Saturday, July 13th, 2019
Natalie Parletta, - Forbes
Stephan: Here is some more good news about making sure people have enough potable water.
Wave20 deployment to North Carolina Credit: Olivier Ceberio
Using the power of ocean waves, innovators from Boston, U.S., have developed a technology that can produce fresh water off-grid and without the costly infrastructure of desalination plants.
This invention could help many of the 2.1 billion people around the world who struggle to access safe drinking water, most of those in low-income countries.
The technology, Wave2OTM, was developed by start-up company Resolute Marine Energy. Chief Operating Officer Olivier Ceberiosays it “targets ‘off-grid’ coastal communities in developing nations where a solution to persistent water shortages is urgently needed”.
Importantly, it fills a gaping hole between industrial-scale utilities that are costly and time-consuming to build, and micro-scale solutions for individual households. The only technology currently offered in between involves diesel-powered desalination systems.
And Wave2O can be delivered competitively because it uses “free energy from a consistent and inexhaustible renewable energy resource: ocean waves,” says Ceberio.
The group was selected as a finalist for MIT’s Solve Challenge: “How can […]
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Stephan A. Schwartz, Editor - Schwartzreport
Stephan: Day after day, week after week, I keep waiting for climate change to become the lead story. Instead, all I read and see is the endless political horserace coverage the media likes, and the ongoing stories of the corruption, criminality, and mind-boggling dishonesty of the American government.
So I have dedicated today's SR to just one aspect of climate change, sea rise, laying out some facts about how many people will be affected -- basically one out of three -- and what it will cost -- hundreds of billions, and actually probably over a trillion dollars. Put those two things together and you can get a sense of the social instability that is coming in America.
I hope this will stimulate my readers to begin to think and plan about their own situations.
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Rosanna Xia, - Los Angeles Times
Stephan: In California it is dawning on citizens and politicians alike that climate change is going to devastate the coast and cities of that state. Here is a comprehensive look at the future. I have a lot of readers in California, I hope you all pay attention to this.
California coast
THE CALIFORNIA COAST GREW AND PROSPERED during a remarkable moment in history when the sea was at its tamest.
But the mighty Pacific, unbeknownst to all, was nearing its final years of a calm but unusual cycle that had lulled dreaming settlers into a false sense of endless summer.
Elsewhere, Miami has been drowning, Louisiana shrinking, North Carolina’s beaches disappearing like a time lapse with no ending. While other regions grappled with destructive waves and rising seas, the West Coast for decades was spared by a rare confluence of favorable winds and cooler water. This “sea level rise suppression,” as scientists call it, went largely undetected. Blinded from the consequences of a warming planet, Californians kept building right to the water’s edge.
But lines in the sand are meant to shift. In the last 100 years, the sea rose less than 9 inches in California.
By the end of this century, the surge could be greater than 9 feet.
Wildfire and drought dominate the climate […]
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Stephan: In the previous story we looked at what California faces as a result of sea rise. This is what the same thing looks like on the East Coast. As you read this please realize and remember that one way or another you are going to pay for all this -- plus you may lose your home in the process.
To see what your state is likely to face in costs resulting from sea rise click through to: https://www.climatecosts2040.org/rankings. You will be appalled.
Coastal street flooding in Norfolk, Virginia.
Credit: D. Loftis/VIMS.
A climate study has estimated the costs associated with sea level rise by 2040. Virginia and Maryland are near the top of the list of hardest hit states.
The Center for Climate Integrity conducted the evaluation of potential costs of constructing seawalls in 22 coastal states and the District of Columbia.
Florida ($75.8 billion), Louisiana ($38.4 billion) and North Carolina ($34.8 billion) are projected to have the highest costs.
Virginia ranks fourth on the list at $31.2 billion and Maryland is fifth at $27.4 billion.
The District of Columbia is listed at number 23 with estimated costs of $138 million.
The study released in June says U.S. overall costs will top $400 billion.
The analysis was done in conjunction with engineering firm Resilient Analytics and the University of Colorado.
The study used a sea level rise model, storm surge estimates and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shoreline data.
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Chrissy Sexton, Staff Writer - earth.com
Stephan: If this is correct approximately one out of every three Americans is going to be negatively affected.
When the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its fifth assessment in 2013, the report estimated that sea levels will rise by 52 to 98 centimeters before the end of this century at the current rate of emissions. Even if governments were to “achieve drastic emissions cuts,” the experts projected that sea levels will still rise by up to 54 centimeters.
Since the report was published, however, a growing collection of research suggests that these estimates were too conservative. Based on the increasing instability that has been observed across the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, one study concluded that the effects of climate change could result in a global average of more than two meters of sea level rise by the end of the century.
“For 2100, the ice sheet contribution is very likely in the range of 7 – 178 centimeters but once you add in glaciers and ice caps outside the ice sheets and thermal expansion of the seas, you tip well over two meters,” said study lead author Professor Jonathan Bamber from the University of Bristol.
“To put this into […]
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