Nuclear industry a greenhouse gas emitter
The nuclear industry’s oft-touted claims of a “nuclear renaissance” were never real, …. “Now that claim is absolutely dead unless governments want to foot the entire bill.
“Fukushima will have a bigger impact on the nuclear industry than Chernobyl,” …
The Nuclear Cost Shell Game, By Stephen Leahy, UXBRIDGE, Canada, May 6, 2011 (IPS)“…….The argument that nuclear power is needed to combat climate change is also incorrect. Mining uranium and processing ore into fuel and building nuclear facilities results in considerable carbon emissions. When the full life cycles are compared, the carbon emissions of nuclear on a per-kilowatt-of-power-generated basis exceeds that of wind and is about the same as solar, according to a 2008 study by the Centre for Integrated Sustainability Analysis at the University of Sydney, Australia. Continue reading
Rising sea levels threaten Britain’s nuclear power plants
‘Shrinking Britain’ will force land to be abandoned to the sea, Guardian UK, by Damain Carrington, 6 May 11, Coastal erosion and UK tsunamis are a cause of concern for vulnerable nuclear power stations, says leading geologist……..
The fact that tsunamis can happen in the UK, and the idea that Britain’s coast is shrinking, is certainly relevant to the debate over nuclear power and the disposal of long-lasting nuclear waste, in my opinion. Take a look at the map of British nuclear power sites: they are all on the coast.
“It is a cause for concern, some nuclear power stations are in vulnerable positions,” said Prof Rob Duck, at Dundee University, whose new book is called This Shrinking Land: Climate Change and Britain’s Coasts…
Shrinking Britain will force land to be abandoned to the sea | Damian Carrington | Environment | guardian.co.uk
As the Earth heats, nuclear power plants can’t cope
the problem is only getting worse as climate change triggers prolonged heat waves, ….hot river and lake temperatures have forced power plants worldwide to decrease generating capacity.
Heat Waves Putting Pressure on Nuclear Power’s Outmoded Cooling Technologies, REUTERS By Lisa Song at SolveClimate, May 4, 2011 The scramble to cool the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex with seawater in the aftermath of Japan’s disastrous accident put a spotlight on just how much cold water an atomic reactor needs to function — and not just in a crisis. Continue reading
Global warming resulting in faster sea level rise
Sea levels rising higher and faster, Sydney Morning Herald, Ben Cubby, May 5, 2011 SEA levels will rise higher and faster than the United Nations predicted just four years ago, a major international study has found.
The new data suggests that, on average, the seas will rise by up to 1.6 metres by the year 2100 – a finding that has serious implications for Australian governments grappling with coastal planning.
…… The rate is expected to accelerate as the world warms this century and the process will be compounded as more ice cover is lost. White ice fields reflect sunlight away from the Earth’s surface, whereas the darker oceans absorb more of the sun’s heat, amplifying global warming.
……: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/sea-levels-rising-higher-and-faster-20110504-1e8j7.html#ixzz1LVj077J2
Climate change and earthquakes
Earthquakes linked to climate change, The Age, 13 April 11, Long-term climate change could be responsible for moving the Earth’s tectonic plates.A team of scientists based in Australia, France and Germany has established a link between monsoons in India over the past 10 million years and the motion of the Indian plate.The scientists have found that, as monsoons in the area increased, the plate moved by almost one centimetre a year.
The researchers say it’s the first time climate change has been recognised as having the potential to influence the motion of tectonic plates.
