The sparks of resistance to a harmful domination of energy supplies by the fossil fuel industry are out there. They are the lights of clean power generation blooming like stars across a world blackened by smokestack emissions and imperiled by climate change.
****
In the U.S., backward-looking republicans like Donald Trump, Paul Ryan, James Inhofe and Mitch McConnell appear to be gearing up to fight against both a necessary and helpful science that provides us with a life-saving awareness of the threats posed by human caused climate change and a highly beneficial renewable energy renaissance that has now gone global. Trump’s presidential cabinet is filled to the brim with climate change deniers and fossil fuel pushers. Pledges to de-fund climate science, implied threats to fire employees at the Department of Energy who worked on climate and renewable energy related issues, and belligerent boasting about dismantling much-needed policies like the Clean Power Plan, EPA fuel efficiency standards, and the Paris Climate Summit abound.
It’s the great loud, sad, and ignorance-filled reaction against a better future. A political and legislative backlash funded by oil, gas, and coal company campaign donations, advertising dollars, and indirect media investments. One that seeks to remove the possibility for a time when energy does not pollute the air or water — resulting in 7 million premature deaths each year globally. For one when climates are not, by incessant fossil fuel burning, pushed ever-closer to the hothouse extinction states that killed so much of life on Earth in the great long ago.
(There used to be a number of forward-looking republicans who both stood as leaders of their party and provided strong support for clean power. What happened? Where are these clear and reasonable voices now? Arnold calls BS on politicians fighting against clean energy, who like Trump and many current-day republicans, are claiming it’s too costly or difficult to switch away from fossil fuels. Video source: Attn.)
But despite this surge of destructive reactionism on the part of U.S. republicans and in such varied legislative bodies as the UK and Australia, the hopeful movement toward a future which includes the potential for human civilization survival and long-term prosperity continues. It’s a movement powered by individuals, by sustainable industries, by cities, by states and by nations who recognize the need for a more hopeful, more beneficial path than the one the fossil fuel industry and their political cohorts, like Trump, are now seeking to force upon them. They are the base of a very necessary resistance to a malign and yet still powerful global influence. And they are resisting by simply finding a way to shine lights powered by clean energy in the darkness and smog of this dying hydrocarbon age.
Number of U.S. Cities Powered by 100 Percent Renewable Energy Grows
In Las Vegas, Nevada, a city on the brink of a climate change driven chaos of water shortages and worsening droughts, the clean energy lights have switched on. There, city officials have achieved 100 percent renewable power for municipal facilities fed by a 100 MW renewable energy generation source. To be clear, the entire city of Las Vegas isn’t run by renewable energy — yet. But the government buildings, traffic lights, street lights, and public parks are now powered by clean sources.
Las Vegas isn’t the only one. Greensburg, Kansas runs on 100 percent renewable power — including electricity provided to individual residences. Burlington, Vermont and Aspen, Colorado also provide 100 percent renewable energy for city infrastructure, industry and residences. The list of cities already achieving or close to achieving 100 percent renewable power goals goes on to include Columbia, Maryland; East Hampton, New York; Georgetown, Texas; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Greensburg, Kansas; Nassau, New York and Rochester, Minnesota. In California — a state that governor Jerry Brown has pledged will continue its clean energy progress despite what appear to be a broad array of incoming attacks on renewables by Trump and republicans — Paolo Alto is joined by Lancaster, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, and Santa Monica as cities that have all achieved or are pursuing 100 percent renewable power generation.
(President Obama is proud of U.S. solar energy and climate leadership. This support helped Obama to create 14 million jobs over the course of his Presidency. Donald Trump appears to be ready to attack one of the U.S.’s few remaining cutting edge industries and along with it middle class jobs. Image source: White House.)
But that’s not all. This week, a new power agreement committed 21 towns in Martha’s Vineyard and Cape Cod to energy provided by 100 percent renewable sources. These communities banded together with the goal in mind not just to switch to clean energy — but to negotiate favorable rates by leveraging the bargaining power of a large customer base. Such a strategic approach is especially important in regions where energy markets have been deregulated — as it provides the added protection of broad representation.
As with climate scientists, it’s likely that sustainable communities like these will fall on the target lists of republican party leaders allied to a fossil fuel industry that’s increasingly desperate to legislatively capture energy customers — providing them no option to escape from harmful power sources. But many city leaders are fed up and won’t have any of it. To this point, 48 mayors issued an open letter to Donald Trump stating:
The effects of climate change — extreme storms, wildfires and drought; sea level rise and storm surge; choking air pollution in cities; disruption of agricultural supply chains and jobs in rural heartlands; and coastal erosion, to name a few — are a clear and present danger to American interests at home and abroad… As Mayors, we have taken it upon ourselves to take bold action within our cities to tackle the climate crisis head-on. We write today to ask for your partnership in our work to clean our air, strengthen our economy, and ensure that our children inherit a nation healthier and better prepared for the future than it is today.
A Global Resistance to the Harmful Energy Sources that Cause Climate Change
Across the Atlantic, a Scottish golf course constructed by Donald Trump is now receiving power from renewable energy sources like the wind turbines he continues to oppose. Today Scotland generates 72 percent of its electrical energy from non carbon sources. A figure that the Scottish government is aiming to push to 100 percent by 2020. Meanwhile, the European island of Iceland has long received the bulk of its electricity and thermal energy from renewable hydro and geothermal sources.
In nearby mainland Europe, numerous cities now run on 100 percent renewable electrical power. These include Güssing, in Austria; Wildpoldsried, in Germany and Samsø, in Denmark. Germany’s states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, home to 1.6 million Germans, and Schleswig-Holstein with a population of 2.9 million are both renewable energy over-achievers — producing more clean power than they consume. These states instead often export their electricity to various other nearby regions.
In South America, Paraguay produces 10 times the electricity it requires from renewables and exports the excess to its neighbors — many of whom, like Bolivia and Brazil, are already seeing harmful climate impacts resulting from human fossil fuel burning. Further north, Central American Costa Rica has now seen a year pass without the need for further fossil fuel power generation even as it continues to install more renewables. And, finally, Pacific islands are starting to make the switch from expensive diesel power generation to increasingly affordable solar. There, the Pacific island nation of Tokelau had become the first country to be powered by 100 percent solar energy. Meanwhile, Solar City recently enabled an entire island in the American Samoa chain to flip from diesel to near 100 percent solar.
Solar Exceeds Wind For First Time as India Makes Commitment to Halt Coal Plant Construction
Stepping back, we find that this massive transition away from fossil fuel based energy sources is being driven in large part by two new energy providers combining with traditional hydro power generation as a dispatchable base load provider. These two — wind and solar — this year will add a combined approximate 130-140 gigawatts of new generation capacity. Solar, for the first time, is expected to exceed wind by providing 70-76 gigawatts of new capacity during 2016. Meanwhile, wind is expected to hit record or near record installations at around 60-65 gigawatts.
Low prices and superior energy return on energy investment vs traditional fossil fuels as well as much lower overall impacts to human health and the global climate appears to be the primary driver of what is shaping up to be an extraordinarily rapid shift in the world’s electricity markets. Wind has long been considered a low-cost energy source. But in 2016, it appears that solar prices have fallen below those of already inexpensive wind generation. And, according to Bloomberg, solar is now sometimes selling a prices half that of traditional coal. It is these low prices that are enabling cities, communities, states and some small to mid-sized nations to achieve 100 percent renewable power generation. Meanwhile, large states are now enabled to make big commitments to halt construction of the worst-polluting power stations.
On Tuesday, December 20, India — which will soon be the most highly populated country in the world — announced that it would completely halt new coal plant construction through 2027. India faces worsening droughts, glacial outburst floods in the Himalayas, killing heat, and a flood destabilized Bangladesh to its east so long as global temperatures continue to rise. The country is also seeing rapid economic growth and increases in prosperity. But this prosperity is threatened by climate change impacts. For a country faced with destabilization of nations on its borders, inundated coastlines, killing heat in its heartland, and rampant drought as rivers dry up and glaciers disappear finds aspirations for a prosperous future imperiled.
(India plans a major revamp of policy by ambitiously pursuing renewables while completely curtailing new coal plant building. Under such a plan, and with Trump coming in as President, one wonders if the U.S. will fall far behind other nations leading the charge into a future powered by clean energy. Will Trump attack the very industries at home that would benefit from India’s drive to seek renewable energy partners? American mainstays like Tesla, Solar City, GE wind, SunPower, and First Solar would all benefit from such a potential relationship. But will Trump’s anti-renewables fossil fuel based ideology blind him to this obvious opportunity to help U.S. business interests abroad? Image provided by Renew Economy.)
India’s response is to rationally cap coal consumption by 2022 while undertaking a massive renewable energy build-out. By 2027, India plans to add 215 gigawatts of renewables, and 39 gigawatts of nuclear and hydro power. Coal plant construction will be limited to those plants that are currently under contract. But the state already predicts that the capacity will be under-utilized, resulting in stranded fossil fuel ‘assets’ — which could produce a drag on markets both at home and abroad.
Under the new plan, India will boast a majority renewable and zero emission power generation capacity by 2027. And this action appears to be laying the groundwork for a larger energy switch as India’s Energy Minister Piyush Goyal has stated a clear goal to “look at a world beyond fossil fuels” and to aim to cut fossil fuel imports.
Clean Power Resistance to Ideologies and Industries Destined for Dramatic Failure
In the end, what we see is a world in which renewable energy is making a great leap forward. A world where the considerable but waning fossil fuel powers are panicking and lashing out as they begin to enter decline. We see this reactionary backlash in climate change denial, in attacks on scientists, in an amoral pandering toward fears, bigotry and extremism, in brazen attempts to erode democratic institutions and attack the Constitutional integrity of the electoral process in the U.S., and in Trump’s and Republicans’ insistence on protecting fading industries destined to fail. We also see it in their attacks against the new and helpful industries and the agencies, like the EPA and NASA, that produce so many beneficial public goods.
What their actions and reactions will produce — by intentionally injecting authoritarianism, chaos and instability — is a delay to the entry of these helpful power sources. A delay that will lock in worse climate harms even as it hobbles the most innovative and helpful segment of emerging industry within the United States. A delay engineered by leveraging all the darker angels of the American psyche. And as with many of the other policies now being promoted by republicans, this subset is as ludicrously out of touch with present day politics, history, societies, and industry as it is brazenly harmful to pretty much everyone.
But the resistance to this darkness and retrenchment has arrived in the form of new opportunity and progressive movement. It has arrived in the form of a very real and clean enlightenment of the global energy production system. One that breaks the ancient ties to destructive extraction and burning. And there could be no better cause than supporting this resistance by doing your part to aid the transition to clean power.
Links:
NASA Climate Change Mitigation
Trump Cabinet Filled to the Brim With Climate Change Deniers
Cape Light Compact Goes 100 Percent Renewable Electricity
Arnold Calls BS on Politicians Claiming Clean Energy is Too Expensive
Los Vegas Goes 100 Percent Renewable Power
Solar Now Produces a Better Energy Return on Investment than Oil
Renew Economy — No New Coal Fired Plants for India
Solar Less Expensive than Coal and Wind
Mayors Letter to Trump on Climate
Hat tip to Colorado Bob
Shawn Redmond
/ December 22, 2016Read this just this afternoon, it seems to line up some what.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176225/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_will_trump_make_1984_look_like_a_nursery_tale/#more
Can you doubt that we’re in a dystopian age, even if we’re still four weeks from Donald Trump entering the Oval Office? Never in our lifetimes have we experienced such vivid previews of what unfettered capitalism is likely to mean in an ever more unequal country, now that its version of 1% politics has elevated to the pinnacle of power a bizarre billionaire and his “basket of deplorables.” I’m referring, of course, not to his followers but to his picks for the highest posts in the land. These include a series of generals ready to lead us into a new set of crusades and a crew of billionaires and multimillionaires prepared to make America theirs again.
It’s already a stunningly depressing moment — and it hasn’t even begun. At the very least, it calls upon the rest of us to rise to the occasion. That means mustering a dystopian imagination that matches the era to come.
I have no doubt that you’re as capable as I am of creating bleak scenarios for the future of this country (not to speak of the planet). But just to get the ball rolling on the eve of the holidays, let me offer you a couple of my own dystopian fantasies, focused on the potential actions of President Donald Trump.
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mulga mumblebrain
/ December 23, 2016Shawn, better a complete lunatic who wakes people up, before it’s too late, from their deep slumber, than yet another soothing dissembler, promising Hope, Change and Christmas Pudding, but delivering nothing but prevarication and unfulfilled ‘Promise’. If Trump and his ‘Despicables’ in his Cabinet of Dr. Caligarish incite people to FIGHT for their children’s future, it will be worth the present horror of anticipation.
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Marcel Guldemond (@marcel_g)
/ December 23, 2016Mulga, if you’re hoping that Trump will incite some form of revolution I sure hope not. I just read a very insightful interview with Anthony Bourdain, and he brought up the point that revolutions seem to always end badly, and it’s the liberals and progressives that always lose out / get killed first in revolutions. However, if you’re meaning the kind of non-violent resistance that RS is talking about, then ok. I should probably read up on Ghandi and the history of how India gained independence though. I have a feeling there are valuable lessons there.
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ December 23, 2016Watch “Gandhi,” the movie. Nice quick summary.
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mulga mumblebrain
/ December 23, 2016Marcel, I mean a complete change from the current neo-liberal capitalist pathocracy, kakistocracy, kleptocracy and plutocracy. As long as humanity is TOTALLY dominated by the worst among us, the greediest, the most cruel, the most egomaniacal etc, then we will go extinct, within decades, either through massive ecological collapse, or a thermo-nuclear war launched by the lunatic in the White House. I don’t see any other course of action. If the revolt turns violent, or, far more likely, is met by savage violence from the parasites, that’s just too bad-sitting back, begging not to be exterminated ain’t going to work. Appealing to those without consciences is futile. Gandhi won simply because the UK was too exhausted to suppress his movement, the US wanted the UK out as part of its Cold War against Communism, and because Churchill lost the UK election, and Labour was in favour of getting out. In any case it all ended in the bloodbath of Partition.
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lesliegraham1
/ December 24, 2016Mulga, From a purely practical viewpoint there is fairly strong evidence that non-violent protest achieves its aims twice as effectively as violent protest.
This came as something of a disappointment to me as I was always fancied myself as a bit of a ‘sharpen your pitchforks’ sort of chap in my youth. So long as I was near the back of course.
Here is one of many articles available.
Also I recall a line that I think is from an African song/poem?
“Speak not of revolution until you are willing to eat rats to survive”
I do share your frustration though – hangin’s too good for some folk. : )
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mulga mumblebrain
/ December 24, 2016leslie, I think the success of ‘non-violence’ depends on the nature of the ruling regime. I hope you are correct, but I rather suspect that the resistance to change from the ruling Western elites, who have been so ruthless and determined in their class warfare and attacks on science and rationality for the last forty years, will be extreme. I hope I’m wrong, but being a pessimist has never let me down heretofore.
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lesliegraham1
/ December 24, 2016I hope you’re wrong too because we would be annihilated. Pea-shooters and the moral high ground don’t cut it against tanks and massed machine guns as the Chinese students (anyone remember them? ) found out.
Having said that there is no doubt that ‘the left’ in the US (in most western countries they would be labeled centre right) have been arming up with more sophisticated weapons since Trump became PE.
Hilariously, the traditional extreme-right ‘preppers’ have been busy selling off their food stocks and shelters to ‘the left’ at bargain prices because they ‘know’ that now Trump has been elected their fantasies will all come true and the US is going to be great again.
There is still a big imbalance between the firearms owned by fascist sympathisers and those owned by ‘the left’ however.
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38297345
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cwlongway
/ December 28, 2016Nearly all success that has been achieved with passive resistance has come with Dr. Gene Sharp’s methods. These can be found on the Albert Einstein Institution’s website. I do think that the best chance we have is with passive resistance. We need to be organized. Here is the list of 198 actions that Sharp things will help. These methods have been translated into many languages and put into practice around the world.
Some Ideas I could do myself:
Shirts with graphs on them as a way to be a personal advertisement. Perhaps people would even buy shirts on line if they came into style. If we could get a million people wearing graphs it would be harder for the public to be deceived.
Prayer – It worked at Standing Rock. I often pray anyway for the safety of Robert, and the courage of Colorado Bob.
Starting a revolving fund where people incentivize others to go solar or get EVs. I have tried to get family members to go renewable, but no takers yet. When people pay off their investment to the point they have extra money, they leverage the next family. If we could get a philanthropist to get it started, it could grow exponentially. I save several thousand a year with my solar and EVs. No reason I could not leverage 1 person a year to go renewable, with a commitment from them to start leveraging others in several years.
Join an organization that is making a difference like 350.org.
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jharan
/ December 23, 2016I find that as we settle more and more into the grim reality of the upcoming administration, I am thinking more about Stephen King’s book, The Stand. Somehow it is beginning to feel a lot like that book. Remember the scene near the beginning when someone calls for an ambulance and they’re basically told that It’s going to be quite awhile, if ever? The whole thing is shaping up into the classic Good vs Evil paradigm, much more obviously and faster than even I would have thought.
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sunkensheep
/ January 8, 2017I’m no fan of capitalism, but what we are seeing is a threatened industry protecting itself with the institutions of the state. Worldwide, they are supporting the right wing to retard change, and nationalists to weaken the reach of international treaties (in particular anti-CO2 agreements). While the fossil fuel lobbyists have lost China and much of the developing world, if even half of what Trump says is what he does America is about to throw one last great fossil and debt fuelled party before the whole thing comes down on their heads. From a climate point of view, that is still disastrous.
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Ailsa
/ December 23, 2016Very heartened to see this on a mainstream programme:
What Trump’s Presidency Means for Climate Change: A Closer Look
10 minute piece, nothing new to those paying attention here, but good coverage well presented (maybe the researchers have even visited this site, methinks!)
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Ailsa
/ December 23, 2016Clever, silly, easy to digest. Wind turbines… hates them! Vendetta on the part of oil interests anyone?
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robertscribbler
/ December 23, 2016‘Damn Right.’ Thanks for this, Ailsa. It’s great to see so many people in the media stepping up on this. The Weather Channel countering Brietbart was classic — exactly the kind of thing they are positioned to do. This is the kind of stuff that will counter climate change denial. Wish Trump didn’t have to be elected for it to happen.
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Life In Cork
/ December 23, 2016One of the muddying attempts by deniers is to claim a meteorologist doesn’t believe in AGW, and people seem to listen more to the meteorology community rather than the climate people (well known TV face, I suppose). Good to see those like the WC putting time into this.
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Ken
/ December 23, 2016Any news on places electrifying systems that still rely on fossil fuels like heat and transit? Electricity generation is a big first step, but all of our fossil fuel infrastructure needs to be switched too – something I don’t see mentioned very often. Obviously this increases demand, requiring even more renewable supply.
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Life In Cork
/ December 23, 2016I’d like to see the public transport incl. buses electrified. That would be seen as a major step.
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Abel Adamski
/ December 23, 2016http://evobsession.com/chinese-electric-bus-charges-in-10-seconds-fastest-in-world/
Buses are already part of the equation, Nicola’s prime mover is well in the way, another company is building electric utility trucks such as garbage and street sweepers, all the stuff you don’t think of that are actually very fossil fuel intensive.
Bit of a summary in RS’s earlier article Al Gores revenge
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ December 24, 2016Here’s one link on this: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602106/here-come-the-electric-garbage-trucks/
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JPL
/ December 28, 2016Hey Cork,
I’m seeing a bunch of these on the road now around where I work. Hope the testing phase is going well.
Click to access battery-bus-fact-sheet-081715.pdf
Progress…!
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climatehawk1
/ December 23, 2016Tweet scheduled.
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Andy_in_SD
/ December 23, 2016An oxymoronic statement is that using solar & wind will make industry noncompetitive. That is actually 100% incorrect, the truth is actually the opposite.
Once in place, industry is not at the whims of fuel cost fluctuation, and at an end cost per watt that is below that of fossil fuels, the per unit cost for manufacturing factors into costs and profits.
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robertscribbler
/ December 23, 2016Bingo. There are at least as many myths circulating about renewable energy as there are about climate change. A person could set up a website similar to skeptical science simply dedicated to debunking them. We get swamped by these crank and crackpot theories practically every time someone brings up renewables here or I post an article covering the subject. I just delete them.
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Jim
/ December 26, 2016I’ve followed the energy markets for years (sort of a nerdy hobby of mine, but interesting because energy is fundamental to economic activity and fossil fuel based energy causes environmental destruction). In the last two years something remarkable has happened. Andy mentioned part of it above, price reductions have made wind and PV solar the lowest cost ways to generate electricity, and prices are still dropping. But equally as impressive, LiIon battery costs are plummeting as massive global investments in manufacturing capacity are just beginning to come on line.
In November a 800 MW PV solar power project was awarded by Dubai Electricity and Water Authority for an astonishing .0299 cents per KwH – that’s for capital cost of the equipment, maintenance, and operations – everything. In contrast, just the operating cost of thermal coal is .0373 and Nat gas is .0332 according to the EIA, and that’s before the construction costs of the plants are amortized in. Globally 66% of new electricity generating capacity are renewables – mostly PV and wind and the pace is accelerating with countries like China and India leading the way.
Similarly it’s believed that Tesla’s LiIon battery costs are approaching $100/kWh. At this point the construction costs of electric cars reaches parity with internal combustion engine cars meeting US emission standards Further, battery prices are dropping about 20% per year and accelerating. Gas to drive my 20mpg Acura costs $12.50 /100 miles ($2.50/gallon). Electricity to go the same distance: $1.80 (.072/kWh off peak, 4 miles per kWH), an astonishing 86% reduction in fuel costs.
Fossil fuel interests, entrenched electric utilities and the politicians they buy, are doing everything in their power to slow the transition to a clean, low cost energy economy. While they can create regulatory barriers, their greatest weapon is mis-information, making people think fossil fuels are the only economical way to go and alternatives are impractical or costly. How many times have you heard commercials that claim “clean, low cost” natural gas is the ideal bridge fuel? The implication being, that we’re still waiting for lower cost renewables. Or that “low cost clean coal” will lift millions out of poverty. Bullshit. Both are designed to keep people in energy poverty. Renewables are already the lowest cost way to produce electricity we don’t need a bridge to it, we need to deploy more of it.
As individuals we can implement change. Consider buying PV solar for your house. In Arizona, where I live, the payback time is 6.5 years, after that the electricity they generate for the remainder of their 20 year life is free. If you can’t afford to buy, lease. Look into electric cars. Not everyone can afford a Tesla, but the Chevy Volt is a great car and has a reasonable electric range, and the Nissan Leaf is not a bad car. If you have the time, get involved with local utility regulatory meetings to push for reasonable regulatory policies that don’t hamper the move to PV solar.
Three years ago I installed a small PV system on my home, that cut my carbon footprint from 30 tons per year to 20 tons per year. I plan to expand the system as cost come down, and will invest in an electric car in the next year or so. I fully realize not everyone has those options, maybe you must drive long miles, or live in an apartment where you can’t install solar. In that case, simply educate your friends and co-workers on the realities of renewable energy – it’s already cheaper than the alternative and getting cheaper by the day. If they don’t hear that message from the readers here, they won’t hear it at all because the media doesn’t go out of it’s way to tell you Dubai and UAE are investing in PV solar because they see the looming end of the fossil fuel era.
It may seem dark now, but the world is approaching a massive energy tipping point. In some cases it is driven by moral courage, but increasing it’s driven by economics. As costs plummet and momentum grows (remember we’re already at 66% of new electricity generation being PV+wind), it won’t be long before it simply becomes uneconomical to run fossil fuel plants.
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ December 26, 2016Minor correction: I’m sure it is 2.99 cents per kWh (or .0299 dollars), not .0299 cents. You’re right, though, still very cheap.
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Jim
/ December 26, 2016Thanks for the sharp eye Climatehawk1. It’s indeed 2.99 cents. ~ Jim
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ December 26, 2016Happy to help.
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utoutback
/ December 23, 2016Listening to the Dianne Rehm show today on the limits to Executive Power I was encouraged that “he” (I will not use his name or call him President) will not have an easy time achieving his goals. I increased a monthly donation to NRDC in anticipation of the legal actions to come.
http://thedianerehmshow.org/
Keep the faith and don’t give up the fight.
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robertscribbler
/ December 23, 2016#NotMyPresident
Definitely going to support the 1 million woman march in DC in protest of this guy during January.
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Greg
/ December 23, 2016Wil be there with my wife and all her friends coming in from all over the country. Have come to realize that I need to be surrounded by progressive activists and stand with them en masse to reenergize right now.or the funk will settle into my heart and gut.
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Genomik
/ December 23, 2016Just wondering if a average consumer can contact their local utility and ask to get electricity solely from the renewables portion of the utilities energy mix. Even (or especially) if it costs a bit more. That would be an excellent form of rebellion. For many people its worth it to $150/mo instead of $100/mo.
Or are there rules or regulations about it?
its pretty conceptually near free to transport, at least compared to distance.
Globally?
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Vic
/ December 23, 2016That’s been an easy option here in Australia for nearly a decade I think.
http://www.greenpower.gov.au/#
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Spike
/ December 23, 2016Good Energy and Ecotricity are 2 companies doing just that in the UK, and more are appearing. Their rates aren’t the cheapest deal around I suspect because they’ve had to build or buy lots of new renewable generation, but they have great levels of service and fair dealing compared to our “big six” which are uniformly awful.
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Hugh Campbell
/ December 23, 2016And in Canada, there’s Bullfrog Power (http://www.bullfrogpower.com/). I’ve been signed on with them for a few years, paying a premium of only $16 per month at my usage level.
