Vanishing Joshua Trees: Climate Change Will Ravage US National Parks, Study Says

26.09.2018

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Park lands have warmed twice as fast as the rest of the country.

America’s national parks have warmed twice as fast as the US average and could see some of the worst effects of climate change, according to a new study.

Most of Joshua Tree national park could become uninhabitable for its eponymous trees, glaciers will continue to melt away at Glacier national park, and many other of America’s most treasured beauty spots could be rendered virtually unrecognizable by climate change, Patrick Gonzalez, the lead author of the study, writes in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

Even the tiniest of creatures are at risk in the worst-case predictions: the American pika, a small alpine mammal, may no longer be able to survive on park land.

“We are preserving the most remarkable ecosystems, and they happen to be in extreme environments,” said Gonzalez, a climate scientist at the University of California, Berkeley. Gonzalez is also the principal climate change scientist for the US National Park Service but conducted and spoke about the research in his university capacity.

The study finds that temperatures in national parks could go up 3 to 9C by 2100, under the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s worst-case scenario, which shows what could happen without policies to decrease greenhouse gas pollution. With lower emissions, temperatures could still exceed 2C for 58% of park land, compared to 22% of the US as a whole, according to the study.

They are particularly vulnerable because most US park land is in areas that are heating up quicker: in the mountains, the Arctic and the dry south-west.

Alaska parks would see the most extreme heat increases, and the US Virgin Islands parks face 28% less rainfall by the end of the century. In Glacier Bay national park, the Muir Glacier melted 640 meters between 1948 and 2000.

In Yellowstone national park, trees are dying because bark beetles are thriving in warmer winters. Yellowstone will also become far more vulnerable to wildfires. The area burned could be up to three to 10 times higher by 2100. Joshua Tree national park in California could lose up to 90% of the habitat suitable for its namesake trees.

Gonzalez explained that parks at a higher elevation have a thinner atmosphere that warms faster. Hotter temperatures are also melting snow cover and making the ground darker so that it absorbs more heat. Parks in California and the south-west US have seen both high temperatures and record-low rainfall, he said.

The research is the first comprehensive look at climate change impacts on national parks, Gonzalez said. He said he has been using the climate impacts research to develop plans for parks to adapt and reduce the greenhouse gas pollution they contribute.

The Trump administration has rescinded government efforts to slow climate change. The interior department, where the National Park Service is housed, nixed a policy that would have urged management decisions based on science, including climate change research. Park officials in New England scrubbed references to climate change and flooding risks in a report this summer, according to Reveal. The National Park Service did not immediately respond to a request to comment on the study or climate change policies for parks.

Jonathan Jarvis, the National Park Service director under Barack Obama who now also works at UC Berkeley, said he relied on climate change projections to decide where to relocate and bolster structures in the Everglades national park in Florida, an area that has been hit by hurricanes and faces sea-level rise.

Jarvis said he worries that under Trump parks won’t be able to plan long-term for climate change.

“The park service manages these assets, these places, for the benefit of the American people, and they should be based on the best available sound science in the long-term public interest, not for some short-term political agenda,” Jarvis said.

Source: The Guardian

Congress Poised to Act to Reduce Major Source of PFAS Chemicals in Drinking Water

26.09.2018

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House and Senate leaders included a provision in legislation to fund the Federal Aviation Administration and strengthen disaster programs that will give commercial airports the option to switch to firefighting foams that do not include the highly toxic fluorinated chemicals known as PFAS.

Under current law, airports are required to use firefighting foams that contain these chemicals, which have been linked to cancer, kidney disease and other health issues.

Firefighting foams made with PFAS chemicals are a significant and widespread source of drinking water contamination.

In March, Washington became the first state to ban the use of PFAS chemicals in firefighting foams. Congress could vote later this week on the bill that includes the option for airports to switch to PFAS-free foam.

The bipartisan group of lawmakers from both chambers who lead negotiations of the final package were House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.); Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.); House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Ranking Member Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.); and Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Ranking Member Bill Nelson (D-Fla.).

