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link: http://youtu.be/mLfCKTOfO9o
From RFERL:
http://www.rferl.org/a/russia-activist-kulakova-arrested-protests-putin-khodorkovsky/28460491.html
“Russian Activist Jailed Over Letters Submitted To Putin
April 30, 2017 21:25 UTC, RFE/RL’s Tatar-Bashkir Service

A Russian opposition activist has been jailed for organizing a letter-writing campaign urging, in part, President Vladimir Putin not to run for a fourth term next year.

Authorities in Russia’s Tatarstan region say Darya Kulakova, 23, violated a law on public demonstrations and disobeyed police in connection with the public submission of letters to Putin’s regional reception office.

A court in Tatarstan’s capital, Kazan, on April 30 sentenced Kulakova to 10 days in jail for her role in the action, which was staged the previous day as protesters demonstrated against the government in several Russian cities.

Russia in recent years has tightened laws on protests and other public events in what critics call a concerted move to stamp out visible demonstrations of dissent. Authorities say the laws prevent…

Opinion:

¶ “New Mexico’s Largest Electricity Provider Proposes Going 100% Coal-Free” • The Public Service Company of New Mexico has issued a landmark finding. After a routine assessment of future power supply scenarios, the utility made a conclusion that was anything but routine: the best version of its future self was coal-free. [Union of Concerned Scientists]

San Juan generating station

World:

¶ The recent increase in oil prices has helped BP to record a healthy profit for the three months to March. The $1.4 billion (£1.1 billion) profit, on the replacement cost measure, compared with a $485 million loss a year earlier. Oil prices have been about 35% higher in the first three months of 2017 compared with a year earlier. [BBC]

¶ Researchers from West Coast Wave Initiative in partnership with the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions and the University of Victoria, have mapped the waves…

Greenland — a region vulnerable to the slings and arrows of human-forced climate change — appears set to experience both considerable warming and a significant melt spike this week.

Starting on Wednesday, May 3, a sprawling dome of high pressure is expected to begin to extend westward from the far North Atlantic and out over Iceland. As the high pressure dome builds to 1040 mb over the next couple of days, its clockwise flow will thrust abnormally warm and moist air northward out of the Atlantic. This air-mass is expected first to over-ride eastern Greenland, then run up into Baffin Bay, finally encompassing most of the island and its vast, receding glaciers.

(May 5, 2017 GFS model run as shown by Earth Nullschool is predicted to produce widespread above-freezing temperatures over the surface of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Such warming is expected to be accompanied by rainfall over a number…

Science and Technology:

¶ Climate change is a notoriously difficult concept to visualize, but a paper from the Geological Society of America makes climate science more accessible by showing the impact that warming has had on glaciers around the world. The paper aims to improve public awareness of our planet’s disappearing glaciers. [ScienceAlert]

Six years’ change – Columbia Glacier in 2009 and 2015
(Image: James Balog | Extreme Ice Survey)

World:

¶ In what is part of a growing trend, Europe is accelerating its shift away from coal and to more renewable alternatives. According to Bloomberg, companies all over Europe are closing or converting existing coal-burning generators. The fast-paced phase out is a practical and economical choice, as the cost of renewable energy continues to drop. [Futurism]

¶ Australia’s government announced that it will restrict energy exports to avert a looming natural gas shortage. Australian Prime…

This weekend, tens of thousands across the U.S. and around the world took part in a people’s march for climate action.

In the Nation’s Capital alone, it’s estimated that more than 200,000 took to the streets — doubling a projected attendance of 100,000. In a bit of dark irony, DC marchers faced scorching record heat in the low 90s. A late April day that felt more like a hotter than usual mid-July as the streets thundered with loud concern over a warming climate.

In storm-tossed Chicago, thousands braved wind and rain to make their own concerns heard. And in Oklahoma, the Capital of Tulsa echoed with the shouts of a doggedly determined group of climate marchers as the governor declared a state of emergency…