[GWSG] Seagrass; US solar soaring; e.g. Pruitt; Canada's glaciers melting; Chu's warnings; Australia heating

[Tilley, Al]

1.  Seagrass purifies the sea bottom and the surrounding waters, supplying oxygen and fixing carbon.  It has been declining because of cloudier and warmer water but has been successfully restored off the Virginia coast.  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/16/science/seagrass-coral-reefs-pathogens-global-warming.html?emc=edit_tnt_20170216&nlid=43628374&tntemail0=y&_r=0



2.  Installed solar power nearly doubled in the US last year.  Over the past decade, the average annual growth rate has been 68%.  In 2016 solar, employing 260,000 people, was the major source of new energy with 39% of new capacity.   https://www.terrasmart.com/u-s-solar-smi-preview/  While the long-term prospects for the solar industry are sunny, the near-term prospects are challenging because of increasingly competitive power purchase agreement revenues and the uncertainties of federal policy under Trump and the general Republican hold on political power, often in the interests of the fossil fuel industry.  http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2017/02/solar-power-industry-conditions-remain-challenging-sunpower-ceo-says.html?cmpid=enl_rew_renewableenergynews_2017-02-17&email_address=atilley@unf.edu&eid=291059574&bid=1666800



3.  Scott Pruitt's shameful and rushed appointment to head the EPA last week is an indicator of Republican allegiance to the blind greed of those who hope to keep making money from fossil fuels as they imperil the planet.  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/feb/17/scott-pruitt-confirmed-epa-emails-senate



4.  Melt from glaciers on Canada's Queen Elizabeth Islands, which hold a quarter of all Arctic ice, increased ten-fold in 2005-2015.  http://climatenewsnetwork.net/canadas-glacial-ice-loss-sea-level/?utm_source=Climate+News+Network&utm_campaign=b2e8234193-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_02_17&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1198ea8936-b2e8234193-38803053



5.  Steven Chu, former Secretary of Energy, warns that the level of CO2 in the atmosphere is 490 ppm when methane is converted to CO2 equivalents, and that the likelihood of limiting heating to 2C is low.  https://climatecrocks.com/2017/02/17/steven-chus-sobering-climate-math/



6.  Australia is getting hotter.  The Sydney area, coming off a heat wave, was hitting 47C (116F) last week.  The conservative government does not seem impressed.  https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/feb/19/australia-new-normal-47c-climate-change  ?

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