[GWSG] S FL slr report; unstable Greenland; $4 b in loans; Oreskes' fiction; Germany's success; Yorkshire CCS

[Tilley, Al]

1.  The Miami-Dade Sea Level Rise Task Force, organized in 2013, has released a report recommending vigorous adaptation measures to avoid major near-term losses identified by the reinsurance firm Swiss Re. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/01/us-usa-florida-sealevel-miami-idUSKBN0F65IN20140701  The task force site carries a record of their activities.     http://www.miamidade.gov/planning/boards-sea-level-rise.asp  The News Times adds some details.  http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2014/07/miami-dade_sea_level_rise_task_force_reinvent_urban_infrastructure_or_lose_trillions.php
Sarah Boren has forwarded a link to a pdf of the report.  http://www.miamidade.gov/planning/library/reports/sea-level-rise-final-report.pdf  Here are the appendices.    http://www.miamidade.gov/planning/library/reports/sea-level-rise-appendices.pdf

2.  A study published in Nature reports that a partial collapse of the Greenland ice sheet 400,000 years ago under conditions similar to those building this century added 4-6 meters of sea level rise out of a total of 6-13 meters.  http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Study_links_Greenland_ice_sheet_collapse_sea_level_rise_400000_years_ago_999.html

3.  The US is making $4 billion in loans available to clean energy projects.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/03/obama-climate-change-loan_n_5556091.html

4.  Harvard science historian Naomi Oreskes and fellow historian Eric Conway of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab have written The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View from the Future.  In a Science interview, Oreskes said that she chose to write fiction because she can “sound an alarm,” “be emotional and. . . upset about those things that are upsetting.”  In the book, “Everything that happens before 2013 is true, and everything that happens after is from the high end of the projections” of the most recent IPCC report (page 1434, Science, June 27, 2014).  It is an essay, descriptive of our present and, retrospectively, of our future.  The topics are how we could do so little while knowing so much, and the consequences of our failure.  The Koch brothers are not on view, but foolish ideologies are, both scientific and popular.  I found it a satisfying 3-hour read, notes and all.  http://smile.amazon.com/Collapse-Western-Civilization-View-Future/dp/023116954X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404738811&sr=1-1&keywords=oreskes+naomi

5.  In an 8 minute interview Peter Sinclair reflects on Germany’s success in developing renewable energy and on the possibilities of success in the US.  http://climatecrocks.com/2014/07/07/a-renewable-revolution-the-real-news-interview/

6.  A coal plant with carbon capture and sequestration in Yorkshire has secured EU funding.  90% of its carbon will be sequestered beneath the North Sea.  It will be the first such plant in Europe.  http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jul/08/yorkshire-drax-carbon-capture-power-plant
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