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Rising sea levels will drown your Western art history course

by Magdalynamez Posted on March 6, 2014

Rising sea levels will drown your Western art history course

By

Chris Chabot

At least Macchu Picchu is probably safe from sea level rise.

You know how we sometimes like movies in which famous world landmarks are dramatically destroyed? Climate change is about to bring those scenes to a museum near you, albeit with fewer meteors and more meteoric sea level rise.

According to a new report published Wednesday in Environmental Research Letters, everything you love is going to disappear, assuming you are the kind of person who loves old art and history and stuff. The researchers looked at UNESCO World Heritage sites, which, like humans, tend to cluster near the coasts. They simulated flooding the world with an average of 6.6 meters of sea level rise over a couple of centuries. The result was a very soggy situation: About 140 of 720 sites surveyed would be underwater, or at least in the kiddie pool — and that’s without even accounting for storm surge. As one of the researchers encouragingly clarified, these are the low-ball estimates.

Among the soon-to-be-amphibious landmarks are Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London, the Leaning Tower of Pisa (soon with extra leaning!), some old important-sounding German cities, downtown Bruges, and Naples (unless the volcano gets it first). If your tastes incline to the New World instead, you can focus your anxiety of impending loss on the Statue of Liberty and historic Havana. In any case, Atlantis is about to gain a whole bunch of cultural capital:

Ben Marzeion and Anders Levermann

The purple dots are in trouble even if the thermostat stays where it’s at; everything else up to yellow will drown with just 3 degrees C extra. Click to embiggen.

Though the study takes a slightly longer view than we in the climapocalyse business are used to fretting about — 2000 years — it’s not so long when you’re considering, say, Pompeii — also on the to-be-(re)submerged list. And in any case, the researchers assure us that serious problems will “definitely” arise sooner. From The Guardian:

“It’s relatively safe to say that we will see the first impacts at these sites in the 21st century,” lead author Prof. Ben Marzeion, of the University of Innsbruck in Austria, told the Guardian. “Typically when people talk about climate change it’s about the economic or environmental consequences, how much it’s going to cost. We wanted to take a look at the cultural implications.”

Venice is also on the list, because, duh. With high tides that turn San Marco into a swimming pool twice a day, the city is basically a poster child for the fragility of human accomplishments in the face of time and indifferent nature (shit just got real) as well as for how much rich people will pay to defy the forces of entropy.

While the residents of Kiribati probably wish someone would throw them a gala to save their low-lying island, or at least help them get off it, we’ll concede that artistic heritage is worth some protection. After all, if we’re not worried about staying in touch with past generations, why should we worry about leaving some nice things for the future generations? (Slip-’n-slide at the Doge’s Palace!)

But don’t panic! Luckily for everyone, I have some ideas about what we can do. So pour yourself a glass of Bordeaux to steady your nerves, maybe put on a nice aria — we’ll wait. OK, here goes:

Plan 1: Start spending a lot of money on expensive and questionably effective flood-control measures.

Plan 2: Just get it over with and convert all historical landmarks to water parks.

As far as the first goes, art lovers are on it. I don’t know of anyone working on the second, but changemakers, feel free to get in touch for my blueprints for the Leaning High Dive of Pisa. I guess it’s also worth mentioning the third plan, where we get serious about cutting carbon emissions and successfully restrict warming to a mere 2 degrees C, but even that doesn’t mean you won’t be wearing gaiters on your next stroll through the Accademia.

Amelia Urry is Grist’s intern. Follow her on Twitter.Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Climate & Energy

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Rising sea levels will drown your Western art history course

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Most big countries have climate laws

by BetseyStark Posted on February 28, 2014

Most big countries have climate laws

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Shutterstock

It’s easy to get depressed about the lack of global progress in fighting climate change. But most large nations are at least taking some action.

GLOBE International, a London-based legislators’ group, surveyed climate- and energy-related laws and policies in 66 big countries, which together produce 88 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases. It found that that 62 of the countries have a flagship climate law or regulation, 61 have laws promoting clean energy, and 54 have energy-efficiency laws. In all, there are 487 climate change–related laws or policies in the 66 countries — a sharp increase from decades past:

GLOBE InternationalClick to embiggen.

“Overall, we report substantive legislative progress [last year] in 8 of the 66 countries, which passed flagship legislation, and some positive advances in a further 19 countries,” the report notes. 

But GLOBE International President John Gummer, a climate adviser to the U.K. government, warns that much more action is needed: “We should be clear that the legislative response thus far is not yet sufficient to limit emissions at a level that would cause only a 2 degree Celsius rise in global average temperature, the agreed goal of the international community.”

