[GWSG] Tuned LED; drought effects; happy reef; dangerous tricks; 100% by 2050; ocean power; BC's C tax

[Tilley, Al]

1.  LED lighting can be tuned to provide the wave lengths plants find especially delicious, tripling the efficiency of greenhouses and contributing to the food supply while cutting power usage.  http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/leds-can-triple-the-efficiency-of-greenhouse-lighting?utm_source=Daily&utm_medium=Headline&utm_campaign=GTMDaily

2.  When drought becomes persistent the usual temporary supports for the afflicted area will no longer work.  http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/26/drought-no-amount-of-assistance-can-fix-a-land-turned-permanently-to-dust  California’s drought continues.  http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/02/25/282624536/california-s-drought-a-shocking-photo-and-other-updates?ft=1&f=1025  Brazil, too, is stressed.  Growing heat adds to the problem.  http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0225-brazil-epic-drought.html
One early impact of persistent drought is to increase the likelihood and ferocity of forest fires.  The linked story focusses on Austin, Texas.  http://www.climatecentral.org/news/austin-a-poster-child-for-urban-wildfire-threat-17058  Water management also becomes more complicated, as in Northern California.   http://www.eenews.net/stories/1059995262

3.  A small island bay in the Pacific is naturally acidic, yet its coral reef thrives.  Perhaps it was able to adapt because the change was more gradual than it is now in the ocean generally.  http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0225-dimitrova-corals-of-rock-island-bay.html

4.  A German study found that five geoengineering suggestions would all be ineffective and have potentially disastrous side effects.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/feb/25/geoengineering-side-effects-potentially-disastrous-scientists

5.  Stanford’s Mark Jacobsen has calculated how each state could be powered renewably by 2050 (excluding such power sources as nuclear and ethanol, and presuming no new technology).  Levelized costs are significantly below fossil fuels.  http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2014/02/powering-the-u-s-with-renewables-a-state-by-state-roadmap?cmpid=WNL-Wednesday-February26-2014

6.  Devices now in development to produce power from waves and tides include Scottish sea snakes, carpets with over 90% power conversion rates, buoys, oysters, and turbines.  http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2014/02/140220-five-striking-wave-and-tidal-energy-concepts/   Norway’s Langlee Wave Power is working on projects in several regions. http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2014/02/officials-sign-agreement-for-canary-islands-wave-power-development?cmpid=WNL-Friday-February28-2014

7.  British Columbia’s budget-neutral carbon tax has been effective at both reducing emissions and maintaining the economy.  http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/02/27/3198521/vancouver-carbon-price/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.unf.edu/pipermail/gwsg/attachments/20140228/38de6510/attachment.html