[GWSG] Solar efficiency; cloud states; S Korea, 0 C by 2050; melting clathrates; no big deal?; biochar vs. drought

[Tilley, Al]

1. Arranging silicon in a checkerboard pattern in solar cells can boost energy output by 125%. The discovery will make it possible to achieve current energy output with 10% of the silicon, reducing the cost of the cell and the carbon emissions per manufactured unit of energy. https://cleantechnica.com/2020/10/27/trapping-light-inside-solar-cells-can-boost-solar-panel-output-by-125/

2. Nature has published an analysis suggesting that as temperatures rise, ice crystals in clouds become liquid and a positive feedback sets in which will lead us to the higher estimates of climate sensitivity. https://climatecrocks.com/2020/10/26/new-paper-possible-much-higher-climate-sensitivity/

3. As part of its Green New Deal, South Korea had pledged to strive to be carbon neutral by 2050. South Korea now has one of the major economies most heavily dependent on fossil fuels and is a major financer of Asian coal plants. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/28/south-korea-vows-to-go-carbon-neutral-by-2050-to-fight-climate-emergency

4. Warm currents off the Arctic coast are triggering a major destabilization of methane hydrates, also called methane clathrates, on Siberia’s continental shelf. So far relatively little of the released methane is reaching the surface. The preliminary report has not yet been formally presented. Release of methane from melting hydrates has the potential to increase greatly the pace of global heating.   https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/oct/27/sleeping-giant-arctic-methane-deposits-starting-to-release-scientists-find

5. Some knowledgeable scientists are unimpressed by the news about the Arctic hydrate release. https://www.ecowatch.com/methane-release-arctic-ocean-2648529839.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1

6. Biochar in greater than usual amounts not only sequesters carbon but can cut the need for irrigation by almost 40%. Larger particles of biochar help. Agriculture, increasingly threatened by drought, now accounts for 80% of US water consumption.   https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2020/10/loading-soil-with-biochar-allows-farmers-to-cut-way-back-on-irrigation/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=loading-soil-with-biochar-allows-farmers-to-cut-way-back-on-irrigation&utm_source=Anthropocene&utm_campaign=483c52932c-Anthropocene+science+to+AM&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ececcea89a-483c52932c-294268545

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