The following map shows which countries have the most climate-related laws and policies. The light green color of the U.S. indicates that it lags behind global leaders on tackling global warming. But at least it’s ahead of Canada.

GLOBE InternationalClick to embiggen.


Source
The GLOBE Climate Legislation Study, fourth edition, GLOBE International

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Most big countries have climate laws

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Obama has a good transportation plan. Now we just need to raise the gas tax to pay for it.

by Myrna Posted on February 28, 2014

If you can’t pass good legislation, at least promote good ideas. Manfred Steinbach/Thinkstock The problems all started with Newt Gingrich. For decades, federal transportation funding had been a bastion of bipartisanship: The gasoline tax served as a user fee for our roads, 20 percent of the revenue went to mass transit and the rest to highways, and everyone kept the system running so their districts could get what they needed. Then, in 1994, Gingrich led the right-wing Republican insurgency that took over the House of Representatives. They did not want to raise the gas tax, even to keep pace with inflation. They actually tried to repeal the previous gas-tax increase, from 1993. Hatred of the gas tax, like hatred of all taxes, soon calcified into Republican orthodoxy. Rather than increase the gas tax, President George W. Bush presided over a growing gap between our transportation needs and the revenue the tax generated. And the problem has not been fixed under Obama. With Republicans currently controlling the House, Congress cannot pass a reauthorization of the surface transportation law that would address our nation’s growing transportation investment needs. Instead, they have retained the status quo through a series of short-term extensions and then, in 2012, a two-year authorization (normally the law is extended for six years) that maintained current funding levels by using general revenues to patch a shortfall in the Highway Trust Fund, which is supposed to be fully supported by the gas tax. That authorization expires this year, so some kind of transportation deal will have to be worked out in the coming months. To read the rest of this article, head to Grist. Original article:   Obama has a good transportation plan. Now we just need to raise the gas tax to pay for it. ; ;Related ArticlesIs the Arctic Really Drunk, or Does It Just Act Like This Sometimes?Climate Change “Very Evident,” So Let’s Deal With It, World Panel SaysYou Can’t Beat Climate Change With Weather Guns ;

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Obama has a good transportation plan. Now we just need to raise the gas tax to pay for it.

Posted in alo, Citadel, eco-friendly, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, Monterey, Mop, ONA, OXO, solar, solar power, Sprout, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Obama has a good transportation plan. Now we just need to raise the gas tax to pay for it.

Last Weekend, a 10-Second Airport Delay Went Viral

by LupitaRiegel Posted on February 26, 2014

Mother Jones

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Today the Washington Post brings us the perfect tale of modern viral hysteria. Apparently Ashley Brandt had a problem with her DC driver’s license at the Phoenix airport, and social media went wild after her boyfriend tweeted about it. Here is the entire story:

According to Brandt, an agent with the Transportation Security Administration took a look at her D.C. license and began to shake her head. “I don’t know if we can accept these,” Brandt recalled the agent saying. “Do you have a U.S. passport?’

Brandt was dumbfounded, and quickly grew a little scared….Brandt says the agent yelled out to a supervisor, working in adjacent security line. Are D.C. licenses valid identification?

Brandt says she could hear the response, “Yeah, we accept those.”

And that was it. A TSA agent was unsure about something, and then cleared it up in a few seconds. And the twitterverse went crazy.

I get it: we all hate TSA, and TSA agents sometimes do dumb things. And social media encourages mob reactions based on 140-character rants. But honestly, folks. Chill. Not every minor inconvenience in the world deserves to go viral.

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Last Weekend, a 10-Second Airport Delay Went Viral

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Vladimir Putin May Be Tough, But He’s Also Destroying Russia

by Rafael40Ru Posted on February 24, 2014

Mother Jones

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Steve Benen catches Bill Kristol saying this about Ukraine:

So, look; it’s nice for President Obama to say it’s not “a Cold War chessboard.” I don’t know why he says that with some disdain. That was not an ignoble thing for us to play on that chessboard for 45 years. We ended up winning that Cold War.

And I do think Putin thinks he’s playing chess. He thinks he’s playing even a rougher game than chess and we have to be able to match it.

I don’t know squat about Ukraine, and I don’t really know much about Russia either. So take what I’m about to say with a big grain of salt.

That said, here it is: do guys like Kristol ever learn? Yes, Putin is playing a rough game. But why does Kristol seem to think that’s something we ought to emulate? Does he not realize that Putin is basically destroying Russia?

