New poll shows steady support for state’s climate-change law, while opposition to drilling shoots up
The state’s climate-change law, AB 32, has been a hot topic on the campaign trail this year — with the Republican candidates for governor and U.S. Senate branding it as a “job-killer,” as opponents of the law marshal support for a November ballot measure that would suspend implementation until the state’s unemployment rate drops to 5.5% for a year.
But despite the controversy over the 2006 law, which would reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, a new poll shows that two-thirds (67%) of California residents continue to back it — about the same level as last year.
Given the controversy over AB 32, Mark Baldassare, president of the Public Policy Institute of California, said he was somewhat surprised by the steady level of support. The findings stand in contrast with last year, when backing for AB 32 dropped to 66% from its high of 78% in 2007.
“We’ve had a very poor year in terms of the economy and the budget in California, and this doesn’t seem to have impacted it,” Baldassare said. Despite a flurry of competing studies looking at how the law might affect jobs, “People aren’t necessarily connecting climate-change policy and economic performance,” he said….
In the survey’s most dramatic finding, the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico appears to be hardening opposition to more drilling off the California coast, which shot up to 59% from 43% last year. Most voters expressed little confidence that the federal government would be able to prevent a future spill.
Electric Carmakers Focus on Incentives, Not Carbon Prices
With climate legislation seemingly dead in Congress, many clean-energy advocates are going back to the drawing board. But the electric-car industry, which is relying on other federal incentives to get ahead, remains upbeat.
Industry officials have met just outside Detroit for the past two days to discuss the state of the growing industry: whether the United States can build enough batteries, at a low enough price, to compete globally. Michigan has enjoyed much of the early investment, initiating battery-manufacturing plants and starting to set up the supply chain for electric cars.
Those at the conference agreed that federal investment has set up a formidable amount of manufacturing and research in just two years. Yet in assessing what needs to come next, they called for more such investment — not a price on carbon.
U.S. Navy contracts for solar power
The U.S. Naval Facilities Engineering Command has tapped AECOM Technology Corp. to develop solar power installations at Navy and Marine bases in six states.
Under the indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract, AECOM will provide engineering, procurement and construction services for solar power systems at sites in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.
AECOM’s partner, Solar Power Partners, will finance and own the systems, AECOM said in a news release.
China, India Shift to Gas From Oil in Quest for Clean Growth: Chart of Day
Asia is boosting consumption of liquefied natural gas relative to oil as nations from China to India try to pollute less while driving economic growth.
The CHART OF THE DAY shows demand for LNG in China and India is growing as much as nine times faster than that for crude, according to calculations based on data compiled from Facts Global Energy, BP Plc and the International Energy Agency. Oil use is shrinking in Japan and stagnant in South Korea. LNG use will rise 45 percent in China and 12 percent in India in 2011 from this year, said Facts, an energy consultant.
“This strong demand growth will not purely be driven by gross domestic product,” Gavin Thompson, China gas study director for Wood Mackenzie Consultants Ltd., said in an e-mail from Edinburgh. “The gas demand story is about displacing oil products, not coal, in the industrial and residential sectors.” The energy consultant this week raised by 48 percent its forecast for China’s LNG demand in 2020.
Government’s energy policies ‘a huge disappointment’
Mr Miliband accused the Tories and Lib Dems of employing the same “rhetoric without substance” in office that they used in opposition.
He was responding to a statement by Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne, who said the government was taking “three big steps forward” by creating a market for energy savings through the “green deal”, ensuring the electricity market worked “properly”, and “strengthening” the carbon price.
Mr Huhne told MPs that “the cheapest way of closing the gap between energy demand and supply is to cut energy use”, setting out the government’s aims to improve household energy efficiency by installing “smart meters” in more homes.
He announced that ministers would implement a “transitional regime for offshore wind farms”, re-affirming the government’s commitment to harnessing renewable energy sources. The energy secretary added that there would be a “comprehensive” review of the electricity market, including the role of its watchdog Ofgem.
He also said the government was “clear” new nuclear power could go ahead providing it did not receive public subsidy. But Mr Miliband said: “Any fair-minded person looking at this statement will conclude that it is a huge disappointment – a huge disappointment to industry, to the country as well.
