[✔️] October 14, 2022 - Global Warming News - daily selection
Richard Pauli
Richard at CredoandScreed.com
Fri Oct 14 07:51:39 EDT 2022
/*October 14, 2022*/
/[ very hopeful, a classic process revived - audio and text ]/
*'Water batteries' could store solar and wind power for when it's needed*
October 14, 2022
Heard on Morning Edition
DAN CHARLES
- -
It's a way to store the electricity. When the sun goes down and solar
power disappears, operators would open a valve and the force of 8
million tons of water, falling back downhill through those same pipes,
would drive turbines capable of generating 500 megawatts of electricity
for up to eight hours. That's enough to power 130,000 typical homes.
- -
*Pumped hydro has a history*
The technology that San Diego is proposing, called pumped hydro energy
storage, is already operating at more than 40 sites in the United
States. Some of the largest ones, which can generate more than 1000 MW
for up to eight hours, were built during the 1970s and 1980s to store
electricity that nuclear power plants generated during the night. But
few new plants have been built over the past 30 years in the U.S. China
has continued to build such plants.
- -
Pumped hydro facilities, he says, don't have to be as massive as those
of the past century, and they don't need to disturb free-flowing streams
and rivers. Many proposals are for "closed-loop" systems that use the
same water over and over, moving it back and forth between two big
ponds, one higher than the other, like sand in an hourglass.
Three of the proposed projects in the U.S. that appear closest to
breaking ground, in Montana, Oregon, and southern California, all would
operate as closed loops.
Kelly Catlett, director of hydropower reform at American Rivers, an
environmental advocacy organization which has highlighted the
environmental harm caused by dams, says that "there are good pumped
storage projects, and there are not-so-good pumped storage projects."
Her group won't support projects that build new dams on streams and
rivers, disrupting sensitive aquatic ecosystems. But San Diego's plan,
she says, "looks like something that we could potentially support"
because it uses an existing reservoir and doesn't disturb any flowing
streams. Also, she says, "I'm unaware of any opposition by indigenous
nations, which is another really important factor, as they have borne a
lot of the impacts of hydropower development over the decades."
https://www.npr.org/2022/10/14/1126523766/water-batteries-could-store-solar-and-wind-power-for-when-its-needed
//
/
/
/
/
/[ Young Becki continues to build her climate specialty video channel ]/
*New Zealand plans to tax cow farts, US opens first cobalt mine | The
Climate Recap*
109 views Oct 12, 2022 If you like the work I do, please consider
joining the Beckisphere Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/beckisphere
or buying me a cup of coffee at
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/beckisphere. Remember to talk about the
climate crisis every day and support your local news organizations!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxBwgr_VI9M
/[ the land of the ancients, jumps to the forefront for 5 hours ] /
*Greece runs on 100% renewables for the first time on record*
Michelle Lewis
Oct. 12th 2022
Greece was powered entirely by renewables for the first time ever last
week, according to the country’s independent power transmission operator
(IPTO).
On Monday, IPTO said that renewables accounted for 100% of power
generation in Greece for at least five hours, reaching a record high of
3,106 megawatt hours at 0800 GMT:
For the first time in the history of the Greek electricity system,
the demand was covered 100% from renewable energy sources.
With the interconnections implemented by IPTO on land and sea, new
electrical capacity is created for even greater [renewable energy
sources] penetration that will make our energy mix even greener in
the coming years.
Reuters notes:
Greece aims to attract about 30 billion of euros in European funds
and private investments to upgrade its electricity grid and more
than double its green energy capacity to account for at least 70% of
its energy mix by 2030.
It plans to have 25 gigawatt of installed renewable energy capacity
from about 10 gigawatt now but analysts say Athens might reach that
target sooner.
In April, Electrek reported that Greece inaugurated a 204 MW solar farm
in Kozani, in the country’s Western Macedonia region, which has long
been Greece’s largest coal-producing region. Kozani is the largest solar
farm with bifacial panels in Europe and the largest utility-scale solar
farm in southeastern Europe.
https://electrek.co/2022/10/12/greece-100-percent-renewables-for-first-time-on-record/
/[ research from the Sierra Club - my local power company earns a 'C'
grade]/
*The Dirty Truth About Utility Climate Pledges*
Utilities are trying to greenwash their dirty plans.
