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Post by the Scribe on Dec 7, 2020 12:16:33 GMT
Should scientists artificially cool the planet to stave off climate catastrophe?www.yahoo.com/news/scientists-artificially-cool-planet-stave-110003837.html The Week Sun, December 6, 2020, 4:00 AM MST
Should scientists artificially cool the planet to stave off climate catastrophe? Here's everything you need to know:
What is geoengineering?
Some climate scientists are coming to believe it's humanity's only hope for slowing or stopping disastrous changes in the climate. As runaway carbon dioxide emissions contribute to melting ice caps, widespread flooding, prolonged heat waves and droughts, apocalyptic wildfires, and devastating hurricanes, researchers are exploring planetary-scale interventions in Earth's natural systems as a way of counteracting climate change. Geoengineering has been debated since the 1960s, when U.S. scientists suggested floating billions of white, golf ball–like objects in the oceans to reflect sunlight. Interfering in natural processes was widely considered naïve and dangerous until recently, but as the window to curb global warming shrinks, proposals to reflect sunlight, shade Earth's surface, accelerate carbon absorption in the oceans, and remove CO2 from the air are being taken more seriously. In October, SilverLining, a nonprofit, gave $3 million toward climate-engineering research. "I liken geoengineering to chemotherapy," said Michael Gerrard, a professor of environmental and climate law at Columbia University. "If all else is failing, you try it."
What are the most plausible proposals?
SilverLining's grant recipients are researching whether humans can blast sunlight-reflecting aerosol particles into the stratosphere, mimicking the cooling effect of volcanic ash clouds. In 1991, Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted, spewing sulphate particles into the atmosphere that caused global temperatures to drop 0.6 degrees Celsius over the next two years. Solar-radiation management would involve sending fleets of airplanes up about 65,000 feet, where they'd spray sulfate aerosols into the upper atmosphere, or perhaps even diamond dust. A research team at Harvard University projects that if high-altitude tankers had the capacity to make 60,000 particle dumps by 2035, it would shave off 0.3 degrees Celsius of warming.
What else is being explored?
Another idea is to pump salt water from oceans into the air, forming water droplets that would make marine clouds brighter and thus more reflective. Australia is funding research, hoping enhanced clouds could cool water temperatures enough to save the already damaged Great Barrier Reef. Cambridge University researchers are studying whether ships can pump salt particles into low-lying polar clouds to help refreeze polar ice caps. Other researchers wonder whether seeding oceans with iron could stimulate the growth of marine algae, which soaks up CO2 from the air. For now, solar-radiation management is thought to be scientifically the sturdiest candidate. "We know with 100 percent certainty that we can cool the planet," said Dr. Douglas MacMartin, a Cornell University engineer.
So why not do it now?
Meddling with Mother Nature is risky. Earth's weather systems are interconnected in extremely complex ways, which is why climate change is believed to impact everything from how long hurricanes linger over coastlines to how fast wildfires accelerate. Tinkering with one aspect of weather could have dangerous, unforeseen ripple effects: Two years ago, Nature called geoengineering "outlandish and unsettling." Could blocking sunlight, for example, impact the Asian monsoon, which 2 billion people depend on for food crops, or alter the oceans' acidity? For geoengineering to be politically feasible, scientists would have to convince ordinary people that it's worth the calculated risk. Last year, Harvard sought to send a balloon into the stratosphere over Tucson in order to release small amounts of calcium carbonate (chalk) to test whether the reflective particles could block some sunlight, but public outcry forced the experiment to be postponed.
Is safety the only concern?
No. Some climate activists argue that geoengineering serves as a get-out-of-jail-free panacea that would allow carbon-emitting corporations to conduct business as usual. They argue that no technological breakthrough would eliminate the long-term need to abandon fossil fuels. Raymond Pierrehumbert, a Nobel Prize–winning professor at Oxford University, compares relying on geoengineering without cutting emissions to "jumping off the Washington Monument and hoping somebody invents anti-gravity before you hit the ground."
Where do most scientists stand?
The global failure to make major emissions cuts is causing many experts to reconsider geoengineering. Compared with the massive financial consequences of global warming, the estimated $2 billion annual price tag to develop solar engineering over 15 years is quite inexpensive. In March, an Australian team conducted one of the world's first geoengineering trials, using 100 nozzles to enhance existing clouds by blasting salt water into the air. In theory, it would take about 1,000 nozzles to save the entire Great Barrier Reef from dying off. "People are right to fear overreliance on techno-fixes," says Harvard professor David Keith. "But there's another nightmare: We realize in hindsight that early use of geoengineering could have saved millions of lives lost in heat waves and helped preserve some of the natural world."
Sucking carbon out of the air
The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says the world must remove 1 trillion tons of carbon by 2100 to have any hope of avoiding more than 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming. A proposed solution, carbon capture, takes two forms: removing CO2 directly from the emissions of power plants and other industrial facilities or scrubbing it from the atmosphere. At least 19 large-scale projects worldwide are working to capture CO2 from smokestacks at coal or natural gas plants; such a system was created in 2017 at a Texas coal plant but shut down this May because it captured just 17 percent of emissions, not the targeted 33 percent. The more ambitious plan for carbon capture involves installing pipes to suck carbon from the sky, then store it deep underground. Several companies have developed technology to do just that, but the process remains very expensive. Stripe, a startup company, enables companies and individuals to contribute money to fund carbon removal, as a means of getting the technology off the ground. "This is a hardware problem; it's an infrastructure problem; it's a science problem," Nan Ransohoff, the head of Stripe Climate, told The Atlantic. "It takes a long time to develop carbon removal. This is not Snapchat."
