[GWSG] Visible CO2; below 2; selling doubt; climate apocalypse; SCE buys storage; floating islands; overview

[Tilley, Al]

1.  A NASA video shows how CO2 emissions spread through the atmosphere in 2006.  If CO2 were ordinarily this visible, we would have transitioned to renewables long ago. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/nov/19/nasa-animation-shows-stunning-year-in-the-life-of-carbon-emissions

2.  The UN advises that we need to achieve zero CO2 emissions by 2070 and zero emissions of all greenhouse gasses by 2100 in order to keep warming below 2°.  All scenarios now require some degree of carbon withdrawal from the atmosphere in the latter part of the century.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/nov/19/co2-emissions-zero-by-2070-prevent-climate-disaster-un  Only four of the nations which signed the pledge to keep warming below 2° are not doing enough to meet the goal: the US, Canada, Mexico, and Australia.  (The President’s recent actions designed to move us toward the goal are too new to be considered in the UNEP report.)  http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/nov/21/australia-one-of-four-nations-forecast-to-miss-2020-emissions-target

3.  The forthcoming film Merchants of Doubt documents the campaigns by fossil fuel interests to hamper action by the US on climate disruption.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/nov/20/merchants-of-doubt-film-exposes-slick-us-industry-behind-climate-denial

4.  62% of Americans believe that climate change is at least partly to blame for recent natural disasters.  49% consider them to be at least in part signs of Biblical end times.  We need a strategy which will move those to action who see climate disruptions as foreordained indications of God’s displeasure.   http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/11/21/a-big-reason-climate-change-isnt-a-priority-the-apocalypse/
I now understand more clearly why the oilier climate propagandists so often use evangelical language.

5.  Southern California Edison has awarded contracts for 250 mw of advanced energy storage, a US utility first.  The grid storage capacity is part of a 2.21 gigawatt program, another US first, which evaluated natural gas, solar PV, storage, efficiency, and demand response head to head.  http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2014/11/energy-storage-emerges-as-an-all-purpose-grid-asset?cmpid=WNL-Friday-November21-2014

6.  Floating islands can help manage nitrogen runoff and provide a home for critters.  As sea level rise drowns wetlands, these might provide some transitional refuge.  http://grist.org/list/your-citys-water-would-be-cleaner-if-it-had-a-magic-island-in-it/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Daily%2520Nov%252021&utm_campaign=daily

7.  A climate scientist and a writer have collaborated to produce an overview of our climate situation for the Guardian.  I found it inspiring.  http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/nov/22/-sp-climate-change-special-report
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