It’s time to hold them accountable.
The next decade is critical to averting the worst impacts of the climate
crisis and transforming our economy to run entirely on clean energy.
Studies show that unless utilities retire all their coal plants by 2030,
abandon all plans to build gas plants, and aggressively build out
renewable energy resources, we risk destabilizing our livable climate.
Despite this pressing deadline, utilities are either not moving fast
enough toward these goals, or not moving at all.
Dozens of utilities may have pledged to become “carbon neutral” by 2050,
but research conducted by the Sierra Club in its inaugural Dirty Truth
Report showed that nearly all utilities in the United States lack the
plans needed to move toward clean energy in the time frame needed to
avoid the worst of the climate crisis. In an update to that report a
year and a half later, Sierra Club found that most utilities have
continued to drag their feet, making little progress in the transition
from fossil fuels to clean energy.
Protesters in front of a building with classical architecture, a picture
of the planet on a flag, and a person holding a sign that says "It's
Time to Act"
Report: The Dirty Truth About Utility Climate Pledges
What utilities do, or don’t do, between now and 2030 will either seal
our fate or deliver us from future climate catastrophe. What is your
utility doing?
- -
Is Your Utility Company Meeting Its Goals?
Use the tool below to learn more about your utility company’s pledge and
how they’re doing...
https://coal.sierraclub.org/the-problem/dirty-truth-greenwashing-utilities
- -
[ The October report from Sierra Club ]
*THE DIRTY TRUTH*
About Utility Climate Pledges
VERSION 2 October 2022
*KEY FINDINGS:*
• While electric utilities have pledged to reduce their greenhouse
gas emissions, they have made little progress
since our first report and still fall far short of what is needed to
protect people and the planet.
• We assigned a score to each utility based on its plans to retire
coal, build new clean energy, and not build
new gas plants. The aggregate score for all companies studied this
year was 21 out of 100 — or a D — up just
4 points from the previous study.
• For parent companies with a climate pledge, the aggregate score in
our analysis was 23 out of 100, only
2 points higher than the overall aggregate score. This suggests that
most utilities’ corporate pledges are not
translating into action.
• The companies studied account for 69 percent of remaining coal
generation in the US. They have committed
to retire just 28 percent of their coal generation by 2030.
• About half of the operating companies included in this study, 37
companies, are planning to build new gas
plants, totaling nearly 38 GW through 2030. These utilities have
actually increased their plans for new gas
plants since our last report. This accounts for over half of the
total planned gas in the US through 2030.
• The companies in this study plan to add 308 million megawatt hours
(MWh) of new wind and solar energy
to the grid between 2022 and 2030. This is equivalent to only 24
percent of their current coal and gas
generation and is wholly inadequate for a swift transition to a
clean grid.
• Of the 77 operating companies studied, 27 received worse scores
(35 percent); 43 improved their scores
(56 percent); and 7 made no progress (9 percent).
*A CLEAN ELECTRIC SECTOR REMAINS CRITICAL*
KEY FACTS:
• Rapidly cleaning up the electricity sector is key to achieving
national climate goals.
• To put us on a pathway consistent with a 1.5°C future and avoid
the worst effects of climate change, by 2030
US utilities need to phase out coal and slash emissions by at least
80 percent from 2005 levels.
• We can transition to clean energy. Multiple pathways exist to
cost-effectively achieve 100 percent zerocarbon electricity by 2035.
• A rapid transition to clean energy has the potential to have the
greatest positive impact on vulnerable and
marginalized communities bearing the brunt of the monetary, health,
and environmental costs of our reliance
on fossil fuels
https://www.sierraclub.org/sites/www.sierraclub.org/files/2022-09/sierra_club_the_dirty_truth_report_v2_2022_0.pdf?