This article was first published in the latest issue of The Week magazine. If you want to read more like it, you can try six risk-free issues of the magazine here tinyurl.com/y6wbpcmh
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As Trump rages, his appointees are rushing to tie Biden's hands, burnish their own careers theweek.com/speedreads/953641/trump-rages-appointees-are-rushing-tie-bidens-hands-burnish-careers Our parents warned us the internet would break our brains. It broke theirs instead. theweek.com/articles/951759/parents-warned-internet-break-brains-broke-theirs-instead Jon Ossoff tweets emoji of a chicken after Perdue won't participate in debate theweek.com/speedreads/953624/jon-ossoff-tweets-emoji-chicken-after-perdue-wont-participate-debate
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Post by the Scribe on Dec 31, 2020 8:54:24 GMT
www.jmccanneyscience.com/ www.jmccanneyscience.com/BackupElectricGeneratorsSubPage.htm www.jmccanneyscience.com/SecWebOrderPg.htm
eV Car Truck Charging Stations The image above shows the patented trademarked 250 kW JMCC WING Generator powering an electric car charging station. We have a strategic partnership with the largest manufacturer of car charging stations in the USA. A single JMCC WING Generator can power up to 40 standard eV charging ports or 5 Rapid charge ports. Listen to the following facts. • youth under 10 years old will never drive a gasoline auto • California trucks will be electric by the year 2024 • Every major auto maker is moving to electric autos and trucks • Standards have emerged for car truck tractor charging stations • With “rapid charge” a car can be fully charged in 20 minutes • Electric car charging lounges will service waiting customers • Electric car charging stations will be common place everywhere • AND MOST IMPORTANTLY … Central Power Companies cannot expand to provide the doubling of electricity demand coming with the advent of electric transportation FAQs “What if the wind is not blowing?” … The effort is to offset electricity from central power stations so over the course of a year 95% of the power comes from wind. “Why will 3 blade turbines not work?” … The JMCC WING Generator is far more efficient at extracting energy from the wind from low to high wind speeds and will also send excess energy back into the grid for credits when no customers are charging cars. “What about Solar Panels” … Solar panels only work a few hours of the day. Then you have to store the energy in huge expensive battery packs. Solar has never been a solution for large scale power. An equivalent solar panel installation to run the 250 kW eV charging station shown above would take over 6 acres of land. We are also marketing JMCC WING Generator models for Farm & Ranch charging stations. Email for a franchise/private quotation – world wide coverage jmccanney@usinternet.com
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Post by the Scribe on Feb 18, 2021 6:27:02 GMT
Why on earth would right-wing people with connections to the fossil fuel industry lie about ‘frozen wind turbines’ in Texas?www.independent.co.uk/voices/texas-frozen-wind-turbines-john-cornyn-b1803193.html
Disinformation has been circulating about the cold snap in Texas, fed by Republicans and publication ‘experts’ with convenient connections to gas and oil
Jamie Henn, Duncan Meisel Texas 11 hours ago 9 comments
Wild claims about wind turbines and the cold snap in Texas have been making their rounds on right-wing social media
(Getty)
The fossil fuel industry’s disinformation machine turned on before the lights even went out.
As a massive winter storm rolled towards Texas, it was accompanied by a barrage of lies about how renewable energy — and “frozen wind turbines” in particular — was to blame for potential blackouts. newrepublic.com/article/161386/conservatives-wind-turbines-killing-people-texas-blackouts
It began over the weekend, as posts about the blackouts began to pick up momentum on right-wing social media. One image that went viral showed a helicopter supposedly de-icing a wind turbine in Texas. A tweet with the photo from a fossil fuel publicist — because, really, who else? — has now been liked nearly 88,000 times.
As more and more right-wing accounts began to share the image, it soon jumped over into the political arena. Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn retweeted the picture on Monday. By Tuesday, Montana Republican Senator Steve Daines and conspiracy-minded Congresswoman Lauren Boebert were out with their own posts promoting the story. What do these politicians have in common? Boebert and Daines have both received extensive fossil fuel contributions, while Cornyn was the top recipient of oil and gas money in Congress over the last two years.
www.citizen.org/article/big-oils-capitol-hill-allies/ www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?Ind=E
In reality, the “frozen wind turbine” was a complete fabrication. The photo wasn’t actually taken in Texas, but in the Uljabuouda mountains in Arjeplog, Sweden in 2013. As Brian Kahn explained in a piece for Earther, the picture has for years been a favorite meme for far-right climate deniers to spread anytime there’s a cold snap. (None of the politicians who shared the image have yet to issue a correction).
By Monday, the “renewables caused the blackout” story was already gaining steam in right-wing media outlets. In nearly all those cases, the “experts” being cited by these outlets could be traced back to the fossil fuel industry.
