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THIS IS A REAL BREAKTHROUGH.
G’day Neville,
Forbes magazine ( a bastion of the USA establishment) cheering solar-power.
The World’s First Baseload (24/7) Solar Power Plant
http://www.forbes.com/sites/tonyseba/2011/06/21/the-worlds-first-baseload-247-solar-power-plant/
climate code red
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Posted: 21 Jul 2012 07:03 PM PDT Week ending 22 July 2012
PICKS OF THE WEEK As emissions rise, China loses moral high ground Record warmth at the top of the Greenland Ice Sheet Sea Level Rise: It Could Be Worse Than We Think A World Without Coral Reefs Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math Following the Ice: Is this global warming? WEATHER EXTREMES AND GLOBAL WARMING Record Heat Wave Pushes U.S. Belief in Climate Change to 70% High-Speed Research On Climate Change and Extreme Weather Inside Story Americas – Extreme weather: Linked to climate change? The Big Heat US forecast: Hot, dry weather to linger into fall Top Ten Things Climate Change Is Making Worse Right Now ENERGY AND INNOVATION Why the RET is gold medal-winning energy policy Wind turbine syndrome: a classic ‘communicated’ disease Dirt cheap solar Digging deep into Yallourn mine failures 10 Reasons Clean Coal Is Offensive Kooragang coal workers face increased cancer risk: study Shale gas fever develops as firms see a new gold rush Dumping iron at sea can bury carbon for centuries, study shows POLITICS AND POLICY Apocalypse Soon: Has Civilization Passed the Environmental Point of No Return? We’re All Climate-Change Idiots Generation X on climate change: Meh Time to accept that soon, the climate science deniers will be in charge Global warming will accelerate without climate deal, Merkel warns Carbon tax pledge stands, says Pyne Slow Ride Stories: Kick-starting conversations about climate change A healthy climate change battle Who Needs Cute? A Jab at Shell and Arctic Drilling Melbourne byelection: Kanis rated low on climate issues SCIENCE AND IMPACTS Following this summer’s Arctic sea-ice melt… Record Amount of Arctic Sea Ice Melted in June Fossils show ocean rise risk Majority of Tibetan Plateau Glaciers Retreating Increasingly Rapidly The wet side of Greenland Mexico’s drought turns farms to dust  |
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Updated
The heaviest rain to hit Beijing in 61 years left at least 10 people dead over the weekend.
Torrential rain pounded the capital all day on Saturday, flooding roads and forcing the cancellation of more than 200 flights.
More than 30,000 people were forced to evacuate amid the heavy rain, mostly from Beijing’s outlying mountainous districts..
State media reports said a policeman who was electrocuted by a fallen power line during a rescue operation was among the fatalities.
Others were killed in traffic accidents and roof collapses, the Xinhua news agency said.
One woman died after her car was engulfed with water in an underpass on Beijing’s central second ring road that was flooded with up to three metres of water.
The death toll could rise with media reports on Sunday saying numerous people, including rescue workers, are missing.
Meanwhile three bodies were recovered in Beijing’s mountainous Fangshan region where several landslides were reported, China National Radio reported.
It is not immediately clear if the three are already counted in the death toll.
Up to 46 centimetres of rain fell in Fangshan district, the most rain to hit the city in a 14-hour period since records began in 1951, Xinhua said.
The average rainfall throughout the capital during the period amounted to 16.4 centimetres, the report said, citing the Beijing meteorological bureau.
Numerous roads in the city were submerged under up to a metre of water, while 475 flights were cancelled.
On Sunday, clean-up crews were out repairing damage from the downpour under largely sunny skies, while workers scrambled to drain up to one million cubic metres of water from the sewer system.
Despite the damage, the rain was largely welcomed in drought-prone northern China which has suffered from a lack of rain over the last decade.
More torrential rain was forecast in China’s north-east and south-west.
AFP
Topics:weather, storm-event, storm-disaster, china
First posted
Updated
The heaviest rain to hit Beijing in 61 years left at least 10 people dead over the weekend.
Torrential rain pounded the capital all day on Saturday, flooding roads and forcing the cancellation of more than 200 flights.
More than 30,000 people were forced to evacuate amid the heavy rain, mostly from Beijing’s outlying mountainous districts..
State media reports said a policeman who was electrocuted by a fallen power line during a rescue operation was among the fatalities.
Others were killed in traffic accidents and roof collapses, the Xinhua news agency said.
