[GWSG] President's grade; pricing C; cities pact; IPCC on slr; why move?; 143k employees; methane article

[Tilley, Al]

1.  President Obama’s state of the union speech featured a commitment to reduce carbon emissions.  He continued to support natural gas and oil development.  http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/5813/20140129/obama-renews-call-curb-carbon-emissions-state-union-address.htm   The president’s support for natural gas led the Guardian’s Suzanne Goldenberg to lower his grade to a C on climate and energy.  http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/28/state-of-the-union-scorecard-grade-obama    My sense of the matter is that the situation requires pass/fail.  Either we achieve a future we might wish to inhabit or we do not.  We have passed the time for melioration.  Natural gas and oil are just bridges off the cliff.  Energy independence which involves using fossil fuels is just another empty phrase.  Our president, one of our best though he is, and with all his successes, has earned an F.  The Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and 16 other environmental groups have expressed their alarm.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/whitehouse/inside-washington-greens-hit-obama-on-energy-plan/2014/01/30/e8136568-89cc-11e3-a760-a86415d0944d_story.html

2.  Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank, has called for a price on carbon, among other measures.  “This is the year to take action on climate change.  There are no excuses.”  http://ens-newswire.com/2014/01/27/world-bank-head-calls-for-carbon-pricing-to-rescue-climate/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ens-newswire%2FJZdj+%28ENS%29   The president’s comments came at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where little was accomplished to promote sustainability, due to the strength of the fossil fuel corporations.  Perhaps the president is saying that someone (surely the UN) is going to have to make us do what we know we must.  http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/blog/davos-2014-reflections-leaders-failed

3.  The mayors of ten major US cities agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions from their buildings.  Los Angeles already requires reflective roofs on new and rebuilt structures, which cut down on energy use, which reduces emissions.  http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/10-US-Cities-Plan-Coordinated-Attack-on-Building-Energy-Waste   Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose foundation helped organize the initiative, is likely to be the UN’s special envoy for cities and climate change.  New York has reduced carbon emissions 19% since 2005 and has a target of 30% by 2030.  http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/31/us-climate-un-bloomberg-idUSBREA0U02Q20140131

4.  The U of S FL’s Don Chambers, a lead author for the IPCC ‘s current AR-5, recorded in December a 54 minute lecture on measuring sea level rise and the background of current IPCC projections.  Thanks to Margo Moehring for the link.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uibjA2VCf6A&feature=youtu.be

5.  A study in Nature finds that climate moves people to migrate not so much through disasters as through chronic heat stress.  http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/climate-change-already-causing-mass-human-migration-180949530/

6.  The solar industry in the US now employs about 143,000 people, more than in coal and natural gas combined.  http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2014/01/31/us-solar-industry-employs-more-coal-gas-industries-combined?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRolvaXAZKXonjHpfsX56%2BskXK%2B1lMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4CSMJqI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFSLHEMa5qw7gMXRQ%3D

7.  Highlights of an article on methane in the current issue of Science:  For obscure reasons atmospheric methane increase slowed from 1999-2007 but has resumed a pace of about 6 ppb per year since then.  Humans are responsible for about two-thirds of atmospheric methane.   Catastrophic releases of methane from hydrates are unlikely in the near future, and releases from melting Arctic permafrost do not seem to be growing alarmingly.  More monitoring is needed but funds are diminishing.  http://www.sciencemag.org/content/343/6170/493.short
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