[ NASA does some science ]
Oct 12, 2022
*NASA Dust Detective Delivers First Maps From Space for Climate Science*
NASA’s Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) mission
aboard the International Space Station has produced its first mineral
maps, providing detailed images that show the composition of the surface
in regions of northwest Nevada and Libya in the Sahara Desert.
Windy desert areas such as these are the sources of fine dust particles
that, when lifted by wind into the atmosphere, can heat or cool the
surrounding air. But scientists haven’t been able to assess whether
mineral dust in the atmosphere has overall heating or cooling effects at
local, regional, and global scales. EMIT’s measurements will help them
to advance computer models and improve our understanding of dust’s
impacts on climate.
EMIT scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern
California and the U.S. Geological Survey created the maps to test the
accuracy of the instrument’s measurements, a crucial first step in
preparing for full science operations.
Installed on the space station in July, EMIT is the first of a new class
of high-fidelity imaging spectrometers that collect data from space and
produce better-quality data at greater volumes than previous instruments.
“Decades ago, when I was in graduate school, it took 10 minutes to
collect a single spectrum from a geological sample in the laboratory.
EMIT’s imaging spectrometer measures 300,000 spectra per second, with
superior quality,” said Robert Green, EMIT’s principal investigator and
senior research scientist at JPL.
“The data we’re getting from EMIT will give us more insight into the
heating and cooling of Earth, and the role mineral dust plays in that
cycle. It’s promising to see the amount of data we’re getting from the
mission in such a short time,” said Kate Calvin, NASA’s chief scientist
and senior climate advisor. “EMIT is one of seven Earth science
instruments on the International Space Station giving us more
information about how our planet is affected by climate change.”
EMIT analyzes light reflected from Earth, measuring it at hundreds of
wavelengths, from the visible to the infrared range of the spectrum.
Different materials reflect light in different wavelengths. Scientists
use these patterns, called spectral fingerprints, to identify surface
minerals and pinpoint their locations.
Mineral spectra in northwest Nevada
NASA’s EMIT mission recently gathered mineral spectra in northwest
Nevada that match what the agency’s AVIRIS instrument found in 2018,
helping to confirm EMIT’s accuracy. Both instruments found areas
dominated by kaolinite, a reflective clay mineral whose particles can
cool the air when airborne.
The Nevada map focuses on a mountainous area about 130 miles (209
kilometers) northeast of Lake Tahoe, revealing locations dominated by
kaolinite, a light-colored mineral whose particles scatter light upward
and cool the air as they move through the atmosphere. The map and
spectral fingerprint closely match those collected from aircraft in 2018
by the Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS), data
that was verified at the time by geologists. Researchers are using this
and other comparisons to confirm the accuracy of EMIT’s measurements.
The other mineral map shows substantial amounts of kaolinite as well as
two iron oxides, hematite and goethite, in a sparsely populated section
of the Sahara about 500 miles (800 kilometers) south of Tripoli.
Darker-colored dust particles from iron-oxide-rich areas strongly absorb
energy from the Sun and heat the atmosphere, potentially affecting the
climate.
Currently there is little or no information on the composition of dust
originating in parts of the Sahara. In fact, researchers have detailed
mineral information of only about 5,000 soil samples from around the
world, requiring that they make inferences about the composition of dust.
EMIT will gather billions of new spectroscopic measurements across six
continents, closing this gap in knowledge and advancing climate science.
“With this exceptional performance, we are on track to comprehensively
map the minerals of Earth’s arid regions – about 25% of the Earth’s land
surface – in less than a year and achieve our climate science
objectives,” Green said.
EMIT’s data also will be freely available for a wide range of
investigations, including, for example, the search for strategically
important minerals such as lithium and rare-earth elements. What’s more,
the instrument’s technology is laying the groundwork for the future
Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) satellite mission, which is part of
NASA’s Earth System Observatory, a set of missions aimed at addressing
climate change.
EMIT traces its roots to imaging spectrometer technology that NASA’s
Airborne Imaging Spectrometer (AIS) first demonstrated in 1982. Designed
to identify minerals on Earth’s surface from a low-altitude research
aircraft, the instrument delivered surprising results almost
immediately. During early test flights near Cuprite, Nevada, AIS
detected the unique spectral signature of buddingtonite, a mineral not
seen on any previous geological maps of the area.