One woman died after her car was engulfed with water in an underpass on Beijing’s central second ring road that was flooded with up to three metres of water.
The death toll could rise with media reports on Sunday saying numerous people, including rescue workers, are missing.
Meanwhile three bodies were recovered in Beijing’s mountainous Fangshan region where several landslides were reported, China National Radio reported.
It is not immediately clear if the three are already counted in the death toll.
Up to 46 centimetres of rain fell in Fangshan district, the most rain to hit the city in a 14-hour period since records began in 1951, Xinhua said.
The average rainfall throughout the capital during the period amounted to 16.4 centimetres, the report said, citing the Beijing meteorological bureau.
Numerous roads in the city were submerged under up to a metre of water, while 475 flights were cancelled.
On Sunday, clean-up crews were out repairing damage from the downpour under largely sunny skies, while workers scrambled to drain up to one million cubic metres of water from the sewer system.
Despite the damage, the rain was largely welcomed in drought-prone northern China which has suffered from a lack of rain over the last decade.
More torrential rain was forecast in China’s north-east and south-west.
AFP
Topics:weather, storm-event, storm-disaster, china
First posted
A person has been killed in Austria after torrential rains triggered mudslides and flooding across several provinces.
360 people living in an alpine region were forced to evacuate their homes after a torrent of mud swept through.
The rain has destroyed houses, cut off villages and damaged roads.
More rain is forecast over the coming days.
ABC © Enlarge photo
Labor says it has pipped the Greens at the post and claimed victory in the crucial by-election for the state seat of Melbourne.
With 66 per cent of the vote counted, Labor’s Jennifer Kanis is leading the Greens’ Cathy Oke 51 per cent to 49 on a two-party preferred basis.
Victorian Labor Leader Daniel Andrews claimed victory at a press conference this morning.
The Greens had been confident of making history by taking the seat which has been held by Labor for more than a century.
They will hold a press conference at midday.
Mr Andrews earlier said the result had sent a clear message to the Baillieu Government, and to the Greens.
“I think Melbourne voters have endorsed a local member in Jennifer Kanis, who won’t just be a commentator, but someone who can deliver real things for vulnerable Victorians in the seat of Melbourne and well beyond the seat of Melbourne,” he said.
“Melbourne voters are pretty savvy, they’re pretty edgy.
“They take their politics pretty easily and they understand how the system works and lets wait and see what the wash-up is.
“I hardly think bagging voters for marking their ballot papers as they see fit is necessarily something the party of ‘values’, the Greens, ought be doing.”
But the Greens’ Member for Melbourne in the Federal Parliament, Adam Bandt, that the result is still a victory for his party.
“The Greens have got the highest vote we’ve ever received in a Victorian election,” he said.
“We have won the primary vote with a primary somewhere in the order of 38 per cent on current figures and we have seen a huge swing of somewhere between 5 and 6 per cent to the Greens, while Labor’s vote has collapsed.”
In a surprise twist, the Sex Party’s Fiona Patten has claimed just under 7 per cent of the primary vote, edging out Crikey founder and media commentator Stephen Mayne, who currently sits on 4 per cent.
Melting ice caps, the influx of trawlers and tourists, and Shell’s £4bn investment to drill for fossil fuels in the Chukchi Sea all raise fears
It is home to a quarter of the planet’s oil and natural gas reserves, yet humans have hardly touched these resources in the far north. But in a few days that could change dramatically if Shell receives approval to drill for oil in the Arctic.
The company has invested $4bn to set up exploratory wells in the Chukchi Sea, north of the Bering Straits. Once permission is given by the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, – possibly in a few weeks – exploration will begin using wells in Arctic waters.
And that will bring trouble. Environment campaigners say that drilling could have terrible effects on the waters and wildlife of the Arctic. “It took a vast effort to clean up the recent spill in the Gulf of Mexico,” said John Sauven of Greenpeace. “There are no such resources to stop a spill in the Chukchi. The consequences could be devastating and very long lasting.”
But Shell rejects this claim. It has an oil spill response capability that includes barges, helicopters, booms, and other equipment should anything happen, said an official. Drilling will be safe.
Exploiting the Arctic’s vast oil reserves is just one cause of environmental unease, however. The far north is melting and far faster than predicted. Global temperatures have risen 0.7C since 1951. In Greenland, the average temperature has gone up by 1.5C. Its ice cap is losing an estimated 200bn tonnes a year as a result. And further rises are now deemed inevitable, causing the region’s ice to disappear long before the century’s end.
