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Author Topic: Worsening Weather, Earthquakes, Vortices, Volcanoes, CMEs ... What's Up?  (Read 124649 times)

Offline zorgon

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They can rename Washington to NEW HOLLAND :P

New Dykes in Holland... while we still use DIRT BERMS in New Orleans :P


Offline ArMaP

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What's your view of where this fallout originated?
Let's start from the beginning: is it fallout?

space otter

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Re: Worsening Weather, Earthquakes, Vortices, Volcanoes, CMEs ... What's Up?
« Reply #122 on: August 03, 2015, 10:14:54 am »

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/glaciers-melting-fastest-rate_55bf7090e4b06363d5a2a494


Nick Visser
Associate Editor, The Huffington Post
Posted: 08/03/2015 12:15 PM EDT | Edited: 25 minutes ago


World's Glaciers Melting At Fastest Rate Since Record-Keeping Began

"Globally, we lose about three times the ice volume stored in the entirety of the European Alps every year."

The world's glaciers have melted to the lowest levels since record-keeping began more than 120 years ago, according to a study conducted by the World Glacier Monitoring Service that was released on Monday.

The research, published in the Journal of Glaciology, provides new evidence that climate change has spurred the rapid decline of thousands of the world's ice shelves over the past century. The first decade of the 21st century saw the fastest loss of ice since scientists began tracking it in 1894 -- and perhaps in recorded history, WGMS reported.

"Globally, we lose about three times the ice volume stored in the entirety of the European Alps every year," Michael Zemp, director of the WGMS and lead author of the study, told The Huffington Post.

On average, the world's glaciers will lose 30 inches of ice thickness this year, Zemp said. That's twice the rate lost in the 1990s, and three times the rate lost in the 1980s.

The news comes just a few months before many of the world's leaders gather in Paris for the United Nations Conference on Climate Change. The planet's leading scientists have emphasized the importance of reaching a deal, saying there is "no plan B" if the talks fail.

"We’re getting used to the message that glaciers are melting," Michael Zemp, director of the World Glacier Monitoring Service, said. | Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images


The latest news on ice melt continues a trend of worrying statistics. The planet saw the warmest year on record in 2014, and researchers observed the lowest maximum ice extent ever seen earlier this year. All of that lost ice will very likely contribute to catastrophic sea level rise, which some scientists predict could approach 10 feet in the next 50 years.

Preliminary data for the past five years suggest that the melting has continued at an alarming rate, and the "bad news is getting worse," according to Zemp. Up to 90 percent of the glaciers in the European Alps could disappear by the end of the century.

"We’re getting used to the message that glaciers are melting," Zemp said. "But we should not get too used to it."

Glaciers often provide a highly visual signifier of climate change that can be a more effective message than statistics. While it can be hard to feel a tenth of a degree in temperature change over time, the collapse of an ice sheet is hard to ignore, Zemp said.

"I always say to people, 'Go take your children and sit in front of the glacier and take a picture, then go back every year,'" he said. "It reminds you of what you could lose."

lots of links embedded in article at source..two listed below

..................


http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/2015/03/2015-maximum-lowest-on-record/

On February 25, 2015, Arctic sea ice extent appeared to have reached its annual maximum extent, marking the beginning of the sea ice melt season. This year’s maximum extent not only occurred early; it is also the lowest in the satellite record. However, a late season surge in ice growth is still possible. NSIDC will post a detailed analysis of the 2014 to 2015 winter sea ice conditions in early April.

Overview of conditions

NSIDC scientists provide  Arctic Sea Ice News & Analysis, with partial support from NASA.

.....................

http://www.igsoc.org/journal/

Journal of Glaciology

Issue 227 cover

The Journal of Glaciology is published six times a year and is available online to IGS members. The Society is grateful to our founder's widow, Loris Seligman, for a generous bequest that made it possible to publish back issues of the Society's journals online for the benefit of glaciologists worldwide.

The Journal of Glaciology is listed in the ISI Web of Science. The impact factor as published in July 2014 was 3.213.

It is possible to purchase articles from recent volumes online
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/igsoc/jog/


space otter

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Re: Worsening Weather, Earthquakes, Vortices, Volcanoes, CMEs ... What's Up?
« Reply #123 on: August 04, 2015, 02:43:59 pm »


if ya can't move inland soon you better learn to swim or have a good boat handy



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-e-box/ice-melt-fast_b_7927186.html
Jason E Box
Professor in Glaciology, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland
Posted:  08/04/2015 11:14 am EDT    Updated:  5 hours ago


Earth's Ice Is Melting Much Faster Than Forecast. Here's Why That's Worrying.


COPENHAGEN -- For me it was only after eight years of studying Greenland -- installing and maintaining a network of on-ice climate stations and examining how much snow evaporates from the island -- that I suddenly realized glaciology textbooks needed a major revision. This was 2002. Prior to the epiphany, conventional knowledge held that the ice sheet was frozen at its bed and so the reaction time of the ice sheet to climate warming was measured in tens of thousands of years. A heck of a long time.