Paving the way for future spectrometers when it was introduced in 1986,
AVIRIS – the airborne instrument that succeeded AIS – has studied
geology, plant function, and alpine snowmelt, among other natural
phenomena. It has also mapped chemical pollution at Superfund sites and
studied oil spills, including the massive Deepwater Horizon leak in
2010. And it flew over the World Trade Center site in Manhattan
following the Sept. 11 attacks, locating uncontrolled fires and mapping
debris composition in the wreckage.
Over the years, as optics, detector arrays, and computing capabilities
have progressed, imaging spectrometers capable of resolving smaller
targets and subtler differences have flown with missions across the
solar system.
A JPL-built imaging spectrometer on the Indian Space Research
Organization’s Chandrayaan-1 probe measured signs of water on the Moon
in 2009. NASA’s Europa Clipper, which launches in 2024, will rely on an
imaging spectrometer to help scientists assess if the icy Jovian moon
has conditions that could support life.
Highly advanced JPL-developed spectrometers will be part of NASA’s
forthcoming Lunar Trailblazer – which will determine the form,
abundance, and distribution of water on the Moon and the nature of the
lunar water cycle – and on satellites to be launched by the nonprofit
Carbon Mapper, aimed at spotting greenhouse gas point-sources from space.
“The technology took directions that I would never have imagined,” said
Gregg Vane, the JPL researcher whose graduate studies in geology helped
inspire the idea for the original imaging spectrometer. “Now with EMIT,
we’re using it to look back at our own planet from space for important
climate research.”
EMIT was selected from the Earth Venture Instrument-4 solicitation under
the Earth Science Division of NASA Science Mission Directorate and was
developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for the
agency by Caltech in Pasadena, California. It launched aboard a SpaceX
Dragon resupply spacecraft from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida
on July 14, 2022. The instrument’s data will be delivered to the NASA
Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) for use by other
researchers and the public.
To learn more about the mission, visit: https://earth.jpl.nasa.gov/emit/
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-dust-detective-delivers-first-maps-from-space-for-climate-science
/
//[ time to act super-smart Also called Global Warming ]/
*Climate change threatens supercomputers*
Increasingly intense heat waves, wildfires, and droughts are forcing
costly adaptations
11 OCT 2022
PMBYJACKLIN KWAN
In 2018, during a savage drought, the California wildfire known as the
Camp Fire burned 620 square kilometers of land, reducing several towns
nearly to ashes and killing at least 85 people. The disaster also had a
ripple effect far from the flames, at a supercomputer facility operated
by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) 230 kilometers away. The
National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) typically
relies on outside air to help cool its hot electronics. But smoke and
soot from the fire forced engineers to cool recirculated air, driving up
humidity levels.
“That’s when we discovered, ‘Wow, this is a real event,’” says Norm
Bourassa, an energy performance engineer at NERSC, which serves about
3000 users a year in fields from cosmology to advanced materials. Hot
and dry weather took a toll again a year later. California utilities cut
NERSC’s power for fear that winds near LBNL might blow trees into power
lines, sparking new fires. Although NERSC has backup generators, many
machines were shut down for days, Bourassa says.
Managers at high-performance computing (HPC) facilities are waking up to
the costly effects of climate change and the wildfires and storms it is
intensifying. With their heavy demands for cooling and massive appetite
for energy, HPC centers—which include both supercomputers and data
centers—are vulnerable, says Natalie Bates, chair of an HPC energy
efficiency working group set up by Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory (LLNL). “Weather extremes are making the design and location
of supercomputers far more difficult.”
Climate change can bring not only heat, but also increased humidity,
reducing the efficiency of the evaporative coolers many HPC centers rely
on. Humidity can also threaten the computers themselves, as NERSC
discovered during a second fire. As interior air was recirculated,
condensation inside server racks led to a blowout in one cabinet,
Bourassa says. For its next supercomputer, set to open in 2026, NERSC is
planning to install power-hungry chiller units, similar to air
conditioners, that would both cool and dehumidify outside air.
