[GWSG] The corporate bill; storage by silicon; sunk assets along the coast; the paranoid style; funded fantasy; Mulkey on Irma

[Tilley, Al]

1. Sea level rise, stronger hurricanes, drought, and other effects of burning fossil fuels are costly. A new study makes it possible to assign dollar damages to individual corporations responsible for the damaging emissions. The results might aid courts in assessing reparations to settle current lawsuits. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/07/big-oil-must-pay-for-climate-change-here-is-how-to-calculate-how-much



2. Storing energy by heating silicon is much cheaper in some utility-scale applications than battery storage, and beats out molten salt in concentrating solar plants.  http://climatenewsnetwork.net/silicon-renewable-energy-revolution/?utm_source=Climate+News+Network&utm_campaign=237d8eb74a-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_09_08&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1198ea8936-237d8eb74a-38803053



3.  Miami may soon become a stranded asset (of Florida and the society at large?). Other coastal communities will follow.   https://climatecrocks.com/2017/09/08/will-miami-become-a-stranded-asset/ To remain viable, states will need to adjust their financial structures.  Florida, for example, depends largely on property and sales taxes. Property values are due to become unstable, and the sales tax is too regressive to form a dependable base. The sustainable world we are challenged to build will be on an altered physical and financial foundations.



4. Paul Krugman reminds us that the paranoid style of climate denial is common Republican practice for dealing with issues from public transportation (a plot to enslave us) to Obama's attempt to deal with the Bush recession (a red herring).  https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2017/09/09/the-paranoid-style-in-conservative-politics/?emc=edit_tnt_20170909&nlid=43628374&tntemail0=y&_r=0



5.  Still, climate denial is the best funded and most pervasive political fantasy in the US.  https://climatecrocks.com/2017/09/09/in-face-of-climate-fueled-disasters-denialist-nutbags-double-down/



6.  Ecologist Stephen Mulkey reflects on hurricanes and politics from Gainesville, FL, waiting for Irma.  https://environmentalcentury.net/2017/09/10/hurrichange-is-here/  ?

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