[GWSG] FL climate; major extinction; biochar; China's renewable industry; climate wars?; green building; half the melt

[Tilley, Al]

1.  Pete Johnson sends this study of Florida’s climate trends and their effect on vegetation over the last century.  Overall, Florida has gotten a bit hotter and wetter, but locations vary.  North FL, for example, has gotten a bit cooler in the winter and spring.  Most of the state has had no precipitation changes.  Some plants are flowering earlier, some later.  The overall message is that the general trends vary strongly by region.  http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0011500

2.  An Australian study of marine animals published in Science finds that the extinction event currently underway has the potential to match or exceed any past such event in severity.  http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/national/world-facing-mass-extinction/story-e6frg15u-1225913659680

3.  An article in Nature Communications examines some of the caveats and complexities of sequestering carbon with biochar.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/richardblack/2010/08/last_year_you_could_hardly.html  The 3rd annual biochar conference convenes in Brazil this month.  Biochar supplies the most practical and easily scalable way we currently know to reduce atmospheric carbon once emissions are controlled.  The article emphasizes its use to increase soil fertility and is a good general account.  http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/09/07/07greenwire-once-lowly-charcoal-emerges-as-major-tool-for-c-4963.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

4.  China is said to be increasing its hydropower 50% by 2015.  http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2269224/china-aiming-increase  Half of the world’s solar cells are now made in China, with energetic support from the government for renewable manufacturing in general.  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/business/global/09trade.html?_r=5&partner=rss&emc=rss

5.  A PNAS paper contends that climate does not correlate with African wars so well as do more traditional factors such as economic disparity and ethnic tension.  The paper is at odds with a 2009 PNAS paper which found a correlation between conflict and climate change.  The author of the new paper argues for a more complex approach to moderating conflict, including climate adaptation initiatives.     http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11204686

6.  Green building now accounts for nearly a third of the new construction in the US, up from 2% in 2005.  Since 40% of US energy goes into buildings, green building is crucial to a smoother transition to renewable energy.  Other positive considerations of green building are more efficient water use, better health for the occupants, improved general sustainability, and enhanced aesthetics.  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129699450&ft=1&f=1025  The second part of the story describes green support of education through intelligent design, and addresses the complaint that not all LEED certified buildings save energy.  My Honda Insight hybrid will get 55 mpg when driven mindfully, and if you drive it like a (not very competitive) sports car it will get 28.  Green buildings require careful living to perform well.  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129727547

7.  An article in Nature Geoscience says that estimates of melting in Greenland and the West Antarctic should be halved by taking glacial isostatic adjustment into account.  http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100907/sc_afp/climatewarmingscienceice