Category: Climate News Roundup

Last Saturday, Presidents Obama and Xi Jinping formally joined the Paris climate agreement in a joint event in China.  John Upton of Climate Central explains what that means.  The New York Times has an interesting interview with President Obama about climate change and his responses to it during his time in office.  Rocky Mountain Institute has recently completed a study with its collaborators of how China can reduce its carbon emissions while growing its economy.

Last week I provided a link to a new study that shows that belief in human-caused climate change has become subject to greater partisan polarization over the past few years.  Now, David Roberts has provided a more detailed summary of the study and some reflection on what it means for the future.  Dana Nuccitelli argues, based on a new study by Media Matters, that much of the increase in polarization is due to conservative media bias about climate change.  Finally, sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild sheds some light on the conundrum of why people living in one of the most polluted areas of the country hate the EPA.

Climate

Scientists, working together through World Weather Attribution, have determined that climate change increased the chances of the August extreme rainfall in Louisiana by at least 40%.  Significantly, the lead author of the study also stated “we found that the mostly likely impact of climate change is a near doubling of the odds of such a storm.”  The team has submitted its results to the journal Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, which means they are still subject to peer-review.  In addition, Peter Sinclair has a new post and video looking at the broad issue of the impact of climate change on extreme weather.

A new study, published in Nature Geoscience, has found that the power of Asian typhoons has increased by 50% in the past 40 years due to warming seas.

Andrew Rice has an interesting (but long) essay in New York Magazine about what the future of NYC will be as sea level rises in response to climate change.  Also, Justin Gillis has a very informative article in The New York Times about “recurrent flooding” or “sunny-day flooding” along the Atlantic coast as sea level rises.  The article is date-lined Norfolk.  Finally, as this article (and the recent Louisiana flooding) reminds us, you don’t have to live along the coast to experience flooding from extreme weather events.

Over the past few decades, in the United States the East has experienced colder winter days, while the West has experienced warmer winter days.  According to a new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, the ‘warm West, cold East’ temperature gap is steadily expanding, and is likely being driven by human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.

Global warming is disrupting ocean life from plankton to whales and the heat may linger in the depths for centuries even if man-made greenhouse gas emissions are halted, according to a new report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.  While polar bears, walruses and ice seals appear to be suffering as a result of the reduction in Arctic sea ice associated with global warming, humpback, fin and minke whales appear to be benefiting, according to a new study published in Biology Letters.

Land-use changes are among the many factors in addition to CO2 emissions that influence climate.  Thus it is disturbing to read about the rapid rate at which wilderness is being lost from the world, as documented in a new study in the journal Current Biology.  Perhaps this item got my attention because I am finally reading The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert, a book that really makes one pause and consider the future of life on Earth, even without the added impacts of climate change.

A new meta-study, published Thursday in the journal Science, examines the ways in which climate change is affecting people and our societies, affirming some that are well known and introducing others that are less recognized.

Energy

Dakota Access Pipeline’s private security unleashed attack dogs and sprayed mace on protesters over the weekend as tensions over the pipeline in North Dakota escalated into violence for the first time.  In a moving essay, Phil McKenna of Inside Climate News provides the background of the struggle.  Lisa Song reports on the destruction of some burial sites and the failure to get a restraining order for the pipeline construction.  Joe Heim writes about the transformation of the struggle into a national movement for Native Americans.  Friday afternoon a federal judge denied the Native American tribe’s request for an injunction that would have temporarily halted construction on the pipeline; however, shortly thereafter the Department of Justice, the Department of the Army, and the Department of the Interior issued a statement that read in part: “The Army will not authorize constructing the Dakota Access pipeline on Corps land bordering or under Lake Oahe until it can determine whether it will need to reconsider any of its previous decisions regarding the Lake Oahe site under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) or other federal laws.  Therefore, construction of the pipeline on Army Corps land bordering or under Lake Oahe will not go forward at this time.”

Dominion Energy Chairman and CEO Tom Farrell has said that the company has pushed back the date at which the Atlantic Coast Pipeline will go into service to early 2019.  He also said that FERC’s issuance of a Notice of Schedule on August 12 means that “FERC believes that the route is essentially complete.”  Reps. Bob Goodlatte, H. Morgan Griffith, and Robert Hurt sent a letter to the FERC requesting that they hold both one-on-one meetings and public hearings with constituents in Virginia pertaining to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

According to several studies, moving the U.S. away from our reliance on fossil-fuel derived electricity to almost total use of renewable energy will require a smart supergrid relying on high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) transmission lines to be overlaid on our existing grid.  John Fialka of E&E Publishing has a three-part series documenting what will be required for its development.  Part One provides some background, Part Two deals with the impact of regulations on the development of the needed supergrid, and Part Three explains the benefits of a supergrid and the obstacles to its development.  If you can’t spare the time to read all three, I urge you to at least read Part Three.

