Tag Archives: energy

Female dairy farmers bring hope to a shrinking industry

by DaciaPamphlett Posted on February 27, 2015

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White Dwarf Issue 56: 21 February 2015 – White Dwarf

Death comes with a smile! White Dwarf 56 is here and with it two of the most enigmatic – and deadly – Harlequins of all. We’ve got a first look at the new Shadowseer and Death Jester, including full rules, and a stage-by-stage painting guide for the Death Jester. Elsewhere we’ve got an End Times […]

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The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up – Marie Kondo

This New York Times best-selling guide to decluttering your home from Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes readers step-by-step through her revolutionary KonMari Method for simplifying, organizing, and storing. Despite constant efforts to declutter your home, do papers still accumulate like snowdrifts and clothes pile up like a tangled mess of noodles? Japanese cleaning consultant […]

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White Dwarf Issue 57: 28 February 2015 – White Dwarf

Khorne’s Wrath is unleashed! White Dwarf 57 is here and with it the incredible new Bloodthirster of Khorne. Bigger, badder and bloodier than ever before, we’ve got amazing photography and all the details in New Releases, full rules and a stage-by-stage painting guide in Paint Splatter. Elsewhere we’ve a shadowy tale of the Harlequins in […]

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Air Plants – Zenaida Sengo

Air Plants , by Zenaida Sengo, the interior coordinator at the popular San Francisco-based Flora Grubb Gardens, shows how simple and rewarding it is to grow, craft, and design with these modern beauties. Decorating with air plants is made easy with stunning photographs that showcase ideas for using them mounted on walls, suspended from the […]

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The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo – A 15-minute Summary & Analysis – Instaread

PLEASE NOTE: This is a  summary and analysis  of the book and NOT the original book.  The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo – A 15-minute Summary & Analysis   Inside this Instaread: Summary of entire book, Introduction to the important people in the book, Key Takeaways and Analysis of the Key Takeaways. […]

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Team Dog – Mike Ritland & Gary Brozek

New York Times –bestselling author and former Navy SEAL Mike Ritland teach es a ll dog owner s how to have the close relationship and exceptional training of combat dogs. In TEAM DOG, Mike taps into fifteen years’ worth of experience and shares, explaining in accessible and direct language, the science behind the importance of […]

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How to Raise the Perfect Dog – Cesar Millan & Melissa Jo Peltier

From the bestselling author and star of National Geographic Channel’s Dog Whisperer , the only resource you’ll need for raising a happy, healthy dog. For the millions of people every year who consider bringing a puppy into their lives–as well as those who have already brought a dog home–Cesar Millan, the preeminent dog behavior expert, […]

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Codex: Harlequins (eBook Edition) – Games Workshop

The enigmatic Harlequins are the undisputed masters of the webway and harbingers of the mysterious Eldar god Cegorach. Clad in motley they tumble and dance across the battlefield with deadly skill, cutting down their foes and rending them apart to a symphony of screams. Few understand the motivations of the Laughing God’s followers, their masques […]

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Trident K9 Warriors – Mike Ritland & Gary Brozek

As Seen on “60 Minutes”! As a Navy SEAL during a combat deployment in Iraq, Mike Ritland saw a military working dog in action and instantly knew he’d found his true calling. Ritland started his own company training and supplying dogs for the SEAL teams, U.S. Government, and Department of Defense. He knew that fewer […]

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Inside of a Dog – Alexandra Horowitz

The bestselling book that asks what dogs know and how they think. The answers will surprise and delight you as Alexandra Horowitz, a cognitive scientist, explains how dogs perceive their daily worlds, each other, and that other quirky animal, the human. Horowitz introduces the reader to dogs’ perceptual and cognitive abilities and then draws a […]

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Female dairy farmers bring hope to a shrinking industry

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Renewable Fuel Pays Off

by Posted on February 25, 2015

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Renewable Fuel Pays Off

Posted 25 February 2015 in

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As Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis notes in The Hill, the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) has been an important driver of economic growth in the United States since its passage in 2005.