Earth’s climate future may be etched in Greenland bedrock
Scientists hit Greenland bedrock this week after five years of drilling through 2.5 kilometres (1.6-mile) of solid ice, a 14-nation consortium announced Wednesday.
Ice core samples from Eemian period 130,000 to 115,000 years ago — the last time Earth’s climate was a few degrees warmer than today — could help forecast the impacts of current global warming, the researchers said.
“Our findings will increase our knowledge on the climate system and increase our ability to predict the speed and final height of sea level rise,” said Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, an ice expert at the University of Copenhagen and head of the project.
“If the Eemian was unstable, then the models of future change due to increased greenhouse effect are wrong as they cannot handle sudden changes,” she told AFP by email from the site. Greenland’s temperatures were 3.0 to 5.0 degrees Celsius (5.4 to 9.0 degrees Fahrenheit) higher during this last interglacial period.
Today, without steep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, the global thermometer could rise 6.0 C compared to pre-industrial times, making large swathes of the planet unlivable, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned.
With the global climate pact dead, China gets hungry for U.S. factory pork
Now that we’ve figured out why the climate bill died, it’s time to start thinking about the consequences. The failure doesn’t just mean that U.S. greenhouse gas emissions will continue inching up. It also means that we probably won’t see a global climate deal anytime soon. And that means untold years of ever-increasing emissions — and likely dire consequences for human habitation on Earth.
Think about a global climate pact from China’s perspective. Why should it take leadership, now that the U.S. has refused to act? Sure, China stands as the globe’s most prodigious greenhouse gas emitter, and its annual emissions are growing rapidly. But in terms of emissions per person, China stills lags behind us dramatically — the average Chinese person has less than a fourth of the carbon footprint of her U.S. counterpart. Moreover, we prosperous consumers in the post-industrial global north are deeply implicated in China’s voracious and growing demand for dirty fossil fuels. According to one study, fully one-quarter of China’s GHG emissions stem from its export trade to Europe and the United States. Think about that next time you reel in goodies (including iPhones and other tech gadgets) at the nearest Big Box.
India Seeks $21 Billion Investment in Gas Network
India’s gas distribution regulator expects companies including Reliance Industries Ltd. and GAIL India Ltd. to invest 1 trillion rupees ($21 billion) in the next five years to build pipeline networks connecting cities.
The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board invited bids for eight areas in July and plans to hold monthly auctions for another 305 cities, Chairman Labanyendu Mansingh said in an interview at his office in New Delhi. Pension funds and hedge funds are interested in buying stakes in companies building the networks, he said, declining to name the potential investors.
“We are working closely with state governments to ensure these projects come up on time,” Mansingh said yesterday. “India has been fortunate enough to have major gas discoveries and this trend is going to continue for several years.”
The government is encouraging households, factories and vehicle owners to switch to the cleaner-burning fuel from coal and diesel to reduce pollution. The auction is India’s third. The board first awarded rights for six cities last year while the second for seven cities was stalled due to a lawsuit.
Malaysia may close more dive sites hit by coral bleaching
Malaysia may close three more popular dive sites in the South China Sea which have been hit by coral bleaching blamed on global warming, an official said Wednesday.
Last week authorities announced the closure of nine dive sites on the tropical islands of Tioman and Redang until the end of October in an attempt to relieve stress on the fragile marine ecosystems. The two islands are located off the east coast of Malaysia in the South China Sea.
Marine authorities said they were studying a proposal to shut down three more sites on Redang island after resort operators said they detected coral bleaching and wanted the diving spots closed.
“We have received the proposal, we will study it and verify the matter,” a marine park official told AFP on condition of anonymity. The dive sites will only be closed if more than 60 percent of the coral has been damaged, she added. The closure would give the coral a chance to regenerate and would remove stress caused by tourism-related activities such as diving.
Climate Study: Expect Refugee Inflow to U.S.
Every time governments fail to take serious steps on climate change, it seems the parlor game of predicting what our warmer world will look like heats up.
And the newest of those predictions, appearing this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, pokes at what is presently one of the country’s most sensitive spots: immigration.
Michael Oppenheimer of Princeton published a study that estimates that between 1.4 and 6.7 million people could become climate refugees emigrating from rural Mexico to the United States between now and 2080. That’s 2 to 10 percent of the present Mexican population, and it doesn’t include people who would make the move for other reasons.