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Marcel Guldemond (@marcel_g)
/ December 23, 2016We’ve been on Bullfrog Power for more than 10 years, and yes, the premium isn’t really very much. I’m now thinking about Bullfrog Gas, but I also want to replace the ICE vehicle with some form of plug in, so I’m still figuring out where to put the money. The gas plan is probably a more cost effective carbon reduction, but the vehicle has to be replaced soon anyway, and I want to help to bring Electric Vehicles mainstream so they can start to bite into the oil industry. I’ve read that EVs are contagious, so the more people see them, the more they’ll consider them, and I also figure it sends a signal to the manufacturers that there is a market.
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Greg
/ December 23, 2016Lots of volts and leafs coming off of leases for reasonable prices if you can’t afford new.
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ December 24, 2016Yes, Leaf in our area coming off lease and on sale for $8,400.
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Abel Adamski
/ December 23, 2016As Greg alludes, it is the second hand market that will be the greatest influence, a large proportion cannot afford a new vehicle and the 5-10 year old market where depreciation of at least 50% (with battery factored in) brings them into the price range of many more people
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Scott
/ December 23, 2016Xcel Energy in Minnesota offers this. They call it Windsource. We’ve been 100 percent wind for several years now. When natural gas spiked a while back, we actually paid less than people who hadn’t signed up for Windsource.
You pay a few cents extra to cover the cost of capital to install the turbines, but then they credit you back the cost of coal and gas that “normal” customers pay since you don’t use any of that.
Also, it’s raining right now in the Saint Paul half of the Twin Cities. On Christmas Eve Eve. We have thunderstorms in the forecast for Christmas night. This is insane. With the exception of two days and one night, this entire winter has been unseasonably warm.
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nwkilt
/ December 23, 2016Available now in USA from Arcadia Power: https://www.arcadiapower.com/
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nwkilt
/ December 23, 2016that was meant for Genomik
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Genomik
/ December 23, 2016This looks great! Thanks nwkilt! Its EXACTLY the answer I was looking for. I called them and Im in the process of setting this up. I will GLADLY pay a bit more to not sustain Trump/Koch. It seems like a reasonable economic AND political statement as well. Ill put my money where my mouth is since talk can be cheap. It doesn’t come out to much of a difference finacially. I live in an apt in San Francisco so its great for me, I cant anything on our roof. Further, this gives renters like me a chance to make a difference. Also renters (At least in temperate areas) dont have expensive bills. They have a offer to get 1/2 your bill from alternatives at no additional cost.
Anybody have a good reason to NOT do this? Otherwise it seems perfect for the audience of a group like this.
Heres a few links I found.
http://content.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2015/10/sierra-club-teams-clean-energy-company-arcadia-power
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Genomik
/ December 24, 2016Please if anybody has anything good or bad to say about this please reply. I don’t want to seem like I’m a tout for this company its just that this seems like a simple way to economically resist fossil fuels so it seems particularly relevant in this thread.
If enough Americans signed up I could see how that literally could stimulate more building of solar and wind as the companies have customer demand.
Am I missing something?
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Vic
/ December 23, 2016The town of Broome in the Kimberly region of north west Australia has just had its wettest December day on record, taking the monthly total to 359mm, totally smashing the previous December record of 279mm set back in 1970.
And it’s not over yet, with Tropical Cyclone Yvette expected to cross the coast nearby in the coming days.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-23/record-rainfall-swamps-broome/8145556
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mulga mumblebrain
/ December 23, 2016Vic, it looks hungry.
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Vic
/ December 24, 2016That’s OK Mulga, there’s plenty to eat.
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Spike
/ December 23, 2016A milestone in the UK, although it would look a lot less impressive without Scotland’s push.”Scotland’s last coal power station closed in the spring, and coal plants in West Yorkshire and Staffordshire were shuttered. That caused coal power’s share of generation to plummet by more than three quarters, down from 16.7% in Q3 2015 to just 3.6% in the same period this year.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/dec/22/uk-hits-clean-energy-milestone-50-of-electricity-from-low-carbon-sources
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Andy_in_SD
/ December 23, 2016World’s first ‘solar panel road’ opens in France
Forget solar roofs. The world’s first solar road is here, in the small village of Tourouvre-au-Perche in Normandy, France. The 1 kilometer road was opened yesterday by French Ecology Minister Ségolène Royal and could generate enough electricity to power the street lights.
That might not sound very impressive for 30,000 square feet of solar panels — and it kind of isn’t, especially for its $5.2 million price tag. The panels have been covered in a silicon-based resin that allows them to withstand the weight of passing big rigs, and if the road performs as expected, Royal wants to see solar panels installed across 1,000 kilometers of French highway.
http://www.theverge.com/2016/12/22/14055756/solar-panel-road-electricity-france-normandy
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lesliegraham1
/ December 24, 2016Let’s hope the cost trajectory follows that of standard PV panels in recent years.
In some ways it seems such an obvious idea. The substrate is already there – millions of miles of it – and it doesn’t take too much imagination to see this new ‘PV road surfacing’ rolling off the back of huge trucks perhaps 30 years hence.
However, this scheme does have it’s critics.
Just a pity we didn’t start doing it back in the 80’s when there was just a tad more time.
If it does work it’s going to be yet another game changer.
We are going to win.
We’ve got shed loads more sun than they’ve got oil.
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nsalito1960
/ December 27, 2016Sorry, but I’m going with thunderf00t on this one. Solar roadways don’t pass the sanity check:
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lesliegraham1
/ January 6, 2017Those who say it can’t be done should keep out of the way of those who are doing it.
I’ve heard all those ‘argument’s’ made against wind and solar too.
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Genomik
/ December 23, 2016A weather buoy about 90 miles south of the North Pole registered a temperature at the melting point of 32 degrees (0 Celsius) early Thursday, as a giant storm east of Greenland drew abnormally warm air northward.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2016/12/22/weather-buoy-near-north-pole-hits-melting-point/?postshare=6611482434673279&tid=ss_fb&utm_term=.5b6321306037
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Suzanne
/ December 23, 2016Accelerating Warming of the Arctic Ocean
http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2016/12/accelerating-warming-of-the-arctic-ocean.html
Warming is accelerating in the Arctic. On December 22, 2016, the Arctic was on average 3.33°C or 5.99°F warmer than it was in 1979-2000.
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Alexander Ač
/ December 23, 2016In just two years, since the sponge was last surveyed, it has entirely vanished in the area around popular tourist resort Listvyanka and Cape Tolsty, in Irkutsk region, and over a wide area in the north of the crescent-shaped lake which contains around 20% of the world’s unfrozen freshwater.
One theory is that the lesion of the sponge in coastal areas is caused by the impact of tourists, and the pollution that accompanies them, and the consequent growth of harmful foul-smelling algae.
Igor Khanaev, of the Limnological Institute, in Irkutsk, said referring to the Listvyanka area: ‘It is clear that the waste discharged by boats have seriously changed the ecosystem of the lake in this area.’
Another is that methane leaks from the lake – the deepest on the planet – could be a factor. There have been claims the sponge is suffering from an ‘unknown disease’ caused by bacteria. Baikal sponge of 5-7 centimetres cleanses per day up to 20 litres of water from bacteria and different minerals.
Their massive presence has been seen as playing a leading role in the process of biofiltration of Baikal’s water, which over the years has been seen as uniquely pure, although now there are increasing warnings about pollution.
http://siberiantimes.com/ecology/casestudy/features/f0278-gone-endemic-baikal-sponge-has-died-completely-in-several-areas-of-the-vast-lake/
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Shawn Redmond
/ December 23, 2016aWhen asked what has kept him in his job for so long, the longest serving presidential science adviser in history answered without hesitation.
“What kept me in the job is working for the most science savvy president since Thomas Jefferson,” Dr. John Holdren said. “And in a situation where there’s a lot more science to be savvy about today than there was when Thomas Jefferson was president.”
Holdren was clear that the man in the Oval Office, that man’s respect for science and innovation, and his desire to elevate those fields across government all made the past eight years a once in a lifetime opportunity.
“I would not have jumped off this ship for anything,” said Holdren.
But the winds of change are blowing hard. President Barack Obama will vacate the White House in a month and the tenor of the group assembled to replace his administration, particularly with regard to science policy, could not be more different. President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly called climate change a “hoax” and recently said “nobody really knows” whether climate change is real. (In reality, scientists are quite certain it is both happening and largely the result of human activity.)…….
https://thinkprogress.org/conversation-with-obama-chief-science-adviser-c8ce9c18b16e#.szvrlpsl5
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Marcel Guldemond (@marcel_g)
/ December 23, 2016Thanks again Robert, it always helps to have frequent reminders that there are many many people everywhere in the world working hard to push humanity towards a better future.
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Roy Hadden
/ December 23, 2016for those who cannot use the name of the future President .. may I suggest .. Dumbald ?
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Andy_in_SD
/ December 23, 2016Humanities xmas present to itself….
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Life In Cork
/ December 23, 2016Worth a thousand words.
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Andy_in_SD
/ December 23, 2016We are passing the baton of world advancing research, and all of the benefits to the country which leads such endeavors to China, as we had enjoyed for many years. I wish them well in their stewardship of the planet, we will recuse ourselves to the backwaters.
China launches satellite to track carbon dioxide
https://thespacereporter.com/2016/12/china-launches-satellite-track-carbon-dioxide/
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Suzanne
/ December 23, 2016Spiking Temperatures in the Arctic Startle Scientists:
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Life In Cork
/ December 23, 2016I see that the media is reporting this as saying ‘Scientists’ are startled or surprised. No, they are not. This is expected. The scientists have been red-flagging this or years, when the media ignored their calls.
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lesliegraham1
/ December 24, 2016And not just qualified climate scientists either. Just about anyone who has been keeping up with basic climate related events and data over the last ten years knew there was a good chance this was coming.
Shame about the other 99% eh?
: )
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Leland Palmer
/ December 28, 2016It seems to me that claiming ‘Scientists’ are startled is a subtle way of creating doubt in the minds of the general public. To the segment of the population that denies climate science, this makes it easy to think that the scientists don’t know everything, and therefore everything that they say is suspect.
No, the scientists were not that startled. Not knowing everything is not equivalent to knowing nothing. I wish the New York Times and the Washington Post would stop using loaded language like this, and just report the story straight.
Everybody in the Arctic with half a brain and one good eye is startled by the changes, with the scientists probably the least startled of all.
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Suzanne
/ December 23, 2016California Forests Failing to Regrow After Intense Wildfires:
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/21122016/california-forests-wildfires-climate-change
There are warning signs that some forests in the western U.S. may have a hard time recovering from the large and intense wildfires that have become more common as the climate warms.
After studying 14 burned areas across 10 national forests in California, scientists from UC Davis and the U.S. Forest Service said recent fires have killed so many mature, seed-producing trees across such large areas that the forests can’t re-seed themselves. And because of increasingly warm temperatures, burned areas are quickly overgrown by shrubs, which can prevent trees from taking root.
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Scott
/ December 23, 2016Reminds me of the question, “What could the person who chopped down the last tree have been thinking?”
Maybe nobody chopped down the last tree. It just couldn’t survive in the denuded wasteland that was left for it.
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Life In Cork
/ December 23, 2016Tragedy of the commons. Like Guy McP says, the last person in the world will never know that they were.
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Leland Palmer
/ December 28, 2016Tragedy of the Commons? Destruction of public land by over-grazing brought about by free use of the Commons? I don’t get how that could be connected to this situation.
This is Tragedy of Polar Amplification brought about by fossil fuel use, or Tragedy of the Hot Blob in the Northern Pacific, or Tragedy of the Wavy Jet Stream.. Don’t see how this has anything to do with the Tragedy of the Commons?
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Leland Palmer
/ December 28, 2016Oh, destruction of the atmosphere by greenhouse heating, due to it being the common sink for CO2 from all sources?
I didn’t quite get it, because most of the bad actors who are causing most of the damage are privileged people, not the general population.
Since it is a limited number of large point sources (fossil fuel power plants) that are causing most of the problem, or a limited number of technological changes and corporate changes that need to be made, I’m still not sure that this is the best analogy for what’s going on.
Most of the general population just want to get around and burn the lights at home, and would be just as happy driving electric cars and having solar cells on their roofs. It’s a limited number of people who refuse to change the technology available to the general population, who are profiting from the present system, who are the problem. Your characterization of the problem as a Tragedy of the Commons is not quite right, I think.
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mulga mumblebrain
/ December 23, 2016Have you seen the trees that grow in the middle of the Sahara? Junipers, I think, thousands of years old, whose roots can reach the underground water, hundreds of metres down, Every year their produce fertile seeds, and viable seedlings, but they all die.
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Dredd
/ December 23, 2016Maybe the Courts will be a government refuge from denialism (We Hold These Truths to be Self-Evident – 2).
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Christina MacPherson
/ December 23, 2016Reblogged this on nuclear-news.
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wharf rat
/ December 23, 2016” Palo Alto is joined by Lancaster, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, and Santa Monica as cities that have all achieved or are pursuing 100 percent renewable power generation”
Electricity for Mendocino, Lake, and Sonoma Counties, as well as parts of Marin and Napa, comes from the geothermal complex at The Geysers.
http://www.geysers.com/geothermal.aspx
They are being re-charged with reclaimed sewage water.
http://www.geysers.com/water.aspx
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coloradobob
/ December 23, 2016wharf rat
I worked with old hands from The Geysers, on a geothermal exploration rig. All over Northern Nevada. There’s a hell of a lot of geothermal that is untapped. A hell of a lot , thanks for this one.
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Leland Palmer
/ December 28, 2016Yeah, Bob is right. I live in Sonoma county, and there is a huge mass of hot rock under big portions of it, and surrounding counties.
Hot dry rock is a huge geothermal resource. That’s what we should be using fracking hydro-fracturing technology for, I think – creation of new geothermal energy fields.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_dry_rock_geothermal_energy
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coloradobob
/ December 23, 2016A Christmas Day Typhoon Headed for the Philippines
By: Jeff Masters , 6:31 PM GMT on December 23, 2016
Celebrations of Christmas Day in the Philippines this year will have to occur amid emergency declarations as Typhoon Nock-ten puts a huge lump of coal into the stockings of residents of the main Philippine Island of Luzon. Satellite loops on Friday afternoon showed that Nock-ten was undergoing rapid intensification. A prominent eye was developing, surrounded by an intense ring of eyewall thunderstorms with cold cloud tops. With Nock-ten experiencing low wind shear of 5 – 10 knots and traversing very warm waters of 29°C (84°F), which were 1°C (1.8°F) above average, intensification into a Category 4 storm by Sunday appears likely. Unfortunately, the storm is on track to pass over a very heavily populated area of the Philippines, including the capital of Manila.
https://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=3529#commenttop
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coloradobob
/ December 23, 2016India –
Forest fires more than doubled in 2016 in State: Report
While Karnataka saw 295 incidents in 2015, it reported 830 fires this year
With pre-monsoon showers largely failing and summer temperature touching a record high, the number of forest fires in the State has more than doubled over the past year.
Nationally, fires detected rose by over 55 per cent, but in Karnataka it was a 181 per cent rise.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/Forest-fires-more-than-doubled-in-2016-in-State-Report/article16919405.ece
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coloradobob
/ December 23, 2016Nationally, fires detected rose by over 55 per cent, but in Karnataka it was a 181 per cent rise.
Yet another factoid , pointing to a nonlinear world we are entering .
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Life In Cork
/ December 23, 2016Seems to be a sensitive metric, albeit a saddening one.
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coloradobob
/ December 23, 2016The rise of “Smoky the Bear” .
Much has been made of America’s wild land fire fighting policy in the West over the last 100 years, and it certainly cut against what the forests were trying to tell us.
But India didn’t have “Smoky the Bear”, Indonesia didn’t have “Smoky the Bear”, Brazil didn’t have “Smoky the Bear”, Canada didn’t have “Smoky the Bear”, Siberia didn’t have “Smoky the Bear”, East Tenn. didn’t have “Smoky the Bear”, Australia didn’t have “Smoky the Bear”, Israel didn’t have “Smoky the Bear”, so there must be something else at work here.
Bad forest management in all these places for 100 years isn’t the common key. Drought and heat are. Trust me, ain’t nobody been out in the taiga in Canada, and Siberia for the last 100 years putting out fires. They didn’t have to. The forests were wet and cold.
So let’s all give “Smoky the Bear” a break . The rise of these world wide fires , has our finger prints all over it . But not because of “Smoky the Bear”.
Human greed and human folly OK. But not “Smoky the Bear”.
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nwkilt
/ December 24, 2016CB, thank you for all your posts, of every type.
FYI, “Smokey Bear”
In 1952, Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins wrote the popular anthem that would launch a continuous debate about Smokey’s name. To maintain the rhythm of the song, they added “the” between “Smokey” and “Bear.” Due to the song’s popularity, Smokey Bear has been called “Smokey the Bear” by many adoring fans, but, in actuality, his name never changed. He’s still Smokey Bear.
https://smokeybear.com/en/smokeys-history/story-of-smokey
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coloradobob
/ December 23, 2016India sparked this series , get this –
Parliamentary Standing Committee recommends a national policy on managing blazes
With fires raging across Central Indian forests and the Himalayan Pine forests, the frequency of such blazes has risen by a drastic 55 per cent in the past year.
The number has touched 24,817 in 2016, a “really alarming” rise, from around 15,937 fires in 2015, says the report by Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, headed by Rajya Sabha MP Renuka Choudhary, submitted on December 16. The committee has suggested a national policy on managing forest fires.
The increase is seen even though 2015, considered a drought year, had seen a decline in frequency of forest fires of around 16 per cent.
Link
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ December 24, 2016Scheduling tweet on this, thanks.
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coloradobob
/ December 23, 2016LikeLike
Life In Cork
/ December 23, 2016LikeLike
coloradobob
/ December 23, 2016I had thought of burning myself at our courthouse . But when I thought about it. it’s just more carbon .
There needs to be a way old people can lay down and protest .
Strange days have found us.
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Vic
/ December 24, 2016“…Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree…”
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DaveW
/ December 24, 2016Being of your generation and your viewpoint, I have had similar thoughts.
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coloradobob
/ December 24, 2016This is What The Resistance Looks Like —
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coloradobob
/ December 24, 2016The Warsaw Ghetto , the siege at Stalingrad.
We have no clue of what is coming .
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coloradobob
/ December 24, 2016History kids history.
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coloradobob
/ December 24, 2016LikeLike
coloradobob
/ December 24, 2016This is What The Resistance Looks Like —
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coloradobob
/ December 24, 2016Sorry this shit is stuck in my head And means how free we were …………… How much we lost.
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coloradobob
/ December 24, 2016We need a hero . A real one . A champion . We need a miracle.
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Leland Palmer
/ December 28, 2016Maybe our hero is cheap Solar Energy?
BECCS (Biomass Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage) would be an even better hero, I think, capable of putting large amounts of carbon back underground and doing so at a profit, especially if we put a price on carbon.
Wikipedia BECCS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bio-energy_with_carbon_capture_and_storage
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coloradobob
/ December 24, 2016In an age of fools.
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coloradobob
/ December 24, 2016To be a clueless old fool . In an age of fools. Makes some sense. How I don’t know why yet.
I’ll get back to you.
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coloradobob
/ December 24, 2016To be a clueless old fool . In an age of fools.
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coloradobob
/ December 24, 2016Writing in my book is down one line . To write one line . means everything.
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coloradobob
/ December 24, 2016To say eighty words in eight . means everything.
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coloradobob
/ December 24, 2016I’m crazy as a pop tart.
6 words.
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coloradobob
/ December 24, 2016I am obsessed with saying the most with the least.
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coloradobob
/ December 24, 2016“Get ready little lady , Hell is coming breakfast.’
That’s 8 words. There’s 52 paragraphs behind it.
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coloradobob
/ December 24, 2016I’m crazy as a pop tart.
6 words.
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Jeremy in Wales
/ December 24, 2016What exactly is a “pop tart”? Lost in translation in the east.
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Cate
/ December 24, 2016A pastry treat you pop into your toaster—sweet, hot, and damn straight. 🙂
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Jeremy in Wales
/ December 29, 2016Passed me by – nothing wrong with toast, butter and jam – definetly crazy
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ December 29, 2016Quicker for harried, overworked parents.
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coloradobob
/ December 24, 2016When one writes , what ever the case, Be clean be sharp, Be to the point.
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Greg
/ December 25, 2016Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts… perhaps the fear of a loss of power.
john_steinbeck
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Greg
/ December 25, 2016A sad soul can kill quicker than a germ.
John Steinbeck
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Andy_in_SD
/ December 24, 2016I found this interesting, how the humble house roof plays such an important, critical part of life in Bermuda.
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38222271
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coloradobob
/ December 24, 2016Water harvesting, .
Great catch , Andy, Did you know everyone in Israel heats their hot water with sunlight?
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coloradobob
/ December 24, 2016LikeLike
Andy_in_SD
/ December 24, 2016Very cool! (pun?)
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coloradobob
/ December 24, 2016Andy_in_SD
There’s so much sitting on the self today. That could change the world tomorrow. If it was just pushed out today.
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coloradobob
/ December 24, 2016Andy_in_SD
Heating water , years ago I wanted to change this . I studied the problem . Every gas water heater on Earth could be solar powered. The Jews do it everyday. And for decades.
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coloradobob
/ December 24, 2016Why this was never come to America I will never know.
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coloradobob
/ December 24, 2016One can heat all the hot water from the sun , Period. lot’s of it. everyday.
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Andy_in_SD
/ December 24, 2016Solar water heaters used to be all over Florida, however the power company needed to sell product…
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ December 24, 2016Solar water heaters were standard in the LA area about 100 years ago. The companies that made them were driven out of business by the gas companies, which gave homeowners gas water heaters for free. There’s a bit about the biggest solar company, Night and Day Solar, here: https://www.solterra.com/living/blog/using-the-sun's-energy%3A-19th,-20th,-21st-century
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coloradobob
/ December 24, 2016If I was young , I’d start this thermal solar water venture.
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lesliegraham1
/ December 25, 2016We had solar-heated water in Australia. Like you I just don’t understand why every house doesn’t have it as standard.
It was cheap simple technology with no moving parts which supplied far more hot water than we could ever use – every day – all year long – for years.
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coloradobob
/ December 24, 2016This is What The Resistance Looks Like —
Don’t be a punk. Be the smartest people the world has ever seen. And we are. Yes. yes, we are. .
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coloradobob
/ December 24, 2016Do not lay down, Never ever lay down. Never, ever lay down.
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DaveW
/ December 24, 2016Here we go again –
JAXA Arctic sea ice extent is going down for Christmas. Soon Santa will need a boat, not a sleigh
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Bluesky
/ December 24, 2016Thanks for providing the link, now I can follow it by myself. Anyone else noticed the low grow in co2 the last 1-2 weeks? Quite a bit lower grow compared to november.
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Bluesky
/ December 24, 2016Wow, we are still 2 million km2 under average for the last 3 decades in Antarctica right now..
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nwkilt
/ December 24, 2016That Arctic Sea Ice Extent chart follows the Arctic (north of 80N) temperature chart posted above.
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Leland Palmer
/ December 28, 2016National Snow and Ice Data Center:
http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/
Warm Arctic delays ice formation in Svalbard’s fjords
“In the Svalbard archipelago, sea ice usually begins to form in the inner parts of the fjords in early November. This November, however, no sea ice was observed. Throughout autumn, the wind pattern transported warm and moist air to Svalbard, leading to exceptionally high air temperatures and precipitation, which fell as rain.
Atmospheric and oceanic conditions in the fjord system were assessed by students from the University Centre in Svalbard. They noted an unusually warm ocean surface layer about 4 degrees Celsius (7 degrees Fahrenheit) above the salinity-adjusted freezing point (Figure 4a). Coinciding with exceptionally high air temperatures over Svalbard during autumn, the water has hardly cooled at all, and it is possible that no sea ice will form this winter.”
It is possible that no sea ice will form this winter, says the above assessment from NSIDC.
The NSIDC Arctic ice extent map looks even worse than JAXA’s map, I think.
There are still warm spots, visible on Earthnullschool dot net, that are as much as 11 degrees C above normal. No sea ice will be forming on these hot sports any time soon.
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Leland Palmer
/ December 28, 2016LikeLike
Leland Palmer
/ December 28, 2016Hot spots in the ocean near Svalbard:
https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/ocean/surface/currents/overlay=sea_surface_temp_anomaly/orthographic=-3.64,73.55,2048/loc=5.238,77.668
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Ryan in New England
/ December 24, 2016We just lost a courageous and inspiring figure. Climate scientists and astronaut Piers Sellers passed away after a battle with pancreatic cancer. Many are familiar with him from his appearance in Before the Flood. This brave man, when told he had only a short time to live, decided to spend his remaining time on Earth contributing to the understanding of climate change. He spent his final days studying the Earth and gathering data so he could do his part to help make the world habitable for the rest of humanity. We could use a billion more like him.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/dec/24/climate-scientist-and-nasa-astronaut-piers-sellers-dies-aged-61
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Suzanne
/ December 24, 2016And the losses just keep on coming in 2016. We can’t afford to lose any CC warriors..he will be missed. RIP.
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Shawn Redmond
/ December 24, 2016Looks like there will be some extra coal for some CEO’s stockings this Christmas.
In ten years, India could get almost sixty percent of its electricity from non-fossil fuel sources, according to a government forecast published this week.
According to a draft of the country’s 10-year energy blueprint, the Indian government expects that 57 percent of the country total electricity capacity will come from non-fossil fuel sources by 2027 — a marked increase over the country’s Paris goals, which say that the country will reach 40 percent non-fossil fuel electricity by 2030. The draft also noted that no new coal-fired power plants would be needed to meet India’s electricity demands through 2027.
https://thinkprogress.org/india-new-clean-energy-electricity-targets-d7773b884968#.3yiorwb8o
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Shawn Redmond
/ December 24, 2016Looks like the lumps of coal are appearing in some “stock”ings already.
Still, Norwegian oil major Statoil ASA (STL.OL), which in 2014 cited market access for deferring its Corner oil sands project, said on Dec. 14 it would sell all its assets at a loss and withdraw from Canada’s oil sands.
