The history of Climate Change

[Lowell2]

another reason why political mandates have no place in actual science or engineering.
New Study: Large CO2 Emissions From Batteries Of Electric Cars | The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF) NEW STUDY: LARGE CO2 EMISSIONS FROM BATTERIES OF ELECTRIC CARS
Date: 12/06/17 Johan Kristensson, New Technology
Enormous hope rests on electric cars as the solution by the motor industry to climate change. However the batteries of electric cars are not environmentally friendly when manufactured. Several tonnes of carbon dioxide are being released, even before electric batteries leave the factory.

(original report. Not in English. a translator is available on the website. Transporter)

t to understand the importance of battery size here’s one example: Two standard electric cars on the market, Nissan Leaf and Tesla Model S, have batteries of approximately 30 kWh and 100 kWh respectively.

As soon as you buy the car, CO2 emissions of approximately 5.3 tonnes and 17.5 tonnes, respectively, have been released for batteries of these sizes. The numbers may be difficult to relate to. By way of comparison, a trip for a person returning from Stockholm to New York by air causes emissions of more than 600 kilograms of carbon dioxide, according to the UN organization ICAO’s calculation mode Another conclusion of the study is that about half of the emissions occur during the production of raw materials and half during the production of the battery in the factory. The mining itself accounts for only a small part of between 10-20 percent.


Mats-Ola Larsson, their colleague at IVL, has calculated how long you need to drive a petrol or diesel car before it has released as much carbon dioxide as an electric car battery. The result was 2.7 years for a battery of the same size as Nissan Leaf and 8.2 years for a battery of Tesla size, based on a series of assumptions.

 

[Lowell2]

Poor countries export power while millions go without - The ZimbabweanAt the end of May, Zimbabwe’s state monopoly, ZESA, reached a last-minute deal to continue importing electricity. ZESA owed $43m to South Africa and Mozambique and, with part-payment and terms agreed for clearing the debt, neither country turned off the flow.
South Africa is a continental giant, but one might ask why Mozambique is selling to anyone, given 80 per cent of her own people are not connected to the grid and, even in Maputo or Beira, supply is so unreliable that homes and shops have their own generators.
11.6.2017
12:15
by Own Correspondent
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FacebookTwitterEmailPrint Poor countries export power while millions go without
As Donald Trump pulls out of the Paris deal on climate change, questions are being asked about aid money to build solar plants in countries that export the electricity
At the end of May, Zimbabwe’s state monopoly, ZESA, reached a last-minute deal to continue importing electricity.

ZESA owed $43m to South Africa and Mozambique and, with part-payment and terms agreed for clearing the debt, neither country turned off the flow.

South Africa is a continental giant, but one might ask why Mozambique is selling to anyone, given 80 per cent of her own people are not connected to the grid and, even in Maputo or Beira, supply is so unreliable that homes and shops have their own generators.


But Mozambique, ranks among the world’s 20-largest exporters of electricity

Uganda is the biggest external supplier of power to Kenya, East Africa’s largest economy, while at home only one-in-five Ugandans have the lights on.

India: out of 1.2 billion Indians, an estimated 300 million (more than the SADC countries combined) are yet to be connected.

At the 2014 election, prime minister Narendra Modi promised to end this within his term, and with the next vote less than two years away, he’s been racing to make it happen.

The government has also rolled out a record number of solar plants with a pledge that, by 2022, three per cent of power will come from renewables. Last year the World Bank assigned more than $600m to the plan.

But connecting just a million homes needs an estimated 10 000 acres of solar panels and, in a country where land is scarce, this has become an issue.


with no sun at night, and the monsoon season when it rains for weeks, solar will provide less than one per cent of the country’s needs over the next five years. Instead, like South Africa and Zimbabwe, most of the power comes from coal.