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, entitled The Power of Change, examines the changes that will be required in how we get electricity if we are to achieve cleaner electricity production.  Among the steps that are proposed for the federal government to take is putting a price on pollution from electricity production to reflect the hidden costs of fossil fuels to human health and the environment.

Because of drought and insect infestations, the western United States contains millions of dead trees; 66 million in California alone.  Since those trees will decay or burn, releasing their CO2 to the atmosphere, a new study proposes that they be burned with coal in coal-fired power plants to reduce the fossil-fuel related CO2 emissions.  Not surprisingly, the proposal is controversial.

Matex Virginia Power LLC plans to build a 1,400 MW combined-cycle natural gas-fired power plant next to the southern branch of the Elizabeth River in Chesapeake, VA.

These news items have been compiled by Les Grady, member and former chair of the CAAV steering committee. He is a licensed professional engineer (retired) who taught environmental engineering at Purdue and Clemson Universities and engaged in private practice with CH2M Hill, the world’s largest environmental engineering consulting firm. Since his retirement in 2003 he has devoted much of his time to the study of climate science and the question of global warming and makes himself available to speak to groups about this subject. More here.

 

A new study has found that climate change continues to become a more partisan issue as time goes on.  I find that to be so sad because you would think that we could at least agree on something as important as the future of humans on Earth.  A detailed report of the study was published in the journal Environment, but you can read a synopsis at Desmog.

As the world’s focus moved toward the G20 summit Sept. 4-5 and possible action by the U.S. and China on climate change, on Thursday (World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation) the Pope once again spoke out about climate change and the environment.  The Guardian had a particularly strong and appropriate editorial about the Pope’s words.  Meanwhile, three insurers with a combined $1.2 trillion under management called upon the G20 nations to phase out all fossil fuel subsidies by 2020.  In addition, 30 mayors from cities including London, Paris, Tokyo, Sydney, New York, Cape Town and Rio de Janeiro urged national leaders to work with them to “build a low carbon, climate safe world”.

Climate

In 2000 Nobel-prize winning chemist Paul Crutzen and colleague Eugene Stoermer proposed that Earth had entered a new geological epoch because of human’s influence, bringing to an end the Holocene epoch.  They suggested the name Anthropocene for the new epoch.  Now, the Working Group on the Anthropocene of the International Union of Geological Sciences has voted in favor of Crutzen’s and Stoermer’s proposal, bringing it one step closer to formal adoption.

Ed Hawkins, the climate scientist who came up with the temperature spiral earlier this year, has developed a graphic that illustrates where the planet has warmed since 1850.  It contains 167 tiny maps of the world color-coded to show changes in temperature compared to 1850.  Even though it appeared last week, I just learned about this piece by Heidi Cullen showing projected maximum temperatures in the U.S. if we keep emitting CO₂ at the rate we are now.  The figures are shocking.  How will we adapt to that?

Although the area covered by Arctic sea ice started out the year very low, this year’s minimum extent is not likely to set a new record, thanks to lots of cloudy weather that slowed down the melt rate.  Rather, scientists anticipate that this year’s minimum extent will rank somewhere between 2^nd and 5^th.  Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, the ocean around Antarctica has become less salty over the past couple of decades.  Writing in The Washington Post, Chelsea Harvey explains why that has been happening and what it could mean for the rest of the world.

Reconstructions of temperature data over the past 1,000 years by NASA and NOAA have revealed that Earth is warming at a rate 20 times faster than the historical average, prompting climate scientist Gavin Schmidt to declare that it is “highly unlikely” that humankind can keep warming below 1.5 C.

What do Vermont, West Virginia, and Maryland have in common?  They have all been impacted by heavy rainfall and topography that channeled the resultant runoff into raging rivers that caused significant damage to life and property.  Vermont’s floods were five years ago (remember hurricane Irene?) and now Vermonters are working to make their state more resilient.  Perhaps there are lessons there that we can use to make us less susceptible if (when?) we get a heavy storm here in the Valley.  One thing is certain, however, based on an analysis of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC): NFIP needs to shift its focus from a rebuilding program to a risk mitigation program.  For example, more than 2,100 properties have been rebuilt more than 10 times since 1978.

A new report by the Climate Institute finds that climate change will reduce the world-wide area suitable for growing coffee trees by half by 2050 under a business-as-usual scenario.  Considering forests of the future, a new study in the journal Nature Climate Change suggests that more diverse forests are better at adapting to a changing climate.  This suggests that protecting the biodiversity present in the Amazon (i.e., trying to preserve as many different species as possible) is a key tool that conservationists can use to help the ecosystem survive climate change.