“It is known that certain geologic events caused by plate motions have the ability to influence climate patterns over a period of a million years,” Dr Giampiero Iaffaldano from the Australian National University said in a statement. “Now we know that the opposite holds as well…… Earthquakes linked to climate change
As global temperatures rise, there will be expensive nuclear plant shutdowns
the prolonged spell of hot weather put the TVA at risk of violating environmental permits, with hefty fines as one consequence and potential harm to the Tennessee River ecosystem as another…..The total cost of the lost power over that time? More than $50 million dollars, all of which was paid for by TVA’s customers in Tennessee….. What happened last summer at Browns Ferry may be a sign of what people living in the Southeast can expect in the future. As average global temperatures rise,
Heatwaves cause problems for nuclear power plants | Climate Central, By Alyson Kenward, 11 April 11, On July 8, 2010, as the temperature in downtown Decatur, Alabama climbed to a sweltering 98°F, operators at the Browns Ferry nuclear power plant a few miles outside of town realized they had only one option to avoid violating their environmental permit: turn down the reactors. Continue reading
Nuclear plants affected by global warming
Heatwaves cause problems for nuclear power plants | Climate Central, By Alyson Kenward. 11 April 11, “……Extreme Heat Limits Nuclear Energy Production “……nuclear power has a paradoxical relationship with climate change. Even though it might help mitigate long-term global warming, nuclear power is already being challenged by rising temperatures and the increasing number of heat waves around the world. Throughout the last decade, several plants have had to reduce electricity production during heat waves, just when when electricity demand typically reaches peak levels.
“It’s a dilemma between mitigation of climate change, and adaptation to it,” says Natalie Kopytko, an energy policy doctoral student at the University of York in England. Having recently studied the ways in which climate change could have a negative impact on nuclear power, she says nuclear power is caught in the middle because it could be used to help lower greenhouse gas emissions, but global warming is making the technology less effective at providing electricity…Heatwaves cause problems for nuclear power plants | Climate Central
Australians ignorant about the existence of successful carbon pricing in Europe
there was an incorrect perception that Australia would be going it alone if it put a price on carbon.
Aussie carbon tax revolt ‘bizarre’: expert Sydney Morning Herald, March 8, 2011 A European Union climate expert has described Australian opposition to a carbon tax as bizarre, diplomatically pointing out Britain’s Conservatives were more co-operative in opposition. Continue reading
Global warming agents released in uranium enrichment
The radiative properties of CFCs make them a dangerous global warming agent — 1,500 times more potent than carbon dioxide, according to EPA figures. Ozone-depleting CFCs have been banned in the U.S. except in the processing of uranium ore.
As U.S. Moves Ahead with Nuclear Power, No Solution for Radioactive Waste, Solve Climate News, By Abby LubyMar 3, 2011.”…….Some observers have challenged the sector’s clean energy claims, however, especially when considering the entire nuclear fuel cycle and its impact on global warming. Continue reading
Even a ‘limited’ nuclear war would bring immediate global climate change
“A regional nuclear exchange of 100 15-kiloton weapons … would produce unprecedented low-ozone columns over populated areas in conjunction with the coldest surface temperatures experienced in the last 1,000 years, and would likely result in a global nuclear famine,”
Limited Nuclear War Could Deplete Ozone Layer, Increasing Radiation, NTI: Global Security Newswire , By Chris Schneidmiller, 25 Feb 2011, WASHINGTON — A nuclear conflict involving as few as 100 weapons could produce long-term damage to the ozone layer, enabling higher than “extreme” levels of ultraviolet radiation to reach the Earth’s surface, new research indicates (see GSN, March 16, 2010). Continue reading
New climate research results should jolt governments into action
The Canadian/Oxford research is highly politically significant, because it will help to strip away the “stonewall”, do-nothing tactics that various governments have used to excuse themselves from dealing seriously with climate change. The studies will have particular relevance in Australia, where extreme weather events are all too evident, and where token gestures by government are the order of the day as far as climate change is concerned.
Greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change, CPA – The Guardian, Peter Mac, 23 February 2011 In Australia the public’s attention has been firmly fixed on the havoc wrought by floods in the eastern states, cyclones in Queensland and the Northern Territory, and bushfires in Western Australia. However, extreme weather events are also occurring in many nations overseas.
Within the last few months the United States and much of Western Europe have been gripped by massive snowstorms, while hundreds of people have drowned in floods in Brazil and Pakistan.
Climate scientists have predicted for years that an increase in extreme weather events will result from a global increase in the emission of greenhouse gases, which change the wavelength of the sun’s rays entering the atmosphere, thereby preventing the reflection of the radiation back into space and boosting global temperatures. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, human industry has caused a major increase in the overall level of global emissions.
