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2012 – USA’s hottest year on record?

US on course to notch record year of heat SMH, October 19, 2012 After a hot spring and a scorching summer, this winter is likely to continue a US warming trend that could make 2012 the hottest year since modern record-keeping began, US weather experts said Thursday.
Drought that ravaged much of the United States this year may spread in the coming months, said Mike Halpert at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center.
“The large majority of that drought we expect to persist,” Halpert said. “We even see drought expanding westward … into Montana, Idaho and part of Oregon and Washington.”
Dryer-than-usual winter weather is expected in much of the Pacific Northwest, with higher-than-normal precipitation predicted for the Gulf Coast, according to NOAA forecasts……There is enough data to predict a warm winter overall, said Deke Arndt, chief of climate monitoring at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center.

The first nine months of 2012 were the warmest of any year on record in the contiguous United States, and this has been the third-hottest summer since record-keeping began.

“The main issues facing the US going into this (winter) outlook period stem from persistent heat and drought,” Arndt said at a telephone briefing. “It is likely that 2012 will be the warmest of the 118-year record for the contiguous United States.” http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/us-on-course-to-notch-record-year-of-heat-20121019-27uyc.html#ixzz29t6FaiSX

October 20, 2012 Posted by | climate change, USA | Leave a comment

Rapid melting of ice in the Antarctic

parts of the Antarctic ice caps were melting at unprecedented rates.

“The role of scientists is not to be alarmists, and not to downplay the data, but simply to report it.”

Antarctic climate facing ‘rapid’ changes: chief scientist, The Age,  October 16, 2012 -Australia’s chief Antarctic scientist says claims by climate experts about environmental changes in the southern continent are not alarmist.
The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) told a Senate estimates hearing today “rapid changes” taking place across the icy land mass would have significant impact on global climate.
Changes in ocean flows and shifts in Antarctic ice cap levels were occurring at rates faster than at any other time in history, chief scientist Nick Gales said. ”That’s the part that is the most dramatic about the information we’re receiving,” he told the hearing. Continue reading →

October 17, 2012 Posted by | climate change, oceans | Leave a comment

Nuclear power plants can’t cope with increasing heat, with climate change

Climate change Millstone shutdown is a sign of broader power problem caused by climate change CT Mirror, September 24, 2012 By Jan Ellen Spiegel Waterford — Last month’s unprecedented 12-day shutdown of part of the Millstone Nuclear Power Station sent a shudder through the nuclear energy world.

Caused when the seawater used to cool the plant’s generating Unit 2 became too warm, it was the first time any U.S. nuclear plant was shut down because of intake water temperature problems.

Nuclear energy officials were concerned, but “I don’t know if we would say ‘surprised,'” said Richard MacManus, Millstone’s director of nuclear safety and licensing. He spoke as he stood alongside Niantic Bay, taking in the panoramic view of the massive Millstone facility and Long Island Sound, its source of water.

The shutdown capped a season of power reductions and other difficulties at several of the nation’s power plants — including non-nuclear ones — caused when summer heat and drought compromised the vast amounts of water needed to cool them. It has also set in motion a cascade of other potentially debilitating effects, all of which point to the likelihood that climate change has placed part of the U.S. power grid at risk.

Curiously, the industry and its watchers had seen it coming — for decades……… http://www.ctmirror.org/story/17512/millstone-shutdown-sign-broader-water-power-conflicts-climate-change

 

October 1, 2012 Posted by | climate change, USA | 1 Comment

Global warming causing rapid decline in Arctic sea ice

Norwegian Arctic Summers Warmest in 1,800 Years
Summer temperatures on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard in the High Arctic are now higher than during any time over the last 1,800 years, including a period of higher temperatures in the northern hemisphere known as the Medieval Warm Period, according to a new study. In an analysis of algae buried in deep lake sediments, a team of scientists calculated that summer temperatures in Svalbard since 1987 have been 2 to 2.5 degrees Celsius (3.6 to 4.5 degrees F) warmer than during the Medieval Warm Period, which lasted from roughly 950 to 1250 AD. Scientists say this year’s record declines in Arctic sea ice extent and volume are powerful evidence that the giant cap of ice at the top of the planet is on a trajectory to largely disappear in summer within a decade or two, with profound global consequences. http://www.enn.com/wildlife/article/45024