By Tuesday, the disinformation had made another jump, this time to the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal. In a piece called “The Deep Green Freeze,” the editorial board wrote that “Power shortages show the folly of eliminating natural gas — and coal.” It concluded with the ominous warning, “The Biden administration’s plan to banish fossil fuels is a greater existential threat to Americans than climate change.” www.wsj.com/articles/a-deep-green-freeze-11613411002?mod=opinion_lead_pos1
That’s, of course, absurd, and our politicians and news outlets shouldn’t be parroting Big Oil’s talking points. What Texas is currently experiencing is the combined threat of the climate crisis and our over-reliance on fossil fuels. Moving towards a smart-grid powered with renewable energy won’t just cut our emissions, it will make our energy system more resilient and better able to handle the ongoing impacts of the climate crisis. www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/2019-10/Power-Failure-How-Climate-Change-Puts-Our-Electricity-at-Risk-and-What-We-Can-Do.pdf
The current crisis in Texas, and the way the fossil fuel industry and its backers have swooped in to take advantage of the situation in order to spread climate denial and anti-renewable energy talking points, is a perfect case study in how a disinformation machine operates.
Let’s be clear about what’s really going on in the Lone Star state right now. These temperatures are notthat unusual in the grand scheme of weather changes over decades. It may even be that the freezing temperatures are actually connected to global warming, with climate change leading to changes in the Arctic jet stream that allow freezing weather to escape the polar regions and break down south. www.nbcchicago.com/lx/you-can-thank-climate-change-for-extreme-weather-patterns-wreaking-havoc-in-texas-and-across-the-u-s/2439375/
It’s also important to note that this severe cold snap across Texas has frozen instruments at natural gas, coal, and nuclear facilities. www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-16/frozen-wind-farms-were-just-a-small-piece-of-texas-s-power-woes?sref=bRktjj9G
Along with the limited supplies of gas on hand, the situation has caused a lack of power supply, leading to some 30 to 35 gigawatts of total power outages across the state — almost all from non-functioning gas power plants. Sure, some wind turbines and solar facilities have also been affected, but all through Monday while gas plants were freezing, wind turbines and solar panels actually exceeded expected power delivery.
In short, the failure of fossil fuels is what’s causing the blackout.
It’s not enough to just to push back on the fossil fuel industry’s propaganda on a case-by-case basis (there are very few effective ways to combat a lie once it’s spread across the internet). We need to actually dismantle the industry’s disinformation machine — or at the very least, throw a few wrenches in the gears.
As the Texas example is showing us, we can’t wait to “fact-check” climate disinformation once it’s already spread. We need to be out in front, putting the truth on offense. Reality is on our side: from now on, let’s make the fossil fuel industry respond to us, not the other way around.
Jamie Henn is the director of Fossil Free Media and lives in Salt Lake City, UT. Duncan Meisel is the campaign director for Clean Creatives and lives in Austin, TX. Their joint Clean Creatives campaign aims to hold to account the PR and ad agencies that work with the fossil fuel industry
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Post by the Scribe on Feb 18, 2021 6:36:26 GMT
Wait until we get a similar but opposite effect in the Southwest and other parts with 125+ degree prolonged temps or night time lows over 90+. We are losing trees and 100 year old cactus because of the heat and the drought.Freak cold in Texas has scientists discussing whether climate change is to blamenews.yahoo.com/freak-cold-texas-scientists-discussing-201215265.html
FILE PHOTO: A man walks to his friend's home in a neighborhood without electricity as snow covers the BlackHawk neighborhood in Pflugerville Tom Balmforth Wed, February 17, 2021, 1:12 PM By Tom Balmforth
(Reuters) - The freak cold spell that has killed at least 21 Americans and shut down power for days in Texas has revived scientific discussion over whether climate change could be delivering this week's chill.
Scientists say global warming – specifically the rapid warming of the Arctic – is a possible, if not likely, culprit in the extreme weather.
Historically, frigid temperatures have typically been contained within the Arctic by a jet stream circling the polar region. In fact, along with the spinning of the planet, it's the contrast in temperatures and atmospheric pressures between the Arctic and lower latitudes that results in the winds.
But as the Arctic has warmed more than twice as fast as the global average over the last three decades, that contrast can be less pronounced, said Paul Beckwith, a climate system scientist in Ottawa. That could cause the polar jet stream to slow down and meander, so that it carries more warmer air toward the pole and frigid air further south, he said.
"What we're seeing this year is an extreme example of what happens when the jet stream trough goes really deep southward," Beckwith said.
"I think it's a rock-solid case," he said. But "it might take a bit of time for the science to catch up and find all the details" to prove it.
This polar vortex theory, first proposed in 2012, has some researchers like Beckwith worried about what future warming might mean for traditionally temperate lands further south.
Others caution that it's still too early to draw conclusions. The theory "remains speculative, and it is the reporting of it as fact that is not justified," climate scientist Geoffrey Vallis at the University of Exeter tweeted on Tuesday. "It may be true, but perhaps more likely not."
Cold weather is something to expect in winter, after all, and extreme cold could be a result of natural variability, some say.
However, scientists have found a strong correlation between extreme winter weather in 12 U.S. cities and warmer temperatures in the Arctic over the last 50 years, according to research published in 2018 in the Nature Communications journal.
The United States may not be the only country affected, either.
