[GWSG] Efforts; slr; slr & flooding; imperiled utilities; energy storage; risk failure; optimistic Al Gore; MASH

[Tilley, Al]

1.  The linked LA Times Op-ed doesn’t have any news, but it does pull together current efforts on climate under the two heads of reducing immediate and long-term risk.  http://www.latimes.com/opinion/la-oe-zaelke-climate-tipping-points-20130816,0,631359.story

2.  National Geographic discourses on sea level rise with enough depth to make the article worth reading, though it lapses into unwarranted assurances that we won’t really have to worry for decades.    Notice that the U of Miami oceanographer is worried about selling his house now, not in 2080.  http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/09/rising-seas/folger-text

3.  If 6” of sea level rise will be enough to compromise half the drainage in South Florida as FL Atlantic U reported, the region will be destabilized sometime in the next 15 years or so.  I had read of this study some time ago but just located it.  One thing of interest among many is the account of how projected sea level rise on a given date this century is derived from a projection for 2100.  Southeast Florida’s Resilient Water Resources: Adaptation to Sea Level Rise and Other Impacts of Climate Change.  Center for Environmental and Urban Solutions, FAU, 2009.  http://www.ces.fau.edu/files/projects/climate_change/SE_Florida_Resilient_Water_Resources.pdf
President Obama’s task force on Hurricane Sandy reports that flooding could cost $1 trillion by 2050.  We ought to reduce our risk now.  Thanks for Brian Paradise for the link.  http://www.treehugger.com/climate-change/task-force-warns-time-now-prepare-future-storms.html

4.  Utilities are threatened by reductions in energy usage.  To survive they will need to provide new services in energy management.  http://www.midwestenergynews.com/2013/08/15/ibm-expert-says-utilities-should-become-energy-malls/
The current grid structure is being outdated by decentralized solar, among other factors.  (The article is somewhat hostile to the prospect.) Thanks to Tom Larson for the link.    http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-08-22/homegrown-green-energy-is-making-power-utilities-irrelevant

5.  Tom Larson also sends this handy summary of energy storage technology, arguably the most important current factor in the energy transition.  http://files.eesi.org/IssueBrief_Energy_Storage_080613.pdf

6.  Lack of action on climate disruption may be humanity’s greatest risk management failure.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2013/aug/23/climate-change-greatest-risk-management-failure

7.  Al Gore, in an interview with Ezra Klein, says why he has become optimistic about the chances of dealing with climate disruption.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/21/al-gore-explains-why-hes-optimistic-about-stopping-global-warming/?wprss=rss_business&clsrd

8.  California’s Multifamily Affordable Solar Housing (MASH) allows an apartment house owner to distribute power to multiple meters so that a renter in effect pays for only that apartment’s solar power.  http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2013/08/california-solar-energy-apartments-virtual-net-metering-allows-energy-savings-one-tenant-at-a-time?cmpid=WNL-Friday-August23-2013
MASH extends the possibility of community solar power to renters.
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