October 1, 2012 Posted by | climate change, oceans | Leave a comment

Climate change brings storm, wave, threats to nuclear power plants

Millstone shutdown is a sign of broader power problem caused by climate change, CT Mirror, September 24, 2012, By Jan Ellen Spiegel “……As if warm water and lack of water haven’t produced enough hand-wringing at power plants this summer, scientists also are mindful that climate change includes sea level rise and increasingly violent storms. Millstone, literally at the water’s edge, has suffered storm-related power reductions over the years. MacManus said waves came over the seawall during Tropical Storm Irene, but water did not enter any buildings.

The NRC’s new chairwoman, Allison Macfarlane, has asked her staff to examine the effects of climate change on nuclear power plant operation.

But the industry bristles at the notion that it has ignored water issues. “It would be wrong to think that this is a sudden thing no one has ever thought about, no one has ever talked about,” said William Skaff, director of policy analysis at the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry’s policy organization.

But others like John Rogers, co-manager of the energy and water project for the Union of Concerned Scientists, saw the Millstone shutdown and other incidents as wake-up calls.

“It’s clear that past energy choices in numerous instances are colliding with available water resources,” he said. “What this summer did was really underscore the potential for collision. In a lot of cases power plants got the water they needed. What we don’t know is who didn’t get the water.” http://www.ctmirror.org/story/17512/millstone-shutdown-sign-broader-water-power-conflicts-climate-change

October 1, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, climate change | 1 Comment

Nuclear and coal power plants the victims of global warming

As the U.S. Warms, Power Plants Face New Water Limits Climate Central,By Andrew Freedman, 25 Sept The power sector is responsible for a large share — about 40 percent — of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., particularly thermoelectric-generating stations, such as coal-fired power plants. And so it is not without a hint of irony that a recent study concluded that the effects of global warming, particularly drought and heat waves, will increasingly limit the generating capacity of these power plants — thereby making them both contributors to and victims of global warming…

… In the U.S., power plant operators must comply with laws such as the Clean Water Act, as well as state regulations that prohibit nuclear and other plants from operating once water temperatures go above a certain threshold, Continue reading →

September 28, 2012 Posted by | climate change, USA | Leave a comment

Sea ice at record low – climate change nears crisis point

What the scientific community understands is that Arctic ice is melting at an accelerated rate — and that humans play a role in these changes.

includes VIDEO Arctic Sea Ice Levels Hit Record Low, Scientists Say We’re ‘Running Out Of Time’, HUFFINGTON POST  Joanna Zelman  James Gerken 
09/19/2012 As Arctic sea ice levels hit a new record low this month, scientists and activists gathered to discuss how to bridge the gap between scientific facts and the public’s limited understanding that we are, in their words, “really running out of time.”

The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)  released preliminary findings Wednesday suggesting that on Sept. 16, Arctic ice covered just 1.32 million square miles — the lowest extent ever recorded. This minimum is 49 percent below the 1979 average, when satellite records began. Continue reading →

September 21, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, climate change, oceans | Leave a comment

Heat pollution in river due to Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant

Demonstrators take to the water to protest against Vermont Yankee By JOSH STILTS Brattleboro  Reformer  09/17/2012 Marlboro residents Rose Watson and Laura Berkowitz share their boat with an unnamed protester during Saturday s Safe and Green flotilla.
More than 100 anti-nuclear activists gathered along the Connecticut River to tell the owners of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant to stop dumping the reactor s thermal discharge into the river.
VERNON — Dozens of protesters flocked to the Connecticut River Saturday afternoon to condemn the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant and its owner, Entergy, for the reactor’s thermal discharge…… State Rep. David Deen, D-Westminster addressed the crowd and spoke about his concerns and those of fellow members of the Connecticut River Watershed Council.
According to a recent report from several hydrologists, the river’s temperature exceeded Vermont Yankee’s permit limit 58 percent of the time between May and October of 2006 through 2010. One of the group’s major concerns is the affect that the increased water temperatures is having on fish that use the Connecticut as their spawning grounds. Continue reading →

September 19, 2012 Posted by | climate change, USA | Leave a comment

It will be very costly NOT to act on Climate Change

it is worth exploring the question, what would a world with >2°C global surface warming look like?