Climate warming had just infiltrated Greenland glaciology in earnest. Summer melt water, it turned out, drains down quickly to the bed, lubricating the glacier's flow. Suddenly we realized an expanding melt season meant the ice sheet would be sliding faster, longer. It was not to be the only time our philosophy got hit with a major surprise that connected the ice sheet with climate change and the threat of abrupt sea level rise.

The next one came in 2006.

Somehow all marine-terminating glaciers across the southern half of Greenland doubled in speed simultaneously between 2000 and 2005. We didn't yet know why.

In the meantime, scientists tried defining a plausible upper limit for the contribution to sea level rise from Greenland's ice. That was at a time when surging glacier speeds -- ice flow -- was thought to be the dominant conveyer of ice loss, and would be for the foreseeable future. Well -- surprise! -- it became clear that for six years in a row, starting in 2007, ice loss from surface meltwater runoff took over the lead position in the competition for biggest loser. From 2007 to 2012, nearly each summer set higher and higher melt records, owing to persistent and unforseen weather that by 2012 would become a signature of climate change.

The competition between how much ice is lost through glacier flows into fjords versus meltwater runoff is intimately synergistic with meltwater interacting with ice flow all along the way. Increasing melt sends more water down through the ice sheet, softening the ice so it flows faster. Once at the bed the water lubricates flow. Squirting out the front of glaciers into the sea, the meltwater drives a heat exchange that undercuts glaciers, promoting calving, loss of flow resistance and faster flow. Put it this way: in Washington, D.C., to know what's happening, you follow the money; in Greenland you follow the meltwater.


“Put it this way: in Washington, D.C., to know what's happening, you follow the money; in Greenland you follow the meltwater.



Glaciologists became oceanographers when they realized, in 2008, the trigger effect for galloping glaciers was warm pulses of subtropical waters that undermine glaciers at great depth in the sea, at the grounding lines where this warm water can invade.

Indeed, ocean warming is arguably the climate change story. The planetary energy imbalance due to the enhanced greenhouse effect is loading far more heat into the oceans than the atmosphere or land. The world is 70 percent ocean-covered after all. While there were signs of a warming hiatus in air temperatures from 1998 to 2012, the ocean continued to heat up, an equivalent of four Hiroshima bombs, per second, all day, every day. The increase is continuing as we load the atmosphere with CO2.

The fundamental climate heating issue is a problem of too much of a good thing. The natural greenhouse effect -- a good thing -- keeps temperatures tolerable at night. But it has been enhanced by more than a century of people externalizing the environmental costs of stupendous economic growth, loading the atmosphere now with 42 percent more carbon dioxide, 240 percent more methane, 20 percent more nitrous oxide, 42 percent more tropospheric ozone, etc. We have far too much gaseous carbon compounds now in our atmosphere, people. The carbon pollution is, by the way, making our oceans too acidic, threatening the base of the marine food chain. Would someone step forward and deny the changing ocean chemistry? Do I digress?


“We have far too much gaseous carbon compounds now in our atmosphere, people.



The key question, as I see it, is how to project what the sea level will soon be due to ice sheet melting. But this is confounded by us not really knowing what to expect. We keep being surprised by nature being more sensitive and complex. As the science develops, we see more interconnection, where multiplying feedbacks produce surprisingly fast responses.

Will there be some saving self-regulation of human-induced climate warming and its melting land ice consequences? The enormous increase of heat in our oceans, from past decades of enhanced greenhouse effect, negates any hope that negative feedbacks or even solar output will prevent a much warmer world. The few negative feedbacks we have found for ice -- like more snow as a result of a warming climate, more reflective frost, more efficient sub-glacial water transmission -- are clearly being outdone. And at the global scale, despite some negative feedbacks like more clouds, clearly we are not seeing net cooling. Feedbacks, whether positive or negative, only do their thing after the initial effect. Negative feedbacks don't reverse the perturbation.

Seemingly the biggest issue with abrupt sea level rise comes from the now unstoppable loss of key sectors of west Antarctic ice and the discovery of more marine instability than we thought elsewhere. Like glaciers thinning rapidly in east Antarctica. Or in Greenland where improved bedrock maps reveal a marine connection an average of 40 kilometers further inland than previously thought. Or like how new fjord underwater mapping reveals greater fjord depths, increasing the odds that deep warm ocean water can communicate with more Greenland glaciers than previously thought. Surprise, surprise, surprise.


“I'd say we are in for more surprises.



If the past decade of scientific inquiry is any indication, I'd say we are in for more surprises. That notion is further supported by the fact that climate models used to project future temperatures lack key processes that likely reinforce warming or the effects of warming, not regulate it.

Despite decades of progress by many clever scientists engaged with climate modeling, climate models used to inform policymakers don't yet encode key pieces of physics that have ice melting so fast. They don't incorporate thermal collapse -- ice softening due to increasing meltwater infiltration.

Climate models also don't yet incorporate increasing forced ocean convection at the ocean fronts of glaciers that forces a heat exchange between warming water and ice at the grounding lines.

Climate models don't yet include ice algae growth that darkens the bare ice surface.

Climate models don't yet prescribe background dark bare ice from outcropping dust on Greenland from the dusty last ice age.

Climate models don't include increasing wildfire delivering more light-trapping dark particles to bright snow covered areas, yielding earlier melt onset and more intense summer melting.

