[GWSG] Bullitt Center; methane seeps; Lockheed's fusion reactor; a potato for brackish water & responsible agriculture

[Tilley, Al]

1.  Seattle’s Bullitt Center produces its own energy, processes its own restroom waste, and collects its own potable water.  It gets to sell the negawatts from its high efficiency features to the local utility, and provides as much value in the way of environmental services to Seattle as it took to build it.  http://grist.org/business-technology/how-one-building-is-changing-the-world/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Daily%2520Oct%252015&utm_campaign=daily

2.  In the last couple of years significant methane seeps have been found from surprising sources.  Does methane release pose a significant present danger?  Peter Sinclair has put together an interim collection of materials on the topic, including a brief interview with Carolyn Ruppel.  The material supplies the information necessary to listen in on the methane conversation.  http://climatecrocks.com/2014/10/15/calling-the-methane-bomb-squad/
Richard Alley meditates the likelihood and unlikelihood of a giant methane burp  The piece includes an excerpt from an NAS study of Abrupt Impacts of Climate Change in which Alley participated.  http://climatecrocks.com/2014/10/17/methane-bomb-squad-part-4-dr-richard-alley-and-the-national-academy/

3.  Lockheed says that it can produce a 100 megawatt fusion reactor which would fit in the back of a pickup truck.  They hope to have it available commercially in ten years.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/oct/15/lockheed-breakthrough-nuclear-fusion-energy  It may well be, as Joe Romm argues, that the technology would be too late for the necessary energy transition even if Lockheed were able to meet its announced schedule.  This late in the process of climate disruption we may have to go with the current technologies of renewable energy to reduce emissions in time to have a chance of maintaining a livable world. http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/10/15/3580379/fusion-power-lockheed-martin-cfr/?elq=~~eloqua..type--emailfield..syntax--recipientid~~&elqCampaignId=~~eloqua..type--campaign..campaignid--0..fieldname--id~~

4.  A Dutch team has won an award for its salt tolerant potato.  They are developing crops which can be grown on diluted sea water.  Several tons of seed potatoes are on their way to Pakistan, where salt water encroachment has already taken large tracts of land out of agricultural production.  http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/oct/18/humble-potato-poised-to-launch-food-revolution  Unlike the Dutch project, industrial agriculture is engaged in green-washing with such self-descriptors as “climate-smart.”  http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2014/oct/17/climate-change-agriculture-bad-isnt-good
Permaculture is a good place to start looking through the developments in agriculture which promise to provide food in a heated world.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture  Kristin Ohlson’s The Soil will Save Us: How Scientists, Farmers, and Foodies are Healing the Soil to Save the Planet (Rodale Press, 2014) is a non-technical and personal investigation of the rewards and promise of ecologically responsible agriculture.  http://smile.amazon.com/Soil-Will-Save-Us-Scientists-ebook/dp/B00DVF13AW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413735793&sr=8-1&keywords=the+soil+will+save+us
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