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Ah, Trump logic:)
Peter Frumhoff, chief climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “It’s like saying, ‘If everyone around me is wealthy, then poverty is not a problem.'”

White House Panel Will Study Whether Climate Change Is a National Security Threat. It Includes a Climate Denialist.

WASHINGTON — President Trump is preparing to establish a panel to examine how climate change affects national security, to include a White House adviser whose views are sharply at odds with the established scientific consensus that human-caused global warming poses a threat to the nation’s economy, health and security.

According to a White House memo dated Feb. 14, Mr. Trump’s staff members have drafted an executive order to create a 12-member Presidential Committee on Climate Security that will advise Mr. Trump about “how a changing climate could affect the security of the United States.” The memo was first reported by The Washington Post.

The panel would include William Happer, a Princeton physicist who serves as Mr. Trump’s deputy assistant for emerging technologies. Dr. Happer has gained notoriety in the scientific community for his statements that carbon dioxide — the greenhouse gas that scientists say is trapping heat and warming the planet — is beneficial to humanity.

More positively for some respected positivity:


Sir David Attenborough to present climate change documentary

Sir David Attenborough is to present an "urgent" new documentary about climate change for BBC One.

The one-off film will focus on the potential threats to our planet and the possible solutions.

The broadcaster says "conditions have changed far faster" than he ever imagined when he first started talking about the environment 20 years ago. The documentary will show footage showing the impact global warming has already had...


All on our only one planet,
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Florida Power & Light stakes its claim for the world’s largest solar battery system

Florida Power & Light has joined the race to build the world’s largest solar battery storage system, announcing plans for its massive Manatee Energy Storage Center.

The utility plans to build a 409 MW/900 MWh battery, to be powered by an existing FPL solar plant in Manatee County, Florida. It will begin serving customers in 2021.

FPL says the battery system will be able to power 329,000 homes for two hours. For comparison, FPL notes the battery system is equivalent to 100 million iPhone batteries, or 300 million AA batteries. The system will be used in periods of high demand.

The Manatee Energy Storage Center will accelerate the retirement of two natural gas units at a nearby power plant. FPL says the project will save customers more than $100 million while eliminating more than 1 million tons of carbon emissions, though no cost estimates for the project were disclosed.

Emphasis mine... "renewables" are now cheaper than fossil fuels, even natural gas, and this will be the driver of conversion, not legislation, environmental concerns or anything else.... just the free market at work. This is why I'm continually confused by so-called free-market fiscal conservatives opposing them (yes, I know they are being bought off by the fossils.)

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Florida Power & Light stakes its claim for the world’s largest solar battery system

Florida Power & Light has joined the race to build the world’s largest solar battery storage system, announcing plans for its massive Manatee Energy Storage Center.

The utility plans to build a 409 MW/900 MWh battery, to be powered by an existing FPL solar plant in Manatee County, Florida. It will begin serving customers in 2021.

FPL says the battery system will be able to power 329,000 homes for two hours. For comparison, FPL notes the battery system is equivalent to 100 million iPhone batteries, or 300 million AA batteries. The system will be used in periods of high demand.

The Manatee Energy Storage Center will accelerate the retirement of two natural gas units at a nearby power plant. FPL says the project will save customers more than $100 million while eliminating more than 1 million tons of carbon emissions, though no cost estimates for the project were disclosed.

Emphasis mine... "renewables" are now cheaper than fossil fuels, even natural gas, and this will be the driver of conversion, not legislation, environmental concerns or anything else.... just the free market at work. This is why I'm continually confused by so-called free-market fiscal conservatives opposing them (yes, I know they are being bought off by the fossils.)

(It is called depreciation on the balance sheet.)

.....329,000 homes for two hours.....

ROTFLOMFAO!!!!!

I've Worked at POWER Plants. NUKE and OTHERs, and I Liked to Watch dAt HUGE TURBINE SHAFT Spinnin' ITs ASS OFF and PROVIDING POWER 24/7/365. 365 Times 24 is..............ROTFLMMFAO!!!!!

.....329,000 homes for two hours.....

AGAIN!!!!! ROTFLOMFAO!!!!!

TWO HOURs ROTFLMMFAO!!!!!

RUBEWorld is ROTFLOMFAO!!!!!

