Desmond) swept over parts of the U.K. last weekend, causing torrential rains that flooded more than 5000 homes and caused extensive damage. Using computer models scientists have estimated that the storm was made 40% more likely because of global warming.
• Matt Ridley is a self-proclaimed lukewarmer who has had a number of opinion pieces appear recently in such places as The Wall Street Journal and Scientific American. He recently was interviewed on BBC Radio 4 by Roger Harrabin, the BBC’s environment analyst. Carbon Brief sent a transcript of Ridley’s interview to eleven climate scientists and asked them to critique his claims. The annotated interview can be found 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.

• Justin Gillis, writing in The New York Times, provides a very informative list of short answers to 13 hard (and important) questions about climate change.
• Adam Vaughan, writing in The Guardian, has compiled a list of the expected changes associated with various levels of warming.
• If you know that the Paris Climate Summit is going on, but you aren’t quite sure exactly what is likely to happen, then The Guardian has a summary for you, as does Climate Home. Because of the sheer volume of articles coming out about the Summit I’m not going to attempt to cover it, although I will put in a few things that particularly catch my eye.
• On Tuesday, President Obama said that part of the agreement from Paris should be legally binding, the periodic review of emission reduction targets. Sophie Yeo of Carbon Brief explains how this might work. In a sweeping interview in Rolling Stone, John Kerry discusses the implications of legally binding agreements in Paris and a host of other issues associated with climate change.
• The Breakthrough Energy Coalition, made up of more than 25 investors from 10 countries was launched Monday at the Paris Climate Summit. Its goal is to spark an economic revolution based upon clean energy technology. The announcement was made in conjunction with Mission Innovation, an initiative involving 21 governments to spur renewable energy development. Jules Kortenhorst, CEO of the Rocky Mountain Institute, took this as a highly encouraging sign.
• One of the most important concepts to come out of climate science in the past decade is that of a carbon budget, which quantifies the amount of carbon dioxide that can be emitted to the atmosphere while still limiting warming to 2 degrees C. This concept was discussed in a series of articles in Nature in 2009, incorporated into the 2013-2014 IPCC report, and popularized by Bill McKibben in his article “Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math” in Rolling Stone in 2012. Nevertheless, as reported by Justin Gillis in The New York Times, the carbon budget will not be part of the discussions in Paris, in part because it raises issues that are just too difficult to tackle.
• The Washington Post published an interesting series of articles related to climate change. Part 1 dealt with “The Great Thaw“; Part 2 with “The Invisible Threat” posed by insects carrying viruses further north; Part 3 with the oceans and giant moving boulders; and Part 4 with “The Magic Number“, i.e., 2 degrees C. Finally, they summarized the key points of climate change science in a fascinating interactive graphic.
• According to the World Meteorological Organization the period 2011-2015 will be the warmest five year period on record. In addition, because of a strong El Nino coupled with global warming, 2015 is likely to be the warmest year on record.
• One initiative to come out of the Postcard to Paris event at the Ice House on November 29 was to increase local action to make Harrisonburg more energy efficient and resilient. Toward that end, you might find a new report by the Post Carbon Institute to be helpful. It is entitled Six Foundation for Building Community Resilience.
• The UN’s World Food Programme and Britain’s Met office Hadley Centre have unveiled a website that lets the user control future greenhouse gas emissions and climate adaptation strategies to see their impact on global food security on a country by country basis. Roz Pidcock at Carbon Brief walks you through the website.
• One tactic used by people who do not want to act against climate change is to focus on the uncertainty inherent in any system as complex as the climate system, thereby hoping to make people shrug off the risks. However, uncertainty in the climate system actually increases the inherent risks, making early action even more important, as explained by Stephan Lewandowsky and co-authors in The Guardian. Unfortunately, focusing on the uncertainty is far more effective at making people discount climate change than a variety of framing techniques are at causing them to be concerned.
• During the Eocene, fifty million years ago, Earth was a hot house due to high CO2 concentrations. Until now, the CO2 concentration during the Eocene was thought to be 1,125 ppm, far higher than today’s levels. However, recent evidence from the examination of certain mineral crystals suggests that the CO2 concentration was as low as 680 ppm, a level we could reach by the end of the century if we continue with business as usual. The new data suggest that Earth of more sensitive to CO2 concentrations than previously thought.
• Fueled by the effects of El Niño, torrential rains in Tamil Nadu, a state with nearly 70 million people in southern India, are causing massive flooding. The rains are the heaviest in over a century. Ironically, India, along with Saudi Arabia, quashed efforts by the vulnerable nations to introduce a UN study on the benefits of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees C rather than 2 degrees, a proposal backed by Germany and France. James Hansen agreed that 2 degrees was too much and called for a rising global price on carbon.
• Readers of The Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg are aware that the editor loves to cite past warming of Earth as evidence that we need not be concerned about current warming. However, as Chris Mooney of The Washington Post points out, “This may be one of the weakest arguments against human-caused climate change.”
• Eight industrialized nations, which have pledged $2 billion a year to the Green Climate Fund to help vulnerable nations adapt to climate change, spend a combined $80 billion a year on subsidies to the fossil fuel industry, according to Oil Change International.