Is it a major concern? Yes. How much stock should you put in those statistics? Not much. Oppenheimer and colleagues used projections of decreased agricultural output driven by rising temperatures to get these figures.
Vital Marine Plant Life at Risk
Rising sea temperatures can harm the tiny plant life that forms the base of the oceans’ food chain as well as affect the diversity of marine life, two new studies have found.
Over the years, humans have affected the oceans by pollution and over-fishing and through habitat alteration caused by dredging and other activities. Less understood is the role of higher sea temperatures, which many scientists believe is linked to global climate change. Scientists estimate that the oceans have warmed a total of roughly half a degree Celsius on average over the past 100 years.
Researchers have long debated whether phytoplankton concentrations have increased or declined. The algae have flourished in many coastal areas because increased runoff from rivers brings nutrients that the algae gorge on. However, no one has properly assessed whether the global oceans are losing or gaining phytoplankton, which forms the base of the marine food chain, from crustaceans to fish and ultimately to humans.
Consistent satellite-based measurements exist only from 1997, so scientists at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada instead used data obtained with a simple oceanography device known as a Secchi. Used by scientists since the late 1800s, a Secchi is a disk lowered into the water to provide an estimate of water clarity and thus serves as a proxy measure of phytoplankton abundance.
Declining algae threatens ocean food chain: study
A century-long decline in tiny algae called phytoplankton could disrupt the global ocean food chain, including the human consumption of fish, according to a study released Wednesday.
The microscopic organisms — which prop up the pyramid of marine animal life from shrimps to killer whales — have been disappearing globally at a rate of one percent per year, researchers reported.
Since 1950, phytoplankon mass has dropped by about 40 percent, most likely due to the accelerating impact of global warming, they reported.
“Phytoplankton is the fuel on which marine ecosystems run,” said lead author Daniel Boyce, a professor at Dalhousie University in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. “A decline affects everything up the food chain, including humans.”
The pace of the decline — heaviest in polar and tropical regions — matched the rate at which surface ocean temperatures have increased as a result of climate change, the study said.
U.S. wind energy popular, but lacks investment
Despite public approval, U.S. wind energy investment is slowing down instead of growing, according to the American Wind Energy Association.
An overwhelming majority of Americans support a renewable electricity standard, and wind energy investment in particular, according to a poll of 600 likely voters conducted in March by Newhouse of Public Opinion Strategies and Bennett, Petts & Normington.
Specifically, 89 percent of Americans said increasing the amount of energy the U.S. gets from wind is a good idea. Broken down by ideology, 84 percent of Republicans, 93 percent of Democrats, and 88 percent of independents support increasing the use of wind energy in the U.S.
But that bipartisan enthusiasm for wind has not translated into real-world investment or public policy, according to a detailed report released this week by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).
California launches massive wind farm
The California groundbreaking ceremony for the world’s largest wind farm is a sign of the state’s leadership in green energy, the governor said.
California leaders joined engineers at renewable energy company Terra-Gen Power for the groundbreaking ceremony for a 1,500-megawatt wind farm.
The project will provide enough power for 1.1 million California consumers and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 52 million tons, the company said in a statement.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said state policies in the renewable energy sector were to thank in part for the launch of the project.
“Having the world’s largest wind project break ground in our state is tangible evidence that our pioneering policies are drawing investment, improving the economy and creating jobs now when we need them most,” he said.
Pickens, Home Depot Beat Wind-Turbine Makers in Energy Measure
T. Boone Pickens, the billionaire energy hedge-fund manager, and Home Depot Inc., the largest U.S. home-improvement retailer, are winners in energy legislation that fails to help solar-panel and wind-turbine makers.
The measure proposed yesterday by Senate Democrats would give Pickens victory in his lobbying campaign for more use of natural gas, providing $3.8 billion in rebates for cars and trucks powered by the fuel. Home Depot would benefit from provisions to channel $5 billion in rebates to homeowners who upgrade to more efficient appliances or add insulation that reduces energy use.
