[GWSG] Pellet shuck; no warming?; warmer; and warmer; EV fees; EU & shipping; transition blockage; G'land melt; AMOC to slow?

[Tilley, Al]

1.  In Europe 65% of the renewable power comes from burning biomass—typically, wood pellets.  A new study finds that burning wood may not be carbon neutral.  In fact, over the process cycle, burning wood pellets can release more carbon than burning coal.  Still, burning some biomass, primarily sawmill waste and post-consumer wood waste, can genuinely reduce emissions.  The EU is revising its biomass system in the new Renewable Energy Directives.  The IPCC should rethink its recommendations of biomass carbon capture and storage systems.  http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-39053678



2.  Ted Cruz and other climate distortionists have for years misused data to claim that there has been no warming in the recent past.  A series of brief videos featuring Ben Santer, a main source of their data, explains how satellites measure temperature and how the data have been misused.   https://climatecrocks.com/2017/02/23/ben-santer-on-seth-meyers-late-show-how-climate-deniers-lie/



3.  Spring is coming early, thanks to climate change.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/02/24/the-u-s-geological-survey-hails-an-early-spring-and-ties-it-to-climate-change/?utm_source=rss_energy-environment&utm_term=.007fe178d65b

I notice that off Northern Florida sea surface temperatures at 71F are ten degrees closer than average to the 80F which can sustain a hurricane.  We may be rushing that season too.



4.  Since 2000 record highs in the US have begun to outpace record lows by 2:1.  http://www.climatesignals.org/data/record-high-temps-vs-record-low-temps



5.  Electric vehicles pay no gas tax.  Those taxes are used to keep highways in shape. Several states are charging EVs a yearly fee, ranging from $50-300, to replace the lost revenues, and several more are contemplating one.  http://www.utilitydive.com/news/report-six-states-propose-new-electric-vehicle-fees/436767/  Perhaps it is too early to get sound figures on comparative ownership costs (including maintenance), but if EVs proves to save money, that will be true for government garages and fleets as well as for the rest of us.   Health costs to the states are likely to fall with the electrification of transportation.  Gasoline exhaust emissions have health effects—asthma, heart disease, and cancer among them.  http://www.ehhi.org/vehicle-exhaust.php   Some are suggesting a link between car exhaust and Alzheimer’s.  https://theconversation.com/how-we-discovered-a-possible-link-between-car-exhausts-and-alzheimers-64779   Proximity to oil and gas development has just been found to quadruple the rate of childhood leukemia.  http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0170423   Electric vehicles will save states health care costs and probably other expenses as well.  Might states not redirect some of those savings toward the highways, offsetting the lost gas tax revenues?  In the end we may still have to accept a yearly EV fee to keep the highways healthy.  Or EVs may be such a good deal we won’t need to.  Meanwhile, until fully justified, fees for electric vehicles look like attempts to slow the transition from fossil fuels.



6.  The EU is including shipping in European waters in its emissions controls.  The shipping industry is unhappy.  http://climatenewsnetwork.net/europe-tough-shipping-emissions/



7.  As the cost of renewable energy falls beneath the cost of fossil fuels, and as energy storage becomes cheaper and more efficient, the primary impediments to the transition to renewable sources of energy arise from financial and bureaucratic inertia.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/will-fossil-fuels-and-conventional-cars-be-obsolete_us_58af9d34e4b0e5fdf619701e?ir=Green&utm_hp_ref=green



8.  Algae and bacteria, as well as dust and soot, are speeding surface melt in Greenland. http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/02/great-greenland-meltdown



9.  The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, of which the Gulf Stream is a part, has a 50% chance of slowing this century, bringing much cooler temperatures to Europe (and, though the article does not say so, increasing oxygen-starved zones through ocean stratification, and adding to sea level rise along the US East Coast, among other baleful effects).  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/feb/24/drastic-cooling-north-atlantic-beyond-worst-fears-scientists-warn  ?

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