Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded.
Daily Climate Change: Global Map of Unusual Temperatures, July 13 2014
How unusual has the weather been? No one event is "caused" by climate change, but global warming, which is predicted to increase unusual, extreme weather, is having a daily effect on weather, worldwide.
Looking above at recent temperature anomalies, the eastern Pacific warm spot is changing in shape but continues to prevent much rain from reaching California. Much of the west coast of North America is far warmer than normal, while the mid-section is significantly cooler than normal.
The North Pole is experiencing average summer temperatures, but the surrounding lands are experiencing much warmer than normal temperatures - not good news for our Arctic thermal shield of ice. Hotter than usual temperatures continue to dominate human habitats.
(Add 0.3-0.4 C to have these anomaly values calibrate with those of NASA.) Daily updates of can be seen here for both the temperature anomalies map, and the jetstream map. For real time animated US surface wind patterns, click here, and here, for the planet. (Clicking on "earth" there reveals data and map options.)
SOLAR KEEPS SURFING
Photo by Pete Cabrinha
The US solar installation industry continues to condense, with the top 10 installers comprising half of the US Residential PV market in early 2014.
More signs are emerging that cleantech is booming, and the Energy Information Administration (EIA) has just created US maps to show how clean energy is developing throughout the US.
OO The solar power potential of the contiguous U.S. and the sites of most of the nation's solar power generating facilities. The darker the shade of brown, the greater the solar power production potential of an area. Credit: EIA
Other new maps show how solar power is starting to take hold in parts of the US southwest, while microgrids are expanding, becoming cleaner, and commercial energy storage is becoming more viable in the US.
Meanwhile, SunPower, one of the rooftop solar installers, has begun adding energy storage capabilities to their installations in new homes.
Credit Dennis Schroeder/NREL
In Arizona, solar companies are fighting back against the new rooftop solar tax.
In coal-producing Australia, solar power continues to expand, and US-based First Solar, a large solar manufacturer and project developer, predicts that utility-scale solar costs in Australia will halve over the next five years, becoming cheaper than wind energy by 2020.
Renewable Energy Set To Skyrocket Globally. Global adoption of renewable energy shows no signs of slowing over the next 15 years, with nearly two-thirds of an expected $7.7 trillion in new investment going toward non-fossil power generation, according to new projections by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, reports Daniel Cusick at ClimateWire.
RISING RISKS
Extreme Weather:
Super Typhoon Neoguri, as seen from the International Space Station. Credit: NASA/ Astronaut Reid Wiseman.
OO 'Once In Decades' Super Typhoon Neoguri Nears Japan, Nuclear Power Plants
OO Super Typhoon Neoguri: 5 Stormy Facts
OO First US 2014 Hurricane Arthur Spawns Rain, Lightning, and a Horizontal Tornado also known as a dorecho.
Credit James Gathany
OO Global Warming To Worsen 8 Summer Miseries, From Poison Ivy To Allergies to biting insects and pollutions says a new report.
OO Dangerous Tropical Disease Spreading Like Wildfire Across Caribbean and
with increasingly warmer conditions caused by climate change, scientists worry Chikungunya fever's next stop is the United States.
Loss of grazing fish, such as this Stoplight Parrot Fish, in the Caribbean is driving the decline of these coral reefs. Wikipedia.
OO Caribbean Coral Reefs 'Will be Lost Within 20 Years' due to loss of grazing fish to overfishing and pollution, BUT reversing this would increase reefs' resiliency to climate change, says a new report.
OO Climate-Resilient But Less Nutritious Crops To Increase Malnutrition, scientists say.
Bryce Canyon National Park. Credit James Gordon at Flickr.
OO Climate Change Under Way at National Parks says new federal report.
OO Climate Change Comes To National Parks: Melting Glaciers, Dying Trees. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell sees the impact of climate change at just about every national park she visits.
Wildfires are increasing in the US west with increasing global warming.
Credit Matt Granz at twitter, Sacramento National Weather Service.
OO Napa Wildfire Burns As Drought Wallops California
OO Engineers Warn UK Infrastructure at Risk from Climate
OO UK Future Food Security Threatened By Complacency, Leaders Warn
Credit Henrik Egede Lassen, Alpha Film
OO Dark Snow: From Arctic To Himalayas, It Is Accelerating Glacier Melting - industrial dust and soil, blown thousands of miles, settle on ice sheets and add to rising sea level threat.