The same day, Koch Industries Inc [KCHIN.UL] announced it wants out of a yet-undeveloped local project. The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) approved that request this week.
Statoil spokesman Erik Haaland said the sale was made so the company can concentrate on “new competitive assets” elsewhere. Koch did not respond to requests for comment.
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/topstories/industry-confidence-low-in-canadas-oil-sands-as-statoil-koch-exit/ar-BBxv1Dc?li=AAgh0dA&OCID=ansmsnnews11
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ December 24, 2016Wow, Kochs exiting a potentially polluting energy project? That’s stunning news, and totally out of character. Wonder what the back story is.
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Shawn Redmond
/ December 24, 2016A bit more from The Street
https://www.thestreet.com/story/13933255/1/koch-wants-out-of-muskwa-oil-sands-project-due-to-regulatory-uncertainities.html
Even as oil prices push higher, fueled by an anticipated production cut by OPEC and other non-OPEC producers in the first six months of 2017, there is one area that may still be too expensive to produce: Canada’s Oil Sands.
Koch Industries’ oil sands subsidiary in Canada, Koch Oil Sands Operating (KOSO), wants to get out of its oil sands project in the Muskwa region in the province of Alberta, citing economic and regulatory uncertainties.
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“KOSO does not believe the current nor medium term economic environment in Alberta will provide opportunity to generate an adequate return on the required capital for construction of the Muskwa SAGD project,” wrote Bryon Lutes, Vice President of Business Development for KOSO, in a letter to the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER). “The longer term economic risk of the project is further burdened with regulatory uncertainty around the Climate Leadership Program and its potential impacts on the project, from carbon tax to the emissions cap, both recently legislated by the Alberta Government.”
Lutes notes that construction has not begun on the project, even though it was approved by the AER in June 2016. KOSO and Koch Industries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
KOSO’s request marks the second major move in Canadian’s oil sands business this month. Norwegian oil giant Statoil ASA (STO) just exited its oil sands business by divesting its Kai Kosh Dehseh oil sand project in a $626 million deal with Canadian oil company Athabasca Oil. However, Statoil said the sale will trigger a $500 to $550 million impairment loss.
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Shawn Redmond
/ December 24, 2016Sorry about the ad in the middle of the article missed it before I hit post.
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coloradobob
/ December 25, 2016India –
In ten years, India could get almost sixty percent of its electricity from non-fossil fuel sources, according to a government forecast published this week.
They’re not going to build the giant web of wires we have. Same thing in Africa. Africa is getting phone service without telephone poles.
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Suzanne
/ December 24, 2016Climate and Extreme Weather for December 13-21, 2016:
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Ailsa
/ December 24, 2016I look at the stars, and the smiles on the faces of people passing by, and hear the song of my local unusually white-headed black bird… and I give thanks for all the beauty around us.
And for all of you here – thank you.
xx
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Genomik
/ December 24, 2016Something optimistic for the holidays.
China Wants to Build a $50 Trillion Global Wind & Solar Power Grid by 2050! I think China sees Trump as an opportunity to advance both economically and morally while Trump destroys the West.
Built on a backbone of a global ultra high voltage (UHV) grid, the project not only envisions global power connectivity, but global power generation. The grid will connect proposed wind farms in the North Pole, and solar farms built at the equator that transcend national boundaries. It’s exactly what’s needed if such renewable energy sources as wind and energy, which could potentially shoulder the vast majority of the world’s energy generation, will ever become a viable alternative.
The global grid will also curb international disputes and narrow regional gaps. Such a project might foster a larger sense of global unity among nations, since power generation and distribution would become a transnational, worldwide undertaking.
http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2016/03/china-proposes-50-trillion-global-uhv.html
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coloradobob
/ December 25, 2016Bucky Fuller proposed an electrical loop around the top of the world . So that power plants could run in the dark, and supply demand on the other side of the world, during daylight. There by greatly cutting the need for power plants world wide.
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Jean Mcmahon
/ December 25, 2016I was able to hear R Buckminister Fuller speak to a fairly small classroom at Metropolitan State College in Denver..about 1975..John Denver introduced him..I was lucky
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Cate
/ December 24, 2016A new interview with Dr Hansen.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/will-we-miss-our-last-chance-to-survive-climate-change-w456917
Will We Miss Our Last Chance to Save the World From Climate Change?
“We have not hit the disastrous level,” says leading climate scientist James Hansen. “But we are close.”
“Last fall, I visited Hansen at his old stone farmhouse in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. It sits on 10 acres, with a tennis court and a row of carefully trimmed apple trees lining the walk to the front door. We talked in his office, a big room connected to a stone barn outfitted with solar panels. He had the cool, cerebral manner of a man whose mind is always processing complex algorithms. But at times he seemed downright cranky, as if he were losing patience with the world’s collective failure to deal with the looming catastrophe that he has articulated for the past 30 years. “It’s getting really more and more urgent,” Hansen told me. “Our Founding Fathers believed you need a revolution every now and then to shake things up – we have certainly reached that time.”
As cb says—Get up, stand up.
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Cate
/ December 25, 2016LikeLike
Cate
/ December 25, 2016http://www.theglobeandmail.com//report-on-business/rob-commentary/canada-well-on-its-way-to-a-renewable-energy-future/
Canada well on its way to a renewable-energy future :
“…a student and I mapped each province’s….“low-hanging fruit” of renewables in the form of wind, solar, wave, tidal and some biomass energy. We compared this with total energy use, including electricity, transportation, heating and industrial production.
The bottom line: There is plenty of renewable-energy potential near current roads, power lines and population centres. Most of it is wind power, with plenty of hydro and solar as well. In fact, every province except Alberta and Ontario has a large surfeit – enough to be choosy about siting installations to minimize environmental side-effects….”
Of all the provinces, Newfoundland has the largest untapped potential:
“……were Newfoundland to develop the easily accessible part of its truly enormous wind resources and to export the power, it would generate an annual income of $200,000 a household.
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Hank Smith
/ December 25, 2016Cate- Re: Power potential of Nfld.
I took a trip a few years ago from the “Boston States” to visit my parents’ people in Harbour Breton and Rencontre East in Fortune Bay. While driving down Rte. 360 from the TC Highway “through the country” to the South Coast we passed through many, many uninhabited square miles a high, relatively level plateau. This land was perfect for wind farms, with easy access and passing under existing high tension lines from the hydro plant at Head Bay d’Espoir. The wind power could be transmitted East-West. The existing hydro facility could expanded for pumped storage, and the power could be transmitted East to St. Johns and West to Port-aux-Basques for further transmission to/through Nova Scotia under the proposed undersea cable already designed to carry power from Labrador to the Maritimes and New England, (bypassing an intransigent Quebec.)
Also, when traveling West along the south coast, from Pool’s Cove to Bay l’Argent, we passed mile after mile of south facing hills and cliffs which would be perfect for solar, since that is at the same Latitude as southern Germany. This could also be tied into the existing power lines running north of that.
Wind, solar, pumped storage hydro, and a main high capacity proposed undersea power line to take the power off-island, and a large available work force now that many men from the oil sands cutbacks are now, back on the rock. It has possibilities.
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Abel Adamski
/ December 25, 2016May I wish all the Scribblers and lurkers a Safe and joyous Christmas, as the words go Peace on Earth to “men” of Good Will.at God Bless all you of Good Will and grant the courage for the struggle ahead
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Suzanne
/ December 25, 2016Thank you…and the same to you Abel.
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ December 25, 2016Agreed. God (or deity of your choice, I prefer to be extra PC these days) bless us every one.
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Cate
/ December 25, 2016Thank you, Abel, and I join my wish with yours. God bless us everyone.
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seal in the Selkirks
/ December 25, 2016Dec. 24th, and it has been snowing enough the last few days that I am having a hard time keeping my panels clear much less the road off the property. The temperature is right at that point, just under freezing, that makes the snow stick to them. Anybody have any idea how to not have to climb up on the roof? Gotta be an easier way!
Today I drove up a narrow snow-filled not-plowed dirt canyon road south of me a few miles to take a disabled friend (hereditary COPD along with her destroyed knees and separating front rib cage due to an accident) over the ridges and down to do food shopping in Spokane. About a 100+ mile round trip. The people who said they would, two weeks ago, didn’t and kept putting her off. She ran out of food and called me for help.
Roads were so bad that I never took the old Toyota out of 4×4 all day. The roads are nasty icy underneath slick with falling snow all day long. She’s stocked for the next three months.
Yesterday I delivered Christmas food boxes for the Loon Lake food bank to 9 families between Springdale and Chewelah. Had to stop at the school to pick presents for them all (12 & under only). Nine families, somewhere around 36 people total, with 22 kids according to the official count. I do this 52 weeks a year.
Thursday, the day before, which is the normal day I deliver, I instead got to go play music at the Christmas blues jam at a local bar that I have not been able to go play at once since summer. Far more people than I thought would show up, half were musicians and most I’ve played with before. Most of us are older, late 40s-50s-60s and a few in their 70s. Blues primarily but the music runs from rock to folk to whatever someone is willing to throw down. Everybody gets to play a set.
A white-haired old woman blues singer/guitar player that I really like playing with showed, and when her turn came up this older black guy stood up to come play drums. Never seen him before but oh man could that guy play drums. She rolled into a Santana-style long song that she wrote and him and I got seriously down playing riffs back and forth (I’m an ace lead harp player and 6-drum conga/hand percussionist). I got nodded at by him a couple times, and even elicited a smile as that set ended and another guitar player came up to take a turn.
Later, as I was loading my music gear back into my truck, old Guilliard who was a top keyboardist who played on the road for decades across the country (lost most of his left hand a number of years ago but still plays good with his right!) came up and asked if I knew who the drummer was. I told him no but I sure did like playing with the guy. Guilliard smiled and said he’s played with him since the 1970s. Said that he told Guilliard that he liked my music and that I had a pretty damned good sense of rhythm for a white boy. I had to laugh at that and replied that as a 55 year as a surfer/skater I’ve got ocean rhythms running through my blood. Oh, and by the way, seal, Guilliard replied, that was Jimmy Hendrick’s drummer you were playing with.
So, on my birthday on a night I happened to not be delivering food bank boxes, I got to sit down and play some rocking good music with Jimmy Hendrick’s old drummer.
Now is that a cool true story or what?
To all of you, Happy Winter Solstice, Merry Christmas, and do something fun every day.
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utoutback
/ December 25, 2016A little something for Christmas:
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June
/ December 26, 2016Thanks for posting this. I’ve loved it since I first heard it at the end of the movie Meet Joe Black. It is sad that he died so young.
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coloradobob
/ December 25, 2016Climate change The warming Arctic
The country set to cash in on climate change
Asked if he is fearful about the impact of climate change, Tønnes “Kaka” Berthelsen’s response is typical of many Greenlanders. “We are more concerned about the Maldives,” he said bluntly.
Greenland has lived with extreme environmental changes for a decade or more. Sea ice is forming two months later and melting one month earlier. Rivers fed by retreating glaciers are at record levels. And temperature records were smashed twice this year, with stunned meteorologists rechecking their measurements after 24C was recorded in the capital, Nuuk, in June.
Link
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Tigertown
/ December 25, 2016I wanted a simple way to describe what just happened over the last few days in the Arctic.
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coloradobob
/ December 25, 2016Nice, just one thing………………… This war, heat is murdering cold. And you show that clearly. But your sound track is bit too “Peppy”.
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Tigertown
/ December 25, 2016I picked the sound for price only;free that is. I guess I did need something less cheerful.
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coloradobob
/ December 25, 2016LikeLike
coloradobob
/ December 25, 2016Why is it that my heroes were murdered and their heroes die from old age?
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coloradobob
/ December 25, 2016LikeLike
Cate
/ December 25, 2016http://jasonbox.net/north-pole-overheating-2016/
Dr Jason Box, posting on Christmas Day:
“The combination of 1.) extra ocean to atmosphere heat transfer enabled by record low sea ice and 2.) pulses of warm air from the south has produced stunning large temperature departures from normal.
There have been two Arctic heatwave episodes in 2016: 1.) centered 14-15 November and 2.) 24-25 December. Two more days of data and shortening the time interval to 1 day reveal that the recent heatwave is warmer than that in mid-November. See below…
Besides being alarmed we’re in uncharted climate territory driven by abrupt human-driven climate change, the concern I have is how the record low Arctic sea ice may be promoting cold-air outbreaks and storminess across the mid-latitudes this cold season…..
The image underscores the distinction between ocean and land and thus points to there being something to the pattern: “Warm Arctic, Cold Continents”. What are the impacts? Why should we care? For one, the patterns indicate a system changing state. For two: That change probably affects the frequency and persistence of weather, a hallmark of climate change; changing extremes… more hots and ironically sometimes sharper colds.”
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Ryan in New England
/ December 26, 2016Just wanted to wish all the Scribblers and others in the climate fight a very happy holiday! And while the future may look grim, let’s find the courage and strength to continue to push towards a %100 renewable future. And thank you, Robert, and others, for all you do to make this space so great 🙂
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June
/ December 26, 2016+1
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umbrios27
/ December 26, 2016Wishing everyone a very happy holiday too! I’ve made an english version of my holiday card because I wished to share it with you folks too:
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nwkilt
/ December 26, 2016Nicely done umbrios, thank you 🎄
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ December 26, 2016Solar power and batteries may keep Vermont charged for climate change – The Portland Press Herald http://www.pressherald.com/2016/12/25/solar-power-and-batteries-may-keep-vermont-charged-for-climate-change/
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coloradobob
/ December 26, 2016https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=0ahUKEwiprtnjr5LRAhWJbSYKHcLOCvcQjBwIBA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn.newsapi.com.au%2Fimage%2Fv1%2Fed61d29f1a3685fcd310e9a0b3c3f480%3Fwidth%3D650&psig=AFQjCNEpnXLlfmHDOFqNEJElH6eI7RefZA&ust=1482859358334879
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Cate
/ December 26, 2016Uluru awash in waterfalls.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-26/uluru-closed-homes-damaged-by-flashfloods-in-central-australia/8148430
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coloradobob
/ December 26, 2016“There’s a lot of water … coming off the rock and what that does is just channels across the ring road around Uluru, some of those roads there were flooded by about 300-400mm of rain. Quite spectacular but very hazardous road conditions,” park manager Mike Misso told ABC.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-38435586
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coloradobob
/ December 26, 2016Busy, busy, busy……………….
DNR Censors All Climate Change Info
Long stated facts, scientific consensus on climate change and Great Lakes removed.
Climate change censors driven by science denial and obeisance to polluters these days at the GOP-managed, Scott Walker-redefined “chamber of commerce mentality” Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources are at it again.
Not content with having already stripped content and links from an agency webpage about climate change – – deletions I documented some years ago and which I have frequently referenced – – the ideologues intent on scrubbing science off these pages and sowing doubt and confusion about the consensus view of experts worldwide about climate change have edited, deleted and otherwise compressed information in order to whitewash long-standing concepts and facts off a climate change page about the Great Lakes – – the same way, I will add, that Walker edited and watered-down the Wisconsin Idea, which has for decades had been the University system’s historic mission statement.
Link
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wharf rat
/ December 26, 2016ASU team proposes restoring Arctic ice with 10 million windmills
https://asunow.asu.edu/20161222-solutions-asu-scientists-propose-restoring-arctic-ice-10-million-windmills
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Suzanne
/ December 26, 2016Climate and Extreme Weather News for December 21st to December 25th:
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Suzanne
/ December 26, 2016Stephen Chu at Climate One….this month. “We are at 490 ppm counting methane and all the greenhouse gases …..and a reasonable certainty of going over 600 ppm”
https://climateone.org/video/steven-chu-shares-some-sobering-climate-change-math
(If this doesn’t scare this country “straight” nothing will….the CC news just keeps getting worse)
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coloradobob
/ December 26, 2016Solar Pump Helps Herders Overcome Zimbabwe Drought
Mwanyisa said the solar-powered borehole has had other benefits too.
“The water component has made life easy for the women,” she added. “So using hand pumping is now a thing of the past. So women are no longer spending much time at the watering points. They used to spend four, five hours just to water a herd of about 50 animals. Some were using deep wells to water their animals.”
Dorcas Sibanda owns six cattle. She said “I can now do other house chores while cattle are drinking from the trough. Plus I no longer disturb my children’s learning. They can take their time at school without hurrying home to help.”
Link
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coloradobob
/ December 26, 2016The mythical ‘endless summer’ is becoming a detested reality in South Florida
In 2015 and again in 2016, Miami’s weather in December was essentially no different from that in June or July — high temperatures in the upper 80s, dew points in the upper 70s. The resulting heat index was then in the 90s.
In Miami, over a dozen records have already been broken this month. All of them have been heat-related records; there hasn’t been a single cold record in winter’s first month.
Link
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ December 26, 2016Scheduling tweet on this, thanks.
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Suzanne
/ December 26, 2016I have only had my a/c off 4 or 5 nights so far this fall/winter. The night time lows for years now have not gotten very “low”…but usually by December you can turn off the a/c until April most nights. Not this year…way too warm and humid during the day and at night. Very depressing.
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ December 26, 2016Agreed, depressing. So, apologies if you’ve said already–possible to use solar to offset some/all of electricity used?
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lesliegraham1
/ December 27, 2016Is solar even legal in Florida?
And bear in mind Susan could be arrested for even mentioning “the phenomena that must not be mentioned” – as I hear government employees are now calling you know what.
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Suzanne
/ December 27, 2016When we built the house 19 years ago…solar wasn’t feasible, so we designed a 3 zone a/c system…went over board with insulation…and kept every possible tree in an already heavily wooded property as close as possible to the house (probably too close…I hold my breath every time a hurricane comes through)….All of this has made our electric bills very low. We have looked at solar over the years…and there have been issues…including living in a state where they don’t “encourage” or incentivize solar which is maddening. But having said all that…with the new solar roof tiles that are coming out…and with an aging roof..we are hoping that would be something we can do when the time comes to replace the roof. And by then, hopefully, we will have gotten ridden of Governor Voldemort..and have a government that actually believes in CC an one that encourages renewable energy sources.
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Suzanne
/ December 27, 2016One more thing….Leslie is right about this regressive state I live in. It is “illegal” to go off grid. And a woman did get arrested for going off grid. Just boggles the mind…how Republicans just love to say “less government”….unless of course if it means less money for them or their corporate over lords.
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Jeremy in Wales
/ December 30, 2016Land of the free? What a joke.
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coloradobob
/ December 26, 2016Mountain Pine Beetles Still Beating The Cold In K-Country
Caroline Whitehouse is a Forest Health Specialist with Alberta Forestry and she says the recent cold has most likely done some good, but it still needs to get colder, and it needs to stick around.
“It definitely would have caused a certain amount of mortality in the population.” Whitehouse adds “The effect is also variable depending on the population numbers themselves.” This means in areas like northern Alberta the numbers might not change all that much, however here in the south and more specifically the K Country region could see Beetle Larvae mortality increase over the winter.
Whitehouse says for the cold weather to really help out it would need to get as cold as -35 and below as the Mountain Pine Beetles actually create and produce their own antifreeze to survive harsh winters.
“They survive by producing and storing a natural antifreeze, and it’s this antifreeze that helps to keep the larvae (that’s the life form that beetles spend the winter in) alive.”
Link
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coloradobob
/ December 26, 2016Supermarkets to fly in emergency salad from US after Spanish floods
Heavy rains in southern Spain have hit supplies of leafy salads, celery and broccoli with shortage set to last into new year
Supermarkets are preparing to fly in emergency salad from the US after heavy rains and flooding in Spain hit supplies.
About 80% of fresh produce – including leafy salads as well as celery and broccoli – sold in the UK at this time of year comes from the Murcia region in southern Spain.
Suppliers spoken to by the Guardian said yields in the region had dropped to as low as 30% of those expected at this time of year on some crops, such as little gem lettuces, as farmers’ fields were inundated last weekend. Celery yields have dropped to 40% of normal levels while some citrus crops, including satsumas and clementines, have also been affected.
Link
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ December 26, 2016Scheduling tweet on this, thanks.
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Jeremy in Wales
/ December 28, 2016This is the most stupid use of resources. When I was a kid if it was out of season, it was not available and you ate something else and then it was more of a treat when it was available. Pickles, chutneys, stewed fruit are in my opinion preferable to iceberg lettuce!
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coloradobob
/ December 26, 2016Magmas near the critical degassing pressure drive volcanic unrest towards a critical state
critical degassing pressure (CDP)
We propose that magma could be approaching the CDP at Campi Flegrei, a volcano in the metropolitan area of Naples, one of the most densely inhabited areas in the world, and where accelerating deformation and heating are currently being observed.
Link
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coloradobob
/ December 26, 2016We can run that climate change experiment , where the Sun get’s blocked by volcanic ash for months.
This is especially true for Campi Flegrei caldera (CFc), a long-lived resurgent caldera in the metropolitan area of Naples that was formed by the 39-ka Campanian Ignimbrite supereruption, which was the largest in Europe during the past 200 ka (ref. 18). Since the 1950s, CFc has been showing clear signs of potential reawaking, as indicated by frequent episodes of ground uplift (with a total of >3 m of permanent cumulative inflation at the caldera centre19), shallow seismicity20, and a visible increase in hydrothermal degassing14.
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Jeremy in Wales
/ December 28, 2016Will not be pleasant for the 1.5 million people living on and around this field, goodness only knows how they would move out even with a relatively small eruption. Having visited Naples I can confirm it is chaos and chaotic, it would be quicker to walk out of the city than try to use any form of transport.
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coloradobob
/ December 26, 2016Sprinting towards extinction? Cheetah numbers crash globally
Led by Zoological Society of London (ZSL), Panthera and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the study reveals that just 7,100 cheetahs remain globally, representing the best available estimate for the species to date. Furthermore, the cheetah has been driven out of 91% of its historic range. Asiatic cheetah populations have been hit hardest, with fewer than 50 individuals remaining in one isolated pocket of Iran.
Read more at: Link
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coloradobob
/ December 26, 2016Leaky plumbing impedes Greenland Ice Sheet flow
Surface meltwater that drains to the bed of the Greenland Ice Sheet each summer causes changes in ice flow that cannot be fully explained by prevailing theories. Now a multinational, multidisciplinary team led by ice sheet modelers at Los Alamos National Laboratory is exploring how changes in extensive, sediment-choked subglacial “swamps” actually explain why the ice sheet’s movement slows down in late summer and winter.
Read more at: Just an incredible image from Greenland with this one.
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coloradobob
/ December 26, 2016LikeLike
bostonblorp
/ December 26, 2016Look at how dirty that ice is, all the way to the horizon. All the better to soak up some rays and continue melting.
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coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016And how clean, and white it is under the surface.
As DTL kept telling us, that’s diesel soot, and coal fired power plants. Notice all the surface white patches, that’s where the surface has melted and washed the soot into the “plumbing”. All that is headed into the ocean.
I’ve seen a lot of “Dark Snow” images, but this one tells so much.
The surface looks like a coal mine, but the melt water has that lovely glacier blue. And the ice is so white.
Let’s all have a glass , of “Chinese Power Plant” water from Greenland, fortified with 300,000 million year old pure carbon.
Yum.
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Suzanne
/ December 27, 2016All that dark, black snow…just makes me ill. It is no wonder Jason Box had to start the Dark Snow Project. http://darksnowproject.org/
And you just know that it will get worse as the ice melts and even more tankers make their way through the Arctic Sea…spewing even more fossil fuel.
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Ryan in New England
/ December 27, 2016Unbelievable image. The ice is covered in soot and you can see the texture that has developed from the darkest spots melting fastest. The ice looks furry. Just one more feedback loop that will takeover what we humans started.
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bostonblorp
/ December 27, 2016A few inches of fresh snow would help but we already know the ice will continue to melt all the same and that soot will rear its ugly head again and accumulate the added soot deposited on top. It’s the perfect passive technology.
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coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016And just 2 humans , standing there taking readings.
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coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016bostonblorp / December 27, 2016
A few inches of fresh snow would help ……………
And it will bring fresh soot. Embedded in the snow.
The soot machine is running much faster than the snow machine. The soot machine runs 24/7/365.
As DTL kept telling us . With his sooty finger.
I stopped washing my white car . There , little specks of soot landed on my roof. My car is covered soot. They seem to really land when dew condenses on it’s surface.
Which makes perfect sense. Water cannot leave the air unless it has a nucleus to condense around. rain, snow, ice pellets, hail, and even dew cannot form unless a speck of dust, or in this case soot is there.
Ever since I saw DTL’s sooty finger. I have wondered if the new condensing nucleus, and the increasing water vapor. Are an unknown known.
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coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016So I went looking for the image above, and low and behold on the search page are dozens of images that link back here. I’ve seen this more and more . Yet another example of just how hard RS works this, crazy , crazy subject.
And just how much we owe him , for pulling all these crazy threads together, it a manner that people all over the world can understand.
Let us hope , that in 2017 he gets his MacArthur Genius Grant.
Because he’s way way ahead of the NYT’s, the Post , and all the rest of the pack.
At a time when the world seems to be growing poorer, he is making us richer. Because understanding is greatest wealth we can ever have.
And understanding is where Scribbler lives.
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Ryan in New England
/ December 27, 2016Hear hear!
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Mark in OZ
/ December 27, 2016Hear, hear ,here too!
Robert’s ‘mission’ is both education and awareness. The necessary changes that must be made will need to be in response to the demands of the world citizens. The ‘destroyers’ (FF related industries) will not be viable once their product is no longer needed. This is happening now but the adoption rate of renewables needs to accelerate.
It wasn’t that long ago that average folk nodded in agreement that reducing the polar caps to soften winter in the upper latitudes would be a good thing Some still do which is both astonishing and a progress indicator for the work yet to be done.
