[GWSG] SC adapts; PIG unstable; CA solar x2; 1/2,258; CN's C; Aus. heat; depressing 23%; UN warning; Musk on solar

[Tilley, Al]

1.  Climate Central’s report on climate adaptation in Charleston, SC, sketches the difficulties faced in many SE US regions.  Among them is politically and economically motivated aversion of the gaze, which we could have illustrated with examples from Jacksonville.  Thanks to Hamilton Davis of Charleston’s Coastal Conservation League for the link.  http://www.climatecentral.org/news/the-front-lines-of-climate-change-charlestons-struggle-16934

2.  Pine Island Glacier in the West Antarctic has probably become inherently and irreversibly instable and is expected to contribute accelerating sea level rise.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25729750#<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25729750>  PIG is expected to contribute 3.5mm-1 cm of sea level rise a year over the next 20 years.  Stories commonly misread the Nature article to mean that contribution as a sum over the entire 20 years.  At the upper end, that is the difference between 7.8 inches and .39 inches by 2034 from PIG alone.  http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate2094.html

3.  California installed as much rooftop solar in 2013 as it had in the past 30 years.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/09/california-solar-energy-doubled_n_4570432.html

4.  Between November 2012 and December 13 9,136 authors published 2,258 peer-reviewed articles on climate change.  Among them only one, by a Russian who fretted that the Russian economy would suffer if they did not burn their fossil fuels, rejected human-driven climate change.  http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/01/14/climate_change_another_study_shows_they_don_t_publish_actual_papers.html

5.  Canada’s carbon emissions will soar 38% by 2030, according to its own report.  That is probably an underestimate.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/14/canada-carbon-emissions-2030-tar-sands

6.  If you have been watching players hallucinating and folding at the Australian Open you know it has been hot in Melbourne.  Australia is currently the hottest place on the planet.  Because they have been busy implementing energy efficiency measures and installing rooftop pv their power usage has been less than in other recent heat waves.  Profit taking by utilities still drove blackouts.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/southern-crossroads/2014/jan/17/heat-wave-australia-record-breaking-climate-change-bushfires-melbourne

7.  23% of Americans consider that climate change is not occurring, up 7% from last April.  http://news.yahoo.com/climate-change-disbelief-rises-america-180339949.html
US media coverage of climate has been even sparser this year, and too much of what there was concerned a nonexistent pause in warming.   http://grist.org/news/major-newspaper-coverage-of-climate-change-plummeted-last-year/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed

8.  The UN has warned that the climate is rapidly destabilizing, and that delay could cost us opportunities to intervene.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/17/un-climate-report-carbon-economy

9.  Elon Musk has five sage observations on solar energy.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2014/01/16/elon-musks-five-insights-into-solar-energy/
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