Temperatures fell to a bone-chilling minus 60 Celsius (minus 76 Fahrenheit) in Russia's Siberian region of Yakutia last month, according to the Roshydromet meteorological service. Much of Russian Siberian had one of its 15 coldest Januaries on record, it said.
Vladimir Semenov, a climate scientist at the Moscow-based Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics, said the recent cold spell in Russia could be another likely consequence of a wobbly jet stream.
While Semenov acknowledges there is still not enough data to establish a firm climate link in the pattern, he said research pointing to the theory of a "wavier" polar jet stream due to Arctic warming was compelling.
Computer simulations of climate and weather patterns have resulted in contradictory findings on the issue though, he said. "Thus, the uncertainty still remains."
(Reporting by Tom Balmforth in Moscow; editing by Katy Daigle and Lisa Shumaker)
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Post by the Scribe on Feb 18, 2021 6:43:32 GMT
Bill Gates: Texas Gov. is 'wrong' to blame wind turbines for outagesnews.yahoo.com/bill-gates-texas-gov-wrong-013218617.html Wed, February 17, 2021, 6:32 PM
Andrew Serwer
Bill Gates, author of ‘How to Avoid a Climate Disaster’, joins Yahoo Finance's Andy Serwer to discuss the freezing temperatures hitting the state of Texas.
Video Transcript
ANDY SERWER: Hello, everyone. I'm Andy Serwer. And welcome to a Yahoo Finance special, Climate Crisis. I'm joined now by Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, former CEO of Microsoft, and author of the new book, "How to Avoid a Climate Disaster." Bill, welcome.
BILL GATES: Yeah-- great to be with you.
ANDY SERWER: So I want to start off by asking you about the weather. And right now, the US is experiencing a massive, highly unusual deep freeze. Is this due to climate change, do you think?
BILL GATES: Well, these events become more likely because of climate change because the normal wind patterns are broken down. And so a cold front can go further south more often than we would expect. So yeah, the extreme events are coming more often and with more force, including hurricanes, than before we started warming the earth.
ANDY SERWER: This recent storm has caused massive power outages in Texas. And the state's governor, Greg Abbott, blamed frozen wind turbines and said it shows the Green New Deal would "be a deadly deal for the United States." How would you respond to that, Bill?
BILL GATES: Well, in terms of the current situation, you know, he's actually wrong. The wind turbines-- you can make sure they can deal with the cold. It probably wasn't anticipated for the wind turbines that far south. But, you know, the ones up in Iowa and North Dakota are-- do have the ability to not freeze up.
Actually, the main capacity that's gone out in Texas is not the wind. It's actually some of the natural gas plants that were also not ready for these super cord temperatures. So even though, you know, viewing this as an attack on renewable energies, in this case, is wrong, in fact, the point he's making, which is that as you rely more and more on wind and solar, that reliability will be a challenge and you need-- you'll need three things to maintain reliability while driving renewables over 80%--
One is more transmission. So we have an open source model. We're going to show that if Texas had had slightly more on a connection, they wouldn't have had a problem.
The second its energy storage-- still hard to store these amounts of energy. And finally, sources of energy that aren't weather-dependent, but are green, like nuclear-- and so those three will be an important part of the zero-emission electricity system.
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Post by the Scribe on Feb 18, 2021 6:45:37 GMT
CBS News Videos Bill Gates on drastic changes to avoid a climate disaster news.yahoo.com/bill-gates-drastic-changes-avoid-000411435.html Tue, February 16, 2021, 5:04 PM
Bill Gates Norah O'Donnell interviews Bill Gates about his determination to get the world to make drastic changes to save the planet from climate change.
Video Transcript
NORAH O'DONNELL: The overwhelming majority of scientists in the world agree there is a looming climate crisis. The rising temperature of the globe has been linked to more frequent severe storms, and that's why Bill Gates is now determined to get the world to take revolutionary change to save our warming planet. His new book is called "How To Avoid A Climate Disaster," and we spoke with him earlier about just how big the challenge is.
BILL GATES: Most things we do physically involve emitting greenhouse gases, and so the scale of the change-- it's bigger than anything humanity has done to date.
NORAH O'DONNELL: You write in the book, the loss of life and economic misery caused by this pandemic are on par with what will happen regularly if we do not eliminate the world's carbon emissions. You mean 500,000 Americans dead regularly if we don't deal with this climate disaster?
BILL GATES: That's right. You know, the death toll would be even worse near the equator. And the unrest, you know, would be global in nature. And sadly you couldn't just invent a vaccine, so you've got to start work now to avoid those terrible consequences much later.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Fossil fuels are cheap and I know you want to move towards eliminating them. What happens to the 2.8 million Americans that are working in the oil and gas industry?
BILL GATES: This is a 30 year transition, and there's lots of clean jobs that can be created in the same location, so total number of jobs will actually go up. There may be some places there's dislocation and so as we budget, we have to think about those affected communities as well as funding the innovation and deployment.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Let's turn now to the pandemic. Do we need to create a new vaccine for these Brazilian and South African variants?
BILL GATES: The discussion now is do we need to get a super high coverage of the current vaccines or do we need a third dose that's just the same? Or do we need to modify vaccine at all? Five of the companies are looking at making that modification and adding that in.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Do you mean that you would get a booster in addition to your first two shots?
BILL GATES: Yeah, that's still circulating. We might need something that takes this new shape of the spike protein and is more tuned to that, so you might need a third shot this year.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Bill Gates, such a pleasure to talk to you.