Using coal dust to melt snow /ice.
https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SBS19400310.1.30
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Ryan in New England
/ December 27, 2016Jeff Masters on Typhoon Nock-Ten that hit the Philippines yesterday, as a Category 4 storm with winds of 155 mph. That made it the strongest landfalling typhoon on record anywhere in the Northwest Pacific so late in the year.
https://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/nightmare-on-christmas-super-typhoon-nockten-pounds-the-philippines
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bostonblorp
/ December 27, 2016Off topic, not trying to threadjack, does anyone have a handy-dandy explanation of how “accepted” CO2e is calculated? Specifically, what CH4 CO2e value is used? The standard of ~20x is based on a century-long net effect given its fairly short half-life of roughly 8 years. That’s pointless given that methane levels continue to rise.
If we were to take a real-time CH4 CO2e value of 120x, what would be the current “accepted” CO2e?
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coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016That is all above my pay grade. RS has a handle on it , when he pops up again , you’ll get your answer.
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JPL
/ December 27, 2016Try https://robertscribbler.com/2014/03/05/a-faustian-bargain-on-the-short-road-to-hell-living-in-a-world-at-480-co2e/
Good starting point.
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bostonblorp
/ December 28, 2016Well that’s just great.. if I read that right it means if we stop burning FF we get a +50ppm CO2e hit. Sounds like sulfate spraying is going to be required.
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Suzanne
/ December 27, 2016Elon Musk in under 12 minutes lays out what is causing increasing CO2 levels…why a Carbon Tax is essential….and how/why deniers do what they do. And he does it clearly and dispassionately…in a way anyone can understand.
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nwkilt
/ December 27, 2016Can anyone explain why there is a Freemasonry logo on this video?
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Suzanne
/ December 27, 2016Uh…I had no idea until you mentioned it. Maybe he guy that posted the video is a Free Mason? Hmmm…?
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Jeremy in Wales
/ December 30, 2016It seems to be the symbol used by “Rich Talk” the guy (or woman) who uploaded the video and has a channel or set of videos. Described as “rich people share their secrets” and is based in the US.
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coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016Fracking on the Greenland Ice Sheet –
Published on January 21, 2015
Two Lakes Beneath the Ice in Greenland, Gone Within Weeks
Mysterious sub-glacial lakes build up over years—then suddenly drain away
COLUMBUS, Ohio—Researchers who are building the highest-resolution map of the Greenland Ice Sheet to date have made a surprising discovery: two lakes of meltwater that pooled beneath the ice and rapidly drained away.
One lake once held billions of gallons of water and emptied to form a mile-wide crater in just a few weeks. The other lake has filled and emptied twice in the last two years.Researchers at The Ohio State University published findings on each lake separately: the first in the open-access journal The Cryosphere, and the second in the journal Nature.
Link
We just saw this same thing in Antarctica.
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coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016LikeLike
coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016When I was a child we’d drive the 114 to Dallas for Christmas. There along the way we’d stop in the “Rock Inn” for greasy 50’s burgers, and real vanilla milkshakes. And 2 nodding birds dipping their becks in a glass of water ………
And I always played this on the jute box
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coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016“Crossed the deserts spare man “.
In July 1978 I was hovering in the shade of a freeway post at Lancaster , California, on an a freeway on ramp. I been there for an hour. Then suddenly I saw all the graffiti on the guard rails.
“This is worst place on Earth”
“Been here for 3 days”
My heart sank at 107 F degrees.
Then a giant red Buick convertible stopped . And he stopped every 50 miles, and bought 2 beers as we made our way down the Mojave Valley. As we proceeded a semi of bees was on the road. I passed that semi of bees , 4 times going back to Colorado.
I left California with 5 dollars.
I was at the worst point in my life when I left for California. I was the toughest son of bitch on Earth when I got back to Colorado.
You have know idea how far it is from Lancaster to Spanish Fork. With 5 dollars.
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Cate
/ December 27, 2016http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2016/12/negative_thinking_about_climate_change_is_dangerous.html
“Spreading messages of doom about the planet can keep people from making positive changes.” In particular, blaming humanity and trash-talking the human species as a whole is counter-productive in addressing the climate crisis.
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miles h
/ January 3, 2017on the one hand trash talking stops people making positive changes…. and on the other hand whitewashing over the problems by not being strident enough makes people think theres no problem nor any urgent need to do anything. and failing to blame ourselves is a lie and a moral failure. so how do we talk about climate change?
(im a bit from the doom-monger school – frighten people into doing something about it! at least its a genuine response.)
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ January 3, 2017MHO: No discussion on communicating climate change is complete without this piece by David Roberts at Vox:
This one weird trick will not convince conservatives to fight climate change
http://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2016/12/28/14074214/climate-denialism-social
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Suzanne
/ December 27, 2016At The Atlantic….”Trump and the triumph of Climate Denial”
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/12/donald-trump-climate-change-skeptic-denial/510359/?utm_source=twb#article-comments
Indeed, Trump’s election is a triumph of climate denial, and will elevate him to the top of a Republican Party where prominent elected officials have publicly rejected the climate consensus. It’s not that the presidential election was a referendum on global warming. Climate change barely came up during the presidential debates, and voters rated the environment as a far less pressing concern than issues like the economy, terrorism, and health care. But that relative lack of concern signals that voters have not prioritized action on climate change, if they want any action taken at all. Trump’s victory sends a message that failing to embrace climate science still isn’t disqualifying for a presidential candidate, even as scientists warn that the devastating consequences of global warming are under way and expected to intensify in the years ahead.
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mulga mumblebrain
/ December 28, 2016Trump’s victory is a Triumph of the Dill, against science, rationality, peer-review, evidence and a decent concern for our children. It is, however, an Evil manifestation more or less confined to the Anglosphere, they being the countries most totally controlled by the Evil, moronic, vicious Right. That the current Right (but really throughout history)represent radical, omnicidal, Evil far more malevolent than Nazism is a truth that people seem afraid to accept, but until we do, these evil imbeciles will simply continue driving us to catastrophe. Of course it may already be too late, but until we acknowledge that this is a death-struggle between Good and Evil, we have no hope.
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coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016One more thing, Winnemucca. I drilled out of Winnemucca, 60 miles South of town. With a drunken driller , the pavement ended about 5 miles South of town. Then 110 miles everyday, on a dirt road one cannot image. Tom’s theory was to drive so fast, that our tires would only hit the top of the ruts. So every day for 110 miles I lived in fear we were about to swap ends.
But we never did. . What we did see were huge globs of dust hit our wing shield, like mud.
The finest most pure dust on Earth. It makes baby powder, look like gravel.
I loved Nevada, not Vegas , but Nevada.
The whore houses at Winnemucca were in a tiny little self contained square. The girls sat in windows with their fingers , going “come here”.
Now Johnny Cash,
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coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016Johnny Cash One Piece At A Timehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWHniL8MyMM
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Tigertown
/ December 27, 2016Fox News Chief Meteorologist had a nice segment today on 2016 extreme weather events. He came outright and said that we live on a warming Earth. Of course, I can find no record of the segment on their site. I wonder if he still has a job?
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coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016LikeLike
coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016LikeLike
coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016It all goes back to this =
To Monty Calcote . The mannish boy who changed my life. We smoked , and he showed me Chuck Berry. He died so long ago. In such a stupid way. I miss him so much. What a waste, what a loss, what a hole in my life.
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coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016I had a 1956 International Travel All named Olivia De Travel – In.
All because I met one man years before. All because words are wonderful.
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coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016My oldest
living friend in front of Olivia De Travel – In
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coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016I post all this crap so people know I’n not fake Bob.
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coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016The only thing worst than fake news, is a fake Bob.
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coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016“Bob’s Pedigree”
Leather Artist since 67′, Shot-Hole-Driller, Pretentious Ass & Creative Genius, Agnostic Faith Healer, Cowboy, Lumberjack, Traveler,Lifesaver,Historian, Student of Human Folly & the Natural Sciences,Dancer,Story Teller, Costumer, Designer, Art Director, Manager, Screen Printer, Sign Maker, Plumber, Cabinet Maker/ Finish Carpenter, Star Scout, Teacher, Trucker, Inventor, & Web Artist
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coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016“I’d like to find your inner child and kick it’s little ass”
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coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016Name the Movie :
“You are all condemned men ….. We keep you alive to serve this ship …. so row well, and live.”
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mulga mumblebrain
/ December 28, 2016Ben Hur-Jack Hawkins.
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Hatrack
/ December 28, 2016Ben-Hur, of course! “Row well and live, forty-seven.”
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coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016“We the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We’ve done so much for so long with so little, we’re now qualified to do anything with nothing” … Anonymous
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Syd Bridges
/ December 28, 2016The version my good friend, Bob Oliver, had on his wall started “We, the unappreciated, Led by the unknowing….”
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coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016THE WHEEL IS TURNING, BUT THE HAMPSRERS ARE DEAD
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coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016If you can’t write one great line , your hopes of a paragraph are bleak.
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coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016Just picking my way through my past.
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coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016I was a first class jackass –
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coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016My best effort –
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coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016This is a piece I did with a friend of mine …. Tony Greer. He’s the neon man. Tony has a Tesla Generator .
The last I time checked this piece was still in the up stairs of the bar on the square in Santa Fe. And for the life of me I can’t remember the name of the joint.
http://colorado-bob.blogspot.com/2006/10/electric-buffalo-skull-1.html
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coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016And this one –
This one was really sweet .
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coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Farewell B-15A
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coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016The break-up of a giant Antarctic iceberg has been linked to an Alaskan storm in a finding that raises new concern over climate change’s effect on floating ice.
On a calm day in October last year, the world’s largest free-floating iceberg, known as B15A, split into giant shards off Cape Adare at the entrance to the Ross Sea.
http://colorado-bob.blogspot.com/2006/10/farewell-b-15a.html
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Jacque
/ December 28, 2016Bob – It was The Ore House – I checked with my old Santa Fe buds, as I couldn’t remember either – but that fine restaurant has been converted into a vertical shopping mall. Too many drunks fell off the balcony. I moved away after the 2000 Cerro Grande fire in Los Alamos (Over 280 homes were destroyed or damaged and 40 National Laboratory structures burned). At the time, it was the biggest NM fire in history. Since then the 2011 Las
Conchas fire burned over 103,000 acres (161 sq mi), making it the largest fire in New Mexico history and requiring mandatory evacuations. LANL’s stated mission: “To solve national security challenges through scientific excellence.” Hmmm…
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coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016Scientists timed the faster travelling long-wavelength waves and slower short-wavelength waves.
“Our jaws dropped,” said Douglas MacAyeal of the University of Chicago. “We looked in the Pacific Ocean and there, 13,500 kilometres away – six days earlier – was the winter’s first really big, nasty storm that developed and lasted for about a day and a half in the Gulf of Alaska.”
The waves moving past a buoy near Hawaii and a seismometer at Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific confirmed their theory. “We think B15A was in the right position where these waves would be fatal to it,” Professor MacAyeal said. “The iceberg was shattered like a gracile wine glass being sung to by a heavy soprano.”
He said oceanographers knew ocean swells could travel around the world, but this finding reported in the Geophysical Research Letters journal raised the prospect that an increase in storms driven by climate change could affect far-flung parts of the globe.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/alaska-storm-hits-antarctic-iceberg/2006/10/03/1159641328360.html
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coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016The birth of B-15, and it’s off spring, B-15A and B-15B were one of the first things I really began to follow on the internet. I stumbled across this picture back in 2000 ……. And I say stumbled. Remember, in 2000 you couldn’t “google” B-15. Oh, there were search engines, but entering B-15 in their search boxes would’ve given you vitamins, not chunks of ice the size of Delaware.
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coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016B-15’s daughters , still rome the Southern Ocean. You can see them on NASA shots today. If it says B-15 or G, or L These are the daughters.
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coloradobob
/ December 27, 2016Remember, Hell is coming to breakfast.
Sleep tight tonight , boys and girls, Your going to need all your strength. Every drop you can muster.
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utoutback
/ December 27, 2016CB –
You sure are one entertaining old dude!
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Suzanne
/ December 27, 2016How to deal with Climate Denial-ism? Here is an interesting and informative panel discussion at Climate One from just a couple of weeks ago on just this topic:
http://climateone.org/events/climate-denial-destroying-our-planet
The scientific consensus is that human activity is cooking the planet. Does President-elect Trump calling it a hoax embolden others in denial? Many people are concerned about the climate and deeply anxious that the new administration will double down on fossil fuels and erase recent climate progress.
Ten years ago Republicans John McCain and Lindsay Graham supported fighting climate change. But the party has changed it’s tune in recent years. Climate scientist Michael Mann and Pulitzer-Prize winning cartoonist Tom Toles take a satirical look at how the issue became so divisive. Cristine Russell is a veteran science journalist with deep knowledge about the politicization of science. Renee Lertzman gets to the psychology of it all. Are we all in denial to some extent? Can better communication help us expand common ground and move on to solutions? Join us for a fun and informative look at manufactured doubt and genuine skepticism.
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dex3703
/ December 27, 2016Not that I mind, but why do you not capitalize “republican” when meaning the US political party?
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Ryan in New England
/ December 27, 2016The climate denial of Trump’s appointments.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2016/dec/27/facts-matter-and-on-climate-change-trumps-picks-get-them-wrong
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Exposing the Big Game
/ December 27, 2016Reblogged this on Exposing the Big Game.
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Ryan in New England
/ December 28, 2016Is climate denial destroying the planet? A discussion featuring Michael Mann.
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mulga mumblebrain
/ December 28, 2016Ryan, of course it is destroying, but not ‘the planet’. Just Life on Earth, that’s all. And we know who the omnicidists are-the Right. The capitalists, led by the fossil fuel industry, their MSM, led by the likes of Rupert Murdoch and their political stooges, either the hard-core Rightwing denialists, or the ‘Centrist’ Quislings who pretend to be doing something, while down-playing the harsh reality. I’d throw the climate science and the science establishments in, as well, because its years past the point where they should have been marching up and down, getting arrested, going on hunger-strikes etc. All Enemies of Humanity, some the worst such criminals in all human history.
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Trude
/ December 28, 2016Melt ponds on Nivl ice shelf in Antarctica rapidly expanding since the 24th of December.
https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/?p=antarctic&l=VIIRS_SNPP_CorrectedReflectance_TrueColor(hidden),MODIS_Aqua_CorrectedReflectance_TrueColor(hidden),MODIS_Terra_CorrectedReflectance_TrueColor,Coastlines&t=2016-12-27&z=3&v=229401.81339474546,1995959.0818327493,720921.8133947455,2239159.0818327493
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Trude
/ December 28, 2016Short (and hopefully working) link:
http://go.nasa.gov/2hmRpnP
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Bluesky
/ December 28, 2016I’m just half way through reading ‘a farewell to ice’ be peter wadhams, it seems very likely that we will see an ice free arctic summer next year or latest 2020. You actually only need to go down to 1 million km2 sea ice to call it a ice free artic (open water), and after a ice free september in the arctic, the winther ice cover right after will only exist of 1 year ice (0,5-1,5m ice thickness) and just 3 years after we will have an ice free arctic from july till november, 5 month in all. He say’s his a little unsure if the winther and spring ice will go too, but there is a chance in this century.
In the book it say’s the decrease in albedo effect from 1972 to 2012, had warmed the world the same as 1/4 of co2 emitted in the same time, and it’s immediately warming and also called a ‘fast postive feedback’.
Surcafe temperatures will go just from below or 0c to 7c when there is no ‘albedo effect’
Not to be a doomsday prayer, but if the arctic is going to be ice free in 5 month a year in a not to far distant future, aren’t we looking at a much quicker warming than even you have predicted robert?
The book has a chapter only about methane, that I haven’t even read yet, and a chapter for 6-7 other feedbacks, I’m only at the albedo feedback now..
It hard for me to deny the ‘arctic death spiral’ when seeing Paul Beckwiths video’s and reading this book, I think everyone would agree that I should not take too long before it happens when looking at these graphs.
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Bluesky
/ December 28, 2016He talks about the albedo being the worst of the 7 types of feedbacks, associated with the sea ice and snowline retreat. Mixing them together with the black carbon problem from forest fires and diesel cars, then the total albedo feedback will be the same as adding 50% to the radiative forcing effect of the CO2, that we are adding to the atmosphere.
Water vapour, he says we add something like 7% of extra water vapour content to the atmosphere for every degree warming in air temperature, and that adds 1,5 watts per square meter radiactive forcing, since water vapour is a greenhouse gas. If that is true, then alone because of water vapour, we should already have seeing a big temperature rise from only that. He say’s that in the artic the tempartures has gone up by 3 degress in average, that’s 4,5 W m2 of extra radiactive forcing.
And in november it was 11C warmer than normal in the arctic? Holy ….
I don’t know if his nuts, a doomsday prayer or what else, but it’s interesting reading I think, peter wadhams has been studying it for like 47 years, with most trips to the arctic. Don’t know who to trust, but it indeed sounds alarming to me, remember NASA actually agree with this, on how big impact the albedo effect are having on their own web site.
I think this year has prove that the jet stream are already messed up, with so cold air in siberian and warm air in the arctic.
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Bluesky
/ December 28, 2016Sorry, the worst possitive feedback after methane, I’m starting reading about methane now.
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Bluesky
/ January 3, 2017UPS, you have an article about it here, a very good one thanks!
https://robertscribbler.com/2014/02/20/amplifying-feedbacks-and-the-arctic-heat-scream-study-finds-polar-albedo-falling-at-twice-expected-rate-added-heat-equal-to-25-of-co2-forcing/#comments
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Bluesky
/ December 28, 2016Also funny so many mainstream media a talking about sea ice extent, when the sea ice volume (thickness) has decreased even more and is more important..
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Bluesky
/ December 28, 2016Peter wadhams seems to agree with your ‘point of no return blog’ robert not too long ago about thawing permafrost on land, he dosen’t goes with the conservative estimate though, but the 4 times higher estimate of 110-230 GT like you said could be a risk too. And up till 2100 he talks about 800-1400 GT in all released from thawing permafrost.
At least there is a change that we can save us from the possibly risk of 50 GT methane burp from the east siberian arctic shelf, in some way of fracking and burning the methane by big oil companys, the only problem is that they has to be covering 2,1 million km2, but it could be possible to do, no one has calculated how much it will cost though. But if we don’t fix it it will cost 60 trillion$ in damage.
There are already warm water mixing downwards towards the seabed, up too 0,6C just above freezing in several months measured in the laptev sea as he says, methane are escaping out those shallow seabeds.
We will see if the world politicians can deal with these problems, but I must say with all these possitive feedback and this is only from the arctic, it’s not looking good. Not that I’m suprised, but I just started investigating it by myself big time since september this year reading most blogs on this site ever since, have read around 1000 climate change articles before that since 2009 but only from the mainstream and often misleading media, that gives us for example wrong temperature base line, and not the 1880 like they should. Though I got a felling things weren’t looking good before this I must admit. This site here is the best, artic news blog are very doomsday, but it’s still a good site too, if we looking at a longer timespan and what could possible happens within the next century. I think they got a point.
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Bluesky
/ December 28, 2016Arctic sea ice volume,
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umbrios27
/ December 29, 2016There´s one “non-conspiracy” reason for lesser emphasis in ice volume: there´s greater uncertainty in those numbers, as far as I known. Extent and area are really easy to measure with the use of sattelite photos, but volume is trickier, and though better sattelites have been launched to measure the mass of ice, and in-loco results are also used, the historical data isn´t as clear and long-recorded as the data for area and extent. So it´s easier (which is very different of more accurate) to report in area and extent (and mass media has an habit of confusing these two).
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Bluesky
/ January 3, 2017ROBERT, I have used a lot of time today reading some articles from start 2014 on this blog and slowly forward, I could have saved some money haha, many of the things said in the book, you can find in here in a more easy language to understand. Really good articles you have made in the past, the best site if you want to be climate opdated I really think.
Now I will lay low for some time, but I maybe have some questions later 🙂
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Bluesky
/ December 30, 2016Finished reading the book today, it was good reading and it has some interesting data in it, I don’t give much for people who say’s he’s an alarmist. Not after what we have seen in 15/16. By the way, Peter wadhams say it’s necessary to pull 35 GT CO2 out of the atmosphere by around 2020 and up till 2100, and big reductions in emissions from now, +geoengineering in the meantime to hold temperatures low up till 2100, without geoengineering it’s not possible to stay under 2C. He comes with a lot of solutions that can be done do safe human from end of civilisation, and that’s good so not all are doom and gloom.
If we fail to do so, we will see major consequences in already 20,30 years from now he says.
A really good book I think, giving maybe some people hope or little hope at least. If you ask me, no freakin way this is going to happen to pull that amount of carbon out in just 3 years from now, maybe a little chance 20-30 years out in the future.
we live in a world of greed, and if you tell people about how fast we must act and how bad the situation are, they won’t belive you and they won’t do nothing, because the message is to dire. They will probably do something but it’s not enough, or fast enough.
This is even without the possitive feedbacks kicking in, which I think have already started if you look at the amazon drought, arctic, wildfires around the world, and methane. Just my opinion, but I’ll try to stay possitive and not think to much of it, but not doing so good. I’m not saying we are doomed, maybe we still have a chance and I slightly believe in it, but it’s getting smaller for everyday passing.
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Suzanne
/ January 1, 2017A new interview (just this month) with Peter Wadhams…from just a few weeks ago..that you may find interesting.
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ December 28, 2016Most MSM probably won’t ever get that, just too far down in the weeds. Most MSM don’t know difference between watts (instantaneous energy production) and watt-hours (energy produced over time (very basic info)). Reporters who specialize may get it, others won’t. Most reporters are generalists, need to be able to report on wide range of stories.
Does it matter that much? Extent crashing also, more visibly.
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Ryan in New England
/ December 28, 2016Yesterday morning (in Connecticut) it was about 30F warmer than average when I woke up. The daytime temps were about 60F, and I went for my run in shorts and a T-shirt. This is the 3rd year in a row we’ve seen 60 degree temperatures either on Christmas or within a few days of the holiday.
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coloradobob
/ December 28, 20162016’s super warm Arctic winter ‘extremely unlikely’ without climate change, scientists say
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/12/28/2016s-super-warm-arctic-winter-extremely-unlikely-without-climate-change-scientists-say/?utm_term=.1f4c8ddf647c#comments
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coloradobob
/ December 28, 2016Massive Hole in Siberia Worsening Due to Climate Change, Scientists Say
With the ominous nickname of the “gateway to the underworld,” a gargantuan crater growing in Siberia is growing rapidly due to climate change, according to researchers.
https://weather.com/en-IN/india/weather/news/siberia-russia-hole-climate-change
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coloradobob
/ December 29, 2016Notorious Ocean Current Is Far Stronger Than Previously Thought
The Antarctic Circumpolar Current is the only ocean current to circle the planet and the largest wind-driven current on Earth. It’s also 30% more powerful than scientists realized.
https://eos.org/research-spotlights/notorious-ocean-current-is-far-stronger-than-previously-thought?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_content=notorious-ocean-current-is-far-stronger-than-previously-thought
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coloradobob
/ December 29, 2016LikeLike
coloradobob
/ December 29, 2016Firefighters battle forest fires in eastern Switzerland
http://www.thelocal.ch/20161228/firefighters-battle-forest-fire-in-eastern-switzerland
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coloradobob
/ December 29, 2016Skiers left disappointed as snow steers clear of Swiss slopes
The Local (Switzerland), 27 December 2016, 13:33 CET 01:00
As if last year wasn’t bad enough, a lack of snow at Alpine ski resorts during the Christmas period has left some slopes completely bare. And as temperatures rise to unseasonable highs, there is little sign of much snow falling before the end of the year. Several resorts, including the popular Charmey, where no snow has fallen since December 19th, have closed due to the mild weather. The situation is much the same as the 2015 season, when snow didn’t arrive until the middle of January. ..
http://www.thelocal.ch/20161227/skiiers-left-disappointed-as-snow-steers-clear-of-swiss-slopes
..
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coloradobob
/ December 29, 2016These Are the 10 Most Important Climate Stories of 2016
Climate Central
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coloradobob
/ December 29, 2016utoutback / December 27, 2016
CB –
You sure are one entertaining old dude!
I’m a barrel of monkeys right up until I start hurling feces on to screen. Then I’m just another old bull about culled from the herd.
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coloradobob
/ December 29, 2016What a really really crappy year –
Debbie Reynolds, Mother of Carrie Fisher and Star of ‘Singin’ in the Rain,’ Dies at 84
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coloradobob
/ December 29, 2016Tillerson Led Exxon’s Shift on Climate Change; Some Say ‘It Was All P.R.’
In January 2009, Rex W. Tillerson, the chief executive of Exxon Mobil, gave a speech in Washington that might have seemed impossible even a few years before. He announced that his company supported a carbon tax to help fight climate change.
Carbon taxes are a fee on fuel use, based on how much carbon dioxide that fuel puts into the atmosphere. “As a businessman, it is hard to speak favorably about any new tax,” Mr. Tillerson told reporters in his speech at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. But, he said, it was “a more direct, a more transparent and a more effective approach” than an alternative gaining support in Congress known as cap and trade, which would set an upper limit on carbon dioxide emissions and then rely on a permit-trading system to meet the target.
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coloradobob
/ December 29, 2016Exxon’s market cap is about 340 Billion Dollars , but it’s those greedy, grant grubbing climate scientists who have all the real power. Just look at their ads on CNN , sorry they don’t run ads on CNN. It’s NOAA , that pack of cheats trying to gain world power , sorry they don’t run ads on CNN. It’s NASA that secret cabal of commies trying to gain world power, sorry they run don’t ads on CNN.
So who runs ads on CNN ? The richest group of people in the history of the world.
Now they will run our world. In the name of the “Little People”. Let me know how that turns out “Little People”.
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Leland Palmer
/ January 2, 2017Yes, it’s all PR. The whole Lee Raymond fight to take over ExxonMobil in 2006 was a sham fight – his 400 million dollar golden parachute was a reward for engaging in the whole scripted farce. Rex Tillerson is not more environmentally responsible than Lee Raymond was – he is just slicker about his opposition to clean energy and global warming. He talks about “adaptation” – denier code for “get used to it”.