During the Cold War, hawks like Kristol routinely warned that the Soviet Union was overtaking us. And they honestly seemed to believe it. But why? Did they really think that the Soviet Union’s command economy was producing faster growth and better weapons systems than ours? They seemed to, even while extolling the virtues of liberal democracy and free market capitalism. But in the end, it turned out that liberal democracy and free market capitalism really were better. The Soviet Union was collapsing before our eyes and we were barely even noticing it.

The same thing is happening now. Has Putin temporarily shored up Russia’s standing in the world? Maybe. But if he has, he’s done it at the expense of Russia’s long-term health. This is, after all, country with serious problems: terrible demographics, a rusty and aging industrial sector, and endemic corruption. Putin has done nothing to address any of this. Instead, he’s papered it over by building an economy based on oligarchy, mineral wealth, and relentless bullying of both neighbors and citizens.

Will that work for a while? Sure. Russia has a helluva lot of mineral wealth. But it won’t last forever, and in the background Russia is getting frailer and frailer. This is the result of Putin ignoring real problems and instead spending his time projecting toughness on the world stage.

That’s what Kristol apparently thinks we should do. But he’s wrong. Putin acts the way he does because he’s ruling from a position of weakness and has no real solutions to Russia’s long-term decline. In the end, the oil and gas will run out; Russia’s neighbors will revolt the same way Ukraine is revolting; the oligarchs will cling on for dear life; and Russia’s place in the world will continue to deteriorate. Anyone who thinks we should adopt even the tiniest piece of Putin’s approach is just being willfully crazy.

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Vladimir Putin May Be Tough, But He’s Also Destroying Russia

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U.S. tries to have it both ways with solar trade policy

by JudithCedillo Posted on February 18, 2014

U.S. tries to have it both ways with solar trade policy

By

Shutterstock

Remember how the U.S. trade representative announced last week that he would haul India before the World Trade Organization to try to force the country to accept more solar-panel imports? It’s a reaction to India’s efforts to protect its own solar industry as it massively boosts its renewable energy capacity.

Darnedest thing: The U.S. government on Friday moved closer to imposing trade restrictions that would limit imports of Taiwanese-made solar components into the U.S. Reuters reports:

The U.S. International Trade Commission ruled on Friday that Chinese solar panels made with cells manufactured in Taiwan may harm the American solar industry, bringing it closer to adding to the duties it slapped on products from China in 2012.

The U.S. arm of German solar manufacturer SolarWorld AG had complained that Chinese manufacturers are sidestepping the duties by shifting production of the cells used to make their panels to Taiwan and continuing to flood the U.S. market with cheap products. …

The value of Chinese solar product imports in the United States fell by almost a third from 2012 to 2013, while imports from Taiwan rose more than 40 percent, although from a much smaller base, according to ITC data.

American solar-installation companies have denounced the move to slap new duties on Taiwanese-manufactured components. That’s because they rely on cheap Asian manufacturers to help keep the price of solar arrays low.

“Just this past week, the U.S. Trade Representative publicly condemned the protectionist solar policies of India because, in his words, protectionist policies would ‘actually impede India’s deployment of solar energy by raising its cost,’” said Jigar Shah, president of the Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy. “By raising the cost of solar for American homeowners, SolarWorld is poised to inflict critical damage on an industry which last year added more than 20,000 solar installation, sales, and distribution jobs to the U.S. economy.”

American solar-panel manufacturers have a different perspective, as you might expect. The dispute puts the U.S. government in a tight spot — is it best to protect panel installers or panel manufacturers? The New Republic recently explained the dilemma:

If the administration doesn’t ratchet up tariffs on Chinese solar makers, it will be accused of speeding the demise of what little solar-panel manufacturing remains in the U.S. That will further erode the administration’s claims that clean energy would bring the country lots of “green” manufacturing jobs. But if the administration ultimately imposes hefty new tariffs on imported Chinese panels … the price of solar power across the country could rise, slowing the advance of a fast-growing, though still niche, green energy source. And that would hurt the firms that are succeeding best in the U.S. solar business today — not those making the panels, but those bolting them onto American rooftops.

Whatever happens, it would be nice to at least see the U.S. show as much sympathy for solar manufacturers in impoverished India as it shows for its own.


Source
China calls for fair handling of escalating solar dispute with U.S., Reuters
CASE Calls U.S. ITC SolarWorld Decision Damaging to U.S. Jobs, Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy
The Next Battle in Our Trade War with China, The New Republic

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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U.S. tries to have it both ways with solar trade policy

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Watch Bill Nye Explain Climate Change to GOP Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn

by Billy Maso Posted on February 16, 2014

Mother Jones

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Bill Nye is getting good at this.

Fresh off a mega-debate that embarrassed Young Earth creationists and led to none other than Pat Robertson denouncing their views, Nye appeared on Meet the Press today to debate Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), a global warming “skeptic.”