“EWG appreciates the bipartisan group of leaders who came together to tackle this serious and growing threat to the nation’s drinking water,” said EWG Legislative Attorney Melanie Benesh. “On behalf of communities grappling with PFAS-contaminated tap water, EWG applauds their leadership on this important issue. Safeguarding the public from the dangers posed by toxic chemicals in our tap water should be a top priority for all our elected leaders.”

Source: Eco Watch

New Study Reconciles a Dispute About How Fast Global Warming Will Happen

26.09.2018

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Unfortunately, mainstream climate scientists are still right, and we’re running out of time to avoid dangerous global warming.

We’re currently on pace to double the carbon dioxide-equivalent (including other greenhouse gases) in the atmosphere by around mid-century. Since the late 1800s scientists have been trying to answer the question, how much global warming will that cause?

In 1979, top climate scientists led by Jule Charney published a reportestimating that if we double the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from pre-industrial levels of 280 ppm to 560 ppm, temperatures will warm by 3 ± 1.5°C. Four decades later, ‘climate sensitivity’ estimates remain virtually unchanged, but some climate contrarians have argued that the number is at the low end of that range, around 2°C or less.

It’s an important question because if the contrarians are right, the 2°C resulting global warming would represent significantly less severe climate change consequences than if mainstream climate scientists are right and temperatures rise by 3°C. It would also mean our remaining carbon budgetfor meeting the 2°C Paris target is about twice as large than if the mainstream consensus is right. If the consensus is correct, we’re on pace to blow through the remaining Paris carbon budget by around 2030.

Another Nail in the Contrarian ‘Low Sensitivity’ Coffin

Studies published in March 2014, May 2014, and December 2015 identified two critical flaws in the contrarians’ preferred so-called ‘energy balance model’ approach: it doesn’t account for the fact that Earth’s sensitivity can change over time, for example as large ice sheets continue to melt, or that the planet responds differently to different climate ‘forcings’.

Last week, the journal Earth’s Future published a study by the University of Southampton’s Philip Goodwin that took both of these factors into account. Goodwin ran climate model simulations treating every forcing separately, including changes in greenhouse gases, solar activity, particulates from volcanic eruptions, and from human fossil fuel combustion. For each, he included feedbacks from changes in factors like atmospheric water vapor, clouds, snow, and sea ice, including how these factors change over different timescales, as Goodwin explained:

I ran 10 million simulations with a relatively simple climate model. These 10 million simulations each used different climate feedback strengths, and so the way that climate sensitivity responded over time was different in each simulation. To check which of the 10 million simulations were most realistic, I checked each simulation against observations of warming in the atmosphere and ocean up to the present day. I kept only the simulations that agreed with the observations for the real world.

This left 4600 simulations, where the values of the climate sensitivity (and changes in climate sensitivity over different timescales) agree with the atmosphere and ocean warming observed so far. It is from these final 4600 simulations that evaluate how the climate sensitivity evolves over time.

Essentially, adding up all of the warming contributions from all of these factors at any given time tells us how sensitive the climate is on that timescale, whether it be a month, a year, a decade, or a century after atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have doubled.

Over the shortest timeframes of a year or less, Goodwin found that temperatures will rise by about 2°C once carbon dioxide levels have doubled, consistent with the conclusions of the contrarian studies. That makes sense because those studies applied current climate measurements into energy balance models, but since carbon pollution is still rising, the climate still has a large energy imbalance. Climate sensitivity, on the other hand, is usually evaluated at the point when the Earth reaches a new energy equilibrium, long after carbon dioxide levels have stopped rising.

Once our carbon pollution levels decline close to zero (hopefully by mid-to-late century), the planet will start to reach that new equilibrium. The slower feedbacks like melting ice will continue to kick in, and Goodwin found that on timescales close to a century thereafter, temperatures will rise by 1.9–4.6°C, most likely 2.9°C, consistent with mainstream climate science estimates since the 1979 Charney report.

