[GWSG] Solar Pb; radio spots; polar ice mass loss; Sinclair interview; heating the Atlantic; climate consciousness

[Tilley, Al]

1.  The lead in conventional auto batteries is usually harvested for new batteries.  As lithium ion batteries become more popular the lead has nowhere to go.  An MIT proposal would use it to produce cheap solar cells.  When they expire the lead could be harvested for the next cells.  http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2014/08/recycling-old-batteries-into-solar-cells?cmpid=WNL-Wednesday-August20-2014

2.  Yale Climate Connections has launched a series of 90 second spots on climate issues to be broadcast on 38 NPR stations and elsewhere.  http://climatecrocks.com/2014/08/21/yale-climate-connections-launches-new-climate-series-on-npr-stations/

3.  Ice loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet has doubled since 2009.  Thanks to Tom Larson for the lead.  http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-28852980    In 1996 the loss was about 96 cubic kilometers.  The current loss rate is about 375 cubic kilometers a year, said to be twice the rate of 2009.  Based on that information the mass loss approximately doubled in the thirteen years between 1996 and 2009, and then doubled again in the past five years (though there is variation from year to year).  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland_ice_sheet  In the past five years mass loss from the West Antarctic has tripled.    http://www.dw.de/greenland-ice-melting-at-record-speed/a-17869513  Mass loss in the polar ice sheets appears to be accelerating.  The 2007 James Hansen article mentioned in Wikipedia observes that a relatively rapid, nonlinear ice sheet disintegration best fits the historical record—in fact, that straight linear melting does not appear.

4.   Peter Sinclair, just back from Greenland on the Dark Snow project, discusses the new mass loss figures in an eight minute interview.  http://climatecrocks.com/2014/08/22/the-realnews-interview-greenland-and-sea-level-rise/

5.  A U of Washington study published in Science uses data from the Argo float system to argue that warm saltwater subduction in the North Atlantic has been sequestering much of the additional global heat in recent years.  Historical patterns suggest that process will end in about a decade, and atmospheric heating will increase more rapidly.  http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/oceans-hid-the-heat-and-slowed-pace-of-global-warming/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciam%2Ftopic%2Fglobal-warming-and-climate-change+%28Topic%3A+Global+Warming%29

6.  In “The Climate Swerve” Robert Jay Lifton draws a parallel between the change of consciousness which saw an end to the nuclear arms race and a change he sees in our willingness to trade the future for our financial gain from fossil fuels.  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/24/opinion/sunday/the-climate-swerve.html?emc=edit_tnt_20140823&nlid=43628374&tntemail0=y&_r=0  I argue in Plots of Time (1995) that a growing ability to tolerate the presence of the other underlies the changes in our slavery practices, the treatment and status of women and children, the spread of democracy, and the appearance of telepathy in the late Eighteenth Century.  I am willing to see the same dynamic in our growing awareness of and sensitivity to what we are doing to current and future life forms on earth with our disruption of the climate.
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