[GWSG] Survivors?; sensitivity x2; thorium; electrifying; G'land aquifer; FEMA adaptation grants; Norway's battery; honorees

[Tilley, Al]

1.  Will human civilizations survive our own greed?  At the meeting of the American Geophysical Union  David Grinspoon imagines survivors establishing a sustainable presence on earth.  http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/can-human-civilization-continue-indefinitely   On the other hand, London’s Jan Zalasiewicz supposes that the future may belong to giant rats.  http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/12/23/131223fa_fact_kolbert

2.  A British study indicates that in the long term the sensitivity of the climate to a doubling of CO2 could be twice as large as the current IPCC estimate.  http://www.climatenewsnetwork.net/2013/12/earth-may-be-doubly-sensitive-to-co2/

3.  Thorium reactors continue to attract attention.  A pilot project is underway in Norway, where thorium was discovered and named after the Norse god Thor.  http://news.yahoo.com/thorium-dream-clean-nuclear-power-142008502.html  Wikipedia offers much more info, including the many countries now developing thorium technology and a couple, the US and Germany, where projects have been abandoned.  In 1973 the US shut down thorium reactors because they do not yield nuclear bomb materials.  The German technology proved too difficult and expensive.  The US is currently collaborating with China on the design of a molten salt reactor using thorium fuel.    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium-based_nuclear_power    A discussion of the liquid fluoride thorium reactor indicates both the advantages and the difficulties of thorium reactor design.  I would add to the drawbacks the danger that we will not take action while we wait for thorium reactors, which appear to be some years in the future.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_fluoride_thorium_reactor  Nuclear power plants using standard technology are in rapid decline.  http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2211231/the_nuclear_renaissance_is_stone_cold_dead.html

4.  Climate Denial Crocks clarifies with a ten minute video the role of electric transportation in a sustainable energy system.    http://climatecrocks.com/2013/12/23/ev-moonshot-next-gm-ev-could-be-200-mile-range-under-30000/

5.  In a newly discovered aquifer in Greenland, liquid water is stored even through the winter between ice particles like the juice in a snow cone.  The impact on sea level rise is unclear.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25463647    Further details on the aquifer:  http://www.enn.com/climate/article/46820?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ClimateChangeNews-Enn+%28Climate+Change+News+-+ENN%29

6.  Communities may now base on projections of sea level rise FEMA grant applications to mitigate possible coastal property damage.  The change should be of great use in efforts to cope with climate disruption.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/23/fema-flood-program_n_4495117.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

7.  Norway could fill reservoirs with excess wind power so that the European grid would be stabilized during slack wind periods by using the high water levels to generate power.  http://www.climatecentral.org/news/giant-battery-can-store-renewable-energy-16852?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+climatecentral%2FdjOO+Climate+Central+-+Full+Feed

8.  Wen Stephenson provides “A Climate Truth-Tellers Honor Role of 2013.”  http://www.thenation.com/blog/177705/climate-truth-tellers-honor-roll-2013#<http://www.thenation.com/blog/177705/climate-truth-tellers-honor-roll-2013>
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