We Need to Hit the Brakes or Blow Past Paris

Climate contrarians want to gamble on the long shot that the climate sensitivity is on the low end of the possible range, which would give us a few extra decades before we burn past the Paris target. But even that relatively rosy scenario would require more aggressive international climate policies than are in place today. We still have to change course even to limit ourselves to a doubling of carbon dioxide-equivalent in the atmosphere.

And the body of scientific research keeps refuting the contrarian case. If anything, recent research suggests the climate sensitivity is toward the high end of the possible range, but Goodwin’s study finds that it’s most likely right where climate scientists have expected for decades. As Goodwin concluded,

”some of the lowest estimates of climate sensitivity from before do not appear to hold on the long timescales.”

Source: The Guardian

Portable Solar Panels Could Mean Happy Campers

25.09.2018

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Link Solar says its technology can be used to replace diesel generators and other polluting energy sources.

New portable solar panels have hit the market and are enabling people to generate clean energy on the move.

Link Solar says its new portable panel technology is lightweight, compact, flexible and easy to use.

The firm says they can be used to replace diesel generators at campsites, offering equipment in different sizes, weights and voltage, with power options ranging from 6.5 watts all the way to 200 watts.

Link Solar suggests the technology can be used for a wide range of applications, inlcuding camping tents, vehicles and solar roofs, among others.

A German start-up has launched a series of trials to test its new solar-powered car.

Source: Energy Live News

Co-Op to Replace Single-Use Plastic Bags with Compostable Ones

25.09.2018

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Co-op has announced plans to scrap single-use plastic bags at its stores and replace them with biodegradable ones.

The supermarket expects the move to eliminate around 60 million plastic bags as part of its phased rollout.

Lightweight compostable carrier bags, which can be reused as food waste caddy liners, will be rolled out to almost 1,400 Co-op stores across England, Scotland and Wales – initially in towns, cities and villages where the bags are accepted in food waste collections.

The initiative is part of Co-op’s plans to eliminate its own-brand black and dark plastic packaging, including ready meal trays, by 2020 and its own-brand packaging to become recyclable by 2023.

It has also pledged to use a minimum of 50% recycled plastic in bottles, pots and trays by 2021.

Retail Chief Executive Jo Whitfield said: “The price of food wrapped in plastic has become too much to swallow and from today, the Co-op will phase out any packaging which cannot be reused.

“The first step to remove single-use plastic will be to launch compostable carrier bags in our stores. They are a simple but ingenious way to provide an environmentally-friendly alternative to plastic shopping bags.”

The supermarket sources 100% renewable energy for its stores and claims to have reduced plastic use equivalent to taking out 125 million plastic water bottles from production so far.

Source: Energy Live News

Ocean Group Pledges to Clean up Five Trillion Pieces of Plastic Waste

25.09.2018

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The Ocean Cleanup has developed a new technology it says will be able to collect vast amounts of rubbish.

The Ocean Cleanup has pledged to remove plastic waste from the world’s seas by 2050.

It plans to start removing the five million separate pieces of rubbish currently floating in the world’s oceans with its new ‘passive system’, which uses natural currents forces to move around and collect plastic.

The 600-metre solar-powered floater sits on the surface of the water, with a three-metre skirt attached below to catch debris – it uses algorithms to find optimal deployment locations, after which the system roams garbage patches autonomously, feeding information back to scientists on land.

The majority of plastic waste in the oceans accumulates in five ‘garbage patches’, damaging ecosystems, health and economies.

The group estimates a full-scale deployment of its systems would be able to clean up around half of the largest of these, known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, every 5 years.

It says by removing the plastic while it remains in relatively large pieces, like shopping bags and bottles, it can prevent the waste from breaking down into more dangerous microplastics.

Source: Energy Live News

Global Cities Leading the Way in Cutting Emissions

24.09.2018

Some of the world’s major cities, including London, Paris and New York City, are no longer increasing their greenhouse gas emissions.

New analysis reveals 27 cities, representing 54 million people and $6 trillion (£4.6tn) in GDP, saw carbon emissions peak in 2012.
Emissions then fell by 2% every year on average while their economies grew by 3% annually.

