Climate Change This Week: Big Bad Drought, Flowing Batteries, and More!

You Know That Big Bad US Drought of 2012? It Will Likely Worsen in 2013, says NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as it continues through this spring, reports Suzanne Goldenber at the UK Guardian. Which means, of course, higher food prices are on the way....

Flow Batteries Will Float A Clean Energy Future, reports Martin LaMonica at Newscientist. Latest designs store huge amounts of energy safely, with the potential to smooth out the power from renewables and replace the vulnerable national grid with a giant web of self-sufficient, more resilient clean energy microgrids. Yes!! This future can't come fast enough!

*********Climate Change Round the World***********

** Himalayas: Half the World's Water Supply Is Drying Up As Glaciers Retreat

** Iceland: Natural "Geo-engineering" Iron Seeding of Ocean Fails to Cut Carbon Dioxide

** Capitals of Bangladesh, Philippines, Thailand Top Climate Change Hit-List

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** Carbon Tax: China Acts As US Sleeps altho China's C tax is so small that political instability from climatic stress will still threaten its government...

** England: Keeping Carbon in Peat bogs Vital to Checking Global Climate Change

** Climate Change Further Stresses Pakistan - And A Plan Is Born

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Let's Count The Ways Keystone Helps US -Oops, Harms US ...unless... Do 35 permanent jobs count? Act Like You Care: The XL Keystone pipeline will make possible far more climate change, but President Obama might okay it anyway. Credo, 350.org and others are asking people to stand up and be counted as nonviolent resisters or help in other ways. I did. If you ever wanted to do something big for your future, now's your chance - here!

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Atmospheric Warming Tied To Greenland High, Shoveling Arctic Cold into US, reports Neven Acropolis at Climate Progress, with help from Andrew Freedman at Climate Central. Strong high pressure areas, which new studies tie to climate change, act like atmospheric stop signs, allowing US storms to gather strength and Arctic cold. Snow cones, anyone?

Colorful but not pretty picture of the fractured Arctic Ice Cap, via Arctic Sea Ice Blog

☼☼☼☼☼ On the Bright Side ☼☼☼☼☼

*** Why Are Energy Futures Green? Clean Energy Prices Are Diving as Fossil Fuels Trend Up, Google Says, so they're investing big time - it's the money, man....

*** Solar To Be Second Biggest Source of New US Power in 2013

*** Crowd Funding Solar Lowers Its Cost, by providing much lower interest loans than alternative financing... what are you waiting for? You can invest today through crowd-funding Mosaic here!

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*** Clean Renewable Energy Now Powers Much of Apple, the company, not the fruit...

*** Bio-Cement Solves 2 Problems, sequestering biowaste while improving cement strength.

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Climate Change Makes Water A National Security Issue Worldwide, says a recent UN report, reports Alister Doyle at Reuters News. Add to that potent mix a 7 billion - and growing - human population. Something's gonna give, folks, and it's not going to be pretty...

Pay Africa to Produce Clean Energy And Watch It Develop, a new report says, reports Alex Kirby at Climate News Network. Guaranteeing a market for clean energy has already worked in many countries, and Africa has a large, untapped potential...

@@@@@ CLIMATE CHANGE AT THE MOVIES @@@@@

@@ Wait Until China Acts on Climate - What? They already are?
@@ Humans have already set in Motion 69 feet of Sea Level Rise

@@ The Price of Carbon
@@ Rising Waters: Global Warming and the Fate of Pacific Islands

@@ Ocean Acidification: Where will all the Seashells Go?

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Every day is Earth Day, folks, as I was reminded by these Irises I photographed recently. Making the U.S. a global clean energy leader will ensure a heck of a lot more jobs, and a clean, safe future. If you'd like to join the increasing numbers of people who want to TELL Congress that they will vote for clean energy candidates you can do so here. It's our way of letting Congress know there's a strong clean energy voting bloc out there. For more detailed summaries of the above and other climate change items, audio podcasts and texts are freely available.

Dscn4652 irises