[GWSG] E Ant. stability; vegetables to dwindle; insects miss flowers; AMA divests; EU raises target; & permits small solar; Germany's grid

[Tilley, Al]

1. Analysis of sediments shows that much of the land-based ice of the East Antarctic has remained stable for at least the past eight million years. "These findings add to the growing body of evidence that curbing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide can still ensure the stability of significant amounts of ice in Antarctica and around the globe," said lead author Jeremy Shakun. https://phys.org/news/2018-06-east-antarctica-frozen-million-years.html

As the chart indicates, the upper limit of sea level rise without involvement of land-based Antarctic ice is about 100 feet.



2. Vegetable production could go down a third in the second half of this century due to heat, ozone levels, and water shortage.  https://phys.org/news/2018-06-environmental-significantly-global-production-vegetables.html

Community adaptation planning should probably involve provisions for growing food under stressful conditions.



3. An early spring has left pollinators and plants out of synch in Europe. That leaves the butterflies and bees without that source of food and the flowers with an impaired reproduction path. 10% of all pollinating insect species are on the brink of extinction. The US (and surely most other regions) is in similar shape.  https://insideclimatenews.org/news/15062018/climate-change-impacts-pollination-flowers-bees-butterflies-europe-heat-wave-global-warming-research



4. The American Medical Association has divested from companies deriving the majority of their proceeds from fossil fuels. We owe the link to Todd Sack, and we owe him our thanks for leading the movement to divest. Todd reports that "the new policy pledges AMA to help educate health professionals and professional organizations to divest as well so that the effects of this new policy should magnify considerably."  https://noharm-uscanada.org/articles/news/us-canada/health-care-without-harm-praises-american-medical-association-divestment



5. The European Union raised its renewable energy targets to 32% by 2030. (It should probably have been even higher.) https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jun/14/eu-raises-renewable-energy-targets-to-32-by-2030



6. The EU agreement includes the right to produce, consume, and sell up to 25 KW of solar energy without extra taxes or red tape. Distributed solar installations are expected to flourish. https://cleantechnica.com/2018/06/15/small-scale-solar-is-bound-to-expand-rapidly-after-new-eu-renewable-energy-deal/



7. Thorsten Herden, director general of Germany's energy policy, explains why it is not useful to think in terms of base load when devising power grid stability. A 1.5 hour video, The State of Germany's Energy Transition, is accompanied by several summaries and extracts of his ideas. The reliability of Germany's grid is far higher than in the US.  https://climatecrocks.com/2018/06/16/the-weekend-wonk-baseload-is-poison-the-state-of-germanys-renewable-transition/ ?

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