Climate tweets for 9 May 2014

Plains States: Are This Week’s Brutal Heat and Drought Sign of Things to Come?: 
http://thkpr.gs/1odLFxF
[heat waves, water, farming, agriculture]

We can't count on plants to slow down global warming: @guardian 
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2014/may/09/cant-count-on-plants-slowing-global-warming
[science, CO2]

Can the Kochs Hold Back History?: @nytimes 
http://nyti.ms/RwhYtO 
[denial]

Fossil Fuels: The Tide is Turning: @daphnewysham @IPS_DC 
http://www.ips-dc.org/blog/fossil_fuels_the_tide_is_turning
[investing, divestment]

Somalia Government announces Drought Emergency: 
http://horseedmedia.net/news/2014/05/somalia-government-announces-drought-emergency/
[water, farming, agriculture, food, Africa]

Scientists look beyond alarming milestone in carbon dioxide levels:
http://phys.org/news/2014-05-scientists-alarming-milestone-carbon-dioxide.html 
[science]

RT ClimateNow ‏@ClimateNow:
Bloomberg: Climate Change Is Stuck in the Culture War 
http://bv.ms/1jadsHu  http://pic.twitter.com/33koYgP75T
[denial, science]

RT Tom Steyer ‏@TomSteyer:
Why aren't Republicans doing more to #ActOnClimate? @USAToday editorial asks the GOP: 
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/05/08/climate-change-republicans-gop-editorials-debates/8869045/
[denial]

RT WeatherTalk ‏@WeatherTalk:
@ClimateCentral As heard last night on WeatherTalk! U.S. temps up 1.5°F since 1895, 80% of the rise since 1980! 

Lloyd's calls on insurers to take climate-change risk into account: @guardian
http://gu.com/p/3p3v6/tw
[insurance]

Climate tweets for 28 April 2014

Will Alberta's Oilsands Become 'Stranded Assets'?: @TheTyee
http://thetyee.ca/News/2014/04/28/Oilsands-Stranded-Assets/
[oil, investing, divestment]

RT Chloe Maxmin ‏@chloemaxmin:
After fantastic @BillMoyersHQ divestment segment, @OphirBruck & I write about the student perspective! 
http://billmoyers.com/2014/04/28/students-rally-against-fossil-fuel-giants/ 
[investing, divestment, Harvard]

RT Jim Prall ‏@jimprall:
The @NCSE 2014 Friend of the Planet award deservedly goes to @MichaelEMann
http://ncse.com/climate-denial-creationism/kitzmiller-v-dover-team-climate-science-leaders-honored-by
[science, education, Michael Mann]

Drought takes toll at Kalbarri Natl Park: @thewest_com_au https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/23020471/drought-takes-toll-at-kalbarri/
[wildlife, Australia, trees]

Climate change, El Niño, cold winters, and California’s drought: @ArsTechnica
http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/04/climate-change-el-nino-cold-winters-and-californias-drought/ 
[science]

Scottish "Bog Squad" aims to save wildlife, fight global warming: @TheScotsman
http://www.scotsman.com/news/environment/bog-squad-on-mission-to-save-butterflies-1-3390228
[Scotland, butterflies]

Meeting to spotlight climate change impacts in WV Allegheny Highlands: @Kenwardjr
http://shar.es/TMPVd
[West Virginia]

Ground zero for future of oyster farming: @NorthBayNews http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20140426/business/140429633#.U11YreU-AH4.twitter [oceans, acidification, CO2, food]

Climate tweets for 10 April 2014

Under Student Pressure, @Harvard Pledges to Take Climate Change More Seriously: http://thkpr.gs/1ivhNFf 

[investing, divestment]

RT Fossil Free ‏@GoFossilFree:
Oh yes. This Saturday, Pitzer College (& trustee Robert Redford ) will make a *big* announcement. Watch it live: 

http://www.pitzer.edu/webcast/

[investing, divestment]

Thirsty West: California’s meager snowpack will exacerbate dangerous drought: @ericholthaus http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/04/thirsty_west_california_s_meager_snowpack_will_exacerbate_a_dangerous_drought.single.html

[water]

RT YEARS ‏@YEARSofLIVING:
Thanks for sharing! MT @BarackObama The real victims of climate change: people. Watch #YEARSProject 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rn2Cd3Dwwnk

[Years of Living Dangerously]

RT YEARS ‏@YEARSofLIVING:
.@LoftusBrooke @climatehawk1 @ClimateReality @CCACoalition @accrolaine We'll be tweeting/creating a Twitter storm @ 1pm ET Sunday as well!

