[TheClimate.Vote] April 3, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Tue Apr 3 12:10:21 EDT 2018
/April 3, 2018/
[Chinese Company Confirms]
*JinkoSolar Confirms $50M Investment in US Factory to Make Tariff-Free
Solar Panels
<https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/jinkosolar-confirms-410m-investment-in-u-s-factory-to-make-tariff-free>*
NextEra is the counterparty for up to 2.75 gigawatts of PV over four
years. Will other foreign solar giants follow suit?
Chinese solar company JinkoSolar plans to invest $50 million in a
Jacksonville, Florida, factory to supply NextEra Energy with up to 2.75
gigawatts of solar modules over four years. It's the first move by a
Chinese company to invest in U.S. manufacturing following Trump's solar
tariffs....
JinkoSolar's investment is made possible by a tariff exemption that
allows for up to 2.5 gigawatts of solar cells per year to be assembled
in the U.S. Meanwhile, U.S. solar manufacturer SunPower is seeking
exclusions from tariffs for cells, panels and equipment made outside the
country as well, and is warning of layoffs and reduced U.S. investment
if they aren't granted.
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/jinkosolar-confirms-410m-investment-in-u-s-factory-to-make-tariff-free
[Bank to Think Tank]
*Barclays loses utilities analyst as Mifid rules bite
<https://www.ft.com/content/fe245582-336f-11e8-b5bf-23cb17fd1498>**
*Mark Lewis to lead research at think-tank Carbon Tracker
Mark Lewis, the highly-regarded Barclays analyst, has been named as the
new head of research of a climate change think-tank, becoming the latest
high-profile departure from investment banking research as regulation
overhauls the industry in Europe.
The head of European utilities equity research at Barclays will join
Carbon Tracker, a not-for-profit group that focuses on energy markets
and climate change, on Monday.
https://www.ft.com/content/fe245582-336f-11e8-b5bf-23cb17fd1498
[jobs in Calif, Nevada, Utah, Massachusetts...]
*Solar Foundation presents solar jobs maps, local data
<https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2018/03/29/solar-foundation-launches-national-job-map-and-state-factsheets/>*
The Solar Foundation has launched individual state fact sheets and a map
view focused on jobs per U.S. congressional district.
MARCH 29, 2018 - JOHN WEAVER
The Solar Foundation has launched a new national map in conjunction with
its annual reporting on solar jobs, which breaks down the data collected
into multiple regions - including county-level jobs and U.S.
congressional districts.
- -[map
<https://l0dl1j3lc42iebd82042pgl2-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/03/solar.jobs_.congress.jpg>]
https://l0dl1j3lc42iebd82042pgl2-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/03/solar.jobs_.congress.jpg
The maps U.S. congressional district view, above, shows that every
single district in the country has some people who are employed in the
solar power industry. The largest concentration is entirely within the
city of San Francisco, which boasts over 10,000 solar employees. This is
more solar jobs than all but two states - California as a whole and
Massachusetts.
- - - - -
The U.S. lost just under 10,000 solar jobs in 2017 versus 2016...
The report showed that California lost more than 13,000 total solar
power jobs - a total greater than the decline in the entire nation. In
fact, if the jobs lost in California, Massachusetts and Nevada were
excluded, the United States would have seen a net increase of 8,600 jobs.
All three states saw significant slowdowns in residential solar sales -
with California also suffering from a slow-down in the utility-scale
market. 29 states, plus Puerto Rico and Washington D.C. saw job growth.
*The Solar Foundation also projects 2018 will see an increase in solar
jobs - replacing all of the positions lost in 2017, plus a few thousand
more.*
https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2018/03/29/solar-foundation-launches-national-job-map-and-state-factsheets/
- - - - -
[found photos]
*Photography Solar Construction - Joan Sullivan
<http://www.joansullivanphotography.com/STILLS/Solar-construction/1>*
Since 2009, photographer Joan Sullivan has focused exclusively on
climate change solutions. She is convinced that the inevitable
transition to a 100% clean energy economy will happen faster - and
within our lifetimes - by creating positive cultural visions and stories
that help us visualize what a sustainable post-carbon world will look like.
http://www.joansullivanphotography.com/
[Seattle action press release]
*Activists build small longhouse blocking PSE headquarters
<http://www.pse-lng.com/>*
As Puget Sound Energy continues to build a Tacoma Liquefied Natural Gas
(LNG) facility despite widespread concerns, Native and environmentalist
opponents of the project have constructed a small longhouse replica
blocking the main entrance to PSE's corporate headquarters in Bellevue
early this morning.
PSE has not consulted with the Puyallup Tribe (the historical owners of
the land), and lacks key permits, including one from the Puget Sound
Clean Air Agency, which recently ordered that a Supplemental
Environmental Impact Statement be completed before they would consider
the permit. Nevertheless, construction continues.