As a result of some of these factors and probably some as yet unknown others, climate models have under-predicted the loss rate of snow on land by a factor of four and the loss of sea ice by a factor of two.

Climate models also don't yet sufficiently resolve extended periods of lazy north-south extended jet streams that produce the kind of sunny summers over Greenland (2007-2012 and 2015) that resulted in melting that our models didn't foresee happening until 2100.

While individual climate models come close to observations on this or that piece of the complex big picture, what ends up in global assessment reports intended to help guide policy decisions and national discussions of climate change are very conservative averages of dozens of models that don't include the latest, higher sensitivity physics.

So, alas, when it comes to ice, how fast it can go and how fast the sea will rise, if I were a betting man, I'd put my money on it going faster than forecast.

space otter

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Re: Worsening Weather, Earthquakes, Vortices, Volcanoes, CMEs ... What's Up?
« Reply #124 on: August 15, 2015, 08:07:37 pm »


YIKES   :o    ::)


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cold-and-snow-predicted-by-farmers-almanac_55cfcac1e4b0ab468d9d888e?kvcommref=mostpopular

Associated Press
Posted: 08/15/2015 07:41 PM EDT | Edited: 3 hours ago


Cold And Snow Predicted By Farmers' Almanac

Even places that normally don't see wintry weather are set for cold hit, according to the old secret formula.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- Just when you thought you had gotten over last winter, be warned: The Old Farmer's Almanac predicts it will be super cold with a slew of snow for much of the country, even in places that don't usually see too much of it, like the Pacific Northwest.

If you don't want to read about those four-letter words, there's plenty more to peruse in the folksy, annual book of household tips, trends, recipes and articles, such as animal jealousy, the history of shoes and anticipation for the biggest Supermoon in decades in November 2016.

Otherwise, look for above-normal snow and below-normal temperatures for much of New England; icy conditions in parts of the South; and frigid weather in the Midwest. The snowiest periods in the Pacific Northwest will be in mid-December, early to mid-January and mid- to late February, the almanac predicts.

"Just about everybody who gets snow will have a White Christmas in one capacity or another," editor Janice Stillman said from Dublin, New Hampshire, where the almanac is compiled. It's due out in the coming week.

The almanac says there will be above normal-rainfall in the first half of the winter in California, but then that will dry up and the drought is expected to continue. "We don't expect a whole lot of relief," Stillman said.

The weather predictions are based on a secret formula that founder Robert B. Thomas designed using solar cycles, climatology and meteorology. Forecasts emphasize how much temperature and precipitation will deviate from 30-year averages compiled by government agencies.

No one's perfect, and some meteorologists generally pooh-pooh the Almanac's forecasts as too unscientific to be worth much. The almanac, which defends its accuracy for its predictions overall, says its greatest errors were in underestimating how far above normal California temperatures and Boston-area snowfall would be, although it did predict both would be above normal.

The record-breaking winter in Boston dumped more than 110 inches of snow on the city. The almanac doesn't call for as much this year.

The 224-year-old almanac, believed to be the oldest continually published periodical in North America, is 26 years older than its closest competitor, "The Farmers' Almanac," published in Maine and due out later in August.

space otter

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Re: Worsening Weather, Earthquakes, Vortices, Volcanoes, CMEs ... What's Up?
« Reply #125 on: August 18, 2015, 09:51:34 am »

http://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/astronauts-in-space-have-captured-a-rare-image-of-a-giant-red-sprite/ar-BBlQmvR

An astronaut took a beautiful photo of Earth at night, below, while flying over Central America in the International Space Station.


The moon is in the upper left, and a massive thunderstorm off to the right.
But there's something weird lurking in this image, captured on August 10.
Can you spot it?

© Provided by Business InsiderNASA



Look to the right, just above the thunderstorm.
Upon closer inspection, space writer Jason Major saw a big red sprite:

© Provided by Business InsiderNASA



Below is a closer look at this oddity.

Note the tendrils (purple) rising from the thunderstorm (bright white/blue) up toward the flash of the sprite (red), sort of like an electrical puppeteer and marionette:


© Provided by Business InsiderNASA



Sprites are enormous.


This one, like the handful of others astronauts have captured, probably rises up 50 miles and stretches a few miles wide.

Although they are very common, sprites are rarely photographed. A thunderstorm produces a sprite once or twice a minute yet each flash lasts only a few milliseconds. They're very hard to see from the ground, too — typically because a big, fat, scary thunderstorm is in the way.

But they can be caught by Earth-based photographers. Jason Ahrns gets incredible shots of them by flying a small aircraft around thunderstorms over Nebraska and other central US states.

Here's a sprite from the side that Ahrns photographed from an airplane in 2013:

© Provided by Business InsiderNASA



Ahrns also managed to take high-speed videos of the fleeting phenomena.
This clip, slowed about 500 times, shows a sprite bursting into sparks:

via GIPHY

Here's another sprite video by Ahrns, slowed down by roughly 666 times:

via GIPHY

Sprites are akin to gigantic red lightning bursts.


