Coal and health concerns, boiling oceans, and Arctic Cold Wars
Climate and energy news
Good news! Planet Earth gets an extra 850 millionyears before the oceans boil away after scientists expand’Goldilocks zone’
The Daily Mail says “It seems the oceans won’t boil away aspart of runaway global warming in 150 million years after all -instead it will happen in about a billion years”. All because of adefinition change.
China approves new coal projects despiteenvironmental concerns
Six new coal mines and a thermal power plant are beingplanned in China’s northwest, despite local water and pollutionconcerns.
Dallas – yes, Dallas – bans fracking in most ofthe city
Dallas City Council has adopted new rules that bar hydraulicfracturing within 1,500 feet of a home, school, church, orwell.
‘Green economy’ jobs will spring up across allsectors
Half a million ‘green’ jobs could emerge by 2020, theTelegraph reports – but not necessarily in areas you’d expect.Investment in the UK’s renewable energy and energy efficiencysectors could provide jobs “from call centre advisers providingguidance on household energy efficiency measures, to retail staffwho will help consumers make the most sustainablechoices.”
Heavy industry to challenge EU CO2 permitquotas
Companies including ExxonMobil, Dow Chemical and Shell arechallenging the Dutch government over what they see as anunder-allocation of EU carbon permits.
Climate and energy comment
‘Every little helps’ is a dangerous mantra forclimate change
Guardian Sustainable BusinessBlog
Adam Corner says an academic conference hosted by theTyndall Centre concluded that “a fundamentally different economicsystem is required, if we are serious about avoiding dangerousclimate change, based on nurturing wellbeing rather than stokingcorporate profit”. We covered the conference here.
The dark side of the West’s oil and gasboom
While fracking has brought plenty of economic benefits toparts of the US’ oil and gas-rich West, communities are also havingto battle social problems such as higher crime rates, heavy trucktraffic and overcrowded schools.
The US and China must show leadership on climatechange
Prominent economist, Lord Stern, has said there arecompelling reasons for the US to take action on climate change,”even if Americans were only concerned aboutthemselves”.
Is global warming stoking an Arctic coldwar?
Vladimir Putin this week ordered the military to pay”particular attention to the deployment of infrastructure andmilitary units in the Arctic” – could this be the start of anArctic cold war?
New climate science
A geological perspective on potential futuresea-level rise
Using geological evidence from the past few million years,researchers have concluded modern sea-level rise is twice as fastas could be expected from natural processes alone – and may reach afurther 80cm by 2100.
Can we turn unwanted carbon dioxide intoelectricity?
American Geophysical Union FallMeeting
A team of scientists are developing a way to make carbondioxide storage cost-effective while expanding the use ofgeothermal energy. The technology will boost electric powergeneration by 10 times compared to conventional geothermal energyapproaches, say the researchers.