The activists say that they, too, have requested a permit for their
structure; they are awaiting approval from the Bellevue Planning
Department. "PSE hasn't gotten its permits, and they're continuing to
build, so we figured we could do the same," says Stacy Oaks of 350 Seattle.
Dakota Case of the Puyallup Water Warrior Movement points out that the
question of rights to the land being built on is also open to
interpretation in both cases. "This is how it feels when your consent is
taken from you—we're building without permission on PSE property, just
as PSE is doing on our land. But ours is a peaceful symbolic gesture,
not a bullying, dangerous, and profit-taking one. We gave the United
States permission to be here in the treaties, and we retained rights
that would preserve our way of life. We are demanding that PSE honor
those treaties. We're asking PSE to respect our salmon, we're asking
them to respect our mother Earth. This facility does not belong on our
land and our water."
The action also commemorates the 4th anniversary of the gas explosion at
the LNG facility near the Columbia River in Plymouth, WA. That explosion
forced hundreds to evacuate their homes, injured five workers, and
caused $69 million in damages. Residents within a two-mile radius of the
facility were evacuated. One reason for the widespread local opposition
to the LNG facility is that it's being built in the heart of Tacoma,
when international regulatory bodies recommend siting LNG facilities at
least 3 miles away from populations.
Over 53,000 people have signed a petition urging Governor Inslee and AG
Ferguson to stop construction until all permits, treaty rights, and
procedures have been upheld, and 14 tribes have also written Gov. Inslee
to urge that he enforce the treaties.
http://www.pse-lng.com/
[More polling]*
**POLL - ENVIRONMENT TAKES PRECEDENT: *
A new survey out from Gallup today finds Americans do not prioritize an
increase in U.S. oil, gas and coal supplies. Gallup found 34 percent of
Americans say the U.S. should place a higher priority on increasing
energy supplies than to protecting the environment, while 59 percent say
the reverse. And by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, Americans would rather focus
on conservation and development of alternative energy than on producing
more traditional forms of fuel, the survey found.
Specifically, *the poll found 73 percent prefer a focus on developing
alternative energy sources* like solar and wind power, while 21 percent
favor one that targets more oil, gas and coal production. While
Republicans still prefer a focus on alternative energy to traditional
energy sources, the gap is 10 points: 51 percent to 41 percent.
Democrats, meanwhile, favor alternative energy by 88 percent to 9
percent. The poll was conducted March 1-8 among a random sample of 1,041
adults.
Read the poll details:
[Gallup]
*U.S. Energy Concerns Low; Increasing Supply Not a Priority
<http://news.gallup.com/poll/232028/energy-concerns-low-increasing-supply-not-priority.aspx>*
by Jeffrey M. Jones
- 25% worry about availability and affordability, a new low
- Americans prioritize environmental protection over energy production
- Conservation, alternative energy favored over traditional production
http://news.gallup.com/poll/232028/energy-concerns-low-increasing-supply-not-priority.aspx
- - - - - -
[ More Gallup Polls]
http://news.gallup.com/topic/environment.aspx?g_source=link_newsv9&g_campaign=item_231386&g_medium=copy
[Food risk]
*Food insecurity risks increase with climate change
<https://www.earth.com/news/food-insecurity-climate-change/>*
By: Connor Ertz on 04.01.2018 NEWS
Climate change is the instigator behind many international issues
currently being discussed, and will only have a hand in even more global
problems in the future. One of these problems - according to new
research led by the University of Exeter - could be increased risk of
food shortages in numerous countries.
For the study - published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of
the Royal Society A - the researchers assessed how climate change may
affect the vulnerability of different nations in regards to food
insecurity, which occurs when the public is unable to access a
sufficient quantity of nutritious, affordable food.
The researchers looked at 122 developing and least-developed countries,
mainly in Asia, Africa, and South America. They analyzed the difference
between global warming of 1.5 degrees C and 2 degrees C - compared to
pre-industrial levels - and found that the effects would be worst for
most countries at 2 degrees C. However, food vulnerability would
increase in both scenarios.
"Climate change is expected to lead to more extremes of both heavy
rainfall and drought, with different effects in different parts of the
world," says Richard Betts, Chair in Climate Impacts at the University
of Exeter. "Such weather extremes can increase vulnerability to food
insecurity. Some change is already unavoidable, but if global warming is
limited to 1.5 degrees C, this vulnerability is projected to remain
smaller than at 2 degrees C in approximately 76% of developing countries."
On average, warming attributed to climate change is expected to result
in wetter conditions, which means an increased risk of flooding. But in
some areas, agriculture could also be affected by more frequent and
sustained droughts. Wet conditions are expected to have the greatest
impact in South and East Asia, with the most extreme projections
predicting that the flow of the River Ganges could more than double at a
2 degrees C temperature increase. For droughts, the areas expected to be
significantly affected are southern Africa and South America - where the
flow of the Amazon is projected to decline by as much as 25 percent.