Although the “greenhouse effect” results in an overall rise in global temperatures, in certain parts of the world extremely cold winters are likely, because of changes in the flow of the world’s ocean currents. In other areas an increase in rainfall levels is likely because the warmer air can contain more moisture.
Two critical new studies
There is widespread agreement among the world’s scientists about the link between climate change and extreme weather events in general. Nevertheless, decisive action to deal with climate change has been frustrated by claims from polluting industries and climate “sceptics” that there is no single extreme weather event that can be linked to human-induced greenhouse gas emissions, rather than normal weather variations. However, two new studies, one from Oxford University and another from Canada, have now done just that.
Their reports were published together recently in the scientific journal Nature. The research team from the Climate Research Division of Environment Canada examined daily records of rainfall taken in 6,000 northern hemisphere weather stations between 1951 and 1999. They found that the intensity of extreme rains increased by seven percent, confirming the predictions of climate model simulations.
Team member Xuebin Zhang commented, “Our research provides the first scientific evidence that human-induced greenhouse gas increases have contributed to the observed intensification of heavy precipitation events over large parts of the northern hemisphere.”
The research team conducting the Oxford study calculated the difference between actual rainfall figures and those that would have been expected in the absence of human greenhouse gas emissions under the climate model simulations, with particular regard to the record-breaking floods that hit England and Wales in 2000.
Pardeep Pall, lead author of the Oxford study, reported: “We found that emissions substantially increased the odds of floods occurring in … the record wet autumn of 2000, with a likely increase in odds of a doubling or more.”
False trails
The Canadian/Oxford research is highly politically significant, because it will help to strip away the “stonewall”, do-nothing tactics that various governments have used to excuse themselves from dealing seriously with climate change. The studies will have particular relevance in Australia, where extreme weather events are all too evident, and where token gestures by government are the order of the day as far as climate change is concerned.
Never mind the environment: Climate Change is COSTING INVESTORS MONEY!
Investments Worth Trillions At Risk From Climate Change: Study – Planet Ark, 18 Feb 2011, Climate change could put trillions of investment dollars at risk over the next 20 years, a global study released on Wednesday said, calling for pension funds and other investors to overhaul how they allocate funds. Risks from more extreme weather, continued delay in climate policy by governments and uncertainty over the shape of a new global climate pact were major concerns, while renewable energy, agriculture and infrastructure could be opportunities. Continue reading
Floods, extreme weather, scientifically linked to human caused global warming
Blame human emissions for British floods – 16 February 2011 – New Scientist “……….This week, a study has shown that the devastating floods which damaged nearly 10,000 properties in England and Wales in 2000, and cost £1.3 billion in insurance losses, were made significantly more likely by climate change caused by humans.
It is the first study to quantitatively link a severe rainfall event and climate change. The team that carried out the work, led by Myles Allen of the University of Oxford, had earlier linked the 2003 European heatwave to climate change……
The study of the 2003 heatwave, which used similar methodology, found that greenhouse gases made the event two to four times more likely to happen…….A bigger collaboration between the British Met Office and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the US began last year, also with the aim of boosting our ability to link specific events to climate change…….Blame human emissions for British floods – environment – 16 February 2011 – New Scientist
USA Republicans broad attack to stop any action on Climate Change
a broad, coordinated pro-polluter legislative assault to weaken America’s clean air standards and block climate action. …..
Clean Energy Compromise Bill, New Bills Would Completely Block GHG Regulation Moves to Permanently Block Greenhouse Gas Regulations, Sustainable Business, 2 Feb 2011, “…….11 Republican senators, led by Senator John Barrasso (R-WY), introduced a bill Monday that would permanently block the Environmental Protection Agency and from regulating greenhouse gases without explicit approval by Congress. Continue reading
USA’s federal government has duty to address climate change
At the Crossroads: Floods, Fires and Another Teachable Moment, THE HUFFINGTON POST, William S. Becker, 3 Feb 2011, Like the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the extreme weather events occurring worldwide offer a teachable moment on the need to address climate change. Continue reading
1 This Month
PLEASE OPPOSE HR 8255 AND S.3639 – bills would accelerate satellite deployment, with no environmental review or safeguards – https://ncstd5li.quorum.us/campaign/169331/
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