Oceans and Climate Change

The New York Times has just published a fascinating article about a 4 year study of ocean pelagic small organisms, from viruses and bacteria, to crustaceans, jelly fish, and salps. Be sure to watch the slide show, it is truly AMAZING!!!
  
Scientists Sample the Ocean and Find Tiny Additions to the Tree of Life
“A lot of what we didn’t really ever see before in the ocean are predators and parasites, zombies and vampires that are floating through this incredible set of diversity, battling it out,” Dr. Palumbi said. “All these tiny little critters add up to something that is really a part of the way our planet operates.”

The Guardian, Keep it in the Ground, an appeal to Bill Gates

On this LINK, you will find a wonderful video from the people of the World, seeking help with minimizing the threats of climate change. The video speaks directly to Bill Gates, a person who has huge resources and a good heart, so hopefully he will respond by helping keep carbon fuels in the ground..... at least via one route of divesting investments in fossil fuel companies.

This Week at Interior... saving sagebrush lands out west

I really liked this week's short video. The Department of the Interior and Secretary Jewell seem to be doing a lot of good in many unpublicized ways.......like saving habitat for Sage Grouse, and protecting the rights of native Americans in our western states, including their rights to oil and gas reserves being extracted from their lands. Click HERE to view the short video.

Weather Extremes and Carbon Emissions....a Tighter Link

Yes the link between slowly rising global temperatures and weather extremes has been postulated by many scientists and concerned alike, now the scientific community is coming together to say, YES, this is a cause and effect happening due to our steadily increasing carbon emissions.

For more details, see the NY Times article: 
New Study Links Weather Extremes to Global Warming

45th Anniversary of Earth Day

Yes, the first Earth Day was 45 years ago. I wonder what happened to the early, very positive acceptance and impact Earth Day had??? Maybe making money and staying elected got in the way?

Link to above NASA photo and article.

Carbon Capture and Storage...CCS

I have always been skeptical of this approach to reducing carbon emissions, because it has to obey the laws of thermodynamics, and hence will be very expensive to carry out, even with unique carbon capture schemes. But if one gets right to the heart of doing it as efficiently as thermodynamically possible...well maybe it will be a viable solution for reducing carbon emissions, especially from coal fired power plants.

So here is a link to the best lead I have seen to achieve this:
ATMI-Brightblack

Large Scale Battery Storage of Electricity

This is a highly desirable approach to making solar and wind power generation key players in low carbon emissions power generation. When the sun sets, or when the wind does not blow, these two forms of power generation are of little or no value. But if the electricity generated when the sun shines, or the wind blows, could be stored and used later, then we have a means of consistent wind and solar power supply.

Large efficient batteries can achieve this, and some are being built for just such a purpose...... And still more efficient batteries are being developed. For details on what is in the works, read Gates, Pritzkers Take on Musk in $5 Billion Race for Battery Storage

Youths in Action to Minimize Climate Change...with recent Yale student action

When our youngest citizens get it right about climate change.....AND TAKE ACTION....
I think maybe our Earth...... and the Life on it....... might have a chance.

So from Forbes, an encouraging article titled: Why Teenagers Are Suing States Over Climate Change

UPDATE...........And from 350.org about Yale students tackling climate change:
"On April 9th, a group of 19 students with Fossil Free Yale were arrested for refusing to leave a university building."

And one more link you may not have caught from the previous link:
Fossil Free USA 

The Dutch are NOT going under...video links from today's class

1/3 of Holland, aka the Netherlands, is below sea level...and sea level is rising. So can their dikes continue to keep the water out? Even the Dutch say NO.

But the Dutch are a very creative people, as I know first hand working with them in Luxembourg , where at a DuPont plant we were making a spunbonded polypropylene geotextile fabric that the Dutch were using to stabilize their dikes.

So on to the links:
#1 which we saw today the TED presentation by  Koen Olthuis
#2 Koen Olthuis on NPR
#3 BBC video, where the Brits are learning from the Dutch  

My perspective?...There is hope....IF Politics do not get too much more in the way.

Me? I am doing the best I can for all of us, especially our children.

Prime Hook NWR and our last Oceans and Climate Change Class, 3/30/15

This short post confirms that the main topic for our last class will be a presentation about Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge coastal restoration plans, given by Al Rizzo, Project Leader, Coastal Delaware National Wildlife Refuge Complex. As I mentioned in our Mar 23 class, the plans, aka Draft Environmental Assessment, are available on-line. See my March 11, 2015 post, or just go directly to Building a Stronger Coast.

Above photo of Fowler Beach at Prime Hook, from Cape Gazette

Al has said his presentation will be 20 to 25 minutes. I have promised him unlimited time afterwards for questions and answers. If his presentation is convincing (which I am sure it will be), and questions are few, I will conclude our last class by presenting information on "Floating Cities"...a topic which, as an engineer, I find both fascinating and applicable to what the World faces.

 Above photo of 3 floating slum buildings from waterstudio.nl

New Washington Post article on Thermohaline Circulation (THC)

Maybe somebody out there is listening...this Washington Post Article was posted at 12:30 pm today...15 minutes after our class ended, and I had asked for updates on this topic.

It is a very concise and easy to read article, mostly based on new research by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, which I had referenced in last week's class.

In a nutshell, the THC did recently slow down, as we saw last week, then it has sped back up for a temporary period of time, and now it seems to be slowing down again. Accelerated melting of Greenland glaciers introducing lower density freshwater into the North Atlantic is the primary suspect for the present THC slowdown.

So please get updated on this situation, and read the above linked Washington Post article. As with most of their articles, it is clear, concise and well researched.

Me?, I am off to design a floating city for Lewes and nearby residents....more on that in our next and last class.