Climate Change / Global Warming Discussion

[S'toon]

Space Walls?

 

[mspohr]

Ballot box battle over clean energy is brewing in three states

Interesting article. Citizen initiatives on the ballot in three states demanding increased renewables. Of course, opposed by the usual suspects (Koch, etc.)

 

[S'toon]

Winter at the top of the world wimped out this year.
The Arctic just finished its warmest winter on record. And sea ice hit record lows for this time of year, with plenty of open water where ocean water normally freezes into thick sheets of ice, new U.S. weather data show.

Meteorologists consider December, January and February to be winter, and Arctic weather stations averaged 4.9 degrees Celsius (8.8 degrees F) warmer than normal for the season that just ended. The air above the Chukchi and Bering seas near Alaska averaged about 11 degrees Celsius (20 degrees F) warmer than normal for February, the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, reported.

Scientists say what's happening is unprecedented, part of a global warming-driven vicious cycle that likely plays a role in strong, icy storms in Europe and the U.S. Northeast and Eastern Canada.

<snip>

It's been so unusually warm that the land weather station closest to the North Pole — at the tip of Greenland — spent more than 60 hours above freezing in February. Before this year, scientists had seen the temperature there rise above freezing in February only twice before, and only ever so briefly. Last month's record-hot temperatures at Cape Morris Jesup have been more like those in May, said Ruth Mottram, a climate scientist at the Danish Meteorological Institute.

But it's more than that one place. Across the Arctic Circle in Barrow, Alaska, February was 10 degrees Celsius (18 degrees F) warmer than normal and the entire winter averaged 7.8 degrees Celsius (14 degrees F) above normal. Of nearly three dozen different Arctic weather stations, 15 of them were at least 5.6 degrees Celsius (10 degrees F) above normal for the winter, according to data from climatologist Brian Brettschneider of the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

<snip>

Full article at:
The Arctic just had its warmest winter on record

 

[ggies07]

Teenagers Defeat Trump’s Move to Kill Climate Change Lawsuit

The group of mostly teenagers in Oregon alleged in a 2015 complaint that government policies have exacerbated global warming in violation of their rights -- and those of future generations -- under the U.S. Constitution.

They claim that for more than 50 years, the office of the president and eight federal agencies promoted regulations to support the U.S. energy industry’s proliferation of fossil fuels, accounting for a quarter of the world’s carbon emissions.

Julia Olson - lead attorney

“We will ask the district court for a trial date in 2018 where we will put the federal government’s dangerous energy system and climate policies on trial for infringing the constitutional rights of young people,” she said in an email.

 

[DragonWatch]

@ggies07 i used to scoff at teenage centered movies where high school students saved us from an invasion from the Russians; or the teens that fly Fighter jests into an enemy territory to rescue a boys downed Air Force senior officer, his father. But, maybe teens will save us from ourselves. We adults have failed for way too long.

 

[ohmman]

high school students saved us from an invasion from the Russians

Ah, Red Dawn.

 

[nwdiver]

Ah, Red Dawn.

Amazon started streaming that recently... odd for such an old movie to be suddenly resurrected...

..... maybe not so odd....

 

[mspohr]

It's 50 years since climate change was first seen. Now time is running out
It's 50 years since climate change was first seen. Now time is running out | Richard Wiles

 

[mspohr]

Geoengineering Greenland and Antarctica to hold back the tide of climate change
Billion-dollar polar engineering ‘needed to slow melting glaciers’
Billion-dollar polar engineering ‘needed to slow melting glaciers’

I just don't know what to say.

 

[dhrivnak]

Geoengineering Greenland and Antarctica to hold back the tide of climate change
Billion-dollar polar engineering ‘needed to slow melting glaciers’
Billion-dollar polar engineering ‘needed to slow melting glaciers’

I just don't know what to say.

Crazy as I thought moving to renewables would be cheaper overall. And since we will run out anyway let’s get started.

