As this chart from Bloomberg News shows, renewable energy production will surpass coal for the first time ever in the US. This is a fantastic milestone!
Scientists are working on an unusual plan to prevent Antarctic glaciers from melting. They want to build a set of giant underwater curtains in front of ice sheets to protect them from being eroded by warm sea water.
As you do.
Is that really feasible?
Regards
Matildagirl
@matildagirl I like this project. In the futuristic novel we discussed on this forum a while back - The Ministry of the Future -- the glaciers were saved by an enormous geoengineering project that pumped water from the bottom of the glaciers so they wouldn't slide into the sea. The project you have linked for us is trying to stop the melting by in effect insulating them like a thermal blanket from the rest of warming oceans
While it would be costly, it is far more costly than losing all of the world's coastal cities. Of course, such a project has to be accompanied by worldwide tamping down of greenhouse gas emissions by near zero.
Rest in peace and thank you for trying to get through the numbskulls 🕊️
“Feb. 16, 2024
Ross Gelbspan, an investigative journalist whose reporting on climate change exposed a campaign of disinformation by oil and gas lobbyists to sow doubt about global warming — a denialism that was embraced by Republican officials and, in some cases, by a credulous news media — died on Jan. 27 at his home in Boston. He was 84.
The cause was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, his wife, Anne Gelbspan, said.
Mr. Gelbspan’s career included reporting on dissidents in the Soviet Union and on F.B.I. harassment of domestic critics, and his interest in the climate crisis, like those other subjects, came from a sense of outrage that powerful interests were suppressing information needed for democracy.
“I didn’t get into the climate issue because I love the trees — I tolerate the trees,” he said on YouTube last year. “I got into the issue because I learned the coal industry was paying a handful of scientists under the table to say nothing was happening to the climate.” [NYTimes]
Even as I lament to the loss of thousands of acres of trees/wildlife habitat in my rural county being destroyed in Atlanta's urban sprawl.... I feel hope that more and more will see the value of trees!!!
Good Earth Day news from 350.org founder Bill McKibben:
California (the worlds' fifth largest economy) has now generated more than one hundred percent of its power needs from sun, wind, and hydro for big parts of almost every day this spring. Here’s the graph that Stanford professor Mark Jacobson put together to illustrate the remarkable run—that number in the top right corner means that the day before yesterday at its max the Golden State was producing 148.3 percent of its power needs from renewables
The Washington Post attempted to paint this as a problem earlier today, but for once I’m reluctant to agree with the wise Shannon Osaka, who writes
There is so much solar on the grid that, on sunny spring days when there’s not as much demand, electricity prices go negative. Gigawatts of solar are “curtailed” — essentially, thrown away.
On the list of problems we’d like to have, free clean electricity is fairly high on the list. Especially since the answer to this ‘problem’ is fairly obvious: if it’s raining pennies from heaven, then by all means collect them. In this case, use a battery.
Which is what is starting to happen, as batteries get cheaper and cheaper. Here’s Nick Hedley’s account of last night’s action:
Then, during the evening peak on April 21, another milestone was hit when big batteries discharged 6.5GW of instantaneous power into the grid. Batteries were the single-largest source of supply at the time, covering a fifth of the state’s electricity supply.
| But just to repeat: as the sun went down last night, the biggest source of energy in the world’s fifth largest economy was…sunshine stored in batteries. |
To subscribe to 350.org Bill McKibben's top notch climate blog, go here: https://billmckibben.substack.com/
He is truth, all truth, and nothing but the truth all the time.
In a CBS News poll released this week, a large majority (70%-30%) wants the US to take more steps to address climate change. And they want it to be addressed within the next few years:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/poll-reduce-climate-change-extreme-weather-04-21-2024/
There are so few issues in the US that generate such marked consensus. I'm heartened to see this.