[GWSG] Shifting polls, ed reform; efficiency; index warning; Greenland video; brownfield farms; bankers resolve

[Tilley, Al]

1.  The American public believes that about 55% of climate scientists support the anthropogenic warming hypothesis.  The actual figure among scientists publishing in the field is 97%.  Skeptical Science has been quoting 97 scientists from the consensus and supplies cartoon portraits.  Click on “97 Hours,” and then click on a scientist.  http://skepticalscience.com/
A Pew study found that in 2013 only 25% of Americans saw climate disruption as a threat.  http://bangordailynews.com/community/climate-crisis-denial-continues-psychological-factors-explain-avoidance/  (The story highlights climate activism at Unity College, whose president, Stephen Mulkey, is a list member.  It includes a link to an eight minute video, “The Environmental Century,” explaining his plan for higher education reform around climate and sustainability science.)  More recently, an ABC/Washington Post poll finds that 70% of Americans find climate disruption to be a serious problem and support federal efforts to reduce emissions.  Perhaps we are coming around.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frances-beinecke/as-climate-change-hits-ho_b_5804570.html

2.  The International Energy Agency says that energy efficiency has been “significantly undervalued.”  (One of the reasons is that utilities often fear it and work against it, because it leaves them with unused assets—those power plants which would become idle, plants on the “catastrophic liabilities” list of many of the rest of us.)  Even so, the IEA reports that investment in efficiency now equals that in coal, oil, and gas.  http://blueandgreentomorrow.com/2014/09/10/role-of-energy-efficiency-greatly-underestimated-says-energy-body/

3.  PricewaterhouseCoopers has released their annual Low Carbon Economy Index.  It find that we are increasingly courting climate disaster.  http://grist.org/climate-energy/this-legendary-accounting-firm-ran-the-numbers-on-climate-change/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Daily%2520Sept%252011&utm_campaign=daily

4.  Yale has produced a seven minute video documenting the accelerating melting of the Greenland ice sheet.  Jason Box projects that at the current rate of increase Greenland alone will contribute a meter of sea level rise this century.  http://climatecrocks.com/2014/09/11/new-video-greenland-2014-follow-the-water/

5.  Google and SunEdison are partnering to convert an abandoned California oil and gas field to an 82 megawatt solar farm.  Such brownfields have been readily granted permits.  The EPA estimates that there are over 11,000 such mine sites in the US; the 10,000 full landfills are similarly attractive sites. http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/09/11/3566292/brownfield-to-solar-in-california/?elq=1fdad19163bd41278c64dcfe02456b02&elqCampaignId=876

6.  Six of the world’s largest development banks have committed to placing climate change at the center of their operations.  http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2364769/worlds-biggest-development-banks-pledge-to-scale-up-climate-finance
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