Chris Mooney, Environment and Science Reporter - The Washington Post
Stephan: As I have said many times, the two constants in climate change research are that the results are going to be worse than originally conceived, and the timeline until they happen is collapsing. Here's the latest on sea rise. I would say if you have low lying coastal property you have between 10-15 years, depending on where it is located, before your real estate values crash.
An iceberg is pictured in the western Antarctic peninsula in March 2016.
Credit: Eitan Abramovich/AFP
A new scientific analysis finds that the Earth’s oceans are rising nearly three times as rapidly as they were throughout most of the 20th century, one of the strongest indications yet that a much feared trend of not just sea level rise, but its acceleration, is now underway. (emphasis added)
“We have a much stronger acceleration in sea level rise than formerly thought,” said Sönke Dangendorf, a researcher with the University of Siegen in Germany who led the study along with scientists at institutions in Spain, France, Norway and the Netherlands.
Their paper, just out in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, isn’t the first to find that the rate of rising seas is itself increasing — but it finds a bigger rate of increase than in past studies. The new paper concludes that before 1990, oceans were rising at about 1.1 millimeters per year, or just 0.43 inches per decade. From 1993 through 2012, though, it finds that they […]
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Alexandria Sage; Editing by Steve Orlofsky, Reporting/Editing - Reuters
Stephan: The electric vehicle transition is going faster than most people realize. In my view, although batteries will still be essential the real bottleneck for long range electric vehicle transport is how to create a wireless system, and that is now happening. Here's the latest and it's good news.
A Qualcomm sign is pictured at one of its many campus buildings in San Diego, California
Credit: Reuters/Mike Blake
Qualcomm Inc said on Thursday it had demonstrated how electric vehicles could be charged wirelessly while driving, a technology some believe will help accelerate the adoption of self-driving cars.
The smartphone chipmaker said a so-called “dynamic charging” test took place on a test track in Versailles, France. It used two Renault Kangoo vehicles driving over embedded pads in the road that transferred a charge to the cars’ batteries at up to 20 kilowatts at highway speeds.
Experts believe that self-driving cars of tomorrow will be electric and require a way to charge themselves without human intervention.
Wireless charging is an important area of research for carmakers, their suppliers and start-ups like xChargepoint, WiTricity and HEVO Power.
Qualcomm, which supplies chips to Android phone makers and Apple Inc, is on track to become the leading supplier to the fast-growing automotive chips market given its pending $38 billion takeover of NXP Semiconductors.
European Union regulators are to rule by June 9 […]
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Dallon Adams , - digital trends
Stephan: This is good news for the planet, and for China. Not so hot for the United States. The Trump administration is doing everything it can to protect carbon energy, policies which are harmful, toxic, with declining employment potential and a decreasing market. Meanwhile China is explicitly setting out to dominate the solar market, a policy that will create vast numbers of jobs, and generate trillions of dollars.
Republican energy policies are doing untold damage to the country.
Chinese floating solar array
China has announced that the largest floating photovoltaic (PV) facility on earth has finally been completed and connected to the local power grid. Long reviled for its carbon emission record, this is the Chinese government’s latest achievement in its ongoing effort to lead the world in renewable energy adoption.
Located in the city of Huainan in the Anhui province, the 40-megawatt facility was created by PV inverter manufacturer Sungrow Power Supply Co. Ironically, the floating grid itself was constructed over a flooded former coal-mining region.
Floating solar farms are becoming increasingly popular around the world because their unique design addresses multiple efficiency and city planning issues. These floating apparatuses free up land in more populated areas and also reduce water evaporation. The cooler air at the surface also helps to minimize the risk of solar cell performance atrophy, which is often related to long-term exposure to warmer temperatures.
This is just the first of many solar energy operations popping up around China. In 2016, the country […]
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Wednesday, May 24th, 2017
David Edwards, - The Raw Story
Stephan: I guess you have to feel sorry for Trump voters. In their willful ignorance and fantasy reality, they just didn't have a clue that they were voting to wreck their lives, and put themselves in greatly increased financial stress. Everything I see about the Trump budget is horrifying. It is basically one big tax cut for the rich, and a gut punch for the middle class and poor. Let's deal with a few facts.
White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney speaks about of U.S. President Donald Trump’s budget in the briefing room of the White House in Washington, U.S., March 16, 2017.
Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney asserted on Tuesday that President Donald Trump had produced the first federal budget that provides “compassion” for taxpayers.
During a briefing at the White House, Mulvaney defended Trump’s drastic cuts to entitlement programs to pay for increased military spending, a border wall and sizable tax reductions that would benefit the wealthy.
According to Mulvaney, the proposal looks “at the budget through the eyes of the taxpayer” instead of those who receive benefits from federal programs.
“If I can look you in the eye and say I’m going to take this money from you so I can help this injured vet, I can do that in good conscience,” he said. “I am a lot less comfortable to the point of not wanting to look you in the eye and say, ‘Look, I need […]
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Wednesday, May 24th, 2017
Haettinger, - ALternet/The Establishment
Stephan: The theocratic rightist "christian" cult that has captured Christianity in the United States is working on many fronts to take over the country and turn it into a theocratic state, similar to what happened in Iran. I have done reports on what is happening in the prison system, the educational system, and the military and the chaplain corps. Here is what is happening on the home front.
The Duggar family, examplars of the ‘christian” cult that is growing in America
It was a cold morning on the campus of the little Christian college I attended in Western Pennsylvania. Along with about 20 other students, I’d trundled in and unwrapped my coat and scarf. Now we all sat there sipping our coffees, waiting for the hardest class of the year to get rolling.
Our literary criticism professor paused as he announced the optional reading titles on our list for the next week, a funny look on his face.
“This one,” he said, “you may not like. It was written in 1984, published in ’85 or ’86, and was a reaction against the rise of the religious right — against the values that places like our school stand for. It’s pro-feminist, and anti-complementarian — against traditional gender roles. It sort of parodies what we believe in, in an interesting way. I’m curious what you’ll make of it.”
The shade thrown by my usually soft-spoken professor caught my attention. I had to read this book.
And so I did, […]
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