Typing OHs 24/7/365 and ONE GREAT ORANGe YAPe

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May we All have a METAMORPHOSIS. REASON. GOoD JUDGEMENT and LOVE and ORDER!!!!!

Possible Co2 solution?

Thanks for that... An interesting approach and with even more 'interesting' sponsorship:


A technology that removes carbon dioxide from the air has received significant backing from major fossil fuel companies...

So how does this system work?

CO2 is a powerful warming gas but there's not a lot of it in the atmosphere - for every million particles of air, there are 410 of CO2.

While the CO2 is helping to drive temperatures up around the world, the comparatively low concentrations make it difficult to design efficient machines to remove the gas. Carbon Engineering's process is all about sucking in air and exposing it to a chemical solution that concentrates the CO2. Further refinements mean the gas can be purified into a form that can be stored or utilised as a liquid fuel...


Hopefully there will be a good balance for business without pushing our planet into too much climate destruction...

Here's watching for the business and political games...

All on our only one planet,
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

For another interesting bit of positivity:


Toyota to share hybrid vehicle secrets for free

Car manufacturer Toyota is to offer royalty-free access to its hybrid vehicle technology patents until 2030.

It is part of a move to promote hybrid cars as a bridge to fully electric vehicles (EVs).

It will grant licences for nearly 24,000 patented technologies relating to motors, converters and batteries...


I do have to wonder what has prompted them... All for the greater good of positive PR? Or mutual benefit for encouraging a hybrid ecosphere??

All on our only one planet,
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Car manufacturer Toyota is to offer royalty-free access to its hybrid vehicle technology patents until 2030.

I do have to wonder what has prompted them... All for the greater good of positive PR? Or mutual benefit for encouraging a hybrid ecosphere??

January 1, 2031 Royalty payments to Toyota push it to the top of the stack as ....

I've been told recently by a person from Toyota that the company is not going down the full electric car route. He said Toyota doesn't believe the full electric car is a workable option for all situations, 5 mins to refuel as an example.

They also think the electrical supply problems have not been thought through. Such as the surge in demand to recharge the car batteries when people return home after a day at work, which will be on top of the present peak demand as people cook and shower. Or how power is going to be available to those without off-street parking.

Toyota are looking at the hydrogen engine plug-in hybrid for their future models.

I would say it could be both or neither.
It depends on how the electricty is produced to drive his car.
Looking at the map and seeing the route he took, most of his electricy power comes from coal, oil and gas power plants that generate a lot of CO2.
With some addition from some nuclear plants that doesn't generate a lot of CO2
And most likely not so much addition from hydropower that doesn't generate CO2 at all.

Wiebe Wakker says he aimed to demonstrate the capacity and reliability of electric cars, in order to promote them as a way of tackling climate change.
Reliability? Perhaps he should try doing the same type of trip through the Arctic regions like the northern Scandinavia, Canada and northern Russia in the winter as well.

Toyota are looking at the hydrogen engine plug-in hybrid for their future models.

Seems like a good idea, Busses and trains are being trialled now and another area that Hydrogen fuel cells are being used are in Drones, specifically the indoor types that are being now used for stocktaking and tracking of goods within some of the more modern warehouses. Hydrogen drones run longer and refuel faster than battery ones.

Battery's themselves are going to cause another problem, has anyone as yet been able to re-cycle the modern ones properly or are we going to create mountains of them if they are too costly to recycle?

The big downside of this is the Taxman, if the cost of the technology for producing and filling up a Hydrogen powered car drops to the point where the average layman can afford to buy it then he will loose another earning stream.

There was talk of a University program that was looking into using Hydrogen as an energy storage system for home produced energy, they mentioned about 90% efficiency on a trial setup.

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Kevin

And down under they agree Sydney Morning Herald - Power grid not ready for spike in electric vehicles with my previous post 1988598.

Pace of Bering Sea changes startles scientists

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The Yupik Eskimo village of Kotlik on Alaska’s northwest coast relies on a cold, hard blanket of sea ice to protect homes from vicious winter Bering Sea storms.

Frigid north winds blow down from the Arctic Ocean, freeze saltwater and push sea ice south. The ice normally prevents waves from forming and locks onto beaches, walling off villages. But not this year.

