2014 confirmed as the UK's hottest year since records began
Climate and energy news
Windfarm closed until cause of collapsed turbine
is found
A wind farm in Northern Ireland will remain closed until an
investigation determines why an 80-metre wind turbine collapsed on
Friday. The turbine, which provides annual electricity equivalent
to usage by about 1500 homes, appeared to buckle near its base with
the three 40-metre blades detaching on impact with the ground. The
last time one of the UK’s fleet of almost 4,800 commercial-scale
turbines toppled was in Scotland in 2007, the piece reports. Nobody
sustained any injuries in either event.
Brent oil falls below $53 for first time in five
years
Oil supplies hitting a peak at a time when demand is
weakening has seen the price of Brent Crude tumble below the $53
mark for the first time since May 2009. At $52.9 per barrel, prices
have already more than halved from $115 per barrel in June last
year. Russia’s economic woes might be grabbing headlines now but
how crude’s decline will affect China is the real risk to global
stability, suggests The Telegraph. Reutersalso has the story.
Climate change groups split on fossil fuel
divestment
In the past seven months, institutions and individuals
holding at least $50 billion in fossil fuel investments have said
they will sell some or all of their shares as part of a global
divestment campaign. But some advocates argue hanging on to shares
in oil and gas companies is a better strategy and that engagement
with oil and coal companies by is more likely to see
climate-friendly solutions as a result. “The idea that shaming an
industry will somehow reduce greenhouse gas emissions is not
correct,” says Jonathan Naimon, managing director of a New York
asset management firm tells the FT. Meanwhile, analysisby Greenpeace Energydesk
finds the UK government has loaned over a billion pounds to fossil
fuel projects in Russia, Saudi Arabia and Brazil despite a pledge
to withdraw financial support from such schemes,
reports The Guardian.
El Nino indicators ease over recent weeks:
Australia weather bureau
Pacific Ocean temperatures have cooled over the last two
weeks, moving further away from what scientists might expect for an
El Niño. Temperatures in the central to eastern tropical Pacific
have oscillated around the critical threshold for months but have
cooled by around 0.4 degrees in recent weeks, according to the
Australian Bureau of Meteorology. The agency says despite the
cooling, models continue to show warmer-than-average sea
temperatures persisting over the next two-to-three months.
Climate and energy comment
Six key charts show how Australia is getting
hotter
2014 was Australia’s third-hottest year on record,
reflecting a long-term warming trend, according to the Bureau of
Meteorology’s annual statement. The Guardian has six key charts
explaining Australia’s climate in 2014, including that seven of
Australia’s 10 warmest years have occurred since 2002.
Paris climate talks the most significant task
ahead of us in 2015
This year’s “almost mythic, defining task” will be to
achieve an international agreement on emission reductions in Paris,
says Andrew Simms. Failure to “roll the boulder of a new climate
agreement uphill” will hand a virtual death sentence to all other
sustainability goals, such as reducing poverty and inequality
worldwide. With the oil price falling so low, now is an ideal
political moment now to implement a carbon floor price designed to
raise the cost of polluting and make clean production more
attractive, Simms argues.
New climate science
Attenuation of sinking particulate organic carbon
flux through the mesopelagic
ocean
Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences
The ocean’s ability to store carbon for long periods of time
may be hindered by global warming, a new study finds. Measurements
between the surface and the deep ocean of both the Atlantic and
Pacific suggest that fewer carbon particles sink to the deep ocean
in warmer conditions. As more carbon stays nearer the surface, it
is more easily released back into the atmosphere, the study
suggests, causing a positive feedback loop as global temperatures
rise.
Crowdsourcing for climate and atmospheric
sciences: current status and future
potential
International Journal of
Climatology
A large and increasing amount of climate data is being
obtained through ‘crowdsourcing’, a new study says. But the value
of data from non-traditional sources, from smart phone sensors to
amateur weather stations, is still relatively unexplored in climate
science. The authors argue that it has potential to provide a
valuable source of high resolution, real-time data, especially in
regions where few observations currently exist.