Yes, the carbon tax proposal from ExxonMobil was a sham. They know that anything labeled as a tax is dead on arrival to the GOP faithful, and also to the new Tea Party bunch.
Lies an the lying liars that tell them – put Tillerson close to the top of the list. The Rockefeller financial dynasty has always lied and concealed the truth, and concealed their wealth. Their charitable foundations make wealth eternal and tax free, and somehow the voting of the big blocks of stock they give to their foundations always seems to favor the Rockefeller faction, in proxy fights like the one for supposed control of ExxonMobil in 2006. Put Tillerson close to the top of the liars list – but put the Rockefellers at the very top.
All of the above is just my opinion, of course. But it all makes a consistent hypothesis, I think.
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Leland Palmer
/ January 2, 2017By the way, so far as I’ve been able to determine, the Rockefeller family wealth is managed as a block, as it always has been in the past. In the past, it was managed out of 30 Rockefeller Center, now moved to 1 Rockefeller Center and 10 Rockefeller Center. But family members are still treated as clients by the unified management, and the wealth is still contained in an impenetrable maze of trusts, and trust departments of major banks like JPMorgan Chase. There still exists a plausible network of interlocking directorships leading to the possible control of tens or hundreds of major American corporations.
So the whole “the family if fragmented and half of us are environmentalists” meme about the Rockefeller family may also be PR.
This is just my opinion, of course. But it does appear to make a consistent hypothesis that the Rockefeller family continues to be the best example of the oligarchic model of American Governance.
Bernie Sanders talks about the oligarchy and breaking up the big banks, sounding a lot like he was talking at least partially about the Rockefellers, ExxonMobil, JPMorgan Chase, and Citibank. When he was running for President, it made sense for him to continue to be ambiguous. Now, I’m not so sure.
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Leland Palmer
/ January 8, 2017Interestingly enough, I just found out it is possible to donate stock to charitable foundations while retaining the stock voting rights. The IRS currently has rules about whether the gift then becomes tax deductible, though. But to retain voting rights to the stock is perfectly legal.
https://books.google.com/books?id=xT3aBgAAQBAJ&lpg=PA445&ots=Slg-KVTfGr&dq=retaining%20stock%20voting%20rights%20charitable&pg=PA445#v=onepage&q=retaining%20stock%20voting%20rights%20charitable&f=false
Whether the Rockefeller charitable foundations were endowed with stock with the voting rights retained, is a good question. I’m researching that, as I have time.
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coloradobob
/ December 29, 2016LikeLike
coloradobob
/ December 29, 2016I’ve been swimming in a sea of anarchy
I’ve been living on coffee and nicotine
I’ve been wondering if all the things I’ve seen
Were ever real, were ever really happening
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Leland Palmer
/ January 2, 2017Oh, I love Sheryl Crow!
You’ve probably posted Midnight Oil, but I don’t remember when. Great Australian group:
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coloradobob
/ December 29, 2016LikeLike
wharf rat
/ December 29, 2016Having lived the first half of my life living about 5 minutes from Crystal Springs, I was astonished and delighted to read this story. Congrats to all those who have been fighting to protect the environment for the last 50 years.
SAN MATEO — A nesting pair of bald eagles at Crystal Springs Reservoir has made history yet again by raising two chicks that are now soaring above the vast Peninsula Watershed, symbolizing the once-endangered predator’s resurgence in the Bay Area and beyond….
The parents came to the mountainous Peninsula Watershed in 2012 as young adults, building their first nest on the western shore of the reservoir, which stores drinking water for the Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System. It was the first bald eagle nest spotted in San Mateo County since 1915.
Their first attempt to reproduce failed, but the raptors have improved with practice. In 2013, they moved their nest inland, to a spot that is not visible to the public, and became the first bald eagles to raise a fledgling in the county in 98 years or more.
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coloradobob
/ December 29, 2016Life finds a way.
Thanks so much for this , wharf rat . When we have lost hope we have lost it all. I am a dark lonely old man , but I never lost hope.
Life finds a way.
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coloradobob
/ December 29, 2016Ants Marching
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coloradobob
/ December 29, 2016I say this all on a night when the Dark Side has kicked us all.
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coloradobob
/ December 29, 2016LikeLike
coloradobob
/ December 29, 2016These musical clips are my way of saying words I can not write. It’s a shallow well, I know. But would you rather have monkey feces on your screen ?
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coloradobob
/ December 29, 2016Robert Plant | ‘Heaven Knows’
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coloradobob
/ December 29, 2016When The Levee Breaks Alison Krauss Robert Plant
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coloradobob
/ December 29, 2016“Crying won’t help, prayin’ wont do you no good.”
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seal in the Selkirks
/ December 29, 2016Latest from Dahr Jamail:
We Have Released a Monster: Previously Frozen Soil Is “Breathing Out” Greenhouse Gases
Wednesday, December 28, 2016 By Dahr Jamail, Truthout | Report
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/38885-we-have-released-a-monster-previously-frozen-soil-is-breathing-out-greenhouse-gases
A study published in the journal Nature has revealed an alarming new climate feedback loop: As Earth’s atmosphere continues to warm from anthropogenic climate disruption (ACD), soils are respirating carbon — that is, carbon is being literally baked out of the soils.
Microorganisms in soil generally consume carbon, then release CO2 as a byproduct. Large areas of the planet — such as Alaska, northern Canada, Northern Europe and large swaths of Siberia in Russia — have previously been too cold for this process to occur. However, they are now warming up, and soil respiration is happening there. As a result, these places are contributing far, far more CO2 and methane to the atmosphere than they ever have.
This phenomenon is already evidenced by a recently released study led by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which Truthout reported on recently.
This means that even if all human fossil fuel emissions were halted immediately, soils would continue to release approximately the same amount of CO2 and methane emissions as the amount produced by the fossil fuel industry during the mid-20th century.
Another Tipping Point
The study showed that the uptick in soil respiration is set to add between 0.45 and 0.71 parts per million (ppm) of CO2 to the atmosphere each year between now and 2050.
Disturbingly, humans are already adding between 3.2 to 3.55 ppm of CO2 to the atmosphere as of this year, which is the first time CO2-increase rates have broken records two years in a row.
The amount of CO2 that soil respiration will add to the atmosphere — on top of what humans are directly adding — is significant.
Climate feedback loops, sometimes referred to as positive feedback loops, runaway feedback loops, or amplifying feedback loops, are important to understand if we are to truly comprehend the nature of ACD. Many feedback loops are already in play, and more are coming into being on a regular basis.
For example, when atmospheric warming caused by fossil fuel emissions leads to the melting of Arctic sea ice, the reflectivity lost by disappearing sea ice allows more solar radiation to heat the Arctic Ocean, which then causes more sea ice to melt. This is perhaps the most well-known climate feedback loop.
The discovery of the soil feedback loop intensifies concerns about our rapidly warming climate. Increasing soil respiration — also known as “the compost bomb” — is set to add between 30 and 55 billion tons of extra CO2 to the atmosphere over the next 35 years, as Earth’s temperature warming approaches 2C.
Moreover, the study categorizes its findings as conservative estimates. In fact, the Earth could well see as much as four times the amount of CO2 (2.7 ppm) from soil respiration alone if the phenomenon becomes more wide-ranging than expected. And given that scientific predictions rarely keep pace with how rapidly the planet is changing, it would not be surprising if the prevalence exceeds expectations.
Catastrophic for Humanity
Dr. Thomas Crowther, the lead researcher on the soil study, told The Independent that, given that ACD is happening more rapidly than expected, the impending climate-denying Trump presidency could well be “catastrophic for humanity.”
He is not exaggerating: A lot can happen in four years, when it comes to climate disruption. In fact, every year makes quite a difference. The study shows that at a minimum, 0.45ppm of CO2 will be leached from northern soils every year between 2016 and 2050, with about 1C worth of atmospheric warming during that period.
The study also shows that if Earth is warmed to 2C above preindustrial baseline temperature levels by 2050, which is essentially a certainty in the best-case scenario, then an average of approximately 0.71ppm of CO2 will be released from soils every year through the year 2050.
The Earth has already warmed by more than 1C above preindustrial baseline temperatures. It is unlikely that human civilization can survive warming of 3.5C or higher, as humans have never lived on a planet that warm. However, we are currently on track for a minimum warming of 5 to 7C, or worse, by 2100.
“It’s fair to say we have passed the point of no return on global warming, and we can’t reverse the effects,” Dr. Crowther told The Independent when the study was released. “But we can certainly dampen them.”
Other climate scientists emphasized the importance of using the soil study to inform measures to mitigate the damage of ACD. Professor Ivan Janssens with the University of Antwerp called the study “very important,” because the response of soils to ACD could well be one of the largest sources of uncertainty in climate modelling.
“We urgently need to develop a global economy driven by sustainable energy sources and start using CO2, as a substrate, instead of a waste product,” Dr. Janssens told The Independent. He suggested that if significant progress is made on this front, it may still be possible to avoid catastrophic warming.
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coloradobob
/ December 29, 2016Robert Plant & Alison Krauss – “Fortune Teller”
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coloradobob
/ December 29, 2016Robert Plant | ’29 Palms’
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coloradobob
/ December 29, 2016More monkey feces . let’s go back to grinding the Earth to every nickle we can get.
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coloradobob
/ December 29, 2016Isn’t that what it’s all about ? To grind the Earth into a fiction we call wealth ?
To rape the last corners, In the name of a God we all call Profit ?
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islandraider
/ December 29, 2016Keep flingin’ it CB! At least what you say makes sense. Very little of what I am seeing in this particular version of reality that we are experiencing right now makes any freaking sense at all. I am hoping for a new version soon…
“Only after the last tree has been cut down, Only after the last river has been poisoned, Only after the last fish has been caught, Only then will you find money cannot be eaten.”
~ Cree Prophecy
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ December 29, 2016Yeah, Trump is flinging feces at us all daily, no reason you shouldn’t too.
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coloradobob
/ December 29, 2016One more great comment we lost
“I’ve ceased to see where I’m goin'”
Tull – A Song for Jeffery – French TV 1969
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coloradobob
/ December 29, 2016Back To The Family-Jethro Tull
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coloradobob
/ December 29, 2016Jethro Tull – Stand Up
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coloradobob
/ December 29, 2016The real deal –
Jethro Tull – Back to the Family
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coloradobob
/ December 29, 2016RS
So sorry for my overboard these past few days. . And so sorry to the readers here.
I will not toss monkey feces for the next 29 mins.
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Ryan in New England
/ December 29, 2016I, for one, always enjoy your comments and links, Bob 🙂 Go ahead and throw that feces.
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12volt dan
/ December 29, 2016Your “feces” have more information than the denilalotti.
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12volt dan
/ December 29, 2016heh got it. my first foray into Nielsson.. picked up “son of” at a side walk sale in Huntsville in 73. bought everything i could after that and never looked back
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umbrios27
/ December 29, 2016Your comments are a delight to read, Bob, keep them coming, please!
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Cate
/ December 29, 2016Bob. Never stop.
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Ryan in New England
/ December 29, 2016Some relatively good news out of India.
According to a draft of the country’s 10-year energy blueprint, the Indian government expects that 57 percent of the country total electricity capacity will come from non-fossil fuel sources by 2027 — a marked increase over the country’s Paris goals, which say that the country will reach 40 percent non-fossil fuel electricity by 2030. The draft also noted that no new coal-fired power plants would be needed to meet India’s electricity demands through 2027.
https://thinkprogress.org/india-new-clean-energy-electricity-targets-d7773b884968#.m3u3gu1yy
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seal in the Selkirks
/ December 29, 2016Solar power at 1¢/kWh by 2025 – “The promise of quasi-infinite and free energy is here”
Thierry Lepercq, head of research, technology and innovation at the French energy company Engie SA, said in an interview at Bloomberg that he sees a potential for the cost of solar electricity to fall below $10-megawatt hour (1¢/kWh) in the sunniest climates by 2025. Lepercq believes “solar, battery storage, electrical and hydrogen vehicles, and connected devices are in a ‘J’ curve (of upward growth potential).” One consequence of this new energy economy is that, “the price (of oil) could drop to $10 if markets anticipate a significant fall in demand.”
“The promise of quasi-infinite and free energy is here.”
The key argument being pushed regarding renewables by Lepercq is price – nothing to do with environmental concerns at all. From a business perspective, Engie is hoping to grow into the microgrid market in the coming years – as can be noted by the combination of technologies and studies from the article:
In France, Engie recently conducted a “very deep modeling” of the Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur region of 5 million inhabitants, showing it could run entirely on renewables by 2030 for as much as 20 percent less cost than the current energy system, Lepercq said. Solar, wind, biogas, large-scale battery storage and hydrogen would be key elements.
As we’ve seen in the past year, the price of utility scale solar electricity in sunny climates has plummeted. This has led to significant thought about what the results of “quasi-infinite and free energy” could lead toward. Israel has solved water problems in a desert with the largest solar desalination plant on the planet. China has suggested a $50 trillion global HVDC electricity grid to take advantage of global renewable energy resources. Not to mention that a massive build out of solar power would add tens of millions of jobs globally.
In order to cover all basis, there are even efforts, like the Land Art Generator Initiative (pictured above), that hope to prove to us that ‘renewable Energy can be beautiful.”
Electricity prices on the German (wholesale) spot market are negative today: not enough flexibility to cope with extreme wind energy output. pic.twitter.com/LoPOAbSSDD
— Kees van der Leun (@Sustainable2050) December 26, 2016
Those forward-looking ideas are of course countered by the hard economics hitting business and people today. Other forms of energy are requesting economic support (coal & nuclear) while we transition away from them toward cheaper sources. In Germany, where wholesale pricing of energy sometimes go negative (due to wind – pictured above – or solar), the nuclear industry has won compensation for its shut down. While the nuclear shutdown wasn’t directly due to the low price of renewables – the general population had a gut feeling that they can support this shutdown due to the ongoing energy revolution. The above-noted coal industry in the United States got plenty of attention in the recent Presidential election for its less than 200,000 jobs that are at risk.
There will be real world long-term consequences – $10/barrel oil might be one – for these coming low energy prices. What a surprise of course – most of the naysaying has been that renewables were too expensive, soon we’ll hear about how they’re too cheap.
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utoutback
/ December 29, 2016CB –
Back at ya!
“who they kiddin?”
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Ryan in New England
/ December 30, 2016A good article
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/38905-climate-change-2016-the-year-the-future-arrived
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DaveW
/ December 30, 2016Ryan – Excellent article – thank you for the link
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ December 30, 2016Scheduling tweet on this, thanks.
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islandraider
/ December 30, 2016But the comments. Oh, the comments. They are decidedly un-good.
That is the thing, really, that saps the hope. People. 7.4 billion & growing. Human nature. From what I have seen of human nature, even if we have the ability to avoid the worst of this, the nature of human beings prevents meaningful action on a scale to truly address the problems.
I worked for a number of years on a pollution prevention program in a small, rural, very liberal-leaning community. I was not tasked with saving the planet, or stopping global warming. I was simply trying to get people to understand what is a ‘hazardous waste’ & help them understand how to handle, store & dispose of it… and get them to stop dumping it into our local waterways & ecosystem. I had no ticket book. This project was education only. I resigned the position after several incidents. The final one involved a well-known, very liberal, Grateful Dead worshiping hippy was dumping chemicals into the bay. I tried to explain why this was a bad idea. I gave him options that did not cost anything (but did cause some inconvenience). He stood in front of my vehicle for 45 minutes swearing at me & telling me I did not deserve oxygen to breathe. I stood there & listened. I tried reason. As I had done countless times before, I tried to explain… I really tried… then I stood there while he yelled at me.
I think that there is no amount of awareness that will convince a significant portion of humanity to willingly lower their standard of living. This is their perception (real or not) that lowering fossil fuel use will result in a decrease in their, personal, standard of living. They are not going to willingly do this. While technologically possible to get out of our collective predicament, I think it is the nature of humans that we likely will not do it. I am sorry for the pessimism, but this is my read on the situation (after many, many years thinking, working & trying). That said, I am not sitting by idly. I have solar power in my home. I rarely drive an automobile. I grow food. Etc. As Chris Hedges has said: “I don’t fight fascists because I think I will win, I fight fascists because they are fascists!” Or to paraphrase: I don’t think we are going to win this fight, but I intend to fight to the bitter end nonetheless.
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DaveW
/ December 30, 2016Islandraider – unfortunately so true – I didn’t look at comments on 1st reading. Also wouldn’t have expected so many asinine comments on truth-out. Almost makes one suspect a conspiracy of trolling, subsidized by FF industry. Have come to expect such idiocy in AGW comments on WaPo, NYT, Guardian, etc .. but not on truth-out.
And as you say – the extent of inane asinine comments crushes hope…
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Genomik
/ December 30, 2016Ironic, Grateful Deadheads are a trip. Many are big lefty hippies but in some ironic twist many hard core Libertarian right wing people I know wear Grateful Dead on their sleeve. Its dumbfounding to me. Real hardcore ideology! I guess they want to be free to do what they want, take the drugs they want and pour all the chemicals they want into shared resources. Freedom!
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Cate
/ December 31, 2016re the perception that cutting fossil fuels will require a “lower” standard of living: in Collapse, Jared Diamond suggests that the First World will never voluntarily drop its expectations in order to share the planet’s resources equitably and sustainably with others. Given that planetary resources are finite and that population is still growing, and that the rest of the world wants everything the First World has, the logical conclusion is that our current First World standard of living is willy-nilly going to take a beating. It’s peaked and it’s coming down—my son’s generation are already priced out of the housing market, for one tiny example. So the only choice we have is, are we going to take some control over how our collective standard of living is transformed, or are we going to let (human) nature take its course in that regard?
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Leland Palmer
/ January 2, 2017Oh, I don’t think we have to lower the standard of living to fight global warming. The huge, huge resource of solar energy indicates that this is not necessary – at least not yet, and maybe never. We just need to change the technology. We can do fine, and live fine lives, with solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, and other sources of clean energy.
We can also put carbon back underground with BECCS (Biomass Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage) and bring the whole climate system back into control, I think:
I like the comments. I think they are full of energy, compassion, true feelings of hope and despair and interesting ideas.
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coloradobob
/ December 30, 201620,000 Fish Wash Ashore Dead in Canada
Up to 20,000 fish and other sea creatures have washed ashore dead in Western Nova Scotia, in Canada. The exact cause of the mass deaths off the coast of one of Maritime provinces in eastern Canada, is so far confounding officials, and concerning observers.
Canadian authorities say as many as 20,000 fish, lobsters, starfish, scallops, crabs and other animals have washed ashore dead at Savary Provincial Park. The number of species involved has gradually expanded as more creatures have washed ashore. None of the dead fish and sea creatures are safe to eat, authorities said.
http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2016-12-30/dead-fish-and-seafood-wash-ashore-in-nova-scotia-canada-worrying-residents-and-confounding-scientists
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Uncle B
/ December 30, 2016I read CNN’s version of this story. They mention warming waters, lack of oxygen, etc. But they stop short of assigning proper blame to man-made climate disruption. For them to say that experts are confounded is pure nonsense. Experts know exactly what the hell is causing this.
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redskylite
/ December 30, 2016Thanks for sharing this article Coloradobob – I’ve read 3 different reports that all suggest that the investigating scientists are flumm0xed (if not stumped – “no-one knows!”) , and one suggestion it’s been caused by a recent marine turbine power generation project. Pretty poor reporting on a sad and so far unexplained event. A better article today in the New York Times that at least acknowledges that we are effecting the marine ecology detrimentally.
“We used to come right here and catch two, three, four thousand pounds a day, sometimes 10,” he said, sitting at the wheel of the Proud Mary — a 44-footer named, he said, after his wife, not the Creedence Clearwater Revival song — as it cruised out to sea.
But like many other fish on the Atlantic Coast, whiting have moved north, seeking cooler waters as ocean temperatures have risen, and they are now filling the nets of fishermen farther up the coast.
Studies have found that two-thirds of marine species in the Northeast United States have shifted or extended their range as a result of ocean warming, migrating northward or outward into deeper and cooler water.
Wishing all the “scribblers” a happy 2017 and hoping for progress in our efforts to de-carbonise our energy sources.
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coloradobob
/ December 30, 2016“And our management system is not as nimble as the fish.”
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coloradobob
/ December 30, 2016Marine species, Dr. Manderson said, are moving north at 10 times the rate of animals on land.
“Our ideas of property rights and laws are purely land-based,” he said. “But the ocean is all about flux and turbulence and movement.”
He added, “Even the science is too slow.”
Fish Seek Cooler Waters, Leaving Some Fishermen’s Nets Empty
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Cate
/ December 31, 2016http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/dfo-update-dead-sea-creatures-nova-scotia-digby-1.3916481
DFO now saying probably environmental—possibly a dip in water temps because of a storm? The thing is, the only fish affected were herring. The rest were shellfish and bottom feeders, and all in a very local area. Despite not knowing the cause, DFO is adamant that the fish are not safe to eat, but how can they say that if they don’t know what caused the mass kill? At least they have–sensibly—ruled out that new undersea turbine. Some of the comments by folks who know the area are blaming nearby fish farms (pesticide use, etc)— which DFO in its wisdom would probably choose not to implicate.
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Cate
/ December 31, 2016http://canadians.org/blog/kent-county-chapter-petition-dead-herring-crisis-signed-43828-people
The Council of Canadians has organized a petition on the dead herring crisis, in view of the sort of “information” DFO is providing:
Yesterday, the Canadian Press reported, “Scientists have yet to find a cause for the massive fish kill off southwestern Nova Scotia, but one federal official said he doesn’t think there is a reason to be concerned based on testing so far. Kent Smedbol, manager of population ecology for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), said Friday that while the lack of an obvious cause is ‘perplexing’, he doesn’t personally believe there is need for concern at this point. Smedbol said that to date scientists have not turned up evidence of disease, parasites or toxins, and nothing has ‘stood out’ in the physical examination of the fish and other marine life.”
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Cate
/ December 31, 2016Detailed piece on the NS herring die-off, listing and analysing possible causes.
NOTE: If warming waters due to climate change is the cause “this falls into the category of something entirely new…..”
“Possible Cause 8: Climate Change
Prof. Ted Leighton was quoted above talking about the “crazy warm” temperatures we have been experiencing and it is well known that the ocean is rapidly becoming more acidic, for example. If this is the cause, it falls into the category of something entirely new and not seen before in human history. At this stage, Porter says, he has been assured by DFO that “nothing has been ruled out.” No stone can be left unturned with this crucial marine food-chain fish population.”
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miles h
/ January 3, 2017“everything is dead”… http://www.thebigwobble.org/2017/01/everythings-dead-marine-mystery-in.html
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Leland Palmer
/ January 6, 2017Hi Cate-
I was wondering about hypoxia of the water in that area of Nova Scotia.
“Parsons said the majority of dead fish have been found in St. Marys Bay between the Sissiboo River and Plympton.”
Image of St. Mary’s Bay in the area of the Sissiboo River and Plympton, from NASA Worldview, on the 21st of December, 2016.
http://go.nasa.gov/2iKPUSK
That area was showing very high chlorophyll a concentrations, meaning a probable algae bloom, and so likely low oxygen levels, I think. As can be seen parts of that area are in the highest (dark red) color of chlorophyll a concentration, and so were likely quite hypoxic.
Herring, according to a scientific paper I’ve located, are affected by hypoxia – their swimming speed increases, and their schooling is disrupted.
So, it makes a consistent hypothesis, I think, that the high chlorophyll a levels might have had something to do with the dead herring. Dissolved oxygen levels were measured on the 29th of December, and by that time the scientists say the dissolved oxygen levels were “normal”. St. Mary’s Bay often has very high chlorophyll a levels, though, and probably routinely low dissolved oxygen levels. Unfortunately, the chlorophyll a images from NASA are severely affected by cloud cover, so we cannot tell what the chlorophyll a levels were on the 29th.
The Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world, and there are tidal power projects in the area, although I couldn’t find any in St. Mary’s Bay specifically. The dikes used to restrict tidal flow in such projects could potentially increase local hypoxia. The potential tidal power resource of the Bay of Fundy is huge. So there could conceivably be a cover up of the relationship between tidal power and hypoxia, to protect that potentially huge and profitable power source.
If there is a trade off between tidal power and fish kills, I’d say that the tidal power production is the most important.
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coloradobob
/ December 30, 2016Record low tide dries Venice’s famous canals
The exceptionally water levels have been caused by abnormal tides this year, combined with drastically reduced winter precipitation rates across northeastern Italy, La Nuova Venezia reported.
Link
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Jeremy in Wales
/ December 30, 2016On the plus side they have their first electric hybrid Vaporetto – waterbus plus a barrage to protect Venice from the rising seas.
http://www.thelocal.it/20161215/venice-just-got-its-first-electric-waterbus
not exactly a technological leap but another sign cities are ahead of nation states.
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Jeremy in Wales
/ December 30, 2016Bob, in these long dark nights if you need to be reminded of the joys of life this song does it for me, at the moment.
Don’t let the title put you of Sebona Fi means something like “lather me”! A translation of the lyrics is here: https://www.musixmatch.com/lyrics/Yws-Gwynedd/Sebona-Fi/translation/english
The first time I met a oil driller was hitch hiking back from geological mapping on Anglesey, when I got a lift with a driller on leave from the North Sea rigs in a souped up Ford to his home town of Bleanau Ffestiniog (the back end of nowhere) mad as a hatter and drove like one but real fun. Walked through the town – totally dead – and spent an hour vainly trying to get a lift when a truck came to a halt – it was the same guy off on his second job as a college DJ – eventually got to Aberystwyth to find the Argies had invaded the Falklands landing us with Thatcher for another 9 years. Her one saving grace – being a chemist – she took Global Warming seriously.
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coloradobob
/ December 30, 2016WOW …. Great stuff, no wonder the English never really beat you folks. As Micheal Keaton said all those years ago , ” It’s good to be young and insane “
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coloradobob
/ December 30, 2016Climate change and the Great Lakes
The latest vandalism from the Dork Side is censoring the concept of “climate change” from a Wisconsin governmental website
Link
It was there all time, right under our noses. ……………. the Dork Side ……………… Beautiful.