[Years of Living Dangerously]

Brutally Dishonest Attacks On @SHO_Network Landmark Series On Climate Change http://thkpr.gs/1mYmluO 

[Years of Living Dangerously, Showtime]

.@IPCC issues official rebuttal to more David Rose/Daily Mail nonsense: http://www.skepticalscience.com/ipcc-rebuttal-april-6th-2014.html 

[journalism, science, denial]

One English Town’s Innovative Response to Sea Level Rise 

http://thkpr.gs/1mXEBEC

[flooding]

Carbon Dioxide Levels Just Hit Highest Point In 800,000 Years: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/04/09/3424704/carbon-dioxide-highest-level/ 

[science]

RT Andrew Dessler ‏@AndrewDessler:
Yale Forum gives my 6-min. video on "decisions under uncertainty" a shout out: http://www.yaleclimatemediaforum.org/2014/04/texas-ams-andy-dessler-on-decision-making-under-uncertainty/

RT Forecast The Facts ‏@ForecastFacts:
Desmond Tutu demands divestment to save planet from climate change! Pls rt http://bit.ly/desmonddivest  http://pic.twitter.com/sqwxVNjGAT

[investing]

RT Dianah Mieglich ‏@DianahMieg:
The generation gap on climate change: @abcthedrum 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-08/lewis-and-woods-the-generation-gap-on-climate-change/5374618 

.@Unilever boss reveals company already being impacted by climate change: @BusinessGreen 

http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2338830/unilever-boss-reveals-company-already-being-impacted-by-climate-change

Climate tweets for 31 March 2014

Climate change report: 5 key points: @suzyji @guardian 
[science, IPCC] 

Conservative Climate Panel Warns World Faces ‘Breakdown of Food Systems’, More Violent Conflict
[agriculture, farming, national security, IPCC]  

RT Tom Steyer ‏@TomSteyer  12h
The conclusions of the IPCC report only underscore what we already know: 2014 must be the year we #ActOnClimate. 

Ohio Senate Republicans Launch Attack On State’s Renewable Energy Law 

RT seth borenstein ‏@borenbears:
Yet more data: The last time globe set record for coolest month Dec. 1916; Last hot mo. record: Nov. 2013; All 12 hot mo. records since 1997

Scientists Focus on Polar Waters As Threat of Acidification Grows: @YaleE360
[oceans, CO2]

RT ClimateNow ‏@ClimateNow:
Tail Risk vs. Alarmism, by Kerry Emanuel
[science, denial]

RT Dana Nuccitelli ‏@dana1981:
Update on the California Drought (March 31, 2014) … via @Scienceblogs by @PeterGleick
[water]

Climate change threat to Scotland's native wildlife: @TheScotsman 
[science]

Global shift to greener economies happening because of economic benefits: @thehilltimes 

Despite good snowpack in Rockies, Lake Mead level still expected 2 drop: @LasVegasSun
[drought, water]

Climate tweets for 28 March 2014

Global Warming Hurts Rural Communities Most: @christian_aid @sciam http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/global-warming-hurts-rural-communities-most/
[farming, food, agriculture]

Climate change and human survival: @BMJ_latest http://www.bmj.com/content/348/bmj.g2351 
[health]

New study shows major increase in W. Antarctic glacial loss: @physorg_com 
http://phys.org/news/2014-03-major-west-antarctic-glacial-loss.html 
[Antarctica, sea level]

Pacific Ocean Turning Sour Much Faster Than Expected, Study Shows: http://thkpr.gs/1myqMwk
[acidification, CO2]

Is Japan playing hunger games with climate change?: @BBCNews http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-26756005 
[farming, food, agriculture]

Climate Change May Make Terrible Mudslides More Common: @EricHolthaus @Slate http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/03/24/oso_wash_mudslide_climate_change_may_bring_more_such_disasters.html 
[flooding]

RT INCR ‏@INCRnews:
@CarbonBubble: Bill Koch is the latest executive to leave the coal business, saying it “has kind of died"
http://grist.org/article/bill-koch-is-the-latest-executive-to-leave-the-coal-business-saying-it-has-kind-of-died/#.UzXQNkuUffQ.twitter 
[investing, divestment]

RT ClimateCentral ‏@ClimateCentral:
Friday Fact: Achoo! Rising CO2 has helped increase ragweed pollen production: 
http://pic.twitter.com/wkY897cbwx
[allergies, health

RT Sandy Dechert ‏@sandydec:
New Alps study warns of worse landslides to come: http://planetsave.com/2014/03/28/alps-climate-change-may-worsen-landslides/ 

Inside Koch brothers' campus crusade: @PublicI http://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/03/27/14497/inside-koch-brothers-campus-crusade 
[education, science]

#FF @yalemediaforum @CeresNews @ClimateHotNews @ClimateNow @CLIMATEMAMA @oscare2000 @wenstephenson @Climateate #climate

#FF @AndrewDessler @ClimateOfGavin @mle_marion @bradleyjdibble @healthy_climate @ForecastFacts @DebbySchade #climate

#FF @kellyrigg @readfearn @ClimateBites @CleanAirMoms @ForecastFacts @jackthelad1947 @hottopicnz @frankejames #climate

#FF @billmckibben @MichaelEMann @AGW_Prof @heidicullen @Bentler @climatecliff @YaleE360 @capital_climate #climate

#FF/join/contribute to: @mmfa @climateprogress @ClimateCentral @citizensclimate @350 @ClimateReality #climate #divest !