When plants grow in an atmosphere with higher CO₂ levels they lose less water through their pores, and thus don’t need to draw as much water from the soil, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  This suggests that the impacts of climate change-induced droughts may not be as severe as current modeling suggests.  Let’s hope so.

Energy

According to Phil McKenna at Inside Climate News, “Senior officials at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and two other federal agencies raised serious environmental and safety objections to the North Dakota section of the controversial Dakota Access oil pipeline, the same objections being voiced in a large protest by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe that has so far succeeded in halting construction.”  Meanwhile, members of more than 150 Native American tribes have joined with the Standing Rock Sioux in their protest.

Although we tend to focus on the lawsuit against the Clean Power Plan (CPP), it is important to remember that the EPA regulation limiting CO₂ emissions from new coal- and gas-fired power plants is also under attack in the courts.  The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit published a briefing schedule Tuesday for that lawsuit.  The final briefs are not due until Feb. 6, which means that the new president’s Justice Department attorneys will be responsible for the final briefs and for oral arguments in front of the judges.  In a new lawsuit filed last week at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, WildEarth Guardians and Physicians for Social Responsibility asked the Court to require the federal government to consider the impacts of climate change when issuing oil and gas leases on public land.

The Federal Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has ruled that DOE was correct in using the Social Cost of Carbon when doing cost/benefit analyses.   This is an important decision and will have impacts on other upcoming court cases dealing with climate change mitigation, such as the CPP.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has completed a study of the ability of the Eastern Interconnection power grid to accept renewable energy.  The bottom line is that the grid could accept up to 30% “variable generation” in basically its present configuration, although changes would be required in how the grid and its power supplies would have to operate.  Geoffrey Heal, an economist at Columbia Business School, recently published a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper that asks what it would cost to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from power generation to 80% below their 2005 level by 2050.  Eric Roston discusses his findings on Bloomberg.  Finally, the operator of the largest U.S. power market said it can meet the goals of the CPP while limiting the impact on power prices to a less than 3% rise, thereby challenging claims by CPP opponents that meeting the mandates will have a variety of dire effects, including price spikes.

Although it has only five turbines, the nation’s first off-shore wind farm has been completed and is ready to start generating electricity this fall.  Meanwhile, on land, Iowa Utilities Board has approved a 2 GW wind energy project in Iowa.  When placed into service, it will be the largest wind energy project in the nation, employing 1,000 2 MW Vestas turbines.

Richard Martin, senior editor for energy at MIT Technology Review, has an interesting and sobering piece entitled “Why We Still Don’t Have Better Batteries.”

These news items have been compiled by Les Grady, member and former chair of the CAAV steering committee. He is a licensed professional engineer (retired) who taught environmental engineering at Purdue and Clemson Universities and engaged in private practice with CH2M Hill, the world’s largest environmental engineering consulting firm. Since his retirement in 2003 he has devoted much of his time to the study of climate science and the question of global warming and makes himself available to speak to groups about this subject. More here.

 

Let’s start with a little inspiration.  Ashton Hayes is a village of around 1000 nestled in the English countryside.  What makes it unique is that its residents have taken it upon themselves to reduce the village’s carbon footprint and have succeeded in doing so, while also having fun.  Les Anglais is a village of around 3000 in Haiti.  EarthSpark International has built a solar-powered microgrid in town that is currently supplying reliable power to around 2000 people at around 20% of the cost they had paid.

Climate

Arctic sea ice has not melted as rapidly this year as feared at the start of the melt season.  Consequently, it is unlikely that a record low ice extent will be seen by the time the minimum cover is experienced in September, unless something unexpected occurs.  Nevertheless, this hasn’t kept one person from predicting a new record low, much to the dismay of others.  In a guest post on Carbon Brief, Dr. Alexandra Jahn, from the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado, explores how accurately scientists can predict when the Arctic will see its first sea ice-free summer.

As spring light returned to Antarctica, scientists were stunned to find that the crack in the Larsen C ice shelf had grown by 14 miles, for a new total length of over 80 miles.  In addition, the width had expanded to over 1000 ft.  It is feared that sometime in the next few years, the crack will expand sufficiently to release an ice island the size of Delaware, thereby making the entire ice shelf less stable.

A new paper just published in the journal Nature reports on new paleoclimate data examining Earth’s temperature back to 1500.  Those studies suggest that human-caused warming began as early as 1830, but others disagree with the authors’ interpretation of their results.

