[GWSG] Ceres; divestment; new coal; fragile trees; Doha talks; desert veggies; beetle water; anti-RES; slr in NY; biofuels a shuck

[Tilley, Al]

1.  Ceres, a US-based coalition of large investors and green groups, has issued a letter calling on governments to act on climate change.  http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2225947/investors-warn-climate-change-is-putting-pensions-at-risk?WT.rss_f=Home&WT.rss_a=Investors+warn+climate+change+is+putting+pensions+at+risk

2.  72% of Harvard students have voted to divest from fossil fuels.  http://ecowatch.org/2012/harvard-students-divestment/

3.  At least 1,200 new coal plants are being planned worldwide, ¾ in China and India.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/nov/20/coal-plants-world-resources-institute

4.  70% of a survey of 226 tree species would be in trouble under drier conditions whether those trees live in dry or wet areas.  Trees have evolved to live on the edge of available water, “at the brink of death,” and typically cannot tolerate much deprivation.  http://www.climatecentral.org/news/drought-puts-trees-the-world-over-at-the-edge-15274

5.  The UN climate talks at Doha in the coming week will concern ancillary issues rather than attempt to arrive at a comprehensive plan.  http://www.nature.com/news/what-s-at-stake-in-doha-climate-talks-1.11844

6.  Britain’s Charlie Paton invented a system able to grow vegetables hydroponically using solar energy to provide power and fresh water.  His system is the base for Australia’s Sundrop Farms, growing high quality pesticide-free vegetables year round in a coastal desert.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/nov/24/growing-food-in-the-desert-crisis

7.  Startup NBD Nano intends to produce a water bottle which mimics the Namib Desert beetle to collect ½-3 liters of water an hour by condensation.  A fan draws air over the bottle.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20465982

8.  The Heartland Institute and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC, which drafted most of the recent Florida constitutional amendment initiatives as well as the “stand your ground” laws) are drafting and pushing state-level legislation to reverse renewable energy standards.  Anti-renewable energy legislation has failed in 8 states in the past 2 years, but the saboteurs think they will succeed in 2014. http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/climate-skeptic-group-works-to-reverse-renewable-energy-mandates/2012/11/24/124faaa0-3517-11e2-9cfa-e41bac906cc9_story.html?hpid=z4

9.  Today’s New York Times carries two stories on the inevitable submergence of New York and other coastal areas.  Hurricane Sandy has helped convince many of coastal fragility.  The linked story, by two climate scientists, reviews the general state of sea level rise studies as they concern New York in the next century or so.    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/25/opinion/sunday/rising-seas-vanishing-coastlines.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y

10.  Nobel Prize winning chemist Hartmut Michel maintains that all biofuels are dead ends for climate change mitigation.  The difficulties lie in the chemistry of photosynthesis and in the inefficiencies of biomass fuels.  Thanks to Tom Larson for the news.  http://climatesanity.wordpress.com/2012/02/25/nobel-prize-winning-biochemist-says-all-biofuels-are-nonsense/
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