Realistic, pragmatic analysis of what energy sources work best is better science than trying to assert that only the existing "green" sources should be used. it's not that solar or windmills aren't useful. It's that they have their own flaws and that they don't fit the needs of everyone everywhere. finding a way to use other more reliable sources (like coal and oil or water) while improving the pollution produced is a more realistic and reasonable way to ensure that the maximum benefit is obtained with the minimum pollution / wastage produced.

 

[Lowell2]

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170613111639.htm

plastics are one of the bigger pollution items so alternates are worth pursuing:
Some biodegradable plastics could in the future be made using sugar and carbon dioxide, replacing unsustainable plastics made from crude oil, following research by scientists from the Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technologies (CSCT) at the University of Bath.

Polycarbonate is used to make drinks bottles, lenses for glasses and in scratch-resistant coatings for phones, CDs and DVDs
Current manufacture processes for polycarbonate use BPA (banned from use in baby bottles) and highly toxic phosgene, used as a chemical weapon in World War One
Bath scientists have made alternative polycarbonates from sugars and carbon dioxide in a new process that also uses low pressures and room temperature, making it cheaper and safer to produce
This new type of polycarbonate can be biodegraded back into carbon dioxide and sugar using enzymes from soil bacteria
This new plastic is bio-compatible so could in the future be used for medical implants or as scaffolds for growing replacement organs for transplant

(baby bottles used to be made from GLASS. Glass is a silicate and is 100% natural and 100% "biodegradable" even if it doesn't biodegrade quickly. Glass in Nature | Corning Museum of Glass

 

[Lowell2]

Floodplain farm fields provide novel rearing habitat for Chinook salmon Floodplain farm fields provide novel rearing habitat for Chinook salmon
Jacob V. E. Katz , Carson Jeffres, J. Louise Conrad, Ted R. Sommer, Joshua Martinez, Steve Brumbaugh, Nicholas Corline, Peter B. Moyle
Published: June 7, 2017https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0177409
When inundated by floodwaters, river floodplains provide critical habitat for many species of fish and wildlife, but many river valleys have been extensively leveed and floodplain wetlands drained for flood control and agriculture. In the Central Valley of California, USA, where less than 5% of floodplain wetland habitats remain, a critical conservation question is how can farmland occupying the historical floodplains be better managed to improve benefits for native fish and wildlife. In this study fields on the Sacramento River floodplain were intentionally flooded after the autumn rice harvest to determine if they could provide shallow-water rearing habitat for Sacramento River fall-run Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha). Approximately 10,000 juvenile fish (ca. 48 mm, 1.1 g) were reared on two hectares for six weeks (Feb-March) between the fall harvest and spring planting. A subsample of the fish were uniquely tagged to allow tracking of individual growth rates (average 0.76 mm/day) which were among the highest recorded in fresh water in California. Zooplankton sampled from the water column of the fields were compared to fish stomach contents. The primary prey was zooplankton in the order Cladocera, commonly called water fleas. The compatibility, on the same farm fields, of summer crop production and native fish habitat during winter demonstrates that land management combining agriculture with conservation ecology may benefit recovery of native fish species, such as endangered Chinook salmon.

 

[Lowell2]

objections being raised to a "green" energy (hydroelectric) being employed in the Amazon:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170614133749.htm

Map depicting the Amazon's 19 sub-basins and the existing or under construction (green) and planned (yellow) hydroelectric dams.
Hundreds of built and proposed hydroelectric dams may significantly harm life in and around the Amazon by trapping the flow of rich nutrients and modifying the climate from Central America to the Gulf of Mexico. These findings, published in Nature, emerge from a multidisciplinary, international collaboration of researchers from 10 universities, led by scientists at The University of Texas at Austin.
While these hydroelectric dams have been justified for providing renewable energy and avoiding carbon emissions, little attention has been paid to the major disturbances dams present to the Amazon floodplains, rainforests, the northeast coast of South America and the regional climate, the researchers said


see also https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v546/n7658/full/nature22333.html

 

[Lowell2]

Georgia Institute of Technology
Summary:
Wildfires are major polluters. Their plumes are three times as dense with aerosol-forming fine particles as previously believed. For the first time, researchers have flown an orchestra of modern instruments through brutishly turbulent wildfire plumes to measure their emissions in real time. They have also exposed other never before measured toxins.

