[GWSG] India's plan; a cheap home battery; slr in NE FL; lonely loons; Atmosphere of Hope

[Tilley, Al]

?1.  India has pledged to the UN to derive 40% of its electricity from renewable and low-carbon sources by 2040.  India's plan, as relatively weak as it is, completes the submissions from major emitters and so is a major step toward the Paris talks in December.  http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/02/india-pledges-40-percent-electricity-renewables-2030



2.  Engineers at Harvard have developed a cheap flow battery using non-toxic materials.  It should be appropriate for home use with a solar array to supply continuous power.  http://ecowatch.com/2015/09/30/harvard-flow-battery/?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=2fa69d5394-Top_News_10_4_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-2fa69d5394-85965093



3.  Don Lohman is a long time fisherman and environmental activist in NE Florida.  He has noticed changes among cypress trees and marsh grasses which indicate recent increases in salinization, and that indicates sea level rise.  I included reports of recent acceleration of sea level rise in South Florida in a news list last week.  Several people on this list keep a professional eye on such things, and we would appreciate some word on the current state of sea level rise in NE Florida.  NASA reports the current global rate of rise as 3.22 mm/year.  http://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/sea-level/  Eyeballing the rate of rise at Mayport over the past five years indicates the possibility of a recent speedup (and a jerk downwards in the last year or so).  http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/sltrends/sltrends_station.shtml?stnid=8720218

Fernandina's tidal gauge shows a similar pattern.  Here is the general NOAA map of gauges.  Click on a tidal gauge and select the Interannual Variation.  For more detail, check the variation since 1990.  Obviously there is a lot of noise, but there appears to be a recent spurt of movement upwards locally.  We need someone expert in these matters to conduct an analysis, perhaps to demonstrate that the variance is or is not within normal bounds. http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/sltrends/sltrends.html



4.  A Norwegian study finds that the US Republican Party stands alone among conservative parties of the world's democracies in its climate denial.  Its leaders seem to have abandoned its membership on the issue.   http://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2015/oct/05/the-republican-party-stands-alone-in-climate-denial



5.  Biologist Tim Flannery chaired Australia's Climate Commission until the new Abbot government abolished it in 2013.  Through crowdfunding, citizens raised the money to re-establish it as the Climate Council.  Ten years ago Flannery published The Weather Makers, still my recommendation for a first book on climate for the general educated reader.  Now he has just published Atmosphere of Hope: Searching for Solutions to the Climate Crisis (Atlantic Monthly Press).  http://smile.amazon.com/Atmosphere-Hope-Searching-Solutions-Climate-ebook/dp/B00XAQ1Q40/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1443728538&sr=1-1&keywords=atmosphere+of+hope+searching+for+solutions+to+the+climate+crisis  Overview: developments in climate science since 2005; the current state of the fossil fuel, nuclear, and renewable energy industries; the promise of carbon sequestration; the promise of current climate negotiations, and of citizens' initiatives.  All in an easily readable 213 pages.  I learned, among many things, that sea weed holds tremendous hope, both for the atmosphere and the oceans, and that Mary Christina's 2013 book Nature's Trust enunciated a legal right to live and flourish which is now the basis for nine actions for the protection of natural systems under review in US courts.  ?

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