Global Warming Impacts

The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) summarizes the magnitudes of impact of various degrees of warming here, and graphically….

This is Why Reducing Emissions is Critical

Realistically What Might the Future Climate Look Like? Sceptical Science   31 August 2012 by dana1981Robert Watson, former Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),recently made headlines by declaring that it is unlikely we will be able to limit global warming to the 2°C ‘danger limit’.  This past April, the International Energy Agency similarly warnedthat we are rapidly running out of time to avoid blowing past 2°C global warming compared to late 19th Century temperatures.  The reason for their pessimism is illustrated in the ‘ski slopes’ graphic, which depicts how steep emissions cuts will have to be in order to give ourselves a good chance to stay below the 2°C target, given different peak emissions dates

Clearly our CO2 emissions have not yet peaked – in fact they increased by 1 billion tonnes between 2010 and 2011 despite a continued global economic recession; therefore, the green curve is no longer an option.  There has also been little progress toward an international climate accord to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which suggests that the blue curve does not represent a likely scenario either – in order to achieve peak emissions in 2015 we would have to take serious steps to reduce emissions today, which we are not.  The red curve seems the most likely, but the required cuts are so steep that it is unlikely we will be able to achieve them, which means we are indeed likely to surpass the 2°C target. Continue reading →

September 13, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, climate change | Leave a comment

Temperatures rise as atmospheric greenhouse gases heat up the ocean

if global warming of the past decades was due to El Niño or another mechanism involving heat from the ocean, the ocean would have lost heat. But the heat content has gone up, not down. And it is well understood why: because we created a radiation imbalance by adding greenhouse gases to our atmosphere.

The signal of global warming caused by humans is very clear, despite attempts by certain parties to drown it out with a lot of noise. 

If 2013 breaks heat record, how will deniers respond?, New Scientist, 03 September 2012 by Stefan Rahmstorf  With an El Niño on the way, 2013 could be the warmest year on record. But the climate-denial machine will keep on churning 

IT HAS been another “normal” global-warming summer in the northern hemisphere. The US sweltered in the hottest July on record, following thehottest spring on record. More than 60 per cent of the contiguous US is suffering from drought, as are parts of eastern Europe and India. In the Arctic, sea ice cover is at a record low and the Greenland ice sheet shows what theUS National Snow and Ice Data Center calls “extraordinary high melting”. Global land temperatures for May and June were the hottest since records began in the 19th century.
Meanwhile, El Niño conditions are forecast to develop in the tropical Pacific Ocean, warming up ocean surface temperatures. Some observers have predicted that this will lead to record-breaking global temperatures next year.

If El Niño does arrive and temperature records are broken, there will inevitably be much discussion of the causes of the warming. So now is a good time to sort signal from noise in the global temperature records. Continue reading →

September 4, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, climate change | Leave a comment

Climate Change Denial and Conspiracy Theories

Climate change deniers ‘are either extreme free marketeers or conspiracy theorists’ An Australian study says avid climate change deniers tend to be either extreme free marketeers or conspiracy theorists who believe the moon landing was faked or Princess Diana was murdered.Telegraph,   By Jonathan Pearlman in Sydney 28 Aug 2012 The study, to be published in the journal Psychological Science, also found that those who reject the scientific consensus on the human contribution to climate change are more likely to to reject other scientific findings such as the linkage between tobacco and lung cancer or between HIV and Aids.

The paper, titled “NASA faked the moon landing – Therefore (Climate) Science is a Hoax: An Anatomy of the Motivated Rejection of Science”, was based on a survey of more than 1000 visitors to blogs dedicated to discussion of climate change.