Steve Cummer, a Duke University engineer who's studied sprites for years, summed up how they form quite nicely in a National Geographic News story I wrote a few years ago:

"They're sparks created in the upper atmosphere, well above a storm cloud, that follows lightning below the cloud," Cummer said. "The [lightning] charge creates an electric field and, when it's big enough, it drives a spark that propagates upward."

The spark turns red because of nitrogen floating high in Earth's atmosphere. Something like a fluorescent tube, the gas gets excited by the burst of electricity and emits a red glow.

Sprites aren't just a curious phenomenon. They might play an important role in shaping the the air we breathe by combining and breaking apart different types of atmospheric molecules.

Read more about Jason Ahrns' sprite photography here and here. (Thanks to science writer Corey Powell for the tip about the sprite photographed from space.)


space otter

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Re: Worsening Weather, Earthquakes, Vortices, Volcanoes, CMEs ... What's Up?
« Reply #126 on: August 27, 2015, 08:00:06 pm »

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/global-sea-levels-climbed-3-inches-since-1992-research-shows_55df8216e4b0c818f61756ba


Reuters
Posted: 08/27/2015 06:03 PM EDT | Edited: 3 hours ago


NASA: Sea Level Rise Likely To Get Much Worse

Sea levels are rising faster than they did 50 years ago, and it's only going to get worse

Sea levels worldwide rose an average of nearly 3 inches (8 cm) since 1992, the result of warming waters and melting ice, a panel of NASA scientists said on Wednesday.

In 2013, a United Nations panel predicted sea levels would rise from 1 to 3 feet (0.3 to 0.9 meters) by the end of the century. The new research shows that sea level rise most likely will be at the high end of that range, said University of Colorado geophysicist Steve Nerem.

Sea levels are rising faster than they did 50 years ago and “it’s very likely to get worse in the future,” Nerem said.

The changes are not uniform. Some areas showed sea levels rising more than 9 inches (25 cm) and other regions, such as along the U.S. West Coast, actually falling, according to an analysis of 23 years of satellite data.

Scientists believe ocean currents and natural cycles are temporarily offsetting a sea level rise in the Pacific and the U.S. West Coast could see a significant hike in sea levels in the next 20 years.

“People need to understand that the planet is not only changing, it’s changed,” NASA scientist Tom Wagner told reporters on a conference call.

“If you’re going to put in major infrastructure like a water treatment plant or a power plant in a coastal zone ... we have data you can now use to estimate what the impacts are going to be in the next 100 years,” Wagner said.

Low-lying regions, such as Florida, are especially vulnerable, added Michael Freilich, director of NASA's Earth Science Division.

”Even today, normal spring high tides cause street flooding in sections of Miami, something that didn’t happen regularly just a few decades ago,” Feilich said


ASSOCIATED PRESS
This Sept. 21, 2009 photo shows people on motorbikes wading through floodwaters caused by heavy rainfall in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Sea levels rising because of global warming, along with increased storminess as the climate changes, will expose tens of millions of people in the world's port cities to coastal flooding, says a report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

More than 150 million people, mostly in Asia, live within 3 feet (1 meter) of the sea, he added.

The biggest uncertainty in forecasting sea level rise is determining how quickly the polar ice sheets will melt in response to warming temperatures.

“Significant changes are taking place today on ice sheets,” said Eric Rignot, a glaciologist at the University of California in Irvine. “It would take centuries to reverse the trend of ice retreat.”

Scientists said about one-third of the rise in sea levels is due to the expansion of warmer ocean water, one-third to ice loss from the polar ice sheets and the remaining third to melting mountain glaciers.

(Reporting by Irene Klotz; Editing by David Adams and Cynthia Osterman)


space otter

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Re: Worsening Weather, Earthquakes, Vortices, Volcanoes, CMEs ... What's Up?
« Reply #127 on: August 28, 2015, 08:29:55 am »


Pennsylvania warming to bring 'profound' changes, Penn State report says

By Donald Gilliland    
 Thursday, Aug. 27, 2015, 5:54 p.m.
 Updated 12 hours ago

 

 
By mid-century, Pittsburgh might feel a lot more like the heat and humidity of summer in the nation's capital.

Average temperatures in Pennsylvania likely will rise 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit in the next 35 years, causing “profound” changes in the composition of the state's forests and more frequent and severe flooding and heat waves, according to Penn State University scientists studying potential impacts of climate change.

“There will be increased heat-related stresses, especially in cities,” said Dr. James Shortle, lead author of the report. He cautioned that “older people and lower-income populations will be especially susceptible.”

The  2015 Climate Impacts Assessment  is the second update to a report published by the Department of Environmental Protection in 2009 at the direction of the state Legislature. The 200-page assessment contains chapters by different scientists examining aspects of climate science and the likely effects on Pennsylvania. Shortle said it should be viewed as an addition to, rather than a replacement of, earlier reports.

“The findings are stark,” said DEP Secretary John Quigley. “I personally find this report profoundly disturbing.”

It predicts worsening air quality, with an increase in pollen and mold concentrations and ground-level ozone, which can lead to respiratory ailments and heart disease. Severe storms and flooding likely will increase.

The state's agriculture, forest products, recreation and energy industries would be affected, the scientists said.

Traditional tree species important to the forest economy, such as black cherry and sugar maple, would struggle to survive, but species such as loblolly pine, common persimmon and post oak would thrive, according to the scientists.