Climate tweets for 18 March 2014

Food prices surge as drought exacts high toll on crops: @WSJ http://on.wsj.com/1kDRm42 
[farming, agriculture, water]

CO2 on Path to Cross 400 ppm Threshold for a Month: @ClimateCentral http://www.climatecentral.org/news/co2-on-path-to-cross-400-ppm-threshold-for-a-month-17189 
[science]

Science Society Seeks to Shift Dialogue on Climate Change by Showing "What We Know": @sciam http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/science-society-seeks-to-shift-dialogue-on-climate-change-by-showing-what-we-know/ 
[AAAS]

Global Transition tipping point has arrived - vive la révolution: @guardian http://gu.com/p/3njfd/tw 

Nature: Human Warming Now Pushing Entire Greenland Ice Sheet into Ocean: http://robertscribbler.wordpress.com/2014/03/17/nature-human-warming-now-pushing-entire-greenland-ice-sheet-into-the-ocean/ 
[science, glaciers, sea level]

Study: 2ºC Warming Enough to Seriously Hurt Crop Yields: @climateprogress http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/03/17/3411501/climate-change-detrimental-crop-yields-study/ 
[science, food, agriculture, farming]

Glaciers in W. Canada still receding despite cold, snow: @calgaryherald http://www.calgaryherald.com/technology/Glaciers%20Western%20Canada%20still%20receding%20despite%20cold%20snow/9624012/story.html 

Climate tweets for 8 March 2014

How to Cut Carbon Pollution By 80% In 4 Simple Steps: @cleantechnica http://cleantechnica.com/2014/03/06/cut-carbon-pollution-80-4-simple-steps/ 

Overwhelmed? Winter storms saw Thames Barrier close 50th time, hitting safety limit: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/is-the-thames-barrier-overwhelmed-the-winter-storms-saw-it-close-for-the-50th-time-this-year-hitting-its-operational-safety-limit-9177423.html 

California's Drought: These Statistics Show Just How Scary It Is: @tnr http://www.newrepublic.com/article/116898/californias-drought-these-statistics-show-just-how-scary-it 

Unless temps are kept below agreed limit of 3.6°F warming, the Great Barrier reef will cease to be a coral ecosystem: http://bit.ly/1k3jgWI 

Floods, gales taste of things to come, says UN climate science chief: @guardian http://gu.com/p/3nc57/tw 

Denial River: How Warm Waters Melted Arctic Ice and Froze Reality: @slate http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/03/06/arctic_sea_ice_warm_rivers_help_accelerate_melting.html 

Climatologist Who Predicted Calif Drought 10 Years Ago: It May Soon Be ‘Even More Dire’ http://thkpr.gs/1g67cTN 

Warmer temperatures push malaria to higher elevations, research shows: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-03-warmer-temperatures-malaria-higher-elevations.html 

RT Antonio Montano ☼ ‏@AntoMon: Australia has warmed by 0.9C since 1910, with more in store http://theconversation.com/australia-has-warmed-by-0-9c-since-1910-with-more-in-store-23914 

Inferno (the imaginary one)

No, this is not a post about the southern U.S. in ... 2030?  2040?  It's about an enjoyable science fiction (actually, perhaps more fantasy) novel, Inferno, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, published a number of years ago.

Inferno is about a science fiction writer, Allen Carpenter (who goes by the name Carpentier to lend an air of sophistication).  Carpentier dies falling out of a hotel room window while trying to impress fans at a convention and finds himself in what turns out to be a large bronze bottle.  He's there for a long time, and ultimately screams, "For the love of God, someone help me!"  Presto, he's out of the bottle and in the vestibule of Hell--or rather, Hell as described in Dante's Inferno.  After a lengthy and entertaining journey through its various levels, he helps a fellow resident make his way out, and vows to stay and help others do the same.

So that's a very brief synopsis. Two points about this book come to mind when I think about global warming.