“We find that endorsement of a laissez-faire conception of free-market economics predicts rejection of climate science,” the paper says. “We additionally show that endorsement of a cluster of conspiracy theories (e.g., that the CIA killed Martin Luther King or that NASA faked the moon landing) predicts rejection of climate science as well as the rejection of other scientific findings.”

The paper says that a staunch belief in free markets was an overwhelmingly strong factor in the rejection of climate science and was a stronger factor than conspiratorial thinking.

It surveyed people on attitudes to a range of conspiracy theories, including that the United States allowed the September 11 attacks to occur and that SARS was produced in a laboratory as a biological weapon.

The lead researcher, Professor Stephan Lewandowsky, from the University of Western Australia, said conspiracy theories are the “antithesis to scientific thinking” and those who believe them are more likely to reject the scientific consensus that humans contribute to climate change.

“Science is about weeding out bad ideas,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “With conspiracy theories, you start out with a theory and stick to it no matter what the evidence. So it is not that surprising that conspiracy theorists would not accept scientific propositions … If the scientific evidence is overwhelming and you don’t like the conclusion, you have to find a way to reject those findings.”…. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/9503044/Climate-change-deniers-are-either-extreme-free-marketeers-or-conspiracy-theorists.html

September 4, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, climate change | 1 Comment

Climate Change is affecting nuclear power plants

How Climate Change May Affect Nuclear Power Plants http://theenergycollective.com/node/107461?utm_source=tec_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter    August 29, 2012 Many nuclear power plants rely heavily on access to nearby sources of cold water to keep the system cool. Many of these power plants were built several decades ago and some of them are not well prepared for the warmer weather we are now experiencing.

At a twin-unit nuclear power plant in Illinois , temperatures exceeded what is allowed with current regulations by four degrees Fahrenheit.

Craig Nesbit a spokesman for Exelon, which owns the plant, stated the following about the recent incident:

“I’m not a climatologist. But clearly the calculations when the plant was first operated in 1986 are not what is sufficient today, not all the time.”

The cooling pond consists of a 2,500-acre (10 square kilometer) lake. For a cooling system like this to function properly, the heat dumped into the pond eventually has to move somewhere else. The warmer the weather the more saturated the air becomes, which means less energy is transferred away from the cooling pond. In a typical situation, cooling ponds loose their heat during the night, but because the temperatures these days have stayed above 90 degrees, the plant`s cooling system has been compromised.

The permitted level that originally was 98 degrees has now been increased to 100 degrees in order keep the power plant up and running.

The safety argument “is likely solid and justified,’’ stated David Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists, but “it is tough to argue (rationally) that warming water conditions are unforeseen.’’ That is a predictable consequence of global warming, he said.

Drought and water shortages, also caused by the change in weather, could potentially become a problem for nuclear power plants in the near future as well. A nuclear power plant`s cooling could become less efficient by water-shortages in much the same it does with increasing temperatures. Georgia, Alabama and similar states have to be extra careful with this in the coming years.

September 1, 2012 Posted by | climate change, USA | Leave a comment

Human caused Climate Change is real – American Meteorological Society

American Meteorological Society confirms Climate Change and Man’s Role http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/44884 Gina-Marie Cheeseman,  August 31, 2012  Weathercasters in the U.S. not only tend to not ever mention climate change, but the majority of them do not even believe it is human-caused, as an article I recently wrote shows. However, that may change.
The American Meteorological Society (AMS) released an official position statement on climate change this week which not only said that it is occurring, but it is human-caused. What is so great about the statement by the AMS is that it includes so much information about climate change, including that there is scientific consensus. The AMS makes it clear that the statement is “based on the peer-reviewed scientific literature and is consistent with the vast weight of current scientific understanding.”
The statement details how the climate is changing, both in the U.S. and around the world. The changes listed include increases in globally averaged air and ocean temperatures, the widespread melting of snow and ice, and the rising of globally averaged sea level. As the statement puts it, “Warming of the climate system now is unequivocal, according to many different kinds of evidence.” That is not good news for the world’s population, but it is good news that the AMS is acknowledging that climate change is real and is occurring.