“With the RFS opening up the fuel market to new fuel sources, the renewable fuels industry has been able to deliver economic, national security and environmental benefits. We need the Renewable Fuel Standard to break the monopolistic stranglehold of Big Oil and give American consumers the choices they deserve.”

With the Obama administration finalizing the volume of renewable fuel that must be blended into our nation’s fuel supply for 2014, efforts to repeal or “reform” the RFS will only serve to harm our economy, threaten our energy security, and cost consumers at the pump.

Read the full column in The Hill.

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Renewable Fuel Pays Off

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IPCC chair Rajendra Pachauri resigns

by Myrna Posted on February 25, 2015

High profile head of the UN’s climate science panel steps down and denies charges of sexually harassing a 29-year-old female researcher. Rajendra K. Pachauri Juan Karita/AP The chair of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra Pachauri, resigned on Tuesday, following allegations of sexual harassment from a female employee at his research institute in Delhi. The organisation will now be led by acting chair Ismail El Gizouli until the election for a new chair which had already been scheduled for October. “The actions taken today will ensure that the IPCC’s mission to assess climate change continues without interruption,” said Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, which is a sponsor of the IPCC. Pachauri, 74, is accused of sexually harassing a 29-year-old female researchershortly after she joined The Energy and Resources Institute. Lawyers for the woman, who cannot be named, said the harassment by Pachauri included unwanted emails, text messages and WhatsApp messages. Pachauri, one of the UN’s top climate change officials, has denied the charges and his spokesman said: “[He] is committed to provide all assistance and cooperation to the authorities in their ongoing investigations.” His lawyers claimed in the court documents that his emails, mobile phone and WhatsApp messages were hacked and that criminals accessed his computer and phone to send the messages in an attempt to malign him. Read the rest at the Guardian. View post – IPCC chair Rajendra Pachauri resigns

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IPCC chair Rajendra Pachauri resigns

Posted in eco-friendly, FF, For Dummies, G & F, GE, LAI, Monterey, Naka, ONA, OXO, solar, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on IPCC chair Rajendra Pachauri resigns

IPCC chief Pachauri resigns over sexual harassment charges

by ErmaAtkins Posted on February 24, 2015

IPCC chief Pachauri resigns over sexual harassment charges

By on 24 Feb 2015commentsShare

Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, stepped down today amid sexual harassment allegations, after more than a decade leading the organization. During that time, the IPCC put out two massive reports summing up the science on climate change and won a Nobel Peace Prize. Pachauri had been planning on retiring later this year.

The harassment allegations come from a researcher at the Indian research organization Pachauri heads. From The AP:

Pachauri is being investigated in India after a 29-year-old woman accused him of sexually harassing her while they worked together at the New Delhi lobbying and research organization he heads, The Energy [and] Resources Institute.

A police report said the woman gave police dozens of text messages and emails that she alleged had been sent by Pachauri. A Delhi court on Monday ordered Pachauri to co-operate in the investigation.

Pachauri denies the allegations and has said he is “committed to provide all assistance and co-operation to the authorities.”

Police said they would question a second woman who also accused Pachauri of sexual harassment but had not filed a police report.

The allegations have caused outrage in India, a country where women are increasingly speaking out against widespread misogyny. The outrage only intensified when, over the weekend, India’s Mail Today published examples of Pachauri’s alleged exchanges with the woman. Pachauri claims that his computer and WhatsApp accounts were hacked and he didn’t send the messages.

Some in India are also calling for Pachauri to step down from The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), where he is currently on leave. “To safeguard the interest of global climate science Pachauri should step down immediately from the Chairmanship of IPCC and TERI,” Iqbal S. Hasnain, a former professor of environmental studies, told The Hindu.

The 74-year-old Pachauri has been the subject of criticism before: He faced calls to step down in 2010 after an error was found in the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment report. That same year, he put out a steamy romance novel that also raised a few eyebrows.

Of course, those who are ideologically opposed to taking action on climate change will use this scandal to attack the work the IPCC does and the science it puts out. (They already are.)