The main drivers for cities to achieve peak emissions were decarbonisation of the power grid, building energy efficiency, providing cleaner and affordable alternatives to private cars and reduce waste and boosting recycling rates, according to C40 Cities, a network of cities acting as leaders in combating climate change.

Other cities that have also seen a peak in emissions are Barcelona, Basel, Berlin, Boston, Chicago, Copenhagen, Heidelberg, Los Angeles, Madrid, Melbourne, Milan, Montréal, New Orleans, Oslo, Philadelphia, Portland, Rome, San Francisco, Stockholm, Sydney, Toronto, Vancouver, Warsaw and Washington DC.

To date, mayors of more than 60 C40 cities have committed to develop and begin implementing ambitious climate action plans by 2020 that go beyond national commitments to achieve the highest goals of the Paris Agreement at the local level.
The plans are expected to see many more cities achieve peak emissions over the coming years and become emissions neutral by 2050.

The news was announced at the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco this week.

Source: energylivenews

World Peace Requires Access to Safe Water

24.09.2018

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In drought-ravaged East Africa, the cracks in the plains echo the fault lines splitting tribes.

Across the globe, the devastation of deadly brawls is being exacerbated by tensions over access to water. Water crises, often worsened by governance failures, can portend warning signs for instability and conflict. This year, the World Resources Institute cautioned that water stress is growing globally, “with 33 countries projected to face extremely high stress in 2040.” The effects of such water stress span the gamut from civil unrest to open warfare.

Water alone does not explain why a polity erupts into conflict; other factors often play a role. But water scarcity can provide a tangible marker of the government’s failure to deliver basic services, and spur movements of people that overburden cities and exacerbate tensions.

In India, for example, irrigation is causing social unrest and water distribution has become a flashpoint between farmers and the government. In Somalia, communities affected by drought have been exploited by Al-Shabab, a militant group. The recent water restrictions in Cape Town, South Africa, inflamed old racial fault lines in the city. In Niger, Chad and Nigeria water scarcity has fed a dangerous insurgency.

As the Syrian conflict churns towards what is likely to be a brutal climax in Idlib, it’s worth remembering that the country’s bitter civil war may be linked to climate change-induced drought. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2015 states that an extreme drought that occurred in Syria between 2007 and 2010 was likely contributed to by climate change, and that the drought was a key factor in the violent uprising which erupted there in 2011. The researchers stated that in Syria the drought had a “catalytic effect,” prompting crop failures and the mass migration of more than one million people to urban areas, intensifying existing social stressors.

These issues are beginning to touch the U.S. in myriad ways. The lead crisis in Flint, Michigan demonstrated how democracy is implicated by water quality. In Puerto Rico, a lack of access to safe water is intimately tied to a legacy of poverty and a lack of full representation in Congress. In the parched American west, drought has sparked legal and political contests over ownership of water.

Today, vulnerable communities around the world are agitating for a human right to water that has real, practical meaning. Arid, drought-ridden cities will survive only through their ability to create economic, technical and political means to dispense water equitably and safely. Developing such innovations will be one of the most important projects of the 21st century.

Source: Eco Watch

Norway Becomes World’s First Country to Ban Deforestation

24.09.2018

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Norway has become the first country to ban deforestation. The Norwegian Parliament pledged May 26 that the government’s public procurement policy will be deforestation-free.

Any product that contributes to deforestation will not be used in the Scandinavian country. The pledge was recommended by Norwegian Parliament’s Standing Committee on Energy and Environment as part of the Action Plan on Nature Diversity. Rainforest Foundation Norway was the main lobbying power behind this recommendation and has worked for years to bring the pledge to existence.

“This is an important victory in the fight to protect the rainforest,” Nils Hermann Ranum, head of policy and campaign at Rainforest Foundation Norway said in a statement. “Over the last few years, a number of companies have committed to cease the procurement of goods that can be linked to destruction of the rainforest. Until now, this has not been matched by similar commitments from governments. Thus, it is highly positive that the Norwegian state is now following suit and making the same demands when it comes to public procurements.”