OO No Country Will Escape Climate Impacts, Warns UK Ministry Of Defence
OO Pakistan Faces 'Environmental Cataclysm' Warn Officials
WHAT WORKS
OO UK Doctors Vote To End Fossil Fuels Funding. The UK's national medical organization sends a strong message about climate change by voting to withdraw funds from the fossil fuel industry and to support renewable energy instead.
OO The Declaration Of Interdependence: Jefferson's 'Brilliant Statement Of Intergenerational Equity' - we rob the liberties of future generations by bankrupting their environmental legacy.
OO Pope Francis: Destroying The Rainforest Is A Sin - and over-exploiting the earth.
You can donate here.
OO Historic First: Congressional Climate Candidate makes climate a centerpiece issue in a democratic primary race for a Michigan house seat, reports Michael Mann at ClimateCrocks. "Renewed Energy for Michigan" is candidate Nancy Skinner's slogan. We need more like her.
Koch brothers protest. Credit Matt Leonard at Flickr.
OO Obama Allies Take On Koch Brothers Over Climate Denial calling on voters to fight back against Koch influence. There should be a law against getting high on Koch.
A federal ruling could influence the future of major fossil fuel projects. Wikipedia.
Judge's Rejection Of Coal Mine Based On Global-Warming Has Major Implications For Pipelines and more
reports John Cushman at InsideClimate News. The federal judge blocked a Colorado coal project because federal agencies failed to consider the future global-warming damages from burning fossil fuels. The same rationale could be used potentially to block the Keystone pipeline and other fossil fuel projects.
OO Energy Department Announces $4 Billion For Projects To Fight Global Warming
EPA Proposes To Limit Methane Pollution From Trash Dumps reports Emily Atkin at Climate Progress. Additionally, other proposed measures will target methane emissions from oil wells on native American reservations.
Credit Peter Gordois at Wikimedia Commons.
OO UN Gains New Powers To Tackle Air Pollution
OO Getting China Climate Action Via US Unilateral Emissions Cuts
OO Chinese Coal Consumption To Peak In 2024 - Bloomberg
OO To Improve Accuracy, BBC Tells Reporters: No Air Time To Climate Deniers
OO This Train Could Power A Fleet Of Electric Buses by redirecting its waste heat
OO How Energy Efficiency Is Hitting It Big With The High Tech Industry
OO Diverting Fossil Fuel Subsidies Into Clean Tech could raise what researchers say is the extra $80 billion needed per year to avert dangerous climate change.
OO Success: UK Climate Change Policies Have Not Harmed Economy
and its businesses, says a Grantham Institute study.
WHAT DOESN'T WORK
OO North Dakota, Texas Send U.S. Oil Boom Skyrocketing - enabling more global warming and climate change.
OO Politicians Trying To Fund Overseas Coal Projects Via 'Eliminating Bureaucracy'
OO Nine States Join Climate Denier's Lawsuit To Dismantle EPA Carbon Rule
OO 2,500 Oklahoma Earthquakes Linked To Fracking, Scientists Say
OO 40% of Pennsylvania Wells Projected To Fail, Spewing Methane Into Air, Water
OO Fire At Ohio Fracking Well Forced Evacuations, Likely Killed Fish
OO What Every Governor Really Believes About Climate Change, In One Handy Map - helpful in identifying political obstacles; the map is an interactive one at the Climate Progress website.
OO South Asia Slow To Act On Water Threats
OO Quick Methane, Soot Fixes Won't Solve CO2 Danger
Booming Populations, Rising Economies, Threatened Biodiversity Are Changing Tropics. Foreign images of the tropics often include verdant rainforests, exotic animals, and unchanging weather, but they may also be of entrenched poverty, unstable governments, and appalling environmental destruction reports Jeremy Hance at Mongabay. A massive new report, The State of the Tropics, however, finds that the truth is far more complicated.
KEEPING CARBON STORED: FOREST UPDATE
OO Deforestation Rate in Indonesia Surpasses Brazil
OO Big Paper Company: Indonesia Needs A New Business Model to maintain its forests.
As Siberian forests decline so do beautiful Siberian tigers. Photo by Appaloosa.
OO Japan's Demand For Illegal Wood Driving Rampant Deforestation In Siberia
OO New Program Predicts When Forest Human Communities Impact Becomes Too Much
There is, of course, much more news on the consequences and solutions to climate change. To get it, check out this annotated resource list I've compiled, "Climate Change News Resources," , at Wordpress.com here. For more information on the science of climate change, its consequences and solutions you can view my annotated list of online information resources here.
To help you understand just what science does and does NOT do, check this out!
Every day is Earth Day, folks, as I was reminded by this Gunnison Mariposa Lily I photographed one summer. 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.