 

[mspohr]

Crazy as I thought moving to renewables would be cheaper overall. And since we will run out anyway let’s get started.

Better to spend the money on decarbonizing the fuel supply than trying to patch up the resulting disaster with poorly thought through engineering that might buy a few years delay of the inevitable at the cost of upsetting more ecosystems.

 

[DragonWatch]

Why can’t we quote articles breathing new life into tomorrow? Water shortages could affect 5bn people by 2050, UN report warns
As long as we still own this house when I die, hopefully more than thirty years from now, the water we pump each day and drink is about as good as it gets. Our lake at its deepest point is about eighteen feet, and takes roughly 2.3 miles to walk around. But we are down slope of a much bigger lake, and it provides our lake it’s water underground. No streams or rivers, just underground springs feed the lake. Even with the sea level rising, we are still beyond its Puget Sound reach. So our water is as good as it gets.
But, in the four plus years we have lived here, the duck population has dwindled, and our dogs keep the Canadian Geese pair from nesting on our shore, and construction has limited the habitat.
During the summer the heat takes it’s toll; I put an eighteen inch trout last summer under a new apricot tree because it did not have sufficient oxygen. My wife found it floating near the shore. Curious to see how long they continue to stock the lake as temperatures increase.
Hard to find positive articles. . .

 

[AZ Desert Driver]

Why can’t we quote articles breathing new life into tomorrow? Water shortages could affect 5bn people by 2050, UN report warns
As long as we still own this house when I die, hopefully more than thirty years from now, the water we pump each day and drink is about as good as it gets. Our lake at its deepest point is about eighteen feet, and takes roughly 2.3 miles to walk around. But we are down slope of a much bigger lake, and it provides our lake it’s water underground. No streams or rivers, just underground springs feed the lake. Even with the sea level rising, we are still beyond its Puget Sound reach. So our water is as good as it gets.
But, in the four plus years we have lived here, the duck population has dwindled, and our dogs keep the Canadian Geese pair from nesting on our shore, and construction has limited the habitat.
During the summer the heat takes it’s toll; I put an eighteen inch trout last summer under a new apricot tree because it did not have sufficient oxygen. My wife found it floating near the shore. Curious to see how long they continue to stock the lake as temperatures increase.
Hard to find positive articles. . .

If you have your own ground water well system, then the lake water must percolate through several feel of lake bottom, vadose zone permeability and near-well bore sand face material. It is basically going through a large sand filter. This should remove things like cryptosporidium and giardia and other water born bacteria. The sand filter cannot remove all contaminants, just the common ones that have been a target for municipal treatment systems for hundreds of years.
If you are lucky, this lake will always be refilled by one-season precipitation. Development in the watershed could over consume runoff, and/or contaminate. Be diligent at protecting your watershed. Be aware of heavy metals being disturbed (mines). Be conscious of industrial chemicals that cannot be removed by sand filtration. You need to be aware of more than temperature swings.
Glad you have good water. Hope it lasts. I wish everyone had good clean water, and an abundant supply. All of us should be protective of our supply.

 

[DragonWatch]

If you have your own ground water well system, then the lake water must percolate through several feel of lake bottom, vadose zone permeability and near-well bore sand face material. It is basically going through a large sand filter. This should remove things like cryptosporidium and giardia and other water born bacteria. The sand filter cannot remove all contaminants, just the common ones that have been a target for municipal treatment systems for hundreds of years.
If you are lucky, this lake will always be refilled by one-season precipitation. Development in the watershed could over consume runoff, and/or contaminate. Be diligent at protecting your watershed. Be aware of heavy metals being disturbed (mines). Be conscious of industrial chemicals that cannot be removed by sand filtration. You need to be aware of more than temperature swings.
Glad you have good water. Hope it lasts. I wish everyone had good clean water, and an abundant supply. All of us should be protective of our supply.