Norway’s action plan also includes a request from parliament that the government exercise due care for the protection of biodiversity in its investments through Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global.

“Other countries should follow Norway’s leadership, and adopt similar zero deforestation commitments,” Ranum said. “In particular, Germany and the UK must act, following their joint statement at the UN Climate Summit.”

Germany and the UK joined Norway in pledging at the 2014 UN Climate Summit to “promote national commitments that encourage deforestation-free supply chains,” through public procurement policies and to sustainably source products like palm oil, soy, beef and timber, the Huffington Post reported.

Beef, palm oil, soy and wood products in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea were responsible for 40 percent of deforestation between 2000 and 2011. Those seven countries were also responsible for 44 percent of carbon emissions, Climate Action reported.

Norway’s recent pledge is yet another step the country has taken to combat deforestation. The Scandinavian country funds several projects worldwide.

The Norwegian government announced a $250 million commitment to protect Guyana’s forest, WorldWatch Institute reported. The South American country, which has its forests zoned for logging, received the money over a four-year period from 2011 to 2015.

“Our country is at a stage where our population is no less materialistic [than industrialized countries] and no less wanting to improve their lives,” Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, Guyana’s minister of foreign affairs, said. “We want to continue our development, but we can’t do that without a form of payment.”

The partnership is part of the UN’s initiative Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, which was launched in 2008. Guyana is unique among its counterparts in the initiative because the country’s forests don’t face significant deforestation pressure.

In 2015, Norway paid $1 billion to Brazil, home to 60 percent of the Amazon forest, for completing a 2008 agreement between the two countries to prevent deforestation, according to mongabay.com. Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon decreased more than 75 percent over the last decade, representing the single biggest emissions cut in that time period. The deal helped save more than 33,000 square miles of rainforest from clear-cutting, National Geographic reported.

The partnership was praised by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon:

“The partnership between Brazil and Norway through the Amazon Fund shows intensified support for one of most impressive climate change mitigation actions of the past decades. This is an outstanding example of the kind of international collaboration we need to ensure the future sustainability of our planet.”

The Amazon has lost around 17 percent of its trees in the last 50 years, according to World Wildlife Fund.

This TED talk explains how Brazil reached its goal:

Norway doesn’t just focus on South American forests. The country is also hard at work in Africa and other regions of the planet.

Liberia, with the help of Norway, became the first nation in Africa to stop cutting down trees in return for aid, the BBC reported. The deal involves Norway paying the West African country $150 million through 2020 to stop deforestation.

“We hope Liberia will be able to cut emissions and reduce poverty at the same time,” Jens Frolich Holte, a political adviser to the Norwegian government, said.

Liberia is home to 43 percent of the Upper Guinean forest and the last populations of western chimpanzees, forest elephants and leopards. The country agreed to place 30 percent or more of its forests under protection by 2020.

Forests cover 31 percent of the land on Earth. They are the planet’s figurative lungs, producing oxygen and removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Forests also provide homes to people and much of the world’s wildlife.

There are 1.6 million people who rely on forests for food, fresh water, clothing, medicine and shelter, according to the World Wildlife Fund. But people also see forests as an obstacle they must remove. Around 46,000 to 58,000 square miles of forest are lost each year—a rate equal to 48 football fields every minute.

Deforestation is estimated to contribute around 15 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. Not only does deforestation contribute to climate change, it can also disrupt livelihoods and natural cycles, the World Wildlife Fund said. Removal of trees can disrupt the water cycle of the region, resulting in changes in precipitation and river flow, and contribute to erosion.

Source: Eco Watch

More than 30,000 Ukrainian Homes Go Energy Efficient

24.09.2018

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More than 30,000 Ukrainian households have benefitted from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s (EBRD) energy efficiency programme.

The Residential Energy Efficiency Financing Facility has now invested a total of UAH1 billion (£27m) into energy-efficient home improvements – this has enabled homeowners to take out loans, with many expected to qualify for partial investment grants.

