[GWSG] Talking science; talking robots; models sunny; SW droughts; Transpharm; blocking desert solar; floating solar; youth conference

[Tilley, Al]

1.  At the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science several sessions dealt with how best to inform the US public on global warming.  Tom Rosensteil advised scientists to imitate politicians during interviews (which are not conversations).  Answer the question you wish had been asked, and when a question is loaded, answer it as if it were not.  http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-are-americans-so-ill  Last month at the meeting of the American Meteorological Society Kevin Trenberth delivered a paper in which he challenged scientists to take on leadership roles vacated by corrupted politicians, and to turn to an emphasis on planning and adaptation.  http://www.climatesciencewatch.org/2011/02/22/straight-talk-from-kevin-trenberth-on-denialists-climate-science-communication-and-climate-change-policy/

2.  If it has seemed to you that comments on internet forums are impossibly hostile and uninformed, that is because real people are often not the source of those comments.  Astroturfing, funded by corporations and their political groups, allows one person in a phone bank to assume dozens of personae and to manufacture endless comments.  The personae are backed by phony online identities and addresses.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2011/feb/23/need-to-protect-internet-from-astroturfing

3.  England’s Kevin Anderson warns that the models commonly used to project greenhouse gas emissions are unrealistically optimistic.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/feb/24/models-climate-policy-optimistic

4.  Physical evidence reported in Nature indicates that the American Southwest suffered severe droughts of hundreds and thousands of years’ duration during warm interglacial periods.  We are close to the threshold temperature for such droughts.   http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110223/full/news.2011.120.html

5.  The start-up company Transphorm claims to cut the power loss in conversion by as much as 90% with a product applicable to small uses (home computers), medium uses (hybrid cars), and large (computer server farms).  It will unveil its first such product in March.  The project is backed by Google.  http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/googlebacked-startup-zaps-electricity-waste-2224542.html

6.  Indians, a labor group, and the Sierra Club are contesting the siting of several large desert solar projects.  http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/24/solar-projects-pit-green-against-green/

7.  A Franco-Israeli partnership is locating floating solar power farms on industrial water basins.  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110225123026.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29

8.  An Indonesian conference of youths from 37 countries called for a strong program of actions on climate change.  http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/youth-call-on-governments-to-act-on-climate-change/425302
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