[GWSG] Regional slr; Arctic icefree schedule; DAI point near; GE builds thin film solar; natural gas worst fossil fuel

[Tilley, Al]

1.  A Dutch team has begun to model regional variations in sea level rise.  One counter-intuitive finding is that water from Greenland would result from relatively less rise in New York than water from the West Antarctic.  Generally, New York is predicted to suffer 20% more sea level rise than the global average.  (Only 13 locations have been modeled.)  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13011073

2.  A new study produces a best guess that the Arctic will be free of ice in the summer of 2016, give or take 3 years.  While the study does not address Greenland, the albedo change will mean greater heating for the region.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13002706

3.  A Canadian modeling study concludes that we are unlikely to restrict warming to 2° C in this century.  To remain short of that threshold, usually taken as the transition point to dangerous anthropogenic interference (DAI) with the world’s climate, we would need to ramp down to near 0% greenhouse gas emissions immediately and initiate a program to withdraw CO2 from the atmosphere.  At the DAI point we will be at increased risk of losing the chance to intervene in the heating as positive feedbacks begin to dominate the process of change.    http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/04/un-goal-of-limiting-global-warmi.html

4.  GE is building the world’s largest solar manufacturing plant in the US to produce thin film panels in competition with First Solar.  http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2041939/ge-plunges-usd600m-efficient-solar-pv-panel?WT.rss_f=&WT.rss_a=GE+plunges+%24600m+into+%22most+efficient%22+solar+PV+panel

5.  A forthcoming Cornell study is said to find that fracking for natural gas renders it for a time more damaging to the climate than coal, and then (as the leaked methane converts to CO2) as damaging.  Part of the new picture derives from greatly increased estimates of leaked methane, and part is from new findings (from NASA) about the interactions of the leaked methane with aerosols.   http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/12/business/energy-environment/12gas.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail0=y   The Huffington Post has a blunter take without the Times’ nods to gas industry reps:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brendan-demelle/highway-to-hell-why-shale_b_847710.html
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