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ December 30, 2016Mexico’s climate migrants already coming to the United States | Grist http://grist.org/article/mexicos-climate-migrants-are-already-coming-to-the-united-states/
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ December 30, 2016Scientist used to doubt climate change was melting huge Greenland glacier. Not any more. http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/business/2016/12/30/with-enough-evidence-even-skepticism-will-thaw/
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ December 30, 2016These graphics show how terrible climate change was in 2016 | HuffingtonPost http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/climate-change-2016_us_5863dcb5e4b0d9a59459b4e1
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ December 31, 2016‘Dilbert’ creator Scott Adams issues bad-faith ‘climate challenge’ – The Verge http://www.theverge.com/2016/12/29/14112056/dilbert-scott-adams-climate-change-challenge-models-carbon-dioxide
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coloradobob
/ December 31, 2016The End of the World ………
I used to curl my toes over the edge of the world, and there I looked down, but I never fell, and I never jumped. But now the world is falling, the world is jumping.
Some how I understand this madness.
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coloradobob
/ December 31, 2016The World is not the Earth , it is us. It’s those clay book keeping tablets.
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coloradobob
/ December 31, 2016The deniers say the Earth will go on. Yes , yes it will . Weather we get to make the trip with it is another question.
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Tigertown
/ December 31, 2016“The meek shall inherit the Earth.” Jesus said in the sermon on the mount. Meek people are willing to listen, learn, change, and don’t look out only for themselves.
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coloradobob
/ December 31, 2016All true , but in modern American Jesus is packing an AR-15 .
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coloradobob
/ December 31, 2016Tigertown –
I can’t explain why we became so mean, crazy, and nasty. But we did.
Jesus is packing an AR-15, and he will shoot every mother fucker who doesn’t believe in peace and love.
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Leland Palmer
/ January 6, 2017Hansen has changed his mind about the Venus Syndrome, in which the Earth becomes a twin of Venus due to runaway global warming. He now says he was wrong and that true runaway global warming is not possible. He talks about a low level runaway, these days.
I think, though, myself, that once the oceans start to boil all bets are off. Being dogmatic in a hugely complex situation seems very risky, and we might only get to perform this global warming experiment once.
Isaksen and others say that there is strong positive feedback between atmospheric chemistry changes and methane concentration, with the secondary effects of CO2 production from methane, tropospheric ozone, stratospheric water vapor, and exhaustion of the hydroxyl radical increasing methane lifetime being several times greater than the effect of methane without the secondary effects. So the secondary effects of methane release on radiative forcing are several times greater than that of the methane minus the secondary effects. I’ve seen scientific papers where methane lifetime increases from 8 years to 40 years as the hydroxyl radical becomes exhausted, if huge amounts of methane are released.
What if we have 100 trillion tons of methane hydrate in the global methane hydrate inventory? We’re coming out of a series of ice ages, and methane hydrate inventories could be at an all time high, maybe.
Add to that exhaustion of the oxidation mechanisms and increasing release of methane to the atmosphere from the oceans as basin scale exhaustion of nutrients and anoxia kicks in. Add to that the presence of a small percentage of high salt methane hydrate deposits that could be very sensitive to warming because they are at the triple point of the solid/liquid/gas hydrate system. Add to that methane from the permafrost, CO2 evolving from the oceans as water temperatures rise, and 7% increase in water vapor concentrations with each degree of global warming.
I sometimes wonder if the huge reservoirs of carbonate in the oceans could start dissolving in the more acidic ocean, and the carbonate end up as CO2. Chemical reactions are reversible, given a change in the reaction conditions. But there is a huge amount of dissolved CO2 in the oceans, even without that possibility.
The End Permian is still plausibly a methane catastrophe involving dissociation of methane hydrates, and there is still a large body of work supporting that theory. What impresses me about the methane catastrophe general theory of mass extinction events is that it makes good predictions…that also check out quantitatively when you do the carbon isotope ratio excursion calculations. In my laboratory experience, when a hypothesis starts making good qualitative predictions, it is probably right. When it makes good quantitative predictions, almost always it is the correct theory.
Add to that the fact that according to the astrophysicists the sun is 2-3% hotter than it was when the End Permian killed off about 90% of all species…surely more than 99.9% of all individual organisms.
Add to that the probable huge increase in hydrogen sulfide concentration, potentially killing both plant and animal life.
Will another greenhouse gas, carbonyl sulfide, sometimes thought to be a significant greenhouse gas in the early earth, become more common as plants die and enzymes in the plants slow their destruction of carbonyl sulfide?
The earth will continue? Maybe it will continue as a completely sterile twin of Venus. Maybe it will continue as a planet deprived of all higher forms of life. The question is how will it continue, unless we stop global warming?
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umbrios27
/ January 6, 2017That´s the worst nightmare I can imagine, but I still hope it´s improbable, because, at least to my eyes, it seems that the lag between emissions and temperature rise isn´t as big as once thought. And also, as far as I see, civilization isn´t that resilient. So, even though that seems to be the path we´re on, we´ll see civilization collapse before global extinction of all megafauna, and civilization collapse will curb emissions enough to avoid the worst fate.
Of course, I hope we´ll take the third path: curbing our emissions voluntarily (or a mish-mash of that… economic recession here in Brasil guaranteed that we´re in the target for the Paris goals and more, for example. There´s no need of full on societal collapse to curb emissions involuntarily), to keep both our civilization and a livable planet. Path seems dire most of the time now, but the possibility still exists.
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Leland Palmer
/ January 8, 2017Hi Umbrios-
I don’t think it is possible to assess probabilities yet. It’s a hugely complex situation. It may already be too late, or we may have decades or even centuries to go before positive feedback driven runaway effects emerge. The ice albedo positive feedback in the Arctic may already have doomed us.
If it weren’t for the methane hydrates, I wouldn’t be so worried, Umbrios. If it weren’t for the shallow subsea permafrost of the Siberian arctic shelf capping maybe 500 billion tons of carbon as methane (about 100 times the amount in the atmosphere now), I wouldn’t be so worried. If we have 5 trillion tons carbon in the methane hydrates, that’s 1000 times the amount in the atmosphere right now. If we have 50 trillion tons of carbon in the methane hydrates, that’s 10,000 times as much methane as we have in the atmosphere right now.
The huge quantities involved are scary – “The ocean, with around 38,000 gigatons (Gt) of carbon (1 gigaton = 1 billion tons), contains 16 times as much carbon as the terrestrial biosphere, that is all plant and the underlying soils on our planet, and around 60 times as much as the pre-industrial atmosphere, i.e., at a time before people began to drastically alter the atmospheric CO2 content by the increased burning of coal, oil and gas. At that time the carbon content of the atmosphere was only around 600 gigatons of carbon.” Most of this carbon is in the form of bicarbonate, which can transform into carbonic acid, and then dissociate into CO2 and water, especially under acidic conditions, I think. I need to find out more about this. Certainly, CO2 will start to come back out of the oceans due to warming of the oceans driving dissolved CO2 out of the oceans. Will the 28 trillion tons of bicarbonate in the oceans also start to become a source of atmospheric CO2?
So, only a small percentage of methane hydrates would have to dissociate to initiate a chain of events leading to ever increasing release of methane into the atmosphere.
I’ve never seen a scientific paper that I consider to be a worst case scenario, complete with oceanic anoxia leading to increased methane release, CO2 coming back out of the oceans into the atmosphere, and atmospheric and oceanic chemistry changes due to methane release
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umbrios27
/ January 9, 2017That´s why I said “I hope it´s improbable”. You´re right, we don´t known, and I don´t even known if there is someone who knowns.
But I hope this won´t happen. The collapse of civilization seems bad, but it´s also a great many stories begginning… it leaves a future behind (and even if that future is not for humans, who knowns, crows may build a better civilization than we did in the future).
Venus Syndrome… That is the death of everything that lives that we known of. It´s a different size of horror. One I try to ignore as a possibility, because what´s needed to stop it is the same that´s needed to stop the lesser evils, and contemplating it would paralise me like a deer in headlights.
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Leland Palmer
/ January 12, 2017Hi Umbrios-
I forgot to include the impacts of hydrogen sulfide saturating the hydroxyl radical oxidation mechanism in the atmosphere on the possible runaway scenario.
This is a scary, scary paper:
http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/33/5/397.full.pdf+html
Massive release of hydrogen sulfide to the surface ocean and atmosphere during intervals of oceanic anoxia:
“Abstract
Simple calculations show that if deep-water H2S concentrations increased beyond a critical threshold during oceanic anoxic intervals of Earth history, the chemocline separating sulfidic deep waters from oxygenated surface waters could have risen abruptly to the ocean surface (a chemocline upward excursion). Atmospheric photochemical modeling indicates that resulting fluxes of H2S to the atmosphere (2000 times the small modern flux from volcanoes) would likely have led to toxic levels of H2S in the atmosphere. Moreover,the ozone shield would have been destroyed, and methane levels would have risen to 100 ppm. We thus propose (1) chemocline upward excursion as a kill mechanism during the end-Permian, Late Devonian, and Cenomanian–Turonian extinctions, and (2) persistently high atmospheric H2S levels as a factor that impeded evolution of eukaryotic life on land during the Proterozoic.”
Oh, great. Now we have to worry about methane concentrations 50 times those of today, due to the impact of hydrogen sulfide on oxidation in the atmosphere. Oh, and destruction of the ozone shield.
The sun is 2-3 percent hotter now than it was during the End Permian, and we are just barreling into this possible Mother of all Mass Extinctions.
I guess lemmings don’t really rush into the sea, that is a myth, apparently. It’s hard to admit that the entire human race is not even as smart as a small rodent.
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coloradobob
/ December 31, 2016And Jesus is packing an AR-15, and he will shoot every mother fucker who doesn’t believe in ” peace and love.”
The best line I ever wrote. And I penned so good ones.
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coloradobob
/ December 31, 2016Hell comes to breakfast.
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coloradobob
/ December 31, 2016Good lines are good because they are true. To say so much in 4 words is even better.
Thus ends my writing lesson.
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coloradobob
/ December 31, 2016Now, back to money feces, it’ll take some time, the world is a wash in money feces,.
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coloradobob
/ December 31, 2016Now, I have to pull an old rabbit out of my butt.
Here it is …………………
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coloradobob
/ December 31, 2016I racked my brain for this one – Right under my nose.
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coloradobob
/ December 31, 2016There’s so much under my butt, and my nose. I never know where to go..
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coloradobob
/ December 31, 2016I know one thing, this is the time, this is place , this is the man.
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coloradobob
/ December 31, 2016Now let’s get on with it. This the team . Let us go forward.
Forget the old dark comments
How can we change the world ?
I’ve read too much here to doubt we can’t.
We are Bigger Than Dallas.
We can bend the world. .
Every day in every way we bend the world.
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coloradobob
/ December 31, 2016We kick ass.
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coloradobob
/ December 31, 2016I came here as a dark watcher. Now I think our band can change the world.
We are pretty fuckin’ smart..
Let’s get on with it.
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Bluesky
/ December 31, 2016Hi, does anyone in here know if the albedo effect is weaker in the Antarctic, than in the arctic? Peter wadhams talks about it in his book, and by how much?
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umbrios27
/ January 2, 2017The albedo effect is weaker in the Antarctic because the ice in the South Pole is the glaciars above the landmass, not the sea ice. So most of the albedo effect won´t happen until the ice sheets are gone (losing West Antartica will cause a huge albedo effect, but the sea ice in the south is a very small percentage of the ice).
Also it helps that the “dark snow” effect is a bit less grave here in the south (both because of less coal usage and less industrial capacity). And up until last year (2016 is last year already), sea ice was growing in the Antarctic, not dwindling (melt water from the landed glaciers makes the sea water colder and fresher, aiding ice formation). I´m not sure if the diminishing ice in 2016 was a bad thing or not. Maybe we had less melt water? Or maybe now things are so hot that the melt water effect doesn´t matter anymore? Yes, I known, probably the last one.
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Bluesky
/ January 3, 2017Awesome, thanks for answering
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Bluesky
/ December 31, 2016Was looking at the 2010-2015 average for the antarctic sea ice extent, we are now 2,3 million km2 under here at yesterday 30/12.
Compared to the 2013-2014 average, then we are 3,4 million km2 below.
Will be very exciting to see if the low trend in antarctic will continue next year.
https://ads.nipr.ac.jp/vishop/#/extent
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ December 31, 2016Trump and climate change — a vicious circle http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2016/12/30/trump-and-climate-change-vicious-circle/komVShaqyLXnxPH09rjbyK/story.html?event=event25
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Genomik
/ January 2, 2017Excellent article. Its exactly what I tell my right wing anti immigration friends. If you really dont want immigrants you should help stabilize the climate. Trumps policies will create more refugees. But then again I often think the right likes things to become catastrophes. Folks go to church and get more desperate. Its done in Middle East Politics which is a good model for the GOP
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Cate
/ December 31, 2016TURN IT UP. BELT IT OUT. 2016, you are so DONE.
Happy Hogmanay, everyone! 😀
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ December 31, 2016High demand, low supply: Colorado River water crisis across West : NPR News http://www.npr.org/2016/12/30/507569514/high-demand-low-supply-colorado-river-water-crisis-hits-across-the-west
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ December 31, 2016Climate [science] denial and the rise of authoritarianism | Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ralf-michaels/climate-change-denial-and_b_13547636.html?utm_content=buffer51715&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Great anecdote:
“One of the strangest stories about totalitarian regimes comes from Romania. Under the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu, the official temperature in Romania was never below 10 degree Celsius. No matter the snow and ice, the weather reports would always have temperatures above 10 degrees. The reason? Below that, the law required the heating to be turned on in public places, and Romania could not afford this.
“It is hard to say what is stranger about the story. A dictator who feels so omnipotent that he pretends he could change the reality of the weather? Or a population so misled, misinformed, or disillusioned that it will put up with the weather reports over what it knows to be true?
“Today, the story is not so strange anymore … “
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mlparrishI
/ December 31, 2016OT, but an interesting Climate Reanalyzer shot of ocean temperature anomaly from today shows spectacular thermohyaline flow with cold water from the North Atlantic cold spot draining south in an inverted V , directly south into the southern hemisphere, and also mixing along the NE Atlantic coast with the hot Gulf Stream. I don’t recall seeing the pattern this pronounced before, though my viewing is a little spotty. I really don’t know if the extent is anomalous, if the volume of flow has increased, taking all that cold south. The seas are very much warmer above the cold spot than on the Pacific side.
http://cci-reanalyzer.org/wx/DailySummary/#SST_anom
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CD
/ December 31, 2016“Scientists Stumped By Thousands Of Dead Fish Off Nova Scotia”:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dead-fish-nova-scotia_us_58673890e4b0de3a08f88f20
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Marianne
/ December 31, 2016Happy new year everybody. Hang on in there! ⛄
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ December 31, 2016Same to you. Definitely hoping for a little better 2017 in terms of climate action.
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DaveW
/ December 31, 2016From Gail at Wit’s End:
David T. Lange, Au Revoir
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ December 31, 2016Oh geez, so sorry to hear this. Thanks for posting.
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mlparrish
/ December 31, 2016Dave
Thanks for this.
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redskylite
/ December 31, 2016Thanks for sharing – RIP David T. Lange, a great contributor, role model and a deeply concerned and caring individual.
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Jay M
/ January 1, 2017RIP DTL, really had a knack for interpreting what is going on
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utoutback
/ January 1, 2017Only knowing dtl from this site I found him to speak passionate truth.
RIP the trouble of this world our no longer your concern.
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Vic
/ January 1, 2017Tally-ho DT Lange.
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Ailsa
/ January 1, 2017Oh my. A beautiful tribute. What a great loss. A voice of passion and reason that always seared through here. Thank you DT.
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Suzanne
/ January 1, 2017OMG…I just didn’t want to believe that he was gone. Makes me feel so sad. He died the day after the election..
Just so sad…we have lost a true warrior. No words.
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Cate
/ January 1, 2017Oh no. As we feared. I’m gutted—so sorry to hear this news—thanks, Dave. My sincere condolences to his family.
Thank you, DT, you–your voice, your eye—were a true inspiration to the scribbler community. We miss you every day.
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Syd Bridges
/ January 1, 2017Goodbye, DT. You are, and will be, sorely missed.
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Mark in OZ
/ January 2, 2017Many thanks Dave
Ave atque vale, DT.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge and wisdom!
Sincerity is one of the greatest ways to encourage.
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Ryan in New England
/ January 2, 2017Oh no! I am heartbroken 😦 I will truly miss DT and all the wisdom and passion he shared with us.
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Witchee
/ January 3, 2017I have been thinking about DT, especially lately. My deepest condolences to his friends (among whom I include us) and family.
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Matt
/ January 5, 2017OMG have been unable to get this far down the blog until now as so many posts! Just so sad 😦 Thank you so much Dave for letting us all know.
Thankyou DT I have learnt so much from your posts and you inspired me to renew my efforts in educating others.
Condolences to family friends and all here on this amazing blog.
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eleggua
/ January 7, 2017Very, very sorry to hear this news.
Condolences to David’s wife, family and close friends, and to all of his friends here.
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wili
/ January 1, 2017Best to all in the coming year. Don’t let it bring you down…it’s only castles burning…
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islandraider
/ January 1, 2017David T. Lange,
RIP. One of the voices that made sense. Bless you & rest well, my friend! I sincerely hope the new reality is an improvement!
Another one of the best, this one lost years ago… Jimmy Spheeris. I Am The Mercury Light of the Morning…
Peace.
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Abel Adamski
/ January 1, 2017Farewell for now DTL
Our earth has lost another special one who had a heart and a soul
He is sorely missed
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cushngtree
/ January 1, 2017DTL died the day after the election–I’m thinking it just literally broke his heart.
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Jeremy in Wales
/ January 1, 2017Been reading a Scientific American article “The Permafrost Prediction” by Ted Schuur, http://www.nature.com/scientificamerican/journal/v315/n6/full/scientificamerican1216-56.html
and while it confirms what we all know, that the permafrost is thawing it was slightly reassuring in that it was thought that no one big burp of CO2 or methane was coming, although the figures are still staggering. This seems to be confirmed by this other article, https://www.sciencenews.org/article/data-show-no-sign-methane-boost-thawing-permafrost which seems to confirm that the permafrost will itself not be responsible for any massive methane release, the drying of the permafrost areas may dampen methane production. Of course this ignores clathrates.
With all the potential sources of CO2 and methane eliminating CO2 emissions will not be sufficient. so how do we start to lock the excess back up. Replanting forests, re-instating bogs, bio-char and soil enrichment or mechanical sequestration. Will forest have a chance to re-establish in the permafrost lands, http://munin.uit.no/bitstream/handle/10037/4051/article.pdf?sequence=1.
Whatever routes are chosen it still seems to suggest big government to implement and republican America has a aversion to this, perhaps it will have to be corporate big government which gets a free pass the world over.
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ January 1, 2017Can a federal govt scientist in California convince Trump climate change is real? – LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-climate-scientists-donald-trump-20161230-story.html
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ January 1, 2017The next climate migrant wave is coming http://timesofoman.com/article/99516/Opinion/Columnist/Most-climate-migrants-will-relocate-within-their-own-borders-but-others-will-have-no-choice-but-to-s
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ January 1, 2017How climate change threatens Italy’s famed Amalfi Coast – Christian Science Monitor http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Inhabit/2017/0101/How-climate-change-threatens-famed-Amalfi-Coast?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter #globalwarming #divest
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ January 1, 2017Earth scientists freaking out. NASA urges calm. | LiveScience http://www.livescience.com/57349-earth-scientists-are-freaking-out-nasa-urges-calm.html?utm_source=notification
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ January 1, 2017Living On Earth: Michael Mann and America’s climate [science] denial madhouse http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.html?programID=16-P13-00053&segmentID=1
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redskylite
/ January 1, 2017An interesting piece from Bob Henson in the Wunderblog on possible 2017 weather/climate attributes. (Teleconnections between the PDO state and ENSO in particular). Could we be in for another El Nino ?
“Strong El Niño events like the one we just had are usually followed by a significant La Niña event. If the atmosphere instead ends up cueing El Niño for 2017-18, it would reinforce the notion that we’ve entered a positive phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation–a sign that we might expect more El Niño than La Niña events for as long as a decade or two.”
https://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/looking-ahead-to-2017-what-to-watch-for-weather-and-climatewise
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redskylite
/ January 1, 2017More on the inequality of Climate Change effects and conclusions from a team of scientists at Stanford and the University of California, Berkeley . .
Climate change is going to be very bad for the global economy
“To predict just how various countries might suffer or benefit, a team of scientists at Stanford and the University of California, Berkeley, have turned to historical records of how temperature affects key aspects of the economy.
When they use this data to estimate how various countries will fare with a warming planet, the news isn’t good. ”
http://www.businessinsider.com/climate-change-effects-global-economy-gdp-2016-12?IR=T
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ January 2, 2017Scheduling tweet on this, thanks.
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coloradobob
/ January 1, 2017Oh no.
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coloradobob
/ January 1, 2017LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 1, 2017Gonna lose my way tomorrow,
gonna give away my car.
I’d take you along with me,
but you would not go so far.
Don’t see what I do not want to see,
you don’t hear what I don’t say.
Won’t be what I don’t want to be,
I continue in my way.
Don’t see, see, see where I’m goin’,
Don’t see, see, see where I’m goin’,
Don’t see, see, see where I’m goin’ to,
I don’t want to.
Everyday I see the mornin’ come on in the same old way.
I tell myself tomorrow brings me things I would not dream today.
Jethro Tull – Song for Jeffery –
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coloradobob
/ January 1, 2017I find it a comfort that we learn of DTL ‘s fate from gail zawacki. I remember her from the old Joe Romm site before those bozos at Thinkprogress swallowed it up.
A wicked smart treehugger . Finding out that she and DTL were online friends makes perfect sense. I saw a comment not too long along of hers, I forget where. She had a bad case of carbon blues that day.
Hope she drops by here.
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Eric Thurston
/ January 1, 2017RIP Dt lang
it is always a reminder, when someone we love and respect dies, how we are all mortal and transient on this planet.
We need to fight the good fight while we live and love life while we are alive and treat our fellow humans with compassion…
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DaveW
/ January 1, 2017Eric – thanks – suits DT to a Tee
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coloradobob
/ January 1, 2017Hear, hear , ………………………….. and learn to type with tears in one’s eyes.
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DaveW
/ January 1, 2017Utqiagvik, AK (Barrow) starts the new year hot – almost the entire North Slope of Alaska is at or above freezing New Years Day 2017 morning. …
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coloradobob
/ January 1, 2017Sweet Jesus, more bad news for the caribou. Yet another large scale ice making event. Let’s hope this isn’t sweeping into their winter range.
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Eric Thurston
/ January 1, 2017Best wishes to all for the new year.
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coloradobob
/ January 1, 2017I seems the Mayla monsoon is acting up –
More poor brown people swimming for their lives.
Floods in Malaysian states may end only in March –
WORST FLOODING IN 30 YEARS
The flood today is even bigger than in 1986. The water rose very fast. In less than two hours, water had entered our house.
http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/floods-in-malaysian-states-may-end-only-in-march
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017I find my intellect is turning into guacamole. bright green to black , with no lime juice to slow the oxidation .
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017A word about death, I live in the house where I nursed 3 of my family members before they died.
I have deep understanding of death. I was not a very good nurse. But I was there . Doing what needed to be done.
Believe me. die at home, and do it quick.
I am alone in this house tonight. So Believe me , better to drop dead. , than die of liver cancer.
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017This typing with tears is getting easier , Funny how humans can deal with anything.
I watched a Nature show last night , wolves hunting buffalo in Canada. Down stream from the oil sands.
This typing with tears is getting easier.
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017gail zawacki……………
Let us all go there and ask her to join us . I’m sure it’s the right thing to do .
I’m sure she needs some “new friends”.
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017The Carbon Blues is killing people all over the world.
What a song if I was just a song writer.
It is the headline in 2017 , ………………. We all got ” The Carbon Blues”.
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017It’s good to be old an insane.
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017The Carbon Blues
We all have the carbon blues now, whether we accept it, deny it, or are ignorant of it.
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DaveW
/ January 2, 2017We’ve all got the carbon blues…
the carbon dioxide blues…
the fossil fuel follies..
There has to be someone can write these blues properly
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017The great thing about DTL , he had bit is his teeth.
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017Trust me David , knew this as well .
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017Traffic & Jerry Garcia Mr Dear Fantasy
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017Traffic – Feelin’ Alright
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017One more –
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017Trust me these are the songs DTL wanted at his wake.
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017And one more that changed his life
19th nervous breakdown rolling stones
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017Trust me , in 65′ no one was green, We were going to live forever.
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017Once again I type with tears. Trying to push back the world as it is. Trying to deny the world as it is . But that is a fools folly, and no one knew that better than DTL.
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017Now we get down business. Last year was a walk in the park.
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Leland Palmer
/ January 8, 2017I think it’s likely we’ll get a highly deceptive pause in atmospheric temperature increase. I hope to Christ that’s true. Hell will be coming for breakfast during the next El Nino cycle, though.
The oceans will continue to absorb most of the heat, and more of that will come out during the next El Nino cycle. I hope that the oceans continue to be CO2 sinks.
As Robert has said, cooling from increased Greenland melting might slow things down a bit. The Siberian arctic shelf is a long way from Greenland, though. I just hope that Semiletov’s and Shakova’s sudden methane release from the Siberian arctic shelf scenario, releasing up to 50 Gt of methane doesn’t occur.
John Barnes’ science fiction book Mother of Storms has a scenario of the weather effects from such a methane release, with giant hurricanes that spawn multiple daughter hurricanes killing a billion people.. That scenario (minus the artificial intelligence entities that save us, and all the sex and drama, of course) seems possible. John Barnes’ science fiction generally contains hard science fiction ideas that are actually plausible. I wish I knew where he got the computer modeling that the book is likely based on.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_of_Storms
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017What the old system was an ebb and flow. All that is dead as a boot. All of that is under attack in our new world. Don’t bet on the old systems, What’s really crazy. Really, really crazy. The sun didn’t come up today In Barrow, but the land was melting.
