[GWSG] Better pv; Frontline on cc propaganda; melting clathrates; retreating plankton; oil danger; cc & Sandy; faster cc?

[Tilley, Al]

1.  The startup company Bandgap is producing solar cells using silicon nanowires which collect more sunlight than conventional cells.  Bandgap’s cells are cheaper and more efficient; they hope eventually to double the conventional power output.   http://www.technologyreview.com/news/429586/how-to-double-the-power-of-solar-panels/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-weekly-energy&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20121022

2.  Frontline interviewed leaders and associates of several right wing organizations which claim credit for propagandizing the science of climate change and stifling political action and even discourse on the issue in the US.  Featured organizations include Americans for Prosperity, the Heartland Institute, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute.  Climate of Doubt is worth the hour.   http://video.pbs.org/video/2283833076/  The presidential debates just concluded were the first since 1984 not to address the issue of climate change (as I have heard).  I remember that at least George Bush bothered to claim good intentions in his debates with Al Gore.

3.  A study in Nature reports that warmer and redirected Gulf Stream currents seem to be releasing large amounts of methane by melting methane hydrates off the coast of North America.  http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/346009/description/Gulf_Stream_might_be_releasing_seafloor_methane   Further information and some more speculation:   http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/24/14670511-climate-changing-methane-rapidly-destabilizing-off-east-coast-study-finds?lite%3Focid=twitter

4.  Rising sea temperatures this century are likely to drive phytoplankton poleward from the topics, if they cannot adapt quickly enough.  http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2012/10/24/science.1224836.abstract  Phytoplankton form the base of the food chain and are a major carbon sink.  http://www.climatecentral.org/news/climate-change-and-rising-ocean-temperatures-threaten-ocean-food-chain-15153

5.  We cannot burn the oil the industry plans to bring onto the market in the next few years and maintain a stable climate.  http://priceofoil.org/2012/10/25/oils-new-supply-boom-is-a-bust-for-the-climate/

6.  Did global warming cause Hurricane Sandy?  “The answer to the oft-asked question of whether an event is caused by climate change is that it is the wrong question,” writes Kevin E. Trenberth, senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. “All weather events are affected by climate change because the environment in which they occur is warmer and moister than it used to be.”  http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-hurricane-sandy-heads-to-northeast-20121027,0,3886956.story

7.  The November Scientific American contains John Carey’s “Global Warming: Faster Than Expected?”  The article is not yet on line but those who deal with the general public may want to pick up the magazine.  It observes that the feedback from altered ocean circulation (see 3 above), melting permafrost, and accelerated glacial melting could accelerate warming.  Our schedules keep compressing.  Here is a preview (with a different title):  http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=is-global-warming-happening-faster-than-expected
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