First, at one point, Carpentier encounters a priest who has been in Hell since the Middle Ages, when he was condemned for selling false "indulgences" (essentially, tickets by which the rich could supposedly buy their way into Heaven).  Carpentier stops to talk to the priest, whose punishment is to wear a (massively heavy) solid gold robe.  The priest says little and starts to walk away, whereupon Carpentier asks why he can't stop and sit down.  The priest answers:

"I could fall on you. But it may be that you do not know what you say.  If I stop, this robe grows hot.  It is too hot now.  It grows hot slowly, and it grows cool slowly.  Now, goodbye." [emphasis added]

That's the thing about global warming--the Earth grows hot slowly (the good news). The bad news is that it grows cool slowly as well--it's irreversible, on a time scale of centuries.  Also, the good news is not really that good, in that it has lulled us into a false sense of security--it's been 25 years since the heat wave of 1988, and we are just now beginning to see the weather extremes pile up.

Second, once Carpentier has figured out that Hell is real, and not just a stupendous feat of futuristic engineering, he focuses on a larger question--why does God allow it to exist at all?  People are undergoing infinite torture as punishment for the finite sins, however loathsome, they committed during their lives.  In the end, he finally decides on the answer:

"There's only one possible excuse for Hell, and I almost missed it in the ravings of a crazy psychiatrist.  It has to be the final training ground.  If nothing can get a soul into Heaven in its life, there's still Hell, God's last attempt to get [its] attention.  Like a catatonic in a hotbox, like me in that bottle, if Hell won't make a man yell for help, then it was still worth a try."

Hell, in Inferno, is like the climate.  We can ignore it, deny that it's changing, lose ourselves in sports and celebrities and politics and ethnic/religious hatred and all sorts of other distractions--but the climate doesn't care.  It's just going to keep getting worse and worse, year after year, until we can't look away any longer.  For all our sakes, I hope that day is soon.

As the solar odometer turns

We have a new residential solar electric (PV, photovoltaic) system installed about a month ago, and its "odometer" will soon turn over the 5 in 500 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity generated.

It's pretty impressive, just in a mechanical (or rather, non-mechanical) sense.  It just sits there.  Nothing seems to happen, but the kWh generated daily continues to rise.  No muss, no fuss.  Pretty neat.

But I digress.  The reason for this post was to say something about what 500 kWh will represent, when we get there later today or tomorrow.

In terms of energy, it's the equivalent of 15 gallons of gasoline, or enough to drive one of our hybrid autos about 675 miles.

In terms of generating electricity, the numbers are bigger, because the combustion process for fossil fuels wastes energy.  500 kWh is equivalent to burning about 500 pounds of coal, or 35 gallons of diesel oil (New England, where we are located, still burns plenty of diesel oil to generate electricity).

In terms of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, the New England utility system gives off about one pound of CO2 per kilowatt-hour of electricity, so our 500 kWh means about 500 pounds of carbon dioxide has been kept out of the atmosphere.

So what?  Well, that's where the numbers get truly impressive, because of the very long life and heat-trapping effect of carbon dioxide. In a post on his blog, Quark Soup, science journalist David Appell quotes David Archer's book, The Long Thaw: How Humans Are Changing the Next 100,000 Years of Earth's Climate, as follows:

"If we add up the total amount of energy trapped by CO2 from the gallon of gas over its atmospheric lifetime, we find that our gallon of gasoline ultimately traps one hundred billion (100,000,000,000) kilocalories of useless and unwanted greenhouse heat."

Burning one gallon of gasoline results in the emission of 19.6 pounds of CO2. That means that one pound of CO2, over its lifetime, traps 100 billion kilocalories divided by 19.6, or 5 billion kilocalories.

Now, I don't know about you, but I don't use kilocalories much on a day-to-day basis, so, how much energy is that?  Using the handy Google converter for units of measure, I find that it is 2 x 10 to the 13th (10e13) joules--still not a very meaningful quantity.  However, one Hiroshima-size atomic bomb releases 63 x 10e12 joules, and one pound of CO2 traps 2 x 10e13 (20 x 10e12) joules.  In other words, just three pounds of CO2 added to the atmosphere, over its lifetime, traps as much heat as released by the Hiroshima bomb (a unit of measure Mr. Appell calls the "hiro").

This in turn means that, in a little over a month, our residential solar system has kept enough CO2 out of the atmosphere to trap the equivalent, over time, of the heat that would be released by 167 Hiroshima bombs.

(It also says a lot about how much heat you're adding, over time, to the climate system with every gallon of gas--about 7 Hiroshima bombs' worth--and why it's silly to claim that the billions of tons of carbon dioxide we're adding to the atmosphere each year have no impact on the climate.  But that's another blog post.)

I expect to use these numbers more in the future, in other posts and in comments on the Internet, so if you find any errors, please let me know (Mr. Appell has made the same offer, and nothing has turned up yet).

UPDATE (Sept. 8, 2012): The odometer now stands at 626 kWh, which means we have passed another minor milestone--the first barrel of oil equivalent (BOE).  Burning a barrel of oil generates about 600 kWh--and produces 940 pounds (almost half a ton) of carbon dioxide.