The facility is supported by €15 million (£13.5m) in funding from the Eastern Europe Energy Efficiency and Environment Partnership, to which the EU is the largest contributor.

Ukraine’s residential sector is responsible for over a third of the country’s energy consumption, with many of its soviet-era buildings having significant potential to be made warmer and more efficient.

More than 70% of completed home improvement projects have used domestic-made products such as double-glazed windows or boilers.

Source: Energy Live News

California Becomes First State to Regulate Plastic Straws

23.09.2018

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California became the first state in the U.S. to ban plastic straws in dine-in restaurants Thursday when Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation to that effect, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The law, which will enter into force Jan. 1, prohibits restaurants from providing straws unless a customer requests one. It covers only sit-down eateries, not fast food restaurants, delis or coffee shops.

“It is a very small step to make a customer who wants a plastic straw ask for it,” Brown said as he signed the bill. “And it might make them pause and think again about an alternative. But one thing is clear, we must find ways to reduce and eventually eliminate single-use plastic products.”

The law, Assembly Bill 1884, was passed by the state legislature in late August. Restaurants who violate the law could be fined $25 per day and up to $300 per year, CNBC reported.

The law comes as various cities and companies, including California cities like San Francisco, Alameda, Oakland, Berkeley, Carmel, Davis and San Luis Obispo have also passed restrictions on the use of plastic straws, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The move was supported by some of the same groups who supported the state’s ban on plastic bags, which was solidified by a voter referendum in 2016.

In his signing statement, Brown focused on the impact that all single use plastics have on the oceans. He wrote that plastics are estimated to kill millions of marine animals, referencing the story of a whale that washed up dead in Thailand with 80 plastic bags in its stomach, and that microplastics have also been foundin tap water.

“Plastics, in all forms—straws, bottles, packaging, bags, etc.—are choking our planet,” he wrote.

Plastic straws and stirrers are the sixth most prevalent form of trash found on California beaches, according to the California Coastal Commission, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

However, anti-plastic straw measures have been criticized by disability rights activists, who say they deny people with disabilities a life-saving accessibility tool without addressing the true cause behind the single-use plastic crisis.

“Let me be blunt: Screeching at us about straws is not going to fix the problem of plastic. For that, we need to go higher up the supply chain, rethinking when and how we produce plastics across the board instead of shaming disabled people who are piping up about our needs,” Northern California journalist s.e. smith wrote for Vox.

Some disability advocates say a solution like California’s, which still allows restaurants to serve plastic straws upon request, would resolve the tension between sustainability and accessibility, but others say such regulations still put an added barrier between customers with disabilities and their chance to enjoy a beverage out as easily as anyone else.

“Some people who need straws may have an invisible disability or illness, and they should be able to receive a straw without being judged or asked if they ‘really’ need it,” the Mighty disability editor Karin Willison told the Los Angeles Times, as reported by The Hill.

Source: Eco Watch

Build Walls on Seafloor to Stop Glaciers Melting, Scientists Say

23.09.2018

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Barriers could halt slide of undersea glaciers and hold back sea level rises predicted to result from global warming.

Building walls on the seafloor may become the next frontier of climate science, as engineers seek novel ways to hold back the sea level rises predicted to result from global warming.

By erecting barriers of rock and sand, researchers believe they could halt the slide of undersea glaciers as they disintegrate into the deep. It would be a drastic endeavour but could buy some time if climate change takes hold, according to a new paper published on Thursday in the Cryosphere journal, from the European Geosciences Union.

Though the notion may sound far-fetched, the design would be relatively straightforward. “We are imagining very simple structures, simply piles of gravel or sand on the ocean floor,” said Michael Wolovick, a researcher at the department of geosciences at Princeton University in the US who described the plans as “within the order of magnitude of plausible human achievements”.

The structures would not just be aimed at holding back the melting glaciers, but at preventing warmer water from reaching the bases of the glaciers under the sea. New research is now being undertaken by scientists showing how the effects of the warmer water around the world, as the oceans warm, may be the leading cause of underwater melting of the glaciers.