Purely insane.
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017It’s like the death of DTL has opened the gates of Hell.
A double squall line is crossing us now. In winter. Like April.
We will be hard pressed to keep up with the all the crazy. DTL had an eye for crazy. But crazy is about to sit on all our faces.
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Greg
/ January 2, 2017Teared up here to hear the confirmation of DT leaving us. CB we lean on you more, you old Yoda you. Wonder if Robert could pay tribute and aggregate DT’s comments and create a link to them. Been so hard to contribute lately. I just don’t have it in me to read anything online. I’ve been getting my feet dirty, though. Finally, ditched the old honda aftwr 270,000 miles and have a plug in sucking juice out a socket. Been scaring the hell out of the squirrels. They don’t hear me coming no more….
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ January 2, 2017That’s awesome, congrats! What kind of EV did you get?
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017I will not lay down with the dogs. Right to the end DTL did not lay down with the dogs. He fought the best way he could. Right to the end.
That is an example for us all.
Trust me without dogs, and horses . We’d all be wiping our butts leaves . and grass.
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017I am so sick about this death. I race for meaning in it. Even if it’s an empty sack.
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Greg
/ January 2, 2017“Rage, rage against the dying of the light”
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017“Rage, rage against the machine”
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017I would post 4 articles we all could see, DTL would post 5 we would never see.
This hole in my heart. Matters. My heart is turning black.
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017Never lay down never quit .
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017Except for this –
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017What do tears on the web look like ?
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Suzanne
/ January 2, 2017Bob,
You have shown us what “tears look like on the web” …with your poignant musical posts.. Trust me your grief over the loss of DTL with these posts have had me in tears.
I know online connections are not suppose to be the same as “real” life connections…but I for one am feeling “real” pain at the loss of DTL….and I am for sure feeling your pain…through your posts.
Please stay strong Bob…we need you. Your wisdom, insights and passion.
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Cate
/ January 2, 2017Bob. What Suzanne said. You’re our poet, our prophet. Someone’s voice has to cry in the wilderness, and dammit, yours is the best. May we all shine on in memory of DT.
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017Easy money,and faithless women you never kill the pain.
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017Cry, Cry, Cry – Johnny Cash
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017One more
Waylon Jennings – Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way
Mike
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017RS –
This page is so large it won’t load.
Please time to step up. Like never before.
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017“Does any one know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours?”
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017Funny how this hangs on . Year after year. All over the world/
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017LikeLike
Bluesky
/ January 2, 2017Not long ago, DMI was trying to downplay the resent high temperatures for the people here in my country Denmark on their website, mainly because of the sun variations that was high in 2015-2016 they said, false information again from the mainstream media I think.
Here in Paul beckwith’s latest video he says, the radiactive forcing from the sun is only 0,25 W/m2 . That’s not a lot considering radiative forcing from fossils fuels are 3,7 W/m2 in all.
That means 1,25C :14,8 =0,08C extra warming because of the extra warming from the sun if Paul are correct.
Also in Paul Beckwiths latest video he say’s the radiactive forcing/colling from global dimming and albedo is 1,2 W/ m2 in all. Does that mean we maybe only from global dimming have around half the amount 0,6 W/m2 of extra radiactive forcing, when we stop our emissions?
I know I asked you about this not long ago Robert and you gaved me a good answer, and I have copied the link you sent to us about radiactive forcing, but the answer was a little too hard for me to understand as a non climatist that I am.
If it’s only around 0,5 W/m2 from global dimming then it’s good news, because that will only be around 0,15C extra warming from the 1,25C were are at now, so far far less than artic news blog are saying (2,5C).
Last, do you have a trusted and working site that converts from farhenheit to celsius?
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ January 2, 2017Google converts F to C and vice versa. Just type in the search box, for example,
72 f
and the “auto complete” feature will offer “72 fahrenheit to celsius” (or you can type in the whole query if you wish). It also converts all sorts of other units (acres to hectares, sq-km to sq-mi, etc.) and answers math questions (72*558=?).
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Bluesky
/ January 2, 2017Oh yes, that’s right thanks! Should have known that, have used google for converting hectares and miles before haha. Why could we not just use the same numbers around the world, would be much more easy..
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nwkilt
/ January 2, 2017For deeper math: https://www.wolframalpha.com/
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Bluesky
/ January 2, 2017I know my questions and comments often are off topic Robert, feel free to let me know if it dosen’t belong so well in here, I was thinking about creating an user on the artic sea ice forum anyway, where questions like above probably belongs/fits more in. Because it’s a ‘forum’ made for that and not a blog.
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017Bluesky
I’m the most off topic jackass in the history of the world.
DTL hacked up the most off topic fur balls we will ever read. So ask the question. Any minutiae , any hour, any day, any week.
Again what;s the question?
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Bluesky
/ January 2, 2017Haha ok Bob, sometimes it’s okay asking off topic questions I think 🙂
My question was how much warming we will get from global dimming, both numbers in W/m2 and in degree celsius.
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DaveW
/ January 3, 2017BlueSKy – here’s a good video on global dimming –
BBC Global Dimming Documentary. Some figures are given towards the end. Don’t recall W/m2 ( which varies in different areas of planet), but I think temp is believed to be 0.5&xB0;C or more.
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DaveW
/ January 3, 2017BlueSKy – here’s a good video on global dimming –
BBC Global Dimming Documentary. Some figures are given towards the end. Don’t recall W/m2 ( which varies in different areas of planet), but I think temp is believed to be 0.5°C or more.
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Bluesky
/ January 3, 2017I have seen that video, but Robert deleted it last time I it was showed in the comments in here, and that’s fair enough, it’s a interesting video but too much doomsday in the end.
My guess would be 0,5-1C degree warming from global dimming.
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Bluesky
/ January 4, 2017🙂
https://robertscribbler.com/2014/03/05/a-faustian-bargain-on-the-short-road-to-hell-living-in-a-world-at-480-co2e/
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robertscribbler
/ January 9, 2017🙂
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coloradobob
/ January 2, 2017Come on RS . We need your words. Our hole is as vacant as your hole.
Step up.
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Suzanne
/ January 2, 2017A December 2016 interview by Jennifer Hynes with Peter Wadhams:
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Bluesky
/ January 2, 2017Thanks I saw it yesterday with the link from you. Well, 2017 will be a very interesting year both in antarctic and the arctic. If you follow the artic sea ice forums, people are talking about an ice free septemper could easily happend this year.
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Suzanne
/ January 2, 2017Oops….brain fog set in and I forgot I had already posted. Well, glad you saw it..I thought it was a worthy interview.
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wharf rat
/ January 2, 2017Beijing smog: pollution red alert declared in China capital and 21 other cities
Authorities issue five-day warning and order schools to close, residents to stay indoors and heavy industry to slow or halt production
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/17/beijing-smog-pollution-red-alert-declared-in-china-capital-and-21-other-cities
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wharf rat
/ January 2, 2017How to Save $23 Trillion Per Year: 100% Renewable Energy for the World
By: Jeff Masters , 4:02 PM GMT on January 02, 2017
…in a series of talks last month in San Francisco at the annual meeting of The American Geophysical Union—the world’s largest conference on climate change. Stanford professor Dr. Mark Jacobson outlined a plan to power 139 nations of the world for all purposes—including electricity, transportation, heating/cooling, industry, and agriculture/forestry/fishing—using a mix of approximately 37% wind, 58% solar, 4% hydropower, and 1% geothermal, wave, and tidal power. He argued that his plan would:
1) Replace 80% of business-as-usual power by 2030, and 100% by 2050
2) Reduce power consumption by 42.5% because of electricity’s better work:energy ratio, efficiency, and lack of mining needed
3) Create 24.3 million more jobs than lost
4) Eliminate 3.5 million premature air pollution deaths per year and save $23 trillion (7.6% of GDP) in air pollution health costs per year by 2050 (for comparison: the World Bank estimated in 2016 that air pollution in 2013 killed 5.5 million people, with non-health care costs of over $5 trillion)
5) Save $28.5 trillion per year in avoided climate change costs by potentially keeping global warming 1.5°C below pre-industrial levels
6) Reduce war by creating energy-independent countries
7) Decentralize energy production, thereby reducing power outages, terrorism threats to energy installations, and energy poverty
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/how-to-save-23-trillion-per-year-100-renewable-energy-for-the-world
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JBowron
/ January 2, 2017You mean, I am sure , in Paragraph 5, ‘potentially keeping global warming 1.5 C ABOVE pre-industrial levels-little chance of it getting 1.5 degrees BELOW pre-industrial levels.
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ January 2, 2017Scheduling tweet on this, thanks.
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Jeremy in Wales
/ January 2, 2017Just as you posted this I was looking at some UK Department of Energy spreadsheets, one of which shows in thousands of tonnes oil equivalent the carbon displacement of renewable energy in electricity generation – 1990 it was 667,000 tonnes of which existing hydro was 437,000 tonnes with the balance landfill gas, sewage sludge etc. by 2000 it was 1,900,000 tonnes but wind energy only made up 81,300 tonnes oil equivalent. 2010 it was 5,036,000 tonnes oil equivalent, wind was by then 881,000 tonnes of oil equivalent but photovoltaics only 3,500 tonnes of oil equivalent. 2015 it was 12,117,000 tonnes of oil equivalent, wind was by then 3,465,700 tonnes of oil equivalent and photovoltaics 650,000 tonnes.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/renewable-sources-of-energy-chapter-6-digest-of-united-kingdom-energy-statistics-dukes
Another set of figures, maintained by a Kentish man Simon Mallett as a hobby, suggest that projects agreed with planning permission or being built have a total possible installed capacity of 33,566MW, doubling the present capacity. It also shows that the area covered by photovoltaics is now some 26 square miles!
http://www.renewables-map.co.uk/default.asp
2015 renewables made up 22% of UK electricity generation.
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ January 2, 2017Climate change in 2016: the good, the bad, and the ugly | John Abraham Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2017/jan/02/climate-change-in-2016-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ January 2, 2017Himalayan bloom brings spring forward (by 3 months!) – Climate News Network http://climatenewsnetwork.net/himalayan-bloom-spring-forward/
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ January 2, 2017At Maryland wildlife refuge, rising sea levels drown habitat – Baltimore Sun http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-blackwater-marsh-restoration-20161231-story.html
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ January 2, 2017Weak federal powers could limit Trump’s #climate-policy rollback | New York Times
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ January 2, 2017LikeLike
seal in the Selkirks
/ January 2, 2017We all kind of figured DT left the stage a while back, didn’t we? Everybody leaves, that is the only absolute we know of about this world.
DTL: I wish you well on what you are now doing on the other side of the curtain. Found out that consciousness didn’t stop with the body, didn’t you? Bon Voyage!
coloradobob, I too have sat with friends and family the almost dead as they were dying, doing energy work on failing bodies stuffed with pancreatic cancer or lung cancer or just being a broken down old car we live in that is giving out like it is supposed to. Are you the oldest left in your family, have you buried everybody also?
I agree with you, far better to die quick at home than being kept alive beyond all chance of recovery by machines and hospital beancounters looking for the last drop of insurance cash that can be squeezed out.
Suffering is not a sport it’s a curse. And your heart is NOT turning black. That is not acceptable. Like DT, keep doing what you do until you can’t do it any longer…at least not here on this planet.
Local Weather:
11″ of snow in 11 hours yesterday on my roof. 2:30am to 2pm New Year’s Day. The prediction was 1″ or less. We got pounded. Water content was below 15%. Too bad Oklahoma Senator Inhofe didn’t come try to make some snowballs to prove there ain’t no such thing as global warming again because it was impossible to pack one in your hands….
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Bluesky
/ January 2, 2017First day in 2017 starts with a high 4,53 ppm rise.
https://www.co2.earth/
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Bluesky
/ January 3, 2017Second day up with 5,22 ppm since last year, highest I have seen in the last 2 month.
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redskylite
/ January 2, 2017Some interesting observations from way down the southern half including the “well mixed gas”.
The Baring Head reading was particularly significant because most emissions occur in the northern hemisphere and the air arriving here originates far to the south, away from human activities.
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/methane-important-climate-change
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redskylite
/ January 2, 2017It’s good to read about scientists making valiant efforts to restore nature (and their valuable place in the natural carbon balance & marine ecology) where they can .
“A third of the way into a nine-year restoration program, Boyer is part of an effort to add four acres of eelgrass to the coastline each year. Ideally, adding this acreage will enable the new eelgrass beds to continue self-propagating after the project is over.”
https://news.mongabay.com/2017/01/restoring-seagrass-under-siege/
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Abel Adamski
/ January 3, 2017http://climatenewsnetwork.net/gas-flaring-oil-industry-saves-money/
Gas flaring grows as oil industry saves money
Waste natural gas flaring at oil sites around the world is on the up, cutting the industry’s costs but damaging the climate.
LONDON, 29 December, 2016 – Gas flaring figures are an indictment of the global oil and gas industry. In 2015, 147 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas was flared at oil production sites around the world – up from 145bcm in 2014 and 141bcm in 2013.
That’s a waste of energy on a massive scale: according to the World Bank, if the gas flared was used for power generation it would be more than enough to provide the current annual electricity consumption of the whole of Africa.
Oil producers often prefer to burn off gas associated with oil extraction activities rather than invest capital in pipes and pumping stations to transport the gas to consumers.
Visible from space
Gas flaring is also a significant factor driving global warming. More than 16,000 gas flares at oil production sites around the world result in about 350 million tons of climate-changing CO2 being emitted into the atmosphere every year. The flares from numerous shale oil wells in the US can be seen from space.
The World Bank says flaring in northern areas of the globe is also a major source of black carbon or soot which when deposited on Arctic ice, accelerates melting.
The latest data on flaring has been released by the Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership, a Bank-led organisation made up of governments, oil companies and various international bodies.
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deb
/ January 3, 2017This collection of cartoons sourced from this blog in 2016 – thanks CB et al – may be “spewing misanthropy”, which is “as dangerous as emitting carbon dioxide”, but I like it. The collection, not the hatred of man/womankind. Besides, I can think of worse uses for old picture frames…
/Users/deborahziehlke/Pictures/iPhoto Library.photolibrary/Masters/2017/01/03/20170103-154537/Cartoons cobb et al.jpg
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deb
/ January 3, 2017LikeLike
deb
/ January 3, 2017May I ask how one embeds a file from one’s own computer?
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miles h
/ January 3, 2017you have to put it online somehow… dropbox (and similar) allows files to be shared by link.
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deb
/ January 4, 2017Great, thanks.
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Abel Adamski
/ January 3, 2017The reality of what the American Voters have done
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/03/outcry-after-republicans-vote-to-dismantle-independent-ethics-body
Outcry after Republicans vote to dismantle independent ethics body
Office of Congressional Ethics was created in 2008 to investigate allegations of misconduct by lawmakers
House Republicans have gutted an independent ethics watchdog, putting it under their own control, in a secret ballot hours before the new Congress convened for the first time.
The unheralded vote severely weakens the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), which was set up after a lobbying scandal in 2008 to investigate corruption allegations against members of Congress. The move, led by the head of the House judiciary committee, defied the Republican congressional leadership and was reportedly supported by several legislators currently under OCE scrutiny.
Republicans’ plan to erase Obama legacy starts with chipping away at Obamacare
The amendment was voted through by the House Republican conference over the New Year’s holiday with no prior notice or debate and inserted in a broad rules package the House will vote for on Tuesday. It turns the formerly independent OCE into the Office of Congressional Complaint Review, a subordinate body to the House Ethics Committee, which is currently run by the Republican majority and has a long history of overlooking charges of malfeasance by lawmakers.
The new body will not be able to receive anonymous tips from members of Congress or make its findings public.
The vote comes at a time when the Republicans control all three branches of government and are seeking to remove some of the residual constraints on their powers. The rules package to be voted through on Tuesday, for example, will limit the ability of the Democratic minority to block legislation like the repeal of Obama’s Affordable Care Act by staging a filibuster.
It also comes at a time when president-elect Trump is attempting to fend off scrutiny over multiple conflicts of interests questions arising from his bid to keep his business empire in his family’s hands even after he takes office on 20 January.
The House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi, said: “Republicans claim they want to ‘drain the swamp’ but the night before the new Congress gets sworn in the House GOP has eliminated the only independent ethics oversight of their actions,” Pelosi said in a statement.
“Evidently, ethics are the first casualty of the new Republican Congress.”
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mlparrish
/ January 3, 2017Whew. What a relief. I was afraid such shenanigans were limited to NC.
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Abel Adamski
/ January 3, 2017http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2017/01/data-retention-laws-may-open-up-metadata-access-to-civil-court-cases-have-your-say/
The Australian Government Wants To Use Your Phone And Email Records In Court
Remember the data retention laws that were introduced late 2015? It forces telcos to retain metadata on mobile and broadband users for at least two years. The data would assist in criminal and terrorism investigations. Now the Government wants to open the data up to be used for civil lawsuits. It called for public to comment on the issue right before Christmas (cheeky bastards) and public comment submissions close January 13.
The Attorney-General’s Department (AGD) has opened up a review on data retention laws: “The Attorney-General’s Department is inviting submissions to support a review by the Minister for Communications and the Attorney-General into access to telecommunications data in civil proceedings.”
For those who are still unfamiliar with what metadata is, think of it as data about your data. This could include the name, source of a communication, duration and time of a communication. You can find the full list here. Some people would say that the information is insignificant but privacy experts have warned that you can build up a pretty accurate profile of an individual and their activities based on the metadata. That’s why police and security agencies want to get their hands on it.
There’s already an issue with random Government agencies applying to get access to the metadata that’s being collected (why does the Taxi Services Commission in Victoria want access?). Now the Government is toying with the idea of letting the data be used in civil cases. For example, if a corporation wants to take you to court (for say, copyright infringement?), the metadata an ISP collected on you would be pretty useful it.
Baby steps at first, Big Brother is watching and will know where you are , who your friends are, who you speak to, whistleblowers will be silenced one way or another .
Once the law is on the books, extension is a stroke of the pen
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Abel Adamski
/ January 3, 2017Back on subject
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2016/10/german-lawmakers-vote-to-ban-the-internal-combustion-engine/
The modern internal combustion engine first came from Germany and now Germany wants to put a nail in its coffin. The Bundesrat has passed a resolution to ban the ICE beginning in 2030.
Germany’s Spiegel Magazin reported this morning that the country’s top legislative body was able to reach a bi-partisan agreement that hopes to allow only zero-emission vehicles on EU roads in 14 years. For the resolution to be instituted across Europe, it will have to be approved by the EU.
But according to Forbes, “German regulations traditionally have shaped EU and UNECE regulations.”
Greens party lawmaker Oliver Krischer told Spiegel, “If the Paris agreement to curb climate-warming emissions is to be taken seriously, no new combustion engine cars should be allowed on roads after 2030.”
The resolution calls on EU automakers to “review the current practices of taxation and dues with regard to a stimulation of emission-free mobility.” Creating a tougher tax burden could encourage manufacturers to push electric vehicles into production sooner, rather than later
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Abel Adamski
/ January 3, 2017Too big a file with too many comments for poor ol firefox, had to revert to Chrome to get this post in
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Vic
/ January 3, 2017A recent survey of over 2,500 American drivers found that 60% were “unaware of electric cars”.
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ January 3, 2017Warming crushes global records again in 2016 | Climate Progress https://thinkprogress.org/2016-hottest-year-on-record-by-far-9fc58ac4cb96#.gflvgxw6w
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ January 3, 2017Witnessing Iran’s intensifying struggle with climate change – New Yorker http://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/a-witness-to-irans-intensifying-struggle-with-climate-change
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ January 3, 2017Solar could beat coal to become cheapest power on Earth – Bloomberg https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-03/for-cheapest-power-on-earth-look-skyward-as-coal-falls-to-solar
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mlparrish
/ January 3, 2017Interesting graph on monthly CO2 change and El Nino from Apocalypse 4 Real.
‘Global CO2 (ppm) Monthly 1 Year Change Trend and Enso 3.4, 1981 to October, 2016’
http://www.megiddo666.apocalypse4real-globalmethanetracking.com/2017/01/is-there-relationship-between-global.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Apocalypse4Real-GlobalMethaneTracking+%28Apocalypse+4+Real+-+Global+Methane+Tracking%29
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Shawn Redmond
/ January 3, 2017I know daily is noisy but look at this.
Mauna Loa Observatory | Atmospheric CO2 Concentrations
January 2, 2017
407.05 ppm
NOAA-ESRL
January 2, 2016
401.83 ppm
NOAA-ESRL
daily mean concentrations | ppm = parts per million
Highest-ever daily average CO2 at MLO: 409.44 ppm on April 9, 2016 (Scripps)
2nd highest daily average CO2 at MLO: 409.39 ppm on April 8, 2016 (Scripps)
Highest daily peak CO2 reported for MLO in 2015: 404.84 ppm on April 13, 2015 (Scripps)
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mlparrish
/ January 4, 2017SR,
Whoa, that’s an increase 1/2/16 – 1/2/17 of 5.22 ppm. From daily measurements, but still. That’s against the max April highs 1915-1916 of 4.60 ppm. The CO2 peak following the last El Nino is still going up at the fastest monthly rate ever and looks to be a doozy. Maybe A4R will give us a followup. Things are getting interesting.
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Shawn Redmond
/ January 4, 2017Yes a bit crazy ML and four months early, and I’m guessing you mean 2015-2016 above. Still just one day and hopefully that will be all, however even one day jumps like these make you worry about things like fundamental shift.
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mlparrish
/ January 5, 2017Sorry, 2015-2016. A one day jump is water lapping at the toes. If this is a fundamental shift it should be evident soon enough in the curve of that peak, among others. I remember a climate article from the journalist Gwynne Dyer a few months ago talking about non-linear reactions that climate scientists were fearful of. His words were “and this could be it”.
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wharf rat
/ January 3, 2017Two world-leading clean energy projects have opened in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
A £3m industrial plant is capturing the CO2 emissions from a coal boiler and using the CO2 to make valuable chemicals. It is a world first.
And just 100km away is the world’s biggest solar farm, making power for 150,000 homes on a 10 sq km site.
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-38391034
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coloradobob
/ January 4, 2017My apologies to our host , and to the readers , losing DTL, has hit me hard.
In my mind for years he was much younger man . Not an old buzzard like me. Yet another lesson in wisdom of old buzzards. Last week I watched the wolves kill an old male buffalo in Canada.
Some how the alpha wolf knew it was his time. In the morning there were no signs of a struggle. When we were still hunters, and gathers , and you couldn’t keep up, the bear came along and solved the problem.
Now we spend billions of dollars a year , so really old people can crap in bed , while we empty their Catheter bags.
Some how I think the bear was a better fate. And I’ve done that crapping bed deal.
I ain’t do that .
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Ryan in New England
/ January 4, 2017Losing DT has really hit me hard too, Bob. Although I never met him, I felt like I knew him from reading his thoughts and comments every day for a few years as he shared his wisdom and insights with us. And it was sudden and unexpected, we all expected him to be back. I’m devastated over the fact that I will never see another post from DT.
On that note, I’m beginning to worry about Robert. I hope he’s ok.
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coloradobob
/ January 4, 2017“On that note, I’m beginning to worry about Robert. I hope he’s ok.”
When he goes dark , it drives me crazy. I am selfish , and crazy. I only think of me.
When he lights up again, he brings the fire.
I bite my finger nails , so my purchase on the world has never had a sharp grip.
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Suzanne
/ January 4, 2017Ryan and Bob,
I am thinking he has taken a much deserved break from the blog over the Holidays. I would imagine if he didn’t he could go stark raving mad…or become ill. At least that is my hope. I think with the loss of DTL…it is just natural that we would be thinking the worse since RS hasn’t been around…and there has been so much “bad news” and thus stress for those of us here.
Sending out positive thoughts to RS and to everyone here….
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umbrios27
/ January 6, 2017The news of the death of DT were hard. For the first time this site was not safe from work… when I first saw it, I had to fight tears, and work is not a place where´s possible to cry. May not have known him in person, but… you all known.
But I believe Robert is just on vacation, and he trully deserves one. The article came just before Christmas and we´re still in the first week after New Year, it seems like a much needed end/beggining of the year break.
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coloradobob
/ January 4, 2017I spent my entire life being a lonely cynic , except for a few days of sunshine. To be here with you folks is sunshine. In a grim world you are all sunshine. In a grim world you are vision. In a grim world you are courage. In a grim world you are strength. In a grim world you are guts.
In a grim world you are friends. In a grim world you are my friends.
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coloradobob
/ January 4, 2017I really love all of you. Never give up , never lay down, unless a bear is about to eat your ass, and your really , really old.
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Witchee
/ January 4, 2017This is going to be my motto.
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coloradobob
/ January 4, 2017Now some great songs
Hannibal crossing the Alps ……………… Bolero – Maurice Ravel
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Suzanne
/ January 4, 2017Bob…Thanks again for all your incredible music selections. Eclectic, magnificent …and so healing.
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coloradobob
/ January 4, 2017Carthage nearly won this war. What world this be.
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coloradobob
/ January 4, 2017LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 4, 2017Blind Faith ~ Can’t Find My Way Home
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coloradobob
/ January 4, 2017The Texas Eagle –
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coloradobob
/ January 4, 2017LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 4, 2017LikeLike
DaveW
/ January 4, 2017“Interesting” analysis of CO2 levels – increasing levels, and increasing rate of increase Global CO2: October 2016 Hits a Record Monthly High and All-Time Increase
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coloradobob
/ January 4, 2017RS when you do this, the page never loads. Come on give us break. Open a new thread. Call it an open thread.
You really fail when this goes down It drives me insane. And yet over and over we do this.
You go dark, and we have 400 comments. Nothing loads.