In a beautifully illustrated essay at Mashable entitled “Cruel Summer: Floods, Fires and Heat”, Andrew Freedman connects the dots and argues that the fingerprint of global warming is increasingly apparent in events happening now.  Out west, populations of the American pika are vanishing in many mountainous areas as climate change alters its habitat, according to findings released Thursday by the U.S. Geological Survey.

The South China Morning Post reported on Thursday that it had learned that the leaders of China and the U.S. will announce their countries’ ratification of the Paris Climate Agreement prior to the G20 summit beginning in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, on September 4.  Brazil’s interim president Michel Temer reportedly wants for Brazil to ratify the pact ahead of the US and China.  Brazil has the 7th largest CO2 emissions.  Ed King of Climate Home discusses what will happen once ratification has occurred.

If we continue using fossil fuels at the rate we now do, scientists predict that sea level will rise 6 ft by 2100.  According to a new analysis by the real estate data firm Zillow, this would inundate nearly 1.9 million homes in the U.S., 46,000 of which would be in Virginia.  As expected, Florida would be the hardest hit state, with over 930,000 homes under water (literally).

Research published Wednesday in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives reveals that the number of people in Europe suffering from hay fever due to ragweed pollen could double in 35 years, with climate change being responsible for two thirds of this increase.  Here in the U.S., Climate Nexus and the American Public Health Association have teamed up to develop four infographics that illustrate the connection between climate change and a variety of health-related issues.  Jeremy Deaton and Mina Lee of Nexus Media introduce them in a guest post at Think Progress.

Energy

I have put in information previously about the question of using natural gas (methane) as a bridge fuel to allow us to shut down coal-fired power plants while waiting for wide-scale adoption of carbon-free energy sources.  Nevertheless, I thought that the discussion of the issue at Yale Climate Connections was sufficiently good to include it here.

Southern Co.’s nuclear unit and X-energy LLC have signed a memorandum of understanding to commercialize and use X-energy’s high-temperature, gas-cooled, advanced technology nuclear reactor.  The goal is to have the reactor ready for use in the 2027-2030 time-frame.

Chile accepted a bid from Spanish developer Solarpack Corp. Tecnologica for 120 megawatts of solar energy at the stunning price of 2.91 cents per kilowatt-hour.  This beats the 2.99 cents/kwh bid Dubai received recently for 800 megawatts, making it the cheapest unsubsidized power plant in the world.

Writing at Vox, David Roberts brings us up to date on the status of wind power in the U.S.  In addition, electricity generation from wind, solar, and other renewable energy technologies have set monthly records every month so far this year, based on data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy has released its 2016 International Energy Efficiency Scorecard.  Chris Mooney at The Washington Post summarizes how increases in energy efficiency in the U.S. since the mid-1990’s have helped to decouple GDP growth from energy use.  Kristen Satre Meyer at Ensia reports on how several nations fared on the Scorecard.  Germany came in first; we came in eighth.

Results of a new study funded by the American Petroleum Institute, published in the journal Climatic Change, find that burning ethanol derived from corn in cars results in more CO2 emissions than burning gasoline.  Others strongly disagree with the results.

“Tesla’s Elon Musk unveiled his new lithium-ion battery pack that can deliver an unprecedented 315-mile range for his electric vehicles (EVs). But SolidEnergy Systems, a new startup spun out of an MIT lab, says it is in the process of commercializing a lithium metal battery that can double the range of all existing EVs.”  Joe Romm argues that these developments are really big deals.

These news items have been compiled by Les Grady, member and former chair of the CAAV steering committee. He is a licensed professional engineer (retired) who taught environmental engineering at Purdue and Clemson Universities and engaged in private practice with CH2M Hill, the world’s largest environmental engineering consulting firm. Since his retirement in 2003 he has devoted much of his time to the study of climate science and the question of global warming and makes himself available to speak to groups about this subject. More here.

Bill McKibben has a new article, entitled “A World at War” in The New Republic.  Then, on Vox Dave Roberts asks “Is It Useful to Think of Climate Change as a ‘World War’?”.

Climate

The big news this week has been the terrible flooding in Louisiana as a result of over 2 ft of rain in just a couple of days.  I’m sure you’ve read about it, so I won’t link to the news articles.  Rather, Chris Mooney had a good piece in The Washington Post about the relationship between the flooding and climate change.  He also has in interesting analysis entitled “‘A changing climate is and will continue to put people out of their homes’”  In addition, Angela Fritz of the Capital Weather Gang explained the meteorology of the event.

Both NASA and NOAA have analysed the global temperature record and declared July 2016 as the hottest month ever recorded.  The Japan Meteorological Agency agreed.  The record high temperatures are having impacts all over the world.  And, as Dana Nuccitelli explains, we have already locked in a lot more warming, just from the CO2 we’ve already emitted.