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.

Because of the Thanksgiving holiday there will be no Weekly Roundup next week. The next one will come out Dec. 4.

• Rachael Willis, in Huffington Post Green, has some interesting ideas about how we, the public, can act on climate change.
• A paper published in the journal Science Advances has revealed that the biodiversity of the communities on the ocean floor near Antarctica is being altered by the increased meltwater runoff, which carries a high load of silt and clay that falls to the ocean floor.
• If you were following the news last week you know that Secretary of State John Kerry generated a tempest by stating that the Paris climate agreement was “definitively not going to be a treaty.” Simon Evans of Carbon Brief explains why the legal form of the agreement matters. Meanwhile, following the ISIS terror attack, the Paris Climate Summit will proceed as planned, although rallies, concerts, and other ancillary activities will be banned.
• Last March a research study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences asserted that there was a link between climate change and the Syrian civil war, but that idea didn’t get a lot of attention outside of the climate change community. However, when Bernie Sanders claimed in the second Democratic debate last Saturday night that climate change was the biggest national security threat facing the U.S., his comments were subsequently called “daffy” by Peggy Noonan, a former Reagan speech writer, on Face the Nation. Joe Romm gives his take on the issue at Climate Progress. David Roberts at VOX looks at the language used to describe the impacts of climate change. Megan Rowling of Thomas Reuters Foundation explains how economic development and stronger government can reduce a country’s vulnerability to climate change.
• The World Meteorological Organization warned on Monday that the current El Nino is expected to strengthen further, causing severe impacts throughout the tropics and subtropical zones. As a result, the World Food Programme expects many in Central America and east and southern Africa to need food aid. A spokesman for the World Health Organization said “The world is much better prepared for this year’s El Nino, but the socio-economic shocks will still be profound.”
• In the on-going saga between NOAA and House investigators over the erasure of the “pause”, scientists and top officials from NOAA have agreed to start interviews similar to depositions this week.
• Both NASA and the Japan Meteorological Agency have declared October to be the hottest October in the temperature record. In addition, according to NOAA it is almost certain that 2015 will be the hottest year on record by a considerable amount. Chris Mooney at The Washington Post analyzes how this impacts the argument over the “pause”.
• Many countries depend on snowpack to store water and release it slowly during the summer as the snow melts. However, changing precipitation patterns resulting from climate change are causing more rain and less snow. This results in too much water part of the time and too little when it is needed.
• Even though Florida has abundant sunshine, it only ranks 13th in solar installations. The reason is the same as the reason that solar energy is not as abundant here in Virginia as it could be; poor regulations. Read how Floridians are working to change that.
• U.K. Energy Secretary Amber Rudd has stated that all U.K. coal fired power plants will be closed by 2025, to be replaced with natural gas-fired and nuclear plants. The plan is being criticized by both coal and renewables advocates, as well as by David Carrington at The Guardian.
• A new paper from the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication presents the five “best practice” insights from psychological science to improve public engagement with climate change. This is an open access article so you can read the entire article if you wish. However, you can get the important points by looking at Table 1, which you must click on to see.
• A new study, just published in Nature, examines the future contributions to sea level rise from Antarctic glaciers and concludes that they are less than projections from some other recent papers that I have included in the Weekly Roundup. In an unusual move, one of the authors discusses the paper in a newspaper, The Guardian. One thing to recognize is that disagreement among scientific studies is common, particularly in a field that has received relatively little study. More studies and knowledgeable discussion will ultimately lead to a better understanding. That is how science works.
• A new study by the consulting firm ICF International has found that a large-scale shift to renewable sources of electricity would result in a net gain of 2 million jobs by 2050 and result in an additional $300 to $650 in disposable income per household.
• The Christian Science Monitor is providing comprehensive coverage of the Paris Climate Summit. You can subscribe here.
• Joe Romm, founder of the blog ClimateProgress.org, has a new book entitled Climate Change: What Everyone Needs to Know. It is part of the Oxford University Press “What Everyone Needs to Know” series and is written in a Q & A format.

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.

