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Ocean hot-spots killing Pacific

Hot spots in the North Pacific wreak havoc on marine life

Research released this week reveals that massive blobs of hot water have moved around the Pacific Ocean, since 2011, killing marine ecosystems in their wake.

Last year, thousands of seals, whales and starfish died on the West Coast of North America, due to the disruption of ecosystems as the result of warm water. This year the largest “hot blob” has moved to Mexico, causing similar devastation there.

The same phenomenon is behind the three systems that caused major marine death incidents off the Australian Coast earlier this year. Near death incidents have damaged beyond repair: the Great Barrier Reef; a huge kelp forest in the Coral Sea and the mangroves in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/08/15/are-climate-related-hot-blobs-spreading-and-killing-marine-life-worldwide

23 August, 2016
World’s largest wind farm to go ahead in UK

The second stage of a massive wind-generation project, larger than most nuclear power stations, was approved in the UK parliament this week.

The world’s largest wind farm is in the North Sea at Hornsea and will power 2.5 million homes. This stage brings the capacity of the wind farm up to 3 gigawatts of electricity, larger than most nuclear power plants in the UK.

A third stage will expand the project to 4gigawatts, equivalent to 4 percent of the UK energy requirements when it comes online. The UK currently gets around 10 percent of its electrical energy from wind.

https://thinkprogress.org/uk-biggest-offshore-wind-project-approved-dd1b90d6593a#.y15cp73o9

23 August, 2016
Electric car without batteries trialed in Japan

Japan’s Taisei is trialling an electric car without batteries

Japanese car manufacturer Taisei, this week demonstrated an electric car without batteries running on an electrified road.

The proof-of-concept car was developed with Toyohshi University and traveled only a hundred metres at 10 kilometres per hour on a specially prepared road. A spokesperson for Taisei Corp said that the production version will come with batteries so that it can be used “off expressway.”

There are no immediate plans to retrofit existing expressways with the required electric tracks. So far, the economic model for the provision of electricity to the car is not clear.

https://www.rt.com/news/336116-japanese-electric-car-vehicle/

23 August, 2016
Louisiana floods latest five hundred year event

The massive floods in Louisiana that killed five people and made 20,000 homeless last week contained as much water as generally flows out of the Mississippi in three years. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the USA will this week declare the floods as a one in five hundred year event. This is the eighth flood in the last fifteen months to fit that description. The National Weather Service has said that the levels of moisture in the air are at record levels, a direct result of a w

Eight floods this year have been categorised as only occuring once every 500 years

armer atmosphere due to increased carbon dioxide levels.

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/oh/hdsc/aep_storm_analysis/

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/16/louisiana-flooding-natural-disaster-weather-climate-change

23 August, 2016
Half the world’s population facing chronic water shortages

Water scarcity is spreading into wealthier nations

Israel’s Ben Gurion University, this week released a report showing that half the world’s population will face chronic water shortages in the next two decades.

The report indicates that one billion people already deal with water shortages on a daily basis. Evidence of this trend was confirmed in independent reports this week from cities as diverse as London and Miami. Thames Water this week announced a plan to create water from treated sewage to meet the demand of an increasing population from a water supply already at its natural limit. Water shortages in Florida, Syria, Israel, Kenya and Spain are also the subject of news stories in the last week.

In many cases, cities are dependent on groundwater from aquifers that no longer meet demand.

http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2016/8/12/ben-gurion-university-institute-tackles-water-shortage-hygiene-in-developing-countries#.V66LTDUYFYA=

http://www.citymetric.com/horizons/within-decade-london-could-be-facing-water-shortage-2339

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/northeast-florida-water-shortage-possible-if-action-not-taken/295338392

16 August, 2016
Peak Oil translates to peak debt

Energy consumption has flattened depriving governments of revenue

An analysis of global energy prices and production released by Gail Tverberg of Our Finite World last week indicates that the Peak Oil crisis of 2007 has now translated into Peak Debt depriving governments of revenue and leading to high disatisfaction levels with governments.

Her analysis shows that a number of factors have led to a short term energy glut and decrease in raw energy prices. They include: the production of non-conventional fuels, such as Coal Seam Gas, the release of Iraq’s vast oil supplies subsequent to the US invasion and subsidies for renewable energy

Regardless, domestic energy prices have risen, energy consumption per capita across the globe has plateaued and the debt per capita increased to the point where governments can no longer afford to provide traditional services, thereby leading to popular unrest.

She predicts a global economic collapse significantly larger than the global financial crisis of 2008 or the Great Depression of the 1930s.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/09/an-updated-version-of-the-peak-oil-story/

16 August, 2016