As if we didn’t have enough to be concerned about, a new study has found meltwater lakes on the surface of the coastal Langhovde Glacier in East Antarctica.  Such lakes can have a number of negative impacts on glacier stability.  While it is too early to say just how important these lakes will prove to be, their presence has scientists concerned.  Another new concern that is just becoming evident is the formation of marine heatwaves, often referred to as blobs, that persist and cause extensive damage to marine ecosystems.  Michael Slezak provides a primer on them at The Guardian.

The Amazon rain forest is considered to be a major sink for the CO2 we emit into the atmosphere.  Because of the increased incidence of drought and fire in the forest, there is concern that its nature may be changing, as explained in this piece from Yale Climate Connections.

And now for some good news: TV meteorologists are finally getting it and starting to explain to their audiences the links between what is happening in the weather and climate change.  This is a huge change because TV meteorologists are typically the only scientists most people ever encounter.  Be sure and watch the first video at the link, but be prepared for some chilling footage from the Ellicott City, MD flooding on July 30.

Japan and New Zealand have announced that they will ratify the Paris Climate Agreement in 2016, but they are being criticized for the weakness of their commitments.  Meanwhile, China’s lawmakers will consider ratification at a meeting at the end of this month.  The agreement will go into force when 55 countries representing at least 55% of global emissions have ratified it.  With the announcement of Japan and New Zealand, 57 countries have now indicated they will ratify or have already ratified the agreement by year’s end.  They account for 57.88% of global emissions, according to Climate Analytics.

According to new studies, insurance companies are lagging in their adaptation to climate change.  One bad practice by states is the capping of insurance premiums for houses in vulnerable areas, such as coastal regions.  This passes costs on to policy holders in other areas and removes incentives for those in the vulnerable areas to take protective action.  On a related topic, Chelsea Leu takes a look at floodplain maps and their impacts on who must be insured.

Energy

One of the most interesting articles I read this week on energy has to do with power company NRG Energy and its efforts to integrate clean energy sources into its portfolio.  It is a cautionary tale, but perhaps one that the executives at Dominion have taken too much to heart, making them too cautious.  Similarly, the French oil company Total SA is following a very different path from most major oil companies, and investing heavily in renewables and batteries.  David Ferris and Saqib Rahim of EnergyWire examine Total’s strategy and what it may mean for their future.

A growing segment of the solar market is community solar.  Under community solar, consumers who buy into a project don’t directly use the energy produced.  That’s sold to a local utility.  Instead, participants continue to buy power from their local providers, but their electric bills are reduced, based on how much the utility buys from the project.  Also, community projects use the grid to deliver power, and help pay for maintaining the utilities’ infrastructure.  That makes them less of a threat to traditional power companies.  Is there a place for this in Virginia?  Perhaps so, if VA SUN is successful in swaying the VA legislature with its “solar rights” petition drive.

I provided links last week to blog posts about the new fuel economy standards for large trucks, buses and other heavy-duty vehicles.  Well, on Tuesday, the Obama administration issued the final version of those standards.  These Phase 2 standards will impacts trucks in the 2021 to 2027 model years.  Phase 1 standards are currently in effect through model year 2020.  Here is another blog post from EDF about the new standards.

The U.S. Energy Information Agency has projected that CO2 emissions from natural gas will exceed those from coal in 2016.  However, emissions from petroleum still exceed either of the other two fuels.  As far as emissions of natural gas (methane) itself, a new study has found that aircraft-based sensors are capable of identifying super-emitters, allowing the focus of mitigation efforts to be placed on them.

Generating electricity by burning biomass is not as benign as one might think, and that is putting some politicians at odds with EPA as it tries to come up with meaningful regulations for the industry at a time it is having difficulty competing with cheap natural gas.

Is an electric car right for you?  A new MIT study has found that “Roughly 90 percent of the personal vehicles on the road daily could be replaced by a low-cost electric vehicle available on the market today, even if the cars can only charge overnight,” according to the study’s senior author.  Simon Evans has an analysis of the study on Carbon Brief and Chris Mooney has a commentary in The Washington Post.

Native American and environmental activists from all over the country have gathered in a remote part of North Dakota to take a stand against the North Dakota Access Pipeline, which tribal members say threatens to pollute drinking water and damage sacred sites.  More recent news indicates that the developers of the pipeline have agreed to stop construction until a federal court hearing next week in Washington, DC.  Meanwhile, just as property rights issues have been used to fight against natural gas pipelines, they are also being used to fight electric power transmission lines planned to carry wind energy from the Oklahoma panhandle to Southeastern states.