On the air, Blackburn, who is vice-chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, denied that there is a scientific consensus on climate change and argued that “you don’t make good laws, sustainable laws, when you’re making them on hypotheses, or theories, or unproven sciences.” (There is indeed such a scientific consensus; at one moment, host David Gregory had to correct Blackburn on this point.)

But Nye rebutted her with some simple science lessons that made a lot of sense—noting that going from 320 to 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, something Blackburn called “very slight,” is actually a very big change in percentage terms (Nye said 30 percent; it is actually a 25 percent increase). At the same time, Nye also hammered home a compelling message centered on patriotism. “As a guy who grew up in the US,” he said, “I want the US to lead the world in this….The more we mess around with this denial, the less we’re going to get done.”

The key gotcha moment in the debate came when Nye called out Blackburn for failing to lead on the climate issue. “You are our leader,” he said to Blackburn. “We need you to change things, not deny what’s happening.”

“Neither he nor I are a climate scientist,” Blackburn noted during the debate. But as Nye observed, only one of them is a politician, whose job is to use the best information that we have at our disposal to make the world work better.

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Watch Bill Nye Explain Climate Change to GOP Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn

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National Briefing | Midwest: Ice Tops 88 Percent of Great Lakes; Cover Is Biggest Since 1994

by ForrestWalter Posted on February 14, 2014

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White Dwarf Issue 2: 8 Feb 2014 – White Dwarf

Issue 2 showcases more new Dwarf releases and an interview with the author of the new Dwarf army book, Jeremy Vetock, along with rules for the fantastic new Gyrobomber. About this series: White Dwarf is Games Workshop’s weekly magazine, and boasts a wealth of great content, from the latest new releases to modelling and painting guides, gaming features, […]

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White Dwarf Issue 3: 15 Feb 2014 – White Dwarf

Issue 3 puts the new Dwarfs to the test with a battle report against the dastardly Skaven. We also interview the army painters who put together the themed Studio Zhufbar army. About this series: White Dwarf is Games Workshop’s weekly magazine, and boasts a wealth of great content, from the latest new releases to modelling and painting guides, gaming fea […]

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Warhammer: Dwarfs – Games Workshop

From their mountain strongholds the Dwarfs march forth to war. Amongst the oldest of the races of the world, the Dwarfs have endured through long centuries of conflict and turmoil. Sturdy and stoic as the mountains they mine, in battle they are implacable foes, standing their ground behind solid shield walls and glittering gromril armour. Dwarf invention mak […]

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A Guide to Landscape Maintenance for Central Texas Gardens – Virginia Ginger Hudson

A Guide to Landscape Maintenance for Central Texas Gardens is a how-to guide written for homeowners and gardeners about the process of maintaining their own landscapes. It is written for the person who is new to landscape maintenance as well as homeowners who are looking for expanded techniques for care in their landscapes. Novice and experienced gardeners w […]

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Warhammer Battlefields: The Underway – Games Workshop

War rages beneath the mountains of the Warhammer World, subterranean armies fighting for bloody dominance of the Undgrin Ankor: the Underway. Created by the Dwarfs during their golden age, this ancient network of deep roads and cavern cities crisscrosses the roots of the world. However, during the great catastrophe that laid the Dwarf empire low, the Underwa […]

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The Art of Raising a Puppy (Revised Edition) – Monks of New Skete

For more than thirty years the Monks of New Skete have been among America’s most trusted authorities on dog training, canine behavior, and the animal/human bond. In their two now-classic bestsellers, How to be Your Dog’s Best Friend and The Art of Raising a Puppy, the Monks draw on their experience as long-time breeders of German shepherds and as t […]

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How to Paint Citadel Miniatures: Dwarfs – Games Workshop

Shining armour, intricate runes and flowing beards are all hallmarks of the Dwarf race. Their mastery over metals means that their armour and weapons are often the finest in the Old World, their craftsmanship far beyond the ability of Man. There are few sights on the tabletop as inspiring as ranks of armoured Dwarfs advancing on their foes. About this Editio […]

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Cat Sense – John Bradshaw

Cats have been popular household pets for thousands of years, and their numbers only continue to rise. Today there are three cats for every dog on the planet, and yet cats remain more mysterious, even to their most adoring owners. In Cat Sense , renowned anthrozoologist John Bradshaw takes us further into the mind of the domestic cat than ever before, using […]

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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, says, “Yes, […]

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Marley & Me – John Grogan

The heartwarming and unforgettable story of a family and the wondrously neurotic dog who taught them what really matters in life. Now with photos and new material