“There will no doubt be some climate change ‘sceptics’ who seek to use Dr Pachauri’s resignation as an opportunity to attack the IPCC,” Bob Ward, policy director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change at the London School of Economics, told The Guardian. But the IPCC’s most recent report, he said, “is the most comprehensive and authoritative assessment of the causes and potential consequences of climate change that we have ever had, and that remains true with or without Dr Pachauri as chair.”

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IPCC chief Pachauri resigns over sexual harassment charges

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TransCanada has big new plans for moving oil around, and you won’t like them

by MontySchleinitz Posted on February 20, 2015

Since Keystone is stalled out …

TransCanada has big new plans for moving oil around, and you won’t like them

By on 20 Feb 2015commentsShare

TransCanada, the company pushing the Keystone XL plan, is cooking up some new projects. Watch out.

First: A pipeline going in the other direction. This one would move oil from North Dakota, where drilling is booming, up to Canada. The company hopes it will be particularly appealing since the alternative method of moving that volatile crude is by rail — and, unfortunately, the trains keep blowing up. From the Associated Press:

TransCanada Corp.’s proposed $600 million Upland Pipeline would begin near the northwestern North Dakota oil hub of Williston and go north into Canada about 200 miles. At peak operation it would transport up to 300,000 barrels of oil daily, connecting with other pipelines including the Energy East pipeline across Canada. …

TransCanada hopes to have the Upland Pipeline operating in 2018, pending approval from the U.S. State Department, North Dakota’s Public Service Commission and Canada’s National Energy Board. The company plans to submit an application to the State Department in the second quarter of this year. …

TransCanada spokesman Davis Sheremata on Thursday said the company can’t speculate on whether it might run into similar problems with Upland [as it has with Keystone]. Company President and CEO Russ Girling last week told analysts and reporters that he hopes the drawn-out Keystone XL process is “an anomaly.”

And though the pipelines-are-safer-than-trains angle is a major selling point for this new project, the company is hedging its bets: TransCanada “will probably enter the rail business in some form or fashion in the coming months,” said its CEO, Russ Girling, in a speech earlier this month. From the Canadian Financial Post:

Facing increased pressure from rail cutting into its business, while the Keystone XL pipeline remains under unending American review, TransCanada Corp. said it is planning to diversify into the oil-by-rail business within months, improving its customers’ ability to connect to its sprawling North American pipeline and storage network. …

TransCanada’s move to include rail in its arsenal has become necessary as rail companies Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. enjoy a windfall from the oil transportation business. TransCanada’s competitors, including Kinder Morgan Inc. and Enbridge Energy Inc., are also building rail capacity to get around pipeline infrastructure constraints.

That oil-by-rail side business would just be a temporary solution until Keystone gets built, Girling said.

Both new efforts could face heavy opposition. Environmental activists are getting good at making big oil infrastructure projects into political sinkholes, and oil trains are coming in for particularly virulent criticism these days. Opposition to Keystone might no longer be an “anomaly,” as Girling described it; try the new normal.

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TransCanada has big new plans for moving oil around, and you won’t like them

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LG, ONA, Radius, Safer, solar, solar panels, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on TransCanada has big new plans for moving oil around, and you won’t like them

Could better soil management reverse global warming?

by SherrylKilburn Posted on February 12, 2015

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White Dwarf Issue 53: 31 January 2015 – White Dwarf

White Dwarf 53 arrives in a blur of dazzling colour, and with it the brand new Harlequin Troupe and Solitaire! We take a look at these enigmatic guardians of the Black Library in our Danse of Death feature. Not only that, but we bring you everything you need to get to grips with the fine […]

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The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up – Marie Kondo

This New York Times best-selling guide to decluttering your home from Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes readers step-by-step through her revolutionary KonMari Method for simplifying, organizing, and storing. Despite constant efforts to declutter your home, do papers still accumulate like snowdrifts and clothes pile up like a tangled mess of noodles? Japanese cleaning consultant […]

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Codex: Harlequins (Enhanced Edition) – Games Workshop

