[GWSG] IEA report; FL uninsurable; 0-11+; Koch pledge; GOP hope; earth song; fatal heat; ignored topics

[Tilley, Al]

1.  The International Energy Agency projects that by 2016 renewable energy will exceed that from natural gas.  We could easily do even better.  The primary obstacle to a rapid transition to a renewable energy base is policy uncertainty, which deters investment.  That is a most encouraging position for such an intergovernmental agency to assume.  http://www.iea.org/newsroomandevents/pressreleases/2013/june/name,39156,en.html

2.   The Geneva Association, a global insurance trade group, warns that Florida and other areas are being rendered uninsurable by ocean heating.  Thanks to Brian Paradise and Tom Larson for suggesting the news.  http://ecowatch.com/2013/insurance-firms-warn-uninsurable-future-climate-change/

3.  An article in Science estimates that the contributions of melting polar ice sheets to global sea level rise has gone from 0 in 1994 to 11 mm/year in 2011.  The next step in the study will be to predict future change.  The melt is obviously accelerating.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20543483

4.  Through Americans for Prosperity, the Koch brothers have persuaded many US public officials to sign a pledge not to take any actions on climate unless accompanied by an equivalent tax cut.  Signatories include a third of the House of Representatives and a quarter of the Senate as well as a large number of local and state officials.   http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/07/the-kochs-and-the-action-on-global-warming.html

5.  A Guardian opinion piece finds reason for hope in the Republican response to the President’s climate action plan.  The authors observe that a revenue-neutral carbon tax would not violate the Koch brother’s secret pledge.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2013/jul/03/climate-change-carbon-emissions-republicans-obama

6.  A U MN cellist has composed a musical representation of the heating of earth since 1909.  By the end of the century the piece, if extended, would produce sounds beyond our ability to hear.  http://grist.org/list/this-is-what-global-warming-sounds-like-when-converted-to-music/?utm_campaign=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&sub_email=atilley%40unf.edu

7.  Excessive heat is the number one source of weather-related fatalities.  (I am not generally covering the heat and drought news in this list because the usual media seem unusually up on the topic.)  http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-low-down-on-the-wests-heat-wave-whats-causing-it-and-why-hot-nights-are-so-dangerous/2013/07/01/db1e5816-e294-11e2-8657-fdff0c195a79_story.html

8.  Time, perhaps, for a list of other topics I don’t cover unless I spot something genuinely new: natural gas as a bridge to renewable energy (we don’t have the time, even if it natural gas has less greenhouse gas emissions than coal, which is disputed); fuel cells for personal transportation (too many tech problems remain, including the risk of explosions); conventional nuclear power (too expensive, when externalized costs are restored, and no way to handle the extensive waste produced); ethanol from food crops for a biofuel; carbon capture and sequestration as a way to continue using fossil fuels (too expensive, and there is no secure way to store the carbon at an appropriate scale and indefinitely); geo-engineering schemes which do not deal with ocean acidification or side effects; propaganda and hype, when I can detect it.
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