These news items have been compiled by Les Grady, member and former chair of the CAAV steering committee. He is a licensed professional engineer (retired) who taught environmental engineering at Purdue and Clemson Universities and engaged in private practice with CH2M Hill, the world’s largest environmental engineering consulting firm. Since his retirement in 2003 he has devoted much of his time to the study of climate science and the question of global warming and makes himself available to speak to groups about this subject. More here.

 

Carbon Brief’s U.S. Election Tracker has been updated to include Trump’s positions outlined in his speech in Detroit on August 8.  A group of more than 50 science organizations is working to have the presidential candidates address key science issues, including climate change.

Bill McKibben had an opinion piece in the “Sunday Review” of The New York Times discussing the stalkers that follow him and his family.  Ben Jervey provides some background on DeSmog about those responsible for funding the stalkers.

Climate

National Geographic Channel will premiere Season 2 of the critically-acclaimed TV series, “Years of Living Dangerously” on Sunday, October 30 at 8 pm (ET).  There is a trailer at the link, as well as an article.  Note that the regular time for the series will be Wednesdays at 10:00 pm, starting with episode 2 on November 2.

Climate scientists have expressed some very sobering thoughts about the likelihood of being able to keep global warming below the aspirational goal of 1.5 C set last December at the Paris Climate Summit.

Conclusions about changes in Arctic sea ice extent are typically based upon the satellite record, which begins only in 1979.  Because of the short length of this record, scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center examined a number of other sources containing information about Arctic sea ice extent in an effort to extend the length of the data record.  These included such things as whaling ship logbooks, aerial surveys, and maps from meteorological agencies.  In a guest post on Carbon Brief, scientist Florence Fetterer summarizes their findings.  If you just want the bottom line, scroll to the end of the article and look at the last two figures.  They are startling.

A federal appeals court has ruled that it is valid for the government to include the cost of climate change (in the form of the social cost of carbon) when conducting cost-benefit analyses of new regulations.

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science has found that rising sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic are likely to be behind a recent surge in cases of diarrheal diseases from marine bacteria in northern Europe and the US east coast.  Chris Mooney also reported on the study in the Washington Post.

In a live telephone town hall call-in on Tuesday, Congressman Bob Goodlatte stated that we would be better off spending money to adapt to climate change rather than trying to mitigate it.  He should read the editorial in Monday’s New York Times about the many countries that will need help in adapting.  And, he should read BBC correspondent Justin Rowlatt’s thoughts on what he has observed in India.  Perhaps they will cause him to reconsider his position.  Even more important, if you live in the 6^th district, you can let him know that you care about climate change.  Just give him a call at 202-225-5431.

A heat wave in the Middle East is shattering records all over the region.  For example, the temperature in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, reached an all-time high of nearly 126 F.  Unfortunately, the heat wave is expected to continue.  Here is the U.S., 2016 through July was the third warmest year on record according to data released by NOAA.  In addition, Florida and New Mexico experienced their hottest Julys on record.

Energy

Last week New York’s governor announced a plan that would effectively subsidize the state’s nuclear power plants by forcing the utilities that rely on them to pay “zero emission credits” to the operators of those reactors.  As a consequence, Exelon, the country’s biggest nuclear power producer, announced it would rescue one of those power plants from being shut down.  Meanwhile, Pacific Gas & Electric has submitted a proposal to the California Public Utilities Commission to close both units at the Diablo Canyon nuclear facility near San Luis Osbispo by 2025, replacing its electricity generation with a combination of renewable sources, energy storage, better energy efficiency, and changes to the power grid.  Closer to home, as noted by Mark Chediak on Bloomberg Markets, “Utilities including Duke Energy Corp., Dominion Resources Inc. and NextEra Energy Inc. are being allowed by regulators to charge $1.7 billion for reactors that exist only on paper, according to company disclosures and regulatory filings.  Duke and Dominion could seek approval to have ratepayers pony up at least another $839 million, the filings show.”

Heavy duty vehicles, such as long-haul trucks, are major consumers of fossil fuel.  Consequently, five years ago President Obama announced the first fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas standards for them.  In 2011 the Obama administration finalized Phase 1 of the Clean Truck standards, which are beginning to have an impact on fuel consumption.  In recognition of these standards, the Environmental Defense Fund has published a series of blog posts about changes in heavy duty trucks.  The first summarizes the economic and environmental benefits of the Phase 1 standards.  Phase 2 standards are currently being formulated and will build on the success of Phase 1.  Finally, Jason Mathers has compiled statements from a variety of sources showing the broad support for the Clean Truck standards.