Just write “Open Thread” …………. Then post. I need spend time with my love ones.
Come on , how hard is that ?
This darkness sucks . When you do this . It’s a real stupid flaw please change your ways.
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Abel Adamski
/ January 4, 2017I had to move to Chrome, just for this thread.
Works OK for now
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coloradobob
/ January 4, 2017This way has to change. You have huge readership now. You need to change.
Don’t leave us on threads on dead threads
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coloradobob
/ January 4, 2017This thread is 16 days old. There is cheeses in Italy younger than this.
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Genomik
/ January 4, 201716 days right thru the holidays when folks have time to read this blog as well. Perhaps he could find somebody to help put up some half completed articles during long hiatuses.
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climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ January 4, 2017Agree. Robert does a terrific job, but some other blogs have open topics that can be used just for miscellaneous comments. For instance, RealClimate, an excellent and authoritative blog, has one per month called “Unforced Variations.” Either a monthly one, or one that’s posted when/if a timeout is coming, might be a good idea, if only to handle Colorado Bob’s generosity :). Just a suggestion.
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robertscribbler
/ January 9, 2017Good idea and good point. Thanks for the feedback, CH.
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coloradobob
/ January 4, 2017I’ve been swimming in a sea of an anarcty livin’ on coffee , and nicotine.
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coloradobob
/ January 4, 2017LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 4, 2017sea of anarchy
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coloradobob
/ January 4, 2017Now there’s 3 words that say more, nearly 20 years ago……………. I’ve been livin’ on coffee , and nicotine.
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Bluesky
/ January 4, 2017Give the man a break, the thread is only 2 weeks old, it’s been christmas and new year and time for taking a break from the constant stress of the internet world, I respect it.
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coloradobob
/ January 4, 2017LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 4, 2017LikeLike
Swoozle
/ January 5, 2017+1
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g. orwell
/ January 5, 2017“Give the man a break…”
I second that.
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coloradobob
/ January 4, 2017Bluesky / January 4, 2017
Give the man a break,
That’s one thing I rarely hand out. You are right of course.
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coloradobob
/ January 4, 2017More massive waves hit ships.
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coloradobob
/ January 4, 2017Top 10 Shocking Ships in Storms
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Ryan in New England
/ January 4, 2017No matter how backwards the US becomes, the drop in price of renewables means the world will be transitioning away from fossil fuels. The US will miss out on a market worth trillions, and fall further behind other countries.
https://thinkprogress.org/clean-energy-charts-of-the-year-2016-93d781b55adb#.ame7lxsnp
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Ryan in New England
/ January 4, 2017But if the United States makes a historic blunder and shifts its focus back toward dirty energy just when the rest of the world has made a $50 trillion (or higher) commitment to a carbon-free future, then it won’t reap the vast job-creating benefits of the remarkable ongoing cost reductions shown in chart above.
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Shawn Redmond
/ January 4, 2017Lots of ponding and dark snow showing up on the Amery ice shelf now:
https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/?p=antarctic&l=MODIS_Aqua_CorrectedReflectance_TrueColor,MODIS_Terra_CorrectedReflectance_TrueColor,Coastlines&t=2017-01-04&z=3&v=1557136.4011122386,509607.6204683725,2089104.4011122386,852135.6204683725
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Shawn Redmond
/ January 4, 2017[ Water treatment (drinking and sewage) use tremendous amounts of energy. Some of the statistics from this document “Water & Wastewater Utility energy research roadmap” below are:
In 2008 municipal wastewater treatment systems (WWTP) in the United States used approximately 30.2 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) per year, or about 0.8% of total electricity used in the United States.
These WWTPs are becoming large energy consumers and they can require approximately 23% of the public energy use of a municipality.
About 10-40% of the total energy consumed by wastewater treatment plants is consumed for sludge handling.
Desalination consumes 3% of annual electricity consumption in the United States Future projections estimate this percentage to double to 6% due to higher water demand and more energy intensive treatment processes
A significant percentage of energy input to a water distribution system is lost in pipes due to friction, pressure and flow control valves, and consumer taps.
AWWA estimates that about 20% of all potable water produced in the United States never reaches a customer water meter mostly due to loss in the distribution system. When water is lost through leakage, energy and water treatment chemicals are also lost.
In California, agricultural groundwater and surface water pumping is responsible for approximately 60% of the total peak day electrical demand related to water supply, particularly the energy consumed within Pacific Gas and Electric’s (PG&E) controlled area. Over 500 megawatts (MW) of electrical demand for water agencies in California is used for providing water and sewer services to customers. The water related electrical consumption for the State of California is approximately 52,000 gigawatt hours (GWh). Electricity use for pumping is approximately 20,278 GWh, which is 8% of the state’s total electricity use. The remaining is consumed at the customer end side for heat, pressurize move and cool water.
This paper also looks at ways to save energy, and extraction of nutrients such as phosphorous — a good idea, since phosphate production may peak as soon as 40 years from now.
http://energyskeptic.com/2017/drinking-water-and-sewage-treatment-use-a-lot-of-energy/
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Jeremy in Wales
/ January 4, 2017Our local water supplier Dŵr Cymru – Welsh Water now supplies a significant proportion of its energy requirements (20%) by embedding energy generation within its processes via hydro, photovoltaics, wind, anaerobic digestion and bio-gas injection to the gas grid.
Click to access 14-Mike-Pedley.pdf
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Bluesky
/ January 4, 2017I don’t know how many of you that follows the artic sea ice forum, but a 15% drop in global sea ice volume below the prior record low volume in mid december. Look how far below 2016 are compared to all other years,
https://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php?topic=1837.0
https://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1837.0;attach=39920;image
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Genomik
/ January 4, 2017Looks like California is in for a CRAZY week of storm with an Atmospheric River targeting us this weekend. I saw this on Facebook its written by a friend of a friend who was a meteorologist and its crazy but seems legit. Its been raining here ALOT this last month. Lots of ground is saturated already. Theres a monster atmospheric river this weekend then a week more of rain. This could be a catastrophe. I posted an article below as well.
Friends who live in the sierra foothills, coastal ranges, and near any main stem or small stream Santa Maria and northward, you need to begin preparing now for flood conditions including sand bags, emergency kits, and evacuation plans. Cancel or reconsider any and all travels to high country. Normally, the closer an event like this gets, the more forecast totals are reduced but they’ve only gone up in the last two days. Areas around grass valley could experience upwards of 30-40″ of rain this weekend. To put that in perspective, that’s more than an ENTIRE year’s worth of rainfall for Seattle. San Francisco could receive anywhere between 8-10″ on top of already saturated soils (which is about 40% of an entire year’s worth of rain). Furthermore, this is a very warm storm with snow levels expected to be at 10,000′ leading to rapid melting of recent snow putting areas in and around the central valley at risk for flooding not seen in decades. Some of you may know in 1862, a series of successive storms such as this one actually filled the entire Sacramento valley with ten feet of water (where approximately 3 million people now reside). Here we go friends.
And from weather channel
https://weather.com/forecast/regional/news/california-atmospheric-river-sierra-snow-flood-forecast-jan2017
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Genomik
/ January 4, 2017Flood Watch via state.
CAZ013>019-063-064-066>069-051500- /O.NEW.KSTO.FA.A.0002.170108T0000Z-170110T0000Z/ /00000.0.ER.000000T0000Z.000000T0000Z.000000T0000Z.OO/ SHASTA LAKE AREA / NORTHERN SHASTA COUNTY- BURNEY BASIN / EASTERN SHASTA COUNTY-NORTHERN SACRAMENTO VALLEY- CENTRAL SACRAMENTO VALLEY-SOUTHERN SACRAMENTO VALLEY- CARQUINEZ STRAIT AND DELTA-NORTHERN SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY- MOUNTAINS SOUTHWESTERN SHASTA COUNTY TO NORTHERN LAKE COUNTY- CLEAR LAKE/SOUTHERN LAKE COUNTY- NORTHEAST FOOTHILLS/SACRAMENTO VALLEY-MOTHERLODE- WESTERN PLUMAS COUNTY/LASSEN PARK- WEST SLOPE NORTHERN SIERRA NEVADA- 237 PM PST WED JAN 4 2017 …FLOOD WATCH IN EFFECT FROM SATURDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH MONDAY AFTERNOON… THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN SACRAMENTO HAS ISSUED A * FLOOD WATCH FOR A PORTION OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA…INCLUDING THE FOLLOWING BURNEY BASIN …/ EASTERN SHASTA COUNTY… CARQUINEZ STRAIT AND DELTA…CENTRAL SACRAMENTO VALLEY…CLEAR LAKE/SOUTHERN LAKE COUNTY…MOTHERLODE…MOUNTAINS SOUTHWESTERN SHASTA COUNTY TO NORTHERN LAKE COUNTY…NORTHEAST FOOTHILLS/SACRAMENTO VALLEY…NORTHERN SACRAMENTO VALLEY… NORTHERN SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY…SHASTA LAKE AREA / NORTHERN SHASTA COUNTY…SOUTHERN SACRAMENTO VALLEY…WEST SLOPE NORTHERN SIERRA NEVADA AND WESTERN PLUMAS COUNTY/LASSEN PARK. * AN ATMOSPHERIC RIVER WILL LIKELY PRODUCE A PROLONGED PERIOD OF OCCASIONALLY INTENSE RAINFALL WITH SNOW LEVELS ABOVE 7000 TO 8000 FEET LATE SATURDAY THROUGH MONDAY. AMOUNTS NOT SEEN SINCE DECEMBER 2005. * COASTAL RANGE, SHASTA COUNTY MOUNTAINS, AND CENTRAL VALLEY: A TOTAL OF 5 TO 8 INCHES OF ADDITIONAL RAINFALL WILL BE POSSIBLE OVER HIGHER TERRAIN WHILE THE VALLEY IS EXPECTED TO RECEIVE 2 TO 5 INCHES. THE GREATEST VALLEY AMOUNTS MAY BE ACROSS THE SOUTHERN SACRAMENTO AND NORTHERN SAN JOAQUIN VALLEYS. * WEST SLOPE SIERRA NEVADA: A TOTAL OF 8 TO 15 INCHES OF ADDITIONAL RAINFALL WILL BE POSSIBLE. * A COMBINATION OF INTENSE RAIN AND SATURATED SOILS WILL LEAD TO EXCESSIVE RUNOFF. FLOODING OF UNREGULATED RIVERS, SUCH AS COSUMNES RIVER, AS WELL AS FLOODING OF CREEKS, STREAMS, URBAN AREAS AND FARMLAND IS LIKELY. MAINSTEM RIVERS WILL BE AT ELEVATED LEVELS. TRAVEL COULD BE VERY DIFFICULT WITH SOME ROADS COVERED BY WATER. TURN AROUND, DO NOT DROWN. * RECENT BURN SCARS MAY HAVE DEBRIS FLOWS FROM THE PROLONGED AND OCCASIONALLY INTENSE RAIN. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS… A FLOOD WATCH MEANS THERE IS A POTENTIAL FOR FLOODING BASED ON CURRENT FORECASTS. YOU SHOULD MONITOR LATER FORECASTS AND BE ALERT FOR POSSIBLE FLOOD WARNINGS. THOSE LIVING IN AREAS PRONE TO FLOODING SHOULD BE PREPARED TO TAKE ACTION SHOULD FLOODING DEVELOP.
http://www.abc10.com/weather/flood-watch_46707509/382169820
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Genomik
/ January 5, 2017and from Weather Underground
https://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=3535#commentop
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Cate
/ January 5, 2017Suzanne, +1 re RS. You say what I want to say but much better.
Bob, you make the rhythm, you mix the soundtrack, we dance like no-one’s watching.
And I thought DT was younger too, a lot younger than me.
Bluesky, I hang out at the ASIF every day. Those guys rock. Smart as hell. 😀
RS, phone home.
Now I need a tissue again.
Vamos, mis hermanos!
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Suzanne
/ January 5, 2017Cate…back at you on the +1. I always find your comments insightful and incredibly edifying.
Everyone here at our small community helps get me through the “rough days” of CC information.
**Planning on going to the Women’s March on Washington…hope others here can go.
Resistance is all we have at this point in our new political reality.
(Also, I have read that a big march is planned for April 29 on CC. )
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robertscribbler
/ January 9, 2017I’m back after a bit of a mental and physical health hiatus. In addition to DT, I have just also lost my grandfather — at age 99.
Working on a piece for DT at this time.
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Suzanne
/ January 9, 2017Sorry to hear about your Grandfather. Loss of loved ones, no matter their age, can be tough.
The loss of DTL..has hit us hard. Amazing it on how someone we only know online can still affect us isn’t it?
Happy to have you back!
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bostonblorp
/ January 9, 2017Sorry for your loss, RS. Please don’t let the chomping at the bit here for a new post cause you any added stress!
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robertscribbler
/ January 9, 2017Personally, I’m refreshed from the break. The losses are very tough emotionally. As for DT, I had to write the above post. Not sure if it does him justice.
Will be back to climate related posts soon. Possibly tonight or tomorrow.
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Ailsa
/ January 5, 2017CB, love you right back. To be very clear (using one of RS’s favorite phrases), I cannot imagine negotiating the current times without this site, and the regular input of clear and brave people here.
Robert, we’re all awaiting on you… (no pressure! hope you’re alright)
In the meantime:
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robertscribbler
/ January 9, 2017I’m back. 🙂
Nice to see the phrase coming into more common usage. I like it much better than ‘the fact of the matter is.’
But to be very clear ;)– I need to reset at times and this break for me was a must after all that’s happened. That said, CH1’s suggestion below is a very relevant one. And an ‘unforced variations’ type post during hiatus periods would probably help smooth things over a bit.
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Ailsa
/ January 5, 2017And some more luscious Formidable Vegetables, a bit more stripped down and live…
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Ailsa
/ January 5, 2017Dammit, sorry folks, hope this is it…
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Ailsa
/ January 5, 2017Yep…!
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JPL
/ January 5, 2017That was cool, thanks for posting!
I’ll see your Formidable and raise you:
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marcyincny
/ January 5, 2017LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 6, 2017What It’s Like to Live Where It’s Not Even Safe to Breathe
It was a 20-minute walk from one New Year’s Day gathering to the other, but none of us wanted to risk it. Outside, Beijing was smothered in the worst smog of the winter, so that every breath, even behind my filtered mask, had the sour chemical taste of a freshly bleached bathroom. We saw the red “For Hire” sign of the cab through the haze and bundled in.
Half the invitees had begged off from the party, preferring the relative safety of sealed apartments to attempting to find somewhere amid the poison dust. Others had the perma-cold that grips many of us in northern Chinese winters, with sore throats that are unable to heal. The last new year I’d spent 40 minutes searching for a friend’s apartment block that I’d been to a half-dozen times before, unable to make out any landmarks amid the haze. Beijing city blocks are undistinguishable even on clear days, but now they were just smudges of thicker gray.
Link
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coloradobob
/ January 6, 2017Lately I feel more and more like this guy –
Sculpting mashed potatoes with my fork, except it’s not the off planet aliens that have me by the throat .
It’s the home grown ones, hunting ever greater piles of money.
A complete fiction of the mind of man .
There is no money in the geological record, it doesn’t appear in the ice cores. Some how I can’t image that we are about to trade the Earth for 40 pieces of sliver. All built on an ever expanding series of capitalistic balloons , each of which always pop.
Maybe that’s why I’m in my house coat playing in my mashed potatoes.
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coloradobob
/ January 6, 2017557 Comments
I have cable internet , there are continents that move (load) faster now. This always been a real sore spot with me. One needs rest, fine we all need that. Take as must time as you need. Load a new page .
It takes forever for this page to load.
Call it “Family Time”, call it “Talk Amongst Yourselves”, call it “Open Thread”.
It was OK years ago. But now you have too many readers , for us to suffer in the purgatory of a page that will not load.
Please just post “Family Time”. We can get on with the information exchange here. The thread can move .
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g. orwell
/ January 7, 2017pls don’t be a whiner-is it a BFD to wait a couple, few seconds more to load a page(if your talking a minute or two, with cable, it’s likely your ‘puter’s the problem….) ?
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wili
/ January 6, 2017Looks like robert has taken a page out of neven’s book and taken a bit of a well deserved breather. Hope he finds time to relax, escape, dance, sing, laugh…’cause these days…it takes a lot…
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Genomik
/ January 6, 2017Folks, i don’t know how this fits into a climate change narrative but its really wack. 6 years of drought then possibly more rain than in 25 or more years. Hard yo know but I’ll say financial damages between $50M to $500M.
Weather report last night said Santa Cruz mountains near SF/SJ could get 3-8′ in 48 hours! Thats rugged hilly terrain so rivers quickly become torrents.
Area west of Tahoe could get vast amounts of rain and melting snow as new sort is tropical raising snow level from 2000′ to 8,000ft melting much of the existing snow as rain pounds it.
Of course since this is an atmospheric river its like a rifle. Its narrow, only 1-200? miles wide. I don’t know if this term is new. Ive never heard it much before. As I recall most Californian storms come from North West near Alaska. Cold and medium wet but big and long, interstate. SF all the way to southern Washington. But Im no meteorologist but this is a unique thing.
I do recall a similar event maybe in 2005? where a wet storm parked over Sacramento and flooded everything.
California is highly mountainous so heavy rains cause torrential flooding sort of easily. We get big wet storms.
Adventure.
Im happy the drought in Nor Cal is temporarily over.
________________________________________
5 things to know about the massive storm headed to Northern California
Some predict the worst flooding in years
http://sf.curbed.com/2017/1/5/14178676/california-storm-san-francisco
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PlazaRed
/ January 6, 2017On the Antarctic ice front, this could be interesting and is now probably inevitable:-
http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/massive-iceberg-hanging-on-by-a-thread-to-antarctic-shelf-could-lead-to-rise-in-global-sea-levels-by-10cm/ar-BBxXxGy?li=BBoPWjQ
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Witchee
/ January 6, 2017Are we heading back to the days of pea soupers?
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/trump-pick-jay-clayton-to-be-most-conflicted-sec-chair-ever-w459289
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Witchee
/ January 6, 2017Whoa was that ever the wrong link. Apologies.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jan/06/london-breaches-toxic-air-pollution-limit-for-2017-in-just-five-days
that should be better.
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Suzanne
/ January 6, 2017And at the WP…more on the melting Larsen Ice Shelf:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/01/06/the-crack-in-this-antarctic-ice-shelf-just-grew-by-11-miles-a-break-could-be-imminent/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_antarctic-1250pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
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Bluesky
/ January 7, 2017Why is growth rate only at 2,7 ppm in 2016? Going back and compare each month with 2015 and it should be around 3,2-3,4 ppm rise or am I missing something?
https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/gr.html
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Shawn Redmond
/ January 7, 2017I believe Bluesky it has to do with the seasonally corrected values for each month. In other words they don’t use the hard data, it is smoothed. Less alarming this way(?). A bit of an annoyance for those of us paying attention kind of like the 15% average for sea ice coverage. This is what I like to call the IPCC syndrome, 15 years ago they told us there would be Arctic sea ice till the end of this century and the Antarctic would be stable for centuries to come. This hubris is what is bringing us to the edge of biome collapse.
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Bluesky
/ January 7, 2017Oh, yes it could be because of seasonally values thanks. I get it to 3,12 ppm rise in 2016 when looking at average for each month, let’s see I’m sure Robert will make an article about that later.
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Shawn Redmond
/ January 7, 2017Using the Mauna Loa monthlies I came up with 3,38 ppm year over year, either way well above 2,7 ppm. I’m sure you’re right that RS will straighten us out upon his return.
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Bluesky
/ January 7, 2017Well I see now, I just used the average number first on the left, but of course your right is has to be the trend (season corr) on the right side, after that I get close to you number 3,41 ppm rise in 2016.
ftp://aftp.cmdl.noaa.gov/products/trends/co2/co2_mm_mlo.txt
High numbers indeed, first 5 days of 2017 are around 3,8-4,2 ppm higher on average.
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Roger Boyd
/ January 7, 2017They don’t average the monthlies, instead they compare the end of the year values to the beginning of the year values – Jan 1st to Dec 31st. Because there is a lot of noise in the numbers from a single site the final number (published in March) takes the average of November – February for each end of year value. The published number is a preliminary one and could change quite a bit. This is detailed in the text under the chart.
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Shawn Redmond
/ January 7, 2017Thanks Roger, that clears up their numbers and at the same time makes them less relevant. Way back when Christ was supposedly walking the earth, I was taught to use all the numbers I could find on a subject to come to a true average. It took awhile to do the math, (pre-calculator), so I guess to speed things up it is easier just to pick the four months that are closer to average to begin with. The algorithm required for the computer to do them all would be overwhelmingly complicated I’m sure.(sarc). These are the sort of short cuts that give you a “donald” seemingly against all odds. In all likely hood they will gives us collapses out of nowhere as well. Its the little things that get you.
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Roger Boyd
/ January 8, 2017Scientists are a conservative bunch to begin with, built into the whole education and peer-review process. The loss of reputation from mistakes can be fatal to a good career. Then, if they do stick their head above the parapet and say something in simple, direct language, they get attacked and character-assassinated by the denier crowd (and possibly defunded by right-wing administrations). So they become even more circumspect, just as things are accelerating away. You can’t blame scientists for being scientific, you can blame politicians and the denier lobby for shutting them up for the past couple of decades.
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Vic
/ January 7, 2017Elon Musk mentioned the following to a group of Tesla shareholders a couple of days ago ;
“The President-elect has a strong emphasis on US manufacturing and so do we. We are building the biggest factory in the world right here, creating US jobs… I think we may see some surprising things from the next administration. We don’t think they will be negative on fossil fuels… but they may also be positive on renewables.”
Today, Musk paid another visit to Trump’s tower reportedly to meet with Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner. Hmmm…
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Greg
/ January 8, 2017The Third Reich was good for German manufacturing. Err, for a litle while.
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robertscribbler
/ January 9, 2017It would be helpful if Trump publicly moderated his stance on renewables. In addition, Trump should recognize that if there is an avenue for practical manufacturing growth in this country, it is through renewable energy projects.
These points are to highlight how bad the admin currently looks from the renewable perspective. Trump met with Elon, sure. And they said some nice things to each other. So good. But I don’t think it’s this case of ‘all the clouds have now parted.’
RE Greg above… Yeah. Let’s hope that the US doesn’t fall into that pit trap. It does seem that Trump’s fringe element allies will get a degree of resistance from even republicans in Congress. Considering all the various factions at play, I think we’ll tend to see a lot of political turbulence. The Russian hacking issue provides a decent litmus. And I think that if Trump makes any strongly ‘fascist’ policy moves, we’ll see a similar level of division as we do over that issue.
What most concerns me is where republican climate change denial aligns with Trump climate change denial and how that could result in severe harm to some of our scientific institutions. That issue, however, appears to have fallen to the back-burner for now. But the calls for lists from State and DOE may well be a sign of things to come.
I think the key is to push hard enough to keep the Trump admin on the defensive over various issues and to push back really hard if/when any harmful policy comes out. It’s full resistance here on out. And if we can get the institutions not to play ball, it makes it very hard for Trump to achieve his agenda which would force him into a position of having to compromise more. I think that’s what we want. And a functioning democracy should be able to achieve that result. In light of this notion, the talk with Elon may provide a ray or two of light. But not much more as yet. In other words, so far, it’s just lip service. And the clouds can slam shut again at any time.
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Jay M
/ January 8, 2017NH winter experience happening
Water seems to be going to California this year
Less ice NH and huge chunks breaking off Antartica
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coloradobob
/ January 8, 2017It’s good to know, I’m not crazy as a 40 dollar bill. I’m crazy as as 19 dollar bill.
I feel so much better now.
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coloradobob
/ January 8, 2017You readers have the torch now.. Please do DTL justice. Please do me justice.
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coloradobob
/ January 8, 2017Your going need every scrap of guts . and courage we ever had. And more.
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utoutback
/ January 8, 2017I just checked back after staying away for a couple of days – almost 600 comments (CB is probably responsible for at least 400 ;- ) just kidding), but where oh where is Robert?
Help!
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wharf rat
/ January 8, 2017US National Weather Service Reno Nevada
Winds of 173 mph on Sierra Crest Today!
#TheseWindsRReal Multiple sensors show gusts of 170 mph+.
Significant flooding continues today. #nvflood17
https://www.facebook.com/NWSReno/
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miles h
/ January 8, 2017has anyone else checked out the JET STREAM!?? …crazy. its surrounding almost the entire N. hemisphere above 20degrees N, and nearly touching the equator off africa…. and the big freeze across n. asia and europs stretches right down to the hymalayas, across the tip of the gulf of arabia and across the whole of turkey and into europe!….(and across much of the US.) anyone using earth.nullschool.net can see for yourself. use settings height:250hpa, and wind.
maybe one of you can post a pic…?? (i’ll try to work out how to do it….)
i dont look too often at the jet stream, but it certainly looks most unusual to me.
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Ailsa
/ January 8, 2017For anyone still managing to check in here (bravo!), Neven has just put up Jan 17 blog, and none of is good news:
http://neven1.typepad.com/blog/2017/01/piomas-january-2017.html
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miles h
/ January 8, 2017this might work for pic….? this one is temps… https://www.dropbox.com/s/wgmtlslftl2b8ka/Screen%20Shot%202017-01-08%20at%2022.00.46.png?dl=0
this one is jetstream…. https://www.dropbox.com/s/e9ffazr4cyjp3h5/Screen%20Shot%202017-01-08%20at%2021.59.50.png?dl=0
youll have to click the links to view… its not a dickpic, honest! 🙂
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kay
/ January 9, 2017https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/09/trans-pecos-pipeline-texas-protest-two-rivers-standing-rock
New pipeline fight on our hands starting up in Texas, in case you didn’t see it today.
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robertscribbler
/ January 9, 2017Thanks for this, Kay.
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Suzanne
/ January 9, 2017RS…Glad to have you back. Hope you had a great Holiday. We have missed you.
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