[GWSG] CC insecurity; State secret; e. efficiency; futile iron; C market emerges?; big towers; C 200 mya; zombies; new batteries

[Tilley, Al]

1.  The governments of a large majority of the world’s people view climate disruption as a major national security issue.  A new overview should help spur action, and promises that action on climate will become a higher priority generally.  http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/03/climate-change-now-seen-as-security-threat-worldwide/

2.  Unknown persons in the US State Department concealed the ties of Canadian tar sands business interests to the authors of their report on the Keystone XL pipe line.  http://grist.org/climate-energy/state-dept-hid-contractors-ties-to-keystone-xl-pipeline-company/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed

3.  Energy efficiency is at best a poor measure of progress in controlling greenhouse gas emissions.  At worst it leads us to imagine we are taking effective action while we continue to incur greater risk from climate disruption. http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/the_efficient_planet/2013/03/energy_intensity_is_a_misleading_metric_in_the_fight_against_climate_change.html

4.  The eruption of a volcano in Iceland showered a large area of oceanic phytoplankton with iron, providing an experiment in reducing atmospheric carbon by encouraging phytoplankton to grow and then die and sink, taking their fixed carbon to the ocean floor with them.  But the phytoplankton growth was quickly suppressed by a shortage of nitrogen.  Seeding the oceans with iron is unlikely to be a practical way to reduce atmospheric carbon.  http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=seeding-atlantic-ocean-with-volcanic-iron-did-little-to-lower-co2

5.  Regional US carbon markets, and the rise of natural gas, are leading to the emergence of a global carbon market.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/mar/21/real-market-forces-action-climate-change

6.  BrightSource Energy, in partnership with Abengoa, is building 2 250-megawatt solar towers in the Mojave Desert.  They will be the largest in the world.  http://e360.yale.edu/digest/us-spain_energy_companies_plan_worlds_largest_solar_towers/3798/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+YaleEnvironment360+%28Yale+Environment+360%29

7.  More clearly now, the great extinction which lead to the rise of the dinosaurs 200 million years ago arose from massive volcanic eruptions and the CO2 they threw into the atmosphere.  http://www.climatecentral.org/news/ancient-mass-extinction-has-ominous-lessons-for-today-study-15767

8.  The story of a 2-degree limit to warming after which the world will become unsafe is a poor fit for our situation.  The zombie apocalypse story works a little better, if we recognize that there is a range of possible endings, some happier than others.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/22/zombie-movies-climate-change-no-one-happy-ending

9.  I linked the Ambri liquid utility-scale battery a couple of weeks ago.  Here are some other firms developing similar batteries.  http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21729096.400-flow-batteries-could-back-up-grid-of-the-future.html
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