[GWSG] EPA wins; Bonn draft; IPBES; solar antics; TerraPower nuke; 330 hot months; APA costs; reporting weather

[Tilley, Al]

1.  Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska lost her bid to prevent the EPA from carrying out its charge to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20100611/sc_mcclatchy/3532467

2.  The Bonn talks have ended with a 22 page draft toward a treaty which would attempt to keep warming under 2° C.  http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6596C220100610?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29  Several groups are unhappy with the draft, and it is clear that we are still far from an effective treaty.  The common wisdom seems to be to look for one in 2011, though I still have hopes for a Mexican miracle this fall.  http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i9TuMrvrknh-ZXwqmZ2N-48kff3wD9G954MO0

3.  The UN has established The Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).  It will prepare biodiversity assessment reports in the manner of the IPCC and work to form policy, both to preserve biodiversity and to deal with the impact of its diminution.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/11/un-ipcc-for-nature-biodiversity

4.  Sunspots are at an unusual minimum, and may continue so for some years.  The effects are primarily local.  Especially, protracted sunspot minimums are associated with European cooling (or, in this case, slowed heating).  I hesitate to use this sensationalizing article, but it does provide an overview, however luridly colored.   http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20627640.800-whats-wrong-with-the-sun.html?full=true

5.  TerraPower is developing a newly designed nuclear reactor which uses depleted uranium (for the most part) as a fuel, has a 60 year core life expectancy, poses no safety hazard if breached, is proof against operator error (you only need to turn it on, once, and off, also once), and cuts the production of radioactive waste (though it produces plutonium).  Vinod Khosla and Bill Gates are putting money into it.  The developers of the TerraWave Traveling Wave Reactor consider it less than 15 years from commercial application.  I assume that TerraWave, like other fourth-generation fast neutron reactors, will be expensive, though the firm does promise large amounts of cheap electricity eventually.  http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/35m-for-terrapower-is-nuclear-power-green-power  More on the travelling wave reactor:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traveling_wave_reactor

6.  Globally, May was the hottest on record.  303 consecutive months have been above the 20th century average for that month.  http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65E63F20100615?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29

7.  The EPA estimates that the American Power Act would cost the average American household 22-40 cents a day.  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100615/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill_climate_bill

8.  The floods in central Tennessee this spring were unusual; as the atmosphere heats and carries more water vapor, such floods may generally be expected more frequently than in the past.  Since individual events cannot be firmly linked to global warming, news media ignored climate in covering the flood.  This Washington Post story argues that media have a responsibility to report scientific consideration of the relation between such events and global warming.  http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitalweathergang/2010/06/arkansas_flood_raises_climate.html