[GWSG] Chu's solar idea; gas article; gas doc; my goof; FEMA & ULI on coasts; soil fertility; sagging infrastructure; 1/2 target

[Tilley, Al]

1.  Secretary Chu suggests that utilities install on homes and continue to own solar panels and 5 kw storage batteries.  The battery will help them level the load, and in power outages, could keep a fridge going and provide power for an LED night light.  The utilities will maintain control of the power supply and customers will get lower rates.  http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2013/07/the-clean-simple-solar-and-storage-solution-to-us-utility-business-model-woes?cmpid=WNL-Wednesday-July3-2013

2.  Patrick Parenteau and Abigail Barnes have written “A Bridge Too Far: Building Off-Ramps on the Shale Gas Superhighway.”  They outline four measures which would deliver us much more directly to the necessary transition to renewable energy.  The article, which may be downloaded free from the site, provides a timely picture of the danger posed by natural gas and a sensible course of actions to deal with the problem.  http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2265866

3.  Gasland Part II, on HBO M July 8 at 9 pm E, enlarges the scope of Gasland to include politics and the climate.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jul/03/josh-fox-gasland-oscar-fracking

4.  In the previous newsletter I mistakenly said that the polar ice sheets were adding 11 mm a year to sea level rise.  My wife Peggy read it and said, “Why, we must be adding about 3 inches a decade of sea level rise.”  Oops.   Make that 11 mm cumulatively from 1994 to 2011, please.  The reference piece:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20543483

5.  Lad Hawkins forwards two new studies of the impact of sea level rise.  FEMA estimates 4 feet of rise by 2100 and a modest yearly increase in coastal insurance rates.  http://www.aecom.com/deployedfiles/Internet/News/Sustainability/FEMA%20Climate%20Change%20Report/Climate_Change_Report_AECOM_2013-06-11.pdf  The Urban Land Institute’s “Risk and Resilience in Coastal Regions” is more broadly concerned with coastal development and management, and has several recommendations pointing to areas of concern as the environment alters.  http://www.uli.org/wp-content/uploads/ULI-Documents/CoastalRegions.pdf

6.  Rising heat could alter the bacterial mix which renders soil fertile.  http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2013/07/soil-changes

7.  Rising temperatures cause roads and rails to buckle and power lines to sag.  http://www.npr.org/2013/07/05/199025501/with-rising-temperatures-infrastructure-falters

8.  A Swiss research group reports in Nature that the agreed 2 ° limit to warming above the pre-industrial level is half of what is needed to halt sea level rise and ocean acidification, and to stabilize agricultural productivity.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jul/05/climate-change
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