Wolovick and his fellow researchers ran computer models to check on the likely impacts of the structures they believe would be needed, taking as their starting point the Thwaites glacier in Antarctica, which at 80-100km is one of the widest glaciers in the world.

They found that creating a structure of isolated columns or mounds on the sea floor, each about 300 metres high, would require between 0.1 and 1.5 cubic km of aggregate material. This would make such a project similar to the amount of material excavated to form Dubai’s Palm Islands, which took 0.3 cubic km of sand and rock, or the Suez canal, which required the excavation of roughly one cubic km.

Building a structure of this kind would have about a 30% probability of preventing a runaway collapse of the west Antarctic ice sheet, according to the models.

Using more complex designs that would be harder to accomplish in the harsh conditions on the sea bottom in the south polar regions, a small underwater wall could be built, which they calculate would have a 70% chance of succeeding in blocking half the warm water from reaching the ice shelf.

Glaciers melting under rising temperatures at the poles have the potential to discharge vast amounts of fresh water into the oceans, sending sea levels rising faster than they have for millennia. The Thwaites glacier alone, an ice stream the size of Britain and likely to be the biggest single source of future sea level rises, could trigger the melting of enough water to raise global sea levels by three metres.

Many of these glaciers extend far under the sea, and scientists have begun to explore their subsea melting as well as the easier-to-measure reductions in the or visible parts. The undersea research vessel now known as Boaty McBoatface after its much larger relative was named the Sir David Attenborough is to be deployed at the Thwaites glacier for just this purpose.

Building undersea walls could be accomplished by similar vessels but would have to be precisely positioned and strong enough to withstand the immense pressure of the ice.

The authors hope that by creating their experimental models they can foster future research into the engineering needed to bring about such projects, which would take many years or decades to be worked out and implemented.

Geo-engineering solutions such as this one should not deter the world from reducing greenhouse gas emissions, Wolovick said. “The more carbon we emit, the less likely it becomes that the ice sheets will survive in the long term at anything close to their present volume,” he said.

The forthcoming report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is expected to warn afresh of the potential for sea level rises to inundate low-lying areas if warming is not held to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

Source: Guardian

A Wind Farm to Be Built in South Dakota Will Provide Renewable Energy Starting in 2020

22.09.2018

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Boston University (BU) has announced plans to buy wind energy to meet 100% of its electricity consumption.

It has signed a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with energy company ENGIE North America, which will provide renewable electricity from a wind farm in South Dakota starting in 2020.

The university will buy 201,000MWh of electricity every year and earn credits in the form of renewable energy certificates (RECs) to compensate for its own carbon emissions in Boston.

As part of the contract, BU will also receive educational and research opportunities for faculty and students, including tow summer internships for academically high-performing students who want to learn about wind power or energy efficiency or how to put business plans together.

The project will support the university’s commitment to bring its net emissions to zero by 2040.

Since 2006, BU has reduced its carbon emissions by around 25% through energy efficiency and replacing oil usage with natural gas.

Following the 15-year contract, the university said it will either negotiate a new contract or consider alternatives.

Source: Energy Live News

EU Investigates BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen over Emissions Collusion Allegations

22.09.2018

The carmakers allegedly held meetings where they discussed clean technologies to limit harmful car exhaust emissions.

The technologies aim to make passenger cars less damaging to the environment
The Commission will assess if the companies colluded to limit the development and rollout of certain emissions control systems
It aims to establish if their conduct may have violated rules that prohibit cartels and restrictive business practices

The European Commission has launched an investigation into alleged collusion between BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen (VW) on the development of emissions control systems for cars.

It will focus on information it received indicating the car manufacturers, including VW’s Audi and Porsche units, also called the “circle of five”, participated in meetings where they allegedly discussed, among other things, the development and deployment of technologies to limit harmful car exhaust emissions.

In particular, the Commission is assessing whether the companies colluded to limit the development and rollout of certain emissions control systems for cars sold in the European Economic Area.

The in-depth investigation will aim to establish if the conduct of BMW, Daimler and VW may have violated EU antitrust rules that prohibit cartels and restrictive business practices.