The provisions were the main survivors among proposals to reshape U.S. energy use under the measure that would also set tougher rules for offshore drilling after BP Plc’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the worst in U.S. history. Absent from the measure were limits on carbon dioxide or requirements that utilities add solar and wind power to their portfolios.
Update on the Oil Spills—All of Them
Michigan is not the first place that comes to mind when you think of oil spills. But as of Monday, add the state to the list of those laying booms, scrambling cleanup teams and otherwise trying to stanch the flow of thick crude leaking from a busted oil pipe. And add that spill to yet another new gusher the Gulf of Mexico—this one just 65 miles south of New Orleans—the third such incident to occur on a drilling platform other than BP’s lost Deepwater Horizon since that rig exploded and sank on April 20.
If you’re tempted to write your senator about the sudden spate of spills, don’t bother. The new leaks are occurring just days after Harry Reid and his timorous Democratic majority walked away from their year-in-the-making energy bill, under threat of filibuster from Mitch McConnell and his snarling GOP minority.
The Michigan incident has a lot of similarities to the BP disaster—albeit writ small. Once again it’s an international company that’s to blame—this time Canada’s Enbridge Energy Partners. Once again, it’s a body of water at risk—this time the Kalamazoo River and perhaps Morrow Lake, which lies in the path of the spill. And once again, a CEO is promising to make things right.
California Republicans shunning one traditional path to victory: the environment
For decades, Republicans who won statewide office in California found success, at least in part, by showing sensitivity to voters’ commitment to protecting the environment. But with state unemployment hovering at more than 12%, the two GOP candidates at the top of the ticket this year are betting that voters’ concerns about jobs and economic uncertainty will trump any desire for environmental crusades.
Republican Senate nominee Carly Fiorina has spent months charging Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer with driving an extreme environmental agenda instead of tending to jobs. She has been sharply critical of national and state climate change legislation — deriding Boxer’s concern as being about “the weather” — and has argued that the state should expand oil drilling off its shores.
Gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman has been more equivocal than Fiorina, but she also has cast the state’s landmark climate change measure as one that kills jobs. She favors delaying its execution for a year to allow further study of its effect.
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Exxon, Shell growth now led by natural gas
Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) and Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L) reported strong growth in production on Thursday after years of largely falling output, helping to send second-quarter profits soaring. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE66S1TF20100729
Natural Gas aka Methane Gas, is a potent greenhouse gas 25 times stronger than Co2.
Climate Change Art Contest: Submit Your Creative Vision To Help Fight Global Warming http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ 2010/ 07/ 29/ climate-change-art-contes_n_663653.html
Impressive…
http://www.accuweather.com/ video/ 309026453001/ see-hail-a-foot-deep-west-of-denver.asp
“Industry officials have met just outside Detroit for the past two days to discuss the state of the growing industry: whether the United States can build enough batteries, at a low enough price, to compete globally.”
I just ran across this DOE paper yesterday –
TRANSFORMING AMERICA’S TRANSPORTATION SECTOR – BATTERIES AND ELECTRIC VEHICLES
Interesting takeaways…
“Investments in batteries alone, for example, should help lower the cost of some electric car batteries by nearly 70 percent before the end of 2015. What’s more, thanks in part to these investments, U.S. factories will be able to produce batteries and components to support up to 500,000 electric-drive vehicles annually by 2015. Overall, these investments will create tens of thousands of American jobs.”
20,500 EV charging stations by 2012.
100 mile range battery cost in 2010 $33,333, in 2015 $10,000, in 2021 $5,000, in 2030 $3,333.
“Between 2009 and 2015, increases in energy density will reduce the typical weight of an electric vehicle battery by 33 percent.”
100 mile range battery weight in 2010 333Kg, in 2015 222Kg, in 2020-30 55Kg.
“In the next few years, domestic manufacturers should be able to produce batteries that last up to 14 years.” (Assuming a 1.5x weekly charging frequency.)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/ files/ documents/ Battery-and-Electric-Vehicle-Report-FINAL.pdf
Perhaps the reason electric car makers are not much interested in carbon pricing is because a modest carbon price would have no effect on the market for electric cars. I understand recent bills have a price collar near $25/ton of CO2. At 2.2 lbs of CO2 emissions/kWh from coal-fired generation, that’s 2.75 cents/kW. Since the national average retail price of electricity was 9.89 cents/kWh in 2009, that would be a significant incentive to shift to natural gas and renewables. On the other hand, $25/ton of CO2 would increase the price of a gallon of gasoline by only 25 cents, which most drivers would regard as trivial. CBO has estimated that a gasoline price increase of as much as $2.00 per gallon would not reduce consumption below what is going to occur anyway under the new CAFE standards. http://www.cbo.gov/ ftpdocs/ 98xx/ doc9830/ 10-06-ClimateChange_Brief.pdf
BTW, thanks for giving us this excellent daily summary of the news.
