It's Climate Minute time, here's your weekly smorgasbord of links you can read while avoiding "real work." This week we talk about the surprise (to some) announcement that the Brayton Point coal plant will be closing by June of 2017. Also on the punch list? Neat new technology that makes solar power a 24-hour proposition, overrspending the Earth's carbon budget, and it may never be cooler than it is now...
The Links.
For more about the planned closure of the Brayton Po...
It's Climate Minute time, here's your weekly smorgasbord of links you can read while avoiding "real work." This week we talk about the surprise (to some) announcement that the Brayton Point coal plant will be closing by June of 2017. Also on the punch list? Neat new technology that makes solar power a 24-hour proposition, overrspending the Earth's carbon budget, and it may never be cooler than it is now...
The Links.
For more about the planned closure of the Brayton Point coal plant, you can read pieces at ThinkProgress, The Providence Journal (which has an excellent roundup of the "perfect storm" of factors leading to Brayton's closure), and this piece from South Coast Today which deals with some of the imapct to the host community Brayton's closure will have.
Remember Bill McKibben's "Do The Math" tour? The premise was that there is a finite amount of carbon we can put into the atmosphere and still expect to have a recognizable climate. The latest IPCC report has taken that view and run with it, and has incorporated calculations into the latest version which show some frightening results.
In other bad news, a new study released in the journal Nature finds that within 30-50 years we will reach a point where our coolest years are hotter than the high temperature years of the past 100 years... The study looked at scenarios where no serious efforts to curb emissions were made, resulting in a stunning 900+ppm of carbon (little less than three times the amount today), and a carbon constrained model where efforts to reduce emissions lead to a worldwide average of 530+ppm. The story is currently also in the Boston Globe.
But let's leave on a positive note. A recently opened 280MW solar field in Arizona has become the first large-scale project in the United States to use molten salt (molten salt!) to "store" solar energy in the form of heat to the plant can produce power day and night.
While there have been smaller scale facilities created with this technology, this is a utility scale system capable of powering 70,000 homes. While it's land intensives at 3 square miles, this is the perfect facility for sun-soaked and under-populated areas like the American southwest.
Things to do:
Remember, if you live in the 5th Congressional district in Massachusetts you will be going to the polls on Tuesday for the primary to choose your next member of congress. Find out where to vote here. Who to vote for, well, we can't help you there...
On the 22nd there will be another opportunity to hear where the two remaining candidates for Mayor of Boston stand on energy and environmental issues. The second conversation regarding energy, the environment and the green economy will be held on from 1 to 2:30pm at the Old South Meetinghouse. You can download the flyer here.
Go hear MCAN Board Member (oh, yeah, and head of the Better Future Project) Craig Altemose as he speaks about the need to build a movement to address the climate crisis on October 25th, at 7:30pm, First Parish, Concord. Here's our calendar listing.
Cambridge City Council candidates will meet at a forum on Energy and the Environment on Oct 30th, at the Cambridge Senior Citizens Center.
Remember, for more climate activities near you check out our MCAN climate action calendar. You can enter events as well as browse for interesting things to do.
As always, it’s been a pleasure sharing climate news and views with you. You know, you can subscribe to our iTunes feed and get our podcasts automatically here. Feel free to give us your thoughts on our Facebook page, or through old-fashioned email. You can even follow us on twitter @MassClimate , so there are lots of ways for you to listen and participate in the dialog.
When you are on the website, please contribute to MCAN. Every dollar you give will be doubled by a generous backer, so long as we reach our fundraising goal.
So we will close the way we always close, by saying that because we recognize the necessity of personal accountability for our actions, because we accept responsibility for building a durable future and because we believe it is a patriotic duty as citizens, we insist that the US put a price on carbon. Good bye and see you next week…
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