[TheClimate.Vote] February 15, 2020 - Daily Global Warming News Digest.

Sat Feb 15 09:38:08 EST 2020

/*February 15, 2020*/

[eyes right]
*Kevin McCarthy faces uneasy right flank over climate push*
Some Republicans are wary of the minority leader's narrow proposals...
- - -
Democrats, meanwhile, dismissed the idea that the measures represent an 
adequate response to accelerating global climate emissions.

"Planting trees?" Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone of New 
Jersey laughed. "I don't see anything that they've come up with that's 
remotely trying to achieve a net zero carbon goal or even suggest 
climate is human induced. Until they recognize it's human induced and 
it's an emergency and you really have to do some sector-by-sector carbon 
goals to meet a 2050 deadline or sooner, they're not serious."

But even though the proposals are tailored to conservatives, the 
measures are running into some resistance on the right. The Club for 
Growth, which has been particularly active in 2020, bashed the bills 
within an hour of their release, soon followed by two conservative 
nonprofits, American Energy Alliance and Competitive Enterprise Institute...
- - -
Other Republicans said the attacks would succeed only in dividing the 
caucus, providing further benefit to Democrats who've used climate 
change as an electoral wedge.

"If conservative groups want to help divide us and keep liberal 
Democrats in a majority, well, this is a way that they can do it," said 
Rep. John Shimkus of Illinois, another senior member of the Energy and 
Commerce Committee.

And despite some of the internal growing pains, many conservatives seem 
impressed with the approach outlined by McCarthy.

"It's the way to go," said Rep. Ted Yoho of Florida, a member of the 
Freedom Caucus. "They talk about a climate crisis. To me, a crisis is if 
your house is on fire... This is something we have time to adapt [to] so 
let's do adaptive changes from a common-sense standpoint."...
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/13/gop-climate-change-kevin-mccarthy-115025

[Wired different drill-baby-drill]
*Want Unlimited Clean Energy? Just Drill the World's Hottest Well*
An engineering team bored 2 miles into hot rock without causing major 
earthquakes--a good sign for harnessing the Earth's heat as a power 
source...
- - -
Drilling at Venelle-2 stopped just shy of the K horizon when 
temperatures at the bottom of the well overwhelmed the equipment. 
Sensors at the bottom of the well indicated temperatures had breached 
1,000 degrees Fahrenheit and pressures 300 times greater than at the 
surface. Nevertheless, Venelle-2 is the hottest borehole ever created, 
and it demonstrated that it's possible to drill at the extreme end of 
supercritical conditions. And this week, a paper published in the 
Journal of Geophysical Research showed that it could be done without 
producing any major seismic activity...
- - -
The Venelle-2 well is one of many boreholes that puncture the landscape 
of the Larderello-Travale geothermal field in central Italy, the same 
spot where the Earth's heat was first used to generate electricity. That 
first experiment back in 1904 produced only enough power for five light 
bulbs, but today Larderello-Travale produces about 10 percent of the 
world's geothermal electricity. In 2015, a consortium of European energy 
companies and research institutes launched the Descramble project to see 
if even more energy could be extracted from the geothermal field. The 
plan was to tap into reservoirs of supercritical fluids deep beneath the 
surface. If the energy-dense fluids could be extracted from a well, it 
would be another historic first for Larderello-Travale.
https://www.wired.com/story/want-unlimited-clean-energy-just-drill-the-worlds-hottest-well/