Exxon Mobil’s 2Q earnings more than double Exxon Mobil Corp. said Thursday its second quarter income nearly doubled to $7.56 billion as oil prices increased from last year. http://news.yahoo.com/ s/ ap/ 20100729/ ap_on_bi_ge/ us_earns_exxon_mobil
President of Russia: Two important issues today are healthcare, where we’ve made some progress, and energy efficiency, where we’re still lagging behind. http://twitter.com/ KremlinRussia_E/ status/ 19843688708
No need to worry about Global Warming…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ sciencetech/ article-1298285/ Massive-asteroid-hit-Earth-2182-warn-scientists.html
Another twitter from President of Russia, lol
“Conserving resources and using them wisely are global trends we should follow.”
Alberta Hides Dirty Truth as US Demands Tar Sands Facts
Potential buyers of tar sands oil want to know its true carbon footprint, but industry won’t come clean. http://thetyee.ca/ Opinion/ 2010/ 07/ 29/ AlbertaHidesTruth/
Scientists say global warming is continuing http://www.physorg.com/news199613774.html
Roger – good analysis. An increase from $0.035 per mile to $0.044 is likely not enough to effect purchase decisions. Not when it costs $0.10 per mile to fuel a 30MPG car burning $3/gallon fuel. And when the price of oil resumes its climb higher that spread will quickly increase.
BTW, I discovered some new info on US average electricity costs.
“The average U.S. residential retail price of electricity rose to 11.75 cents per kilowatt-hour in April 2010, up from 11.20 cents per kwh a month earlier, according to the federal Energy Information Administration’s monthly electricity report.
The April 2010 residential price was up 1.7 percent from April 2009, when the average was 11.55 cents per kwh.”
“For commercial electricity users, the average price for April 2010 was 9.97 cents per kwh, the same price as in April 2009.”
“The average industrial retail price for April 2010 dropped to 6.57 cents per kwh….”
http://sunpluggers.com/ news/ average-residential-electricity-price-up-0723
(Useful page. Average price by state. Good updates on installed power from various sources.)
And it’s likely that many/most EV owners will not be paying those average rates for charging but will be paying something closer to, even below, the industrial rate during off-peak pricing periods. In states with lots of installed wind the cost of power to utility companies sometimes drops to zero during times of low demand.
Prokaryotes –
From the President of Russia -
“Conserving resources and using them wisely are global trends we should follow.”
If, as is highly likely, this is a discreet hint that Russian oil production is now peaking, having run into the geological contraints of resource depletion,
and that Russian oil exports will now start to decline faster than the depletion rate as home demand is given priority,
it implies the inexorable rise of global oil prices is coming at us rather soon.
Triple-dip recession anyone ?
Or is that just a terminal sawtooth decline path that is now emerging ?
Regards,
Lewis
Why assume a “sawtooth decline path”?
Cannot you equally assume a “sawtooth” transformation from fossil fuels to renewables with the end point being a better way of life than we now experience?
Think. Fewer health problems. Less expenditures for imported oil.
Better public transportation freeing you of gridlock and parking problems, spending time in airports, speeding you to your destination.
Less time standing out in the rain filling your gas tank…. ;o)
Lewis, checkout
Moscow faces energy challenge
officials apparently remain skeptical regarding renewable energy. Any type of massive use of renewable energy is unlikely in Russia, Shmatko announced in Yekaterinburg on July 15. These sources may provide no more than 4.5% of domestic energy consumption by 2015 … prices would remain regulated beyond 2011 … The country’s energy blueprints appear to rely on assumptions that huge private investments could become readily available to support governmental planning. However, these assumptions, as well as the moves towards energy efficiency, will inevitably face a reality check. http://www.atimes.com/ atimes/ Central_Asia/ LG30Ag01.html
Siemens signs railway and wind power deals in Russia
The company plans to install wind turbines and create three joint ventures with Russian firms “in order to manufacture most of the products in Russia”, Siemens said in a statement. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10649200
I believe there is a lot of double talk in russias energy plans. Suggesting the plans are much more ambitious.
