[GWSG] Rivers aloft; Roanoke's buildings; utilities' no-brainer; climate warning labels; TX a problem; Montreal's unintended help

[Tilley, Al]

1. 85% of the flood damage done recently in the Western US was caused by atmospheric rivers. https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/12/04/atmospheric-rivers-caused-percent-wests-recent-flood-damage/

The atmosphere holds about 7% more water vapor with every 1C rise in average temperature. https://www.climatesignals.org/climate-signals/atmospheric-moisture-increase The extra moisture tends to collect in atmospheric rivers. About 3-5 are active at any given time under current conditions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_river



2. 40% of US energy and 75% of the electricity go to buildings. Experiments are underway in Chattanooga, TN, and Roanoke, VA, to lower energy consumption in public buildings 30% by 2030. In Roanoke, energy has been cut by 23% already, saving the city $400,000 yearly. https://cleantechnica.com/2019/12/05/studies-in-chattanooga-roanoke-could-help-slash-energy-usage-in-homes-buildings/?utm_source=CleanTechnica+News&utm_campaign=9476100e2b-Daily+Email+CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b9b83ee7eb-9476100e2b-331994013



3. With energy demand flat—if utilities were doing their job in promoting efficiency, declining—and coal plants aging, the obvious choice is to turn to renewables. https://climatecrocks.com/2019/12/06/new-video-big-utilities-pivot-to-renewables/



4. A lawsuit by ClientEarth against BP calls for warning labels in fossil fuel ads modeled on those in cigarette ads. Graphic images and variety in the labels improves their effectiveness. https://grist.org/article/heres-what-it-would-look-like-if-fossil-fuel-ads-had-warning-labels/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=daily



5. Texas is becoming a world nuisance by supporting fossil fuel development, even at the cost of its own environment, and suppressing those who warn of the consequences. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/07/texas-permian-basin-shale-climate-crisis



6. The Montreal Protocol was devised to control the loss of our ozone shield through diminishing our emissions of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Since CFCs are also powerful greenhouse gasses, an unintended side effect has been to reduce the heating of the planet by about 1C as of the middle of this century. We have also postponed a significant portion of sea level rise. Now we need an even more effective second act.  https://phys.org/news/2019-12-ozone-layer-global.html

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