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National Briefing | Midwest: Ice Tops 88 Percent of Great Lakes; Cover Is Biggest Since 1994

Posted in alo, Citadel, eco-friendly, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, Monterey, ONA, solar, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on National Briefing | Midwest: Ice Tops 88 Percent of Great Lakes; Cover Is Biggest Since 1994

Figure Skating Is Hopelessly Corrupt

by PEACarinzhpby Posted on February 12, 2014

Mother Jones

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Which sport is more corrupt, ski jumping or figure skating? Normally, my rule of thumb is that the higher up the world ladder you go (local vs. national vs. international) the more corrupt a sport becomes. Thus, I would have guessed that a sport in which the international federation chooses judges would be more corrupt than one in which national federations choose judges. But no! Eric Zitzewitz has compared two sports and finds just the opposite:

Ski jumping has its international federation select the judges for competitions like the Olympics, and I find that they select the least biased judges. Figure skating lets its national federations select the judges, and my research showed that they select the most biased judges.

This creates different incentives for judges. Ski jumping judges display less nationalism in lower-level competitions — it appears they keep their nationalism under wraps in less important contests to avoid missing their chance at judging the Olympics. Figure skating judges are actually more biased in the lesser contests; they may actually be more biased than they would like to be due to pressure from their federations.

It turns out that ski jumping judges are biased, but the other judges are mostly biased in the other direction, so everything ends up even. Having an American judge doesn’t help American jumpers. Figure skating is just the opposite. Not only are national judges biased, the other judges all go along. If an American judge is on the panel, American skaters get higher marks from the American judge and also get higher marks from all the other judges:

Of all these results, I am most intrigued by the contrast between the ski jumping judges undoing each other’s biases and the figure skating judges reinforcing them. When we make decisions in a group at work, we often encounter individuals with strong biases — say to hire a particular type of job candidate. When we do, we have a choice. We can act like a ski jumping judge, and resist the bias, in an effort to keep things fair. Or we can act like a figure skating judge and say “hiring this guy really seems important to Joe, I wonder what he’ll give me in return if I go along.” We have probably all seen examples of both in our lives.

There’s a small mountain of other evidence that figure skating is hopelessly corrupt, and has aggressively protected that corruption ever since the judging scandals of 1998 and 2002. Zitzewitz has the evidence if you read his entire post.

But corruption can only go so far. That 15-year-old Russian figure skater, Julia Lipnitskaia, is so good that even I could tell how good she was when she skated in the team competition. All the corruption in the world couldn’t have robbed her of the top score.

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Figure Skating Is Hopelessly Corrupt

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India plans world’s biggest solar project, but money is a hurdle

by LottiePonder Posted on February 10, 2014

India plans world’s biggest solar project, but money is a hurdle

By

Ashley Coates

The sun sets over the parched Indian state of Rajasthan, where the world’s biggest solar array is planned.

India has just 2,200 megawatts of grid-connected solar power — less than a quarter of the capacity in the U.S. But four years ago, the heavily coal-dependent country had only 18 megawatts, so it’s been quickly upping its game. 

And now it’s talking up plans to build the world’s biggest solar power plant in the desert-dominated state of Rajasthan, which abuts Pakistan’s border.

If built, the $4.4 billion solar array would cover an area larger than Manhattan and be capable of producing 4,000 megawatts of electricity — an amount that Nature compared with the output of four nuclear power plants. It’s proposed for an area near a government salt-mining operation.

A half dozen state-owned companies last month signed a memorandum of understanding related to the project. Financing such a mammoth project, though, will not be easy, so India is preparing to turn to the World Bank for assistance. domain-B, an Indian business magazine, explains:

The ministry of new and renewable energy has submitted a proposal to the department of economic affairs (DEA) for approaching the World Bank for loan assistance of $500 million for implementation of the 750 MW first phase of the proposed 4000 MW ultra mega solar power project to be set up on the vacant land of Hindustan Salts Ltd at Sambhar, Rajasthan, at a total estimated cost of $1.09 billion.

The DEA is evaluating the proposal and once it is forwarded, the World Bank is likely to consider financing the project, minister of new and renewable energy Farooq Abdullah informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply on Friday.

The World Bank decided last year to shift away from financing coal plants, so this big solar project should be right up its alley.

India has been a prickly negotiator during climate talks, frustrating other countries by stalling progress on emissions agreements. But at least it’s starting to walk the right walk on solar and wind at home.


Source
India to build world’s largest solar plant, Nature
World Bank loan sought for Rajasthan mega solar power project, domain-B

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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India plans world’s biggest solar project, but money is a hurdle

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