Last week I provided a link to an article about the cost of replacing aviation fuel with biofuel, thereby reducing the carbon footprint of flying.  The information in the article came from a new report by the International Civil Aviation Authority.  Now Carbon Brief has examined the report to ask how much of the remaining carbon budget for keeping warming below 1.5 C will be used by aviation under several scenarios.  If aviation continues to grow at its current rate and makes no changes in the type of fuel it uses, it will consume 27% of the carbon budget by 2050.  Even if it succeeds in switching to 100% biofuels by 2050 and makes technological improvements to its fleet, aviation will still consume 12% of the remaining carbon budget.

A study of methane emissions in Indianapolis, IN, and its comparison to an earlier study in Boston, has revealed that many sources of methane leakage are unknown and perhaps come from entities such as gas meters, furnaces, boilers and hot water heaters.  When people think of the concept of methane as a bridge to a renewable energy future it is usually as an interim replacement for coal until more renewable energy systems come on line.  (Many question this concept because of the current leakage rates of methane from gas infrastructure.)  However, a new study suggests that methane is serving as a bridge fuel until large-scale and reliable energy storage systems are available.  Only when that happens will power companies be able to phase out rapid-response gas turbines.

Three Virginia counties in the path of the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline have asked FERC to delay issuing a draft environmental impact statement until most of the questions raised have been answered.  Meanwhile FERC has said that it will not conduct a coordinated review of the three pipelines proposed to cross Virginia, including the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley pipelines.

In a Thursday letter, EPA’s Science Advisory Board told Administrator Gina McCarthy the agency “should provide quantitative analysis that supports its conclusion that hydraulic fracturing has not led to widespread, systemic impacts on drinking water resources.”

The American Petroleum Institute is making quiet efforts to revamp its climate messaging, creating a task force that could revisit the industry’s long-held opposition to taxing greenhouse gas emissions.  Note, an earlier version of this article was released on June 28, hence the outdated references to the Democratic platform.

These news items have been compiled by Les Grady, member and former chair of the CAAV steering committee. He is a licensed professional engineer (retired) who taught environmental engineering at Purdue and Clemson Universities and engaged in private practice with CH2M Hill, the world’s largest environmental engineering consulting firm. Since his retirement in 2003 he has devoted much of his time to the study of climate science and the question of global warming and makes himself available to speak to groups about this subject. More here.

A special thanks to Joy Loving for covering the news last week while Joni and I were at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, NY attending a week of events examining humans and the environment.  The week was done in collaboration with National Geographic so the main lecture each day was given by either a photographer, an explorer, or a scientist associated with NG.  It was a very inspiring and rejuvenating week.

There is so much election news that it could dominate everything, hence I tend to avoid it in this summary.  One exception is the “U.S. Election Tracker” compiled by staff at Carbon Brief in the UK that summarizes what each presidential and vice-presidential candidate has to say on climate and energy, as well as the views of their energy advisers and their party platforms.  When there are significant updates I’ll let you know.

Climate

EPA recently released a report that shows evidence of long-term changes to our climate, and highlights impacts on human health and the environment in the United States and around the world.  The report, Climate Change Indicators in the United States, features observed trend data on 37 climate indicators, including U.S. and global temperatures, ocean acidity, sea level, river flooding, droughts, and wildfires.  Also, NOAA released its report on the State of the Climate in 2015, complied by more than 450 scientists from 62 countries.  Oliver Milman hit the high points for The Guardian, while Robert McSweeney took a deeper dive at Carbon Brief.  George Monbiot gives his view of what this all means from both the U.S. and UK political perspectives.

More bad news about coral reefs, this time around Guam, where bleaching events have occurred now for four straight years.  This has led to death of 50% of the coral in some areas.  This year’s bleaching event is expected to cause more coral death because bleaching has occurred for so many consecutive years.

The Obama administration has told federal agencies that they must consider the impact of their projects on climate change, in addition to the general environmental impacts that they also must consider.  As might be expected, Democrats and Republicans had differing opinions on the new guidelines.  Looking backwards, perhaps the federal government should have thought more about its assumptions when the military abandoned in place a facility under the ice in Greenland in 1967.  A recent study has found that it won’t be encased in ice forever, as assumed.

An outbreak of anthrax in the far north of Russia is suspected of having come from spores released as permafrost thawed due to high temperatures associated with climate change.  The outbreak killed a 12 year old boy, and sickened 40 other children and 31 adults.  It also killed 2,300 reindeer.

When we think about a warming world, polar bears get a lot of press.  But what about those iconic creatures on the other side of the globe, penguins?  Well, a recent study has examined how Adelie penguins will fare as Antarctica warms.  The bad news is that colonies will decline, but the good news is that the species won’t die out.