“This is all just very difficult to believe,” Mr. Tyurkin said. “There has never been a summer like this. Never. Not once.”
Oymyakon in Eastern Siberia is considered one of the coldest places on Earth, with winter temperatures dropping to as low as minus 90 degrees. On Thursday, the thermometer also read 90 degrees. Plus 90. In the evening. http://www.nytimes.com/ 2010/ 07/ 30/ world/ europe/ 30moscow.html?_r=2&hp
The CIA as Executive Agent for Climate Change http://www.theatlantic.com/ politics/ archive/ 2010/ 07/ the-cia-as-executive-agent-for-climate-change/ 60626/
EPA Rejects Challenges to Finding That Climate Change Is Threat to Health http://www.bloomberg.com/ news/ 2010-07-29/ epa-rejects-challenges-to-finding-that-climate-change-is-threat-to-health.html
NOAA Supercomputer Tapped For Climate Change Research
Housed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the 14-cabinet, 260-teraflop system http://www.informationweek.com/ news/ government/ enterprise-architecture/ showArticle.jhtml?articleID=226300289
Oil Spills Everywhere
National Wildlife Federation has just released a new report tallying up the number of oil accidents in the past decade. The numbers are striking. Between 2001 and 2007, there were 1,443 offshore-drilling accidents in the Outer Continental Shelf, with 41 fatalities, 476 fires, and 356 “pollution events.” Onshore, there have been 2,554 “significant” pipeline accidents between 2000 and 2009, with 161 fatalities. http://www.tnr.com/ blog/ the-vine/ 76654/ oil-spills-are-everywhere
Dudley to enact high-risk, high-return search for oil and gas in demanding environments http://dailycaller.com/ 2010/ 07/ 29/ dudley-to-enact-high-risk-high-return-search-for-oil-and-gas-in-demanding-environments/
Happy 35th birthday, global warming!
Global warming is turning 35! Not only has the current spate of global warming been going on for about 35 years now, but also the term “global warming” will have its 35th anniversary next week. On 8 August 1975, Wally Broecker published his paper “Are we on the brink of a pronounced global warming?” in the journal Science. That appears to be the first use of the term “global warming” in the scientific literature (at least it’s the first of over 10,000 papers for this search term according to the ISI database of journal articles). http://www.realclimate.org/ index.php/ archives/ 2010/ 07/ happy-35th-birthday-global-warming/
Climategate scientist breaks his silence
With inquiries into the affair now complete, Phil Jones reflects on his bruising experiences at the centre of the storm http://www.newscientist.com/ article/ mg20727713.700-climategate-scientist-breaks-his-silence.html
Delaware passes a state Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard while Congress passes the buck http://www.grist.org/ article/ delaware-passes-rps-while-congress-passes-the-buck/
Ford Foundation Commits $85 Million to Advance Rural Land Rights and Reduce Climate Change http://www.prnewswire.com/ news-releases/ ford-foundation-commits-85-million-to-advance-rural-land-rights-and-reduce-climate-change-99534519.html
Saving the bush
Farmers are also looking towards biochar as a means of generating electricity. It can be made from any crop waste, heating it in the absence of oxygen to break it down into a syngas, a bio-oil and charcoal. The oil and gas can be burnt to generate electricity, while the char can be returned to the soil, promoting fertility and storing carbon. The potential scale of carbon storage using biochar is vast — perhaps being able to offset much of the nation’s emissions http://www.smh.com.au/ federal-election/ saving-the-bush-20100727-10t9l.html
Injecting sulphur dioxide into the upper atmosphere
Russia has already begun testing. Yuri Izrael, a scientist who is both a global-warming sceptic and a senior adviser to Prime Minister Putin, has tested the effects of aerosol spraying from a helicopter. He now plans a large-scale trial.