It follows the Commission’s inspections at the premises of BMW, Daimler, Volkswagen and Audi in Germany last October as part of its initial inquiries.

Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy said: “The Commission is investigating whether BMW, Daimler and VW agreed not to compete against each other on the development and rollout of important systems to reduce harmful emissions from petrol and diesel passenger cars.

“These technologies aim at making passenger cars less damaging to the environment. If proven, this collusion may have denied consumers the opportunity to buy less polluting cars, despite the technology being available to the manufacturers.”

Responses

The Volkswagen Group and its brands said they have been fully co-operating with the investigation.

A spokesperson added: “The formal initiation of proceedings is standard and is a purely procedural step in the process, which was fully expected by Volkswagen. The presumption of innocence continues to apply until the investigations have been fully completed.

“This is not affected by the formal initiation of proceedings. The fact that the European Commission has initiated (formal) proceedings does not mean that it has made any final finding whatsoever on any alleged legal infringements. This procedural step merely means that the Commission will now treat this case as having priority.”

A BMW spokesperson said: “This is a formal step which does not prejudge the outcome in regard to a possible violation of antitrust rules. From the start of the investigation, the BMW Group has supported the EU Commission in its work and will continue to do so. Due to the ongoing investigation, the BMW Group will not comment on the case.

“For the BMW Group, it is important to make a clear distinction between possible violations of antitrust law and a targeted manipulation of exhaust gas treatment, as the latter allegation does not relate to the BMW Group. As for possible infringements against antitrust law, the BMW Group is examining the allegations very closely. The company is wholeheartedly committed to the principles of market economics and fair competition.”

Daimler said no allegations have been raised about price fixing and the company is “co-operating fully” with the authorities and has filed a leniency application.

Source: Energy Live News

World’s Largest River Floods Five Times More Often Than It Used to

21.09.2018

rain-2085065_960_720 — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

Extreme floods have become more frequent in the Amazon Basin in just the last two to three decades, according to a new study.

After analyzing 113 years of Amazon River levels in Port of Manaus, Brazil, researchers found that severe floods happened roughly every 20 years in the first part of the 20th century. Now, extreme flooding of the world’s largest river occurs every four years on average—or about five times more frequently than it used to.

“With a few minor exceptions, there have been extreme floods in the Amazon basin every year from 2009 to 2015,” study lead author, Jonathan Barichivich, environmental scientist at the Universidad Austral de Chile, said in a press release.

This increase in flooding could be disastrous for communities in Brazil, Peru and other Amazonian nations, the researchers pointed out.

“There are catastrophic effects on the lives of the people as the drinking water gets flooded, and the houses get completely destroyed,” Barichivich told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The study, published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, also determined that droughts in the Amazon Basin have increased in frequency.

“Our findings unravel the ultimate causes of the recent intensification—wet season getting wetter, and dry season getting drier—of the water cycle of the largest hydrological basin of the planet,” Barichivich told Retuers.

The researchers linked the increase in flooding to a strengthening of the Walker circulation, which is induced by the contrast of warm Atlantic waters and the cooler waters of the Pacific.

This ocean-powered air circulation system, which influences weather patterns and rainfall in the tropics and elsewhere, can partly be attributed to shifts in wind belts caused by climate change, as Reuters noted about the study.

“This dramatic increase in floods is caused by changes in the surrounding seas, particularly the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and how they interact. Due to a strong warming of the Atlantic Ocean and cooling of the Pacific over the same period, we see changes in the so-called Walker circulation, which affects Amazon precipitation,” study co-author Manuel Gloor, from Britain’s University of Leeds, said in the press release. “The effect is more or less the opposite of what happens during an El Niño event. Instead of causing drought, it results in more convection and heavy rainfall in the central and northern parts of the Amazon basin.”

With temperatures in the Atlantic expected to continue warming, the scientists expect to see more of these high water levels in the Amazon River.

“We think that it’s going to continue for at least a decade,” Barichivich told Reuters.

Source: Eco Watch

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