[GWSG] Submerged power; bad biomass; lucky Africa; hot oceans; dumb-ALEC; Arctic CH4; no growth; energy change support

[Tilley, Al]

1.  Around 300 power stations in the US lie on lands with a 55% chance of flooding by 2030.  The new study builds on Climate Central’s recent study of coastal lands susceptible to flooding by water 4 feet above high tide lines.  About half the power stations are in Louisiana.  Florida sports two nuclear power plants on barrier islands.  http://slr.s3.amazonaws.com/SLR-Threats-to-Energy-Infrastructure.pdf  The report was the subject of a Senate hearing.  http://www.climatecentral.org/news/senate-climate-change-hearing-focuses-on-sea-level-rise?utm-source=feedburner&utm-medium=feed&utm-campaign=Feed%3A+climatecentral%2FdjOO+Climate+Central+-+Full+Feed

2.  Large scale forest biomass energy production is not sustainable and could increase greenhouse gas emissions, according to a joint study by the Max Planck Institute, Oregon State U, and others.  Bioenergy is not necessarily carbon neutral or economically viable, and can degrade forests and other agricultural resources.  http://summitcountyvoice.com/2012/04/19/report-large-scale-forest-biomass-energy-not-sustainable/

3.  Africa has been found to lie over huge sources of water in aquifers throughout the continent.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17775211  Other areas are not so fortunate, including most of the US, Europe, India, and Eastern China.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11435522  (The situation in Africa is much improved in the first, more recent, story.)  A December 2009 map shows areas expected to suffer loss of water resources from climate change under expected conditions of population end industrial change.  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7821082.stm

4.  93% of the heat added by global warming goes to the oceans, which continue to register the rising temperature of the earth.  http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/04/scienceshot-no-letup-in-worlds.html?ref=em

5.  ALEC has been busy on issues other than promoting vigilante justice.  It has also written and pushed pieces of legislation designed to hamper regional climate initiatives, scuttle national climate efforts, thwart carbon pollution controls, and promote the teaching of climate change denial.  Many prominent corporations which support ALEC continue to take greenwash positions in public.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elliott-negin/alec-climate-change_b_1439267.html?ref=politics

6.  Newly ice-free Arctic waters appear to be a significant source of methane, on the level of melted permafrost.  The cause may be algae.  http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hrjdYReaAXRMN10T0dRrysVtj7Ag

7.  Effective action to halt global warming probably requires that we choose a form of prosperity which does not rely on growth.  It is otherwise hard to imagine a sustainable society.  Tim Jackson’s Prosperity Without Growth suggests that the best political tool to achieve that would be a more enabled democracy motivated by those human rights issues bound to climate change.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/apr/24/climate-change-human-rights-issue

8.  The renewable energy sector of the British economy is growing much faster than the economy at large.  It could almost quadruple in the next eight years and could generate 5 million jobs in the EU by 2020. (What if the goal were to balance the growth in renewables with diminution of the fossil fuel industry, in accordance with the goal of prosperity without growth?)    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17812299  9 out of 10 people in the UK want to see renewable energy developed. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/apr/23/people-want-more-renewable-energy    A poll last fall showed that 2/3 of Americans support a carbon tax.  http://e360.yale.edu/digest/majority_in_us_support_revenue-neutral_carbon_tax_survey_says/3222/  The idea of an enabled democracy on the base of existing public will appears feasible to me.
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