BILL GATES: Thank you.
NORAH O'DONNELL: And you can watch our full interview with Bill Gates on cbsnews.com/gates.
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Post by the Scribe on Feb 18, 2021 7:38:54 GMT
The Texas power grid failed mostly due to natural gas. Republicans are blaming wind turbines.news.yahoo.com/texas-power-grid-failed-mostly-065217364.html
Greg Abbott Peter Weber Tue, February 16, 2021, 11:52 PM
Greg Abbott
As Texas on Tuesday entered its third night with sub-freezing temperatures and 3.3 million customers without electricity, the operator of the state's unique power grid, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), urged Texans who still have electricity to turn off lights, unplug appliances, and turn down the thermostat. People without power took shelter elsewhere, if they could, or resorted to sometimes deadly means of generating heat. theweek.com/speedreads/967000/millions-texas-households-are-still-without-power-brutally-cold-winter-storm-what-went-wrong theweek.com/speedreads/967184/more-than-35-million-texans-remain-without-power--providers-say-could-last-through-night poweroutage.us/area/state/texas theweek.com/speedreads/967240/winter-storm-system-leaves-least-15-people-dead-texas-north-carolina-tennessee
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and state legislators called for investigations — and Abbott and other prominent GOP politicians wrongly blamed frozen wind turbines and other renewable energy sources for the failures of the Texas energy grid.
"Some turbines did in fact freeze — though Greenland and other northern outposts are able to keep theirs going through the winter," The Washington Post reports. "But wind accounts for just 10 percent of the power in Texas generated during the winter," and the losses tied to thermal plants mostly "relying on natural gas dwarfed the dent caused by frozen wind turbines by a factor of five or six." According to ERCOT, wind power generation is actually exceeding projections. www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/02/16/ercot-texas-electric-grid-failure/ www.ercot.com/content/cdr/html/CURRENT_DAYCOP_HSL.html www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-16/frozen-wind-farms-were-just-a-small-piece-of-texas-s-power-woes
One nuclear reactor and several coal-fired plants went offline, but "Texas is a gas state," Michael Webber, an energy resources professor at the University of Texas, told The Texas Tribune. And "gas is failing in the most spectacular fashion right now." Instruments and other components at gas-fired power plants iced over, and "by some estimates, nearly half of the state's natural gas production has screeched to a halt due to the extremely low temperatures," as electric pumps lost power and uninsulated pipelines and gas wells froze, the Tribune reports. www.texastribune.org/2021/02/16/natural-gas-power-storm/
After a 2011 winter storm knocked out power to about 3 million Texans, a federal report warned Texas the same grid debacle would happen again if it didn't adequately weatherize its power infrastructure and increase fuel reserves — and reminded Texas that "many of those same warnings were issued after similar blackouts 22 years earlier and had gone unheeded," The Associated Press reports. www.powermag.com/ferc-nerc-february-blackouts-in-the-southwest-could-have-been-avoided/ apnews.com/article/texas-power-outage-winter-energy-pride-c260c340f619688dd511cc6645b40a04
"Upgrades were made following the 2011 winter storm," The Texas Tribune notes, but "many Texas power generators have still not made all the investments necessary to prevent the sort of disruptions happening to the equipment." www.texastribune.org/2021/02/16/natural-gas-power-storm/
More stories from theweek.com Trump comes out of hiding theweek.com/articles/967082/trump-comes-hiding Texas governor walks back Fox News comments on Green New Deal, says gas, coal failed in Texas freeze theweek.com/speedreads/967540/texas-governor-walks-back-fox-news-comments-green-new-deal-says-gas-coal-failed-texas-freeze The populists' slipperiest lie theweek.com/articles/967099/populists-slipperiest-lie
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Post by the Scribe on Feb 18, 2021 7:42:07 GMT
The Daily Show solves Texas blackouts with 'America's most renewable resource: the insane hatred of AOC'theweek.com/speedreads/967551/daily-show-solves-texas-blackouts-americas-most-renewable-resource-insane-hatred-aoc 2:14 a.m. "A freak winter storm slammed into Texas, causing blackouts for millions of people," and after three days, things are "awful," Trevor Noah said on Wednesday's Daily Show. "I know people were praying for Texas to go blue, but not like this. I mean is it too much to ask for just one apocalypse at a time?" All over Texas, "pipes are frozen, temperatures are below zero, ice is everywhere — forget Texans, this would be too much for Elsa," he joked.
Texans are struggling to get heat, water, and food, but "luckily for them, their leaders have stepped up in their time of need" — to blame windmills and Democrats, Noah said. Look, this is embarrassing for Texas Republicans, he said. "I mean, this is the state that prides itself on its oil and gas industry, and now that industry has failed spectacularly." But GOP state leaders and their cable news allies are getting "so desperate to just let fossil fuels off the hook" they're blaming Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and the nonexistent Green New Deal, he added, and that "is f---ing insane." theweek.com/speedreads/967254/texas-power-grid-failed-mostly-due-natural-gas-republicans-are-blaming-wind-turbines theweek.com/speedreads/967540/texas-governor-walks-back-fox-news-comments-green-new-deal-says-gas-coal-failed-texas-freeze
"This just goes to show you, no matter what happens, no matter how far removed she is from the problem, conservatives can and will always find a way to blame the boogeyman, AOC," Noah said. That's clearly "disingenuous, but the good news is it's led to an amazing breakthrough that might just solve Texas' energy problems forever." That breakthrough, unveiled in a fake ad, "draws power from America's most renewable resource: the insane hatred of AOC."