Others, far more prudently in my opinion, pursue slower acting methods with little to no possible negative consequences for the planet as a whole, such a reforestation and afforestation schemes or enriching our soils with biochar. http://www.treehugger.com/ files/ 2010/ 07/ dr-strangelove-reagans-dr-evil-backed-risky-geoengineering-scheme-for-real.php
The LA Times has picked up the phytoplankton story:
http://www.latimes.com/ news/ science/ la-sci-phytoplankton-20100729,0,6579046.story
Haven’t seen anything in the NYT or Wash Post except for an AP wire story that turns up when doing a search. It really should be front page news.
Michigan Oil Spill Prompts Evacuations, Finger-Pointing
An oil spill this week from an underground pipeline connecting the U.S. to Canada http://online.wsj.com/ article/ SB10001424052748703578104575397613818891740.html
Video: Global Warming: Is it True?
Here’s an excellent video summarizing the scientific data behind the global warming story, posted yesterday http://capitalclimate.blogspot.com/ 2010/ 07/ video-global-warming-is-it-true.html
Electric vision
Ashton Stark shows off the rear compartment of his grandfather’s 1972 Volkswagen, which he and his father have converted to an electric vehicle. The car is now driven by a single motorized shaft and powered by nine golf cart batteries. The Starks estimate the vehicle can travel up to 45 miles on a single charge which would cost about 10 cents in electricity. http://www.argusobserver.com/ articles/ 2010/ 07/ 25/ news/ us/ doc4c4baada89ae8840277920.txt
#32 – Shades of the ‘back to the land’ days. Mother Earth News carried articles on turning Bugs into EVs. People sold the conversion plates needed to connect an electric motor to the transmission the back of the mag.
Around here people moved on to Rabbits. Better designed to hold the batteries.
Bob Wallace, this is a way for transition existing combustion engine driven motor vehicles into electric once. To reach emission goals, this could be a key mechanism and help to spur economy.
Stiglitz addresses climate change, mining
Australia needs to do more on climate change and have an adequate mining tax, says a Nobel Prize-winning economist. http://www.upi.com/ Science_News/ Resource-Wars/ 2010/ 07/ 29/ Stiglitz-addresses-climate-change-mining/ UPI-83911280438295/
HIGH above the Oasis swimming pool in Holborn, this is the sight of the first “green roof” to be laid on a council block in Camden.
The top of 93-flat Dudley Court, which runs alongside the leisure centre in Endell Street, has been covered in vegetation. But the idea is to use green roofs across Camden to combat climate change by reducing heat loss at roof level and upping biodiversity. The green roofs will also have improved sound insulation. http://www.camdennewjournal.com/ news/ 2010/ jul/ green-gables-%E2%80%93-raising-roof-climate-change
No major changes in ambition: High chance to exceed 3°C
This “Climate Action Tracker” is an independent science-based assessment, which tracks the emission commitments and actions of countries. The website provides an up-to-date assessment of individual national pledges to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. http://www.climateactiontracker.org/
A New Approach to Biofuel in Africa
The biofuel concept: If you just burn plant materials, you put out a lot of bad pollutants. But if you heat the materials in a container without oxygen (“pyrolysis”), you leave most of the carbon as “biochar,” which makes an excellent soil additive (in fact Amazon Indians built up rich soils over hundreds of years using biochar). The gas that is given off by pyrolysis can be processed into clean-burning fuel. All of which sounds great, but skeptics point out that Africa is a prime target for biofuel land grabs, which destroy small farms and forest preserves. Hence the importance of using agricultural residues like corn cobs, and researching the impact. http://scientistatwork.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/12/ron-eglash-draft/
Water Balloon Activity Illustrates Warming Oceans http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/education/index.cfm?page=179
You may have heard about a Texas-sized garbage patch floating in the Pacific Ocean and another island of garbage found in the Atlantic. Scientists recently announced the existence of a third major collection of plastic garbage in the Indian Ocean. Plastic trash swirls around in gyres, which are powerful rotating currents in the world’s major oceans. Except none of these areas are actually garbage patches.
