[GWSG] Overview; cc in class; SimCity; CO2 up; food short; XL writers; Ford's plan; under 2

[Tilley, Al]

1.  Stephen Mulkey speaks especially to a college student audience in “Generational Impacts of Climate Change: What Will It Mean for You?”  For those of us beyond that age, it still provides an informed overview of the approaching impacts of climate destabilization.  http://sustainabilitymonitor.wordpress.com/2013/03/03/generational-impacts-of-climate-change-what-will-it-mean-for-you/

2.  The National Research Council and a range of other groups have prepared science standards for the teaching of climate, which they recommend for all science courses.  The standards should make it more difficult for ALEC, the Heartland Institute, and others to propagandize the science classroom.   http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20130304/next-generation-science-standards-man-made-climate-change-consensus-global-warming-skeptics-heartland-institute

3.  A new SimCity game is on sale which works under conditions of climate disruption and limited funds.  I look forward to fantasizing a transition to renewable energy, and anticipate that the game will be an educational tool.  But I’ll wait for a few weeks before I download it.  From the rush of angry reviews on Amazon it seems that the publisher’s servers have buckled under the initial load, and the game must be played online.  http://uk.news.yahoo.com/simcity-game-addresses-climate-change-070935415.html

4.  Atmospheric CO2 increased to just under 395 ppm last year, the largest jump since the record year of 1998.  http://news.yahoo.com/us-scientists-report-big-jump-heat-trapping-co2-183551516.html

5.  Droughts, floods, and heat waves (along with industrial farming methods and other factors) are putting increasing pressure on global food supplies.  One measure, the food price index, shows us at the threshold of chronic civil unrest.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2013/mar/06/food-riots-new-normal

6.  The US State Department’s report on the XL pipeline was based on analysis by two firms with industry ties.  The fallacious arguments are the less surprising.  That the State Department would depend on such sources does surprise me.  Secretary Kerry faces many challenges, not all of them outside his department.  http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20130306/keystone-xl-eis-state-department-transcanada-oil-tar-sands-industry-ensys-energy-koch-brothers-exxonmobil-bp-obama

7.  Ford (with the advice of Georgia Tech) calculates that by integrating household electrical systems with charging their plug-in hybrid, and adopting rooftop solar, homeowners could save up to 60% of their electric bill and cut household emissions by 55%.  http://www.fastcoexist.com/1681385/this-new-model-for-how-you-use-electricity-could-save-you-big   If the State Department had outsourced their XL report to Ford’s EV division, Georgia Tech, any renewable power corporation, or the Sierra Club, it might have been improved.

8.  An article in Energy Policy calculates that in order to have a medium chance of avoiding over 2° C of warming developed nations must cut 50% of greenhouse gas emissions (on a 1990 base) by 2020.  http://insights.wri.org/news/2013/03/developed-nations-must-reduce-emissions-half-2020-says-new-study  Only vigorous steps, quickly taken, could accomplish that.
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