The Agonist - Global Warming

Predictions For 2009

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:53:33 -0800

Hannes asked a few days ago for thoughts on what 2009 might bring. Here are some of mine, in no particular order:

1. Franken and Burris will be seated in the next Senate.

2. Guantanamo and the other prisons will be closed.

3. Unemployment will reach double digits.

4. The stimulus package will include more tax cuts than are currently anticipated.

5. Said stimulus plan won't do much good. The infrastructure component will be too small and the build-out will take too long to help in 2009.

6. The word 'Depression' will become much more common in the media and we very well may flirt with an almost 10% retrenchment in GDP.

7. The Dow will trade below 6,000, and the S&P will trade in a similar range as the Dow as Wall Street earnings estimates finally catch up with reality.

8. Gold will not hit $1,000. The dollar will remain relatively strong in a weak overall currency environment. The Yen will remain strong as well, hurting Japanese exports even more.

9. There will be no inflation. There will be deflation.

10. Obama will govern from the center right and the left will be even more dismayed, including many of his supporters.

11. We will begin drawing down out of Iraq, but not nearly fast enough.

12. Obama will double down in Afghanistan. It will do no good.

13. Obama will not negotiate with Iran. He will be prevented/hamstrung from doing so by AIPAC and the neocons.

14. America will end the embargo against Cuba.

15. The market for treasuries will not blow up this year--we'll leave that for 2010. There is still too much debt destruction (i.e. deflation) going on, credit card defaults, among other items, are next. Domestic demand for treasuries will remain strong, even in the face of the Chinese, OPEC countries and Japan not buying.

Have I missed anything?

Climate scientists: it's time for 'Plan B'

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 12:12:10 -0800

Steve Connor and Chris Green | 2 January 2009

The Independent (UK) - ...Levels of CO2 have continued to increase during the past decade since the [Kyoto] treaty was agreed and they are now rising faster than even the worst-case scenarios from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations body. In the meantime the natural absorption of CO2 by the world's forests and oceans has decreased significantly. Most of the scientists we polled agreed that the failure to curb emissions of CO2, which are increasing at a rate of 1 per cent a year, has created the need for an emergency "plan B" involving research, development and possible implementation of a worldwide geoengineering strategy.

We’re In For Stormy Weather

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 19:27:21 -0800

Ban Ki-Moon, Sec-Gen of UN | Dec, 30, 2008

Newsweek - Overshadowed by the economic headlines, serious climate trouble looms ahead.

The past year will be remembered for the global financial crisis. But next year will be no less dangerous, albeit for a different reason. Lost among the economic headlines is an even more important fact: emissions of carbon dioxide, the leading greenhouse gas, rose by an unexpected 3 percent in 2007.

This revelation means that the 50 percent targets for carbon cuts set by Europe and elsewhere by 2050 are already out of date. Scientists now say reductions of 60 to 80 percent will be needed to avoid a catastrophe.

Scientists doubt inventor's global cooling idea — but what if it works?

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 23:35:04 -0800

Greg Gordon | Washington | Dec 22

McClatchy Newspapers - Backed by a computer model, a little-known inventor is making public a U.S. patent petition for what he calls the most "practical, nontoxic, affordable, rapidly achievable" and beneficial way to curb global warming and a resulting catastrophic ocean rise. Spray gigatons of seawater into the air, mainly in the Northern Hemisphere, and let Mother Nature do the rest.

NATO Should Go Green

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 12:10:52 -0800

The war in Afghanistan is straining NATO's unity and provoking some, including me, to wonder just what the organization's purpose is in a post-Cold War world. But what if NATO, as part of its mission, took on the challenge of fighting climate change?

First, the problem. With violence increasing and solutions receding in Afghanistan, intra-NATO tension is on the rise. The US has leaned heavily on its allies to increase their troop commitments, sparking resentment. Both sides of this divide have publicly expressed frustration. At the same time, European and Canadian casualties this year have various NATO partners wondering whether being in Afghanistan is worth it at all.

A communication platform www.coalindia.org

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 07:01:30 -0800

A GREAT thought and execution by developing www.coalindia.org

It is a really big thought which came in the mind of developer of the site www.coalindia.org and he executed it at his own with his own resources being an employee of Coal India Limited.

It is also a great achievement to be partner with Google on personal account for social cause. Google is a very big company in entire world. Being the partner of it is indeed a great thing.

He has done all these for Coal India company and its community with no greed.

Great kudos to him!
I am saluting his thoughts and execution part.

U.S. Presence at Conference on Climate Raises Hopes

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:38:09 -0800

Elizabeth Rosenthal | Poznan | December 12

New York Times - Senator John Kerry arrived at the United Nations climate conference here on Thursday and immediately reassured delegates that the United States would take strong measures to combat climate change.

“President Obama will be like night and day compared to President Bush,” Mr. Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, said at a news conference, adding, “Congress and the president-elect are committed to movement on mandatory goals as rapidly as possible.”

