[GWSG] Divestment growing; protecting climate data; stable permafrost; highway sequestration; the Arctic's new climate

[Tilley, Al]

1.  Investors controlling more than $5 trillion are divesting from fossil fuels, in whole or in part.  That is double the investments involved fifteen months ago.  (The fossil fuel investments are or were an unstated portion of the portfolios.)  Investors from 76 countries are represented in the report.  http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/12/science/investment-funds-worth-trillions-are-dropping-fossil-fuel-stocks.html?emc=edit_tnt_20161212&nlid=43628374&tntemail0=y&_r=0



2.  Scientists are intent on preserving the accumulated climate data from political interference by the Trump administration, stuffed as it is with climate deniers and fossil fuel revanchistes.  It is not enough to squirrel the data away in some file-it must also be made publicly available to be of use.  Some also anticipate that the administration will attempt to halt the collection of data and to marginalize or persecute active climate scientists.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/12/13/scientists-are-frantically-copying-u-s-climate-data-fearing-it-might-vanish-under-trump/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_climatedata-1130a%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.305c655a224b



3.  In an experiment in Minnesota, a research team found that permafrost deeper than two feet did not release carbon even when exposed to temperatures elevated by as much as 9C.  If the findings hold for the general Arctic, it is indeed good news.  A common scenario has Arctic warming lead to a positive feedback in which melting permafrost releases methane, which raises temperatures and leads to further melt and so to further heat in an inescapable cycle.  The flooding of the deeper permafrost apparently interrupts the feedback.  The experiment will continue for another nine years, and the researchers caution that other factors may arise.  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/12/161213074517.htm



4.  Blue Planet sequesters carbon from flue gasses at power plants and stores it as manmade limestone.  It could be used in highway construction, and becomes more profitable as the price on carbon rises.  https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/dec/13/sequester-carbon-blue-planet-climate-change



5.  A NOAA report depicts the Arctic as moving into a new, warmer, climate state, with cascading effects.  Those include speeding the destabilization of Greenland's ice.   https://insideclimatenews.org/news/13122016/arctic-melting-climate-change-noaa-science  ?

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