The statement goes in to detail about the effects of climate change, which include temperature increases. All of the 10 warmest years in the global temperature records up to 2011 have occurred since 1997, and 2005 and 2010 were the warmest years in more than a century of global records. Most of the observed warming in the U.S. has occurred in the West and in Alaska, but for the country as a whole there have been twice as many record daily high temperatures  compared to record daily low temperatures in the first decade of the 21st century. Read more at ENN Affiliate, TriplePundit.

September 1, 2012 Posted by | climate change, USA | 1 Comment

Nuclear power as a solution to Climate Change? not really possible or desirable

Realistically the world might build 100 or so new reactors over the coming decade or so – ..  Over this same period a similar number of existing reactors will reach the end of their lives and close, leading to a net growth rate close to zero.

Does the world need nuclear power to solve the climate crisis? Nuclear power looks expensive and repulsive compared to increasingly affordable renewable energy, argues Oliver Tickell, The Guardian, 20 Aug 12,  “…..this is the question: does the world need nuclear power for us to solve the climate crisis, as Monbiot claims? To borrow a second thought, this time from Margaret Thatcher, must we accept that there is no alternative?….. Continue reading →

August 24, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, climate change, Reference | Leave a comment

Climate change heat might mean the end of the nuclear industry

Extreme Heat, Drought Show Vulnerability of Nuclear Power Plants Reactor shutdown in Connecticut is latest sign that nuclear energy would face challenges from climate change. By Robert Krier, InsideClimate News, 15 Aug 12,  Will 2012 go down as the year that left the idea of nuclear energy expansion in the hot, dry dust?

Nuclear energy might be an important weapon in the battle against climate change, some scientists have argued, because it doesn’t emit greenhouse gases. But separate of all the other issues with nuclear, that big plus would be moot if the plants couldn’t operate, or became too inefficient, because of global warming. In June, InsideClimate News reported on the findings of Dennis Lettenmaier, a researcher at the University of Washington. His study found that nuclear and other power plants will see a 4 to 16 percent drop in production between 2031 and 2060 due to climate change-induced drought and heat.

The U.S. is getting plenty of both this year. Just Sunday, the Millstone nuclear plant in Waterford, Conn., had to shut down one of its two reactors because seawater was too warm to cool it. It was the first time in the plant’s 37-year history that the water pulled from the Long Island Sound was too warm to use.

So the question becomes, is the future already here?

Heat records have been falling by the thousands since spring, and on Aug. 9 theU.S. Drought Monitor map showed that 62.46 percent of the nation is under moderate to exceptional drought conditions. That’s down slightly from the peak of 63.86 percent last month, the highest percentage since the Drought Mitigation Center began producing the map in 2000. But the percentage of the country that is experiencing extreme to exceptional drought continued to rise and is now at 24.14 percent, almost a fourth of the country.

Much of the drought and unusual heat has been in areas that rely in part on nuclear plants: the upper Midwest, the Southeast and parts of New England.

When all of the nation’s 104 nuclear plants are fully operational, they supply about 20 percent of the energy generated in the United States. Those plants need water to operate, and in most cases, they need fresh water. There’s not a lot of fresh water to go around in much of the nation this summer, and that is putting nuclear energy to the test.

It’s also raising questions about how freshwater supplies should be managed in a world further taxed by climate change. Inevitably, there will be increased competition for water from a growing population, agriculture and the energy sector.

(Plants that use saltwater for cooling generally don’t have the same issues, because they never have a shortage of water. But the shutdown at Millstone shows they can still be vulnerable to heat waves.)

About 40 percent of the nation’s fresh water use goes toward energy generation, with nuclear energy considered a very water-intensive energy source….. http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20120815/nuclear-power-plants-energy-nrc-drought-weather-heat-water utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:%20solveclimate/blog%20(InsideClimate%20News

August 16, 2012 Posted by | climate change, USA | Leave a comment

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