[GWSG] Record bleaching; fish in the SW; energy in transition; a shoe drops in the Antarctic

[Tilley, Al]

1.  The record global coral bleaching event which has ravaged the Great Barrier Reef in Australia has spread to the Maldives.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/01/coral-bleaching-spreads-to-maldives-devastating-spectacular-reefs



2.  Some farmers in the US Southwest are improving their water use efficiency by raising fish.  http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/may/31/california-drought-fish-farming-water-crops-agriculture-southwest



3.  In the first quarter of 2016 non-hydro renewable power in the US increased by 23%, compared to the same period in 2015.  Utility scale solar was up 31% and distributed solar was up 35%.    http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2016/05/renewable-resources-set-new-records-in-us-electricity-generation-in-1q16.html?cmpid=renewable0612016&eid=291059574&bid=1419316

Globally, renewables grew at a record rate in 2015 and delivered just under 20% of final energy consumption.  http://reneweconomy.com.au/2016/wind-and-solar-deliver-record-year-for-global-renewables-in-2015-2015  Green power provided 44% of the European Union's energy capacity in 2015.  http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-36420750  Here's a celebrative overview of the pace at which renewable energy is developing, with a breakdown of the 8.1 million jobs in renewables.  The story observes that the burgeoning growth of renewable energy comes when subsidies for fossil fuels are still quadruple those for renewables.  http://ecowatch.com/2016/06/01/renewables-record-year-2015/



4.  A formerly little noticed area of the West Antarctic is now found to be unstable.  65% of the grounding line of glaciers in the Bellingshausen Sea area has retreated since 1999.  Other areas seem to be destabilizing.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/06/01/scientists-have-found-yet-another-part-of-antarctica-that-may-be-in-trouble/?utm_source=Inside+Climate+News&utm_campaign=4bd96b18d8-Today_s_Climate12_10_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_29c928ffb5-4bd96b18d8-326454481

This was surely part of the news from the Antarctic which led Margaret Davidson, NOAA's Senior Leader for Coastal Inundation and Resilience, to warn the national conference of the Risk Management Association on April 12 that we could get three meters of sea level rise by 2050-60.  If you missed the link for that one, here it is again.  http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2016/04/12/405089.htm  Davidson has since tweeted that it was just a personal opinion, but it seems unlikely that a person holding her position would toss off a casual figure in any circumstance, let alone in a formal address to RIMS.  Ten thousand risk managers were at the conference-essentially the people who establish operating conditions for the entire US insurance industry.  NOAA's short bio for Margaret Davidson:  http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/about/MARGARET-DAVIDSON-Bio.pdf

Extraordinarily, there has been almost no further coverage of Davidson's announcement.  It is indeed difficult to process; if she had said just one meter, it would have been a shock.  I believe that we will begin to hear more of her announcement, and that we may look for ten feet of sea level rise by midcentury or shortly after.  That means that we are on the verge of evacuating many coastal areas, and of attempting to render those areas as ecologically benign as we may so that they may submerge without compromising use of coastal waters.  It is a project which will take energy and ingenuity, and which must be pursued even as we accomplish the transition to renewable energy so that conditions will deteriorate as little as may be.?

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