“There is no island of trash,” says Anna Cummins, cofounder of 5 Gyres Institute. “It’s a myth.” Instead, she says the garbage patches resemble plastic soup or confetti. “We now have a third accumulation zone of plastic pollution that shows compounding evidence that the trash isn’t condensed to an island,” she says. “It’s spread out across the entire gyre from coast to coast. The world’s oceans are covered with a thin plastic soup that’s thickest in the middle of the gyres.” http://green.yahoo.com/ blog/ greenpicks/ 286/ new-garbage-patch-discovered-in-indian-ocean.html
Heat Damage To Russia Crop Past Worst, Official Says http://planetark.com/enviro-news/item/58982
Prokaryotes – There are multiple companies doing ICE/EV conversions.
Here’s a place to start looking…
http://www.calcars.org/howtoget.html
Cal Cars specializes in making Prius(es?) into PHEVs. Other companies are focusing on other makes/models. Once battery prices come down an EV conversion becomes very interesting.
You pick up a ‘not too old’ car with high mileage and a sound body. Throw away the ICE and bolt in the electric motor and battery pack. Now you’ve got a vehicle which should give you a couple hundred thousand good miles (with one battery change) and you’ll have small money invested. I see it as the working-poor’s EV.
Controlling Soot Might Quickly Reverse a Century of Global Warming
By Brandon Keim, Wired, July 29, 2010
A massive simulation of soot’s climate effects finds that basic pollution controls could put a brake on global warming, erasing in a decade most of the last century’s temperature change.
(…) “It will take some decades to phase down fossil-fuel emissions, so reducing dirty aerosols [soot] while we are doing that may help retain Arctic sea ice,” said NASA climatologist James Hansen, one of the first researchers to study soot dynamics. But he emphasized that soot control is only a stopgap measure. “We should reduce soot for several reasons, especially its health effects, but it is only a modest help in controlling global warming,” he said.
Nevertheless, soot could ease the delay between controlling greenhouse gas emissions and cooling. It might also help “avoid tipping points — nonlinear, abrupt and potentially irreversible climate change, especially in the Arctic,” said Erika Rosenthal, a climate policy expert at the progressive nonprofit Earthjustice.
Read More http://www.wired.com/ wiredscience/ 2010/ 07/ soot-control
C Vink at 43 -
“erasing in a decade most of the last century’s temperature change.”
“We should reduce soot for several reasons, especially its health effects, but it is only a modest help in controlling global warming,”
Some discrepancy here ?
Regards,
Lewis
@Lewis Cleverdon #44:
Indeed, I was aware or that – maybe some knowledgable commenter will have something to say on this.
My impression is that the Wired-headline is not OK; in the arcticle itself it says:
‘If soot disappeared overnight, average global temperatures would drop within 15 years by about 1 degree Fahrenheit, maybe a little more. That’s about half the net warming — total global warming, minus cooling from sun-reflecting aerosols — experienced since the beginning of the industrial age.’
1. Note the ‘if soot disappeared overnight’ – of course this is impossible and another matter than ‘controlling soot’ as stated in the headline of the article. ‘Overnight’ is merely academical anyway. And by the way, ‘disappeared’ would mean putting an end to burning coal, e.g. for generating electricity…
2. Industrial age began at about 1800. Since then two centuries have passed indeed. But… CO2 emissions have been growing very non-linear since the first steam engines have been deployed – see e.g. here.
My conclusion: the Wired-headline is confusingly optimistic for two main reasons; a. it replaces ‘ending overnight’ with ‘controlling’ and b. it wrongfully suggests that effects of the emissons of the last century can be made undone by elimating soot; – due to the non-linear growth of CO2-emissions, the ‘period compensated for’ would be a couple of decades instead.
Still, as Hansen and Rosenthal point out, fighting soot is very important to prevent global warming kicking in frighteningly soon.
Please correct me if I’m wrong, I’m far from an expert on this.
C Vinc -
your conclusion sound about right to me, but with one proviso.
Due to the ocean acting as a heat sink that takes time to ‘catch up’, the warming impact of emitted GHGs takes around 35 years to make itself felt -
thus the present warming is off the ‘active’ ~330ppmv of CO2 in ~1975.
This factor also functions in reverse – reducing an airborne GHG will not affect temperature for around 35 years due to that same time lag effect. Thus ending anthro soot emissions (as opposed to uncontrollable soot outputs from wildfires) by say 2030 would take effect between 2045 and 2065.
Regards,
Lewis