The enigmatic Harlequins are the undisputed masters of the webway and harbingers of the mysterious Eldar god Cegorach. Clad in motley they tumble and dance across the battlefield with deadly skill, cutting down their foes and rending them apart to a symphony of screams. Few understand the motivations of the Laughing God’s followers, their masques […]

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The Cannabis Grow Bible – Greg Green

The definitive guide to growing marijuana just got better! Greg Green’s original Cannabis Grow Bible set a new standard for handbooks on cannabis horticulture and established Green as the leading authority in the field. Green’s comprehensive and professionally presented work on how to cultivate superior cannabis struck a chord with beginner, amateur and professional growers […]

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Homer’s Odyssey – Gwen Cooper

BONUS: This edition contains a new afterword and an excerpt from Gwen Cooper’s Love Saves the Day. ONCE IN NINE LIVES, SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY HAPPENS.   The last thing Gwen Cooper wanted was another cat. She already had two, not to mention a phenomenally underpaying job and a recently broken heart. Then Gwen’s veterinarian called with […]

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Air Plants – Zenaida Sengo

Air Plants , by Zenaida Sengo, the interior coordinator at the popular San Francisco-based Flora Grubb Gardens, shows how simple and rewarding it is to grow, craft, and design with these modern beauties. Decorating with air plants is made easy with stunning photographs that showcase ideas for using them mounted on walls, suspended from the […]

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White Dwarf Issue 54: 7 February 2015 – White Dwarf

The webway opens once more and from it emerges White Dwarf 54 – alongside it, the new Harlequin Skyweaver jetbikes! We’ve got full rules and a Paint Splatter, plus a great Sprues and Glue looking at how to base skimmers. Rules of Engagement brings us a look at narrative missions in Warhammer 40,000, and we’ve […]

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Codex: Necrons (Enhanced Edition) – Games Workshop

Rising from the depths of their tomb worlds, the ancient Necrons are returning to claim the stars. Deathless warriors of living metal march forth in lockstep legions under the pitiless gaze of their Overlords. For millennia the Necron dynasties have slumbered beneath desolate wildernesses and the unsuspecting populations of planets across the galaxy, but now […]

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Team Dog – Mike Ritland & Gary Brozek

New York Times –bestselling author and former Navy SEAL Mike Ritland teach es a ll dog owner s how to have the close relationship and exceptional training of combat dogs. In TEAM DOG, Mike taps into fifteen years’ worth of experience and shares, explaining in accessible and direct language, the science behind the importance of […]

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The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo – A 15-minute Summary & Analysis – Instaread

PLEASE NOTE: This is a  summary and analysis  of the book and NOT the original book.  The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo – A 15-minute Summary & Analysis   Inside this Instaread: Summary of entire book, Introduction to the important people in the book, Key Takeaways and Analysis of the Key Takeaways. […]

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Could better soil management reverse global warming?

Posted in alo, bamboo, eco-friendly, FF, G & F, GE, growing marijuana, horticulture, LAI, Monterey, ONA, organic, solar, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Could better soil management reverse global warming?

We need to talk about your old basement TV

by AdriennLeCouteu Posted on February 9, 2015

We need to talk about your old basement TV

By on 9 Feb 2015commentsShare

In the latest episode of “So You Think You’re Doing a Good Thing?” we discuss what to do with outdated yet still perfectly useful electronics. Spoiler: You’re going to feel guilty no matter what because that’s what it means to be environmentally conscious in a consumerist society.

The good news is our electronics have become more energy-efficient over time thanks to things like Energy Star standards. The bad news is our feel-good energy-efficient purchases are meaningless because we’re a bunch of packrats who keep old devices instead of actually replacing them.

At least that’s the takeaway from a new study out of the Rochester Institute of Technology on the purchasing habits and use of electronics in the average U.S. household between 1992 and 2007.

To set the stage, let’s recall what technology looked like during those 15 years. In 1992, we had desktop computers, box-set TVs, early cellphones and laptops. By 1997, we had digital cameras and camcorders. By 2002, we had MP3 players, smartphones, DVD players, and LCD TVs, and by 2007, we had tablets, e-readers, and plasma TVs.