In a guest post on Carbon Brief Dr. David Barnes states: “Blue carbon is the term given to carbon stored in coastal or marine ecosystems. It typically refers to salt marshes, mangroves, and seagrass beds, which capture CO2 from the atmosphere and store it in their leaves, stems and in the soil.  A less well-known – but no less important – contribution to blue carbon comes from tiny organisms that live on the seabed.  These creatures, known as zoobenthos, take up carbon from the plankton they eat and the CO2 in seawater they use to build their skeletons. When the zoobenthos die, their bodies are eventually buried in the sediment of the seabed, sequestering carbon in the process.”  Dr. Barnes and a team of scientists are embarking on a voyage around Antarctica to measure the importance of blue carbon as a carbon sink.

Ellicott City, MD received over 6″ of rain in a two hour period last Saturday, causing devastating flooding downtown.  Such a rainfall is expected to occur only once in a thousand years, but is the type of event one would expect in a warming world.  As bad as that flooding was, it was not as widespread and disastrous as that in China, India, Nepal, and Pakistan where hundreds have died and millions have been forced from their homes.

Energy

One idea that is catching on in the power sector is the “virtual power plant”, a network of independent batteries, solar panels, and energy-efficient buildings that are tied together and remotely controlled by software and data systems.  The goal is to reduce customers’ energy demand at peak hours and provide renewable energy supplies in targeted areas, thereby allowing utilities to offset some of the needs for power from conventional sources and avoid disruption on the grid.  Maria Gallucci provides a tutorial about them on Yale Environment 360.  This article is well worth your time so you can tell Dominion what the future might look like.

A report on bird deaths at the Ivanpah solar energy plant in Southern California’s Mojave Desert suggests that they increased in the second year of the plant’s operation, although the authors of the report caution against comparing the two years because of differences in how data were collected.  While the numbers were in the thousands, they were still small in comparison to other human-related causes of bird mortality.

Joe Romm argues that cheap natural gas from fracked wells is the reason that half the nuclear power plants in the U.S. are no longer profitable – not the rise of solar and wind power as some have asserted.

If you like to travel by air, you might consider that replacing conventional jet fuel with carbon neutral alternatives would cost up to $60 billion a year from 2020 to 2050 and would require around 170 new bioenergy refineries to be built every year, according to the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization.

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, commonly know as RGGI, involves nine states in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic (Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont).  Since it was implemented in 2008, RGGI states have seen a 37% decrease in emissions from electricity production, while simultaneously decreasing consumer costs.  Now 70 companies have sent a letter to the governors of the RGGI states urging them to extend the program beyond 2020.  Unfortunately, attempts to get Virginia to join RGGI have been unsuccessful.

Will off-shore wind energy ever take off in the U.S.?  Well, the Massachusetts legislature passed landmark legislation last weekend betting that it will.  In fact, that legislation may well be the catalyst that gets things moving for off-shore wind farms.  Meanwhile, many questions remain to be answered before an off-shore farm of floating wind turbines can be built off the coast of California.

One impediment to electric vehicles (EVs) right now is a lack of charging stations.  So what does one do if the battery is getting low, but no commercial charging stations are within range?  Well, turn to the sharing economy, of course.  The app Plugshare maps tens of thousands of charging stations at private residences for EV drivers.  Regardless of where they are charged, however, Camille von Kaenel of ClimateWire has ideas about how EVs can be made cleaner and benefit the grid.

These news items have been compiled by Les Grady, member and former chair of the CAAV steering committee. He is a licensed professional engineer (retired) who taught environmental engineering at Purdue and Clemson Universities and engaged in private practice with CH2M Hill, the world’s largest environmental engineering consulting firm. Since his retirement in 2003 he has devoted much of his time to the study of climate science and the question of global warming and makes himself available to speak to groups about this subject. More here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Climate

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Energy

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

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

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

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

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

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

These news items have been compiled by Les Grady, member and former chair of the CAAV steering committee. He is a licensed professional engineer (retired) who taught environmental engineering at Purdue and Clemson Universities and engaged in private practice with CH2M Hill, the world’s largest environmental engineering consulting firm. Since his retirement in 2003 he has devoted much of his time to the study of climate science and the question of global warming and makes himself available to speak to groups about this subject. More here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GOP votes down funding for global climate fund

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have a good week anyway.

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

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

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

Climate

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Energy

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

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

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

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

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

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

These news items have been compiled by Les Grady, member and former chair of the CAAV steering committee. He is a licensed professional engineer (retired) who taught environmental engineering at Purdue and Clemson Universities and engaged in private practice with CH2M Hill, the world’s largest environmental engineering consulting firm. Since his retirement in 2003 he has devoted much of his time to the study of climate science and the question of global warming and makes himself available to speak to groups about this subject. More here.