The cost of such adaptations is motivating some HPC centers to migrate
to cooler and drier climates, places like Canada and Finland, says
Nicolas Dubé, chief technologist for Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s HPC
division. “We can’t build in some locations going forward, it just
doesn’t make sense,” he says. “We need to move north.”
But some HPC facilities find themselves stuck. The supercomputers at
LLNL are used to simulate the explosions of nuclear weapons. The cost of
relocating specialized personnel could be prohibitive, and LLNL’s
California site is a highly secure facility, says Chief Engineer
Anna-Maria Bailey. Instead, LLNL is studying the possibility of moving
its computers underground. “Humidity and temperature control would be a
lot easier,” she says, “like a wine cave.”
Running from climate change can be futile, however. In 2012, the
National Center for Atmospheric Research opened a supercomputer site in
Cheyenne, Wyoming, to take advantage of its cool, dry air. However,
climate change has led to longer and wetter thunderstorm seasons there,
hampering evaporative cooling. In response, the Wyoming center added a
backup chiller. “Now you have to build your infrastructure to meet the
worst possible conditions, and that’s expensive,” Bates says.
Climate change is also threatening the lifeblood of these HPC
facilities: electricity. HPC centers consume up to 100 megawatts of
power, as much as a medium-size town. Meanwhile, hotter temperatures can
increase power demands by other users. During California’s heat wave
this summer, when air-conditioning use surged, LLNL’s utility told the
facility to prepare for power cuts of 2 to 8 megawatts. Although the
cuts did not happen, it was the first time the laboratory was asked to
prepare for non-voluntary cuts, Bailey says.
Many HPC facilities are heavy users of water, too, which is piped around
components to carry away heat—and which will grow scarcer in the western
United States as droughts persist or worsen. A decade ago, Los Alamos
National Laboratory in New Mexico invested in water treatment facilities
so its supercomputers could use reclaimed wastewater rather than more
precious municipal water, says Jason Hick, an LANL program manager.
Although droughts and rising temperatures may be the biggest threats, a
RIKEN HPC facility in Kobe, Japan, must contend with power outages
because of storms, which are expected to get more intense with global
warming. A high-voltage substation was flooded in 2018, cutting RIKEN’s
power for more than 45 hours. Similarly, a lightning strike this year on
a power line knocked the facility out for about 15 hours. The center’s
200 projects span fields such as materials science and nuclear fusion,
says Fumiyoshi Shoji, who directs operations and computer technologies.
“If our system were unavailable, these research projects would stall,”
he says.
Bates says future supercomputers will need to be constructed in ways
that will allow them to cut performance—and the need for cooling and
power—during bouts of bad weather. “We’re still building race cars, but
we’re building them with a throttle.”
doi: 10.1126/science.adf2869
https://www.science.org/content/article/climate-change-threatens-supercomputers
/
/
/[ Gaining an understanding of our condition - video ]/
*Overshoot in a Nutshell: Understanding Our Predicament (31 min)*
49,493 views Nov 15, 2021 This is part two of a two-part primer on the
nature, inevitability, and speed of biospheric and civilizational
collapse. Part one, "Collapse In a Nutshell" can be found here:
https://youtu.be/e6FcNgOHYoo It is nearly impossible to truly understand
(i.e., to get your head and heart around) our current local and
global-scale challenges without this understanding. To join with others
(in the "post-doom, no gloom" community) to share best practices and
strategies for how to cope and adapt to this knowledge, see here:
https://postdoom.com/discussions/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPMPINPcrdk&t=10s
[ Tri-State region discussion - video on ramifications of June ruling ]
*SUPREME COURT LIMITS EPA POWER TO TACKLE CLIMATE CHANGE*
Clip: 10/12/2022
In a 6-3 ruling in June, on the final day of its previous term, the
Supreme Court greatly limited the Environmental Protection Agency’s
power to address climate change. Joining us to discuss the impact of the
court’s decision are Lisa Garcia, Regional Administrator for EPA Region
2, and Eddie Bautista, Executive Director of the NYC Environmental
Justice Alliance.