As a result, global powers are beginning to look to the region for its gas and oil, minerals, fish, sea routes and tourist potential. All were once hidden by ice. Now it is disappearing, raising lucrative prospects for Arctic nations, in particular Russia, the US, Canada, Norway and Denmark, which controls Greenland. Large-scale investment could bring riches to areas of poverty, it is argued. However, development could destroy pristine ecosystems and the ways of life for people like the Inuit of Greenland and the Sami of Scandinavia.
One example is highlighted by Professor Callum Roberts, a York University marine biologist. An ice-free Arctic could be stripped of its rich fisheries in a matter of years, he told the Observer. “There are significant fish resources under the Arctic ice at present. But as that ice disappears, that protection will be removed and we can expect a rush from fishing fleets to exploit them. They have already stripped the North Atlantic of its cod, ling and other fish. Now they have their eyes on the Arctic.”
Click here to view the full graphic. Credit: Giulio Frigieri
Currently only one fishing ground in the Arctic is protected: the area around the Bering Straits, where the US has imposed a moratorium. Elsewhere there is nothing to stop fleets moving in as ice disappears. “The north polar seas have provided fish like the cod with a last refuge. That may not last much longer.”
Other changes are less worrying. Two new sea routes have opened up as ice has retreated: the Northwest Passage across the northern edge of Canada and the Northern Sea Route across Russia. The latter is seen as the most promising. Instead of heading south, and through the Suez canal, to get to western Europe, ships from east Asia can sail through the Bering Straits and slip along the coast of Siberia, shaving a third off their journey. In 2010, four ships took this route. Last summer, this increased to 34, with many more expected this year.
Then there is tourism. Today, thanks to that disappearing ice, you can follow the route John Franklin took on his doomed 1845 expedition. Adventure Canada, a tour company, operates a cruise ship that can carry up to 200 people through the islands of northern Canada where Franklin and his men becoming trapped by ice and turned to cannibalism in a bid to survive. The voyage begins in Greenland and ends in Coppermine, in western Canada, at a price of $7,000-$17,000 a head. in western Canada. “We have had the market much to ourselves since we started in 2008, but this year we have found other companies have started sniffing around,” said Rebecca Burgum of Adventure Canada.
However, it is the prospect of oil drilling that causes most unease. Apart from Shell, Norway’s Statoil, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Russia’s Rosneft have all revealed plans to drill in the Arctic. Given the huge amounts of hydrocarbons there, this enthusiasm is not surprising. But there are dangers in drilling in the far north that do not exist elsewhere, warns a recent report by the insurance market Lloyds, Arctic Opening: Opportunity and Risk in the High North. In particular, there is the problem of drilling through the permafrost, which could warm up and destabilise a well’s foundations, “potentially leading to a blowout”. In addition, icebreakers are in short supply along with Arctic-class mobile rigs that could drill relief wells in the event of a spill. In short, great caution will be needed before the Arctic oil industry moves from exploration to full production by the end of the decade.
Changes are certainly coming to the Arctic. Indeed, if some scientists are correct, it could be transformed at a far quicker rate than politicians or businessmen realise. Most follow current advice that it will take at least a couple of decades for the Arctic to lose its ice. However, Peter Wadhams, a professor of ocean physics at the University of Cambridge, believes that it will take much less time. “I think it could be gone in summer in four years. It sounds unlikely but that is what the figures indicate,” he told the Observer from Longyearbyen, in Svalbard, in Norway’s northern Arctic archipelago.
Wadhams has just completed a study of ice thickness. Using robot submarines, he has made detailed measurements of the depths of ice sheets, while aircraft have surveyed the heights of these floes. “Our work indicates that Arctic ice has lost 70% of its volume in the past 30 years thanks to global warming. If you extrapolate, it means it could disappear completely for a month or two in summer by 2016. Certainly it is going to go sooner rather than later.”
The consequences for the planet will be grim. Without the white brilliance of the ice to reflect sunlight back into space, it will warm even more. Seabed temperatures will rise and methane deposits will melt, evaporate and bubble into the atmosphere. “We can already see plumes appearing in many areas,” said Wadhams. “Given that methane is a particularly powerful greenhouse gas, that again will accelerate global warming.” Finally, the ice sheets of Greenland, no longer insulated by sea ice around its shores, will melt faster, raising sea levels. “In effect, we are at the mercy of events up here,” said Wadhams.
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