In February, southwest winds brought warm air and turned thin sea ice into “snow cone ice” that melted or blew off. When a storm pounded Norton Sound, water on Feb. 12 surged up the Yukon River and into Kotlik, flooding low-lying homes. Lifelong resident Philomena Keyes, 37, awoke to knee-deep water outside her house.

“This is the first I experienced in my life, a flood that happened in the winter, in February,” Keyes said in a phone interview.

Winter storm surge flooding is the latest indication that something’s off-kilter around the Bering Strait, the gateway from the Pacific Ocean to the Arctic Ocean. Rapid, profound changes tied to high atmospheric temperatures, a direct result of climate change, may be reordering the region’s physical makeup. Ocean researchers are asking themselves if they’re witnessing the transformation of an ecosystem.

The Bering Sea last winter saw record-low sea ice. Climate models predicted less ice, but not this soon, said Seth Danielson, a physical oceanographer at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

“The projections were saying we would’ve hit situations similar to what we saw last year, but not for another 40 or 50 years,” Danielson said.

Hopefully a big movement has been stirred that even corrupt politicians and industrialists must surrender to:


Extinction Rebellion London protest...

... climate change activists have been arrested for blocking roads in central London, amid protests aimed at shutting down the capital.

A second day of disruption is under way after Extinction Rebellion campaigners camped overnight at Waterloo Bridge, Parliament Square and Oxford Circus...

... Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said although he "shared the passion" of the activists, he was "extremely concerned" about plans some protesters had to disrupt the London Underground on Wednesday. He said it was "absolutely crucial" to get more people to use public transport to tackle climate change. "Targeting public transport in this way would only damage the cause of all of us who want to tackle climate change...

... Extinction Rebellion said it wanted to "shut down London" until 29 April in a series of protests. It called for "reinforcements" to help maintain the roadblock at Waterloo Bridge.

Organisers said protests had been held in more than 80 cities across 33 countries, including in Scotland where 150 protesters have blocked one of the main roads into Edinburgh's city centre...

... Oxford Circus is usually one of the busiest crossroads in London, but only scores of protesters and bemused onlookers can be found in the middle of the road today.

Food stalls offering free porridge, and clothing lines for dirty laundry have been erected. Children as young as six are making use of the freshly-drawn hopscotch, running around the tents and flying colourful banners.

One campaigner, who attended the protest with her two children, says she was protesting for the people who are "the most vulnerable, and least responsible for climate change". Her nine-year-old daughter says she wishes her school taught her more on the issue.

Most protesters say the police have been encouraging - despite the number of arrests - although taxi drivers and shoppers complained of the disruption...


Extinction Rebellion: what do they want - and is it realistic?

Extinction Rebellion's attempts to clog the heart of London and other cities across the UK have undoubtedly driven the issue of climate change up the news agenda.

But amid the die-ins - where protestors pretend to be dead - bridge swarmings and arrests, there hasn't been too much consideration of the group's actual plans to tackle rising temperatures.

As a solution to the "climate breakdown and ecological collapse that threaten our existence", Extinction Rebellion is proposing three key steps...

... What would need to change to get to zero in six years?

Achieving net zero five years earlier than the Zero Carbon Britain plan would be an unprecedented challenge, akin to a wartime situation. It would not be impossible but it would depend on a fierce political commitment. "The honest answer about whether you can hit net zero by 2025 is that until you go for it, nobody knows if you'll get there," said Andrew Simms from the Rapid Transition Alliance, which promotes solutions to climate change that could transform the world over the next 12 years.

"We tend to forget what can be achieved in really compressed periods of time when the whole of industry and the whole of government put their minds to it. "It's like the speed with which we responded to the financial crisis in 2008...



A big bonus is that as well as saving the planet from ourselves, we'll benefit from better cleaner more healthy tech that is profitable for all!

But still... Soon enough?


All on our only one planet,
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Extinction Rebellion London continues:


Extinction Rebellion London activists glue themselves to DLR train

Climate change activists climbed on a train and glued themselves to the carriage in the third day of protests aiming to "shut down London".

Extinction Rebellion protesters have been blocking traffic at Marble Arch, Waterloo Bridge, Parliament Square and Oxford Circus since Monday.

Wednesday's action - affecting a Docklands Light Railway (DLR) train at Canary Wharf - caused minor delays.

More than 300 people have been arrested this week over the protests...



Hopefully there will be enough news and impact for something meaningful and positive to be done sooner...

All on our only one planet,
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)