(Requisite pause for nostalgia basking.)

OK. That’s enough.

In their study, published in Environmental Science & Technology, the Rochester crew compared a household’s collection of devices, or “product community,” to a community of organisms. Like organisms, our devices stick around for a certain period of time, consuming resources (electricity, fuel, plastic, glass, metal, etc.) and excreting waste (e-waste).

What the team found was that while individual devices in these communities consumed less energy over time, the communities themselves kept growing and consequently guzzling more and more energy. The average household had 13 devices in 2007, compared to only four in 1992, the reported.

“There are a lot of products in U.S. households that do the same thing, but we still own 20 of them,” Callie Babbitt, one of the study’s researchers, told Science.

Babbitt and her co-authors found that in 2007, the average U.S. household had three box-set television sets and a total “product community” with an energy impact equal to 30 percent of the annual fuel consumption of the average 2007 passenger vehicle.

They also found that over those 15 years, box-set TV and desktop computer use grew by 20 and 100 percent, respectively, so not only were we accumulating devices, but we were also using them more often.

Apparently, the evolution of technology isn’t quite as ruthless as the evolution of living organisms. The rise of plasma TVs, for example, didn’t drive the old box-sets to extinction, but rather into basements and bedrooms. It might feel wasteful to get rid of a perfectly good TV, but perhaps it’s better to donate or recycle it than to keep it around as a secondary set. See? I told you you’d feel bad no matter what.

Fortunately, the researchers do see a glimmer of hope in post-2007 technology. New multi-purpose devices like tablets and laptops that also act as TVs and MP3s could be the “invasive species” that totally wrecks current device ecosystems, they say, and in this environment, that would be a good thing.

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We need to talk about your old basement TV

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, Mop, ONA, organic, PUR, Stout, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on We need to talk about your old basement TV

Scott Walker Wants to Know If Wind Power Is Making People Sick

by JulioQwojsz Posted on February 5, 2015

Mother Jones

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This article originally appeared in the Huffington Post and is republished here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

The two-year, $68 billion budget proposal Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker unveiled Tuesday includes a request for $250,000 to study the health impacts of wind turbines.

Page 449 of the budget proposal includes a recommendation from the governor “directing the commission to conduct a study on wind energy system-related health issues.” The request states that a report should be submitted to the governor and legislature within a year after the budget goes into effect.

“The request for a Wind Energy Health Issues Study was included with the intent to provide the Public Service Commission with comprehensive information to consider as they receive requests for future wind energy projects,” said Laurel Patrick, Walker’s press secretary, in a statement to The Huffington Post.

Wind power in the state has been the subject of some public debate, drawing campaigns paid for by conservative groups with ties to fossil fuel interests on one side and by renewable energy advocates on the other.

Last October, health officials in Brown County declared that eight turbines located at the Shirley Wind Farm posed a health hazard to residents. The chairwoman of the local board of health cited “ear pain, ear pressure, headaches, nausea” and “sleep deprivation” as symptoms among nearby residents. Local reports suggest Brown is the first county in the country to reach such a conclusion.

The conservative Heartland Institute, which advocates for “free-market solutions,” has touted the Brown County decision, and used it as an opportunity to criticize the state for “imposing its wind power mandates.” Heartland has received funding in the past from fossil fuel interests. Walker has appeared as a guest speaker at the group’s events.

Previous studies have found no link between wind farms and increased health problems. The Wisconsin Wind Siting Council, an advisory group to the state’s public service commission, issued a report to the state legislature last fall that concluded that “some individuals residing in close proximity to wind turbines perceive audible noise and find it annoying,” but “it appears that this group is in the minority and that most individuals do not experience annoyance, stress, or perceived adverse health effects due to the operation of wind turbines.”