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) "has been working hard to somehow push the blame to Democrats and the Green New Deal, which doesn't even exist yet," Jimmy Kimmel said on Kimmel Live. "And Tucker Carlson is helping him out by blaming it on windmills," an accusation so wrong "even the expert Tucker dragged on the show to talk smack about windmills wasn't willing to get into it."
Meanwhile, President Biden told a CNN town hall "he's tired of talking about Donald Trump and referred to Donald Trump as 'the former guy' — which I love, because he will hate that," Kimmel said. "Joe knows that the way to deflate Trump is to ignore him, but it's hard, he's like a 2-year-old — you worry that if you take your eyes off him for a minute, he'll flush your keys down the toilet." Peter Weber Texas governor walks back Fox News comments on Green New Deal, says gas, coal failed in Texas freezetheweek.com/speedreads/967540/texas-governor-walks-back-fox-news-comments-green-new-deal-says-gas-coal-failed-texas-freeze 12:24 a.m.
While millions of Texans were without power in below-freezing temperatures Tuesday night, Texas. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) went on Fox News and told Sean Hannity that the failure of the state's power grid "shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America." Abbott said "our wind and our solar got shut down," which "thrust Texas into a situation where it was lacking power in a statewide basis." The main culprit for the Texas power outages is failures in the natural gas sector, though, so on Wednesday, Abbott walked back his comments.
"I was asked a question on one TV show about renewable, and I responded to that question," Abbott said. "Every source of power that the state of Texas has has been compromised, whether it be renewable power such as wind or solar, but also, as I mentioned today, access to coal-generated power, access to gas-generated power, also have been compromised."
For all of 2020, 40 percent of Texas energy came from natural gas–fired plants, 23 percent from wind turbines, 18 percent from coal, and 11 percent from nuclear power, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which manages the Texas power grid. But in the winter, only about 7 percent of ERCOT's capacity was projected to come from wind sources.
"Texas is still fossil-fueled," and it's obviously silly to suggest "the Republicans who run the state had accidentally adopted a Green New Deal that eliminated fossil fuels and destroyed the reliability of the grid," Michael Grunwald writes at Politico. "The real problem in Texas is the freaky weather, and unfortunately, climate change is delivering a lot more freaky weather" — a phenomenon Texas Tech climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe calls "global weirding."
Abbott, in explaining the Texas grid failures, pleaded Wednesday that "this is a once-in-every-120-year cold front that we have to respond to." But "today, only a fool expects a hundred-year drought or flood or snowfall event to happen once every hundred years," Grunwald said, and Texas — and America — need to prepare accordingly. Peter Weber
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Post by the Scribe on Feb 19, 2021 15:24:34 GMT
Reuters Texas weather crisis deepens Chinese belief they're 'on right path', says foreign ministrywww.yahoo.com/news/texas-weather-crisis-deepens-chinese-111205544.html Fri, February 19, 2021, 4:12 AM
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's foreign ministry said on Friday that seeing the plight of Americans suffering in a severe winter storm that hit the state of Texas this week reinforced a belief among Chinese citizens that their country is "on the right path".
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying made the comments in response to a question from a state media journalist on calls by western countries for an investigation into alleged human rights abuses in its western Xinjiang region.
During her lengthy response, made at a regular ministry news conference, Hua repeated China's denials of abuse of Muslims in the region, and said that Australia, Canada and the United States had histories of genocide.
But she also contrasted the vulnerability of many Texans with the festive experience of Chinese during the recently-completed Lunar New Year holiday. State and social media in Communist Party-led China frequently draw attention to crises in the United States and other western countries.
"Not to be wanting of food or clothing, not to be hungry or cold, this is the fundamental human right that is the most real," she said.
"In the meantime in Texas ... millions of people found themselves caught in the terrible situation of not having electricity and heating at home, a few tens of people even lost their lives because of this," she said.
"This gave the Chinese people a deeper appreciation for what is the real human right, and made us believe more strongly that China is on the right path. We are fully confident about our future," she said.
The bitter cold spell in the United States has killed at least 21 people in Texas and knocked out power to more than four million people in the state, with more than 13 million Texans seeing interruptions in their water services.
Since U.S.-China relations worsened during the previous administration of Donald Trump, many Chinese diplomats have taken to social media with an aggressively nationalistic posture known as "Wolf Warrior" diplomacy.
(Reporting by Yew Lun Tian and Tony Munroe; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
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Post by the Scribe on Mar 1, 2021 18:59:52 GMT
It is beyond my thinking that CONservatives don't understand or won't understand that man made global warming creates bizarre weather patterns all around the world and not just "turning up the heat" events.
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Post by the Scribe on Mar 3, 2021 9:02:12 GMT
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 6, 2021 8:07:44 GMT
Chasing Ice
Chasing Ice Trailer (2012) - Sundance Film Festival Movie HD
"CHASING ICE" captures largest glacier calving ever filmed - OFFICIAL VIDEO
Chasing Ice courtesy of James Balog
How Earth Would Look If All The Ice Melted
Science Insider 1.65M subscribers
We learned last year that many of the effects of climate change are irreversible. Sea levels have been rising at a greater rate year after year, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates they could rise by another meter or more by the end of this century.
