[GWSG] Cities act, corps ask; plants offgas; adapting; OTEC; acidification; >400 ppm; Cooper vents; ice going; US dithers; China?

[Tilley, Al]

1.  Eleven US cities have agreed to divest holdings in the largest 200 fossil fuel companies, and the idea is spreading.  http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/04/u-s-cities-joining-push-to-dump-fossil-fuel-investments/

2.  GM, Starbucks, Intel, and eBay are among the 40 corporations to sign a Ceres petition to the Obama administration asking for action on climate change for our economic wellbeing.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/may/01/gm-obama-congress-climate-change

3.  Under heat stress plants release aerosols which help form clouds and moderate warming.  The effect handles only about 1% of warming overall, but can diminish warming of heavily forested areas by as much as 30%.  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130428144921.htm?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fearth_climate+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Earth+%26+Climate+News%29

4.  Adaptation occurs most readily when the risk is likely and grave, but not too grave.  Successful adaptation requires some promise creating an attractive life.  As an article in Nature Climate Change puts it, the limits of climate adaptation are social.  http://grist.org/climate-energy/understanding-the-social-limits-of-adaptation/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed  The article suggests to me that the prospect of life in a sustainable, resilient community should be at the center of public education for climate adaptation.

5.  Lockheed Martin is building a 10 megawatt ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) plant off the Chinese coast.  OTEC uses temperature differentials in the ocean to drive a turbine system.  http://www.eenews.net/public/climatewire/2013/05/01/1

6.  We are adding a train car full of carbon to the oceans every second.  An experiment in Sweden is trying to determine what that means for ocean life.  On our current emissions trajectory we will have the most acidic oceans in 300 million years by century’s end.    http://e360.yale.edu/feature/a_key_experiment_to_probe_the_future_of_our_acidifying_oceans/2644/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+YaleEnvironment360+%28Yale+Environment+360%29

7.  Atmospheric CO2 is due to pass 400 ppm this year, for the first time in 3.2-5 million years. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/apr/29/global-carbon-dioxide-levels

8.  Ryan Cooper’s brief video Why Climate Change is Not an Environmental Issue packs a lot of accurate (and pissed off) observation.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELMXJts5qic

9.  Defense and scientific officials warned the Obama administration this week that summer Arctic sea ice could disappear within two years, leading to grave consequences. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/earth-insight/2013/may/02/white-house-arctic-ice-death-spiral

10.  The US position that each nation should set its own emissions targets is gaining ground in the UN talks at Bonn.  No one has explained how such an approach would succeed in avoiding 2° of warming.  http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/02/us-climate-talks-idUSBRE9410QA20130502?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews

11.  China has capped coal consumption and wants to lead the world in renewables.      http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/program/asia-pacific/chinas-leadership-on-renewables-tim-flannery/1123224  China still leads the world in emissions. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/chinas-choice/2013/may/02/china-climate-change-leader  Henry Thomas, who sent the first link, is on his way to upstate New York family land and intends to grow electrons on a solar farm.  He and I worked together with Eileen Miller to create a community of three courses on climate change at UNF.  I am among the many in Jacksonville who will miss him.
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