- - -

[Geothermal project information]
*DESCRAMBLE project*
DESCRAMBLE has developed novel drilling technologies for a 
proof-of-concept test of reaching deep geothermal supercritical 
resources. It has drilled and tested the continental-crust condition for 
demonstrating novel drilling techniques, the control of gas emissions 
and high temperature/pressure conditions expected from the deep fluids.
DESCRAMBLE has also improved knowledge of deep chemical-physical 
conditions for predicting and controlling future drilling conditions. 
The test site has been an existing dry well in Larderello, Italy, 
already drilled to a depth of 2.2 km and temperature of 350 C, which was 
deepened to 2.9 km depth reaching supercritical conditions.
The productivity and efficiency of the project were ensured by the 
combination of industrial and research participation and by the 
recognized expertise of the consortium in geothermal R&D as well as oil 
and gas drilling, combining excellence in both sectors is meant to drill 
in continental-crust, super-critical geothermal reservoir, to test and 
demonstrate novel drilling techniques to control gas emissions, the 
aggressive environment and the high temperature/pressure expected from 
deep fluids and to characterize the chemical and thermo-physical condition.
- - -
The experiment site is in the Larderello area, Tuscany (Italy).
This choice is motivated by various factors:
The site has been used for geothermal energy exploitation for over 100 
years, consequently large amounts of data and experience have been 
gathered, and there is a well-developed infrastructure in place. Both of 
which will reduce the cost related to drilling and exploration.
The combination of shallow depth for super-critical conditions and the 
possibility to deepen an existing well reduces the cost of drilling and 
focuses the project on drilling into formations with super-critical 
conditions and its related challenges.
Experience from the nearby wells, combined with seismic investigations 
gives a high probability of reaching the drilling target.
The site is representative of deep conditions in continental crust, the 
most common condition in Europe. Indeed, the expertise gained from 
drilling in super-critical reservoirs in Larderello is not limited to 
the specific location. There are "deep, super-critical geothermal 
reservoirs" in several countries in Europe and the rest of the world, at 
greater, but still drillable, depths...
http://www.descramble-h2020.eu/

[News lessons]
*Deadly fires in Australia have made climate change converts, as in 
California*
"I think the debate about climate change has passed," Missen said. "It's 
really about thinking about how we're going to deal with it. It's real, 
it's happening. How do we plan for it, and how do we adapt?"
https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2020-02-13/australian-on-climate-change-bushfires-and-the-new-normal

[Changes to atmosphere]*
**Climate change means longer take-offs and fewer passengers per 
aeroplane - new study*
The connection between your next flight and climate change is likely 
clear in your head. More aeroplanes emitting greenhouse gases means more 
global warming. Simple enough, but there's an opposite side that you 
probably hadn't thought of.

As the local climates at airports around the world have changed in the 
past few decades, the conditions that pilots have relied on in order to 
take off safely have changed too. Our new research suggests that higher 
temperatures and weaker winds are making take-off more difficult. In the 
long run, this means that airlines are delivering fewer passengers and 
cargo for the same amount of fuel.

"Climate" essentially means the average weather conditions at any given 
place. Scientists know this is changing, but not uniformly. While global 
temperatures have risen by about 1C on average, some places have warmed 
by much more already - and others may be getting cooler...
https://theconversation.com/climate-change-means-longer-take-offs-and-fewer-passengers-per-aeroplane-new-study-131613

[employment opportunities Weekly report]
*Climate Change Job Vacancies Update*
Latest Climate Change Job Vacancies - 13 February 2020
https://community.iisd.org/climate-change-job-vacancies-update/

[Splat!]
*Car 'splatometer' tests reveal huge decline in number of insects*
Research shows abundance at sites in Europe has plunged by up to 80% in 
two decades
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/12/car-splatometer-tests-reveal-huge-decline-number-insects 

[Literature - try some fiction]
*Meet cli-fi. It's dark, it's gloomy -- and it might help**
*Jennifer Hijazi, E&E News reporter Climatewire: Friday, February 14, 2020
https://www.eenews.net/stories/1062318169

[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming  - February 15, 2010 *
NPR's Christopher Joyce reports:

"Most [climate scientists] don't see a contradiction between a
warming world and lots of snow. That includes Kevin Trenberth, a
prominent climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric
Research in Colorado.

"'The fact that the oceans are warmer now than they were, say, 30
years ago means there's about on average 4 percent more water vapor
lurking around over the oceans than there was, say, in the 1970s,'
he says.

"Warmer water means more water vapor rises up into the air, and what
goes up must come down.

"'So one of the consequences of a warming ocean near a coastline
like the East Coast and Washington, D.C., for instance, is that you
can get dumped on with more snow partly as a consequence of global
warming,' he says.

"And Trenberth notes that you don't need very cold temperatures to
get big snow. In fact, when the mercury drops too low, it may be too
cold to snow."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123671588&sc=emaf
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