As National Geographic showed us in 2013, sea levels would rise by 216 feet if all the land ice on the planet were to melt. This would dramatically reshape the continents and drown many of the world's major cities.
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 6, 2021 8:13:41 GMT
The Dimming, Full Length Climate Engineering Documentarywww.geoengineeringwatch.org/the-dimming-full-length-climate-engineering-documentary/ March 10, 2021 79 Comments
Dane Wigington www.facebook.com/dane.wigington.geoengineeringwatch.org GeoengineeringWatch.org geoengineeringwatch.org/
GeoeongineeringWatch.org is pleased to announce the release of our groundbreaking documentary that conclusively exposes the existence of global weather intervention operations.
Global weather engineering operations are a reality. Atmospheric particle testing conducted by GeoengineeringWatch.org has now proven that the lingering, spreading jet aircraft trails, so commonly visible in our skies, are not just condensation as we have officially been told. Who is responsible for carrying out these programs? What will the consequences be if geoengineering / solar radiation management operations are allowed? THE DIMMING documentary will provide answers to these questions and many more. This is the most complete GeoengineeringWatch.org documentary regarding climate engineering operations. Thank you for viewing and for notifying others of The Dimming film release.
All are needed in the critical battle to wake populations to what is coming, we must make every day count. Share credible data from a credible source, make your voice heard. Awareness raising efforts can be carried out from your own home computer. DW
For those that wish to acquire a DVD of The Dimming, they will be available as a free addition to our GeoengineeringWatch.org awareness materials packages, but ONLY WITH ORDERS PLACED ON OR AFTER May 1st, 2021.
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Post by the Scribe on Jun 7, 2021 10:02:47 GMT
WHAT REALLY CAUSES GLOBAL WARMING? GREENHOUSE GASES OR OZONE DEPLETION? whyclimatechanges.com/ Listen up about climate change if you can bear it. I have some good news …
Peter L. Ward 316 subscribers A revolution in the physics of heat shows that greenhouse gases cannot cause global warming. The warming predicted by computer models cannot physically happen, because heat does not flow in ways assumed in physics for more than two centuries. Greenhouse-warming theory is turning out to be the most expensive mistake ever made in science. We can burn fossil fuels safely, provided we minimize air pollution, which is killing 4.2 million people each year. We do not need to waste money on greenhouse -gases. We know how to minimize air pollution. We just need to work together to make earth safer for all generations.
Credits Created and produced by Dr. Peter Langdon Ward, Edited by Marni Walsh Photos: Dr. Peter Langdon Ward (1, 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7), MotherJones.com (6), Caters News (9) Alamy Stock Photos by Russell Millner (3), Design Pics Inc (5), David Robertson (7), blickwinkel (8), and Francois Roux (8) Music: Sound of the trumpet – Sound effect: YouTu.be/EehCxlrAL8A Celebration Fanfare: An Overture for Symphonic Band by Steven Reineke, 2008. Performed by the Armed Forces School of Music Summer Concert 2012 YouTu.be/VjqXj7PZ-w8 World Health Statistics: WHO.int/airpollution/en/
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Post by the Scribe on Jun 26, 2021 15:53:26 GMT
Even TODAY CONservatives, RepubliCONS and the RIGHT are denying global warming and climate change. They are NOT supporting Biden's urgent calls for funding and regulations to curb this disaster. If these conservatives don't kill everyone because of their pandemic superspreader status their ignorance of the climate crisis will probably end life on Earth as we know it. Conservatism is a menace, a disease and they should not be allowed in power. They are the minority yet wield majority status because of the grave mistake our founding fathers made when creating our government. By the way, it is a government the CONs hate and preach their contempt and hatred for it on a daily basis.All-time record triple digit heat forecast for many people that don't have A/Cwww.cnn.com/2021/06/24/weather/heat-wave-oregon-washington-idaho/index.html By Pedram Javaheri and Hannah Gard, CNN
Updated 7:11 PM ET, Thu June 24, 2021 What NOT to do in a heat wave NOW PLAYING What NOT to do in a heat wave CNN
What NOT to do in a heat wave 01:14 (CNN)An extraordinary heat wave is taking shape this weekend, potentially unlike any other the Northwest US has experienced.
As temperatures surge into the triple digits, Seattle could feel more like Las Vegas, while Portland could experience Phoenix-level warmth in an area where having air conditioning isn't always the norm. Dozens of heat records -- including some all-time records set decades ago -- are forecast to fall in Oregon, Washington and Idaho, all in the first week of summer.
"Usually, the hottest time of the year [in Washington] lags a month after the solstice," Rocco Pelatti, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Spokane, told CNN Weather. "July is usually the hottest month; sometimes, it bleeds into August. To have June start out like it has is very concerning." The heat will rise toward uncharted territory in Seattle and Portland. By late weekend, high temperatures could be 25 to 30 degrees above what's normal for this time of year.
Seattle's average high in late June is 72 degrees, while Portland typically enjoys 75-degree afternoons this time of year. Forecast models suggest high temperatures could be near or above 100 degrees for the two cities from Saturday through Monday.