Methanol, benzene, ozone precursors and other noxious emissions collected from wildfire plumes may make it sound like an oil refinery went up in flames. That's not so far-fetched, as oil and other fossil fuels derive from ancient biomass.

People are exposed to harmful aerosols from industrial sources, too, but fires produce more aerosol per amount of fuel burned. "Cars and power plants with pollution controls burn things much more cleanly," Huey said.
see also Airborne measurements of western U.S. wildfire emissions: Comparison with prescribed burning and air quality implications - Liu - 2017 - Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres - Wiley Online Library
==and yet the entire ecosystem of California is evolved to take advantage and utilize natural wildfires.
http://www.fire.ca.gov/communications/downloads/fact_sheets/live_w_fire.pdf

Despite the apparent devastation after a wildland fire, fire is essential to the health of most ecosystems in California for several reasons. First, in chaparral and closed-cone conifer communities, the seeds need fire to germinate. Second, fires clear the forest of underbrush, leaving ash and opening the forest floor up to sunlight. The resulting grasses, herbs, and regenerated shrubs provide food for many wildlife species. Third, where the ground has a deep accumulation of fallen branches and dry litter, fires reduce this debris and supply nutrients to the soil. Periodic bums in an area help use up the fuel, which means that successive fire is less intense and less destructive than when fires are suppressed and plant debris accumulates Last, but not of least importance, when fire removes a thick stand of shrubs, the water supply is increased. With fewer plants absorbing water, streams are fuller, benefitting other types of plants and animals

(of course, there's also soil runnoff and slides into those waterways because there isn't any plantlife holding down the soil.

The two issues are conflicting -- which isn't because they are false. It's because in Nature, there are always tradeoffs and benefit here/ detriment there. this is why dealing with pollution and whatever effect humans have on climate is a tricky issue.
It's not as if doing thing A is unilaterally going to benefit everyone and everything. NOT doing A may be worse, but unless one really looks at the trade off issues as carefully and impartially as possible, one has the risk of "making things worse".

 

[Lowell2]

New Utah facility will be able to power a Bountiful-size city by digesting food waste, turning it into natural gas | The Salt Lake Tribune

New Utah facility will be able to power a Bountiful-size city by digesting food waste, turning it into natural gas

North Salt Lake • State and local officials broke ground for Utah's first food digester Thursday morning in a project aimed at reducing landfill waste and harnessing unused renewable energy.

The North Salt Lake facility, to be opened in late 2018, will deploy anaerobic digesters to grind and liquify food waste, then use water, heat and bacteria to convert it into methane gas to be used as natural gas and bio-solids to be converted into fertilizer.

Officials hope the digesters will save landfill space, reduce greenhouse emissions from buried organic garbage and give businesses an affordable alternative for disposing of their food waste.

the question being if they can effectively separate food waste from other waste so as to utilize this technology.

 

[Lowell2]

OCEAN COOLING RESUMES Ocean Cooling Resumes | The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF) and https://rclutz.wordpress.com/2017/06/13/ocean-cooling-resumes/
Date: 14/06/17 Ron Clutz, Science Matters
May Sea Surface Temperatures (SSTs) are now available, and we can see ocean cooling resuming after a short pause from the downward trajectory during the previous 12 months.

After an upward bump in April 2017 due to the Tropics and NH, the May SSTs show the average declining slightly. Note the Tropics recorded a rise, but not enough to offset declines in both hemispheres and globally. SH is now two months into a cooling phase. The present readings compare closely with April 2015, but currently with no indication of an El Nino event any time soon.