Thanks for the input I am very concerned about protecting our water source and my wife almost jumped on an opportunity to buy twenty acres up hill and behind us from us to preclude development, but an additional 200K debt means no new roof & solar panels or solar roof tiles.
This lake used to be one of the purest in our state; however, the patriots are compelled to launch the worlds best fireworks display annually into the lake during fire danger season on the fourth of July each year. The fireman across the lake later fires them across the lake surface to finish off the left over arsenal. On the fifth each year, we pull out the debris in our area (lake in front of us) ~ sixty feet wide:-(
Our neighbors do not believe in the law either, and typically blow off building permits.
Freedom of speech is money; problem is, it just does not grow on trees, unless you clear cut the forest:-(

 

[mspohr]

Teenagers Defeat Trump’s Move to Kill Climate Change Lawsuit

More on worldwide climate lawsuits
Can climate litigation save the world?
Can climate litigation save the world?

 

[mspohr]

Thanks for the input I am very concerned about protecting our water source and my wife almost jumped on an opportunity to buy twenty acres up hill and behind us from us to preclude development, but an additional 200K debt means no new roof & solar panels or solar roof tiles.
This lake used to be one of the purest in our state; however, the patriots are compelled to launch the worlds best fireworks display annually into the lake during fire danger season on the fourth of July each year. The fireman across the lake later fires them across the lake surface to finish off the left over arsenal. On the fifth each year, we pull out the debris in our area (lake in front of us) ~ sixty feet wide:-(
Our neighbors do not believe in the law either, and typically blow off building permits.
Freedom of speech is money; problem is, it just does not grow on trees, unless you clear cut the forest:-(

That's the problem with surface water. It can easily get contaminated. Most places require surface water to be treated.
Best to drill a well to get to the water before it reaches the surface.

 

[AZ Desert Driver]

That's the problem with surface water. It can easily get contaminated. Most places require surface water to be treated.
Best to drill a well to get to the water before it reaches the surface.

Surface water is treated at municipal plants by filtration - often simple sand filter, sometimes coagulation before a carbon bed - but simple filtration. A disinfectant is applied with the expectation that everything is safe if only a chlorine residual can be detected. Groundwater is not required to be treated because it has- essentially- a sand filter in getting to the well bore. The rules were established decades ago, when times were simpler and the risk was mostly from routine organic (fecal) contamination. Now, we have organic solvents like TCE drifting in the groundwater that is not removed by natural processes. Surface water filtration is not capable of removing many chemical contaminants - only routine ones. As flawed as our water treatment system is - it is far superior to many other countries.

The wonderful chemicals used in fireworks are soluble and not filterable. You are probably safe because of "dilution is the solution to pollution". The cost of testing for rocket fuel or other exotics is substantial. The treatments are -for the most part- not economically viable if even available. So - no reason to look for problems if you cant fix what you find.

So - protect the watershed where possible. And build your own treatment system.

I have a simple paper filer to take care of dirt and rust that comes down the city main. It gets slugs of dirt when there is construction even 10 miles upstream. I then pass non-irrigation water through a ion-exchange resin bed to remove hard water ions like Calcium. I let any chlorine that comes down the pipe to persist in my water heater tank. And as a final polish, I have another (charcoal) filter in my fridge that gets the last chlorine out of my drinking supply. I considered an RO system, but looked at the cost/benefit and could not justify.

 

[mspohr]

Climate change for dummies (the judge)
A judge asks basic questions about climate change. We answer them
A judge asks basic questions about climate change. We answer them

 

[mspohr]

Looks like Lloyd's of London is becoming a believer in climate change
Lloyd’s of London slides to £2bn loss after major hurricanes
Lloyd’s of London slides to £2bn loss after major hurricanes

 

[mspohr]

Trump’s plan to slash EPA, clean energy funding gets the cold shoulder from Congress

Latest budget keeps most environmental funding. Looks like they ignored most of Trump's outrageous budget requests.