[GWSG] Tesla's new semi; NASA slr/gravity map; Bonn conf. ends; HFC treaty; HFCs in the US; capitalism faulty guide

[Tilley, Al]

1. Tesla's new semi-trailer truck has a range of 620 miles on a charge and gets 0-60 in 5 seconds. Due out in 2019, it will have a network of charging stations fueled by the sun. It even has competition. https://climatecrocks.com/2017/11/17/tesla-truck-is-awesome-new-roadster-is-a-bonus/  Another story gives the range as 500 miles, adding pictures and further details, including a large pickup truck version. https://cleantechnica.com/2017/11/16/everything-you-need-know-tesla-semi-truck/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IM-cleantechnica+%28CleanTechnica%29





2. Gravitational effects of ice sheet melt mean that different sites will have different rises from the melting of a given sheet. NASA has calculated what that would mean for a selection of ice sheets and cities. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/11/15/these-are-the-melting-glaciers-that-might-someday-drown-your-city-according-to-nasa/?utm_term=.6df7bfc23b9e



3. The Bonn climate conference ended without dramatic developments. Big emitters did agree to new rules for monitoring their emissions. There are indications that economics is overtaking politics as the prime mover of the energy transition. Next year's conference will be in Poland. http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42032229



4. A new international treaty to outlaw hydrofluorocarbons, super-potent greenhouse gasses, has passed the threshold to enter into force on January 1, 2019. If the US fails to ratify it we will be shut out of the market for replacement refrigerants and be unable to export equipment using HFCs. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/17/climate/hfcs-montreal-protocol.html?emc=edit_tnt_20171117&nlid=43628374&tntemail0=y



5. In 2015 we learned that HFCs were increasing at a pace to represent 10% of greenhouse gasses by 2050. The US was among a group of nations intending to replace them as refrigerants as well as in other applications. http://research.noaa.gov/News/NewsArchive/LatestNews/TabId/684/ArtMID/1768/ArticleID/11414/HFC-greenhouse-gases-a-tale-of-two-or-more-futures.aspx

The US moved to control and replace HFCs with a ranger of programs. https://www.epa.gov/snap/reducing-hydrofluorocarbon-hfc-use-and-emissions-federal-sector-through-snap

Trump reversed a number of environmental actions but seemed willing to continue the control of HFCs. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/03/28/climate/trumps-executive-order-pushes-the-us-climate-pledge-further-out-of-reach.html?_r=0

The current US failure to control HFCs, which are thousands of times as potent as CO2 as greenhouse gasses, derives from an August 2017 federal court ruling. http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/08/us-court-rejects-obama-era-plan-eliminate-some-potent-planet-warming-chemicals

The new treaty to replace HFCs is being ignored in US reporting. It might sub for a couple of Roy Moore stories.



6. If intelligent people in corporations tend to follow a profit imperative which leads to global ruin, we need to moderate capitalism. That need is not based on class conflict but on our common security. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/20/opinion/climate-capitalism-crisis.html?_r=0?

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.unf.edu/pipermail/gwsg/attachments/20171120/9188d57b/attachment.html>