Note that higher temps in 2015 and 2016 were first of all due to a sharp rise in Tropical SST, beginning in March 2015, peaking in January 2016, and steadily declining back to its beginning level. Secondly, the Northern Hemisphere added two bumps on the shoulders of Tropical warming, with peaks in August of each year. Also, note that the global release of heat was not dramatic, due to the Southern Hemisphere offsetting the Northern one

 

[Lowell2]

Oldest commercial wind farm in Canada headed for scrapyard after 23 years | Calgary Herald

The oldest commercial wind power facility in Canada has been shut down and faces demolition after 23 years of transforming brisk southern Alberta breezes into electricity — and its owner says building a replacement depends on the next moves of the provincial NDP government.

TransAlta Corp. said Tuesday the blades on 57 turbines at its Cowley Ridge facility near Pincher Creek have already been halted and the towers are to be toppled and recycled for scrap metal this spring. The company inherited the now-obsolete facility, built between 1993 and 1994, as part of its $1.6-billion hostile takeover of Calgary-based Canadian Hydro Developers Inc. in 2009.

“TransAlta is very interested in repowering this site. Unfortunately, right now, it’s not economically feasible,” Wayne Oliver, operations supervisor for TransAlta’s wind operations in Pincher Creek and Fort Macleod, said in an interview.

“We’re anxiously waiting to see what incentives might come from our new government. . . . Alberta is an open market and the wholesale price when it’s windy is quite low, so there’s just not the return on investment in today’s situation. So, if there is an incentive, we’d jump all over that.

 

[Lowell2]

from 2004 Smog, Inversion Layers and the Los Angeles Basin Thanks to L.A.’s geography and topography, smog is nearly synonymous with our city’s name. Given that Los Angeles is located on a low lying coastal plain, surrounded by high mountains and deserts beyond, air circulation becomes limited by default.
from 2008 https://www.calstatela.edu/sites/default/files/dept/chem/08spring/463/air-pollution-in-la-basin.pdf
Pollutants in L.A. Air

Ozone
Carbon Monoxide
Nitrogen Oxides
Heavy Metals
Particulate Matter

PAHs (polyaromatic hydrocarbons)
Other things
from 1953 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00966665.1953.10467586
Although many cities daily vent many thousands of tons of impurities into the atmosphere, few are so limited as Los Angeles in ability to safely dispose of aerial waste. The natural weather and geography of the Los Angeles Basin are such that the capability of the air above it to renew itself was exceeded several years ago by the increased quantity of impurities resulting from the phenomenal growth of population and industrial activity in the area.

it is hemmed in on three sides by mountains that limit the lateral movement of the prevailing sea breeze and funnel it through a few passes. The total air movement averages about 120 miles a day, but, due to the regular changes in direction of the land and sea breezes, some of this movement results only in a shuttling of air masses back and forth across the Basin and is not effective in purging the contaminated air

Of equal importance is the presence of a warm air layer, known as the Pacific inversion, aloft over the California coastal areas. If this air mass drops to 3,000 feet or less—
as it does on 280 days of the year—it constitutes an effective lid over the Los Angles Basin.
Los Angeles smog almost invariably occurs under conditions of low relative humidity (60% or lower). The visible part is composed very largely of aqueous, or at least water soluble, droplets, and only to a minor extent of solid particulate matter. These droplets may persist because they contain dissolved inorganic salts, such as nitrates and sulfates, as well as organic compounds.

2017 'Very unhealthy' smog levels expected during heat wave, SoCal regulators warn - LA Times Air quality officials warned Thursday of “very unhealthy” smog levels in the coming days as a heat wave envelops Southern California and primes the region for a bout of unusually high and widespread pollution.

Levels of ozone — the lung-damaging gas in smog — are likely to reach “unhealthy to very unhealthy” levels in the Santa Clarita, San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys, Inland Empire and the San Bernardino and San Gabriel mountains, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District.


for all of that, it is getting better:

Contributions of background ozone (green bars) and local, human-produced emissions to ozone levels greater than 65 parts per billion (horizontal red dash ... (NASA).https://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/aura_update.html