• The big news last week was President Obama’s rejection of TransCanada’s application for the Keystone XL pipeline. There were many articles about that after I sent out the Weekly Roundup, so I’m including a few here:
  1. Bill McKibben reflected in The New Yorker and The Guardian on the fight against the pipeline and what it might mean for what lies ahead.
  2. Ben Adler in Grist provided a retrospective on the fight against the pipeline.
  3. Reuters examined the impact of Keystone on the role of direct action in bringing about the needed changes in energy production.
  4. Michael Regan examined TransCanada’s options in the Christian Science Monitor.
  5. Climate Action Network Canada recommended that the Canadian government work with Alberta to phase out the oil sands sector.
• The World Meteorological Organization announced on Monday that the global average CO2 concentration exceeded 400 ppm in the early months of 2015. While individual measuring stations have previously reported concentrations above 400 ppm, this is the first time that the global average has exceeded that value. Also on Monday, the U.K.’s Met Office reported that Earth’s average temperature for the first 9 months of 2015 exceeded historical values by 1 degree C for the first time.
• A new paper in Science reports that the base of yet another Greenland glacier is melting from the bottom because of warm sea water, potentially destabilizing it. The glacier has lost 95% of the ice shelf that used to stabilize it, thereby opening up a major floodgate from Greenland to the ocean. Over time, this glacier alone will contribute around 1.5 ft to sea level rise. In The New York Times Magazine Jon Gertner takes a deep dive into what we can learn from the Greenland ice sheet about our chances of responding on time to climate change.
• Carbon dioxide emissions and climate change are having major impacts on the oceans, yet they have seldom been considered in climate negotiations. The authors of five papers published Thursday in the journal Science hope to change that by documenting the major impacts and calling them to the attention of negotiators. Roz Pidcock of Carbon Brief looks at what the scientists had to say about the deep ocean. Also published this week, but in the journal Nature, is a study presenting maps showing the impacts of climate change on shallow-water fish and invertebrates by 2025 and 2115 under a business-as-usual scenario.
• In terms of total area burned, 2015 was the first fire year on record in the U.S., primarily because of the large number of fires in Alaska and Washington. Global Forest Watch Fires allows anyone to see the movement of fires in near real-time. By using that tool, World Resources Institute was able to gain insights into the 2015 fire season.
• In a new report the World Bank said that climate change could drive more than 100 million people into poverty by 2030. Meanwhile, the current El Nino threatens millions in east and southern Africa with hunger, disease, and water shortages.
• The 43 member states of the Climate Vulnerable Forum have called upon all nations at the upcoming Paris Climate Summit to adopt a goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees C, rather than the current 2 degree goal. Meanwhile, analyses of India’s energy plans have indicated that they will make it difficult for the world to even meet the 2 degree goal. So, a major question is how India will bring electricity to the 300 million people lacking it without wrecking the global climate.
• In a settlement with New York’s attorney general, Peabody energy, the nation’s largest coal company, has agreed to disclose the financial risks of climate change to its investors.
• According to a report released on Monday by Greenpeace, global use of coal fell between 2.3% and 4.6% in the first nine months of 2015 compared to the same period in 2014. As a result, coal consumption is poised for its biggest decline in history. On the other hand, the head of the World Coal Association has a different opinion. Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has released its World Energy Outlook 2015. In it the IEA states that renewable energy is expected to overtake coal as the major source of electricity production by the early 2030s. Simon Evans of Carbon Brief provides an analysis of the major IEA findings. You can download the executive summary of the World Energy Outlook 2015 here.
• According to a report compiled by Oil Change International and the Overseas Development Institute, the G20 nations provide approximately $450 billion annually in a variety of subsidies to the fossil fuel industry. Of that amount, approximately $20 billion are provided in the U.S. Nevertheless, a new report from the group Carbon Transparency states “Climate action by the G20 has reached a turning point, with per capita emissions falling in 11 members, and renewable energy growing strongly.”
• A new economic analysis by ICF International (funded by NextGen Climate America) shows that shifting to renewable energy to reduce America’s CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050 would create two million additional jobs and increase GDP by 0.9%.
• If you want to get an idea about what the future may hold for solar panels, batteries, and energy storage then you will want to check out what Skeptical Science has to say about graphene. Then you can go to GreenBiz to get their take on BP’s Technology Outlook, which conjectures about the next 25 years.
• The Union of Concerned Scientists has released a new report on the life cycle analysis of electric vehicles. A brief summary and a link to the full report can be found here. In addition, the author of the report comments on her findings.
• Ivy Main has a new blog post explaining how the addition of more nuclear energy to the electrical grid makes it more difficult to integrate wind and solar energy.
• Many believe that a revenue-neutral carbon tax is the most effective way to reduce CO2 emissions, thereby lowering the driver of climate change. Although there is not yet a serious effort to pass such a tax at the federal level, some states are giving the proposal serious consideration. Climate scientist James Hansen has published an article entitled “Environment and Development Challenges: The Imperative of a Carbon Fee and Dividend.” It can be downloaded in pdf format.

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.