Seattle has maintained weather observations since 1894. During that time, the city has eclipsed the 100-degree mark on only three occasions. It's forecast to hit 100 three days this weekend alone.
The mercury in Seattle rarely climbs above 90 degrees. As a result, the hottest June temperature ever observed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport -- 96 degrees in 2017 -- will also be in jeopardy this weekend.
In a heat dome, high pressure acts as a lid on the atmosphere and as hot air tries to escape, the lid forces it back down, warming even more as it sinks.
Much like the Southwest heat wave last week, a massive ridge of high pressure -- colloquially referred to as a heat dome -- will be responsible for the torrid heat. But unlike the Southwest, millions of people in the Northwest do not have air conditioning in their homes.
"In this area, not many people have A/C, so we don't have the relief that we can get in other places that get this hot," said Mary Butwin, a meteorologist for NWS Seattle.
Least air-conditioned city in the US
The heat could be lethal in Seattle and Portland, which rank first and third respectively for major US cities with the fewest air-conditioned households. A US Census Bureau study in 2015 found that only 33% of Seattle-area homes were air conditioned.
Since most homes in western WA don't have central AC, here are a few tips on how to keep your home cool this coming weekend. #wawx pic.twitter.com/ILcoCn1mBh
— NWS Seattle (@nwsseattle) June 23, 2021
The lack of A/C in Seattle -- a city known for its tepid summers -- has not historically been a problem. Between 1971 and 2000, the city averaged only three 90-degree days each summer. However, from 2015-2018, the average number of 90-degree days increased to 10 each summer.
Not surprisingly, the US Census Bureau updated its findings in 2019, revealing that A/C adoption in Seattle had risen to 44%, an 11% increase in A/C units installed since just 2015.
Nighttime 'lows' more dangerous than highs
Nighttime 'lows' more dangerous than highs 01:07
"What makes this heat wave unique from others we've had in the area is the lack of a marine influence in the overnight hours," said Samantha Borth, a meteorologist at NWS Seattle.
With its proximity to Puget Sound and the Pacific Ocean, overnight temperatures can fall into the 50s, even on the hottest summer days.
Since records began at Sea-Tac airport in 1945, there was only one night that failed to drop below 70 degrees: the morning of an infamous 103-degree afternoon in July 2009. Come Sunday and Monday, the record books could include two additional 70-degree mornings, making for an unbearable weekend for the households without A/C. All-time records in jeopardy
An even more oppressive heat wave is looming in Portland.
The hottest June temperature ever felt in the city was 102 degrees on June 26, 2006. The all-time maximum temperature the city has endured was a notch higher at 107 degrees (August 1981 and July 1964).
From Saturday to Monday, forecasts are pointing to high temperatures in the range of 100 to 110 degrees in Portland, likely breaking the all-time June mark and threatening the overall maximum temperature on the first full weekend of summer.
Temperatures across the West are expected to be well above normal this weekend, indicated by the yellow, orange and red colors. The blue colors show where areas may experience below normal temperatures on Saturday.
"With all three days, we would be breaking the June highest temperature record, and if we do reach the 107, we would be tying the all-time warmest day ever recorded in Portland," said Lisa Kriederman, a meteorologist at NWS Portland.
As the massive dome of high pressure strengthens, the air will compress and heat up, like the warmth felt on a bike pump while pumping a tire. That, combined with dry winds from the deserts of eastern Washington and Oregon, will potentially send the mercury to near all-time records in both states.
In Spokane, temperatures are likely to top 100 degrees well into next week.
"We haven't seen anything like this in a while," Pelatti says. "For the Spokane area, we are forecasting 108 for Monday and Tuesday. Even after Tuesday, it still looks like it will stay hot, with temperatures in the 100s."
The last time Spokane had a consecutive number of days over 100 was in 1928.
"Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, we have temperatures exceeding 100 degrees," Pelatti says. "Guidance suggests that the temperatures still stay above 100 after Tuesday for a number of days, so it could possibly exceed six."
Similar to Washington and Oregon, Idaho will see blistering record heat well into next week.
"Right now, we're looking at 105 to 110 in snake basin of Idaho and the Treasure Valley," said Korri Anderson, a meteorologist with NWS Boise. "We could be breaking all-time records in Boise on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week."
The all-time record at Boise is 111 and Ontario is 113, Anderson adds. "So we could be flirting with those next week."
An excessive heat warning has been issued for more than 11 million people in parts of Washington, Oregon and Idaho. In the Columbia Basin, the region's typical hot spot, the high temperature forecast is between 110-112 degrees this weekend.
These temperatures would be within striking distance of state records for Oregon (117 in July 1939) and Washington (118 in August 1961).
Extreme heat to become the norm in the Northwest
Parts of the Northwest could see the average number of 105-degree days increase from 0 to 2 in as little as 15 years, according to a recent study.
Without any intervention, that number would increase to an average of five days by late century, while 90-degree days would increase from roughly six days to 37 days each year in that same period.
"We always have a chance of extreme heat, particularly in the summer," Katharine Hayhoe, the chief scientist for the Nature Conservancy, previously told CNN. "But as the world warms, we see that summer heatwaves are coming earlier, lasting longer, and are becoming hotter and more intense."
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