That transition “could be very, very messy,” said Shortle, who noted the last such change occurred when 19th-century logging decimated pine forests.

“Climate change is upon us,” said Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, “with real impacts on not only weather but public safety, housing, business and other facets of city life.”

That's why Pittsburgh joined the 100 Resilient Cities network and named a “chief resilience officer” this summer, Peduto said. He joined the Local Climate Leaders Circle, which will “push for climate plans on the local level during the United Nations climate talks in Paris” in December, he said.

The Penn State report presented the science; policy arguments can come later, said John Hanger, Gov. Tom Wolf's secretary of policy and planning.

The report predicts excessive heat-related deaths in Pittsburgh nearly to double, rising to 45 each year by 2050.

That would depend on how people adapt and respond — whether they adopt air conditioning and check on their neighbors, said Dr. Karen Hacker, director of the Allegheny County Health Department. Heat waves impact the elderly the most, she said, and “communities where the elderly do the best are where there are a lot of people checking on them.”

Hacker said health officials are preparing for increases in insect-borne diseases, heat-related health issues, and a rise in allergies.

“There has already been an increase in many of the plants that cause allergies,” said Hacker, and longer growing seasons could make it worse.

The combination of warmer and wetter weather could encourage the spread of West Nile Virus and Lyme disease, she said.

“We're not going to stop this from happening, so we're focused on being prepared,” Hacker said.

The  full report  is available on the  DEP website  (link to pda  on article page); the state will accept public comment on the report through Nov. 4.

Donald Gilliland is a Trib Total Media assistant metro editor. He can be reached at dgilliland@tribweb.com.


Read more: http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/8988272-74/state-likely-report#ixzz3k7k51QP3
Follow us: @triblive on Twitter | triblive on Facebook

space otter

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Re: Worsening Weather, Earthquakes, Vortices, Volcanoes, CMEs ... What's Up?
« Reply #128 on: August 29, 2015, 08:44:51 am »


what are they going to do when they see all these rules hardly make a dent in the changes the earth is going thur?...the planet is in constant  change/evoling...humans aren't to blame even though they are the only creature to fowl their own nests..stupid humans..





http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/california-climate-bills_55e0de88e4b0b7a96339265a

Kate Sheppard
Senior reporter/Environment and energy editor, The Huffington Post
Posted: 08/28/2015 08:17 PM EDT



California Climate Bills Could Set A High Bar For The Rest Of The Country
The state would be set up to reduce emissions 80 percent by 2050.

As states prepare to develop plans for meeting new greenhouse gas standards from the Environmental Protection Agency, they might look to California as an example of what's possible.

Right now, the California legislature is considering two bills, SB 32 and 350, which would allow the state to meet interim climate goals that Gov. Jerry Brown (D) established through an executive order in April. Brown's order calls for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030, a stopping point along the path to reaching an 80 percent cut by 2050 -- a goal scientists have said is necessary to preventing the worst impacts of climate change.

The state is already on pace to bring emissions down to 1990 levels by 2020, a goal established in the landmark state law known as the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. The latest bills would set the state up for long-term reductions and establish specific energy goals to make that possible.

SB 32, from state Sen. Fran Pavley (D), would inscribe the 2030 and 2050 targets in state law. SB 350, from Senate President pro Tempore Kevin de León (D) and Sen. Mark Leno (D), would increase the amount of energy the state is required to draw from renewables 50 percent, reduce petroleum use 50 percent, and improve the energy efficiency of buildings 50 percent, all by the year 2030. The bills have both passed in the state Senate, and the assembly is expected to debate the bills in the next few weeks.

Lawmakers said the bills will allow the legislature to shape the state's goals. "The governor is moving forward with or without us," Pavley said Tuesday in a press conference. "I want the legislature to engage in this process."

They're also pointing to the success the state has had in meeting the goals laid out in their 2006 bill. "Ten years ago we didn't know if all of this was possible," Pavley said. "We know today that we can do this, and that we have a moral imperative to do this."

Advocates cited the advances the state has made since the 2006 law was passed: It claims 430,000 jobs in the advance energy field, has more than 100,000 electric vehicles on the road and is on pace to hit 25 percent renewable energy by the end of 2016. All as the state's economy has continued to grow.

"Skeptics have said that our clean air policies would destroy the economy, that we set unrealistic targets," de León said at the presser, where he was joined by leaders from a number of California businesses that support the bills. "And yet here we are today, well on the way to meeting those targets with an economy that is stronger than ever, that is the envy of other states."

That's not to say the bills aren't meeting opposition, particularly from the oil industry, which is not a fan of the goal of cutting petroleum use in half.

"California’s petroleum industry is proud to produce the world’s cleanest gasoline and diesel," Western States Petroleum Association President Catherine Reheis-Boyd said in a statement. "Ultimately, Californians will be best served by inclusive public policy that protects our environment and supports a thriving economy."

Utilities in the state have been more supportive, but may seek some changes in the Assembly bill, according to the Los Angeles Times.

For environmental groups, passing these two bills into law will ensure some permanence for climate policy. "A new governor can dispose of [Brown's executive order] as he or she sees fit," said David Pettit, director of the southern California air program at the Natural Resources Defense Council. "It's a different story if you see it in legislation. It puts this in concrete, so to speak."


