[GWSG] REAP; foam batteries; Nat'l Geographic special; S Ocean food web threat; W Antarctic ice; Danish bugs

[Tilley, Al]

1.  The Rural Energy for America Program has awarded about $430 million in loan guarantees and $360 million in grants to rural businesses and farms for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects, generating or saving 8.4 million MWh of energy.  It expects to continue to fund at least $50 million in projects each year through 2019.  http://cleantechnica.com/2015/10/30/usda-awards-funding-to-1114-rural-renewable-energy-and-energy-efficiency-projects/



2.  Foam batteries are relatively cheap, versatile, efficient, and environmentally benign; they are expected to be scalable to use at the grid level.  http://www.technologyreview.com/news/542796/new-foam-batteries-promise-fast-charging-higher-capacity/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-weekly-energy&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20151102



3.  This month's National Geographic is devoted to climate, and worth picking up.  For example, a brief history of Germany's energiewende is accompanied by a picture from within the cooling tower of a nuclear generating plant which was never brought on line-it is now an amusement park, and people are swinging in a giant circle about the interior of the tower.  The issue does not attempt to offer a comprehensive survey of the problem-little about acidification or melting permafrost, for example.  No anoxic zones with sulfur chemistry taking over.  This is a soft focus presentation.  The writers are not suspicious about the claims of natural gas, nor do they warn of what blocking sunlight might entail, but the informed readers of this list will be proof against the issue's naivetés and more conscious limitations.  Thanks to Charles Dudley for loaning me his copy.  http://www.nationalgeographic.com/climate-change/special-issue/



4.  Growing acidity in the Southern Ocean may lead to a collapse of the food web beginning as early as 2030 in the Antarctic and spreading northward toward the equator.  http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/abrupt-changes-in-food-chains-predicted-as-southern-ocean-acidifies-fast-study-20151030-gknd2g.html



5.  The West Antarctic is "most likely" committed to three meters of sea level rise over an unknown time period, according to a study at the Potsdam Institute.  Michael Mann observes that since it is based on seven year old satellite data it cannot represent the more recent acceleration of ice loss in the area.  (The temporary net mass gain found recently derives from snowfall in the East Antarctic.)  http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/02/melting-ice-in-west-antarctica-could-raise-seas-by-3m-warns-study  The Washington Post has further details and interviews.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/11/02/scientists-confirm-their-fears-about-west-antarctica-that-its-inherently-unstable/



6.  Studies of the Antarctic have a place in our knowledge of climate, but so does a census of bugs on one Danish roof over an eighteen year period in which a warming climate influenced what species showed up.  Thanks to Lad Hawkins for the item.    http://time.com/4096623/insects-climate-change/  ?

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