Canada’s health department also undertook a large-scale study of the subject in 2012, and concluded last year that wind turbine noise could not be linked to sleep disorders, illnesses, dizziness, ringing in the ears, migraines or headaches, perceived stress, or quality of life concerns. The only thing Canadian health officials did find to be related to wind turbine noise: annoyance with features of turbines, such as noise, shadows cast by the blades, blinking lights, vibrations and visual impacts. They found that louder turbines had a greater impact in that regard. A panel of health experts in Massachusetts also released a study on wind turbine health impacts in 2012 that reached similar conclusions.

Those studies have not diminished the complaints of some residents who live near turbines, however, and that has prompted additional research in this field.

Some renewable energy advocates in the state said they welcome the additional research funded by the Walker budget, as long as it’s based on sound science.

“All peer-reviewed studies to date indicate using the wind is a safe way to generate electricity, far safer for human health than other forms of electricity production, such as coal,” Tyler Huebner, executive director of RENEW Wisconsin, told HuffPost. “If approved and funded, this study should be specifically designed so that the results would be acceptable to the appropriate peer-reviewed science or medical journal. That way, this study would meaningfully expand the body of knowledge on wind and health.”

Others were more skeptical of the governor’s motives. Chris Kunkle, the regional policy manager for the pro-wind group Wind on the Wires, said the study proposed in the budget is “just another example of Gov. Walker’s targeting of an industry that is incredibly successful in largely every other state in the Midwest.”

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Scott Walker Wants to Know If Wind Power Is Making People Sick

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EPA: Low Oil Prices Will Make Keystone XL A Climate Nightmare

by Benny Roye Posted on February 3, 2015

Mother Jones

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Earlier today the Environmental Protection Agency released a letter that one of its top officials sent yesterday to the State Department, weighing in on the debate over the Keystone XL pipeline. The letter is part of a last round of comments from federal agencies before the Obama administration makes a final decision about whether to approve the pipeline, and environmentalists had hoped that it would spell out the threat the project could pose to the climate.

They weren’t disappointed. The EPA letter argues that the recent drop in oil prices means that Keystone XL could come with a major carbon footprint. This is an argument environmentalists like Bill McKibben have been pushing for years. And it’s a big deal—President Barack Obama has said that the pipeline will be approved only if it won’t increase overall greenhouse gas emissions.

Here’s the logic: A pipeline is the cheapest way to move oil; trucks and trains are much more expensive. Canadian tar sands oil is especially expensive to produce. When the price of oil is high, it makes economic sense to export it with trucks and trains. This is the line of reasoning the State Dept. has used to argue that approving the pipeline won’t contribute to climate change: The oil is going to get burned with or without Keystone XL, because producers will just send it out some other way. Republicans in Congress have cited that same State Dept. analysis as evidence that Keystone XL isn’t the climate-killing monster environmentalists make it out to be.

But when the price of oil is so low, that calculus gets turned upside down. According to State’s own analysis, the economic rationale for using trucks and trains starts to erode once the price of oil dips much below $75 per barrel. Right now, oil is hovering around $50 a barrel. So if prices stay low and the if the pipeline isn’t built, that oil might actually stay buried—where many climate scientists have said it needs to stay if we’re to avoid disastrous levels of global warming.

Here’s the key line from the EPA letter:

“At sustained oil prices within this range, construction of the pipeline is projected to change the economics of oil sands development and result in increased oil sands production, and the accompanying greenhouse gas emissions, over what would otherwise occur.”

Some energy analysts disagree, arguing that oil prices would have to drop much further than current levels to have an impact on tar sands production. And even though there’s reason to think oil could be cheap for a while, energy companies don’t tend to make big expensive decisions about where and how to drill based on short-term market trends. So there’s still room for debate on the EPA’s take here.

The EPA letter is likely to become a centerpiece of the pipeline debate as Congress continues to wrangle over the issue. (A bill to approve the pipeline passed the Senate last week, and next week the House is expected to take it up once again. President Obama has promised to veto the bill.) But the more important thing to watch is whether it changes any minds in the Obama administration, which is nearing a final decision on whether the pipeline will be built.