Fifth of world coral reefs lost, survey finds

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:14:53 -0800

Poznan, Poland | December 10

MSNBC - Conservation scientists say rest is imperiled by warming seas, pollution

A downward trend tied to warming seas has not reversed and the world has now lost nearly one-fifth of its coral reefs, according to a global survey released Wednesday.

Much of the rest could be destroyed within 40 years by increasingly acidic seas if warming continues unchecked, the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network stated in its report.

Salmon-tracking network upends some sacred cows

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 07:06:38 -0800

Les Blumenthal | Washington | Nov 30

McClatchy Newspapers - They were two of the 1,000 juvenile salmon implanted with almond-sized transmitters as they headed out of the Rocky Mountains, down the Snake River bound for the sea.

Their remarkable three-month, 1,500-mile journey of survival to the Gulf of Alaska was tracked by an underwater acoustic listening network that has wired the West Coast from just north of San Francisco to southeastern Alaska. The tracking network could provide a model for a global system.

A salmon's life in the ocean has always been one of nature's best kept mysteries.

This is really cool far reaching science

Video worth watching about the Arctic

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 07:29:58 -0800

from The Atlantic, titled, “Sea Change”

Introduction:

“November 2008
By Scott Borgerson

"The opening of a new waterway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans is akin in historic significance to the opening of the Suez Canal, in 1869, or is Panamanian cousin, in 1914. With this sea change will come the rise and fall of international seaports, new found access to nearly a quarter of the world's remaining undiscovered oil and gas reserves, and a recalibration of geo-strategic power."

Clickable map or the rapidly changing Arctic

Energy-Saving Bulbs to Light Up the Future

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 19:34:21 -0800

Nov 16

Deutsche Welle - Almost 20 percent of all the energy produced in the world is used to power lights. Energy-saving bulbs could help -- though so far the ones on the market aren't quite up to par.

The potential is enormous. If all the traditional light bulbs in the world were replaced with energy-saving ones, lighting energy use could be cut by 40 percent. By 2030, 16 billion tons of CO2 would have been prevented from escaping into the atmosphere. That's according to a new study released by the renowned Worldwatch Institute.

The use of energy saving bulbs is on the rise worldwide. Since the beginning of the century, use has tripled to over four billion, and some countries are calling for more. Australia has even gone so far as to say that after October 2009 the sale of traditional light bulbs will be outlawed.

But not everyone is singing the praises of the little bulbs that could. The German ecological product review "Oekotest" put 16 models through a rigorous set of tests and came to a sobering conclusion: Most energy saving light bulbs aren't as bright as they should be.

China's coal fires belch fumes, worsening global warming

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 09:25:27 -0800

Tim Johnson | Rujigou, China | Nov 16

McClatchy -

_{The glow of an underground coal fire is visible through surface rocks at Ruqigou, China.}

China has the worst underground coal fires of any country on Earth. The fires destroy as much as 20 million tons of coal annually, nearly the equivalent of Germany's entire annual production. The costs go beyond the waste of a valuable fuel, however. Scientists blame uncontrolled coal fires as a significant source of greenhouse gases, which lead to global warming.

EPA Appeals Board Strikes Down Construction Of New Coal-Fired Power Plant

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:39:54 -0800

Brad Johnson | Washington | November 13

ThinkProgress - In a landmark action, the Environmental Protection Agency’s final decision-making board has ruled that all new and proposed coal-fired power plants must have their carbon dioxide emissions regulated. The Environmental Appeals Board ruled today that the EPA has no valid reason for refusing to place limits on the global warming emissions from Desert Power’s proposed 110-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Vernal, Utah.

Deseret Power’s Bonanza Generating Station would have emitted 3.37 million tons of carbon dioxide each year. In July 2007, the EPA issued a permit for the plant, ignoring the Clean Air Act’s stipulation that all such permits must include a “best-available control technology” emissions limit for each pollutant “subject to regulation under the Act.” Before the Sierra Club brought suit, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform opened an investigation into the EPA’s decision, saying:

'Astonishing' data boost Arctic claim

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:29:58 -0800

Randy Boswell | November 12

Canwest - A Beaufort seabed survey will enhance Canada's submission to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea

The federal scientist heading Canada's bid to claim thousands of square kilometres of Arctic Ocean seabed under a UN convention says a joint United States-Canada mapping mission to the Beaufort Sea this fall yielded "very promising" results that could vastly extend this country's territory in one of the polar region's richest target zones for offshore oil and gas.

"The quality of the data is astonishing," Halifax-based geoscientist Jacob Verhoef says. "We haven't analysed it all, but what we found is that the entire Beaufort Sea -- all the way up to the north -- is covered with significant amounts of sediments, which makes our case look very promising."

Water and Electricity - The 21st Century

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:14:19 -0800

Dear Agonistas:

This is a link to our presentation for Water and Electricity.

We'd appreciate questions, feedback and comments. What follows is out written executive summary.

Here's a link to the current draft of our business plan. Here's a link to our working white paper.

Executive Summary

We’re building a privately-owned, for-profit utility company, focused on providing water and electricity to hot, dry areas such as the North American South West, North Africa (for Europe), and the Middle East. We have assembled the nucleus of a team to for this venture.