Clearly, the path of climate change seems to be leading to more extreme
weather, which could spell disaster for areas already vulnerable to
droughts or flooding.
https://www.earth.com/news/food-insecurity-climate-change/
[forecast = scenario]
*Climate forecasts remain gloomy, experts say at University of Arizona
workshop
<http://tucson.com/news/local/climate-forecasts-remain-gloomy-experts-say-at-university-of-arizona/article_03f860db-7ed6-5919-91e3-7dbfd11e61c5.html>*
By Tony Davis - Arizona Daily Star Mar 31, 2018
Talk about mixed messages.
Forecasts of continued hotter weather, greater risk of "megadroughts,"
more destructive wildfires, more tree dieoffs, future Colorado River
shortages and more deaths from extreme heat peppered a University of
Arizona climate change workshop last week.
While the groundbreaking Paris Climate Accord has pledged to limit
future temperature increases to 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius (2.7 to 3.6
degrees Fahrenheit), "I don't think you need to worry about 1.5 or 2
degrees" as the upward temperature limit, said a semi-joking Diana
Liverman, a UA geography professor and a workshop co-organizer. "They
are not on the horizon."...The two-day workshop drew about 80 people.
Featuring 40 speakers from the UA and out of state, it was sponsored by
the University of Arizona Institute of the Environment, the University
of Michigan and the federal National Center for Atmospheric Research.
Financing came from the National Science Foundation.
Commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions made in the December 2016
Paris accord and in other discussions were weak enough as to "*take us
significantly above 2 degrees C warming, globally, and probably even
higher in the Southwest,*"
- - - - - -
The report's conclusions remain under wraps, but several major
newspapers have published stories on leaked versions that say *meeting
this goal is impossible*...To even hope to reach that goal, *the world
must achieve "negative emissions" of greenhouse gases, in which
civilization takes more out of the atmosphere than it puts in*, she said.
To do that requires extensive reforestation in "deforested" areas, she
said. It would require creating new forests, better farmland management
and storing carbon underground so it doesn't escape into the atmosphere,
she said.
"All of these are feasible, but they're occurring at a very, very slow
level," Liverman said.
But at the same time, just-published research out of the UA warns that
wildfire size and damages to forests will only increase as the West's
climate keeps warming and drying. The amount of area burned should
increase by up to five times by 2040 in half of the Western states,
including Arizona, said workshop speaker and study co-author Donald
Falk, a professor at the UA's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
*"The bottom line is that the gigantic fire seasons we had in California
this year, Montana and Idaho in 2017, are likely to become the norm by
the mid-20th century,"* Falk said in an interview.
As for megadroughts, up to four of at least 35 years have struck the
Southwest in the past 1,000 years, said speaker Toby Ault, a Cornell
University earth and atmospheric sciences professor. A megadrought would
be worse than the Dust Bowl drought of the 1930s, the West's major
drought of the 1950s and the 18-year drought currently plaguing the
Colorado River Basin, he said.
Past megadroughts are suspected of playing a primary role in the
collapse of past civilizations, including the Anasazi on the Colorado
Plateau, Cambodia's Khmer empire, the Mayan empire, China's Yuan dynasty
and Bolivia's Tiwanaku, capital of a dominant pre-Inca civilization
between 500 and 900 AD, said Ault, who got a doctorate at UA.
In the period 2030-2060, a temperature increases of 1 to 2 degrees pose
a 20 to 50 percent risk of another megadrought, Ault said later. If
precipitation drops or temperatures increase faster, "those risks would
be considerably higher," Ault said.
After hearing several discussions about climate computer models and
climate science, former UA researcher Jonathan Overpeck told the
workshop that the biggest future uncertainty about climate isn't in the
science or computer models.
"It's what humans are going to do" about fossil fuel use that creates
the greenhouse gases that climate scientists say causes warmer
temperatures, said Overpeck, now dean of the University of Michigan's
School of Environment and Sustainability.
But even under severe drought and heat, Tucsonans could still maintain
landscapes, said Margaret Livingston, a professor at UA landscape
architecture. They'll simply have to change...
Switching from non-native to native trees will make planting street
trees more difficult because natives have many trunks, spanning beyond
sidewalks, she said. But with planting of smaller shrubs in
streetscapes, solar panels there could work like nurse trees in the
desert, shading yuccas....
Solar panels have also shaded crops of kale, tomatoes, chiltepines and
cabbage, among other garden veggies planted for the past year and a half
at the Biosphere II research laboratory..
- - - - - - - -
"That said, the goal to reach carbon and water neutrality is ambitious,"
said Crosson. She's also separately doing research on the feasibility of
using rainwater harvesting on a large scale in Tucson in case Central
Arizona Project water goes away.
