[GWSG] Zunum Aero; buckle up; CO2 to CO; Reef 2/3 bleached; power oversupply; 20% more melt; water battery; 17 vs. EPA

[Tilley, Al]

1.  Zunum Aero and its fleet of small hybrid electric planes would like to take you a couple of hundred miles for $25. No baggage check, no long security lines.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2017/04/08/why-tiny-electric-planes-and-25-tickets-could-be-the-future-of-air-travel/?utm_term=.59c32a32848d



2.  Buckle up for your flight. Turbulence will be increasing, and will surely influence routing when we have the regional predictions worked out.  https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/climate-change-could-flights-lot-234404350.html



3.  A team at the U of Amsterdam is developing a process to convert CO2 to CO at ambient pressure and low temperatures. If successful, the new catalytic process will enable the conversion of CO2 to useful chemicals. (That's a lot better than attempting long-term storage of CO2 in gaseous form when we begin to draw it down from the atmosphere, as we will. The C could be captured in stable form and sequestered much more readily and securely.)  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170406152400.htm



4.  Bleaching now covers 2/3 of the Great Barrier Reef. Expert opinions vary on whether the reef can be rescued.  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/10/great-barrier-reef-terminal-stage-australia-scientists-despair-latest-coral-bleaching-data



5.  As renewable energy capacity grows in the US, power suppliers are beginning to offer free electricity, or even set negative prices, during periods of overproduction. In March the CA power grid was over 50% solar for the first time. The night winds in Texas produce more power than the state needs.  https://climatecrocks.com/2017/04/10/no-more-ducking-the-duck-negative-electricity-pricing-comes-to-america/



6.  A study in Nature Climate Change estimates that 40% of Arctic land with permafrost would thaw at 2C of warming, 20% more than previously estimated. The implications have not yet been analyzed. The study does not address the pace of thawing and is based on observations and projections of air temperature.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/04/10/climate-change-could-destroy-far-more-of-the-arctics-frozen-soil-than-we-expected/?utm_term=.ad73ed5c9232



7.  A new battery design from Harvard is non-corrosive and cheap, suitable for home energy storage. It lasts about ten years. The electrolyte is water and organic molecules.  https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/04/this-battery-could-revolutionize-renewable-energy-and-it-fits-in-your-basement



8.  Seventeen states are challenging the Trump EPA's move to delay action on controlling greenhouse gas emissions.  http://news.trust.org/item/20170405225947-0np5w?

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