The bills again set California up to be a leader on climate policy nationally, particularly when it comes to setting interim targets.


"Having a long-term goal is usually based on what the science says is necessary, while setting a medium-term goal combines looking at where you need to be in 2050 with some analysis of how you get there over the next decade or two," said Gabriel Pacyniak, the climate change mitigation program manager at the Georgetown Climate Center. "It's really combining both -- a 'where we need to go' approach and a 'how do we get there' approach."

Clean air policy is also an area where California has led historically -- "purely out of necessity," said Larry Gerston, professor emeritus of political science at San Jose State University. The state's large population and pollution-trapping topography have long create air quality concerns; the five worst cities for air pollution in the U.S. are all in California.

"There are a lot of instances where we've really screwed up, especially on agriculture and the way we abuse water," Gerston said. "But when it comes to energy and environment, we're way ahead of everybody."

Advocates are hopeful that, as it did with the 2006 law, California can once again be a model for other states.

"I think the biggest lesson conceptually is that you can have a robust greenhouse gas reduction program and grow the economy at the same time," Pettit said. "That happened here. I don't see any reason it can't happen in every other state."


MORE: Climate Change, Climate Bill, greenhouse gas


embeds through out the article

space otter

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Re: Worsening Weather, Earthquakes, Vortices, Volcanoes, CMEs ... What's Up?
« Reply #129 on: August 31, 2015, 10:48:54 am »










http://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/with-obama-to-visit-nearby-alaskan-villagers-struggle-as-their-island-disappears/ar-AAdL14e

Los Angeles Times
Maria L. La Ganga
18 hrs ago


With Obama to visit nearby, Alaskan villagers struggle as their island disappears

1 of 3 © Maria LaGanga/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Millie Hawley, Kivalina tribal president, in front of the sea wall the village hopes can protect it from the Chukchi Sea until plans are made to relocate. (Maria LaGanga/Los Angeles Times/TNS)



KIVALINA, Alaska — This is what climate change looks like.

In this town of 403 residents 83 miles above the Arctic Circle, beaches are disappearing, ice is melting, temperatures are rising, and the barrier reef Kivalina calls home gets smaller and smaller with every storm.

There is no space left to build homes for the living. The dead are now flown to the mainland so the ocean won't encroach upon their graves. Most here agree that the town should be relocated; where, when and who will pay for it are the big questions. The Army Corps of Engineers figures Kivalina will be underwater in the next decade or so.

Because the town's days on the edge of the Chukchi Sea are numbered, no money has been invested to improve residents' lives. Eighty percent of the homes do not have toilets. Most rely on homemade honey buckets — a receptacle lined with a garbage bag topped by a toilet seat.

Residents haul water from tanks in the middle of town, 25 cents for five gallons. The school is overcrowded. Still, the unpaved streets here ring with the laughter of children, the buzz of all-terrain vehicles, the whoosh of the wind.

This summer, White House advance staff cased the slender, apostrophe-shaped island to see whether President Barack Obama could get here during his visit to the Arctic this week — the first by a sitting White House occupant. At the very least, he is scheduled to visit Kotzebue, less than 100 miles away, the heart of Alaska's Northwest Arctic Borough.

Obama has high hopes for addressing climate change during his remaining time in office. The Alaska trip is part of a global warming tour. In Washington he will talk environmental issues with Pope Francis in late September, and in Paris he will attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference in November.

The Alaska trip is part of an effort to "speak openly, honestly and frequently about how climate change is already affecting the lives of Americans and the strength and health of our economy," senior White House adviser Brian Deese said.

Alaskans, Obama said Saturday in his weekly address, are already living with climate change's effects: "More frequent and extensive wildfires. Bigger storm surges as sea ice melts faster. Some of the swiftest shoreline erosion in the world — in some places, more than 3 feet a year.

"Alaska's glaciers are melting faster too," he said, "threatening tourism and adding to rising seas. And if we do nothing, Alaskan temperatures are projected to rise between six and 12 degrees by the end of the century, changing all sorts of industries forever."

Although Obama views this state as the U.S. poster child for climate change, some Alaskans beg to differ. They are glad the president agreed to allow limited offshore oil exploration. They want more access to the vast state's natural resources. And they are wary of a leader who views their home as a global warming disaster area.

Gov. Bill Walker, who will meet with Obama during his visit to the Last Frontier, said he wants the president to support a natural gas pipeline and allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

But most of all, the independent governor said in a news conference Tuesday, he doesn't want the Lower 48 to achieve its environmental goals on the backs of Alaskans by barring access to natural resources.

"We probably have the smallest footprint per capita in the nation, if not the world, on impacting climate change," Walker said. "We have some impacts, there's no question, but ... I'm going to talk a lot about the economic climate change that we're experiencing today. That's really what my focus is going to be on with the president."

Shelby Adams has a different message for Obama. That is, if she gets to talk to him when he travels more than 3,600 miles from the Beltway to see the Arctic with his own eyes. Shelby, who just turned 13, has lived in Kivalina her entire life, and she loves her island home dearly.

