[GWSG] Lost wetlands; ice-free Arctic; 20% covered; Kochs fighting wind; PFTBA; S FL floods; little reactors

[Tilley, Al]

1.  The US is losing 80,000 acres of wetlands each year to storms and sea level rise, a 25% increase over the last survey, which covered 1998-2004.  http://e360.yale.edu/digest/intensifying_storms_are__contributing_to_ongoing_us_wetlands_loss/4022/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+YaleEnvironment360+%28Yale+Environment+360%29

2.  The US Navy projects an ice-free summer Arctic by about 2016, based on melting in 2007. The head of polar ocean physics at Cambridge and the director of the Ocean Institute at the U of W Australia see 2015 as the likely year.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2013/dec/09/us-navy-arctic-sea-ice-2016-melt   The effects could be severe.    http://www.ibtimes.com/new-study-says-arctic-ice-melt-extreme-weather-conditions-us-europe-linked-1499946

3. Operating or planned carbon markets now cover 20% of world emissions.  http://www.rtcc.org/2013/12/02/worlds-carbon-markets-now-cover-20-of-emissions/?goback=%2Egde_141485_member_5814381725630885889#%21

4.  The Koch brothers are running a determined campaign to hamper the development of wind power.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elliott-negin/the-koch-brothers-are-sti_b_4396033.html

5.  PFTBA, in use for transistors and other electrical applications since the mid-20th century, has been discovered to be 7,000 times more powerful than CO2 as a greenhouse gas.  It and others like it are not normally tested for greenhouse effects.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/dec/10/new-greenhouse-gas-powerful-chemical-perfluorotributylamine

6.  Miami Beach is experiencing tidal flooding now and planning to accommodate increased flooding in the next few decades.  Part 1 of a Grist series includes an Army Corps of Engineers projection of sea level rise for the area.  http://grist.org/cities/miami-vise-rising-seas-put-the-squeeze-on-a-sun-drenched-beach-town/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Daily%2520Dec%252013&utm_campaign=daily

7.  The US Department of Energy is supporting a Corvallis, OR, company with up to $260 million to develop small modular nuclear reactors.  http://e360.yale.edu/digest/us_energy_department_invests_in_small-scale_nuclear_reactors/4026/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+YaleEnvironment360+%28Yale+Environment+360%29
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