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EPA: Low Oil Prices Will Make Keystone XL A Climate Nightmare

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How China’s Filthy Air Is Screwing With Our Weather

by Salvato23K Posted on January 30, 2015

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

As the snow began to fall earlier this week in the lead up to the season’s first major blizzard, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told reporters that the Northeast was witnessing “a pattern of extreme weather that we’ve never seen before.” Climate change, Cuomo argues, is fueling bigger, badder weather events like this one—and like Hurricane Sandy.

While the science that links specific snowstorms to global warming is profoundly difficult to calculate, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says it’s “very likely”—defined as greater than 90 percent probability—that “extreme precipitation events will become more intense and frequent” in North America as the world warms. In New York City, actual snow days have decreased, but bigger blizzards have become more common, dumping more snow each time. Mashable reported that all of New York City’s top 10 snowfalls have occurred in the past 15 years. Scientists can trace the cause to the enormous amount of energy we’re pumping into the oceans. Kevin Trenberth, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, told Wired this week that “the oceans are warmer, and the air above them is more moist”—giving storms more energy to unleash more precipitation. In short, the blizzard dubbed Juno was being fueled in part by the ocean’s excess of climate change-related heat.

But climate change may not be the only way that human activity is making storms worse. In an emerging body of work, NASA scientists have identified a surprising contributor to American storms and cold snaps: Asia’s air pollution. Over the past few years, a team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology has found that aerosols—or airborne particles—emitted from the cities fueling Asia’s booming economies are making storm activity stronger in the Northwest Pacific Ocean. These storms wreak havoc on the polar jet stream, a major driver of North America’s weather. The result: US winters with heavier snowfall and more intense cold periods.

Pollution billowing from Asia’s big cities, they found, is essentially “seeding” the clouds with sulfur, carbon grit, and metals. This leads to thicker, taller, and more energetic clouds, with heavier precipitation. These so-called “extratropical” cyclones in the Northwest Pacific have become about 10 percent stronger over the last 30 years, the scientists say.

Chinese cities, for example, are so toxic that 90 percent of them fail to meet the country’s own pollution standards. But it’s not just China. In terms of air quality, 13 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world are in India. And thirty-one of the world’s 50 most polluted cities are found in China and Southeast Asia (including India), according to the World Health Organization.

New Delhi, India, has the worst air pollution in the world, according to the WHO. All that smog is altering weather patterns around the world. Altaf Qadri, File/AP

The NASA animation above shows how these aerosol emissions moved around the world, from September 1, 2006, to April 10, 2007. I’ve included two versions of it. The first shows the Earth as a globe, the second shows the planet laid out flat. Also seen in the video are locations of wildfires, indicated by red and yellow dots. At the start, fires burn over South America and Africa, emitting black carbon, while dust from the Sahara moves westwards, getting sucked into two Atlantic cyclones. Later, in February, fires burning in Thailand and Southeast Asia mix with sulfates from industry in China and are eventually pulled eastward into cyclones that cross the Pacific and reach North America.

The work raises questions about proposals to “geoengineer” the globe by pumping aerosols into the atmosphere, which some argue could reduce the Earth’s temperature by partially blocking out the sun. The NASA researchers found that sulfates are the most effective type of aerosol for deepening extratropical cyclones, which means that using them to fight global warming could bring about more stormy winter weather around the world.

There’s some hope that China is attempting to stabilize and, eventually, curb its pollution through new emissions standards that would cut the level of dangerous particles, including sulfates. There are also signs that China’s coal boom—the source of most of the country’s air pollution—is finally slowing down. A new analysis released this week by Greenpeace showed that for the first time this century, China’s coal consumption fell in 2014.

But India is another story. That country, which has the fifth-largest reserves of coal on Earth, is desperate to provide power to its millions of impoverished citizens. Sixty percent of the India’s power currently comes from coal, and despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promises to ramp up solar energy, he is also planning to double India’s coal production to more than 1 billion tons annually.

So stock up on non-perishable grocery items. Looks like those blizzards are only going to increase in size.

Link – 

How China’s Filthy Air Is Screwing With Our Weather

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