"It's where I grew up, where everybody I know is," she said five days before Obama was scheduled to land in Kotzebue. "We need to relocate because the ocean is slowly eating away our island."

Shelby was in fourth grade when much of Kivalina was forced to evacuate during a fierce storm in 2011. She and her family were on one of the few planes that made it to the mainland before flying conditions became too dangerous. Everyone else sheltered in the school, the highest point on the nearly flat island.

"We had people sleeping in all the classrooms and the gym," said Emma Knowles, who was Shelby's teacher at McQueen School that year. "Someone had gotten a caribou the day before, so we made a huge pot of caribou stew ... The school didn't even budge. As dilapidated as it looks, it survived."

Kivalina is no stranger to harsh weather, and erosion worries have dogged the 27-acre town almost since its inception in 1905. In the 21st century, however, warming temperatures and the perilous changes that cascade from them have stripped the island of its major source of protection: ice.

Normally each fall, ice begins hugging the Kivalina shoreline around the end of October and stays until the end of June. Even during fierce storms, ice keeps the raging ocean away. But climate change has caused the ice to appear later and melt earlier, leaving the barrier island more vulnerable to storm surges.

Thinner ice also makes it harder for the Inupiat to go whaling. Normally, crews will build camps at the edge of the so-called shore-fast ice and hunt bowhead and beluga whales as they swim north in spring.

"If the shore-fast ice is thin and weak, it's not safe to make a camp," said Timothy Schuerch, president of the Maniilaq Association, a tribally operated health services organization with clinics in Kivalina and the other borough villages. "Whaling crews have drifted out to sea."

The Inupiat who live in Kivalina get most of their food from the land and sea around them. The increasingly warm weather means an abundance of   cloudberries and low-bush blackberries, said Millie Hawley, Kivalina tribal president, but it also threatens many of the food staples on which Alaska natives here depend.

"With the caribou, usually it's like clockwork," Hawley said. "Every June, we'd hunt. We haven't done that in years. It's unpredictable. We don't know when we'll see them."

Kivalina residents hang the caribou's hindquarters outside of their homes to age. The frozen meat is eaten raw, dipped in seal oil, which is also harvested in June. Trout is eaten the same way. The Inupiat also depend on seal for meat.

"Usually we get 80 to 100 seals for the whole community," Hawley said. "This year, we were looking to get eight. The community now has to go without dried meat and oil."

When their traditional foods become scarce, island residents must depend on the Kivalina Native Store, the only one in town. Kivalina is closer to Russia than it is to Anchorage, and nearly all supplies are shipped here by air. Which accounts for astronomical prices:

A quart of shelf-stable whole milk runs $4.19. A can of Campbell's tomato soup is $2.95. A 5-pound bag of unbleached, all-purpose flour is $8.75. A 25.5-ounce bottle of Bertolli extra virgin olive oil is $23.79.

The store is Kivalina's pride and joy, the newest building in this wind-battered town. The old store burned down in December. Its replacement opened in July. It is big, clean, warm and well-stocked. And it stands out in a town of peeling paint and crowded, threatened structures, most on short stilts to protect from flooding.

The school, attended by 154 students from pre-kindergarten through high school, is so jammed that every available space is used for storage. Hallways, stairwells and classrooms are lined with books and supplies. A working washing machine stands at the end of one hall.

The main drags, Bering and Channel streets, are unpaved, their gravel surfaces deeply rutted from the rain and the ATVs that residents use to get around in summer.

Small houses crowd together; each is home to extended families, some of up to 17 or so. At least two houses, Hawley said, are in imminent danger of tumbling into the water. The cemetery lines Kivalina's slender runway, its crosses visible on takeoff and landing.

Because of erosion, there is almost no room to build, Hawley said, so "we break every state and federal regulation. The airport is supposed to be a mile or a mile and a half from the dump. It's 500 feet away."

The fuel tanks that run the power plant were in danger of falling into the Chukchi Sea, so the town moved them to higher, safer ground. Fifty feet away is a small cluster of housing for teachers, which cozies up right next to the school.

When Hawley is asked why her people don't move — somewhere, anywhere to be safe — she is polite but firm. The land and the water make the Inupiat who they are.

If they moved to Kotzebue, they would be visitors.

Moving to Anchorage or Fairbanks, she said, "would be like asking us not to be a people anymore."

So what does she want to tell the leader of the free world when she greets him next week — in Kotzebue, if not Kivalina?

"We are American citizens," she said, fast and fierce. "We have as much right as all of America to have access to the resources Washington provides. ... If you are going to provide millions of dollars to stop hunger in Africa, my people are hungry. Stop hunger here."

———

(Times staff writer Michael A. Memoli contributed to this report.)


Offline thorfourwinds

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Re: Worsening Weather, Earthquakes, Vortices, Volcanoes, CMEs ... What's Up?
« Reply #130 on: September 04, 2015, 12:43:13 pm »
Another good one from friend Michael:    :)


[youtube]IMJY6SwDOM4[/youtube]


Published on Sep 1, 2015
After multiple M-class flares, and an Earth facing coronal hole -- we now see a flurry of new activity develop at a deep (and shallow) level across multiple regions stemming from the West Pacific across to adjacent plates.