But another speaker, UA Sustainability Director Ben Champion, said as
the need for air cooling grows, buildings will become more energy
intensive and their air-conditioning will be less efficient.
"Arizona wouldn't be what it is population-wise without the invention of
air conditioning," he said. "If our survival depends on a continuing
growth model or sustaining population that we have, we have to deal with
the energy intensive issue."
Summing up, UA's Liverman said it probably wasn't just megadroughts that
caused the past collapses of civilizations. It could have been
conflicts, diseases and overuse of the soil.
She said she's hopeful about the potential for climate adaptation here
and the tremendous creativity that people can marshal.
"The question is not whether this civilization will survive; it's who
will do well or who will suffer.
*"People ask me should I move to Tucson. I tell them if you have enough
money, you can buy water and air conditioning.**
**"It's people without money we have to worry about."*
http://tucson.com/news/local/climate-forecasts-remain-gloomy-experts-say-at-university-of-arizona/article_03f860db-7ed6-5919-91e3-7dbfd11e61c5.html
[Prepare]
*FEMA Training <https://www.fema.gov/training>*
Training provides first responders, homeland security officials,
emergency management officials, private and non-governmental partners,
and other personnel with the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to
perform key tasks required by specific capabilities.
Organizations should make training decisions based on information
derived from the assessments, strategies, and plans developed in
previous steps of the Preparedness Cycle. Regions, States and urban
areas conduct Training and Exercise Planning Workshops (T&EPW) to review
and establish priorities for training and exercises and develop
Multi-Year Training and Exercise Plans to address the priorities.
https://www.fema.gov/training
- - - - - -
[more training]
*FEMA PrepTalks <https://www.fema.gov/node/327618>*
PrepTalks are given by subject-matter experts and thoughts leaders to
spread new ideas, spark conversation, and promote innovative leadership
for the issues confronting emergency managers now and over the next 20
years.
Each PrepTalk release will include videos of the presentations and the
question-and-answer (Q&A) sessions, a Discussion Guide related to the
topic, and additional resources. PrepTalks Discussion Guides are
companion documents to the PrepTalk videos. When used together, these
guides help translate the research and expertise showcased in each
presentation into action steps to improve disaster preparedness.
We encourage emergency managers to bring together relevant partners for
each PrepTalk topic to watch the presentation and Q&A videos and have a
discussion. You can also include a PrepTalk viewing and discussion as
part of a pre-established whole community meeting.
Please email FEMA-TARequest @fema.dhs.gov with questions or comments on
PrepTalks.
Available PrepTalks:
Financial Literacy and Overcoming Liquid Asset Poverty - John Hope
Bryant
The Making of a Resilient Future: Disaster Risk in Developing
Countries- Francis Ghesquiere
Land Use Planning for Community Resilience - Dr. Philip Berke
Who's at Risk? Rapid Mapping of Potential Hazard Exposure - Dr.
Robert Chen
Social Capital in Disaster Mitigation and Recovery - Dr. Daniel Aldrich
The Next Pandemic: Lessons from History - John M. Barry
Modernizing Public Warning Messaging - Dr. Dennis Mileti
https://www.fema.gov/node/327618
[Upcoming Summit April 22-24th]
*"Saint Louis Climate Summit" <https://stlclimatesummit.org/registration/>*
On April 22-24, Saint Louis University in Missouri, USA will host the
"Saint Louis Climate Summit: Working to Fulfill Pope Francis' Call to
Unite in Care of our Common Home." The Summit brings together some of
the most authoritative minds in climate science, ecology, sustainable
development, and related disciplines. Cardinal Peter Turkson, Mary
Evelyn Tucker, Heather Eaton, Richard Cizik, Peter Raven, Peter Gleick,
and many others will participate in this event.
https://stlclimatesummit.org/
Working to Fulfill Pope Francis' Call to Unite in Care of our Common Home
The 2018 Saint Louis Climate Summit brings together some of the most
authoritative minds in climate science, ecology, sustainable
development, and related disciplines for three days of discussion on
climate change. We will highlight key issues, celebrate notable
achievements, and elucidate a path forward. The Climate Summit is a
featured activity of Saint Louis University's Bicentennial Celebration.
Cardinal Peter Turkson, Mary Evelyn Tucker, Heather Eaton, Richard
Cizik, Peter Raven, Peter Gleick, and many others will participate in
this event.
https://stlclimatesummit.org/registration/
*This Day in Climate History - April 3, 1980
<http://climatecrocks.com/2013/01/23/1980-cronkite-on-climate/> -
from D.R. Tucker*
April 3, 1980: "The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite" reports on
the role coal plays in fueling global warming.
http://climatecrocks.com/2013/01/23/1980-cronkite-on-climate/
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