Aired: 10/12/22
https://www.pbs.org/video/supreme-court-limits-epa-power-tackle-climate-change-mtiplc/
/[The news archive - looking back at how we ignored warnings]/
/*October 14, 2013*/
October 14, 2013: In an editorial, the Baltimore Sun declares:
"The latest analysis produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC), compiled by hundreds of scientists and dozens
of authors from around the globe, shows that climate change is real,
it's largely caused by man, and it's the greatest environmental
threat we face.
"That's not alarmism, it's reality. Of course, know-nothing deniers
will be as dismissive of the IPCC findings as they've been of
similar reports in the past. That the IPCC is under the auspices of
the United Nations will be used to stir up nationalistic suspicions.
That climate change policy is highly inconvenient for the fossil
fuel industries will cause the big coal and oil companies to
continue their disinformation campaigns.
"None of which changes the reality that climate change poses a
serious threat, and as the evidence mounts, it's actually become
easier to distinguish these basic changes in the ecosystem from the
normal ups and downs of weather. No one super storm or drought or
tornado is traceable to global warming, of course, but the data are
simply too overwhelming to ignore. Each of the last three decades
has proven successively warmer than the previous. Any recent slowing
of that trend or plateau, as the report notes, has more to do with
variables such as volcanic activity and the solar cycle over the
last five years than it does the build-up of greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere."
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-10-14/news/bs-ed-climate-20131014_1_ipcc-report-climate-change-intergovernmental-panel
=======================================
*Mass media is lacking, here are a few daily summariesof global warming
news - email delivered*
=========================================================
**Inside Climate News*
Newsletters
We deliver climate news to your inbox like nobody else. Every day or
once a week, our original stories and digest of the web’s top headlines
deliver the full story, for free.
https://insideclimatenews.org/
---------------------------------------
**Climate Nexus* https://climatenexus.org/hot-news/*
Delivered straight to your inbox every morning, Hot News summarizes the
most important climate and energy news of the day, delivering an
unmatched aggregation of timely, relevant reporting. It also provides
original reporting and commentary on climate denial and pro-polluter
activity that would otherwise remain largely unexposed. 5 weekday
=================================
*Carbon Brief Daily https://www.carbonbrief.org/newsletter-sign-up*
Every weekday morning, in time for your morning coffee, Carbon Brief
sends out a free email known as the “Daily Briefing” to thousands of
subscribers around the world. The email is a digest of the past 24 hours
of media coverage related to climate change and energy, as well as our
pick of the key studies published in the peer-reviewed journals.
more at https://www.getrevue.co/publisher/carbon-brief
==================================
*T*he Daily Climate *Subscribe https://ehsciences.activehosted.com/f/61*
Get The Daily Climate in your inbox - FREE! Top news on climate impacts,
solutions, politics, drivers. Delivered week days. Better than coffee.
Other newsletters at https://www.dailyclimate.org/originals/
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------/
/Archive of Daily Global Warming News
https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote/
/To receive daily mailings - click to Subscribe
<mailto:subscribe at theClimate.Vote?subject=Click%20SEND%20to%20process%20your%20request>
to news digest./
Privacy and Security:*This mailing is text-only. It does not carry
images or attachments which may originate from remote servers. A
text-only message can provide greater privacy to the receiver and
sender. This is a hobby production curated by Richard Pauli
By regulation, the .VOTE top-level domain cannot be used for commercial
purposes. Messages have no tracking software.
To subscribe, email: contact at theclimate.vote
<mailto:contact at theclimate.vote> with subject subscribe, To Unsubscribe,
subject: unsubscribe
Also you may subscribe/unsubscribe at
https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/theclimate.vote
Links and headlines assembled and curated by Richard Pauli for
http://TheClimate.Vote <http://TheClimate.Vote/> delivering succinct
information for citizens and responsible governments of all levels. List
membership is confidential and records are scrupulously restricted to
this mailing list.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote/attachments/20221014/83cda6e5/attachment.htm>
More information about the theClimate.Vote
mailing list