The movement which has now struck in the Pacific Northwest, striking Central Washington State (instead of the offshore Juan Defuca zone as we were looking for) has hit the reset button for the United States / North American Craton.

Now we can expect a spreading out of new activity in the Southernmost portion of North America... mainly in Southern California, and along the Southern edge of the carton.

Renewed M4.0 activity should be expected to strike the Southern edge of the craton, including Colorado, Texas, and Oklahoma. All three areas should be struck by noteworthy movement near M4.0 due to the M4.3 along the Northwest edge of the craton (in Washington state) causing new pressure to be placed on the craton edge...

The pressure coming from the NW (Pacific NW) will cause new mid-M3.0 earthquakes in California / Nevada at the dormant volcanoes, and possible M3.0 activity in the far Northeast United States (again) reaching into New Brunswick / SE Quebec (again) over the next 7 days.

Japan, as shown in the video, is an area of particular concern due to the multiple M5.0 earthquakes striking in succession of one another across the entire region. Topping out with a M6.0 earthquake before I could even get this video fully processed.

Japan should show larger movement over the next 7 days, larger than the M6.0 which just struck a few hours ago (September 1 2015)....... we need to watch particularly near the area shown in the video (Central Japan along the Izu trench).

Papua New Guinea, hopefully we'll only see a mid-M6.0 strike on land or near land in the next 7 days…  Watch the area further WEST from Papua New Guinea .. Sumatra Indonesia for the larger movement to the South this week.

Sumatra Indonesia is the silent spot which is clearly building into a larger event... ??All the way South of New Zealand, be on watch for a moderate upper M5.0 to lower M6.0 to strike out to sea in the area shown in the video.

Mainly 4 small areas to watch in the West Pacific over the next 7 days. Coast of Japan at the Izu trench junction, Sumatra Indonesia near the India coast, Papua New Guinea near land, and South of New Zealand out to sea.

In the EAST Pacific... watch Southern California, and the North American Craton edge for noteworthy movement.

Central America.. watch near Panama / El Salvador for possible M6.0 activity (lower M6.0) over the next 7 days.

South America.. Coast of Peru into Bolivia .. watch near the coastline for possible lower M6.0 activity over the next 7 days.

Chile.. watch for a possible new blast at Villarica volcano or nearby the past eruption location from a few months ago. It has been quiet (volcanic eruption wise) in Chile over the past 2 months.. possible new eruptive activity will be reported in the next week if this forecast holds true.

In Europe, watch England! Upper M3.0 to lower M4.0 activity should strike the area based upon the movement in South Europe (North Italy struck by a M4.0 causing pressure to be placed on North Europe).

The Italy M4.0 should cause an additional similar earthquake to the North.. Possibly the North Sea into South UK... don't rule out the English Channel coast of France as the release point, but I'm leaning towards the North sea due to the location of the Italy M4.0 event.

Asia, now keep watch for possible upper M5.0 to lower M6.0 activity to strike near Nepal, possibly a few hundred miles NORTH of Nepal due to the location of the deep movement in the Pacific striking further North near Kamchatka Russia.

Thus, watch Nepal for a magnitude HIGHER than the deep Kamchatka events, which were upper M4.0 at a deep level... which means upper M5.0 to lower M6.0 would be coming in the area WEST of the deep movement along the Himalayan mountains going into Nepal / China / Russia - Siberia border regions.
« Last Edit: September 04, 2015, 01:03:33 pm by thorfourwinds »
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Offline ArMaP

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Re: Worsening Weather, Earthquakes, Vortices, Volcanoes, CMEs ... What's Up?
« Reply #131 on: September 04, 2015, 12:58:14 pm »
Is there a time-frame for that "forecast"?

Offline thorfourwinds

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Re: Worsening Weather, Earthquakes, Vortices, Volcanoes, CMEs ... What's Up?
« Reply #132 on: September 04, 2015, 01:04:23 pm »
Ask Dutch…not my video.   ;)
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Re: Worsening Weather, Earthquakes, Vortices, Volcanoes, CMEs ... What's Up?
« Reply #133 on: September 04, 2015, 01:32:41 pm »
Looking at all that text again (I didn't read it all, I'm too tired for that) I see several references to "the next 7 days", so I suppose that's it. :)

Offline thorfourwinds

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Re: Worsening Weather, Earthquakes, Vortices, Volcanoes, CMEs ... What's Up?
« Reply #134 on: September 04, 2015, 03:12:34 pm »
Michael's record of successful prognostications continues to improve.    8)

Quote
(from post 1 September 2015)
Sumatra Indonesia is the silent spot which is clearly building into a larger event…

All the way South of New Zealand, be on watch for a moderate upper M5.0 to lower M6.0 to strike out to sea in the area shown in the video.

Mainly 4 small areas to watch in the West Pacific over the next 7 days. Coast of Japan at the Izu trench junction, Sumatra Indonesia near the India coast, Papua New Guinea near land, and South of New Zealand out to sea.

One might guess that this falls within the '7-day window.'   :P

6:00PM EST 4 September 2015
Dutchsinse
1 hr
Java / Sumatra Indonesia struck by M5.5 earthquake.
http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=457701

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